Bored. Bored. Bored.

I am totally checked out for the day.

Here is a poem I wrote in a staff meeting this week.

Staff Meeting. A Poem of Despair.

A bunny came upon a building; 7 people sat in a conference room around a table meant for 25.
They talked around each other, over each other, through each other.
Language bouncing off, hitting walls, reflecting into faces.
Everyone trying to throw their speech higher, faster, harder.
The bunny fled away from the oversized table, the flinged words, the building.
The bunny fled into the road and was hit by a car.

What's up with the bees?

So this is a question for Chris and Kelly...

I've been hearing all over the place lately that there is some mysterious affliction affecting beehives. One friend of mine at work told me that she heard that cellphones may be responsible for interrupting the hives? Hope that yours are all OK!!!

Great way to pass time at work!!

So I discovered this tonight while on my quest for quilting patterns (more of an obsession)...
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/offthemap/html/create_your_own.html
I couldn't get it to save my design, but it was fun to create anyway!

Hope everyone is well and fairing in Northeaster! So far it has been heavy snow and lots of rain!

Quick Survey

I was recently talking with someone who called our office, concerned about all the kids that play in a local creek during the summer time- worried that their play (turning over rocks, building forts, miniature dams, etc) would be having a negative impact on the stream. We talked for a while and I was also reminded of an article that I read this past year...

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March06/wild.nature.play.ssl.html

Interesting, that more formal types of environmental education do not have the same type of long-term impact on kids that "free time" play outdoors has. (or so they say) I can think of quite a few people that fall into this category and others that do not.

Likely the kids playing in the creek are lucky to have "freedom" to explore outside, that many others' parents don't allow because of safety concerns, jam-packed school and sport schedules, etc. I wonder if most kids still get unsupervised times in the woods or off on their own, like most of us probably did. I know my parents didn't worry if, as a kid, I was outside and out of sight for hours and hours at a time- up in trees, in the woods trying to get birds to eat out of my hand, capturing catepillars to build my own butterfly conservatories, crawling through stream culverts, sending messages down the creek on homemade boats, catching & categorizing bugs I collected in the fields, running around in corn fields, or buiding forts under the neighbor's forsythia bushes. My brother Nick was usually with me- and we didn't grow up to be exact opposites, but I don't think the fact that he doesn't recycle weighs on his conscience any...

So out of curiosity, here's a quick survey ...

How many of you, assuming you generally consider yourself to be an environmentally-minded person, spent a lot of time playing outdoors in "wild"nature before the age of 11?

Article referenced was: http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/16_1/16_1_01_NatureAndLifeCourse.pdf

Your daily dose of fear, uncertainty and doubt.

What better way to come back from vacation than to stumble upon this recently released GAO report:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07283.pdf

Don't read it. Really.

NZ Wallpaper

Back to our blogging roots. A selection of possible wallpapers...
More photos on Flickr.

Pasture land, near Mt. Doom

Abel Tasman National Park

Tasman Bay, near Nelson

Bubbling mud in Rotorua

Follow-up to Camera Post

Here is the information Dad provided me about the camera flash. I have to be honest I don't know much about the electronics lingo...

"Below is the website that I found for the strobe information. The
plans called for a 103D SCR that is used for the strobe that works
with the amplifying circuit that you make yourself.

If you use a cassette recorder that has a monitoring system that uses
an earphone, you can use a 106B SCR. I found these SCR's to be more
common than the 103D.

I also put a RCA jack in the back of the camera so I can use a regular
patch cord to make the connection from the strobe to the amplifier. Of
course, you could solder the wire directly to the contacts in the
camera and have this wire connect directly into the cassette recorder
using a mini-phone jack."

http://hiviz.com/tools/triggers/makeown.htm#st

Who is the better enviromentalist...?

