Deliberate Serendipity

Key Connections?

2011-04-25T11:27:00.000+12:00

Read a story in the newspaper about our Prime Minister John Key finding a gravemarker in France for an Ernest Key, age 22, from the Norfolk Regiment, who died in WW1 on 23 Apr 1917. He wondered if there was any connection between this Ernest Key and his own father George Ernest Key, who, it seems, is a bit of a mystery to him.

I've done some digging and I'm pretty much sure that there is no connection.

Ernest Key was born in 1894 to a Thomas John Key and his wife Mary Jane Jennings. Thomas Key was from Crowle, in Lincolnshire. Here's the family sheet that I've put together in the last couple of hours:

John Key (our PM) is the son of George Ernest Key and Ruth Lazar. From what I've read (in this Herald story about Mr Key's long lost half-brothers), his father was first married in 1934 to Beatrice Barnard. Doing some digging on ancestry.com, I've managed to get more details.

George Ernest Key was born in 1914 in Coventry, Warwickshire to father George Ernest Key and mother Millie Jones. His family tree (including photos!) can be viewed online here. Some neat photos of both of George Key's parents and even grandparents (from the 19th century).

George Ernest seemed to be an ardent traveller, as I found him, age 17, on the ship Aquitania, travelling from Southampton to New York and back in October 1931. He also travelled to New York and back in Oct 1936 and again in 1937.

In 1934, he married his first wife Beatrice Barnard. They had 2 sons.

He served in World War II. After the war, the couple were divorced.

In 1948, he married his second wife Ruth Lazar in Southampton, England.

Then, from what I've found, in the period of 1951-1953, George worked as a crewmember (steward) aboard the ship Queen Mary. I have found him in numerous crew lists from August 1951 until February 1953 doing the Southampton - New York run.

At some point after that, the family moved to New Zealand, and the rest is history, as they say.

Vivien Kellems (1896-1975)

2011-04-18T15:33:00.000+12:00

Vivien Kellems (1896-1975), originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution.

This photo caught my eye when I was browsing the "Women in Science" set of the Smithsonian's Commons account. She sounded like an interesting person, so I've done a bit of sleuthing to find out more about her.

The University of Connecticut holds her personal papers. This is her biography as published on the uconn site:
Biography
Vivien Kellems was born 7 June 1896 in Des Moines, Iowa, to David Clinton and Louisa Flint Kellems. Shortly after her birth, her parents, both Christian Ministers, moved their family to the west coast and settled in Eugene, Oregon. Being the only girl of a family with seven children, Vivien developed a rugged and competitive personality from a young age. Attending the University of Oregon, she participated as the only female on the debate team. Vivien Kellems obtained a bachelors degree in 1918 and a masters degree in economics shortly there after. Following graduation, she moved east to New York City in pursuit of a doctorate from Columbia University and the University of Edinburgh.

While in New York, an improvement on an existing cable grip was made by her older brother, Edgar E. Kellems, which he patented in the late 1920s. Using the patent as the focal point, Ms. Kellems founded Kellems Cable Grips, Inc. in 1927 and eventually moved her plant to Stonington, Connecticut. Successfully operating the company as president for over thirty years, the company's devices were used most notably during the construction of the Chrysler Building, George Washington Bridge, and also played an important role in production of wire and artillery shell grips used during World War II.

In her personal life, Vivien Kellems encountered various struggles for justice as she fought for women's equality, equal suffrage along party lines and tax reform. As a member of the Liberty Belles, Vivien led by example as the group encouraged equality of women in the home, workplace and society. Running as an independent candidate for senate, Ms. Kellems protested strict party line voting that only required a single lever pull rather than voting individually by candidate. Through civil disobedience, Vivien Kellems made her position known as she sat in a voting booth for nine hours straight before she fainted from exhaustion. With a degree in economics, unfair taxation by the government was at the forefront of Vivien Kellems' battles. In 1948, alongside of her business partner and brother David Kellems, she protested against withholding taxes from her employees' checks claiming, "if they wanted me to be their (tax) agent, they'd have to pay me, and I want a badge." After a lengthy court battle ensued, it was found that the Kellems Co. would go bankrupt if they continued to not withhold taxes. Admitting defeat, Vivien would later fight against the singles income tax law that was enacted after World War II. In the law, citizens who were not married paid twice the amount of income tax than did those citizens of equal earnings who were married. In protest, from 1965 until her death, Vivien Kellems would merely send in tax forms with no pertinent information instead sending a blank form with her signature. Coming close to victory many times in the United States Supreme Court during the first half of the 1970s, Ms. Kellems' fight in this case ended in vain, as she died before her final appeal was heard in 1975.

---

What an interesting woman. Here are some newspaper stories where she featured.

In the October 31, 1947 edition of Stars and Stripes (newspaper), the following story appeared:

Woman Advocates Jobs for Women Or Legal Polygamy
Cleveland, Oct 30 (UP) -- A forceful, outspoken woman industrialist yesterday came out for legalization of polygamy as her answer to "restrictive legislation which deprives women of their equality with men in the working world."
Miss Vivien Kellems, 51, president of the Kellems Co. of Westport, Conn., said before a town hall audience that "we must have polygamy or unmarried millions of women must be given equal chances with men for jobs.
"Unfortunately we do not live in a Utopia where every girl is reasonably sure of getting a husband to support her. Many women work for exactly the same reason men do--because they have to."
Miss Kellems' main objection was to "restrictive" laws passed against women workers, and she added that "if every man who advocates laws making it more difficult for women to work had to be responsible for the support of one of these women he might not orate so emphatically."
"As it is now, polygamy is the only answer," Miss Kellems said, although she did not elaborate on the statement.

And later, in the August 6, 1950 edition:

Vivien Kellems Seeks Conn. Senatorial Seat
Bridgeport, Conn., Aug 5 (INS) -- Connecticut industrialist Vivien Kellems has announced her Senatorial candidacy on an Independence Party ticket. She will wage "a terrific campaign" against her Republican and Democratic opponents.
Miss Kellams said she has been finished with the GOP since last June when she made a bid for the Republican Senatorial nomination at the state convention and lost.

June 11, 1951

Petticoat 'Putsch' Predicted in U.S.
Los Angeles, June 10 (API)-- There's going to be some kind of a distaff-side revolution within a months, says Vivien Kellems.
The Connecticut manufacturer told the Rotary Club here: "We are on the verge of a mass civil disobedience. I can't tell you something I know just now, but I predict that in a month there will be a vast, mass crusade of women to get you dear, swee men out of the mess you've got us all into."
Miss Kellems gained national prominence by fighting against taxes--notably by refusing to withhold taxes from her employees' salaries.

November 30, 1956

Miss Kellems Muffs TV Quiz on Taxes
New York (AP) -- Connecticut's tax-hating lady manufacturer-politician, Vivien Kellems, answered five quiz-program questions on taxes correctly Tuesday night,but missed the sixth.
Miss Kellems muffed the $2,000 question on CBS-TV's "The $64,000 Question" and had to settle for $512.
She incorrectly named excise taxes as second to individual taxes as a source of Federal revenue. She was told later that corporation taxes was the correct answer.
Miss Kellems had appeared on the program a week earlier but used up all her time talking against taxes.

