earthquake!
Crack! rumble! shake… shake… shake… shake … rattle n roll
We just (20 minutes ago) had a 6.8 earthquake off the East coast of New Zealand.
shake … shake…
We were far enough away that we had no damage, but haven’t heard if areas closer to the epicenter have suffered any damage.
This would be the strongest feeling earthquake I’ve ever experienced.
Picnik a Flickr
Flickr has partnered with Picnik for photo editing. I’ve been using Picnik for about a year, so I was pleased to see the integration… it saves some extra loading time.
My before/after photos were used to illustrate the Flickr Blog entry announcing the Flickr-Picnik partnership. 
crossing the line
A bit of a story in yesterday’s paper about Peter Jackson’s 15 minute film “crossing the line”, a WWI mini-epic filmed here in Masterton a few months ago.
Here’s the excerpt.
Cool, eh?
microPledge
“microPledge will get people together to get software made” according to the blurb on their website.
Is this a cool idea or what? I can see this as the solution to so many of those little issues that arise, when you think, gee, I wish I had a program that could do this… or that.
If you think so too, head over there and read more about it.
rest (in the style of Emerson)
rest (in the style of Emerson)
I have just read Greg’s essay on Peter Henry Emerson on Utata.org’s Sunday Salon and it inspired me to remix one of my favourite photos in the style of Emerson. Emerson was an early photographer who embraced a ‘natural’ approach to photography.
[original description of photo:
Eric walked around the entire perimeter of Henley Lake. By this point (about 3/4 around) he stopped to rest at every bench. This one was good because he could watch the radio-controlled sailboat sailing on the lake.]
Hot Cross Buns for Easter
For Good Friday, Gary baked us some hot cross buns. They went over so well that the kids have asked for them again on Easter.
Several people have asked for the recipe, so here’s the one he made up.
- 3 tsp “surebake” yeast
- 280 ml warm water
- 1 egg
- 450g / 3 cups flour
- 2 Tbl brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 3/4 cup sultanas/raisins, etc.
- 2 Tbl oil (canola/vegetable)
Crosses
- 80g flour
- 80 ml water
- 2 tsp sugar
Put 200ml water in a cup with the sugar and yeast, stir, and leave to get going.
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add fruit and stir.
Break the egg into a measuring cup and add water to make 80ml liquid
Add frothy yeasty mixture, egg/water, and oil to the dry ingredients. Mix well to a soft dough consistency.
Turn out onto a floured board/surface and knead, adding flour as you knead until it’s not sticky anymore. ie, until it feels right.
Return to bowl, cover and allow to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.
Divide and make into 12 buns. Put on baking tray and allow to rise for a further 40 minutes..
Mix up the cross ingredients and pipe over the risen buns.
Bake at 180C/360F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Tips:
- Yeast: If you can’t find Surebake Yeast (it contains bread improvers), use 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- Rising: The method we use — preheat the oven to 50C/120F. Put the dough in to rise and turn off the oven. (important! don’t forget to turn it off or you will get very slow baked dough that rises up too much). Alternatively, if your kitchen is quite warm, you can leave it to rise in a warm spot, but it may take extra time to rise.
Can’t guarantee that your buns will come out like ours, but they’ll be yummy nonetheless because you made them!
Professional Football coming to NZ
I was pleased to read today that a Wellington businessman has fronted up with about $1.2 million in order to secure the bid for a professional football (soccer) team in the new Australian A-League.
I think it will be good for the sport here in NZ if our young people have a new team they can look to for “heroes”. My daughter loves soccer and I can imagine that she’ll become a big fan of the new NZ team.
*Update* The new team will be called the Wellington Phoenix Football Club.
Daily podcast?
Living in New Zealand, I’ve really welcomed the various American news networks offering podcasts on iTunes. But what I don’t understand is why they advertise “daily podcasts” yet the latest one is usually a few days old.
Today, I opened iTunes to get the latest “CNN Daily” videocast and the latest episode available was Wednesday, Feb 28th. Who wants to watch news that’s 5 days old? Sure, if it’s a TV episode, the timing isn’t that important… but news isn’t news when it’s 5 days old.
C’mon guys. If you’re going to offer something, at least do it right.
