It's a race, a race to rust and die - Placebo

You are not logged in. Click here to login. Page:   <- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ->    Posted on Sunday 11th of December, 2005, 05:19:49 PM. Off to Melbourne. See you all in a week. Listening to Pressure Control - Vamp - 01 - Biogod.mp3 Add a comment   Danny's got a gun... Posted on Tuesday 06th of December, 2005, 04:35:12 PM. Thanks to everyone that made all the comments on my last post - you've made me want to go gunning for the bastards. On the other hand, when I stop to think about it.... 1) What are they actually doing wrong? They're saying "rent goes up", we're saying "we can't pay that much", so they're saying "next plz". Fair enough if they think they can get more cash for it; it's their place and they can charge what they want, no matter what condition it's in. 2) Ok, so the place is shit. Bits of it are unsafe, even. We've had the council fire safety inspectors in there for before, which seemed to go away with nothing accomplished; I'm not sure what happened (but I'm pretty sure they were paid off one way or another). But what exactly can we get out of them if we take it to OHS (isn't that workplaces only?) or the WCC (uh, yeah right, like they'll do shit all), or the Tenancy Tribunal? A grumpy landlord, maybe a "yes, this place is pretty squalid", and probably not much else. Remember, it's not illegal to have broken windows and no ventilation. Getting building inspectors in won't change a thing as far as us having to move goes. We certainly won't get any monetary damages out of it. On the other hand, Shane and Demi, I'd like to talk to you guys about this. If Caroline and Brendon are going to be assholes about it, so can I (maybe give them enough of a headache to think twice before pulling the same stunt again). 3) These "new people" obviously haven't been shown the place yet. If they had, there's about 3 laws being broken. 4) It's pretty damn obvious they didn't read what I sent them. They didn't reply to any of it, it was simply a reiteration of "we're upping the rent cause we can". I'm going to get Brendon's number (the building owner and landlord's Dad) and call him and ask what he thought of the list, and why he didn't reply to any of it. My guess is he never even saw it. 5) I'd love to see them try and keep the bond after the massive lists of problems we've sent them time after time after time (and then had done nothing about). 6) I've been saying since August that I'm not re-signing the lease anyway, and someone would have to take it over. Basically, they want us out; what for is anyone's guess. Maybe we're too noisy? They want to do they place up? They just don't like us? Even if they start advertising the place @ $200 to the public, that doesn't matter - they've offered us the lease at this price, and that's their right. They can offer it at any price they want to anyone they choose, and we can't do jack about it except say yes or no. Add a comment View Comments ( 2 comments )   How do the walls come crashing down... Posted on Monday 05th of December, 2005, 02:07:51 PM. Well kids, it's the end of an era. Short version: Get bent, we didn't even bother listening to what you had to say. Long version: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Malek" To: "NM & CM Cavanagh" Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 3:12 PM Subject: Re: Re: Hi Caroline, Well, after much consultation with the flatmates, here's the email we promised you... We're kind of concerned about the rent increase proposed for 7/21 Marion St. from $440/week to $520 – quite simply, we're pretty sure the flat isn't worth that much, and have compiled a pretty exhaustive list of why we think so. The reason we've been given for this increase is “to bring the rent in line with the other flats in the building”. However the other flats in the building, in comparison to ours, are mansions – they're cleaner (in general, not from flatmates being messier), better built, and altogether nicer places to live. If our place was up to par with these other apartments, we'd be saying “sure, it's definitely worth $520 then”. But, to be blunt about it, it's the scummiest flat in the building. And we like it that way :-) We'd like to again extend our invitation to you and Brendon to come round at an appointed time and have a look at the place, and then maybe stick your head into some of the other flats (in particular the others on our floor), and you'll easily see what we mean about difference in quality. But anyway, the list: * The place leaks. Always has, probably always will. Although Alan's done a great job with patching any that show up, there's always more appearing; 3 new ones sprung up during the heavy rain this week. * Every pane of glass in the place has at least one crack in it, and most of them look like they've been hit with something solid. This leads to some horrific drafts whenever there's any wind. * The rooms themselves aren't very big; mine's essentially a cupboard. While this isn't really a problem, it's $110 a room at the moment, and this is probably a bit much for the size of them. This is generally offset by the location of the place though... * Of the four bedrooms, two have no natural light or ventilation whatsoever. * The other two bedrooms, one has a roof that's half glass and no windows, and the other has a wall that's entirely glass (all cracked) and one 12”x8” window. They get HOT. Drew's had to go and sleep on the couch some days due to his room getting too hot to sleep in by 7am. * To carry on about the ventilation, the sitting room has an entire wall and half of the roof composed of glass, and two tiny (12”x8” again) windows to serve for airflow and cooling. In short, it's a greenhouse in there whenever there's sunshine for more than half an hour; we clocked 43° in there last summer. * Many of the other flats have polished wooden floors. We have carpet that looks like it served in the First World War. * The place in general is in some major need of repair; just general wear and tear stuff. The flat's old, and