Which superpower would you want most?

I'm calling bullish*t on this one. Where is the ability to see through clothes ?, C'mon you're not telling me you never wished for that one? Ok I'll  tone that down to be "x-ray vision" but who never wished for that?

"Of all the powers of all the superheros in all the world, film fans think the most impressive is the quick healing ability of Wolverine, according to a poll"via Which superpower would you want most? | Stuff.co.nz.

The results are;
1. Accelerated healing - Wolverine, X-Men (22 percent)
2. Telepathic/psionic powers - Professor X, X-Men (21 percent)
3. Power of flight - Superman, Superman (15 percent)
4. Super-strength - The Hulk, The Hulk (11 percent)
5. Invisibility - The Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four (8 percent)
6 & 7. (joint). Weather control - Storm, X-Men (7 percent) and Flame-on! - The Human Torch, Fantastic Four (7 percent)
8. Supersenses - Daredevil, Daredevil (4 percent)
9. Web-slinging - Spider- Man, Spider-Man (3 percent)
10. Super-speed - Dash, The Incredibles (2 percent)

Science Fiction. What's not to love?

Blogging is a bit of a self discovery, I thought that i'd scratch at things I like. Or precisely a thing I like.

Science fiction. Films.

There is one film that I'd go back to, and one of the few dvd's I own, and that's "The Man Who Fell To Earth" Which fascinates me.

On many levels, and possibly because you always remember your first love. Not coincidentally the album "Station to station" is also amongst my "go to" albums from about the same time.

There are other films that  I would pick in buy list, and these would include some old and some newer. The Film "Outland" for instance is one that I'd revisit, but I'd shy away from "Blade Runner" for instance, not that it's a bad film but it's been over-cooked.

"The Man from Earth" is also a wonderful film, a man who apparently has lived a long long time, he lives in history, he's met Jesus, fought in wars, lived through the great depression etc, but he can't predict the future, he lives in the now.

"The Impostor" is also another film that'll make you go mmm.

Philip K. Dick is responsible for many great stories that have been made to movies, you'll know many of them if you go check him out, they include "Total Recall" "Blade Runner" "Adjustment Bureau" and "Minority Report".

Yes of course I love the original "Star Trek", but I also really enjoy the original "Thunderbirds" and "Joe90" as well as the most excellent TV series "UFO".

So why? what is is about improbable premise that makes it compelling. Well some of it is not that improbable, Star Trek featured tablet based computers for instance, but equally as improbable was the sheer scale of the adventure.

There are a heap of other titles and films that I'd be happy to recommend, I might get to them one day. One final though is this; Why is it that in a film where space ships approach planets or earth or other space ships it's always on the same plane or orientation. Space ships never approach each other upside down to each other, or at 90 degrees to each other, and I've never quote figured out why.

Oh and finally, a bit more, the series, and film "FireFly" had the most accurate space thing going on, there is no sound in space you can't hear explosions and engine noises, and they are accurate in depicting that (oh FireFly is cowboys and indians in space - awesome)

Oh and the final final thought on alien vusitations and completely off topic, is; Why are they visiting here? Douglas Adams had is right, they might be building a super highway, but then he was always one step ahead.

Suicide and punishing the dead by punishing the living.

This from the National Newspaper today Maori MP: 'Condemn' suicide victims

Q.How far up your own arse does your head have to be to not think like Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell?

Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell suggested a "very hard stand" should be made on suicide. "If a child commits suicide, let us consider not celebrating their lives on our marae; perhaps bury them at the entrance of the cemetery so their deaths will be condemned by the people," he wrote. "In doing these things, it demonstrates the depth of disgust the people have with this. Yes it is a hard stance, but what else can we do?"

What the heck has remembrance of a dead person have to do with punishing the relatives and friends by making them suffer indignities?

How does making an example of a dead body by castigation and lack of respect improve things?

How does condemnation and shunning someone aid, assist or promote suicide or suicide prevention?

What cockery is it that denying someone dignity is the cure for suicide?

Any free-thinking, forward thinking society should be able to come to terms that we fail people. We fail young people. As parents we are failing children who commit suicide, as peers we are failing children who commit suicide, as a community we are failing children who commit suicide. Feel free to substitute the world children for people.

Taking your own life, by design or by accident, is horrific and confusing to us. It tortures our own beliefs and boundaries, and causes us to question many things about ourselves, whilst at the same time questioning the motives, mindset and reasons that someone has chosen to end their life.

If you're of a religious bent then you're more than horrified, you're mortified by the sin of it. A ridiculous place to find yourself in, and leaving you to punish the relatives, friends, peers and memory of the deceased.

The continued stupidity of 'leaders' who stick blindly to dogma and 'protocol' are doing themselves and the people they represent no favours. It's not the 17th century where we can make a blood sacrifice to your own deity, it isn't.

For you,Te Ururoa Flavell, it's about punishing the dead by punishing the living, and in the end it makes not one blind bit of difference if you bury a person outside the gates, whether you mourn only for 1 day not 2 or 3, and if you deny the dead person the dignity of remembrance, in the end it's about how you've let that person down by not caring enough to prevent their death.

And that Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell is the bottom line.

Things that never occurred to me #2 - Psychic Fraud

These are the people who think they can talk to the dead, get cryptical messages from the beyond, can pass on messages and give guidance on where to find things that are lost. For realsies. 



But of all the deluded people who think they can why is it that there is not one instance of a psychic fraudster? One that has used their "powers" of "seeing" to gather information about you. Say your bank account number, or credit card details or even your eftpos card and pin number. Ok so getting your eftpos card is plain old theft, and I'm sure there are plenty of instances of fraudulent and thieving psychics that have used their conniving ways to get money out of people.