Look over the descriptions of the following two houses, and see if you can tell which one belongs to an environmentalist.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In one month this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an entire year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the temperate South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps, which draw ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20-room energy guzzling mansion) is outside Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

It's one thing to fear monger and tell other people that they need to be environmentally aware (through movies/mainstream media liberal bias ;-), public policy, etc... ) it's another thing completely to set a positive example for others to follow. At what level do/should we hold ourselves responsible for our actions?

Mmmm... mussels.

We had our first ever mussels in NZ. Green lipped mussels are big busines there. Also - pate. This lunch was courtesy of Uncle Tom and Dena... Enjoyed next to a pond at a winery and quilt shop in Blenheim.

Post tagging...

One of the added features of upgraded blogger is the ability to label posts. I've taken the liberty of tagging the past few posts, so if you click on the 'travel' tag, it should open up travel related posts that have been tagged, etc. Other future tags may include "sheep", "food", "movies", "wildlife", etc... Mmmm. Food. I think I am gonna post a pic of some food...

Interesting Photos

Michael found plans for a device that synches your camera to a flash allowing it to take pictures like the one with the bullet piercing the apple. Dad built one and sent me these pictures today.

Wanaka, NZ

After travelling for about 2 weeks, we're getting a little tired, so we've stopped for a bit of rest in Wanaka, on the South Island. This is on a lovely lake and is where locals come for vacay. We're staying at a little motel that has a trampoline for free use of the guests, and is located right next to the most awesome little cinema you've ever seen! You can watch movies from a VW bug, or on old lazyboys. One of the photos below is a large paper mache sheep standing on the roof of the cinema for the home grown NZ Black Sheep movie, which we are going to go see tonight.

Over the past few days we drove down the west coast, getting bit by sand flies and checking out glaciers and the Southern Alps Mountain range, though it was a bit rainy most of the time so our view of the peaks was a bit obscured. It is clearing today though, so hopefully tomorrow we will have a lovely scenic drive.

We went for a walk along a never ending trail through rainforest (and over a dodgy bridge) to penguin habitat, only to learn that the Fjiordland Crested penguins that nest there leave in early March to parts unknown, not to return until July. Oh well. Was a lovely walk and we met some of the cheekiest forest robins and fantails!

We're making our way back to Christchurch over the next two days. JoAnna would really like to pet a sheep before we leave, so that is our goal for tomorrow.

Cheers,

- Bill (and JoAnna)

Gators Galore at Okefenoke N.W.R

Today we checked out Okefenoke National Wildlife Refuge and rented a canoe to explore a very small part of the swamp. Mostly what we saw were alligators- lots of them. But there was a fair number of white ibises, egrets and finally at the end of the day we were lucky to see a pair of sandhill cranes from the lookout area. We could not find any red-cockaded woodpeckers, but we did see a red belly, and a bunch of turkeys, 2 GBH (closeup) and what we think was a little blue heron.

-Kelly & Chris

Hello from Cumberland Island

We just spent 3 days on Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia. Beautiful place -and very quiet. We saw a bunch of armadillos, wild horses, an alligator, dolphins, deer, variety of shorebirds, and no snakes(thats good). We camped 2 nights, spent some time hiking and hanging out on the beach, and visited old ruins of Carnegie Mansions. Now we are back in St Mary's on the mainland, which is also a very nice, quaint, southern village. We spent most of today relaxing around town and drinking sweet tea (yum) Tomorrow: explore Okefenoke Swamp and see how the canoeing is there.

Hope everyone is well!

Chris & Kelly

Can't...leave...Marlborough!

We were only planning on stopping through here for an afternoon.....it's four days later and we are still enjoying the wine and amazing local fresh produce of the area. Harvest time is a great time to be in N.Zed's best wine region. It's like heaven here -- 72 and sunny every day. New birds fluttering around (my fav has been the white faced heron). New trails to be tramped upon. We've been searching for something awful about this place and have been severely dissapointed.

No photos today. Just imagine the most lovely place on earth and then make it twice as wonderful with more amazing wine and food than you could ever taste. Photos wouldn't do it justice anyways!

