Knacker Row Can

Skype Contact List

2009-01-04T02:35:00.000-08:00

1. I've talked to you once, i think it was about tsunamis...

2. I think you're cool, phase-al but i think the person you'll end up being will be cool. maybe.

3. you have nothing to do with youtube and you're a IRL friend :D

4. talented. but it doesn't endear me to you.

5. If I were to rank my skype list of course you would be number one. you're amazingness x infinity.

6. you're hilarious, and you've changed my perception of Australians. and talented.

7. MAKE A VIDEO. you're humour is almost unmatched.

8. you make fridays better.

9. i'm sure you make Hamilton a better place even though you seem like an Auckland person. you're pretty cool for your age.

10. epic llama chat person. haven't talked to you since.

11. you're pretty cool. and i love how your hair matches your wallpaper!!

12. even though you don't speak spanish i always want to speak spanish to you.

13. i actually have no idea who you are [deletes off skype]

14. one of the first nzyters i met. you're aight. you've got an amazingly hilarious friend!

15. i think you think you're better than you actually are.

16. i can't remember if you are who you are or not. have i ever talked to you?

17. eww creepy old man :|

18. you remind me that the youth isn't as vapid as i think it is :D

19. i disagree with your points of view but i don't hate you for it, i think we have very little in common because of it though.

20. hahahaha. The Great Wise Onga.

21. I know you have personality i just have difficulty seeing it. nevertheless you will succeed.

22. i did like you. but you have little substance.

23. YAY! you make me so happy. and not in a creepy way. in a yay way.

24. spoken one word to you. i think the hype around you is a little to ego-inducing.

25. you are cool and remind me of west auckland in a good way. i really want to play playstation now.

26. pretty cool. but pretty complainy as well. kind of like me i must admit.

28. i don't like you. i think i would actually ignore you IRL. chance of us meeting is pretty slim.

29. IRL friend. yay for you and your one month boyfriend.

30. SO FUNNY!! you're that hilarious friend.

31. i always think about how we would be really good friends if we met in real life. i always enjoy our conversations. you are one seriously cool guy.

32. my likeness of you is like a wave diagram goes up and down, up and down.

33. you remind me of E.T. for no reason whatsoever but you are so coool.

34. you are so amazing! i love our conversations. you can think, you can reason, you can listen. you're like a superskypehero. working too much now means you can have fun later :D

35. meh.

36. you're blah.

37. you're cool and i don't know you very well.

38. you're more blah and don't value silence. stop talking!!! PLEASE.

39. i think you're a friend of Lauren's maybe?

40. we should talk more! you're another person who can think really well.

41. you're really cool. although i think you might think i don't like you. if you think that, then don't.

42. pretty cool. pretty busy.

43. don't know you. don't really want to either. not really a reason why.

44. my dad.

45. you speak English like Clay Aitken.

46. you can Test my Call anyday.

47. i think you're pretty cool. you seem generous which is great.

48. when i first met you i thought you were so cool and your accent was yay. i still think that.

49. friend of someone on this list. haven't really ever talked to you. radio voice :D

Muffins

2008-11-28T23:01:00.000-08:00

Mum bought a recipe book of 500 cupcakes and muffins the other day and one recipe had 'perfect with Earl Grey' as its subtitle. i actually spazzed out loud and my family were wondering why i was laughing. we're not a earl grey family. we're a dilmah ceylon family. i have a cup with me at the moment which is about to slip into the cool-enough-to-drink-but-still-hot mode any second.

anyway, what i wanted to mention about the muffins was that there is a collection of 500 in this book and mum has cooked six batches since she got it [much to my delight]. except she has only made three different types. it makes no sense to me to have 500 possibilities [including chocolate fudge brownie cupcake] to make zucchini and feta muffins, spanish orange syrup muffins and blueberry muffins twice each. all are nice but i want variety.

Variety is the spice of life. [apple and cinnamon muffins!]

Tired

2008-11-19T04:43:00.000-08:00

i want 2 sleep. butt i feel i shud right sumthing b4 i sleep.

