Callum MIA

The Top 100 Male and Female Baby Names for 2012 have been released and once again, Callum is nowhere to be seen for the third year in a row! The last time Callum featured was in 2009 when it was the 78th most common baby name!

Out of us three brothers, only Aonghas features, ranking as the 62nd most common male baby name of 2012.

The top 5 male baby names for 2012 were:

Jack

Oliver

William

Liam

Mason

while the top 5 female baby names for 2012 were:

Olivia

Sophie

Emily

Charlotte

Ruby

Most of these names have featured in the top five at least once or twice before in the last five years!

View the complete list here. 

Why Does Technology Hate Me?

I think I've had it with Samsung, Android or maybe just technology overall.

Today while I was in Hamilton picking blueberries, my phone (Galaxy S3 for anyone wanting to know) gave me some notification about my microSD card being disconnected/dismounted, and I didn't really think much of it, as it happened once or twice with my previous phone (Galaxy S2) and I just had to restart my phone for everything to be fine.

I restarted my S3, but to no avail! My phone didn't even recognise that there was a microSD card in it! I tried taking the card out, wiping it, blowing the slot, leaving the phone turned off for a while, and still nothing!

Tonight I put the card into my laptop to make sure it wasn't the card's problem, and it was working fine! I'll have to try put another microSD into my phone to make sure it is my phone's problem.

This isn't the first problem I've had with this phone since I bought it earlier last year. Let's see..

1. The LED light wouldn't switch off, so I had to send it back to Samsung to get it fixed. I didn't get my phone back for three weeks because Warehouse Stationery didn't send it off straight away.
2. When I received my phone back from them, my 'home' button was stiffer than it was before. I've been tempted to return it to get it fixed again, but I'm a little weary of how long it will take.
3. I kept getting pop-up boxes telling me that some Samsung service had ended. Fortunately that stopped after I upgraded to Jelly Bean
3. I upgraded my phone software to Android Jelly Bean, and now my phone is extremely laggy! The camera would also keep crashing too, telling me that it failed to record! I probably should have done a clean install.

Along with this,

- my very first phone the Sony Ericsson K800i joystick button wouldn't allow me to scroll down, which meant I'd have to scroll to the top of the menu and then come back up the menu from the bottom.
- my HTC Desire began looping the start-up screen.
- my Samsung Galaxy S2 kept freezing, with a Samsung service fail pop-up box constantly appearing after I updated to Gingerbread.

Don't get me started on laptops as well! I just upgraded my Sony Vaio to Windows 8, only to find it plagued with these little problems, such as the cursor jumping around as I typed. I called Sony, only to discover I wasn't meant to do a fresh install of Windows 8, but was meant to upgrade my laptop via their Vaio Utility software. In the end I had to install each driver one by one, and then was met with even more problems after when I was told my battery might have problems! Fortunately people on the net had faced this problem before and provided a workaround.

Is it just me, or do I attract problems?

Out of Auckland for a Day

It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment decision late yesterday afternoon that our family would travel down to Hamilton for the day and go pick blueberry picking along the way. Our dad has a few days off work, and we finally have a reliable car, so we thought we'd make the most of it!

We didn't leave home till 10am though. So far we've been in the car for over an hour and have just passed through Huntly and Ngaruawahia.

It's so quiet and small, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Auckland! There was a McDonalds and even a KFC at Huntly though, which impressed me!

We took a short toilet break at Ngaruawahia before continuing on down to Hamilton. Another roughly 60kms to go, and the weather is perfect at the moment!

We finally got to Hamilton just after midday, but had to travel a bit further to go to the blueberry farm. This was a different one to the farm we went to last year. We decided to check this one out, as we could visit Hamilton on the way back.

I have to admit, the blueberries were much bigger and plentiful at this farm!

We spent almost two hours picking and eating blueberries. There were quite a few others doing the same, mostly Asians!

By 2.30pm, we thought it's probably about time we leave. We each took our bucket of blueberries to the tent by the parked cars to get weighed. In total, we had around 9.5kg worth of blueberries. In order to have them at a cheaper rate, we had to purchase at least 10kg. Out we went, back into the farm to pick another 500g worth of blueberries! It probably took us half an hour to do so!

We had to drive back to the main building to pay for the blueberries. We were originally going to get an ice-cream cone as well, but it was going to take 15 minutes and we were already running out of time since we had to get back to Auckland for a singing rehearsal at church by 7pm tonight! 

Instead, we just left and headed for the Hamilton Gardens to check out the Japanese gardens that our dad was keen to see.

I have to admit I was impressed with the Hamilton Gardens! Admittedly, we only had enough time to check out one section of the gardens, but what we did get to see was impressive!

