Testing Teeenager Times

Daughter is 17. And she's growing up into the world. So much that socialising is becoming more and more prevalent. Mostly we're ok with it, we think we have a handle on here friends and what they are like, know of their parents etc. Not smotheringly, but just in passing. "We know of"

So she comes home and gives us this tale. Her friend MS.X. has asked her if 3 of her friends, who are boys, are all 19 and working, and are from a different part of town, can crash at our place after the party as they can't get home. MS.X. says that here mother won't allow them to stay at her place.

So we said no. This didn't seem appropriate and that it was a bit odd that MS.X. would ask, and had asked because my daughter is a friend who would help.

Daughter is a bit miffed and feels like she's letting her friend down "she'll be so upset with me", to which we pointed out that if that was the case then MS.X. wasn't so much of a friend.

I think we've won this time but it is going to get harder to keep saying no. There is a line between prevention and obstruction.

 

It's Electioneering time.....

That time every 3 years in New Zealand when we get to cast our collective say on what bunch of hypocrites governs us for 3 years, which is more like 2 years when all is said and done.

NZ National Party , having acquired a set of books from the outgoing NZ Labour Party of 9 years they've managed to walk into a couple of unexpected items, such as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and an Earthquake, and a bit of a boat wreck. They've dropped the tax rate for the higher income earners - much to the disgust of the socialist left and greens, and raised the GST rate, again much to the disgust of the Labour and Green party. That's about all they've done though it's not really been a time of forward thinking but one of introspection.

The Labour Party have campaigned hard on how badly the National Party are doing, that's their whole mantra. Look what National did isn't it bad. Dropping the tax rate - bad - because it's only "rich pricks" who benefit - bad bad bad, and raising GST, that's bad because it only punished the lower-income earners, double plus bad. The only policy shambles they've come up with is a Capital Gains Tax system, A tax on the rich, and at the end of a property bubble, which makes no sense. it might be an income generator in a few years, but it isn't a fix for anything.

The Green Party are content to bag everyone about everything and clearly only want to target "rich pricks" with various incremental taxes, you earn more you pay more - for a Christchurch recovery fund- that makes no sense at all- it isn't "fair" as they'd like you to belive, it's targeted at the rich - who allegedly can afford more, somehow.

I don't have any time for the Māori party - a separatist movement  - along with the Mana party, they're not really sure what they are for or against, as long as it bags whitey and "the crown"

Couple of other things come to mind, the Labour party want to have a raise in the minimum wage, and an even more complex comparative wage standard in certain industries - yet they don't want minimum standards of education for our children. That seems like madness.

So with only a few weeks ago it'll be sling some mud time, see what sticks, then credit the voters with enough sense to pick and choose.

RWC entertains me today - the entertainment.

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This is all a bit new, taking pictures of people, except for the statue. It's a bit like this blog, a good idea unless someone knows .

Calm and Centered

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A Commercial venture and the public purse. #4 Bridge sentries cost $80,000

Sentries guarding the Auckland Harbour Bridge on match days of the Rugby World Cup have cost taxpayers more than $80,000.

On watch on the bridge. Photo / Jason Dorday

They are there to foil any attempts at pranks, protests or even terrorism.

Transport Authority spokesman Tommy Parker described the bridge as an iconic structure and said the security was a precautionary measure to ensure no one tried to gain access.

Six security guards have complemented the closed-circuit television on the motorway network and have cost $81,000 for more than 300 hours on duty.

So that's $45 per hour per person for 300 hours to sit and do nothing "just in case". and it's cost the taxpayer $81,000 for the privilege.

This is just a vile use of mitigate and safety planning in a grand  cover-your-arse gesture for some jobsworth in an office. We didn't have this when we had the America's cup in town for instance, and that really was a global event.

And it's already illegal to climb the bridge without authorisation, no corporate in their right mind is going to buy into a guerilla marketing act unless they really do want two reactions (1) legal and (2) loss of market - who's going to think that Corporate X changing the flag for theirs is nothing but a cheap publicity stunt, and the fallout would be horrible for them, and expensive.

