iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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

And for reference, this is the screenshot that prompted this.

A screenshot of a tweet by the National Party shared by their official page. It has a photo of Chloe Swarbrick and reads "We have never had a four-party government. If Labour, the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and TOP form a government, New Zealand would be entering uncharted territory. Nine new taxes, prisons abolished, Chlöe Swarbrick doing the budget, and the list goes on."

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

In the previous parliament, there was another four party government, twice! In anticipation of MMP everything got a little bit chaotic as MPs jumped ship from National and Labour to form their own new parties. National had a 1 seat majority and relies on these splinter parties to keep it.

A table showing the multiple different government arrangements during the 1993-1996 term. National is listed on the left hand side and the various parties supporting them at different points during the term are listed. The parties are Right of Centre, United NZ, Future New Zealand, Christian Democrat, Conservative and there is one Independent MP.

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

Well. In 1996 the National party formed a coalition with NZ First which fairly famously disintegrated in 1998 and new PM Jenny Shipley had to put together a new collection of parties to have a majority which are helpfully listed in this table. In total, it's six parties and an independent. Oh dear.

A table listing the parties forming or supporting the government during the 1996-1999 parliament. There are seven parties listed: National, NZ First, Mauri Pacific, Te Tawharau, Mana Wahine, ACT and United NZ. At the conclusion of the parliament, all of those parties except NZ First were supporting the government.

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

The fifth Labour government which preceded it had various combinations of parties which in its final term actually involved *five* different parties. Surely we can't have had more than that though?

A table of parties during the 2005-2008 parliament. The parties forming or supporting the government are listed: Labour, Progressive, United Future, NZ First and Green.

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

This is just so Auckland transport knows I know how to tag off at an ungated station

My card being held up to the reader at a train station. The reader is lit up and says "Tag off success"

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

I only entered or exited a single station that wasn't gated yesterday so I'm surprised that there are three missing tag offs but if the system was trying to figure out where I'd been I wouldn't fault it for being confused

A list of all the trains I caught yesterday. There are a lot.

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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 · 06/08/2026

sounds like working with Winston Peters is finally getting to him

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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

screenshotting this much seems a bit silly but this is the context of what I'm responding to. "Don't like Peters? Vote National" is a perfectly good message but Luxon's managed a garbled version of it. I also didn't quite clock that when asked what he would do about Peters, he said "vote National"

He was challenged about what he planned to do by a member of the public asking what he would do about Peters, who the questioner said was insulting the country on the world stage and destroying race relations, and getting away with it.

Luxon said the answer was "pretty simple".

"Party vote National," he said, to applause.

"Because you may like some things that Winston Peters says, but the bottom line is he opposed the China FTA, he opposed the Indian FTA, he was part of a government that banned oil and gas causing electricity crisis in New Zealand in 2024 that meant people lost their jobs.

"And also he's the person that put Jacinda Ardern into power and wrecked our economy. So let's be a a little straight up about it."

He also repeated previous comments backing migrants, saying they came to New Zealand leaving everything behind and worked "really hard, they take one job, they take two jobs, three jobs to get a deposit for a house or a business ... they don't go on welfare, and they get their kids and they wake up every day and get them to school".

"They have made New Zealand a better place and they have achieved and contributed to this place and we should be thankful."

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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

There is! But it's useless. I've never changed this. If you select any of the other options you'll get a notification for every story tagged as such. Alongside genuine "breaking news" RNZ sends out notifications for seemingly a random assortment of stories each day.

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

In fairness, the quote attributed to him makes it sound fractionally more like the obviously self serving move it is. I'm not sure I'd describe what he said as only "ideological".

Image reads: So, why make the switch? While acknowledging his change of allegiance would be “disappointing” to some in the National Party, Christmas swears he leaves the party with no bad blood – it’s all ideological. “I had to stand back and look at where I could make a contribution in line with my values, and where I’d have the best chance to speak out on what I believe in,” he told RNZ. “In the end, Act was the obvious choice for me.”

