Posts by Brent Jackson

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  • Field Theory: Mother Dog!,

    I think the jock/nerd thing is just standard stereotyping.

    I'm involved in clubsport motorsport, which involves driving my car as fast as I can around a laid-out course without knocking over any cones. When I say this to people, they tend to think that I am :
    (a) a petrolhead who likes working on cars; and/or
    (b) a hoon who likes driving irresponsibly on public roads; and/or
    (c) a "boy racer" who likes adding bits to my car to make it look like it should be fast; and/or
    (d) a motorsport enthusiast who likes V8 supercars, and Formula 1.

    In fact, none of these are true - I do like watching rallys, and I do like driving fast. People have a tendency to categorise things into "boxes" of stuff which are sort-of-the-same-ish-like. When applied to people, and specifics, it tends to fail close to 100% of the time.

    Moral of the story - constantly question your own sterotyping, and always update your impression/knowledge/treatment of someone with what they actually say - not with what you expect that they would have or should have said. That is to say, don't manipulate or disregard what they say because it doesn't fit your mould of who you think they are.

    Cheers,
    Brent.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Boning Up,

    I did actually discover the purpose of a tie. Coming out of work on a winter's day in London in '89, I took off my tie. The cold northerly blew around my neck and down my back. Putting the tie back on kept me much warmer.

    So, there you have it. In my 24 years of working, I've once had a good use for a tie ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: The Missionary Position,

    I guess I'm what people call a strong Atheist. (I like the term "radical atheist" as used by Douglas Adams. I also like the way he stated that he didn't so much "believe that there is no god", but was in fact "convinced that there is no god".

    I am the same. I am sure that there is no god. Principally because I can see no evidence at all that there is one.

    I am perplexed when I am constantly reminded that many (obviously intelligent) people do believe in a god. I do not understand why they do. The best explanation that I have come up with is that they are unable, or unwilling, to acknowledge that after you die you will cease to exist.

    In the words of Monty Python "...you come from nothing. You're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing!". Some people seem to think that if there is no life after death, then it is impossible to be happy. It didn't seem to stop the Pythons (as nicely summarised here).

    Obviously I am conflating "belief in God" with "life after death", but as Rob Hoskings stated :

    It seems to me that most religions seem to take three very distinct questions and bung them together.

    How did the world get here? What happens when we die? How should we live our lives?

    It's also interesting that many religious people seem to think that if somebody thinks the answer to the second question is "cease to exist", then their approach to the third question will be uncaring, selfish hedonism. This is palpably untrue.

    I'd be interested to hear why you think that there is (or might be) life after death.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Re-Entry III: The Eagle has Landed,

    What I loved about coming through customs last year was the "Welcome home, Brent". Not "Mr Jackson", not "sir", but "Brent".

    I knew I was home.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Mac Ouch,

    Re: Stuff customisation

    The customisations allowed are very limited. My main bugbears :
    - there is no way to get rid of that stupid slide show thingy on the top right.
    - there is no screen size setting, so a quarter of the page is off the screen to the right
    - there is no way to cancel images and just get a compact listing of headlines (too much stuff to have to scroll down past)
    - the customised news feed is pretty useless because it is so difficult to limit it to what you want, without excluding what you do want. For example, if you want to keep up with Rallying, then "Rally" will get you stories whenever there's a protest rally, or the sharemarket rallies. Adding terms to include car and driver, just leads to missing stories that don't happen to mention these terms. Ideally, you should be able to specify the section that the term refers to (eg Rally [Sports] for rallying, Rally [Business] for sharemarket rallies, and Rally [National] for protests.
    - the customised news feed does not seem to have an age filter, showing stories that are months old. I'd have thought a 1 week cut off would be about right, but why not let people pick the number of days that they are interested in.

    Points for effort, but the site is less useable for me now than it used to be, because it requires much more scrolling to scan the headlines.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: The Up Front Guide – How to…,

    Giovanni wrote:

    Does anybody know what I'm talking about ...

    I know what you mean. We came across it when we were looking at kitchen designs as well. Our thoughts were pretty much how is it possible that anyone who likes books enough to want it to look like they have lots of them in their kitchen, could actually not just condone, but request and require that those books get mutilated in the process of creating the aforesaid kitchen. It is just soooo wrong.

    ...and could refer me to a publication or website?

    No, sorry. I think it was in a book (or possibly a magazine) from the library ... not much help I'm afraid.

    There are also some wallpapers and borders which look like they are shelves of old books.

    Cheers,
    Brent.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Away for the Weekend,

    ... is or isn't entitled to stab someone to death

    Or shoot them.

    It is interesting to compare the two cases, since one resulted in conviction, and the other with a not-guilty verdict.

    I'd say the major point of difference is that Emery had to chase the tagger in order to stab him, whereas Allen and his victim were still on the property when Allen shot him.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Island Life: Go hard or go home,

    When we recently crossed Cook Strait on the ferry, my son asked "Why don't they build a bridge ?".

    Why not, indeed.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: One, two, three, go!,

    threenager outburst

    Love it ...

    Thanks for a wonderful post.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: A Full Sense of Nationhood,

    Russell blogged :

    Little P-class yachts with colourful sails bobbed around off the shoreline

    They weren't P-class, they were Optimists. I know because I was out there capsizing in one. I think I did pretty well for my first time in a small yacht. I managed to right it, get back in it, bail it out, and sail on. And, more importantly, didn't lose my sunglasses and hat in the process.

    I am very grateful to Martin Ball, the technology teacher at Pasadena Intermediate School, for giving up his afternoon to make the Optimists available for us to use, (and for running around in the safety boat rescuing those that required it).

    Cheers,
    Brent.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

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