Stream of consciousness Week 19th February 2024

Stream of consciousness and other personal thoughts garnered throughout the week and which will be added to as the week rolls on. These thoughts are unrefined, unquantified, unverified, and raw. Any of these may be either be edited, deleted or otherwise spawn out into its own separate post particularly if new information comes to light…

  • Haven’t posted a “Stream of Consciousness” post in over a year.
  • Finally recovered fully from my first known bout of COVID-19. Came across as a mild / low-grade flu, but with an elongated tail lasting weeks in the form of a dry cough.
  • AT Hop Card adult fares are too high. It’s also frustrating that Auckland City has remained so car dependent 20 years on. It’s like the powers to be really aren’t serious about tackling the transport crisis nor providing effective and reliable alternative transport options. All stick (SVL / bus lane fines, anti car measures), and little in the way of carrots to encourage model shift. I guess forcing people into car dependency helps with GDP by way of forcing people to spend on mechanics, car products and services, etc not to mention pinging the unwitting $150 bus lane fines as a form of income.
  • Have come to the conclusion that most organizations are an omnishambles structurally under the hood to some level. Even charities / advocacy / volunteer organizations can be toxic environments to work.

  • Yeah, people will try and gas-light and say otherwise and while I agree things aren’t as dire as they otherwise could be in New Zealand (with the so called gas lighters often drawing comparisons to third would countries), things could be a lot better than they are. I feel we are slowly slipping back socially and economically here in New Zealand, particularly compared to say 20 years ago. Main concern is there doesn’t seem to be anything to stop this current direction. Inequality sadly is likely to continue to accelerate as many people seem to be hooked on a steady diet of bread and circuses as opposed to engaging in the Civic process.
  • Will also be reigning back some of the civic engagement / social advocacy a bit. I feel we’re too far along for me as an individual concerned citizen to affect change for common benefit and all I can do realistically do is hunker down and look after my own as it were. My patriotism in recent years has taken on sizeable damage. Upon dispensing with our egalitarianism, I feel we’ve lost a key part of our identity as a country.
  • My will to travel overseas for a vacation remains low / non-existent. Have been trying to juice my interest in travel again, but it’s not working.  It’s more the cost of, the uncertainty of (in terms of dependability of services), and the general hassle of travel that continues to put me off traveling overseas.
  • Have still been Hiking, but feel like I’m doing the same tracks over and over mainly as fitness maintenance. Will admit, It’s starting to become chore like. Really can’t be bothered doing things simply for the sake of ticking them off.
  • Been pre-approved to buy another investment property, but given the current cashflow, not sure if I will be acting any time soon. Also the social stigma of (residential) property investing is starting to escalate and perhaps rightly so in many respects. Controversial as this may be, I feel we’ve had it too good for too long at the expense of wider society (Tax benefits afforded as investors over owner occupiers).
  • The last election was a disappointment filled with disappointing policies and candidates. No one, and I mean no one showed any willingness to address the question I had regarding what they were going to do to tackle housing affordability and the social implications that come with continued ridiculously high home prices.
  • Will admit that I haven’t felt genuine “Excitement” for some time. Elation may be, but that’s about it. Have met people, even older people who seem to be eternally optimistic, excited about the smallest things. I don’t believe I’m depressed, but perhaps “jaded”

 

 

Older Stream of Consciousness thoughts can be found here.

Stream of consciousness Week 19th February 2024

Huawei P30 Pro Camera – Hybrid zoom

Update 13 October 2019 – So took the Huawei P30 Pro and compared it to the Panasonic TZ110 and another quick test…

At x5 zoom…
Native zoom for the P30 Pro’s x5 Camera. To my untrained eye, it is fairly similar enough in detail. The TZ110 may be a touch more natural in detail and colour reproduction.

Continue reading “Huawei P30 Pro Camera – Hybrid zoom”

Huawei P30 Pro Camera – Hybrid zoom

Week Beginning 1st January 2018

Note: These are simply quick thoughts that have been jotted down. They have been categorized as “Insignificant” for very good reasons. They may contain hunches which will be unsubstantiated, unqualified and unquantified. Some of these points (each separated into their own paragraphs) may or may not be spawned into more substantial posts.

Happy New Year

Fireworks in the Hood. The Sky City Fireworks though as a comparison against others years, wasn’t anything special… In fact, It may have been a little more subdued than prior years.

Yes, Phone software updates can cause Utility loss.

As with my Xperia Z2 D6503. The 6.0.1 firmware update reduced performance, stability and subsequently utility + usability of WiFi. This was demonstrated to be the case when as an experiment flashed the Firmware back to Kitkat. There was demonstratably a Marked increase in stability and faster Access Pointing connecting over a range of regular access points I use during the week. Reflashed the firmware back to 6.0.1 and the issues returned. Sony never fixed this… Anyway, going to be replacing this device, has developed a few issues including a stuffed gyro (Think’s it’s upright when it’s 10° on the piss)

 

Week Beginning 1st January 2018

Week Beginning 13th November 2017

Note: These are simply quick thoughts that have been jotted down. They have been categorized as “Insignificant” for very good reasons. They may contain hunches which will be unsubstantiated, unqualified and unquantified. Some of these points (each separated into their own paragraphs) may or may not be spawned into more substantial posts.