Naturally, we went to the section with gardens from different regions of the world, such as the Japanese, Chinese, Indian, English, American and Italian gardens.

It's been a long time since I last came here, probably when I was a little child! 

I could only remember a Japanese garden existing, but I have to say it was outshone by some of the other gardens, namely the Indian and Italian gardens which were quite impressive courtyards! 

The American garden wasn't much.

It was a modernist garden, so it mainly consisted of a pool with three beach chairs and a painting of Marilyn Monroe beside it.

We were soon running out of time and had to rush through the Italian garden before leaving for Auckland.

It was a good day out, even though it wasn't long enough! There was a minor concern on the way back when Aonghas thought he smelt smoke and heard some rattling noises come from the car, resulting in him pulling over alongside the motorway to double check. He couldn't find anything though, so he continued on. 

A trip to Hamilton. What a good start to 2013. Hopefully there'll be quite a few more trips out of Auckland this year!

(http://youtu.be/-t7MLJRcmyU)

(http://youtu.be/r2lAwpP6GYc)

New Years at the Bay

Last night we got together with a few other families from church to welcome in the New Year at Mission Bay. It was really a last minute decision, and we hadn't really planned it properly!

Originally the plan was to meet up for dinner, then hang out at Mission Bay and watch the Sky Tower fireworks at midnight from there. However, we ended up deciding to have dinner at home, then meet up at 8 and go to Mission Bay.

We ended up getting to Mission Bay by around 9.30pm. By then it was starting to get dark. We got to the park, then realised we didn't really have much to do!

We hung around the fountain for a while, being asked by strangers to help take photos for them.

It was starting to get a little cold, so we decided to do a bit of really show window-shopping, which wasn't really window shopping, considering most of the shops were restaurants! They were quite packed though!

Next thing you know, we were at Kiwiyo. We had a few samples before a few of the guys bought a cup.

I decided not to, as I'm on a tight budget now and wanted to save up for Burger King (I only had pudding for dinner after all!).

We started walking back down the road, towards Burger King when we found out...Burger King had closed early today! Nooooooo!!!

There were still two hours to go till midnight and we didn't have much to do, so we headed back to the beach. Aonghas and I went back to the car to grab a ball and a mat for people to sit on. We were parked further down the road, yet we couldn't see the Sky Tower from where our car was parked. The Sky Tower wasn't visible from the beach either. We were going to have to walk right around the bay to see the skyline.

Really good weather

The rest of the group met with us, and we walked along the road, around the bay and eventually found ourselves along this really long wharf.

By then it was about 20 minutes till midnight. We found a good spot on the wharf and waited in anticipation! It was a little awkward, with a few couples holding each other on either side!

Finally at midnight the fireworks went off and everyone cheered and celebrated!

Happy New Year!

(http://youtu.be/MwkpQ9eyCRw)

Happy New Years 2013!

Happy New Year Everyone!

2012 has come to an end, and 2013 is here! Hopefully everyone had a great 2012, and if not, may (20)13 be your lucky number!

While I sometimes look back at 2013 and think hmmm...not much actually happened except work...I realise that a few events in 2012 overshadowed everything else. 

The activity we did at our youth group last Friday night, where we had to list everything we were thankful to Jesus for made me realise a lot did happen last year, and I am truly grateful for everything that did happen!

Back to the few events that overshadowed everything though: 

Hong Kong - It had been well over 15 years since I last went to Hong Kong, yet I still had very fond memories of the place and would often dream of going back. I wasn't let down, and had a great, albeit short time over there earlier in the year. A few hours in Singapore with Jireh was a bonus! There was a slight worry that we would lose our Hong Kong ID cards (with getting the $1000 the least of our concerns at that time!), but several months later we were granted our ID cards with the 'right to land' status which is better than nothing!
Becoming registered as a pharmacist - I've spent four years studying pharmacy at university, a year as an intern, and then some! I had to spend an extra year as an intern, failed the exam half way through the year, and was on the brink of quitting and wasting five and a half years' worth of work. Thankfully my family and a few friends, along with the new pharmacy I worked at for the last half of the year helped get me through, and what I was starting to think was an unobtainable dream, became a reality!

I haven't been too great with blogging this year, but I will try to do better next year! Just reading through my blog posts from previous years reminds me of why I do this - because I have a bad memory and I enjoy reliving old memories that may have been forgotten if I hadn't documented them!

So once again, here is a review of my New Years' Resolutions from last year, and how I did! 

