opening

I remember a camping trip Alice and I had during my break in the first semester. We were going to camp in the catlins for 3/4 nights, and we did stay there one night, but the weather was bad, wasn't looking at getting better, so we decide to pack up and drive north.
We ended up in Alexandra, and we stayed at the camping ground. One the first whole day, we decided to spend the day around the river we slept next to, with the aid of nature.

I remember this rock formation you could climb up on, and you could see the small river from quite high. I remember looking down at the river, and it became quite apparent to me that in a sense we don't normally talk about, this river had life. It wasn't alive as such, but over time it had slowly changed course, it had evolved along with the surroundings. This was actually quite a fundamental thing for me, a bit of an epiphany. At this point in my life I had just come to the stage where I couldn't accept Christianity, and I was still wondering in general about God/spirituality altogether, and this experience really showed me something. It made me realise that what we call life is not only arbitrary, but also very limited. The more I study biochemistry the more I understand how what we call life is a just a organised set of chemical reactions. But to me, life is more than that. It's not just organisms and cells, but nature as a whole. The whole world is alive as a big entity. There are sub-entities if you will, and sub-sub entities etc, but the entire world has it's own life force.
I don't know whether to call this force God or not. I guess I've come to the place where I don't really think God is an individual, and I also think it's pretty arrogant of us humans to presume that we're the top of the chain and God is primarily concerned with us. Studying biology has made me realise that other than our ability to be conscious (which is no small thing), we are no greater than other organisms on this earth. All life is worthy of admiration.

Alice is pregnant and we're expecting a child in March 2009. It's a very exciting time, I can't wait to be a father, I can't wait to raise a child in this world. I want to teach my child how to think, to be open minded. I want to give it responsibility and an understanding of consequences. I don't want to be a father than tells my children what to do, I want to support my children in whatever they do.

I'm on track for pharmacy. It's not a guarantee, but it's certainly achievable. I'm really looking forward to it, the more I think about it the more I realise it is what I want. I have a passion for correct drug information, I want to be able to supply the community with medicine and help the community understand what it is they are taking. It's quite obvious, that drugs are a fundamental part of our society, whether they be illicit or licit, but there is no education about this. Personally I feel drug knowledge should be taught in high school in the same way that sex education is. But it's not, so there has to be people out there that want people to know these things. I want to be that person.

It's a shame, recently a friend of mine took great offence to something I did as a spur-of-the-moment decision to calm myself down. It's not really like me to offend people, I try to be as friendly as I can to everybody, but somehow I've managed to hurt this person through what I thought was quite a minor decision. I guess that's the way life rolls though.

Sometimes I wish I could be more motivated and have better self control. I recently got back on my diabetes medication, which has led to a weight increase, since I'm storing more of the food I'm eating. I've varied over 9kg this year! That's not awesome. I wish I had the will power to say no to bad food, but for some reason, I just lack it. And my desire for it almost seems to get worse. I have to say I've really enjoyed having a more vegetarian diet, and if it wasn't for the difficulty in going full vegetarian, I probably would. And I know a lot of vegetarians are really skinny, but I'm not one of them.
My friend from university is a chef, and I've learnt quite a bit from him, just the general ideas behind cooking mostly, so I've been much more keen in the kitchen, and cooking some nice food I must admit. But not all of it is the best for me unfortunately. The doctor says I can't have eggs, cheese or red meat (or anything with similar levels of fat). I love eggs with a passion, and cheese makes plain sandwiches a lot better. It's quite hard to make nice food for lunches every day with such restrictions. Oh well, such is life.

I have finals in a couple of weeks. I need to get into the study, this semester has been a lot harder than the first, although my philosophy paper - critical thinking - has been really good. Guess I'd better do it

excellent

had a pretty good day today. had a good night last night with colin, we stayed up late talking about everything, and then today alice and I decided to go for a drive to find this lake, and we didn't find it, but driving out past outram, we saw some wicked snowy scenery, it was pretty unique.
Then we came back, got the colonel and ate it in the lovelock park carpark at the gardens, then spent a few hours walking around them. really enjoyed that. I must be quite the plant geek with my love of different plants.
now I've made a pizza, and I'm waiting for it to cook, then I'll finish watching a movie called 'the cottage'.. study tomorrow

other stuff

didn't rob hunter do a speech in english about "stuff" and one of his sub topics was "other stuff"

so yeah now my semester has finished. HSFY, man it was hard. it's been quite a humbling process I think, it's giving me a whole lot of new perspectives on a hell of a lot of things I must say. And I think some of this also comes just as you get older you know. And I only have half an hour to flesh out these points as then my friend will be over and surely enough I wont want to spend time on this later, as the case always is.

science I think I finally understand what science really is now, and consequently I have gained a lot of respect for it, and for scientists in general and I think the basic tenets of the scientific method are such a strong foundation for always putting the knowledge first and egos second. "No hypothesis can be proved true, it can only be proven false" this was a correction of a mistake I had made in a question about hypothesis in cell biology. It's a statement which has a lot more depth to it than is initially apparent.
I think it's sad that a lot of people don't understand what science is (maybe that's just my church background speaking) and more importantly what it isn't. I used to "mock" the idea that science changed it's objective "truth" about from year to year, but now I understand why, and a mocking attitude towards it comes purely out of ignorance

I like life here in Dunedin. I do have to admit a lot of our awesome experience comes from living in a very above average apartment which is super close to town. I mean, we don't pay a lot, but I think we just really got lucky on this one. Thanks Alice for your hardwork on looking and also being an intensive care nurse which I think was the selling point to the landlord! But I've made awesome friends here at Otago, a real varied bunch, I give a lot of credit to Bridging Chemistry, to the random slice of student population that was - seems like most of the mature students (is >22 really "mature"?) were on it basically. It seems like the city is a lot less superficial than Christchurch; and it comes from a large student population I think, and I really like it. Admittedly being a student plays a large part in this, unfortunately I don't think Alice has had quite the experience I've had, but it looks like everything might be turning around for her in some great and totally unexpected ways so yeah, I'm stoked for her.

