jeffrey » patriotism

Resistance is futile

Jeffrey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:59:12 +0000

Today the government of New Zealand granted me indefinite residency. This affords me certain inalienable rights:

to enter and leave New Zealand indefinitely
to work for any employer or setup a business
to walk anywhere in Wellington without shoes or socks
to say “bro” and “choice” and other colorful words found in the vernacular
to buy groceries at New World without wearing a shirt
to use verbs and nouns, e.g. “have a feed”
to eat sandwiches made from french fries and tomato sauce
to sing the New Zealand national anthem without feeling phony
to bicycle to work in Lycra

I’m sure there are other privileges, so feel free to add to my list.

And to my American friends, if you find America collapsing like a Jenga game from economic ruin, you can stay with me in New Zealand.

You’ll like it, I promise.

Crazy Coding Kiwis

Jeffrey — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:31:50 +0000

FullCodePress finished on Sunday morning. And the result? Victory for the Kiwis!

In first place we have the Kiwis’ website:
http://kiwi.fullcodepress.mbcomms.net.au/

And in second place we have the Koalas’ website:
http://aussie.fullcodepress.mbcomms.net.au/

I was awake for the duration of the competition and the awards ceremony (about 36 hours without sleep) and then crashed until the morning (about 18 hours sleeping). My brain is fried from coding so quickly.

I’m still recovering (hence the late blog post).

New Zealand won by a small margin, but more importantly our client has a new website for their charity. Hopefully it will help their cause and change someone’s life for the better.

Before the competition, I saw the Sydney Opera House, and the beach at Manly.¹ Then the teams ate together along CockleBay.² Sydney’s a beautiful city, and not what I expected.

My team members kicked ass, and the Australian team rocked as well. It was great to get together for good causes, even if it was under the guise of competition.

You can read the reactions of my team members too:

Ali’s blog (the all-rounder)
Mark’s blog (the programmer)
Peter’s blog (the writer)
Steve’s blog (the designer)
T-dog’s blog (the project manager)
Zef’s blog (the usability guru)

Or you can read the Xero blog entry. The competition was also plugged on National Radio (somewhere between two and three minutes).

The next FullCodePress is before Webstock in February and any country can participate.

_{1. I felt manly after leaving Manly.}
_{2. Cockle Bay? Manly? Sydney seem to favor one gender over another.}

FullCodePress-ure

Jeffrey — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:40:16 +0000

Today’s I leave for Sydney to compete against Australia in FullCodePress. FCP is a competition to “build a fully-operational website for a non-profit organisation in 24 hours.”

My team is awesome, and we’re going to win. The competition starts on Saturday. Here are some details:

Can I see the event online?
The two teams will be building their websites online, and you can watch the progress on the two websites in real time. The web addresses will be announced at 9.30am on Saturday at http://www.fullcodepress.com.

The New Zealand team

Photo and video action:

Blog action:

Who is running the event:

24 hours without sleep! I’m going to feel like a student. Wish us luck…

You’re so vain

Jeffrey — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:11:07 +0000

From my notes in November of 2003: “You paint with your left hand,” she said. “I thought you were right handed?”

“I am,” I said. “I just paint with my left hand.”

“How interesting. Which hand do you use to shoot a gun?”

My face wrinkled. “I’m from the city. I’ve never held a gun.”

“What? What kind of man will you be if you’ve never shot a gun?”

◊

She was from Alabama. One day after she hung up the phone I said, “When you talk on the phone I can tell you’re from the South.”

She gave me a look that would corrode metal. “I speak slowly when I talk to my family,” she said.

“Right,” I said. “What’s your family like?”

“They wouldn’t care for you, not unless you can dig a hole.”

“Dig a hole? How hard can that be?”

“Why would you think it’s easy?” I walked into the yard and she handed me a shovel. I dug. It was pathetic.

◊

Digging holes, firing guns, was I missing something? I thought so, which is why leaving America was easy. To think, a few thousand years ago if someone left their family or birthplace, they would be committing suicide. But today thanks to reality t.v. and chicken nuggets, I’m still alive!

So in New Zealand, I’ve dug a few holes and shot a few bullets¹. But who cares! The most important lesson I’ve learned is about territorial vanity. I thought it was American, but it’s not. It’s everywhere.

Everyday I hear people say, “I’m from here – and you’re not. Here is better than there, because if there were better than here, I wouldn’t be here, but there.^{2 3}”

Every country in the world has its charm. They each have advantages and disadvantages, but unfortunately both America and New Zealand share the thought, “Stop complaining. If you don’t like it here, leave.”

This way of thinking is wrong to me.⁴ It does not make sense. You are digging your own grave.

And I thought I left this patriotic shit behind in America?

How I wish that were true.

_{1. Ironic isn’t it?}
_{2. JAFA, the Hutt, the South Island.}
_{3. Midwest, Texans, New York City.}
_{4. In business, doesn’t complaining give the smart entrepenuer a competitive advantage? Why isn’t this principle applied?}