Go Robbie!!

Let me be the first to say it. Didn't the Wallabies look very much like the Crusaders? Sneaky domination at the breakdown; relentless attack; a Dan Carter-like kicking game; an 80 minute, second-half team; and patience patience patience.

That other guy and the NZRFU should be ashamed! of themselves, and cowering in the darkest corner of the toilets at Eden Park.

leave veitch alone

Poor Tony Veitch. For two years he thought he'd got away with it. Then, someone blabbed and his life imploded.

But let's look at it from the other end. According to the news reports Kristin Dunne-Powell was insightful enough to delay telling the police. Who knows how she convinced the doctors and nurses that she fell down the stairs? She was smart enough to take the 100K+, probably because she knew that if she went down the criminal court route she'd get nothing because Veitch would be doing serious bird.

If I was Veitch I'd be asking for the money back!

I think the little toe-rag got off easy. He sold a house and paid for his crime the best way the bourgeoisie know how. They write a cheque and the problem goes away.

Done deal. Presumably Dunn-Powell agreed to it. If it can be shown she was coerced into taking the deal, another story. Otherwise, leave Veitch alone.

Michael Laws, another nasty little bully, seems to have it in for Veitch, and his venom is not spared for TVNZ and TRN, Laws' competitors. How transparent. First he establishes, quite correctly, that all media outlets exist for one thing. To make money. Of course, that goes for his own media empire. So why criticse TVNZ and TRN for doing the commercially correct thing? Their slience was about one thing, and one thing only. Covering their asses. Getting the legal ramifications just right so they didn't jeopardise their bottom line when they had to front up to the media, as surely they knew they would have to. Would Radio Works have done anything different? I doubt it. Nowdays the first thing you do in this sort of situation is keep schtoom and call in the lawyers.

Veitch and Dunne-Powell made a deal. They shook on it. With Dunne-Powell in a wheelchair she was probably eye to eye with the little Veitch. They left the board room happy. She banked the cheque. Both got on with their lives. Done deal.

Leave Veitch alone.

A what in her where?

I think the thing that has been overlooked in this Oddstuff piece is the "34FF" bit. She could have had Batman himself stuck in her bra and nobody would have noticed.

misappropriation of truth

If I opened a buffet restaurant and called it "FreeFood", and if I set up my new FreeFood Restaurant in a central location accessible to all, and if I advertised the food as being "FREE", but if a little stated condition of eating my "free" food is that it costs $80 to get into the building, would that be honest? Would it be "Free"?

angelina

Is it only me or does anybody else think Angelina is actually a bit ugly?

She may be a nice person (I doubt it though. Are there any "nice" movie stars?), but I'm really tired of seeing her held up as the standard for beauty. What is it? Her lips? Her eyes? I just don't think she's at all attractive, let alone the sexiest, most beautiful woman alive. There's nothing about her I would rate higher than just average. Moslty below.

I’ve totally bought into the PC culture that has seeped into the tiniest cracks of our psyche. I wrote an entry around these photographs, and though I was really unhappy with it, I posted it anyway.

Then I deleted it. What a constipated load of drivel. I was saying one thing while wanting to say something else. I’d like to say I was trying to be nice, but I was really subconsciously being PC. It staggers me how the insidious liberal, PC philosophy has spread, like a virus.

It struck me the other day, nobody gets angry anymore. You’re not allowed to get red-faced, want-to-scream-and-punch-something pissed off!! It seems to suggest a lack of control, an inferior mindset, that you are somehow unenlightened, even barbaric.

Why is that?

Anyway, the photos. Opposite Hagley Park are what used to be stock-yards. I think that’s what the place used to be. Long abandoned, though, and mostly torn down, there remains, behind the fence, a number of these little buildings. They have apparently become a hang-out for taggers, junkies, and other low-lifes.

Out here in the suburbs we don’t like to think that parts of our city are like this. After taking the pics I began to notice just how much tagging there is around the city. It’s everywhere. It’s been in the news a lot lately, especially the guy who stabbed the kid who was tagging. I have to admit I was with Barry Corbett when common sense said that if the kid was not out tagging, he would still be alive. Axiomatic.

I am trying to imagine the kind of person that would hang here. I gotta tell ya, it was broad daylight and I felt nervous being there. I’m a nervous type at the best of times, the sort who locks the car doors when driving in town at night, but I got the feeling that the low lifes who created this place wouldn’t think twice about sticking me with a knife for the three bucks in my pocket. What if they were still here, inside, smoking crack, having sex with one another or doing whatever else they do?

