The World Of Jadeey: November 2008



Who likes coke warm?

Sunday, November 30, 2008
My flatmate, Derek, loves coke. That's not so strange. The weird part is that he loves his coke flat. And warm. In fact, he won't drink it out of the fridge. That's weird right?

Sometimes, for some unknown reason, it drives me totally insane that he drinks it that way. It makes no sense that it'd worry me and it really shouldn't. Yet sometimes, just very occassionally, it does.

Tomorrow night is the monthly quiz night. I won't be going because my aunt has had an emergency and I need to look after my cousin. I think it was our month to come first too. Heh they probably still will since I barely answer any questions! :P

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Blackbird sings in the dead of night...

Saturday, November 29, 2008
For the past few weeks a blackbird has been calling our yard home. There would normally be no particular problem about this, but this bird is driving everyone in my flat mental. He's the happiest little bird you could possibly imagine and I hope nothing bad happens to him, but he's so damn annoying.

He sings ridiculously loudly and just doesn't stop. Ever. He wakes up early in the morning and immediately starts singing at the top of his voice. My bedroom is at the front of the house so he's pretty much right outside my window, so every morning he wakes me up. On Thursday he woke up at 4.48am. Thankfully I've discovered that covering my head with my pillow blocks him out. Unfortunately it also makes breathing challenging.

Derek and Ingrid are equally annoyed with him. He doesn't wake Derek up, since Derek's room is further away. But he's just so damn loud that it's annoying all day long.

The one suffering the most though is little Felix. Felix is a totally scaredy-cat. And he's not very good at hunting - sometimes he'll catch rubbish, bugs or already dead-animals but he really isn't any good at hunting anything fast. The poor little guy is terrified of this damn bird. Tonight I was in my room and I could hear the bird singing away. Suddenly I heard Felix frantically meowing at the door. I opened the front door and Felix raced past me and hid in the lounge. Yep, my cat is scared of a bird. That's kinda like if I was suddenly scared of a hamburger.

Here are some photos of the happiest (but also most annoying) blackbird in the world. (And the friend that joined him in the yard this evening. The friend wasn't quite as loud thank goodness)

You can see by the amount of bird poo that he spends a lot of time on our outdoor furniture.
(Our blackbird's new friend is the one off to the right. )



And here's the little guy just chilling out on the path

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It's time to give thanks

Friday, November 28, 2008
I'm off to work (at a job I thought I would have been able to give up by now in favour of a real job) so thought I better blog now. I'm rostered to finish at 7.30pm, but am going to beg and plead to take someone's late shift, which could result in me being home after midnight.

It is Thanksgiving in America right now. I've always been sad that we don't have Thanksgiving. One, because public holidays are great and two, because I think taking the opportunity to give thanks for everything you have is a good idea.

So, even though as a New Zealander, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving I am going to give thanks here on my blog.

Things Holly is thankful for this year

1. My family
2. My friends
3. My flatmates (who are also my friends)
4. That I live in a country as wonderful as New Zealand
5. That, even though I don't like our new government, I live in a country where democracy actually works.
6. That, even though it doesn't effect me personally since I'm pretty darn conventional, I live in a country that recognises non-conventional relationships as legal
7. That I live in a country where the government will help me out financially when I need it
8. That my student loan is interest free as long as I stay living in New Zealand
9. That I've never had to suffer the terrible things that so many people in this world live with every day
10. That he is in my life, even though he doesn't feel the same way about me as I do about him

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Fable 2 rocks my world

Thursday, November 27, 2008
Today's secret:




While, obviously, this isn't mine I must confess that I am totally addicted to this game. This cover is prettier than mine though. And I hope this person found other things to live for by the time the game came out.


Each Sunday I read Postsecret and every day I read LJ Secret. I like reading these websites. Some of the secrets make me cry, some make me relieved that I'm not living that pain, some I totally relate to and some just hit me in some unexpected way. Often I find myself needing to save a secret, sometimes to remind myself I'm not alone in my secrets and other times because something about the secret makes me sit up and take notice. As a result of this I have 320 secrets currently saved on my computer.

I have decided that every Thursday, for as long as I feel like it, I will post one of these secrets. Some might reflect my own secrets, others will have had a deep impact on me for one reason or another and still others will have been chosen because something small about them was enough to make me want to save it. I'm not going to tell you my reasons.

