Forester

The Forester is the staple SUV lineup in Fuji Heavy Industries automaker arm Subaru, this crtically acclaimed automobile had received a fair bit of praise, including but not restricted to:

- Winner Australia's Best Recreational Four Wheel Drive in - 2000, 2001 and 2002

- Car and Driver's Best Small SUV - 2004, 2005 and 2006

- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA / NCAP) - 5 star rating (http://safercar.gov/)

- 2006 Engine of the Year - 2.5-liter Turbo Boxer Engine

"The Forester 2.5XT is one of those extremely rare utes that deliver sport, the fun-to-drive variety and utility in equal measure, which makes getting there at least as enjoyable as whatever you're going to do after you unload. Maybe more so. Introduced in 2002, the Forester is based on the compact Impreza sedan, with SUV styling, a little extra ground clearance, and a taller roofline. In fact, that roofline - 62.6 inches - defines the Car and Driver boundary between SUVs and station wagons." - Car and Driver, March 2005
Read Full Article

With this philosophy of high utility performance coupled with an all wheel drive system, boxer engine configuration (lower center of gravity) and high standards of safety, no wonder the Forester is such an appraise worthy automobile.

The Forester is popular in Japan (beating main competitors Toyota Rav4 and Honda CRV) which is evident from the lack of imported Foresters here in NZ.

and now hold your breath as the new 2008 Subaru Forester is "comming"

engrish for the win

BBT

Big Boys Toys 2007:British Howitzer

14-tonne war machine...."light" infantry support

epitome of manliness....a motocross bike look-back over armour...roooaaar!

waxing

lesson 1. there is such a thing as too much wax.


lesson 2. do it outside.

lesson 3. the Goliath actually existed.

lesson 4. go to sleep.

something random

Ever wondered what my shirt means?

In the mountain ranges of Sesto Dolomites in Italy, bewteen the Bolzano-Bozen and Belluno provinces, lies the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (three peaks of Lavaredo), also known as Drei-Zinnen in German (three battlements).

Their altitude above sea level is ~2962m I'm guessing.

It is known to be the frontline between Italy and Austria during WWI

As random as Comme des Garçons get.

Waiheke trip

3rd Anniversary! a fine weekend, decided that staying at home will be boredom, so a trip to Waiheke Island!!!

Beautiful beaches and beautiful sun..... just a bit chilly, still winter :(

48 hours -- 2880 minutes........haha

Back.

Piste

Above the cloudline, the only way is down.

The batch had a fireplace, that was brought to good use and the wood-chopping skills quickly came back.

uhhhh sonnn!!

passing by the tron' on the way back to Auckland the WRC event meant no parking in the city at all, but a photo opportunity with the engineers behind the Subaru WRC car and STI was well worth it :-D

Special Blend

Just recieved a much needed dedicated snowjacket from Special Blend (http://www.special-blend.com/), apparently, its the shiz, this thing has like a million pockets.10,000 mmH2O waterproofness, like the unit of blood pressure, mmHg, instead of mercury, water.

bascically means water will not penetrate the outer fabric in a column of water 10,000mm tall or less.

which basically means that, its waterproof.

a snow skirt at the bottom of the coat means that snow will not creep up ur backside if you fall etc.

it even has a vent for ur armpits!

cant wait to try it out mid semester.......

British cars

Bwahahaha.

not even EE

Did some DIY on the heater power mains plug, the plastic part of the plug was extruding outwards and limited the wooden cupboard's alignment with the wall, therefore some slight modifications fixed this.cut the big ugly ends off, and thou shalt expose 3 internal wires, active, neutral and earth.

Active = Red or Brown

Neutral = Black or Blue

Earth = Green and yellow

Strip the outer plastic insulation until the 3 wires are about 10cm in length, and start wiring!

Make sure the wires are attached to their respective pins on the new plug end, and all wires are tucked neatly so the case closes properly.

and hey presto.

no more annoyingly-big-power-plugs-that-causes-cupboards-to-not-be-flush-with-walls business.

tune in later for more of this kinda shit.

second coming

Had another skitrip, this time with the auckland crew, same plan of attack, board for the day, spa for the night.This time in Jacky's car (still owing him gas money ^^""), Jimmy, you need to drive more careful, haha.Absolutely amazing, on top of the T-bar, on top of the clouds
Nowhere to go but down.

Back-country exploration, somewhere between the eastside of Ruapehu and the main T-bar.

Carver's paradise.
Will go again very soon, considering getting a snowboard

some sort of snow

Had a mini skitrip with the Hamiltron la familia, the weather was shocking, but because of that there were a minimal number of people on the slopes, plus, won't get sunburnt.

The town that is on the way to the mountain, passerby town. Nearly dropped my camera into one of their public loos. Frank.... wears sandles to the mountain, tramples in snow, haha! all good.

went up to upper mountain, the conditions were so bad that twas easy to veer off the marked trails, met up with some familiar faces in one of their over-priced-food sorta cafes, hada yarn and proceeded to thrash the slopes.

return trip via Rotorua for a bit of spa, heaven after hell.

Murakami

Contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, after graduating from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, became fixated to "Otaku" culture prevalent in modern Japan, which was often associated with "nerdy" anime and manga, he believed that, through the deficit of a real market for Japanese contemporary art, which was just saturated with low class, shallow appropriation of Western trends, an animation and otaku culture was more representative of modern Japanese culture, art and life.
Working under KaiKai KiKi, LLC. (www.kaikaikiki.co.jp) Murakami constructs his signature "Superflat" style prints which consists of flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga.


