But you're like really pretty?

I just took a cab ride with this female driver I've seen around before (I feel so much better in a cab with a female driver. Paranoid, perhaps) and we chatted on the journey, she asked me what I was studying etc. I told her I was doing law and politics at which point she said "but you're really pretty?"

....

I got Regina Georged. In a nice way. I think.

Apparently pretty girls (also, apparently I'm pretty) don't do law and politics. I am reminded of this:

From lolnats

White-rapping. The craze has begun.

Here are a few others which people have posted on Facebook (oh noes! A meme!)

Gina:

As I take a leisurely stroll through the canyon of the overbearing darkness of the afterlife, I contemplate my mortality and come to the conclusion there’s a vast nothingness...

With lots of vigor force and activity, beautiful looking lady, we're going to hold a gathering as if it's your annual celebration, we're going to commemorate like it's your get together for your natal day, we're going to drink rum slowly as if it's your shindig, and you know we don't give two hoots that there's no annual event to mark with this special occasion. 

Tim:

I am a stultus of tertiary level education with the common form of exchange on my conscious and unconscious cognative processes? 

I'm also thinking we can branch out a little into other types of music...

The young ladies from the state of California are really rather neat, they tend to wear cut-off denim shorts (similar to those worn by the character of Daisy in the popular television show and film: The Dukes of Hazard) and the top half of a two-piece swimsuit. 

I love xkcd.

It's for nerds who like funny things.

Exhibit A:

Er'body in the club getting' tipss....

I saw this:

Which is hilarious and it inspired me to create some of my own 'white' raps. 'Cause that's how I roll.

See if you can guess what songs they come from! (It's a game, playas... I'll stop now I promise).

All personages in the vicinity of this place of recreation and inebriation are imbibing alcoholic beverages and beginning to feel their effects on their systems.

And

I am a pleasant fellow, with some admirable aspirations, do you observe here these cubes of ice and additionally here, these frozen dairy products?

And

The authorities see me tootling along in my automobile and appear to look upon me with a derisive and suspicious manner. While patrolling their assigned streets they attempt to apprehend me while operating my vehicle in an illegal or immoral fashion.  

I'm pretty sure they're off the heezy.

A. SS. HO. LE

For Paul Henry who is outta here!

Go Here For Lolz

really good day

Today was epic.

Len Brown won - thank fuck for that. Can you imagine another three years of John Banks?! So happy for Len and the team - great work everyone who helped out sign-waving, leafleting door-knocking, phone-canvassing and all that jazz.

You guys rock my world. I wish I'd been able to help out (mad crazy busy world).

The weird thing is that I dreamed Len would win. Months ago, before the election really started. It was weird, I went into work and (it was dead quiet, I had loads of time to think) and suddenly it occurred to me that the election hadn't happened yet, so why was I so certain that Len had won? I don't usually remember my dreams, so it was a weird sort of feeling.

I had this clear memory of someone saying to me 'Len Brown's won!' and me being happy.

What's really weird is that I also dreamed that the number of votes he won by had a six in it somewhere.

He won by 60,000 votes.

FREAKING ME OUT.

I may have inherited this weird Welsh thing from my mum, she has dreamed many many weird things before they happened. Crazy Celtic shit.

ANYWAY.

Also, I went to see Gin Wigmore tonight and it was incredible!! She is so fabulous, her voice is amazing and that band is really really very good.

Go and see her - the Grave Train Tour - so worth it. BEST concert I have ever been to (and I've been to see both Dylan and Clapton)

Also I bought a really very nice bag. I like bags.

We'd Rather Be: It Gets Better

An inspiring post from my friend Phoebe's blog:

We'd Rather Be: It Gets Better:

"For those of you who haven't heard, there have been a string of suicides across America - over the last few weeks in particular - by gay youth. These kids - yes, it's KIDS who are out there taking their own lives - were suffering under regular, heavy bullying and violence against them because of their sexuality.

