Shot Alive

Well it has been some time since I posted to my blog. Too many addictions, too little time. Such is life. I have been active on flickr lately and decided to bring you some of my favourite pictures taken by my various friends and others on flickr. This post has a theme of ice. Clicking on any picture will take you to the photo in flickr where you can make a comment or see a larger version.

Ice Coats Red Twigs by Pictoscribe

Rose Bud on Ice by *Karen

What run-off does on cold days! by Rich66

Iceshrooms by Leviathor

Ice jewels #1 by Lord V

Ice bridge by Simon Lieschke

Cerro Torre, Patagonia, Argentina by Maegges

untitled by Leviathor

Crystals by Pictoscribe

The 58th Sapporo Snow Festival 02 by Dolphin_dolphin

Partial rainbow in the clouds by Walla2chick who explains:
Monday as I was driving through Walla Walla, WA, USA, I noticed the beautiful mini rainbows in the clouds. I looked up the website that flickerite 'fdecomite' guided me to and found it is a circumhorizon arc.

"Look for a circumhorizon arc near to noon near to the summer solstice when the sun is very high in the sky (higher than 58°). It lies well below the sun - twice as far from it (two hand spans) as the 22º halo." "The arc is a very large halo and is close to, and parallel to the horizon. Usually only fragments are visible where there happen to be cirrus clouds." "whenever the sky is wisped or hazed with thin cirrus clouds. These clouds are cold and contain ice crystals in even the hottest climes."

It has to do with refraction of light through ice crystals in the atmosphere --and it was over 80F at the time!

River Rises, River Falls, Icicles Form by Pictoscribe

In Tirau, a town in the central North Island of New Zealand, they have had the original idea to have a theme of corrugated iron signs and sculptures through the whole town. Many shops and businesses have joined in and made the town into a sort of art gallery.

Of course this is quite well known so that there are a number of websites about it. I think mine is one of the more complete collections, but looking at these others I have missed some. Hopefully you will enjoy these as much as I did.

Perhaps these came about as a result of Jeff Thompson's famous corrugated iron car which is actually roadworthy and has been exhibited in NZ's Te Papa museum. See more of Jeff's creations and his recent ones which include a giant gumboot in Taihape.

I think that these flowers atop a cafe are the prize sculpture in Tirau, but there are many other fine pieces. My wife had a coffee here while I ran round town and photographed the other works of art.

The sheep above and the sheep dog below are actually large buildings in the shape of the animals, important ones for New Zealand and the region. To the left of the sheep dog is a hitch-hiker, also made out of corrugated iron and looking a little like Jesus.

The "Dressing Room" has a very attractive sign with a very fashionable looking lady on each end. I used a cut out of one of these for the title.

A well proportioned and realistic praying mantis sits atop the horticulture and hydroponic supplies above while a mouse looks interested in the grapes and cheese at the merchants store below.

The pukeko sits on a store front dangling his feet over the side. The pukeko is a NZ native bird about the size of a hen that likes swamps although in recent years seems to have learned how to browse motorway edges without running in front of cars so often. They can fly, but reluctantly, and prefer to peck a cat between the eyes than running fast enough to take off. Of course cows are not native to NZ but are as populous as people here and an important part of the economy. We call milk bars by the name "dairy" reflecting this part of NZ culture.

Keeping with the creatures, the "Teddy Bear Maker" above and a weird bee eating an ice cream below. OK, I just take the photographs and cannot explain them.

The giraffes above and elephant, tiger and chimpanzee are on a building labelled "On Safari" which seems to sell art items from around the world. Somewhere along the way they picked up a couple of half-cars also (perhaps they came as a matched set).

Continuing with the theme of cars and humour there is Tirau Motors above and "Top of the Hill Mechanical" below which also picks up another ice cream place. There seem to be lots of them here.

As well as animals and ice creams, flowers are a popular theme. We already saw the wonderful ones at the top of the page, and here some daisies and such above and below.

Antiques with a teapot and quilts with a heart.

Some corrugated iron signs without pictures above and the Clock Peddlar has a nice sign albeit without any corrugations.

Recently my wife and I took three of our grand-children to the zoo. It was a lot of fun and I took my camera along to get some animal shots. I put many of these on flickr and a couple of them were quite funny so I set to looking for more funny animal pictures. Here are some of my favourites, and you can see them larger by clicking them and then selecting "all sizes".

The Kiss, by bestrated1 and The Big Contest for Sheep :) Run Sheep Run..... by burakyilmaz61

Sproinggg!, by mostlysunny1. Meadow's mid-air spin jump. Missed the toy, but an impressive jump it was, nonetheless. and Diaper check, by somesay and Happy Silly Saturday!, by buntekuh. Yes, Sir - I am crazy!

Cat smelling a fragrant Double Delight Rose, by rosephotosetc and Max!, by wynandvanpoortvliet

Tasteless? Hilarious? You decide., by admurder. I encountered this nearby the USC campus today on 30th street. Pretty good taste in beer for a squirrel. AND Rosie & Buster Brown, by darrenstone. Rosie, an eleven-month-old pug, rough houses with Buster Brown, a four-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, the dogs are best of friends and spend most days together.

Have a nice evening! - Schönen Feierabend!, by buntekuh and
Yippie! It's Furry Friday!, by buntekuh. Happy Furry Friday and a cozy weekend!

The following 3 are from our trip to the zoo:

And the One that got Away was This Big!

Mr Cool. He was making a great bubble with his throat as some sort of display for the female who was mostly ignoring him. Trying to look ever so cool, using a rope to lie on like it was a hammock. He is a Siamang monkey.

Niki as Wendy from Peter Pan. These two animals looked so much like they are chatting that this seemed the best place to add Niki who looked so much like she was flying when she modelled her new nightie. The emu was too dumb struck to reply ... it is still trying to think of a smart answer.

Be warned though, animals may get their own back for being photographed ... the heist, by haleyhyatt

Jacksonville Beach, FL. A ring-beaked gull exacts his payback for all the photographs we took of him. Barry was feeding the gulls, as usual -- and decided to see if they would dare to fly in and eat chips on top of his hat. Since my compact zoom Kodak has a bit of shutter lag, I snapped the shot when the bird was a few feet away, not realizing the actual shot I would get -- which was priceless (to us, anyway!) In a heartbeat, this enterprising gull had heisted Barry's cap and flown with it 50 yards down the beach (unfortunately I missed that shot.) Fortunately for Barry and the hat -- the gull let go of the hat (not as tasty perhaps as he had hoped) over sand, rather than water. I didn't realize I had captured this shot until it was all over. It proved who really rules the beach.

