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newimprovedtom.bsky.social
@newimprovedtom.bsky.social
310 followers 77 following 1.5K posts
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newimprovedtom.bsky.social
It probably peaked yesterday. Bees and tūī going bonkers.
Northern rātā (Metrosideros robusta) tree in full flower, with urban backdrop. Close up of foliage and bright red flowers of the same northern rātā (Metrosideros robusta).
November 26, 2025 at 12:23 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Drinky Crow
November 25, 2025 at 8:39 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Perhaps we could dob in Peter Thiel.
Quote from the article: “It also requested those embassies "begin collecting data and reporting on migrant-related crimes and human rights abuses facilitated by people of a migration background".”
November 25, 2025 at 5:02 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
I see a ship in the harbour
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn’t for your misfortune
I’d be a 🎶heavenly🎵person today
The Pope, clutching a microphone very close to his mouth in a way that reminds me of Bernard Sumner.
November 23, 2025 at 2:19 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
The voice of the streets.
A sticker featuring a crude hand-drawn cat farting out the words “I hate landlords”.
November 22, 2025 at 2:23 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
“Not an 'accident' but rather a 'stupid'.”
Printed sign: WARNING! Please do not attempt to drive vehicles across the Waikawa Stream by the Bridge. For clarity' sake: the stream is too deep and boggy to safely navigate by vehicles (including utes and 4WD's) and you are likely to become bogged down and stuck. That is not an 'accident' but rather a 'stupid'.
November 18, 2025 at 8:42 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
The Victoria Street rātā is starting to flower!
Close up of rātā (Metrosideros robusta) foliage, showing new growth and a few crimson flowers.
November 18, 2025 at 6:32 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Chaotic skies over Wellington. Could make for an interesting sunset.
Skies over Te Aro streetscape, with a ragged mixture of altocumulus and other cloud layers.
November 18, 2025 at 6:25 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
I don’t think Joey’s on Bsky, so I’ve taken the liberty of stealing his FB post. Among other things, it reminds me of the adage “The way to make good art is to start by making bad art”.
Facebook post from Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, with photos of sketchbooks featuring drawings of plants and wildlife, and the following text: If I don't draw - Just as if I don't exercise - I end up feeling insane. Even if I end up hating what I draw. It's still so important to get it done. It's the same way for a lotta people whether it's playing piano, hiking, fishing, woodworking, building something, or just going to some native habitat to go look at stuff. Do me a favor and steal time from your employer before the year is over and make time to do something like this. And don't spend too much damn time on social media garbage and mind pollution. Here are some drawings l've done lately
November 13, 2025 at 7:42 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
A bit of a roll cloud going on.
Ominous roll cloud over Tangi te Keo.
November 10, 2025 at 8:04 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Imminent.
View to the south, showing threatening clouds.
November 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Wellington, I hope you’re all indoors by 9. Here comes the southerly.
A radar image for 8:42 am, showing a rain band just south of Wellington.
November 10, 2025 at 7:51 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
This says more about Hipkins than it does about the NZ Institute.
Screenshot from the RNZ article, quoting Michael Johnston about the NZ Institute. ‘He challenges suggestions that he represents a right wing think tank. "I would say what we are is a classical liberal think tank. We give policy advice to any political party who wants to talk to us. You know, [Labour leader] Chris Hipkins spoke at our members' retreat earlier this year so it's not true that we only talk to the right wing parties.”’
November 5, 2025 at 7:42 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
“A sort-of ratepayer lobby group” is a very polite way to describe a PR hack for whalers and tobacco companies; a notoriously cooked pub owner; and a wealthy, viciously homophobic property developer.
Screenshot from the article linked to in the previous post: This time his bid for the top job was different. He had the financial backing of Better Wellington - a sort-of ratepayer lobby group that has publicly criticised council spending and decision-making, led by political PR operative Glenn Inwood and with well-known publican Alistair Boyce as spokesperson. Prominent property developer Vlad Barbalich emerged as one of the main financial backers.
November 1, 2025 at 11:47 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Some of that rain is quite hard and bouncy.
October 28, 2025 at 2:31 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
On top of all the other things David Seymour is wrong about, he seems to be very confused about botany.
