Posts by Sam F

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  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    You all convinced me and I've stuck with re-reading Making Money. It does get better with time. Still not really a favourite, though... also Mr. Fusspot makes me think of Gaspode the Wonder Dog. Now that would be a welcome reappearance...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Feminist as crazy old man,

    heres another funny thing...swearing i'm totally cool with.

    invoking the lords name in vain...not so much

    And here was me thinking you were an equal-opportunity-offense sort of poster.

    He may be your Lord, and good for you, but are you trying to force an attitude towards Jesus upon us? Through this 'loudhailer' of a blog site, even? I'm shocked sir. I thought we were all, y'know, evolving magically beyond that?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Feminist as crazy old man,

    I'm still waiting until we just evolve past this argument to peace and tolerance without having to get into the messy details of discrimination against minorities.

    Wouldn't that just so be nice? Fluoro-blue kaftans for everyone!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Feminist as crazy old man,

    So to rephrase, you think legislation intended to protect gay rights is only going to benefit lawyers, and at some point humanity is just going to evolve to the point where the universal consciousness will click over towards love and tolerance?

    EDIT: Hiveminded by others who've responded better, but I'll let this stand for the sake of it...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Honours,

    Even living in South Auckland it was entirely normal for kids to disappear all day, with no fixed destination, right through the end of the 80s.

    As kids in the early '90s we used to regularly go roaming off unsupervised around the parks and beaches in Point Chev, although it was a famously sleepy suburb then (a little less so now).

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    the Discworld is changing, in more permanent ways than before.

    Vetinari's great modernising Undertaking for Ankh-Morpork(mentioned in Making Money) seems like a mooted endpoint to the medieval-slash-early modern Discworld world. If that city really, seriously industrialises, a lot of the Discworld spirit will change.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: You've got to listen to the music,

    have they finally got around to making stereos without the twin tapedecks yet ?

    Ah the memories.

    I remember a college English project that involved an interview - for some reason I tried to put together a radio documentary on tape. I interviewed a family friend using with a Walkman with microphone attachment, with the mic stuck to a sunvisor in the guy's car, the quietest place on his property to record.

    Thus followed several hours of 'editing' on a double-tapedeck stereo. I'd play the portions of the interview I wanted in the final product on the stereo, actually recording them straight off the speakers with the Walkman and microphone. Then the tape went from the Walkman to tapedeck 1, so that I could record musical breaks onto it with tapedeck 2, then it was back to the Walkman for more of the interview. Rinse, repeat... and the program ended with me doing a wrapup, holding the mic with one hand and with the other turning the volume knob up and then back down to get a fadeout.

    The end product of course sounded like it had been recorded down a drainpipe, the tape-stop cuts were deafening, and I got marked down because I'd edited out the questions I asked in some places. Was fun though.

    Nostalgia break ends here :)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: You've got to listen to the music,

    me neither, especially when listening on a cell phone:)

    In between this and the Limp Bizkit thing you're really gunning for excommunication aren't you... :P

    I own a handful of vinyl records but have never had a player, so have never heard them - bought more out of curiosity than out of anything else. CD was the format I grew up with and although I find my ipod nano much more convenient than my beloved Discman, I still find it hard to think of MP3 as a format in its own right rather than a copy of something taken from a CD or somewhere else. It'll wear off in time, I'm sure.

    I can just remember when mainstream chains still had a few racks of cassette tapes left behind the CDs which were the newest, bestest thing...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • I feel Ayn Rand,

    It's interesting the heroes that different cultures build up and tear down - and how they're viewed in different ways. Just finished Oliver August's 2007 book Inside the Red Mansion , which tells the story of Lai Changxing. Lai basically started off from nothing and became one of the richest people in China during the 1990s, through various means not all of which were legal or necessarily moral.

    He became a hero to the locals on his home turf of Xiamen - even after the authorities publicly stopped tolerating him and prosecuted him for bribery, corruption and the whole works, whereupon he fled to Canada in 1999 (he's still there).

    In fact, the authorities turned his famous Red Mansion luxury pad/harem into a Communist-style museum of ill-gotten gains, but the luxury on display was still so impressive that tourism to the Mansion grew out of control, complete with other rapt entrepreneurs arriving to take notes on Lai's ultimate high-rolling lifestyle. Thus the museum was hastily rejigged...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

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