I am ashamed . . .



It has been far too long since I last wrote anything here . . . unacceptable. Time seems to stand still, yet it has gone past too quickly. We have been busy, but have we achieved anything ? Anything worthwhile ? I am not sure, yet there always seems to be some progress.


Progress can be a good thing, and a bad thing. To change the fabric of your life and habits is often a thing to be treated with respect, and for some to be feared. But I ramble on.



We have seen in the last few days the death in Napier of Senior Constable Len Snee, of the NZ Police Force. A good man, a good father, a good 'copper'. Our hearts goes out to the family of this man - his life so rudely taken away from him. Also the two other officers and a civilian wounded in the same incident.

What possesses a man (in this case) to take a life ? What causes a person to quote "step over the line" and literally hold a town and a law enforcement agency to ransom ? Why ? Was he just having a bad day ? Or was there underlying issues ? Were there drug involved ? Considering the officers at the house were searching for drug, it seems likely.

Why is it that he chose to hole up, and shoot it out ? Why did he have such weapon in his possession ? And explosives ? Is this part of what drugs do to people ? And yet "people" say that drugs are harmless. And now her is dead also. By his own hand or by police bullets ? We may never know. My sympathies the the gunman's family - Kia Kaha !

And before the purists out there look and start crying "ban the gun !", lets look at the other side.

A gun is an "inanimate object" - just like a plane, car, an baseball bat, a knife . . it can do no harm to any other human being unless it is in the hands of another human being . . . so banning the gun will not achieve the ends some would call for. More likely than not, the holder of the firearm that would pose a risk will not have a firearms licence anyway. So tightening up on the licence holder will achieve nothing.

There are thousands (probably) of NZ'ers out there that are registered to own a firearm in NZ. Some of the web team possess firearms - and we don't go shooting people . . . . "good" people don't do that . .

But a good man is dead. He served his country and did what he did - did his job. And now a good man is dead, and some of his mates are hurt.

I pray only for peace and blessing on Senior Constable Len Snee's family.

May God be with you in the weeks ahead.


Keep the faith . . .

Corrections

I am not sure why this happens, but the last few times I have posted it has contained errors - and I can't seem to rectify them. Going back and editing them seems to not make a difference - the errors are still there, even thought when you re-edit, the changes were made. Pass ?

Sorry for the hassle of trying to understand what I said....

Keep the faith . . .

Changing times and places and people.


These things seem to dominate our life to a large extent and we have little control over them. And don't always leave pleasant effects or thoughts.

Yesterday after working in the morning, I arrived home cold, wet, grubby and grumpy. I pressed the door remote thingy . . . and again, and again and again - and nothing happened. I new spat my toy out the window in frustration. But while answering a friends text, the neighbours daughter came over and asked "do you have electricity ? We haven't had any for like two hours." Ohh hell. Nope - no light on the door bell. This is not good

So I put my key in the front door and ohh darn ! The key on the inside meant I was locked out ! No hot shower, no dry and warm and clean clothes, no hot drink, no lunch, no computer and no email . . . ok - I'm freaking out now !

Fortunately, the back door was accessible . . . but it begs the rhetorical question . . . Are we too reliant on electricity ? The simple answer is yes ! The complicated answer is probably yes !

I would be lost without electricity now. I still like reading books, but my choice is limited - and my library is thin. And anyhow, my computer is my hobby, my life. My three are my dependants . . . my children. And I yell at them, beg them, admire them (and the people who wrote the programs - sometimes) and the things they can do for me, and I wonder at the images and blogs (like this one) that people post on them.

I spent hours looking after and constantly modifying websites (oneiguy.com ashhurst.org & parishofpohangina.net) that I am seemingly never happy with how the look and feel . . .

So if and when the power goes off, I'm almost lost . . without a clue. Is this the way most NZ'ers feel ? Are we really set up to handle a long period of "off". How would we cope with the likes of people in South East Missouri recently - without power for weeks, with snow and ice and bitter cold . . . the thought of days without power leaves me wobbly like a good Kiwi Jelly . . . . .

But there are good things . . . things that keep you firmly planted on the ground. This morning at our Parish Camp in Pohanginas' Totora Reserve, some of the children brought a Weta inside . . and the poor wee things was beginning to "stress out" a bit . . so he was carefully encouraged onto my hand and after a few moments he (or she) settled down and sat quietly enough for him (or her) to be shown off to the group. Some people handled it well, others admired him - from a distance, others were not so sure.

Personally, I think he (or she) is beautiful - perfectly designed for his (or her) environment . . . as we should be. Reliant on just those things the surround us that are certain . . . the sky, wind, rain, friends, food. The rest are luxuries, meant to enhance rather that dominate . . .

Maybe I should listen to what I say . . . and learn to live that way too . . . not soo easy, but one day maybe, it might be necessity . . . not sure how I would cope . . .

Would you cope ?



Keep the faith ! It's a good thing to have !

This week I am stepping of "soft ground".

