Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Rich Lock,
Surely one has staff for that kind of thing, though, no?
For the fishing? Um, no, I'd just buy it from the shop if I wanted the fish. Way cheaper. I'm a catch-and-release dude anyway, keeping maybe one or two medium sized snapper to justify half a day of idle tomfoolery.
Or did you mean the coffee? Well, I do actually take decent coffee on my own boat. But when you're on someone else's boat, I'm not going to get all Ponsonby on them for coming up with instant and a shot of sweetened condensed milk. I'll pause from baiting a mucky hook, nibble the round wine biscuit (or more likely, a real NZ biscuit, with chocolate coating, cream inside, a solid chocolate core, and just enough biscuit in the base to still call it a biscuit) and think life can sometimes be grand.
That said, if some merchant banker pulled up beside in his mega launch and offered me a fresh latte, I'd take it, and probably give him some fresh biscuits. This has never happened.
ETA: Gah, I forgot the caramel, and made NZ biscuits sound weak.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Tom Beard,
In your own home, no, that's just prudent. But if you're out fishing and that's all that's on the boat, you're really suffering for your sophistication. Too far, in my book, I'll happily sip the instant, for both the warmth of the cup, the sugar and caffeine hit, and if memories of my childhood flood back, that's pleasant nostalgia.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Tom Beard,
It's a question of where you draw the line of too sophisticated.
Refusing to drink instant coffee, and putting up with caffeine cravings?
but there are certain aspects of the hype that suggest an atavistic irruption of bucolic blokiness,
Blokey, certainly, but bucolic? Not any more. It's corporatized, commercialized and urbanized. "Rough" is probably the closest it gets to bucolic. It is a rough game, for sure. That's one of the things I most like about it. Don't forget that the game originated at a poncey English school, rebelling from Soccer. In England, it's an upper crust sport. In Australia, it's not the sport of hooligans either, that's Ozzie Rules or League. In South Africa, it's a white sport, although this is very slowly changing. In Japan, the players train like they're Samurai. It's really only bucolic in so far as NZ is bucolic.
-
Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Danielle,
Does it matter?
Not sure. It might. The solution is most likely for the government to simply up the budgets for education. But if men left it because they didn't like working with women, that won't bring them back. If they left just for the money, it might. It probably doesn't change solutions, nor the reason for them (we want better education is probably the most compelling and has nothing to do with sexual politics). But we could learn which social attitude we are really dealing with, by observing what happens there with an open mind. Is it really that education is seen as less valuable because it is supplied by women? Or is it actually because of the mentality that says men should be providers, and seek the best pay.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to recordari,
And me and Fiona and our friends and recordari. Let's organise!
Indeed.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Nice, Jackie.
I care about that stuff because, quite frankly, I don't think we are shit. I like that we're little and isolated and fabulously unsophisticated in many ways. That's what makes us, us.
That cheers me up. I thought I was mad to think like this.
Sophistication is a good thing, in moderation. Being too sophisticated has always seemed neurotic to me. In the end, it often turns into simple prejudice, with extremely complex justification.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I fail to see how turning a sporting event into a festival of corporate capitalism makes the games better for spectators or participants.
I fail to see a festival of corporate capitalism, and would have to go looking for it. I see rugby being played by international teams pitted against each other in an exciting competition, which will involve numerous parties of modest cost at friend's houses, and one game attendance, just to see what it's all about, and because there's a warm spot in my heart for both Fijians and Samoans. My whole neighborhood is going to be there. The rest is just the general backdrop of our entire civilization, about which I have far, far, far more serious complaints than their involvement in sporting festivals.
This has been a fucked year for NZ in a colossal way, in fact I'd say NZ's worst year ever outside of the world wars or the outrages against Maori in the 19th century, and a bit of entertainment and partying is just the ticket.
Any fucking excuse will do, and this one is totally convenient. I've got plenty enough to feel sad about any time I think about David Haywood's kids freezing in his broken house, or my own unemployment and ill health, or my disabled child, or Russell's one, or Gio's one, or all the people who died in Christchurch, or Peter Fucking Dunne, or National's plans to sell our infrastructure off, or the miserable cold weather, or the oppression of Libyans and Syrians, or Chinese sweatshops ruling the world, or....yeah the list goes on. I'd quite like to take the RWC out of that list and use it for some happiness.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to giovanni tiso,
I think you need to look at the cultural history of your country a little more attentively.
So I can find jokes embittering? No, thanks, that's a level of sophistication that I've worked a whole lifetime on avoiding.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Tom Beard,
But in the last few years, the continued prolapse of the Super-n competition from something tight and exciting to a shapeless, painfully-distended bore has diluted my interest, and made it more and more difficult to get excited.
See, I didn't even notice it. The only rugby team I support is the All Blacks. I can choose not to watch the Super-x, without even trying. People would occasionally ask if I'd seen a game, at which I'd say "no, sorry, missed it". It's really that easy.
-
Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to giovanni tiso,
It is screaming that it's what it's doing, but it doesn't achieve it because under the thin veneer of the joke it actually takes the proposition seriously.
Just. No. It doesn't. It's actually meant to be a joke. It's long drink of lighten the fuck up and enjoy yourself, you ridiculously serious fans. It's a game. Sorry if I interpret jokes from people in my own country speaking my own language about the game I mildly enjoy differently to you. But I stand by my interpretation.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 545 546 547 548 549 … 1066 Older→ First