Most interesting funny animal photos on flickr

Most recent funny animal photos on flickr

Some of these were done for the digital challenge group in flickr. Others were just done for the fun of it because a picture was crying out to be manipulated or have a funny speech bubble added.

Global Warming

The poor polar bear has to wear sunglasses because of the glare and sees camels under the northern lights. This is in a way funny, but also a very serious message about how humans are treating our world.

Niki as Wendy from Peter Pan

These two animals looked so much like they are chatting that this seemed the best place to add Niki who looked so much like she was flying. The emu was too dumb struck to reply ... it is still trying to think of a smart answer. It will probably relate to the giraffe's crooked neck.

Enrol at Charles Atlas

This is for the older folks who remember those ads. I have been told that when he died, the funeral was attended by hundreds of 90 pound weeklings who kicked sand on his coffin...

This isn't funny so much as exciting for NZ when they went 3-0 up against Luna Rossa in the America's cup challenge final.

Soon NZ will start the America's cup itself against Alinghi.

The sheep make disguises in pairs...

The sheep devise a cunning plan to all get into Noah's ark. Who said that sheep are stupid? [It should not be mentioned that NZ has 4 million people and about 50 million sheep].

(With complete instructions for how to get from Here to There and back again) (new)

In flickr there is a really fun group that I really shouldn't tell the world about in case too many tourists come. Promise not to tell before you go on!

It is called Vogon Poetry Appreciation Club.

Unlike many groups in flickr that try to bolster photo popularity, this one exists for the poor photos that got overlooked. To qualify the photo has to have been looked at less than 25 times in a month. Once it is viewed over 25 times is is unceremoniously booted from the group as no longer qualifying. I have tried really hard, but cannot get a picture to stay in Vogon Poetry. Of course the whole idea comes from Douglas Adams books, and Vogon Poetry is really shockingly bad. You can probably work the rest out on your own.

To understand more about this try the first and only issue of Vogon Poetry group pictures every published.

To see the contents of the magazine.

Anyway, I wandered all over the place and have just arrived somewhere where I was intending to get...

A recent photo was posted to the group "Gate to nowhere" by Eva the Weaver. She added: …except that when the path is flooded the alternative is to struggle through here.

Here's another gate to nowhere. I'm not making a set for just two.

The various wits of the group (yes, I am one) added funny comments ... you need to visit the picture to see these. By the time I returned, the discussion had taken a twist from why you needed alternative paths to get to nowhere, and was now about finding nowhere and elsewhere through google maps!

I had to be quick or I would miss out! I searched to see if I could find somewhere with google maps and to my surprise it was just out our window! I already knew that the book Erewhon was about NZ and that there is a place here called that. "Erewhon" is the name of a book by Samuel Butler and is more or less "Nowhere" spelled backwards.

New Zealand fared better in Butler's book than in recent comments by John Cleese, but NZ had its revenge. See my recent blog post Balmy and Palmy becomes Mount Cleese.

Breaking News ...

Note added later... Eva the Weaver has found that you can get map directions to get from "Here" to "There". The really odd thing is that they are both in France!

Map showing the route from Here to There.

This is a calendar for the rest of 2007 being June to December. You can save each months picture and print them if you want. The slight chunkiness of the lettering is due to reducing to squeeze into my blog width, and will disappear if you save them. I recommend Irfanview for displaying, indexing viewing and printing pictures.

Flickr is a place for storing your photos and allows each member to keep track of their favourites by other people. These are some of my many favourites, and you can click on them to see them larger:

We think of the cold as not so pleasant, but there can be great beauty in it too. "Frozen" by bashaspix and "Church" by falln_angel.

Living things come in so many forms and yet we can still find thin gs about them to identify with and appreciate. "Poaka or Pied Stilt" or Himantopus leucocephalus. Seen in the geothermal hot waters of the Frying Pan Flat, Wai-O-Tapu, Rotorua. The birds do not seem concerned about the temperatures, and indeed nest on an island in the middle of the flat. Added to the Cream of the Crop pool as most favorited. "Banded mongoose" by gerhard3 taken at Vienna zoo.

Spectacular scenery, "Yosemite 10-04-05" and "So Many Tarns" by mickrange.

Having been to India when this festival is on, I can only say that I am grateful that they do not include foreigners as targets when they throw the dye at each other. So much more fun to just watch them - "Well Holied" - Holi is the festival of colours. It is maybe the biggest festival at least in the north of India. "At hand's reach" by le_jhe - Jour de fête @ Grand Palais. There are a few things I like on this one. First, the hand and the light. Then, I tried to recreate verticality with the acrobats legs angle (as the real vertical is defined by the diagonal). I also like the man standing just behind the scene, which I found intriguing.

Sheep on the island of Helgoland, April 2006. "Let sleeping bears lie" by captain_oblivious. I guess that's a comfortable rock

I read somewhere that you should not lick your computer screen. It was fortunately just before seeing this. ;-) "Pink chocolate covered strawberries, by jlynnwalter. Made for my friend's baby shower. I can't get over how pretty they are. "Sand Sculpture -Junkyard Dog....." This Junkyard Dog was really enjoying his piece of the yard........ Taken in Boston, Mass. while we were visiting there in the Summer of 2006. - This Sculpture were really great-lots of detail! Got to the beach just before sunset-just before they judged the sculpture's. Captured these in Boston, Mass. this past summer on vacation.

The bird seems to be enjoying the view along with us. Untitled, by Shitao. "Aspen Trees at Lake Tahoe" by moosehead.

I used to play go, and was NZ champion and representative in the World Amateur Go Champonships 3 times. So it was a delight to find some Go photographs on flickr. "Go (Wei Qi) Board, by vineyardcafe". "Immortals in the Mist" by sundarban. Thick fog enveloped the Tian Tan Buddha and the statues of the immortals around him.

See also:

My Favourite Pictures taken by Others (1)
My Favourite Pictures taken by Others (2)

In the 1970s and 1980s I lived in Northcote and it was my local shopping centre. Then in the 1990s and since, the Asian population of Auckland has exploded and many of them live on Auckland's North Shore. Northcote shopping centre has become Chinatown, or Asiatown to be more accurate. There are multiple Asian supermarkets, many Asian restaurants, an Asian Food hall, Asian vegetable shops, Asian health practitioners and many other Asian shops. The signs and the food are in a mixture of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English with perhaps a few other South East Asian flavours also.

