Posts by webweaver
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Following on from hudsie's comment (hi hudsie!) - here's the story of how we made the vid: First Wii Fatality - watching our video go viral.
I think the Wii is great too - for me it's because it's so accessible to everyone. Like a lot of people, I've never been remotely interested in Playstation or any of the other gaming consoles - partly cos I'm not interested in shooting other people - even virtually - but also because the controls bear absolutely no resemblance to the actions on the screen.
I don't know if it's a girl thing, but I find it very hard to figure out that if I'm, say, driving a virtual car, I have to wiggle those two little knob things from side to side to get it to steer round corners, and press some button somewhere for braking and accelleration. By the time I've figured out how to steer the darned thing I've crashed and burned anyway.
Whereas the Wii - well, you hold it like a tennis raquet, you move it like a tennnis raquet - and bingo! You're playing virtual tennis! Easy peasy - and not at all intimidating to try for the first time. The first time we borrowed one for the office, virtually everyone had a go straight away, men and women, young and not so young - and everyone had a great time.
I agree with hudsie about the arm aching thing - I think it's that your arm actually overstreches a bit because there's no "stopping" force in the opposite direction (which there would be if you hit a real ball). I found I only got aches after the first time I played - after that I was fine.
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You're right Natalie - in an ideal world I'd much rather meet someone though friends or friends of friends.
However, for some people like me there seems to have come a point where most (almost all) of my friends are long-term couples, either married, living together, having kids or a combination of all three - and one's social "inner circle" becomes pretty much set in stone.
Very rarely does a new person enter the "inner circle", which means that it's almost impossible to meet new people through friends or friends of friends any more.
Hence the need to look further afield, including internet dating. Maybe I should take up a new hobby... like... I dunno - where do all the eligible men hang out these days?
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Too funny!
I tend to agree with Carmel B - in my experience there's quite a few people with rather high expectations - at least on FSO which I was on for a year or so.
An extreme caricature of someone of this type might be "I'm a bit of a slob, don't do any exercise, lost my waistline a long time ago and losing my hair now - looking for a fit, energetic partner (at least 10 years younger than me) who takes care of his/her appearance, always looks great/gorgeous/sexy, and is into wild monkey sex at any opportunity..."
Yeah you know what I mean...
I was also a little saddened by the contrast between the men and women in my age group. The woman, on the whole, actually were quite a bit "better preserved" than the guys. Too many of the guys my age looked (and from their profiles seemed to act/think) more like my dad's age than my age, and yet they were still looking for the "fit chick 10 years younger than me who takes care of her appearance" blah blah. sigh
I did meet some interesting and pleasant people on FSO - some of whom I wrote to for a while, and two whom I met up with a couple of times for coffee or lunch, but there just weren't any... sparks.. and in the end I got a bit bored with it and gave up. Maybe it's time I resurrected my profile again.
I also thought the "want children within 2 years" button was mighty scarey on FSO - and believe me, it wasn't just the chicks clicking it! I selected the rather, shall we say, "dogmatic" option of "Don't want children - EVER!" button myself.
Oh - and the "internets dating stigma" thingy? So pre-2003, darling! Everyone's doing it now, didn't you know? No stigma left IMO - and yeah - how is hanging around in bars / at parties trying to pick up strangers any better?
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Good point, David. That occurred to me too.
Even if Brash and Key didn't read the email, and Brash simply forwarded it to Joyce without even opening it, there is no way I will ever believe that National had a million dollar deal going with the Brethren and Joyce didn't think to mention it to either Brash or Key at some point. Ha!
It is so__tiring listening to them lie and lie and lie. You would think at some point they'd have the balls to say "OK, I messed up, I lied, I'm sorry - I will try not to do it again and I will learn from my mistakes". Lordy, lordy, wouldn't that gain people's respect? But no - they just have to keep on lying and lying to the bitter end. Ugh.
