Hahaha

There are days I miss home but a funny story from there always makes me laugh. This is a funny newspaper clipping shared with me by some facebook friends. Enjoy! Rock on Marines!

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Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, thanks for being awesome. You are and always shall be my design/geek rockstar.

Live Long and Prosper!

According to the Associate Post:

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Leonard Nimoy has attended his final "Star Trek" convention.

The 80-year-old actor, best-known for playing Mr. Spock in the original TV series that began in September 1966, formed four fingers into a V for Vulcan sign and intoned to fans Spock's most famous phrase: "Live long and prosper."

Nimoy has said the convention in suburban Chicago celebrating the45th anniversary of "Star Trek" would be his last.

He spoke for an hour about his life and career, and thanked fans for their support over the years. Some held signs saying: "We love you Leonard! Live long & prosper."

Creation Entertainment organizes the "Star Trek" conventions. Company CEO Adam Malin says the company has toured and collaborated with Nimoy for nearly three decades and that Nimoy "will be missed."

This story came from Yahoo! News.

Sensei Keiko Fukuda is 98-year-old and the first woman to ever earn Judo's highest-degree black belt. Totally my hero.

This is an article from Yahoo News:

Is earning a black belt on your life list? Then this elderly woman in San Francisco just might be your ultimate hero.

Just two years before her 100th birthday, Sensei Keiko Fukuda has  become the first woman to achieve a tenth-degree black belt—the highest rank in the martial art and combat sport Judo. Fukuda is now one of only four living people who've earned the tenth-degree (or dan) black belt. To put the accomplishment into better perspective, throughout history, only sixteen people have ever achieved this honor.

Fukuda began practicing Judo in 1935 and is the sole surviving student of its founder, Kano Jiguro. At her teacher's urging, she learned English to help spread Judo internationally.

During a time when getting married, building a family, and becoming a housewife was the norm, Fukudo bucked tradition, opting out of marriage to pursue the martial art.

"All I did was Judo...this was my marriage," Fukudo reflected tearfully to the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is when my life destiny was set. I just never imagined how long this road would be."

She described the Jiguro’s school, known as the Kodokan, as "old-fashioned and sexist about belts and ranks." In fact, an edict that prevented women from achieving any higher than a fifth-degree black belt kept Fukuda at that level for thirty years. She was finally elevated to sixth dan in 1972 when a woman's division was created.

Fukodo said she approached Judo and her life with the intent to "be gentle, kind and beautiful, yet firm and strong, both mentally and physically." Fukuda says this kind of beauty is decidedly not external. "A compassionate soul is inner beauty," she explained to the paper. "I believe this is true beauty...All my life this has been my dream."

Dream realized, the 98-year-old Sensei Keiko Fukuda continues to teach Judo three times a week at a woman's dojo.

Best of New Zealand

The Best of New Zealand according to Yahoo! News:

Kiwi Experience polled the 'best of' in New Zealand for hot spots and hidden gems. This is what they discovered - do you agree?

Where in New Zealand is the best place to:

Buy a pie?
Steak & cheese from The Stove Oven Bakery in Devonport 

Chicken curry pie from Better Quality Pies in Rotorua

Have a beer?

Lake Wanaka waterfront in the afternoon sunshine

Bungy jump?

Nevis canyon in Queenstown

Go skinny dipping

Lake Mahinapua (where? The west coast, 10 kms south of Hokitika)

Try your luck at fishing?

Catch some snapper in the Bay of Islands

See some buskers?

World Buskers Festival in Christchurch

Make a new friend?

On the bus!

Spend some hard earned cash?

Queenstown nightlife

Skateboard?

Wellington Waterfront

Meet some locals?

Waitomo

Have a dance?

World Bar in Queenstown

Climb a mountain?

Mt Tongariro in the Central Plateau

Get up close to New Zealand wildlife?

Baby seals at Ohau stream north of Kaikoura

Sample the local cuisine?

Hangi at Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua

Experience a taste of Maori culture?

Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua

Have a picnic in the park?

Abel Tasman National Park

Sunbathe?

Cathedral Cove in the Coromandel

Watch some live music?

Monsoon Bar in Franz Josef

Witness a New Zealand sunset?

Lake Taupo

Eat fish and chips?

Kaikoura

Go for a surf?

Punakaiki- just you and a pod of dolphins

Christchruch Quake Update

From the News Updates via Yahoo

Death

The official death toll has been revised down to 32.

While prime minister John Key said 65 people had been confirmed dead last night, Civil Defence national director John Hamilton said this morning that 32 deaths have been confirmed.

He said police have only confirmed 32 deaths as they have to go through an official identification and notification process.

There have been incredible tales of survival, but the death toll is still expected to rise as that process is completed.

A woman with a baby in her arms died instantly when she was hit by falling debris in yesterday's 6.3 earthquake.

A passerby went to her assistance in Christchurch's Cashel St Mall, but she was dead when he arrived.

