Month: September 2011

Mmmm…..been a little slack in this area (given this is kind of why this blog still is here)

Anyway, some updates of whats been built, is being built and whats been bought!

Whats been bought.

Going back to June/July for this one! I think I will just go the slide show route for this one as it will be a stack of photos

Whats still being built

I still have my MG Ball ver-ka sitting on my table

I really need to finish this one off…..

I also have to re-do my Beargguy as as the arms broke and again, I have been a little slack on his one. I also have a few other sitting in 'ready to paint' containers including a customised Geara Doga (I have a yellow and blue scheme in mind)  but Im still waiting for the weather to break and warm up

Finished Up as OOTB

1/48 RX 78-2

I am so going to hell for this one!

One the Go / WIP

Two major projects running at the moment

MG ACGuy

This is being built for the Grunt Build at GAF

and

1/144 PMX-003 The O

Lot more floating around…will have to take my camera down to the cave and get organised!

Oh my, where to start?

Now I know this is a couple of days old but things have been a bit of a blur and today is the first time Ive gotten to just sit down and gather my thoughts and actually write this down.

Sullivan Mai Forsyth, born on the 22/9/2011. Weighing in at a massive 3.16 kg's and 47 cm in length, he came into the world a little ahead of schedule! (2 weeks to be exact)

Got a phone call at work at about 10 am from Al. Things were slowly happening so we took her down about 11:30. Whilst her waters had not completely broken, she was 'leaking' enough for the hospital staff to be a little concerned given the distance we have to travel toreturn if we went home.

No major issues during the birth though it was funny to witness Ally on the gas again!

Ruby and Ezra are very excited about their new little brother….

…though I am a bit nervous about what Ezra is going to do to him

Flickr Photo Set (which will grow!)

The 21st has come and gone and Im now sitting here pondering the day. I mean, the concept of peace is one I yearn for. As I tell my students, the reason why I want peace is completely selfish as I want my children to grow up in a world where there is no hate or fear.

Coming into the day, I was a little half hearted. Throwing yourself into a cause is a big thing and takes it toll. After my classes in the previous days where I did a number of Peace based lessons back to back, I was floored by the apathy and cynicism a number of my students had towards such a concept. They all agreed that Peace was important but the number who thought it wasnt worth 'fighting' for was depressing.

Coming into the 21st given the way this week has run with all the interruptions and being a Yr 12 tutor and the impending birth of Forsyth #3, meant a lot was running through my head and the thing I was so scared about was that the day would fail and apathy would win.

I should never doubt the human spirit and desire for good in our world…..

Walking around the School in period 3, I was blown away by the number of teachers who took up my request (or challenge) to run a Peace based lesson (either as an entire 60 minute lesson and a section there of). Walking past room after room after room and seeing Peace One Day videos being run either in the background as students were working or as  a stimulus for further discussion was amazing and I wish to publicly thank my colleagues for this.

Setting up for the banner signing brought back an element of fear but  as the photos below show, I should never, ever doubt my 'kids' and their passion.

My thanks go to my Yr 11's….without them, the day would have failed.

and finally, Ruby's take on Peace (version 2011)

TEXT FOR “LOST GENERATION” VIDEO
I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
this is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.
And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.

I took this one outside a bridal shop in Kyoto

http://www.engrish.com/2011/09/furisode

Just finished snapping together my 1/48 RX-78-2.

Didnt take that long to put together and can I say this thing is huge! (thats what she said)

Probably will just panel line this thing and call its finished though I do want to paint the gun

Photo set thus far here

Found this interesting article at http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/09/the-shrine-line.html

 

This news report is entirely in Japanese but is worth watching even if you don't speak the language. It explains a fascinating concept: that the position of Shinto shrines along the Tohoku coastline encodes information about tsunami safety zones.

The vast majority of these shrines escaped the inundation virtually unscathed, in some cases while the towns around them washed away. In the image above, the light blue area represents land that was dry prior to the quake; that is how far inland the tsunami waters washed. Note how the shrines sit almost exactly along the line where the floodwaters finally broke.

What might at first seem like a miracle of divine intervention is even more interesting in reality. Several of the shrines actually venerate tsunami (Shinto being a religion of nature-worship), and in fact represent a historical record of where many previous tsunami floodwaters broke. 

It is not for nothing that Shinto shrines are generally built on high ground. One resident interviewed in the piece relates how local lore, handed down from parent to child, said to take refuge at the local shrine in the event of a tsunami. It proved true during the disaster, saving many lives.

Like the "tsunami stones" and folktales found throughout the region, these shrines represent an attempt from those who lived long ago to communicate the dangers of tsunami to future generations. It seems likely that's precisely why they were built in these specific locations.

Being "holy ground" that typically remains undisturbed even in modern times, you could say the shrines are an encoding system. They convey information about safe areas without relying on the frailties of human memory or documents. You can seem a similar idea in modern-day attempts to devise a "10,000 year marking system" to ensure that nuclear waste sites remain uninhabited even long after the civilizations that created them have fallen.

What other sorts of traditional sites might encode useful information? It's an open question, as is their actual utility. For all the effort the people of the past put into warning us, we still decided to build nuclear power facilities on land known to be prone to devastating tsunami.

Really interesting stuff and says a lot about looking to the past to guide the future…..

Sent this in two years ago but one of my photos from Japan was published online!!

Located at http://www.engrish.com/2011/09/okay/

Some of the comments are hilarious!!

Posted here mainly so I dont lose it!

Love these guys to death…amazing 6 years together (well, 5 but we dont talk about Yr 10)

Ezra refusing to get ready for bed….he's quick for a little fella!