Peter Robert Jordan's Blog, page 2

IVRRAC in France and Shaking in Christchurch

I have just been informed by Amazon that IVRRAC is now available on the French Amazon Site (http://www.amazon.fr/IVRRAC-ebook/dp/B00359FETK) for 0.99 Euros. This is available to residents in France, Belgium and Monaco. It has been available in Germany on the amazon.de site since the end of April and I have managed to sell one copy over there. I take that as an achievement as it is not translated so the customer base is limited to those who wish to read books in a foreign language. But tell any French, Belgium, Monaco or German friends that they can now buy Kindle books on their Amazon sites. Of course it won't hurt to tell them about IVRRAC either.

 

On another note you may recall that I predicted a large earthquake in Christchurch in October. Well to be precise I'll quote my blog – "I now feel a big shakeup is going to occur in the latter end of the first week of October." Well it is actually the second week of October by two days, but could be considered as the latter end of the first week by a little stretch and Christchurch has undergone a 5.5 earthquake on the exact fault I was expecting with my prediction. The good news is that this tme it was deeper than the others and so not much damage has been reported. The NZ Prime Minister was in Christchurch watching the NZ vs Argentina rugby game on a huge television screen and was reported to be quite shaken. This match was scheduled to be played in Christchurch but due to major earthquake damage of the main stadium it was shifted to Auckland. It turns out that it was a good decision to move the game to Auckland after all.

 

Actually there was a 4.8 yesterday as well which was closer to my prediction. But in true Peter fashion I did not feel either of them. This final shake occurred as I drove home from church after watching the Australia vs South Africa rugby game and the final few laps of Bathurst (delayed coverage) where the first and second cars came in at a small nail biting 0.29 second difference. Our kids were very tired and thus we could not stay for the NZ game.

 

Well that's the news today.

 

Cheers and Blessings

 

Peter

 

 

More Excuses

Readers who are patiently (or perhaps not so patiently) waiting for the completion of BOAS will not be happy to hear I have entered myself into a corporate rowing challenge and thus have even less time to spend writing at my computer. This challenge requires the majority of the rowers to be novices at racing, in fact on our team we have a majority of people who never had been in an eight man canoe (is that the right term?) before, including myself. So our first attempt on Monday was very interesting and painful (my legs are just getting over the cramps now).

Balance is the main issue, it is hard to get the oar in at just the right level when the boat is continuously tipping from one side to the other. I guess we will eventually get the hang of keeping the boat totally level especially when all eight are rowing. I would not hold my breath for our team winning the competition but at least we will get some good exercise out of it.

On the IVRRAC front I am pleased to say that there are more readers every day and though there has not been any fresh reviews for a while, over all, people are still giving it the thumbs up. I really appreciate a fair review (whether one star or five, though of course five is preferable).  If you have been fortunate enough to have read IVRRAC and have a spare moment, just pop into Amazon and place a review, many thanks. Also if you have any questions or comments on spoiler topics feel free to post on the In-depth Discussion blog connected to this blog. If I get a few good questions there I will invite Andrew from IVRRAC to reply to the more technical ones so you can get the answers direct from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Take this offer up as how often do you get to blog with a fictional character?

I am extremely tired tonight, all this physical exercise is bad for my late nights, so I must be off to bed.

Cheers and Blessings

Peter

Hair and Kindles

It has been an interesting day today. Firstly I entrusted my hair style totally to a hair dresser, amazingly I am not disappointed at the result and then I popped along to the local Dick Smith Electronics store to have a look at the Amazon Kindle. Yes I have sold over a thousand copies of IVRRAC on the Kindle and I had yet to see one in "person" so to speak. I have up to now used the Kindle for PC app to check the formatting, which is why I had to release the 2011 Kindle edition a week after it was first released with different formatting as I discovered the PC app margins differ from the actual Kindle. Since then I have had several reviews noting the excellent formatting, so the re-release was worth it. However with a Kindle on hand it will be so much easier when it comes to releasing further editions and other books..

I digress, I wandered into the shop purchased a memory stick and asked to see the shop demonstration model. I was absolutely blown over by the E-ink screen, the text seemed to leap from the device into my mind automatically. I had read on the Amazon pages how the E-ink was even better than normal ink on paper but I was very dubious about that comment, however once I saw a Kindle myself I saw exactly what they meant.

I am sold, I want a Kindle NOW! But I have to wait until we know we have the finances available (it is an expensive month this month). It is worth waiting for to finally see IVRRAC on the black and white clear screen as it was designed to be. Those of you who have already read IVRRAC on the Kindle will know what I mean (I think).

 

Cheers and Blessings

 

Peter

 

Not just a statistic anymore

You read in the papers every so often what the national road toll is, here in New Zealand it seems to be around 250 or so a year, and you possibly think for a split second of their loved ones and the grief they must have. Yet it is for most of us only a very quick thought gone as fast as it came. That is until one of those 250 people is someone you know, then the full realisation that these are not just statistics but people's lives hits you.

This is what has been going on for me this weekend, fortunately for me the person was not a relative nor even a close personal friend, but still a person that has been in my thoughts and prayers for over a year. At work on Friday I heard on the radio a traffic report that there had been an accident north of Oamaru (60 minutes drive south of Timaru) and that traffic was being diverted. This did not surprise me, accidents were quite frequent on the stretch of road, I just sighed and was thankful I did not have need to travel to Oamaru that evening.

