Nous Sommes Avec Vous
Tuesday November 17, 2015
What tragic news to hear on Saturday afternoon after badminton. Several coordinated terrorist attacks hit Paris, killing 129 people and wounding more than 400. In the midst of France's darkest hour, it is comforting to see the outpouring of sympathy and solidarity: the hashtag #PortesOuvertes from Parisians to offer shelter to tourists or displaced people who didn't have accommodation for the night; the stories of people who took bullets to save others at the cost of their own lives; the red, white and blue lights on landmarks around the world.
People express condolences in different ways. Some pray. Some light candles and lay flowers. Some sing songs. Some will change their profile picture on Facebook to one with a Tricolore overlay. And that's okay. As long as you can truthfully say with purpose and intent that you stand with the French people, then people are entitled to reflect and remember in a way that has integrity for them. At the same time, we should also think about other devastating attacks that have amounted to a huge loss in human life and continue to remember those in constant struggle, in places like Syria, Iran and Iraq. May we be forgiven for not always knowing about these events, because any loss of human life like this is tragic.
I was out last night at Owhiro Bay for the Leonids meteor shower. I saw an opportunity as the clouds cleared late yesterday afternoon, so I made a call to commit and recruited my trusty crew. The moon was 19% illuminated and definitely affecting the visibility of the night sky, but the brightest Leonids shone through. None of them were as spectacular as the Orionid we saw a month ago, but all in all, I would have seen around seven meteors. As the weather warms up, hopefully we can make these trips more frequent.
We had our PikPok Developers Conference for the year and I spoke on two topics: development for the new Apple TV, and ray tracing, a subject I hadn't touched since 2007 back at the University of Auckland's COMPSCI372 course. I also ran the second PikPok Programming Puzzle-o-rama with much success, and on the same day, rushed down to the council to watch the All Blacks victory parade. I've been to karaoke twice in the past few weeks, had yum cha, had all you can eat chicken wings from Tequila Joe's and watched the fireworks display at the waterfront.
The social calendar is filling up fast for the rest of the year!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:35am on Tuesday November 17, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 
Almost Summer
Thursday November 13, 2014
We had a few brilliant days of sunshine last week, so the parties were on and the barbeques were fired up. I was at Vincent's on Friday for a crazy animal-themed party, Hadley and Jimmy's on Saturday for the 80s Party III, and Thomas and Astrid's on Sunday for a barbeque and really also to play with the cats. Saturday was also the Guy Fawkes fireworks down by the waterfront - we had a pretty good view from Joe's rooftop right by New World Chaffers. It was a pretty busy weekend indeed.
There's been a spate of new food and drink establishments popping up too. I was at the Bresolin on Tuesday for a quick drink (nice place down by the motorway on Willis St, but the service had a few teething problems) and Burger Liquor on Wednesday (burger joint that took over Crazy Horse, pretty good feed), but have also heard about Five Boroughs in Mt Victoria and the Hideaway on Plimmer Steps. Would be keen to try those at some point, and if their standard meets expectation, maybe a food blog post is in order too.
I went to a new physiotherapist today (same clinic, though) who took a look at my back and told me my spine was "straighter" than normal, which meant a lot of the pressure fell at the back of my pelvis instead of more centrally. This could be causing all my problems with the leg and back pain I've been having. Some damn complex muscular and nerve system shenaningans. In any case, I opted to try dry needling, which is similar to acupuncture in that needles are inserted into trigger points to contract and release muscles, except the needles are flicked instead of having an electric current passed through them. It seems to alleviated some pain in the back and given me some mobility, but time will tell if the treatment and the assigned exercises will actually solve my problems. I've also come away with a large line of tape stretching around my back to the front.
Fun times.
The end of year is nearing and I'm looking forward to the time off, especially the trip to Melbourne over New Years. There will also be the drive up to Auckland, which may or may not involve skydiving. We shall see.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:53am on Thursday November 13, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Site Woes
Monday November 23, 2009
Since the other website I secretly work on is down, I thought I should come crawling back to this thing and post some stuff. I have a lot of photos on my phone I need to upload as well...
Anyway, something is definitely up with IGN's webservers because it's been down for the past two days. We found some malicious scripts in two of the PHP files which I managed to remove, but who knows what else has been compromised. Sigh. In any case, I can still work on it I guess, it's just that there's nothing to show for it.
Let's see, in the past three weeks:
There was an awesome fireworks display over Wellington Harbour on Guy Fawkes' Day. It was damn cold and really windy, but we were sitting by the back end of Te Papa so it slightly sheltered. We got to lean back against the concrete wall and watch the spectacular pyrotechnics in the sky.
There was the All Whites Victory Celebration and the Santa Parade. It was boring. There were three things that interested me: Snoopy, Pikachu and the adorable corgis. Oh, and I'm really happy for the All Whites, but I don't care much for soccer sport in general, so meh.
Sidhe celebrated two shipped projects (Madagascar Kartz and Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5) and two submitted projects (Rugby League 3...and one I can't say but it's for iPhone and I worked on it) with yet another ethanol-filled night at Red Square. Lasers were included, as well as a generous bar tab, thanks to securing more work for us. Yay employment!
Got invited out for a wonderful lunch at this couple's house in Titahi Bay last Sunday. I totally miss home cooked food. The wife is a magnificent baker - the Tiffany cake is for royalty. Besides that, it was cool to listen to their stories. They've certainly had some fantastic experiences, including a three week voyage over the Pacific Ocean from Auckland to Miami (back in the days when air travel was super expensive). A few years ago, they even got a photo with the then junior senator of Illinois... Barack Obama!
After a big lunch, we went for a walk on the beach. The sand was so perfect and untouched, I felt the urge to write in it.
Of course, this led to discussion about parabolas, trignometry, differentiation...all part of a normal day's work.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:00am on Monday November 23, 2009 :: 2 comments ::
Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
Wednesday November 5, 2008
As the poem goes, the city of Wellington celebrated Guy Fawkes Day with a fantastic display of pyrotechnics streaming from the harbour.
But for some, these fireworks meant more than watching a myriad of chemicals combust in the sky. These fireworked heralded a change. A change that attracted the interest of the entire globe as we followed the US Presidential Race during the later hours of the afternoon, until its pinnacle as Senator Barack Obama claims the 44th Presidency of the United States of America, defeating rival John McCain, 338 electoral college votes to 156. It is certainly a phenomenal landmark in the history books as America gets set to crown its first African-American President.
But of course, my project team and I were busy discussing important matters at our team meeting.
¬.¬
Posted by Jeremy at 10:40am on Wednesday November 5, 2008 :: 1 comment ::