Friday

Recession? What Recession?

The front section of today's NZ Herald (Friday, March 27, 2009) is 28 pages thick. Of those 28 pages:

There are 9 Full Page ads
There are 8 Half Page ads


Which means 13 pages of the 28 are advertising. That of course does not mean 15 pages of news, since there are a whole bunch of one third and quarter page ads I couldn't be bothered aggregating.

What does this mean?

I dunno. Maybe it means retail are going great guns because they can afford full page full colour ads in Section A of the NZ Herald. Maybe it means that the Herald are discounting the cost of advertising in order to maintain revenue.

I really don't know. What I do know is that when little fluffy bunnies fart they smell like perfume...

Wednesday

The New Facebook Layout

The new Facebook layout means that whatever you write on someone's wall is not between just you and them, it's also between you and all your friends because it appears on their Home page too. Example:

Jonathan Surfing - its just suffering with less letters! Especially when the sun is shining, the surf is up and NO VEHICLE to get me there. Help!
Posted about an hour ago · Comment

Shannon >>(Jonathan) I work with Nick Tansleys soon to be wife - very small world.
Posted about an hour ago · See Wall-to-Wall

Jonathan >>(Shannon) ah ha! well it's meant to be is'nt it! Cosmic co-incidence gateway... Fancy looking at surfboards in your lunchbreak today? (if you get one!)
Posted about an hour ago · See Wall-to-Wall

Shannon sorry no can do today - but friday lunchtime maybe?
Posted about an hour ago · Comment · Like

The above is just an innocent example, but I've seen plenty of others from my many Facebook friends that have made me cringe (and laugh) thinking "WTF have I said that I thought was private, but wasn't?"

So now you know, if you want it private, use the email function on Facebook - not The Wall.

Oh yes, and the other thing that is not private is the Quiz you took. Nothing wrong with taking a Quiz, but when you do 10 in a row and all your results are posted to our Home Pages ... well, I hope you're not doing it at work because your Boss will find out. Just because your workplace hasn't blocked access to TradeMe and Facebook doesn't mean the I.T. department isn't tracking individual useage and seeing who's on at lunch time (okay) and who's on during work time (not okay)...

Sunday

Nevermind The Credit Crisis - Who Will Pay For The Iraq Debacle?

Nick joined the group 10,000,000 For the Prosecution of Bush and Cheney for War Crimes.

Yes. Yes I did. Do I think it will happen? No. But (as one of my Facebook friends pointed out) I didn't think the US would elect a Black Man as President either.

It's easy to forget about Iraq now that Obama has set a date for pulling the US troops out, but we shouldn't forget. Here's a reminder of just how sick it is:



And why they failed to win 'hearts and minds':




Wednesday

Cheap Sex Photo's On Facebook - The Dilemma Continues

The following is a cut 'n' paste from a discussion on Facebook. I'm interested in what you think. Do you deserve what you get? Are you going to be the next Pauline Hanson?:

Peter McLennan [posts a link to NZ Herald story, and makes this comment on his wall]:
Kiwi has his photo stolen from Facebook and used in ad. Maybe time to delete all your photos from FB?
10:08am · Comment · Like

Nick D'Angelo at 12:39pm March 17
Yeah, bin wondering the same thing re Cheap Sex photos...

Jo Schmidt at 2:24pm March 17
Doesn't making them only accessible to your friends resolve this issue? (I do this with the ones of my baby, and I don't want his pics getting into the hands of weirdos.)

Nick D'Angelo at 2:29pm March 17
yeah, but CheapSex has 150+ friends - are they all still as cool as they were 10+ years ago? It's a tricky dilemma...

Jo Schmidt at 3:59pm March 17
Hmmm ... don't put photos of naked babies on the site?

Nick D'Angelo at 6:04pm March 17
nevermind naked babies ... it's the semi-naked ppl dancing on the bar at Squid who are now married with children ....
LOL

Jo Schmidt at 7:32pm March 17
Well, they just deserve what they get. (Luckily I know that group doesn't include me. I think.)

Ryan Ashton at 10:14pm March 17
You can't delete your photos can you thats the thing - read the T&C's they own everything you put in here and it's for sale....

Saturday

Is This Funny?

Someone sent me this joke via email. Do you think it's funny?
Seriously, let me know via the comments section below.

CHINESE SICK LEAVE: 'I NO COME WOK TODAY!!!'

Hung Chow calls his work and says, 'Hey, I no come wok
today, I really sick . Got headache, stomach ache and legs
hurt, I no come wok.'

The boss says, 'You know something, Hung Chow, I really
need you today. When I feel sick like you do, I go to my
wife and tell her to give me sex. That makes everything
better and I go to work. You try that.'

Two hours later Hung Chow calls again. 'I do what you say
and I feel great. I be at wok soon.........You got nice house.'


It's a variation of the Lazy Chinaman stereotype prevalent at the beginning of last century, but I bet you could re-word it to suit any immigrant/race you didn't like. But does it matter if it's racist if it's funny? Or maybe it's not racist? What do you think?

