So, if you have been living in a dumpster that’s been on fire, firstly, I don’t blame you. Secondly, you may not know that this is the second week of my Winter Break from New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website. If I work hard enough, it may reach the dizzying heights of 6th; but we have to wait and see.

Temperatures here have dropped to -3°C, which is just so… delightful. That being the case, today’s blog is as small as the charities that Mr. Charles Montgomery Burns donates to, because I need to keep warm.

In other news, I hope Viktor Orban’s anti-LGBTQIA+ legalisation works wonders for Hungary. It’s not like over 200,000 people would ever participate in a Gay Pride march in Budapest, in defiance of said legalisation. I mean, that wouldn’t happen, would it?

And that’s it for this week. I’ll be back next Monday for a longer blog because Superman opens very soon, so I need to do one of my world-famous movie previews.

Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, and enjoy the last day of Pride Month. I know Viktor Oban, Donald Trump, and Christopher Luxon will.

The June Solstice has passed, and now we are heading towards aphelion. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, winter has arrived. The Starks will be relieved, as all hope, warmth, and light have been fading away.

Because of this positive and uplifting event, I am officially on my first break of the year. Yes, I am taking two weeks off from running New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website, because it’s difficult to manage low-quality content for the masses.

It’s a bittersweet break since I found out I was not selected for the All Blacks again. However, I recently registered with Hoopla, so my break will involve catching up on a lot of books.

Just like last year, I need to address two things.

1.) I’ll be publishing another blog post next Monday, but just like this one, it will be greatly reduced in size and length.

2.) I’ll still be posting daily nonsense on Twitter and Mastodon, so that won’t change.

Thank you to all my readers, followers, and subscribers. Whether you are new or old, your support for this vanity project means a lot to me.

Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, don’t bomb nuclear facilities, and I’ll quickly check in with you next week. Take care.

Kia ora everybody, this is my unofficial return from my break. I know, I’m supposed to be staying away from this place, but this is only a small blog post, compared to the ridiculous long essays I can sometimes write.

I just wanted to cover some of the great expectations for Some Geek Told Me in 2025.

These can include:

• More spelling mistakes.
• More grammatical errors.
• More badly chosen topics.
• More movie previews/reviews.
• A new series of blogs about animals.
• The return of the ever-popular Tour of the Solar System.
• More Food and Prejudice posts.
• More science-related content.
• The annual blogs about Star Wars Day and Free Comic Book Day.
• The return of the We Didn’t Start the Fire historic references.
• More comic and manga blogs.
• Updates about the Coalition of Chaos (The current New Zealand Conservative Government).
• Increase subscribers.

Some of these expectations are more achievable than others, and it is your task to determine which ones are realistic.

Alright, that’s it for today. I’ll still be posting daily on Twitter and Mastodon, which is just a shameless plug because nobody else is going to do it for me. Thank you for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me, and I’ll see you next week for the official return of the geek.

Currently, in the Southern Hemisphere, we have entered into that delightful season that is well known for being full of hope, warmth, and light: winter.

By putting on your detective hats, you would have already figured out what my special announcement, which I hinted at last week, was going to be. Yes, I’m taking a break—a Mid-Winter break, to be precise.

My most recent break was over Christmas when I had a two-week holiday from managing New Zealand’s 5th least popular website. After discussing this with the HR department, we agreed that I would take breaks every six months, at the end of June and the end of December, essentially during the start of winter and the Christmas holiday season.

I plan to catch up on sleep, eat some pizza, get more exercise, and try to make a dent in my to-read piles. It’s cold, dark, and damp here, and I have a few health issues I need to work on, so this is the best time to take a break. I bet The New Zealand Sour Cream and Chives Preservation Society, along with Beetroot Awareness Aotearoa will appreciate it!

Anyway, just to clarify some things:

1.) I’ll be publishing another blog post next Monday, but just like this one, it will be greatly reduced in size and nonsense.

2.) I’ll still be posting daily stuff about stuff on Twitter and Mastodon, so that won’t change.

So that’s it. This project, born out of vanity and hubris, began in December 2020. Despite feeling tired, I find myself working on Some Geek Told Me content almost every day. Because of this, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who reads, follows, and subscribes to my ludicrous content.

Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, keep watching the Copa América and Euro Football Championships, and I’ll see you next week.

Well, the Gregorian Calendar has knocked off another year. MMXXIII is now a distant alcohol-infused memory, so we now welcome a brand new year, that we have labelled MMXXIV, or 2024 to make things easier. Not everybody in the world uses the Gregorian Calendar, but it’s the most common; at least in my house.

So what can you expect from Some Geek Told Me in 2024?

• More spelling mistakes.
• More grammatical errors.
• More badly chosen topics.
• More movie previews/reviews.
• A blog about the Summer Olympics.
• The return of the ever popular Tour of the Solar System.
• The annual blogs about Star Wars Day and Free Comic Book Day.
• There will be probably be blogs about some sport tournaments.
• More comic and manga blogs.

This year, I want to write more blogs about science, whether it’s about facts or news. I do have an idea concerning biology, so keep reading to see if it works.

