Posts by BenWilson
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I warn you, I'm already 1% done.
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John
Surely the fun of the first house is going to be in taking something that's not flash and poshing it up? No harm in looking at the posh, it gives you ideas for what you can do with something more in the budget. I was looking through some old pictures of my house just yesterday thinking "Hmmm, it did look pretty shit to start with". That way, also, you get to make it your kind of posh.
LucyThe other thing about NZ is because of the population size compared to disparity in income, you can run up against class divisions hard and unexpectedly.
I don't think population size has much to do with your chances of encountering the disparities. It's the income distribution. If anything, a small country makes it less likely you'll see the extremes. I met people in Australia who lived in houses that made the most fancy homes in Auckland look decidedly modest. And there were lots of bums too. How often do people beg you for money walking around NZ?
Islander
You're world class. Surely you've got another novel in you to fund retirement? Race you.
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And no matter how much I tell them to sell their house and live off the money and _enjoy_ their retirement, they won't, so I am thankful for that, too.
I stopped telling mine that at least 10 years ago. I realized that they're extremely comfortable and happy with their lives because they both do work they find fulfilling (lecturing and working with special needs kids). Also they love their house, it's where we all grew up and they were happy times, happy memories. Also, I'm actually not an investment adviser and realized that it's not something you should do without qualification.
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Warcraft seems to be an ideal example. ;)
No dude, in WoW you pay with your life.
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I've never understood being ashamed of being middle class. I guess my working class Dad trained me out of that by pointing out that he'd actually worked hard to get us into that state, and we'd bloody better well enjoy it. I always have, it's the class in which class doesn't matter. It's the easy class, where the work you do is usually something you're good at, and the people you deal with probably aren't just out to exploit you or suck up to you.
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but having to convince ministry officials that a child is particularly "special" should not have to be one of them.
What if they are special? Who else should they be convincing?
It's rather unfortunate that homeschooling is the only alternative to mainstreaming in NZ, but there are kids who can't function at school. I'm not being idealistic here, I'm being realistic. Some behavior is too antisocial for regular teachers to be expected to deal with. It's bad enough to deal with a 7 year old who bites kids fingers off, but when they're past puberty and capable of childish tantrums with adult bodies then it's a very real option to remove them from school.
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Labour's path back to power is to pull National to pieces, and work really hard at well thought out and researched coherent policy. They need to turn into research machines, pulling apart everything that is seen as a strength of National's and really hammering it. They do seriously need credible economists going straight for the jugular of every utterance that National makes on the subject. They need to come across as really hard workers. The less it becomes about sweeping ideologies, and the more about specific goals and failures of National, the better their chances.This is how they were ousted themselves.
They don't need to change what they stand for. I don't even think they need to rebrand substantially. They may need to lose Goff, though. Not that I know who else it should be, but to me he will always be the last of an old, old guard, a hangover from the Lange Govt.
I doubt it's going to win them the next election, though. A government in NZ has to really fuck up to only get one term, and National have been doing this for too long to make that kind of mistake.
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Yup, I've got no problem that people have to convince the Ministry about a genuine need to keep kids away from school.
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Something that worries me about home-schooling is, what happens if you grow up without having to deal with lots of other kids all the time? Kids can be generous, they can also be brutal, and I think learning to deal with all kinds is one of the biggest things we learn in school.
Don't forget that a fair bit of home schooling is for kids who have already found themselves unable to deal with the situations found in schools, and their behavior may have spiraled into highly dysfunctional habits. I can see your point when it's simply an elective, a judgment by parents that the academic teaching isn't good enough or something, or there's not enough religion being taught. But there's lot of pretty valid reasons for home schooling too.
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Q: How do you spot an extroverted [stereotypical profession/social group]?
A: They stare at _your_ shoes when talking to you.
When people do this, I tend to check my shoes - I have more than once inadvertently worn mismatched pairs in professional situations.
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