Alice had actually left for almost 4 weeks, she was so sick of her job here and when she got this new job and a little over a month until it started she thought "why not go to Christchurch, do a job I know I love, and give Andrew some study space". It was pretty weird not having Alice with me, but the time flew, and I think I managed to live on my own pretty damn well; I led a simpler life for sure, but I did pretty well *cough* I also gained 4-5-6 kilos but that's completely my own fault so yeah. Actually that's pretty depressing considering I was down to only 2 kilos off what I weighed when I left HS and was in better physical condition than ever. I just noticed, that paragraph started off about my wife and ended up about me..

HSFY has kicked my ass. It's also kicked the ass of a number of my friends too. I mean, people tell you it's hard, but you just don't have a clue. I feel pretty OK about my subjects. I don't think they'll be good enough for pharmacy but the results have yet to come in and I have another semester to raise my average so I've still have a good showing. if I pass everything but fail to get into pharmacy, this year counts as a first year of a science degree, and I can reapply to pharmacy after another year, so I think if that's the case I'll do botany, which would be awesome, but not my goal..
2 of the 4 papers were very hard, cell biology and chemistry, I found cell biology harder than chemistry, but maybe that's just the way I am, I know a lot of people really struggle with chemistry. Also, the final exam for Chem191 seemed so much harder than all the exams from previous years. I guess though if everyone is doing the same exam then everyones marks will be lower and so it evens out. I think physics seemed quite hard if you only went to to lectures, but looking back, I think lecture time would have been better spent - man I'm cold, my breath is fogging and it's 11am inside - just practising physics and reading the relevant chapters, physics becomes really easy with practise, it's almost quite weird just how much easier. and human body system was relatively easy I thought compared to the rest of the papers, but very interesting and I have to say our immune system is unbelievably complex (seriously, you have no idea) but I finally understand it, for now.
There was a new chem text book this year, written primarily by one of the otago staff and I reckon it's rubbish. You'd think if it was written as an 100 level chem book by otago staff that it would somehow be relevant to the biggest 100 level chem paper at otago, but it's not. I barely used it. Also what really pisses me off, is that to get the answers for the questions in the book, you have to get an account at the publishers website, and get the answers from there. there are 2 things that annoy me about this:
the first is that on the website only the answers that your course coordinator has opened are available. if you for some reason wanted to study something that you weren't assigned to and wanted to practise questions, you can't, and what about people who buy the book for fun? (does anyone do this? I probably will for my kids but that's just me)
the second thing is that an account only comes with a new text book purchase (actually I guess you could purchase a new account for an old book) but it completely destroys the 2nd hand text book market, as if students are made of money - I guess it's just course related costs though so who care. Thankfully due to my smart skills - and this makes my first point rather pointless as it was all hearsay - I never activated my account, and since I barely used the text book and looks as good as new, I can sell my book 2nd hand. take that professor blackman and your moral-less publishers.
If only he knew that's why I liked my physics text book or the chem text book that Lisa lent me (they both rule, and if Lisa's book had organic in it I wouldn't have needed a new one!)

So yeah I spent my course related costs on a latop instead of text books anyway, after all, at heart I'm a massive computer nerd. And I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with laptops in general now. I honestly don't see a reason to buy a desktop computer unless you're a performance/gaming freak or you actually work at a desk for a job. It seems now that the technology has reached a point that most people can not only be content with a laptop, but actually happy with one. This one has replaced our DVD player and TV (in the sense that I only used the TV to watch DVDs on, I generally despise TV - unless it's on and then I'm drawn to it), it's freaking fast, has enough storage so that I've still got 55gb free and it's full of movies and episodes of TV shows. I know I just said I despise TV, but it's not necessarily the shows themselves, it's all the other baggage, ads, no choice in when to view and little choice in what at a particular time etc.
I also really like windows vista. I think a lot of people are put off just because it's microsoft, but it's really a nice step up from xp, I mean, mostly it's the same but there were a whole bunch of outdated aspects to xp, I mean, file copying was a joke. and now it's slightly better, and a bunch of other things. also that the computers of today can be fast and quiet and now that I've worked how to unleash and utilise some of Vistas abilities I have probably the sweetest setup I've ever had. And it didn't even cost all that much either