As we say in New Zealand, she sounds like a hard case. :)

Wairarapa College Gala 2011

2011-03-31T10:15:00.001+13:00

Wairarapa College Gala 2011, a set on Flickr.

Had an interesting time at the gala, seeing all the balloons as well. Rachel's form room was in charge of a milkshake stand. She had fun too!

Buzz here it comes

2011-03-16T10:54:00.003+13:00

I want to see what happens if I share this blog post via Reader, it posts to Buzz, and then I edit the blog post... will the edited version go to Buzz? Or will the old version stay there.

Stay tuned!

*I've now edited to include this sentence.*

Relational mathematics and Montessori

2010-09-26T05:28:00.000+13:00

I've just finished reading this paper by Richard Skemp (nicely republished here on the Republic of Mathematics site) about the difference between instrumental and relational understanding when it comes to mathematics education. My first thought was, "this is what sets Montessori maths education apart from traditional mainstream." The Montessori mathematics materials lay a groundwork for relational understanding. Eric, who's 7, not only knows how to calculate the area of a rectangle (width x height) but why that calculation works, because he spent lots of time building rectangles with wooden cubes, and learning through building that the "area" of shape is derived from the number of cubes inside.

A few years ago, when Rachel was still in preschool, Gary & I attended a parent education evening where her teacher showed us the "binomial cube" material that she was learning. Of course, at age 4, she did not learn the binomial equation, but by manipulating the pieces of wood to fit them properly into the cube, she was gaining understanding that, years later, she could use to learn exactly how to solve the algebraic formula (a+b)³. The cubes and prisms in the binomial cubing material represent the factors of the equation.

I sat there and thought, "I remember learning the binomial cube expression!" and if I thought hard enough, I might have actually come up with the solution. Gary, on the other hand, picked up the material and immediately sorted out all the pieces and proceeded to show me how the equation was constructed based on those pieces. In case you've forgotten: (a + b)³ = a³ + 3a²b + 3ab² + b³

I understood it instrumentally, but he understood it relationally.

Dr Skemp, in his paper, argues (in a nutshell) that relational understanding of mathematics is better. I would have to agree.

Age

2010-09-16T23:13:00.000+12:00

So, should I be feeling old now that our eldest daughter is on the verge of high school? Rachel yesterday decided that she will be attending Wairarapa College next year.

Seems only yesterday that we were enrolling her in her Montessori pre-school at age 3. :)

[at preschool]

[growing up]

'Course, it might just be that I'm feeling old because today's my birthday!

A blog post with no text and just an embedded image.

2010-08-26T03:58:00.000+12:00

My blog to Buzz

2010-08-25T09:39:00.000+12:00

This is really just a test to see how the linkage works. I've just connected this blog to my Buzz account and am testing how it looks.

Will it show this photo, for example, which is a mockup of my blog from Jan 2006.

It looks nothing like that now (whew!).

I was reading several buzzes today that made a point about permanency and blogging and it got me thinking that I've only updated this blog a few times in the last year, and perhaps I should be posting here and sending this off to my other sites. This blog has a record of my thoughts going back almost 6 years now, it seems a shame to leave it by the wayside.

Anyway, so here's my test. My plan was to delete this afterwards, but I might just leave it. Maybe I should investigate a plugin that will post any buzz comments to here, given that I get more comments on Buzz than I do here!

Bic Runga Acoustic Winery Tour

2010-07-23T00:27:00.000+12:00

3 Mar 2007 - We attended the final concert in the Bic Runga Acoustic Winery Tour 2007. It was held at Alana Estate winery in Martinborough. A beautiful afternoon/evening with some wonderful music. We really enjoyed it, and were lucky to have our blanket not too far from the stage. That, and my trusty Panasonic with its 12x zoom, got me some great shots of Bic and her sister Boh, who opened the concert.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.959088&w=425&h=350&fv=host%3Dpicasaweb.google.com%26hl%3Den_GB%26RGB%3D0x000000%26feed%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpicasaweb.google.com%252Fdata%252Ffeed%252Fapi%252Fuser%252Fdeliberate.serendipity%252Falbumid%252F5487361615546269729%253Falt%253Drss%2526kind%253Dphoto%2526hl%253Den_GB]

Bic Runga Acoustic Winery Tour, posted with vodpod

Some of my Picnik Collages

2010-07-23T00:12:00.000+12:00

Search results

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Search results for picnik collages, posted with vodpod

Also, just testing a new solution for embedding a Flickr slideshow in a wordpress.com blog ... using vodpod. Seems to work well!

Here's how. Using Firefox. Go to Vodpod's wordpress page. Drag the bookmarklet to your bookmark bar. Then, go to Flickr and run the slideshow that you want to embed. Click the bookmarklet. In the popup, you'll see a sample of the slideshow. Enter your wordpress login details and any tags, etc, you want in your post. Then, press "send to blog" to create the post and open the wordpress.com editor. Make any additions to your post and you're done. Publish. :)

Hope this helps those of you out there who have missed the ability to embed Flickr slideshows on wordpress.com.

2010-07-23T00:05:00.000+12:00

Googly

2010-06-07T09:33:00.000+12:00

Haven't posted here in, oh, 6 months.

As you may have heard, the company I work for, Picnik, was purchased by Google in March. I'm still there... my position is Community Builder and I'm still spending my time on Flickr, supporting our community of Picnikers there. If you're a Flickr user, be sure to pop into the Picnikers group.

I'm also spending some of my online time on Buzz (my profile).

So, busy busy... but I hope to start posting more often to this blog.

Wasp in Space

2009-12-11T22:16:00.002+13:00

I was playing with the cloning feature on Picnik and my 6 year old Eric said, "put the moon on that apple". Thus, "wasp in space" was born.

I started with a photo of half-eaten apple on the tree (wasp included). I then found a photo I'd taken of the full moon.

Using Picnik:

1. Open photo of apple.
2. Create a "before/after frame". that gives me apple in 2 different frames.
3. Using the 'photo basket', drag the photo of the moon up on top of the right-side frame and resize it to be the right size for the apple.
4. Flatten the photo using "combine all items".
5. Use the clone tool to "paint" the moon onto the left-side frame. Use the brush feature to get it just right.
6. When finished, crop the image to leave only the left-side frame.
7. To get the black background, I used the doodle tool to colour in the background .
8. Finally, a frame and some text.

Eric had a good idea, didn't he?

A change in the air

2009-12-10T22:40:00.000+13:00

more photos from curiouskiwi

So, anyone who knows me knows that I'm always on the lookout for new things to try. Several of my Flickr friends are leaving Flickr and have moved to 23. So, I've opened an account there (well, to tell the truth, it seems I opened the account back in Apr 2006, so I've "reopened" it) and am posting a few photos. I'm not leaving Flickr, but I don't want to miss out on my friends' photos either.