But you're telling me that of all the criminals in the "afterlife" are reformed, and that not a one of them is willing to torment and wreak havoc on the living by passing this type of message to the "seer"

Of course not. They can't talk to the dead.

Things that never occurred to me #1 in a series

I was listening to a podcast today and they mentioned something that made me go huh!

Colours. We all know what they are,and can name many of them.

But what they said was that colors are a function of the brain. Our brain interprets what we see and we identify it as e.g. Red.

However there is no way of knowing, or indeed comparing what I consider to be red, with what you consider to be red. I know that you see red and I see red, but there is no way to tell if we see the same red.

We can identify by pointing a colour swatch what we see as red, or blue or green, and you can do the same. We both point at the same "red", and we agree and we carry on. Red is red is red, by popular decision.

It just made me go huh is all, and I wonder what else it is that is obvious when someone mentions it?

On death, dying and the ever after.

Personally speaking aside from brief moments of fear there isn't much else but death. Death in it's finality. The end.

We're on the earth to make more of us. That's all. More of us by procreation. Ensuring the existence and continuation of the species. That is all.

No big plan, no grand design. And no ever-after.

We're remembered if we're lucky for a few years or so, by an large, unless you're someone famous, and then your name and deeds may live on in folklore.

However ashes to ashes and all that, and that's all there is. There is no other place we go to, no afterlife where we hang around handing out cryptic messages to dodgy people who claim to be able to talk to the dead, none of that.

We stop, it's over. We lived we died, we laughed, we cried. That's all there is.

And I think that's where we hang our hat on the after-life or reincarnation or whatever our personal belief system is. We think we're more significant, special, and that means that there must be more right? Nope.

I get the need to believe that there is more, I get that some people think they can talk in cryptic to the dead, I do. However you're all having a laugh, and you need to exercise you're imagination a little to ponder why it should be that after your four score and ten on the earth you get a couple billion years in some other place?

Oh of course I could be wrong, but then it'll be that's pleasantly surprised and if I'm right we'll never know.

On politics- CGT

It's nearing election time, and so we move into the silly season. The government of the day announced the election date ages ago, it's to be in November (isn't it?) and after the RWC.

There is always a lot go "the government" aren't doing enough of this or that stories, there are a few of 'ra ra' stories where the government appears to have got something right.

There are circumstances where the government of the day have to either be the nail or the hammer as the situation falls.

The big battleground then appears to be Capital Gains Tax. Well that's what the opposition party would have you believe anyway. The big plan is to recover the economy by taxing capital gains made on the sale of primarily property. It's a bit like death/estate duties, but works every time you sell a house.

Not your family house, but all the other houses you have. Because we've all got more than one house.

The value will be decided on day 1. Thats the line in the sand. Then if you sell it you will pay a tax on the difference between the value on day one and the day you sell it. On your other houses, not your family house that is, and we're all about selling our other houses.

Couple of problems with this that seem obvious to me. I don't have other houses. So I'm in favor of this tax.

The other problem is that it relies on a growth market in housing to return anywhere near any dollars in tax, and we're not really poised for another big boom in house prices. Oh not never in Christchurch they're exempt from this tax, besides which it's not on the family home.

So realising  your investment will cost you a small matter of a tax, it's not going to depress the house prices, and will inflate pricing if people do what I would do, and that's top up your ask price by the amount of tax you'll pay to be a zero sum game. Just a thought.

I can haz!

Macbook Air.

Faux outrage, Faux compassion and chipping in!

or slamming and damning, counselling and group grieving and how I learned to react in a group.

Led mostly by media snippets and reporting (often poorly repeated, and incomplete, inaccurate and angled for spin) the collective 'we' is often to quick to anger. Twitter is the new benchmark, Facebook pages would be next. You never hear of a TXT based outrage campaign though.

The hive mind is quick to pounce on indiscretion and verbalise their thoughts. Woe to anyone who swims against the tide. Someone often leads the charge and will whip a horse to death, but then we all have a 'thing' that does that to us (that's a whole new subject).

We're morally indignant about infidelity, as if we're all whiter than white, we're dumbfounded by misogyny, as if men have never leered at a woman of used a stick mag, and we can't belive that a school would add a computing device to the compulsory list for stationery.

We definitely cannot belive  that the Israeli's in Christchurch are tourists, although this seems to be a media hobby-horse and not a hive mind collective.

Anything the Government of the day announces can be negative, mostly negative. The twitterverse will be abuzz with the newly disenfranchised in minutes, spreading like a wildfire, it is to behold!

Similarly with a death. the hive mind seems to get it into its head to want to grieve. Mostly for people they never met, didn't know and didn't much care for before their death. particularly but not limited to children, young pretty females and young males. This is more a Facebook thing. But we're all hectored and badgered into having to be part of a group that mourns, without really understanding why. Hey it's a young person they died in some way or other and we should all feel some collective guilt.

Sure death is tragic, children dying is tragic, young people getting into situations where they kill themselves and others is tragic. It happens daily, worldwide, a lot. Old people die too, but then they had a life already get over it. I don't need to join a Facebook group or have some faux emotion based on an out of context picture in the press or on Facebook. Ge over yourselves.

As for counselling. What an industry that is, we have to take into personal consideration the thoughts and actions of everyone. This will and does and can lead to sheeplike behaviours and group feelings. Individually no, group yes. Naturally I'm not a psychiatrist or behaviours expert but I'm happy to bet cash on this being true.

So Faux Outrage and Grief, the latest big thing, or just the big thing.

Makes it sound like I'm not on any bandwagon, trust me I get on them, and then I get off most of the, some I just sit on for the ride.

ECE a user pays choice, not altruism

Education funding cuts take toll on families

Strikes me than that this is a bit of a cry wolf story. Sure it's a 'cost' but it is subsidised by tax dollars, and effectively a further tax break for families with young children in the system.

