In which we near an anniversary

[zeborah]

It's been a while since we had much aftershock activity -- the unprecedented pair of snowstorms we had three weeks apart seems to have insulated against them or something, which was one good thing about the snow. (I also enjoyed playing in it and having time off work; otoh I didn't like being cut off from being able to feed my cat, twice; and it made life harder for people who didn't need life being made harder in the slightest.)

But we did get a 4.2mag. aftershock at 5am-ish today, which seems to have ruined a lot of people's mornings. My own reaction was a groggy, "Bah, I'm not letting a piddly - hmm, feels like a low 4 - stop me sleeping in." And went back to sleep. From evidence, the cat's reaction was similar, which is gratifying progress.

In other recent EQ news, I got my letter from EQC listing all the damage the inspectors noticed while they were around here. It takes a page and a half, each line being one wall or ceiling or window or other feature, notated with a super-brief "Collapsed chimney" / "Structural damage" / "Floor has moved less than 100mm" / "Impact damage" etc. I also get a "Broken glass" and "Broken power fittings" and "Cracks to ring foundation", but the vast majority is "Cosmetic damage".

There's also a new Red Cross grant which was called the Alternatives to Sewerage Systems grant until someone noticed the acronym and changed it to something I can't remember because it's nowhere near as fun. Anyway it's NZ$500 for anyone who went without city sewerage for more than 90 days, and after a few days of being vaguely aware of the grant, it suddenly occurred to me that that included me again.

This perfectly solves my voucher-from-work dilemma: I can pass said voucher on to Women's Refuge and never have to think about it again, and use the grant money to buy myself something nice without any unpleasant aftertaste about where it came from (plus not limited to shopping at the single mall).

On the subject of Red Cross grants, there are three broad philosophies:

1) the Red Cross is making it too easy for people to get money;
2) the Red Cross is making it too hard for people to get money;
3) the Red Cross is doing pretty well actually, as evidenced by the fact that the Letters to the Editor display a perfect balance between philosophy #1 and philosophy #2.

My uncle, it turned out at my Mum's sixtieth birthday dinner, holds philosophy #1, believing that the Red Cross should investigate more exactly which people need exactly how much money. My sisters pointed out that investigating would cost money and delay people getting anything, and corrected him on some points of fact, all the while referring to the Red Cross as "we" (with admirably faint emphasis) until it clicked for him and there was this brief pause and he said, slightly horrified, "You mean you both work for the Red Cross?"

This is how my family celebrates our sixtieth birthdays, people! --Actually it was all good, and we stuffed ourselves full of mains and dessert and cake and then went to Scared Scriptless (a theatre sports show which is a Christchurch institutions -- their normal venue has been red-zoned so they've been bouncing around, at the moment performing in an intermediate school's auditorium) which was brilliant as usual. (I mean there was the game that's funny because foreign people have silly accents, and the game that's funny because date rape's hilarious, and the games that are funny because homophobia and transphobia; but y'know, it was my Mum's birthday so I'm just going to give in to the kyriarchy this once.) The brilliantest thing was that one of my family managed to get a note slipped to their coordinator about Mum's birthday, and so he asked her some questions and then got the guys in the team (yes, they're all guys, this may have something to do with the kyriarchy both cause and effect; see also the demographics of QI and the predictable "Women just must not be as funny as men" that you get when you point this out to fans on their fan-forum, but that's a story for another day) -- anyway, he got them to improvise a song for her which really was utterly fantastic.

Oh oh! And apparently my bus, my normal bus, my dear #23, is now running out my way again! I saw it! This means I could catch it straight from here straight to the door of my work again! --If that building is ever my workplace again, anyway, which to our rage and dismay is sounding increasingly unlikely, but that's a rant for another day. In the meantime the #21 gets me almost-straight from here straight to my current workplace, just takes a bit longer.

Comments

[rumpelsnorcack]

*checks open tab on her computer* 'Alternative to City Sewage Grant' which is MUCH less fun than Alternative to Sewerage Systems IMO. I need to get around to applying for that myself, though since we really do literally only just squeak in to the 90 days I feel all guilty about it. I personally think the Red Cross is doing approximately #3 and I make sure people at school know when there's something that may apply to them after discovering that some of them didn't know about the electricity one when they were actually eligible.

I kind of want to go to Scared Scriptless one day soon just because I've always meant to go and never did and these days I REFUSE to not do things anymore, on the basis that if you don't do them they may disappear and it's better to regret doing something than regret not doing after it's been wiped out by earthquakes. I just need to find an acceptable day to do so which hasn't already filled itself to capacity.

Yay for proper bus services returning. Our most local one has started up again too, which is nice because now it doesn't involve a 10 minute walk anymore :D

[poetrychook.blogspot.com]

To be fair, the photo of the Scared Scriptless team in the paper a few days before had two women - one was the director, I think, and one was a team member. So they do have women in their total crew, but yes, they have more men. I think they often recruit them from the ranks of the school Theatresports teams. No discrimination, there just do seem to be more males involved than females.
(A couple of the girls from Sass's team in the seventh form were recruited to the Court Jesters some years back).

[irinarempt.pip.verisignlabs.com]

Completely off-topic, but somehow I always thought you (rumpelsnorcack) were a guy!

[rumpelsnorcack]

Heh, it's funny how you get this picture about people, isn't it? I'm forever doing that and then being surprised when they turn out to be someone totally different in reality.

[zeborah]

I'm sure there's no *conscious* discrimination, and it's even possible that they really have chosen the most talented people who came to their notice. But when men consistently outnumber women in the entire genre of comedy, improvised or otherwise, either a) women are genetically disposed to be less funny than men, or b) someone somewhere (probably a great many someones, from childhood through school through media examples though audience expectations etc) is exerting a whole lot of subconscious discrimination.