Introducing the Picnik Show

2009-07-31T23:02:00.000+12:00

Now in Premium Preview, Picnik's new Show feature.

Here's one I've just done using the "slideshow" theme with a set of photos from my Flickr account.

2009 Wairarapa Balloon Fiesta.

Enjoy!

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Using iPhoto '09 to backup your Flickr photos

2009-02-03T21:41:00.000+13:00

I've just come across an interesting "feature" of the iPhoto '09 Flickr integration.

As background, when you upload photos from iPhoto '09 to Flickr, the photos are put into a new set on Flickr, and that set is then set to sync with iPhoto. Any changes to the photos in that set are reflected in your iPhoto library.

I wondered what would happen if I removed a photo from the set on Flickr (but not on iPhoto), hoping that it wouldn't delete the photo from iPhoto (as that is what happens if you change your mind and delete the photo on Flickr... the photo is ~~deleted in iPhoto as well~~removed from the Album in iPhoto).

It seems that if the photo is removed from the set on Flickr, all ties to the 'flickr album' on iPhoto are broken, and any title/desc/tag changes on Flickr do not get synced back to iPhoto. The photo is removed from the Flickr album but is not deleted from the Library.

However, if you then add the photo back into the Flickr set, a brand new original-sized copy is downloaded and imported into your iPhoto library (so now you'll have 2 copies of the same photo). I thought, ooh, I don't know if I like that... but, it dawned on me that this could be a good feature if you are trying to backup a lot of your flickr photos and their metadata.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="showing "pending" backups into Library from Flickr set"][/caption]

Simply upload one photo from iphoto to flickr to create a new 'synced' set. Then, using the Organizr, add the photos you want to backup into that set. Go back to iPhoto and sync that Flickr album and it will go out and grab the largest file on Flickr, including all tags/titles/descriptions, and import them into iPhoto.

The filenames will be the same as the photo original on flickr, eg., 176709303_026f53b3c0_o.jpg.

If you leave the photos in that synced set, any further changes on Flickr (ie, new tags etc) will be synced to the copy in iPhoto. Or you can simply copy those new files to another drive or backup disk, remove them from the set on Flickr, and delete them from your iPhoto library.

Voila! A quick backup of your photos, including their titles/tags/descriptions from Flickr.

Disclaimer. This worked for me but you might want to test it yourself.

spur-winged plovers - cloned

2008-12-26T23:39:00.000+13:00

spur-winged plovers

Originally uploaded by Brenda Anderson.

Picnik has released a new Clone Tool (found in the Advanced tab). The fun thing is it lets you both clone & erase, so for this one, I was able to place the birds and clone only the bird itself, so that it blended into the background. Can you guess which 2 birds are in the original photo?

Delivering the Mail, Commons Style

2008-12-24T04:57:00.000+13:00

Flickr Commons is a new group on Flickr that I'm really excited about. It is dedicated to spreading the word and enjoyment of the archival goodness that is The Commons on Flickr.

One of the fun bits is what we call "mini-curation"... going through photos from Commons institutions and creating a thread showcasing a particular theme.

I did one on Delivering the Mail, Commons style, including the one shown here from the Smithsonian Institution. Fun!

If you enjoy The Commons as much as I do, I encourage you to join the Flickr group and start participating.

Online life...fractured

2008-12-15T01:01:00.000+13:00

Been thinking a lot lately about my "online" life. I know I'm not the only one who has multiple blogs, sites, accounts, etc. spread out all over the web. One need only google "curiouskiwi" to see all the places I live online. (Note. not all of those are me, but the vast majority are!)

So, what to do? Ignore the issue? That's what I've been doing all these years. Is there any advantage to having multiple sites? Would I better to consolidate in one (or two..) places so as not to fracture my life any further? What have you done? Do you find yourself with lots of blogs but not a lot of updates? Would your time be better spent nurturing one site?

Utata Projects

2008-06-17T00:49:00.000+12:00

We've been doing projects over at Utata for almost 3 years now, and I always find inspiration in my photography through them.

I thought it would be fun to show all the different topics we've tackled, so I created this wordle.

I love how a graphic can convey so much information.

Jinging

2008-05-14T21:17:00.000+12:00

Just trying out jing.
cutout in picnik

A Chorus of Millions

2008-02-08T03:42:00.000+13:00

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

I've set up a personal fundraising goal of $1000... I'm asking all my friends who want to contribute to do so today! :)

Yes We Can

2008-02-03T22:43:00.000+13:00

An independent tribute for Barack Obama's campaign:

Another Kennedy for Obama

2008-01-29T22:14:00.000+13:00

Watch Ted Kennedy's endorsement.

A President Like My Father - New York Times

2008-01-28T05:40:00.000+13:00

A President Like My Father - New York Times

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

So writes Caroline Kennedy in her endorsement today of Barack Obama.

I think she may be right.

oddstuff

2008-01-10T22:43:00.000+13:00

I saw a headline on Fairfax Media's Stuff website (one of 2 main newspapers sites in NZ) about George Bush travelling to Israel for a peace mission. I thought, good luck with that.

Anyway, I clicked the headline and was brought to the main story.

Anyone else struck by the odd juxtaposition of the news story with the ad above it?

earthquake!

2007-12-21T10:20:00.000+13:00

Crack! rumble! shake... shake... shake... shake ... rattle n roll

We just (20 minutes ago) had a 6.8 earthquake off the East coast of New Zealand.

shake ... shake...

We were far enough away that we had no damage, but haven't heard if areas closer to the epicenter have suffered any damage.

This would be the strongest feeling earthquake I've ever experienced.

A Capella Christmas

2007-12-21T03:55:00.000+13:00

I really enjoyed this. Hope you do too:

Picnik a Flickr

2007-12-08T07:34:00.000+13:00

Flickr has partnered with Picnik for photo editing. I've been using Picnik for about a year, so I was pleased to see the integration... it saves some extra loading time.

My before/after photos were used to illustrate the Flickr Blog entry announcing the Flickr-Picnik partnership. :)

slide makes slideshows

2007-10-09T00:19:00.000+13:00

I was interested to read on scoop the other day that Slide.com has overtaken Flickr.com in market share in New Zealand. Around the same time, a forum post in Flickr popped up about Slide's use of the Flickr API to pull in all rights reserved photos. To make a point, someone made this very musical slideshow of some of my photos.

I love that song!

crossing the line

2007-08-28T21:28:00.000+12:00

A bit of a story in yesterday's paper about Peter Jackson's 15 minute film "crossing the line", a WWI mini-epic filmed here in Masterton a few months ago.

Here's the excerpt.

[youtube=http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=wICiOeA2kM8]

Cool, eh?

microPledge

2007-06-10T10:28:00.000+12:00

"microPledge will get people together to get software made" according to the blurb on their website.

