Well seems I was wrong

I posted that I thought New Zealand would get walloped in the first test, but it seems like the result could swing the other way instead. At stumps on Day 1 Sri Lanka have been bowled out for a measley 154 after electing to Bat who knows why when the Groundsman has been saying all week that it would be a bowlers pitch on day one, and in reply New Zealand is 85/2. With Fleming on 7 and Cumming on 37.

This is almost the opposite of what I predicted though a big first innings lead will be New Zealands aim now, and kicking on to try and win by an innings

NZ vs Sri Lanka

Well now the Rugby season is over we are into the Summer of Cricket. New Zealand is about to begin its first test of the season against Sri Lanka, personally I don't think that the games are going to be as high scoring as commentators are seeming to suggest. Both teams have very potent bowling attacks, but New Zealands top order is still yet to fire. I have a suspiscion that New Zealand will go down big time in the first test as they just can't keep up with the Sri Lankans. Our Bowlers are where we have to beat them, and probably the batting will end up resting on McCullum, Oram, Vettori and Franklin again, So maybe our team can just rely on our bowlers, oh and wicket keeper. The specialist batsmen that have been selected for this series still worry me, yes picking younger players is a good idea, but How and Cumming have both failed before, and Sinclair is not much better. Lets get some completely new faces into the picture, how about Jesse Ryder???
I think making the changes was necessary, but I just don't think the right ones were made.

OE postponed

I have had to postpone my OE for a while, I have always had problems with my teeth and I have decided it is time to get them fixed once and for all. So I am postponing my OE until I can get my teeth fixed and then save to go, but I am still planning on heading out.

So seen as I am here for a while longer if anyone hears of any policy analyst positions avaliable I would be delighted to hear from them.

Census & New Zealanders

I was very pleased to see 11.1% of us agree that we are all New Zealanders. I hate the dividing by RACE! It doesn't matter who you are, if you are born in New Zealand you are a New Zealander. I am shocked to see that 157,000 of us do not speak english...this is quite bad, I am wondering how some of them survive in a society where the only language spoken in general is English, well ok other languages are spoken, but I mean in businesses, retail, restaurants, bars, etc.
And even though the government is looking at making Maori compulsory in schools only 23 % of Maori actually speak their own language. I am all for equal opportunity, but why force people to learn something when by choice they are choosing not to? I do not see how it will help them in the future.

The whole census and all the stats are brilliant, and hours could be spent intepreting them, but I am going to look at the New Zealander section in more detail. 11.1% put it as their choice this time despite having to tick other and add it to the form a number of these also chose to identify themselves as another ethnicity as well, and much to the shock and disbelief of the statisticians who seemed to think this was a redneck term, there were a large percentage of Maori in these, nearly equal to the 14.7% of Maori in New Zealand as a whole. This is significant in my opinion because it shows that at least 11% of New Zealanders, though I guess if you go by the statistics ALL New Zealanders (god thats a great term) are sick of the divisive policies of Race and being told where they fit by government and other groups. This is a very good sign for the future and I expect that if New Zealander was given its own tick box the number would greatly increase again. The government will not read into this anything at all and will continue to claim that it is just a bunch of Rednecks and White Supremecists, though this makes no sense as they would be more likely to put "European" as this places them 'above' the other races in their opinion, which is why I have never understood why it has been thought to be a redneck term.

Good on you 11%

Knife to a Gunfight

Well I am going to have my say on the court cases that are currently happening following the man attempting to rob a gun store with a machete. Personally I agree with both cases. The Man who tried to rob the place should be on a slightly higher charge than the one he is on, but thats not anything major. In the papers hundreds of people have condemned the police for prosecuting the man who shot him, I agree with the police in this case, If he didn't have a license for the gun he used he should be done under the law, but why was he working in a store when he didn't have a license to cover all the guns in the store?

I think the problem here is not with the police but solely with the law, obviously you can work in a gun store without a license to be in posession of a fire arm. This seems ridiculous. But he broke the law...its that simple.