I think I've come to a point where I've realised that no political view is fundamentally flawed, they all have their good and bad points, just that any extreme hard-line view is wrong. for a short while I was "into" politics but now I've just realised that unless I give my life to it, I can't change anything other than talking to other people. I went to this debate about cannabis and Jim Anderton was there in the debate, and I realised that the people on both sides of the debate were blind and were not willing at all to compromise or open their minds to other possibilities. what's the point really? government is going to do what they want wether we want it or not. and this whole issue with the tax cuts; everyone is going to get an extra $20 or something extra a week. big deal, where is that money coming from? why do people actually think so selfishly when they vote? I'd personally be happy with more taxes if it improved our health care and education systems. but that's not going to happen because most of the public are financial retards and don't care at all about thinking forward

it was almost a revelation, although it was obvious, when I realised that the christian religion is based entirely on what the bible says. if the bible said something different then it would change doctrine. so I thought I'd better go and check the validity, and not through theological sources but historical ones. this went on for a while, I didn't want to make any quick decisions or anything, but the more I meta-researched it the more holes I found, the more inconsistancies. I'm currently watching a set of lectures from Yale University about the hebrew bible, and it's very interesting, just how almost everything in the start of the hebrew bible (similar to the christian old testament) isn't original but all the near east cultures had the same stories, floods etc. the only difference being that the hebrews were monotheistic not polytheistic. there's also no mention of the afterlife at all in the hebrew bible, and the word religion doesn't exist in their language either, because to the hebrews, it wasn't a religion, it was just their culture. if someone joined their culture they followed their laws. and considering the new testament is based on this, well, how can this be? it's folklore. for a long time I've been disappointed with the answers I've had from the church regarding aspects of faith and the bible, and that makes sense because to rationalise cognitive dissonance requires some pretty unbelievable stories. so the end point is that I can't call myself a Christian anymore, the text the faith is built on is so flawed, never mind all the moral issues I had with it.

it's good to have our cat biscuit back with us, the landlord let us despite a no animal clause, but it's good, although sometimes she is very demanding of attention and tries her hardest to get in the way of everything you do.

I wonder if anyone will read this?

a post almost entirely about weather

It's really weird for some reason I thought everyone just overstated how cold it gets here in Dunedin, I just assumed that since everyone I knew who said that were students who probably lived in some horrible houses and couldn't afford heating, but no. I mean, it's only the middle of June and everyone knows that winter doesn't start showing it's true colours until after the winter solstice, which is this weekend, but man, it's the middle of the day and I'm quite cold. I guess it got freezing in Christchurch too, but it seems like every year I forget just how cold it really is. And here in Dunedin it's bound to get even colder. The sun rises so late here and sinks so early, at 8am our bedroom is just starting to illuminate from the sun, only just though, and at about 3 you have to shut the curtains because it's already starting to cool down.

In some ways I'm looking forward to it, but then again, I always think that until I actually experience it and then I look straight forward to spring..
The weather here is quite different. I find the weather reports somewhat more accurate here, it's only since I been here I've started to pay attention to the weather forecasts but I think that's cause in Christchurch they were always so unpredictable. Geography being the reason obviously

Here if it rains it goes away after a few hours or a day, but in Christchurch it seems to set in for a few days at a time. In saying that though, the opposite is true, randomly here it'll just rain for a short period of time.

Weather is pretty boring though lets be honest. I think it should only rain at nightime on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That's a world I want to live in

friday night study

well, it's friday night, Alice has gone to the theate, and I'm at home studying, I have a 30% cels test tomorrow. feel pretty good about it though, had a study group today and realised that I know quite a bit.

it's getting a lot more full on now, but it's over half way in the semester so that makes me feel a bit better. what's going to be a nightmare is the end of semester exams, most of the people get 2 weeks study leave and 3 weeks for exams. we in health sci get three days to study and have all 4 exams in one week. they've just made this course as hard a realistically possibly, knowing freaks are going to manage it regardless, and people like me just have to work really hard, although I feel like I could still be working harder. got 22/25 in my hubs test so was stoked with that, considering I didn't study all that much. cels tomorrow is going to be different though, 30%.. big un

biology is wicked, I think I've decided that if I don't get into pharmacy I would like to do plant biology to some degree. I used to think that biology was just lots of names to remember but it's amazing, the wonders you learn from biology imo blow the wonders of other sciences out of the water... wicked.

hope everyone else is having a good time, coz everyone else has already been through this stuff years ago!

another letter

So I just sat down and wrote another letter to Jim Anderton. Why? Because I know it completely pointless, I guess I just want his opinion.

Dear Jim Anderton
I'm under the impression that the abuse of drugs act is to have a big sweeping update in the near future. I'd like to know what kind of opinions and perspectives are going to be included here? New Zealand is meant to be considered a progressive country, but our drug laws seem to be very regressive, we do not consider personal choice in the matter and assume all drug use is abuse, and there is no consideration for moderate recreational drug use. A number of drugs on the list of scheduled drugs are completely physically safe, but due to abuse in some areas of society, they have been deemed to be "too bad" for anyone to consume. I completely understand and agree that some drugs have serious abuse problems, but I do not see how making ALL drugs illegal and making all users criminals solves this problem. Marijuana use in the country has stayed relatively steady for a long time and everyone knows that it's easy to procure, so exactly how is it's illegal status helping the community? By turning users into criminals? By keeping the wheels in the black market machine turning?