Mind you, having been a somewhat __obsessive watcher of American politics over the past 6 years, I can tell you that the biggest lesson I have learned is that if they say categorically that they don't do something, or that something never happened (like torture or illegal wiretapping for example), you can be damned sure that exactly the opposite is true.
Once you figure that out, it's easy to hear the truth. Just turn everything they say upside-down and you'll be close.
Just like 1984.
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Now that's the sign of a great review, Russell - to make those of us who weren't there wish we had been!
I saw U2 a couple of times in the early 80s, quite a long time before they became a fully-fledged stadium band, and they were pretty good gigs. The overriding impression I came away with was how Bono truly owned that stage from the moment he walked on until the final chords of the final song.
Both times Bono pulled someone out of the audience to be with them on stage for a song - one time a girl carrying a flag - which he wrapped around both himself and the girl as he sang. The second time it was a guy who knew all the words to whatever song they were singing (I think it was In the name of love) and I seem to remember the guy got to sing with the band and maybe even played a bit of guitar with them.
Sounds pretty cheesy, bringing fans up on stage, but even the second time, when I knew it was going to happen, they did it with such grace and charm that it felt as fresh as if it were the first time it had ever been done - and I'm sure those two people will remember it for the rest of their lives. Awwww!
It didn't even occur to me to go and see them this time - I'm not a great fan of stadium gigs I suppose - but I think I'm regretting it a bit now....
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Wheeee! I got my copy!
Dymocks on Lambton Quay has about 70 copies not already pre-ordered, in case anyone needs a copy.
Let the speed-reading begin!
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Nick -
40% of the people voted for National because they agreed with the policies which National campaigned under. Or because they were fed up with Labour. Or because they picked National and its policies as closest to their own beliefs, even if not exactly in line with them.
However, the true policies of National were in fact quite different from what they said publicly. They knew these policies were too extreme to be acceptable to a majority of Kiwis, and that if they were open about the true direction in which they planned to lead the country, they wouldn't get enough votes to win.
So they lied.
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Oh here we are - this is why it's embargoed until Monday:
Hollow Men In Shops On Monday - Craig Potton Publishing weren't allowed to start physically distributing the book until after the injunction was lifted, and as that was halfway through Friday and the warehouse is in Nelson, rather than drip-feed the book to outlets they decided to do it all in one go on Monday.
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Alastair Thompson said:
Regarding supplies of the book...
From what I hear all 3000 copies of the book are already pre-sold. So unless you have had a purchase order accepted by a retailer who is expecting some incoming books then you are not getting a copy on monday.
I just called Dymocks to ask about the release of the book and they confirmed the embargo thing (who embargoed it and why I don't know) but they did let me put my name down for a copy for Monday, so either there's an extra print run or the first 3000 aren't all ordered yet.
My apoligies to Whitcoulls for sharing the now discredied rumour about them being the cause of the embargo. Although I reported it as a quote from another bookseller and qualified it with an "__if__ it's true" statement I prolly shouldn't have shared it without checking all my facts first.
Juha - thankfully in NZ it isn't an either/or scenario any more (hooray for MMP) - and there's an easy answer to your question. Don't vote for either of 'em - vote Green. :)
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Malcom said:
Paul: what election fraud? None of these plans were ever implemented as part of the election campaign.
Isn't that rather the point?
The Election advertising rules - summary clearly states that Non-broadcast advertising promoting party vote or attacking party or candidate must be authorised by the Party secretary and
Authorisation must be in writing. In addition, the advertisement when broadcast or published must state the name and business or residential address of the person directing it to be published. A Post Office box or website address is insufficient.
It's also classed as a Party expense which must be notified according to the rules and must not exceed the amount allowed by law.
Since this was clearly not the case with the Brethren pamphlets, and the whole thing was done in secret in order to circumvent the rules (well, it was supposed to be a secret), I would say it's pretty clear that not only was it part of the plan, it was part of a fraudulent and illegal plan.
Ooopsie!