Kiwi by birth, Bohemian by ancestry, Bohemian by nature RSS 2.0
 Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I've currently been thrashing EarthSine by Swedish artist Solar Fields. Fantastic amazing progressive-psy album described as an uplifting experience into Soundscapes. Definitely keeping me grooving and floating at the moment. I'm especially in love with Kick Back :) Can't stop playing that track in particular at the moment..

1/30/2008 6:27:59 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Music
 Monday, January 14, 2008

Details on my work blog...

1/14/2008 3:36:07 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
IT Industry | Personal
 Friday, January 11, 2008

Tonight (Friday 11th Jan) from about 5.30pm I will be playing on the TMET drive show with the lovely Mistress Dirtbag hosting. Expect Psy, Trance, Dub, Electro and more J. So tune in to 107.7FM in Auckland, 107.5 in Hamilton and www.twisted.co.nz/radio for internet streaming.

1/11/2008 4:24:36 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Music | Radio
 Friday, December 21, 2007

The rest of the pictures (total now 66) can be found on this Flickr Set. Finally finished editing them last night and uploaded them today.

12/21/2007 7:54:25 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Roller Derby
 Thursday, December 20, 2007

The bc16 mini modular synth from Chimera looks amazing…. For $229 USD no less – that means $350 into New Zealand. Wow I wonder if they ship to NZ J

12/20/2007 10:44:02 AM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Music
 Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Check out this post on Spare Room – it's the story of Margaret from the Gourmet Food store who decides to unfairly abuse a customer over email. Bad bad bad news Marg - this email is now everywhere in NZ. I've had it sent to me a few times and I hear it's gone around a lot of companies today. Margaret McHugh is definitely the talk of the email nation today! Additionally the very ugly Gourmet Food store website is being hit massively - I've watched the counter go up all day today. I'd hate to think how many phone calls and texts she's getting now over this email…

12/18/2007 5:11:53 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [4] - Trackback
Corp gone bad | New Zealand | Oh Dear | Technology
 Thursday, December 13, 2007

Where I work at Fronde we have an excellent coffee machine - in fact a proper real coffee machine that everyone gets trained up to use. So getting a good coffee is as easy as going to the kitchen and spending a few minutes grinding, expressing and frothing.

I must admit since I've been at Fronde I've really started to enjoy my espresso and even more so making it. My personal all time favourite coffee is a "Cortado", which is essentially a strong short black with an equal quantity of milk depending on how it's made. So in honour of my company I have "created" a coffee - or more realistically refined an existing coffee recipe. For Fronde purposes the name is a "Frontado" but for global domination purposes it can also be know as the "Lukardo" :). The idea is to have a strong coffee with an equal amount of steamed milk to take strong acidity away but leave a good strong taste. Very much an afternoon perk you up type of coffee. Apologies to any coffee snobs - but here is the recipe to make it: 

 

The Lukardo/FrontadoFrontado 012 - 2 [320x200].JPG

An adapted Cortado

The Lukardo/Frontado is essentially a “shorter” Cortado.  A Cortado is an espresso "cut" (from the Spanish “Cortar”) with a small amount of warm milk to reduce the acidity. The ratio of milk is between 1:1 - 1:2, and the milk is added after the espresso.

To prepare a Lukardo/Frontado:

Prepare and brew a double shot espresso into an espresso cup. Do not allow past half way and ideally it should be about 3/7 of the cup. This leaves the strength between a Ristretto and a double shot espresso.  

Heat a small amount of milk, carefully not to produce large amounts of foam or bubbles. Without breaking the surface of the espresso to the edges pour the warmed milk slowly in the centre of the cup until it meets the beginning of the lip of the espresso cup.

The Lukardo/Frontado should look like a mini flat white in an espresso cup.

