a strange and bizarre wellington plant

here are the six stages of a "wellington pinecone" (no idea what it's really called... but i've never seen a plant like it before)

cadbury drinking chocolate change

you may not think people notice, cadbury, but it's pretty obvious you've started to stuff your drinking chocolate with "starch (maize or tapioca)"... that also explains why your drinks suddenly have fewer calories...

this explains govt

this "government bookshop" explains a lot about the state of our country...

you can never have enough

you can never have enough "bargain" at a garage sale...

wii fit: outdoors

they had this along the wellington harbor.... it's not quite a wii, but it probably gives you a better workout.

nightmare: wedding fruitcake

i was up for an hour last night after waking up in a panic because my wedding cake was a fruitcake.

i've always vowed not to tackily smoosh cake into my bride's mouth, but a fruitcake could change my mind.... i would rather crumble and smoosh a piece of fruitcake to death than know it's sitting out there for someone to eat.

starfish

This is the first star fish I have ever seen living naturally in the sea.

It is the 741st duck.

window display

Even twisted mass murderers need glasses from somewhere.

This window display suggests "OPSM" is their primary supplier.

Eyjafjallajökull: 1, Wedding: 0

We bought New Zealand Wedding Invites from a New Zealand webpage with New Zealand dollars -- but they actually ship from the UK.

And it turns out they're "stranded somewhere in the backlog caused from Eyjafjallajökull"

Eyjafjallajökull: 1
Wedding: 0

awe

we spend all day in front of computers, all night in front of tvs and iphone in between. do people even have contact with awe-inspiring things any more -- like mountains, meteor showers and sunsets?

leyden cheese

leyden cheese with whole cumin seeds tastes like nachos -- but without all the calories of onions, tomatoes peppers and beans.

afternoon tea

in new zealand, they have "morning tea" at 10:30 and "afternoon tea" at 3:30. literally the whole country shuts down. adults eat biscuits together at work. kids pack morning tea for school. it's a "for real" snack time the whole country partakes in.

i can't think of anything like that in america. sure, people eat snacks. but there's no set "morning snack" or "afternoon snack" time.... and lots of people don't snack.

am i mistaken? do we have a national snack time?

tears for nummi

listening to this american life (my new radio kick), tears came to my eyes when i heard stories about how the lean, teamwork-based toyota techniques turned a plant and the worker's lives around.

did i really shed a tear for efficiency or are they misplaced wedding nerves?

open doors

even in windy, rainy, 45-55 degree weather almost all wellington shops keep their doors wide open.

perhaps i don't mind opening doors because i grew up between blizzards.... but either way, it makes me thankful i work from home....

"It's so easy to communicate these days that there's no reason to communicate anything of interest." (This American Life)

That pretty much sums up facebook status updates versus hand-written letters 100 years ago.

happy place

i didn't sleep well last night and i was tired (read: CRABBY) today. but the alphabet of nations always lifts my spirits. (usually after 2 or 3 viewings).

everyone needs a happy place to believe in: mine is west xylophone.

easter hangman

this weekend i overhead two kids playing "easter hangman". the "easter word" was "christ"....

"christ? as in jesus christ? what's he got to do with easter?"

happy easter everyone.

dreams

i have lots of dreams that start with peeps like this.... but where's the cream egg forest???

white bait

i got to try the new zealand delicacy of "white bait fritters".... can you spot the eyes?

wedding prep

good bye beloved belt and sneakers... i have a wedding to get ready for...

"mr hooker bear"

some days i don't think i'll ever understand new zealand....

i don't need no steenkin weendows

we thought it was okay that our studio apartment doesn't really have a window.... until we saw the view that others have. now i really want a window. anyone have a spare?

more street art

sometimes street art is sadder than paint on a wall.... sometimes it plain out makes you cry.... how many other ice-cream cones has this guy ruined?

how many...

which switch

which switch do you want to switch?

and why do red dots make them so much more enticing?

nz pi day

happy pi day (new zealand)

walking speed

today i found out that i walk at exactly the speed of the stock ticker. sadly, that means i only know the price of sky city (not to be confused with cloud city according to wookiepedia)

rudest person

i met the rudest person ever.

i was walking to the markets when i heard "hey you" repeated over and over until i realized it was me.

i walked to the old lady in the car.

"get my wheel chair out of the trunk."

blunt. i was taken back, but got her wheel chair for her.

i set it in front of her open car door and she said:

"turn it around. i'm not pushing it."

i spun it around and said "everything good?" as i walked away. it doesn't feel good to help mean people.

super jesus

watch nbc before leno for the new hit drama, the chronicles of super jesus.

street art helps the world

how would this kid have ever learned to draw giraffes if it wasn't for street art?

my chilean earthquake

this is the water level normally in wellington


this was the level when the mini-tsunami hit from the chilean earthquake. it's amazing an earthquake across the world can do this.

stubby bananas

i'm hungry, but i'm not sure i can bring myself to eat a stubby banana.

plastic wrapped veg

koo: this is why they plastic wrap food at target... so you don't have stick the price tag right to the food.

shopping cart

i found my ideal job: shopping cart grease monkey. it's got all the manly traits of an auto mechanic... but something that i could actually handle.

street artist

how did the street artist know that street performers always stand in front of this vacant building?

steam computer

my new steam powered computer arrived today. let's hope i have enough coal to run the google.

new time measurement

I've started to measure everything in "Warren Scooter Hours" (the amount of time it would take Warren Buffet to Motor Scooter somewhere). I live 5 Warren Scooter minutes from the library and about 1 Warren Scooter Hour from Tasha's sister.

russian seer

if i were an ancient russian seer, i would spend less time focusing on the czars and more time trying to forecast the most popular drink of all time so that you i would be forever remembered every time someone orders a "rasputini"

what does your son do?

it seems that parents brag about what their children do.... but they never brag about "what nice, decent people" they've turned out to be...

hindenberg anyone?

there is talk of a new floating hotel that would carry 100 people at 100km/hour is a giant floating "luxury blimp".

let's hope this is more successful than the last time long distance travel was going to be revolutionized by a blimp...

unlucky alley

there are two alleys i can take to leave my apartment: one goes by a brothel and the other by a church. walking past the former is disgusting as there is often vomit, smashed beer bottles and 'tools of the trade' blowing around.

today i picked up a crazy chinese coin from the brothel alleyway and suddenly my luck changed: it started pouring down rain, the shop i wanted to go to closed early, the other shop was out of the sale item i wanted and i got a text from a friend who i had just stood up.

walking home, i returned the coin to the street and my luck immediately returned to normal.

life of an astronaut

with recent nasa cutbacks, this may soon be the life of an astronaut.

(still sounds pretty good to me)

airport

next time you're stuck in the airport with a craving for peanuts, this machine will be your savior.

man babies

ManBabies.com is one of the weirdest sites I've found in a long time. Usually I say, "I wish I had thought of it first".... but not in this case...