A New Dictionary

I am taking a break from the blogging world over the summer holidays. This virtual disappearance is occurring in order to allow me more time to enjoy the real world.

Uncommon Uses for Bread
Bread's best for sandwiches, but surprise -- it does these 7 things well, too!


Remove scorched taste from rice
Did you leave the rice cooking too long and let it get burned? To get rid of the scorched taste, place a slice of white bread on top of the rice while it's still hot. Replace the pot lid and wait several minutes. When you remove the bread, the burned taste should be gone.

Soften up hard marshmallows
You reach for your bag of marshmallows only to discover that they've gone stale. Put a couple of slices of fresh bread in the bag and seal it shut (you may want to transfer the marsh-mallows to a self-sealing plastic bag). Leave it alone for a couple of days. When you reopen the bag, your marshmallows should taste as good as new.

Absorb vegetable odors
Love cabbage or broccoli, but hate the smell while it's cooking? Try putting a piece of white bread on top of the pot when cooking up a batch of "smelly" vegetables. It will absorb most of the odor.

Soak up grease and stop flare-ups
To paraphrase a famous bear: Only you can prevent grease fires. One of the best ways to prevent a grease flare-up when broiling meat is to place a couple of slices of white bread in your drip pan to absorb the grease. It will also cut down on the amount of smoke produced.

Clean walls and wallpaper
Most kids have a hard time understanding how easily the dirt on their hands can be transferred to walls. But you can remove most dirty or greasy fingerprints from painted walls by rubbing the area with a slice of white bread. Bread does a good job cleaning non-washable wallpaper as well. Just cut off the crusts first to minimize the chance of scratching the paper.

Pick up glass fragments
Picking up the large pieces of a broken glass or dish is usually easy enough, but getting up those tiny slivers can be a real pain (figuratively if not literally). The easiest way to make sure you don't miss any is to press a slice of bread over the area. Just be careful not to prick yourself when you toss the bread into the garbage.

Dust oil paintings
You wouldn't want to try this with an original Renoir, or with any museum-quality painting for that matter, but you can clean off everyday dust and grime that collects on an oil painting by gently rubbing the surface with a piece of white bread.

Here is a story about mathematical deduction that I love, mainly because it is said to be true, and because it had an impact (albeit small) on the outcome of the second world war. It is the story of how a simple statistical formula successfully estimated the number of tanks the enemy was producing, at a time when this could not be directly observed by the allied spy network.

By 1941-42, the allies knew that US and even British tanks had been technically superior to German Panzer tanks in combat, but they were worried about the capabilities of the new marks IV and V. More troubling, they had really very little idea of how many tanks the enemy was capable of producing in a year. Without this information, they were unsure whether any invasion of the continent on the western front could succeed.

One solution was to ask intelligence to guess the number by secretly observing the output of German factories, or by trying to count tanks on the battlefield. Both the British and the Americans tried this, but they found that the estimates returned by intelligence were contradictory and unreliable. Therefore they asked statistical intelligence to see whether the accuracy of the estimates could be improved.

The statisticians had one key piece of information, which was the serial numbers on captured mark V tanks. The statisticians believed that the Germans, being Germans, had logically numbered their tanks in the order in which they were produced. And this deduction turned out to be right. It was enough to enable them to make an estimate of the total number of tanks that had been produced up to any given moment.

The basic idea was that the highest serial number among the captured tanks could be used to calculate the overall total. The German tanks were numbered as follows: 1, 2, 3 ... N, where N was the desired total number of tanks produced. Imagine that they had captured five tanks, with serial numbers 20, 31, 43, 78 and 92. They now had a sample of five, with a maximum serial number of 92. Call the sample size S and the maximum serial number M. After some experimentation with other series, the statisticians reckoned that a good estimator of the number of tanks would probably be provided by the simple equation (M-1)(S+1)/S. In the example given, this translates to (92-1)(5+1)/5, which is equal to 109.2. Therefore the estimate of tanks produced at that time would be 109.