Don't read into them, don't think i'm trying to confess something. Because I'm not. I just want to share some of them.

And, if I have posted a secret that you made and you don't want it up there then please send me a message and I'll take it straight down.

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Hannah again... And a kitten with 2 faces

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
I can't decide what to blog about today so Hannah suggested I blog about her. I'm not really sure what she wants me to write about her though...

Here are some facts about Hannah:

1. She's here right now picking some DVDs
2. She had an exam today
3. She loves Fallout Boy
4. She is awesome
5. We're going to have a DVD night soon because we haven't had one for ages

Well, that was interesting.

And now, here is a photo of a kitten with two faces. I think it's cute. It also makes me sad, I really hope it survives. And that it never realises it's a mutant.

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Helvetica!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tonight I watched the documentary Helvetica. It was really good. And yes, before you ask, it is a documentary about a typeface - but Helvetica is the best font so it's perfectly understandable that there is a documentary about it. I'd been meaning to see the documentary for ages. It was at the film festival earlier this year but I missed it because I was busy the only night it was on. It was worth the wait.

What is so great about Helvetica? It's the typeface used for EVERYTHING. Street signs, packaging signs, t-shirt printing, shop signs. And my personal favourite - The Office logo.

Enough about fonts, you say? Fine.

Is everyone excited about the new Gmail themes? I am. I've been using one of the ocean ones for the past few days. But Kat just pointed out that if you use the 'tree' theme then it changes with the weather. How cool is that! I'd been wondering why it made me specify the city and country I lived in, now it all makes sense.

Yeah, I'm a geek. I'm excited by documentaries about fonts and gmail themes. I think I really need to get a job soon. :P

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Spiders... yuck!

Monday, November 24, 2008
There are so many things I could blog about today.... And yet I can't seem to think of anything to write.

We've been finding lots of white-tail spiders in our house recently. It's not good. We've had three in the past ten days. That seems like far too many. Even one would be too many for me - spiders scare the crap out of me. Especially spiders than can do serious damage when they bite.

Something that made me happy today though - petrol prices went down again. It's currently at $1.43 and that makes unemployed-Holly very happy indeed.

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Justin Timberlake is sexy as hell

Sunday, November 23, 2008
I went to a BBQ and Antz and Gavin's yesterday. While I was there Antz showed me a youtube video of a parody of Beyonce's song Single Ladies. He couldn't find the whole thing at the time, but I did a bit of searching today and managed to find it. And it's got Paul Rudd in it, so that just makes it even cooler.

I'm sure it'll get taken down from Youtube fairly quickly, but I'll link to it anyway (the user doesn't allow embedding. Annoying):

SNL skit


Watching this reminded me of other Justin videos.

It's a couple of years old now, but still hilarious. It's Dick in a Box! (Embedding disabled again. Grrr again.)

And, just because it scares me every time, here is Justin Timberlake as Elton John. (Yet another embedding disabled video. I'm sensing a trend.)

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Unemployed day 8

Saturday, November 22, 2008
You've had the list of things I like about being unemployed. Now it's time for the list of things I don't like about it.

Things Holly hates about being unemployed
1. Having no money
2. Job hunting
3. Getting rejected
4. Not being able to find jobs I actually want
5. Applying for jobs I don't even really want and yet still getting rejected
6. Feeling lazy because everyone else is at work and I'm not
7. Not knowing how long before I find a job
8. Knowing Christmas is coming and I can't afford presents
9. Not being able to afford to go anywhere except job interviews and the gym
10. Getting bored during the day

Yep, a lot of those things have to do with having no money. Having no money REALLY sucks.

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Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Friday, November 21, 2008
Last night there was a fly buzzing around the room being totally annoying. We have one of those bug spray things in our house that keeps a constant layer of poison drifting around the house making sure bugs only last about an hour in the house before they die. (Yeah, I'm sure it's good for us to be constantly breathing it in.)

Anyway, the fly started to die and suddenly flopped down onto Ingrid's chair. She was sitting on the chair at the time. Our exchange went like this:

Me: Did it just land on you? (I admit I was kinda laughing)
Ingrid: Yeah. And now it's in your mountain dew.
Me: (looked into my glass of mountain dew and saw the giant fly floating there) Crap.

