Posts by Danielle
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Does anyone know one of the 27% who still support him and is willing to admit it openly?
Yes. My husband and I are related to several of them. Lovely people - just not particularly politically astute, very religious, and really, really frightened by the terr'rists. Oh, and they all think Saddam was in charge of 9/11, too.
(Although to be fair, there were many more Bush supporters last time we visited the rellies in 2004 than there were in April, when we last visited. And *way* fewer Bush-Cheney bumper stickers, even in Texas. That could be a function of everyone buying new pickup trucks since 2004, of course!)
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Sorry, I didn't mean to attribute those quotes to you IO. I was talking to some sort of amorphous anti-reality-TV 'They' in my mind. But I still don't get the ProjRun/ParHilton comparison you made...
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No by hokey we don't Jackie!
(Although I do find the kneejerk 'all reality television is much more inane than scripted television' thing rather silly. Reality TV, even in its crappiest forms, allows you to look deep within the craven souls of your fellow human beings. Drama! Humour! Sheer flat-out weirdness! Strategy! Manipulation! Stalking! People wearing horribly unflattering clothing! It's all there!)
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Do you watch Project Runway, InternationalObserver? What's great about it is the large percentage of contestants with actual skill, drive, and vision. They're often really creative, hard-working, interesting folks. Of course you have your occasional random famewhores and crazy manipulators (Wendy Pepper, I'm looking at you!), but I don't think your comparison is all that apt.
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So, so excited about the return of Project Runway. For a while there after America's Next Top Model ended, they were showing bad movies on Friday nights on TV3! I thought my unbroken run of alternating crazy megalomaniacs (Tyra Banks) and crazy talented people who broke into song randomly at sewing machines (Jay McCarroll, Santino) had come to an end! Plus I just want to hang out with Tim Gunn all day long. 'Designers! Gather round! Make it work!'
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My Friends in America hooked me up with episode two, and I just want to say how deeply, deeply funny the fake New Zealand promotional posters they've worked up are. Particularly at the trade expo, where two merely say 'Giant Carrot' with a picture of the Ohakune carrot in question, and 'The Shed That's Shaped Like a Sheep' with, uh, a picture of the shed that's shaped like a sheep (Tirau, right?). I almost cried with laughter at those.
(There's a little shout-out to the now-defunct Paua Shell house in Bluff, too. Sigh.)
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It's A Drug Wonderland, over there
I presume that's sung to the tune of this
Heh. I was thinking more of Earth, Wind & Fire's lesser-known disco classic 'Druggie Wonderland', myself.
(I apologise in advance for the earworm - I just gave it to myself. Bah.)
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And a question for all those who have used drugs and have given up; did the criminal status of that drug have anything at all to do with the decision to quit?
Categorically: no. It was more of a 'jeez, I can't spend three days of every week recovering from one night' issue. Plus, you know, it gets expensive. (And also, I left the USA, removing myself from friends who made most of their money dealing. It's A Drug Wonderland over there, War on Drugs notwithstanding. Take note, Mr Anderton!)
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You can find your own flatmates - HNZ aren't that draconian! You don't get an accommodation supplement if you're paying income-related-rent in an HNZ house - you're already being subsidised with your cheap rent. Board didn't get added to your total income as the holder of the tenancy, which is kind of a loophole for tenants I suppose, depending on how much board your flatmates paid. But this was a few years ago, so maybe they've changed that now...? Plus Andrew will probably tell me that management policy is actually totally different. :)
(The more I think about it, the crappier a tenancy manager's job is. You have to be all sound and fury, but in the end you signify nothing!)
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Not that it's any of your business, InternationalObserver, but a) my partner moved from being a student to working full time and b) we did, in fact, receive an inheritance for a deposit. (I also got several raises, because I'm so awesome. ;)) So I'm afraid I can't be your scapegoat example in this particular instance.
I got so sniffy about this transfer-agreement policy that I rang said relative, who clarified: yes, tenants must agree (aha! so I am wrong, sorry!), but in over a decade my particular relative has never had anyone who refused to move. The wording of the transferral or flatmate-gaining request is, however, as per management instruction, meant to be pretty forceful, not wishy-washy. So Andrew, what's management policy on how these things are worded? Because I was never given the impression that I had a choice on the flatmate thing by that other tenancy manager, either. How are tenancy managers supposed to act? Do they get fired for sounding too imperative? I should let my relative know...