Author: Fee Writes

Fee Writes

Move Over Ted Cruz

We have our own Ted Cruz right here in New Zealand!

Do you know the recent story about Ted Cruz? Well, do you even know who Ted Cruz is? If not, I’ll fill you in and if you do – skip the next paragraph if you want to.

Ted Cruz is a Republican senator from Texas who did a runner with his family to Mexico when the massive snowstorm hit Texas, and the lights went out. Well, it was more than lights; it was quite a disaster as people died in this dreadful storm.

The press had a field day with this news, and Ted was shamed into returning, giving some ridiculous excuse about his daughter wanting a holiday. He maintained he was just escorting her (and the rest of the family) to Cancun to get them settled into the hotel. Does that mean he doesn’t trust his wife to do this?

(Sorry, Reader, I know, that was two paragraphs.)

Anyhoo, it appears we have our own Ted Cruz, which became apparent just before the recent lockdown in Auckland. Brian Tamaki (aka Bishop Tamaki, leader of the Destiny Church) and his wife Hannah (who aspires to be a politician) jumped into their vehicle and drove from Auckland to Rotorua a few hours before the Level 3 lockdown shut that fair city off from the rest of N.Z. Talk about the the monied elite’s ability to escape hardship.

As Ted left his constituents in a time of crises, so did Bishop Brian leave his parishioners – right when they needed him most. And, just so you know, he didn’t go back!

Now maybe the press wouldn’t have been so hard on him if he had gone back, but interviewing both of them separately, it seemed like they couldn’t even get their own stories straight. Brian was adamant that the trip was for business. However, Hannah said it was the annual hunting trip that always happens around this time of the year. – who was telling the truth?

I wouldn’t have bothered writing about this, even though it did make me laugh at the sheer audacity and selfishness of the couple. But now I’ve heard that this evangelistic leader of a cultist type of non-profit organisation has come out criticising politicians and church leaders for not backing him against the bad press.

Wait… there’s more

He also has claimed that all the bad press he’s received over this caused the recent earthquakes and tsunami warnings.

The couple ended up in the South Island, citizens of which publicly announced they didn’t want them! The poor lad was refused entry into Invercargill and had to go to Queenstown to conduct his Sunday service to the whopping big crowd of 20.

I have the feeling the wealthy in Queenstown are not really the Destiny Church’s ideal parishioner’s profile.

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Fee Writes

Random

Disaster Struck

Today I discovered that disaster had struck. No, I’m not talking about the tsunami warning that sent many residents into ‘leave now’ mode.

Thankfully, we weren’t actually in the wave’s line; only a bit of a surge in the tides was expected. I kept my eye on the government’s Civil Defence website as I continued with my work.

Mind you, tsunamis, earthquakes etc., are things that one can prepare for (and should), but I’m talking about the ones you don’t see coming.

I’ll put you out of your misery. The disaster that struck has to do with this website! The ‘sign up to follow my blog’ part had a hissy fit. Consequently, all those who had signed up actually hadn’t been receiving notification for a wee while. And then, to top it off, all of the addresses got deleted! Grrrrr.

You’d think I would know as I’m rather tech-savvy. But looking at stats is not exactly my preferred way of spending time. So I missed the signals.

The point is if you had signed up – huge favour – please sign up again. This time I’ll be the one sending out the email when I’ve written something rather than it being automatic. So much for automation!!!

You’ll see a sign-up form over there.

(Well, you’ll probably need to go up as well.)

Of course, if you’re on a mobile, the arrow will not go anywhere other than to your fingers which are probably holding your phone. That’s unless you’ve got one of those fancy round things on the back so you can hold the phone without dropping it… no good for me as I often stick my phone into my pocket!

Anyhoo, getting back to the arrow that may or may not point you in the right direction. The form is here; in fact, there’s a few of them scattered around, and knowing that you’re a smart cookie, I know you’ll find one of them.

Be warned. The intention is to write a blog a couple of times a week or when the mood strikes, but they will be short (well, most will), so they shouldn’t impinge on your day too much.

I will certainly appreciate it if you do like me enough to follow this blog. (Ahem, I like you anyway).

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Fee Writes

Environment | WTF

A Bit of Red Seaweed Does the Trick

What do cows and red seaweed have in common? Don’t know? Neither did I until now.

I happened to catch a wee story about red seaweed the other day that made me shake my head … so I just had to put it under the category of WTF!!!

It appears that scientists have discovered that feeding this abundant red seaweed to cows will reduce methane by up to 90%! Of course they have! Scientists have been working on creating environmentally friendly cows for ages. God forbid if a person is denied the cow juice in their latte.