By using this formula, statisticians reportedly estimated that the Germans produced 246 tanks per month between June 1940 and September 1942. At that time, standard intelligence estimates had believed the number was far, far higher, at around 1,400. After the war, the allies captured German production records, showing that the true number of tanks produced in those three years was 245 per month, almost exactly what the statisticians had calculated, and less than one fifth of what standard intelligence had thought likely.

Emboldened, the allies attacked the western front in 1944 and overcame the Panzers on their way to Berlin. And so it was that statisticians won the war - in their own estimation, at any rate.


From The Guardian
Thursday July 20, 2006

A few years ago, an American and a British journalist were discussing Thanksgiving on a British radio program. The American asked if Thanksgiving was celebrated in the UK.

"Yes," the British journalist replied, "but we celebrate it on the 6th of September."

"Why then?"

"That's when you chaps left."

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.
~ T. S. Eliot

Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals.
~ Henry Ford

Courage is resistance of fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
~ Mark Twain

Whatever you are, be a good one.
~ Abraham Lincoln

Thirteen year old Mackenzie Riford completed the 80 km JFK ultramarathon in America. You're never too young to run!

Angela and me near the start of the climb. Syme hut in the background.

Resting on the crater rim

Once the rim was gained, we sat down with relief. The first real rest we had in about two hours since leaving Syme hut. Crampon straps were tightened for the final assault of the summit. We walked along the crater for a little bit before ascending to the very top. We stood on the summit, victorious. Well, half victorious. We still had to get down. Egmont was still surrounded by cloud, so we had no view apart from the top of billowing clouds below.

The summit as viewed from the south entrance of the crater rim.

Dad, me, and Angela on the summit of Mt. Egmont

A brief rest on top as there was a bit of breeze, then we descended back into the crater for a longer rest and lunch. Dad happened to meet an acquaintance from the NZ Alpine Club, and they decided to climb the crater face of the Shark’s Tooth (a secondary peak), which was covered in ice. Magnus hadn’t brought any gear with him, as he had been soloing due to the lack of a climbing partner. He borrowed Angela’s harness, and it wasn’t long before Dad and Magnus were setting up a belay at the bottom of their intended route. Due to minimal gear – four ice screws and a snow stake, they had to do the climb in two pitches.

The Shark's Tooth as viewed from the south entrance

Dad sitting on the belay ledge, and Magnus halfway up the first pitch.

By this time the cloud was rolling in thicker and more frequently, so we decided that we had better start our descent. When we reached the crater rim above the south face, Dad short roped me (tied a rope from his harness to my harness) as I wasn’t comfortable walking down the steep, icy slope. Luckily, I didn’t need to test the system. By this time it was white out. We just kept heading down and occasionally saw our crampon marks and platforms from our ascent. But all the holes in the ice soon started looking like marks from an ice axe or crampons.

Being in a whiteout is very disorientating as you often can not see more than one step ahead of you. It is hard to tell whether the ground slopes up or down beside you, and it is very hard to keep in a straight line. This is one reason why Mt. Egmont has the reputation of the deadliest mountain in New Zealand; because it is subject to sudden and frequent whiteouts.

The return of the mountaineers.

Listed below are the five highest mountains in the North Island. The dates in brackets are when I first reached the summit.

1. Ruapehu 2,797m (December 2008)
2. Egmont 2,518m (October 2009)
3. Ngauruhoe 2,291m (July 2006)
4. Tongariro 1,978m (January 2005)
5. Hikurangi 1,754m (October 2008)

~ Your bedroom isn't cluttered, it's just "passage restrictive."
~ Kids don't get grounded anymore. They merely hit "social speed bumps."
~ You're not late, you just have a "rescheduled arrival time."
~ You're not having a bad hair day, you're suffering from "rebellious follicle syndrome."
~ No one's tall anymore. He's "vertically enhanced."
~ You're not shy. You're "conversationally selective."
~ You don't talk a lot. You're just "abundantly verbal."
~ It's not called gossip anymore. It's "the speedy transmission of near-factual information."

