Archive for the ‘Writing/Publishing’ Category
A nice description of the journalist’s conceit (as in fanciful notion, not pride)
From Jeff Himmelman’s NY Times review of Yours in Truth — A Personal Portrait of Ben Bradlee. Some journalists seem incapable of seeing flaws in themselves or their heroes. They suspend their professional skepticism as if they’re not bound by the usual rules of gravity. It’s a kind of self-important higher-calling disease that has made some […]
Margaret Mahy lived the dream. And then some.
What an inspiration she was. Making a living from her wits. And so much more. Haere ra Margaret Mahy. Thank you. – P
I wonder how common this combination is?
From a blogger’s potted bio on a review of the excellent Scrivener software I use: About Brian xxxxxxx Computer programmer by day; horror and post-apocalyptic thriller writer by night. Bless him! – P (Reminds me of you JT.)
Comments, classified
I don’t enjoy navel gazing about comments and moderation here at The Paepae. Every now and then I’m forced to think about it again because someone wants to have a crack at me or someone else in low-value terms. Usually anonymously. I tend towards no censorship beyond filtering spam (thank you Akismet) and throwing out […]
Egregious
When I gently pointed to what some might call errors in this notice I was assured the threat of being shot on the premises was what was intended. Really. – P
Declaring where you’re coming from
Like most people (I think), I find it interesting, at times fascinating, to speculate about WHY people do and say what they do … WHY they might express views that they hold in the way they do … and WHY they enter into discussions or debates (and sometimes flame wars) on the internet. But I’ve […]
The escape of exnzpat, Part 9
Return to Wormwood My return to Wormwood was a long one. Twice I lost my way, the first time, along a short corridor: I discovered it catty-cornered within a small alcove against the wall at the far end of the building. The corridor, lined with a sack-like material that I believed to be scrim, was […]
Some useful cyber citizen guidelines
It’s funny how even from people’s intended blows you can learn something valuable. A couple of years ago when I was blogging about the dubious operations of a gaggle of ‘internet marketing experts’ (cough) somebody, by a remarkable coincidence, set up a number of blogs linking my name to keywords like ‘scam’ and ‘ripoff’ (see […]
Assange allegations deeply fishy with dangerous undertones
I’ve always said the allegations (not actually criminal charges) against Julian Assange seemed like a jack-up and a smear campaign. What do you think?: 2) The process by which Assange was accused, cleared, and then re-accused of these incidents beggars belief. Two women went to a Stockholm police station one Friday afternoon in August 2010, […]
Two good US politics reads
Steve Schmidt (former McCain campaign manager) A Career Resurrected After McCain and Palin – New York Times 8 June 2012 Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought – The Washington Post 9 June 2012 Worth reading, and if you’re like me, worth archiving. I’ll fold some of the […]
Nicky Hager – The Hollow Men under the covers
By coincidence, I saw this brief interview between Nicky Hager and Finlay Macdonald on TVNZ7’s The Good Word today. Having just referred to the book (see Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed), I found it interesting, as well as the revelation that defensive PR tactics (‘leaked material’ vs ‘stolen material’) were quite effective, judging […]
Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed
Featuring extensive quotes from National Party sources, Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men: A study in the politics of deception exposed and excoriated a cynical, deceptive team of politicians, spin doctors, professional deceivers and behind-the-scenes, shadowy political donors seeking political influence and ‘policy for sale’ — some of whom, judging by results, are still very much […]
Rodney Hide, boy genius.
I knew Rodney Hide back when he was still using a Cassiopeia and I was using Psion Series 3a. (We used to compare features.) While he’s a pleasant man, and I personally like him, he’s never struck me as an intellectual powerhouse… So it was intriguing recently to read in the NBR online his vapid […]
Why I use an ad-blocker (You must be kidding me @NZHerald)
I was using my non-ad-blocked Chrome web browser for something tonight and thought I’d just see what news was happening, so popped over the nzherald.co.nz You have got to be kidding me … Ridiculous over-the-top interruption marketing. Doomed to fail, in my opinion. – P Update: It certainly illustrates why I use AdBlock and Glimmerblocker […]
The escape of exnzpat, Part 8
The Water Startled, and surprised by their strength, I began to struggle, but that only made things worse. They did not have gentle hands. My captors were human in shape only. Up close, their eyes were as dead as a cow’s, and that is the best way I can describe them. Their eyes were bestial […]
