Oodnadatta, South Australia Superthread

[Vlad n U 2]

I have but it's the morning and it was written so convincingly so forgive me.

 

[Axver]

I wish the cricket thread was less dead.

 

[cobl04]

If I was watching it I'd be in here. I see we're doing shithouse.

We are going to get raped by England.

 

[Axver]

This doesn't even look like the same team that rolled Sri Lanka two days ago in Melbourne. Absolutely hopeless. Sri Lanka's bowlers have suddenly turned it on, and Australia might be in an even worse position if Sri Lanka had been able to take a couple of very tough chances.

Why the fuck did they even think of selecting Steve Smith? What a hopeless tosser. He's not a batsman! Never has been, never will be.

 

[Reggo]

Temperature tonight is set to drop to -17C or below. I think I'd rather have 50.7.

 

[Axver]

You're insane.

But you can enjoy cooking eggs on the pavement in Birdsville at the moment aaaall you want.

 

[Reggo]

You're insane for liking the cold. Up to my tits in snow, the pain of subzero temperatures turning my fingers into icicles, everything wet and salty. No, thank you. Give me temperatures that vary from 15-30 and a healthy rainy season (without flooding) and I'm happy with the weather.

I realise I just described a typical year in Adelaide.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

We had some unexpected mid-January rain in the morning.

I didn't want to get out of bed, it was that soothing.

 

[cobl04]

Temperature tonight is set to drop to -17C or below. I think I'd rather have 50.7.

 

[Axver]

You can warm yourself up in the cold. Stay inside, put on more clothes, have hot food and drinks, all that good stuff.

In the heat? Nothing you can do. Especially not if it's 47 and the power's gone down like it did in part of Queensland yesterday!

We had some unexpected mid-January rain in the morning.

Lucky it didn't bloody rain during the cricket!

 

[Reggo]

You sound just like my friend from Minnesota who gave me the exact same argument. I disagree. i have a hrder time staying warm in winter than getting cool in summer.

 

[Axver]

I overheat all the time so summer's hell, and I take ages to cool down. Nothing worse than being sweaty and smelly, except being surrounded by even sweatier and smellier people - like practically any tram home or going to any shop during mid-summer.

Plus, I just like wearing coats/jackets. My favourite item of clothing. Can't wear them in summer.

 

[Reggo]

Well, shit. I accidentally took a little nap and now I'm too awake to try to sleep.

 

[Slopsy]

I like the heat and all that, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and that's at about 38. Nothing fun at all about power failures, aircon breaking everywhere, being unable to do anything even remotely physical, being unable to sleep because it's too hot...I can go on.

 

[bono_212]

I don't like it if it gets colder than 20, but I can deal with it, but if it gets hotter than 75, I'm a little bitch about it.

 

[Axver]

If you ask me, ideal weather is around 12-17C, sunny with a bit of cloud around, and a decent breeze.

(I await Charlotte piping up to say that my definition of a decent breeze is a howling gale. Well let me pre-emptively say all you non-Wellingtonians are pussies.)

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I'm convinced the reason why there is a tennis tournament in Auckland and not in Wellington is because of the latter's wind.

 

[Axver]

Auckland's pretty windy too, actually. I remember reading some study in December 2011 that put Wellington as the world's windiest city followed by Auckland in second. There was a fair amount of distance between Wellington and Auckland though.

I recall Chicago, despite its windy reputation, looking utterly sedate compared to Wellington and even Auckland.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I think Perth's the windiest Australian city, isn't it?

 

[Axver]

I honestly have no idea. All I really know is that Melbourne's windier than Brisbane!

 

[bono_212]

Chicago's not even the windiest city, weird how things happen.