AND FOR STUDENTS...
~ The food at the school cafeteria isn't awful. It's "digestively challenged."
~ No one fails a class anymore, he's merely "passing impaired."
~ You don't have detention, you're just one of the "exit delayed."
~ These days, a student isn't lazy. He's "energetically declined."
~ Your locker isn't overflowing with junk, it's just "closure prohibitive."
~ Your homework isn't missing, its just having an "out-of-notebook experience."
~ You're not sleeping in class, you're "rationing consciousness."
~ You don't have smelly gym socks, you have "odor-retentive athletic footwear."
~ You weren't passing notes in class. You were "participating in the discreet exchange of penned meditations."
~ You're not being sent to the Principal's office. You're "going on a mandatory field trip to the administrative building."

A magician was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The audience would be different each week, so the magician allowed himself to do the same tricks over and over again.

There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the magician did every trick. Once he understood he started shouting in the middle of the show:

"Look, it's not the same hat."

"Look, he is hiding the flowers under the table."

"Hey, why are all the cards the Ace of Spades ?"

The magician was furious but couldn't do anything; it was, after all, the captain's parrot.

One day the ship had an accident and sank. The magician found himself adrift on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean.

With the parrot, of course.

They stared at each other with hate, but did not utter a word. This went on for a day then another and another.

After a week the parrot said: "OK, I give up. Where on earth is the boat ?"

Useful -- and surprising -- ways to use salt around the home.
By Sarah Kramer

1. Rubbing salt in your wound is only an expression. Don't do it.
2. Enhance the flavour of your food -- duh.
3. Use as an abrasive. Toss some salt onto a stubborn kitchen counter stain and scrub with a damp dishcloth.
4. In the winter, de-ice the sidewalk when it freezes by tossing some salt on top of it. Wait 20 minutes and shovel your walk with ease.
5. Sprinkle salt in areas where you have ants and watch them flee.
6. Put a few grains of rice in your salt shaker to keep your salt from sticking together.
7. If you've burned your food, scrape as much of the burn off as you can, cover with water, and add 1/2 cup of salt. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 20 minutes. Remove pan from heat and let stand for 30 minutes before scrubbing.
8. Add a pinch of salt to fresh-cut flowers to help them last a little longer.
9. To remove the smell of garlic from your fingers, rub them with lemon juice and salt, then rinse and wash with soap.
10. Fresh piercing? Use a simple saline (salt) solution of 1/2 cup warm water + 1 teaspoon of sea salt to soak your piercing in. It will speed up the healing process.
11. Too many bubbles while you're doing the dishes? Sprinkle them with a pinch of salt and watch them disappear.
12. Run out of toothpaste? Use equal parts of salt and baking soda (with a drop of peppermint extract if you like) instead. Dip your wet toothbrush in and brush away!
13. If wine is spilled on a tablecloth or rug, blot up as much as possible and immediately cover with a generous amount of salt, then leave until dried. Vacuum up salt and rinse with cold water. The stain will (cross your fingers) be gone.
14. A mixture of lemon juice and salt will remove mildew.
15. Wet a bee sting immediately with water and cover it with salt.
16. If your dish boils over onto the oven floor, sprinkle salt on top to stop smoke and odour. Once oven is cool, wipe spill away.
17. Always salt your pasta water before cooking. It will enhance the pasta's flavour and you won't have to salt your dish when it's served. Adding oil to pasta cooking water is unnecessary as it will make your pasta slippery and your sauce won't stick.
18. Remove stains from old teacups by rubbing with salt and a bit of water.
19. Salt enhances sweetness, so add a pinch when making sweets like kettle corn or hot chocolate.
20. A mixture of lemon juice and salt will remove rust stains.
21. Remove odour from a cutting board by pouring a generous amount of salt directly on the board. Rub lightly with a damp cloth. Wash in warm, soapy water.
22. If the juice from a fruit pie overflows while you're baking, sprinkle some salt onto the spill. It will burn to a crisp, making it easy to remove once the oven has cooled.
23. For a sore throat, gargle with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
24. Stuffed up nose? Snort a solution of 1/4 cup warm water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and then blow!
25. Draw the bitterness out of chopped eggplant by salting. Let stand a few minutes and then rinse before cooking.
26. Salt can be used as a skin softener. Throw 1/2 cup Epsom salt or sea salt into your bath water and you'll be smooth as a baby's bottom when you get out.
27. For a crispier skin on your baked potato, slather with olive oil and salt before baking.
28. Make scented bath salts with a mixture of 1 cup Epsom salts, 1 cup baking soda, and 3-4 drops of your favourite essential oil.
29. Sore feet? Soak them in a salt bath: 12 cups warm water, 2 tablespoons of salt, and 2 tablespoons of baking soda.
30. Fill a nail hole with a mixture of 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of corn starch, and 2 teaspoons of water to make a thick paste. Fill hole. Let dry and sand if necessary.
31. Wash dirty green vegetables such as spinach in a sink of mildly salted water to make them easier to clean.
32. When adding flour to a recipe for thickening, stir flour with a pinch of salt to prevent lumps.
33. A greasy pan will wash easier if you rub a little salt on it first. Wipe with a paper towel and then wash pan in hot soapy water.
34. Toss salt on a grease fire. Never use water.
35. Stinky thermos? Add salt and a little hot water. Cap, shake, and rinse. No more smell.
36. Remove blood stains by soaking item in cold salt water, then wash in warm, soapy water and hope CSI doesn't knock on your door.
37. Soothe aching muscles in a hot bath with some Epsom salts.
38. Make your skin glow by rubbing it with equal parts olive oil and salt. (Please do this while standing in your bathtub.)
39. Back in the day, Roman soldiers were paid in salt. So take a satchel of salt down to the store and see if it will buy you groceries.
40. Pour salt into a vase to hold dried or artificial flowers in place.
41. Salting water does not make it boil faster, but it does make it boil hotter, so your cooking time can be reduced.
42. Soak older, wrinkled apples in mildly salted water to revive them.
43. Keep sliced potatoes, apples or pears from browning by placing them in a bowl of mildly salted cold water.
44. Salt can repel fleas, so dunk your dog in the ocean before you head home from your walk or give him a bath in some salt water.

