Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Hope fully Jacinda Ardern can succeed where Tizard didn't. Intellect, charisma, you name it. I'm starting to sound like I'm describing an RPG char.
Fingers crossed. With any luck, she's a paladin in the retribution tree.
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I was amazed that Labour got any votes at all in the area, it was just that much of a wealthy peoples suburb.
Well they've always won it in the past. My folks are lamenting living in a blue electorate for the first time in their lives. Mum, a staunch Labour supporter, even reckoned Tizard had been completely invisible during the election campaign. I think that's simply piss-poor. Don't put someone who can't be arsed into close electorate race.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Paul Williams,
Again, in Australia its CPI only and the repayment rates increase as you earn more.
That's what it was here when I signed the contract. The government just decided to break the contract and turned it over to market rates. I've never trusted a "contract with the government" ever since. Then they took away my lifetime license too!!
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
"Proper diction." Well prepared sir.
Are you sure that's not some obscure town in the UK? Next to Upper Diction, and mortal enemies of Diction On Jubblies?
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Auckland, represent. Born North, raised inner West, schooled East, Varsity Centre, first real job South, settled and procreated West. But Melbourne has a big piece of me too, I often miss it. I hate to say it, but I love Australians almost as much as NZers.
I've never had anything but a good time in other NZ cities. But nor have I ever spent more than 2 weeks in any of them. To say Auckland is 50 Timarus is praising both towns in my opinion.
I love the geography of this town, it's one of the biggest selling points to me. Being close to both coasts is awesome, Piha is my yardstick for beaches around the whole world, and the Gulf is stunning. Waiheke is a rare gem, not many cities get to have an island that mixes development with unspoiled nature as one of its suburbs. But nearly every suburb is close to some waterway, and not far from a decent beach. Rangitoto always sits there as that strange enigma, a fresh symbol of the earth's violent potential, while the older hills are softer, more integrated with life and humanity, and they provide some of the best views in New Zealand. Again, rare to have dozens of spots were you can rise above the entire city and see clear from the Waitakeres to Coromandel, from Bombay to Whangaparoa.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Paul Williams,
Actually everyone misunderstood me because I wasn't clear. My lame joke was actually that I'd be bitter not to get paid by the National Party if I had to wear Labour losing on my conscience.
I'm not against helping Labour with their wiki at all, and I wouldn't be doing it for charitable reasons. It would be because I was interested, as most wiki contributors seem to be. But I haven't examined their site enough yet to convince myself it wouldn't be a total waste of time, talking to an empty room. If someone in Labour really believed in it hard enough to keep it up to date, it would definitely give me more interest.
It would be interesting because sites like this one are great for discussing issue but not really places in which policy is formed - they just don't work like that. It could be instructive to experience the real difficulties of forming policy from a collection of antagonistic viewpoints. It might feel a lot more empowering than helplessly raging about an inevitable National victory.
I do draw a little bit of pause from what happened to one of the bigger attempts to do exactly this - the Green Party of Canada did it in 2004, then the whole thing was derailed by the party leader because it undermined their position. Clare Curran suggested that getting the upper echelons of Labour to take it seriously was a pretty hard ask. But I got the impression she still thought it could work, it just needed people with real open source experience, which is NOT career politicians, to pitch in.
I actually don't have that experience. But nor does anyone, until they do.
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to Isaac Freeman,
Generally though I think most people consider themselves most 'from' where ever they have lived the longest.
Generally, yes. But my father-in-law has lived in Australia for over 50 years out of his 70 year life, and yet still does not really consider himself an Australian. It doesn't help that his thick Prussian accent has never softened. He's not really German either, though because he is in love with a past that most Germans would rather forget. It kind of puts him in limbo. He seems most comfortable amongst other ex-pat Germans.
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to James Butler,
But then every time there's a supernova way out on the Perseus arm, you're besieged by concerned Andromedans who imagine it must be right on your doorstep.
Cash in! Claim to be the last of your species, and the Andromedan chicks will be gagging for it.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Andrew E,
Not sure what 'bittering' is, but surely the pay-off is in the form of better policy and hopefully a better government and better country to live in?
All that just from letting Labour down? Gawd I do that every day and it's never made a difference yet.
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"Home" becomes more specific depending how close you are to it. If I was in Andromeda, I expect I'd say "The Milky Way".
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