And so it begins...

Subtitle: The one where the scene is set.

 

Welcome to my blog. It took me a long while to make up my mind about starting a blog. At first I thought that it would be a waste of my time, and that nobody would really care what I have to say about stuff. But then I got to thinking, well, why shouldn't I? After all, I'm moderately intelligent and have 44 years of life experience on our little ball of rock swinging gracefully around our star, so I might, on occasion, make an observation which enlightens or entertains.

Who am I? Well, I live in New Zealand, home to hobbits, sheep, adventure tourists, and the occasional nerd like me. I'm a big fan of my home country, but there are things going on here which variously amaze, annoy and dumbfound me. At the time of writing my wife and I are about to become parents for the first time, with our baby daughter due around the end of June. This is an adventure soaked in anticipation and trepidation, and is undoubtedly something I will be discussing at some length here. That'll be fun, I hear you say :)

No doubt a reasonably common theme here will be my disenfranchisement with politicians at both central and local government levels. Occasionally I will rail for or against issues about which I am passionate, and I make no apologies for embracing my leftist leanings. I am also, as my brief bio suggests, a science and IT geek, and the content here will reflect that. Expect posts about cool sciency stuff, especially the life sciences and astronomy, interspersed with comments about things IT with a bit of gaming thrown in for good measure.

By far and away my favourite sport is the noble game of cricket. I love the swings in fortune during test matches, and the little defining moments which can change a game. I don't mind the shorter versions, but for me test cricket will always be the purest form of the game. Like many kiwis I am interested in rugby, but not with the fervour demonstrated by a number of my fellow countrymen, so it won't be high on my list of topics.

Settle in folks, sit down, put your feet up and make yourselves at home. This blog will likely be a bit of a mixed bag; I intend to touch on a number of topics which interest me, as stated above. With a bit of luck I will find the time to post with reasonable frequency, but as the aphorism goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I make no excuses if when our baby comes I drop out of the loop a bit, I expect this to be a pretty busy time.

Note also that this blog is a bit of a work in progress, so expect  things to evolve over time as I tweak things a bit. Cheers!