Posts by jon_knox
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And yeah I'll try to take more note of Rob's comments about my off topic posts to heart.
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I don't think 47 is that old, actually.
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what's that theory about this sort of thing called? Rationalisation of Cognitive Dissonance. There is a great book called "Opening Skinner's Box" by Lauren Slater that probably explains and entertains people on this a few other similar subjects. It's definately to be taken with a grain of salt, but a life changing book nonetheless.
Being well shy of 47, (by a factor of 3...I'm actually only 14.75), I'm fighting my instincts to use the "can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter" comment. Having got that off my chest I'll now seriously read Mark's comments....sorry Mark 47 is just a number and you're only as old as you feel. BTW I am soo looking forward to getting my driver's license which is why I'm a bit hyper...that and the lemsip.
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I know your pain...
Maybe we should start a support group for frustrated LaTeX users....
Wow that's inspirational...I've been looking for a good idea for a web-start-up for a while and Judi you're the apple that has fallen on newton's head.
I'll start a social networking site where people with mental pain in their lives can sell that pain to sadomasochists who are looking for ways to totally take it to a new level, though the use of the brain as an erogenous zone. The Business Model will be people can pay to have their pain belittled though it's use in sicko's mind fantasies and sicko's can pay to get their sick (little) hands on material that sends them into rapture of the higest order....Oh this is even better than using fear of public speaking to peddle speeches. How many of those bases of motivation can I tick off with a single site?
Resolving mental pain. Giving sicko's their kicks, no expensive bandwidth for images, no physical product, no bodily fluids....Ad-sense revenue, no need to block it off from the kids....This is like that song by Neil Young...so it's got to be real/my big chance...it's a sign from NEIL.
The artist looked at the producer
The producer sat back
He said, What we have got here
Is a perfect track
But we don't have a vocal
And we don't have a song
If we could get these things accomplished
Nothin' else could go wrong.Righto, got to run...got to get some more of that Lemsip. And find some web guys and somemore people with badly written software.
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Yeah sorry Rob, things were getting away from me.
You should have seen the post before I chopped it in half....Islander was getting to write a new national anthem, Sacha was getting to sing it, you got to record it and Simon got all the credit & wrote flowing prose about it.
Perhaps a contest like this could be on the cards (Jon turns and looks towards the team members of Public Address from Devonport & Pt Chev...you know the ones with the web contest skills and the clout and apologies to the ginge from Wellyhole whose monopoly on hockey on PAS I appear to have inadvertently broken...I'm sorry about lots of stuff for that guy).
I consider myself told off...and appropriately so.
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"Coolness" would have been picking "Albatross" in my books, though I get that some peope (sick f*&%$#s that they are) enjoying public singing....Later I determined that assembly was a prime opportunity for me to exercise my inner Ferris. Instead "Maxwell's silver hammer" is hated by me and it wasn't until I discovered that George wrote a few songs and Ringo got to sing that I allowed myself to look at the Beatles.
Actually the one occassion that I have felt ashamed of the singing efforts of NZ'ers was at the ANZAC day dawn service in the domain in Auckland. If ever there was a need to have a Public Address system with someone good (but not too good...you don't want people feeling the lack of obligation) leading the crowd, it's that moment. Standing there, in front of that building, looking at that view, watching the condensation either rise slowly as the darkness evaporates allowing the realisation that the other coat wrapped human sized blobs are people, perhaps even people you know,
or the rain continues to pour from the ashen sky with the city lights in the distance glowing like a pack of UFO'swaddled in cottonwool and the wind assisting the rain in occassionally penetrating the waterproof layers and making it look like you've been bawling and perhaps you have.Anyway those are rare moments.
Kinda makes me dislike Wellington all the more and yeah I have been the odd rugby game where they wheel out that miserable funeral march of anthem...at least it's miserable in English version...The Maori version sounds a lot better, though I know the meaning is just the same. Perhaps as Robbery suggests ,NZ should become a Republic and give ourselves an opportunity to feel good about NZ, give the English anthem the elbow and get rid of a bunch of other ideas about ourselves which we may benefit of being liberated from...I know they'll still be part of our history...but I hope you "get it".
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(Jon peers around to see why the line for defamation is and trying to find a way to put his thoughts coherently & positively...coz I'm not a hater and don't enjoy disrespect)
Something just doesn't quite sit right for me with Dr Smith. I can't quite determine what it is. I've just had a look at the wikipedia page and the national party pages about him and in both cases I felt it was more about what those pages didn't say, than did. He's not coming across as particularly human, nor genuine....perhaps a bit stronger than that.
