Daddys Gymnast

Sivivatu show sinks Blues

Four tries to Chiefs wing Sitiveni Sivivatu has helped his side demolish the Blues 63-34 at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.

The All Black winger was on fire, picking up a hat-trick in the first half and another in the second as the Chiefs notched their most commanding victory of the season.

With a full-strength team, the Chiefs were unstoppable and ran in nine tries to the Blues five in an action packed week six Rebel Sport Super 14 encounter.

The home side opened up the points scoring for the night when Sitiveni Sivivatu got fed an outside ball and slid over in the far corner, allowing first five-eighths Stephen Donald to add the extras to take an early seven point lead.

After a stolen lineout the blues hit back straight away when lock Ali Williams burst down the sideline before flicking an inside ball to fullback Isaia Toeava who scored.

Sivivatu was able to score his second of the night in the 13th minute when he stepped his way through the Blues backline to notch his 33th super rugby try, a new Chiefs record for the most tries scored for the franchise.

All Blacks centre Richard Kahui made the most of the mounting pressure and recovered a handy little grubber kick to score the Chiefs third of the night and boost the score out to a 21-8 with only a quarter of the game gone.

The Chiefs were also looking good in their set-pieces, particularly in the lineouts that have been a real Achilles heel of the side and not only secured their own ball but managed to steal some ball in the process.

With the set-piece looking solid, the Chiefs backline was able to show just how dangerous it was and allowed Sivivatu to again get around the outside and cause some carnage.

The 26-year-old All Black wing soon grabbed his third of the night when he stepped inside the covering tackle of Joe Rokocoko and crashed over the line. Donald's boot added the extras and put the Chiefs in a commanding position after already securing a bonus point.

Chiefs halfback Brendon Leonard soon caught the Blues forwards napping, who were probably wondering how so many tries were being scored against them, and found a gap near the sideline allowing him to sprint unhanded to score the fifth try for his side.

The visitors were able to add some respectability on the stroke of halftime when Toeava found his way through some average Chiefs defence and score his second. Jimmy Gopperth's kick was true from the sideline, taking the score at halftime to 35-15.

Things looked to have calmed down a bit early in the second half before Donald set up a beautiful move that saw speedy wing Lelia Masaga score his first of the night and add to the Chiefs already mammoth score.

The Blues weren't letting things get away from them however and hit back immediately when centre Anthony Tuitavake made the most of an overlap and strolled through. Gopperth kicked another conversion and took the score to 42-20.

Two quick and well-deserved tries to the Chiefs soon followed when blindside flanker Liam Messam showed some gas to pierce a gap and score before second five-eighths Callum Bruce got passed an outside ball and added his name to the point-scorers list.

With the score sitting at 56-20 with 20 minutes still to play, the Chiefs were sending out a loud and clear message that when all their players are healthy and playing they are a side that has the ability to absolutely punish quality teams.

The Blues were pushing back however and threatened the Chiefs line for a long time before replacement Jamie Helleur scored in the corner.

Sivivatu scored his fourth try of the evening before a last-minute try to Rokocoko, his second, ended the game with the final score 63-34.


Chiefs 63 (Sivivatu 4, Leonard, Messam, Kahui, Bruce, Masaga)

Blues 34 (Rokocoko 2, Tuitavake, Toeava, Helleur)

HT: 35-15

Fitting in vs. standing out

You won't have any trouble at all finding someone who can tell you how to fit in.

They can tell you what to wear to that restaurant or this conference or that funeral. It's not that difficult to figure out how to fit in. If fitting in is your goal, you should be sure to get great advice on how to do that.

Standing out, of course, is trickier. Stand out too much and you're a jerk or a fool.

Clothing is not the point. You have this choice to make in everything you do, from your career to the words you use in a sales letter.

The point: choose.

Are you doing this to fit in or stand out?

My App has taken on a life of it's own!

Schools are loving my new App! I am currently writing one for BlackBerry phones. My competitors are going to be scrambling!

Lovin Soccer

Ari loves Soccer! Right now she is just learning basic skills and I thought she would be pretty timid. When they had a little scrimmage she was very aggressive and had great ball control. Yep, I am a proud Dad!

Cheerleader for a day!

Ari was in total heaven. She was a future Roy High Cheerleader at a Roy/Bonneville basketball game. She did so awesome. She cheered with her friend Armani.

First Soccer Practice......Freezing

Practicing her goalie skills! She was pretty funny, all the why to practice she told us that you kick the soccer ball and don't touch it with your hands. When her coach put her in as goalie she told him off.


Soccer practice was awesome for the first 55 minutes then Ari realized how cold it really was. We have a lot of work to do. I am converting the backyard into a soccer field.

Why Mormons Build Temples

Ready to Play!

Ari is so excited to start Soccer. Her first practice is Tuesday!

Looking for a better life

The ultimate aim of all creative activity is to bring happiness to people's lives.
Happiness is an emotion that comes in result of positive experiences and affects human beings.
Experiences can happen in the past, present or future.

Past experiences must offer good memories as a way of re-living it in the present and desiring it for the future. Present experiences must connect to the mind in its whole, bringing focus to the action being performed and getting the mind to a flow state. Happiness comes from the experience itself and not from the result of it.

Future experiences must bring desire to the present, creating a present that is better because of the latent potential of a future experience.

Experiences can be based in real life or in fantasy, but reality and fantasy must empower one another in a way that the whole is better than the absolute sum of the separate experiences.