It sickens and saddens me that, after how far we've come as a human race, these things are still going on. That we are still allowing something as personal and private as one individual's choices to affect their humanity in our eyes. That there are people out there who truly believe they have the right to tell a person who they are and what they are worth - or aren't worth - based on their sexual preference just baffles me. Where does this sense of entitlement come from? How do those people sleep at night believing they have done the 'right' thing in harassing and assaulting innocent teenagers whose decisions affect no one but themselves? How do those people go through their lives day by day, reassured by the fact that they have somehow made the 'right' choice in who they choose to love, and the others out there who have made the 'wrong' choice are nothing more than scum and need to be shown so? To me, it goes against everything we are supposed to be as people - loving, accepting, honouring of each other - and is a demonstration of everything in ourselves we need to be fighting against - selfishness, arrogance, ignorance, fear - every minute of every day.

The outcry against these heartbreaking suicides, by kids who felt they really had no other option but to end their own lives, has been really inspiring, and can hopefully bring a little bit of hope into the worlds of those kids who feel like nothing can save them. The It Gets Better video campaign that has been growing day by day on the internet as celebrities and other well-known public figures post videos of encouragement and hope. Those messages, while only minutes long, are hopefully helping lost and confused teens out there realize that while it feels like it can't get any worse, it can actually get better. That while there are countless others out there who not only went through the exact same feelings, contemplated the exact same actions and often attempted them themselves, they are all people who made it through. They realized that the only person you need to worry about making happy is yourself, because at the end of the day there is no one else. They realized that as they got older they grew, and in doing so they learned to accept themselves for who they are and what they want, and they realized that nothing about that is wrong. They realized that it does get better, and it keeps getting better every single day. They realized that fighting for who they are is so much better than running away.

For those of you who tend to judge, stop for a minute. Imagine your brother, your sister, your best friend, coming to you and sharing the most difficult part of themselves with you. Imagine their heart pounding, their hands shaking, the fear in their eyes as they sit there in front of you, more open than they have ever wanted to be, and wait to hear from you what they have feared all along: that they are disgusting, that they are wrong, that they are unnatural. That they have made the wrong 'choice'. Why would anybody make that 'choice' knowing what comes with it? Imagine being that brother, sister, best friend. What reaction would you fear, and what reaction would you dare to hope for? What reaction would you deserve? As a human being, just as beautiful, talented, smart, passionate, excited, hopeful, dream-filled, as the next, what reaction would you deserve?

It's up to us to show those people what they deserve, and to give it to them. It's up to us, as people, to show them that it gets better."
by Phoebe at We'd Rather Be

Summer must be nearly here

I debuted my summer legs today. When I was in my house they looked okay, their usual stumpy-tree-trunk-like selves (which used to cause me a lot of self-consciousness and insecurity, but thanks to the power of leggings and body-positive campaigns I've got over this) sticking out from underneath my very cute grey woollen skirt. When I went into the sun, I remembered that they, much like vampires (real ones, not sparkly ones) have not seen the sun since I was about eight.

I could stand at the roadside of an evening and use them as reflective posts (considered making a pun about this being a reflective post about reflective posts, reconsidered and moved on).

I think I blinded several small furry animals on my way to the bus stop.

But maybe this summer, having more confidence in my legs, I will allow them a little more sun so I can tan a little of the Welsh-ness out of them.

Let summer come so that we pasty anglo-europeans can enjoy the ritual of trying to tan, looking like a lobster from the sunburn and then fading to a slightly more tanned version of the norm.

Oh for a drop of melanin!

Paul Henry is an Asshole

Yes indeed. He's not a good kiwi bloke who just speaks his mind or a hilarious talk show host looking for ratings. He's not to be ignored or dismissed. He is an asshole who needs to be sacked.

He's a racist, homophobic, sexist, people-with-disabilities-ist gibbering idiot. And apparently a monarchist, though what that has to do with making racist comments about the Governor General I don't know.

I'd like Paul Henry to tell me exactly what a New Zealander looks like? Colin Meads? John Key? Some other middle aged/elderly white bloke?

I'd also like the TVNZ spokeswoman who claimed that Paul Henry speaks for me to know that he doesn't. I don't find it appropriate to refer to a woman's physical appearance in order to ridicule her or to imply that there is only one way of 'looking like' a New Zealander (besides the fact that Anand Satyanand is a New Zealander, he doesn't have to 'look like' one).

I wouldn't secretly think that homosexuality is unnatural or that using the word 'retard' to describe someone is OK.

And Paul, I am not 'overly sensitive' or 'easily offended.' I respect people, and that is one of the many differences between you and me.

Actually, there are some people I actively disrespect. Paul Henry, for instance.