mexirish...nz

An article on the Washington Post website asks : What is your vision of heaven? What images from scripture, tradition or your own personal experience describe it best? The answer given by Paula Kirby seems to me to be the best, most well thought out response to a question such as this. I recommend you read it, but to summarize,  she says: To a Christian, the only point of life is to win a place in heaven to be with God for ever. But what is the point of that ? Apparently it is to praise God for his goodness in sending Jesus so that we could be saved from the eternity of torment that would otherwise have awaited us in hell (and there's another preposterous idea that has caused more than its fair share of avoidable human misery, but perhaps that will be a subject for another day). and... Fortunately, there is not the slightest evidence that points towards the existence of heaven, for it would be nothing but unspeakable tedium. I can't help thinking that the people who find...

This past week, Wellington has been host to La Révolte des Mannequin . La Revolt des Mannequin, or The Revolt of the Mannequins , is a set of French art installations.  Around the town, several shop fronts are installed with Mannequins posed and doing various things. Each day, they appear shifted to a new pose, giving the impression that they're moving. And thus a story is told. There where ten of them in the CBD area, but the first that caught my attention was called Nightmare of the Puddle and featured a man enjoying a drink on the first day.  But as the days progressed, the man appeared to be melting form the feet down, forming a large puddle of plastic. By the end, he had practically disappeared completely, and a cleaning lady was mopping up the remains into a blue plastic bucket.  On the last day, she throws the contents of the bucket at the window. Another excellent one wasn't hosted in one shop.  It was called the Inspector and the Sniper.  It f...

These days, Jacqui drags herself out of bed at about 6.30am to get out in time for the 7:25 bus. I'm an unemployed bum, so I stay in bed. So, this morning she managed to grab this outstanding photo of sunrise over the eastern hills. Breathtaking.

Saturday evening was spent at Neil Gaimans 's talk.  It was his part in the New Zealand International Arts Festival . We went with our friends Jen, Dom & Jordan.  The compere (she seemed nice) introduced him as the Amadaus Mozart of postmodernist literature.  Aside from the fact that I usually detest the term "postmodern" when assumed to mean anything (can you define it satisfactorily?), I thought it was quite a clever description. The talk itself was excellent - he read 3 short poems. I can't remember the order, but they were: 1) A story called "My Last Landlady" about a murderous landlady in an unnamed English seaside town.  Sounds like Brighton. 2) A story about the bones of Saint Odhrán buried under the church on the Island of Iona which is just of the west coast of Scotland.  Downpatrick , the town I went to school in, gets a breif mention :) 3) A beautiful poem (which he described as his credo) about reading Goldilocks to his daughter....

Well, Richard Dawkins was in Wellington last night to do a talk as part of the NZ International Arts Festival . Jacqui and I had bought tickets as soon as we heard he was coming (months ago!) and were amongst first in line to get to a good seat. our friends Raquel and Cristina were with us. We settled about half way back, not so close as to be craning our necks; not so far as to be unable to see.  The view from our seats.  I put the phone away when Richard came on to the stage. The room was filled almost to capacity.  This, I remind you, is not a rock concert or a famous actor.  This is a talk by a scientist.  And the room is filled to capacity.  I hope this is a sign of the times.  I hope that scientific literacy is improving.  10 years ago, I don't think a science writer could have attracted such a large crowd in a small city like Wellington.  Perhaps we're putting myth, superstition and religion behind us.  Perhaps. The talk...

As you probably may have gathered from reading my other posts, you'll know that I have little respect for religion. I'm proud to call myself an Atheist, and think that's it's probably the only philosophy worthy of respect in a sea of morally bankrupt religions. Christopher Hitchens seems to live in the same moral sea as I, and in keeping with this he's written a nice little article for Vanity Fair about the 10 "Commandments" - the moral framework set forth by the judeo-christian god. He goes through all the biblical commandments one by one and deals with them as one would given today's ethical environment.  I'm always horrified by people who treat the biblical commandments as if they're in some way a moral high point. They're really not, and I admit to being further horrified by the glaring omissions (genocide, rape, child abuse and care for the environment.  Wouldn't an omnipotent god have known about these too?) So check out h...

