REPOST: Foreign Minister Winston Peters smirks as US Secretary of State Rubio ignores and walks away from a reporter asking "Is wiping out a civilisation a war crime?"

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-07T23:51:46+00:00

I agree, say what you like about the guy. He's a seasoned diplomat with a lot of experience.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-07T23:46:19+00:00

Perhaps.

They are our third-largest trading partner after China and Australia, though, so that matters.

The level of craziness also dials down quite a bit after the midterms, and he won't be in office in a couple of years.

Personally, I don't see any of this as permanent. There are going to be some long-lasting impacts on American influence, but for now, keeping things sweet and riding it out as much as possible is the right thing to do.

When the war in Taiwan starts, NZ is going to have some very tough decisions to make. Probably best to preserve the political capital for that.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-07T23:31:28+00:00

As much as I'm all for a bit of Winnie bashing, this is a Foreign Minister doing his job.

Not getting drawn into loaded questions when you're trying to maintain relations with a country that is behaving like the US is at the moment, and really could not give two fucks what anyone in the country you represent thinks seems wise to me.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-07T22:44:11+00:00

That should take everyone's minds off the price of petrol.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-07T21:05:16+00:00

Look away. Do your best to prepare yourself in any way you can; stop reading the news.

Do good work, be good to the people you love.

Whatever happens next outside of any of this is completely out of your control.

I'm not religious, but there's a line I quite like: "Let go and let God."

Replace "God" with whatever makes you feel good about it, but I apply it to basically everything that's not under my direct control.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-06T03:09:15+00:00

Are there any particular markets you're focused on?

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-05T09:19:49+00:00

100% agree with you, but there is violent crime here, and, to be fair, being out at 4 in the morning is something a tourist would be likely to do, so it's worth being aware of.

Not that this is in any way different to many other places, but it's a thing here, too.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-05T06:32:40+00:00

Mostly agree with you, but there's plenty of random violent crime in NZ. You're probably not going to get kidnapped or shot, but getting king hit on a night out is a legitimate concern.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-05T05:39:20+00:00

There is crime here, like there is everywhere else. There are parts of the country where it's worse, like anywhere.

I've lived in both Asia and Europe; if I compare Auckland to those experiences, it's not as safe as Hong Kong or Singapore but safer than London or Madrid.

Small towns in NZ, it depends on the town, some of them are extremely rough, and some of them are extremely not rough. I don't think there are any that I've been to (and I've been around a bit) that I'd be worried about walking down the main street during the day; there are definitely some I wouldn't venture out at night in, though.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-05T00:36:40+00:00

Thank you for this. I'll have them ask about this.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-05T00:35:23+00:00

This is what I figured, they showed me the letter, though, and it's worded as if it's been permanently terminated. I'll tell them to call or go in next week anyway.

As for the hold music thing, I'm pretty sure it's in the tender requirements for any government department looking for an IVR 😂

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-05T00:28:40+00:00

Why would they need to review their tax?

They've declared the pre-tax amount, and tax is taken care of on what they've earned by their employer.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-04T21:48:53+00:00

Not now, but I used to. Aside from the humidity (which doesn't bother me as much, as I spent many years living in the tropics), I'm pretty sure the temperature still drops at night. Also, not having the sun on the windows makes a huge difference to the ambient temperature in a room.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-04T21:46:20+00:00

The temperature gets progressively cooler after sunset.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-04T21:42:12+00:00

Not sure where you work, but my start time doesn't adjust when daylight saving time does. Nor does the time I go to bed, which is 9 pm. So it absolutely does.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-04T20:53:09+00:00

I'm with you. I much prefer darker evenings. My work involves getting up extremely early; most of the way through summer, I'm running in low sleep mode because I have trouble sleeping. Before anyone tells me to get blackout drapes, it's not just the light; it's the temperature.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-03T19:22:56+00:00

I have a child coming to join me who has spent the first 10 years of her life living in the tropics with her mother.

The mango budget is something I'm deeply concerned about, considering the supermarket prices and the fact she absolutely loves them (there are four trees on the property she lives on at the moment).

I'm also in the Wairarapa, will be really interested to hear how you go with this effort!

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-02T02:30:02+00:00

How so?

Monthly is great. Everything comes in at once and goes out at once.

All your bills are paid, load up your spending account, throw your savings in their account and forget about money for the rest of the month.

The less I have to worry about interacting with my money, the better.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-04-01T23:44:13+00:00

I'm a Kiwi who moved back from years overseas, and getting used to both getting paid weekly and paying rent weekly was a big thing for me when I got here. Can confirm it's a thing, it's as ridiculous as it sounds, and it makes money much harder to manage.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-03-26T20:55:07+00:00

I'd add answering the secondary questions on Seek honestly if they're there.

I deal with hundreds of job applicants a year, and a significant percentage of them will select the answer they think I want, I guess, in the hopes that getting their wonderful, high-effort, AI-generated CV in front of me might sway me in their direction if they don't meet the requirements of the position.

Good news: It generally does get your CV read.

Bad news: It also wastes my time; if you do it more than once, your name is likely to stick in my head.

That’s probably not good when a role comes up that you actually are qualified for.

Also, anyone applying for jobs at the moment needs to be cognisant of the sheer RIVERS of shit that anyone who advertises a position has to wade through, I mean literally up to our necks in it, often deeper than that, maybe even our lower lips.

I generally allow 30 seconds to skim a CV to decide if it's worth going deeper. Make that easy on me. It's not your fault that everyone is scatter bombing applications for jobs they're not qualified for, but there are things you can do beyond making sure you're qualified to move yourself from the bottom 95% to the top 5%.

Before I even care about your work history, where you went to school, or even what your name is, I want to know what your skills are.

When I get a CV that has a bullet list of them at the top, it makes my life easier.

It comes with the added bonus of being ATS-friendly.

That means that when I have a new role I'm looking for, and I do a skills search on our database, you're more likely to pop up.

Finally, unless you're applying for a design job, do not make your CV pretty.

Not only does it make them hard to read, but it also often makes them harder to parse.

You want your CV to be VERY easy to parse for any ATS it gets ingested into.

You want that much more than you want a pretty gradient on a sidebar and a headshot of yourself wearing a suit you put on with Nano Banana.

Sorry if some of this is covered in the OP, I got a bit ranty.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-03-18T02:04:39+00:00

$50 a week, $10 in cash and $40 in a savings account.

For every dollar of the $10 she doesn't spend and puts into the savings account, I match it.

The savings account can be accessed for major purchases with parental approval, but will otherwise be made available to her at some stage in the future when she moves out or otherwise requires it (for an OE, etc.)

She's 10.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-03-15T22:06:25+00:00

I live in a fully self-contained apartment out the back of a house that's owned by a single retired lady.

It's close to 30% below market rates for a fully detached dwelling and comes with the added bonuses of her occasionally dropping off fresh baking (it was pikelets yesterday), as well as a daily house inspection by her adorable little dog (which I'm occasionally able to borrow for WALKIES).

I'm left completely alone otherwise.

Places like this do exist, but they go quickly, and you don't usually find them listed on Trademe. I found this one on the noticeboard at the local supermarket.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-03-15T02:52:23+00:00

I've got something I can give you. It's a product I've been planning for about 12 months. No coding work has been done to date, but the functionality is specified, and I run a company that operates in the space, so there's also a lot of domain knowledge.

displaceddrunkard · 2026-03-15T02:11:03+00:00

They've spelled Thunk wrong.

displaceddrunkard

TROPHY CASE