Yep, there was a fly in my mountain dew. How ironic. Oh no, wait. It wasn't ironic at all. It was just bloody annoying.

Stupid fly.

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Secret Thursday

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Each Sunday I read Postsecret and every day I read LJ Secret. I like reading these websites. Some of the secrets make me cry, some make me relieved that I'm not living that pain, some I totally relate to and some just hit me in some unexpected way. Often I find myself needing to save a secret, sometimes to remind myself I'm not alone in my secrets and other times because something about the secret makes me sit up and take notice. As a result of this I have 320 secrets currently saved on my computer.

I have decided that every Thursday, for as long as I feel like it, I will post one of these secrets. Some might reflect my own secrets, others will have had a deep impact on me for one reason or another and still others will have been chosen because something small about them was enough to make me want to save it. I'm not going to tell you my reasons.

Don't read into them, don't think i'm trying to confess something. Because I'm not. I just want to share some of them.

And, if I have posted a secret that you made and you don't want it up there then please send me a message and I'll take it straight down.

Today's choice (click it to read it):

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Unemployed day 5

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I think I'm going to have to stop numbering my posts like this soon. I don't want to watch those numbers get too high.

I applied for 3 jobs today. Good stuff. The thing that is driving me crazy is that the earliest closing date for applications of jobs I've applied for rencetly is 28th November. The waiting is annoying because I REALLY want a couple of the jobs I've applied for. Ah well. At least I sort of get a holiday.

I've decided to make a list of things I like about being unemployed and a list of things I don't like. Today will be the list of things I like, because it's good to be positive.

Things Holly likes about being unemployed

1. Not having to wake up at 7am or earlier
2. Having heaps of free time
3. Being able to get to the gym every day
4. Being able to play video games without feeling guilty that I should be studying
5. Not having assignments
6. Being able to stay in my pj's all day - aside for a quick trip to the gym (today is the only day I've done that.)
7. Being able to read the books i've been looking at longingly all year
8. Learning the Seek website back to front and upside down. (Ok, that's not much of a great thing. But I sure do know that site well these days.)
9. Being able to stare uninterrupted at photos of John Krasinski for as long as I feel like it
10. Not having to go to bed early

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Unemployed day 4

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
I applied for seven jobs today. That seems like a decent amount right?

I've got more to apply for, but I'm tired of re-writing my covering letter at the moment so I think i'll do those ones tomorrow. Especially since I was getting a bit lazy towards the end. I noticed a split second after I submitted one that I'd made a very obvious spelling mistake. In the title of the role. Don't think i'll be getting that job!

It amazes me how quickly my days seem to pass. In theory I should have nothing but job-applying to do. Yet the days seem to be over in a jiffy. It's actually very annoying! There is so much more I want to get done!

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Alanis

Monday, November 17, 2008
So, I was thinking about the song Ironic while I was in the shower today. I've always thought that Alanis knew what she was doing and purposely made the irony of the song the fact that it is called Ironic yet doesn't have any actual irony in the lyrics. I choose not to believe that she, and everyone who listened to the song before it was released, didn't know what irony actually was.

When you think about it that way, the song actually is very clever. And maybe a little too ironic. Yes I really do think. (see what I did there? Clever!)

Anyway, I decided a fun game would be to make fix the situations described in the song to actually make them ironic. Not sure if I'll finish it today, it'll depend how easy it is to come up with stuff. And please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section.

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day


Well, it'd be ironic if the lottery he won was actually a heart-lottery or some other organ that he needed. And he died the day after getting the 'life-saving' operation. (yeah, that's weak. It's a hard one! Any better suggestions would be welcome since mine is not really very ironic, or very realistic. I don't think they have 'heart lotteries')

It's a black fly in your Chardonnay


If it's the party of a fly-spray company.

It's a death row pardon two minutes too late

Ummm if the person on death-row was the person who usually pardoned death-row inmates. (the Governor?)

(sheesh this is hard.)

It's like rain on your wedding day


If the person you are marrying is a meteorologist and chose the date.

It's a free ride when you've already paid


I'm not sure. I'll come back to this one.

