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Showing posts from August, 2017

VoteCompass - Will It Sway Me?

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So, I've done Policy from SpinoffTV and On The Fence , so let's give VoteCompass from TVNZ a whirl -  https://votecompass.tvnz.co.nz/ It's simple, if quite intrusive, just click through a stack of questions rating them on a scale, then rate the parties and leaders, check the results, fiddle with the weightings and voila, yet another picture of who they think I will be voting for ... but we know who I'll be voting for eh, Paul Eagle (Labour) for the Rongotai Electorate and Greens with my Party Vote. "Intrusive Mike, how so?" - they ask quite a bit about yourself, age, where you live (by postcode) and anything else you want to give them - all voluntary and you don't have to do it! They will even accept your Twitter handle if you want which totally puts who you voted for last time and who will vote for this time (if you tell them) as public record ... This is me after all that ...

Death Spam

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Been a very long time since I looked in my email Spam folder and whilst a lot of it is just tedious the following did make me grin, enjoy. Highlights include the amount, "$10.800`000'00USD" which I think they are saying is $1,498,543,340.40 New Zealand dollars but who can tell with all that crazy use of special characters. One billion, 498 million, 543 thousand, 3 hundred and 40 dollars. And 40 cents. Is my "TOTAL FUNDS" I wish! Also their loving words to me, "MAY YOUR GENTLE SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE. ", and the fact that "Christine smith" uses a lowercase whilst being the "DIRECTOR OF (IMF)" (oh, it was all in UPPERCASE and I have no idea why :) Subject: YOUR SILENT IS A CLEAR PROOF THAT YOU ARE REAL DEAD From:  Christine smith DEAR VALUED CUSTOMER, I NEED TO CONFIRM THAT THIS IS REALLY TRUTH BEFORE WE RELEASE YOUR TOTAL FUNDS TO THIS GENTLE MAN. THIS OFFICE WAS CONTACTED BY Mr. Richards Thomas WHO  CLAIMED T

On The Fence - Another Election 2017 Help Site

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A lot easier to do (and therefore likely to be a lot more simplistic in it's results) than Policy site - see my " Emotion Or Policy - I Will Vote Greens (Party) And Paul Eagle, Labour (Electorate) " post for more on that. This site asks a series of questions to which you use a slider to answer between 2 opposite options before stating how important the subject is. Check it out at: http://www.onthefence.co.nz/ And so me, according to the website: Quite different than the other site eh:

Emotion Or Policy - I Will Vote Greens (Party) And Paul Eagle, Labour (Electorate)

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As I write this I see no reason not to change my vote from what I thought I was going to do a year ago -   Greens (Party) And Paul Eagle, Labour (Electorate). I'll be honest, before Jacinda Ardern became leader I was umming and ahhhing about Labour but am now comfortable with my decision. Oh, and any non-Kiwi's who are wondering why I get to vote twice, we have MMP here - it's MUCH fairer than FPP, check it out (video) . BUT, is this just an emotional / feeling-based decision on my part? Yes, of course it is ... but hey, let's go find out using The SpinOff's most excellent "Policy" sub-site: http://policy.thespinoff.co.nz/ As they they explain , all the main parties available policies have been chopped up, summarised and placed together so you can compare and contrast each in 10 areas - economy , education , environment , health , housing , incomes , justice , migration , te ao Māori , and transport . Each section is split into subsections

Dry July 2017 - I Won

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I was warned that the first week would be the hardest and so it proved to be ... so much so that after my first post I completely forgot about Dry July, didn't have a beer (or wine, or any alcohol) for the rest of the month whilst not caring a jot. Having 2 weeks of sheer hell with illness helped. The Cancer peeps got just over $500 (our of a grand total of $385,189) which, whilst being only half of what I was hoping for, is bloody frigging awesome of everyone that donated their own hard cash to strangers. Thank you call so much. And yes, you CAN DONATE still .. . (Oh, special shoutout to Owen who not only did his own Dry July but bought a golden ticket for me so that I could have a beer (I had 3) during the final All Blacks v Lions test :) Has it worked - do I feel better about myself? Yes. I am much more conscious of drinking alcohol and I notice myself when I want a beer and not ust dive straight on in. Let's not forget that I'm no alcoholic and so I am doing th