Archive for 2003

Broke up.

Wednesday, May 7th, 2003

Don’t want to talk about it on the net, but Mel broke up with me last night. 5 months. I feel like crap on a stick. Which isn’t good.

Book-a-holic

Saturday, May 3rd, 2003

Just completed my Neal Stephenson collection of books with my purchase of ‘The Big U’. Just waiting for Quicksilver to come out – and Amazon seem to be letting on that it’s gonna be a multi-part book… oooh! If you haven’t read any Stephenson, I highly recommend Snow Crash followed by Cryptonomicon.

Also, my luck at Dymocks has been pretty good recently. I have a Booklovers card which gives me a $5-9 voucher for every $100 I spend there. I’ve been through the 500 point scheme about 4 times now over the last 4 years, and the last two times I’ve been there I’ve 1) been put in the draw to win a trip away (every purchase gets an entry), 2) got a free bonus prize, one free book from the booklovers free prize bookshelf (mostly pretty lame books but I managed to score a Robert Rankin) and a 2-for-1 voucher to The Four Feathers at Rialto and 3) collected a voucher for my 100 points ($5 and $6). If you buy books, you should definetely get a Dymocks Booklovers card, especially if you’re buying technical manuals usually worth $100+!

Damn Cables

Thursday, May 1st, 2003

GRR. Couldn’t get on the net last night because of LAN issues. So we figured out that it was the cable that was playing up. So I went and spent NZ$28 on 2x 10m premade green CAT5e cables and a joiner. I get home, turn on my computer so I can see when the NIC lights up and what do I see… THE EXISTING CABLE IS LIGHTING UP THE BOX. So I’m majorly pissed off at this situation. But I guess we can still use them for the Xbox – green will work well… Bring on Xbox live in New Zealand! Q4 apparently!

Cycle City

Saturday, April 19th, 2003

I think Christchurch have got it right. They have an awesome recycling system. The Holmes family had to take some stuff to the recycle centre, and I got to see first hand how it’s helping the community. If you have anything that you want to throw out, like beds, bikes, wasing machines, tvs, kitchenware, and so-on, you take it to the recycle centre and they then look at it, fix it if necessary, and sell it for cheap at the SuperShed, a giant second-hand store. Now if you think about this, this is really neat, because less fortunate people can go and buy this perfectly good furniture and equipment. It’s all run by a trust, and it’s working!

Also, I went to (probabaly) largest $2 store in New Zealand. Store doesn’t describe it well enough – more like warehouse – literally! This place has so much crazy crap for sale it’s insane! Sorry Chris, no plastic bullet guns – I looked and looked :(

Also, Christchurch has cycle lanes. Basically at major intersections there is a brown lane which takes cyclists up to the front of the traffic, and then spreads out into a box where the cyclists can set up in front of traffic waiting behind them at their line, so when the traffic lights go, the traffic has to wait till the cyclists are out sf the way before going!

Another thing is the awesome bus interchange airport. They have a arrival board saying how many minutes away the next 6 buses are, and when they arrive, which gate you should go to to get into it, along with an announcer (who must be human, cos he mumbles his announcements – get an automated one chch!). The waiting lounge is comfortable, and extremly user friendly. Not to mention Chch’s circular bus is FREE!

If you’re in Christchurch, you must stop by the arts centre. They have this awesome fudge cottage which sells fudge and all-sorts of yummy sugar-based products. Mmm… :) Also, tons of stalls with arts and crafts, and there was even someone there with a refridgerated window in the back of his truck selling CHEESE! MMMMM!

Well, Christchurch is a pretty awesome place. Probably my 2nd most favorite place in New Zealand. Wellington being first :)

Town of the future!

Friday, April 18th, 2003

Here I am in Rolleston “Town of the Future!”. It’s a nice place, haven’t explored yet, but the sign with aforementioned slogan was a crack up!

Ferry ride from Wgtn was a lot of fun, quite rough in places. Train ride was set to be a lot of fun but crap weather prevented beautiful views to be seen, thus major boredom ensued. Got into Chch about 7:20pm.

Not sure whats in store for me this weekend, but if I have my way, fun shall ensue! w00t :)