Linky Love - Volume 21

Standard intro - Linky Love is basically a cobbling together of posts I've noticed around the traps that have set off little tiny sparkles inside my head, and which I would possibly write about or comment on if I didn't need to sleep, eat, work, that kind of stuff. I usually put Linky Love volumes up weekly. I hope you like it.

As always if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight, please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Anarchia - A lack of language, an abundance of masks - Asher writes about mental illness and the difficulty of communicating about it with friends to get the support he needs.

Auckland's Burning - Photos from tent embassy - John has pics of the protest aimed at visiting Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, underway in Auckland.

Born on State Highway One - Chomsky Lite, with a Scottish accent - Ryan looks at the background to George Galloway's visit to our little nation, and comments on the Voices of Peace forum Galloway spoke at recently.

Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty - Stand Down Margaret - Maia writes eloquently about how Margaret Thatcher still influences her nightmares, and the negative effect she had on hundreds of thousands of lives.

Contradiction - Actions and moral concepts - George reflects on how politicians seem to make their moral decisions.

eggs benedict and two flat whites - Reasons why it's good to live in NZ - Sandy asks for your top five reasons.

Feministe - The Disney Princess Industrial Complex is coming for your soul! - Vanessa writes about the heavy gendering of children's toys, from the perspective of a mother with a toddler-age daughter.

The House of Ghetsuhm - In ur internet, bringing u weird shit - Ghet has a truly absurd picture that I heart.

LAANTA - More and Better Aid - Terence provides his speech notes from a debate on whether the 0.7% Overseas Development Aid target will actually help.

The Legal Soapbox - Portrayal of the accused and the law - Legal Eagle writes about newspaper sketches of defendants and how they might influence public opinion of the merits of their case, against the background of the Haneef case in Australia.

Roger Nome's Progressive Politics - RN has a series of posts on why NZ needs its unions back, 1, 2 and 3.

Women's Space/The Margins - What Have You Done For a Girl, a Woman, a Female Person? - Heart asks her readers to share their stories of what they have done, as radical feminists, for other women. Comment thread at 52 and counting.

Previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 20) can be found over here.

(Pic Via)

What might have been...

Will Gore run again? The below suggests not. However it does also tend to suggest that two of the barriers he faced last time (being wooden and humourless) are now things of the past...

If Al Gore was president - SNL
Uploaded by Uberlinkert

Hat tip: Sethop's Interesting Times

Crack papering continues - Link Farm!

Any spare online time I have at the moment is dedicated to

• a) clearing the spam backlog on my Xtra account (gee I love their spam filter - after only 4 days away for work I had 12MB of spam waiting for me); and,
• b) afixing labels to the over 600 posts on this blog.

Hence some further papering of cracks, this time not with my own posts but by pointing out those of others. Below is a list of posts I'd like to have time to read properly and reply to. If wishes were posts I'd have written at least ten this last week.

Maia's post about Privilege Lists - so glad to know I'm not the only person who has been stuck in a conversation where "of course even being able to talk about this is privilege" has been uttered at some point. Also on Capitalism Bad, Maia's thought-provoking post on abortion looking at different views other the dialectic of pro-life vs pro-choice.

The ultimate post of Che Tibby. It seems like only yesterday I was wrongly assuming his membership of the XX club. Sigh.

Idiot/Savant's article about the role of blogs in political debate, and the resulting, very interesting, comment section.

A post I haven't fully skimmed yet about consent and rape and the justice system, by Ampersand over on Alas.

And of course, how could I avoid mentioning that I am mercifully on the short list of people Johnny the Red intends to refrain from killing. Assumedly that doesn't rule out accidents however.

I hope to return to more regular blogging in the next week or so, as work becomes more manageable and encroaches less on my spare time.

Newsflash - Irwin death denial!

Oh dear, let the spoofs begin.

Hattip: The Man With No Lap (off-blog)

The conversation you have when you are not talking about something

The Man With No Lap, my rather frequent correspondent in Wellington, has pointed out to me the following quote from this Stuff article on the Field debacle:

Miss Clark said she had not talked to the Labour party president Mike Williams about Mr Field and his Labour party membership.