There is also an element of Peter Pan/Cliff Richard'ness about him...and I don't mean regarding his sexualtiy, which is as relevant as...anything you'd find in the mainstream media today, though it is NOT newsworthy and judging people because of their sexuality/race/... is actually sad for those that do it...smallminded f%&$#$s! (Which reminds me about an excellent part of a documentary Louis Theroux did called Louis and the Nazis in which Louie asks the the white supremacist whose BBQ he is attending, whether hypothetically he would have a problem if he (Louis) was a Jew....I believe Louis considers himself COE, though has a Jewish dad...but guess you could argue it either way. The link to vid itself seems to change a bit else I'd link directly to it...it is SO worth the effort view)
But leaping back to Lockwood...the subject of this thread...uh I think.
What I did however find most disturbing was the quiz show was called "W3" and now I'm finding myself haunted by the mental image of his smiling face, whenever I see a URL beginning "www". Though this says more about me than Dr Smith.
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My own Counting the Beat story - imagine a packed school assembly with hundreds of teens enthusiastically belting out that song. We had a way cool music teacher.
A cool music teacher....I'm thinking oxymoron and will explain....Teachers may be inspirational, but use of the words "cool" and" teacher" are mutually exclusive. Musicians can be cool (in fact it's almost a default...but not quite mainly because of the accordion...which I recently found out is what Weird Al's instrument was/is...which does improve the stock of the accordion somewhat and has positive externalities for the whole music industry) , but not if they are wearing their teacher-hat at the same time. As the son of a teacher, this is the rock on which my world is based, so no messing with it in anyplace that I can see. (I'll leave the discussions regarding me starting my own religion and omnipotent deities for other occasions).
I'm also of the opinion that singing needs to be an entirely voluntary act and that any form of singing under duress should be banned....in my view this is included (& is near the top of the list) when people talk about the 'citizen thing'. To digress further, an old friend of mine, when we were at school was put into detention as he was approx a foot taller than any of the other students and therefore quite noticeable when not singing in assembly. The rest of us in the not insignificant non-singing-crowd simply engaged in shoegazing and ensuring we were in the middle of any rows whilst not singing, or pretending we were singing (you know like Britney does...except without the sequins, make-up, aerobics routine, big hair, microphone...tho probably with similar levels of talent & timing). My point is that one person's inspiration is another person's pain and teachers need to be better regulated with regards to the power they have.. To this day I have an aversion to singing in public and suspect why I prefer instrumental compositions over songs. (I'd suggest reading Steven Pinker for people who are interested in the whole nature-nurture-how unique experiences shapes your future thing). I am also keen to have "Jon does not have to sing" inserted as a term into any future contracts for my employment.
An inspirational teacher, who just happened to be in charge of a music class that I was...detained in, introduced me to "the Blues Brothers". For that I am grateful...his initials coincidentally were RB...spooky.
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Very cool that people are starting to put their visionary" hat and sunglasses sets" on and talk about some different models and work through the implications thereof. (imagine Ali G saying" RespeCT")
However I've found that when people are ballsy enough to actually put their ideas out there about processes, others do actually have to tread quite carefully. The best approach I've come across is to first & foremost TRY to view the concepts with empathy to the person who made them, before reverting to more critical thinking. De Bono's (not Bono) 6 thinking hats can be a useful technique for considering other points of view, before reverting to that perennial old favourite, the black hat. (yes even if someone has slagged you or your idea off previously and even if you suspect that there is an element of taking the piss...).
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Have I previously posted a link to the rumour/possibly a meme that is out there somewhere echoing around about a\Apple going flat rate subscription for music? I thought I had posted the link, but I've been having a few pretty vivid dreams lately.
How the hell will that be broken down?...and how do I get a slice of the action determining the allocation?
"... in this day and age of independence..."
Again off topic. Does anyone else want a piece of the action in sponsoring the buses with the atheist advertising campaign. They've now hit their initial target, but could probably always use a few dollars more. Here's the link to the campaign donation site... I'm unsure if Dawkins is still matching dollar for dollar.
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Ta...just as a point of clarification. When I used the word "dream", I totally meant "nightmare". I ommitted to mention that what's her name Loos was on the handlebars of the BMX (actually she was looking kinda heavy...might have been in-calf) and that after the policeman left, Posh Spice pulled up and started laying a bit of verbal into me....man she's got a potty mouth, but thankfully she didn't try to sing.....anyways...I did have another dream...er I mean nightmare. Yeah totally meant nightmare.
This time I was the vet with a cat. Sitting in the waiting room, waiting as people seem to do in such places and a really upset guy came in with a really agitated dog, that was foaming at the mouth and for some reason I want to say "exhibiting all the classic signs of rabies"....whatever they exactly are. Anyway the guy had to vet had to take the guy and treat his dog as matter of urgency. So I sat waiting, quite without anything else exceptional happening. When I eventually got to see the vet, he apologised and explained that Winny the P had bitten the previous guy's dog.
I tell you that Blackcurrent lemsip has got a lot answer for! Do you know Peter Dunne's address? I'll send him some so he can hit it with his prohibtion hammer.
But yeah other having a few weird dreams and having a cold I'm fine...(cough) Well as fine as I ever was. The cat is fine too...thanks for asking.
BTW I've got to say David, you make a fine fiction writer.