Owning a piece of Murakami's infamous smiling flower print, in the form of a cellphone strap, sure will brighten anyones day!

So prevalent is his work, collaborations with industry big-wigs such as Louis Vuitton also came out during the past years, enjoying a lot of criticism from both sides of the spectrum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C84FLwm3DA

This is a really cool video.

Totem Doppelgängers

Introducing the Totem Doppelgänger family from Kidrobot, designed by Anton Ginzburg.

A Doppelgänger is a ghostly double of a living person, harbingers of bad luck in folklore, and often associated with omen, the likes of witchcraft, wizadry, pitchfork-flaming-torches stuff, recently through scientific investigation had unexpectedly reproduced an effect strongly reminiscent of the doppelgänger phenomenon via the electromagnetic stimulation of a patient's brain in the left temporoparietal junction.

Designed by Anton Ginzburg, a Russian-American contemporary artist based in New York, the Totem Doppelgänger figurines are a replica of his work displayed as an installation piece for the 1st Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2006, these figurines are produced by Kidrobot, a collectible vinyl toy company (www.kidrobot.com), too cute to be associated with omens or bad luck, comes in a set of three in ghostly, phantom shapes.

They Look.

"This is a work of art, not a toy." according to packaging, also designed by Anton.

Warble decided that he was not interested in the secrets Gorble and Michealangelo was conversing over, since their body language and gestures suggested that he will be better off not knowing their plans. Gorble and Michealangelo were up to something. Something.

Alas, their plans becomes apparent, their cooperative shadows overpowering Warble, he felt left out and becomes omnious to the fact that, maybe, he just wasn't cool enough to partake in their pointless misadventures, of stacking on top of one another.

"Oh hi Warble," bellowed Gorble from above, Michealangelo just murmmured something, unable to speak from the pressure above.
"We saw this totem stack from the inter-net, and was wanting to try it out, needs three phantoms to work."

Engcouraged by his re-founded friendship, Warble decided to join their expedition.

End.
Supporting procrastination and late nights since 2007.

On the 19th of May 2007, Blizzard Entertainment utilised the World Wide Invitational event held in Korea to announce the release of StarCraft II, the eagerly anticipated sequel for nearly a decade now, to the original StarCraft, one of the most critically acclaimed Real-Time-Strategy games (RTS). Blizzard had not incorporated any "revolutionary" new system a la Supreme Commander cam in order to preserve the original winning formula of gamepla, but rather re-enforcing the differences in strategy required for each race, Zerg with their notorious swarm strategy, the more technologically advanced Protoss and the high mobility and adaptibility of the Terran, no new race was introduced according to rumours based on the secret mission the in the previous Brood War expansion, in which a notion of a Zerg-Protoss hybrid was suggested.

Expect hyperage all round.

me

me back in my 1847 hey-days

curly hair was, and still is, highly fashionable.

notice forehead resemblance

Courtesy of Tina.

btw, got extension on the Business essay, still procrastinating

Lab-report-ing

ok I must stop procrastinating.....but this is contradictory as I am doing this blog thing and should be doing my Medical309 Lab report which is due on Thursday whilst having another Business essay on foreign direct investment policies on the UAE and Russia due in on Friday.....

Ghey.

Meh.

oh btw, the movie 28 weeks later is a gore infested-gut-puking-blood-splatter-infectionally disturbing movie, if thats your thing I highly recommend it, if you think something like hostel is the most gory movie ever, this takes the cake. peoples face explodes. :)

BDay Bash @ Mesh

Bought out the night spot?? we'll be there :P
Located in Takapuna on the North Shore, Mesh bar incorporates house and funk music in a compact enviroment, ideal for events like this.

good turnout.

From left: Angel, Cinny, Birthday girl Jenny, Christine and Jennifer.

Mesh makes nice Mojitos, and assortment of other cocktails available, including the fucking quick fuck :P

will update this entry with more pics from someone else...too busy dancing lol

UNIgames

Between 10th and 15th of April, the 2007 University Games were held in Christchurch.Cheers to our hosts Canturbury for putting up with the antics from 2500 students including 300 jafas. Home team Canturbury took out the events overall, followed by Otago and Victoria, then Auckland.The millenium metal statue thing-a-ma-bob, adjacent to where we lived in X-base backpackers. The skytower of Chch I guess.



Sport competitions in the day...
Competition didn't go so well for me, not since the second day of competition, shouldn't ve had oranges for breakfast, meh excuses, at least I was in first division I guess....Auckland took out first place for it anyways.

Mexican! not bad at all, exotic beer with a dash of lime. enchiladas and quesidillas + live music, the Mexican Cafe is decorated in a "Cinco De Mayo" style

Piss-ups in the night.

Me, Taka and Stephan. Holy Grail. Rowers party. 4 Tui's for $9.00... bargain? no idea, im a cocktail drinker more.

Holy Grail. icky floor sweatiness. had Cricket on the whole time. I don't understand Cricket. got some sweat out tho, bita boogie

Supported the League boys, 4 games in 3 days, ouch. hard luck lost to Canturbury in the finals.

Play more, party more, this time with Flo and Stephan, both from Germany. good ol' Guiness in an Irish Bar.

Some random backpackers from New Caledonia / France? no idea haha. Taka is happy.

Closing ceremony, met some ballin' AUT chicks, referred me as J the dancing guy in the yellow shirt. ha. A-U-T What??!!

The clown-car trick was foiled by a following police car. the cage at the back adds that illegal-alien smuggling factor.

Introduced the boys to a little something called a "backdraft" at club Coyote. prepared by Harley the bar dude.

Back to Aucks.