Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: Thinking Digital, in reply to Russell Brown,
But it's not a cure-all and it is prescriptive. A stronger argument needs to be made in its favour.
In each case, I'd hope. But I do like the forward thinking aspect of it.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to JacksonP,
Probably doesn't contribute much to the impression many people have of the game.
Oh yes it does. It's a smashing game.
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One thing I do like in Labour's policy is the desire to make all government software open source. That's a vision.
I don't know how realistic it is, for quite a lot of apps there just isn't an open source version. But it's a very progressive mandate, that everyone should be allowed to see how the software their government uses works, right down to the code. Also, it should save a hell of a lot of money, and help break up the Apple/Microsoft monopoly that dominates the software industry in this country.
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Field Theory: All Blacks v Wallabies Tensionfest, in reply to Phil fryer,
Nah, subs are there for a reason. Coming out fresh can have a huge impact, especially when you're big and fast. Make a big guy run around the field for 80 mins and you're just wasting their potential.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
Richard Loe, right?
O Sensei, he say "First, smash the eyes"
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to 3410,
Watching a World Cup semi-final against the Wallabies is a pretty low bar for testing interest, and the results do show that half the country does not care enough to even watch arguably their most important match in years.
Yes, I expect reality to intrude very sharply after the final. It intruded enough on me on Sunday night - I was all up for partying into the night. Everyone else went to bed, needing some rest before work the next morning. I was left alone with the internet. Then my brother called from darkest Sarawak, hooting with delight, which was great except for the fact that he was clearly on his way to becoming incoherently drunk, something I had hoped he was doing less of.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Really should learn what dubstep actually is
It's the perfect music for boxing training. I think that's why bogans like it. Just connect the sounds like this (right handed version):
Tictic <pause> tictic = slip left, pause, slip right
Wubwubwubwub = pump body blows 4 times
Screech = left hook
Boom = straight rightIt works well because it emphasizes off-beats, which are extremely useful in fighting arts - fool opponent by setting up a rhythm, and then catch them moving to it with a blow that comes half a beat early or late.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
Nah. Playing rugby was one area where I had to work hard just to be okay at it. As a kid who found most other things at school relatively easy, that was character-building.
For sure. Practically everyone can drastically increase their physical abilities, but it takes a lot of work. As a kid, everyone thought my brother would be the athlete, and I the scholar. But keep turning up to training and games for 5 years and it's pretty amazing what happens to your body.
I think sport lets us down in middle age, though, it's much less useful for health when you can't recover from injuries, and when hard training makes you feel tired for several days afterwards, and you have responsibilities which make the time commitment too onerous.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
The odd English rugby journalist -- and the people who comment under the reports -- still seem a bit bitter on us.
I guess they have cause to be bitter. They have to go back to winter, licking the wound of their pathetic semifinal. If France beats us, then at least they can say they were knocked out by the tournament winner. Of course if we drub France, then that puts paid to the entire continent of Europe, represented entirely by their side of the elimination round (thanks to Ireland), which should have been a soft gift through to the final for England.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Paul Williams,
And, as far as I can tell, all the Aussies want us to win. I'm pretty cool with that.
Yes, it shows a kind of class that we could learn from.
I'd go so far as to say that at this point, it seems like everyone except the French support the All Blacks.
As for our mad levels of rugby support, I think it's more that kiwis are traditionally reserved and it's one of the few things that fires some of them up. People like to see that, it indicates that we're human, and gives an easy angle for a connection.
Which turns into a feedback loop. When people want to project a relatively harmless national trait onto you, you often will just go with it - if it helps them to remember you, and gives them a reason to talk to you.
I often felt in Australia that the projection of me being mad about rugby was their way of dealing with the insane level of obsession they have about sport. It made me like them, to think of me reading the sports column in the paper, scouring for the rugby, or sitting up late at night watching the Super 12 (or whatever number it is now), or going out to kick a rugby ball in the park with my kids. The fact that I did none of these things, and only ever watch the All Blacks, and then only in the big games, didn't stop them, even when the most casual questioning would elicit that I didn't know who the players in the team were, where they were touring, who they had played recently, etc.
The idea that my actual sporting obsession was playing it, and that I spent upwards of 6 hours a week doing that, and a further 6 hanging out with my sporting mates, was lost on them. It didn't compute that a 30 year old computer programmer was a talented athlete who didn't get much of a buzz talking to middle aged fat guys about how Collingwood were doing this season. To find that I actually did give a flicker of a fuck about the All Blacks solved the enigma (they thought).
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