Is this a cool idea or what? I can see this as the solution to so many of those little issues that arise, when you think, gee, I wish I had a program that could do this... or that.

If you think so too, head over there and read more about it.

rest (in the style of Emerson)

2007-05-01T07:41:00.000+12:00

rest (in the style of Emerson)

I have just read Greg's essay on Peter Henry Emerson on Utata.org's Sunday Salon and it inspired me to remix one of my favourite photos in the style of Emerson. Emerson was an early photographer who embraced a 'natural' approach to photography.

[original description of photo:
Eric walked around the entire perimeter of Henley Lake. By this point (about 3/4 around) he stopped to rest at every bench. This one was good because he could watch the radio-controlled sailboat sailing on the lake.]

Hot Cross Buns for Easter

2007-04-07T23:46:00.000+12:00

For Good Friday, Gary baked us some hot cross buns. They went over so well that the kids have asked for them again on Easter.

Several people have asked for the recipe, so here's the one he made up.

3 tsp "surebake" yeast

280 ml warm water

1 egg

450g / 3 cups flour

2 Tbl brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup sultanas/raisins, etc.

2 Tbl oil (canola/vegetable)

Crosses

80g flour

80 ml water

2 tsp sugar

Put 200ml water in a cup with the sugar and yeast, stir, and leave to get going.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add fruit and stir.

Break the egg into a measuring cup and add water to make 80ml liquid

Add frothy yeasty mixture, egg/water, and oil to the dry ingredients. Mix well to a soft dough consistency.

Turn out onto a floured board/surface and knead, adding flour as you knead until it's not sticky anymore. ie, until it feels right.

Return to bowl, cover and allow to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Divide and make into 12 buns. Put on baking tray and allow to rise for a further 40 minutes..

Mix up the cross ingredients and pipe over the risen buns.

Bake at 180C/360F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Tips:

Yeast: If you can't find Surebake Yeast (it contains bread improvers), use 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Rising: The method we use -- preheat the oven to 50C/120F. Put the dough in to rise and turn off the oven. (important! don't forget to turn it off or you will get very slow baked dough that rises up too much). Alternatively, if your kitchen is quite warm, you can leave it to rise in a warm spot, but it may take extra time to rise.

Can't guarantee that your buns will come out like ours, but they'll be yummy nonetheless because you made them! :)

Professional Football coming to NZ

2007-03-20T23:43:00.000+12:00

I was pleased to read today that a Wellington businessman has fronted up with about $1.2 million in order to secure the bid for a professional football (soccer) team in the new Australian A-League.

I think it will be good for the sport here in NZ if our young people have a new team they can look to for "heroes". My daughter loves soccer and I can imagine that she'll become a big fan of the new NZ team.

*Update* The new team will be called the Wellington Phoenix Football Club.

Daily podcast?

2007-03-05T22:56:00.000+13:00

Living in New Zealand, I've really welcomed the various American news networks offering podcasts on iTunes. But what I don't understand is why they advertise "daily podcasts" yet the latest one is usually a few days old.

Today, I opened iTunes to get the latest "CNN Daily" videocast and the latest episode available was Wednesday, Feb 28th. Who wants to watch news that's 5 days old? Sure, if it's a TV episode, the timing isn't that important... but news isn't news when it's 5 days old.

C'mon guys. If you're going to offer something, at least do it right.

Missing?

2007-02-21T04:58:00.000+13:00

Flickr is running a charity auction as part of its 3rd birthday celebrations. As such, they asked for submissions to the Flickr 333 group pool from which 20 photos will be chosen to be printed/framed and auctioned. The Flickr Blog had a map showing group submissions. But, where am I? Where is New Zealand? I feel like I've fallen off the side of the world. :(

Utata Opposites

2007-02-21T03:05:00.000+13:00

This weekend's project over at Utata is "Utata Opposites". Here's the one I used as an example for the theme:

I really need to get some new shots for this one, though.

MacDiarmid and Faust

2007-02-13T07:48:00.000+13:00

This week, two of my former professors at Penn are in the news... one sad and one happy.

Alan MacDiarmid, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died on February 7th. Way back in 1982, while he was in the midst of his Nobel prize-winning experimentations, he taught me freshman chemistry (Chem 2). I remember that he was very enthusiastic about his work and also about teaching us, the lowly freshman, rather than just his graduate courses. I thought he had an odd accent, which at the time I put down to his being "Scottish or something" based on his name MacDiarmid. It wasn't until years later, when his Nobel Prize was announced, that I discovered that not only was he a New Zealander, but he was born in Masterton, where I now live.
I had the pleasure of meeting him on his visit "home" and told him that I had sat in the 4th or 5th row of the lecture hall in Penn's Chemistry building way back in 1982. He was amazed at our connection and wondered at the odds of meeting a former student in little ol' Masterton.
Also in the news this week is Drew Faust, just appointed as the President of Harvard University. Dr. Faust taught American Civilizations at Penn; I was in her 1993 class of AmCiv 7: The American South. It was one of my favorite classes at Penn... one I looked forward to every Tues/Thursday. She is a brilliant lecturer and very enthusiastic about her chosen subject of study. I wish her much success in this new endeavour.

Barack?

2007-02-13T03:07:00.000+13:00

I'm watching the leadup to the 2008 US Presidential election and am keeping my eye on Barack Obama. I was impressed with his speech during the 2004 convention. It will be interesting to see how well he does.

Flickr Brouhaha

2007-02-06T05:02:00.000+13:00

Flickr announced a few days ago that all remaining "old skool" members must begin using Yahoo IDs to login starting March 15th. What a kerfuffle that caused.

Bobbie Johnson over at the Guardian (UK) pretty much sums up my feelings about the whole thing.

Flickr stalwarts aggrieved at Yahoo merger
By Bobbie Johnson / Internet 01:45pm

No, that's not a headline from two years ago when Flickr - the popular photosharing website - was bought by Yahoo. It's the result of a teacup-sized tornado that was caused when the minority of Flickr's users who have not yet streamlined with a Yahoo account were told that they must do so in the next month.

They fly over my house

2006-12-19T00:12:00.000+13:00

They fly over my house

Originally uploaded by Brenda Anderson.

(photo credit: NASA)
I thought this was a really cool photo, particularly since the shuttle was flying over New Zealand. See the note on the photo to see where I live.

As per most NASA photos, this one is not under copyright. I am claiming no copyright on this myself. Since Flickr defaults to All Rights Reserved, I've changed the license on this to Attribution. Please attribute NASA, not me, if you want to copy this photo. Source: Mission STS-116 Day 4 (original filename 165239main_s116e05983_hires.jpg)

New Zealand Heritage Magazine

2006-12-08T21:12:00.000+13:00

New Zealand Heritage Magazine

Originally uploaded by Brenda Anderson.

New Zealand Heritage magazine is a quarterly publication by the NZ Historic Places Trust / Pouhere Taonga. Their Summer 2006 issue just published this week features four of my photographs of Masterton in its Travel Feature entitled Centre of Attention by Gareth Winter.