The ECE centers  near where I live (and I can think of 4) are newly built, purpose-built buildings. This would indicate that there is a business model that supports such a venture, and that you should be able to support your business on the basis of audience and revenues.

As a user pays business you, as the customer, either enrol or don't, pay or find a cheaper option. If you want to avail yourself of the services you do. The fees that you pay should reflect that this is a private enterprise that exists to make money, it's not altruism.

The faux outrage is over a change of policy to reducing funding to ECE centers in 2010.

Prior to the change, all-day, teacher-led centres with fully qualified teachers received $12.94 per hour for each child under 2 and $7.79 for every child over 2.

In the 80-99% qualified staffing bracket the rates were $12.16 and $6.91 respectively. The funding changes have removed the funding from centres with 81-100% qualified staff altogether.

Centres employing 80% qualified staff now get $11.80 per hour for under 2s and $6.53 for over 2s.

The change somehow has created significant funding shortfalls for those services employing more than 80% fully qualified teachers. (Early education services include; Kindergartens, Education and Care, Homebased, Te Kohanga Reo, and Playcentres). I'm picking these same centers charge a premium price for a better service.

A quick Google shows that for a job in Pre-school  the median salary is $52k, the salary range is 30k - $67k, or something like $15.50 to $35 per hour

A further google found me a FEE SCHEDULE all ages- based on 52 weeks, Fees are due and payable for all holidays, sickness, absences, and Statutory holidays
2 days $140, 3 days $200, 4 days $245, 5 days$280

FEE over 3 yr olds (with 20 hours subsidised)
2 days $ 90 , 3 days $120 , 4 days $150,  5 days $180

It's not cheap, it is a business, and it is your choice to stay at home and raise your children or pursue a job and juggle your commitments. I'm not sure I'm comfortable to pay more to private enterprises to support a lifestyle choice for some. Working for a wage should increment the family income. Otherwise what's the point? To claim that the fees are bigger than your income then means you haven't done the maths properly or are in a job that should pay more, it's not the fault of the government of the day.

Oh yes and we did have 2 children in day care, from a few weeks old, both of us worked and the only subsidy was a $300 tax break. It can be done. It's just not easy. Pointless claiming that it was cheaper then, or it's more expensive now, it is what it is.

I just found this too, but I take it under advice that there is a legal requirement, staff to children of 1:5, but can be 1:4 . So you can extrapolate out say 20 children would be 5 teachers. Fees (income) =$291,200, wages (at median pay) $260,000, that's a 31,200 potential operating profit, plus a subsidy payment of 20 children, 37.5 hours, 52 weeks @$6.53 = 215,000 give or take. Now that's handy!

Not beliving in...

Many things.

I'm an atheist. I think I've always been one. It's always been obvious to me that god isn't watching from the sky. And he doesn't talk to people. All of that.

The bible. Either you believe it, in toto, or you don't. You can't believe bits of it. You have to belive in creation, adam, eve, the talking snake, burning bushes, pillars of salt, arks and all that begetting. It's the rules.

You also have to belive it's the whole and only true word of either god or jesus, depends on where you start.

I can't. It's ludicrous to think that the words therein have remained the same, since writ. There are 'standardised' versions of course, but these can be shown to have been changed to fit current dogma.

I can't belive in miracles that have left no evidence. I can't belive that there was light in the east and the wide men from the east followed it, that's a fantastically awkward journey.

I can't belive that the bible is, as is, a self enclosed document, not plagiarised, or lifted from other sources or beliefs, I just can't.

But I can belive that the basic fundamentals of the teachings are collected wisdom. Don't kill someone, that seems reasonable. Don't steal from someone, pretty much dead on the money. Don't lie, again I'm down with that.

Can't agree with the first 4, about belive only in the one god, make no images, don't work on the weekend and don't use god or jesus as an epithet.  And #10 the bit about coveting, that just destroyed the consumer society, so no.

Pasta Rune Enoe kindly says this about the ten commandments and what you can expect if you break any of them, the pastor even questions the order they are given, he's a bit of a wag.  http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=16785

Anyway for instance
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. , the punishment is "severe" which  means that you'll be up for Genocide. Entire cities with men, women, children and animals
must be killed. (Deuteronomy 2:33-34, Numbers 21:34-35, 1 Samuel 15:2-3, Joshua 6:21. Joshua 10:40) In some cases you can keep the girls alive for raping. (Numbers 31:15-18)

So that's why I can't belive in the whole thing, some of it is patent nonsense, fiction and shambolic. Am I worried about death? Aren't we all. And when I'm dead you'll remember me and then one day you won't.  And that's the bottom line.

Charity begins with me.

"I decided that the most effective way for me to make a contribution to the charities I want to support is to give my time for free"

So the story goes like this "a charity set up by <insert a name here> to help <insert cause here> has folded after only two years - and most of its money was spent on running costs, with little reaching the intended recipients."

It continues.. "raised tens of thousands of dollars from high-profile charity events and other funding. " but the "foundation" has shut up shop since  "the money raised ... was spent on running costs and planning a mentoring scheme that never took off" and tellingly "We decided other organisations were better served doing this than us"

The great idea?.. to "operate a programme for the education and advancement in life of children and young people".

The annoying and prevalent thing is that everyone and his dog has a "foundation" or "charity" idea.  Unless you have a very specific cause or goal, and this could be "Build a new home near to help parents of children in cancer wards" or "Restore thebuilding to its former glory" then almost without a doubt your big idea of a charity either exists in a slightly different form, or is so small in scope that it's just something you're doing to make you feel good.

