Winter musings

Now is the winter of our ... malcontent?

It's June, so winter in Wellington is here.

Today it is sunny and will hit 13 or 14º C. And lo, the people will whinge ...

"It's cold out", it seems, is all relative.

I still wear shorts (I get a 'pass' at work due to the prosthetic leg) and rarely if ever wear a jacket. I determined if I am outside, I am walking towards the bus from my house, or vice versa to get home ... or I'm outside of a warm building for maybe 2 minutes to get lunch.

The rest of the time I'm on a really hot bus (thanks to Pacific Island drivers who like to re-create their home country's climate on board) or a building (which all seem to be cranked up to 25º C for some bizarre reason).

Yet people stare at me and ask me how I could be just wearing shorts and a shirt when "It's so COLD out!"

Speak to the Canadian hand.

Encouraging words


Cards are whipped around the office fairly regularly – birthdays, weddings, prolonged illnesses .... and babies.

I'm usually never at a loss for words. And usually, I like to write something amusing. But I reign it in when it comes to babies. What are you meant to say? I know what I WANT to say ... but I grow weary of the whole villagers-torches-pitchforks thing as I'm chased out of the place.

Once though ... just once ... I'd like to scribble down something along the lines of "Way to fuck! Wow, that one really took didn't it?"

Or maybe "Excellent work on the whole procreation thing – what's the world count now, 6 billion and 97?"

No, I don't have kids ... nor will I. Why do you ask? Ha ha.

Video killed the radio star ... and the late-night office worker


I was part of a team on the 48 Hour Crazy Video Competition a couple of weeks ago – as Editor. This was no end of fun! For those not familiar ... at 7 pm on that Friday you are assigned a genre. You then have until 7 pm on Sunday (48 hours) to script, shoot, edit, and render a movie to turn in for consideration. Said movie can be from 2 to 7 minutes long.

Sounds easy? Ha ha.

Our genre was horror: a late-night office worker gets all haunted (then killed) by some nasty ghosts. In white lab coats.

We didn't quite complete ours, due to running out of time – it was fairly together for the vid clips being edited in a relatively coherent fashion. But we needed some sound, sound FX and music. Some of our clips didn't have sound, and some needed augmentation. However, in spite of the brilliant direction by Julian F., we just ran out of clock.

Just wait til next year ... we will crush the bastard!

'Tis the (rugby) season

I'm once again in hospital (blah blah same old) and two of my three flatmates in the room are young lads in with broken legs from a rugby game. They're pretty messed up and will be off their feet for some time. First time for both of these lads too ... it certainly sucks for them, but I've been there (well not broken, but actually legless) and I know how frustrating it is to be bed-ridden and only able to hobble on crutches.

These guys are having rough luck getting fed too ... not sure why, but they keep getting passed by for meals. And there's nothing like a starving 20-something guy grumbling about being starving. I have also been there. No fun.

Fests galore on the horizon

It is heartening to note there are two beer festivals, a wine fest, and a house party featuring a good mate (Andrew) presenting his myriad home-brew concoctions for our imbibing pleasure at his home. June will be a sodden, fun, excellent month! Nothing really absurd here, except possibly the names the various brewers come up with for their beers and ales. Creativity knows no bounds with these folk!

Gunplay by wanna-be gangsta toolbags in Toronto

OK you backwards-hat-wearing, droopy-drawer-dragging, hoodie-hiding-behind jackwagons.

Get a life and stop pretending you're in a rap video with all this cap-busting in crowded places.

You're killing people. So far one, anyway, from the Eaton Centre shooting yesterday. Many were wounded.

Not long now and you wastes of space will be meeting some REAL criminals. Big, badass, and more than happy to treat you like the worthless little bitches you are. Enjoy jail, and the rest of your life as a 'bottom' and a 'salad-tossing felcher'. Fuckwits.

Hoping for release tomorrow

Not to go into any details re: this hospital visit, but, it's been a really short one. Everything seems to be fixed. Just need my Main Man Nigel to clear me tomorrow morning to go home.

Bring it on, Nigel. It's no fun here and the bar service is abysmal.

Advertising and marketing - how the fuck does it work?

Another visit to the Wine (and food) show transpired a couple of weekends ago. The usual rumpus also transpired – consumed vast quantities of wine, along with some beer, liquor, and liqueurs.

And I ran into another "business person" helming a booth at the show who had no idea how advertising and marketing worked. This was at the Prenzel's booth.

On display were a large number/variety of flavoured liqueurs. As per every other booth in the place, you could rock up and ask for samples. Then maybe you bought something, maybe you didn't. Most booth owners/business people didn't expect EVERYONE to buy.

And so I did just that. Asked for a sample, then another ... then got to #3, and was told by the clueless woman at the booth that I would "Have to buy something in order to get any more samples".

Riiiiiiight. So when you take out a magazine or newspaper ad, with a coupon in there for 15% off your product, do you then drive around to everyone's house who subscribes to those publications, demanding they buy your stuff? Or stand in the bottle shop and watch for people with coupons, and tell them they need to also buy MORE than just one, to get the savings?

Get a clue, you worthless bint. Some people buy some, some just sample and move on. If your product's any good, you will sell some. This is how marketing and advertising works.

And that's about it for now.

Hopefully out of yon hospital tomorrow ...












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