We ate mussles! And pate!

Heading down the west coast tomorrow (most likely!) to see the southern alps and Mt. Cook.

Hope everyone is well!
- JoAnna (and Bill)

Hello from the future!

For those of you who haven't yet experienced it - we'll tell you a secret - March 23 is a good day!
We visited Mount DOOM and Mordor today. It was lovely. 70 and Sunny in the land of evil, though it did smell a bit of rotten eggs. Fun time in an active geothermal area too. Mordor has a winery, that Arnold the Governator apparently really likes. (JoAnna too!)







Haven't seen any sheep yet (not!) Basically the entire countryside is one big pasture. Or tree plantation. Or volcano. Or something else equally beautiful. Here's some pics. Spending tonight in Palmerston North on the North Island before we make our way to Wellington and the Interisland ferry tomorrow. I am going to try to have Beef Wellington while in Wellington.



Hope everyone is well!

-Jobi

Interesting Movie

I would like to make a wild Tequila dance website for movie reviews....what we liked..what we didn't...what are some that you would never hear of in the "normal" channels. I'm going to see if I can use Google webpage for this. I hope everyone will contribute.

Carrie and I got a movie from netflix called "Kinky Boot". Good movie with a well developed story. And it is English to boot! I would highly recommend it. And if you are not using netflix you are missing out. We have had it for a few months and love it. Every movie you can imagine. No late fees. Quick turn around. And inexpensive.

Check it out "Kinky Boots" is a delightful film based on a true story about the travails of a shoe manufacturing factory set in Northampton, England. When Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) takes over the family shoe business, he discovers the company is practically out of business. After laying off a bunch of people, one of the young women he's making "redundant" tells him the company needs to find its niche. He finds it by accident when he helps a drag queen named Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who's about to be attacked by a group of men. After watching Lola's shows, Charlie decides the niche will be shoe wear for "a variety of men," i.e., drag queens et al., who have trouble finding womens shoes that fit. He invites Lola to Northampton to help design and test the shoes.

Funny, warm, with characters you care about, "Kinky Boots" says something about societal attitudes towards those who are different and what it truly means to be a man, but doesn't beat you over the head with it. It has a great story, lots of humor, and excellent acting, particularly from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Joel Edgerton. While everyone else in the film complex was at "The Da Vinci Code" and "MI: 3", several of us were being royally entertained by an old-fashioned story. We loved every minute of it.

St. Patrick's day = Postponed

The 2nd winter storm of the season delayed St. Patrick's Day in Albany. We have about 1.5 feet of new snow. Not as bad as the storm on Valentine's day but not so nice. I spent most of today digging out car..Carrie's first and then mine. Winter is holding on around here.

So the parade was rescheduled for next week. I will post some pictures then. But in honor of the holiday I finished my pair of knickers. They compliment the kilt from last year. Check out the picture.

Now the question: Do I have the balls to wear them out?

Kevin

Grey Squirrels and Scottish Blog

I am on a weekly listserve that highlights invasive species in the news. The one below was included today- what makes it uncommon from the usual news articles typically included is the blog that is with it and the comments submitted.

http://news.scotsman.com/aberdeen.cfm?id=399152007 Fury over city's squirrel cull
FRANK URQUHART
Grey squirrels will be trapped, put in sacks and clubbed to death as part ofa controversial cull of the animals in the north-east of Scotland. Aberdeen City Council yesterday became the first local authority in Scotlandto declare war on the grey.....

Everyone Loves Pi

Thought you would like to know that today is Pi Day. I learned about this on the Metro last week. Most appropriate time to celebrate -- at 1:59, making it 3.14159. I am sure you could get really crazy and start figuring out milliseconds and all that... I am more a fan of pie than pi but its still a good thing. Here is a website in case you want a t-shirt with pi on it. www.piday.org

And don't forget tomorrow is the Ides of March. Et tu, Brute?