THE ABOVE SENTENCE PAINED ME SO MUCH TO WRITE. but every day i face my fears.

and i move on. kind of like an art critic at a showing they're too pretentious for.

my eyes are closing myself.

today I am grateful for Mavis Beacon who taught me the ability of typing with my eyes closed. it's always good to be able to do things with your eyes closed. driving is an exception, eating cornflakes without milk not so much.

Apocalypse Now

2008-11-12T23:37:00.000-08:00

I'm currently analysing quite an intriguing short essay by Edward O. Wilson [the best authors initial their middle name; Raymond E. Feist. JK Rowling. Stephanie Meye... oh that's right, she doesn't].

If you want to read it [i believe it's worth it] have a look at http://www.christiansforthemountains.org/Articles/EOWILSON_Letter.pdf. It is by no means long and hopefully will maintain your attention.

It's framed as a letter and is really persuasive. but it's persuasive on kind of a nil issue. I mean, there is general agreement that it's important to protect the environment but he seems to just be pointing out the fact that cooperation is key. it almost seems like what he has to say could be said in two sentences. he establishes good points, but I'm left thinking that they are too persuasive for what he's asking. like pointing out to someone that they have an alfalfa when if they could see it themselves they would fix it. it seems unusual for a person to establish really strong reasons for someone to do something when it's already likely to be done anyway. perhaps Wilson is overcoming an attitude of stubborness. Or maybe he's just trying to be really clear.

In any case I just wanted to suggest you read it. It is enjoyable.

M to the M to the P

2008-11-09T01:20:00.001-08:00

MMP has its benefits and its flaws. here is my opinion.

i prefer MMP over FPP obviously by far. we need minority representation in a country like New Zealand.

I loathe that the people of Epsom can elect Rodney Hide and they effectively also elect five MPS, to me this is a failure of the system. you should not be able to subvert the threshold by winning an electorate seat.

The threshold is important though. if not we'd have a parliament that was too diverse. we'd possibly have one family first MP, one aotearoa legalise cannabis, Bill from B&B party, etc, etc. so i believe in the threshold because governments need to be able to do things. i think it is clear that discussion and consultation are extremely important for any representative democracy but this threshold prevents the prescence of what are effectively independent MPs.

however, the MMP system has a failing that is rectified by the single transferable vote system. my understanding of this is that the person who comes second in an electorate seat has the potential to get into parliament.

i think with STV, women (who are severely underrepresented in parliament) would get in proportionally. furthermore minorities would still be represented because they may be people's second choices etc. say the bill and ben party is everybody's second choice. they'd get in. they don't under MMP.

i don't really know much about STV. but from what i do know it fixes some of the failings of MMP like underrepresentation of women and closed party lists.

therefore, i support a referendum on MMP not to remove it but at the very least to alter it to stop ACT from getting into parliament based on rodney's pulling power in Epsom. to ignore the failings of MMP would be to say 'this burnt chocolate cake is nicer than that smelly fish pie (FPP) over there. i do not want to have the possibility to potentially get a chocolate cake that isn't burnt.'

thank you.

things i like

2008-11-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

i like kettles. [as in the chip, not the thing that boils hot water] They're so salty and yum. salt is good. too much salt is bad. salt water is not nice, neither are alligators.

This is the kind of mood i'm in. I'm talking to Ryan on Skype, listening to basshunter [of all things] and still feeling frustrated at not studying.

i voted today. people said on twitter that it was anticlimatic. they were right. it's kind of like... yay you voted. they should have some kind of costumed man that periodically gives out prizes. that would have been great. really change the voting process so it appeals to everyone. people are more likely to vote if they'll get prizes. one of the reasons why little children do the dishes if they'll get chocolate afterwards. i've never thought food bribes were a good idea.

funny how i assumed the costumed person was a man. politics still has this aura of 'masculine' about it, which has more to do with historical power relations than anything else. however, woman are still the largest underrepresented group in politics as well as senior management positions [feminism is a win topic to write about in exams].

political participation is what i'm studying today. which is really ironic because i politically participated today. and i'm reading about who doesn't vote and why and i kind of fall into two of the three categories of people who aren't likely to vote and i still did. yay.. exceptions to the rule are pretty cool.

it's weird that i'm using this blog to brain dump. i try not to reread what i write but i tend to. of course, my grammar won't be perfect. shock. horror. no. visual and audio combined.