12/13/2007 1:40:35 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Coffee
 Sunday, December 09, 2007

PCR-Final-2007-1-Dec 303 - 001 (Small) (Custom).jpg2007 marks the first year that the NZ Pirate City Rollers's All Girl Roller Derby league has been staged. I was at the final and managed to take some cool pictures of the action. Check them out on this Flickr album. For those who don't know what Roller Derby is, check out this primer on Wikipedia. Basically it's a form of contact sports entertainment played by females on roller skates and now it's being staged in Auckland NZ. The thing is I've gotten involved myself and now I'm training to be a referee.  So it's back on my skates practicing every week and learning the rules. With any luck if I get my fitness on track I'll be ref'ing some of the games next year!

12/9/2007 11:22:58 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [2] - Trackback
Roller Derby
 Wednesday, December 05, 2007

According to this article in the guardian, appearantly US and Russian astronaunts have had sex in space as a part of a research program. The following excerpt just left me gobsmacked (and vaguely fascinated...):

"Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. "Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version."

Only four positions were found possible without "mechanical assistance". The other six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag. "

 

12/5/2007 6:14:29 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Weird
 Tuesday, December 04, 2007

This article in stuff summarises many of the issues of working (particular in professional circles) in NZ. Some of the excerpts that are worth mentioning:

  • New Zealand is now the highest-taxed English-speaking nation in the OECD
  • Australian workers produce one-third more wealth for every hour worked, largely because they have more capital (machinery and technology) to work with.
  • Australia's per capita GDP is $48,000. 32 percent higher than NZ which is $36,400
  • The OECD estimates that 24.2 percent of New Zealanders with a tertiary education are living overseas, compared with just 2.5 percent of Australians in the same category.
  • Once the next phase of Australian tax cuts is implemented by the new Labor government, a New Zealand worker on $46,000 (the average wage) will be paying twice as much income tax as he or she would be on the equivalent salary in Australia."

This is really disturbing stuff. Yet the NZ government continues to pilage large amount of tax with very little breaks. Is a sad time to be a professional in NZ.... Thanks heaps Helen and Mike!

12/4/2007 1:28:45 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [1] - Trackback
Politics
 Monday, December 03, 2007

A "good" friend did the Ali G one and I wipped up the "lukinator" one. And no, I didn't have photoshop handy otherwise I would have blended 10x better!

Lukinator.jpg

LukAli.jpg

12/3/2007 11:29:23 AM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Oh Dear | Personal

Thanks goes to everyone who sponsored me for Movember! This is my first year doing movember and I mananged to raise $140 dollars. The following are the pictures over the month:

LukasMo_Nov01.jpg

LukasMo_Nov05.jpg

LukasMo_Nov09.jpg

LukasMo_Nov14.jpg

LukasMo_Nov29.jpg

And yes, I am still sporting it :)

12/3/2007 9:30:05 AM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Oh Dear | Personal
 Monday, November 12, 2007

So as part of the Movember initiative for Men's Health I'm growing a wicked Mexican/Hulk Hogan Mo. It's all for a great cause and I will be posting my progress pictures on www.kiwibohemian.com.

Here is the official blurb - and if you can find it in your heart to sponsor me and donate a little money I'd be very appreciative J. No amount too small J :

Hi All,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'll be growin a Mo. It's all for a good cause - men's health and the fight against prostate cancer. Why...

  • Every year in New Zealand 2,656 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 600 die of the disease, making prostate cancer the second largest cause of male cancer deaths, after lung cancer.
  • The average life expectancy of a man in New Zealand is 4 years less than a woman.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/nz/donate, enter my registration number which is 128658 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 128658. Please mail cheques to: Movember, PO Box 87 150, Meadowbank 1742, Auckland. All donations over $5 are tax deductible.

All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand who will use the funds to create awareness, increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer, fund research and scholarship programs.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the detail at: Fundraising Outcomes.

Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a Gala Parté ticket.


Cheers,

Lukas

More info is available at www.movember.com.

Movember is proudly grown by Holden, L&P, The Rock, Tui and Schick.

Movember a proud partner of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.

