If there was one mundane thing I could change in this world it would have to be Daylight Saving.

I would abolish it.

Quite basically it is the most silly idea out there. We have a fixed day of 24 hours. We have a fixed ammount of sunlight. Just because we mess about with our clocks does not save the sunlight or extend the period of sun. All it does is mess with us.

Why can’t people get up earlier. If the evening is so important to us why can’t we just change our work day and start earlier. I personally love the mornings. So why are the night owls insisting on upsetting the early birds.

Life is so unfair!

This is currently one of the new National Party billboards:

The question I have about this is that is it acceptable to make the exams so easy that anyone can pass. Isn’t the point of study and exams so that you can demonstrate that you know what you have studied? One could argue that the exams are too hard but if that is the case then why is the PPTA claiming the exams are too easy? (http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4683842a6442.html)

Who do you believe? The National Party or the teachers?

Here is an example of year 11 maths exam questions. A seven year old should be able to answer them all not a 16 year old.

1. 5 boys share a bag of 55 lollies. How many lollies does each boy get?

2. There were 60 cows inside a shed. 18 walked outside. How many cows were left inside the shed?

3. 38 x 6 = ?

4. David has 35 stamps. Bruce has 70 stamps. How many stamps do they have altogether?

For these ones they could use calculators:

5. Write these percentages as decimals: 34% 52% 8%

6. Write these decimals as fractions: 0.5 0.03 0.95

7. Betty got 13 of the 20 questions correct in a biology test. What percentage did Betty get?

8. Gary ate 25% of a cake. What fraction of the cake did he eat?

And my answers (all without a calculator):
1. 5 boys share a bag of 55 lollies. How many lollies does each boy get? 55/5 = 11.

2. There were 60 cows inside a shed. 18 walked outside. How many cows were left inside the shed? 60 - 18 = 42

3. 38 x 6 = ? 6 x 8 = 48 for the ones column, and 6 x 3 = 18 for the tens column, so 48 + 180 = 228

4. David has 35 stamps. Bruce has 70 stamps. How many stamps do they have altogether? 35 + 70 = 105

For these ones they could use calculators:

5. Write these percentages as decimals: 34% 52% 8% –> 0.34, 0.52, 0.08

6. Write these decimals as fractions: 0.5 0.03 0.95 –> 1/2, 3/100, 95/100 = 19/20

7. Betty got 13 of the 20 questions correct in a biology test. What percentage did Betty get? 65%

8. Gary ate 25% of a cake. What fraction of the cake did he eat? 1/4

I just found out that Parachute Festival will remain at Mystery Creek Events Centre for another five years! Yeah!

Like the election date, the announcment of artists performing at P09 should be announced anyday now. So far David Crowder Band and Family Force Five have been confirmed. I also know of a strong rumour that Casting Crowns are playing. And most importantly The Lads have no concerts booked between the end of October and March next year. Are they planing a summer break, in NZ?

From the parachute website:

All week we have been promised the first fine weather weekend since May.

Well all morning it has been raining!

I was meant to go for a walk or tramp early this morning but that hasn’t happened.

Fine weather. Fine weekend. What an oxymoron.

Because of some changes in plans I got to go skiing for a second time!

Don’t be fooled by the nice photos below the day started in much worse weather.

I left Wanganui at 6.30am to drive to Ruapehu and I arrived just before 8.30am. The weather was average to terrible driving up to the mountain. Snow in lots of places (not as bad as a week ago though) and lots of rain.

When I got to the base of mountain the upper mountain lift facilities were on hold. Because of this I decided to wait at the bottom of the mountain for an update on their opening status. This wait lasted almost a whole hour before I decided to head up the road at 9.20am.

In my hour of agony and dilemma I came very close to heading around to Turoa as it had more facilities open then Wakapapa. I was lucky that I didn’t though because it was only open for two hours before the weather packed in and closed the ski field.

Anyway back to the story. Like last week the road up to the ski field was closed unless you hired chains for your car. Chain hire costs $25 and there was quite a queue of cars waiting for chains to be fitted. I paid for my chains at 9.20am and then waited until 9.40am for them to be fitted. At 9.30am while I was waiting, and after I had paid, they decided to open the road up until Day Park 10. But no because I had already paid for chains I still had to get them fitted and go up the now open road on them.

This was a minor pain in itself but never mind chains are very helpful on mountain roads and because I was on chains I would be able to go to one of the higher and closer car parks when I got up the mountain. Sweet! However, when I got up the mountain I was directed to park at Day Park 10 despite having chains and arguing with the parking attendant. (I was told later he was wrong and I was right.) I was not happy about this for two reasons. The first is that I was made to hire chains that I did not need, and secondly I was forced to park low down on the mountain just because I was 2WD and the parking attendant was blind to the fact I had chains on!

Anyway. I couldn’t be bothered waiting for a bus so I walked the kilometer or so up the road to the Top of the Bruce. Here I hired gear and passes. The upper mountain was still on hold so they were only selling lower mountain passes. GRRRR I thought. By this time the weather had cleared a lot. After getting my gear sorted I headed out to head up to the top of the lower mountain. Well I ended up in a queue for this chairlift for close to 45mins! By this time it was approaching 11am! Yes I had been on the mountain for over two and a half hours and I hadn’t even got to go skiing yet.

When I finally got onto the chairlift they decided to open the Upper Mountain. When I had purchased the lift passes they had told everyone if the upper mountain opened everyone would have to go back and pay more. However, everyone on the mountain, including myself just headed for the upper mountain lifts without the extra passes. We had had enough waiting! There were at least 100 of us wanting to go higher up the mountain and it was not our fault they hadn’t sold us the right passes so thankfully the ski field operators saw the sense in letting us go higher!

After all this the weather cleared and the skiing was great. I skiied for just under five hours and now two days later I am still paying the pain for it. Sore legs, knees, bruised side and motion sickness is still mucking about with my sleep. But it was great. And fully worth it. Except for the chains!

Check out the reflection in the goggles. Nothing but snow and sky!

Note to self: When taking photos remember to smile!

To go off the edge or not. That is thy question.

Snow. Snow and more Snow!

The Average New Zealand student:

Owes $28,000+ in Debt.
Lives away from home.
Receives little financial support from family.
Works part time. (around 15 hours a week) often for minimum wage.
Doesn’t qualify for a student allowance.

The rich student:

Owes nothing in debt. Either their parents have paid their entire way through or they have a scholarship (often because their parents have paid for extra school lessons).
Either lives at home or away from home. Pays nothing in rent because parents cover it all.
Receives full financial support from family.
Doesn’t work part time. They can therefore spend more time on studies and do better.
Qualifiers for a student allowance because their families have creative accountants who tie all the money up in trusts, investments, and company expenses.

My situation:

32,000 in debt.
Lives away from home.
Receives no financial support from family.
Worked 20 hours a week while studying.
Did not qualify for a student allowance.