i should go and help mum prepare dinner.

adios

un ano despues

2008-11-07T04:10:00.000-08:00

So i just reread what i wrote last year in December [fuck i must have had a fascinating christmas if i was blogging on boxing day...] and it just reminded how much enjoyment i got from writing my thoughts down not only last year [for that research project] but also when i had a xanga account. i've finished that research project i wrote about and it really got me thinking about my actions and stuff and what i do etc. in terms of my academic and university life but there is so much more to my life than that?

i'm supposed to be studying for exams at the moment but i procrastinate like nothing on earth. tomorrow my excuse is that i will be voting. i don't particularly feeling like announcing who i'm voting for though you can ask me if you really want to know. new zealand politics is really blah i really loathe parties who engage in negative politics. i would vote for the greens but they would have to make some small yet significant changes to their party to gain my vote. thus i'm voting for pretty much the only other party that hasn't engaged in negative politics.

political parties which engage in positive politics are particularly pragmatic. fuck alliteration reminds me of year 7.

i'm in a swearing mood these past couple of weeks. i think i use these words to express my frustration at not being able to study. and also, i must admit, my frustration at other things in my life; some of which make my mind go sore and i try to tackle them but it's almost.. easier to ignore them? that's not so great though. i suppose i'll deal with them after exams? procrastination really is an art form. although so is prevarication.

i've taken to vlogging on and off [ish] in the latter half of 2008. why? well, i'm not sure. i do enjoy the positive aspects of the community. however, i tend to appreciate that worth more for other people than myself? i've always enjoyed meeting new people except i'm not very good at it. i really like skype. i think the two work well together; youtube and skype. however skype is quite instantaneous which has its positives and negatives. it's generally regarded that some things are best left unsaid. if you're writing an email you can delete sections of it when you're reading it [the same occurs with editing videos] but on skype you can't suck words back into your mouth after they've been spoken. i write this more to remind myself than to suggest it as advice for anybody else.

[as an aside, sometimes i end my sentences in question marks which is not because they're actually questions (rhetorical or otherwise) but it's because i am suggesting a point i don't fully agree with. it doesn't make sense and it's an abhorrent use of english formatting but i shall continue using it because it sounds funny when reading to frame things as questions when really they're not?]

you know, when we were younger it wasn't the norm to ring up friends and have multi-phone conversations like is possible with skype. it's curious the way these mediums of communication become a major part of interaction. i think i'd be more sane if they weren't so major for me? i don't really think of them as major though; yet, my most visited sites are twitter, youtube and facebook in that order. they're all about communication. you know, an anagram of 'communicate' is 'account mime' which might be revealing. perhaps 'a commune tic' is more so.

not that i read into those things. that's a bit halal wife?

now, one of my courses this year was english and we spent some time looking at poetry. poetry annoys me in many respects because it is up for interpretation based on a myriad of factors and sometimes it just isn't good. it's awful. but it's actually profound at the same time. therefore, it's one of those curious things where you can have two opposing views and still both be correct. kind of like opinions on politicians. how else could john key be visionary and untrustworthy?

in that view, here is some poetry that 'reflects' what i'm about at the moment. i promise you it will not be good.

whenever

wherev.. fuck Shakira.

what makes it tick

that which a bomb can drop

it doesn't make sense

a bomb can drop?

but not in the literal sense

Sarah Palin drives in taxis

allusions should make sense

bombs don't make sense

therefore Sarah Palin doesn't make sense.

Socrates just shuddered

bombs make people shudder?

but not in the literal sense

see, i wasn't actually talking about bombs but you might think i was. that was actually about my life. woah, profound. go be bohemian.

was reading this procrastination?

a blog

2007-12-26T02:00:00.000-08:00

I've had a blog before... xanga, ages ago and recently I've been reading other people's blogs and it seemed like a good idea. I'm a guinea pig for a transitions research project thing at the university and for that I have to talk about my feelings/thoughts/experiences/etc. so i thought i might as well have a blog. why? well.. why not? we live in an internet world after all.