I was browsing the old intertubes today and happened upon a guitarist.  He was showing the qualities of a brand of guitar amplifier on Laney's website and I was quite impressed with the guy playing the yellow guitar. I went along to the youtube page (where the video is hosted) and discovered that he was a French guy called Christophe Godin , and he's remarkable.  Seriously good doesn't even begin to describe his style; I thought I was quite good, but I now realise that I have to work alot more to get anywhere near this guy.  His style reminds me of Joe Satriani, but he's interesting and pleasant to listen to (unlike Joe, who isn't either). I read further and discovered that he's mostly known for playing in French band called Metal Kartoon, who I must admit I've never heard of.  There's no sign on iTunes, so I may have to dig a bit deeper.   Rockin' Out! Go to his website and have a look at his videos.  It's all in French, but really it do...

Well it's turning out to be an interesting time. As I discussed recently , contracting is turning out to be something of a pain in the ass. I recently started applying for suitable contracts in Auckland - a sprawling city in the North. Apparently. I managed to secure a phone interview with a Nameless Large Company, and they kindly informed me afterwards that I came "a close second".  This was cool, and usually that woud have been the end of it.  Us contractors have to be used to rejections - it's part of the job. But they have confused matters a bit - they told my agent that they might consider me for a perm role. Usually, I'd reject this straight away, but it's been nearly 5 months since I last secured a contract.  Also, it's a very well known company, and there are some excellent bribes, er, I mean benefits... I'll not mention what they are cuz you'll instantly know the company.  Suffice to say I'd be able to do the thing they do f...

Who's Christopher Maloney? Why would I say such a thing? Good reasons. Baloney Maloney!

I love to hate youtube.  But sometimes, I find something that makes me love to love youtube.  Edward Current is one of those things. Great stuff :)

I'm feeling a bit in-awe today.  The word awsome  has changed its meaning somewhat over the last 50 years.  These days, people bandy it about like "Cool" or "Hey that's great!". But I prefer to reserve it to describe the almost spiritual feeling we get when exposed to something truly amazing. The reason for my feeling of awe today is that I was contemplating the size of the Universe. I was watching an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos , for the first time since I was a child.   I hadn't really thought about it before, but our sun is one of 200 billion (or so) other stars in our one single galaxy (the Milky Way).  Our galaxy is one on a million billion other galaxies, each one with it's own 200 billion stars.  Isn't that utterly mind boggling? Isn't that awesome? And what about time? Carl gave an excellent analogy. Let's say that all of time has been compressed into a single calendar year.  The big bang happens during the first se...

This is the NZI Sevens weekend here in Sunny Wellington. Jacqui and I didn't manage to get tickets - by the time I'd remembered to log on to the website, they were all long sold out.  Apparently they were all gone within 3 minutes, so I don't feel so bad. It would have been great to have gone to the actual tournament, but since that wasn't possible, we went into the city to bask in the ambiance. And we're glad we did!  The whole city was out, and I don't think much work was done! The whole point of the Seven's weekend is, surprisingly, completely unrelated to rugby. Rather, it's about being seen in your outfit.  And every year, the outfits get a bit crazier. This year the costumes included, but where not limited to: Oompa-Loompas Avatars Fairies SWAT team members Cavemen (and cave women) Synchronised swimmers Baywatchers Blues Brothers Mexicans Also, everyone was either drunk or crazy.  Many were, in fact, both. Ja...

There's been quite a lot of media coverage this last few weeks around homeopathy .  Homeopathy is an alternative treatment based on the assumption that the less there is of something, the more powerful it is. Let me explain. Let's say you have a problem with sneezing. You sneeze and sneeze, and you just can't shift it. So the homeopathic treatment would go along the lines of saying, "well, what causes sneezing? pepper!" You they's take a teaspoon of pepper and add it to a litre of water. They'd then shake the bottle, and take a teaspoon of the mixture.  This teaspoon would be added to another litre of water.  This would also be mixed up, and a teaspoon taken.  This process would be repeated.  The homeopath would claim that each dilution makes the potion stronger! The final potion (mostly water with a little sugar or flavour to make it taste "mediciny") in then prescribed to the patient. Yes really.  Some treatments go though dozens of ...

There's been quite a lot of talk in the media recently about the relationship between Science, Libel Law, Alternative Medicine and Evidence.  It's mostly in relation to the experiences of Simon Singh  and others who have been sued in the UK for saying things like: The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. The Chiropractic Association in the UK took great offence at this for reasons I can't comprehend and decided to sue Dr Singh for rather a large sum of money. Now, here's what I think about this. First there really is little or no evidence that chiropractic is any better than physiotherapy for treating back pain.  In fact, there appears to be real evidence that it's less effective (and in some rare cases, dangerous).  Further, many unscrupulous chiropractors claim that their t...