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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 · 28/04/2026

If I were to suggest a location it would be at the bus stops on Symonds St just up from Wellesley St. It's the most significant of the uni stops and there's plenty of room. Not sure how the screens on the shelters are powered but there might be power already? And would be suitable location for cctv

Screenshot of Google street view. The road is in the foreground with a wide footpath and a long bus shelter stretching up the side of the road. There's room for several buses to stop at once.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Great to have some reasoning and it's great that there are lots of machines going in at the new stations, but I think this is something worth revisiting after motu move is introduced. There's only really two top up locations on/near campus (red pins only sell new cards, not top up) and it can be...

screenshot of the map of AT HOP top up locations around the university. There's one blue pin in the centre of the campus and a handful of red and blue pins in the areas surrounding the university.

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

The worst example identified is Papakura. The current timetable isn't quite perfect (10 min apart with two trains every hour shifted by 2 mins to make room for freight) but the CRL timetable is all over the place. Deep down there's a regular every 15 mins service, but the trains overlaid mean the...

A graph showing the departures from Papakura station between 7am and 8am in the current timetable and the CRL timetable as tested. The curren timetable has 6 trains in the hour spread out quite evenly. It's every 10 minutes but two trains an hour are shifted 2 minutes later to make room for freight trains. The CRL timetable has 8 trains in the hour but the gaps vary wildly, with gaps of 6 minutes, 9 minutes, 3 minutes, and 12 minutes.

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

Things I like about my current (acoustic) bike: - looks cool - being able to lift it easily, it's hardly light (about 15kg unladen) but I can carry it up stairs without much difficulty, ebike obviously heavier but manoeuvrability is a plus - big, I'm not especially tall but I like a bigger bike

My bike parked on the side of a foopath with green grass, green trees, blue sea and huge blue sky in the background. It's a hybrid bike with 700c wheels. It has pannier bags on a rack over the rear wheel and a pink drink bottle in a holder on the frame.

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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 · 05/12/2025

having never been to melbourne, I feel as though this should probably be lower

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

bicycles are another top 5 technology

A bicycle with pannier bags and a drink bottle in the foreground on the edge of a path. Behind it successive layers of grass, pōhutukawa trees, blue sea, Waiheke island in the distance and endless blue sky above

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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 · 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 · 14/08/2025

several times over the last few years I've tried to go out of my way to catch the train instead of flying and almost every time I've had to give up on the idea because I can't travel on the days I need to

Screenshot of the timetable page for the northern explorer: " Northern Explorer timetable

Northern Explorer Auckland to Wellington trains depart southbound on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

Northern Explorer Wellington to Auckland trains depart northbound on Friday, Sunday, and Wednesday."

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

welcome discovery as I prepare for an impulsive trip out hoping to get to the shops before they close

a fairly chunky staple sticking out of the rear tyre on my bike

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

I really like those numbers. Concerns about line/platform confusion are understandable but I suppose they could also be letters instead. Kinda fascinating that they have highlighted multiple times the need to be careful about the abbreviations, advice they've seemingly completely ignored?

screenshot of a bullet point in one of the slides that reads "We need to ensure the shorthand conventions are not distracting - when shortening the line names for PIDs and the app, we need to do our best to avoid distracting shorthand (for example, shortening Pukekohe to 'PUKE')"

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

According to the electoral commission website, if you're 17 now you can fill out the enrolment form and be automatically enrolled on your 18th birthday. So they could even do it now.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

not bad for what google maps thought would be 13 mins though

Screenshot of the strava summary for my cycle to the train station. Distance 2.42 km, moving time 8:02, average speed 18.1 km/h. Not fast, but there was a hill.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

The Nixon statue itself is amazing

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

This sent me on a journey of discovery because I was surprised that there were as few as two Nixon statues in the world and the other place is Rapid City, South Dakota, which has statues of almost every president on the corners of its main intersections.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

not even sure how this could be an insult, tf is he on about

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

If you like music you should come along to this concert I'm in. The Auckland University Student Choir is putting on its first solo concert next Friday. I've been part of the committee organising the choir for the last two years and this will be a great concert events.humanitix.com/ausc-present...