I don't think we should legalise everything, but I think by respecting people's freedom and giving them some lee-way on the availability of certain drugs, I think the situation would turn out a whole lot better. I guess I'm saying that I'd like to see a large and mulit-bias perspective pool go into this drug law change, because it is going to affect the lives of many New Zealanders for a long time, and it's almost certainly necessary that all corners of society are considered here. If (theoretically) the review board decided drug X was too dangerous for people to use, but if everyone in the country wanted to use it, what decision would be made? The conflicting perspectives of people wanting to do something and those above them saying they can't do it resembles being treated like a child, or in a very real way, a "nanny state". I understand that personal choice and community need to be balanced, but I don't understand how it's treated as if any personal choice regarding drugs is necessarily a damage to the community. An awful lot of people use drugs safely and don't harm the community, and I strongly believe that a large proportion of abuse comes from misinformation and illegality. In school I was taught the 'dangers' of drugs, but since growing into an adult and educating myself, I have learnt that a lot I was taught can seriously be considered propaganda. How is this acceptable in a "progressive society"?

I do share the concern for younger people and their access to drugs, I dnn't necessarily believe the drug use itself is the problem, but the immaturity of the people and lack of self control. But prohibition isn't working. Young kids still smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. Certainly legalising certain drugs, and consequently subjecting them to the forces of capitalism, taxation and proper modes of purchase could lead to more effective education-based advertising and freeing up of valuable police resources, which seem to be required more and more to slow down our societies increasing violence, which is often stemming from alcohol and seriously nasty drugs like methamphetamine, and not drugs like marijuana or psychedelics.

Just this morning I read a news article stating that the prohibiting of BZP is about to unleash a new class of legal drugs. This constant prohibiting of whatever it is people are using today just moves the problem, and it's doesn't solve it. How long will this ineffective plan work? I see the cons of a certain drug use weighed up all the time, but never the cons vs. the pros. Sure BZP is a relatively dirty drug (although, no-one has ever had serious or lasting problems from it), but the fact that it's stopped people buying drugs like P or speed or ecstasy from the black market which has NO control over quality/dose surely has to be a major positive? I'm not arguing for the reclassification of BZP at all, but it seems like this was never seriously considered. Now all the people who used to buy BZP aren't just going to do nothing, at "best" they'll drink more, at worst they'll go and buy something illegal. At the very least with BZP they knew what they were getting, and there was room for the government to step in and try to educate people and give warning labels just like cigarettes. They could have even been taxed. Why was this approach not tried initially? By now everyone knows that BZP gives you a bad hangover and certain people have other issues, and so people are aware of this when they take it.

This may sound like an alarmist statement, but I seriously fear for other personal freedoms as I grow older, if freedom's like this are not granted. When will it stop? Because it seems that it never stagnates, it either gets "better" or "worse". I'm also tired of feeling like no matter what I do or say, I have no effect over this or any matter of this regard. Why are the individuals that this society is designed for never considered.

Regards
Andrew Brown

i'm sick

so I've got a cold. I hate colds, but it was inevitable, everyone in the lectures coughing etc.

also I've started uni now for real. quite different from the bridging course, which I dominated, and quite full on. they spent the first 2 weeks of physics teaching us 5/6/7 form physics, and boy do I hate physics. it's quite possibly the worst subject ever, and how boring is it?

I'm enjoying chem, cells and human body systems though, learning lots too.

went up to christchurch the last two weekends, had some real good times at two wedding receptions, but I didn't get much study done so I really need to do that this weekend and every one after...

anyway thought I'd better update you, whoever you are..

dansey's

on the weekend Alice and I decided to go camping, and since we're now in Dunedin, our choices have changed considerably. some people told Alice we should go to Dansey's Pass (said dain-zees), and I thought, why not. So we drove there, it's about 3/4 hr inland from Oamaru, and it was amazing. I don't really know what to say about it, it was one of the most unique places I have ever been, in the world, let alone NZ. The camping ground is in the middle of no-where, but it's well kept, and we camped about 10m from the river on a grassy bank, and we ate a lot of meat and played, and climbed the rock formators. Then we drove through the rest of the pass, which was an unsealed road and looked just a speights southern man ad, and then came to this picturesque hotel and I had some squid. The we drove through Naseby, Ranfurly (art deco central) and then came home. Central Otago is pretty interesting, maybe we'll move there?

I really had intended to write more on this

edit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16235&id=509572910 some photos on facebook

dunedin

well, I've been here for a month now.

I love this city. it's wicked, it's so much different to christchurch. ok, from the start. so we moved in on the 1st of Jan, thanks to a lot of help from my Dad, and went into town and had dinner and managed to find the best cambodian restaurant, and it's much cheaper than chch. we went to go for a walk and found this wicked place to go walking, found a mint water reservoir that's ancient and seems like a swimming lake from a 90's US horror movie.

so I'm doing Health Science First Year, and all of the papers are designed for newbs except chemistry, so I'm currently doing a bridging course since I haven't done 7th form chemistry in forever (to be honest I never did it, failing 6th form chem during 7th form doesn't count) and it's going well, it's very fast moving, but I got 5.5/6 for my first exit test and 6/6 for the next one, so I feel good about that. first exam tomorrow (not that the results count) but yeah, done some study for that.

I really like this city, it's hard to describe just how different from christchurch it is, it's far far smaller, people think a 15min drive is a long drive, and everything is centred in town, not the suburbs like chch. we live pretty damn close to town, only 7 min walk to the main street, 11 or so to the octagon, 20 min to the uni for me, alice works 10 min walk away, it's wicked. getting lots of exercise too, with all the hills, which make for far more interesting houses to look at.

