iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

it's amazing how quickly some tidying can be achieved when mum and dad text and say they'll be here 20 minutes earlier than they previously said they would be

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

ah yeah that might be why I needed to top up today..

A screenshot of my HOP card transactions yesterday, there are three missing tag offs

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

catching what might be my last Western line train to Newmarket and sitting waiting for a platform at Newmarket for about 5 mins. Not sure I'll miss this

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Working on a theory that running slightly early actually means running late. On time = brilliant, time to leave Late = crap, time to leave Very early = not time to leave Slightly early = time to leave, but since I have a moment, perhaps I should round up those books that need to go to the library

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Lew @lewsos.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The worst thing about Luxo's referendum brainfart is that all the electoral system cranks are coming out to advocate for abstruse nonsense like MMP-with-STV-electorates again

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I suppose by the next election it will have been as long since the referendum in 2011 as it had been then since we first voted to adopt MMP so perhaps it is fair to 'check in' but I'd like to think that the matter is settled. More people voted to keep MMP in 2011 than to adopt it in 1993...

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

sounds like working with Winston Peters is finally getting to him

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

If you're going to apply the rules of parliament unevenly then they should apply most strictly to the longest serving members who know exactly what the boundaries are and have no excuse for overstepping them.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Once again I have caught a train to or from every station in Auckland. Review of the stations is that they're nice but Drury is the nicer of the two. They've got everything a station should have which puts them ahead of a lot of stations but they are clearly just built.

The entrance to Drury station. Brown and black bricks form an arrow pattern on the footpath in front of the gates. The gates are covered by a canopy which has big letters "Drury" on the top of it. On the left of the image are the stairs and lift going up to the over bridge. Alongthr top of the image there's lots of blue sky with a few clouds.

The entrance to Paerātā station. The sun is on the top right of the image and the entrance casts a big shadow on the foreground. In the centre of the image are the gates to the station, covered by a canopy with large letters "Paerātā"

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Six years more recently he put YOU into power, Chris! www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I usually try to keep the linguistic pedantry in, not least because it almost never matters, but I think this combination of words is actually nonsensical. Chris Finlayson was the AG and he is a former AG but he can't be "the" former AG when there are many and he still is not was.

A screenshot of text reading "Chris Finlayson, KC, was the former Attorney-General under Sir John Key."

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I love that you can always rely on Aucklanders reporting more severe shaking than at the actual epicentre

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

why is rnz live tweeting the football at me

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

if you live here you should get a say in how things are run

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This is from April but only today did I see his name on ACT sign in Tāmaki. I find it hilarious and a little bit difficult to believe that Christmas spent 25+ years as a National supporter before suddenly deciding ACT is the 'obvious' ideological choice for him thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-...

thespinoff.co.nz

Who is James Christmas, the National rising star turned Act saviour?

He swears he’s not a 'secret wokester' in a Trojan horse, so who exactly is Act’s new candidate for Tāmaki?

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

First nighttime NX1 in a while 🌃🚌

The glare of street lights, traffic lights and card headlights reflected on wet road and in the raindrops clinging to the windscreen of a bus. Along the bottom of the image is the black foam covered bar behind the windscreen. There's a faint reflection of bus seats on the glass.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

I worry for what it indicates (NZ First's growing position etc) but it is funny that NZF is accumulating rejected politicians.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

@drdrehistorian.bsky.social I was thinking about railway electrification and wondered about the counterfactual where Akl/Wlg/Chch were electrified pre-war at 1500 V DC as Merz & McLellan. Where might electrification have gone from there/would we have a 1500 V DC network rather than 25 kV AC + Wlg

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Today I have become fascinated about the reasons why the Kawerau borough was not amalgamated into the Whakatāne district in 1989. All attempts at finding reasoning from the time have failed and so I turn to bluesky for any recommendations.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Listening to Dark Side of the Moon with genuine moon mission audio behind it is absolutely peak

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

bike brain is feeling like walking downhill is a chore because normally I'd just let gravity take me

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

One of my favourite bad habits is suddenly remembering all the important things I need to talk to someone about after a long conversation talking about relatively unimportant things when I'm saying goodbye because I start thinking about future reasons I'll see them.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

imo a huge strength with the current train timetable is that (at least during the peak) we run trains as frequently as we can in both directions, as equally spaced apart as we can and they stop at every station. What if that was the goal for the CRL timetable?

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Today's Greater Auckland post really gets at the core of the problem with every official post-CRL running pattern I've seen. Full quote in the reply but I think the problem boils down to drawing with crayons on a map rather than understanding how people use trains.

greaterauckland.org.nz

The Hidden Details of AT's CRL Timetable Test - Greater Auckland

A close look at the CRL timetable Auckland Transport tested in January reveals some useful insights – and some concerning details for passengers.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Desiring a single year long timezone and mindful of disagreements about whether permant daylight time or permanent standard time is better, I offer the following compromise: the entire country adopts Chatham Islands standard time (UTC+12:45) year round.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

What suggestions do people have for ebikes for commuting? Ideal price circa $3k but I could be talked into spending more if strongly recommended. And not in a hurry to buy anything/don't mind waiting for something to come from overseas.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Took until the end of the day but I've just looked at the date. 15 years ago I was sitting outside the bowling club in Sunnybrae waiting for the bus to take us back to school when someone came outside to tell us that there had been another big earthquake in Christchurch.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Found a strange thing while out and about today, anyone know what it's for?

