Ollie, Alex and I had a blue whale of a time at the Air Show, and Ollie even got his photo on the local news website. He loved being able to sit at the controls of two or three planes, and one helicopter.The C-17 was nutty. Whether it be a huge bridge, or a flying behemoth, I?m a complete sucker for large-scale engineering. I love me a good P-51 Mustang too. The low-level 900kph fly-by always sends a chill up my spine.

I missed seeing the RAAF F-18 in person, but the view from my deck at home was brilliant. The sense of speed was neck-wrenching. Even from 20-odd kilometres away, the jet streaked across the horizon and threatened to rattle the windows from their frames. It was all the more amusing to see after the RAAF pilot confided that they brought two F-18?s across from Brisbane because ?that one sometimes doesn?t start?.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I took my five year old to the incredibly politically incorrect Military Day at MOTAT (Museum Of Transport And Technology) yesterday. The day included rides in various military vehicles, exhibits by historical re-enactment clubs, and a couple of blank-fire re-enactments complete with explosions large enough to shower us with sand and dirt. Real Boys-Own stuff.

We got to hold guns, wear Roman Legionnaire helmets, and run through a mini confidence course.

The best and most hazardous part of the day was the mortar-powered lolly scramble. The safety police were complete absent, with the single allowance being a large man yelling ?we won?t fire the mortar until the kids are at least 5 metres away from it!?

The result was stupendous. As Stu said: ?lollies on the tail end of a ballistic arc could take your f*cking eye out I swear?. Check out the initially horrified screams of the crowd, followed by nervous laughter:

Popularity: 1% [?]

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it."
– William James

[via]

Popularity: 1% [?]

What a tumultuous year.

I’ve changed jobs twice, but two of them have been the same. Sounds like a mind-twister, but it was simply Datacom -> Orion Health -> Datacom. If you catch me after a few beers I might have a long chat about the why, but the short answer is that I just didn’t grok Orion. After sampling the greener grass, I discovered that it tastes like crap, and the green, green grass of Datacom is sweeter than ever before. I’m glad to be back.

And then there was the day that a producer from TVNZ left a comment on one of my posts. I presumed they wanted to talk to me about a particular post or perhaps an expert opinion on geocaching. Instead, in the space of about two weeks I went from “3rd-class blogger” to “regular contributor for TVNZ Breakfast”. Every second Wednesday I now haul myself off to TVNZ Towers with a bunch of gadgets. My favourite review so far was the cameras (I still have the 5D MkII), closely followed by sewing machines.

Of course none of the good stuff can offset the bad. Dad’s choroidal melanoma went from “interesting” to “bugger” to “oh fuck” in the course of the year. It’s horrible how one’s perspective shifts as you take in the progress of something like cancer over a long period of time. I would never have though I would be pleased to hear that radio therapy on a rogue lymph node might give us another 12 months.

My son turned 5 late in the year. My tweet at the time read: “My son is 5 today. He is witty, intelligent, charming, and damn good looking. He shares my love of technology. I am bursting with pride.” He starts school next year, which just seems way too soon. He’s champing at the bit of course, but I don’t think we as parents are quite ready to send him off on his own every day. This seems to be a common situation after talking to other parents. Do we underestimate our kids?

Running through the archives is an interesting exercise:

• In January I crashed a(nother) RC plane.
• In February I helped the police deal with a geocache that they thought was a bomb, and changed my domain name from gadgetophile.com to ben.geek.nz.
• In March I added what turns out to be one of my most popular posts ever (how to fix a bug on a hacked iPhone).
• I got a new HDTV in April
• May was a quiet month, I suspect due to being headhunted and dealing with negotiations.
• June was my first month at Orion, with a new MacBook.
• I washed my earphones in July, and got annoyed with the App Store
• In August I enjoyed Disqus.
• September was pretty interesting: released my first iPhone app, and landed the TVNZ gig.
• In October I stayed at the Samsung suite at the Westin. Gangsta! I also reviewed and gave away some BBQ Gadgets.
• November was pretty busy. I moved back to Datacom, completed a Rockband-off, and reviewed sewing machines, BBQs, and the Nokia E71.
• December brought Streetview, games, and of course my darling EOS 5D MkII.

Whew. What a year. Onwards and upwards to 2009. Looking forward to all sorts of stuff: Ollie at school, Webstock, Web?09, more TVNZ, and more Datacom. Hang on to your hats!

Popularity: 1% [?]

They say that angry customers tell 3,000 friends, while satisfied customers only tell 3. A couple of weeks ago I got the regular helpful little card from my bank, reminding me that it was time to re-fix a portion of my mortgage. Like the brokers tell you to do, I’ve broken the mortgage into a couple of parts so that I’m not hit hard by large interest rate fluctuations. I opted to re-fix the maturing portion using the shortest 6 month option, knowing for sure that more rate cuts were in the offing. I fired off the card back to BankDirect and thought nothing of it.

Vijay – a previously anonymous call centre drone who is now my best mate – called me today to tell me that he received the card. He also told me that my selected rate would come into effect on the 13th of December, and inquired as to whether I would like him to hold off on applying the rate because there was a Reserve Bank announcement due out on the 4th of December. I follow interest adjustments with as much attention as any mortgage holder, but I don’t know the exact calendar dates of these announcements.

Let’s understand this clearly: it is almost definite that interest rates will be cut on the 4th of December. Therefore it is almost definite that this call means BankDirect will earn less interest from me over the next few months or years. There is, however, no “almost” about my reinforced adoration for my bank.

*sniff* I love you guys. I really do.

Popularity: 1% [?]