Matisyahu's Blog

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

recent posts

  • A good start to building a relaxing backyard.

    I went down the road with mum to pick up some furniture and plants for my backyard then did some grocery shopping on the way back home. Once back at home I unpacked everything and mum helped me get the pot plants setup. Below are two photos of where things are so far:

    What I’d like to eventually do is make the fence a lot more presentable – I’m unsure whether I should replace it with a colour steel or whether I’m better off maybe putting up a fake hedge cover over it which will avoid having to do major work (link). With that being said, the side fences also need to be sorted out along with getting more plants – I’m looking at getting some long planter boxes then maybe some railway sleepers to kind of it in with a pebble bed underneath it.

    The other big focus is getting some shade over the sitting area – I’ve had a look through Bunnings and it appears that there are kit sets where one can setup a gazebo to cover the area while still making sure the space is open. One of the benefits of having such a setup will mean that on days when I need to dry my clothes I can put it on a clothes rack sitting outside even if the weather isn’t necessarily good. The choice is either getting a bespoke one or getting one that will need a few tweaks – in the meantime I may end up just getting a umbrella or a temporary gazebo that I can put up and leave up but take it down when there are high winds.

  • Happy Boxing Day.

    I decided to have a quiet time at home on Boxing Day after the excesses of Christmas Day – lots of food and sweets however it did feel a bit overwhelming so I’ve spent today at home unwinding, went for a quiet walk around the block a few times to get some fresh air once the rain stopped. On Saturday I’ll have a look at some outside seating along with some pot plants to make the backyard more inviting particularly on my day off from work where I can spend the time outside using my laptop rather than stuck inside. While I’m at the store I’ll have a look to see if there are any options for some sort of shade even if it is a temporary form of shade that I’ll need to put away in the garden shed.

    When it comes to the garden shed, the one I’ve got is a cheap one where as what I’d like to get is something that is a bit more robust and I’m also looking at maybe getting an e-bike with enough space that it can carry shopping (something like a cargo bike would be nice). Although they’re more expensive than a 50cc scooter there is the benefit of not having to pay for registration and from what I understand for insurance purposes it comes under ‘home and contents’ like an ordinary push bike rather than it having to have a separate insurance policy. The sort of shed I’ll get will be based on the dimensions of the bike that I’m looking at getting so that it can fit inside but from what I understand the battery is removable so it is possible to recharge the battery inside.

    With the lead up to the new year the big focus by me has been on making small lifestyle changes that I can carry over to the new year – call it a running start rather than starting new resolutions from a standing start which doesn’t have the benefit of built up momentum. The thing I’ve been doing for the last week is asking myself “am I hungry or am I just bored” before going to have something to eat. It is easy to get stuck in a cycle of eating just to fill up time or associating an activity with eating eg I’m going to watch a movie so therefore I should have something to nibble on, rather than asking whether I’m doing it out of habit because that is what I’ve always done or is it because I’m genuinely hungry.

    I think that good amount of my weight gain in the past it has been due to ‘unconscious eating’ where I’ll just go through the day on autopilot not really asking myself “but do I really need it because I am hungry or am I doing it because I’m bored and need to keep myself occupied by doing something?”. It isn’t about depriving oneself of enjoyment but rather asking whether this is something that I am consciously engaging in or am I just on autopilot and going through the motions. It is early days but I’m hoping that if I stick to it then eventually it’ll become an ingrained habit that becomes an default setting rather than having to consciously thinking about it.

  • A wonderful day with the family.

    I got up at 10am today and got ready to be picked up by mum and we spent the day with my sister, her partner and two kids. I made sure that I got the beer and wine out of the fridge for the presents and everyone was happy with what I bought. My sister bought me the following (which I have put on my kitchen bench):

    It is a Snoopy biscuit container along with a Woodstock and Snoopy salt/pepper container which will look nice, adds a bit of colour to my kitchen. The wine I bought for mum was the Brown Brothers Dolcetto & Syrah which is a light read wine that you have cold – quite refreshing and low in alcohol which went nice with the lamb and the generous amount of roast vegetables my sister cooked. The desert was wonderful, ambrosia and a pavlova with cream and various fresh berries on top. I was going to stay the night at mum’s but that was assuming that both mum and I would have more alcohol than normal and thus to play it safe mum would drop me off the next day. Today I just had the one glass of wine and for the rest of the day I had soft drink which meant that by the time mum dropped me back it was around 8 hours since my last drink so the alcohol had worked through our body and thus would be under the alcohol limit.

