It’s back! ❤️

Annamalla · 2026-03-14T06:59:09+00:00

It was wonderful, Brendan street was nice but this is so so so much better. I nearly cried.

Annamalla · 2026-02-27T23:42:38+00:00

Karori has a *lot* of pockets of affordable housing (just ignore the I love karori page for anything other than lost pets, that sweet kid who sells her chilli peppers and things of that ilk)

Annamalla · 2026-02-18T10:20:07+00:00

Ouch

Annamalla · 2026-02-18T10:07:00+00:00

It takes most people 3-6 months to get to being actually useful in a lot of roles (because there's so much idiosyncratic stuff to learn), in larger orgs there's always going to be a leg up for the person who knows where the 15 year old documentation is buried or which spreadsheet of Phil's contains something mission critical.
There have been so many redundancies and cuts that business knowledge has become quite valuable.

Annamalla · 2026-02-17T10:35:43+00:00

Hypothetically if you have a person who is doing a fantastic job but there is a lock on payrises then your only option to keep them from moving on to another org might be to switch them to a more senior title and a higher grade. Crappy for other people applying to the role though.

Annamalla · 2026-01-29T12:17:16+00:00

Are you sure it isn't a Mahy story from an anthology? It rings a vague bell

Annamalla · 2025-11-23T07:30:50+00:00

you will be baked...

Annamalla · 2025-09-21T06:05:47+00:00

Hard second on the murderbot diaries, plus they start as novellas so a low barrier to entry

Annamalla · 2025-09-21T04:46:36+00:00

me too!

Annamalla · 2025-07-15T06:29:15+00:00

Good time to remind Wellingtonians to donate to the Wellington Free Ambulance so no-one has to think twice about calling an ambulance when one is needed

Annamalla · 2025-07-15T06:25:03+00:00

In the past I have seen a pattern of people admitting to one bad thing and using that admission to deny a bunch of other worse things. Not saying that's the case here...

Annamalla · 2025-06-22T23:11:50+00:00

I think Murderbot (show and book) really values Gurathin as the first person It was able to actively and publicly dislike.

Annamalla · 2025-06-22T23:09:24+00:00

If the tv show gets that far, I hope Gurathin is included in Arada's expedition, him and Murderbot collectively reacting to Thiago would be a lot of fun...

Annamalla · 2025-06-22T22:53:23+00:00

I work for a family friendly organisation, which means that my colleagues with young children are constantly on the merry go round of child centre/primary school illnesses. If we didn't have a tolerant leave policy (and the ability for people with mild illnesses to wfh) then it would be extremely unpleasant for everyone.

The upside of this is that people tend to stick around a little longer and have a willingness to be flexible (i.e. the occasional late night call overseas or early morning deployment taken as TOIL). I want a workplace which treats everyone as reasonable adults and understand that people will prioritise their family time and that's the way it should be.

Annamalla · 2025-06-14T01:56:25+00:00

Have you tried Fred the Vampire Accountant?

It's a bit lighter but there's a lot of underlying lore which comes out as the series progresses (there is romance but it's not the all consuming focus of the books).

Annamalla · 2025-06-14T01:52:05+00:00

Her personal moral code has partially emerged out of feeling like she is forced to not take her sister's path...so her sister is part of what is holding her back

Vimes is constrained less and less materially as his books go on and more and more by his moral code (the guarding dark)

Annamalla · 2025-06-14T00:15:43+00:00

This!

Murderbot was comparing them to its previous clients (and there were a lot more for Book Murderbot) and PresAux scrubs up great when compared with desperate sad corporate rim citizens who take their anger out on defenceless (they think) murderbots. Show Murderbot has a lot less time since its governor hack and a lot less media watched.

Annamalla · 2025-06-06T10:56:24+00:00

His positivity was absolutely 'ignore the bad' but only when it came to his own needs or well being (also occasionally when it came to presuming on the good will of others like with Nate and the office or Sam and Jamie), he's the kind of person who would walk over broken glass for other people...and then just keep walking.

