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Happy 2008
It's 2008, and summer is here. Hooray!
Your grandchildren will talk about this
An amazing thing is happening here in New Zealand, and it's just in time for the holiday season. I captured this ship-hot moment on video, you'll have to watch it yourself to believe it. Perhaps the event will come to a city near you (one can only hope!).
Ahoy, me hearties!
Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrr, ye scurvy dogs!
The 70's were brown, green, and mustard
I recently received a package of goodies that included some slides dated from the 1970s. They certainly have gorgeous color. I wonder if everything really looked this way, even without the aid of hallucinogens.
Busy times
I found some beer at Minette's parent's house... vintage mid-1960's.
I installed hooks and hung our hammock.
So much to see and do.
29
29 must be my and Minette's lucky number. Our flat in San Francisco was number 29, then on the 29th of May we purchased a house in Auckland, also number 29. Perhaps it is time to buy a lotto ticket.
?
Lucy "Ate My Mate" Green, championship rally driver
#@$!#@* computers
Minette and I left Auckland on the 26th of March for a three week vacation to Wellington and the South Island. Late on the night of that very same day the hard drive on msqr.us died. Thus msqr.us has been dead for a few weeks. I guess I'm not too bad off since after the last time the hard drive crashed on msqr.us I implemented some more stringent backup procedures... but @#&^$!! what are the chances of that? It's been less than 2 years since the last drive failure. At least the last drive had the decency to fail after I got back from vacation.
Computers can be so damn lame.
Summer holidays
It's been beautiful over the high summer holiday season here: warm, sunny, and rainy. Sometimes all at once. I've got a few photos from some camera-worthy outings. First, Minette and I joined William and Cecile and their family for another Tongariro Crossing tramp. Second, Minette and I were invited to our friend Amy's father's bach (kiwi for summer cottage) on the island of Kawau, less than an hour's drive north from Auckland.
msqr.geek.nz
msqr.us has finally migrated to New Zealand, too, as of about a week ago. Since Minette & I moved here msqr.us had been living at a friend's office in San Francisco. It took about a week for it to fly from there to here, including time to clear customs. Everything went according to plan, and the only hiccup was the disruption of email service during that week.
To celebrate msqr.us's new dual citizenship, he is now also (affectionately) known as msqr.geek.nz. Turns out New Zealand does not allow arbitrary 2-level names, so msqr.nz was not possible. The 3rd-level names are pre-defined, and the only one that actually described msqr.us was .geek, as described in the official New Zealand government documentation:
- .geek
- For people who are concentrative, technically skilled and imaginative who are generally adept with computer [sic]
Apparently it's also for people who speak in strange sentence structures.
You lookin' at me?
Good times with a mower in Edmonton
I found this series of photos while tidying up around home. Mostly I was drawn to the gorgeous color of the old film stock. These were taken in Edmonton, Alberta, during one summer's visit there, sometime in the early 1980's I suspect.
36,000 year old timber
A company in New Zealand makes furniture out of Kauri (a native New Zealand wood) dredged out of swamps in the northern parts of the country and radiocarbon dated to be 36,000 year old. We like recycling, so Minette and I got a chest of drawers.
Steamy Puritan romance
Recently I stumbled upon some old computer files, and ran across this one from a high school English class. The only reason I can think of for having to write this would be from assignment following the reading of The Scarlet Letter.
It seemed an oddly appropriate tale for Thanksgiving, and there was at least one surprise find (which I won't spoil here, and you'll be forced to find out out of curiosity).
So Happy Thanksgiving, America. You've come a long way.
Turdus merula
AKA a blackbird. This particular one has been having a field day, literally, in our back yard every since I mowed the lawn. He's been hopping here and there all day, cocking his head to one side and snatching up tasty little somethings. The lawn had gotten a bit out of control, perhaps I exposed a bunch of yummy creepy crawly things.
Back in New Zealand
Minette and I are in fact in New Zealand. We found a place to live and everything; we've moved out of the box from under the highway overpass (which is why you haven't heard much from us in a while) and have successfully integrated back into normal, everyday Kiwi life/style.
I've put some photos up showing some recent activity, including some shots of our new digs!
Minette and I also went for a long-weekend vacation down to Wellington to visit Cecile and William's family there, and I've put some photos up from there as well.
Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!
Bryan took this on his cool phone before Minette and I shuffled off half way around the world.
Speaking of which, we made it! So far, so good.
I am
Hasta la vista... mate?
