DBA at Strategicon

I forgot to post the results.

I won. Haha

Signs you are in a liberal city

1. the smell of pot wafts over you every two blocks
2. all the beggars are 20-something youths with lip rings
3. there are plenty of alternative lifestyle shops
4. the police don't carry sidearms
5. bilingualism is embraced with earnest
6. there are lots of women wearing comfortable shoes

Vancouver

Flew from LAX to YVR (Vancouver) this afternoon. Had to spend an hour in the queue at immigration along with all the other scum trying to get a pass to live in the country.
Then checked in to my delightful accommodation, which features a running tap that can't be shut off, and curtainless windows. Thankfully it's cheap.

I suppose I better try and find somewhere permanent to stay. But how do I start?

San Diego and Mexico

Today I went down to La Jolla (San Diego) and then made the crossing into Tijuana Mexico. La Jolla is a beautiful part of the world, with a sweeping coastline, blue waters and lots of wildlife. The people are nice affluent Americans.
Then you cross the border into Mexico, and you are instantly in the third world. Beggars, gawdy trinkets, mariachis and filth all assault your senses. But at least is has cheap beer.

More soon...

OK now I'm getting really pissed

It's still raining
*&^%&**

Rain rain go away

It's been pissing down here for 3 days in a row. Crap

GMa and GDad

Thanks for the card and the best wishes

Home of the brave

I am now safely in Santa Monica, enjoying the delicate ambience that you can only get when surrounded by scores of Americans yelling in to their cellphones.

I had a pretty sweet flight over, as I managed to score an emergency exit seat (2 metres of leg room!). This afforded me the rare treat of being able to sleep on the plane for a significant part of the trip. And then to cap things off it only took 30mins from the time I got off the plane to the time I was outside the airport! A fast and efficient process at US Customs, whodda thunk it?

Next items on the agenda are: Mexico (Tijuana), San Diego, LA downtown, Disneyland. That should keep me going for a while.

Worst Ever All Blacks

Hot on the heels of my popular (if controversial) All Time NZ Crap cricket team, here are my selections for the worst ever All Blacks to pull on the Silver Fern.

Obviously this has been a much more difficult undertaking than selecting our worst cricket team, given the All Blacks' dominance over the rugby world for so long. The standard of NZ rugby is so high that mediocre players simply don't get a chance to slip in to the team. With the following exceptions of course:

1. Prop [undecided- nominations welcome]
2. Hooker- Norm Hewitt. Hewitt is one of those players whose career was overshadowed by his off-field performances. In this case, it was a drunken bender followed by blubbering on national tv which took the focus off his solid, if uninspired, rugby playing.
3. Prop [undecided- nominations welcome]
4. Lock- Troy Flavell. Undoubtedly a talented and aggressive footballer, Flavell disgraced himself with repeated acts of thuggery.
5. Lock [undecided- nominations welcome]
6. Blindside flanker- Reuben Thorne. Perhaps could be considered the Lee Germon of the All Blacks, Thorne was lucky to retain his position for so long given his (relatively) poor record as captain and the fact that there were at least 2 players better than him in his position.
7. Flanker- Mark Carter. Somewhat unfairly was labelled as the 'most hated man in NZ rugby' when perhaps this should have been the 'most over-rated man in NZ rugby', at least where John Hart was concerned. Also loses credit for wearing tape around his head.
8. Number 8- Ron Cribb. Cribb had all the silky skills and vision that you could ask for- in a winger. He was forever trying to be a bit too cute- little grubber kicks through the line and throwing one-handed miracle passes. His worst moment was THAT missed tackled against Toutai Kefu.
9. Halfback- Junior Tonu'u. Not a bad footballer, but had all the flair of a marmite sandwiche.
10. First Five- Simon Mannix. The one test wonder. Got taught a lesson by the French in his only test and never regained his confidence.
11. Left wing- Caleb Ralph. Ralph is without peer in the all time crap stakes. I've yet to meet anyone that could understand his regular position in the All Blacks squad. Even more stunning is that he continued to be selected after playing against England in Wellington, in which he couldn't even punt a ball.
12. Second Five- Mark Mayerhofler. A real journeyman selection, "Bubs" was picked as part of the post-Little/Bunce dark ages of the NZ midfield. Also has the lamest nickname in All Black history.
13. Centre- Bernie McCahill. The official player profile of McCahill on AllBlacks.com describes him as " a worthy contributor to the fine Auckland sides of the 1980s" and having "workmanlike, unselfish qualities". Which all sounds very much like when you describe a woman as having a "nice personality".
14. Right wing [undecided- nominations welcome]
15. Fullback- Shane Howarth. Rounded off his career playing for Wales, which says it all really.

Comments?

Baby I love you

You're the best thing that ever happened to me

Emptiness

All I have in my flat now is a mattress on the floor and an ipod. That's it.

NZ All Time Loser Test XI

One of the great things about sport is comparing great players and performances over time, and this is especially true of cricket as it is a statistician's wet dream. Many times I have created All Time XIs, World XIs and so on. Then I got to thinking- what about all the truly crap players that have represented New Zealand over the years?

There have been so many that it is probably harder to decide the worst players than the greatest. So here are my picks for the worst NZ cricket team of all time. Note these are not just once off losers, but guys who defied all normal performance standards and got regularly picked (i.e. minimum of ten games) despite their consistent crappiness. Batting and bowling averages appear after the name.