 

Wayward Email

Appears a Local New Zealand accommodation software and systems provider has fairly recently (within the last year or so) rebranded themselves  as “Nui Software” along with getting a domain nui.global. As a result, I have been getting the odd stray email landing in my catch all inbox from accommodation providers who are inadvertently sending their query to “@nui.co.nz” or “@nui.nz” instead of “@nui.global”. It is an easy error to make.

While I have been advising senders of wayward emails as I find them I may look to put in an auto-responder in (for specific receiving addresses), asking senders to double check they have the correct email domain.

Stoney Creek

Brought a collection of shirts and shorts from the Stoney Creek stand at the National Agricultural Fieldays event about a year and a half ago. They did have rather flashy marketing behind their brand, launched a brand new bold logo and put a lot into their social media presence along with their slogan “it’s in the blood”. Welp, the blooming garments appear to be falling apart only after a few excursions into the bush.  Upon purchasing them, the garments felt as if they were pretty solid and I was somehow (in this case, apparently incorrectly) sure they would last the distance. Even my more recent purchase of shorts, the drawstring completely failed and the blooming thing is stitched right in (Can’t be removed).

Now have to fossick around and find the frigging proof of purchase, which always seems to makes it’s escape from the receipt holder when you most need it. Don’t know if I can be shafted dealing with this.  Feeling is that the Price to durability ratio is quite stacking up for me with this particular brand.

 

Week Beginning 13th November 2017

Week Beginning 20th August 2017

Note: These are simply quick thoughts that have been jotted down. They have been categorized as “Insignificant” for very good reasons. They may contain hunches which will be unsubstantiated, unqualified and unquantified. Some of these points (each separated into their own paragraphs) may or may not be spawned into more substantial posts.

The commentators of Interest.co.nz again

Housing market is deflating?  I’d say given the behaviour of the market in recent years, I believe it’s a little bit too early to call.

Global Liquidity feels bubbly.

There is a perhaps a concern with in me that if something of sufficient size does happen to impact the credit markets negatively to kick off some panic, the resultant domino effect is probably going to be unstoppable.

NZ Clothing brands

I regularly see this on the many clothing labels…

DESIGNED IN NEW ZEALAND

Made in China

Additionally at the Agricultural Fieldays, there were a plethora of merchants that had signs out for exclaiming they had… “100% New Zealand Wool Jumpers”, with the word “made” conveniently omitted.

Bushbuck Sales and Marketing Tactics

I get Bushbuck’s Email Newsletters now and again, I can’t remember why I signed up, it may have been to participate in some raffle at a Fieldays event at some point.

The stated recommended retail pricing (RRP) of their garments I feel appear to be the getting up there, almost the same price as what SWAZI Apparel sell their high quality, locally New Zealand Made equivalents for.  Seems From there, Bushbuck have Sales every now and again which heavily discount off of their RRP which is probably in my view, more discounting back to “normal price”.

May be Bushbuck gear is indeed quite good, However in truth, my image of their brand may have been impacted a little when they keyword stuffed their TradeMe auctions with the names of other outdoor gear brand.

Auckland Traffic, specifically South east

Traffic Patterns seem to be different each day, it’s a guessing game as to which route is fastest out of Highbrook / East Tamaki.

Stuffed full of Shopping mailers

A person purportedly by the name of Sandra Young had used the email address: Sandra [AT] young [dot] Kiwi to sign up to several Melbourne retailer mailing lists. As a result, the “Catch All” email address for young.kiwi has been filled up with adverts and promotional mailers.

 

Week Beginning 20th August 2017

Week Beginning 5th February 2017

Note: these are simply quick thoughts that have been jotted down. They have been categorized as “Insignificant” for very good reasons. Some of these points (each separated into their own paragraphs) may or may not be spawned into more substantial posts.

Urban Exploration Politicking

[Spun out in to it’s own post, follow this link to view article]

Unruly Tenant spray paints “FTP” on door

A good friend reports that his property in Turangi has been trashed with the Gates all gone and the Garage door spray painted with lets say “FTP” to be brief (No, not “File Transfer Protocol”, the other definition… involving the word police) What the hell was the property manager at the 21st Century Turangi office doing? Why was this tenant allowed to stay in the property for 4 whole months of rent arrears before my mate had to take matters into his own hand and demand to the property manager that the tenant be kicked out?

P Epidemic

Growing alarmed within myself about the Prevalence of P Use in New Zealand.

 

Week Beginning 5th February 2017