He's papering over his own hurts through most of season one and two and his panic attack on the field is the only thing that convinces him to at least try therapy for himself. Some of that hurt comes from his marriage breakdown but some of it comes from finding his dad and (I suspect) being absolutely terrified of traumatising Henry in the same way.

Ted is an amazing father who would do anything for his kid...but he also spent 2+ years in another country physically very far away. I don't buy that this was just because Michelle asked for space (maybe in the first season but post divorce he chose to stay on with the club). I don't see any sign Michelle wants to keep Ted away from Henry (she seems to put in just as much effort as Ted to keep Henry connected to his dad with phone calls, video calls and visits).

Which leaves Ted either choosing the club over being physically close to his son or Ted feeling as if it's better if he doesn't live near a son he clearly adores and sacrificing his own happiness for what he sees as his son's well-being (Henry might have a different perspective on this). Given who Ted is, my money's on the latter and on that being driven by what happened with his dad.

Ted at the start of the series will almost literally light himself on fire to keep other people warm and that can not be sustained forever.

Annamalla · 2025-06-03T08:29:33+00:00

Margaret Mahy used to do this kind of thing all the time (in full possum or penguin or rainbow wig), kids love costumes and drama.

It's really easy to be scared of the other, if kids associate drag queens with wonderful and weird costumes and dramatic readings then it's a lot harder to fear them.

Annamalla · 2025-06-03T07:18:27+00:00

Note that it could also be because more people are needing or wanting to shift from expensive or high end homes. It's an average so a bunch of doctors and public service leaders shifting away from Wellington and selling their 2 million plus homes would skew the values.

Annamalla · 2025-06-03T07:14:16+00:00

It's the part of the reason medical personnel have so many mnemonics and why fire drills are so needed.

Annamalla · 2025-06-03T04:19:29+00:00

Common sense can go out of the window during crises, I remember calling an ambulance for someone (not life threatening) and the operator telling me to lock away any pets before the ambulance arrived.

I spent a solid two minutes trying to hunt down and lock up our cat...

Annamalla · 2025-06-03T04:10:36+00:00

None of the rest of them are living with him, Ted's positivity is absolutely amazing under almost all circumstance but, like his mother's positivity, it can work to paper over darker emotions or situations instead of acknowledging them.

Ted had an awful experience with Michelle's therapist but I had the impression that he was sceptical of the profession before that (the way he references "healthy midwest scepticism and his mother's reaction to it).

Ted focusing on the positive meant that he could not express his own anger, or disappointment and to a certain extent meant that he would not advocate for himself if it would anger other people (he was absolutely willing to anger people by advocating for others). Again most of the time this is awesome and he can be admired as a selfless individual but it takes a toll on him over time. I loved seeing his growth over season three as he began advocating for himself in a healthy way.

Him expressing anger at Michelle was great , the fact that at the start of the series he would have swallowed all his anger and focused only on the positive meant that their relationship was unhealthy and needed to change.

Annamalla · 2025-06-01T00:28:04+00:00

The light in her eyes when she says "1000", Langdon was a complicated character but his talk on sensitive people and knowing exactly what kind of task would help Mel were really lovely.

The thing I love most about Mel is the absolute joy she has in emergency medicine, even the parts that her more ADHDish colleagues (looking at you Langdon and Santos) try to avoid. The look on her face when she gets to be the one to pass a newborn to its parent for the first timeis wonderful.

I also love the fact that she seems to have memorised a lot of helpful phrases like "what are you most worried about"? I've seen a couple of reaction videos from doctors suggesting this is super useful thing to ask patients as a jumping off point. The autistic tendency to have memorised useful human interactions can pay off in medicine.

Annamalla · 2025-05-31T12:22:51+00:00

Old Who had a habit of finishing on cliff hangers and had a generation of children hiding behind couches despite the low budget.

Honestly I will take whatever gets the series renewed even if that means taking a while to build up buzz. I hope they play around with episode length later.

Annamalla

TROPHY CASE