Read this out loud:

This is this cat
This is is cat
This is how cat
This is to cat
This is keep cat
This is a cat
This is goober cat
This is busy cat
This is for cat
This is forty cat
This is seconds cat

Now go back and read the THIRD word only, in each line from the start.

10. Black highlighter

9. Braille driver's manual

8. Clear correction fluid

7. Fake rhinestones

6. Inflatable dart board

5. Mesh umbrella

4. Motorcycle air conditioner

3. Sugar-coated toothpaste

2. Super-glue Post-It notes

1. The system that allows you to report power failures via the Internet

I recently stumbled across a time-wasting, but interesting website called CashTrack. The way it works is people enter the unique serial number on their NZ paper money into the database on the site. It lets you know if anyone else has recorded that particular note, and if so, where and when.

"CashTrack lets you know where that money in your pocket has been. Enter a serial number and learn the history of your money!"

Because it is a relatively new site it has a small patronage, which limits the information in the database; ergo the likelihood of someone else tracking the same note as you is small. (Unless we enact a conspiracy)

Visit cashtrack.co.nz to check it out.


I believe there are similar sites operating in other countries around the globe.

Tuesday marked the end of the Solar Winter in the southern hemisphere - the 3 months with the least amount of sunlight. The Solar Winter starts 6 weeks before the shortest day and ends 6 weeks after it's been, bringing us 3 months of low solar energy and shorter, colder, days.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says most places are now getting more than half an hour of extra sunlight during the day than 6 weeks ago.

To create a stronger feeling of winter ending a firm spring-like weather pattern is now in place bringing warmer weather to many regions especially in the east and north. WeatherWatch.co.nz says there's no immediate end in sight for the unsettled weather with at least 7 to 10 days of the current pattern continuing.

But while the Solar Winter has come to to an end the true winter has not. Whether you believe winter ends on August 31st of September 21st either way cold snaps bringing snow to low levels can continue as late in the year as November.