The side of a moving train and the platform at New Lynn station. The various horizontal lines of the train, platform and canopy above all converge on a point just beyond the right hand edge of the frame.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

If speeding up election results was the goal and not just the cover story maybe they'd have worked out something with the electoral commission first instead of passing their legislation and getting mad when the electoral commission says "actually that didn't make it any easier for us"

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

in a new not at all unexpected low, studylink now has ads in its hold music

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

I don't object to the idea of email receipts but it would nice if they weren't just a pretext to send you promotional emails.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

hijacking my own thread with a diversion: this is what gets me about proposals for lines that are faster/deeper/fewer stations/etc. You always need to have an eye on what the journeys people are making look like. Station-station time isn't as important as how long it takes to reach your destination

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Thinking about how much of a superpower rapid transit under city centres can be. I'm cycling from Sandringham to the North Shore today and the 6km to K Rd took 15 mins, then the next 2km down to the NX1 took another 10 mins.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

I appreciate the value of being able to do stuff online and frequently benefit from it but sometimes I would prefer to just talk to a human or come in and do a test on a piece of paper instead of having to deal with the whole circus that doing all this online involves

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

after a walk on the beach I think my everyday shoes may have finally graduated to "very good second best shoes" which means it's time to see how long I can put off buying a new pair

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

I'll throw in mine which is the teddy bears and other stuffed animals that appeared in front windows and especially along the path in the reserve near my house.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

of all of earth's technologies, I think sunblock might be a top 5

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I don't think any of this is really a surprise but it really does reveal how much the government doesn't give a shit about the consequences of what they do They didn't do it to pad out their benefit numbers target, just to save a tiny bit of money in the short term and who cares about the effects.

rnz.co.nz

Ministers were warned against teen welfare crackdown, documents reveal

Officials said the changes could actually increase long-term benefit dependency.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I won't share what I think about Winston Peters but I despise fireworks about as much and I absolutely think we should ban them.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

dirty chopping board theory: owning more of a kitchen implement will never mean you have more of them available to use, it'll just mean you have more of them dirty

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Weirdly, Wayne Brown's 52.8% is both the highest percentage any Auckland mayoral candidate has got and also the second fewest votes any winning candidate has won. Obviously the reason for this is turnout.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

I'm singing in another concert this Friday! The Auckland University Student Choir is putting on its final concert for the year. I've been quite involved in making this happen as Vice President of the choir this semester. So if you like singing or you just have nothing on, come along!

Concert poster: The Auckland University Student Choir presents Still We Sing

Directed by Dr Jono Palmer

Guest performances by the Uniband Jazz Band and the students from the applied musicianship course

Friday 17 October 2025

Doors open: 7:00pm
Concert starts: 7:30

Kāhui St Davids, 70 Khyber Pass Red, Grafton

Tickets
$15 Students
$20 Adults

ticket link: https://events.humanitix.com/still-we-sing-concert

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

I think this is founded on cruelty rather than logic but... Having the guarantee of jobseeker surely makes it much more viable to move to where the jobs are, whereas being reliant on parents for support pretty much guarantees you're stuck living at home. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

rnz.co.nz

Watch: Christopher Luxon defends cuts to benefits for youth

The prime minister says businesses are 'crying out for young people' as advocates decry the changes as a punishment.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

As much as the bike bus trial sucks it really has enabled new journeys for me and has definitely prevented some car trips. I hope it leads to better things and its limited use doesn't discourage us from better bike infrastructure to the North Shore.

The back wheels and seats of two bikes on the bike rack on the side of a bus. My helmet is resting on the back of one of the bikes.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I don't know anything about building regulations but it's difficult to believe that anything that's saving $8 billion is making things safer overall. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

rnz.co.nz

Watch: Government announces shake-up of earthquake strengthening laws

A new "risk-based" approach to earthquake strengthening will allegedly save building owners more than $8.2 billion across the country.

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David Cormack @davidcormack.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

We watch a people go through an attempted genocide, and we sit back and say you are no people. You have no state. For you see, we are friends with both you and your murderer.

Luxon says we're friends with both Israel and Palestine

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Main conclusion is that counting votes in NZ is not particularly slow even by Luxon's metric, and where counting votes is significantly faster (like the UK) it's enabled by simpler voting systems and restricted access to voting. But I also think that it doesn't matter if it takes a while to count.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Might be a near perfect bullshit Luxo quote. "Go look at other Western economies around the world and how fast they count their vote. We must be the slowest folk on the planet." 'western economies'? Confident exaggeration. And he's definitely wrong www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

rnz.co.nz

'Slowest folk on the planet': Luxon says he wants votes to be counted faster

The prime minister says he expects the Electoral Commission to speed up the official vote count after an election.

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