How dare they?

If we could get angry, maybe something could be done about it.

it just sounds right

You know how something “just sounds right”?

I don’t know why these things “just sound right.” Preconceptions? Subconscious? Past lives? Prejudices?

In religious circles there is a thing called the argument from silence. This simple philosophical trickery has created two diametrically opposed schools. One school says “because the bible is silent on this matter it must be permissible.” Easy. The other school, however, believe the opposite. “Because the bible is silent on this matter it must be forbidden.” Easy?

Families have split over this issue. The bible commands “sing to the Lord.” Simple enough, you’d think. However, can singing to the Lord include musical accompaniment? According to one school, absolutely. To the other, absolutely not.

Stalemate.

Two rational, educated, honest, sincere individuals can read that scripture and come to completely opposite conclusions about it.

Jesus was silent about homosexuality. (Paul wasn't, tho)

I watched the thing on climate change the other night, the response to The Inconvenient Truth. How the two schools can be so opposed on the issue when making conclusions about the evidence staggers me. I’m not a scientist so I can’t really speak intelligently about the specifics. But, just as it sounds right to me that the argument from silence affirms the permissible, what sounds right to me is that in the entire expanse of the vast universe, our piddly little offering of CO2 (.04%?) cannot be responsible for the climate change supposedly going on now.

a vote for the underdog

I enjoyed SATC's first television series. It was, like so many groundbreaking shows, edgy and raw and innovative. Alas, as so often happens, as the seasons wore on the dialogue become staid, the characters predictable, the storylines . . . let's face it, dull!

What possible hope for the movie?

Who cares?

So let's get to the only real question the matters when it comes to SATC. Which of the four girls is the hottest?

When I saw the poll on stuff, asking that very question, I thought here's an online poll I could get into.

For me it was a no brainer. I thought I would answer for two reasons. First, because she surely is the hottest, and second, I thought surely not many others would agree with me, so I would give her what amounted to a sympathy vote.

Imagine my shock when I checked out the results of the poll, in which Charlotte was pulling more than 60% of the popular vote. The brunette. The non-blonde.

Of course, Jackie said the guys would like Charlotte because she's the demure one, the frequent damsel in distress one, the conservative, virginal one.

I prefer to think of it as the others are just too skanky

ten things i’ve learned from some of my favourite movies

Dead Poets Society – Carpe Diem! Seize the day! And one day I fully intend to do exactly that. There are just a few things to get in order first, then I’ll be YAWPING over the rooftops of the world with the best of them.

Arlington Road – Conspiracy abounds! “Trust no one” might be a little strong, but I think it wise to maintain a healthy awareness of what you’re getting into, and with whom.

Field of Dreams – Maybe the voices you hear have something valuable to say.

The Fisher King – Sometimes, the voices are all about a girl.

High Fidelity – If all else fails, make a list.

Finding Forrester - Sometimes, no matter how big they are, you can beat the odds.

Phenomenon – Not only can you sometimes beat the odds, every now and then the Universe opens up and gives you the opportunity to be what you truly can be.

12 Monkeys – But then, no matter how real it seems, perhaps it’s not, and what is real is that we are all lunatics locked in our own psychoses eating spiders, travelling through time, and pulling our own teeth out.

Back to the Future – No matter how much you may wish it, you can’t go back – or forward – and change the mistakes you made. Or can you?

Enemy of the State – Sooner or later the Government will screw you.

desk

Gets to the point that I've had enough of clutter. It's not that we're slobs or anything. Well, depending on your definition of slobs. We're not lazy slobs. We're just lazy. Things pile up. My excuse is that this house is just not big enough for the JUNK we seem to accumulate. Mail that we really should read, just in case there are bills; newspapers that Id like to read, but never do; and little pieces of paper, and post-it notes. My desk is awash with little notes to myself, mostly about the book: return to Karaitiana as originally planned; how does Cassie FEEL about the new school; tha active ingredient in anexate is flumezanil; Metcalf disovers Coach Woods murdered ten years earlier. And so on. There are a zillion of them.

And cords. Cords are the bane of my life. I just have to LOOK at a cord and it gets tangled. Cords don't seem to be terribly efficient to me. Bring on the wireless generation I say. I have computer cords, battery charger cords, phone cords (even cordless phones have cords!!), USB cables, printer cables, digital camera cables (okay, that another USB cable), extension cords, audio and video cords. Arrgghh!!!! Cords!!! I hate them.