Thoughts

“Change” vs “improvement.” Is different always better?

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Donald Trump

Putting aside (with some difficulty) how we feel about people like Donald Trump personally, I want to talk about the way the restlessness of the masses has resulted in a culture of “it’s a bit broke, let’s throw it away and try something unknown.” We’ve seen this happen recently with Brexit, and now it looks like it’s going to happen again in the United States with the possible election of business tycoon Donald Trump as president. People are equating change with improvement, and different is not always better.

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Surgery Tomorrow: The End, or a New Beginning?

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Tomorrow’s a big day for me, literally and figuratively. It could be a new beginning… or the end of everything. You see, I’m checking into Auckland Hospital for bariatric surgery – a gastric bypass, to be exact. Despite the complexity of the procedure, my surgeon promises me that he’s “never lost anyone,” but had to advise me of the 1-in-1000 risk of complications. There’s a lot for him to do – staple off a section of stomach here, remove a section of intestine there, connect the remaining shorter intestine to a 1cm hole he’s creating in the remaining stomach pouch, and reconnect the original stomach further on down the intestinal tract. And he’s doing this all laparoscopically, via 4 small holes. I should be out by Sunday. Or… I’ll know what’s really on the other side – most likely nothing. But I won’t be around to care.

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Nostalgia: TV shows from the 70s and 80s

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If you’re a child of the 70s and 80s, like me, then television was probably a huge part of your life. New Zealand wasn’t known for its drama, comedy or sci-fi back then, so we were forced to watch whatever was popular in the US and UK at the time. We only had two channels in 1975 when I was very young – TV3 only came along in 1989.

Everyone’s TV experience as a child was unique, and we all had our favourite shows. There were also shows for adults that, while we didn’t understand or necessarily enjoy them, we had no other viewing choices.

So, here are some shows that hit the nostalgia button for me. I’ve tried to dig up clips that represent the show’s heyday, or particular episodes that were favorites. Where possible I’ve linked to a whole episode, but often it’s just the intro you need 😉

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