Posts by Jeremy Andrew
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I was tucking my kids into bed this eveing with a few bedtime stories from Youtube: Tom Lehrer (Pollution, Poisoning Pigeons and the Elements), Green Jelly's 3 Little Pigs, Primus - The Devil Went Down To Georgia, They Might Be Giants (Istanbul, Dr Worm, several of their sciency ones - I liked the one about the sun), stuff like that.
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We had the same experience a few years ago while camping at Athenree - about 4 in the morning a siren goes off for minutes on end. We had no idea what was going on, or that there was a volunteer fire station a couple of hundred yards from the camp ground. All we knew is that in the quiet of night, the sound of waves on the beach is very loud, but not as loud as a siren.
Of course this was prior to all the various tsunamis and earthquakes of late, I hate to think how jumpy we would have been in David's place, not only having seen all that on the news, but having lived through it as well.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
I'm not at all hard left, just centre left, but stack some of my thoughts up against Goff's and I'm virtually right centre. Gimme someone who can say, yes, we'll nationalise the electricity system because frankly this faux free market is just a joke. Yes, we'll support 12 months parental leave because we know that spending time with your newborn is vital. Yes we'll create programs that target solo mums and their children and the 20% of children that live in poverty because the cost of gaoling them as adults is too expensive.
Sorry, I'm just ranting here... I shall stop.
Yup, stop ranting, and start running for parliament - I'd vote for that.
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Hard News: Kittens and puppies for happiness, in reply to Emma Hart,
Did someone say ponies?
"oh, the poor thing can't hear..." "Um, no, mom, I think he said..."
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
the international sign for “dude, I’ve seen sceptic tanks less full of crap than you.”
+1 Sceptic tank - is that like a think tank that's pretty sure you're full of shit?
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to 81stcolumn,
As they say, I married my wife for her looks, and boy does she give me some...
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Here in Ham-town I tend to purchase new from Pennys at Chartwell, but I'm more likely to buy second-hand from Browsers in the main street (if money was not an object, I'd take a job there, or buy the place). Whitcoulls and Paper Plus tend to be a constant source of disappointment. OTOH, Whitcoulls have a temporaryish remainder outlet in Ham East that I spent a pile in a few weeks back - lots of books at actual reasonable prices!
There is an independantish bookshop in Casabella lane but I boycotted them after they were rather rude to my (very bookworm) son who was trying to browse and was ordered not to touch the books.
I have done a lot of reading of e-books over the past 10 years, initially on an HP Ipaq with MS reader, and currently on my Ipod Touch with Stanza. Baen.com has lots of SF in e-formats for reasonable prices and sensible terms (ie, you bought it, you own it), plus a large free library to get you hooked.I most often appeciate authors notes in books, as I find it interesting to know their thoughts on the whats and whys of the work. Stephen King, Piers Anthony and Orson Scott Card spring to mind as examples. King has published a book on his writing process. Its nice to have ancilliary materiel available online, whether extending the work, or just expanding on the author's opinions. Card and Gaimain both have busy web communities and Anthony calls his site hipiers.com to set the tone. But, all that is like the special features and commentaries on a DVD - nice to have but entirely optional.
We noticed recently that Michelle Holman, one of my wife's favorite chick-lit authors lives just on the other side of town, but she hasn't felt the urge to do any stalking. But Hamilton being Hamilton, odds are someone we know knows her. I mean I wouldn't have expected to end up in the same forums as an author I studied at Uni.
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In further breaking news, John Key is also of the opinion that water is wet.
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Field Theory: Japan Part Two: It's…, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Sounds like a good plan for one of these lunchtimes. Any other Ham-Towners want to get in on the action? A wee PA get-together perhaps. I'll add my email details to my profile, drop me a line.
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Sounds like leftover scenes from a William Gibson novel - especially the homeless sararimen.
& Geoff, now I'll have to go back to Shinjuku, and not just because the owners live next door to me...