A cold snap may also be on the way later this week for the South Island as a large high to the east helps dredge up bitterly cold southerlies. However a sub-tropical low in the north may make it short lived with strong easterlies and rain possible for northern New Zealand later this week or in to the weekend.

From WeatherWatch.co.nz

Five Easy Ways to get Lost

Here are five simple ways to become ‘geographically embarrassed”. Most are drawn from real life experiences, but those involved shall be shielded by a curtain of anonymity. Performing the following actions will not guarantee that you get lost, but it will sure help!

1. Take No Map. While this may not cause undue concern when on familiar terrain, the absence of a map in unfamiliar territory makes it just that wee bit easier to misplace your destination.

2. Misread The Map. Carrying the map is of no use unless you can actually read it. Case in point: just because north is at the top of the map does not mean that all rivers flow south. Walking towards the top of the map does not mean that you are walking uphill. Even if you are capable of reading a map, a wrong orientation will soon have you charging off in completely the wrong direction.

3. Concentrate On Chatting. Apparently small talk can be so engrossing that you don’t notice where you are supposed to turn off the track. Subsequently you may find yourself a kilometer or so past where you were planning to go. Enthralling conversations can also be responsible for subtle unsolicited deviations off the trail.

4. Ignore The Terrain. This is not such a big issue while following trails, although it can still be done as proven in the previous point. Successful navigation through untracked bush requires careful observation of the terrain which you pass through. Of course, incorrect observations do nothing to help your cause!

5. Deviate. The quickest way to get lost begins when someone says “Let’s take a shortcut.”

Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.
~Ambrose Bierce

There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
~Don Herold

Common sense is not so common.
~Voltaire

Wit is educated insolence.
~Aristotle

You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty.
~Andreas Gryphius

"Don’t be so humble - you are not that great."
~Golda Meir (1898-1978), to a visiting diplomat

"The average person thinks he isn’t."
~Father Larry Lorenzoni

"The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don’t."
~Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

"You laugh at me because I am different, but I laugh at you because you are all the same."
~Unknown

He who attacks must vanquish. He who defends must merely survive.
~ Master Kahn


Fighting is essentially a masculine idea; a woman's weapon is her tongue.
~Hermione Gingold

Zac Sunderland is now the youngest person to have sailed around the world. He completed his solo circumnavigation on 16 July, 397 days after setting off on his great adventure. Zac departed from Marina Del Ray, California, mid June last year in his 36-ft sailboat 'Intrepid' purchased with his own money. Only around 250 people have circumnavigated the globe, which makes this 17 year old's epic journey all the more remarkable.

"I think society puts young people in a box - people 15, 16, 17 - and does not expect them to do much but to go to high school and play football and stuff like that. There's so much more potential that people can do with the right motivation and the right ambition in life, so, you know, my thing would just be to get out there and do hard things. Go for it."


Check out Zac's website for more information.

Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.

~ Albert Einstein

Our Camp

Climbing a frozen waterfall

Mt. Ruapehu from above Waihohonu Hut.

The prominent peak is Te Heu Heu (2732 m), Tahurangi (2797 m) is second to left.

Oturere Hut

The last day was a long tramp back to Whakapapa. To start with it was over fairly flat snow and rocks, before the track started to climb steeply up to the Emerald Lakes. Near the top the snow became icy, so we halted to put on our crampons. From the lakes we left the track and climbed up the side of Central crater to the summit ridge of Tongariro. The terrain was a mixture of ice and soft snow, and a little bit of rock.

The larger of the Emerald Lakes

We summited Tongariro in time for lunch. Mt. Egmont was clear in the distance to the west, the Kaimanawa Ranges to the east, Lake Taupo to the north, and Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu to the South. After a brief rest we dropped down a ridge into the Mangatepopo Valley.

Mt. Tongariro (1967m) - the summit is the rocky knob on the left.