it shows. * The rope on the washing line pulleys broke a year ago; it's still not fixed and we have no idea how to do it ourselves. Well, Alan “fixed” it by tying it to the stairs, but I don't know if that counts... * The ropes on both the top shutters in the living room broke during the winter storms, and we can't get to them to fix them. Yet more colossal drafts and wind from two fully open shutters that bang in a wind. * The hot water cylinder overflows, and Alan's fix for it was to put a pipe from the overflow tray to the shower. This works, but isn't exactly an ideal repair. * The front (downstairs) door has been broken on and off for two years, usually for a few months at a time; other times people just prop it open on Friday or Saturday nights. The building's not exactly secure. * The stairs up to to the top two bedrooms aren't exactly safe; they're also extremely ugly to look at and use (small complaint, but compare them to the snazzy metal things in #6...) * The building has one and only one exit; if there's a fire or natural disaster that blocks off the main stairwell, we're all, well, screwed. * The Marion St. “working girls” tend to get a little overzealous with the use of our foyer (and driveway, and the alley below my room) at times... * The kitchen and laundry areas are TINY, and there's only one cupboard/storage area in the whole place. * The walls between the flats are paper thin. Paul and Kylie can hear the couple next door breathing at night. That's not an exaggeration. * The hot water pressure in the whole place is terrible; it takes 10 minutes to fill the sink. Some of these sound like nit-picking, but we decided to put down every reason we could come up with why a rent increase isn't justified. And really; what's actually changed in the place that would make it worth an extra $80 a week? Nothing, in fact; it's the same as it's always been. Possibly a little worse. Don't get us wrong – we really like the place. It's cheap, it's inner city, it's not so high-class that we feel uncomfortable in it, and it just suits us well. And that's the whole point really: we don't think it's worth any more than what we're paying, and we really can't pay what you're planning on asking for it. We think the current rent is fair for what we're getting, and would certainly like to keep it that way for another term. So, hopefully we'll be able to come to an agreement about this place - we don't particularly want to move, and I'm sure you don't want the hassle of finding new tenants. -- Yours sincerely, Scott Miller Systems Administrator Nova-Kaine Industries --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: NM & CM Cavanagh To: malek@nova-kaine.net.nz Subject: Re: Re: Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 13:33:38 +1300 Dear Scott. Thanks for your email. After consultation with my father he is adament that the flat is worth that much. The market rental is proven by the fact that we have a group of people wanting that flat who are willing to pay the $520 per week. We totally understand if you and your flatmates want to move on but obviously from a financial standpoint we would be mad not to offer a new lease you or the other party at $520 per week. Regards Caroline Add a comment View Comment ( 1 comment )   Chuck Norris doesn't sleep; he waits. Posted on Friday 25th of November, 2005, 02:47:57 PM. There's a damn good chance we'll all be moving out of 7/21 soon. The landlord wants to put the rent up by $80 a week (to $520 (zomg (bbq))), so if we can't manage to talk her into keeping the rent at the level it is now, we're fucked. None of us are either willing or able to pay $130 per room for that place. We'll know in a few days, so if the answer's bad, who wants to flat with me? Hmmm? Anyone? *crickets chirping* Ahem. Well then, what else... mouth doesn't hurt any more. Thats good, isn't it? *tumbleweed* Fine. There'll be drinking at our place tomorrow night for Aean's fleeting return to Wellington; you're all invited. Yes, even you *points*. But not you *points again*. You messed up the carpet last time. Paul's going to be baking us a pie, and Drew says he's going to "drink some bourBON" while "slamming a dew", before "stabbing me with a fork". These crazy kids and their lingo! Happy Birthday to Angel for yesterday! And thanks to Jaz for hosting teh drinks. I'm fricken buggered today cause of them.... And now, I'm going to procure some sooshy, and think about how soon I get to go home. This is not a game; they don't know the rules. Listening to The Machine In The Garden - Inside World Add a comment View Comments ( 2 comments )      Posted on Sunday 20th of November, 2005, 04:52:57 AM. Why are the people who deserve nothing, who treat everyone else like the scumbeneath their shoes, who destroy everyone they touch, who time after time betray all those around them... Why are these the people who are given everything? And why aren't I? Add a comment View Comments ( 2 comments )      Posted on Friday 18th of November, 2005, 12:51:09 PM. Left two wisdom teeth out, right two in a fortnight. I look like I'm attempting to gargle a golfball. Mood Owy Listening to Mindsight - Acts Of Intolerance Add a comment   Garg! I am saying Garg!!! Posted on Thursday 17th of November, 2005, 09:42:51 AM. Rant time!! So, as some of you may have noticed, the network went down for a while. The shortened version is that the network tech got his regular semi-annual bug up his ass about it being a) a security risk, and b) bandwidth hungry. To a) I say bullshit, I'm the only person in the building that can claim a perfect security record over my machines, and to b), well DUH. They're bitching that "it pulled 74Gb in October!" Yeah, probably. Between the VPN to home, 15 or so hosted sites, updates for 4 boxes on the same network port (Debian, kernel and so on), and a reasonable amount of downloading, that's more than plausible for a month. 