The farce that is our bending over and taking one for the #IRB and the #RWC will unfold over the next months, when some of the out-of-pocket expenses that we the country have had to find, without recompense and without any fear of breaking even become apparent. We all know we're in the hole for millions, but it's a lot more millions than they said it would be - wasn't it something like $32millions, give or take.

There is no way that there have been millions of tourista dollars into the economy, most of the attendance is local people using local money that they now won't spend on local things for local people, we've given it all the to the IRB in our wisdom.

At least we're left with not the white elephant Eden Park stadium that will be partially dismantled and under used for the next couple of decades.

via Bridge sentries cost $80,000 - National - NZ Herald News.

A Commercial venture and the public purse. #3

Downstage Theatre in Wellington - this is like déjà vu all over again!

Cash-strapped Downstage Theatre wants Wellington ratepayers to provide a $90,000
bailout so it can continue to operate

Downstage's chief executive and director, Hilary Beaton, said it was "disrespectful" to term the funding request a bailout.

The theatre had trained generations of actors and had "greatly contributed to the cultural fabric of the city" which added weight to calls for extra council funding, she said.

"I don't see it as a bailout. I see it as an investment in the future and a recognition of the past."....  But chasing audiences with tacky populist shows was not on the agenda. "We are not suddenly going to do topless lap dancing or commercial British comedy. We are committed to our programme of presenting local crafted work."

Riiiiight, as is the obstinate refusal to put on any commercially viable event preferring locally crafted works of dubious merit and popularity. And a call to titillation, aren't you glad we already have suffrage because this frump would like to have performance as art, which appeals to about 4 people, if you count Gordon the dog as a person.

Mrs Beaton says " Trouble started this year when theatre attendance took a triple hammering
because of the Christchurch earthquake, the global financial crisis, and the  Rugby World Cup"

How's that again? talk about clutching at straws, everything except nothing you did or didn't do then. People would go to the theatre regardless, if the pricing was right and the event was worthy. What a nonsense.

Having such a vexatious chief executive and director in Hilary Beaton you have to wonder (a) what it is she does for real work (b) what she considers worthy (refer to Gordon the dog) and (c) just how much money is enough.

Having lofty ideals and ideas is fantastic, but if you find that what you're doing is giving you the same result over and over then perhaps what you're doing is what the problem is, not the other way around -  what's happening isn't the problem you have - the problem is what's happening is you've managed to art yourself into a corner.

If you can't run a commercial venture at a profit then you shouldn't be running it. If you're lucky to have a benefactor or a patron then by all means go ahead, it isn't fair to expect joe public to stump up the cash for something they have little or no interest in when they have greater interest in something else.

I refer you to this blog piece and info graphic where is shows that 57% of Wellingtonians consider it a "special interest" option rather than an "amenity"

Oh and I took my quotes from here via Downstage Theatre Seeking Bailout Of $90,000 | Stuff.co.nz.

Global warming?

Professor Ian Plimer is a well-known Australian geologist and is also Emeritus Professor of Earth Science at the University of Melbourne.

He's done a bit on Climate Change and has this quote for our consumption  "If we humans, in a fit of ego, think we can change normal planetary processes that control our climate, then we need stronger medication."

And that's all I have to say about that

 

I did a couple of things

I made this blog http://pdubyha.com bit of frippery and vanity. But it suits me.

I also brought a pizza stone, then I went back and brought another, so now I have two. Why? So I can cook pizza in my BBQ is why, and when that's not an option then I'll have two for the ordinary oven. See - upstairs for thinking.

Secondly I watched a documentary on the Aberfan Disaster from 1966 which I remember as a child, don't ask me how or why but I would have been 5, so either it's a later memory from another time, or I really do remember it. Who knows the memory is a strange thing.

Anyway from the end of the documentary there is a quote and simple it's "The past is a different country" which makes a lot of sense, and is something that people ought to remember.

A Commercial venture and the public purse. #2

Here's a thing.  We're all familiar with a user pays model. You want something, a goods or service, then you should be expected to pay.

Seems the Police are considering charging the organisers of future big commercial
events, such as the Rugby World Cup, large concerts and the Wellington sevens, for policing.

