Have I mentioned how much I hate DB?

Tui is really just DB with a different name in case people hadn't realised. It enables DB to distance themselves from the absolutely atrocious beer Tui makes, and the flat out sexism dressed up as humour that Tui indulges in. It's important for DB to create some distance, because if people actually started caring about a) beer, and b) a better NZ, they'd be dropping DB as soon as humanly possible.

Tui are appealing to the lowest common denominator in NZ society - the dumbarses who drink a particular beer because the advertising connects with their redneck, backward views of the world, where men are MEN, and women are sex objects with no value aside from their (hetero)sexuality.

If you drink Tui, you're a bloody idiot.

Admittedly some of Tui's ads have been good. They are quick on the mark to take the mickey out of just about anyone. But the shameless sexism, and attempts to appeal to anti-'PC' brainlessness has no place in a society wanting to move forward. It's regressive and it's only value is purely about making DB money (from said dumbarses).

Feminism has done more for a better NZ society than beer ever has. And Tui, well Tui hasn't even done anything for NZ beer... other than provide a standard of poor quality that even Boundary Road can rise above.

Moving to the UK

OK, so moving is happening. A job at The Open University has come up. It's for 2 years and I'm currently dealing through a huge amount of avoidance-based thought processes. My partner is dealing by selling everything we own.

The move is good. It brings a bit of freshness to our lives. It's also meant the superordinate stress has surpassed any anxiety I have been feeling about lecturing a course for the first time. Hopefully I'll manage to find the right amount of anxiety to keep me motivated and productive, yet not be overwhelmed.

Looking forward to good beer everywhere, a different work environment and some awesome BJJ coaching where I can be the student for an extended period.

Yay!

To cheapen worth

One of the things that drew me to BJJ was the suggestion that rank only comes when someone is worthy of it. It's safe to say that my eyes have been opened in the last few years, and I have seen people promoted for a number of reasons other than ability (I've also seen some held back despite ability for various political reasons). The thing that really gets my back up though, is promoting people for training a long time (but without the necessary skills)...

Having trained for 6 years, but not being a regular competitor (and when I did underperforming in relation to my ability), I wonder at times whether I 'stack up' with other purples. Not enough to drive me to regular competition though :). I do know that I hold my own well against high level blues (even athletic high level blues!), established purples (even fit, strong purples), and even the odd black belt (OK I got smashed, but not hideously, soul crushingly so).

So when I see or hear about a belt that got given cos the person's been around a while, and yet has little of the necessary requirements for that grade it makes me grumpy.

In some ways I'm looking forward to moving overseas. It means it'll take me a while before I figure out a new context enough to become this jaded again...