pebblerocker

Election news: the special votes have all been counted at last and the Green party went up to over 11% of party votes, meaning they now get a fourteenth MP in parliament. I've been hoping for this, both generally because the more Greens we have, the better they can try to curb the worst excesses of the National party, and in particular because the fourteenth on the Green list is Mojo Mathers, who becomes the world's fifth deaf member of parliament. She'll be a good advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, discrimination and accessibility issues as well as hearing impairment issues. So exciting!

Before the election I was reading news stories about the possibility that Ms Mathers could get in based on poll results, and of course one shouldn't read the comments on the Herald website but I did and there was the inevitable moaning about the horror of someone getting special treatment and having transcripts made available and a sign language interpreter at taxpayers' expense -- and the next comment pointed out that hey, deaf people pay taxes too, which I found most heartening.

I should get around to fixing my bike stand. I'm used to reaching back with one foot and flipping it back up before going around a corner, but today I got my shoelace caught on it attempting this move. Cleverly I got it unhooked while still riding in a straight line, but next time might not be so lucky.

Rugby starts tonight (sorry to add to the oversaturation) and I intended to ignore it as far as possible -- not a fan of rugby for many reasons including these -- but ended up watching live coverage of the opening ceremony and mostly enjoying it. I loved seeing all those beautifully carved waka paddling into the harbour in Auckland, and the singing and dancing and that projection on the stage adding to the spectacle. It's great that the whole world is watching this -- I quite like the celebration of various countries and people coming to visit New Zealand, and the display of flags hanging on the lamp-posts in town is fun. I just wish it could be a celebration of something other than sports.

Oh, and that haka group was amazing, with the women armed with patu and stamping and shouting! I wonder if the warrior women are there for modern sensibilities, equality and stuff, or if they're actually traditional and I've never seen them before because the idea horrified European colonial types and women doing anything but melodious singing and poi used to be suppressed.

Woo! I've returned to the first Guitar Hero game trying to make progress in my career and tonight (after half a dozen failed attempts) I finally managed to make it through Bark at the Moon on Medium difficulty! Yay me!

(Doing the game's hardest song on Medium may seem really easy to you, in which case I am still proud because it's at the limits of my current capability, or it may seem impossibly difficult, in which case I didn't intend to imply that I'm better than you but I'm still proud.)

Also today Les Paul died, the guitar guy. He was ninety-four. I shall play my genuine imitation Les Paul copy in his honour.

Blazing inferno engulfs Auckland coolstore - from the Herald. Check out the photos - that tower of smoke could be seen from a long way off. Fire crews came from Hamilton and Rotorua to help, and they'll be working there for days yet.

dr_sponge - how was the view from your place?