I've not used this space to talk about what I do for a living before, so I think today is a good day to tell you a bit about that. I'm a Software Engineer, working mainly as a Java/J2EE programmer/analyst.  I'm also a contractor, which means I get to switch jobs every 3-6 months.  There are many good and bad things about this arrangement. First the good: The pay is certainly better.  I earn more in a week, than I would earn as a permanent in 3.  Maybe even more, depending on the rate.   I get to work on something different every few months.  No endless maintenance! Less office politics.  I don't have to care if Eric's not talking to Lucy because she said he was incompetent. Or smells bad (this happens in every office). But there are downsides If I don't work, I don't get paid.  So : holidays, sick leave, bereavement, paternity and anything else - no pay. Interviews every few months.  Jeese, I'm sick of interviews. ...

We saw our final film at the Mexican Film Festival in Wellington on Tuesday.  It was El Estudiante  (The Student) and was the story of a retired man who decides to go to university in the beautiful city of Guanajuato, which was one of the real stars of the film. Really, it was about his effect on the young people there, and their effect on him.  Although the values of the young were different than the old man and his wife, there was more that they had in common, than separated them. It's a very pleasant, uplifting film, and I think it'll be something I'll look out for on DVD.

On Saturday, we had a very busy day. We saw a grand total of 3 Mexican films. The first one (Otra Pelicula de Huevos y un pollo) was an animated comedy featuring talking eggs & a chicken , and to be honest, I think you have to be Mexican to get most of the jokes.  I was in a row with several Mexican people who where practically doubled over laughing when one of the eggs said something which I though was about 15% funny. Oh well, I guess it was entertaining enough.  I liked the animation & appreciated the very high production quality. The second (Los Herederos) was a documentary about kids living in rural Mexico .  I found this to be a very powerful film.  It contained very little actual dialog - it mostly showed this kids working hard.  Damn hard -  expected to work as hard as the adults from a very early age.  I'll not go into much detail - I reckon anyone who has an interest in Mexico should see it for themselves. The last one (Sin Nomb...

Last night we attended the first night of the Hola Mexico Film Festival in Wellington.  The first movie of the season was Arráncame la vida (Tear This Heart Out) , the story of a woman who marries a Mexican General in the years following the Mexican Revolution of 1910 .   I found it to be a real genre breaker as far as Mexican cinema goes.  Over the years, we've seen several Mexican movies, and the general theme seems to be heart breaking tragedy, and rarely a happy ending.  This one was different however.  Although tragedy played a huge part in the story (I don't want to give anything away, but don't get too attached to the Carlos character.  He doesn't last long..), the ending seems quite uplifting.  Well, comparatively at least. The story starts when the protagonist is 15 years old, and being whirlwinded into a marriage with a famous (or infamous) general, twice her age.  It tracks her sexual awakening as a teenager, through to her...

I finally got the guitar finished.  I'm sure you'll remember that one I bought in a local auction shortly before Christmas? I finally got it wired up, screw together and stringed.  I plugged it in and was more than a little amazed to find that it actually worked!  It's actually feels nice to play, and looks pretty too. It also has buckets of tone and I would imagine would make a nice blues guitar. However, it's not perfect as yet. There appears to be something of an annoying hum,  but I think with some additional shielding and grounding, it'll be fine.  And it's a fairly well known issue with strats anyway. Also, the neck pickup appears not to work.  Not sure why - it appears to be correctly wired.  No problems though.  I very rarely use that pickup anyway. And lastly, the scratch plate doesn't really fit.  The body isn't exactly a strat shape, just very similar.  I think it looks quirky, so I don't mind :) Check it o...

There's a fantastic interview with Christopher Hitchens here  which seems to mainly be about the recent axe attack in Denmark.  The victim was the chap who drew the cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb for a turban.  Mildly funny, but apparently incredibly offensive to some very touchy Muslims.   The man in his 70's was enjoying New Year's Eve with his young grand daughter when an axe-wielding-maniac stormed into his house, injuring the man, and probably frightening the little girl for the rest of her years.  I don't have the words to describe how horrified I am to hear about this.  So, I'll let Christopher fill in the gaps: T hese are some of the same people who say that if I don't believe in God I can't know what morality is. They've just dissolved morality completely into relativism by saying actually, occasionally, carving up grandfathers and granddaughters with an axe on New Year's Eve can be okay if it's done to protect the repu...