 

 

11/12/2007 1:01:03 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Charity | Personal
 Friday, November 09, 2007

So tonight (Friday 9th November) from 5pm I will be playing on the TMET drive show with the lovely Mistress Dirtbag hosting. I have a whole lot of mad techno to play and I plan to also play my remix of the Flight of The Conchords track "Mutha Ucker" - a world exclusive. Otherwise expect Psy, Trance, Dub, Electro and more J. So tune in to 107.7FM in Auckland, 107.5 in Hamilton and www.twisted.co.nz/radio for internet streaming.

11/9/2007 2:15:27 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Music | Twisted
 Friday, October 05, 2007

So tonight (5th October) from 5pm I will be hosting the TMET drive show. Normally I go and play on it occasionally as its Mistress Dirtbags' show, but she's away this week. I plan to play lots eclectic and interesting music across Psy, Trance, Dub, Electro and more J. So tune in to 107.7FM in Auckland, 107.5 in Hamilton and www.twisted.co.nz/radio for internet streaming.

10/5/2007 7:34:47 AM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Music | Radio
 Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Proving the notion of both Karma and Darwin Award theory - "Drink driver with 'horrendous' record dies on road" on Stuff.co.nz. Some excerpts from the article:

Kawerau man Billie Te Maipi Campbell, 26, killed himself on May 12 after a high speed drive following a lengthy drinking binge, retiring Whakatane coroner Ian Bentley said in his report on the death.

Campbell cut a corner, smashing into a culvert on the outskirts of Edgecumbe, killing himself instantly and injuring his female passenger.

Mr Bentley described Campbell's driving on the day and his regard for the law as "horrendous". "At 26 years old, with his history, I think it's quite clear that no matter what laws were in place, what advertising programmes were undertaken, it would not have made one scrap of difference to this man.

"Thank goodness this man killed himself instead of someone else," Mr Bentley said.

At the scene police found beer bottles in the car and a broken beer bottle under Campbell's feet.

He was found to have an alcohol level of 195mg per 100ml of blood, more than twice the legal limit of 80mg.

Constable Michael Chelley told the inquest Campbell was driving his mother's 1996 Nissan Bluebird at 221kmh when he lost control on a moderate bend.

Neither Campbell nor his passenger were wearing seatbelts. Both only had learner licences.

The car he was driving was registered but had not been warranted since December last year.

9/26/2007 2:06:58 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Weird | Oh Dear
 Thursday, September 06, 2007

Just started reading this and looks interesting if not horrific! The Top Ten Blog Shockers...

9/6/2007 9:48:31 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Oh Dear | Wisdom
 Friday, August 17, 2007

Tonight I'm going to be DJ'ing on Twisted FM on the TMET drive show with Mistress Dirtbag from about 5:30pm-ish or so. You can tune in on 107.7 FM in Auckland City or hit the website for an internet stream. I'll be playing Trance/Psy/D&B and some downbeat stuff – basically what ever takes my fancy!

8/17/2007 1:23:50 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [3] - Trackback
Music | Radio
 Monday, August 13, 2007

Well Microsoft TechEd New Zealand is finally upon us again and it's kicked off well. This year the company my company Fronde is a major sponsor and I've had the pleasure of putting our stand together. I was at TechEd this morning but I've gone and found some peace and quiet to prepare for my session which is on Wednesday around team system best practices (I'll blog more later today…). If you are at TechEd, go checkout the stand, we have a professional masseuse to ease your conference tensions, prize giveaway of 1 Gig USB hard drives and iRiver music players. The stand also features video testimonials of our employees and customers.

8/13/2007 1:12:48 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Technology
 Friday, August 03, 2007

Okay, maybe I'm slightly biased (being Czech/Bohemian), but Budejovicky Budvar is easily my favourite imported beer in NZ. In the last year or so I've seen it a lot around Auckland supermarkets. I'd always wondered who was bringing it into NZ. Funnily enough as I've just discovered it's actually one of our larger brewers – dbreweries or Dominion Breweries as they used to be known. Good on them I say J. Even better I'm doing a little bit of work for them at the moment. Find out more about this wonderful brew here. Mike R, I know you will appreciate this one.