Experiences that foster happiness should have the following qualities:
• Make people feel confident of themselves.
• Make people feel they can do something better. Empowers people to do something in a better way.
• Improve people's lives helping to solve existing pragmatic problems
• Make people have an enjoyable and fun time during the experience, thus making life worth to be lived.
• Surprises people in a magic way, bringing delight to the eyes and making the mind wonder.
• Create an emotional connection between everyone involved, the experience itself and the one supporting the experience (a brand or a person)
• Make the world a better place to live
• Strenghten relationships between people that live the same experience

Experiences must be immersive and sensorial. The more it talks to human senses, the better it will be. They can exist in physical or virtual states.
The success of an experience is measured by the amount of happiness it brings to life and the amount of people willing to live the experience, not by it's individual qualities.
All kinds of sciences, technologies and studies can be tools for creating happiness and must be used accordingly.

Every effort made to get a better understanding of the human condition and psychology should be treasured, for it points to the right direction and brings enlightenment on how to use the many tools available to create a good experience.

Artists are not different than scientists. "The artist is an exalted craftsman", as stated by Walter Gropius in the Bauhaus Manifesto. "By the grace of Heaven and in rare moments of inspiration which transcend the will, art may unconsciously blossom from the labour of his hand, but a base in handicrafts is essential to every artist. It is there that the original source of creativity lies."

The Experience Designer is therefore a new denomination for all of those that follow this movement and conjure art, science, technology and psychology to desire, conceive and create experiences that bring happiness to the life of many.
An experience designer must love and care about people and the world in which we all live. It's his mission in the world to proudly spread love and happiness through his creations.

The notion that the future can enhance the present is a wonderful and insightful concept. Very nice: “The latent potential of a future experience.” - Don Norman

from DesignExperienceManifesto

Something to think about.....

Ready to hit the pitch!

We signed Ari up to play Spring Soccer. Here are her new boots! Games begin in March. Coming soon, lots and lots of action photography!

10 Commandments of Good Design

Good design is Innovative
It does not copy existing product forms, nor does it produce any kind of novelty for the sake of it. The essence of innovation must be clearly seen in all of a functions of a product. The possibilities in this respect are by no means exhausted. Technological development keeps offering new chances for innovative solutions.

Good design makes a product useful
A product is bought in order to be used. It must serve a defined purpose – in both primary and additional functions. The most important task of design is to optimise the utility of a product.

Good design is aesthetic
The aesthetic quality of a product – and the fascination it inspires – is an integral part of the its utility. Without doubt, it is uncomfortable and tiring to have to put up with products that are confusing, that get on your nerves, that you are unable to relate to. However, it has always been a hard task to argue about aesthetic quality, for two reasons.

Firstly, it is difficult to talk about anything visual, since words have a different meaning for different people.

Secondly, aesthetic quality deals with details, subtle shades, harmony and the equilibrium of a whole variety of visual elements. A good eye is required, schooled by years and years of experience, in order to be able to draw the right conclusion.

Good design helps a product to be understood
It clarifies the structure of the product. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory and saves you the long, tedious perusal of the operating manual.

Good design is unobtrusive
Products that satisfy this criterion are tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained leaving room for the user’s self-expression.

Good design is honest
An honestly-designed product must not claim features it does not have – being more innovative, more efficient, of higher value. It must not influence or manipulate buyers and users.

Good design is durable
It is nothing trendy that might be out-of-date tomorrow. This is one of the major differences between well-designed products and trivial objects for a waste-producing society. Waste must no longer be tolerated.

Good design is thorough to the last detail
Thoroughness and accuracy of design are synonymous with the product and its functions, as seen through the eyes of the user.

Good design is concerned with the environment
Design must contribute towards a stable environment and a sensible use of raw materials. This means considering not only actual pollution, but also the visual pollution and destruction of our environment.

Good design is as little design as possible
Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Innovation

1. It’s about DOING. Innovation is not a noun, it’s a verb. It’s not about flow charts, clever Venn diagrams, hypothesizing and numerous rounds of discussion in the conference room. Innovation is about doing stuff. It’s about looking (with your own eyes) for gaps, needs, holes and business opportunities – and then creating, designing and making real solutions to them.

2. Innovation is about PEOPLE. Actual people. Not the ones in focus group suites who answer questions about you and your products. It’s the ones whose homes you go into, the ones that you listen to, the ones that you quietly watch preparing their breakfast and going about their day that generate ideas for you and your team. These are the people that you should ask for feedback, and these are the people you should credit for helping you get there when you do.

3. FAILURE is important too. You are going to get it wrong a whole lot before you get it right. These days we live in a ‘beta’ culture, where nothing is absolute any more; where the next, improved version is waiting for our feedback before it gets improved and iterated upon. The same is true of innovation. Spending years (and a fortune) perfecting it probably means that someone else will beat you to it. Prototype it fast and cheaply, put it out there and ask for feedback. When you get it, add it to the mix, iterate again and keep on going until it works. 85% is the new 100% when it comes to perfection.

4. COLLABORATION is key. It’s about everyone chipping in and doing their bit, building things together and all getting the credit for the whole. Mashing together skill-sets and interests makes for a more interesting team dynamic, and for a better end result. From my experience, the grumpy guy in R&D is usually grumpy because no one ever asks him to play.

5. In the end, innovation simply comes down to BRAVERY. You’re either going to leap into the void or you’re not. There are no guarantees, no sure-wins and no secret Celestine Prophecy ways to add up the numbers to create a sure-win formula. You just have to be brave. Try it.

I am in BIG trouble...

Yesterday morning we were at the continental breakfast at the Hotel and the room was full of about 50 teenage boys who were in town participating in comp soccer and baseball tournaments. Ari stated ti freak out because her hair was a mess! She whined so much that we finally left and went to a restaurant. I can hardly wait until she is a teenager (not)