New Zealand Christmas Tree

THE POHUTUKAWA

We don't have snow at Christmas time down here under the world, instead we have glorious summer!

We like to dress up an evergreen (usually pinus radiata) with baubles and lights to shine prettily in our lounge and to protect the gifts of love beneath its branches.

But the Pohutukawa needs no tinsel.

She has her own



MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
[ and Happy Solstice to those who know it :-) ]

The Chosen Words

First of all I apologise for my silence recently. This weekend just past I spent indoors (despite the first bout of sunshine for too long) as my friends and I had organised an XBox LAN for saturday afternoon - sunday morning.
A group of about five to eight of us will get together every now and then, connect up our xbox's (one each of the 'box and a tv) in Muz's garage and play all sorts of games, from tactical counter-terrorism, through all-on-all 'slayer' to comedy car racing. Though I had always considered computer games to be anitsocial these are in fact a very social event, with plenty of back chat and a full dinner break in the middle.

However this one was something a little bigger. We had sixteen people confirmed, though in the end only twelve turned up, and we hired a venue. We had a projector screen, an organised competition and prizes. (arranged and purchased by myself and 'sarge.'
Anyway, despite the fact that I was inside pretty much from 1430 Saturday to 0330 sunday (when i went home) it was a great weekend.

The main apology however is mainly due to the fact that I've been having problems with my internet. I have been trying to send Maalie a copy of the Boeing 707 roll but it hasn't sent and my email to say I was going to flag the whole thing also wouldn't send. (am currently attempting the first again M.)

Okay, now to the part of the post I originally intended to type up. The sayings actually chosen to be put on the card;

1. The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible

2. There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where non intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar,
I love not man the less, but nature more.

~~Lord Byron (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage)

3. a) Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.
3. b) Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.
3 .c) Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
(Winnie-The-Pooh and Christopher Robin)

And on the back page (turned out to be a multi-leaf card)

IF
by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Friends, I need your help

Greetings again fellow bloggers,
A close friend of mine has finally conceeded that my celebration of Christmas will not end without a present passing from me to them. In order to regain a level of control, the request was that the gift should be;
A card, with a poem (written by me) and an inspirational saying. Now I have no worries making the card or writing the poem, only the little sayings I know don't seem quite.... right.

I have hunted about the internet and am currently bemoaning the loss of my parents book of quotations (since I am no longer living at home) however I still haven't found something that works. I wonder if the followers of these blogs would be interested in putting forward words that have spoken to them and may be appropriate for a person floundering a little with work, though not so much with life!

At the moment I will be putting in Rudyard Kipling's 'IF,' but I think I need something a little more succinct!

I would be very much obliged.
Ju's Little Sister :-)

>SIGH<

I am too nice.

A wing is a wing is a wing. And lift is all about tilt. More specifically, angle of attack.
See image:


Looking at the side of the plane and a cross section of the wing.
The darker line represents the angle of the fuselage - in the top image, parallel with the earth. See how the wing is tilted up slightly. From memory it is about 13 degrees. In the bottom image the plane has gone up, up, up and over and is now flying upside down the way it came. The top of the plane is now nearest the earth. As Maalie predicted, the pilot doesn't fly straight and level, but angles the plane (the controls think downwards, which is now upwards) so that the wing still has that angle of attack. In fighter planes, which require all sorts of manaeuovres, the angle of attack would be negligible, so that the pilot doesn't have to seriosly tilt the aircraft to get it to fly upside down - but as long as the fuel system can cope, any plane can use this method and fly upside down. In fact I have a video of a Boeing 707 doing a barrel roll VERY IMPRESSIVE!!! But I don't think I can load videos onto the blog. If anyone wants to host it for me...!

I hope this helps you 'W.'