Now we live in Birkenhead, the adjacent suburb to Northcote, and we eat at the food hall in Northcote on an almost weekly basis. Being vegetarians, it allows us a good selection from the 12 vendors: Chinese, Thai, Indian, Japanese and so on.

This is a little photographic tour of Northcote.

The food hall has a great variety of tasty food at very reasonable prices. Or you can go to the individual restaurants.

Shops range from beautiful decor to signs falling apart ...

... but the contents is still excellent, whether packaged or fresh.

The people are very friendly and the service is good.

Signs are everywhere, and in the food hall their is a bewildering array of menus, perhaps as many as 400 to choose from.

After we have eaten there are still some shops open, but signs of the owners cleaning up and closing up. It is still very colourful though.

Dogs might be man's best friend, but cats are also our constant living companions. Unlike dogs, they are just selfish bludgers, but somehow we enjoy their company. Our front door mat reads

The cat and its house keeping staff live here.

and that pretty much sums up our relationship with cats. Our cat is named Ebony and she is, like the rest of the household, mature in years and set in her ways.

More pictures of Ebony

The following pictures of cats have been saved from random places around the internet without me keeping bookmarks. If your picture is here and you want me to remove it or put a link to your page please let me know and I will do that.

Coming soon ... dogs.

When I was younger, I used to quite often build piles of rocks and see how high I could get them. My best effort was about 3 m and I had to build another strong pile to stand on to reach the top. I am not sure if I have any photos of these old structures, but never mind, there are lots of other people that like doing this same thing, and today there is a lways a digital camera or cell phone handy to take a snap.

These pictures are on flickr, and you can see larger versions by clicking them.

Balanced stones at the Lake Constance in Germany.

Birling Gap Balance, by andy-mac.

My creation on the beach on Saturday.
The white rocks are actually chalk boulders from the white cliffs near Beachy Head in east Sussex. I used the Flickr maps to see which would be a good beach on the South coast of England with good size rocks to balance and found Birling Gap which was superb with these rounded white rocks.

It balances really well as you can see from this 10-rocker.

I don't think anyone else on the beach had seen rock balances and one guy thought I'd drilled a hole through the middles and stuck them on a pole (which I seemed to recall was my reaction when I first saw them on Flickr).

Rock Balance 2, by andy-mac

Here is my 2nd ever balance seen here behind my 1st ever balance. These were done on the causway that connects Isle Oronsay to the main Isle of Skye at Ullinish at low tide looking west toward Loch Bracadale and Wiay Island.

These two balances would just about get wet at high tide and I'd love to know if any of them still remains.

Rock Balancing, by citril

Rosemarkie Beach, Black Isle

The tide was out today, so I had a greater choice of rocks - these are the ones I felt drawn too, and they stayed put! The bottom/first one was (obviously) in place already - the third one I rejected twice because it had an anemone on it, but then I positioned it away from the sun, knowing the tide would soon be coming back in. I did think about pulling the seaweed off ... but it was there first!

Huge thanks to bebalance for such encouragement and fantastic guidance! And to Trentretro for introducing me to rock balancing!

rock balance, by juleslewis2000

A rock balance at Porthleven, Cornwall. I liked the contrast of the white rock and the abundant seaweed...

Quadruple Counter Balance, by rocker

Crissy Field SF 2003 - all 4 Rocks were counter Balanced against each other - this is 100% opposite to Straight UP Balance. In straight up balance, You place the Rocks upward from the start using Your two hands holding the Rocks one by one to Balance the formation. In counter Balancing, when You are positioning the Rocks upward - You have to hold the Rock one handed - place it on the intended point connection while Your other hand, pick up another rock to put on top of that other rock earlier. At this moment You have to find a`way to Balance those 2 rocks altogether - it is even harder if You are using very small contact points . . . it is even harder when You put two more Rocks on top of that . . . all counter Balanced . . . . Wow . . I didn't Know how I was able to do THAT - especially doing it outdoor near the Golden Gate Bridge . . . a lot of Wind . . . [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dan ]

These are more in the way of pet rock balancing :-)

Rock balancing first attempt - IMG_5963, by tomcox

Inspired by Dave Gorman who amongst other things said this about his rock balancing habit: "In short, rock-balancing was to my tour what basket-weaving is to residents of certain institutions."

Rock Balancing, by mutephotoblog

Rock balancing on Queens Quay in Toronto.

06 11 24 rock balance

At Lake Constance in Germany - best viewed large
'06 11 24 rock balance' On Black

Rosemarkie Rock Balance, by citril

Rosemarkie Beach, Black Isle

This is my first attempt to really try and counter balance rocks that ordinarily I would have assumed would NOT balance together. Not as spectacular as the pros, but it was fun doing it!

Huge thanks to bebalance for such encouragement and fantastic guidance! And to Trentretro for introducing me to rock balancing!

And nature too can do rock balancing! It gets the second to last word on it.

Balancing Rock, by srjacobs

Probably the most photographed rock in Utah, this is "Balancing Rock" at Arches N.P.

But the last word in rock balancing goes to Bill Dan!

Rock Balancing by Bill Dan, by calanan

Rock Balancing by artist Bill Dan
Crissy Field
San Francisco, California

I got started in this madness when I came across someone else's efforts using Big Huge Labs Captioner and so tried it out myself. The earlier ones here are done with that, but in the end I found it easier to caption the photos myself.

It all started with getting a digital camera:

My son, Derek, and his friends do medieval battling and this looked like a good one to try out:

In India there are often scenes that are very funny to westerners. Sometimes the westerners are very funny to the Indians at exactly the same time. While we were laughing at and pointing to the cows looking in the shop, the locals were laughing at us and pointing to us, "Haven't they ever seen a cow shopping before?" ... Well, everyone was happy:

Our cat, Ebony, decided to sleep under the Christmas tree with the kids presents. Originally I only got one tiger, but another grandchild saw it and really liked it, so I had to go back for another.

If called by a panther
Don't anther - Ogden Nash (I think)

We also have a front door mat that reads "The cat and its house keeping staff live here", which is about right. If I wasn't a vegetarian I might come back as a cat in my next life.