Thursday

BFM 40th Anniversary Interview

Auckland University radio station 95bFM celebrates it's 40th anniversary this year, although obviously they didn't start out as an FM station. Founded in 1969, bFM was a pirate student radio station, broadcast from a boat - which ran aground in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour - and played illegally on speakers around the University. The iconic ‘b’ originally stood for "bosom" in honour of a capping week graduation stunt. [source: wiki]

Anyway, I had some involvement with the station last century and was asked to do an interview for a radio documentary series they were making about the old days. Since my vanity knows no bounds I was naturally happy to do so. They asked me to bring in 5 tracks that represented my time at the station and the interview would be pre-recorded, edited, and broadcast at a later date.

Driving up to the station for the interview I kept reminding myself "Don't mention the war, don't mention the war", in reference to a famous Fawlty Towers episode where Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) is warned not to mention WWII to a a group German tourists booked into his B&B. Naturally he can't help himself and hilarity ensues.

In my own case the 'war' I wanted to avoid mentioning wasn't so much a war as a political battle I had when I became Station Manager in 1989. I made some changes that some of the Old Guard didn't like and didn't feel were necessary, and they lobbied to have me removed. It's quite a long story in itself and I really should tell it one day, but suffice to say they failed and I continued on as Station Manager.

Anyway, this doco is about celebrating 40 years of BFM so I resolved not to mention those tumultuous times in my interview, and to just focus on the good times. Of which there were many - I have a very deep fondness for BFM. It shaped my adult career path... (I use the term 'career' loosely!)

So naturally, like Basil Fawlty, it took all of 10 minutes before I mentioned the student-political battles I faced as Station Manager back in '89-'90!! The interview was conducted by Dubhead (a BFM DJ) and he was great - we chatted for probably 90 minutes about anything and everything. Naturally after the interview was finished I felt bad about discussing old conflicts, but Dubhead assured me it was all good stuff and that I'd kept it positive (which I had, actually).

Despite this, there was still some trepidation when the interview finally went to air. I wanted to be honest about my time there but I also didn't want to open old wounds. The people I had 'battled' with were good people, they loved the B as much as I did, we just had different views on how the station should progress. I needn't have worried - the interview was edited by Troy Fergussen (BFM's Friday Wire host) and he did a brilliant job.

He cut out ALL that stuff, leaving just this 20 minutes:

Episode 2 - Nick DÁngelo

MP3, 0m00s, 40.2MB, first broadcast 7 March 2009

Nick D''Angelo -- original 80s b-boy, agent provocateur, and (not a) male stripper recounts how he -- with inspiration from Malcolm McLaren -- broke the one-rap-song-per-show rule and turn the tables on the early-80s indie hegemony.

Only the spoken portions of Nick's broadcast are available on the podcast


I'll blog more about this later, but in the meantime I'm interested in what you think of the interview...

Tuesday

Dancing With The Stars

Dancing With The Stars is on TV1 tonight, but I won't be watching it. It's a crap show and I'm not interested in it so I won't be watching it (which isn't to say I'm not interested in some crap TV shows, because I am, and I watch them).

Anyway I just wanted to go on record as saying that the winner will be that guy Tamati who does the weather on the TV1 Breakfast show, because he's a good looking nice young boy and we (the TV viewing nation) have seen him on 'What Now?' before joining 'Breakfast'. The rest of them are nobodies or used-to-be's.

That's all I have to say. It's not hard - I could tell you who's going to win American Idol if you're interested...

I enjoyed Flight of the Conchords last night. That's not a crap show BTW.

I Stole This Off Facebook

I saw this in a Facebook Friend's profile page, and it it was so funny I had to cut 'n paste. To quote Homer Simpson: 'It's funny because it's true!'. When I get drunk enough I'll blog about the night I set out to use the cheesiest pick up lines I could think of - and the hilarity that ensued...

Michelle is feeling rather bitter and is very tired of hearing the same old lines.
[You like this]

Venus at 8:37pm
"lie down babe, lets watch a movie!" *yawns and puts hand over body* hahahah.

Michelle at 8:45pm
hahahahahahahaha loves it..."I just never found the right girl until now"

Louise at 8:47pm
"I am looking for that one special person to share things with..." (like .... sex ... for example ... and not 'bills' ... as an example on the 'not-share' list!)

Venus at 8:50pm
"i just want to make love to youuuu. you're the hottest girl ever! kiss me mamacita!!"

Louise at 9:01pm
"Oh my God... I mean really... I never get hard like this... never"
lol!

Louise at 9:02pm
maybe we should write a self help book entitled 'Trendy, Rad and Never-Used-Before Pick Up Lines for Modern Don Juans'??!!

Brandi at 9:03pm
"I just feel like I want to wake up with you"

Michelle at 9:08pm
"U make me harder than any other girl,what is it about you"
Shit idk dude, must be why you aint txtd for days cus I made u so hard!
I wanna wake up with you too Brandi!!
The modern Don Juan ah sigh...i cant wait to go out tonite, maybe hear some new lines... step it up playas!

Louise at 9:09pm
"Look the thing is... I'm just confused"

Michelle at 9:19pm
"its not like we're dating"

Louise at 9:28pm
"It's just that... I've never been with anyone like you before"

I had to choke on the one above... (no that's not a line... it's my genuine reaction)

Michelle at 9:31pm
ugh.

Robert at 12:26am
"My friend over there would like to know your phone number. He'll need to know how to pick me up from your place in the morning."

Halie at 3:01am
do you take pills????

Robert at 3:07am
Best pickup line ever is "I have Franch accent."

Michelle at 3:21am
lol..."I wanna make a bebe with you"