Oh great

We’re all gonna die: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4426392a10.html.

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Why can’t this guy be president?

Dennis Kucinich, I think the world needs you.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/11/kucinich_qa/

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We’re buggered…

See this article from stuff?

“We predict a scenario in which people and nations are threatened by massive food and water shortages, devastating natural disasters and deadly disease outbreaks,” said John Podesta, President Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff and now president of the Centre for American Progress think tank.

Podesta called this outcome inevitable, even if the United States – the world’s biggest emitter of climate-warming carbon dioxide – enters immediately into an international system to cap and trade credits for the potent greenhouse gas.

Basically, it is already too late, but we’re still quibbling about carbon credits and whether the US joins the Kyoto protocol?

On behalf of my generation (who are the ones inheriting this god damn mess), to my future children: I’m sorry.

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I’m so happy he got his dogs back

This was seriously bothering me - poor old man has his sheepdogs stolen; the happy ending is that he traveled far and wide, trying to find them, and finally someone reported them found.

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freezing night

Steve and I have just signed up for broadband, and we’ve set up a wireless router, so I am quite happily writing this in my room. It’s a freezing night. I’m sitting at my desk, toes burning from the cold. We’ve got two heaters running, I am wearing my nightgown, pyjama bottoms, robe, woolen socks and slippers, and my feet are still freezing. The wind keeps howling past the house and rattling the scaffolding outside. It really is one of the coldest winters New Zealand has had in some time. Down in the South Island, there are people who have been without power for close to two weeks, what with all the heavy, heavy snowfall down there. I don’t know how they are managing. We have power, and it’s still crazily cold.

Friday tomorrow, and I couldn’t be more pleased. I haven’t been well, and the cold is still lingering a bit. Still, I went back to work on Wednesday. Things at work are strange, what with my team shifting from the thirteenth to the first floor of our building, getting a new team leader, and Simon, my closest workmate, leaving the company. It almost feels like a new job - except the work is still pretty boring. I’ve been desperate for something new to do for so long, and really am growing tired of feeling ignored. Whether this is the intent or not, it’s the end effect.

However! Tomorrow is my American Gothic class party. Gothic pizza party. Costume essential… And Saturday, Daph and Graeme are coming round for dinner. Sunday is an afternoon movie at Ben & Tash’s with soup and bread. It’s going to be great.

Oh! And I forgot to mention, I finally got round to getting my hair cut. Six months plus it’s been, since I last had the chop. It’s nice. It feels light and flowey. Flowy. (both look wrong)

Have also completed a couple of articles for NZGamer: a preview for the Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, and a review of the very awesome puzzle game, eets. I recommend eets. Go check it out.

But now I’d better head off - I have to burn a CD of music for the gothic party. Will post pictures!

End of oil and Victory Gardens

Have been reading this interesting article on Salon, which in turn led to these:

Victory Gardens

Food Storage

The Oil We Eat

I feed me

Preparation, from Life After the Oil Crash

Worth thinking about eh.

Oh, and nearly forgot, just went over to the Kathmandu sale. Got some top of the line hiking boots for $150, which was 50% off. Awesome.

Also got my mitts on the new Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Damn, I can’t wait!

get a load of this:

At least 15 states have fetal homicide laws that apply to “‘any state of gestation,’ ‘conception,’ ‘fertilization’ or post-fertilization” — meaning that one can be convicted of manslaughter or murder for destroying a fertilized egg, even if it hasn’t implanted itself in a woman’s uterus.

How in any way is this argument responsible?

Abu Ghraib photos

I should preface this by saying that I’m a regular subscriber to Salon, and I’ll often include links or references to them. Unfortunately, if you’re not a “Premium” subscriber, you have to watch an ad before you are given a 24 hour “pass” which gives you access to all the content on-site. I think it’s a pretty good trade-off if you’re a casual viewer, but I can see how some people would find it annoying.

Anyway, I’m sure they are up elsewhere, but Salon has announced they’re publishing the photos.