It was in the evening that on Facebook I found that three people were involved in the accident. A driver of a ute (pickup truck) who was lucky enough to escape with some scratches at the time and an elderly couple driving a small inexpensive car which against a ute had no chance. The wife was driven by ambulance to the main hospital of the local health area (90 minutes drive south) and the husband was flown there by helicopter. Please let me be clear here that who was at fault is completely unknown and the police will not be releasing those details for at least a few weeks.

The next day I found out the truth, (withheld understandably until all family members were notified) that the husband died en-route to the hospital. This made headline news throughout the country, why? Because the husband was a man who used to be the richest man in the South Island, but that was not his claim to fame. He was well known in the local community as one of the most generous people and frugal. Even with millions at his disposal he still lived in an average home with two low cost cars, perhaps he would be still alive today had he bought a large "gas guzzler" as most people in his position are thought to do. But lately, and the reason he and his wife have been in my prayers, is that he has been accused of false accounting and have had their lives turned upside down by the government agencies for over a year now. This was the real reason his death made national news.

Perhaps the statutory management was a knee jerk reaction to avoid more financial managers skipping the country with millions leaving investors out of pocket, or it could have been something more sinister that certain people wanted control of the huge portfolio that he controlled. Whatever the reason the action was definitely over the top and a good man and his wife suffered greatly for no real reason at all.

This was a man who was so concerned for others that his final action before his untimely death was to go to the offices of his old financial company, which because his funds were frozen he was unable to rescue from receivership (though he had retired from the company over a year earlier), and make certain the staff all were okay and their futures were okay upon finally losing their jobs. During statutory management he was allowed $1,000 per week out of his frozen assets, a lot of this he gave to his loyal investors to tide them over as they too were no longer getting the regular pay outs they had been budgeting on since the government had frozen everything.

He continuously thought of others and refused any acknowledgment including national awards for his deeds. He was an example to all people, especially those involved in the financial sector. He helped, not to get a tax exemption, but just to help. Many a business in the local area would not have got off the ground had it not have been for his financial assistance. He could quite easily be called a saint and in my mind he was.

My heart goes out to his wife and daughters, they are the ones who need prayer now. His family will still have to listen to the arguments of whether he was an honest man or not over trial by media. But the charges have now been dropped and the family can at least feel that this awful and unjustified part of their lives can be legally put behind them.. Sadly people will still theorise and accuse him, and he will not be able to defend himself, but in reality for him is that he will be judged only by the one that matters. The judge that knows truth from fiction and will not be swayed by accountant mumbo jumbo or any sinister misrepresentation as a fallible human judge would be.

 

I have purposely not used his name for several reasons, he himself never liked publicity and I would not want to profit from this event and leaving his name off would avoid searches bringing people to this blog. This is really my personal tribute to a great man who will be greatly missed that I wish to share with my devoted readers, not the wider public.

 

Peace be with him and his family.

 

Peter

40 days 'till the big one ... maybe.

I just had to type one more time to get my August quantity up. I don't actually know what I'll type but as it is the last day of August quantity matters more than quality, doesn't it? I realise I have not talked about earthquakes for a while. I guess everyone thinks that it is a non event now and life is getting back to normal. Alas no, on one hand I feel that the reduced amount and strength of earthquakes in the Canterbury region is a sign that things are finally settling down. On the other I have the gut feeling that the faults are just absorbing the great stresses that are being piled upon them and will once again let go in an almighty earth shattering (literally) event.

Today is a great example of the latter. After the North Island pinching earthquake news with a 4.4 quake yesterday at only 3Km deep (most are > 50km deep) and various aftershocks, the Canterbury fault lines must have felt amiss and answered back with a 4.7 at 5Km depth. I now feel a big shakeup is going to occur in the latter end of the first week of October. Solely on the experience that around 40 days after that exact location (North-East of Rolleston) had a 5.0 quake Christchurch central suffered its third major earthquake causing even more damage. I will post that and see if I become the next big earthquake seer.

There are several reasons you should not let this disrupt any travel plans to Christchurch

<![if !supportLists]>1.       <![endif]>As far as I know, even with the tens of large shakes (and one huge) since the February shake no one has lost their life.

<![if !supportLists]>2.       <![endif]>My predictions always fail – Even if I have had evidence of an exact sequence, once I place a prediction to this sequence it will suddenly alter dramatically (This is why I have never won a major prize in Lotto).

<![if !supportLists]>3.       <![endif]>I have as much knowledge of earthquake science as I do about the interior design of a remote hut in the Southern Alps (I can guess but likely to be absolutely wrong).

<![if !supportLists]>4.       <![endif]>Christchurch is a wonderful place to visit and is worth putting up with the occasional shaky sensation

Oh by the way I did not feel today's shake either, I think I am truly immune to earthquakes. On the mountain side of things, the mountains managed to grab some snow last night and are once again covered from Peak to Foothills in snow. I am now tending towards preferring fully snow covered majestic views than partly, but the jury is still out somewhat. Still waiting on your views. Especially when the sun reflects of the shiny snow presenting a glowing mountain range in front of  me while travelling down the main highway.

Cheers and blessings

Peter