It's the good advice that you just didn't take

If you've taken that person's advice every other time and it's always gone horribly wrong so this time you didn't... Na, that's no good, I'll have to think on this one too.

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
Well isn't this nice


If he changes his mind and drives instead. And then the plane he was going to be in crashes into his car as he's driving...

A traffic jam when you're already late

If you're a town planner or something and have just claimed to have solved traffic-problems in your area and are on your way to receive a medal for solving the traffic problems


A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break


Ummm. If you work for a cigarette company? (not really, but I can't think of anything better)

It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

Hmm I'll come back to this one too

It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife


Um if you meet him through a dating agency that she runs. And she is the one who organises the date?

Okay, that's it. I did that all really badly. Please, comment and fix up my appalling attempts. I beg you.

I really need a job.

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Unemployed day 2

Sunday, November 16, 2008
I did actually look for jobs today. I've got a list that I'm sending off applications for tomorrow. So, quite a productive day really.

The 21st last night was awesome. I had heaps of fun catching up with someone I haven't seen in ages as well as hanging out with the birthday girl.

Today is my brother's birthday so gave him a call.

And that's about it really.

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Unemployed day 1

Saturday, November 15, 2008
Today is my first official day of being unemployed. So far I've spent the better part of the morning cleaning up at school after last night's party, had lunch, bought a present for my friend's 21st tonight and decided to blog before going to said party.

A pretty busy day for an unemployed person. You will note the lack of 'applying for jobs' in my list of things I've done so far today. But that is very much on the list for tomorrow. Luckily no job applications close on a Saturday so it doesn't really matter that I haven't applied for any today. I've thought about jobs though. That's a start isn't it?

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I'm a Graduate! (Again)

Friday, November 14, 2008
Graduation was tonight. It was awesome. There were nice speeches, good food and lots of drink.

I got a prize for being the person in the class who "always remembered the importance of cute baby animals in the publishing world." That made me laugh - I'm a total sucker for baby animals!

Each week me and a couple of classmates would pick new desktop pictures. Mine were always baby animals - such little cuties that whenever I looked at my computer screen I just wanted to cuddle it.

Here was the one I had this week.



So cute! Look at his little paws! And his happy smile!

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Wedding Day

Thursday, November 13, 2008
Instead of sleeping I've been looking through all the secrets I've got saved on my computer. Each Sunday I read Postsecret and every day I read LJ Secret. I like reading these websites. Some of the secrets make me cry, some make me relieved that I'm not living that pain, some I totally relate to and some just hit me in some unexpected way. Often I find myself needing to save a secret, sometimes to remind myself I'm not alone in my secrets and other times because something about the secret makes me sit up and take notice. As a result of this I have 320 secrets currently saved on my computer.

I have decided that every Thursday, for as long as I feel like it, I will post one of these secrets. Some might reflect my own secrets, others will have had a deep impact on me for one reason or another and still others will have been chosen because something small about them was enough to make me want to save it. I'm not going to tell you my reasons.

Don't read into them, don't think i'm trying to confess something. Because I'm not. I just want to share some of them.

And, if I have posted a secret that you made and you don't want it up there then please send me a message and I'll take it straight down.

Today's choice:

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Done and done

Tomorrow is my last day of class. It's not even a proper day of class because it's going to be spent organising our graduand event, which is tomorrow evening.

It's a weird feeling, knowing it's all over. I can still remember the first day so clearly. I'm really sad about it - I'm going to miss it a lot.

I guess now it's time to get back out into the big, bad world. But first I might sleep for a few days!

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I will be your hero, baby (even if I don't mean to)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
When it comes to danger I seem to switch into some kind of autopilot mode that makes me decide to confront it. It's completely incongruous with the rest of my personality, yet it happens. I've discussed this with Kat many times, she reckons it's a good thing. Me, not so much. I reckon it turns me into an idiot. I've been damn lucky so far, but I still think it's dangerous and yet can't seem to help it.

Some examples of the idioticness of it:

- When we were burgled I ran into the lounge and yelled at the burglar. I was very lucky that I gave him such a fright that he ran rather than becoming violent. I was also damn lucky he didn't have a weapon.