And, they found them on Flickr. How cool is that?

Original photos:

My Town --- Art Deco in Masterton
swingbridge --- Cafe Cecille

he nervously faces his nemesis with powers as great as his own

2006-12-06T02:12:00.000+13:00

This is one of my entries in Utata's latest project "Utata Imitates Life. Does anyone know what this character is? It's one of my son's McDonald's toys, but I don't remember which movie he is from.

Creating a Flickr Account (Step by Step)

2006-12-04T08:12:00.000+13:00

It seems that just about every day, someone posts to the Flickr help forums saying that it is too confusing for their family to create a Flickr account and make them a contact, etc. So today I decided to document the entire process as I went through it step by step. Perhaps this might help someone who is having trouble. (please note that all these screen prints are linked to my flickr account but are currently set to private)

1) I, a current Flickr member, send an invitation using the Invite a Friend screen. In this case, I am also telling Flickr that this person should be set as a "family" contact:

2) The invited person receives an email with a link to click. Clicking the link takes him to the Flickr welcome screen:

3) He clicks the Sign In link on that page and is taken to the Yahoo sign in screen:

4) If he already has a Yahoo ID, then he signs in to that and goes to step 6). If not, then he needs to create one, so he clicks the Sign Up link under the bit that says "Don't have a Yahoo ID? Signing up is easy." He then sees this screen:

5) After filling in all the information and pressing Save, his Yahoo ID will be created and he will be logged in, showing this confirmation screen with information such as his new email address and the security information he entered:

6) Clicking the "Continue to Yahoo! Flickr" button at the bottom, he is taken back to Flickr, where he then can create his Flickr screen name. The screen also gives the option of merging that Yahoo ID with an existing Flickr account, but as this person doesn't yet have a Flickr account, that is not applicable. He enters the screen name that he wants.

7) After that, he presses the Sign In button, and the process is complete. He is now signed into Flickr, has been made a "family contact" of mine and I have been made a contact of his. He is given a link to go straight to my photos (or can choose to explore the site instead).

So, while the process has six steps (four if they already have a Y! ID), it's not very difficult and this entire process took me about 5 minutes, including doing the screen captures along the way.

I'd appreciate any comments/feedback about this tutorial.

Weta!

2006-10-20T07:10:00.000+13:00

I'm trying out zazzle to create some t-shirts, cards, prints, etc. Here's a t-shirt I just designed:

Warning! Bug on front! Weta
by
curiouskiwi
Get this custom t-shirt at Zazzle

My First Magazine Pic

2006-10-17T01:10:00.000+13:00

My First Magazine Pic

I was approached by an editor of Cuisine Magazine who wanted to license the use of one of my photos (this one) for their upcoming 2007 Cuisine Wine Country special issue, 290 pages full of information about wineries, vineyards, b&b's etc.

It came out today! So of course, I had to rush into town and get one fresh off the press.

civic duty

2006-10-07T04:10:00.000+13:00

I received my US Federal Election absentee ballot the other day, and it's now filled out (in secrecy, according to the instructions) and ready to mail (after I put the stamp on). I now reserve the right to complain about the government; as I always tell my friends, if you don't vote, you can't complain. :)

Steam!

2006-09-12T08:09:00.000+12:00

"Gloria" came to town on Saturday. She's a 1939 Scottish built steam engine. Every year, she pulls the "Daffodil Express" special from Wellington to Carterton to the annual Daffodil Festival.

technorati tags:steam engine, train

downhill and up

2006-08-28T11:19:00.000+12:00

downhill and up

Originally uploaded by Brenda Anderson.

Flickr Tips #2

2006-08-11T10:08:00.000+12:00

I wish I could create sets in my group!

One workaround though, is to put a unique tag on the photos for each "set" that you want. You can then look at the pool by that tag, thereby creating a "set" of those photos. You still can't order them like a set, but you can group them that way.

For example, the New Zealand group pool can be displayed this way:

Sheep in NZ
Birds in NZ
etc.

You can also run slideshows for each of those tags.

By putting these links into your group description (using the Administration tools), you can point people to particular "sets" of photos in your group pool. You might also consider starting a group thread for each of your main tags, perhaps even listing sub-sets (tags) that go with each set (tag).

Trying Flock again

2006-08-07T02:08:00.000+12:00

I first tried Flock a few months ago when it first started in public Beta. I could see the potential, but it had enough bugs/quirks that I stopped using it. Now I've decided to give it another try. It seems much more stable now, so I might run it for a few days and see what I think.

technorati tags:flock

Blogged with Flock

Utata Badge

2006-07-30T22:07:00.000+12:00

The latest thing to come out of the Utata group on Flickr:

Get out your crayons

2006-07-21T01:07:00.001+12:00

Flickr is currently down, but are offering a colouring contest for a free Pro account. Here's my very quick attempt.

Update... a few hours later and Flickr is back up!

New FlickrViewr

2006-07-21T01:07:00.000+12:00

looking at the web through Flickr-coloured glasses

utata.org

2006-06-06T10:06:00.001+12:00

utata, or where I spend my free time

2006-06-06T10:06:00.000+12:00

I've been spending a lot of my Flickr time lately hanging out in the Utata group. So much time, in fact, that they've asked me to come on board as "Projects Manager" for the companion site, utata.org. I can only say that I am thrilled by this opportunity to become part of a team of very talented photographers, writers, and artists.

What is Utata? you might ask. Well, to quote from the About page:

Utata is a collective of photographers, writers, and like-minded people who share a compelling interest in the arts. We began (and continue to exist) as a salon-style gathering of photographers who came together on flickr. As a group we are continuously evolving; Utata is more of a process than a final product.

Photographic projects grew organically out of the group's wide-ranging discussions. In order to provide an appropriate setting for those projects it was necessary to create an entirely new entity.

Utata.org is that entity. It is our attempt to retain the intimacy of the original salon while expanding to include new voices, new perspectives, and new ideas. Our goal is to become a semi-civil online tribe devoted to creating and promoting good art.

Each week or so, utata has a new project. The latest one is "Utata Drinks it Up". Come by for a visit and see the "tribal photography" in action. Or better yet, join up and start "doing cool things with photography".

The Pod or When a tripod just won't do

2006-05-27T02:05:00.000+12:00

My husband's got a proper tripod, and I have one of those small foldup mini-tripods in my camera case, but sometimes neither of those seems to do the job. Enter The Pod, which is essentially a beanbag with the added feature of a tripod screwmount built in. John, over at photodoto, has a new review of the Pod, complete with photos. It looks like a good purchase. I wonder if it's available here in New Zealand. If it isn't, I see that the Pod folks will ship internationally. Something I'll have to keep in mind.

Flickr Tips #3

2006-05-27T00:05:00.000+12:00

How do I remove photos from a set?

There are two ways to do this:

From the photo page, click the Add to Set button. Scroll down to the set and click the [x] next to the set name.
In the Organizr, open the set. Click and drag the thumbnail down into the bottom area. You will see that as you start to drag, a message will appear that says "Drop a photo here to remove it from a set."