Comments and Stats

Well I have been following this closely lately, and it seems since I have changed my blog to my new address that the hits on my old one have stayed the same or there abouts averaging about 20 a day unique visitors, while my current site fluctuates a lot between 0 and 20 never seeming to get the forwarded traffic, I am thinking about making the old site just a direct redirect over to my new one, but the problem is that would remove my old archives, I was wondering if anyone has an idea for how I can keep my archives from my old site and coninue them on my new one.

Also on the comments front I have been very thin, I would love to hear what people think and what they have to say on my blog, so go ahead and comment as much as you like.

Ice Hockey Update

Well my beloved Devils are sitting 2nd in their Division and 7th in the Eastern Conference for me this is quite disgusting on their track record since I started supporting them back in 1995. Since then they have won 3 titles and been runner up twice. just over a quarter of the way through the season this is one of their worst starts, but it is not as bad as last season where they ended the season with an 18 game winning streak to make the playoffs. So there is still hope.

The current Season Leaders.

Points


Jaromir Jagr 40
Marion Hossa 39
Rod Brind'amour 36

Goals


Marion Hossa 20

And in the lead for the Presidents Trophy we have:

Anahiem 46, Buffalo 42 and San Jose 40.

3 of the top 6 teams come from the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, this is a huge over representation. Philadelphia one of the teams almost everyone would put in the playoffs every year have been struggling so far this year and are languishing in 28th of the 30 teams. While Pittsburgh whose start was nearly as good as Buffalo (11-0) have now dropped off and are sitting in 22nd, their start of 10-1 has dropped to new stats of 11-14.

National Backs Electoral Review

National has come out today saying they will support the electoral funding review which will include measures such as the removal of trust funds as a funding scheme, and possibly go so far as to make campaigning funded completely by the Tax Payer. They also want the removal of 3rd party electioneering. But as in the case of the EB last year, does this funding count as support for every party, but the ones they attacked??
I personally even with the suggestions that have been made have started to see loop holes for more possible "secret" funding, Dummy Companies, Dummy Societies etc are not hard to set-up and would be a perfect method of funding. I personally see it as Labour annoyed that they get less outside funding than National does, who knows why National has agreed to support it? Though maybe they have already noticed the loopholes as well and plan to exploit them.

Thanks to DPF

Slow Drivers

According to Jeremy Clarkson, and I tend to agree with him on this one. Slow Drivers are serial Killers. look at the history, he mentioned more names than this, but here are a few examples, Adolf Hitler...He made the Volkswagen Beetle, not exactly a fast car, Saddam Hussein could you see him driving fast...and has any Race Car driver ever gone psycho and killed anyone??

So therefore after a mass killing the police should be looking for the car driving away at 40km/h not the one speeding away at 200KM/h.

Attack on Personal Freedom

If Labour and New Zealand First have their way the Immagration service will be able to take fingerprints, eye retina scans and (in extreme cases) DNA at the borders. This will not be only of immigrants and visitors, but also of citizens. I see this as a direct attack on my personal freedom, even though I know someone will come out and say that only the bad people need be worried. I disagree, I think that I have a right to certain freedoms and even in the states the only record is of foreigners or immigrants. This is not right!!! Though of course it may just be another means for the Police to catch criminals...like the scandal recently over blood taken from babies.

Idiots

david. nope. never tire of it.
but that said, "Take
Greece as an example. Their culture was 12 Gods etc, and all the powers and
myths. Great job they preserve the culture, but you'd be locked up as insane
in
Greece if you proposed spending public money on having people call on
Zeus to
take away the spirits of those who died in car crashes."
the
ancient greeks
didn't have cars. so, that argument isn't flying
either.