1. Trevor Franklin (bat 23.00). Slow and technically weak, Franklin's only saving grace was that John Wright seemed to bat well when they opened together.
   
2. Blair Pocock (bat 22.93) Pocock made a gritty 34 and 28 on debut against Australia at Perth, but this was only through force of determination. It was obvious he was out of his depth against class bowling.
   
3. Craig Spearman (bat 26.34) Spearman looks great when he plays his normal aggressive game. Unfortunately, his normal game only lasted a couple of overs. Played a staggering amount of games given his poor record, especially when you add in his one day career (50 innings at 18.71 as an opener)
4. Ken Rutherford (bat 27.08) To be fair, Rutherford had one of the worst introductions to test cricket, after being made to open the batting as a teenager against the West Indies in the height of their pomp in the 80s- he made a pair on debut and 12 runs in his first 7 innings. His potential seemed enough to overcome this horror start, but flashes of brilliance were all he was able to come up with.
5. Chris Harris (bat 20.44, bowl 73.12) Harris really only made it in the test team because he was the top NZ ODI player for so long that the selectors felt obliged to pick him. But he never made the step up, and even his normally effective medium pace dobbers-come-leggies were picked off with ease.
6. Dipak Patel (bat 20.68, bowl 42.05) Patel was once rated so highly that NZ and England were fighting to see who could secure his services. A stylish and technically sound batsman, Patel began his career batting at number 4, but ended at number 9 or 10. Eventually his off-spinners took prominence, but that's not saying much.
7. Lee Germon +* (bat 21.22) Germon was effectively picked for the team as a specialist captain. Parore was a superior keeper and a better bat, but room was found for Germon when it was realised that none the squad would make an effective captain. Germon tried his best and toughed it out, but was never up to test level.
8. Grant Bradburn (bat 13.12, bowl 76.66). Bradburn gets my vote as the worst player to even don a Black Cap. Although he only played 7 tests, I have included him in this team because he was recalled to the team 10 yrs after first playing for NZ. His slow, non-spinning off-spinners were barely effective on NZ dodgy surfaces, and plain embarrassing against international teams. His best performance was in his last test against Pakistan, in which he did not bat or bowl.
9. Murphy Sua (bat 12.69, bowl 38.25) Su'a made it into the NZ team under the little known "closing the gaps" policy in place in NZ sport during the 90s. He was the first Samoan to play test cricket, and made history again as the first Samoan to be dropped for being crap.
10. Chris Pringle (bat10.29, bowl 46.30)Pringle was arguably our most effective one day bowler, and was the second fastest bowler to take 100 ODI wickets. But for some reason he was pants in the test arena, and had his only success when he sliced the ball up with a bottle top.
    
11. Shayne O'Connor (bat 5.72, bowl 32.52) O'Connor looked the goods, as he was able to get appreciable swing bowling over the wicket to right handers. Unforunately he bowled 4 rubbish balls for every good one, and got picked off as a result. He does get partial credit for that absolute jaffa to dismiss Steve Waugh, but he loses that credit for spelling Shayne with a "y".
    

I haven't the foggiest

The weather has been bizarre this week. Scorching heat, 95% humidity and dense fog. This is what I saw on my way to work on Wednesday. The entire city and harbour has been blotted out by the fog.

It's good being connected

My boss told me that once I work out where I will be in the world, he will send an email to all his contacts letting them know that I am looking for work. Sweet

Boys night out

Cheers to Dave and John for a cracking night out last night. Dave in particular was in fine form, once again confirming his lightweight status. His finest moment was getting snapped out by the waitress pretty much every time he said something dodgy.

Do a Lyndie

The first of my "random funny shit" contributions...
Do a Lyndie

I am the champion (of the geeks)

Results from the Strategos DBM tournament held on Saturday 29th January:

01. Richard Woolford (Sinhalese) 329
02. Bruce Ferguson (Kushan) 328
03. Greg Jennings (Ch'in Chinese) 222
04. Alastair Duncan (Early Archeamenid Persian) 221
05. Paul Reynolds (Alexandarian Macedonian) 220
06. Mike Thorn (Chola Empire Tamils) 220
07. Ken Hay (Nikephorian Byzantine) 219
08. Craig Byron (Feudal English) 116
09. Rhys Batchelor (Early Burgundian) 113
10. Neil Skene (Gallic) 112
11. Stephen Ladanyi (Magyar) 111
12. Brent Senior-Partridge (Early Elamite) 110
13. Rob Cameron (Later Hungarian) 110
14. Sean Smith (Late Imperial Roman) 110
14. Richard Fields (Early Imperial Roman) 110
15. Keith Marshall (Mongol Conquest) 011
16. Allen Yaxley (Knights of St. John) 008
17. Keir Leslie (Early Byzantine) 000

Also check this

Movies

Here, in no particular order, are my favourite movies of all time:

• A clockwork orange
• Mulholland Drive
• Team America
• Full metal jacket
• Silence of the lambs
• The good, the bad, the ugly
• Taxi Driver
• Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
• Cool hand Luke
• Deliverance
• The usual suspects
• Pulp fiction
• Fight club
• Seven
• Die hard
• Apocalypse now

Feel free to debate these choices, but you will be wrong.