Yup – you big sack of marshmallow, you. :) Now, gather the clan and get your fucking arses up here for more cuddling and and random filth than you can handle.

Seriously, who does that?

Also, it?s lovely to see you back online.

L

Pfft. Until she writes a post from her phone at 2am, I am going to call her a pussycat.

(heh. She's gonna kill me.)

Until she writes a post from her phone at 2am, I am going to call her a pussycat.

Srsly, can we get Haywood a "services to journalism" for that? They seem to be going pretty cheap these days.

We can add him to the list of nominations, I am sure.

As for Haywood, he'll only accept if you tell him it comes with hug-repellant.

I had a quick Facebook chat with Jen last night, and she'd seen all the talk of hugging David. She thought it would be best not to warn him.

I?ll happily by-pass Haywood and indroduce wee-Bob to the Cuddle Monster. (Yeah, I know that sounds icky but screw it.) Emma also has first dibs on my supply of bum-pinching, boob admiration and general gropeage. Sorry,?

You?re a better cat-person than I am. But then again, I?m a dog.

Shhh! No-one's supposed to know!

Yes David probably wins for coherency on an phone at 2 am ... how did they know he was the right person to ask?

But for the sense of chaos I like your description better.

And how can you be called a?

I think Emma knows I was taking the piss, because "coo, you're fucking awesome" is not how I usually roll. :)

But for the sense of chaos I like your description better.

I briefly considered writing something organised and coherent, but a) I couldn't do it, and b) it wasn't fitting.

And... yes. Yous are all awesome in all your different ways.

We should tell Haywood the Hugging Booth is for?

Toby Manhire was familiar with David's work and I was able to give Toby his mobile number.

I had no idea David would turn it around?

I know Craig, I was referring to her self-deprecation.

of course "ooo you are so awesome" would have been so gay :P

So barbecues have turned out to be the disaster appliance of choice? I was thinking on Tuesday that in-car phone rechargers might have proved very valuable too. A car battery can charge a cellphone a lot of times, and if the car's still?

huh really? So if you are near to a tower you use less energy than if you are far from one? Weird never thought it would work that way.

Phone are transmitters after all, and the distance they can signal is closely related to their power output.

Great to have you back Emma. This is a brilliant description of Round Two.

*My internal Thesaurus is yet to come back online post-Tuesday.

Car cell chargers are handy. Also a small 150W Inverter that can convert 12V DC to 240V AC is?

I seem to recall something about continually having to renegotiate 3G data connections ? ie, situation normal?

And yeah, my phone battery always goes flat faster when I'm down at my Mum's where the connection is really shitty.

Heh. Presents?

My dad gave me, when I came down after September, one of those wind up radio, torch, alarm things, which?

Was thinking 'We should send down some car chargers', and then, apart from not actually knowing where you all live, the postal service is on?

Also, to add to the list?

One thing I didn't realise until today was that the old plugin phones (not the hand-held ones) work when the power's?

Word, never knew how awesome these are until I had kids. Now I've always got some in my bag. Also, alcohol based hand cleaner. I got a small one in my bag,?

Texts are extremely low bandwidth – the transmission of them would not be chewing up much power. It seems likely to me that the rapid power drain would have been from the phones trying to stay connected to?

i hates it.

Yes, although you won't get calls in. I'm not sure what happens with txts...do they queue up when your phone is off? Anyone? Bueller? If?

does with mine. emails, twitter, the whole nine stack overnight while i sleep.

plus, lots of people have no way to charge their communicators. best idea, change your message to "i'm ok, 24 february 2011", and switch the phone off.

switch it on every few hours?

I'm sorry – but my neurons have been firing much more randomly than usual since Tuesday and I sort of wanted to know why...

Besides how many times can I say I'm really really glad Emma and family are well?

already proven useful a few times when the lights go. as long as the phone lines are live you're in business.

The Ericsson Cobra is a classic. But it's not like you need a phone that old for emergency use. (Besides, no one under the age of 20 knows how to rotary dial.) Any fully wired phone will?

Great advice – never thought of that.

Yep, that's the one. In pale green. As you say though, would have to teach the under 10s, actually maybe the under 30s, in the area how to use it for it to be of any value.

As you were then. Back to phones.

Yes. Further to Bart's query, I'm fairly sure that the power required is not?

However, can anyone explain the ghosting thing? From both people in Chch, people in Wellington and Twitter, I've been?

Le Cafe? Did he say how it is? I broke up with my first boyfriend there.

That reminded me of Telethon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ls7DBJOgU

See I told you they were firing randomly

Aye. Silly anecdote here, but bear with me. An old guy I once lived with once described how during WW2 he was working in a control tower at an airbase, when he saw his best friend stuff up his landing, crashed and burned.?

It is, kind of my default cafe in Christchurch. When I am down there, Emma and I always organise a drinks at the Dux,?

No it wasn't. I caught part of Enoch Powell's interview with Parkie on a monitor in Marbeck's this avo, and he said something chilling yet enormously moving: That until very late in the war,?