    uBlock Origin Lite 2025.1224.1544 was released today – I was expecting it to be released (it was released on 24/12/25 US time) so close to Christmas but I guess it is another Christmas miracle. I tried it out on a few websites and found that there has been a slight improvement in blocking – I’ve found on occasions there are ads and other content leaking through but that appears to be now addressed. It makes me wonder whether Apple has expanded the number of offices where the reviewing takes place when compared to Google where it can take sometimes two days for it to be approved. I’ve kept mum on the iOS 18.x series although I have a feeling that eventually I’ll need to upgrade her phone but I’ll hold off until 26.3 at the earliest although I am leaning towards 26.4 in a hope that with the new UI lead will make more changes to deal with the rough edges regrading Liquid Glass.

  • Everything is ready for tomorrow.

    I had a sleep in today then mum came around to help out with the garden where we took out the pebbles along with the weed matting and then removed all the weeds, placed the cardboard underneath then the weed matting on top then the pebbles were added on top of that and now I’ve got some belle gardens without the weeds growing through. After that mum got the whipper snipper out and sorted out the weeds growing in between the concrete and other cracks then I came through afterwards with a leaf blower to tidy it all up.

    The back shed is looking a little worse for wear with the door having broken up during quite a violent storm earlier this year so the big question is what to replace it with. The big question is whether I’m looking at getting a 50cc scooter – I’m open to either electric or petrol but if I do go for electric I want to make sure that there are service centres around near by if I need servicing or the tyre replaced etc. The cost of the electric scooters aren’t too bad with one I saw for around NZ$4000 plus inroad costs however the distance is only around 50-60km on a single charge but that being said that would be sufficient for shopping given hat the supermarket is only around 4-5km from where I live.

    I’ve put the wine and beer in the fridge for tomorrow because most likely that those receiving the gift will probably want to drink it – I’ve put a reminder in my calendar to get it out of the fridge before going. For mum and my sister I got them a bottle of Brown Brothers wine each – one bottle of Moscato and one bottle of Dolcetto & Syrah – both of them are lower alcohol wines that are sweet and refreshing which is perfect for a meal during the day. My sister’s partner I got 3 German beers and a Japanese beer – the empty cans will look good in his ‘man cave’ that he has built for himself (I guess since I live alone my whole house is a man cave).

    Oh, and just as a nightcap – it is amazing watching MAGA crashing out. MAGA types cannot get their head around the idea that when they say “but there could be Democrats in that file…” believing it was some sort of gotcha then the Democrats online will say “…yeah, and if they are they need to face justice..” with the MAGA types acting surprised. Unlike the MAGA types, those of us on the centre left and left aren’t a cult – we hold our politicians accountable. This is the reason why, even as a Labour Party member, I am critical of my party because I believe they can and should do better. The moment you stop being critical of the party you vote for is the moment that you have joined a cult.

  • Getting closer to Christmas.

    I went for an 11.6km walk tonight and the weather wasn’t too bad tonight – a nice breeze, a reasonable temperature and not too many crazies out on the road. I arrived back home after 1 hour an 50 minutes, put the wheelie bin out to be picked up on Wednesday and unlike some of the people on the street I make use of the special rubber/plastic hook that ensures the lid remains shut as to avoid the lid opening due to high wind then having all the rubbish being blown around.

    I’m looking forward to ending this year and the start of a new year – I see this as an opportunity to look back at the success I’ve had over the year which includes the weight loss and getting healthy. Although I haven’t hit my goal of being under 100kg I am happy that I’m still on the way there and sticking with a good routine. I’m hoping that with 2026 coming around that things will get better in New Zealand because god knows the roller coaster the economy has been on *sigh* that being said, there are things being worked on in the European Union to further integrate countries into a single economy, more free trade agreements are being signed, there are the midterms in the US that may result in some of the insanity being undone or at least confined.

    I’m looking at getting some barbells and maybe a few other exercise equipment – basically I want something I can do while watching television. For example, if I am watching a show I can do some curls using the barbells or maybe doing some squats while holding some weights so it adds resistance. The reason why I’m looking at doing that is because getting the weight down is good but I also want to have some lean muscle which will help burn calories and boost the metabolism. I’ve got the walking nailed down and that is sorting out the leg muscles but the free weights will build up some muscles in the arms and tone them down since I have some loose skin that I can tighten up with some resistance training.

