Birds of Wellington
Oh how we love ye.
Well, not necessarily all of ye, and maybe not especially these colourful little numbers as they methodically strip the buds from the flowering cherry tree. You, Rosella, made this Wellingtonista wish momentarily for the .410 he used to use as a kid. But that would be criminally irresponsible in a built-up area, as well as a serious digression from the subject matter of this posting.
Onward.
This week is Landcare Research’s Garden Bird Survey:
The basic format of the garden bird survey is that people spend 1 hour during a specified week in winter watching birds in their home gardens, public parks, or school grounds, and recording the largest number of each species they see at any one time. When repeated over a number of years this will provide valuable information on changes in distribution and population trends of birds in our urban environment.
This recent fine weather provides the perfect opportunity. It’s inevitable that you’ll probably not see the occasional spectacular visitor in the hour you choose, like that falcon that was hunting the Western Suburbs a few years back, but at least you’ll be doing your bit for science.
And what could be nicer than a quiet hour outside counting the birds?
snapped?
So maybe it’s been easy to escape, but next week the new Snapper cards come into circulation.
Anyone who travels on a Wellington Bus cannot have failed to notice the newly installed orange and black fish logo-ed teardrops at the front and side doors. These are the readers for the cards. Just wave the card over the reader, and value is debited from them to fund your bus trip. You can recharge them over the ‘net (but only if you have a Windows PC and a masochistic willingness to subject yourself to Internet Explorer) and at any of the supporting cafés and former 10-trip ticket sellers.
It all sounds pretty good really: no more being stuck for the right change; never a click short on your 10-trip; and never even having to think about how much extra is stop past your usual. And then there’s the possibility (as some of us, trialling Snapper, are doing now) of putting the first coffee of the morning on it as well.
And it’s cool. We like the logo; the different form factors; and just the sheer techno-geekery at play.
Others have been positive, too; Poneke has had a reasonable time with their card. So here at Wellingtonista we’re all really looking forward to it.
We do have a few questions though, (after the jump):
the antipodes
In Stephen’s recent post the topic of Ze Frank’s Earth Sandwich has come up again. So exactly what lies on the opposite side of the Earth from our city?
Well, according to Google Earth (and Ze Frank), it’s the fair town of Alaejos, in Spain.
Alaejos seems like a fairly unremarkable, although certainly picturesque, town beside the motorway between Valladolid and Salamanca. (Yes, Salamanca. Many parts of Wellington bear the place names featured in the Iron Duke’s peninsular campaigns. In the 1860s, the Napoleonic wars were closer to the settlers of Wellington than WWII is to us today, hence the naming schemes: Talavera, Wellesley, Waterloo, Salamanca etc etc.)
So, does anyone have photos, or any other reportage of Alaejos? There’s some on Flickr, but we really want to know: what’s Wellington’s other, and unofficial, sister city really like?
CafeNet for your iPod
We like CaféNet at the Wellingtonista, yes we do. But it’s not always an unqualified feeling. Mostly it works well once you find a hotspot – and more arrive all the time. But sometimes, and with some devices, things aren’t so rosy.
At this Wellingtonista’s risk of sounding like a spoiled geek whose new toy won’t do what it says on the box, it seems that iPods Touch and iPhones don’t always have an easy time connecting to CaféNet. And it’s not just this writer’s experience – others have noticed it too.
More after the jump…
Summer city
For some of the smallest Wellingtonistas the most important part of the council’s Summer City festival has finished with the end of Fairy Trina’s wildly popular run of Enchanted Tales on Saturday.
And this evening marked the end of a series of pretty interesting evening Gardens Magic events with a gig by OdESSA. But fear not – there’s still lots more excitement for everyone between now and the end of March when the festival wraps up.
We’d recommend picking up one of the guides from the library or other spots around town; or failing that, download a copy from the council’s event website.
Then, assemble your own programme of activities. Hmmmm… maybe those same small Wellingtonistas would like to see The Phoenix Foundation on Valentine’s Day? Because their parents sure as hell would…
best cities… wtf?
Usually website related pissing contests (Hot Or Not; Rate My, [er…] Kitteh etc etc ad infinitum) are inherently dull.
But maybe not so dull if you are former Wellingtonian, now Münchener mad-genius developer Ben Nolan.
His Best Cities Facebook application did, for a tiny golden moment, have Wellington in the top spot. Which means of course that this pissing contest is now of interest to us, too!
Unfortunately, Facebook being the kind of random, viral place that it is, the app has been seized upon by at least two distinct regional groups each competing within each other parochially for the title of best city.
The upshot of all this is that towns like Slavonski Brod, a no doubt quite lovely town with a rather pulchritudinous population but not much larger than Invercargill, is the world’s fifth best city, with Wellington relegated to 15th.
This is clearly not good enough. Get to it. peeps!
Ponoko make the Grey Lady
Local start-up and Friends-of-Wellingtonista Ponoko (among other connections to us they’re also part-sponsor of our awards this year) have their picture at the top of an interesting article in the tech section of today’s New York Times. The article talks about the rise of internet-aided design and making and describes Ponoko thus:
Ponoko, a company based in New Zealand, allows customers to upload designs for flat shapes that can then be snapped together like Ikea furniture. Making a prototype can be as simple as cutting shapes out of cardboard. Users then create a digital version and send it to Ponoko, which cuts the pattern out in metal or wood with a laser.
There’s a fair head of global buzz building up around Ponoko, whose potential extends far beyond the Times’ fairly neutral description of what can be achieved with them today.
And as for us: well, we were very excited to note what looks like a prototype of the highly sought after 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Award trophy visible on the table between Dave and Derek. So maybe this means we’ve made the Times as well?
2AWA: Most Needed
Here are the nominees for the Most Needed category for the 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards (2AWA)
Wellington most needs:
Wellington’s pretty close to perfection, but there are a few things that we need. More smart people to participate in local elections so we don’t end up with Kerry again. A living wage for the Wellingtonistas. More celebrities, apparently. And also these things:
(nominees after the jump)
2AWA: Best Dub Dub Dubber
Here are the nominees for the Best Dub Dub Dubber category for the 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards (2AWA).
Web-Writing-Wellingtonians:
We love Wellington. And we love the Interwebs. So what could we love more than someone writing from Wellington on the Interweb? Exactly. Our nominees are a diverse bunch to reflect the tremendous amount of talent that goes on in our city, and to represent all kinds of different things..
(nominees after the jump)
2AWA: Best Coffee Beans
Here are the nominees for the Best Local Coffee Beans category for the 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards (2AWA)
Hook it straight into my vein:
The Women’s Petition Against Coffee, in 1674, declared:
Only a Pimp to the Tavern, a relishing soop preparative to a fresh debauch: For when people have swill’d themelves with a morning draught of more Ale than brewers horse can carry, hither they come for a pennyworth of Settle-brain … and after an hours impertinent Chat, begin to consider a bottle of Claret would do excellent well before Dinner; whereupon to the Bush they all march together, till every one of them is Drunk as a Drum, and then back again to the Coffee-House to drink themselves sober.
We, on the other hand, don’t say anything at all until we’ve had our daily fix. It’s Wellington, it’s coffee that pumps through our hearts and our minds thicker than blood.
(nominees after the jump)