Guru Brew Two

Guru Brew Two
Originally uploaded by gurubobnz.

'Guru Brew Two' has been bottled, and as with anything you do a second time, it went without a hitch. I knew what I was doing and now that my brewing operation has been migrated to the shed, it makes for a perfect man-cave. If I dragged a stool out there I could have be blogging this from there right now.

These babies will sit quietly for the next few weeks while we're on holiday - I'll have to instruct our house sitter to not sample the delights!

Another brew begins ...

Guru Brew
Originally uploaded by gurubobnz.

After a successful first attempt, 'Guru Brew Two' is underway. I've managed to secure a small fridge (thanks Milkie & Brownie) which I am using for insulation purposes and have set up my operation in my shed. I'm using a 20 watt lightbulb and a thermostat to regulate the temperature and I have it sitting at about 25 degrees. When demand calls for it, the fridge can be used to keep the beer cool!

It will be interesting to see how this one goes. Once this brew is out of the way I might try a stout.

McNaught's Comet

McNaught at Karapiro
Originally uploaded by Tirau Dan.

I happened to wander outside tonight at about 11:15pm and gazed up at the night sky. Right there in my field of view was a spray of comet dust stretching across the sky. Unfortunately it was too dark for my camera to get a hold of anything useful, but there's plenty of pics on Flickr.

From the nucleus to the end of the visible tail was about a hand's length when you hold your arm out towards the sky. It's supposed to be viewable for quite a while yet so get out there and have a squiz!

Ubuntu: Convert wma to mp3

This bash script should create a .mp3 file for all .wma files in the current directory. Note that you need mplayer and lame installed - a 'sudo apt-get install lame mplayer' should sort that out for you. Remember to chmod +x convert.sh your script to run it.

--- convert.sh ---

#!/bin/bash
for i in *.wma ; do mplayer -vo null -vc dummy -af resample=44100 -ao pcm:waveheader "$i" && lame -m s temp.wav -o "`basename "$i" .wma`.mp3" ; done
rm temp.wav


Note that the encoded MP3's will have no ID tags on them. I'll try to work that out when I'm more awake ... Zzzzz ...

Speights Tasting Room Draft Taps

Speights Tasting Room Draft Taps
Originally uploaded by gurubobnz.

Today Bob, Pete and I went on the Speights Brewery tour, followed by a lunch at the Speights Ale House. A tip for locals - if you are planning on going on the tour, visit the office first (on Rattray St) and sign up for the loyalty scheme. It doesn't cost anything and you (as the loyalty card holder) get in for free when you take someone else.

A well thought out plan would be to combine loyalty card holders to get a group of people in for half price :)

Firebird Outlaw Radio Control Plane

Firebird Outlaw Radio Control Plane
Originally uploaded by gurubobnz.

When we were in the UK, Linda bought me a Firebird Outlaw Radio Controlled Glider as a birthday present. It was great and it flew really well. The aerial came off it so I ended up leaving it behind with a RC enthusiast, who managed to fix it and has it flying in his fleet.

I happened to see the exact same model at Dick Smith Electronics over a year ago, and so I forked out the $80 for it (it was discounted as it had been repaired and resold), flew it once and then stuck it in the cupboard. I remembered it the other day and since the weather has fined up a little now, I decided to take it up to the park for a fly.

This weekend I flew it, but the battery in the handset was weak and it ran out of grunt while I had the glider very high (about 200ft I guess). As a result, the high wind up there carried it quite a distance. Fortunately I had my car with me so I got in it and chased after it. Thankfully I managed to get it back!

Tonight I've just got back from another flying session - there was hardly a breath of wind at ground level, although higher up there was a light breeze, perfect for gliding. I have a little helicopter doo-hicky thing that you can fling up into the sky with a rubber band and it comes back down to earth like a sycamore seed. This was great for checking to see if there was any wind higher up.

Now all I have to do is find someone locally who I can buy some more sets of batteries off - the charge in these packs is supposed to last for 10 minutes, but you can extend that if there is a bit of wind by playing around on the gusts.

Pommy Down Under

I just had a call from UK Bob, he's arrived in New Zealand :)

So far he said he is impressed with what he's seen and how laid back everybody seems. Well done Kiwi's, keep it up. Unfortunately his UK mobile is locked to his mobile provider so he will have to sort out a phone for use while he's here - probably best to buy one and then sell it when he's finished.

I wonder how long it will be until I inflict some Guru Brew on him? ;)

Back To Work

Ugh ... work.  I don't have the strength for it really, especially after the yucky weather we have endured through Christmas and the New Year's Celebrations.  However, in saying that there have been a few memorable things happen and I shall draw upon these memories to keep me sane and pumping away...

#1 - Christmas Day

The Guru family (Loopy, Linus and me) stayed the night at my parents on Christmas Eve, drinking Guru Brew into the wee hours of the morning.  On the plus side, my dad proclaimed on the phone that he "doesn't drink home brew", and then went on to say how it tasted like Steinlager.  1UP! :)

#2 - New Years Eve

I "escaped" from home (ok, it was prearranged and authorised) on New Years Eve to a BBQ for a friend who was back temporarily from the UK.  I met some FOAF's, drank my share of beverages and then taxied into town just before midnight.  More drinks and dancing ensued before I walked halfway home and caught a taxi the rest, arriving safe in my bed just before 4am.  1UP!

#3 - Day Of Week

I have had no idea what day of the week it has been for the last two weeks.  I didn't care, I had no reason to care and that has helped relax to a large degree.  That combined with us getting visitors in the next couple of weeks (ML, PW and family from Wellington, and UK Bob, from the UK) and then two weeks off to visit friends in Wellington and Napier will make these coming weeks at work fly past like nobody's business.

Oh, and a plus is that I'm posting to my blog via email, thanks to Blogger's Mail-to-Blogger setting.  Nice.