Some Flickr Gamma hints

2006-05-22T06:05:00.000+12:00

As anyone who uses Flickr with any regularity probably knows by now, Flickr moved from Beta to Gamma during the week. And the Help, Ideas, and Bug Forums have been running pretty hot since then. Lots of questions seem to be popping up about how to use the new Organizr, so I thought I'd summarise some of the answers here.

First, some things to keep in mind. The top half of the organizr is the workspace. Any of the commands you use will only affect photos in that space. The bottom strip is called the Findr. It is here that you can see the photos based on the search criteria that you specify, such as by tag, set, privacy, etc. In order to do any editing, you need to select the photos you want and move them up. To move photos from the Findr to the workspace, simply click and drag one of the selected photos and all selected photos will move up into the workspace (and become a "batch").

How to Edit a selected batch of photos

Open Organizr, make sure the Batch Organize tab is the one open. Go down to the bottom, click the dropdown box (that defaults to All your photos) and choose your primary selection there (recent photos, set, etc). That'll load those into the Findr strip.

Select the photos (if it's all, click Select All; if it's most, click Select All then ctrl-click the thumbnails you don't want; if it's some, ctrl-click the ones you want). Once you've got the ones you want selected, grab one of the selected thumbnails and drag it up to the main workspace. All the selected ones will come along too.

Click Edit Photos or if you want to add tags, click Add Tags.

My Findr has too many photos. How can I quickly scroll to some earlier ones?

The Organizr has a "jump to" date function.

On the right hand bottom side, you'll see an arrow with Jump to Date and then a choice of date taken or date uploaded. Click the arrow and a calendar will appear. Select the date you want, and the Findr photos will scroll to that point in your photostream.

How can I see my photos by their privacy setting?

The new Organizr has some advanced search features, so that you can say "search for my family only photos tagged with xyz" or "show all my private photos", etc.

At the bottom of the Organizr, next to the Search button, click the >More options link and the privacy filter will pop in. You can choose to show Public Only, Friends Only, Family Only, Friends and Family Only, and Private Only. Once those photos have loaded into the Findr strip, you can narrow down your search by tag or full text search within those results.

I'll have more tips in a later post.

Ajax-y Theme goodness

2006-05-21T23:05:00.000+12:00

Once more, I'm trying out another new Wordpress theme, this on called 5ThirtyOne by Derek Punsalan. I'm finding it very easy to read but with a few little popout surpises. Let me know what you think as I continue to tweak.

Testing "Canvas"

2006-02-28T01:02:00.000+13:00

The good folks over at No One's Listeningare working on a new drag-n-drop Wordpress management program called Canvas. I'm doing some beta testing for the project. My test blog is appropriately called Testing Canvas. I'm looking forward to kicking the tyres on this program.

Flickr Tips #1

2006-02-03T23:02:00.000+13:00

I hang out at Flickr every day, and I often see members asking the same questions every day in the forums. I thought perhaps I should keep track of some of the tips/tricks that I've come up with, so that I can refer to them in one place, rather than have to search the Flickr system for my replies.

So here is my First FlickrTip.

How can I see an overview of someone's photos?

A great way to see an overview of someone's photos (I'll use mine in these examples) is to use the Calendar view. This can be looked at in several different ways. For an entire view, try a Date-Posted Calendar. From that page, you can then drill down by year or month.

Another way is using the Archive view. For a thumbnail view of the photos posted, have a look at the Archives page.

I see this as an ongoing project, so if you have any questions/comments, please be sure to let me know.

dreaming of the night sky

2006-01-18T06:01:00.000+13:00

Gary's boss has loaned us his telescope for the next few days. Last night, we managed to zoom in on several stars, including Rigel, Sirius, the Pleiades "Seven Sisters", and a couple of planets, Mars and Saturn. I've never seen Saturn through a telescope before, so it was really neat to see what looked like a little cartoon planet, complete with rings.

The other day, I came across a website run by Chris Picking called Starry Night Astrophotography. Mr. Picking lives about 10km from me and seeing the wonderful photos he's taken of our local skies gives me hope that I might one day get some great shots too.

image of Saturn courtesy of NASA

The Nocturnal Photographer

2006-01-15T21:01:00.000+13:00

This past weekend I took part in a quick photography project organised on utata, a cool photography group. The project was entitled "Nocturnal Photography" and it had some pretty simple rules. All photos had to be taken from dusk on Friday 6 Jan to dawn on Monday 9 Jan, at night of course, and outside.

Being summer here, it didn't get dark until about 9:30pm so I took all of mine around my own house. It was a fun project as I've never really done any night photography before. Have a look at my project entries. Comments appreciated either here or on Flickr.

Colours colours everywhere

2006-01-15T00:01:00.000+13:00

I'm in the middle of redoing the colour theme of this site, so if things look higgledy piggledy with the colours at the moment, that'll be why!

About

2006-01-13T10:01:00.000+13:00

This is my "random musings" blog where I post items that strike me or make me think. I also have a family blog/news site (curiouskiwi), where I post photos and stories about my family. Be sure to visit there as well.

I originally set this blog up a couple of years ago, but in the course of moving between various hosts, I've only got the archives from October 2004 forward.

My daughter asked me the other day, "What is deliberate serendipity?" Just a phrase I came up with out of the blue one day. I told her that Serendipity is finding something unexpected when you are searching for something else. "I know that deliberate means on purpose, so how can you find something unexpected on purpose?" Ah, that's the crux. Can you? I'll let you decide that.

Topics

2006-01-03T00:01:00.001+13:00

First pic of 2006 -- Happy New Year!

2006-01-03T00:01:00.000+13:00

First pic of 2006 -- Happy New Year!
Yes, we live an exciting life!

Just checked my EXIF data:
Date and Time (Original): 2006:01:01 00:00:02

Aww. 2 seconds late! Must be the darn shutter lag.

moving again

2005-12-28T11:50:00.000+13:00

Figured it out, so I'm moving to my own domain.

See you at deliberate serendipity at curiouskiwi

The "Slaying Song"

2005-12-23T10:12:00.000+13:00

Don't worry, Mr. Kincade will handle this.
Originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics.

I sent this photo to friends of mine, one of whom had been listening to a streaming music internet site, that was currently playing Christmas music. The song playing when he clicked on the link to this photo? The Partridge Family singing Jingle Bells. He wrote to me "what do you call that? Deliberate serendipity?"

Just had to post this here.

My Town

2005-12-20T07:12:00.000+13:00

This is the northern roundabout in my town.

Just bumping this to the top to announce the publication of an article I wrote for the "My Town" series on Utata.org. (My Town -- Masterton NZ).

