Posts by Ross Mason
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I was quite shocked to find (8 years into the relationship) that Paul had in fact been his school's biggest jock, a fact he hid from me
Umm....did Paul tell you this? or did someone he went to school with tell you. hehe.
See, secretly, you like Jocks!!
;-)
I was the weed. Usual, humour saved me. I think I only had one bully get on top of me. Had a few nicknames of course. The first one that stuck - and still sticks from those school mates - was Pommie. For some reason a Chch accent in Pukekohe sounded foreign. M Bee of course. Horse, shape of my head I gather. Getting strapped every day helped -no one picked on the poor bastard who the teacher picked on. It's what you get for sitting next to a guy who wouldn't stop talking and he didn't mind getting the cuts. The headmaster who did this recommended I take agriculture or general at High. The last six months of primary wwere spent at another school and that headmaster's recommendation was that I take the academic stream. Merv Wellington (yup...THE one), the Puke carreer adviser at the time couldn't comprehend the gulf between the two recommendations. We compromised and I did French but no Latin. Go figure.
Homeschooling: The two common threads that I see with homeschooling is religion and "In my infinite wisdom, what school did to me isn't going to happen to you".
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The light bulbs and the shower heads were easy targets to pick on. But in the context of improving your housing, the countries energy needs and your living bills, they were ideal candidates to include in housing regulations.
Golly, Lets think. Holding down the roof with Z nails? Wow. I wonder how many roofs that stopped disappearing in Wgtn winds. Adding a bit more bracing? So that your next house won't wobble to bits in the next earthquake. Double glazing. Sewage. Running potable water. Electrical regulations. Gib board / dry walls so that the fire won't take your house in 5 minutes.
Jeez. All wee things that add up to improved social conditions. Surely. ..Oh. and less DEAD people.
Thanks Craig. Three more. Keep searching....My point was that both sides social engineered. But....
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Japan actually has a rolling efficiency standard, continually moving upwards. What was best practice 5 years ago is middle of the pack now.
Yeah. They listened to wierd bastard.
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And just how many of them actually were initiated by right-wingers, again?
I forgot ACC. Jaw dropping to the rest of the world when it emerged.
Now the Nats???
CSA...Mazengarb Report (I forgot that too)...Abolished capital punishment. Ombudsman (forgot that one)..Metric system..Carless days and Nat Super...forgot again..OIA...Another one forgot..RMA finally but Palmer had a big hand in that one...fancy the Nats passing it though...any recent news about it??..Oh dear...Employment Contracts Act...They did send the Tui to Mururoa though...
ACC was probably begun under Nats.But overall.. Not too many from the top list.
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Jeez Tom. Who pays this piper's son?
There was massive desire to punish Labour last election,
45% of voters gave the Nats their tick. A mandate? Hmm. What happens in this country is that it is not the true blues or firey reds who decide the election it is the swingers. About 12% max (2002) - but usually between 2% to 5% - of the total vote decide who the major party is.
HELLO!! We have MMP. I do think it is about time the Nats realised this and kept their toys in the cot. FFP is gone chappies and chappesses. I guess we will tinker with it (SVP?) but my prediction is it is well dead and buried. Learn to live within it.
S59? A basic human right for anyone. But absolutely, even more basic is the rights of the innocent. And there is none more innocent than our children. For a developed country it staggers me, the lack of parental care and attention we give. Full stop.
Now lets see...Social Engineering.....
8 hour day. Votes for Women. 5 day week. Arbitration. Social welfare. I'll willing give so that I can take it. State housing. Superannuation. Child care. Health Camps. Free Libraries. Free Education. I'll use and pay for it. Public Health care. Yep. Ditto. Free milk. Capital punishment abolished. Lets poke noses at the French at Mururoa and Nuclear free? F*^k yeah! Smoke free. Yup. I ABSOLUTELY enjoy going to a pub these days. Values Party. MMP. PAYE. Treaty of Waitangi Ammendment Act. 1981. Seat Belts. Speed Limits. Warrants of Fitness. Breath testing. Homosexual Law Reform. Happy and gay. Maori Language act. NZ Bill of Rights. Public Finance act. Freedom of Information Act. Finshery quotas. Matrimonial Property Act. GST. Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act. Metric System. Home insulation. Solar heating.
I'll stop there. A short list that to no ones surprise was NOT focused on any one political spectrum. But I HAVE to say that the VAST majority of the biggies were probably from the socialist leaners.
Sorry Tom. FAIL. We've always had it, we will always have it.
We ain't done too bad considering a shit load of other countries have followed us in an awful lot of these!!!
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I hear the cellphone coverage in remote fishing areas is very good, even in New Zealand...
Only if you have a scots accent and can't tell a joke isn't it?
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My two cents on the old Muslim
My test results will (ahem) attest to my mssing the Muslim label. I was looking at him as an old bloke who had seen it all. Obviously when you bring in effing religion and idolatry it puts a new light on his repsonse. But I was taken by his thought. That's what got me all surreal.....I don't do that often.
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From: Tarkovsky's Polaroids.
I remember that in the course of a field survey in Usbekistan where we wanted to shoot a film – but finally did not do it – he gave to three elderly Muslims the pictures he had taken of them. The eldest one as soon as he took a glance at the photos, immediately returned them with these words: “What is it good for, to stop the time?”
Pictures certainly do. Was the response to the fact that the reproduction was so instant? What would the old man have said if he saw them the next day? The moment. Is it captured for ever? Is it real? Is it as real as a portrait? Is the shadow highlighting the wrinkle as special as that dab in just the right place?
Why DO we travel and why is taking our own pictures so important it is the first thing we do when we get there? Should it be the last?
Then we leave. Gone....but now no longer forgotten.
We snap our fingers...Refreshing our minds eye via flashed pixeled memory.
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I am so slow...
We've got the builders in.
What day did you say the builders were leaving?
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We've got the builders in.
NAILED!