Tractors 4 - Farmers 0

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust

~  Queen     

When I made my last post on tractor deaths (here) I didn't think it would be so soon that I'd be reporting another.

Here is the story as reported on tvnz.co.nz:    http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/man-killed-in-waikato-tractor-accident-5390346 

Q: When are Farmers going to learn?      

A: Never. 

*sigh*                       

Jesse Ryder vs. Scribe

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the Fatboy's slippin'? 

Norman Quentin Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) "Gangster Tripping"

Scribe (real name Malo Luafutu) has 'outraged' the media for questioning what Jesse Ryder did to provoke the attack which hospitalized Ryder last week.

Scribe tweeted on the weekend: 

"I'd like to know what Jesse Ryder did or said. Cantabrians don't beat people up for no reason #Crusader."

"I'm not making excuses I genuinely would like to know what started the whole thing. No-one gets beaten up for nothing." 

 Great question.   What was Ryders' part in the affair?  I'm sick of the media fawning over him because he is the famous injured party.  Time to start asking the tough questions of Ryder.

Ryder has had very public issues with his inability to drink sensibly and hold his tongue when inebriated. Remember his petulant outbursts ("Do you know who I am?") when receiving treatment for a hand badly cut in a drunken incident?  More >> Jesse Ryder - opinion piece (Stuff.co.nz)

I have no doubt that Ryder's interaction with the accused in some way prompted the attack.  In this respect I agree with Scribe; it would be interesting to know what was said.  Of course this in no way condones the out-of-proportion violence which followed. 

The court case will be fascinating.  I'll look forward to the media giving just as much air-time to Ryder's alleged conversations with the accused. 

As for Prime Minister John Key chiming in about this "sinister" attack.  Get on with running the country John!

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the Fatboy's slippin'?

Sometimes the Wolf

This is Quality Prince.

Quality Prince was a thoroughbred gelding born on 25 October 1987.  He raced 95 times for 12 wins, 12 seconds and 14 thirds, earning total prize money of $125 000NZ.

I was this horses' owner for the last four years.  The amount of money he won in his career was unimportant to me.  I loved this horse and renamed him Deamo (Latin: I love you).  He taught me to trust horses again and took care of me when we went riding together.  He was always so sweet and accepted my less than perfect seat and my contradictory aids.

Deamo suffered a paddock accident on Friday 22 March 2013.  He fell heavily against a fence post while cantering and fractured his pelvis.  The Vet was called and the diagnosis made.  We were out of options and he was in terrible pain.  We had the Vet euthanise him humanely in his paddock.  He was 25years old.

Our equine dentist, Allan,  once told me...

"In a herd environment, horses that are old, sick and the lame fall behind the rest of the herd.  There they become prey to wolves and other large predators.  This is the natural way horses die in the wild.

We take horses from their natural surroundings and remove the threat of predators.  In doing this we accept that sometimes we have to play the part of the wolf."

Because we loved Deamo, we had to be the wolf last Friday.  He died peacefully in the arms of my partner, with her tears on his neck and her words of love in his ear.

We will both miss this wonderful horse. I couldn't have asked for a better equine friend.

Tractors 3 - Farmers 0

Last month I posted a piece on the natural selection of tractor drivers (Read it here).

Unfortunately another non-fatal but serious accident is being reported this morning on the Stuff website (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8455122/Mans-leg-run-over-pierced-by-tractor).

Honestly.  Run over by a tractor? You've got to ask what's going on down on the farm.

"Didn't see it coming Officer."  Yeah, right.  It's a huge, noisy piece of machinery.  Perhaps it was in your blind spot?

I'm constantly amazed by the stupidity of the farming community.  They just don't seem to get how dangerous their equipment is and how vulnerable they are.

"It won't happen to me..."  It often does, with fatal consequences.

Like the guy who got into his own grain hopper and was subsequently asphyxiated and/or crushed by the weight of his crop.  A short length of rope tied to the top of the hopper would have been enough for him to extract himself.  Instead the lack of common sense was fatal.

Obviously, there will be more to come in this series of posts.

Plain Talking - March

An exchange on National Radio's Afternoon show between Penny Ashton and Steve McCabe:

Steve:  The Pope's a Jesuit!
Penny:  What's a Jesuit?
Steve:  God's riot police.