- A few days later some men came to attach security doors. Rather than knocking they just started working. I was asleep and to my sleep-addled mind it sounded like someone was breaking in again. I ran into the lounge to see what was going on.

- A little while after that our alarm started going off at 3am (while we were sleeping it was set just in the lounge. I was worried about waking our neighbour so I quickly grabbed my beeper and switched it off then ran into the lounge to see what was happening. (Nothing was. We still don't know why it went off)

- Recently I heard banging sounds around the side of our house in the middle of the night. I didn't know what it was but was worried it was someone breaking in/doing something to our house. I ran outside to check.

- Tonight I thought I heard the front door open and assumed it was one of my flatmates coming home. After a minute no-one came into the room (they always come straight into the room so it was weird). I then worried that it was a burglar so ran into the hall (different flat - door is now in the hall not the lounge) to investigate. Turns out it was actually someone knocking at the door, not someone opening the door.


Sure, only one of these actually turned out to be a burglar. But that's really just luck (or proof of an over-active imagination) on my part. It's not like I plan to confront real or imaginary burglars. It happens before I have a conscious thought about what I'm doing. And that's what worries me - it seems important to think before you act and clearly I don't do that. I've just got to hope my luck doesn't run out.

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No more competition

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Oh, and because that last blog technically breaks my old rules I better state that I am no longer doing this as a competition. So no punishments.

It is now just for fun. I will keep blogging every day (especially since I decided I wasn't going to do it as a competition way back when Kat did, yet have kept going with the actually blogging.) I can't seem to give it up at this point. So still lots of blogs. Just no rules.

Woo! :P

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Crazy text messages

Last night something weird happened, I started getting text messages from a random phone number I didn't recognise. Her are is the back and forth between me and this person - for all of your enjoyment.

Her: Hey skank
Me: Um.... who is this
Her: Jessica
Me: Sorry I think you've got the wrong person, I don't know a Jessica
Her: Is this holly?
Me: Yeah it is. Sorry, Jessica who?
Her: Jessica Norton
Me: Your name is really familiar but I can't place you sorry. How did we meet?
Her: In town thru sum friends ages ago. ur a bitch eh
Me: Um ok. What friends?
Her: It doesn't matter what friends. U fucked ova one of my mates + i honestly dnt like u eh
Me: Who did I fuck over?
Her: I dnt want to say who, i dnt want to draw other ppl into this. its btwn u + me. i'm the one that doesn't like u
Me: I really think you've got the wrong person
Her: oh its u bitch
Me: Ok and what did I supposedly do to this person I fucked over?
Her: just the way u treated him, lied to him. ur a fucken skank
Me: now I know you've got the wrong girl. It's not me
Her: How about we meet and settle this face to face
Me: Sure if it'll shut you up by proving it's not me
Her: okay you dumb cow. Let me know where is good for u, sumwhere discreet - wld hate to be interupted
Me: You name the place. You're the crazy one. I don't really give a damn

Of course, I had no intention of actually meeting her. I just wanted to know where she would name as the place because I wasn't sure if she was from Auckland or Wellington, or somewhere els entirely.

I still have no clue who she is. She never named a place which kinda proves she was just all talk. It's pretty funny though! (And very crazy)

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No more politics

Monday, November 10, 2008
So, I decided I'm done with politics for a while. I'm sure many of you will be pleased. But what does that leave me to blog about I wonder?

I think I might do a list. I like lists. Hmmm but what to make a list about....

Oh! I know!

Holly's list of different types of celery
1. Regular celery


Hmm that's all i've got. No, wait! I've thought of another...

2. Regular celery

Crap. I already had that one. Maybe this wasn't a great list idea. Perhaps I can think of a better one tomorrow.

(5 points to whoever anyone who gets the reference)

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Kia Kaha, New Zealand

Sunday, November 09, 2008
Well, Holly is not happy because Labour lost the election last night. Not only that, but Helen Clark and Michael Cullen both stepped down. I'd been expecting Helen Clark to step down before the next election, but I didn't expect it to be so quickly. My dad pointed out that it's actually very good leadership - giving the new leader the maximum possible time to be in the role before the next election.

I read a comment on Stuff.co.nz today that I made me laugh. And then made me worried because it's so damn accurate so not really all that funny afterall. The comment was on this article.