Che Tibby on Kiwiblog

Well I didn't think anyone could be this stupid or use a point so ridiculous, Well no of course the Ancient Greeks didn't have cars, but neither did the Maori, you bloody blathering retard, oh and I don't think there is a real religion in the world that is based in a time with cars, so how about no religious blessings of roads, no need according to Che's logic the Gods don't understand it anyway.

And the Winner is....

I was just checking the stats on my blog histories and referals and it is unbelievable, the largest referrer to my site is google image search of one man.

I can't believe this but it is kinda amusing, the man in the photo above is none other than Alexander Ovechkin.

Yes the most referrals to my Blog are about a Hockey Player Brilliant.

Look what I found

Well this morning I thought I should just take a random glance at the Salient Web page and I happened across this...The Last Lonely Letter So I didn't make the last salient with my letter, but this is much better and more appropriate. Cheers James, I must say I enjoyed this year of Salient more than any other yet.

Rugby World Cup

Well as people have probably realised with me heading to the States next year I am going to be in a very interesting position next September when the time of the Rugby World Cup comes around, now I don't know what the coverage will be like in the states so I may just have to Jump the border to the North so I can find somewhere to watch the World Cup. Now this means that my trip will include two countries purely so I can watch the Rugby.

Camp America Update

Well I have an update on my attempt to become a camp counsellor. I have an interview set now, and everything is coming together nicely now it is just a matter of saving the money so that I can make it. I really can't wait, I am looking forward to this so much now I think I'll have a great time.

Brash Falls on his Sword again

Well it appears Don Brash has fallen on his own sword twice inside a week after resigning as leader he announced at lunchtime today his resignation from parliament and that he would not be back for the new year. This was pretty much expected as he was unlikely to be wanted by many in the national party as it appeared they wanted a fresh start and a new looking team.

If someone can tell me who this brings into parliament could they post a comment and I will run a profile on them I am lost as to who is next on Nationals list

Laptop

Hey I am looking for a new laptop, well not new, but secondhand and don't wanna spend too much, so if someone has one sitting around or knows of someone looking to seel one could they post a comment on here or send me an email please.

Welsh Snub

The Welsh have stopped the All Blacks doing the Haka, well not quite, but they have tried to break the pattern so the All Blacks have given the fans the big finger. Now I am more pissed at the All Blacks over this than at the Welsh. If I had been the All Blacks I would've waited to the end of the National Anthem and gone and done the Haka like Normal and said Hell to with the Welsh if they wanna kick off, go ahead the all blacks will still beat you anyway.

"So I shall name my "Front Bench aka Key Leaders for National" I believe that John Key is the right pick to lead the national party. behind him as Deputy I would pick Judith Collins as this will a) get more women attracted to National and secondly she has been one of the top players in this term in opposition. The other key members of a strong National front bench would have to be Katherine Rich, Bill English, Simon Power, Nick Smith, Gerry Brownlee, Lockwood Smith and Tony Ryall. This combination I believe would be able to lead the party to a victory in the next election. Then behind these are an excellent team still with Murray McCully, David Carter and Maurice Williamson pushing them hard. "

I said this on my blog on Sept 27th 2006, and I stick by these members as the right team to lead National now that a change is needed. here is the whole post...National Blunders

So I would like a John Key and Judith Collins team, but its not going to happen.

LIOT Part V: Stadium

The Government seems to be more willing to spend taxpayer money on White Elephants like a "National" Stadium in Auckland than concentrating on making the country better for the people who live here.

The so-called "National" stadium will not be used and is more Labour trying to build a monument to their time in power than giving any benefit to the country. If Labour really cared about the people they would be spending the money they want to waste on this stadium on Healthcare education or even to stop this disgusting spiral of violence that is currently prevalent in our society.

Did anyone else know that it would be cheaper for Labour to fly 80,000 people to Sydney to watch the World Cup Final than it would be for them to build this stadium, now that is ridiculous in itself. Labour has continued with building on their ideas and not bringing about policies that will better the country, but what more could we expect from a group that use taxpayers money to get themselves reelected??