Some people took the child away, but it was not known how badly hurt the baby was, eyewitness Tom Brittenden, 25, told The Press.

Mr Brittenden was doing repair work on a cafe when the earthquake hit and he ran out on to the street.

It looked like the woman had run out of a store in panic and been hit by falling debris, he said.

"We tried to pull these big bricks off [them].... she was gone.

"They just put a blanket on [the woman] because she had already gone."


Power outage

About half of Christchurch remains without power following today's magnitude 6.3 quake, and lines company Orion Energy is warning it will take several days to make repairs.

Up to 80 percent of customers lost power when the quake hit just before 1pm and Orion had managed to restore it to some.

"We have found serious damage to both major cables and substations in the New Brighton and Dallington areas," Orion Energy chief executive Roger Sutton said.

"This is very substantial damage and it will take us two or three days establish a repair time," he said.

"We hope to get small pockets of these areas back on later tomorrow,but substantial repairs will take much longer."

The damage sustained was far more serious than any damage from the September 4 quake.

Damage throughout the area was more substantial, especially in the central city, Summer, Lyttelton and Heathcote areas.

"We have started to restore power back to areas west of Cathedral Square," Mr Sutton said.

"We now think we have 50 percent of power back on to Canterbury (but) there are still substantial areas of the city where we have not been able to access the damage at this stage."

Orion's main building was largely undamaged, Mr Sutton said.

"I was in our building on the ground floor, and I managed to get under a table, and then I went out into the street and it was an extraordinarily terrible sight."


Survivors 

Police say a large number of people have been pulled alive from collapsed Christchurch buildings as rescuers worked throughout the night under floodlights in a bid to rescue trapped earthquake victims.

The PGG building on Cambridge Terrace and the CTV building on the corner of Madras and Cashel Streets were the worst hit following yesterday's 6.3 magnitude quake, and "significant" numbers of people were inside.

Sixty-five people have been confirmed killed but there are fears the death toll will mount today as more bodies are found.

Police Superintendent Russell Gibson said this morning that since 1pm yesterday 22 people, including two with serious injuries, had been rescued from the PGG building and a further 22 people were believed still trapped.

There had been communication with at least three of these people inside the building and it was understood they were not hurt.

Eight people had also been rescued from the CTV building.

"It is thought a large number are still unaccounted for and work is ongoing to match up reports of missing people with specific locations and buildings."

There was a number of deceased people in both buildings, he said.

"The focus of Police and Urban Search and Rescue at this stage is the rescue of those still trapped, rather than the recovery of the dead.

"It is difficult to speculate on the total death toll as it is such a rapidly evolving situation.

"We know it will be significant and we know there are a lot of people going through the nightmare ordeal of waiting for news of their loved ones.

"All of the agencies involved in this operation are working as hard as possible to bring some clarity to the situation and some answers families and friends."

Rescuers have worked desperately through the night trying to find victims trapped in the Christchurch rubble following the quake which struck at 12.51pm 20km southeast of Christchurchh at a depth of 5km.

There have been dozens of aftershocks.

St John Ambulance said that two people were killed when hit by falling rocks while walking the Lyttelton's Crater Rim Track. They were believed to be the only victims from the area which was severely damaged.

The death toll is already the second highest from a New Zealand earthquake -- outranked only by the 256 people killed in the violent 7.9 1931 Hawke's Bay quake, whose 70th anniversary was marked earlier this month.

Christchurch Hospital's emergency department was extremely busy treating cuts, crush injuries, fractures, spinal injuries and serious wounds.

Police have not been able to supply numbers on how many they believe are trapped, or how many have so far been pulled from the wreckage of buildings. Some survivors have sent text messages that they were trapped in the rubble.

A state of emergency has been declared, which is expected to last five days.

The quake smashed into the city when the city was packed with lunch-hour shoppers and office workers.

It followed the massive 7.1 shake on September 4 last year but its effect were much more severe this time because of the shallowness of the quake.

Buildings that stood up to last year's event tumbled this time, weakened by the earlier shaking.

Civil Defence said that by midday 220 Search and Rescue personnel will be deployed and as many as 700 Search and Rescue personnel may be deployed within 48 hours.

Further teams from overseas are also on their way to join the effort as international offers assistance come in.

About 950 people spent the night at two welfare centres, at Hagley Park and Burnside High School, where blankets, food, sanitation were supplied.

Civil Defence will attempt to open more centres throughout the day.

Water, sewer and gas lines were ruptured by the quake and power lines and poles crashed, cutting electricity to one third of the city.

Eighty percent of the city has not water supply and people were urged to conserve water; not to shower, take baths of flush toilets.

Schools are closed today and people are urged to stay at home, and undertake essential travel only.

Prime Minister John Key flew to Christchurch yesterday and after a quick tour of the city described it as "utterly wrecked", adding "this is an absolute tragedy for Christchurch".

"We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day," he said.