Sunday, June 26, 2016

A rant on the NZ gun safety fallacy

In the wake of the worst mass shooting in American history, and after seeing New Zealand's gun safety laws being described here and there in the media as "world-leading" relative to the US, I thought it would be interesting to see what I could potentially go and buy with my normal A-Category license. That is, no background checks, no lay-away period, just pay and take away. Here's a sample of what's available just down the road at Gun City:



Also, here's a recent story out of South Auckland highlighting the tools available to some of those in the local meth trade.

And this one.

And this one.

Obviously not all mass shooters opt for assault rifles and ridiculous Terminator-esque pistol-grip shotguns (although a lot do - see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). For example, my gun....


...has been used in more than a few mass shootings (for example, this one). But I feel like it's easier to make a case for shooting clays with a stock-standard Remington 870 than trying to do the same with a sliding-stock, pistol-grip Mossberg 590 Tactical Package

We're nothing on the batshit craziness of the US:

...but still. I'd love to know how people justify owning some of what's on offer here, especially when none of our wildlife can kill us.




Another "feeding the wildlife" video. This time deer.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Feeding the monkeys in Indonesia


Grabby little hands.

From further in the archives - Random driving videos

I can't remember why I even have these. I think the plan was to make some kind of time-lapse video with them, but I obviously never got around to it. So here are some completely pointless raw videos. Just because. 

Dunedin, ~2009, in the mighty Escudo. Only a select few could manage to work that gearbox, which ultimately left me stranded on the way to a job interview about two years later. It also rode like a tank, and lost traction like no other car.


Auckland, 2012, driving back to the city from Warkworth. There seems to be a theme here: the Golf soon blew its gearbox and set me back $4,500. Asian imports all the way from that point.

Bass Drum of Death - Live at Don Pedro (2009)

From deep in the recording archives

Circa 2010ish.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The hard way


Saturday, June 18, 2016


Zach Hill KILLING it on the drums

Current band obsession (recurrent).

Another near-miss with a Ponsonby stereotype

Over-sized BMW: Check
Over-sized sunglasses: Check
On the phone: Check
Zero spatial awareness: Check



Friday, June 17, 2016

Death Grips - Double Helix

Check surroundings for safety.

Monday, June 13, 2016

The Dominion Road roundabout strikes again

Yet another accident at the Dominion Road roundabout, quite possibly one of the most hideous pieces of road in Auckland. Luckily the kid seemed to brush it off. 

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Milky Way

Otago Peninsula
(c) 2016 dpod

Rotorua, continued

This time with moving pictures. 

Hurricane Bianca

Thursday, June 9, 2016

A quick escape to Rotorua









Low resolution, granted. But so many greens and blues. 

Monday, June 6, 2016

Aurorarotica

Dunedin Aurora (05/06/2016)
(c) dpod 2016


Dunedin Aurora (05/06/2016): a more assertive edit
(c) dpod 2016

A low-level pass of the Mach Loop

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Desert Sessions - Punk Rock Caveman Living in a Prehistoric Age

The Federales - P90X (XII Below, 2010)

An unexpected response

  From the Paige Birgfeld case on the "48 Hours" podcast. The moment Lester Ralph Jones makes a pretty crucial slip-up on the phone. 

Death Grips - Bottomless Pit

From their just-released new album of the same name. 
 photo yt.jpg