Thank God I am not an American!!!

Why? It is not because then I would have to watch football and not because if I was American I would lack that abilities (Englishness) to understand the superb game of Cricket. I thank God I am not American because if I was I would be faced with the choice of George W. Bush or John Kerry or not voting at all. I have a confession to make I have been interested in the American Presidential Campaign, there I said are you happy now J. The reason for this is because I think the decision is an important one, America has such a place in the world that their choice of leader is a very significant choice.
A bit about my politics….contrary to popular belief I AM NOT A COMMUNIST.
I own no Che Guevere T-shirt (or sweat band) no Rage Against the Machine CD’s and no posters of Lenin !!! Now that I have that out of the way, my politics are very confusing and I do not expect you to keep up….Here goes….
I believe in social justice, this would place me on the left, I think it is the government’s role to provide education and health care and a LIMITED welfare benefit. I also believe in social responsibility, which would put me on the right. By this I mean that people should not rely on the government for hand-outs with out trying to help themselves. So economically you could say I am centre left…however I do not agree with the lefts moral politics. I am anti-abortion (right) and anti-gay marriage (right) anti-death penalty (left) so this is where I get confused. I can not consciously vote either side based on politics, I have to base it on people. If I was American I would have to vote for who would be a better president rather than which parties politics I liked. Now George W. Bush has a very checkered record, he started a war that I can not agree with for reasons that are immoral and illegal. He blew the American budget worse than he blew up Baghdad!! – American unemployment is at a low not seen since the depression. So I would struggle to vote for George W. Bush. However he has made some good moral stands – his party repelled two amendments to the constitution – one to legalize abortion the other to legalize gay-marriages. If the constitution is amended that means every state has to change their state laws to match up with the constitution. John Kerry voted for both of these amendments (I think), as a Catholic he has been told that he would be denied the Eucharist in some churches based on his “anti-Catholic” stand on abortion . For a Catholic this is a big deal, us Protestants do not understand how important the Eucharist is to Catholics. Anyway all of this means that I would struggle to vote for anyone, but I could not not vote because I think it is too important a decision to abstain from. So I find my self in a pickle, I could not vote for either candidate and I can not afford not to vote, So thank God I am not an American!!!

You got Blogs!!

I got introduced to this recently, it is a "RSS" thingi - Really Simple Synchronising? Anyway it allows you to list all the blogs u "subscribe" and tells you if there are any new posts. Saves having to check them all. Kind of like an email thing - "you got mail" for blogs.
http://bloglines.com

Monday

Those that came on Monday to watch Football and any one else that is interested this is the schedule for Canterbury United home games for the rest of the summer.


Canterbury v Manawatu 23-Oct,
Canterbury v Napier 25-Oct,
Canterbury v Waitakere 7-Nov,
Canterbury v Otago 21-Nov,
Canterbury v Auckland 5-Dec,
Canterbury v Napier 12-Dec,
Canterbury v Manawatu 4-Jan,
Canterbury v Otago 9-Jan,
Canterbury v Waikato 31-Jan,
Canterbury v Auckland 29-Jan* this game is in Nelson but is still a "home game" :)
Canterbury v Waitakere 6-Feb,
Canterbury v Wellington 27-Feb.

Ps thanks to those that came i had a good time and some of the photos came out okay :P
So anyone that wants to come to any of the other games i am keen to go along, looking forward to a summer of football :) It seems they place each (of 8) teams three times so there are 21 rounds of games.

Football

Hello Everybody,

I am planning an expedition on Monday, being a holiday I thought I would spend it doing "work". I need to take some photos for one of my "assignments", I need some action shots so I thought I would spend the day watching the beautiful game.....FOOTBALL...(basketball is more beautiful but it is not the right time of year). Anyway, being a social animal I do not want to go alone so anybody who is keen to spend an afternoon of Sun, Football and Steve :) your more than welcome to join me. The game is part of the New Zealand Football Competition an attempt at bringing the game to the masses, it is between Canterbury United and Napier City Soccer, the game is at 4pm but any one who is keen can get hold of me and we will meet at my flat at like 3:30pm on Monday and head out form there.