- = Calum's 2012 New Years' Resolutions = -

(in no particular order)

1. Find a girlfriend (pretty much cut and paste now, but hey it's the year of the Dragon, and 7 is a lucky number!)

FAIL - OK so I was off to a slow start, still recovering from the previous year, but if it's any consolation, I think I may have finally moved on!

2. Make two new friends or two new close friends

YES - I have made at least two new friends this year - Jen and Cham!

3. Become a registered pharmacist

YES! About time! I just don't have a job now...

4. Visit the gym a bit more often than in 2011

FAIL - Didn't end up joining a gym at all! I did start a fitness club with some members of my youth group, and went for weekly runs for a month or so before things got in the way!

5. Find another musical instrument to learn up to a grade 4-5 level

FAIL - Didn't get around to touching the accordion, let alone another instrument! I did buy a baritone ukulele and have been playing that since I can't seem to master the guitar! I did give the piano a go, and have been trying to play a few simple songs on that. In summary: MUST TRY HARDER

6. Buy a bass guitar, learn it properly and get the Oddfellows band going 

FAIL - We didn't even manage to get our band together again this year! We'll have to get something ready for the first youth group of next year

7. Sit a grade 6 music theory exam (grade 6 at the very minimum!)

FAIL - With my sole focus being to pass my pharmacy registration exam, this slid under the radar a bit. With a bit more time and freedom in the New Year, I will finally make this a higher priority!

8. Follow a 365 day Bible reading plan

FAIL - I'm very ashamed of this! I just recently started this 'Experiencing God' programme at church where I have to complete a day's worth of work each day for 12 weeks, so hopefully this gets me into a good habit!

9. Have 3 completely new experiences in 2012 (i.e. do three things I've never done before in my life!)

YES - 1. Travel to Singapore

         2. Perform barbershop (and on radio!)

         3. Write and hand in a resignation letter.

(am I grasping for straws here? I'm sure I've had better experiences than that! I'll add as I remember them)

10. Find a new social organisation/group to be a part of

SORT OF - I wouldn't call it a social organisation, but applying to be a volunteer of World Vision is a start. I really want to get involved in some cultural group that will allow me to explore my Asian side more

11. Completely change my life (open to interpretation)

SORT OF - I guess it wasn't completely life-changing, but having to work at a new pharmacy in North Shore with different hours during the second half of the year meant not being able to attend church on Sundays for a couple months, and not being able to teach music for the other few months. It's not exactly life-changing, but it did take me away from my regular routine

12. Attend a proper ongoing Chinese class

FAIL - I just didn't have the time to focus on this. I will make it a higher priority next year!

13. Travel to another city/town at least five times 

SORT OF - Let's see...Hong Kong, Singapore...that's probably about it.

14. Be happier with life (or just content if really struggling)

SORT OF - I'm still trying to make sense of different concepts of living a much more rewarding and fulfilling life, so it's a work in progress! 

15. Pick up the piano accordion again, learn another song and triwith the brothers

FAIL - The accordion still sits in the corner of the lounge, covered by junk! During the week at work I'd always think, this weekend I'll pick it up and play again, but In ever got around to doing it! I will have to clean up the lounge to make it more accessible!

16. Buy less junk food/takeaways

SORT OF - Burger King being the only place to buy food near your workplace doesn't help, but at least I restricted myself to once a week, compared to what it was when I was working in the city! Now with no money coming in, I'll have no other option but to cut back!

So here are the results:

Fulfilled New Years Resolutions: 3

Failed New Years Resolutions: 8

Partially Completed New Years Resolutions: 5

That gives me a 18.75% success rate, which is a slightly lower than my 19% success rate last year. 

I think I'm going to have to remind myself of what my resolutions are throughout the year this time and actually work towards them! Here's to a perfect 100%!

Here are my resolutions for this year!

- = Calum's 2013 New Years' Resolutions = -

(In no particular order, and roughly the same as last year)

1. Find a girlfriend (nothing to see here, same as before)

2. Make two new or closer friends

3. Find a job 

4. Choose what to study at uni and complete it

5. Participate in some organisation such as a volunteer organisation etc.

6. Join some cultural activity/group/social group

7. Pick up the accordion again and start practising a bit more regularly

8. Clean the house!

9. Sign up for and take Chinese classes

10. Learn and practise another musical instrument more regularly

11. Sit a music theory exam

12. Get my full driver's license

13. Travel to at least one overseas destination, and one local destination outside of Auckland

14. Give my baptism testimony in Chinese

15. Get baptised

16. Be more mature

17. Go for regular runs and try to lose the fat (maybe enter Round the Bays!)

18. Attend a fellowship at another church or visit another church

19. Build up Anbro!