My sister just had a baby, i was going to say 'my sister just had a niece' which shows how i think about her baby. Yeah, on Boxing Day so that's exciting. Stressful but exciting. I live down the other end of the house to her so it's less stressful and less all-hours-getting-woken-up for me which is good because sleeping is great. I'm moving out next year in february so the impact of a baby in the house will only happen for two months, then i'm free from any stress that may cause and ready for all the new stresses that come with living away from home and in the city. the 'big city', that is if anything can be called 'big' in New Zealand. Yes, I live in New Zealand, the most isolated western country in the world according to elpais.com. "Wow, that was subtle he just alluded to his ability to speak spanish!" yes, i can speak spanish, not fluently but decently enough to read elpais.com. It's difficult to describe how well i can speak spanish, i mean, if you knew the nz education system it would be easy but in general terms I have finished a high school education in spanish. I can speak spanish in 'familiar situations' although what is familiar for me is just what i've studied in class. I have been to spain once though but that was pretty much just "donde esta McDonalds?" I didn't know much spanish when i went in 2004.

"I didn't know 'much' spanish". I'm kind of picky when it comes to grammar, i should have said "I didn't know a lot of spanish" because it flows more easily. I got told the other day that I argue in semantics [definitions of words etc.] which I probably do. Definitions to me are really important because they can mean different things to different people in different perspectives. For example, the word 'agnostic' to me means undecided about religion/God/beliefs but to others 'agnostic' encompasses my definition as well as 'religion does not play a part in the person's life' which i identify as 'no religion'. I wonder if arguing in semantics is just a way to specify an argument to my advantage because i know a lot about words. That could be true.

Anyway, I used 'agnostic' as an example because i got asked if i was religious, agnostic or atheist the other day. To me, this is a semantic argument. Yes, it does hinge on belief of course but i was given three choices. I choose to identify with none of those. I identify myself as 'no religion' because religion or religious beliefs play no part in my personal life. It certainly plays a part in my life generally, my sister as well as a lot of my friends are religious but for me it has never been a decision I want to make. The reason I do not identify with 'agnostic' is because i see that as being synonomous with 'undecided' [whether or not this is true, for me socially it is true] and i am not undecided about my religious status. I am fully behind my 'no religion'ness. Another person I was talking to identified this as atheist. Atheism is a disbelief in religion and God. I feel i neither believe nor disbelieve so i am not atheist. If you were to ask me specifics like "Do you believe God is the Creator" I would say "not of 'Man', because I believe evolution is fact". Whether this makes me an atheist or not is up for debate, as most faith based issues are. I choose 'no religion' because I feel that for all the good that religion does, sense of belonging community etc., It also creates a lot of division and conflict, not only in New Zealand but also globally. I also do not like the idea that people feel that because they know and understand a 'higher power' they are therefore morally, or otherwise, superior to another human being, who has not 'found the light' so to speak. This idea of elitist [for what else is it?] division is not right in my mind. Now, this is probably true of a very small proportion of religious people, but it does occur. It may seem a silly reason to not like religion but it is very important to me. However, I do not like to place myself as 'atheist' but rather 'no religion' for I would prefer that religion did not play a part in my life, or possibly negatively influence another life. To be honest, I really like religion. I like the fact that it is a massive positive for so many people. I'm all for positives, but it is the negatives that make me lose my faith in a sense of institutional religion. The institution and the sense of 'us' and 'them' is what I find some degree of fault in.

Identifying my belief, or lack thereof, as 'no religion' is the same way people identify their ethnicity on the census. I think it is important that you can be whatever you want to be. For example, in New Zealand we have NZ European, Pakeha, New Zealander, NZ Maori and of course all the other ethnic groupings. The first three i gave as an example are kind of the same thing. In fact, I identify with all four of those groupings but probably most with 'Pakeha', for i have some Maori blood, but am essentially a white New Zealander. Again with self-identification it all just depends on what the individual feels. If they feel they are a Jedi then so be it. Who is justified in correcting their belief? They may not be a Jedi in the Star Wars way, but they are still allowed their opinion. We do have some people who identify themselves as "Jedi" in New Zealand.

I wonder how this blog will turn out. I seem to have a lot of free time and as that research project tells me, my life is changing, so maybe this will be a way to document it.

Happy Holidays!