Dear Daddy

My good friends from DIY Father have been absolutely wonderful over the past couple of years that I've known them!
So with all their exciting overseas travels and book releases of their very successful work, I thought I'd help these amazing people out, and let the world know that here is this wonderful resource every single daddy and daddy-to-be absolutely must, must, must have this Christmas/Birthday/Random Surprise Event Where It's Cool To Give Gifts....

Their book is available online right this very second!
DIY Father - Call Me Dad

Seriously check out their site - it's full of wisdom and many dad-parenting things, and remember to grab a copy of DIY Father - Call Me Dad too..for that special man! :)

Social Networking 101 - Teen's View

So I thought I'd try out my knack for the camera in little informative videos to celebrate the e-book that people have been begging for me to release for a while....all about social networking, why teens love it so much, whether there's any point in it, and most importantly, how to market using social media!

Since this post, we've actually put some of the info into a 7 Day Social Media Course...check it out at www.socialnetworkingnz.co.nz and sign up to receive a lesson a day for the next week in the right hand column!


And you can click on the picture to see the video!...

Blenheim!

Aaaaand so the trip to Blenheim started off on an absolutely amazing day...
Wellington was in all its glory and wind and rain, which even made the stewardesses flying in from all over the world in little old Wellington Airport leave their planes in a bit of a mood, but after the COOLEST plane ride (the plane inside reminded me of a big family van) with the bumps in any turbulence and skies that made you feel like you were in an unknown land with blizzards around you, we set down in sunny Blenheim.

For some reason all day people were saying how windy it was.
I didn't notice.
Wellington would refer to THAT sort of weather as a 'slight breeze' I imagine.
The sun was shining, and town welcomed me with it's coffee (I think Blenheim has the best coffee I've ever had...and I have spent a lot of time in cafes for a whole variety of reasons).

Highlights of the trip:

Blenheim Palms: Base Camp for the Night

Wither Hills Vineyards....beeeautiful place! Must be even more amazing than it was on a nice hot summer's day!


Project K Mentors Evening Workshop.
The workshop went A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
The evening consisted of a workshop for mentors and students to get a better relationship with each other, and better ways to achieve this through things like TXTing, building rapport, wheel of life, and visualization.
Check out Project K - great place to get involved in!

Awesome Trip!
Go go Blenheim!

Long Time, No See!

I've been slack, and yes, I'll admit it.
I love my dearest blog, but you know throughout the past year, big businessmen in expensive suits who are all so "amazed at how I'm achieving such big things at such a young age" have all on some occasion mentioned the word 'Twitter'.

Now, as the world keeps silently spinning, Twitter has actually made it quite big over the few months it's existed. It's become (apparently) the 'it' thing of celebrities all over the world, going as far as Ashton Kutcher taking photos of Demi Moore ironing or something (I'm embarassed to say I had nothing else to read on the plane than the magazines in the front pocket....) and posting them up on Twitter. I'm sure you could find your favourite business entrepreneurs (or maybe their assistants write the stuff for them...), Shortland Street Stars, Musicians - almost everyone on there!

So now, the usual things I'd save for blogs, might make it onto my Twitter the second they happen. The immediate update is the niche for this little birdie. Oww yeah. I must say, this function of 'waht you're doing' was always available on Facebook and Bebo and whatnot, and I never took much notice of it - why do you need to update the whole world about what kind of cookie you're eating when you can comment people that really need to know about it?

Anyway, if you still don't know what I'm on about...go here, start your own Tweet-thing, and follow me too!

And now I actually promise to put in a bit more effort into my blogging from now on.

:D

Latest Media:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0902/S00270.htm

Auckland and Schizz

So after about a billion years, I decide to update my blog.

No, no. Don't worry. I haven't forgotten about it....I'm in the middle of setting up a blog on my site....but it's proving hard due to the fact that they don't really teach you how to make websites when you're born so you have to learn everything as you go through life...maaan...wouldn't it be cool if we had little chips to install in our brains and then we'd know everything we needed.

Last week my uncle came all the way from the Mother Land. Sweet. He's in love with the Haka already. My brother-in-law and niece danced it for him a couple of days ago. He LOVED it. Says he'll dance it for his colleagues when he goes back to work in a month.

The trip to Auckland went wonderfully.
I was on the Breakfast Show on Monday morning where I met the resident Chiropractor (photo below). Awesome.
Spoke at a school and rotary, met with CanTeen, and spent half a day almost at the lovely Waiheke Island. I love it there, because even if the weather's yuck, the people make up for it big time. Someone's always eager to see you and meet you and take photos with you.

Thursday was an exciting day. I'm part of a regular youth panel on the Good Morning show. We talked about boy racers this week. All the presenters are the loveliest people you'll ever meet. Glad I get to spend all my waiting around time with them. Seriously. You know when you're with boring silly people, and you think 'I can't believe I have to spend every blah blah night with them for the rest of the year'. Yeah well these people aren't like that. Owww. It's pretty sweet - everyone's family there.

Keep a lookout....the Good Morning Show every Thursday at 10.15am. Be there or be square. And in all honesty, who really wants to be a square? I'd love to be a circle, personally. Roll around as much as you want, and no one says anything!

Yep.

Art of War & Power of Persuasion

Apart from the last days' super secret squirrel agendas and meeting I've been having, I must say the week started off and ended (seeing as tomorrow is Waitangi Day) very very productively indeed.

First off, today, I learned that people assume they get holidays. Today, after calling around pharmacies to see if anyone is open on Waitangi Day, getting back to the first guy I called, I asked if I could get what I needed somewhere else. He proceeded to go and consult with his supervisor.
The result?
They actually ARE open during regular business hours tomorrow.
So don't assume, even if the employees do.

Also, I witnessed a rather distressed Mum who tried to shove her daughter into the doors of the library, after the approximately 6 year old kid clearly showed her wish to leave her scooter outside (because of the 'no scooter' sign on the doors). Instead of an acknowledgment of her daughter's:
a) reading abilities
b) her obedience of law (i.e. no scooters, means no scooters as far as a kid's concerned)
c) her complete trust in the fact that the people outside won't touch her precious scooter

The literal 'shoving' into the library kinda got me. If this was a teenager, I'm sure this situation would end up badly for all in a 20 metre radius. So does talking not work with people? If this was her partner, would that woman be trying to shove him into the library doors and get some obedience?
"Darling, if you leave the scooter outside, someone might take it and your name and phone number isn't even written on it. And they only put the sign on the door so people don't scooter around the library and knock all the books over."....could have been one scenario.
Could have.
A billion other less physical ways could have taken place. Because, next time, that little girl won't want to go to the library with her scooter. So she will walk. And because she's little, she'll walk slower than she would have otherwise been riding on her scooter. The Mum will probably tell her off for walking too slow next time.
Where does this end?!?!

So anyway, to finish off my latest news update, at the moment I'm reading 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu. I've been actually meaning to read this since I was 12, but hey, better late than never, right?
Although the book is about ancient military tactics, the wisdom in this book is still valid even today - hey, all's fair in love and war!



Ciao Cacao!
<333