Once we reached the valley floor the exciting part of the trip was over, but we still had to trudge for another three hours back to Whakapapa. Eight hours and twenty minutes after leaving Oturere, we arrived back at the car. Our legs were stiff and tired, but we had immensely enjoyed the journey.

An eccentric philosophy professor gave a one question final exam after a semester dealing with a broad array of topics. The class was already seated and ready to go when the professor picked up his chair, plopped it on his desk and wrote on the board: "Using everything we have learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist."

Fingers flew, erasers erased, notebooks were filled in furious fashion. Some students wrote over 30 pages in one hour attempting to refute the existence of the chair. One member of the class however, was up and finished in less than a minute.

Weeks later when the grades were posted, the rest of the group wondered how he could have gotten an A when he had barely written anything at all. His answer consisted of two words: "What chair?"

The Hiding Place ~ Corrie Ten Boom


Colditz ~ P. R. Reid


The Eagle of the Ninth ~ Rosemary Sutcliffe



Lord Cobham's Speeches ~ Charles Cobham



Ben Hur ~ Lew Wallace



I Dared To Call Him Father ~ Bilquis Sheikh



God's Smuggler ~ Brother Andrew



Bruchko ~ Bruce Olsen



Malcolm ('The Fisherman's Lady' and 'The Marquis' Secret') ~ George Macdondald



Thinking For A Change ~ John Maxwell

An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, "Only a little while."

The banker then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a nap with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I play guitar and sing with my friends. I have a full and busy life."

The banker scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to a big city where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

To which the banker replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then?"

The banker laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."

"Millions...Then what?"

The banker said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could play your guitar and sing with your friends."

I don't usually post links, but here is an hilarious, almost-theological debate which is definitely worth watching!

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them."

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers:
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

Anon

Accomplished sailor & navigator:

COULD HE BE THE YOUNGEST SOLO CIRCUMNAVIGATOR ?

From the first day Zac Sunderland said hello to planet earth, it seems he was destined to live the sailor's life. Brought home from the hospital to his first home, a 55' Tradewind in Marina del Rey, California, he was assigned his first bunk and listened to his mom tell the world of his birth over a single side-band radio...he never looked back.

Born to a family of yachtsmen and shipwrights, Zac quickly grew sea legs, and at an early age was deciphering Lat/Longs, not streets and avenues. His three wheeler youth was substituted with hoisting mains, jibs and mizzens.

As he grew more confident under his dad's tutelage, Zac joined the family on sailing adventures to Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Mexico; there, developing not only his sailing skills but also adding to his experience with other cultures. When his shipwright father purchased a 51' Aleutian, Zac worked with him to outfit it for the cruising life, and after 6 months the family left for a 3 year cruise of the Channel Islands, Baja California and mainland Mexico. This period in Zac's life was the epiphany that all young men could envy. It instilled in him a love of the sailing life, a deep respect for the ocean, and the commitment and drive to pursue his dream; to someday circumnavigate the globe, single-handed.

Since then, 16 year old Zac Sunderland, a Christian homeschooled A student, has been preparing himself physically and mentally for that dream. He has been racing, crewing and delivering yachts of all sizes and value. He crews for delivery captains up and down the west coast, often given sole responsibility for navigating, sail trim and resolving mechanical problems. In between studies and crewing, Zac will work on marina yachts, either on his own or under the wing of his shipwright father, up in the crow's nest installing or repairing rigging, down below on a thru hull fitting, or maybe overhauling a diesel engine. Zac has recently purchased an Islander 36 with his savings and is in the process of acquiring sponsors to aid in the outfitting of the boat for world cruising. His experience and knowledge are broad and deep.

HE IS READY TO LIVE HIS DREAM.


Zac is currently in the Atlantic Ocean on one of the last legs of his amazing journey.
Visit his website to find out more.

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something,
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.

Here is a link to an interesting article, Why Facebook is just plain wrong, which I heartily agree with.

