Fonts and other things

Halfway through the first month already. Christine and Angela have gone to Palmerston North today taking Sophia along for the ride. 

Tried to post this as usual in Arial Font but it keeps reverting to Georgia. Why is beyond me. Tried Verdana but it does the same. Must be a Blogger fault. (Later in trying to correct it, it seems to have fixed itself except the colour changed - so I've changed it back!!) 

First Quiz night of the year last night but only 6 teams.  We shared the bonus with two other teams and came 2nd.  Not much $$$ but it was fun. Bonus was a pure guess of a soccer score. We called ourselves "Zealand New is not a stupid name. Yeah Right!" after the idiot who recently called her child Zealand-New. The other members of the family also had idiotic names. 

Cricket was a washout. Incredibly the weather has been great but everywhere the Windies went it rained - even in Napier.  

Just happened to notice that next Monday is Anniversary Day. Not working means I tend not to notice any holidays sneaking up. 

Talking Work:-  

IT IS 1944, and there is a war on. In a joint army and air force headquarters somewhere in England, Major Parkinson must oil the administrative wheels of the fight against Nazi Germany. The stream of vital paperwork from on high is more like a flood, perpetually threatening to engulf him.  Then disaster strikes. The chief of the base, the air vice-marshal, goes on leave. His deputy, an army colonel, falls sick. The colonel's deputy, an air force wing commander, is called a way on urgent business. Major Parkinson is left to soldier on alone.

At that point, an odd thing happens - nothing at all. The paper flood ceases; the war goes on regardless. As Major Parkinson later mused: "There had never been anything to do. We'd just been making work for each other."

That feeling might be familiar to many working in large organisations, where decisions can seem to be bounced between layers of management in a whirl of consultation, circulation, deliberation and delegation. It led Major Parkinson - in civilian dress, C. Northcote 

Parkinson, naval historian, theorist of bureaucracy and humorist. This is "Parkinson's law", first published in an article of 1955, which states: work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

The GIANT Squid

When June and Clive were here we went in to Te Papa to see the GIANT squid.  What I didn't realise is that they have large hooks at the end of their tentacles. They seemed about 10 cms long. Yuk!! The interesting thing was, that this, the largest squid ever found, is that the tentacles are not that long - it is the size of the (female) body that makes it the largest ever found.  At 4.2m and weighing 495 kgs it was caught by a fishing boat near Antartica in 2007. I see the Discovery Channel is going to have a documentary on it tonight.  

Monkeying about

Saw the below piece at www.bunnyherolabs.com and decided to put it into my blog but made a mistake and put it into the sidebar.
After going into the Settings and Template for the sidebar managed to delete it and have now placed it below. You can grab the banana and feed him. What childish fun. Oh well at least Kipp will probably like it.

More monkeying about - Ryder still on the booze and Luaki charged with trashing a motel. What is it about these idiots bringing themselves and their sport into disrepute. Too much money maybe. Not helped that Ryder got an ovation at Eden Park carrying the drinks. Do people really approve of his behaviour?

I realise that they are under pressure, as we also have a report today that 3 All Blacks were targeted by some skinheads, but managed to get away.

The real monkey

adopt your own virtual pet!

Some New Year thoughts

A statistical blip at the moment with all the deaths. Some say they are accidents - 4 dead in a fire - no smoke alarms; road "accidents"; dumb trampers - not properly equipped; girl killed by a jet-boat and now two dead ignoring the signs at Fox Glacier. I see they are already on the Darwin list of idiots.

What sort of person can't understand the above signs. I think they should put up signs with photos of the idiots who have died so far and have a blank sign saying " Cross the ropes and your picture will be here".

I mentioned in a previous post that after getting the PC back Internet Explorer wouldn't work so I downloaded Chrome and it seems OK. Have to find out now how to download the MS updates if Chrome is the default browser. 

Good news is that the lakes are full and the price of electricity had dropped to record lows so the price will drop - yeah right!

Comings and goings. Sarah, Joe, Kipp and Sophia back from their travels and Clive and June left today for the North. The weather has been Queensland like with unofficial 40 in Canterbury so they will feel right at home. 

It's Christmas so it must be war

Taken from the site: www.nocaptionneeded.com 

"So Hamas and Israel both wanted war and each got their wish. The war was no surprise when it came and the outcomes are predictable as well. 

Israel will use its overwhelming military superiority to smash enemy infrastructure while also killing many civilians, which will allow Hamas, broken but not destroyed, to claim moral and political victory. The international community will broker another truce, the band-aid of humanitarian aid will be restored, rocket attacks on Israel will diminish for a while, and the occupation policies that have turned the West Bank and Gaza into prisons will continue. A rejuvenated IDF will claim that it did indeed, as the Defense Minister promised, restore “peace and tranquility,” a phrase notable for not including the word “justice.” 

Then the rocket attacks or suicide attacks will resume, Israel will again be given the worthless admonition that it should allow itself only a proportionate response–which, technically, would be firing rockets at civilians–and so it goes. It is tempting to simply say, “a pox on both your houses.”

But then there is this:"

He has, in my view, a slight bias towards the Arab position.  I am convinced that as Israel has had a reasonably satisfactory peace settlement with Egypt and Jordan for many years the ceasefire blame lies elsewhere. This is notwithstanding that some drawback has to be made by Israel from Palestine.  Putting settlers into the conquered areas was a stupid act of arrogance.   

I believe a peace needs to be put in place and let run for a few years. Only then discussions should take place about the Palestine land issues. Again, biased, but I think that if a, adhered to by both sides, peace settlement was in place then the other issues would be solved. 

Of course this will not happen.

Social Welfare

I was thinking about the welfare 'system'.  

I wonder if the introduction of the old Family Benefit would help our present problems with looking after children.  The thoughts I have are -  

• we introduce a benefit of sufficient amount to make it worthwhile that people would want it
  
• it would be direct credited to the MOTHERS bank account
  
• at the Bank she could only get paid out by a voucher for food (not alcohol/cigarettes) or children's clothes
  
• anytime the address is found to be incorrect due to the return of Bank Statements then the benefit is stopped  
  
• we would reduce any benefit by the amount of the Family Benefit 

Costing would be crucial but long term it could pay off. This would enable us to put money into 'things' that are needed by the children and to keep track of the addresses.