8/3/2007 3:05:53 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [1] - Trackback
Beer

Cats can be annoying animals sometimes (I have a cat and a dog for the record) - but this frustrated neighbour took matters into his own hands, kidnapped and ended up letting cat the cat go "overseas".

8/3/2007 1:51:04 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Weird
 Thursday, July 12, 2007

The only way to know, is to watch this crazy video J

7/12/2007 1:44:41 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Toys and Fun
 Monday, July 02, 2007

Check out this crash test footage of the Brilliance BS 6, a new car from China that barely gets a 1 star crash safety rating. The chances of survival of a front impact at 40mph (64.37 kph) are slight. Maybe the "BS" in the name stands for "Bovine Scat".

7/2/2007 4:27:48 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Cars
 Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I've finally spent some time on setting up my network and career profile on LinkedIn. This seems to be one of the free best online services for managing this type of personal information. I particularly like the network contact features which help me keep my network up to date. To see my linked in profile with my career history, go to http://www.linkedin.com/in/lukassvoboda

6/20/2007 9:32:44 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
General | IT Industry
 Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A good post on Global Warming Realities on Say Anything blog. Clive, I know you don't sit next to me anymore but this one is definitely for you. Al Gore got it wrong, horribly wrong. Not that is news to me.

6/19/2007 1:58:54 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Global Warming Scare Tactics

Michael Moore's new movie Sicko which is about the rather dire American Health system is about to hit the cinemas. I've personally enjoyed his movies before, but always taken them with a grain of salt as he is a very good entertainer rather than true documentary journalist J. If this interests you, there are couple of interesting internet resources to checkout. Firstly is MooreWatch.com, which is a anti-Moore website with lots of information on Sicko. Thhe owner of the website in his own tangle with Moore over the Moore's anonymous $12,000 donation to help the owners sick wife (It features in the movie). Another site is Say Anything with an article called "Calling Michael Moore's Socialist Bluff" which amongst other things actually has a version of the movie ready to play. To understand why – read the article, the title gives it partly away. Very interesting reading in my lunch-half-an-hour…

6/19/2007 1:56:45 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Cinema
 Monday, June 18, 2007

I came across Jesusonic on my sound making adventures. (I write electronic music when I find time - I was remixing Jean Michelle Jarre's Oxygene 4 on the weekend but I digress). I thought to myself, what a cool brand name - invokes some many interesting things. Anyone else out there seen interesting, edgy or just plain good brand name recently?

6/18/2007 4:36:43 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Business | Marketing and Branding
 Thursday, June 07, 2007

Just a quick note, I haven't been posting much the last two weeks due to a rather nasty headcold turning into an even nastier ear infection. I'm back on board today and slowly getting back into things. Many things to blog on!!!

6/7/2007 11:02:39 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
General
 Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Clive, this one's for you. There is an ever growing voice of descent against the global warming lobby. Locally in New Zealand I came across this amazingly comprehensive resource: http://www.climatescience.org.nz/. I'm definitely in the skeptic camp personally, I think there is far too much hype around global warming and the label is being used to justify all manner of politics at the moment. Another good local article is the views of the former chief meteorologist from the met institute, Augie Auer.

5/23/2007 11:19:14 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Politics
 Sunday, May 20, 2007

Interesting to see the Wii is the highest selling console in the first six months of it's life.

5/20/2007 8:53:09 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)  #    Comments [0] - Trackback
Wii
About the author/Disclaimer
The Kiwi Bohemian is the personal blog of Lukas Svoboda. I'm a born and breed New Zealander (or "Kiwi") who has ancestry from Bohemia. This blog is really about sharing things that get my attention whether they be the state of our society in New Zealand or the strange and bizzare in the world. My interests are my wonderful family, almost anything to do with computers and technology, digital art and media, fast cars and 4WDs and the expansive outdoors.

© Copyright 2008
Lukas Svoboda
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