There are many point sharitable things (Sharing and charitable - you see what I did there?) like setting up a fund for children of accident victims for instance, this isn't strictly a charity it's a call for donations to help a need at a specific point in time.

There are numerous professional charities and foundations. They pay their staff wages and operate their funds prudently. There are many success stories. There are probably numerous smaller charities that work on a localised basis that are a success.

The thing with this particular name, and something that I don't think a lot of people 'get' about celebrities and charitable causes is summed up as "I decided that the most effective way for me to make a contribution to the charities I want to support is to give my time for free"

That's not exactly cash in the bank, and depending on the circle of influence the celebrity has difficult to turn into dollars. They expect joe public to feel good about them enough to put their hard-earned cash into the coffers and support their "charity", which in effect is saying that the charity exists to keep them from getting a real job, or that they have a real job and their own money, and fronting  for a charity event is a couple of hours of time, and their money.

Just saying do you think <insert your celebrity name here> gets his/her hand in their wallet when they can infer that you should donate to something because they believes in it? Why do you think celebrites are paid to front ads for aid in Africa for instance?, or if not paid then "dontate their time"

Does all that make me unchariatable? I don't think it does, I give wisely and prudently to tangiable things, things that I believe in, not things that you think I should belive in.

Playing with yourself.

Sports Entertainment
Lets stick to Rugby or Football, if you want to be a pedant that would be Rugby Union Football and Association Football, not the same thing.

The match from woah to go is about 2 hours. That includes getting to your seat, the both halves and a half time break.

Music
Whats with the need that for every stop in play, and sometimes during play, after a score or before a kick that we get a burst of music. Really, what's with that?

Do the organisers think that i'm incapable of watching and enjoying a spectacle for that long, that I'm about to nod off having parted with some hard earned cash for a ticket?

This is akin to and worse than loud music in pubs that the bar staff feel adds atmosphere, after all if you have to shout at each other then you must be having a good time, right?

It's not needed, not required, not asked for and is intrusive and annoying.

Half-Time Entertainment
Whats with the need to have a bunch of cheer leaders 'dancing' to a mix tape? Do you think I can't sit for 10 minutes (or stand) and not get bored or wander off? Not have a conversation with my neighbour?

Beer
Honestly I think I can go 90 minutes without a beer, I can probably go 2 hours without beer. I can go 2 hours without the need for food too! Strange as that sounds. Not that I don't enjoy a beer, I do, often, frequently. It's not the drinking it's how we're doing it, right?

At least they're trying to stop the mexican wave, wherein half full cups of stale beer, and worse urine, are thrown into the air for fun. I've done the mexican wave, I'm the one man Mexican wave world record holder after all. Yet I've never felt the need to throw something in the air. Wonder why, it might be sober me., which can't be true as I have had beer at sorts events.

The Mexican wave, now that's when the crowd are bored. The game is dull, boring or so one sides as to not even be a competition. I know play music that'll stop them getting bored.

Industry, Profession, Job?

in part as response to nonsense like this "Twitter is one that can be difficult to understand the benefit of sometimes - for the recruitment industry simply rolling out job after job is incredibly boring"  Rectruitment is NOT an industry

Twitter is not an Industy....

or this

The Social Media industry is growing in New Zealand. We might be a few years behind the rest of the world... Social Media is not an Industry (although like most of the not industry industries you need to be industrious).
Real Estate - not an industry
Car Sales - not an industry
Working in a Recruitment - not an industry

Banking - Industry
Insurance - Industry
Tourism - Industry
Film and TV - Industry
Music - Industry
Building - Industry
Advertising - Industry

Teaching - Profession
Lawyer - Profession - the 'legal system' however an Industry
Television presenter - Profession
Musiscian - Profession

Job
Working in a warehouse
working in the #cubefarm
Working on a helpdesk.
Working in bank.
Working at an advertising agency.
Working in a store.

Bromance - How to handle the overfamiliar friend?

We change. We age. We spread out. Our tastes change.
The type of people we like changes, we gravitate towards those we like and similar to us, we avoid those that disturb on on some level or other.

What do you do then when a long time friend crosses over from the like side of the ledger to be in the margins. Now they're just brash, rude, foul and annoying. You'd still do anything for them but just don't want to spend time with them.

You could make excuses for their behavior, mostly it's drink. Some of it is lack of respect. Some of it might be jealousy. It's probably more the latter than the former.

What do you do though, in baulking you just move further away from the middle ground you have and base your friendship on.

This isn't like the Odd Couple, were not joined at the hip, we don't share events, locations or other friends. We have a habitual relationship based on my visiting them. And there's the point where it goes wrong. They are a stay at home friend. They know my house, they visit to pick me up to go to their house. I don't think they like my well ordered neat and tidy wife and life.

Or I've decided that 3 hours of beer on a sunday afternoon isn't as much fun as it could be. Or that wii golf is pathetic and is just an excuse for boorish oneupmanship. Yet I'm avoiding telling them, the friendship is worth more than the not having them as a friend. Il avoid them by doing things I want to do, and the bored I'll go back to letting them win at wii, it keeps them happy.

Sport, Opinion or Hobby?

We make a big deal about sporting prowess, and nations place great store in sporting achievement. There are many global tournaments, including and not limited to the football world cup, the summer and winter olympics, cricket, tennis, golf, yachting, rowing the list is pretty endless.

So what is sport, and why is it sport and not hobby?

As a work in progress over a long period of time then it should be possible to define what is a sport and therefore what is a hobby.

What is the fundamental premiss behind my sport or hobby theory.

