Posts by Ross Mason
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I recall through my teenage years thinking regularly about the fact that one day I was likely going to be a father. When I got to be one I regularly thought about my teenage kids that once I was one.
I think it might have helped to keep the angst in perspective.
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Feed: My Life in Curry, in reply to Deborah,
Would one of you people who cook up a mean sausage curry care to post a recipe?
My 43 year old Roberton Rd, Avondale, flat recipe copied out into my 43 year old recipe book written in by my (at the time 40 year old Mum:
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Curried sausages. NZ answer to dealing with foreign muck. You know, macaroni cheese. Spaghetti in tins. Rice pudding. As far as restaurant eating goes:Tea rooms - Quarter cut white bread with smear of butter (none of this margarine shit), eggs on toast, baked beans. Bacon. Sophistication like nothing on earth.
Heh. I remember reading Graham Chapman's story of being in Oamaru (I think) and asking for a two egg omelet. He got: Two eggs ON an omelet!
I remember being at Cooks Beach where Tuatuas abound. A french (!) chef was staying and he was visibly shaking as we boiled up of these delicacies, dipped them in vinegar and slid them down our throats. When the next bucket came up he had obviously prepared himself and bravely suggested he cook them. Out came the fry pan, a bit of oil (not fat or butter) and some stuff called garlic. Bit of a shock actually when it tasted bloody nice!!!
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What about lunch? If the Brit systems are being imported, how about free lunch for kids? Depending on which TV Chef you watch/listen to, they are either good or bad.
Why do we treat kids here like we do? Seen but not heard seems to be still alive and kicking. Speaking of which, 20/20 had a hair raising interview with the anti violence guy. He thought a hose to thrash his kids was better than being slashed at with a machete. Its all relative init.
Lets start with the premise they are going to be citizens in the near future. Someone mentioned pensioners are subsidised to the hilt. Strange isn't it we don't do the same with kids. Lumber them with tests, lumber them with student loans. For life.
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Two pages and you're talking about rent???
Eh?
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" One of the systems that has been most successful in closing the equity excellence gap are the ones that have strongly incentivised a focus on what difference I have made in my teaching and learning in this 6 month period - not just what's the final result - are these kids above or at the National Standards or have passed NCEA.....but when this kid came into my classroom at this point and now at this point what learning difference can I absolutely see has occurred as a result of my teaching."
LOUDLY: Testing every 6 months.
Has she found one or more "incentivising systems"? But..... at least there is an inkling of a small acknowledgement that some kids might progress but still not pass NCEA.
Nothing like a bit of absolution to distance me from the problem. The testing helps me here.
So. Did 50%, 80%, 90%, 100% of students "improve"? Someone will clutch at a number and the devil will take the hindmost schools and cut the funding. That's an incentive to teach to the test if ever I saw one.
Progress.
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Surprisingly :-) You’ll find little politics on my facebook. Today it changed with this:
Right you lot. If you want your kids to have a good education in this country and you heard Parata on the radio “mischaracterising” (what a wonderful Newspeak word!!) her quotes about funding schools by “incentivising” from results then you had better read this. Jolisa Gracewood is no mug. Especially read about her kids progress in such schools in America.
It is about to happen folks. Get off your collective arses and close it off. Now. Write to you MP, the PM, Parata.
(Finished with link to this post)
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Heh. One of the first lessons I learnt about getting information from the “web” – before the web existed – when using Veronica, Archie, Gopher (etc) was to write something that was nearly right and include a “silly error”. Talk about elicit a storm of “silly bugger” responses. It were a grand way of finding out from everyone the answer to your query! I thank Brenda Leeuwenburg for that gem!!
Netscape on a 14.4 kilobits/sec modem was a dog.
Luxury! God! I remember watching the bloody byte meter tick over bytes, 10s of bytes, scores of bytes….oooooo… its getting faster…. (then back again) while huddled over the screen with the images turned off so that you wouldn’t go over your volume!!!!
Use(r)groups and those “Local Nets” where people would phone you to tell you someone (in freaking Norway!) has been reading the Wellington Use Group and wonders if anyone knows where they can find you.
Steve: BBS! Yes!. I remember having dinner with Jim Shaw and seeing the original ACTRIX sitting in the corner of the dining room!!!! Connected to THE WORLD!!! Staggering.
And my first email address having to be 8 letters or less. Took out the “o” in mason to satisfy this st&^%%^id bloody byte wide system!!
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Gerry said that? He has to be joshing. If he didn’t know of this it is one his best Head-In-The-Sand responses of his career.
It has. Check Figure 9 of this GNS report
Or
This Taylor and Tomkin report with similar piccie in Fig 3-4 page 15. St Albans is a bad spot to be….and I suspect the Woolston/Opawa area uplift is damming the areas behind them.
Scary perspective. In the last 1,000,000 years there have probably been in the order of 10,000 100 year floods. Statements of long lived residents like “I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime” are nothing compared to the odd million years. Chch has not even been through two 100 year cycles.
Chch is built on a swamp. These are low lying. The oceans are rising while the land is dropping. Which generation is going to bite the bullet? Significant numbers of Chch people are going to have to move. The logistics of lifting houses and / or filling sections higher just does not bear thinking about. Please don’t try New Orleans flood protection around Chch.
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Over the weekend someone pointed to the reverse spelling of the new name......