I felt like I had tons to say when I sat down, but now I start writing and not much comes out. I really love this city, I can't wait till I make some real friends, and when uni starts properly (coupla weeks) it's going to be wicked. it's really cheap, drinking and eating especially, and the city has more culture and flavour, and it's nice to have our own place again, I feel like this is more our place (flat) than our place in belfast. I'd probably buy this place if I could. it's also waay lighter here. it's 9.30 pm and it's still light enough to throw a ball around. consequently this means in winter it'll always be dark (and cold) but that's life.

down to the ground

my shoulder is still bad. it's at paulsy stage now. that's right, paulsy is short for pauly shore.. sad but true

everything is slowly sorting itself out. we have a place hooked up in Dundedin, it's only 4 blocks from the octagon, Alice is about to finish work. We have to talk to an accountant about the various ways of owning a property, we're going to do the Abel Tasman soon, Alice will be home for the first Christmas that I remember, camped out two night last weekend, been doing lots of walks and trying to pre-study chemistry for next year. So many things to do and learn. It's all good though. Missed out on my chance to sell my body to science so no camera. Got some christmas presents left to get, and also sorting out ACC because I'm long term. man the list is infinite

ghb and muscles

well I'm out of my sling and the arm is better, but I saw the physio this morning and she showed me how my deltoid muscle right now is pretty hopeless. When she isolated that muscle, I only moved my arm about an inch. It'll take ages to heal. I was feeling pretty good about it before the physio but now, well, I don't mind the time off, so I can't decide if it's a good thing or not..

Did anyone read about the toys in australia, and it had little balls and when digested, a chemical in them was converted by the body into GHB, and here is a story that shows that GHB is produced naturally in our urine. What's weird is how it's quite illegal, considering it's basically the same as alcohol in effect, with a wee bit more of a "high", they get you intoxicated like alcohol and you'll pass out too if you have too much. So the thing that needs to be asked, if the government decided that this drug was not safe for the public, surely alcohol shouldn't be either.

acc

well I went to the doctor yesterday, I got my sling off but I'm still off work for another 2 weeks. my arm is still numb and I can't move my shoulder. I honestly had no idea a dislocation would cause so many problems. I thought it'd go back in and that'd be that but no, 2 weeks off work and it's hardly healed at all, another 2 weeks (at least) to go.

I completed Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas yesterday. Well, I finished all the storyline missions, it's actually only 63% complete. It's pretty nerdy I know but I'm stuck at home! I know it's not a new game but it's honestly one of the most fun and awesome games I've ever played. I was discovering new things right up until the end, and the weapons and vehicles you get are amazing. I have a VTOL jet fighter in my aircraft hanger. How awesome is that. Never mind the '92 LA gangsta theme. I can't think of a better gaming experience to be honest. Half Life 2 was pretty awesome, same with Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7, but this was the best by far. I can't wait for the fourth one, apart from the fact it'd cause havoc with my study and I don't have a PS4 or Xbox360... But it will be cool.

So 2 more weeks off in the sun getting paid to be healing. Love this country.

crazy shroomers

it's recent news and it's sad, about the dutch government deciding to ban magic mushrooms, and so the dutch people had a protest (news story here) but anyway, check out a picture of these guys. Shroomers indeed!

They all look exactly like the type of people who take mushrooms

In other news, I fell off my bike and dislocated my shoulder. Thanks to the Christchurch Emergency Department and lots of Nitrous Oxide, Morphine and Midazolam, I am better and in far less pain, but still in a sling for at least two weeks and can't work. I feel like a cripple

it's less interesting

So it's 9pm Saturday night and I'm sitting on my bed writing this. How boring is this? Alice is at work until 7am and I have nothing to do. I probably could get off my ass and do something but I'm lazy.

I had this brilliant idea the other day of how to make money from an HP, first off, lets say it's a fridge worth $1000. You could save for it, or you could put it on HP, or you could use the brownonian method and save, then HP it (interest free only) because lets say it was for 3 years, if you'd put that $1000 into the fridge and bought it, well, you wouldn't have the fridge as well as the $1000 sitting in your bank earning interest every year. At 7% you could earn roughly $150 on the item in interest, more than enough to cover the insurance and booking fee, never mind all the interest you could accumulate during the saving period. I am a brilliant individual.

I've been listening to a lot of metal, mainly from Sepultura. They have two albums called "Beneath the Remains" and "Arise" and I honestly think they're the two greatest albums ever made. I honestly refuse to believe that someone can say they have an interest in music and not like metal, and these albums are the perfection of the greatest sub-genre, THRASH

"Dead Embryonic Cells" possibly the greatest metal song ever


"Arise" A shorter but equally as awesome track from the same album


"Refuse/Resist" this song isn't as awesome, it's actually off the album that followed "Arise", which is "Chaos A.D" but the song is still pretty cool and the video suits it perfectly


"Troops of Doom" (live) this song is full on death metal from their first album, it's pretty cool really


"Beneath the Remains" (live) this song rules. It's pretty fast but amazing.


I love that kind of stuff, it's just sad that the band changed direction quite a bit and also it's sad I can't find more stuff quite like it.