I'm down to this - A sport is a competition between individuals or teams to achieve a result or outcome. A competition that relies on a 3rd party to score the ability, progress or ability of a competitor or competitors is an opinion, not a sport, and a hobby is where you strive to improve against your own previous achievements,

There are games of skill that I don't really know how to categorise, I'm reminded that in English pubs games of chance weren't allowed, however games of skill were, including bar billiards, shove ha'penny, draughts/checkers, skittles etc

I should work on a Venn diagram since there are some that could be called sport and yet are a hobby. or a sport and opinion. I'll put that on my projects list.

Sports

Football, Tennis, Athletics, Cycling, Rowing, Bowls, Yacht racing, Downhill Skiing/Slalom, Boxing, Ice hockey, Field hockey, Netball, Cricket, Motorsports, Golf, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Squash, Badminton, Chess, Snooker, Pool, Ten pin bowling, Beach Volley Ball.

Opinions

Gymnastics, Dressage, Swimming Pool Diving, Tricks based snowboards/skiing events, Boxing, Dancing, Rhythmic Gymnastics

Hobby

Scuba diving, Fishing, Golf, Shooting, Hunting, Ten pin bowling

It's a work in progress, not definitive or authoritative, or particularly well researched, but it is something that I mull over in the quiet moments when I'm surfing the couch looking for a sport to watch.

Tollerance and the patience to have it

It's a pity that there is manifest a certain amount of intolerance in the media, within your peers and round and about you.

We have intolerance of the muslim custom of clothing choice, where it frightens some people. We have the intolerance of race equality when it comes to Maori. We have the intolerance of many things. Today I'm down to two;

Maori. What can you put this intolerance down to, well I'd say that the settlement of grievances is to blame. blame in the sense that they are advertised and that the settlement usually comes with cash and goods as reparation. This is seen by some as pandering to a minority, when they may or may not be disenfranchised themselves in some way, either by wealth or position, race or privilege. For example "why should I work so hard so the Maori can get it for nothing" That's making your world view focus on a result not a reason.

I'm amazed at some of the "claims" that we're told about, by Maori, and these are always highlighted and imply that they are a grab for something, there are very few that result in everyone nodding in sage agreement that a settlement would be just and correct.

What is it you want? Maori equality means they are starting from a lap down. What do you exepct when suddenly bright educated people identifying themselves as Maori understand some of the ways to get them on a level footing. It's isn't about getting ahead of the whitey, it's about being the same, and accepted as being the same as.

Muslims. The burqa, the face mask or niqab. Where to go with this. The full body covering that muslim women choose to wear or the face veil. My ignorance and fear should not be a want to ban them from wearing it. I don't support it, I don't understand it, I'm appalled if it's a forced choice. What I'm not is intolerant of their choice based on their beliefs to choose to do what they do.

I can choose to believe they are ignorant, and don't want to be part of my society, they aren't being ignorant or insular. They are sharing a country with me, we're not in an arm wrestle for control that I know of, we want to get on with our lives.

Sure there are radicals in every religion, there will be white  religious supremacists that want to blow something up, there will be muslim radicals that want to do the same. There are probably angry Buddhists somewhere. Can you imagine them wanting everyone to wear orange as their cause, we're not offended by them singing and dancing in the streets.

So my muslim full veil fear? I'm going with my own thoughts that we are hunter gatherers. We don't like not seeing a face, or facial expressions or body language, it scares us. It scares us because of the rarity of the full veil muslim in our presence, I bet if you were in a city where it was prevalent that you wouldn't worry so much. It scares you as it's not your normal. Your fear is no reason to make them change. It just isn't.

Slightly denying climate change

I'll start by stating off the bat that there is no doubting climate change. We have climate change, on a global scale. It is real. I belive it.

How much is out of our control though? Are we really that deranged and insular that we have to believe that 'we did it' all by ourselves on our own.

One of the things I don't get. The amount of energy that is needed to warm up the atmosphere is 'quite a bit'. I could go all technical and that, if I could, but I can't, but bear with me, the sun is hot and the Earth reacts to that radiant heat from the Sun. It warms us up every day, well the bits of us that face the sun get more benefit, but you get my drift.

On a daily basis the temperature ranges from a low to a high, and we accept this without a murmur.

Climate change is a long-term game and the lows are lower and the highs are lower, or higher, the average is lower over a longer period, and the trend is to cooler.

So what don't I get? Simply put, by a simpleton is that solely because of "greenhouse gas"  the earth is undergoing a rapid climate change, and this is to do with our burning fossil fuel. I'd like to think that this can have only been since the industrial revolution, so not hundreds of years. And yet we're to belive that in that briefest of brief times we alone have damaged the Earth so badly that we're into a tail spin.

There is no recognition of any previous ice-ages, they were just events that the Earth wrought upon us. We did it, and we did it in the last 100 or perhaps the last 50 years.

How is it that we think we're alone responsible, is this inherent in a belief in a deity and a hangover from when we thought we were the center of all creation? Is it arrogance? Is it wilful nonsense?

SoI'm not denying climate change, but I'd like to form a gang of 1 that says I don't think that it's man caused or man-made, we're not helping, but again I don't think that we could have damaged it that much in such a short space of time.

I'll picking that you have a strong view on this, either through your own bias and opinion (as this is blog bit is mine, you'll agree with some of it, you could be a scientist and 'know' although that's not science that would be being able to support a theory.

There are two broad camps, those that are following the flock, those that agree totally and in total with the IPCC, and the other groups funded to investigate and to by and large confirm that there is climate change, and largely to support the "man did it" position, or the climate change other groups; the deniers (who I distance myself from), and the deniers that man did it (which I'm a foot in). I don't think we give enough credit or credence to the power of the Sun and the variables nature to really know.

Before you get all angst consider that we can't predict weather more than a couple of days out, no matter how much historical and accurate data we collect, can't do it. We can't even predict weather in different parts of the same city a couple of kilometers apart, and we accept that the sun can heat the air temperature by whole degrees in short time frames. Like I've already put, it's a long term game of averages, it's not about the temperature in my back garden compared to yours.