The full show is available online and downloadable in various formats thanks to the wonderful interactive website of National Radio.  The link below will take you to the relevant page.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20130318

The link to look for is part two of the panel discussion

The Panel with Penny Ashton and Steve McCabe (Part 2)

Topics - Pope Francis has appeared before some 150,000 pilgrims massed in St Peter's Square for his first Angelus prayer and asked the faithful to pray for him. 'Younger Generation Lags Behind Its Parents In Wealth-Building', says the New York Times headline. (26′36″)

Zac Guildford's confession + reaction.

"I'm an alcoholic" ~ Zac Guildford (14/3/2013)

"We know" ~ Most of New Zealand


Unfortunately we do know.  This sad story is repeated again and again with promising young sports stars demonstrating that they are ill equipped to handle the fame and fortune bestowed upon them.

Jesse Rider, Norm Hewitt, Andrew Simons have all had their demons.  Not to mention (because we can't) the numerous high profile sports stars who have been charged with drink-driving, assaults and drug use.

It's the measure of the man (and women) as to how they deal with their demons.  In particular, Norm Hewitt salvaged his mana and career from a very high profile incident which threatened to derail him personally and professionally.  I have absolute respect for the man.

(photo Otage Daily Times)

I am no longer a follower of rugby (I seriously question the sponsorship and drinking cultures that surround the sport these days).   This said, I do hope Zac becomes the man he was meant to be and can regain our respect and his own respect for himself.

Herp-Derp I like a laugh

Some world weary software developer has unwittingly focused the news eye on him/her self with this little blunder involving our EFTPOS system.  Affected EFTPOS (Electronic Fund Transfer - Point Of Sale) terminals occasionally displays a weird message that says

"Herp-Derp Eftpos"

I've done a bit of software development and still keep my hand in to keep my C# skills up to date.  I suspect the poor developer has simply overlooked a temporary piece of code when rolling out the latest update of the software.

This isn't a hack or a piece of malicious code, it's probably just something the developer wanted to return to and clean up later.  I regularly use terms like HFO in code to make certain conditions true in code.  In my case HFO stands for When Hell Freezes Over - in other words, never, or repeat this code until I tell you to stop.

I'm also fond of dropping "Flux Capacitor" into code as a variable which can take any and often unexpected values.  The Flux Capacitor was the significant bit in the De Lorean from Back to the Future films.

Of course developers always intend to return to these bits of nonsense, but can occasionally overlook them (as, I suspect, in this case).

The best bit of this story is not the unusual message, or the rush to roll out an upgrade, but the sang-froid attitude of the retailers.  You gotta love 'em.

Full story on stuff.co.nz:  Eftpos prank unnoticed for weeks

Plugin Index reaches 1 million pageviews

Over on the Paint.NET forum the Plugin Index which I created and maintain has surpassed 1 million page views. Yes,

1000000 page views!

I do have a donation button attached to the forum thread, but this is rarely used.  Financial return was not the reason I created the Index in the first place (way back in 28 June 2009).

The Plugin Index came about because I saw a need to organize the plugins which were being posted on the forum.  It is therefore rather pleasing to have been such a help to so many users of Paint.NET over the last three and a bit years.

As previously mentioned in this blog, I'm currently updating the Plugin Index to make more information on each effect and plugin available to the viewer.  This work is approximately 90% complete and should be rolled out in the April 1st edition of the Plugin Index.

One problem I have encountered is that the forum limits the length of posts.  This means that the new information may not make it into the forum version - being restricted to the PDF and epub/kindle versions (where space is not an issue).

Poor Sportsmanship on the Rangiora Fun Run

I ran the Rangiora to Kaiapoi Fun Run for the fourth time on Sunday 10^th March.  

I trained hard for this annual event and posted a new personal best time of just under 44 minutes   The 10.5km route differed slightly from last year with more shingle track running and less sealed road.

As usual, this wonderful event was well supported and staffed by numerous helpful and friendly marshals.  I would like to thank each of them and the organizers for bringing us this excellent fun run.

As a top 20 finisher (12th overall) I was appalled to see a runner just ahead of me deliberately blocking another runner who was attempting to pass him.  The victim and I had passed each other a couple of times previously in the race, so we were very closely matched.  As we had passed each other we exchanged a few words of encouragement and wished each other well.  It was my turn to play catch-up as Romeo (he looked like the character on "Home and Away") was feeling strong and had eased past me at the 7.5km mark.

Romeo was up into 12th place and challenging for 11th.  I was slightly behind in 13th.  I had an excellent view from 6 metres back as to what was about to unfold.

The runner in 11th place deliberately moved across in front of Romeo in order to stop him overtaking.  This was on a 4WD track with ample room for four runners abreast. It happened again and again.

