Master training

Just an update on Binky…Binky is now 6 months old – turning 7 in 3 weeks. I’m happy that she’s grown out of her biting and chewing habits. She still likes to bite and chew on her own toys but not people’s fingers and toes. Her hair is growing quite long and I have had to trim her twice in the past 3 months.

She’s also toilet trained now. Unless it is a real emergency, she would conduct her business outside the house. She can hold it for longer periods of time now.

There was a stage when she will bark and things like shadows and trees; especially the neighbour’s cat. Now she only still barks at the cat but she jumps more now – playing tag with the cat on top of the fence.

There is one new thing that she’s developed. She started humping about a month ago starting with Bolog3r’s leg. I hope she grows out of this one, too.

One thing she developed since the beginning was playing fetch. It started when she was still small. She had the instinct of returning a ball to you after you’ve thrown it away. Now this is very evident. She will bring a ball or one of her toys to you and wait for you to throw it. She even understands me when I tell her to bring the ball closer so I can throw it. She will obediently (most of the time) grab the ball and bring it to you within arm’s reach. She’ll do this for hours and sometimes can become annoying and tiring.

My question is, did I train her to fetch? Or did she train me to throw?

Waste of taxpayers’ money?

Saw on the breakfast news show this morning that after one year, there were only 460 gay couples who got ‘married’ after the civil union act came into effect.

That is very low compared to 21,000+ normal couples getting married.

I wonder how much tax payers’ money was spent in forming and finalising this act.

There are a couple of ‘couples’ featured on the herald today; one straight and one gay. The straight couple (Mike and Tracy Peters of Christchurch) said “they were not religious and had no desire for a traditional wedding”. If that is the case, then why don’t they simply go to a registry office and register there as a married couple? They do not need a church to get married. A lot of people get married using a celebrant and not priests in church altars. Some may argue that this Act is for protecting de facto relationships as well. If it is for de facto relationships, to give them protection, wouldn’t an amendment to the normal marriage law be good enough instead of creating a new law for gays?

Some Funny (and nakakakilabot) Pinoy Videos

Filipino Spice Girls
Filipino Backstreet Boys
Filipino Jackass
Filipino Pie
Pinoy Ako

Self infliction

Is it really?

Saw this on the Herald site, today. A banner ad for Woosh. Looks more like a future headline for the struggling ISP. Won't be surprised :)

Local news

Horse rolls on rider
 
18.04.06 7.00am
 
A woman was seriously injured when the horse she fell from rolled over on her in the Waikato yesterday afternoon. The woman, who is in her late 30s, was riding near Te Kauwhata, 19km north of Huntly, and suffered concussion and a serious head injury. The Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance took the woman to Middlemore Hospital in Auckland.


Read this on the Herald today.
Don’t you think it is a bit too local news (Waikato) for it to be in a national paper?
Next thing you’ll hear….”Cat stuck on top of tree in the township of Ngaruwahia”

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

Thanks heaps to Jiggasaurus, today I got to go and see the Dirty Dancing Stage Performance.

I sort of know what to expect of a performance like this however, I as do not recall watching the movie, I do not know the story. There were two 70-minute parts with a 20 minute intermission.

The first part was or seemed long however, it wasn't draggy as some parts of King Kong the Movie (Peter Jackson Version). It was enjoyable was lots of funny bits all throughout. The singing and dancing were all very good; I didn't spot any mistakes at all - like the ones I saw in the last Sleeping Beauty ice skating show I went to. (Don't ask about this one. I fell asleep half way). But I guess dancing on ice is a lot different.

The main actress Kym Valentine (above) was very good and entertaining. She does have that very familiar face abd as I later found out, she is Australian and appear regularly on TV, etc...

The stage and props were very good I thought. The employed a giant turntable for switching between scenes which added to the character of the show. The use of lights and projectors were very good too. It is like watching a movie in 3D almost. The way they do background pauses to focus your attention to the current dialogue was unique, or at least to me.

There were lots of kids in the show. I felt that this show was not appropriate for kids. There were lots of "Dirty Dancing", a few bed scenes, talk about sex, and swearing even. I am very surprised kids were allowed in (some looked as young as 8yo) and even more surprised parents would bring their kids.

The second half of the show went pretty fast. It was resolution after resolution and BAM! It was the end. Maybe the second half was more enjoyable than the first?...

The final scene was quite lively with everyone in the theatre swaying and clapping away. There is one I didn't quite get and that was the signature line "Nobody puts baby in the corner". I just don't get it...cheesy and meaningless I thought. It is not like "You can't handle the truth!" from "A Fed Good Men" or "Live Long and Prosper" from "Star Trek". But everyone seem to know it and applauded when the line was executed. Those are probably those women who watch the movie over and over again and use the remote to rewind that scene over and over and over...

After the grand finale (and several signature poses), Kym yelled and ask everyone in the audience to dance. Only some people at the front row stood up and perhaps a dozen around us. There was this annoying wiggling hippo in front of me. I had to move my head two seats to the left to see the stage again.

Overall, it was a good show. Jiggasaurus rated it 7/10 compared to 9/10 for Mamma Mia. I did not see Mamma Mia but I would rate this 7-8/10. And I did not fall asleep!

Jiggasaurus, feel free to add a few comments since you very very seldom post entries. :)

Would I recommend it? I'd say yes especially if you are into theatre stuff.

Finally, I thought it only happens in the Philippines but who the heck would nick name their daughters "Baby"?!?!

Bloody hell...