Crystal balls
It rained in San Francisco a few days ago. That's unusual for this time of year. Just as the rains were passing, I noticed some mysterious pearls on my lupinus arboreus outside:
And I was happy. Later I looked a little closer at the picture, and was a little surprised at what I saw.
What is... Henrietta?
Rocky Mt. elk friends
Last week I was in Colorado, up in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, and ran across these guys all over the place!
Spring in the City
Spring is in full force here in San Francisco and I've been getting to know a new camera. I've posted some photos of my spoils. I can be a little obsessive about nature close-ups, but what the hey, I never tire.
Food Grows Where Water Flows
These signs are scattered up and down the California Central Valley. If you've read (or seen the documentary) Cadillac Desert, you know how true those words are!
Kiwis
Matt and Minette, I don't have your email addresses. Are you guys going to New Zealand soon? Is it permanent? Are you already there? Do you want to come visit us between 12/21 and 12/30, when Jan and Dick will be here? Are these the hardest questions anyone has asked you in a long time?
f l o w e r p o w e r
Evil cube threat eliminated
Thank goodness the Department of Homeland Security is actively pursuing security threats.
iEat
I've been working on a new project recently. It's basically a recipe database. If you've got a favorite recipe you'd like to share, why not cruise on over to iEat and add it in! There are plenty of quirks in the application, but hopefully it's intuitive enough to work with.
One note, if you're still using a crap browser like Internet Explorer, snap out of it and get yourself Firefox already! If you're on a Mac then Safari works, too.
OB/GYN's must be allowed to practice free love
President Bush recently disclosed his concern that many OB/GYN's across America are not able to make it with their patients.
1989
I found my 8th/9th grade diary this weekend. Here is a line from it: "I am so bored right now, just watching Miami Vice."
ouch
My tummy hurts.
Fogalicious
San Francisco has a reputation for being foggy in the summer. It's quite true, but I love watching the fog. At least when I'm looking at it from in the sunshine. I snagged this video (40", 3.2 MB; also available at 1.4 MB or 336 KB) yesterday from atop my favorite perch above the city. These were taken on my little digital camera, thus the quality is something to be desired.
Also, here's an experiment in mood swings: the same video, this time with either joyful or sobering musical accompaniment (each 3.9 MB). Which do you prefer?
My Cup
Jury duty
Yet another fun Ask the Pilot
I love Salon's Ask The Pilot column. The author, Patrick Smith, cracks me up and I have been interested in all things flying ever since I started commuting by jet for work. The latest installment carries the column on quite well, and if you've never read this column check out the previous ones!
What is msqr.us, anyway?
I thought I could bait you, the reader, into asking what in earth msqr.us is. Nobody took the bait, however, leaving me pondering the reasons. Perhaps you are not curious. Perhaps you are afraid to ask out of distrust: msqr.us could be a Newton server running foreign software for all you know. Perhaps you couldn't care less. All valid reasons, so here I'll attempt to dispel the myth of msqr.us, once and for all.
m^2 debut
This website is an attempt to provide a medium of communication for my family and close friends. I keep wanting some way, other than email, for us to share thoughts with one another. I say other than email because of a few reasons. First, I myself am a terrible emailer, as just about anyone reading this can attest to. Second, a blog like this allows for a different way of communicating, sort of a "here it is, take it if you want but if you don't feel like responding that's OK" kind of way. Third, I see friends of mine using blogs successfully and keep thinking "My family is full of tech savvy folks, we can do that, too!"
So this is a start. This site isn't complete by any means. The plan is to make the site such that all of us can post messages. We're all adults (as the youngest I can confirm this) and we're all living different lives. Some of us talk frequently, some hardly at all. No need to pretend any differently. Anybody can post, anybody can response. One thing leads to another...
I'm having some issues with the software making this thing work, however, at a technical and philosophical level. But I'm working through the issues, never fear. In the end I'll post instructions on how you can make posts. For now you'll be limited to making comments to things I've posted (if you want something posted in the mean time, I can post it for you).
Finally, I've designed this site to my personal tastes. You could have your very own blog, however, if you desired. It's pretty easy for me to set up, it would just run on this website, say msqr.us/socalmagoffins or msqr.us/canadianmagoffins or msqr.us/ncmagoffins or msqr.us/notmagoffinsanymore or msqr.us/neverwasamagoffin. You could even put a picture of your favorite plant or animal on there, it's entirely up to you.
Or you can just use this blog, of which you may be wondering a few things: what is "m^2"? What is "msqr.us"? What is that background image? Perhaps those questions are enough to engage you in your conclusions, in the form of a comment? Click on "Comments" to continue...