Wish 8, 9, 10

These are the last three wishes that I didn't or couldn't grant.

'100 dollars Claudia 8 377xxxx'
This is cute. She even wrote the 3 back to front on her phone number. I thought about calling her or her parents and working something out, but I didn't really have that kind of money to play with. Ambitious girl.

'Get laid TONIGHT! Mutant Mars'
Gee, not too sure about this one. Perhaps I could get laid, and claim it for you by proxy? Sorry Mutant.

'Homeless man in tent, Hagley South. Needy by way of earthquake and psychologically unfit for work on regular basis. Would appreciate a large moden pack. Money? Not as important. P/T under table work? Could do, just not every day. $10p/h. Have licences 1, 2, 4. Can you help?'
Damn. This one was the worst. Not enough details to help what seems like a very genuine problem. Heartbreaking.

So that's Wish Box. Mixed results, but I hope it inspired or amused you. Stay tuned for a similar project - I'm very excited about it!

Wish 7

'New bike tyres :P KJ, YMCA'

I had my old pair still lying around the flat, and saw this as a good way to do a good favour. I left this note: 'Hey KJ, here are some tyres. Sorry they're not new, and I hope they fit. Best wishes! Wish box'

Wish 6

'Wish there were less cops on the rd pulling people up for nothing'

This one seems pretty subjective. Though I didn't want to waste her time, I did send Police Minister Hon Judith Collins an email to get her thoughts on the matter. No reply as yet.
I also checked the ever-reliable Yahoo Answers for a possible answer to 'Do Cops pull people over because they have nothing better to do?'
In the end I don't think this is a wish I could grant, but I did have a look around to see what was going on. The Police say that road crashes are 'the leading cause of death to children and of disability to 14-44 year-olds', and Safer Journeys is the governmental strategy toward 'a safe road system increasingly free of death and serious injury'.
This wish may have been written by a 'boy racer', so I had a look at that too. The Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Act 2003 (aka The Boy Racer Act) has been law for a number of years and bans certain types of driving behaviour and illegal modifications. With those in mind, it seems possible that the police may have just cause to pull over the wish maker, or their friends.

Wish 5

'I wish that Chris would realize that he missed out on me and get in touch and try again with me' (b/w 'I wish to be loved. Thanks heaps')

Without knowing anything about the two people in this relationship, I sided with the writer of the wish, and made a few notes like this:

Perhaps Chris will see it, and reconsider.

Wish 4

'That the aftershocks would stop :( '

I was expecting this kind of wish, and I'm sorry to say that it's rather outside my abilities. However, doing a bit of research online, GNS say 'the rate of decay (of aftershocks) from Feb 22 is much sharper than at Darfield (September quake)' and that aftershocks 'had since tailed off sharply and they were now less frequent than aftershocks at the equivalent time after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake' (link).

I know that this isn't exactly reassuring, but I guess it might be helpful to have faith in the science and know that things are improving. We had a tremor this morning which wasn't fun, but they are infrequent, and things are getting better.

Wish 3

'God can't sort it all out. I can. You can. We can :)'

Thanks? Very true I think, and there's been some really cool acts of humanity since the earthquake (which I guess this is alluding to).
This doesn't wish for anything in particular, but I'm going to count this one as coming true.

Wish 2

'i wish Justin Bieber would cum to Chch!' (b/w 'this is so cute!')

Hmmm, big ask. Justin is playing a few shows around Australia in the next few weeks, so I emailed his management:

'Hi Scooter and team,

My name's David, and I live in Christchurch, New Zealand. As you may be aware, our city was recently hit by a large earthquake resulting in many buildings being destroyed, and lives lost.
To try and improve morale, I set up a project where people could write down a wish, and I would try and make it happen. A number of people wished that Justin Bieber would come to Christchurch.
I see that Justin is touring Australia, and I understand that he has an incredibly busy schedule. However, if any kind of 'flying visit' were possible, it would be tremendously appreciated.

Many thanks,
David Klein'

I'll let you know if I get a reply. As Gina pointed out, some NZ fans were quite mean on his visit to Auckland last year (someone stole his hat, and his mum was pushed), so he may have reservations about returning.

Wish 1

'Topless women with dreads'

I don't know any dreadlocked women who would be prepared to go topless for whatever classy gentleman wished for this. Instead, I drew them this picture:

I like how 'with dreads' was seemingly added, to make a good situation even better

Wish Box update

I left the Wish Box out for four days, and it experienced pretty torrential rain and strong winds. Here's how it looked:




"Cardboard? Minus 10 points" - Alice Tappenden.
She's right, but I like the look, and figure this could be v 1.0. It held out pretty well, though someone had taken the lid.




There were ten wishes in total, which I'll share over the coming days. No one wished for 'infinity wishes'

Wish Box

Here's a new project I came up with. It's called Wish Box, and aims to make the world a wee bit better
 

It's simple

1. Write your wish on a slip of paper
2. Put it in the box
3. I'll try and make it come true.









I hope that it will get people to think about what they really want. Then I can try to make it happen. I figure most wishes will be anonymous, so perhaps I can turn the wish in to a random good deed. Raise the World Goodness Total a bit.
Wish Box is in place now, attached to a traffic camera on the south east corner of the Colombo/Bealey corner.