Posts by Brent Jackson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Yeah, that's the whole problem with organ donation for me. If I was lying there, supposed brain dead, with doctors keen to harvest my organs for their other patients, I would not want to donate my organs even if there was only 1 in a 1000 chance that I would recover. I am an atheist. Existence is better than non-existence. Death is not 0 degree Celsius, it is 0 degrees Kelvin. If you are alive, in whatever state, you are better off than if you are dead. IMHO.
Cheers,
Brent. -
I've got to agree with Ben, re push-bikes. When I was at varsity I used to push-bike everywhere (after my bus fare to town went from 30c to 80c in 1 fell swoop - March 1983). I was young and reckless (as many teenagers are), and as it turns out, lucky. I never had a major accident (though I have a significant list of very serious near misses - with buses being many of them).
However, the danger of cycling is now a major factor for me not riding more. When I was younger, the danger was not a factor, but the cost of owning a car was. Once I starting working, I could afford a car. The push bike has only been used occasionally since.
Auckland will never be a great city for cycling around.
Cheers,
Brent. -
For those of you who think limiting the power of the cars will help matters, I can categorically state that it will not. I drive a standard 1300cc hatchback. I am also a member of a Car Club affiliated to Motorsport NZ. I compete in events in the aforementioned standard 1300cc hatchback. In this year's Clubsport Championships I crossed the finish line in 3rd gear at 140+kph.
Low power, small engined cars, also tend to be light. They can easily attain very high speeds. So, power (or turbo) limitations will not reduce high speed crashes.
(Personally, I find 30-somethings boasting of driving from WGN to AKL in 5.5 hours REALLY scary - people who drive at excessive speed and know they are good drivers, can still make a mistake - or have a mechanical fault - which can result in the unnecessary death of a law-abiding citizen).
Cheers,
Brent. -
And so you do.
That is where the problem lies. If you do not wish to write a bad review, then you should not attend the show with the intention of writing a review.
Ideally, if a critic has a relationship with the product(ion), then that should be clearly stated. This seems to only happen with business writers reviewing investment opportunities.
Restaurant "reviews" often sound like they have been written by somebody who is working for the restaurant. It wouldn't surprise me if the "reviewer" paid to have it published.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Sarah Flynn wrote:
I don't consider his move to be a cynical one, rather I believe it's a fair political strategy - but that's my explanation for why the rationale he's offered doesn't bear close scrutiny
Well said ! Your explanation seems very sound to me.
-
At our kid's primary school, they still have the Recorder - lord knows why, but they also have marimba - which is fantastic, because when played in a group by 7 year olds, it still sounds great.
-
What I always found fascinating about injuries was the way the brain seems to store all the minute detail right up to the actual moment of the accident, but seldom records the actual injury-causing moment.
For example, when I was about 10 I was riding full-tilt down Kingsley St into the clean-fill tip that was to become Cox's Bay Park. We used to go down there quite often and ride our bikes over the mounds of clay making Motorbike noises (as you do). On this particular occasion I can remember zooming off the seal onto the gravel, maintaining my childishly naive high speed, when suddenly I saw a large lump of clay (~6" across) just in front of me. A twitch of the handlebars allowed the front wheel to narrowly avoid it, but no such luck for the back wheel. I next thing I know, I was lying on the ground about 4 feet to the left of my previous line of motion, watching my now riderless bike, continuing on bouncing down the gravel road until crashing into a pile of clay. My friends were amazed that I was unhurt. I never remembered any part of the time between hitting the lump and seeing my bike riding by itself.
A year or two later, I was zooming down Fife St on my bike, and, like all other wannabe Motocross riders, we used to go from the road onto the footpath as close to the curbstone as possible so you could jump your bike off the slight bump there. On this particular occasion my foot came off the pedal as I was in the air, which meant - no brakes ! I skittered across the footpath and ended up careering alongside a concrete wall. The wheels of the bike were in the join of the wall to the footpath, the inside pedal was up, and the bike was leaning away from the wall, but rapidly straightened up. I can still clearly remember pulling my left hand from the handlebar just before it started scraping along the wall. There was a small lump in the wall - I was amazed when I checked it later and found it to be only 5mm or so - but it was enough. The handlebar hit it and turned sideways. The next thing I can remember is walking towards my poor bike, with its front wheel folded to a 90 degree angle. My friends were astounded. Apparently, I cartwheeled over the handlebars, doing a complete somersault landing on my lower back and just rolling up onto my feet. I then turned and walked back to my bike. Once again, I never remembered any of the flying through the air part. (Incidently, the tyre stayed up, and I walked the bike home and straightened the front wheel in our old vice - it always had a slight bump with each circuit of the wheel after that).
However, when I was 15, coming home from school on my 10-speed, as fast as I could (as you do), I was coming out of Motat 2 onto the footpath of Meola Road. I was leaning right over and there was this small rock (about 2" round). Once again I avoided it with the front wheel, but connected with the back. The wheel went out from under me, and I saw my hands come out in front of me as I headed for the ground, but then thought "don't land on your hands - you'll break your wrists". I pulled in my hands as I landed (they escaped with slight grazing on their heels). Then I thought "Roll, don't slide", so I started to roll over instead of sliding along the pavement. But then I though "My calculator and glasses are in the front pocket of my backpack, and I'll squash them if I roll on top of them", so I didn't. I ended up with huge grazes on my knees, and grazes and bruising on my right thigh, hip and shoulder. But as I limped home with my bike, I was absolutely elated; I had managed to think all those things, and to act on them, even as I was flying through the air and sliding along the ground.
Up until now I had assumed that it was because I had gotten used to it and my brain was now better able to cope. But now that I think about it, there are a couple of other possible explanations :
1) I was older, and the brain had changed the way it worked;
2) The nature of the accident was different in that I actually got hurt in the last one, so my brain stored more details of what occurred.Anyone else relate to this ?
-
Hmmm. I agree that the firing of an employee for a trivial indiscretion is a huge overreaction. I am all for picketing the premises, and trying to convince them to change their mind. But, I think that trying to punish all the other independent Subway franchisees around the country is also an overreaction. My local Subway had absolutely nothing to do with the original decision, and, I suspect, there is absolutely nothing they can do to help rectify the situation. (Though perhaps another Subway store in Dunedin could offer her a job).
I do not think that people should be punished for guilt by association.
Cheers,
Brent. -
I propose a television show for publicly shaming the week's most obnoxious teens, in which they will have the piss taken out of them by Oscar Knightly.
Isn't this already being done - Studentville on C4 ?
-
Talking of dodgy old records..can I plug my new Ripper Records page here? Of course I can....
Thanks for the heads up. A great page.
It was Ripper's Goat's Milk Soap that really turned me on to NZ music. That compilation has a special place in my heart.
Cheers,
Brent.