Just came back from the airport to see off my brother. He, his fiancee and future mother-in-law are going to the Philippines to get the wedding stuff... He's the first out of us brothers (that were born in the Philippines) to go back to the Philippines after nearly 20 years of never been back :-) his fiancee has, of course, been back to the Philippines several times since they immigrated to NZ...

So they'll be spending 8 days in Manila, during which he'll be going to meet the rest of his fiancee's relatives, which would be rather interesting as my brother can primarily only understand bisaya... Oh, that and the fact that his way of trying to brush-up on his tagalog has been to spend the past couple of months watching several filo movies :-)
Then after Manila, they are off to cebu for another 11 days (or thereabouts) where the roles are reversed since his fiancee can't speak bisaya :-)

So when I came back to work, I decided to walk to the supermarket, which is about 100 meters away... The heavens suddenly opened up with big fat heavy raindrops... To cut a long story short, I had to gap it back to work and now I'm sitting here in my pink (it's pink damnit, not salmon) rather soaked, waiting for the aircon to do it's thing... I've toyed with the idea of using the hand-dryers in the toilets (a la Mr. Bean), but since our toilets are unisex, it'd look kinda weird me standing there trying myself off with the hot air like that...

*sigh* another day in the life of me...

Today's Blonde Joke

A young blonde was on vacation and driving through the Everglades. She wanted to take home a pair of genuine alligator shoes in the worst way, but was very reluctant to pay the high prices the local vendors were asking.

After becoming very frustrated with the "no haggle on prices" attitude of one of the shopkeepers, the blonde shouted, "Well then, maybe I'll just go out and catch my own alligator, so I Can get a pair of shoes for free!" The shopkeeper said with a sly, knowing smile, "Little lady, just go and give it a try!" The blonde headed out toward the swamps, determined to catch an alligator.

Later in the day, as the shopkeeper is driving home, he pulls over to the side of the levee where he spots that same young woman standing waist deep in the murky bayou water, shotgun in hand. Just then, he spots a huge 9-foot gator swimming rapidly toward her. With lightning speed, she takes aim, kills the creature and hauls it onto the slimy bank of the swamp. Lying nearby were 7 more of the dead creatures, all lying on their backs.

The shopkeeper stood on the bank, watching in silent amazement. The blonde struggled and flipped the gator onto its back. Rolling her eyes heavenward and screaming in great frustration, she shouts out "THIS ONE'S BAREFOOT TOO!"

Sex games

Kinda like the Sims with mods?

Evening at the Awards

The NetGuide Web Awards night was held last night at the Hilton. It was a great night as always. I was at the door collecting tickets so I got to see most of the guests that came.

The first one was this woman from Orcon Internet she was 15 minutes early. But most people came on time starting at 5.30pm. I couldn’t really remember everyone as the whole time I was collecting tickets seem to have gone pass like a blur – except for one. Around 6pm I saw the Jay-Jay and Dom party coming in the sliding door. I said “Hello! How are you?” to Jay-Jay and her response was “Big shoes, small steps!” then everyone had a laugh and she tip toed her way up the stairs. *sigh* What some women would do in the name of glamour…oh for those who do not know the couple, they are 2/3 of the Morning Madhouse on the Edge radio station. Check out Jay-Jay’s site.

Around 6.30pm I proceeded upstairs and found myself a seat at the back of the second column along with other ACP Media staff. The theatre was packed…well there were about half a dozen empty seats at the back of the last column but that is due to the pricks who refuse to sit and are standing beside the toilet doors.

MC was Kerre Woodham. As always she is a great MC and speaker. Very funny, entertaining and can read the crowd very well. She did the intros etc then it was time for Sam Morgan to speak.

Well his speech was inspiring. But nothing you haven’t heard before such as how he started TradeMe on a laptop in his garage, etc…He did admit that he ripped off the member rating system off EBay (. Overall it was quite good. He is not a speaker so at the end of his speech he struggled a bit and lost his chain of thought. But who cares, we get the idea…

On with presenting the awards: all the winners are listed here. A couple of funny things that happened…There is the category “Best hi-speed Internet site” which is about web sites with content for broadband. While the finalists were being read out, there were some booing from the crowd when Xtra was mentioned but of course the winner was Xtramsn. So the format is, the winner comes up on stage; accepts his award (plaque); and say a few words. This guy from Xtra came up and one of the things he said was “We at Xtra love broadband…” then someone from the crowd yelled out “WE love broadband too!” Everybody laughed and the Xtra guy was so pissed off that he walked off the stage. Of course Kerre jokingly told off the mean people…hehehehe Another funny one, Best ISP which was won by Ihug. The Ihug guy came up and said “I would like to thank all other ISPs for running shithouses!” The rest of the speeches had some hostility in them and it seemed to be the speech theme of the night.

After the awards, food was served. Food were great. We had salmon, chicken satay, and lamb cutlets! I also had artichokes – yum yum. We’ll have some photos in the above site soon!

Busy

I haven’t forgotten…been very busy for the past few weeks and more so this week. Especially now that I’ve been given another responsibility in the wrong direction…

Our Australian counterpart decided to drop the complimentary CD  that goes out with the mag each month which is identical to the CD for NZ. And since Australia produces the CD, the responsibility of making the CD is now on my plate.

I don’t mind learning new things but there is nothing new to learn from this. It is a huge time waster for me. The CD is a simple data cd where every month I have to put together the content and installer files and create a master CD or ISO which I then have to send (back) to Australia for pressing.

I can’t really complain much and if I refuse to do this, it will disrupt the production cycle, etc.

Anyway tonight I have the Web Awards event to go to. As always, I’ve been given the job of collecting tickets and greeting guests. Our speaker tonight is Sam Morgan – looking forward to listen to him talk.