I wasn't much moved by the Edmund Hillary coverage in the news media - it looked suspiciously like a money-making venture. It only made it worse that Sir Ed seemed to be a genuine man, who had used a fair bit of his celebrity to make a difference to people less fortunate than himself, and the back-slapping kiwi great bit was pathetic.
But this cartoon just caused me a huge sniffle. The details are a bit mad (where did Illiad get Jump +16 from?!?) but the basic sentiment is so very cool.
Mutton Bird! hooray! Tastes like a cross between duck and anchovies. :)
One of the really nice things about living in Wellington, is when you're riding with the wind. Tonight I took my scooter home up a long road from the south. Because the wind was a southerly, I ended up moving along quite quickly, but pretty much with the same air. Consequently, it was very quiet, and oddly like gliding.
Yesterday I purchased an amplifier. This is not the sad bit. The amp is a perfectly innocuous amp like you would find in an antiquated, cheap, 80's stereo made in asia somewhere. So far so good.
However, the reason I bought it was it had a 1/4 in headphones jack and a 1/4 in mic jack. You see, I've had 2 problems in my musical life for a while. Firstly, whenever I try to record things, the signal is too weak, and the overall sound quality of the recording is good, but so quiet you have to turn it up massively in order to hear anything. When you turn it up, you also turn up the minor extra noise (hiss, etc.) and the damn thing sounds horrible. Secondly, I've wanted to practice my bass with headphones on instead of through my bass gear (which is awesome, but loud).
Fabulously, the two problems have been fixed by the new amp. If I plug the bass into the mic jack, and the headphones into the head phones jack (and turn the amp on, etc.) I can hear what I'm playing on the bass. And not just any old hear either. Nope, my bass now sounds like it is from an 80's pop band.
If I plug my mic into the mic jack, and the line out into my laptop, I can record things (like band practice) with a bearable audio quality. If I plug my bass into the mic jack, my headphones into the headphones jack, and the amp's line out into the laptop, I can record a bass line.
Also, if I plug the laptop into the aux in, I can play recorded songs through the amp. Sadly, I can't do that at the same time as recording a bass line.
So now I plug the bass into the mic jack, the line out into the laptop and run cables from the two headphone jacks into my headphones. That way I can play a recorded song on the laptop, hear myself playing along with it, and record the new bass line all at the same time. And all for just $80.
I just look a little mad when I do it.
I've always loved marbles. I remember kids playing with them in primary school. I envied them.
My grandfather bought me my first bag of marbles. They were a christmas or birthday gift from down south. I didn't quite know what to do with them. They were strange milky-white ones with green, blue and tan streaked through them. Sadly, mostly they lived in their bag.
Then mum went to a shop in London which specialised in either marbles, or marbles and beads. Can't remember which. She bought *lovely* marbles. Black with primary colours speckled on them, metalic shiny ones. Metalic ones with small specks of other colours embedded in them.
Somewhere along the line I picked up some of the standard glass with a colour through it, and I may even have visited a marble shop in London when I was twelve.
But the one I remember best was a strange white, red and black marble with a chunk out of it. It was unique in my collection, and had an interesting heft to it. The other marbles were either flash and slightly intimidating, or I didn't think they were special or indeed very nice. But this one was one I could have all to myself (it even wasn't very good at rolling which meant it stayed where I left it).