 

[bono_212]

A: According to the National Climatic Data Center's list of annual average wind speeds, the windiest U.S. city is Dodge City, Kansas, with an average speed of 13.9 mph. Other windy cities include Amarillo, Texas (13.5 mph) and Rochester, Minn. (13.1 mph.). The windiest "big" cities are New York City (LaGuardia Airport) and Oklahoma City, which both have an average annual wind speed of 12.2 mph.
The "windy city" of Chicago isn't as high on the list as you might think. It's average annual wind speed is 10.3 mph.

 

[Axver]

I find it quite funny that of all places, it's DODGE City that's the windiest in the US.

 

[bono_212]

 

[Axver]

Guess something's got to blow the tumbleweeds.

 

[Axver]

Incidentally, here's that article I read back in 2011 about Wellington being the world's windiest city: Wellington Wind | Is The Capital Really That Windy?... | Stuff.co.nz

Victoria University school of architecture senior lecturer Michael Donn agrees. When he investigated Wellington's relative windiness recently, he couldn't find anywhere else - anywhere with a city, at least - that compared.

"Auckland is windier than Chicago and of course Wellington is much windier than Auckland. It turns out that we're a windy country. We just happen to be at the windiest part of it."

Cook Strait and the mountainous landscape on either side of it are to blame for the constancy of the wind. It has to go either over or around those mountains, Niwa's Mullan says. 'Around' is often the easiest option.

"So it's just like squeezing through a funnel and it speeds up as it goes through."

So I misremembered that Auckland's second windiest anywhere - it's just very windy, one of the windiest in New Zealand. But Wellington leaves behind the competition! Now I understand why my worst fear as a child was my glasses being blown away.

 

[Axver]

Why do I look forward to dreading albums, guys?

Steven Wilson's new album has leaked. Two years ago, I'd be shitting bricks with joy. I'm about to go to bed, but I would've decided enough with that nonsense and stayed up and listened to it in all its glory. Now? With trepidation I'll give it a spin at work tomorrow.

The last straw that confirmed my dread was when he changed the title. The overblown excess and lengthy passages of boredom on Grace for Drowning and Storm Corrosion had already shattered my expectations. The clearly wanky track lengths and ridiculous cast of proggy supporting characters bodes poorly. SW's recent favourite albums lists and other comments on current music indicate that he's heading in totally different listening directions to me and my dreams of him returning to his more pop-esque songwriting strengths are probably as good as dead. But I liked it when the album was just The Raven That Refused to Sing. It's a good title. Then he added a bit and it's now The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories). I don't know what it is about that, but that "other stories" thing is another nail in the coffin. It irrationally irks me. Stupid, I know.

Maybe I'll be very pleasantly surprised tomorrow. I assure you I want to be. But I've never before had this feeling of negative anticipation heading into an SW-related album and I don't like it. Even after Grace for Drowning I thought Storm Corrosion HAD to be good. I mean, I'd been waiting for this SW/Mikael Akerfeldt collaboration for years. It's the combined letdown of those two albums that's done it.

 

[Reggo]

-20 to -25 degree temperatures tonight. Seriously, fuck winter.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Awesome news, Daniel! Trust me, that pool will come in handy, even if you don't think it will now.

re: windy cities, isn't Boston the windiest city in America? I think I read that once for some reason. Looks like it is on that list. The Chicago nickname comes from bad politicians back in the day or something, i.e. they're full of hot wind. I know nothing of Dodge except it sounds good when a cowboy namedrops it.

Bonnie, could you possibly put up a couple of posters around the area with a photo of the cat, asking whose it is and whether they still want it?

I was going to just knock on the front door of every single house within my vicinity, but yeah, this sounds like a more reasonable plan.

I'm going to Hong Kong tomorrow! So stoked.

 

[bono_man2002]

Awesome news, Daniel! Trust me, that pool will come in handy, even if you don't think it will now.

I'm going to Hong Kong tomorrow! So stoked.

Oh yeah no doubt. It wasn't the main reason for purchasing the place, more an added bonus! Any who I just want to get in! Hopefully contracts signed this or next week.

Have fun in Hong Kong!