If eight left-wing parties receive 10% of the vote each, and one right-wing party gets 20%, do you think NZ should have a right-wing govt? No, because 80% of people voted left - and under MMP, the majority will get their way. under FPP, the majority 80% will be overruled by the 20% that voted right. This is why MMP is far superior to FPP - you can exchange right for left, the same applies. If you cannot understand this, you shouldn't get to vote at all.

Simple enough? Can you please stop whining now?

I haven't posted much recently 'cause I've been playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, both I and II. Truly awesome games, and better storylines than the prequels in some ways.

I was really tired this morning when I woke up, so tired I felt hungover. So I went to the dairy, and holy fuck - you can get 500ml cans of V. The caffeine arms race is really getting out of hand. So is the price of Rivermill bread - I swear last time I bought some it was $1.50, today it was $3.80. I'm going to assume the wrong price stickers were in the wrong places. 

I'm going to Htown for election day/night, to celebrate/drown sorrows with some like-minded friends who don't want to see Castle Helengrad fall. And it's my sister's birthday the following day, so two birds, one stone and all that. Actually three, cause mum's apparently got loads of baby stuff for us to bring back. Have I mentioned he never, ever kicks when I put my hand on tariqa 's belly? I'm going to pretend he knows who's boss. If only I could get the cats to be so learned.

What movie should I take tariqa  to tomorrow night? Any ideas? Seen Wall-E already.


TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST MONTH!

1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
2. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
3. Metallica - Death Magnetic
4. TV On The Radio - Dear Science (yes, I actually like this one)
5. The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
6. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
7. Scars on Broadway - Scars on Broadway
8. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
9. Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
10. Keane - Perfect Symmetry

First I got hardly any sleep, then when I did wake up it was damn cats banging and crashing around, but there was no food for them and they kept getting in my way so I kept tripping over them, but here was no food for the cats so I went to the supermarket, but everything on special was only on special with a OneCard, so I get what I could but was already past halfway over my budget after the first aisle, and there are like, ten aisles, then Tariqa called and I got angry because she keeps eating things like Nandos which is a stupid thing to get angry about, then I got to the counter and began unloading my trolley when she texted and said she'd put more money into the joint account but the lady had already started scanning the stuff, then I went outside and there were no taxis so I had to walk home and the bags were heavy, so heavy one of them completely fell apart and I had to load everything into an already full bag, and its handles started breaking so by the time I got home I was pretty much carrying the groceries in a carefully constructed pile in my arms, then when I got inside the cats were being dicks and Kosh was lying on my digital studio thing, and they were being annoying cause they were so hungry, and I went to put some of the cat biscuits in the cat biscuits container but something went wrong and some went flying all through the kitchen and lounge, so I cleaned them up then gave the biscuits to the cats, and they didn't even want them, the dicks, so I got my scone and a glass of water and went into the computer room and accidentally spilled water on the keyboard, then wiped it up and logged onto the Herald's website and found out the police have adopted tasers, which sucks cause now they're just going to taser everyone instead of doing their job properly, and I'm really tired and grumpy.

Otherwise, things are great. How are you?

Help me claw my way out of poverty: buy some shit (not literally shit, but stuff I can bear to part with in exchange for cash).

I've been doing a little googling on ways to (a) get to sleep and (b) stay asleep. My doc's given me some temazepam tablets which, on one night's experience, seem to slowly get me to sleep in the first place, but once I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm back where I started.

After a couple of hours I went back to sleep, then woke again in the seven-somethings, and was still awake when tariqa  left about 8.20. Knowing that my doc's plan was for me to get two solid nights of sleep in to catch up on what I've lost before trying sleep without the pills, I thought, 'fuck it' and took another.

I lay around for a while wondering when it was going to work, looked up at the clock and it was 11am. Oh. Not bad. I only wish it didn't have such a short half-life. It seems you're meant to take it half an hour before retiring, which I wasn't told, which would explain why I was getting annoyed last night that it 'wasn't yet working'.

But once you take the cost of a doctor visit plus the prescription, these pills cost me $3 each, so I don't want to go wasting them. Maybe 10mg isn't enough for me, but I don't really want to find out without doc approval.

So this morning I've been doing a little research myself, and some people say eating a banana before bed helps, because it contains tryptophan. Per 100g it doesn't seem like bananas have a lot though, which led me to wonder, how heavy is the average banana? A google search gave me the answer, "There is nothing average about the king on fruits!" Hmm, thanks internet.

But cheese seems to be where it's at; 'cause I know most of you aren't going to click that link, I'll provide the quote that's sold me on cheese.

But they reported that the type of cheese you choose can affect the dreams you have. When it came to dream type, it seemed that Stilton caused the most crazy dreams, with 75 per cent of men and 85 per cent of women eating Stilton experiencing odd and vivid dreams.

