Posts by Paul Campbell
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While you're all waiting let me introduce the One Velociraptor per Child initiative
"Mission Statement: To increase the Darwinian fitness of the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-energy, internet-enabled velociraptor with content designed for collaborative, practical, self-empowered survival."
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that's what happens when you fix election dates - instead of by elections you get mid term appointments
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a wooden stake, it's the only way I tell you
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no - I don't think he did it on purpose - he just wasn't paying attention (I'm waiting for a tirade blaming Labour for the new rules for roundabouts)
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I haven't seen a single candidate here at the door in Dunedin North - the closest I've come to one was when I was almost run over by the National candidate who cut me off in traffic the other day (looked just like the giant face he had plastered on his car)
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I think Judith's worried about being pounced on by bands of geeks at this point - wonder if she'll go to foo-camp this year ..... (please make sure she's invited :-)
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we celebrate mid winter's (I guess as a sort of 'Hogmanay') as one would in the southern hemisphere - I think technically when Matariki is celebrated depends on your Iwi - some actually the rise of the first new moon after the first sighting of the Matariki (the Pleiades), some just on the first sighting - so it moves around a bit - we might end up with a rolling Matariki moving around the country depending on local practice - a bit like 'show day'
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We were discussing this at a party last night (you have to give the Green Party one thing they do know how to do the 'party' bit right, and have the coolest music) ....
Xmas in summer is something we've made our own, there's no reason to move it to winter
Halloween should be April 30th here - it's a harvest festival (well originally it was a religious fesitval - all hallow's eve - the night before all saints day - moving it to the night before may day is a wonderfull secularisation ....) and it means we get real pumpkins, and spooky darkness
I like the idea of dumping QB weekend in favour of Matariki - it's not like it's even her real birthday - maybe when she croaks people will balk at the thought of changing it to King's Birthday weekend in honour of Charlie and we'll have a chance to remake it in our own image
Here in Dunedin we celebrate both Hogmanay and Matariki - it seems to me like a waste and divisive in the community to do the two celebrations within days of each other - I'd love to see them merge into a single celebration that everyone is welcome and part of
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sigh - Halloween may be the one thing I really really miss about living in the US - with little kids it was just the most wonderfull occasion - we got to go out and meet our neighbours - all the houses are lit up with real pumpkins, the kids got to to do something a bit scary (the parents hang back and they walk up a scary decorated path in the dark not knowing what's there - but with the possibility of lollies as a payoff). I think it's one of the few real american holidays that hasn't succumbed totally to commercialisation (though I think it looks like it has from a NZ perspective).
When my son was 4 we talked up going trick-or-treating for the first time - we made a big deal about dressing up and pumpkins - 2 days before he comes him from pre-school and confides in us the big secret he's found out "there's gonna be candy" - and boy there was - more than he could carry .... his parents were quite ill that night.
When we were travelling in India with the kids we carved water melons - they work great - but with a redder glow
This year Lisa found 2 honest-to-god orange pumpkins - but sadly this is the first years the kids were too old to want to help carve (sob! they're growing up) preferring to hang out with their friends - we got maybe 8 sets of trick or treaters twice what we got last year - lots of ooohs and aaahs at genuinely carved pumpkins - with candles even though the sun was still out - they looked great later at night when no one was there
I think we need a movement to move Halloween in NZ to the end of April - not only will it be dark and scary but pumpkins will be in season
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Today's Cat and Girl seems terribly appropriate for this thread ....