And a couple more:

The Case against Twitter

Twitter makes twits of the kids

You Must Not Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're traveling seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow;
You may succeed with yet another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit.
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

~author unknown~

DIFFERENT WAYS TO SPEND $5:

-convert to petrol voucher for far away future so I have petrol
-get 50 $0.10 lollies
-get three (or so) tissue boxes for when I leave home and have to buy my own such stuff
-get peanut butter for above purpose
-get grass seed (it may come in useful—for what, I do not know)
-buy ticket to china so that I can buy return ticket again (Not that I particularly want to go to China...)
-buy a dozen free range eggs simply because it is a good deal
-hire a Lawyer just in case I find someone to sue


By a certain young man known to us all, R. P.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

You may have noticed the increased amount of notices for you to notice. Some of our notices have not been noticed. This is very noticeable. It has been noticed that the responses to the notices have been noticeably unnoticed. This notice is to remind you to notice the notices and respond to the notices, because we do not want the notices to go unnoticed.

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental,
To reach out for another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self,
To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss,
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try at all is to risk failure,
But risk we must,
Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing,
The person who risks nothing,
Does nothing,
Has nothing,
Is nothing.

~ Author James S. Hewett

from 'Illustrations unlimited'
Printed in 'Stories for a Teen's heart' Book 2.

A large company, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.

On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning on a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business.

He walked up to the guy leaning against the wall and asked, "How much money do you make a week?"

A little surprised, the young man looked at him and replied, "I make $400 a week. Why?"

The new CEO then handed the guy $1,600 in cash and screamed, "Here's four weeks pay, now GET OUT and don't come back!"

Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?"

From across the room came a voice, "Pizza delivery guy."

Have you ever considered what the literal definition of amuse is? Let us dissect the word in question:

"a"-- negative/not (as in "atheist"-- not a theist)"muse" -- to think or consider

Therefore, the literal definition is that to be amused is to not think.

The archaic denotation is 'to delude or deceive'.



Here is a link to a good article on this topic

Ambiguous
-adjective

1. open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal: an ambiguous answer.
2. Linguistics. (of an expression) exhibiting constructional homonymity; having two or more structural descriptions, as the sequence Flying planes can be dangerous.
3. of doubtful or uncertain nature; difficult to comprehend, distinguish, or classify: a person of ambiguous character.

The word ambiguous is derived from the Latin ambiguus "having double meaning, shifting, doubtful," which in turn comes from ambigere "to dispute about," literally "to wander" from ambi- "about" and agere "drive, lead".
Sir Thomas More seems to have first used it in English in 1528, but ambiguity (from Latin ambiguitatem) is first recorded circa 1400.

The post title of doppeldeutig is not ambiguous. Well, actually it is. That is the German word for ambiguous. And there is no ambiguity surrounding that fact.

With the new school year starting on Monday, I thought it would be interesting to find out what everyone is doing in the way of study or work this year.

I will continue with homeschooling; physics, calculus, and English will constitute my main focus, while I will also study other subjects like history and geography, with perhaps the odd Correspondence School course thrown in. I am also looking for a way to earn money, and will probably take on a part time job. And of course my 'outdoor education' will forge ahead and I am hoping to assimilate some new skills this year.

Please oblige me by taking the time to respond to this post.

An Englishman is being shown around a Scottish hospital. At the end of the tour he is shown into a ward with a number of patients who show no obvious signs of injury.

He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims "Fair fa' yer honest sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin' race!"

The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, who immediately launches into "Some hae meat, and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Lord be thankit."

The next patient sits up and declaims "Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, wi' bickering bl'attle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, wi' murdering prattle."

"Well" says the Englishman to his Scottish colleague "I see you saved the psychiatric ward for the last".

"Nae!" the Scottish doctor corrects him "This is the Critical Burns Unit."

My apologies for the lack of material posted on this blog in recent times.

Over Christmas we sojourned at our Grandparents' farm up in Dargaville, and for a brace of days after New Year's we visited friends in Ruakaka. Upon our arrival home we immediately embarked upon the process of preparing our house for exterior painting, and since then we have assiduously worked towards the completion of the project.

All the above is just to explain the absence of posts in the last couple of weeks. There should be one forthcoming soon.