  • Wasn’t going to but ended up buying presents.

    Normally over the festive season we don’t give presents to each other but my sister and her partner decide to get something for me so what I decided to do is get something for them along with something for mum as well. I didn’t go overboard but each of them were something unique that I’m sure they’ll enjoy and they’re presented in a metal basket with a wooden handle so it’ll be useful as away of storing things.

    When I was down the road the shops were really quiet – a lot quieter than what I’ve seen in previous years particularly when it comes to the supermarket this close to Christmas being on Thursday. I knew that things were getting pretty tough out there for many families but I don’t think many, at least those in power, understand how many families are struggling to keep their head above water.

    The government announced today that New Zealand and India have come to an agreement regarding a comprehensive free trade agreement but like a lot of things in life the devil is in the details. There is already one party in the coalition government who said they’re going to vote against it but couldn’t imagine Labour voting against it although Chris Hipkins has been rather coy about giving an answer other than saying that it is up to the Labour caucus to discuss the matter and make a collective decision.

    Personally, I don’t see Labour voting against it because generally there is a consensus between the two parties regarding free trade agreements being good and that even if the other party negotiates the free trade agreement it is doubtful that they were in power the agreement would be any better – one thing to keep in mind that as a smaller country we don’t have much leverage in negotiating these agreements regardless of who is in power.

    It is interesting how the world is resetting and a focus is on opening up to new markets to insulate ones country from the erratic nature of the United States. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next 3 years and whether we’ll see an acceleration of decoupling from the United States and then add to that the fact that is cheaper to do business in Europe than in the United States you may start seeing US businesses expand their presence in Europe along with Canada, New Zealand and Australia especially once you see the fast tracking of immigration for highly skilled workers which may result in a brain drain form the United States to the rest of the world.

    Daily writing prompt
    What is your all time favorite automobile?
    View all responses

    My favourite cars are from the 1930s and 1940s in the streamline moderne styling for both vehicles and trains – it gives a sense of modernity, speed, style and sophistication. Here are some good photos of what I am referring to (link).

  • A good start to the week.

    Had a relaxing day at home, tidying up around the place, had a chat to mum about the work I’d like to do around the yard – funny how as soon as I mentioned that it started spitting outside. Well, it wasn’t enough to stop me from going for a walk so I went for one and the total distance was 18.7km – I don’t have anything like a Apple Watch but I measure the distance using Google Maps which gives a good estimation and then combine that with the amount of time it took I can calculate from there what the estimated amount of calories burned (I normally work on 60-70 calories per km).

    I’ve been watching the implosion of MAGA and the right wing in the United States and I have to admit that I’m enjoying the warm feeling of schadenfreude – couldn’t happen to a more worthy group of of cretins who have demonstrated time and time again that they value the grift and propagation of ‘feels over reals’ commentary for years all for the sake of making a buck. Well, it is all coming back to bite them in the backside, when people slam face first into the brick wall of reality it doesn’t matter how much fluffing the right wing commentators do for Trump it won’t change the fact that rent is up, energy is up, food prices are up, the number of jobs lost has increased and the promise of a ‘golden age’ off the back of scapegoating undocumented immigrants hasn’t materialised.

    The reality is that the right can only survive when they’re in opposition because when they’re in power they’ve demonstrated that they have no interested in delivering on the promises they made on the campaign trail. The other part of the equation was this idea that far too many have internalised that there has been a ‘cultural shift to the right’ but I think what such individuals will find is that loud and obnoxious voices online do not represent ‘normies’ – most ‘normies’ are just trying to get through life and Bari Weiss found that out with her interview with Erika Kirk that no one cares (as demonstrated by the poor ratings). Unless you’re chronically online then it is highly unlikely that ‘normies’ would have ever heard of Charlie Kirk or Erika Kirk. I guess Bari Weiss is going to find out the hard way that what may interest here and those she hangs out with doesn’t actually interest the average normie.

    As my grandma used to say, the universe eventually balances itself out in the end – it may take a while but it eventually happens. I think what we’re going to see after dealing with Trump is a swing back to somewhere around the middle – MAGA people are now leaving MAGA and instead identifying as traditional Republican, Democrats are focusing on ‘meat and potato’ issues which has led to the likes of Zohran Mamdani winning their election because they don’t get bogged down in boutique identity politics. Some liberal commentators were given a hard time about wanting to have brunch but the point being made is that for most people it is exhausting – politics should be and needs to be boring and predictable rather than a never ending avalanche of chaos coming out of the Whitehouse.

