Miraz Jordan

As I drove past the end of Papich Road the other day I wondered what was down there. Turns out there's a hidden gem of a park and walkway.

It's a roughly 2 Km return walk, with grassy areas, native trees, and at the end, a short pier and entry to the beach. The latter part of the walk skirts the port, flanked on one side by a maybe 5 metre high wooden wall.

Apparently seals sometimes rest beside the shore.

A nice bit of punnery in our other election this year: 'Manufestos and wings': The new twist in this month's Bird of the Year competition:

this year, the avian election comes with a twist - Aotearoa's manu have been sorted into six different political parties - the shore birds, the floor birds, the tree birds, the sea birds, the high birds and the shy birds. …

"They're not arranged along traditional human political lines in our election," Toleman said. "Every candidate has a left wing and a right wing and each party has a manufesto.

"Like with any election there could be scandal along the way, we expect some ruffled feathers around the house."

OK, I haven't read the study, but the conclusion is interesting. BMD = Bone Mineral Density — Longitudinal Association of Coffee and Tea Consumption with Bone Mineral Density in Older Women

Conclusions: Tea consumption was associated with higher total hip BMD in postmenopausal women, whereas excessive coffee intake (>5 cups/day) may adversely affect BMD. Coffee consumption was negatively associated with femoral neck BMD in women with higher alcohol intake, while tea consumption appeared particularly beneficial for those with obesity.

Drink tea! 😆

I was wondering today: how come we call acres of machines that harvest the power of wind, 'wind farms'. But then if it's structures to harvest the sun we call them 'solar farms'.

I'm declaring it now: from this day forth I'm going to call them 'sun farms'. 😆

I visited Marsden Point Beach at the end of Mair Street today.

With the breeze from the west, this east coast water was like glass. For the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. 🌊

Across the road from Harbour Keys cafe is a pretty beach with pōhutukawa trees right down to the water. I visited at mid-tide.

I walked over these flat black rocks going north. By the time I came back 15 minutes later they were surrounded by water (photo). I had to go bouldering instead. 😆

This morning I went to Harbour Keys cafe in One Tree Point where I enjoyed scrambled eggs on toast with grilled tomato, with an orange and horopito herbal tea.

The outside table I chose also had a framed view of Mt Manaia.

I was a bit dispirited by my gym progress over the last few months, and mildly reluctant to go today, so I set out to drop each weight down and do more reps.

I've also had trouble with my dead hang lately, having worked up to 2x 52 seconds, so today I did 3x 40 seconds.

It all went quite well.

After heavy rain at the weekend the digger again scooped huge buckets of water from where they're currently working and dropped it into Lake Heron.

I thought they were working on the new road but Deb chatted with them today and it's actually just ground work for some of the houses to come.

Kiwis, sign the petition to get Trust Worthy AI:

NZ government agencies are rapidly adopting automated decision-making (ADM) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. … All of these uses have the potential to create real-life physical, financial, legal or psychological harm to New Zealanders. 

The Petition:

That the House of Representatives legislate to require:

1. a public register of government AI systems’ function, performance, and impacts;
2. formal oversight mechanisms for government AI use, proportional to risk; and
3. involvement of the public in a deliberation process to define acceptable risk and use of AI in government systems.

This is hilarious and brilliant — Canadian Resistance Army - Lake Ontario (Official Music Video) (2.5 minutes).

We had about 88 mm (3.5 inches) rain yesterday so the bog behind our place where they're excavating for a new housing development turned nicely into a bunch of lakes and streams. I've decided to name one of them Lake Heron (since naming lakes is a trend now, I believe). 😆

A friend recommended the movie Song Sung Blue, and we spent a pleasant couple of hours watching it on this super-rainy day. 🎥

All the eights.

Even though 8 hours sleep is just a number within an actual range of how much sleep is good for us, there's something very satisfying about hitting exactly that number. No surplus minutes. 😁

Bonus: sleep score of 88.

I slept very poorly last night so wasn't specially energetic.

That's why today's walk was a loop along the road to the bakery where I enjoyed a very large hot chocolate, then back along the river.

Looks like a motorist failed to correctly take the corner onto McCathie Road …

I had a glitch with building the Lego Ruru, but finally completed it — all 75 bricks. 😆

The "problem" I had building it was I had a basic concept that the 'bumps' were the top side of each brick. However, it was built with the 'bumps' down.

That took me a while to figure out.