AmeriNZ 398 – 17 and 28

amerinz_podcast_1400x1400-2016Today’s episode is named after two anniversaries: Today is the seventeenth anniversary of my blog, and yesterday was the 28th anniversary of when I first arrived in New Zealand as a tourist, when Nigel and I met in person for the first time. This coming weekend is also the final Pride 48 Live Streaming Event, and I reminisce and opine about podcasting. Then, I briefly talk about a small project outside. Finally, I share a funny (to me) story form New Zealand’s news.

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Links for this episode
“Anniversaries 17 and 28” – My blog post about the 17th and 28th anniversaries.
The final Pride 48 Live Streaming Event – Link is to the schedule.
”Dave Dobbyn manager steps in over use of ‘Loyal’ in post promoting Liz Gunn party” – This article has the quotes I mentioned.

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AmeriNZ 392 – Flexible podcaster

amerinz_podcast_1400x1400-2016I’m a flexible podcaster, able to overcome obstacles that tried to prevent me podcasting this week. The first obstacle is actually related to this podcast, and I talk about that first.

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Links for this episode
”A very weird thing” – My first blog post on the blog problem
”Fixing tech problems again” – My blog post on how I fixed the blog problem
”Spicy work” – My blog post on organising my spice shelf

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AmeriNZ 369 – Change and Consistency

amerinz_podcast_1400x1400-2016Things have changed—a lot. That’s the main thing I talk about today.

At the end of the episode, I mention a project I began that’ll become a topic—eventually. Oh, and welcome to Spring!

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Links for this episode
”London Bridge is down” – My blog post on the Queen’s death.
”National transitions” – My blog post on the proclamations of the new king.
”Other big changes in New Zealand” – The changes to the Covid Framework in NZ.
”27 years ago today” – The annual post about the day I first arrived in New Zealand.

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AmeriNZ 338 – Still more changes

amerinz_podcast_1400x1400-2016Despite a few obstacles, I’m back. Again. Again. Well, it was one month sooner this time, so, small victories, right?! I start out talking about a new baby, then changes to this podcast and all things AmeriNZ, and to me, too. Lots of things are changing! I have details.

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There are several ways to send me an audio message—this earlier post lists them.

Links for this episode
All blog posts about Leo
My Instagram
The NZ Prime Minister had a baby
The Prime Minister’s baby made world headlines
All my posts on my Health Journey
July’s Welcome – The blog post I refer to, the one where I talk about my epiphany


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AmeriNZ 337 – Resolution

amerinz_podcast_1400x1400-2016Despite a few obstacles, I’m back. First, though, I give the end of the story I talked about in the previous episode: New Zealand got a government. Mainly, though, I talke about the several obstacles to my being able to podcast (or blog, for that matter).

Be sure to Like the AmeriNZ Facebook Page for all things AmeriNZ!

There are several ways to send me an audio message—this earlier post lists them.

Links for this episode
It’s a cruel summer – My blog post on some of the obstacles to blogging and podcasting
”A good end to the year” – My most recent health update blog post
”The Tim Corrimal Show” – Tim told me the podcast site was broken, so go check out his show!

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AmeriNZ 326 – Summertime

amerinz_podcast_1400x1400-2016We finally got some summer weather! We had pleasant holidays, but this time of year is very quiet and that’s both good and bad (probably mostly good). My birthday is tomorrow! That will keep me from paying any attention to the hoopla in Washington, DC.

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There are several ways to send me an audio message—this earlier post lists them.

Links for this episode

The pretty stamps I mentioned.

The pretty stamps I mentioned.

“Weather bomb: More heavy rains forecast for weekend”New Zealand Herald
“I’m willing to share” – My blog post offering to share my birthday as a distraction
“A day of no significance” – My blog post on my not paying attention to the hoopla in D.C.
2PP121 – 10 January 2017 – 2Political Podcast has returned!!

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Rainy Auckland Winter Day


The video above is a short video I made this evening as an experiment. I wanted to see how easy it was to make a video using iMovie on my iPad. On the whole, it was pretty easy.