This last one was a bit more work. It resulted from a challenge in the digital challenge group in flickr. Each person starts with a supplied picture, in this case just the sheep, and adds some extra stuff to make a more interesting picture. Everyone then votes for the best one. So far I haven't won a single challenge ... well actually I haven't received a single vote! You aren't allowed to vote for yourself. But this is my latest entry, and I am hoping to get at least one vote:

Auckland's subtitle name is City of Sails on account of it having so many yachts and marinas, and the highest ownership of yachts per capita of any major city. It also has two harbours, the Waitemata harbour on the shore of which Auckland central city is found, and the Manukau harbour to the South. The tides in these two harbours are 3 hours different, an unusual situation for a single city in a country as small as New Zealand.

Yachts in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour

It is late Friday afternoon, and the Yachts have gathered for a race, but the starter has them waiting because the wind is too light.

Ready to go

Just waiting for the starters gun.

Auckland Central Business District

The view from Northcote Point, just below the harbour bridge.

To the right is seen Shoal Bay through the pillars of the Auckland harbour bridge as it descends to Northcote point.

"The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area of the country. With over 1.2 million people it has over a quarter of the country's population, and demographic trends indicate that it will continue growing faster than the rest of(the country. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world. In Māori its name is Tāmaki Makau Rau, or the transcribed version of Auckland, Ākarana.

Auckland straddles the volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field. The 50 volcanic vents in the field take the form of cones, lakes, lagoons, islands and depressions, and several have produced extensive lava flows. Most of the cones have been partly or completely quarried away. The individual volcanoes are all extinct, although the volcanic field itself is merely dormant.

The most recent and by far the largest volcano, Rangitoto Island, was formed within the last 1000 years, and its eruptions destroyed the Māori settlements on neighbouring Motutapu Island. Rangitoto's size, its symmetry, its position guarding the entrance to Waitemata Harbour and its visibility from many parts of the Auckland region make it Auckland's most iconic natural feature. It is eerily quiet as almost no birds and insects have settled on the island because of the rich acidic soil and type of flora that has adapted to grow out of the black broken rocky soil." (Wikipedia article on Auckland)

Rangitoto Silhouette

Looking through Northcote boat yard and Shoal Bay and its marina with Rangitoto Island beyond. In Auckland's North Shore, New Zealand.

Reflecting on Auckland

Auckland, "City of Sails", Sky City and boats in the late afternoon Sun, along with reflections of them all in the side of a yacht up on Northcote boat yard.

City of Sails

Auckland, "City of Sails", seen from Northcote boat yard. The seagull is catching the last bit of Sun as it disappears behind Northcote Point.

Mt Eden watches over Waitemata

Mt Eden, one of many volcanic cones, is a popular viewing spot in Auckland. The yachts are in front of Westhaven marina, one of about half a dozen around the Waitemata harbour.

Gold in the City, Gold in the Sails

The late afternoon Sun lights up a golden building and a golden sail in Auckland.

Peaceful Waitemata

A little too peaceful for these Friday night would be racers as they await the starters gun. He awaits the breeze. Auckland city as seen from the North Shore at Northcote.

Yachts in the Waitemata

Beyond the harbour are the many masts of yachts in the Westhaven marina.

Background (before the new stuff)

For those highly protected people who have not yet heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it is an invention of the mind of Bobby Henderson, concerned citizen. In a moment of pure creative insight in 2005, Bobby wrote:

Open Letter To Kansas School Board

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith. ...etc etc

All this and the following details of often remarkable discoveries are recorded on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster web site.

Now there are 1,220,000 web sites devoted to FSM according to google (that means over 10,000 at least) and it has an entry in wikipedia. The domain name flyingspaghettimonster.org has been taken and this shows a good animation of something like Bobby's original drawing.

Not long after Bobby Henderson's original letter, very ancient almost petrified noodles were discovered in China, a sure sign that if God exists he has a good sense of humour. People have reported seeing FSM everywhere and sent photos to prove it. Today I bring you some of the best of FSM from flickr.

Believe, by sidereal & Touched by his noodly appendage, by sidereal"

Flickr spaghetti monster, by oskay & Flying Spaghetti Monster Plush, by firevixen

Lenore is visited by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who reassures us that yes, Flickr will be back soon. & The Flying Spaghetti Monster, flying.

FSM At Atlantis, by wilwheaton & FSM2

This monument to the Flying Spaghetti Monster is in the middle of the casino at Atlantis. Ramen. (left photo)

And now for some really cute kiddly cuddly FSMs...

Flying spaghetti monster by alltoomuch & Wave by kateremenwait

Creepy and cute! be touched by his noodly appendage!(left) & And appears to be most comfortable waving his noodly appendage at us. (right)

Construction information: He was made with a few miles of knitted 4-stitch I-cord with Lion Brand Wool Ease in cream. These were draped and tacked over a stuffed knitted sphere made from the same yarn. Meatballs were spheres fashioned of Lion Brand Suede yarn in a deep chocolate brown (it isn't easy finding meaty-colored yarn...). Two google eyes were attached to the short noodles and some of the noodles, including the eye stems, were wired with craft wire.

Flying spaghetti monster & Flying Spaghetti Monster appears in Coffee Foam, by pizzabytheslice

Ancient cave painting, south eastern Australia (left).

That last must be even much more ancient than the Chinese Noodle discovery (although admittedly that was genuine).

Well with that name I suppose we had to eventually get around to some real Noodly stuff.

I ate Flying Spaghetti Monster for dinner!, by cyberspace &

So, in honor of the (sucks pinky) ONE MILLION DOLLAR intelligent design prize at boing boing, I got a major yearning for some spaghetti.

So, what was I to do but make Flying Spaghetti Monster for dinner? :)

We made pasta salad (yummy cold sesame noodles) for a party. To complete the look, we baked rolls with long pretzel rods embedded in them. After baking, we poked holes for the olives. At the end of the party, all that was left was a lonely pair of eyestalks...

He was good, especially paired with a nice Merlot.

In all seriousness, I think that these words of Pope John Paul II say it best:

"In his encyclical Humani Generis, my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation... Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines."

Touched by His Noodly plush Appendage, by firevixen

The Flying Spaghetti Monster touches Mike with his noodly plush appendage.