The Man With No Lap claims he has some magic beans that may be of interest to anyone who believes that.

However I disagree. I believe our Prime Minister. I'm sure it went much more like this:

Scene: Dark yet smoke-free room in the deepest recesses of Fraser House. Curtains pulled tight against prying eyes, a picture of Michael Joseph Savage in working class wooden frame presides over an oval table at which sit the Prime Minister and the Labour Party President, and no doubt sundry other
minions...

Clark: (Voice of steel-type tone) I'm sure I don't need to talk to you about Phillip and his Labour Party membership.

Meaningful look from Clark to Williams, possibly involving the raising of one eyebrow.

Williams: (Jovial yet slightly chilled) I'm sure you don't either.

Clark: (Grimly pleased) Right then, let's move on. What's the current level of preparedness within the Party for a by-election?

Hair-raising (boom boom)

Ok this is weird.

Nick Kelly is selling his hair on Trademe. I kid you not.

I assume this is some strange bid to get into Sideswipe?

Update, same day, 2.54pm: It occured to me that some readers may not know who Mr Kelly is. He's the current VUWSA president and used to have a blog some time back. He was a frequent commenter, of the rather abusive left variety, but seems to have stopped bothering.

A Little Less Conversation?

What message were the National Party leadership trying to send on the weekend by using the Elvis song A Little Less Conversation (remixed for the yoof vote of course) as backing music?

It's a song about wanting more sex in a relationship.

Who exactly needs to give National "a little more action"? It's members? It's MPs? Or just the voters?

(More regular bloggage will return soon, very busy week at work.)

An ode (of sorts) to my travelling pants

Span's travelling pants

March 2006-July 2006

Yes, you were my grey buddy
Through the bleak St Petersburg "thaw",
And the biting spring of Gallipoli.

On planes, trains, ferries and buses
All over Europe
And beyond.

You were all I had to wear
To conform with Dubai's dictates.
You guarded me from
Disapproval.

You were tucked up in bed,
That Venetian night when
I thought I was going to die.

But you protected my legs
As I nearly broke my neck
During the Scottish day.

I had to push you away
In the Greek hospital;
You were too much to bear
Then.

But didn't we run
And frollick
Through the wet highlands.

You had inexplicable lavendar marks
Along your seams
And oh how we laughed.

You weren't always the best of friends
With the chafing,
And the falling down.

But on the whole
You did the job;
You kept me clean(ish),
You kept me warm(ish),
And above all

You kept me clothed.



No flowers please, by request.

Jesus: the Gloria Gaynor fan

Stumbled across this today on YouTube, my first foray into the video site.

Hopefully this works...

bye bye birdie

Yes this blog is still in hibernation. Consider this a slight thaw. Full defrosting is anticipated in July along with a bit of a remodel.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Acropolis. Old time readers will possibly remember that I am travelling overseas currently, on a mini OE. Apathy Jack has been demanding "hilarious misunderstandings" and until a few days ago I could only repeat a story from my trip to Vietnam in 2005, involving a man in a suit not being able to understand why my partner and I wanted half an hour of a massage each.

But I think this tops that. Put simply - beware Greeks bearing facemasks.

We caught the ferry from Ayvalik, in Turkey, to Mytilini, which is the main port on the Greek island of Lesvos. We were all greeted by a man in a bio-security suit, and had to drag our feet and our bags across a sudsy mat before going through customs. Then they rifled through our bags but only cared about shoes, which they took off and washed. So far so good, still not as rigorous as coming home to NZ these days.

But then they noticed that I was sick - runny nose, slight cough, general miserable appearance. Quite clearly I was the unwilling victim of a vicious cold.

The man in the bio-security suit took note and was quite excitedly alarmed. He rushed off and got me a facemask then insisted that my companion and I sit and wait for a doctor. Something about bird flu and not infecting seven year old Greek girls.

So we waited. And waited and waited and... you get the drift. It was cold, in the breeze from the door, which wasn't making me feel any better, and I was quite keen for a toilet stop. Eventually I asked where one was, getting further in English than in Greek. It was an example in irony - the toilet was filthy, there was no toilet paper, no soap and no way to dry your hands. Meantime I was effectively in quarantine because my cold made them think I just might have avian influenza. They gave me brochures about washing my hands carefully whenever using the bathroom. Such is life.

