Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: The CRL and the nature of change, in reply to Russell Brown,
I think it is starting to dawn around here that there aren’t many levers left to pull.
It's a prison that the political right choose to live inside. There are endless levers, but they make arbitrary rules not to pull them. Having no levers left is the endgame for the minimal government ideology, which makes it self defeating, because they become weaker the stronger they get.
That's the ideological battle anyway. When it comes down to actual humans implementing any of it, I don't think either of the two main parties is that ideological. As Key shows practically every day with his newest and latest backpedal. Listening to him talking policy is like listening to people explaining the movements of the stockmarket, with a brand new story every day. Often within a day.
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Access: Treatment for itching and shyness, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Dog hair on clothing, a chair on which a cat recently sat, grass on a windy day or dust anywhere, are all problematic for me. Then there is nothing sharp enough to relieve the burning itch. Or enough pressure from fists rubbing eyes.
Yup, scratching and rubbing never help. But it’s maddening that they feel like they do, temporarily. We’re primates, with a natural instinct to scratch at itches because that’s how we deal with insects.
Phenergan worked to get me sleeping, but the waking was so horrible it was worse than the condition. Groggy and irritable for hours. It was like being hungover every morning. I can’t claim to have this one licked – insomnia is another condition in itself and “sleep hygiene” may have a lot to do with it. But I’ve been sleeping a lot better since I started exercising every day (for about a year now).
ETA: I slept a lot better in Melbourne recently. I'm wondering if I'm not just allergic to Auckland.
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Access: Treatment for itching and shyness, in reply to Sacha,
It's a strange disability. It is debilitating, but not in ways that people see. How do you measure a condition that degrades your ability to concentrate and sleep? That sounds like a mental health condition. Which is not to say that it doesn't affect mental health - I think most physical health problems do. But I found the chemical cures worse than the condition - phenergan helped me sleep definitely, but the waking was horrible, hours of grogginess. I don't really want to try mood altering systemic treatments.
I can say two other things that have helped. I don't use soap of any kind, except when washing hands. There just doesn't seem to be any point. Most soiling is water soluble. What isn't is typically oily, and soap cuts through that - along with any skin oil I have in there. I'd rather just leave the oilyness on, frankly. With some exceptions, of course - I'm not going to leave grease on my skin, or stinky fish oil. But those typically go on my hands, and I'll get them off with soap or alcohol, and then if necessary, remoisturize.
The other is physical exercise. I'd say this goes for most people, not just me. It seems to improve mental wellbeing a lot. Of course I have to do exercise that's appropriate for my condition and there are many disabilities that are much more limiting on that front. For me, swimming in warm chlorinated water is not good.
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Aye, it's a curse all right. Mine's so bad I am treated via the hospital system, and have been on strong immunosuppressants over the years.
It's a problematic condition because it has multiple causes and treatments, all used overlappingly. I've had a particularly severe flare in the last week due (I think) to the Auckland climate and pollen situation, by contrast to hot, dry Melbourne where I was the week before. I look like I've been badly sunburned. Even at the best of times, I look red.
It's quite life-affecting. I have to moisturize frequently, or with very sticky moisturizer (I prefer this, because it just works better). I pretty much coat myself with ointment on a daily basis, and before and after any swim (which is a bloody pain in summer when I might be swimming several times a day). I have to take pills daily, and get blood tests monthly to monitor their risk of giving me cancer. The long term degeneration to my skin from topical steroids is the worst part, though - I now have skin that tears easily. That affects a lot of activities. No more martial arts - I would end up bleeding everywhere from minor cuts caused by fingernails when breaking holds. Gardening has to be done with care - everything that can scratch will, and ungloved hands will get infected. I've had cellulitis from infected eczema several times. Also, the skin being thin means that I flush red like a beetroot when exercising, even when not particularly puffed at all.
The itching can, at times, be maddening. Antihistamines do help, as does moisturization, and good temperature control. But even with all of that, when 20% of your skin surface is inflamed, it's pretty hard to just shrug it off. It can trigger other problems big time. The worst is sleeplessness, which cascades to other health problems, including more eczema in a feedback loop. But susceptibility to infection is quite serious too.
And of course, it's embarrassingly unsightly. Can only really shrug that one off - it's like being fat - everyone is going to have an opinion on it. And of course I have to field questions from many well meaning people about every herbal remedy and treatment imaginable, as if in 45 years I haven't tried almost all of them, and got hundreds of hours of professional advice from hospital and private specialists who do actually grasp the underlying science as well as can be for such a difficult issue. I had one of the doctors at Greenlane recently tell me I was the most knowledgeable person about eczema he had ever met outside of the actual profession. But that isn't going to stop people telling me to put honey on it, or to ask if I've ever considered not scratching, or to try meditation. Usually, when these questions begin, I'm already meditating, twice as hard - once to control the itch and another time to control the urge to be rude and seek the path of quickest termination of the discussion.