And one more really cute one before we get serious:

Baby Pastafarian, by witchietaitai

Bridget in her new Flying Spaghetti Monster hat!

Here it is the serious on, I warned you ...

Flying Spaghetti Monster Ministries - Religious Tract, by pizzabytheslice

Whilst strolling downtown, along Hope Street near the rescue missions, a young, eager Pirate -- I knew him to be such given his manner of dress -- rode past on a bicycle, cutlass clanging an enchanting rhythm against the spokes. He thrust this tract into my hands, “ar-harrhed”, and bidding me well, rode off down the street.

Many more sightings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and of people being touched by his noodly appendage can be seen at:
Most Interesting FSM at flickr

Most Recent FSM at flickr

STOP PRESS

While this article was actually being written another sighting...

FSM 5206, by dougnaka

And I looked up, and behold, the heavens parted, and he who is noodly, and without too much sauce, came forth and I beheld him. Lo I did taketh up mine camera digitalis, and I didst snappeth upon thine earth this pictureth. And there was much rejoicing. yayyyy.

As well as great photographers on flickr, there are some wonderful artists. Eduardo Delabarra has an extraordinarily inventive mind and an ability to make great cartoons and caricatures. He does a mixture of comics strips and cartoons, and because he lives in Chile, some of his cartoons are in Spanish which I cannot understand. However the humour of his drawings, the satire and the side splitting funniness do not need any translation. All the drawings in this article are by Eduardo Delabarra unless otherwise noted.

The characters may be wonderfully satirical:

103. Sir Regor the Dislexic Knight & 8.The Red Knight

Sometimes ranging from whimsical to comically scary:

Zombie Nº49 Vincent vanNo Ears & Zombie Nº582 Ol'Crypt Breath

Each character has new unique attributes that entertain:

TEA TIME & Pirate Nº140 Esteban the Monkey,

His female characters may be very shapely:

GUERRERA & SALÚ!!!

Or sometimes a little wicked, or a lot scary:

CROQUIS & Pirate Nº225 MACHO ANN

The cartoons often show raw emotional states:

Zombie Nº33 JUAN OF THE SEARED FLESH & A BAD BAD GUY
Solución energética 

And we can easily identify with what they are experiencing:

T.V. & FEELINGS

Then one day this cartoon appeared:

SILVER XADRIAN, by eduardodelabarra
Caricature of one of my contacts.

To this I posted a comment "Excellent. But be careful or all your contacts will want one (hint hint)"

And a little later this appeared:

PHOTOGRAPHER, by eduardodelabarra

And I added the comment "He looks like someone I know ;-)"

I had been caricatured by Eduardo!

It was time to get my own drawing tools out (the computer ones) and make a caricature of Eduardo:

"Cartoon Explosion" by Ray Tomes

The cartoons jump out of his head, off his pencil and paper and into the world, entertaining all who know him and splitting sides around the world. Thank you E.D.

Eduardo Delabarra's photos are here, and he has done many hundreds of cartoons.

Note: I did the central character (ED) and the fireworks. All the other characters are ED's creations.

To this Eduardo stated "Thank you! I liked much. I thought that you were doing only photography, but I see that also you are a great draftsman thank you..."

And I said "I am very pleased that you like it. The alternative was that I get in trouble for copyright violation. ;-)"

In one of his many creations after this, Eduardo produced:

Zombie Nº577 Faraon the Empty Headed

And I commented "These holes in the head seem to be catching. ;-)"

Eduardo's stream of creations continued:

Zombie Nº152 Homo Sapiens Neandertalensis & Pirate Nº156 Parrot Face

And the world goes on being entertained and caricatured by this inspired, brilliant and prolific artist. Thank you Eduardo Delabarra!

Many more pictures to entertain you at Eduardo Delabarra photos.

THE THREE STOOGES, by eduardodelabarra

Curly??

The world of language translation is fraught with dangers. There is an old joke about the first computer to translate languages. They did the test run from English into Chinese, but no-one present could understand Chinese to see if it was right so they had to use the computer to translate back again.

The original message: Out of sight out of mind

The result after two translations: Blind Idiot

Well these have only been translated once, but the essential flavour of craziness and blindness is still there. Please don't read too many in one sitting as the sides can get sore (you have been warned!)

When I told this story to some friends, one of whom teaches Spanish, they told me a story back. Someone wrote something that had "binary digit" in the description of a person. Eventually they worked out that the person was using a dictionary to translate that someone was a "bit" something.

Of course one has to wonder whether some of these are accidents or some mischievous westerner has been employed by the signwriters.

The title link will take you to flickr photos tagged "chinglish" in order of interestingness and will be updated with new photos from time to time. Many of the photos there are of signs with very rude English words in them, and those with deicate tastes should stop before the bottom of this page. Individual photos can be clicked to go to larger versions in flickr and you can add comments if you are a member.

"Very, very bad Chinglish, by andreasee"
I actually got off the bus and doubled back to snap this photo. It's an ad for a yet-to-be-built condominium complex. I wonder if they'll have the Zyklon block, Dachau block, Rommel block...

"Office of Mayhem Evaluation, by xiaming"
This is one of my favourite signs in China. I'm not going to say where it is, because the place is a friend of ours, and I'd never do anything to embarrass them.

Charming Dentistry, by mtbl"
I'm not sure if "charming" and "Denistry" go together in my mind. I haven't got a clue what the "English Full of Process" means.

My favourite sign outside a restaurant at Zhongshan Street. I think it is supposed to say Barbecued Oysters.

Bu ke hui shou wu, Beijing

"Caution Neehanicalinjureycable, by xiaming"
This splendid warning sign is a few steps from my front door.

"Useless subtitles"
I got this copy of 少年去天国 because it said it had English subtitles. It does, but I don't think they are going to help me understand the movie.

"give 'em the 'aul slip"

"mother soldiers", by webel
This sign is on the outside of the train station in Yueyang, China (Hunan Province.)

"Convey your heartworm feelings (Qingdao), by xiaming"
Sign found in a Korean restaurant in Qingdao, China. Regretfully, a flash flare was necessary (very dark restaurant and no tripod at hand).

"Cowboy Bone, or Button up the Duck, by qilin"
The sad thing about this restaurant is that it was decent, pretty clean, good food, wide selection, but their menu was just classic. I couldn't come up with this stuff if I tried. Seems like they used an electronic translator that was really bad.