The seaweed is known as Asparagopsis armata, and it grows in N.Z. and Australian waters. (It may sound like asparagus, but it’s vastly different.)

My first thought was – ‘Truly? Are they going to harvest this seaweed and make another ecosystem suffer because of the love of cow’s milk?’

But then I sighed a bit of relief when I discovered that they would grow and farm it like any other crop.

As I kept reading the article, I discovered that this seaweed is good for fish farming too. Because it is a plant that feeds on the nitrogen produced by fish, fish farms could potentially increase the number of fish they farm.

Dr Meller (from this biotech company) said

“So, it is entirely feasible that a fisherman today in Southland could increase stocking capacity, decrease costs not having to move those pens around and have a third revenue stream of Asparagopsis that we would teach them how to farm, that we would buy back from them at cost, plus a margin of profit.”

He also said

“There are no environmental impacts from farming the native seaweed, and growing it helps in a small way to address ocean acidification.”

Maybe it is a way (shrugging my shoulders as I write) to help with the mess in the ocean??? I just hope the government continues to encourage reducing cow numbers and not make this an excuse to keep or increase the herd sizes.

I want to see ecosystems return.

You can read the article here: Seaweed

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Fee Writes

Random

What Does A CEO Get Up To?

Even at the top of the pile a CEO needs to be on his game – in more ways than you would think.

When I’m at the gym, don’t laugh; yes, I go to the gym, but that’s a story for another day.

Getting back to what I was going to tell you. When I’m at the gym, I use the time wisely and listen to podcasts. I have several to choose from, and depending on the mood of the morning, I will pick one that I know will hold my interest long enough to make the time working out go faster.

The pods vary from sciencey style, animal activism, philosophy to comedy, wit and satire. Obviously, I have my favourites, and one is Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, and it was this that I was listening to that inspired me to write this post.

The episode title ‘A Good Walk Spoiled’ covers the elite sport of GOLF. I say ‘elite’ as one does need to have enough pennies in the bank to pay the membership, especially to the high-rolling courses around the USA.

It was a very captivating episode, and if you can get to listen to it, I suggest you do. But the one part that intrigued me the most was the amount of time that CEOs spend playing golf.

Surprisingly enough, if you know where to look, you can get the stats of different golfers’ scores. It appears they have high egos as they take great delight in posting their scorecards online. From this, statisticians have deduced that some CEOs can play 148 rounds of golf a year, which means, on average, they are out on the course one in every three days! (Some play even more).

Guess what? This puts golf into the addiction category. That’s right, this game, like many others, can and does become an addiction.

But another cool stat that showed up was the number of CEOs that get fired. The more golf they played, the more likely they were of getting the boot.

This doesn’t really surprise me because if the boss is out on the golf course, s/he is not at his/her desk running the show.

Mmmmm – this begs the question. How much golf did President Trump play when he was in office? Not at his desk running a country. I guess that’s why the majority of Americans yelled, “Your fired!”.

Fee Writes

Laugh! | Random

WE CAN RECYCLE ANYTHING!

What do you do with those umbrellas?

There is always something that I come across every day, that makes me laugh. And seeing cocktail umbrellas strung up along a pergola certainly tickled my funny bone.

I mean, talk about recycling! And how many cocktails did the owners have to have to get to create this remarkable string of fun?

As I continued my walk, more questions came to mind about these cute brollies.

Did they keep replacing them as the paper got ruined in the sun/rain?
How were they strung?
Maybe I could do the same? – oh wait, I don’t drink cocktails!
Where do you get them from?

[ss_click_to_tweet tweet=”There’s always something to giggle about if you look. Don’t take yourself too seriously. #laughaboutit” content=”” style=”default”]

Good thing I’d taken a photo of these little cuties because as I was telling my friend, I was able to pull up the pic and show her.

Imagine the enormous deflation I felt when she told me that they were little lights and one could buy them easily. However, search as I did, I only found one place that sold them, and that was on a party site, in the USA, under ‘Tropical & Luau’.

Guess I’ll just have to start having cocktails and save the wee parasols for stringing. Of course, I’ll have to make sure there is an excellent story to tell with each one!

Author: Fee Writes

Move Over Ted Cruz

We have our own Ted Cruz right here in New Zealand!

Disaster Struck

Today I discovered that disaster had struck. No, I’m not talking about the tsunami warning that sent many residents into ‘leave now’ mode.

A Bit of Red Seaweed Does the Trick

What do cows and red seaweed have in common? Don’t know? Neither did I until now.

What Does A CEO Get Up To?

Even at the top of the pile a CEO needs to be on his game – in more ways than you would think.

WE CAN RECYCLE ANYTHING!

What do you do with those umbrellas?

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