Doorway

Many of you know I had a job interview on Friday. The job was a teaching position at Bethlehem College in Tauranga. They flew me up for the interview; I thought it went really well, they seemed to like me.
The school is amazing, well resourced and committed to developing Christian character and a holistic education. These are things that I would love to be involved in. I got a call from the Principal yesterday saying I did not get the job. :(
But he did say that they really liked me and wanted me on their staff :) . There is a chance that another similar position opens up for next year, if so they said they would love to have me aboard. So I am very much in no-mans land with this at the moment- the door has not quite closed but I am not sure if it is open or not. I have prayed a lot about this and told God that I would love this job but if this is him shutting the door then that is cool, I trust his will. It is pretty hard to do when you really want to go through the door :) God may be testing me. Thanks to all of those that were praying I really felt supported in prayer, if you could keep praying that would be cool :).
Anyway good bye from a very confused and stuck-in-a-doorway Steve.

Football

Hey I just thought I would spread the Hattrick word. For all you Football lovers out there this is for you. Hattrick is this cool online soccer management game, played by literally thousands of people online it is very cool. I got into it last year after Johnny Watson told me about it (some of you might remember Johnny). Anyway you get given a team of fictitious players in a fictitious league and you buy and sell them. You choose your squad and manage your team, choosing tactics and all the rest. It is lots of fun and you only need to do it like for a hour a week or so. Anyway I have been into Football management games for a while and I really enjoy it – my team is pretty good Go Steve FC. They are coming about 3rd in my league fairly consistently and improving over the four seasons I have managed them.
Anyway enough cross-promotion – hey Liverpool beat Fulham 4-2 this weekend after being down at half time 2-0 :)
Man I feel so geeky managing my imaginary Football team :P. So all you geeky football fans out there check it out it is free. http://www.hattrick.org/Common/default.asp

Lawyer Quotes

I got this as an email ages ago but it is real funny
These are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place:

Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July fifteenth
Q: What year?
A: Every year

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks

Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?

Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan

Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he
doesn't know about it until the next morning?

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August eighth?
A: Yes
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?>>>> >A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work

Q: All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral

Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar
Q: But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

Che Guevere, Manchester Utd. and Fresh up

Disclaimer: I (Stephen Thorne) the writer of this post am not currently, nor have I ever been, nor will I be associated or affiliated with any communist party. I am a sociologist NOT a socialist, they difference is more than linguistic. Nor am I a Manchester United Fan.

This post is about Che Guevere (sort of) the world's most well marketed socialist. You know the guy that appears on all the t-shirts. I think it is random that he is so well marketed for a socialist. My cousin just went to Malaysia and came back with a Che Guevere wrist band. From Malaysia I can almost guarantee you that the sweat band was made in a factory where the working conditions where not up to Che's standards. The t-shirts and other Che gear are so prevalent that you wonder if people even know who the guy was. For those that don't he was a military leader under Fidel Castro in Cuba. Both Fidel and Che became the "poster boys" for popular led revolution. Che was influential in training guerrillas through out South America. People (on the whole) buy the t-shirt not because they believe it is cool or trendy, not because they agree with the socialist point of view.
If I can draw a parallel with sport- Che is like Manchester United (or the Lakers or Yankees) people support Manchester not because they actually like the team and are "fans" maybe a better word is "followers" (or sheep). They think that it is cool or trendy to support a football team, so naturally they go for a team that is winning and therefore cool and trendy. WRONG, it is no fun supporting a team that always wins because you become use to winning, for example Canturbury rugby when we win the Ranfurly Shield it is not a major deal I mean the shield is ours isn't it? However when BOP win it they go off the hook. Personally I think it is much more satisfying as a sports fan to support a team that doesn't always win. Case in point: Liverpool Football Club, if find it enjoyable to support them because if they do win anything it is a great achievement they are the underdone so to speak.
It is like the fresh up adds if you run around in pink batts or eat chilies then the Fresh Up is better. Supporting Liverpool is much like running round in pink batts - very tiring and often itchy- and when they do win it feels good. You do not get this experience from supporting Manchester. The New Zealand Cricket team through out the 1990s are another good example- when they play well as they are know it is awesome because we know how bad they were - we were watching them in our living rooms wrapped in pink batts.
Which is why the teams I support are not normally the traditional band wagon teams- Liverpool - all though Liverpool is becoming a band wagon team.
Che is also like scooters - they were alternative to start with and you expected to see "alternative" people on scooters - helping the environment and saving money. But then the was Christmas that the Wharehouse sold them for dirt cheap. I remember speeding the New Years at Akaroa and every kind had a scooter - suddenly the guy with the dreads and hemp shirt was not cool any more. This is like Che (and sadly starting to become true of Liverpool) people are jumping on band wagons and pushing guys like me and the hemp shirt guy off our hypothetical scooters.