These Events soak up significant police resources, which leave other areas short-staffed.

And it's free!!. So you can organise the biggest commercial money spinner, and the police will show up, en masse, gratis. Courtesy the tax payer.

That's not at all right by any definition of right.

Crying ensues The cost of recovery would therefore be included in the cost of the ticket. Which will add-on a dollar or two to the ticket price, depending of course on the number of people and the amount of police you had turning up.

Of course being how we're all super scared and all about mitigating problems the real issue is the over-enforcement and the over-policing of events where heavy-handed appears to be the approach, why not use a sledge-hammer to crack a nut.

I'd do most things #2

Tattoo's. Who knew that they arouse such passion and intensity, and debate.

I know of two women who have had "experiences" with tattoo removals. One has had laser treatment to rid herself of a tattoo on her arm.

You all know how a tattoo works, the molecule of ink is too big to pass through the pores and sits in the skin forever. The treatment by laser blasts essentially blasts the ink into smaller pieces that allows it to absorb. Coloured inks requires coloured lasers. Takes ages and can be painful and can burn, dur it's a laser.

The other story I have of tattoo removal involves a slightly weird story of a gecko tatoo and a  breast reduction. The gecko now does not have a significant part of its body. I leave it at that. It's at the same time funny, sad and a bit humiliating.

Tattoo's - I can't help thinking, still, that this is a recent thing, that more younger people are inking themselves for whatever reason. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure they are sure why either, I'm picking that they didn't really think it through as a long-term thing.

You don't see many older people with neck tattoo's for instance, certainly not with tramp stamps.  I wonder what the older generation knew that the younger generation are not listening to?

Before the Big Bang

We can extrapolate backwards to a time that is expressed as 0.00000000000000000000000000000000001 (.34-zeros-one) seconds of the age of the universe.

Then it gets difficult. We get to this point based on an expanding universe model, and in such a case then using cause and effect, which were are all familiar with, you get to be able to rewind to the cause.

Except at 10-34 seconds all the laws of the universe apparently don't work, can't work. It appears to be all effect and no cause.

The Big Bang gives us our start point, our origin, where are we from, why are we here moment, and we're that close and yet so far away. 13.7 billion years.

But it depends on where you are "everything from nothing" is what we think when we think about the Big Bang. Perhaps we're thinking of "nothing" in the wrong way. That is to say there is "nothing" and then there is "vacuüm", the latter being a space with nothing in it, the former is just no space.

The vacuüm was just energy, and energy that does, and might have temporarily changed into matter, exploded, and perhaps that's the start of a chain reaction, and thence the big bang.

The infinite space we now see is strangely uniform like everything expanded instantly at the same time, the universe looks the same, more or less, in whatever direction we look, and so the latest theory involves inflation, like a giant soap-bubble if you will.

The problematical part of all these things is that there still is no first cause. And we're not happy with "forever" because it's a nonsense to us.We're not big on infinite regression, it hurts our brains.

So far then every prediction points to an inflationary model, and a bouncing model, where there is never-ending contraction and expansion.

No beginning.

It's not very satisfactory

But in the inflation model the universe gets to a state of equilibrium, mass turns into energy as the universe cools, the universe becomes an infinite void full of energy. And energy in a vacuüm can change into matter and that can lead to a chain reaction and a filling of the vacuum....and so we go on

That Sinking Feeling -

Why are 95% of blogs abandoned?

The Food Post

I like to cook. Not just the beans on toast or boiled egg cooking, that's just feeding, but I sometimes have the urge to cook something unusual, or different.

But I like to do it properly. So when I had a mexican schtick I had to make tortillas, and even brought me a tortilla press! Compulsive much!

Today however is shumai. Those are the pork and shrimp dumplings you get at yum char. What I've overlooked however is how to steam them, I brought some steamers, but I only brought little ones, and they'll be too little to put in the Wok, or over a pan. So I have to be creative with chopsticks or something to be able to steam them.

This is course is part of the journey.

