Last Man Standing: All Blacks & Lions

I just found this on YouTube - All Blacks & Lions playing Last Man Standing.  It's probably old news for the folks back home but it's a goodie!  These guys must have played a brutal game of bullrush when they were kids...

Some things to watch for:

• at 1:24 there's a Lion hiding behind the lamppost.
• at 2:20 a Lion picks up his teammate and drops him to the side
• it looks like All Black Joe Rokocoko (pronounced Rokothoko) might just make it through at the end

UPDATE: I played this to a couple of people here who didn't get what was going on... so a quick explanation:
At the start you have the All Blacks and Lions lined up at one end of the field, with one guy in the middle of the field by himself (Tana Umaga).  They all try to make it to the other end of the field, while Umaga tries to stop them.  He tackles one Lion in the first rush, who is now on Umaga's team and stands with him in the middle.  They both try to stop players in the next rush and end up with three new guys on their side.  It keeps going like that with more guys being tackled until there are only two left on the original team.  They rush the pack and try to get through...

Enjoy!!

Ba-BOOM!!!

Today I was at the petrol station (US translation: gas station) keeping my self-promise not to let the tank go below quarter full.  While I was experiencing a moment of stunned silence at the recent price hike, a chappie pulled up in a largish vehicle (read: something that should, in all honesty, require a special license to drive and a reversing beep).

Mr. Chappie hauled himself out of the beastie-sized ute (US: pickup truck), took a last couple of puffs on his cigarette then flicked it to the ground near the pump.  Did he extinguish it first?  Noooo that death stick had a nice little glow.  For good measure he left the car (and I use that term loo-oo-oosely) running and proceeded to call his mate/buddy/bubba on the cellphone.

Partly because I felt it my civic duty, but mostly that I was starting to add an unattractive cold sweat to the Hotlanta humidity 'glow', I walked over and squished it out with my foot.

"Excuse me but I'm just going to uhhhh put that out."

If looks could kill I'd be a pile of ashes right next to the remnants of the cancer stick.  Maybe he'd planned to pick it up again after he'd finished draining the station tanks into his storage unit on wheels.

180th General Conference Part IV

Just realised that I hadn't posted anything on the last session of General Conference...  Better late than never, I suppose.  At least I beat the May issue of the Ensign magazine, which has all the conference talks.  Or rather, it hasn't made it to my letter box yet... 

So here we go, with a few of the things that caught my attention during the final session:

• It is not why we face trials, it's how we face them.
• It's easy to look back and see what we learned from an trial.  The trick is to learn from the trial while we are experiencing it.
• Learn to serve and think of others, even in the midst of trial.  Jesus Christ is the supreme example of this attitude.
• Those who live only for themselves shrivel up.  Those who serve others grow.
• A peaceful environment is not just external, it is internal.
• The world seems to have slipped from the moorings of morality and the piers of peace.  Look to the Lighthouse of the Lord.

So there you have it.  Two great days full of inspired teachings from men of God.  And now I'm waiting with foot-tapping impatience for this month's Ensign... not to mention the 180th Semi-Annual General Conference, coming up in October.  Good times.