I'd appreciate any comments. You can leave them here if you wish. :)

A Flickr Search and Grab tool

2005-12-18T04:12:00.000+13:00

Photo: Thomas Hawk

Just found this neato new tool that lets you search Flickr by CC-license and Tag. It gives you thumbnails of the "interesting" photos meeting those requirements, and also a list of related tags. Once you select a thumbnail, you get the HTML needed to post into your blog entry.
Give it a try. More information and a link to the tool can be found on the author's blog at jwynia.org.

Heading Home

2005-12-13T07:12:00.000+13:00

Heading Home by Todd Heisler, Rocky Mtn News

While browsing Time Magazine's Top Photos of 2005, I came across this striking image by Todd Heisler, published in the Rocky Mountain News. I thought to myself, "How could I have missed this photo?" And if I've missed it, I'm sure others have as well. Hence my motivation for posting it here.

It's another tragic face on the entire Iraq "situation" and I applaud the Rocky Mtn News for publishing it. The entire "Final Salute" article is well worth a read. Todd Heisler is an amazing photographer.

My brother was a US Marine towards the end of the Vietnam War, stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and participated in refugee airlifts throughout Southeast Asia. Through God's grace, he came home safely, unlike this 24 year old Marine.

This photo will stay with me for a long time.

awestruck by the beauty of it all

2005-12-07T08:12:00.000+13:00

awestruck by the beauty of it all
Originally uploaded by seawallrunner.

Description by the photographer:

I took this photo with stephen's camera and his no-less-fabulous 15mm fisheye lens. The clouds that day were particularly photogenic.

When I grow up, I want to take photos like this. I spotted this photo in my Flickr contacts' feed and immediately had to open the page and see it in its full glory. Be sure to click on the photo to see the larger size.

Yikes!

2005-12-06T06:12:00.000+13:00

I've just switched to the Regulus wordpress theme, and I'm having a few problems with my tags pages, so please bear with me while I work out the kinks.

I'm attempting to combine Regulus with K2 as well.

"all kinds of observable differences"

2005-12-04T00:12:00.000+13:00

I saw these daisies during my walk this morning and was reminded of one of my favourite movies, Harold and Maude.

Maude: What flower would you like to be?
Harold: I don't know. One of these, maybe.
Maude: Why do you say that?
Harold: Because they¡¯re all alike.
Maude: Oooh, but they¡¯re not. Look. See, some are smaller, some are fatter, some grow to the left, some to the right, some even have lost some petals. All kinds of observable differences. You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sorrow comes from people who are this, [she points to a single daisy] yet allow themselves be treated as that [she gestures to a field of daisies].

Yukon Cornelius

2005-12-02T06:12:00.000+13:00

-- photo by Mostly Sunny

Found a link today to a site that asks Sixteen Serious Questions raised about Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. One of the best things about Christmas growing up was the anticipation of watching my favorite Christmas TV shows. You know the ones -- Charlie Brown's Christmas, Day without a Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and one of my all-time favs, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. I, like most American kids of my generation, would scour the TV listings so as not to miss the shows, and if by chance I missed one, I'd be so bummed out. No videos or DVDs in those days, so it meant another year's wait for the next chance to see it.

When I moved to New Zealand, I discovered that they didn't have this annual TV tradition! What is Christmas without Yukon Cornelius or The Heat Miser or the twig that miraculously transforms into a beautiful Christmas tree?

So, the first time I saw any of my old favorites appear in the video shop, I snatched them up. But, I found, there was some magic missing. They lost their lustre in their availability. I guess the largest attraction had been in the anticipation... being able to pull them out of the bookcase and watch them anytime made them somehow too ordinary.

Sigh!...

kiwi 1.0

2005-11-29T11:11:00.000+13:00

I thought I would try yet another theme for my blog. This one's called Kiwi 1.0, appropriately enough, and it's not your run of the mill WP theme. It has taken me about 4 hours to get the site customised to this point. I still need to change a few more headers (on the archives, posts, and elsewhere pages) and make sure that I haven't missed anything important.

One of the major changes I've made to the out-of-the-box installation is to install Ultimate Tag Warrior and use Tags instead of Categories. I started this blog using Blogger, which doesn't support Categories, and now, after using Flickr for the last year, I like the idea of tags. So I hope I have managed to find all the instances of Categories in the various .php files and converted them to tags. If you spot any that I've missed, please let me know.

I'd also appreciate any feedback you can give on usability, colors, etc.

Flickr Bug Part 2

2005-11-28T07:11:00.000+13:00

difftlogins
Originally uploaded by ckphotos.

It appears that the Flickr Bug I posted yesterday is even bigger than it first appeared.

Flickr Mail is not being delivered, group threads are different depending on which server your login points to, sets that you create in Uploader get created but you can't see them when you're logged in.

I feel bad for the techies who are going to have to figure out how to "merge" the different databases to get them back into synch. And what happens to the group discussion threads that have diverged in the interim. There are going to be some crazy, non sequitur type threads once this is all fixed.

But I have faith that my Flickroonies will sort this one out.
*Update* Flickr is now "having a massage" so it looks like they decided these problems couldn't wait until Monday.
*Update#2* Flickr is back up... and (almost) all is well. No data lost. Good job guys. Flickr rocks!

Flickr Bug

2005-11-26T08:11:00.000+13:00

This group thread came through my RSS reader, but when I go to Flickr, the page says "Oops, looks like you followed a bad link." I've reported it as a bug, but I thought I'd post the RSS feed here so that I can refer to it later.

Reply to Petition to Make "Magic Donkey" Flickr's Official Mascot: "Jayel Aheram posted a reply:

Except Dos Pesos does not do anything useful! The Magic Donkey decides Interestingness! I, for one, have never heard of this little canine runt. But the Magic Donkey, wise and all-powerful, is well-known!

I am defending my petition! Magic Donkey as official mascot 4ever!"

Oh, and how can he call Dos Pesos a canine runt!
flickr

Contact

2005-11-26T05:11:00.000+13:00

Please use the form here to send me an email.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-25T23:10:00.000+13:00

high tail it

Originally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

Okay, so I don't have any photos of turkeys, so I thought this pukeko might do. I understand that they were quite popular "eatin' birds" back in pre-European days here in NZ.

Probably tastes like chicken. :)

How to Count to 1,023 on Your Fingers

2005-11-25T10:10:00.000+13:00

Found this site today about counting on your fingers. Read on...

When counting on our fingers, we instinctually count in decimal or base ten. After all, we have ten fingers. In actuality, however, there are many different ways to count on your fingers, and most other methods allow you to count much higher than ten. Read on to learn how to count on your fingers beyond 10, 100, or even 1,000. The secret is to use different numerical bases other than ten.

