My Tribe

Hat Tip: SubversNZ

Hooray, more superstition, labelling, and oversimplification! :D

Not only am I sagittarius and ENTP, but i'm also from the Grey Lynn Tribe!

Yes! Each day I pick up my club, put on the latest fur loincloth, leave my prehistoric yet newly-renovated cave, and head down to Ponsonby Tarpits for a half-skull of Java-Berry Juice. As I sip away I like to watch the passing Brontosaurii and chat about new theorums with Pythagorus.

The site, 8 Tribes, says of me:

Your dominant tribe is Grey Lynn

You're dedicated to the idea of making a difference and living in a principled way. You love culture and ideas.

The Grey Lynn Tribe - Intellectual

The highly educated intelligentsia who value ideas above material things and intellectualise every element of their lives. Their most prized possession is a painting by the artist of the moment, they frequent film festivals, secretly wish they had more gay and Maori friends, feel guilty about discussing property values and deep down are uneasy about their passion for rugby.

For more details of the Grey Lynn Tribe, see here.

Well, well, well... they seem to think i'm pretty highly "Grey Lynn"!

So what do you think of that?

Push Play - with Nintendo Wii!

Some of you may be aware of the campaign to get NZ more active called 'Push Play'.

It's basically trying to build physical activity into people's days in fun ways.

I have discovered the ultimate way: Wii Sports (shop, or wiki).

The Nintendo Wii (shop, or wiki), in my opinion, is absolutely amazing.

The Wii's main controller can sense pitch, roll, and yaw, as well as detecting rapid lift. The main controller, looking something like a TV Remote, functions as a pointer and a main menu selection device through its D-Pad, A and B (under the remote) buttons, and its Home, - and + button. The Nunchuck attachment, on the other hand, senses vibration and houses the analog joystick plus the C and the old underneath Z button (for those familiar with the N64).

Used with Legends of Zelda: Twilight Princess, this means that you slash with your right hand to make Link attack (the sword sound even comes FROM the handpiece), and you can fire arrows, the boomerang, or the slingshot by POINTING with the actual controller! The controller & nunchuck method is remarkably instinctual and doesn't have a very steep learning curve at all. The bonus of course is that your two hands aren't together, they can relax on either arm of the chair or in your lap or whatever.

That means that you can relax and take a breather from Wii SPORTS

There is not one time that I have played Wii Sports in the last few days that, if i play more than one game, I have not broken a sweat.
It could help that Auckland is so humid we're all wearing rebreathers now, but nevertheless Wii Sports can be so strenuous (I say 'can be' because sissies who want to lose to me can always put less effort into their game) that I developed a sore elbow from bowling too much one night, and my shoulder and arm muscles ache at this very moment from too much golf and tennis!

Wii Sports has Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling, and Boxing.
In Tennis you hold the controller (minus the nunchuck attachment) as you would a tennis raquet, doing forehands, backhands or serves as you may expect to do in tennis.
Baseball makes you think that your controller is a baseball bat or a pitchers hand. Your onscreen avatar, or Mii (which you create), holds the baseball bat at the same angle that you do! I find Baseball notoriously difficult, but maybe I suck at it anyway.
In Golf you now hold a golfclub, which you can transform into a driver, iron, wedge, putter... whatever. I find this really fun, and do much better at it than normal golf ;)
Bowling, in my opinion, is totally amazing. Holding the controller up in front of you, you push B and swing back then forward, releasing B as you would the ball. The controller understands the speed and motion of your swing, as well as the curve that you put on the ball on the follow-through. With Wii Bowling, i perform the same mental calculations with the ball and pins as I do in real life... it really "feels" like bowling. My friend Mike (who's brother owns the Wii) says that when he picked it up the very first time and bowled, it hit the pins in the same way that it does with his particular quirks/spin IRL. We're both impressed. I can play it much longer on the Wii without getting a sore arm or fingers, of course, so I have managed to develop a spin technique that i actually want to go and try out on the real lanes sometime!!
Boxing is nuts, and uses the main controller as your primary hand and the nunchuck as the offhand. I'm sure its great, but is just too much effort for me to bother with. You can dodge and weave etc, which is pretty cool. You can even land head shots, body shots or kidney punches. Very clever, very tiring ;)

I guess i'm unique in that I put so much effort into my games that i even find myself ACTUALLY doing jump shots in tennis. I jump and smash down, and my avatar actually does too. When i bowl I find myself moving on the floor as though i'm actually there. It helps with consistency.

I know that you could put less into it, but the more you give the game the better you'll do. I definately feel like I'm getting my quota of "Push Play" 30 minutes a day-ness.

If you can get your hands on a Wii sometime then try it out, I recommend it. They're the ultimate party machine for groups of people with options like the silly and random games that come on one game CD and especially Wii Sports. There are also more serious "gamer" titles like Red Steel, Need for Speed Carbon, or Twilight Princess - they're pretty funky too.

A holiday, or a recon mission? Nay, sabbatical!

I have just returned from a week in Christchurch!

I have had the most fantastically awesome time!

I met all my blog-O-buddies from there, well not quite all. I didn't meet Karen... i think... or did I...
I didn't meet the Pastors of Exsxsxspresso, but they aren't really my blog-O-buddies yet anyway. But they will be soon!

However, I *did* meet (in alphabetical order) Anita "Super-Nice Nita" Robertson, Eco-commie Sharyn, "Civil Union" Simona (yeah, ok, so I'll get the bash for that one), and John "Foxy" Fox.

I even saw my old pal Ben Whale and several other people who have come down from Auckland to live.

Guess what I'm doing?

I'M MOVING TO CHRISTCHURCH

Yes.

It's official. I've actually tendered my resignation with work, with ABT. I've told my sister, my Mum, and my Dad. I've set a date to drive away from these oil-soaked roundabouts: 9th of February (after my friend's wedding, after my sister leaves for Australia, and before BCNZ starts).

Now I expect two things: fallout and elation. Elation from my newfound Cantabrian family who think that its the best thing an Aucklander could do, expecially all the Ex-Auckies there! And fallout from my fellow Aucklander Pals who still worship The Land of the Silver Snake (cypher: think rush-hour(s) traffic).

After having my application to do MINTY (ministry internship year) with TSCF turned down, it has given me pause for thought on how to make good on my promise to God to undertake some year-long offering of service to Them.

So I'll give 2007 to God; to Christchurch, to 'Espresso' (an emergent congregation), to BCNZ Christchurch, to - possibly - Opawa (a church), to Paul & Anne, to good and welcoming friends down there waiting for me to make my mind up on the matter.

There are people in Auckland that I shall be glad to leave behind.

Sadly, however, there will be people that I will sorely miss; people that I wish I could spend time with whenever I wanted (people I wish would come with me!). But, alas, I cannot to do things. I cannot be in two places at once, however deeply I wish to be.

The potential flat opening near Paul & Anne, the excellent job opportunities (Steppingstone Trust and possible Website Admin / Developer jobs), the easier way of life and the kind and gentle people there... it all makes it seem like so many pieces have already fallen together.

If I could have one super-power, I would choose to clone myself. I would work, sleep, play, and see five different groups of friends all at once. But I'm only one man, and will never be God.

And so I make my choice, at least for 2007.

Hello, Christchurch; farewell, Auckland.

The Road Not Taken ~ Robert Frost, 1920


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5


Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, 10


And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back. 15


I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 20