In other sad news the dutch government has decided to ban the sale of fresh (non dried) hallucinogenic mushrooms. It's a sad day for freedom, it was like the last place left with sensible drug policies towards them. Oh well, it's a good thing they can be found almost everywhere in the world during Autumn (NZ even has 9 native varities of our own)

One day people will realise that prohibition leads to more problems in other place. I think people don't realise that freedom and liberty has a price, and it's probably in the cost of people getting hurt or being offended or maybe even death, but it's worth it in the long run. Right now it seems like our country is going down a dangerous road of trying to make everything completely safe. I know it hasn't happened here yet, but some school in the US banned tag because some people didn't like being tagged. I'm beyong even caring anymore sometimes, because I know stuff like this will eventually happen in NZ, but there is nothing I can do about it, because most people can't/won't see the big picture and think that their experience of a certain thing is the most important and protecting their little child from every little thing is of utmost importance.

The only thing I can see saving this is hopefully a backlash of people my age, when we start having kids and we can see how terribly (generalisation) this generation of mothers are bringing up their children. Immunisation rates are going down in this country. DOWN, that's right, more and more people these days are getting TB than of recent years because some crazy ass mothers doing some crap parenting have decided to not immunise their children.

In other new, I'm pretty uneducated about the political parties of this country, but I can give you my opinion anyway. I used to be very anti labour, and I wasn't sure why, but now I realise they've done a lot of good things for this country, I'm a lot more in favour of the power going to the employee and not the employer, I'd say I was a borderline socialist now, but I don't know exactly what branch of socialism it is I like (I know what it is, I'll explain later, just not the name) but it's awesome nonetheless. I used to be for National, now I'm quite against them.. I think they want to privatise too many things and further capitalise the country, which I think is a poor step for anyone other than rich people. More people need to vote for the lesser parties, they're more likely to fall in line with exactly what it is you want in a party, plus they don't suck. I think I'm going to vote for a party that only has one policy, because I agree with all their policies. Voting for who you like best has to be done, not voting to vote against someone. I don't know why I never voted for them in the past, because if more people vote for them they can get in and make a change to this country.

This country I feel is trying too hard to be a softer, greener version of the US when what it needs to do is to try to be more like a down under version of northern europe. The US is full of crazy ass conservatives (here is the link) that are protesting (by email) an anti-bullying conference. That's right, actually AGAINST anti-bully. Why? Because this particular brand of bullying is against homosexuals, with people being called "homos" and "fag" at school by other students. The conference is trying to address this issue and some crazy conservatives are against this because it "promotes homosexuality"... That's correct, they think that NOT bullying gay kids is promoting it, and basically fighting for the right to call homosexuals "fags". Thankfully these crazy conservatives aren't too big of a majority over here, like they are in Australia, but we need to fight to stop this mentality creeping in. I also forgot to mention the crazy mother who was quoted at a conservative rally to burn some "offensive" books, and she said "Kids shouldn't learn about puberty until marriage" and I just can't believe that people grow up with people like that raising them.

I worked out that in a nutshell, conservatives fight what's good for them while liberals fight for what's good for everyone. Conservatives piss me off because they have these standards of living (I don't care what they think, it's their life) that they try to make everyone else live up to.


Sorry sometimes I get worked up. I went mountain biking today with Alice, it was pretty fun, but I need to get fitter. Maybe I need to go biking more than once a week. It was sweet when I worked at Wai-Ora (landscaping) because I could bike to work, so I a) saved gas b) got fit and c) got to work anyway. It was good country goodness.

I'm getting more and more bored of the internet. All I check these days are my blogs, the somethingawful forums, facebook and (reluctantly) bebo. I also read the wikipedia when I want to find something out, but I find I'm running out of stuff to do. Actually today I looked at a different web site but I'll talk about that later.

I want to get a decent camera, I think I've decided on a Nikon D80. It's not cheap so I have to save up or sell my body to medical science (no, seriously, because of the diabetes I get opportunities) and then I can get the body and some fixed length lenses so I can practise and get better. I quite like photography but I suck, and after doing lots of research, I now realise that you actually do need a decent camera to take decent photos.. Also realising good photography is in the eye of the beholder, because some stuff I think is rubbish, other people think is good, and vice versa. It's pretty much like that with most things, I have a superior opinion, but I allow others to disagree. In the end we all win.

It's now 10pm and I just realised I didn't explain my preference for socialism. Too bad

Differences

Back temping again. It's not a bad gig, you get to do different stuff and the lack of responsibility.. Great. I've been trying to be healthier, my main start is biking more and weights and I've decided that I'll only drink water, v8 or beer. Anything else and I'm trying to avoid it. Man I just don't have much to say these days. I've been using facebook, and it's good, but I've suddenly discovered a bunch of people that I used to know that use bebo.com so I joined, and now I check 2 different sites even though I despise bebo.com and yeah that's certainly a time waster when you add up the minutes.. Still trying to find accomodation in Dunedin, we did find a place but it had no kitchen sink (what) so we procrastinated and consequently lost it. We went down last week for a look it was fun. Now we gotta find another place. Rent or Buy? What's the better option... So many decisions..

working and not working

So I've been back now for like one and a half months, and I'm a lot more used to being home, although in a lot of ways that's depressing.

I've been doing temping work, I did 2 weeks of landscaping work which required me to wear a hi-vis top and work outside in the sun. It was actually really nice, one of the best working experiences I have ever had. The week after I was meant to be working for the same company out at Pegasus Town and I actually went out for a day but the work was SO BAD I didn't go back, phew saved myself there. I was working in a bog planting small trees in "random" patterns to make it look natural. I had the rest of that week off and then I worked for a week at an engineering place moving a shelf and drive a fork lift. That work is OK but boring

I've also been jacking up university application, and we're both looking at houses to rent. We're going to Dunedin tomorrow for a few days to get a better idea of location and etc.