Eventually a doctor turned up, with an ambulance. I`d never been in an ambulance before. I didn`t really expect my first time to be for a cold. It was a nice ambulance but you couldn`t see much out the windows and the flashing lights were distracting.

On arrival at the hospital we were greeted by a wheelchair and more doctors in bio-suits. There`s something very disturbing about being dealt with by medical professionals who not only talk rapidly to each other in gobbledeegook (I now know where the phrase "it`s all Greek to me" comes from) but are also encased in so much protective clothing, protecting them from you, that you can only see their eyes. Even their shoes were wrapped in the foot equivalents of scrubs.

In the end we established that I had some kind of infection because I had quite a high fever, but the seven-year old Greek girls would be safe from bird flu; at least until the next boat arrived from Turkey. I got to stay overnight in their nice clean hospital, but then I didn`t have much choice, with a drip to rehydrate me and fill me to the brim with augmentin effectively chaining me to the bed.

So that`s the story of my 24 hours of detainment in a Greek hospital.

Oh and their hospital food tastes like chicken too.

what to do in Auckland when you're dead

Thanks to Egan for sending this on and brightening up a somewhat befuddled afternoon in the office.

Seems someone won a funeral in a competition, as you do. Seems said someone is now selling said funeral on Trademe.

Comments section guaranteed to give you a chuckle, e.g:

If you win the auction I would be more than happy to receive a body by Fedex, if only to watch the courier struggle to carry the package up 3 flights of stairs to my apartment

and

Hi, Do you think this would be an appropriate birthday present for my mother inlaw? Im finding she is very hard to buy for!

unfortunate acronym matches #1

Found on Wikipedia - MILF in the Western sense, versus MILF in the Islamic sense...

Oh dear.

staunchie in-joke

Hat tip: Zoe at crazybrave



You can even do your own here.

baaaaaaaaaaa

Because I am a total sheep, but you knew that already.

Ten Firsts
First Best Friend: Fiona W
First Screen Name: AAA (when making the high score table on the Good Ol' spacies)
First Pet: Freckles, cat.
First Piercing: Ears, about a year ago.
First Crush: The first I can remember was Glen L until I whacked his bag to get his attention and learned the hard way that he played the clarinet. Physical pain clears the fog of inappropriate crushes I find.
First CD Bought: Jazz (Queen)
First Car: Bronze 1984 Fiat Uno, with central locking you could hear across the road and The Devil's Own Gearbox. In a brief but intense affair with a lampost, it's heart was broken.
First True Love: M
First Stuffed Animal: Probably a homemade version of Rupert Bear.
First Words: No idea (as in I have no idea, not I said "no idea")
First Game System: I had a Mario Brothers King Kong handheld back in the 1980s, does that count?

Nine Lasts
Last Alcoholic: A sip of someone else's beer from a Waiheke vineyard in September.
Last Movie Seen: Love Actually, last night.
Last CD Played: News of the World (Queen), in the car this afternoon.
Last Bubble Bath: Thursday night.
Last Time You Cried: Last night.
Last Time You Laughed: At inappropriate placard slogans at a meeting, this afternoon.
Last Time You Fell: Playing tennis, yesterday.

Eight Have You Evers:
Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Friends: Yes.
Have You Ever Been Arrested: No. But I do have a trespass order (sadly expired)
Have You Ever Been Skinny Dipping: Nope.
Have You Ever Been On TV: Yep
Have You Ever Regretted A Kiss: Yes
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Nup
Have You Ever Slept For 24 Hours Straight: No way.
Have You Ever Worn the Same Pants for 3 Weeks Straight: Has anyone??

Seven Things You're Wearing
1. Black slides
2. Blue Jeans
3. Red-purple nail polish
4. Three rings
5. Black top
6. Red shirt
7. A smile

Six Things You Did Today
1. Fell asleep while trying to read
2. Had something I shouldn't have eaten for lunch
3. Returned DVDs on time for the first time in memory
4. Worked out how to get the whiteboard to do printouts
5. Worked out how to get the whiteboard to do printouts you can actually read
6. Tried the new Bundaberg Peachee drink (yum!)

