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A Masterclass In Writing by Jose Barbosa

A friend discovered this online. Written sometime in the 1970s, it's a seven page manifesto crafted by a Piopio hill country farmer outlining in precise terms his property, his stock and his philosophy of business.

It's an admirable doctrine with a clearly defined outcome:

“Maximum returns from optimum numbers of breeding stock with lowest feasible labour input”.

As he makes clear in his summery farmers should treat their farms as a business:

"... maintaining a professional approach to his problems, financial or otherwise, fully realizing that the high cost of getting started must be justified by maximum return from this investmenjt. It should also be justified by the pleasure, regardless of financial gain, that can be had from this form of businses (sic).

It's a strangely compelling narrative, written succinctly and with clarity. In the great New Zealand tradition it's a personal statement made without grand gestures. However, there's clearly some pride taken in his endevour and there's even a joke made about a sojourn on the beach in Tahiti. Not to mention a lovely use of poetic imagery:

"I am tending to subscribe to the thought that a man and a dog moving through lambing ewes cause as much disturbance as a rook thrown into a millpond ..."

I don't know who G. Reed was, but he could teach today's legal and finance institutions a thing or two about writing to communicate.

The Hamster Wheel by Jose Barbosa

Compare this Al Jazeera English report on the Megaupload arrests ... [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyzwA5Qjd20&w=560&h=315]

... with this One News report (from about 50 seconds in).

Although it's pretty jarring to see two reports worded ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME, I'm assuming TVNZ has a content sharing agreement with Al Jazeera. I mean, surely it's too blatant a rip to  be another one of these?

OH by Jose Barbosa

Lanky British twat in the Russell Brand mold, draped over a chair talking to a British couple trying to eat. "Should I tell them? I'm not sure if I should tell you this. I'm an internationally (intelligible) DJ producer. I make beats. I have an agent."

At Home In Tamriel by Jose Barbosa

Such is the awesome pull of Skyrim that if I'm not mass producing iron daggers or eating giant toes to discover their medicinal properties, I'm on several different forums reading about other people doing the same. Unless shit goes terribly wrong I don't see myself playing another game until well into the new year; there's simply too many dungeons to loot and fire salts to horde. Here then is a selection of images which represent my time so far in Skyrim. Behold the adventures of SkyTim, nordic barfly and cabbage enthusiast.