What I nearly brought today is a pizza crisper, which sounds incredibly lame-o-rama when you can get perfectly good pizza on an oven tray. Didn't buy it but now have angst about it! It's a perforated tray that you cook a pizza in. Dur. It's that or a pizza stone, which reminds me that I did have one and that it was too large for the oven we have, so it was nice to have, but not useable.

I wonder if you can make pizza in a bbq?

 

Instant Recall

My wife has it. I think all wives, girlfriends and women in general have it. The ability to recal and reference an event, statement, phrase, action or scene from way back when.

Instant recall today came swiftly. My wife awoke with a rather alarming tooth abscess, swelling thing going on,like  half a chipmunk or a golf ball being chewed. So the hunt was on for emergency dental.

Long story short that we had to travel to one place only to be told that they couldn't help and we had to go back to the other place we could have gone, but didn't open for an hour. Only now it was 1/2 hour since we'd travelled for an hour.

So we arrive at the first choice place on time, having travelled an hour. We live 10 minutes away on a busy traffic day.

Wife has treatment, Visa card gets a work out, and we're in the car on the way to a pharmacy to get antibiotics. I'm making small talk, wondering how she is, is there pain, can I get anything and she says

"you know you were like this wittering on when I'm not interested when I was giving birth"

I stopped for a second and said "whoa that was like 17 years ago"

"Nineteen, I was talking about the first child"

Instant recall. Ouch!

Living your life vicariously - the sporting edition

I may have covered this already. But daughter shows a surprisingly good aptitude for field hockey. She's been playing years and has gathered a fair number of player of the day's, player of the year, most improved, and best team member awards. Some of them against 'international' teams (that's other school teams on the world tour) but still hey they chose it not me.

She's also a farily well thought of umpire and has picked up a number of age grade awards and medals and is a New Zealand grade umpire, and she umpires at a high level.

So fair to say we think her achievements are pretty cool, and that we pretty proud of her.

This year was rather difficult however, she wasn't picked in the Under 18A team, the reason given was fitness, which turned out to be pretty accurate, but she did get to go umpire the same tournament as the youngest umpire. Yeah we're proud.

The U18 team did go on to win the tournament,  despite being a player short through injury - daughter having pulled out from the "b" team wasn't considered as a replacement.

And as with all age grade sporting codes it's come down to not what you do it's who you know. There was some very contentious decisions to take average ability players into a U21 team, and there is a very clique-like "elite" sports clinic that is by invitation only.

There is also currently a "Senior" squad that is made up of "up and coming" players again by invitation only, and daughter although made aware of the team invitation (she was copied by email), wasn't invited.

Seems she's offside with at least one of the selectors.

But we've always said that it's her choice to play or chose to play or not, and that we'd support her decisions and actions.

Today though the "Senior" squad finds itself a bit short and they've come cap-in-hand to get her to play against a Queensland team. And this is where it gets interesting since I'd like her to play to prove a point and to have some fun, and she is saying no.

It's not easy living your life vicariously!

RWC - how to watch a game

I was at Eden Park for the England V Scotland game. I was an invited guest in a corporate seat. It was an awesome seat and an awesome view.

There were 12 of us, I was the only one supporting England. Someone was going home upset.

Seems that New Zealanders have a 'we support the All blacks and anyone playing against;

• England


• Australia


• South Africa"

thing going on. Last night the number of Scottish fans was enormous, and it did look as though at one point Scotland would get one over the old foe. The English contingent had a couple of desultory goes at "Swing Low" but it was nothing compared to the old standard two syllable chant that New Zealanders are so go at, Scot-Land, Auck-Land, Alll-Black, Har-bour, Moo-Loo. Made me smile.

Anyway Scotland couldn't keep it up, and England had a whole 15 seconds of brilliance to steal the game, and a place in the quarter finals. And at this point the humor returned to the crowd and it became good-natured and friendly, jelly and hyde from the foaming mouth ranting of the previous 78 minutes. Pleasant enough in itself but a glimpse at the card side of the way we support teams.

My predictions from earlier are a mixed bag, I picked McCaw to be injured, got that Wrong, I did pick Ireland to beat Australia. And we'll see how the other couple of guesses work out before I call myself psychic.