Down in Porirua some of the pohutukawa are starting to flower. A sign that Christmas is close.
Thanks to @bix for the pointer to this interesting article. I was specially caught by this sentence:
The ability to disregard the opinions from the group that is being disadvantaged, the ability to escape accountability for actions, and the ability to benefit from others’ oppression are at the heart of why blackfishing is so damaging.
And substitute any number of other practises for ‘blackfishing’.
White Instagram Influencers Have Created a New Form of Blackface
I only ever learned our awful national anthem, God Defend New Zealand, in English. These days many sing it in Te Reo. Here’s verse 1:
E Ihowā Atua,
O ngā iwi mātou rā
Āta whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tō atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa
Why a photo of my left forearm, wrist and hand? (In some languages they would all be the same word) With any luck, this is a Before photo. Updates to come in a few days. 🤞🏽
Black Ink 2: another superb Mac app from @danielpunkass! If you love words, you’ll love this. I’m now a fan of the free Wall Street Journal puzzles. Tab goes from clue to clue, arrow keys select cross words, while red tells me if I’m wrong. BI 2 leaves my brain free to solve.
Moreover, many native English speakers pronounce the Māori word ‘ngai’ as just ‘nai’, but that initial sound should move the tongue way back, tip down so it’s like the sound many make in the word ‘singing’ (not those who make a clear ‘g’ sound). Some sounds are hard to move.
Pronunciation fascinates me: exactly where do tongue, lips etc go to sound out words? English speakers put their tongue tip just behind the top teeth to start a word like ‘nock’ (as in arrow). But ‘knock' starts the same way — these days. Once it began with a ‘k’ in the throat.
As always, the latest NativLang video (10 minutes) is extremely interesting: What English does - but most languages can’t:
English has unusual linguistic features most other languages don’t! These skills really make English unique compared to other languages around the world.
Usually in New Zealand when a house rolls and shakes around like this it’s because of an earthquake. Today it was the delivery truck refining the position of the house. These folks will have a panoramic view of the hill in front of them.
Some mornings you spot the house delivery truck.
It’s the time of year when everything in the garden has had a growth spurt and these horrible grass seeds get into my socks and stab me. They’re hard to pull out too.
The other day I prepared a new bit of garden to extend an existing length beside the drive. Today I bought a dozen Coprosma Hawera, a native groundcover, to integrate into the new area and a few other spots in the garden that need to be filled.
mbnov 30-Nov-19: integrate
When I dug into the mulch pile today this frog bounded out. I thought it had pale specks, but realised later that’s just mulch. It’s probably a Southern Bell frog .
The back of their thighs and groin area are bright blue to turquoise
That was the giveaway.
I live in a fantastic place, but between dreary spring weather and having a lot of obligations I’d kind of forgotten to enjoy it.
Today, summer has arrived and I swerved on my ‘obligations’. Feeling better already.
Photo: watching Santa from Hell.
mbnov 29-Nov-19: fantastic
I really truly hope this is simply bad wording:
But those on the other side of the argument – like sexual violence advocates including some lawyers – say survivors’ previous sexual experience should be off-limits in court.
My emphasis.
I came out specifically to attend a yoga class and do other errands. I want to do yoga and need to. Today though it turns out the right thing for me to do is sit in a cafe drinking tea and eat chocolate cake. I need a break from ‘shoulds’.
Not much. You?