I’m also going to be checking in with Lupesey and the Coalition of Chaos, the US election, various wars around the world, and other really fun and positive things.

Don’t panic though, Some Geek Told Me is still 100% committed to taking an anti-Sour Cream and Chives stance. Now and forever.

I’ll still be posting daily on Twitter and Mastodon this year. I realise Twitter is now known as X, but I just can’t be bothered in calling it anything else, other than Twitter or a dumpster fire.

I’m very sorry to mention this, but the quality of the writing, and the humour, are probably not going to improve here.

Alright, that’s it. This is another short blog because I’m still taking a short break with UMC1 and UMC2. I’ll be back next Monday with my regular awful blog.

Happy New Year, be safe and I’ll see you next week.

This is my 150th blog post and I have the grey hair and stress lines to prove it. I made my first Some Geek Told Me blog post on 1st December 2020, which was born out of the desire to make the COVID-19 national lockdown count for something. 

At the time of writing this blog post, I have amassed a staggering amount of followers and subscribers, across three platforms:

WordPress: 49 subscribers

Twitter: 17 followers

Mastodon: 85 followers

I know, it’s pretty impressive isn’t it?

To mark my 150th blog post, I thought I would share some of the subjects that I’ve discussed on Some Geek Told Me, but are also connected to 150. Sweet? Great, let’s dive into the latest blog post from New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website. 

Batman Begins had a budget of US$150 million.

One of my favourite comic book series celebrated a special milestone: Fables #150.

The average distance from the Sun to the Earth is 150 million km, which is known as an astronomical unit (1AU).

Star Trek: First Contact is one of the best Star Trek movies, in my humble geek opinion. The 1996 film had a box office return of US$150 million.

The atomic weight of Samarium (Sm) is 150.3.

An average adult male South China tiger weighs 150 kg.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, was first published 150 years ago, in 1873.

The Amazing Spider-Man #150 from 1975.

150 is the sum of eight consecutive primes (7 + 11 + 13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29 + 31).

At a New Zealand supermarket called Countdown, a 1.5L of Countdown Lemon, Lime & Bitters is NZ$1.50 or 150 cents.

There are 150 seats in the House of Representatives of The Netherlands.

Can I just quickly address the herd of elephants in the room?

1.) In their infinite wisdom, New Zealanders voted in the most Conservative government in years, with a National-ACT coalition. What have we done?!

2.) Australia voted no, on the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. What have they done?!

3.) The Israel-Hamas War is showing no signs of slowing down. What can we do?!

This ball of rock and water that we call home, can sometimes be very scary and cruel. I get it. Watching footage or reading articles about terrible events can make you feel a range of emotions including anxiety, worry, disappointment, shock, dread, sadness, fear, panic, frustration, powerlessness, loneliness, and melancholy.

I think it’s natural to have these emotions, but just be grateful you don’t feel apathy. All those previous emotions can be associated with negativity; but at least you have them. It means you care, because feeling apathy is worse.

As for feeling anger, well, to quote Rage Against the Machine:

Your anger is a gift. 

And that’s it. Thank you for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. It means a lot to this geeky introvert. Maybe my writing will actually improve by the 300th blog post. Who knows?!

Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, watch the Rugby World Cup semi-finals, and I’ll see you next week. And why you ask? Because the Tour of the Solar System is back, and the next stop is the Asteroid belt!

I know the world is a little crazy at the moment with the World Cup; climate change; interest rates and cost of living rising; Russia forgetting how to read a map; the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has survived past five weeks; and Twitter is doing what Twitter does best; trolling people.

Having said that, I just wanted to point out that this week, I’m celebrating two years of Some Geek Told Me. In the history of humanity, this achievement is not quite ready to be cemented into the history books, but that’s ok with me.

So looking back over another year, what have I learnt?

• I’m still enjoying this, though my pay rate is still pretty bad. I mean after two years, I still haven’t had a pay rise. I’ll have to continue on with my $0.0 hourly rate.
• Every time someone leaves a comment, I’m like a kid that has just been told the school has been flooded and I need to stay home.
• My wife reading one of my posts, just to remind me that I’m not as funny as I think I am.
• I still get halfway through writing a post, then realise that it’s not humorous at all.
• I’ve created a list for future blogs, by writing down key words. I just need to remember what the key words mean.
• Proofreading and editing my work at 11 pm is still a stupid thing to do, but I’m still doing it.
• Various sports this year featuring World Cups, have greatly aged me, along with help from UMC1 and UMC2.
• I told my parents about the blog and they wanted to know if I got paid for it. I changed the topic very quickly.
• I’ve written about various people in pop culture that have died this year, but I failed to write about all of them.
• I should do more reviews about different projects that I like, while trying to sound funny; emphasising on being funny.
• I’m not reading enough content of the amazing bloggers out there.
• I’m still trying to create some more entertaining science communication posts, but still sounding original.
• It’s the Kiwi in me, but I’m still trying to promote the blog, without promoting the blog.

That’s it for today. I know this post was small, but I have another blog post coming out on Thursday. Thanks for reading, go watch the World Cup, walk your dog, read a banned book and I’ll see you on Thursday.