What the hell can you say about them? The New Standard News says “The government’s stated justification for not disclosing the additional visual evidence is that doing so might fan the flames of anti-US sentiment in the Middle East. US corporate media organizations have largely followed suit, choosing not to release or even describe evidence they have obtained.”

The New Standard News also says the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott has denounced the Australian network for putting “yet more scenes of blood and savagery into circulation, circumventing both the US government’s efforts to keep Abu Ghraib images out of the public eye and the gatekeeping of news organizations.”

I’m sorry - what? - denounced? Yes, let’s all keep the images out of the public. Let’s support the clandestine torture and humiliation of what appear to be already-broken men.

dampish fishtank massage Pacific pigeon freak

Hey. Well, things have been going pretty well here, in this place - the Capital city of the most isolated country in the world. It’s Friday, and for we poor slobs who live from 6pm - 7:30am Monday to Friday, plus weekends, it’s like being on the verge of a religious epiphany. In this part of the world it’s Autumn (as opposed to what seems to be the rest of the world - even Australia’s still practically in the middle of Summer), which means shitty, overcast days and a general dampish feeling in the air. Still, from where I’m sitting, if I crane my neck around about 50-60 degrees, I can see one of the Picton ferries coming into the harbor, catching the sun. It’s pretty peaceful.

I splurged last weekend and bought myself an all in one fishtank (well, I did have to get a heater). It’s very, very cool, and has rocks and plants and even water in it, which has been nicely aging over the last week. All I need now are some fish. My parents are coming to stay at my place over Easter (four day weekend!!) and mentioned they might bring me a fish or two as a housewarming present!

I don’t have any major plans for the weekend, aside from using my voucher for a half-hour massage tomorrow. I’m booked in for 11:30. Mmm…massage! After that I’m meeting Daph and Graeme at the Black Harp at 1:00 for lunch. (They’re using their vouchers from 12-1, then we’re going to use another prize voucher Daphne won at the Black Harp.) Should be a cheap day! Can’t go wrong! I’ve also got a pile of books I intend to work my way through, plus there’s Italian study for the test we’ve got coming up on the 9th, and some Old Icelandic translation and reading to do. I’m actually considering doing just Old Icelandic next semester. I love Italian, but at the same time, it’s going to get more complicated as we go along, and I am going to start running out of free time. I can just see it now. Plus it would only mean one day up at uni per week. Not that I don’t enjoy it up there, but it gets rather stressy when you’re constantly trying to get back to work etc. etc.

Travel is on my mind again, especially now that I’m a permanent employee here and thus eligible for a nice 4 weeks worth of holidays per year. I really want to save it up and then use it for a month’s holiday somewhere. But where? I’m thinking maybe the Pacific somewhere. Rent a place for a month and hang out.

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This from Monday’s Dominion Post:
Pigeon Gets A Gong
A Royal Air Force pigeon that delivered the first news of Allied success from the Normandy beaches on D-day - June 6, 1944 - will be recognised as the greatest pigeon to have served its country. Gustav, a grizzle cock pigeon, will be honoured in a London exhibition at the Imperial War Museum’s 60th anniversary show. He will get the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of Britain’s highest military honour. He died when his breeder stepped on him.
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It’s about half four and time is ticking (initially wrote ‘tickling’) by slowly. I’m really looking forward to tonight. No plans, just some reading, writing, gin and tonics and a little Old Icelandic translation. Most of my weekends have seen something similar.

Aedan is apparently in NZ - in Wellington - at the moment, over from Ireland. James went out for dinner the other night with him but I decided not to go. Sometime back during the time I was in Dublin we had an incident where he asked me at lunch if New Zealand had an IT industry. I said “no, we ride around on sheep and use abacuses.” He stood up and picked up his tray and said “everything’s always a joke with you!” and stormed off. He didn’t speak to me again - what a freak. Nobody else could believe it, and I didn’t think it was worth the hassle to try and figure out what his problem was.

Ben’s also coming back soon - in a month, I think? And I even got an email from Brugt recently, saying he was also coming over, sometime in November, to try and get work in a mountain hut. Nice. So it would seem that leaving (for the moment) is not all that necessary - everyone seems to be coming to me, these days.