Quote from David Seymour in a RNZ article about CGT: "It's not that New Zealand lacks government revenue. It seems to be about that old chestnut, the tall poppy."
October 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Horrors! A tragic jet plane accident in Wellington.
Several jet plane sweets scattered across red bricks.
October 26, 2025 at 11:42 PM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Which slightly obscure historical figure was I dressed as last night? Bonus arcane nerd points for deciphering the highly serious message inscribed with esoteric glyphs on the cape.
Me with a pointy beard, black skull cap, cape, and shirt with esoteric symbols. Side view of me in the same outfit, showing symbols on the back and side of the cape. Close up of the back of the black cape, with several arcane symbols in white.
October 26, 2025 at 6:08 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
In one of those weird synchronicities of reading journeys, I’ve started reading Junji Ito’s infamous Uzumaki just as I reached this spiral-obsessed section of @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social’s Is A River Alive.
The cover of Junji Ito’s manga Uzumaki, with the tagline “spiral into horror”. The text is white and grey on a dark grey background with ghostly outlines of blank-faced people, with a red spiralling swirl around the title. Photo of text: “The river runs flow and counterflow in my brain. I see spirals forming everywhere: on the eddy-lines, under the pull of our paddles, in the grain of the driftwood, the licks of fire, the sky-gyres of a watchful osprey. Far upstream, gold-dust pollen swirls atop a dark deceleration of water at a bend of the river, like a star map. Far above, the ongoing helical collision of the Andromeda and the Milky Way galaxies, which began 4.5 billion years ago, spreads across the dark sky like pollen on water.”
October 23, 2025 at 4:20 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
This is a little more specific, but the general idea hits home: the desire to encounter (in fiction (mostly)) the weird, eerie or uncanny. No matter how much one finds wonder and magic in the explicable physical world, we crave the frisson of the inexplicable.
When I was a kid, I enthusiastically believed in ghosts and UFOs and all of that. Even when I was in high school and the story about kuchisake-onna (the slit-mouthed woman) was sweeping through Japan, I would walk to school thinking about how if she really did exist, I wanted to catch at least a glimpse of her. A lingering trace of my youthful belief is the contradictory desire to experience some kind of unnatural event even though I no longer believe in that sort of thing.
October 21, 2025 at 7:37 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
I’m reading “Uncanny” by Junji Ito, and while many of the headings could constitute an Oblique Strategies for speculative/horror fiction (“Drawing on animal abilities”; “Developed from a single imagined landscape”; “Geometric patterns from ancient times”), this one really stopped me in my tracks.
Photo of a heading: “The origin of ideas is discomfort”.
October 21, 2025 at 7:10 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Homer and Bart “the worst day of your life so far!” meme, but with the text: THAT WAS THE MOST MILQUETOAST POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT FROM LABOUR THE MOST MILQUETOAST POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT FROM LABOUR SO FAR!
October 20, 2025 at 5:21 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
“Violator! Homogenic! Leave poor Dummy alone! If you don’t behave I’ll have to send you to your room, like I did with Selected Ambient Works 85-92.”
Screenshot of a tweet by hamza (@Ifchamy) “normalise naming your child after a 10/10 album” (stolen from FB)
October 19, 2025 at 12:13 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
While the local election in Wellington was particularly awful, this piece about the outgoing mayor of Selwyn shows that the discourse was A Bit Shit everywhere.
Excerpt from a newspaper article: "Too woke” Part of this story is also Broughton's support for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te reo Mãori, and his pink Converse sneakers. Broughton was in support of the addition of Megen McKay, a Te Taumutu Runanga representative at the council table. While she had no voting rights, Broughton ensured her voice was heard. His history of voting against the majority of submitters during consultation included voting in favour of the addition of reo Mãori names for wards during the representation review last year. And the tipping point for some in the community were his shoes, which became a target for criticism, with some claiming he was "too woke"
October 18, 2025 at 7:34 AM
newimprovedtom.bsky.social
Christchurch has its new cathedral, an imposing monument wherein the faithful will worship the true religion of Canterbury.
A distant view of the eastern part of the Christchurch CBD, its skyline dominated by the dome of the new stadium.
October 18, 2025 at 2:25 AM