Awesome.But seriously, cheese is loaded with tryptophan. But of course, we all know if I eat cheese every night before bed, I'm effectively wiping out my tax cut.

To be honest, I wouldn't even care so much about the lack of sleep if it didn't come simultaneously with a mad headache I've had for almost a week.

I just found this out today: Devo are suing McDonalds for illegal use of the band's trademarked flowerpot hats/energy domes. Awesome. PS. Links should be fixed.

A Mr Whippy van went past today. I hadn't seen one in so long, and was out there before most of the kids... looking at the faded, pale 'menu', I figured they hadn't changed their menu since last time I saw one either. I got a 'Hedgehog', which is basically an ice-cream with a chocolate coating, nuts and a flake.

It was fucking tiny.

So is the new layout any good? Firefox and/or LJ was being a biatch and making options appear and disappear at will, so it was a bit of a mission. Then I ended up settling on this layout where it wouldn't let me make any red anywhere. Hmmm.

We had a shocker of a gig at the Masonic last night - what could go wrong, did, almost. Firstly, none of us bands got a soundcheck, cause that would have scared away the rugby watching punters. Then, it turned out the sound guy didn't know what he was doing - for the first band, the vocals had more bass in them than the bass guitar, which was barely audible. The guitars were an indistinct mess. And the bands upstairs could be heard through the ceiling.

When we played, John was cramped up against the wall, and could barely keep a hold of his sticks. Kent's strap broke mid song. We tuned down a song too early without John realising, so played the second to last song in the wrong key. I managed to retune back up somehow, only to find myself in the wrong key for the actual last song. And overall, we were pretty damn loose.

Lucky it was just a gig in front of a few North Shore kids and some rugbys, huh? It's 10pm on Saturday night now, and I'm waiting for Kent to turn up as we're playing at a Fleet FM gig, at 3.20am. Yep. AM. There are something like 15 bands at this thing apparently. I've been tired all day, and am looking forward to much sugar-free V consumption to keep me awake till then. If not alert.

Speaking of V and the like, I went to the doctor a few days ago to get some more Losec. It's a heartburn medication, perhaps the most effective medication for anything I've ever taken. It prevents all problems associated with heartburn 100% with no side-effects, it's crazy. If you don't know what heartburn is, it's not as scary as it sounds. Like, it doesn't mean your heart is literally on fire or anything. In fact, it's got nothing to do with your heart, so yeah. It's basically just acid from your stomach coming up your oesophagus, causing discomfort in the back of your throat, particularly at night, or when you lie down.

Anyway... so I got some more of that, and the doctor talked about possible causes - alcohol, spicy food, too much food, sugary drinks, non-sugary but still carbonated drinks, caffeine - you know, everything I happen to like. These things don't cause any problems while I'm taking the Losec though.

 Alternatively, it could be an oesophageal hernia. That's where the top of your stomach sticks up a bit through your diagram, making it easier for acid to come up. It's highly unlikely, but how they fix it is by some kind of wrapping procedure. I can't remember exactly what, but one of the downsides of that is you can never vomit again. I didn't quite catch whether that was a fact or an order, come to think of it. But if alcohol is one of the things to avoid in order to prevent it occuring, what reason would I have to vomit anyway!? Haha. Anyway, she told me to lose weight too. That'll help eliminate the heartburn once the current prescription of Losec wears off. I told her I'm now going for long walks a few times a week, or at least trying to. "That's great," she said, "but make them runs". D'oh.

But being in a band, I'm constantly being offered free beer. Well, not constantly, but more than I'd otherwise be given. Well, I suppose all this won't happen overnight... but at least I've started. And if I'm going to play a gig at half past three in the fucking morning (which'll probably end up being half past fucking four), air and water alone isn't going to keep me awake!

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Grandaddy - Just Like the Fambly Cat
2. Gomez - How We Operate
3. Neil Young - Living With War
4. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
5. Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
7. Various Artists: Exit Music: Songs For Radioheads
8. Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell
9. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
10. Keane - Under the Iron Sea

Or something like that. I just gave a creme egg to tariqa, and she grinned like a madwoman for ages.

I popped around to the new place today, and took a pic or two. Check out the color - I call it 'Mexican Mud Brown.'



And here's the pizza I had last night. It was as delicious as our new house is Mexican Mud Brown.



The smell inside the new house was even funkier than the colour though. It's clean, so I assume it was some killer combo of cleaning chemicals.

TOP FIVE ALBUMS FOR THE WEEK!
1. Bic Runga - Birds
2. The Darkness - One Way Ticket
3. Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel
4. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
5. Muse - Absolution


TOP FIVE SONGS FOR THE WEEK!
1. Bic Runga - Birds
2. The Darkness - Girl With the Hazel Eyes
3. Bic Runga - Winning Arrow
4. The Darkness - Knockers
5. The Darkness - One Way Ticket

Spongebob dairyfood...