Five Favourite Things
1. Decent books
2. Marathecat, who I believe wants a puppy for Xmas
3. Dinghy sailing
4. The Game (that would be politics, not whoring, Apathy Jack)
5. Nieces N and M

Four People You Can Tell Almost Anything To
1. The Man In The Comfy Chair
2. The Irstimeister
3. Arl
4. S
(actually there's more than 4, but that'll do for now)

Three Choices
1. radio or cd: CD as long as I can skip the annoying songs
2. German chocolate cheese cake or vanilla bean cheese cake: both, together.
3. black or white: red (Official Colour of the Revolution, doncha know)

Two Things You Want to do Before You Die
1. Learn another language
2. Be a good parent

One Thing You Regret
1. Wasting too much time on the internet when I could have been watching television.

a niche in the market

Idiot/Savant has pointed out that Winston Peters is the Minister You Have When You're Not Really Having a Minister quite succintly, but I'd just like to make one little point that I deserve believes a bit more attention.

It's quite simple really. Jonathan Hunt has tottled off to his sinecure in London (and long may he stay there, I could need High Commission help someday) leaving a very obvious Ministerial gap.

What gap is that, I hear you ask, knowing, as you undoubtedly do because you, like me, are a total political geek and are thus aware that Hunt was Speaker and therefore not in Cabinet?

Three words folks. Wine. And. Cheese.

See - a vacancy has appeared. And lo that vacancy has been filled. The Market Will Provide.

unintentionally hilarious

Hat tip: Kakariki at Bloggreen

A very strange music video that I almost expected to be the product of Ricky Gervais. It's a Stormfront production that manages to actually avoid being offensive because it is so lame and unintentionally amusing. I particularly enjoyed the way the White Pride symbol slowly faded out at the end, a portent indeed - the will shall indeed triumph, but not yours Messrs Battlecry.

Would be particularly interested in some critiques from The Whig and Maria Von Trapp.

a bit of a laugh for a dreary day

Stolen this from Stuff - I *heart* Ross P Kettle's cartoons!

note to advertising bods

apologies to SPM for stealing his idea.

how not to sell me a laptop

Step 1. Don't have enough sales staff. Instruct all sales staff you do have to ignore women customers, even if they are clearly trying to examine a particular item over a space of ten minutes or more.

Step 2. Tell your staff to rebuff any and all requests for help from customers and say that they are just helping someone else but will be right back. Advise them not to come back.

Step 3. Password lock your laptops so that no one can actually try them out without help of above mentioned sales staff (which will of course be virtually impossible to get, see Steps 1 and 2).

Step 4. Make any signage relating to your goods virtually indecipherable to anyone without a degree in computers. This will make the customer totally reliant on your already unavailable sales staff for translation *evil cackle*

Step 5. If a customer manages to evade your preventative measures in regard to accessing the sales staff and the item in question, make sure that you do not have the item in stock. Encourage your sales staff to order in said item from another store, but issue a clear memo, in advance, that any requests from staff in Store A to send any items to Store B are actually to be interpreted by Store B as an instruction to sell the item to someone else as quickly as possible. To rub salt into the wound, get the staff in Store A to tell the customer that it will only be a day or two before the laptop arrives.

Step 6. When the customer has the gall to come in, because they were passing, a week after the item was supposed to arrive, and ask about it, make sure your staff are perplexed and flustered by the absence of said item. This will make the customer question their memory and only be able to persist if they have a receipt that clearly records their deposit.

Step 7. Once the customer realises that you have already sold their laptop to someone else they may give up. If they do you have won. If they do not you will have to carry out extreme measures by selling them another laptop which will turn out to be ex-service and have a key missing (preferably something like the Y key, which is relatively infrequently used and may break the spirit of the customer, causing them to give up and keep the defective laptop).

Step 8. If the customer is particularly hardy, and still wants a laptop after all this, they are a worthy adversary indeed. Give them a better laptop, for the same price, and apologise profusely. And pray that you never encounter their like again.

ok one more

because offending catholics with pictures seems to be my hobby lately.

my previous offerings in this dept:
- couldn't resist
- and another one