These dastardly maneuvers continued for approximately a kilometer until I loudly suggested Romeo foot trip the offender.  On hearing this, the offender stopped running and allowed us both to continue unobstructed.  As I passed I told the offender of my displeasure with his activities.

Had the offender tried a similar tactic with me I would have foot tripped him without a second thought.  If you run in front of me expect consequences.  A face full of dirt might teach you some manners.

This event is a local fundraiser not an Olympic trial.  Leave that nasty stuff out and enjoy the event for what it is – a FUN run.  If someone is faster than you, train harder and have another go next year.  Deliberately trying to limit another runner’s race is incredibly poor sportsmanship.

Simple ideas are the best - egg yolk separator

Found this brilliant new invention on the Stuff website.  It's a egg yolk/white separator using simple suction to get the job done.

Auckland engineer Hamish Dobbie has not only come up with a truly clever device, but a simple one too.  Sometimes the simple ideas are best.

I think it's brilliant!  Great concept, and 10/10 for cool and elegance   Why hasn't this been thought of before?

Hamish is driving development through the KickStarter website, which is another very clever idea.

Find out more about this cool bit of kitchen kit here: www.yolkr.com

Full article:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/my-kitchen/8389782/A-truly-egg-ceptional-idea

Sadistic kitten killer sent to prison

Abraham Zacharia McIvor, aged 25 of Nelson is the Sadistic kitten killer sent to prison

This is great news!  I like it when monsters who abuse animals are jailed.

Unfortunately McIvor will be out in 1/3 of  the specified 19 months.  He'll be back on the streets in 6 months or so.

6 months seems so little for the horrible end he meted out to an innocent ball of fluff.

It's all a bit depressing.  At least he got a custodial sentence.

What a shame we don't have public floggings and eye gouging...

I am NOT "New Zealand European"

Census time.

Our New Zealand government wants to create it's own Doomsday Book.  Except it's not called that.  It's called the 2013 Census.  Boring title eh?  I think DOOMsday Book is much cooler.

The bit that really irks me about these forms is how they pigeon-hole us.  Yes, yes we get some options to specify some bits and pieces, but no real attempt has been made with the forms to allow us to describe ourselves.

Take Ethnicity.

I'm not Polynesian, Australian, Dutch or English.  I'm a Kiwi.  Proudly so.

Unfortunately, "New Zealander" is not one of the ethnicity options.  You have to wonder why this is so.  The closest the forms allow is "New Zealand European".

I'm not, and have never considered myself a "New Zealand European".  I have no affiliation with Europe.  I am at least a third generation Kiwi.  Tomato sauce, jandals, Marmite, beer and rugby, you know - a Kiwi.  Born here just like my parents.

How long do I have to be here until I'm considered part of this land?  Imagine if Maori were forced to entitle themselves "Polynesian"? (Latest evidence is that Maori are from Polynesian origin).   Imagine the outcry!

So here's my solution to the Census dilemma:

I tick OTHER in the Ethnicity field in the form.  Then I specify New Zealander in the additional box.

Just like last time....

St John and the Whale.

I'm not much of a blogger - as this occasional blog will attest.  My brother John is  a blogger.  He crafts interesting and intriguing blog posts numerous times a day.  I don't always agree with him but read his words daily.  You too can read his fine blog here: http://conzervative.wordpress.com/

John is a nice guy.  No really.  He is.  I'm not just saying that because we share the same parents.  He is genuinely interested in people and their views.  So it's a bit of a surprise to me that blogger Cameron Slater aka (beached) Whaleoil has taken such a dislike to him.

Over the last couple of days a flame war has erupted with Cameron doing the mud flinging and John playing the part of the reasoned debater.  You can find the tail end of this flame war here: Vileness in the blogosphere a re-post

Cameron lambastes the CoNZervative blog as being "tumbleweed" and mocks John for having fewer page hits per day.  All grown up eh?

The difference between the two blogs can be explained like this:

CoNZervative posts stuff like a BBC documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough.  What you get is researched, well presented, articulate and interesting.

WhaleOil posts stuff like a reality TV show.  With cooking, renovating, innuendo and profanity.  It's cheap, mass produced trash for people who can't think for themselves and want a quick thrill.

If you're looking for rubbish to fill your blank mind between episodes of "The Block" or "American Idol" do feel free to go read Cameron Slater's diatribes.

If you want something educational and intelligent, use the link at the top of this post and get switched on to the CoNZervative blog.

It's time to bury the beached Whale.  He's already starting to stink.