"Help, waiter--I can't decide what to order"
I just had Saliva Chicken yesterday so maybe I'll order the Husband and Wife lung slice today. I'll have a Sauce Cow on the side, but hold the Sauce Pig hand, please.

"Private vegetables, by xiaming"
Extraordinary. I mean, I'm all for food porn, but what you do with your vegetables in the privacy of your home is your business!

Spotted in Xi Dawang Lu, Beijing. Thats a very, very sexy street, people.

"Very Special Ginger Ale, by xiaming"
The proprietors of Cafe Ibiza, in Beijing's Jianwai SOHO, do something very special to their ginger ale before serving to the customers.

Flickr allows people to store their pictures and for other people to see them, and also allows you to keep track of your favourite pictures taken by other people. These are some of my favourites from flickr. You can see any picture larger by clicking it to get to it in flickr and then you can explore other related pictures and have many other options also.

Although I had joined flickr for a place to store some photos, I hadn't fully appreciated the extent of what it did, and how great a community it was. Then, because I was a friend of his, Shitao's wife Gladsdotter / Shotaku contacted me in StumbleUpon to say that she was asking his friends to use Shitao's paintings as icons for his birthday the next day. I was happy to do this and it also resulted in me becoming a big time flickr user and fan. Here are a couple of Shitao's paintings.

The photo below on the left is "Bond of Union" by Josh Sommers who says "Well here it is. After many hours I have completed my homage to Escher's "Bond of Union". I found it rather challenging, much harder than my first rind piece. Please enjoy it in the largest version. The hardest part was getting my wife to pose for the shot with me. (Just kidding)."

The one on the right, "Rainbow Warrior", was my first introduction to the idea of "cutouts", or patches of a painting left in colour while the rest is reduced to gray scale. It is a well suited picture for this style.

"Pinecone Grouping" by judwal & "Lotus - Lhalbag Botanical Gardens" by sover. I like patterns in nature, and Lotus / Water Lilies have something magic about them.

"3D Star Map" (edited), by tjt195 & "What run-off does on cold days!" by rich66 who says "Took a quick road trip to the same mountain chain on the Tariffville/Bloomfield, CT border where my other ice shots were taken. The long overhang of the icicles is creating what looks like a cave on the left."

"Sunrise over Bagan" by buzia & "This is a Buddha photo".

"Whiter-Shade-of-Pale" by lost-moments who says "Harajuku became famous in the 1980s due to the large numbers of street performers and wildly dressed teens who gathered there on Sundays when Omotesando was closed to traffic. Those movements lead to the vibrant "Hokoten Band Scene"..." & "Looking Hot, by jbc16.

More of natures patterns with "Coyote Buttes North, Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona" by gakout & "Aloe polyphylla Schönland ex Pillans" by brewbooks who notes "Threats to populations of spiral aloe include overgrazing, unsustainable harvesting by plant enthusiasts and people interested in its medicinal properties, and the increasing rarity of its pollinator, the Malachite Sunbird".

"Steinmänchen" on the beach of Zakynthos, Greece by buzia & "Thoughts" by omgpinkboxers who adds "later become your actions". I used to build rock pile like this years ago, so I had a trip down memory lane from that. Also, the idea of guarding our thoughts because they later become actions is one that I only appreciated when I took up vipassana meditation.

See also:

My Favourite Pictures taken by Others (1)
My Favourite Pictures taken by Others (2)

FLICKR has a concept that they call interestingness that changes slightly every second day so that people cannot engineer things to it. It basically measures how interesting people find pictures after making some allowance for how much exposure they have had and includes how many view it, comment it and click favourite.

When people join flickr they don't know about this. then they find out and they don't have any yet. Then they get one and are elated. Then it goes away and they are sad. Then another or even two and they are over the moon. After enough of this torture they stop looking. After a while a wee peek is made and one day there are 4 in there, then a bit later they are all gone again. Then they learn to laugh. It is a good lesson for life!

Here are my pictures that I have noticed being in explore, but I might have missed some (he said trying to sound ever so casual about it).

First are three of my water colour paintings:

Fatty Arbuckle's

Abandoned

Adobe Cottage

Next a couple of flowers. Flowers, Animals, Babies and Sunsets are probably the easiest things to get high interestingness on.

Fine Pink Rose

Yellow and Red Hibiscus

Next two scenes. They score well with interesting colours, lighting and layers in the hills. The first one below was very popular for a long time and it was only a wee vidcap, so I had to go back and make a better copy so I didn't look too much like a Homer Simpson.

Mogok Morning Mist"

Auckland City Lights

While walking in London I took some digital video clips of the colourful street life. These are just a few of the pictures (vidcaps) of people seen there that I put on flickr. Click the title above for more.

The first thing that you see is lots of people taking pictures. :-)

Also there are many performers. In our walk there were three different mimes dressed in white. It wasn't obvious that they had any connection with each other as they were well spread out. They put on a good show.

These were either Kiwis or Aussies putting on a performance with huge imaginary animals with people inside, but the head was controlled by the guy with the leash. The movements were very realistic, if that can be said about an imaginary creature.

You see many colourful characters, some just out for a stroll, some to sell their wares or provide music in hope of some coins in the hat. The wire sculptures were a treat for me, as I have been known to doodle with the wire wraps off sparkling grape juice.

The pub crowds overflow onto the street. There are no seats there, so you have to make do.

Surely London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world. On the whole the different groups fit in very well together and the atmosphere is pleasant. All have come here for similar reasons.

Two nights ago my wife Lorna came home and said that the tide was in in Little Shoal Bay and there were nice reflections of the city lights. After our recent NZ flickr meet at night we were keen to take some more night photos and so carried our tripods the few hundred metres to the bay. It was a lovely evening and the lights of the harbour bridge made long flickering beams of light across the bay, broken only by the dark forms of boats. These boats are nearly all catamarans, because the tide goes out a very long way and ordinary yachts would fall right over.

These pictures are all stored at flickr, and you can click on them to see them in different sizes or to look at other pictures there or make comments.

Auckland City Lights

Auckland City including the harbour bridge in the foreground and sky tower, as seen from Little Shoal Bay on the North Shore.

Aliens around Sky City

Some wee red thingies float around the Sky Tower. View through Auckland's harbour bridge from NorthShore at Little Shoal Bay.

Some of the pictures turned out well, but we are still learning about taking pictures in low light when there are some very bright lights at a distance. The camera wants to over-expose the pictures and it is hard to over-ride that totally.

