Posts by JackElder
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And so our Glorious National Cycleway limps slowly back into obscurity. I'd be willing to bet that in a year's time, the only trace we'll see of the national cycleway will be a suspicious absence of local body funding for everyday cycling initiatives, as local bodies are asked to pay for their own section of the mighty path.
I knew that a proper, grown-up national cyclepath was too bloody much to hope for. I still hope I'm wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.
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oh, Ruby, don't take your love to town ... didn't someone remake it recently
Wellington Int'l Ukulele Orchestra - my two girls (1 and 5) love that song. And while it's not quite a murder ballad, their absolute favourite song is "Zvezda Rok-n-rolla" by Leningrad, as covered by the Klezmer Rebs (Wellington's premiere klezmer band). It's got a great tune, with lyrics in Russian. Which is good, because the lyrics are utterly, ludicrously filthy; just the sort of stuff you want the preschoolers to break out into. But, y'know, in Russian, so we don't get any funny looks from the rellies.
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@legbreak - it was released just before Christmas. You're sufficiently behind that they're about to release Madagascar 2 on DVD, man. Personally I'm looking forward to the school holidays so I can take my daughter to Monsters vs Aliens... and then there's Pixar's new one, "Up", which looks beautiful.
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Twitter question: is there any way to update via SMS through a local gateway (i.e. without using the UK number)? Telstra have just told me that international txts are 20c each, which I could easily see cutting down on my usage.
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Individual pursuit is pretty dramatic, yeah, but compared to a Madison or Keirin? There's significantly less threat of crashing in a pursuit. That said, go Alison!
Personally, I'm just annoyed that the kilo sprint was dropped from the Olympics.
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We bought our tickets to the Wiggles on the first day they became available. I'm genuinely very excited about it. I've heard that it's a really good vibe at their concerts, and any mosh pit full of preschoolers has got to be big fun. Anyone else seen that live concert footage where halfway through, they do "Eagle Rock" with Captain Feathersword flying around the stage? Classic, absolutely classic.
Though the Wiggles won't be the only concert I've been to this year - I'm pretty much a regular at the Klezmer Rebs concerts, due to being married to the violinist. And we take the children - kids love klezmer, folks! Particularly the really rude songs (my daughter's favourite song is a spectactularly filthy bit of Russian ska).
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although 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale don't really count: they are novels of possible political futures. not Sci-Fi).
So your solution to people who argue that science fiction isn't crap by providing counterexamples is to redefine science fiction so as to avoid those counterexamples? It's an interesting rhetorical device.
Why are you seeing this as a zero-sum game? Why are you assuming that a discussion on popular culture precludes political engagement? And, particularly, why are you getting annoyed about it here? I mean, the original discussion was just a chat about the political system of another country: it's about as likely to make an impact on the real world as any debate about the popular culture item of your choice.
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Damn, I'd shorted her on ipredict. That's me out a couple of bucks, then. Ah well, win some, lose some.
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Is it just me, or is "clearly implying" sex what 15-year old boys do? "Yeah, we totally did it last night, man. Like, with the sex and everything. Yeah."
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I imply sexual activity just by walkin' down the street, dawg.