Posts by Bart Janssen
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Sorry for the text, as Craig has said feel free to scroll past, this is just me getting feelings out and I hope you’ll forgive me for doing that here.
By chance I was home yesterday, safely in Mt Roskill. I watched a replay of the Breakers beating the Blaze in double overtime. My wife had texted that there had been another earthquake in Christchurch, but really with 4000 earthquakes since September 4th it hardly seemed something to rush over and it was a good game of basketball. So it was about 3pm when I turned the TV to the news.
So yes it was a big earthquake but even then it was difficult to tell how bad. So many times have I heard reporters talk breathlessly about buildings devastated that I now find it difficult to know when a real disaster has occurred. Is that me being jaded or that the words have been leeched of their power. But this was real.
But by 3:30 I knew how real. I don’t really know many people in Christchurch, some work colleagues, but it was the posters from PA that I wanted/needed to know were OK. I’ve met Emma and David only once in real life but I wanted very much to know they were OK. The first place I looked was Twitter and there were the messages, Russell letting everyone know David and his family were safe, Emma being scared but alive and then later that her family was safe and well. The next place to look was this thread, which I just assumed Russell would have started, thank you Russell.
The rest of the day was spent making dinner watching the news as we all did, feeling helpless and distraught at times, feeling useless, being annoyed over the trivial (it’s devastate not decimate dammit) and knowing that was just a reaction as well, flicking between channels to try and see a different picture, checking twitter and the blogs, somehow trying to stay engaged.
This morning there is a subdued atmosphere here at work as I’m sure there is everywhere except for where it really matters in Christchurch, where they work to try and save lives and recover bodies.
There isn’t much I can do but feel shocked and sad. -
Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Paul Brislen,
Hopefully we can do something more substantial today.
For those of us too far away to be of real physical help we can buy their books. I'm guessing delivery may be slightly slower than usual but the books are very good and it will help the authors we care about directly.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Megan Clayton,
clog up the columnage
Thoughtful long worthwhile post vs 140 character drivel ... such a hard choice really.
Seriously I can read and I'm happy to read your posts any time whatever length you feel you need. Besides I'm not sure I saw an "appropriate post length" sign anywhere.
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Sally you have worthwhile things to say and worthwhile experiences to share and we are here to listen - not always with the attitude you may want but for most everyone here it's honest and open and after 50 years I've come to understand that's as good as it gets.
If you offend apologise simply and quickly, if you are offended sit back and figure out why and if it really matters and then set it aside because it's only the internet and everyone gets offended here. I screw up here a lot and I'm still allowed to speak and sometimes I even say something useful, this is a forgiving environment and a place where forgiving others helps make the conversations better. I understand your anger and frustration and understand your desire to walk away but in the end you might consider that the voices here are worth listening to after all. Or not. In either case I wish you well.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Has anyone copyrighted a definition of the word feminist?
And yes now I'm just being silly
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depth and range of stock being sold by knowledgeable and pleasant staff is better
this
Whitcoulls stopped stocking books and I stopped going there. Sure they had some picture books and some bestsellers, but if I wanted to find the books by say, a top SF author, Whitcoulls sure as hell didn't have them and couldn't get them for anything less than a small fortune. And heaven forbid I might want to browse through books to find something new and undiscovered because Whitcoulls stopped having those kind of books decades ago.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to ,
I can drive a folk lift.
Can I just say I'm curious as to what the test entails? Do you need to know the lyrics?
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Deborah,
best not to tell people how they should be doing their feminism.
Yeah sorry that wasn't the intent at all. Must not write fast when grumpy.
Every bit helps. And it seems to me that people will be er feminist (see no quotes Danielle) about some things in their lives and not feminist about others (for whatever value of feminist you apply). Underneath all that is a fairly common goal of getting to a society that is fair to all, and we are not there yet and I don't believe my examples are in any way the worst out there.
Attacking other feminists because they don't match one persons view of what one should be doesn't actually help anyone. I'd prefer that energy be spent elsewhere and for me that would be cleaning up our state owned companies but other efforts are fine too - just stop attacking each other will you (note how I excluded myself from that as if I might be guilt free - not).
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Danielle,
Dear Bart: please do not make me stabby by putting “feminists” in scare quotes and telling us we have to concentrate on what you consider to be more important,
Sorry Danielle didn’t mean it come out that way, was just reacting to all the “your not the right kind of feminist” shit and the “you’re not a proper feminist because you worry about looking nice”.
Sorry got grumpied early and probably should have edited. If I buy you a pony will that make up for it?
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Lilith __,
Damn! No pony.
I will buy you a pony Lilith! Just let me know which server you play on.