Bill Bennett

It’s great that Sky shows Nations League football matches, but I’d like to have seen the All Whites match too. Was it covered but hidden away in some dark recess?

Put the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on for a change from my usual late afternoon playlists and am instantly taken back to ferrying teenagers to school dances and parties.

Do people still have elevenses?

Had a dentist check up appointment this morning. For the first time since I came back to New Zealand from Australia in 2004 there was zero dental work. Not a sausage. No charge either.

Perhaps I should buy a Lotto ticket.

Today I finally deactivated my Twitter account.

I haven’t used it for two years, but kept it open just in case there was a return to sanity.

Also, there have been important personal messages sent there since I stopped using Twitter. But there haven’t been any for 6 months now

Writing for a newspaper, magazine or newsy online site is like a self-saucing pudding. The byline acts as a form of marketing that gets me more writing work. Hardly anyone knows about it when I ghost write something, so I don’t tend to get a lot of repeat ghostwriting business.

Predictions for Premier League Match Day 11

Home Away
Brentford Bournemouth Draw
Crystal Palace Fulham Away
West Ham Everton Home
Wolves Southampton Draw
Brighton Man City Draw
Liverpool Aston Villa Home
Man United Leicester Home
Nottingham Forest Newcastle Home
Spurs Ipswich Home
Chelsea Arsenal Home


Track record so far:
Week 4 predictions: 6 out of ten correct. Week 5 predictions: 4 out of ten correct.

Week 6 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 7 predictions 6 out of ten correct.

Week 8 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 9 predictions 4 out of ten ccorrect.

Week 10 predictions 4 out of ten.

Overall so far: 49 percent.

About once a week a flyer, or an impersonal letter, from a local estate agent turns up in my letter box. And I think: “how stupid are you to expect me to trust a million dollar plus house transaction to someone incapable of reading a NO JUNK MAIL sign.”

I’m old enough to remember when yoghurt was an exotic new health food.

Eliminated hay fever last year by chopping down the privit bushes near the house. Noticed eyes were streaming so checked and found there are two other varieties of privit still in this garden. Not sure what the previous owner was thinking when these were planted.

Annoyed that my personal data is among the material the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department gave to Facebook. Doubly so because I haven’t used Facebook in more than 12 years.

I doubt it is a popular opinion, but I feel New Zealand media is spending far too much time on an election in a foreign country.

Predictions for Premier League Match Day 10





Track record so far:

Week 4 predictions: 6 out of ten correct.

Week 5 predictions: 4 out of ten correct.

Week 6 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 7 predictions 6 out of ten correct.

Week 8 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 9 predictions 4 out of ten ccorrect.

Overall so far: 50 percent.

I’ve spent more than 20 years working as a freelance, 99 percent of the time I deliver on time… but for some reason when I worked for a client that used Asana, I found it reduced my productivity and reliability.

Is that unusual? Is it generational?

Sitting here in New Zealand, my strategy for coping with the US election is to stick fingers in both ears and say “LA LA LA” very loudly.

Some days the writing muse takes until dinner time to get moving. This was one of those days.

Predictions for Premier League Match Day 9

Leicester Notts Forest Draw
Aston Villa Bournemouth Home
Brentford Ipswich Home
Brighton Wolves Home
Man City Southampton Home
Everton Fulham Home
Chelsea Newcastle Home
Crystal Palace Tottenham Away
West Ham Manchester United Draw
Arsenal Liverpool Draw

My track record so far is not great:

Week 4 predictions: 6 out of ten correct.

Week 5 predictions: 4 out of ten correct.

Week 6 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 7 predictions 6 out of ten correct.

Week 8 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

It’s easy to tell when I have a full work load: my social media output drops almost to zero.

Often when I read about US politics in 2024 I think back with nostalgia to that scene where the Blues Brothers drive the Nazis off the bridge.

They don't make newspapers like they used to

I’m so pleased this had nothing to do with me. This was published in _The Australian _ 15 years ago and spotted by Mumbrella.

So let’s do some role playing. You’re a sub on The Australian.

Your boss has just given a speech about the health of newspapers.

You’ve got to put a headline on the speech.

Do you a) Check the spelling of the word “newspapers” in the headline or b) Not check the spelling of the word “newspapers” in the headline? Remember, your career may depend on the choice you make.

Do people outside the US still care about Chromebooks? Back in the day I’d get huge amounts of local traffic when I wrote about them, then, almost suddenly, crickets.

Am I alone in thinking Bing Webmaster Tools is utterly worthless or are there stealthy fans out there?

Earlier this year I looked at whether New Zealanders pay too much for broadband.

billbennett.co.nz/reflectio…

Farewell Computer Music magazine

Although I mainly worked for newspapers, I spent a few years working in magazines too so it’s always sad to see one go. This was the last what might be loosely described as personal technology magazine I can think of. It’s certainly the last title I read. While there may be a few limping on unseen elsewhere in the world it feels like the end for the entire genre.

www.synthtopia.com/content/2…

From ten years ago on my site:

At the time Chorus struggled to pay for the fibre build.

billbennett.co.nz/chorus-au…