And it is quite the experience. Those days at the Dux have made me completely re-think how I feel about my hometown, thanks to Emma?

Though, then she'll call me a bitch again.

Rest assured, no matter what happens, at some point I will call you a bitch again. Because I love you.

And do carry on with the phone geekery. You know I adore geekage. Also, this kind of knowledge is very handy.

Also,?

I just typed a one word reply, nearly hit post, and thought, 'you know, maybe that's not appropriate.'

What the hell is wrong with me?

Thank you for mentioning this. It made me look up his Wikipedia Page ( that Enoch Powell?), and I learnt yet another lesson in not judging?

Now, about them phones?.

Don't. She deserved it, especially as she kept on digging.

She sure brought new meaning to the term 'doing the spadework'. When you're in a hole, you might as well visit China.

However, there is certainly a lot of emotion going around, and it wouldn't hurt sometimes to have emoticons on?

I don't know. The one I mean is this one.

There's a family legend involving it, that looking at that page, I now realise can't possibly be true.

If one had power back on, but no water supply, one could "make" water with one's dehumidifier (assuming one had one and it wasn't busted) – especially with the "laundry" setting that my one has – it collects?

Yes
BUT
Most people don?t keep the innards of their dehumidifier as clean as their glasses and pots. They have a tendency to build up layers of bacterial slime (biofilms), which are usually harmless, if icky, but sometimes those bacteria can be very?

Shit this place is awesome. Just felt like saying that. Humour, pathos, technology, science, all in two pages of blogginess. Other Blogs just __wish__?

I was thinking this, then I thought "with what shall I clean it?". Surely not all that lovely potable water I've got lying around??

as for the dehumidifier, can't see the problem with using the water for things like washing soiled buckets or using to clean clothes.

if you needed to distil it, put it in a pot, and boil?

Damn, I love that photo. All those well-bred young ladies. Must be a Christchurch thing.

Careful, those cultists from the other thread will hear you.

The sterilising of water using solar radiation and PET bottles. It is so simple it works. I did a bit of a search around this subject a year or so ago?

Scott? I was always rather fond of that one because I know it was made by his widow, who specified that if she died before it was finished, it should be left as it was.?

It's even better when you know what I was reading. Aloud. To an audience.

And Emma's teenage son. You can borrow my copy if you like. Though I'd warn you, it'll ruin parts of your favourite book.

The one my dad gave me also has a (surprisingly loud) siren. That's...comforting.

Swoon... a crack squad of Janeites will be kicking down your door presently. Please don't make a fuss.

I'd like to point out, I did it at Emma's behest. I've done a lot recently just to put a smile on her face. (Leave it, Emma.)

When I was down there recently, Emma came with me to buy a gift voucher for The Bog?

Yeah, it's quite fun when you accidentally set off the siren. V good for the nerves! I can see why it's in there, though.

ETA: This one?

I think you probably need to keep boiling that tap water until they give you the OK

Oh, yeah, fucking oath. My stock-pot's been doing sterling duty.

Yes, preferably without a big poo in it the first time.

ETA: I'd almost think putting some coloring into the?

*ETA: Speaking of lowering the tone, this is not an intentional innuendo.

ETA: I apologise for this?

I'm not even there, just reading about how messed-up the ground is, and I still don't fully understand how they do that so quickly.

NOTE: they'd better have a fancy loofer.

The chasm goes the whole width of the street, with a tiny strip either side where the footpaths used to be. It's about the size of?

Hey, the Pope knows hardware and would definitely count that. He founded Mitre Ten.

May already have been said but if you disable data connections on your phone, wifi, bluetooth, data through your provider,?

They don?t have to fill in triplicate forms and do reports so they can actually do the work they are good at and ya know they are good at it!

To be a little less cynical a lot of?

Waaay cheaper too – the local gas station has it for $8 a liter. Meths is handy stuff, it can be stored in ordinary plastic bottles. Good for cleaning and cooking (making a meths stove is [[http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm|really, really?

Would you be up to a frittata, though?

On the fridge note, question for Emma. How long?

Whoops, wrong thread?

ETA: Vaughn Davis has a goat farm? Who knew? Well, apart from his 2800 followers that is.

How long did it stay cold for? I was thinking it might be a good idea to move the perishables to the freezer at some point, which would probably stay cold longer.

That's what we did on the second day, by which time the fridge was basically a cupboard. So?

These are the two that really upset me. This is a Devon cottage my grandmother brought with her from Devon when she emigrated in 1912. One of the chimneys has broken off, and I can't find it. Karl found the irony of 'my house has lost its?

Shall I find a glittery wool, and we'll fashion a tail?

Aw! :-) :-( I had some little china horses when I was?

Wow, that is an incredibly useful site, Ben! Thanks for linking!

My pleasure. I can attest to most of the designs, I played with them a lot after the first quake. These things work. It's nice to know I can make a wood stove from a tin can any time now.

After September, I learned so much off the combined wisdom here about what was useful. I ditched the soap from the emergency box and added some hand cleanser, cash, clean undies and a hip flask?