Thursday, October 22, 2009
$45 well wasted
Rodney Hide - the devoted Epsom MP who barely bothered to turn up during the last Parliament - is charging people $45 to hear him give a talk directly related to his own portfolio (specifically, "the future of the local government sector"). If anyone in the previous Labour-led government had tried such tomfoolery (verging on a corrupt practice), the right wing blogs and their media allies would have been frothing at the mouth for weeks.
I still recall seeing the orange-skinned, tooth-whitened little freak on Queen St, supporting the truckers' illegal driving in rebellion against user-pays.
I still recall seeing the orange-skinned, tooth-whitened little freak on Queen St, supporting the truckers' illegal driving in rebellion against user-pays.
Labels: blogging, corruption, right wing logic, rodders
Friday, January 19, 2007
Three Sunny Afternoons Don't a Summer Make
Good god not much of a summer in Auckland so far. Mostly variations on: cloudy-n-cool, cloudy-n-humid, cloudy-n-cool-n-windy. Delightful. Where are the easy news stories on how sunscreen sales are way, way down and retailers are hurting? Icecream sales must have plumetted too. I did buy one the other night, though, on account of how my bus never showed up after work and I was over an hour late getting home. I needed a pick-me-up after that.
So far this year (and it's only Jan 22) my bus fare has gone up 9%, and we've received a letter from Mercury Energy saying our bill is going up by about 4% from mid-February. Ahh, roll on a good rates increase, and then we're truly fucked. I guess petrol has come down by 2% or so. I can't help but notice my pay hasn't increased at all yet.
Have had all sorts of trouble with Blogger lately, in terms of losing decent posts before they even see the light of day. And I have lacked the wherewithall to cut and paste my text to a safe location before hitting "publish" (but not anymore). For a while I couldn't publish using Firefox, and on Explorer I could only access some stripped-down text version with a message warning "could not connect to Blogger.com".
Anyway, onwards and upwards:
1. That Governator ain't too bad, eh? In fact, he talks a fair amount of sense. Universal health insurance for example. Withdrawal from Iraq for example.
2. John Bracewell is crap and I have proof. Namely, he admits he doesn't know what's wrong with the batting. Well, John, how about the fact that your batsmen have major technical faults, including an inability to move their feet (Astle), a tendency to waft away uselessly outside off stump (Fleming), a fondness for swotting away in front of their legs (H Marshall) and so on. How about making them practice until they exhibit some ability to fix these issues? Radical, I know. Even McCullum and Vettori can barely hold a bat at the moment. Maybe it's time for a radical shakeup?
They should start by dropping Marshall. In his last 15 innings he's scored one 50 (exactly 50) and averaged 16.50.
Bring in a new opener: Vincent or Cumming.
Maybe even bring in Sinclair to keep wickets and bat 3, if McCullum can't organize an innings of more than 20.
Play Patel and Vettori together. If you can really, really only afford one spinner, consider playing Patel only.
So far this year (and it's only Jan 22) my bus fare has gone up 9%, and we've received a letter from Mercury Energy saying our bill is going up by about 4% from mid-February. Ahh, roll on a good rates increase, and then we're truly fucked. I guess petrol has come down by 2% or so. I can't help but notice my pay hasn't increased at all yet.
Have had all sorts of trouble with Blogger lately, in terms of losing decent posts before they even see the light of day. And I have lacked the wherewithall to cut and paste my text to a safe location before hitting "publish" (but not anymore). For a while I couldn't publish using Firefox, and on Explorer I could only access some stripped-down text version with a message warning "could not connect to Blogger.com".
Anyway, onwards and upwards:
1. That Governator ain't too bad, eh? In fact, he talks a fair amount of sense. Universal health insurance for example. Withdrawal from Iraq for example.
2. John Bracewell is crap and I have proof. Namely, he admits he doesn't know what's wrong with the batting. Well, John, how about the fact that your batsmen have major technical faults, including an inability to move their feet (Astle), a tendency to waft away uselessly outside off stump (Fleming), a fondness for swotting away in front of their legs (H Marshall) and so on. How about making them practice until they exhibit some ability to fix these issues? Radical, I know. Even McCullum and Vettori can barely hold a bat at the moment. Maybe it's time for a radical shakeup?
They should start by dropping Marshall. In his last 15 innings he's scored one 50 (exactly 50) and averaged 16.50.
Bring in a new opener: Vincent or Cumming.
Maybe even bring in Sinclair to keep wickets and bat 3, if McCullum can't organize an innings of more than 20.
Play Patel and Vettori together. If you can really, really only afford one spinner, consider playing Patel only.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The New Template is the Old Template
Yep, we're back to the tried-and-trusted 2004 vintage template, by popular request of blog visitors who liked the features made possible by the three column format, specifically things like "tosser of our times" and "pictures of pretty girls". I still plan to update it somehow, and at some time in the unspecified future.
Wouldn't mid having a Mohammad Yousuf (2006 test avg 99.33) or even a Ricky Ponting (2006 test avg 60.78) in the Black Caps at the moment. I don't care to mention KP Pietersen (2006 test avg 65.28) just because the Poms are so, well, goddam awful really. For the record, SP Fleming scored the most runs for NZ in test cricket in '06 (570) and had the best average (47.50). Astle, Fulton, McCullum, Oram & Cumming etc. all averaged in the 20s. Styris and Vettori were in the 30s. A certain H. Marshall averaged 13.80.
Meanwhile, looks like there could be some fun at the Australian Open tennis today. As one local Serb told the SMH:
That quote certainly caught my attention, but so did these in the NZH about the senseless increases in public transport prices (which weren't low to start with!!). There will always be an excuse for hiking the fares it seems - even when fuel prices are falling.
Wouldn't mid having a Mohammad Yousuf (2006 test avg 99.33) or even a Ricky Ponting (2006 test avg 60.78) in the Black Caps at the moment. I don't care to mention KP Pietersen (2006 test avg 65.28) just because the Poms are so, well, goddam awful really. For the record, SP Fleming scored the most runs for NZ in test cricket in '06 (570) and had the best average (47.50). Astle, Fulton, McCullum, Oram & Cumming etc. all averaged in the 20s. Styris and Vettori were in the 30s. A certain H. Marshall averaged 13.80.
Meanwhile, looks like there could be some fun at the Australian Open tennis today. As one local Serb told the SMH:
"We hate those Croat c----, we want to smash their heads in after the game," he said. "We knew they were coming, tomorrow there will be more. There'll be 200 Croats, but that doesn't matter, we'll bring shanks and stab every one of them."Quiet please. Game on!
That quote certainly caught my attention, but so did these in the NZH about the senseless increases in public transport prices (which weren't low to start with!!). There will always be an excuse for hiking the fares it seems - even when fuel prices are falling.
Well said citizenry of greater Auckland. ARTA are in danger of pricing people out of public transport, and back into their cars.Renee Hodder, Massey:
If it goes up any higher it's not going to be worth it, really. It's getting pretty expensive. It was $120 a month for me; now it's closer to $140.Paul Ryan, Newmarket:
It might get to the point where it's easier to bring my car in every day. It costs me $3.60 a day for the train and I probably wouldn't use that in gas. Plus I have free parking at work.Deepal Singh, Blockhouse Bay:
I think it's too much really. Six months ago it increased and now it has increased again so it's become quite expensive. If it gets any more expensive I might start bringing my car in.
Labels: blogging, cricket, driving, tennis