So next evening we went out to dinner and saw the photographically tempting crescent moon as we went. Fortunately we got home before it set and so grabbed our cameras and tripods and drove up to the top of the hill as the moon was not visible from our place. We managed to get in some shots before it set behind the houses and street lights. At one stage there were street lights within the crescent, making a Moslem flag.

Moon Landing in Birkenhead

Chelsea sugar works is a big pink building with a large park surrounding it and its own wharf where boats bring in raw sugar to be refined and take it away again later after it has been refined. The wharf extends well out into the harbour because the boats cannot get close to the shallow shore.

Boat at Chelsea Sugar works wharf

Seen from Birkenhead point, a boat loads or unloads sugar at Chelsea sugar works near Birkenhead, Auckland.

Auckland City Lights

Seen through the harbour bridge from Birkenhead Point.

Sky City Tower and Auckland City

Seen from Birkenhead Point.

Three weeks ago the statue of liberty was seen crying. People who know someone who spoke to an alleged onlooker say that it mumbled something about the Bush administration between sobs.

The following morning it was no longer there. The police have been talking to David Copperfield, but no arrests have been made.

Then this picture turns up in Curitaba, Brazil.

O sol no fundo do copo, by paulobrabo

The statue of liberty is smiling again! It is showing its two eyes and a big happy smiley face.

We heard from an anonymous source that their Auntie was told that a neighbour in the CIA thinks that the US government have made a top secret approach to the Brazilian government about getting it back. But this seems unlikely because apparently it is proving almost as popular as Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro with Jesus Christ the Redeemer statue.

(apologies to the source of the first photo, I did not record where I got it)

Note added 1-May-2007:

I set out to find the location of the first picture so that I could link properly to it. Well searching for "Statue of Liberty Crying" found a surprising number of sites .. . google says 526,000 but it is known to exaggerate. Never did find the original, but here are some of the finds I made:

David Copperfield turned up again and lead me here. - the police will surely have increased their suspicion and have him as the no. 1 suspect.

Which also has a song:

""Sad Statue"

Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.

Forgivness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.

The pictures of time and space are rearranged,
In this little piece of typical tragedy.

Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.

You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.

You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.

I forgot to
I forgot to let you know that...

Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.

Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.

Forgivness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.

You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.

You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.

Generation..............

What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?!!!

WOAH!!!!!!!

Suffering, suffering now!

You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.

You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.

Generation.........."

These pictures can be seen in 3D without any special glasses or anything.

The older ones were made the hard way by manipulating a single image, the later ones by taking two photos from slightly different positions hopefully without any objects moving. Tricky with living things, people are tolerable but the cat is impossible.

Here are the steps to see the picture in 3D:

1. Simply display them on your computer screen, in original size, not in full screen mode and sit about 0.5 metre (or 1/2 a yard will do) directly in front of your screen.

2. Go cross-eyed so that the 2 images become 4 images.

3. Vary the amount of cross-eyedness until the inside 2 images are in the same place - i.e. the left one of the right pair and the right one of the left pair coincide.

4. Now try to make your eyes focus without changing how cross-eyed you are, even though the distance is wrong. When the eyes see 3 images (as 2 coincide) the middle image is the one to look at.

5. Suddenly bang it will be in glorious 3D. Once you get practiced it gets easier.

I am not responsible for any eye strain or headaches! Stop before you do any permanent damage ;-)

This is a fancy light decoration (I think) and so you can try out your technique on it.

This is my granddaughter Lea painting.

This is a 3D picture of one of my priceless sculptures. I call them Champagne Wire Sculptures which is a bit pretentious because they are made from the wire off bubbly grape juice.

First up a barbeque or BBQ as they are called down under.

And a Giraffe. Four legged things are the best to make from the wire.

The above 3D pictures were made by taking two photos from slightly different positions, just like the two human eyes. However the rest were made from a single photo and require a lot more work to make them 3D.

This is my wife Lorna.

And last of all this is me. Well, my head anyway.

The post next to this one shows some actual 3D pictures. This describes how to make them. The basic idea is that there needs to be two pictures seen from slightly different angles, just like the two eyes in our head are slightly separated.

Ideally the two pictures are taken at the same instant, but this is not possible unless you have a special camera or two cameras the same. So in practice it means taking two pictures quickly one after the other with a slight movement of the camera in between. The movement would normally be about 6 cm or 2.5 inches to match our eyes and this suits for small scale pictures such as objects at the table. For large scenes with buildings and trees the movement may be more, anything form 0.3 to 5 m (1 to 15 feet) and you can experiment with this for yourself.

Try starting out with inanimate objects such as crockery or fruit or other household items. When you have mastered this you are ready to try things like people. You have to get them to stand absolutely still while you take a picture, move, and take another picture. All this while having them not look like a statue. Otherwise you have to take the pictures very fast such as by continuous shutter action while moving the camera across the line of sight. It is important to keep the camera pointing in the same direction and to keep it horizontal at all times.

It is a good idea when taking photos for 3D to take them in the portrait mode rather than landscape mode. That means turn your camera sideways so that the picture is taller and thinner. Otherwise when you join them together they will be two long sideways.

Once you have your two pictures you need to put them into your computer and join them together with a graphics program such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or Corel Paint. Get the two images in and resize them to about 800 tall x 600 wide. If there is any lack of horizontalness, then rotate them to be properly horizontal.

Make a new blank image that is 1200 wide x 800 tall. Then copy and paste the two images into the new picture. Keep them as floating objects because they may not line up perfectly. Put them to the left and right in your new picture space. The one on the left will be seen with the right eye and vice versa. So the one on the left should have more background visible to the right of foreground objects, and more background visible at the left frame of the picture and vice versa for the other eye.

Move them up and down until they are aligned vertically by checking that key points are at the same height. If you get the top right and the bottom is unaligned then one image may be a little closer than the other. You need to stretch the smaller one to fit, but stretch diagonally so that the picture stays in proportion.

Once the two images are correctly aligned vertically you can move them horizontally until they just meet and then lock them in. Now trim the combined picture so that any white bits left around the edges are removed, trying to keep a similar size to each.

Save the result and start going cross-eyed. :-)

3D Photographs: Anaglyphs, Crosseye and Parallel. This is a detailed description of many things relating to 3D pictures, including equipment, software, flickr groups and tags and more.