The comment says:

Employer: "Hey I think we'll take you on, but only if you agree to the minimum wage for three months and work whenever I want you to without notice for 14hrs a day without breaks. And if you don't agree to keep doing that after the 90 days are up then I might have to find a reason to sack you, Ok? Oh no wait, I don't have to find a reason to sack you any more, I can just do it for no reason at all, wow all too easy!"

Trial employee: "But I have rent to pay and I have to save for private health care and for my private retirement fund, and my family likes to eat a meal at least once a day, and I like to see my children occasionally. I'm a human being and over millions of years my body was designed to function during daylight after having several hours sleep each day. That's a real crap offer, Sir."

Employer: "Oh well, bugger off then, I'll employee someone else since there are so many unemployed to choose from".

Trial Employee "That's OK, I hope I haven't offended you with my presence. I am very grateful for my high broadband speeds. Since I have no home I can park my cardboard box house right next to the local telecom exchange and plug straight in. It makes it all worth it."


I'll be interested to see how many people regret their National vote in 6-12 months time. My guess is it will be a lot.

I'm very ashamed of, and scared for, my country right now.

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Election night

Saturday, November 08, 2008
I'm sitting at home watching the election results roll in. I'm very scared, but trying to remain hopeful.

Expect either an extremely happy or extremely sulky blog from me tomorrow. No matter what, you can expect it to be about politics!

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VOTE!

Friday, November 07, 2008
Tomorrow is election day in New Zealand.

Please, please, please go and vote. If you don't vote you are giving up your right to have a voice in this country. Even if you don't like John Key OR Helen Clark, you should still vote. Vote for a minor party, that way you are lessening the chance of one party governing alone. The beauty of MMP is that it allows the minor parties to reign the major parties in a bit. It keeps them honest, or as honest as politicians can be.

If you don't want to vote for a minor party then decide who you think is the lesser of two evils out of John Key and Helen Clark and vote for them. No matter what you do, one of the two of them is going to be the Prime Minister of our country from tomorrow. Not voting doesn't stop that. But voting means that you are at least having an influence on the outcome. And if the party you vote for doesn't win? Well at least you tried.

I see absolutely no logical reason to not vote. If you have one, then by all means tell me in the comments. Otherwise, go and vote!!!!!

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A huge week in politics

Thursday, November 06, 2008
Today just felt like a great day to be alive. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and nothing could dampen my mood. Do you know why? Because America elected a President to be proud of yesterday.

I know he's not going to save the world. He's not going to right every wrong ever committed. But Obama become the President-elect yesterday showed that America, and hopefully that means the world, is beginning to move in the right direction. Equality is not there yet, the passing of Prop 8 (anti gay marriage) proved that, but we are one step closer. Obama didn't just win, he won overwhelmingly. Even forgetting all his policies for a moment, I think we just have to celebrate the fact that Americans voted an African American President in. That is huge.

And I just want to say, McCain's concession speech proved that he is a decent guy. I hope that his supporters take on-board his words about Obama. If McCain - who desperately wanted to be President and has tried and failed many times only to get tantalisingly close this time and yet fail again - can admit that Obama will be a great President and will do good things for America, then I hope McCain supporters will at least give Obama a chance.

AND I hope New Zealander's will see Obama's win as the world voting left-wing. Labour is the New Zealand equivalent of Obama, people. NOT National, despite John Key's claims. This has not been a good campaign by either of our major parties, but think about what is at stake. Do we really want a right-wing government? A government that will take away money and services from our poorest people - the ones who need that help most?

I admit, Helen Clark isn't the orator that Obama (or even McCain) is. New Zealand's never had a Prime Minister who is a stunning orator because that's not one of the skills required to get the job of Prime Minister the way it is to get the job of President. But not being a stunning orator does not mean she is not a good leader. She IS a good leader. She is proven that time and again.

Every government makes mistakes - especially in a term of 9 years. Don't look at the mistakes, look at the good things Labour have done for this country.