  • End of the first week of my annual leave.

    End of the first week of my leave and one thing I am also looking at is getting some barbells to do some light weights when I am at home – when watching some television being able to get some reps in which will help to tone and define my arms (the walk I try to go on every night do the legs pretty well). I’m going to go for a quick look around at the shops on Monday it for no other reason than to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

    The one thing I hope is that with the collapse of MAGA that we’ll see a return of comedians who aren’t interested in having a podcast to suck up to those in power. The whole point of being a comedian is being an outsider, to punch up not punch down, to hold those in power accountable and not to spend time sucking up/defending those in power, be a social critic by holding up a mirror to society. Every time I see a comedian suck up to those in power on a podcast it reminds me of Bill Hicks retort of “government approved rock and roll” except replace ‘rock and roll’ with comedy and you get the vibe of what comedians appear to be doing these days.

    I’ve been following South Park and to be honest the best way to deal with this current political climate is to mock it relentlessly because it doesn’t deserve to be given the respect let alone a serious critique given the whole movement itself is based on vibes rather than a coherent philosophical world view. Sometimes the only way to adequately critique administration’s bad behaviour is to demonstrate how ridiculous they are in much the same way that Lewis Black did with their ‘Gay Banditos’ to demonstrate how ridiculous the Republican claim that same sex marriage was going to destroy ‘traditional marriage’.

  • Back to using WordPress.

    Today was rather quiet but I decided to use that time to go for a walk, tidy around the house and then head down to the supermarket to pick up some salad and chicken for dinner. After coming back home I put the chicken in the oven and while waiting I’m watching some YouTube videos along with updating my blog.

    I mentioned previously that I had MarsEdit installed and it is a wonderful piece of software however there are some things I rely on such as saving drafts to the cloud where as with MarsEdit it saves it locally which is a bit of a trouble when I jump between my laptop and my desktop depending on how I feel. The other thing that I miss is the writing prompt which I like using fairly regularly because it gives me inspiration regarding what I’d like to talk about.

    Don’t get my wrong, if you’re using to using a traditional blogging client then it is a great tool particularly if you’re just using one device. There is also the fact that you can create a post, insert photos/images, and then upload it all at once, the editing of code using traditional HTML is easier on MarsEdit etc. It is a good tool but I think I’ve become too dependent on the web based interface to go back to what I used to use a few years ago.

  • Feeling good.

    I went down to the shops today to have a walk around, had aa coffee and a muffin, had a look at some of the specials and see if there was anything that looked interesting. I went for a good walk around along with walking down to Harvey Norman as well then back up to Big Save and a few other shops outside of the mall to see whether they have any specials today. One thing I did notice is that none of the big names (Noel Leeming, JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman) had the the Apple HomePod or HomePod mini in stock – when I had a check online with the Apple for New Zealand they did have the speakers in stock which makes me wonder whether they don’t have them on stock because they’re not high demand product rather than it being the result of it being updated soon.

    After I came home, I had dinner and then watched a few shows and then I went for a walk – 17.4km and then combined with the walking from today the total number of kms would be around 20km. I’m trying to get back into a better routine because I know when I go for a walk every night I feel a whole lot better the next day. On Sunday I’ll probably go out a little but earlier, maybe around 8pm, and do the same 17.4km and I’m hoping that if I can keep that up to Christmas Day that I’ll make up for being lazy for the last week. Next week is when I’ll start doing some gardening around the flat to beautify the place but that’ll probably be on Boxing Day when I head down to Bunnings to pick up stuff to make the backyard a peaceful place to relax.

    Safari Technology Preview 234 has been released which has pushed the WPT score to 99 – it’ll be interesting to see what Safari 26.4 has in store – maybe we’ll strike it lucky and get to 100% implementation. More rumours are coming out regarding a Snow Leopard release for version 27 of Apple’s platforms but I’m also wondering whether some changes under the hood have been held back until version 27 because the performance hit on x86-64 would too great such as pushing more kernel modules into user space (I assume that in future x86-64 CPUs the adoption of FRED should address that issue – Linux has added support for FRED but regarding Windows, that is a big mystery).