5 Things that will happen based on the leaked Paul Henry memo

1. TVNZ leaks memo suggesting Paul Henry will host a new show on TVNZ at 7pm.
2. TVNZ uses the leak to gauge public reaction (is Paul Henry still a controversial figure?)
3. News breaks in Australia that Paul Henry may leave Breakfast on Channel 10
4. Australian media publish articles headlined "New Zealand: You're welcome to him."
5. New Zealand blogosphere publishes posts headlined "We don't want him!"

On Budgeting

The best book I've ever read on budgeting is Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It's a unique approach which basically says "Track everything you spend, and at the end of the month analyse whether you thought it was worthwhile". It's in the Wellington Central Library. Here's a big article about it: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/16/review-your-money-or-your-life/

If you're interested in a traditional approach to budgeting, I'd start by just really really roughly estimating income and expenses in a bunch of general categories (rent, bills, food, etc). Then, to get more detail, you can follow the steps in this article: Making a Budget (a first-timer's guide) and the tips in this article: Budgeting 101.

The Simple Dollar (which those two articles come from) is also a really good website to poke around in. There's a lot of information in there but it's also written in a very accessible way, and it regularly links to other websites and articles.

If the situation is really urgent, I've heard good things about (but haven't read) Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (which is in the library as well). Here's the first part of a really extensive review, and this post has a links to all the other parts of that review.

And there's https://www.sorted.org.nz/ as well.

Basically, books on budgeting usually have a lot of shared messages in them: the trick is to find an author who makes sense to you.

The Newsroom

Do they film two versions of every ep (dramatic and farce), then splice them together in the editing room?


I enjoy THE NEWSROOM, but the only way this show makes sense to me is if I imagine that, on the set, Team Sorkin film two versions of every scene: the drama version (interesting situations and commentary; competent characters pushing for excellence) and the sit-com version (concerned primarily with romantic entanglements, filled with characters that start to flail socially and physically when confronted with matters of the heart, and with a soft spot towards farce). In the editing room, they seem to decide at random which version of a scene they'll put into the final cut.

I prefer the episodes when the ratio is 90% drama version, 10% sit-com. See Episode 3 for a really excellent example.