I'm not bitter on these people. I expect it. It's a normal human thing to want to tell people about your tiny corner of knowledge of a massive field, if only to show that you sympathize. Share your personal anecdote about an inch round patch of eczema you once completely treated with over-the-counter steroids and the amazing willpower not to scratch that one itch. I get it, because I have to get it because it happens constantly. I find the fastest way to curtail the discussion is to just nerd out on it. Explain quickly the outline of my travails. Bore them with detail. Then quickly turn it back to being about them in some other direction.
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I'm in Melbourne visiting in-laws, and occasionally old mates when I can escape the remote vortex that is Frankston. I've already done 600 km just commuting to the city.
Love this town, though. Quite a different vibe to Auckland. Plenty of quaxing going on here, but.
Merry Christmas PAS. Be safe.
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Cheers Russell. Take a break, looking forward your print work.
In Melbourne atm. Hot. Damn hot! Hot and dry, which great if you're at the beach and no good if you're downwind from a bush fire.
Check out the red sky. That's in the North, not toward the setting sun, which is the pale part. You're seeing smoke there...
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Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to Russell Brown,
I almost have to admire that candour
Yes, your summary probably describes how most Herald writers feel about their work. Being a bit shit probably does seem to them to be the Kiwi way.
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Yeah I don't think negative attitudes to poverty are new. What's new is the amount of poverty around to have a negative attitude to. "New" as in it wasn't like this when I was a kid, anyway - it's not like I can remember the Great Depression or anything. And even in that golden haze of my youth, of course there were seriously impoverished people here. But it feels different now, like it's become more of an actual class than a temporary state that unfortunate people live through. It's a strange time to be impoverished, a time when a smartphone is cheaper than food, when all the entertainment in the world is nearly free, but basics like a roof over the head are stretching even the lower middle classes.
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to FletcherB,
they simply were not aware or did not recall passing a cyclist half a km earlier, or recognise they may have done something scary for another road-user
The majority of my brushes have seemed this way. Simple failure to recognize danger. It's something that is hard to clearly acknowledge about driving, because it doesn't fit into a framework of official rules, that there are a lot of unwritten rules and norms of the road, which actually make it function. One of those is that the way a vehicle behaves is certainly noticed by drivers in a rather impersonal way - drivers are attuned to the intentions of other drivers, so even quite subtle road movements signal a lot. One of those subtle moves is "shrinking to the kerb". If someone looks like they're doing it, cars are instantly assessing how to get around what is likely to become an obstacle to them. If that obstacle makes them actually stop, particularly on that actual road (this happens to me all the time), then they can have quite a difficult job getting started again, so they will often instantaneously seek to overtake before their opportunity to do so is lost. If the vehicle is a bike, they could do this by not even fully going into the other lane.
So I ride at all times like I am actually a vehicle, and I signal with road language every bit as much (in fact probably more) with that than with the official signals. I mean let's face it, a hand signal on a bike is actually a dangerous maneuver in its own right since it alters your balance.
Taking the lane, on the other hand, is an unequivocal signal of your right to do something as a vehicle. I think that so long as you do it for a good reason (like safety), then drivers respect it. I don't do it to frustrate them, I do it to help them.
I've found that standing up on the pedals is a very good signal to drivers. It makes you look bigger, which is eye catching. I often do it if I think a driver hasn't seen me. Until they do actually look at me, I presume they haven't seen me. They may think they've seen something - many people think their peripheral vision is much more acute than it actually is, but have mistaken what it is - I could be actually registering as a pedestrian.
Peripheral vision is really quite a strange thing. An optical illusion tells us that it's much like the rest of our vision - we actually see it that way. When you look at a person, then look away, you still see a person there out of the corner of your eye. But it's actually the brain filling in the gaps. What the senses are registering is not necessarily that at all. So it can fill in a pedestrian if that is what the brain thought it saw. What the actual senses are attuned to is light differences and unexpected movement. Far enough out from straight ahead it's literally color blind. Not in a "can't tell red from green" way, but more a "can't tell any color at all" way. I can't personally even tell shapes much outside of about 45 degrees. Maybe size, although I'm not sure because there's no convergence or even focus to give us those cues.
But it certainly can and does see a fast moving object rising up suddenly. I expect we have a strong survival mechanism tied to noticing predator movements. It will catch the eye involuntarily. That's enough - the brain will now fill in a cyclist when they look away.
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to izogi,
So long as they see you, and don't really know what to make of it, that seems safer than just letting them presume that you're turning left because that would be more convenient for them.
I have once signaled - I just did the standard arm out for right turn. It doesn't really matter that it's technically not a right turn, but going straight. Point is, they know you're going to get in their way, rather than slink to the kerb where you can be safely bullied around the corner.
But I truly don't get much aggro from motorists. I don't know why. Perhaps I just look enough like a scary nutty bogan that I'm not worth the trouble. Or perhaps that makes me look just like them, a brother in arms.
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