Nearly uneventful

In an effort to keep up my "forced journaling" (BTW that's the primary reason I keep this blog) I thought I would do an update.

I finished shooting the Jazz Festival the weekend before last, overall it was a lot of hard work, but a great time. I've bolstered my portfolio, made some industry contacts, and seen some pretty amazing music (there was also a frightening large chunk of rubbish though).

During my day job I have been swallowed with the design of our new data centre and the planning of moving hundreds of servers into this facility over two months from our two Wellington offices. Despite myself, I am really enjoying the work. We're building one of the 10 largest facilities in Wellington and I'm getting some fantastic experience that seldom comes up. 34 Kilometers of data cabling, 7 thousand liters of air/second through our process coolers, and now we're having to swing things onto the floor from a helicopter because they won't fit in the lift are are about 600 Kilos too heavy to carry. ;-) All in all we are spending nearly a million dollars on room that is not that big, and only holds computers (just lots of them with highly redundant cooling, power, etc. etc.) I am truly "geeking-out".


Otherwise, indoor soccer, touch rugby, and rock climbing are keeping me busy as spring looks like it might FINALLY arrive. We've actually had 3 or 4 days of sunshine - the fact that this stands out is indicative of how atrocious the weather has been for the past few months.

BTW, Here's a picture I took this Sunday when the weather turned "amazing":



I think the larger version gives the day some justice.

And I think I've actually managed to max out my flickr account until the end of the calendar month - until which time their won't be anything new.

Walking to the supermarket this morning I had a bit of a realization. As I walk everywhere, all the time, it takes me sometime to get places, big surprise I know. (E.g. my French class is about a 30 minute walk from my house) This forces me to do two things: 1) Give myself time to get places, or more importantly just give myself time and 2) Not rush around too much - as it's pretty much impossible to "walk in a rush" without realizing what a nutter you're being. Back in the States I used to book my days assuming no travel time so that I was always behind, and I double booked, and I spent most of my waking hours on a smart phone simultaneously talking and emailing. Little did I know how little it gained me and how much it cost me - so for showing me that - cheers New Zealand.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I've invited some friends to a French restaurant for nice meal. No one is American, the French girl confirming the booking on the phone asked "What is this Thanks-Giving you speak of?" and I'm afraid my mates are expecting some type of song and dance. Soon they'll learn it's mostly about just getting together and enjoying each others company... of course glutenous consumption never hurts. ;-)

This Thanksgiving I do have something in particular to be thankful for - in addition to wonderful people, fabulous luck, and an amazing family in my life - I'm going to have a nephew come April (Colin just found out what the next Guinn is going to be today - on his birthday! Happy Birthday, Bro!)

Wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving (whether it's a holiday where you are or not), your mate - Trey.

Damn, another month!

It's been a month since I've written so here's a very quick update:

My last post created some fantastic discussion which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I must say I am personally most interested in what set of circumstances morally justifies one nation invading another.

To this I love some of the points in "The Fog of War", a documentary discussing eleven lessons from the life of Robert S. McNamara. If you haven't seen it, it's time for a visit to the video store. Beautifully made and great discussion. It came out before Iraq and we (the U.S) have broken some of these "rules".

In particular (this rule is expanded in the special features), I think this rule is quite applicable:

"We are the most powerful nation in the world — economically, politically, and militarily — and we are likely to remain so for decades ahead. But we are not omniscient. If we cannot persuade other nations with similar interests and similar values of the merits of the proposed use of that power, we should not proceed unilaterally except in the unlikely requirement to defend the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii."

So is the "War on Terror" a defense of our land, given that Sept. 11 happened in the US? Even if the answer is yes to that and I find that more than a small stretch. How could Iraq be justified through the same logic? In my view it definitely isn't - nonetheless it was a brilliant campaign strategy for the republicans to symbolically link the two. Albeit reprehensibly misleading.

I wanted to chat with the girl from Iraq about the discussion from my last post, yet she was definitely not interested. At the very least I can appreciate the fact that she is probably sick and tired of being objectified.


Other than that: I've gotten certified as an Fortinet Certified Network Security Professional - which I was stoked for my employer to pay for! Yeah Intergen.

And I've landed the job as the official photographer for the 10th Annual Wellington International Jazz Festival. It's been a hell of a lot of work - and continues to be. But it's a blast, there are some fantastic bands (as well as some real shockers), and a great opportunity to meet tons of people in the creative community.

Here are some sample shots from the last 4 days (6 more to go!):

Lisa Tomlins & Twinset of Wellington:



Twinset of Wellington:



Trio Boeren-deJoode-Vatcher of the Netherlands:



Alda Rezende of Brazil:



The Eggs, a bloody fantastic funk band from Wellington:



Even had some quite artsy light shows, like Robin Fox out of Australia: