A wee tramp to the beach

Saturday I went with my flatties to my favorite local beach at Sandfly Bay. The photo I posted shares a title with my favorite Guster song, Long Way Down.

The song is about putting a relationship into perspective, and for me going to the Sandfly bay is also about perspective. Looking down at the path, the flax and fields, the beach and rocky cliffs, the waves and the southern ocean, and seeing how small the people are makes me wonder exactly how does it all fit together. What is the proper perspective for assessing a person's relationship with the environment? I've heard about a book called White as the Waves, which is a retelling of Moby Dick from the perspective of the whale. It hardly seems possible that in 150 years man's relationship with nature could have changed so much...

Did I mention that sometimes the people here make me feel a bit conservative? More about that later though. Its late here, and I've got hours of sperm whale recordings to listen to tomorrow...

Move to Dunedin!

Its not often that I listen to ads on TV, but the other day I noticed a particularly annoying ad which was attempting to convince people to "move to Dunedin". You immediately have to wonder about the quality of life of any city that has to advertise...

I've been in Dunedin for about 5 months now, and must say that it is starting to grow on me. Here is a picture of my house (nicknamed The Castle), which overlooks a large part of Dunedin. That's the Southern ocean in the background. The yard needs a bit of work, but with a view like this, how much time would you really spend looking at the yard?
I've decided to use Flickr to host my photos online, so feel free to check out additional photos of The Castle.


On an unrelated note, I saw The DaVinci Code last night, and was disappointed. I suspected that it would succumb to the classic "wasn't as good as the book" dissapointment, so that wasn't a surprise. It seems like the director was unable to understand that a best selling book does not a screenplay make. The interesting ideas about christianity weren't given enough substance to be interesting on their own, but they were given just enough screen time to be totally boring. A bit like this blog entry eh?

On that note, I'm off to bed. I've got a big week ahead of me, and plenty of work to do before I head up to Kaikoura for the Winter field season. Peace out.

New Flatmates...

I've finally got a new camera thanks to my Mom and Dad! Now all I need to do is learn how to actually use it. In the meantime I've managed to find a (semi)-willing subject to shoot. Its my new flatmate, Possum, tentatively eating out of my hand. Isn't she gorgeous? Unfortunately she is afraid of men, so the only way that I can get her to come near me is by bribing her with her treats. So yeah, people joke about the losers who have weblogs and post pictures of their cats, or what they ate for dinner, or other lame and uninteresting things -- well I'm a step down from that because I'm posting a picture of someone else's cat. But hey, its better than nothing... or is it? Hopefully there will be more photos to come, and maybe someday I'll even have something interesting to write about. But for now, you'll look at Possum and you'll like it!

Movies I wouldn't even reccomend to my worst enemies

I have a very good friend who shall remain nameless so as not to impugn her taste in movies. But this friend and I had an unfortunate habit of seeking out movies that happened to be subpar. Anyone can pick and enjoy an AFI top 100 film, but we were looking for the underdogs -- something overlooked by the unwashed masses. But in all this searching the only thing I found is that there is a lot of crap out there, yet even shitty movies can be fun if you watch them with the right company. Anyway, this is my first blog post and I'm hoping to post pictures of my favorite New Zealand locations once my new camera arrives. Have any others that I should avoid at all costs?

Cube
Doom
Jane White is Sick and Twisted
Batman (1966)
Notting Hill