Played at the Kings Arms last night - I'm pretty sure it was the best and tightest we'd sounded live, but was a little bit of a tough crowd (really awkward when nobody clapped after our first song...lol!)

but who cares it was fun :P

Finally! I can cross off seeing Dream Theater live off my list of things to do before I die...

Awesome bits are:

• mike portnoy (come on lol such a show off!!! TOO GOOD TO BELIEVE)
• jordan rudess vs john petrucci, keytar vs guitar showdown!
• amazing lighting crew (they must have the most rhythmically gifted lighting techs ever)

please come back earlier than 20 years this time.......

Got one of those Inland Revenue student loan summary things in the mail, which I'm sure all of you are familiar with;

Currently I have $5,349.98 left on my student loan. Every month, I pay about 190 dollars off that. So at this rate it will take me about 28 months, or 2 years and 4 months, or until February 2012. (i think my maths is right)

Coincidence, or the end of the world?!?!?

You decide.

This is awesome, my fish went into a panic when they saw food coming down into their fishtank...

wtf stupd fish lol

Finished Borderlands

its fun, but there a ton of UI problems,which is quite depressing considering there are like at least 6 people listed in the credits for UI...

its been fun but this quote says it all abut borderlands

"I’m a merc sent to find pieces of a key on an alien planet that opens some giant vault that’s supposed to make me rich and famous. Along the way there are crazy bandits from Mad Max and evil soldiers from Fallout 3 to make things more difficult for me. I open the vault and instead of getting rich, a giant monster comes out, and I kill it and it never drops any good items. The end." (from http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2009/11/05/the-borderlands-journal-day-15/)

having said tat though - i still had a great time, abnd will definite ly get the dlc

Gym Explorer

Okay, so me and Arron have decided to join a gym recently - I mainly wanted to counteract the lethargic blah-ness of sitting down 8 hours a day so we joined Les Mills last Tuesday as part of their current promo (gym membership free until January 2010, but we did sign up for a super long 3 year term, yay for contracts...)

But yeah, it's been quite exciting! I have never really properly set foot in a gym before but Les Mills has made the introduction quite easy. 

Did the cardio explorer on Thursday (where they show you how to use the bike, the rower, the cross trainer, the treadmill, and a couple of stretches using the beam), then weights explorer on Friday (lat pull down is the only machine i remember the name of but there were heaps), and then yesterday we took a group fitness class, which was like sort of a Dance Aerobics sort of thing with latin and hip hop moves or whatever, pretty hard to actually follow and do the moves so we looked like douches but it was a good workout...

As a result though I am pretttty sore today! Was pencilled in to do some more today but dont know if that is agood idea.

ANYWAY yeah     to summarize

for some bizarre reason i am exercising and going to a gym now

i wonder how long this will lassst????

Why ACC Levy increases are, frankly, a crock of shit

1. Email from Jim Anderton

Thank you for your message regarding the proposal to increase the ACC levy payable by owners of motor bikes, in some cases by several hundred per cent.

I am opposed to this for two principal reasons:

The first is that it is not necessary. The ACC fund is not in a financial crisis as the current National led government claims. The scheme as originally constituted was a ‘pay as you go’ scheme i.e. the levies received in any one year meet the requirements for payments in that year. In fact the recent history of the scheme has been that the income more than meets the payment requirements. The same applies to, for example, national superannuation. In that case the identification of the effect of the ‘baby boom’ generation coming to retirement and creating a demand ‘bulge’ on the commitment to pay universal pensions at a reasonable level can be anticipated and planned for ( the so-called ‘Cullen’ fund). If the ACC funding was in crisis this could be handled in the same way, but it is not in crisis and no amount of insisting that it is on the part of the present Minister can make it so.

The problem arises because the current government insists that all of the future financial obligations of the fund must be funded in the present. That would make sense if the ACC was an insurance scheme - which it is not and was never intended to be. It makes even more sense if the government has a hidden agenda - which looks increasingly likely - to privatise the ACC or farm parts of it out to insurance companies. In those circumstances, a fully funded scheme in which the fund has been paid for by taxpayers would look a very attractive proposition to a private insurer, but it is one to which I am entirely opposed.

The second reason is that the ACC scheme was never intended to be a user pays scheme in which those who allegedly incur specific costs must, as a group, also meet those costs in full. The scheme is intended to draw upon the overall resources of the community to ensure that those who suffer an accident do not find themselves disadvantaged because they cannot afford treatment or rehabilitation, or meet the expenses associated with a lengthy court case. I note that Sir Owen Woodhouse, whose report led to the setting up of the scheme in 1973 has very recently said precisely that. Saying that motor cyclists must pay much more than presently because they are ‘responsible’ for their accidents not only breaches the principal behind the scheme, it also re-introduces the notion of fault into the scheme when it was set up in the first place to avoid it.

Please be assured that I will be opposing the proposed increased levy and that we in the Progressive Party are committed to restoring the scheme to its original basis when we return to government.

Warm regards,

Jim Anderton
MP for Wigram
Progressive Party Leader

2. Read this: http://www.thestandard.org.nz/first-manufacture-a-crisis/

(but if not, then well you jsut need to know that  "the cost of new claims isn’t rising (steady at $1.7 billion for the last 2 years)." and pretty much they are increasing the levy because they are attempting to change the acc model from pay as you go to fully funded, which requires a massive amount of savings if they are trying to do it by 2014...

3. Car drivers are not subsidising motorcyclists as much as you are being led to believe

"ACC said that in 2008/09 it paid more than $62 million for accidents involving motorcycles. It collected $12.3m in levies from motorcyclists in the same period." (NZPA 16th Oct) This has also been quoted by both Nick Smith and John Judge and means there is a $50m shortfall which must be funded from other means.

"Dr Smith said motorcyclists were 16 times more likely than car drivers to be involved in accidents yet car owners were currently subsidising their ACC bills by $77 each."

The MOT Annual Vehicle Fleet Statistics for 2008 states there are 2,584,509 light passenger vehicles in New Zealand (light passenger vehicles are defined as cars and vans) - See here:

http://www.transport.govt.nz/research/NewZealandVehicleFleetStatistics/

So here is the problem.

$77 x 2,584,509 = $199,007,193 which means car drivers are paying $149m more than the total ACC cost supposedly incurred by motorcyclists.

THIS FAR EXCEEDS THE $50m SHORTFALL claimed by ACC for 2008/09. Given this is supposed to be a fully funded model of compensation one would hope motorcyclists are NOT paying for the tail of accidents hanging over from 1999, an aberration caused by the National Government’s 1998 change to ACC.

4. what about cyclists

In 2008 there were 1,475 motorcycle accidents and 50 deaths, and motorcyclists paid approximately $12.3 million in levies.

In 2008 there were 1,170 bicycle accidents and 36 deaths. Cyclists paid no ACC levies.

5. motorcyclists causing all the accidents

well for a start, ACC is a "no-fault" system, but ignoring that: 

"From research conducted at the Australasian Institute of Motorcycle Studies (AIMS) based at Lincoln University 67% of all accidents involving motorcycles involve other vehicles. Sixty percent of those (or 40% of all motorcycle accidents) are caused by the other driver. "

---

so yeah i am pretty certain that acc levy increases are dumb.

most of my info is obviously heavily biased and comes from http://www.bikersagainstacc.org.nz

FIGHT THE INCREASEEEEE PLZZZZZ :( ITS SO RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSE++ ;_;

Playing on the radio tomorrow morning :)

Thanks bfm :)

Listen in 9:30 am if you are interested :)