Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Only in New Zealand (August 22nd, 2006)





I enjoy watching the morning news during breakfast; I feel like I'm getting a little slice of New Zealand life. Usually it's not thing too exciting, but this morning was a treat. The lead story was about a farmer who "discovered" two sheep who hadn't been sheered in over six years. I'm not sure where he discovered them, I guess he has a large farm and they stumbled out of the fog one morning.

These sheep looked massive, though. Their wool was literally dragging on the ground (but no that picture above isn't from the story). Everyone involved in the news report seemed to be very impressed as well. They asked the farmer what he planned to do with the wool. He was open to suggestions, but was thinking of donating it to a charitable cause.

Although I was laughing at the story I admit I found the whole thing kind of interesting. But only in New Zealand could that be a leading story. Of course, I can't say the US is much better. When I checked CNN.com three days ago the lead story was that a suspect in the JonBenet killing had confessed in Thailand. I thought that was interesting, but didn't think it warranted lead-story status. Two days ago CNN.com leads with "JonBenet suspect in transit from Thailand." And yesterday, "JonBenet suspect arrives in Los Angeles; transported to local jail." Alright now, three days in a row? Tracing a suspect's travel itinerary? I think I'd rather hear about overloaded sheep.

Speaking of important issues, let's get back to me. :) I start a two day first aid course tomorrow (with an extra focus on mountain safety issues). I've got a lot of snowboarding stuff to practice this week and I mentioned to my snowboard instructor that I might skip the first aid course and work on my riding instead. "Nothing you do on the slopes in the next two days will help you save a life" was his only response. It's hard to argue with that logic.

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