By using binary, you can count up to 1,023 on your two hands. I said to my husband, did you know you could do that? Of course, he said. And if you can bend your fingers just right, you can count up to even more. Turns out he thinks in binary most of the time. Well, he is an electrical engineer who does a lot of computer programming all day long. :)

Amazing Circles

2005-11-13T04:47:00.000+13:00

pileofbeads-amazingcircle.jpg

Originally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

Yet another Flickr meme, it's the Amazing Circle. See all the others in the Amazing Circles slideshow on Flickr.

blue

2005-11-03T23:35:00.000+13:00

Got myself some new blue shoes yesterday. No, they aren't Converse, but BOC - Basic Original Canvas. Not sure how original though. :)

Edge

2005-10-28T02:45:00.000+13:00

Edge

Originally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

If you're not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!

flock

2005-10-26T02:10:00.000+13:00

I'm just trying out Flock and wondering how well it's going to work for blogging photos from Flickr. I should just be able to drag and drop it. Here goes. Let's hope I don't get into a big mess:

Hey, it worked, and I've also managed to import my blog from blogger over to here with just one push of a button. Nice!

But! For some reason, I can't use Flock to edit my blog entries, so I've just switched over to Firefox to edit this entry. I'll have to check whether there's a bug out there for this.

Technorati Tags: flock, flickr, photography

" What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" Jean Jacques Rousseau

2005-10-22T21:44:00.000+13:00

" What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" Jean Jacques Rousseau,
originally uploaded by **ANNE.

Found this lovely photo of a barn owl on Flickr. Rachel is currently reading the Guardians of Gahoole series of books, and she wants to dress up as a Barn Owl this halloween. So she really liked this photo too.

Best Toys of the 70s

2005-10-22T19:57:00.000+13:00

I was just reading on the TVCream website about their readers' choices for the top toys of the 70s and 80s. At number 35 was one of my favs, the Spirograph.

What was your favourite? Do you still have it?

TV Cream's Top 100 Toys (via boingboing)

35 SpirographWhen fun and geometry collideAn awful hybrid toy/drawing implement, with the flimsiness of construction putting the emphasis firmly on "toy". Spirograph comprised of many plastic discs, each with tiny teeth round the edge and tiny holes round the centre. With those cogs came rings of plastic, teeth again protruding from the outside and inside edges. The idea was to lay the rings onto a piece of paper, tack them down with drawing pins and then roll your chosen disc around the ring, pushing a pencil through one of the holes. The resulting unimpressive spiral on the paper could be reproduced to create more unimpressive spirals on top. This carried on and on with different-sized plastic pieces - eventually producing something akin to a flower, every single time. You may be surprised to learn that spiral-graphs have a basis in maths, being used to solve polynomial equations of a higher degree. Their application as a toy, however, whilst perhaps giving kids a tiny bit of insight into advanced mathematics, has to be called into question. For instance, no one ever explained what you should do about the little holes left in the paper by the drawing pins. Of course, you could try to hold the ring in position, but only the slightest movement meant that the spiral effect was ruined completely. Even more obscure was the confusing Rotadraw; this was a red plastic disc, which you placed on top of a piece of paper and then pinned to a board (or, indeed, mum's fine oak dining room table). Next you rotated the disc, Spirograph-style, filling in the stencil-like holes. When you'd gone all around the wheel, bingo! There was a picture of Goofy (or whoever). We can't even begin to imagine what this may have looked like.

Technorati Tags: toys, 1970s, spirograph, boingboing

Moved

2005-10-22T04:10:00.000+13:00

I've got this blog running on delipity.wordpress.com, as well as here at curiouskiwi.com/delipity. I haven't decided yet if I want to continue hosting it myself or leave it at wordpress. So I'm playing with different themes, etc. here.

Moved

2005-10-21T15:31:00.000+13:00

I've moved to delipity.wordpress.com. See you there.

Memories of Paris

2005-10-21T11:53:00.000+13:00

Claudecf, on Flickr, has posted several photos of Notre-Dame de Paris. It takes me back to my visit there in 1989 with my mother. It was my first trip overseas; we went to London and Paris. I had a great time, and was so pleased to be able to use my "French" from school. We visited all the major Paris churches and some of the smaller ones as well, always lighting a candle at the altar. Thanks for posting these, Claude. You've brought back some nice memories.

Technorati Tags: Paris, claudecf, flickr

Flock

2005-10-21T11:04:00.000+13:00

I'm just trying out Flock and wondering how well it's going to work for blogging photos from Flickr. I should just be able to drag and drop it. Here goes. Let's hope I don't get into a big mess:

Hey, it worked, and I've also managed to import my blog from blogger over to here with just one push of a button. Nice!

But! For some reason, I can't use Flock to edit my blog entries, so I've just switched over to Firefox to edit this entry. I'll have to check whether there's a bug out there for this.

Technorati Tags: flock, flickr, photography

g's eyes

2005-10-09T00:10:00.000+13:00

g's eyesOriginally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

: We were looking at the photo of Sophie taking a photo, with her hand covering her left eye, when it suddenly (after all these years) dawned on me that I always use my Left eye to compose a photo. Gary showed me the test to see whether I was right- or left-eye dominant, and it turns out that I'm left-eye dominant. I find it amazing that it's taken me this many years of using to camera to realize that the reason I always ended up with smudges on the LCD screen from my face was because I was using my left and not my right eye (for which the camera is designed).I held the camera to my eye to show Gary and he stared straight into the lens. So I snapped it. :)Oh, and Gary is right-eye dominant.

g's eyes

2005-10-08T11:56:00.000+13:00

g's eyes
Originally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

: We were looking at the photo of Sophie taking a photo, with her hand covering her left eye, when it suddenly (after all these years) dawned on me that I always use my Left eye to compose a photo. Gary showed me the test to see whether I was right- or left-eye dominant, and it turns out that I'm left-eye dominant.

I find it amazing that it's taken me this many years of using to camera to realize that the reason I always ended up with smudges on the LCD screen from my face was because I was using my left and not my right eye (for which the camera is designed).

I held the camera to my eye to show Gary and he stared straight into the lens. So I snapped it. :)

Oh, and Gary is right-eye dominant.

drive by change the govt

2005-09-16T19:45:00.000+12:00

drive by change the govt:
Originally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

Tomorrow is our General Election... the polls are saying it's too close to call.

Ford Prefect with Girl

2005-08-11T16:23:00.000+12:00

Ford Prefect with Girl

How's this for another Flickr coincidence?

The other day, I joined the 42 Life the Universe and Everything Flickr group, dedicated, of course, to Douglas Adams and his Hitchhikers' series of books. One of the forum threads asked us to post our "42nd most viewed photo" on Flickr. I duly went to my most viewed page and scrolled to #42. Imagine my laughter when this photo was my #42. Note the title.

Those of you who haven't read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy probably won't recognize the coincidence. Those of you who have, hope you enjoy the chuckle.

Flickr Coincidence

2005-07-22T14:10:00.000+12:00

1971 girl with dog:
Originally uploaded by curiouskiwi.

This is me in 1971 (age 8) with my dog Pinto. Yes, it's a blurry snapshot, but I had to scan this one after seeing one of my contacts (SuperDaveNM) uploading a photo of his new apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which turned out to be my old apartment (or at least in the same complex)!!

It's just such a coincidence that I happened to be seeing him upload those photos and recognized the place from such a long time ago.