The poster for our concert "United in Purpose". The poster has all the information about the concert (which can be found in the link in this post) as well as a photo of the choir performing.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I've got no idea what time period the ipod numbers cover, if I listened to music at the same rate as now then it's probably barely 6 months. The lastfm numbers are roughly the last 2½ years. Big difference is where my top 3 used to account for 90%+ of the music, my current top 10 are barely 40%.

A table of artists and how many times I listened to them on my ipod shuffle. Number one is Green Day with 3402, followed by Queen with 448 and then Foo Fighters, Toto, Prodigal Sounds, The Beatles, Mike Oldfield, Mike Jackson, Nirvana, Eagles with diminishing numbers

My top 10 artists as recorded by last.fm. Ranging from 2261 scrobbles to 528 scrobbles are Queen, Toto, Green Day, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Lorde, Foo Fighters, The Beths, Adam Lambert and Billy Joel.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

fascinating looking at abandoned ancient monuments and wondering what they were for

the unfinished Seascape tower in Auckland, a tall pointy skyscraper with scaffolding surrounding the lower levels and a crane towering above it

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

nabbed the front seat for the view

the view from the front seat in a double decker bus, the fuzzy outlines of a major Auckland street are identifiable but the rain on the windshield means everything is smudged

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

we'll just ignore the fact that the most recent year on it is 2023

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Last year I decided a few days in to try to make every journey involve my bike if I could. I ended up cycling 554 km, which is a fair bit. This year I'm not going to go quite so hard. I'm setting myself the modest goal of 400 km (or roughly a round trip into town every day).

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

some straightforward instructions here

On the footpath of a city centre street there is a orange triangle road works sign. Beneath it is the reverse of another sign with the construction company's initials on it reading "ITS AKL. Beneath both is a sign pointing to a dairy that reads "Buy and top up your AT HOP card here."

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Spotted this strange thing while out and about today. Anyone know what it's for?

A train at Kingsland station with the pedestrian bridge above it

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

And I can't now remember why but last year I also dug up my film camera (a cheap one probably dating from the 90s which I was given when I was 8) and took some photos which I think are pretty cool.

A Fujifilm "Clear Shot Plus" film camera and a box of 35mm film sitting on my knee.

The Auckland sky tower. It's framed on either side by other tall buildings. The photo is grainy and the colours are a bit a grey.

A pedestrian bridge across the motorway, the pylon in the background is a tall triangle inside the pylon in the foreground. There's a little bit of light damage on the film.

The PWC tower in Auckland, surrounded by other buildings. Almost all of the image is glass with reflections of the sky and small bits of other building. Despite the glass and sky, which are blue, taking up most of the image, the colours are warm because it was taken almost at sunset and because of the film.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

From inside the Dunedin Town Hall looking through the window at the cathedral next door in June

White walls frame a window through which can be seen the side of a gothic revival cathedral. Three windows and spires are visible and centred in the view through the window. Above the cathedral is a triangle of blue sky. The foreground of the image is almost black and white while the view through the window is very strongly blue.

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Very similar and a couple of days later (and only about 100m down the road). I got some mileage out of this idea.

In the background is the Civic theatre lit from below creating alternating red and yellow stripes. The road is lines with cones which stand out being lit up by the light around them. The right hand side of the image is the blurry streak of a moving bus

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Ryan Nicholls @royuniscool.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Another photo from June taking advantage of some of the things I'd learnt to do with my phone camera after the aurora.

Te Wai Horotiu station lit up in the background. The top of the building has a bright light running across it to a corner in the middle, beneath it is the complex design of panels making different shapes and pattern. In the foreground a bus is blurred as it drives in front of the station.

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