About Steves Ramblings

Steves Ramblings is ultimately just the simple personal blog of a simple guy from Auckland, New Zealand.

That would be me, Stephen. Most people just call me Steve though.

I work in the IT industry here in Auckland, and I spend a lot of time scouring the intarwebs just sucking in information. Often I do nothing with most of that information, but sometimes I’ll post about something that catches my eye here.

Because of the work I’m in, I often get a lot of questions about a lot of subjects. I find that sometimes, the questions require quite a lot of explaining before the answer is understood. So in those situations, I try to put together a post or article here on the blog that will explain things clearly. The other advantage to doing this is that when I need to, I can link to other resources that may also help make things clear or provide further useful information. A lot of these are tutorials, but some of these are just general posts. The best bet to finding the information is to search for it using the search box in the top right of every page.

Ultimately however, this site is purely just a personal blog. There is no real theme to it, no real intent or purpose behind it other than a playground for my imagination to wander.

About Me

I’m in my very early 30s and live in the eastern suburbs of Auckland. I don’t do a lot of anything. I’m very boring. But, worse than that, I’m also extremely opinionated.

I like to have very strong conversations about almost anything. I will often take a contrary view of something just for the sake of arguing it. I’ll often do this even if I agree with the other persons point of view. I like being contrary. Many people find this annoying and quite a lot get rather upset with me for this. I’m not arguing so much as trying to engender a wider discourse on a subject. Most people just see it as arguing for the sake of arguing. Oh well.

I used to be very active in Judo and Wrestling till I blew my knees out in a judo tournament. Hurt like hell and left me with pretty weak knees ever since. Don’t ever ask me to kneel :-P

I recently started getting a little more into a health kick. Don’t have much choice in the matter. If you’re in the eastern suburbs of Auckland and looking for a very unfit partner to whip into shape like an army cadet, I work in Onehunga and live in the Glen Innes/Meadowbank/St Johns area (kind of in the middle of all 3.)

Work

While I currently work in IT, I used to work as a security guard out in West Auckland. I had a nightly patrol that involved about 300km of driving a night, combined with about 25-30km of walking. 7 nights on, 1 day shift, then 6 days off out of every 14 day cycle. Loved the job. Was so much fun. If I could afford to go back to it, I’d do so in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, thats not very likely at the present time. So spending 14+ hours a day in front of a computer remains on the cards for the near term.

Someone told me they would never have picked me as a security guard. I didn’t have the whole “wannabe-cop” attitude that most security guards seem to have. Thing is, being a cop has never entered my mind as a possibility. Quite aside from being too short (only 5’9″) I don’t like the way most people treat cops. In our current society, even security guards seem to get more respect than the police do. Yet both are just doing their job. Still, for me security work wasn’t about the authority (cos there really is none) but more about the people you meet and get to interact with through the middle of the night. There are some people with some really amazing stories out there, and they’re more likely to be visible at night than through the day.

Getting to clip taggers during the night was also a perk. Putting the fear of God into them while they sit on the ground waiting for the cops to show up for some reason was often quite fun. On the flip side, breaking up fights between street kids and street gangs tended to be a rather unhealthy way to do my job. My old boss used to get very pissed off with me when I would do so. First rule of being a security guard… Never endanger your own life for the sake of someone elses property. Primarily because your off shift co-workers are already working damn hard as it is and are not likely to fill in for you if you get hurt. So the boss will have to do it :-P

I am not a workaholic by any stretch. In fact, my bosses would probably get a huge belly rumble going if anyone tried to hint at it. Its more a case of I’m good at my job and while I may not particularly like currently working in an office, I do like the challenge. I also like the people I work with, which really helps. In that regard, the past couple of jobs have been really good.

Politics

To say I’m political is true. I believe that the purpose of government is to provide the necessities required for citizens to live in a modern society. I do not like large governments, and I think that when government starts passing laws that are more social engineering and social reform, things are getting out of hand. I believe that Government should provide the very base of the platform that allows people to control and grow their own lives.

Having said that, I’m not entirely opposed to things such as social welfare. Although I do believe that it is so strongly abused in this country. For example, unemployment benefits should have a limit to the amount of time a person can spend on them, and then a buffer period before someone can go back on it. This works overseas. Many people would say this contributes to poverty, but I think limiting the time spent on a benefit would give long term beneficiaries greater incentives to find work and stick with it. Sickness beneficiaries should be required to undertake quarterly medical appraisals by an independent doctor, not their own. Simple things like this. At the present time, the majority of welfare in this country is abused by a few and those that really need it are not likely to object to these kinds of requirements.

I consider myself to be just over the right side of the centrist line. I don’t agree with a lot the Green party has done in the past few years, but I also don’t think much of what the Act Party wants is entirely right either. Both parties have some policies I agree with, but never enough to have me vote for them. Having said that, I have never voted for Labour either.