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.
Congratulations to the Department of Conservation's Kākāpō Recovery Programme. This represents so much hard work by so many people — Kākāpō Population Soars to 325: 🐦
The 2026 kākāpō breeding season, the biggest on record, has come to an end with a bumper number of kākāpō chicks produced. The youngest chick has just passed 150 days old, a milestone that marks its independence.
We had 90 chicks reach that milestone," …
Reading this was like a cat soaking in warmth in a puddle of sunlight. As in Volume 1 folks arrive at the cafe and transformation happens — The Magical Cat Café and Teashop Volume 2 by Kris Bock. 📚
This quiet, small-town café is a place for sweet treats and cozy moments with rescued cats—and it’s a sanctuary for people seeking transformation. Join them for new friendships and healing connections.
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:
- a public register of government AI systems’ function, performance, and impacts;
- formal oversight mechanisms for government AI use, proportional to risk; and
- involvement of the public in a deliberation process to define acceptable risk and use of AI in government systems.
Another in a series I enjoy. And with Lexy's parents visiting there are plenty more linguistic hijinks too. Scotzilla (Last Ditch Mysteries Book 7) by Catriona McPherson. 📚
Lexy's wedding becomes a crime scene when a murderer dares to strike on her big day
As someone with a terrible sense of direction, I enjoyed this moment too (my emphasis):
in completely the opposite direction from where my sense of direction, the skill Taylor calls my ‘nonsense of direction’, would have led me.
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 like this series in general, but not so much this specific book — Murder on Lovatt Island (Detective Marjory Fleming Mysteries Book 7) by Aline Templeton. 📚
Two boys dare each other into a hidden cave on the island. Inside they find a human skeleton, still shackled to the rock where it was left to die.
This book had a load of characters to follow, the murder and other events were grisly and Detective Fleming was facing extreme difficulties in her personal life.
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.
Matuku moana | White-faced heron: 🐦
In flight the white-faced heron usually tucks its head back towards its shoulders in the characteristic heron posture
Caspian terns are silver-grey above and white below, with dark wing tips. The tail is relatively short and only slightly forked compared to other terns. The large bill is mostly bright red in adults, becoming dark near the tip…. Adults have black legs and a black cap to below the eye during the breeding season.
I was the only human on the beach at Waipū Estuary this morning. There were gulls, Oystercatchers, and my favourites, the Dotterels. 🐦
Two data centres, 1/8 of all our country's electricity — What AI data centres could do to your electricity bill (my emphasis):
[it] didn’t take into account the newly-announced 250 megawatt CDC data centre in Taranaki or the 280MW DataGrid data centre in Southland.
When fully operative, these two locations combined would be capable of drawing as much as 6,000 gigawatt-hours per year. That’s equivalent to 13% of New Zealand’s current annual electricity supply.
This 20 minute video makes a great deal of sense out of an episode I hated (the horror one) and an episode I really enjoyed — Why the Star Trek Puppet Episode Is the Most Important One of This Era
this wasn't just a stunt. We dive into Star Trek's long franchise history of "loaded frames"—from giant white rabbits in The Original Series to Data's cellular peptide cake in The Next Generation and Hoshi's transporter accident in Enterprise. [It was] the exact narrative vehicle needed to transition Ethan Peck's emotional Spock into the cold, logical Vulcan we know from Amok Time.
Yesterday I went to the estuary specifically take take photos of birds. It's been a while …
Those posts in the sand are strung with wire to discourage folks from entering, so the birds have a chance to nest. 🐦
It was one of those days when the sun was shining from a blue sky, but the air just wasn't very clear.
This tanker(?) was on its way to Northport.
Meanwhile these Oystercatchers were puddling around. 🐦