Today I have two of my grand-daughters staying. We first of all watched a praying mantis at the front door that they discovered when they arrived. It was a fat female which looked like it had just eaten its mate.

Then Lea (nearly 6) and Niki (nearly 4) decided to do some painting.

Lea is working very seriously.

It was baked beans and cheese toasties for lunch. The fixed stares are because they were watching a DVD at the same time.

After lunch we walked to the park nearby where there are swings, slides and stuff. Niki really enjoyed the slide tube.

Lea does gymnastics, so walked the beam with great poise.

Then the girls got on the swings. After a while they said that they wanted their shoes off. Niki wanted to really swing.

Granddad, granddad, push me higher! .... Please!

The girls played together really well and even came down the slide together many times without mishap. Well, Lea got a sore elbow, but after a short cuddle was back at it.

This is a picture of Lea painting from above, but after sprinkling with fairy dust it has become 3 dimensional. To see it in 3D you have to go cross-eyed when you look at it. OK, so you think I am pulling your leg. Well the fairy won't sprinkle 3D dust on you if you don't do it.

See, I told you.

I will do another article about 3D pictures after this. But as my blog reverses the order, you will have to get in very quick to see them in time order.

These are some watercolour paintings that I did some years ago. I have given them and many more away to family and friends.

Fatty Arbuckle's in Stratford Upon Avon.

Old Gnarled Tree outside the Duke of Marlborough, Bay of Islands, New
Zealand.

Fisherman's Wharf is a local view and the other one of a pair that my wife says has to stay together. Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand.

Abandoned House in Northland.

If you like these, there are lots more paintings on my flickr site.

There are many cases of Fibonacci spirals in nature: sunflowers and other flowers, pine cones and pine needles on pine trees, perhaps half of all plants use this method of arranging branches, leaves, stems, flowers, seeds or whatever they want to arrange.

In the picture above you can see the spirals each way in the palm tree old fond stumps. It so happens that in all plants that have these spirals, the number of spirals is always one of these numbers: 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 ... a series known as the Fibonacci series in which each number is the sum of the previous two: 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8 etc.

In a small pine tree branch there might be 3 spirals one way and 5 the other. When the branch has grown (some years later, don't sit there waiting for this to happen) there will be 5 spirals one way and 8 the other. The thing is that you will never catch a tree in the act of adding extra spirals. So how does it do it?

The answer is provided in the pictures below, so don't look until you try to work it out yourself.

The first picture shows 3 and 5 spirals with green and red respectively. The second shows 5 and 8 spirals with red and blue. They are the same tree. When the tree is thinner we see the 3 and 5 more easily, but as it expands the 5 and 8 are more easily seen. It is all a question of which is the closest way for the eye and brain to make the connection.

So the answer to the question about how it does it is that it doesn't. We do it with how we connect the dots.

See also Fibonacci Phi Ratio and Intelligent Design.

This was just a passing fancy, discovering there is a tool to add speech bubbles to pictures, I had to try it out.

Take That! It has been commented as rather Monty-Pythonesque.

Cows shopping in India.

Black Panther. (Really our cat Ebony).
If called by a Panther,
Don't anther.

It only gets worse, I'm sorry. One of the first pictures I took with my new camera.

Having joined flickr and got terribly addicted, the next step was to join photographers anonymous, oops I mean NZ flickr group. It took ages before they had a meeting that I could go to (well weeks I suppose). My wife Lorna came along too - she eventually has to follow some of my addictions to get to see me.

We met in Auckland City for a chat followed by a tour of the local interesting photo spots. These of course included the cemetery and and anywhere that served coffee or food.

I didn't know what everyone looked like, so at the appointed time and place I saw three guys with cameras ...

.. and went up to them and asked "Are you the NZ flickr group?" to which they answered "Eh? What? We are just tourists". Well I explained about flickr to them, you can see that they are addicts in the making, so look out for them posting the sites of Auckland soon.

Here are some of the members of the NZ flickr group:

I was going to include a better picture of the group (apart from my personal dismemberment) but it keeps giving me errors when I try to. So just go here if you want to see it.

If you thought that I was joking about the graveyard, here is the spooky evidence that I was not.

I learned about taking interesting pictures of moving traffic, and here is my "Spaghetti Junction" photo which I am happy with.

When we came back down Queen St, I was lucky to see one of the other addicts looking up and so I did too and saw what I had never noticed before:

OK, I am a NZ flickr addict. We have to say that you know at each meeting. Wonder when the next one is?

Here is where you can see the rest of my photos from the NZ flickr group.

Dusk at Waiake beach gives interesting sunset colours to Rangitoto island even though it is in the East. This picture has it all, boy walking dog, yachts, about ten little ducks, sunset, island, beach, rocks and a little post. ;-)

I was fascinated by the little extra waves that criss-crossed the foreground after each wave had come up, making almost square patterns. At Waiake beach, Auckland's North Shore, New Zealand. It is a recurring theme for me to look at the patterns in nature.

I was lucky to visit Myanmar in and travel around with a group of 500 meditators and our teacher S N Goenka. The people of Myanmar are so friendly, honest and charming. I would like to go back again some time.

This is magic view of a morning mist in Mogok.

Some golden smiles which are common, and seem to be a mixture of sun block and fashion statement.

I call this Watermelon Hat. The women quite often have trays of stuff for sale, and with one hand carrying the baby the other is needed for taking the money, so the goods get carried on the head.

New Zealand is lucky to be so far from the rest of the world when it comes to having beautiful clear water at its beaches. Coromandel is a popular place to visit for tourists, especially backpackers, and places like this are found at the end of long, windy, dusty roads. We are lucky to have kind friends who invite us to their bach (pronounced batch - a kiwi word for beach house) to enjoy a break.

I really like the regular geometrical pattern of the creepers and their shadows. It is a pleasant view of the beach also and we enjoyed fantastic weather on a long Easter weekend in 2007 before it decided to turn to Autumn the following week.

Well the title should ensure that this page gets more searches and hits. But it is true as Naked Ladies are a type of flower, and here they are growing in their hundreds at Opito Bay in Coromandel.

The island seemingly floating in the sky in the middle of the picture is Rangitoto, seen from Coromandel near Tapu, New Zealand. This is a late afternoon shot with the Sun's rays coming down from the clouds and a colourful sky. Click on the picture and then pick ALL SIZES to see it larger.