I shot some video of the rain this afternoon with an idea that I might make a YouTube video with it. This evening I was playing with my iPad, remembered that it had iMovie on it, and I wondered how hard it would be to use.

The first problem was figuring out how to get my footage onto my iPad. It turns out, my videos don’t automatically share to iCloud (probably a setting I made at some point). So, I uploaded them to Dropbox, then opened Dropbox on my iPad and saved them to my photos on my iPad (often called a “Camera Roll”)

After that, it was just a matter of figuring out how to assemble everything. I expect phone and tablet apps to teach me how to use them as I use them, but sometimes I get stuck. Apart from having to Google how to get video onto my iPad, this time I had very little trouble figuring it out.

However, there were a few things I haven’t figured out yet, like how to shorten the duration of onscreen titles and how to adjust the level of the music track (the levels in the video were automatic; the music was included with iMove, by the way).

If I’d edited the video on the Mac, I’d have no trouble with any of those things, and I would have edited out the camera shake in a couple spots. But I wanted to see what was possible—or, at least, obvious—to do on the iPad. Some day I may shoot some video and want to get it uploaded quickly (interestingly, one of the templates was for CNN’s uploaded videos from amateurs).

So, all in all, it wasn’t too bad, though I’ll use the Mac for editing nearly all the time. Still, it was kind of fun.

This was my second video so far this year, and this video is actually part of the “soft re-launch” of my YouTube Channel. I’m posting similarly short videos up until the actual relaunch, which is coming soon.

And all of that will be shared here on this blog. Of course.

The Technical Stuff: The video was shot using a 20.3MP Samsung DX 1000, and the still shot of water drops at the beginning and end was shot with an iPhone 5c. The video was edited on an iPad2 using iMovie, a built-in template and built-in music. The final video was saved as a 1080 HD video, then uploaded to YouTube directly from the iPad (which takes a lot longer than from a desktop computer, BTW).

This is one of those rare crossposts with AmeriNZ Blog, something I forgot to share here, too.

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AmeriNZ 309 – Nine

amerinz_podcast_150x150Things I talked about last time have resolved themselves, and that’s where I begin today. New Zealand’s result in the ICC Cricket World Cup is first, followed by the Northland By-election. A peculiarity in New Zealand law caused some issues when I posted the previous episode. I have a personal development in NZ politics to share. Then, I talk about a couple new items in the news.

There are several ways to send me an audio message—this earlier post lists them.

Link for this episode
Daniel Vettori – the NZ cricketer I mentioned
“’Super eight’ Auckland suburb values up 17.9pc”NZ Herald
“Australian-New Zealand dollar still controversial” – Stuff


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AmeriNZ 298 – Equality

Today I have one topic: Marriage equality arriving in New Zealand one week ago today. I start by telling you about some of my impressions the night. I also give you my full impressions of what New Zealand’s far right did—and is up to now! After some slight diversion into other NZ politics, I tell you about what happens now. One thing I know for sure is that this battle is over: The rightwing cannot repeal or even revisit this issue. Kiwis just don’t do that. Finally, I tell you the background to that video of the vote.

There are several ways to send me an audio message—this earlier post lists them. (http://amerinzpodcast.com/?p=1549)

Links for this episode
Favourite moment – my blog post on the moment marriage equality was approved
Favourite speech – again from my blog
The New Zealand Parliament’s YouTube Channel is called InTheHouseNZ. To find the videos, look for “Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill – Third Reading – Part # (where # is 1 – 20).
Looking ridiculous – my blog post on a silly rightwinger entertaining the Internet
Final analysis – my blog post wrapping-up the campaign for marriage equality and what happened.
All my blog posts on this topic are tagged NZ Marriage Equality.

Please leave a written comment, an audio message using the SpeakPipe widget, or on Audioboo or Skype (user name on both is AmeriNZ), or send an email to arthur{at]amerinzpodcast.com (you can email me an audio file, too, if you want).

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