Other What currently makes your life awesome?

Sat in the office with the Singapore GP FP1 session being beamed onto one of the walls..... noice!

 

Astro bot demo on PSVR. It's mind bendingly good. So stoked for the full game to turn up now.

 

It's the best game on any platform ever.

There. I said it.

 

Mind blowing isn't it?

As soon as you sync the controller in the magic begins. I was laughing my head off kicking the robots in the ass. Then I looked down and it actually blew my mind. Like, how the wee robots integrated into the controller.

It's the best virtual world I've ever seen. Quality is on par with DK2, slight screen door but proves once and for all it's all about the content.

Thankfully I'd already ordered it and I went down and picked it up earlier. I know exactly what I'm doing tonight!

 

35-3 to England in the Rugby... that'll do... now just don;t embarrass yoselves against the yanks...

 

You are aware that NZ put 92 points on Tonga a couple of weeks ago? Just sayin'...

 

England are notorious for clutching defeat from the jaws of victory... plus you had the shower that was the last WC...

Plus everyone knows NZ cheats you're almost as bad as the Australians....

 

Them's fightin' words... don't tell me I didn't warn you to not p*** off a Kiwi about rugby, when (OK; if) he decides to stomp a mud-hole in you...

 

No more student loan repayments on my payslip

I'll just casually skirt around the fact that I had 3 years worth of student debt that took me 19 years to pay off and I didn't even get past a first year let alone graduate...

 

You have to wait for them to get the show tunes and elaborate dance number out of the way first...

 

A glorious day indeed! Congrats on paying it off.

 

or...

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

It's a well-choreographed dance number, I'll give them that...

 

I had the NZ Maori All Blacks haka (different to the NZ All Blacks haka) performed to me and my bride at my wedding, it is an amazing and powerful thing up close.

The Maori iwi (tribes) all have their own haka, as do schools, rugby teams and so forth, there is an amazing variety. All however are powerful and heartfelt to experience.

This a good example...


And this is a high school rugby match...


Edit: and in case you were wondering, yes, high school rugby matches like this are televised live on Sky in NZ.

 

Is 'answering/responding to a Haka' akin to 'accepting the challenge'...?

 

I remember the various Hakas from Jona Lomu's funeral.

...and then you have the like of Tongan Sipi Tau and the other similar things from the various Pacific Island nations...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2434031893549525

Depends... not all Hakas are a challenge to the opposition [though they're often viewed as such, especially in sport].

 

If someone is performing a haka to you then they think that you are worthy of it in the first place. If you know how to respond by either joining in the haka (like the wedding video) or performing your own (like the school rugby video) then great. If not, then best to just maintain eye contact and thank them afterwards. Even if it is performed in a challenge context, it is showing respect. The haka does not require a formal response, unlike the pōwhiri (a Maori welcoming ceromony) - you may have seen a Maori put an object at the feet of visiting dignitaries which they then pick up.

You may have seen Australia in the Campese era running around warming up when the All Blacks performed a haka, basically ignoring the haka - Australia paid for that with a thorough beating from the All Blacks (43-6), that was considered disrepectful. The thinking goes that "we respect you enough to perform this to you", it is actually not meant to try and intimidate the opposition. Many rugby teams who have faced the haka "suck it up" and feed on it, using it to motivate themselves, its a primal thing.

Funnily enough, when the Ireland rugby team (89 - Willie Anderson) and laterly the England rugby team (97 - Richard Cockerill) marched forward into confrontation with the All Black haka, that was actually considered a great response, they didn't shirk from the challenge - then after France in 2007 & Wales in 2008, World Rugby had kittens, worried that a fight would eventually break out, so they made everyone stand twenty metres away from each other.

The kiwis in the Munster team leading with their own haka to the All Blacks in 2008 was awesome, every kiwi loved that. When Tonga responded with the Sipi Tau during the All Blacks haka in 2003, it raised the hairs on the back of your neck. Most special was when the Maori All Blacks paid tribute to Anthony Foley by presenting his two sons with a jersey initaled "AF" prior to the haka.

It is basically part of traditional battle preparations but also has social meaning as well, as in it is performed to distinguished guests or to acknowledge achievements, occasions or funerals.

It is a Polynesian thing, like the Samoan Siva Tau, the Tongan Sipi Tau, the Fijian Cibi and (more recently introduced) the Hawiian Ha'a. There are even American football teams with Polynesian players performing it now.

 

Previous post edited to include some haka p0rn links...