Other than that it's been pretty average. I had a good night Saturday with Tim, although we didn't do a lot. And last night Alice and I saw "Superbad" at the movies. I think I love that movie, like seriously. I'm not sure Alice liked it as much as me but I do know she found parts of it incredibly funny, but the whole movie just reminds me of me and high school. McLovin

I wish I had more interesting things to talk about.

Does anybody even read this anymore?

If anybody still does read my blog, why? It hasn't been updated for like 5 months.

Well, I'm back in town. Have been back for like 3-4 weeks now. A lot is different to what it was like since I left. I trust many of you may have read the travel blog so you all know where we went and etc. I have lots to say, not sure if I'll put it all down, and it's probably not going to be in order or anything.

I had two weeks off when we got back, and then signed up with Tradestaff so I could get work until the end of the year. They gave me 2 weeks work, I've already done one of those weeks, and the job is for a landscaping company, which gets contracted by the council to do roadside planting of trees and plants and similar work. It's not bad really, barely any thinking or stress, get to work outside in the sun with good people, build up my already muscley body and finish early on Friday. I've been biking to work which is good for my health and means I get to be extra cold in the mornings. The pay isn't so great compared to my last job, but then again, anybody who's not a weakling could do this work.

The reason I'm only working until the end of the year is because we plan to move down to Dunedin next year so I can go to Otago University and hopefully do Pharmacy. The first year is hard, it's First Year Health Science (or Health Science First Year) and about 1200 people did it this year and anybody can get in. The 2nd year is highly competitive, out of all the 1200 who apply for Pharmacy (other people in the group may apply for Medicine, Physiotherapy, Dentistry or some others) only about 120 will get in. That means I have to beat all these young punk ass kids. I hope my age will actually benefit me hear, since I now know that I want to do this and because of this I have real motivation, not just "nothing else to do" motivation like some of these other kids may have. To increase my chances I also need to sabotage the other people who are trying to get in; advice or ideas for how to achieve this would be helpful. After this I should be able to construct my very own P lab so I can pay for my education.

While on the trip I learned a lot of things about my body. I worked out I feel better if I'm hydrated, if I go to bed dehydrated, I wake up with very little energy and it's hard to get out of bed. Not so much when I drink fluids. And fluids doesn't mean coke for me. I also worked out that drinking caffeinated drinks, while giving me a short boost, also made my energy levels for the day a lot more up and down. And I also learnt to drink a lot of water, and since getting back, I am happy with that now. So I try to drink more water, and nothing else if I can, it's working out well for my body and my wallet. I also learned that (ironically) the more I did physical activity, the more energy I had. I thought when you used energy it was gone (1st law of thermodynamics amirite) but no, I was wrong. I learnt if I did some pushups when I got up, I had more energy for the day, especially if I did sets during the day. Plus I got a lot better at doing them. Alice and I also got some bikes so we can go biking and try to use our car less. Although I'm not a student now, I will be so I gotta be saving for those poor times ahead of me. I've started to try to eat smaller meals, and maybe more often. I lost a fair bit of weight while I was away travelling, and I intend to lose more, it's helped me get off my diabetes drugs somewhat, and more weight loss can only mean better diabetic health. I've also learnt that red meat isn't all that good for your body, with the cholesterol and stuff. It's a sad sad fact that is tantamount to telling a wrestling fan that it's fake, but it means I'm going to try to only eat it once a week. Stupid body with it's desire to have high cholesterol (thanks genes)

When we first got back into town we found it really hard to feel like it was home, in some ways I still feel like it doesn't. I don't think my home is anywhere else, but since experiencing a lot of the things from different cultures, I actually start to dislike a hell of a lot of things about NZ's specific culture and also the US brand of western culture. This country is one of the most negative countries I think I've experienced, it's really sad, and the state of the nation with it's making laws to forbid people to basically do anything that's not 100% safe. This country is meant to be progressive? What a joke. I think The Netherlands are progressive, I think this country is Controlist. I don't even think that's a word. Sure we give rights to every minority we can think of, but what about the general right of the everyday person to choose to live their life and raise their children how they want to?

I was most offended when I heard Jim Anderton got his way with the party pills thing. It's appalling that a person who would like to see alcohol prohibited in charge of the drug laws in this country. Drug policy needs a serious change, we take all our ideas from America which each year puts more and more money into "the war on drugs" which does nothing (coke is at an all time low cost in the US) and in some states puts people in jail FOR LIFE for personal possession of cannibis. This doesn't sound like a very good model. Even if people don't think people should take drugs, they should realise that prohibition is a failing scheme that has never successfully worked. Legalisation and Regulation is by far the best way to control this beast known as drugs. People take them either way, why not regulate and control them instead of funding a massive black market? I don't really want to go on about drug law reform but it's something I feel very strongly about. Stupid government and lack of balls to do something different to the US.

