top life forms found in my house recently

1. Flies
2. James (our cat, kinda, long story)
3. Slugs
4. Ants
5. Flatmates
6. Stray invader tomcat
7. Moths
8. Me

hello from the bruin

"Bruin" being a term that toddstadlerwillconsumeallblogs! coined to denote a blog fallen into disrepair, which this place feels like.

Anyway, I've been busy editing a reality television show, which was unfortunately shot and originally edited like a documentary. The truth is, the reality of editing reality shows is that it is very focused on drama. Basically it's taking the minute problems and escalating it into opera. And this is very difficult in a country whose people, left to their own devices, pretty much end every sentence with some variant of "but it's all good."

I find myself probing my ethics when editing reality television a bit, because obviously there is some distortion of the truth, as in the extent to which a problem is really a problem, et cetera. I suppose my gut response is that, in this point in history, if people sign up for a reality show expecting documentary-like verisimilitude, they're woefully mistaken. (Whether they should expect documentary-like verisimilitude from a documentary is another question. To which the answer is "no". But that's a separate discussion.)

I had a point but I forgot what it was and now I'm sleepy. I guess it's this: sign up for the Nonalignment Pact podcast. It's got the good musics on it.

well, isn't that special.

I've been operating under the assumption that, to get my NZ citizenship, I'd have to wait three years from my residency date, and spend at least half the year in NZ each of those years.

Today, I decided to check that assumption, and discovered - thanks to a policy change made since the time I originally investigated the issue - that I'm grossly mistaken.

In fact, I have to wait five years, and spend at least 240 days a year for five years in NZ, and 1350 days overall (i.e. if I spent only 240 days overall each year, I'd be 150 days short of the legal requirement). (You can check both the old requirements and new requirements here, should you have an overpowering passion for reading bureaucratese. It turns out I was slightly mistaken on my initial conception prior to the policy change, but that's moot.)

This becomes an issue if I want to do, well, anything overseas, be it work on a project in the States for a bit or just a lengthy jaunt.

I'm not sure how this will change my plans yet (so don't ask), but it definitely undermines the reasoning behind my current plan.

Also: the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs uses Lotus Domino for its website! Who knew?

back in Auckland

in case you were wondering.

Just because, this isn't my top ten or whatever, but since you already know how awesome CASINO ROYALE and THE DEPARTED are, and I rambled at great length in previous entries about the genius of film festy movies like I AM A SEX ADDICT, 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST, THE WILD BLUE YONDER, and LONGING, I thought I'd mention a couple films that got really overlooked this year that deserve better, that maybe you can check out the next time you're at the video store, and for once I'll mention movies that are in English and can be found at yr. local video store (either now or in a couple months): MONSTER HOUSE. THE PRESTIGE. TALLEDEGA NIGHTS*. CHILDREN OF MEN. FEARLESS. CRANK. And, in the "was overlooked by me until this year" division, the remake of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

For the most part, these movies are exactly what they appear to be, but really really good versions of it. One caveat: MONSTER HOUSE is definitely not a little kid's movie - I thought it was kinda scary at points, and I think it would be way too intense for little ones. Fortunately, that won't preclude you, oh grown up friend of mine, from enjoying it. There's a moment involving a sign on the house's lawn near the start that's a complete throwaway but one of my favorite moments of the year.

I could go on. But I should be asleep. So I will attempt to do so.

*This was huge in America, I think, but in NZ everybody just stares at me and says "was that actually funny?" And then I can't respond because I think of the cougar and I laugh too hard. So, briefly: yes. Very.