- Cheaper healthcare
- Cheaper early childhood education
- Better benefit schemes
- Less unemployment
- More police on the streets (still not enough, but definitely more)
- Free public transport for the elderly
- Interest-free loans for tertiary students (this is HUGE)
- Better availability of student-allowance
- A real way of saving for our retirement (I know some people disagree with Kiwisaver. But have those people actually thought about what they are going to do when they retire? You sure as shit can't rely on a National-led government to look after you in your old age.)
- A New Zealand owned bank that has extremely competitive rates
- Getting back a state-owned railway system (which led to the free travel for elderly)

The list goes on. Those are just things I could think of off the top of my head. Don't be sucked in by National's tax cuts. In order to get them we will lose other important things. Not to mention they are changing the tax brackets so a lot of people won't be better off at all. (My mum for instance will get a higher tax refund from National but will also have been moved into a higher tax bracket meaning, in the end, she will lose money. A lot of people who are planning to vote for National solely based on wanting a tax cut will probably find themselves in the same situation.)

I know we are in a recession at the moment. (Believe me, I know!) But, no matter what he claims, John Key cannot save us from it. It's not just happening in New Zealand, it's happening in the whole world. Now more than ever we need a government who looks after the little people and not just the rich. We need a government who knows what they are doing, who is experienced and who will not privatise everything in sight right when we need state-owned enterprises.

Please. On Saturday think with your social conscience and not with your greed. Vote for Labour. Or, if you really can't stomach that, vote Green. Because what this country needs right now is a Labour/Green coalition government.

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Wahoo!!!!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Obama won!!!!!!!

Awesome. Totally, totally awesome. Today absolutely goes down in history. I can hear fireworks outside right now. It almost feels like everyone is celebrating Obama's victory. I know it's actually just guy fawkes day. But it still feels like a celebration.

I am unbelievably happy right now.

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Go Obama!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
This time tomorrow we'll know who the new President of the United States is. I, of course, have my fingers and toes crossed that it is Obama.

I am scared by the state of the world if the American voting public don't choose Obama. I'm not big on the whole 'vote for change' thing, if I was then I'd be voting National in the NZ election on Saturday, and I definitely won't be. But Obama is just the clear choice, what of heard of his policies are a million times better than what I've heard of McCain's. Obama actually seems to care about America and its people. McCain doesn't seem to care about much at all.

Looking forward to tomorrow. American voters - please don't let those of us who can't vote in this election down!

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Quiz night

Monday, November 03, 2008
Just finished this months movie quiz night. We came second! We thought for a minute there that we were going to come third again (we've come third EVERY other time) because we were second equal and it came down to a sudden death with one contestant from each team. But Kayla didn't let us down and we came second. Woo!

Now we'll probably come second for 4 months before it's finally time to come first.

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Final assignment DONE!

Sunday, November 02, 2008
I am now finished my final assignment for my course. My final assignment ever, unless I go crazy and decide to do more study at a later date.

It's a pretty good feeling. Now I've just got to head into school early in the morning so I can print it out and hand it in on time. I hope my alarm doesn't suddenly decide to fail on me and not go off!

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I love me some ex-cricket captain

Saturday, November 01, 2008
I got so excited last night when I arrived at the bar I was meeting my friends at. Why? Because we were sitting near a guy who looked very much like Stephen Fleming from the side. And, luckily, because of where our seats were positioned I pretty much saw him from the side the whole time. I knew it wasn't him, but it still made me happy. From the front, not so much like Stephen.

Today has been an assignment day and tomorrow will be as well. It's not so bad though, the assignment I'm doing is actually kind of fun. We have to invent a publishing house and then produce a whole lot of documents as if we were going to print a book. Stuff like project timelines, costings etc. I'm really enjoying it. Interestingly, it's a project management assignment and I recently got it into my head that I'd like to be a project manager. I then got rejected for a project management job I wanted and decided I didn't want to do it afterall. Now, doing this assignment, I'm back to thinking maybe I would like to do it. It's confusing being Holly. :P

Ingrid told me today that she actually told me about the Medieval Store a few weeks ago and commented that she wonders how it stays in business. I have no recollection of the conversation, but I have been thinking about it for weeks so it was obviously because of the conversation with her. The funny thing is I have this memory of the first time I noticed the store. Yet, either that memory or Ingrid's one is false. I'm going with probably mine since I'm sure you are more likely to create a false memory of thoughts than one of talking to someone.

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