It's sort of related, and mainly in my objection to the US's style of westernism that we grasp so firmly to, and this was my experience, and I don't know if it's easy to explain the different between the liberal mindset of what we experienced in Europe compared to the liberal mindset we experienced in America (which we for the large part imitate) but it's more about acceptance in Europe and less about "I can do what the hell I want so screw you" that we kind of found amongst certain types in America, it's just an attitude that in America (and once again, consequently us) freedom means it's all about me and a massive general apathy for everything else. I'm quite bitter and probably bias about this. I think we're slowly getting this way, thanks mainly in part to bands like My Chemical Romance but also TV. I'd really like to see the education system changed in this country to include rational and logical thinking as a fundamental basis for a lot of things, and debates and less rote learning. If people actually thought about things instead of giving uninformed knee-jerk reactions to situations our country would be in a far different state than it is today. Since it's hard to get adults to have open minds about things we need to make sure our kids do, so they will ask questions about authority and the way things are run. I ranted on and edited this bit a lot, I doubt it makes much sense, even despite context anymore.

All in all my general view of society has changed considerably since we went away. Opened my eyes to a lot of new perspectives and also opened my eyes regarding our perspectives on things.

Last night had a Bachelor party for Sam Anderson who is getting married on Saturday. Was a fun night out but not very messy or out of control as bachelor parties are known for. Also went to Hanmer recently with Tim & Christine and it snowed while we were in the pools, that's the holy grail of Canterbury experiences I think, the stuff legends are made of. Haven't done a hell of a lot of other notable things since we've been back, but I think I'm much more motivated to do things now than I have been.

Well, that's kind of it since coming back. Earn a wee bit of money, sort out stuff about going to Uni next year and generally try to enjoy life instead of wasting it. Oh, and I loved the Simpsons Movie and also Knocked Up, and 300 too. And Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (watched that a few times while away)

laters

well, I haven't actually gone yet, I don't go until thursday, it's currently monday evening, but I don't really have lots to add to this until I go....
if you wanna keep up with the news, go to aliceandandrewstravels.blogspot.com because that's where everything will be
in other news, I like this unemployment thing, it's easy.

here's some slayer for ya to say goodbye

Some more thrash

before I start and say anything else, I just want to utter my dismay at this beer I've just cracked open. DB Export Premium Dry, it's a good beer, and it used to be twist top, but no longer, how's that for wank-factor? I imagine the big boys at DB said, "all these niche beers that are class are getting popular, and you know the only thing that seperates them? twist tops" and that's why, marketing. personally I prefer cans but what are ya gonna do?

anyway, on to the subject, now I have my first beer under me. I slowly think I have found the music I was designed to listen to until the end of time, thrash metal

I don't know how I've come to this conclusion, but I think it's right. I've been listening to some more Slayer, and I take back what I said about them a long time ago, I now have a new found appreciation for them, but is that just because I love the kind of music they play and not specifically the music itself? maybe, it's hard to tell.

anyway, Sepultura. my first introduction to them came from the Jungle Rhino with the album Roots. at the time I didn't really like it, and still today I'm not a massive fan of it. little did I know it was actually completely different to Sepultura's earlier stuff. I had listened to Chaos A.D and I felt the same about that one, alright, but nothing too special, reminiscent of Pantera really, but with worse vocals. anyway, I got hold of Sepultura's discography, and listened to their earlier stuff. GOOD GRIEF it was fast and heavy. 1987's Schizophrenia, 1989's Beneath the Remains and 1991'a Arise are amazing. seriously, I don't think a solider 3 thrash albums have ever been released. it's honestly like a different band, the speed of slayer but not boring. much more "balls to the wall" than Ride the Lightning and just awesome. I can't convey just how great it is.

anyway, I feel I have found my calling; listen to lots of thrash and start a thrash band. I will call it "thrash burger" or maybe something better and will melt your face off. ps, check this out.. nice thrash sepultura

BAN EVERYTHING

Oh my goodness
I just saw the news. This kid in Greymouth took too much BZP (along with other things) and is now in ICU. Once again everyone wants to ban BZP to stop these people from making choices that involve BZP

Sometimes I can't believe how ignorant people can be. I mean, how many deaths per year are attributed to driving, alcohol, extreme sports, guns, fast food, smoking & everything else. No-one's trying to ban driving, so why BZP even though no-one has died. Everyone seems to have this paranoid image of DRUGS=BAD regardless of anything (except alcohol of course, more addictive and deadly than any other) and thinks the best answer is to prohibit everything. And prohibition works too.... I mean, I've never come across marijuana or lsd or p or any illegal drug. Not to mention that it keeps the black market alive and prevents people from being able to make educated doses based on reliable packet information etc.

I'm just so sick of it. Let's just make everything illegal.

BAN EVERYTHING

Oh my goodness
I just saw the news. This kid in Greymouth took too much BZP (along with other things) and is now in ICU. Once again everyone wants to ban BZP to stop these people from making choices that involve BZP

Sometimes I can't believe how ignorant people can be. I mean, how many deaths per year are attributed to driving, alcohol, extreme sports, guns, fast food, smoking & everything else. No-one's trying to ban driving, so why BZP even though no-one has died. Everyone seems to have this paranoid image of DRUGS=BAD regardless of anything (except alcohol of course, more addictive and deadly than any other) and thinks the best answer is to prohibit everything. And prohibition works too.... I mean, I've never come across marijuana or lsd or p or any illegal drug. Not to mention that it keeps the black market alive and prevents people from being able to make educated doses based on reliable packet information etc.

I'm just so sick of it.