I don't know that 'man' can change the course of the way things are going, that could in itself be a denial, the Canute syndrome. I don't know that we've ever been given a timeline as to when it's going to get to the tipping point, where everyone agrees that it's just going to get to an ive age. What never helps are reports that contain "could" as in "could see the sea rise by 120cm" of course we could, if you predict it often enough it could happen, you're just trying to cover your bases, it's not science, or perhaps it confirms that science is mostly guesswork, informed and researched guesswork, but guessing the future of the weather isn't something I'd put my name to.

I hate being called a denier, this is like the Vatican calling me an atheist, calling me out as different, and abnormal, which isn't the case. Denier is a negative, it implies that there is a positive position where in this case non exists. Besides which who's winning? and what's to win? bragging rights in the igloo?

I did a bad thing

I had a tanty rage at an umpire last night. They were bad to the point of worthless, with poor decisions and even worse interaction with the players. Arrogant and inept the worst kind.

Anyway it ended up as two idiots arguing as I kindly and politly told him he was inept, and being arrogant and stupid he reacted badly, and this is an umpire who's fair, impartial and accurate.

So I'm not proud and I've been fretting on it since.

In my poor defence I have to say that I had a lot of support for my sentiments if not my actions.

I've been grounded for a week :-(

Fabulous at 50 - why I'm the same but different

I’ve always worked with technology, well from way back when.  Data entry learnt me to type, and I learnt to type on a T15 telex machine and could at one point read mylar tape with alarming accuracy, well it was a numbers thing and you had to be accurate when you’re dealing in millions of dollars.

Then I worked with a progressive group that had a bunch of IBM PC’s, and the bright kids built a network in the office for kicks. This was the very very early 80’s. The excitement of getting the IBM 5160 PC/XT and then eventually the PC/AT!

Then with Commodore Computers, the PC10, PC20 and PC30 and the Amiga computers, I remember seeing one of those in a Farmers shop showing a rotating window with a leopard walking within it, smoke and mirrors.

I’ve always had personal computers around me. Very early on efforts at Email, and file transfer by modem for business, and BBS systems in the evening.

Things moved quickly after that of course, and we’ve seen all manner of magic that we now call Plasma or LCD, apple iEverything, BluRay, etc etc, lots of tech.

Being around technology leads you down buying technology, and using technology, and I have for a long time. It should not be a surprise that my cupboard at home contains amongst other things a MiniDisc player, a 1Megapixel digital camera, a Sony Walkman stick thing, a video camea, and we have in the house a media player that will play .avi and other format video, various ieverythings, couple of plasmatrons, and that.

The family has also always had access to the best internet we could afford, so they have always had Hotmail accounts for instance, and been through bebo, myspace and Facepage. They’ve played online games and had software games, not to mention the Playstations – which reminds me I won one of those the first week they were out! Score

Which reminds me that I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much on technology, aside from the splash purchase of the 42” Plasma, which was a house moving reward upgrade.

 At 50 then I would suggest that I’m fairly tech savvy, and able to offer up some advice about technology.  I’ll admit to being clueless about CPU technology in PC’s and Notebooks but I know where to go to find out about what’s what, the internet is a tool for that.

What of my peers, which is where I wanted to go with this, and I alluded to in another post.

Just because I have “all the toys” does not make me rich, it makes me curious. But what is does mean is that to my peers that I’m somewhat of an oddity. Just because I have, and use an iPad makes me a bit different and geeky. I just use it because it is. My peers don’t work in I.T., they may use a computer at work, but they moan about it and “it’s a big one” if you press them as to which type they have.

Twitter, Facepage, Google+, LinkedIN, might as well be talking babble. And we talk sometimes as it seems they try to address their getting up to speed with their children’s acceptance of this stuff.

I don’t think I’m weird, odd or otherwise different from my peers, and I envy them their jobs, as I’m sure they envy mine.

Can I imagine not having a computer, sure yes I can, no internet? Sure I grew up without one, or a cellphone? when I was a boy we said we’d meet at 5pm and we met, we didn’t text, fret or otherwise track each other through the day to ensure we would do what we said we’d do.

Would I give up any of it? No.

I'd be annoyed if I've run out of things to say then

Not that I worry about not being able to keep it up or anything but if'n you're going to do it at least try to do it well, they said.

So I have a couple of things I'm going to muse about, my age peers and twitter anger.

I will get to it.

Build a Bridge – get over it.

Toll roads are contentious. Nobody want to pay to drive. Driving is a right. Unalienable, god-given right. I can drive anywhere at any time. I can even use my cell phone and speed, if I’m not caught, which I’m often not. (Well never actually, very cautious driver am I)

I’ll start straight up and say that I cross the bridge on average 10 times a week, there and back 5 days a week.  I have a passing interest in this, I travel around 18-20,000 kms a year, just commuting to my workplace and home. I have a passing interest in this.

Anyway.  A toll on using the current harbour bridge. Daft.

 Daft for some reason that I instantly came up with, and there are more, and these are probably not very good but; 

1. Why only on traffic that crosses the bridge? Why no toll the whole motorway, or have a toll for the on-ramps that you use, so pay as you enter.


2. Who doesn’t benefit from the harbour bridge? How do things get from markets to shops? Everyone in Auckland benefits from the motorway system and the bridge, everyone.