Soft because it could, in an extreme circumstance, be libel. As of this evening, my thoughts toward "soft"ware developers and companies are not very nice . . .

A few weeks ago, after verbally assaulting my PC on numerous occasions, I bit the bullet, saved as much data as I could think of, and reformatted the hard drive.

Great ! Wonderful ! Amazing ! Problems be gone ! Almost. . . . In reality, they were just beginning.

Windows went in easily. All the drivers loaded ok. But then the applications . . . . oh hell . . . . . .

A map program - out of Registrations, but the solutions only required an email. Others resolved easily too - mainly requiring the writer to dig deeply through papers and folders - why are things NEVER where they SHOULD be ?

But MS Office ? Oh my. I emailed them (MS) a week ago . . . . and no reply. I am still getting a MS Genuine Office Notification - this is pirated, or stolen . . . . But Hang on - I own this . . don't I ? It arrived sealed in a box, genuine literature and manuals, genuine DVD . . so whats the go ?

Read the fine print and MS says that WE (the users) don't actually OWN the software . . we only own the RIGHTS to USE it. Expensive rights . . MS offered me a NEW GENUINE (I thought that was what I have?) version of Office for $1700 . . . yeow ! Me . . A simple home user. WHY would I wan't to pay THAT much for something I believe I already have ?

Maybe it is time ot look at alternatives . . . except that I know (sort of) and previously liked the MS suite . . . I still do . . . but $1700 ? I can't justify that . . . might as well be $5000 . . or maybe I just have to migrate BACKWARD to 2003 . . and hope that doesn't fail too ?

Wouldn't that just take all ? Would like other peoples thought on this. Send us a comment ? Maybe ?

Cheers ! Keep the Faith! Mine's lagging a bit . . .

What to say ?

It's been one hell of a week.

Our hearts go out to all those in Victoria - fire is such a devastating thing - so much more so when it is arson. What sort of depraved lowlife would torch an area without KNOWING that there would be loss of structure, and probably loss of life ? Does this "person - and I use that in very loose terms - have any conscience ? Does he understand what he has done ? Possibly not.

Luckily we have very few of that type of violence here - but having said that we have. And last night we heard of the fires on Mt. Ruapehu . . there is no explanation other that arson. And several fires in PN - pettiness . . .

Had a wee trip today up to Pohangina, Tea at the County Fayre and a look at the old photos on the walls there. Was interesting to see some relatives. The had a look see at the wetlands - swampy land once farmed returned to it's natural statre of wetland. Great to see it all, the bonus being the spoonbill. Guess he didn't like ma n me, coz he gracefully flapped over to the other side of the pond. Maybe he didn't like his photo taken . . a few photos here

Anyway, a shorter post this week - back to another week of work . . .

Cheers !

Waitangi Day

This week is supposed to be a celebration, with today marking the founding of this country "New Zealand" - oh so long ago. On the TV News tonight, we saw that Australians are seemingly over the top when it comes to Patriotism and their national day - just like the Americans, yet it seems that unless we are watching or participating in a "national sport" against a team or individual such as Australia, we seem to be rather low key, or modest about it. Why is that ?

Also tonight, we saw the kiwis getting beaten in the Sevens. Hard to take, the defeat. Who will we blame ? The coach ? I hope not. The players ? Maybe. Fate ? Probably. But we did get beaten. Maybe the Poms just wanted it a bit more than we did. So in the spirit of sport, we should say "well done England" and get over it. But will we ? Will we accept that the better twam won ? Maybe. We need to stay one step ahead of bitterness. One step ahead of bad blood, of anger and ugly stuff that has been seen by many teams/nations. Lets just move on.

It was a good weekend. Good things have happened. The weather was hot and mostly fine. Be thanksful for the good things. Life life.

Keep the faith !

And here we are

Welcome to the first posting from Ashhurst Dot Org.

Ashhurst and Pohangina - a small part of the place we know as "Gods own" . . or is that "Gods Zone" . . but I sometimes wonder - do we if we truely appreciate what we have here ?

We aren't at war, we don't have ethnic or religious tension, we have freedoms to do so many things that other parts of this world have censured. We have a temperate climate, mostly see few of the extremes of weather that some do, are mostly green (except for now), are mostly clean (although sometimes I am not so sure anymore), we are nuke free (for now), we are a democracy that works (mostly), have good relations with our international friends (except Fiji).

And yet we as humans by default seem to find something to complain about. We don't like this, we don't like that, we need this, we want that.

We don't want our rivers damed, and we don't want wind turbines in our back yard - but we want more electricity. For what it's worth, I don't think we should dam any more rivers either . . . let's keep the few remaining natural areas we have - just the way they are . . . perfect !

And in this time of financial crisis, life for everybody got just a little (or a lot) harder for everyone. Let's appreciate what we have -as individuals, and remember those who have/may lose everything . . . and do we really know where it's going to end ? I don't . .

But enough rambling. Keep the faith !

the webteam