Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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I hope the deAdricisation process goes as well as possible, and that the recovery is a swift, comfortable one.
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Is there any truth to the idea that netball is mainly enjoyed by people in Canterbury, Otago and Southland?
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It's quite strange to think that the Listener used to something I enjoyed reading when I was young, but now that I'm a grown-up, it's no longer relevant to my interests.
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You can get unwanted attention wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Even in the midst of the '90s, when it was all baggy and grungy, there was still unwanted attention.
Also, this famous scene from Body Heat:
Ned (William Hurt): Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.
Matty (Kathleen Turner): This is a blouse and a skirt. I don't know what you're talking about. -
There's a theory that the downturn of Hamilton's live music scene in the late '90s was directly related to the first VSM student union selling off the student radio station and campus performance venue.
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Punishment is generally a rather weak motivator, it is too unguided and specific. The focus becomes avoiding the punishment.
If you get smacked for calling your mum a minge-bag, then you might only learn to not call your mum a minge-bag to her face, and you'll go on dissing your mum in front of your friends and siblings.
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I'm surprised that amid all this debate about smacking, there hasn't really been much discussion of whether smacking is actually an effective form of child discipline.
What are we generally assuming about smacking?
There's a good 2008 article over at Slate called "Why you shouldn't hit your kids". It has an American focus, but there's plenty that applies to NZ. It details why smacking isn't effective as a long-term measure, what can go wrong, and also why it sometimes seems like smacking works.
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Hey, this one has rugby in it.
The Herald is asking "Should gay couples be able to adopt?" Amid the predictable pro and anti arguments, comes this provocative question from WelshJerry of Waiheke Island:
Just suppose Richie McCaw and Dan Carter got together - how many kiwis would still object to them adopting?
Indeed, we'd merrily donate our infant manchilds to the happy couple.
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So I just happened to be passing Google Scholar and somehow my name got typed into the search box...
This reminds me - about 5 years ago, a friend of mine told me that some of the writing on my website was in the course reading of a first-year English paper his girlfriend was doing at Auckland Uni.
It turns out some lecturer had picked a couple of bits of my writing to use in a paper on "personal biography".
It was then that I decided to give up any idea of getting a proper degree.
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A few years ago I was waiting for a bus when a dude threw his cigarette on the footpath. I picked it up and put it in the rubbish bin one step away. I saw a lady giving me a look that was like "Good on you, but eeeew!"
Cigarette litter is a funny thing. Butts are so small and everyone throws them on the ground, but they don't go away by themselves. If you're lucky the council sweeper will pick them up, but they'll more likely get washed down a stormwater drain and straight out to sea, and that is really shitty indeed.
And last week, on the express train going from Taita to Wellington, the conductors chucked some litter out the window. I wanted to say something, but it was just me and him in the carriage that wasn't going to stop until it got to Wellington. Shame on you, littering TranzMetro conductor!