3. The CBD. A catchment area of workers that would encompass many of the northern suburbs, adding $60 - $80 a week of tolls to a journey isn’t fair, democratic or right just because I live ‘north of the bridge’


4. The University at Takapuna. That’s north of the bridge. I’d like to see student allowances stretch to include toll fees


5. There is no public transport. Sure there is a busway.




1. Have you ever tried to get on a bus in rush hour?


2. Have you ever tried to park at the park n ride?


3. Does the bus go anywhere near where you need to be?


4. Does it get there in a reasonable time?


5. How long is the Journey and how much does that cost?


6. How many exclusions will there be?




6. Administration costs. Our most successful toll road already has ‘admin’ fees of 0.74 cents per transaction. A one way toll is $2.

I’m in favour of user pays, that seems to fair thing to suggest, but you can’t carve out the current harbour bridge as a “nice to use” feature without taking a wider view of its economic and social benefits.

Do we need a new bridge, eventually we do yes. Badly. Do we need more roads, yes, how else to get goods from markets to shops, workers to offices, students to schools. Do we need better public transport? Yes if it went from where I was to where I needed to be in a reasonable time.  Would I get the bus to work?, Sure perhaps but I can imagine my 45 minute journey being  over 2 hours each way.

Well I looked it up, 1 hour 59 minutes, and $14.20 one way. So I’de leave home at 6am and I’d get home at 9pm $28.40 per day, that could happen.  Oh and I still have to walk to the bus stop on top of that time. Rain or shine, and if the bus/train/bus turns up. Bit of a lottery

Grrr, Vodafone people.

Angry much ?

We changed our Telecom account to a Vodafone account. Which was easy as. Fill in a form, flash your ID, and voila like magic you have your number on a different carrier. When I did this the wonderfully helpful assistant really was helpful and everything happened like it was supposed to.

One of the reasons to change was costs, when the said phone was mainly a text device for mother and children. All on the same network now, all lovely jubly.

The 'plan' was to get with the network and then transfer to the appropriate plan a couple of months later. Which it turns out would be a pre-pay plan, just because the phone is not in high use and a minutes plan wouldn't work out so well.

Well the sulking broody moody assistance in Westfield Vodafone on Sunday needs to have a serious think about why she should keep her job. Clearly she was having angst sitting with head in hand avoiding any eye contact, and certainly not willing to get off her behind and help anyone milling about in the store. Talk about a waste of space, someone clearly trading their time for money, and that's about it.

And unhelpful much? I'll say that her complete and total interaction was limited to "call customer service"

Why yes of course that's why I came to the store, so you can tell me to call a service desk, and then sit head in hand moody and broody. Don't offer me the desk phone, or to help me get what I want, just "call customer service". Useless.

I get it, you’re on minimal wage, it’s a weekend job, but really I’m wanting to purchase something not hunt around trying to find you, or listen in to your gabble with your colleagues whilst you pick your nails in the far back corner of the store. Worse of course is the “hello, how are you” assistance, as if that’s like the magic abracadabra of retail.

 I know that this is a personal preference thing, if I’m in a shop and need you I’ll come find you, don’t hover. If I come find you I need you, and I need you to need to help me

Anyway it's instances like these that make me regret changing, better the devil you know, and that this instance has left me feeling less than complimentary about Vodafone's otherwise wonderful service.

Either that or I'm just old and cranky. But Mrs Pdubyah wasn't too impressed either so I'm picking not.

The great banana drama

The corporate workplace has a pretty generous healthy outlook. We're provided with breakfast cereals, jams, bread and fruit.

The fruit monitor fell into the role by meer dint that they started buying it. They got bored, as you do, disrupting the routine and confusing the #cubefarm workers.

So I ousted them as fruit patrol and had one of the #crones offer to step in and take up the cudgel.

This should have had the effect of quelling the unrest from the masses, in a generous workplace the things that get noticed the most are the cheap things, and so the banana drama unfolds.

So week 1 shopping, the #crone, who clearly lives alone and has some kind of public service mentality brought 12 bananas to last a week, for a staff of 60 people. They also brought Kiwifruit, red and green apples, and pears.

The masses were not happy that the banana allowance had been slashed. The #crone was surprised since the green apples and mostly the kiwifruit had 'lasted' which is pretty contrary to the healthy option that we encourage.

So gently nudging them in the right directions for week 2 they brought 20 banana's for the week.

There are plenty of green apples and kiwifruit left over from last week to be eaten and this is sadly being taken as a sign of success. Public service mentality and spinster living, what can you do.

Stand by for a week 3 update.

Pre Ball Pretty

We had a pre-ball thingy at our house, and all the dughters came with their mothers, and with one exceptions all the daughters were taller than the mothers, I kid you not! and my daugher complains about being a shorty in her peer group!

This however has caused some problems, with my wife not realising that she was such a shorty, comapred to out daughter, no there no shoes involved in the making of this picture.

Wife still has not recovered from this lack of height, but she'll find some shoes or bag that'll help.

Is blogging the old black

As I decided to make a good fist of it is occurs to me that phrase ''I've just blogged on .." doesn't seem to appear that often.

Blogging, if you're going to skite about it, isn't just you putting two paragraphs together in an ad cluttered page and thinking it's a masterpiece. Of course to some people it is, the sort of people who think they have either importance or sway.

Some blogs are thoughtful and insightful, mostly personal and consistent. Some are not.

Is mine personal, spiteful, indulgent, yes it's all of that.

It's also pretty much my dirty little secret, although secret what I don't know, it might just be that the thought that my colleagues would ridicule me might just be the bit I don't want to share about.

Watching

So this time we're hiding in plain sight, in the sun, with the other parents, but this time she's a player not an umpire.

Keeping it a secret - part 2

The 'corporate' me is involved with a Social Media initiative at work, which I've variously described as either being "leading edge" or "mad", because we seem to be the only organisation of our type attempting to forge a new path, making us visionary or delusional.

It is a fantastic journey, and there are lots of affirmations along they way, but mostly it's a circle of "experts" all citing each other, all citing the same success story, with little concrete "how to" advice. There are some exceptions and I would suggest you read the "Tweet this book" http://tweetthisbook.posterous.com/

So we have Twitter, we have a Squarespace 'blog' page to land to, and a LinkedIn group. We're not so keen on FB.

Two or Three  things

 The direction is somewhat herky jerky and random
The resource is limited and what we have pointed at it isn't savvy about the content need, and
To be honest I'm not sure the 'real' me wants to be associated with some of the content.

By the last remark I mean I don't want to have to paint myself into a corner where you can define me. I don't want to be known as the guy who linked to a lot of fluff pieces about products. And if I change my job I don't want to have to undo all that I have done if I have to.

And all of  that makes me a little uneasy about the 'corporate me' and the results we can get, and for the business we are in (which is distribution).

I'm sure we're not delusional and eventually the others will follow us, what I should be doing is making capital about the effort I've put in and getting myself some more money for it. That's the big secret.

Watching

After the chop-shop (the hairdresser) I stopped at the Hockey to have a look at the umpiring skills of the daughter. After all it's what a father does.

Apparantly she can see quite well as I was seen from about 150 meters. D'oh

 

 

 

Waiting on a Macbook Air

I've talked myself into needing one. Just the entry-level one, despite them being 2 or 3 times more expensive than a notebook computer.

It's about weight, and in philipworld I'd use the Air to fabricate my blog, and things.

That there were a couple of 36 months interest free deals going on, and this is ike a red rag to a bull, at mearly a few dollars a month I could have the toy of the moment.

Except that they're not in stock, and I don't have one, and at the price they are I don't want to wait for one, I want instant gratification, I want it now, today, take home.

So I don't have one, but I did get a keyboard and a dock for the iPad, and today I'll get a magic mouse. perhaps.

After all I promised myself.

and then.............. I did some research, and whilst it's a ood plan, to use a mouse with an iPad it doesn't actually work. So to plan B then

Kathmandu how I'm annoyed at you

Daughter invested in a $450 khathmandu jacket, when I say she I mean "I".

It gets a lot of use on cold mornings, between games, and in the waiting around at hockey.

It also got a tear in the sleeve.

Now to their credit Kathmandu do make repairs, you take your stuff back to the shop and they send it back to the factory and lo! it returns as new.

except

After 10 days we get a call, it's been sent back unrepaired, the factory have deemed the jacket 'dirty'and would like it cleaned. This is despite the shop inspecting the jacket and making out a report that on the condition and the remedy we required.

Apparently not good enough. For both of us.

The Simple Life

We have a simple house. We don't have clutter, we have few trinkets and nick nacks. What we tend to have is less things that are slightly more expensive. Which sounds a bit pretentions, we have things that we can afford at the time, and we shop diligently in sales and looks for opportunities. We don't buy on whim, we find our need and then investigate the options and buy according to our wallet.

We don't carry any credit card or HP debt.

We had a bit of an open home thing, well it was a pre-ball gathering for daughter and her friends and parents, nothing at all flash, just a couple of hours of get together before the party bus arrived.

Many of the fathers of daughters found it pleasing that I had "all the gadgets "and daughter has had her friends tell her she is rich! as if.

The 'gadgets' then are; A 50" panel TV, a Cannon EOS SLR, and an iPad. There is a Tivoli Radio in the kitchen and an iPod Dock.

Like i said simple things and not exactly gadget land.

It's nice to have a simple household, it does not mean it does not get messy, I'm sure you'd be horrified if you visited at the clutter, but I like it like that.

The simple life.

We have a simple house. We don't have clutter, we have few trinkets and nick nacks. What we tend to have is less things that are slightly more expensive. Which sounds a bit pretentions, we have things that we can afford at the time, and we shop diligently in sales and looks for opportunities. We don't buy on whim, we find our need and then investigate the options and buy according to our wallet.

We don't carry any credit card or HP debt.

We had a bit of an open home thing, well it was a pre-ball gathering for daughter and her friends and parents, nothing at all flash, just a couple of hours of get together before the party bus arrived.

Many of the fathers of daughters found it pleasing that I had "all the gadgets "and daughter has had her friends tell her she is rich! as if.

The 'gadgets' then are; A 50" panel TV, a Cannon EOS SLR, and an iPad. There is a Tivoli Radio in the kitchen and an iPod Dock.

Like i said simple things and not exactly gadget land.

It's nice to have a simple household, it does not mean it does not get messy, I'm sure you'd be horrified if you visited at the clutter, but I like it like that.

Waiting on a Macbook Air

I've talked myself into needing one. Just the entry level one. Depsite them being 2 or 3 times more expensive than a notebook computer.

It's about weight, and in philipworld I'd use the Air to fabricate my blog, and things.

That there were a couple of 36 months interest free deals going on, and this is ike a red rag to a bull, at mearly a few dollars a month I could have the toy of the moment.

Except that they're not in stock, and I don't have one, and at the price they are I don't want to wait for one, I want instant gratification, I want it now, today, take home.

So I don't have one, but I did get a keyboard and a dock for the iPad, and today I'll get a magic mouse. perhaps.

After all I promised myself.

Kathmandu how i'm annoyed at you

Daughter invested in a $450 khathmandu jacket, when I say she I mean "I".

It gets a lot of use on cold mornings, between games, and in the waiting around at hockey.

It also got a tear in the sleeve.

Now to their credit Kathmandu do make repairs, you take your stuff back to the shop and they send it back to the factory and lo! it returns as new.

except

After 10 days we get a call, it's been sent back unrepaired, the factory have deemed the jacket 'dirty'and would like it cleaned. This is despite the shop inspecting the jacket and making out a report that on the condition and the remedy we required.

Apparently not good enough. For both of us.