18.4Gb per week, 2.64Gb a day. Consider that Abby's site alone shifts a gig a week just from the images directory, and you'll see it's not that much. Besides, if they think that machine sucks in the bytes, they better not go near the graphs for my main machine.... if the managers got a rectal hernia about 74Gb, I hate to think what they'd burst over the 526Gb that this machine did during the same time. But anyway, they basically said "we're taking it down", and there was nothing I could do. Sorry to everyone I host, but we're back now, all thanks to teh Dr3w, who's put us on his server for the time being. The same network guy then had the fucking nerve to bitch at me (and got told where he could shove it) when I uploaded the webserver's /home and /etc dirs to this machine. I even throttled it down so it wouldn't hit our bandwidth at all. You take my network away for no good reason, you can damn well shut the fuck up when I transfer it elsewhere, thank you very much. The whole fucking thing would have cost you about 14 cents, bandwidth wise. Work and I have basically had an unspoken agreement for as long as I've been here. I work hard, don't whinge about working late with no overtime or lack of resources (ie, it's so far taken me three years to get a coathook - no sign of the bugger yet. Don't even think of asking for something to do with computers), I do some of the research I should do for work at home, and supply them with whatever games, movies, or music they desire. In return, they turn a blind eye to my utilization of otherwise wasted bandwidth. Hell, both the managers that bitched me out over this have gotten gigs worth of music off me, and the tech that built the tracking system got 3 CD's he lost in England 10 years ago and hadn't been able to find again replaced, all free of charge. The asshole of a product manager that requested they start tracking my bandwidth (and only mine) and then dobbed me in got on average a CD of mp3's a fortnight off me - and is still asking now if I can get this album or that one for him. It was the price I paid for invisibility, and the agreement worked well. The bastards should be grateful, not threatening me with a fraud investigation. Well, fine then. I get no perks from my job, they get no perks from their employee. No more working at home, out the door on the dot of 5 every day, I'll actually start taking my lunchbreaks instead of working through them, and above all, no more freebies. Cuts both ways, fuckers. ------------------- Update: After a bit of poking around, I found something very very interesting. We don't pay "by the meg", or so many cents per Mb downloaded for our bandwidth; we pay for the pipe as a whole. Thus, if we're using 10% or 90% of our allocated bandwidth, we pay the same price regardless. Which means, since we're below capacity for just about all of the time, Nova-Kaine (and even my other downloads, since I was careful not to max anything out) cost them exactly an additional $0, and all the shit about "$1500 worth of bandwidth use" was absolute and utter fucking bullshit. Fuckers. Mood Tired Listening to Ladytron - White Light Generation Add a comment   Better late than never Posted on Thursday 10th of November, 2005, 10:47:56 AM. This is the post I was originally writing on the 26th of October when my network got the plug pulled on it, so I'll post it now, wait a bit, and rant about the other stuff soon... ------------------------------------- So.... where to begin? Hitched to Auckland. Took 12 and a half hours, which was probably the most painful bit of the trip - got some interesting rides, including a guy from Turangi to Taupo that never went below 130kmph and had Hendrix at full bore the whole time... fun stuff. Managed to accidentally grab a guy's jacket thingy along with my trenchcoat (hell, I just grabbed my stuff, I didn't realise until Turangi there was something wrapped up inside it) at the Bulls stop when I got out, it - luckily, there was an address on an envelope in the pocket, and I sent it there with a note and a description of the owner and a HUGE apology. That made me feel SO bad, even though it was a total accident.... I just hope he got it ok. Auckland - yeah well. What can I say? Big, boring, smells like someone was frying cats. Went to Ibiza on Saturday night (managed to figure out Drew was giving me shit about Bass Bar without getting too near it (I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking, buddy =P)), got bored pretty quickly - 15-odd people dancing to EBM isn't really my idea of marvellous fun. Wandered round for a while, was disappointed that things seem to pack up there about 2am (hell, Welly's just getting started), but I guess that's what you get when you don't know where things are on.... someone recommended Hysteria, but I didn't know where it was (until the next day I saw it right across the road from Ibiza. Duh.) Anyway, I spent Sunday exploring, didn't buy a damn thing, but managed to get someone arrested. I was wandering thru the cemetary on K road (as one does) - I can't remember the name of it, but went in by the Jewish section. Wandered round for a while, smoked a clove (hey, I'm in a new city, it's my obligation to!), before lo and behold, what do I see but some guy in a puffa jacket and hoodie spraypainting a park bench whilst intermittently huffing the paint fumes. I think I just stood there in shock for a few minutes - graffiti is one thing, but desecrating a cemetary is another, and just a few minutes earlier I'd been thinking about how no-one tags a cemetary and isn't that great... still, only a park bench, right? I called the cops when he moved on to one of the graves (that I later saw was dated 1860-something), and by the time they showed up he'd manged to finish the bench and the gravestone with stuff like "god can see you" and "he's here" and so on, and move on to "represent the street" on the side of one of the buildings (which I think was part of the Jewish memorial, I forgot to look). The cops put him in the car and called me over, and the guy stared at me for a few seconds before he started wigging out completely, screaming and huddling up in the far corner of the car. Sure, I was wearing my white contacts and makeup and stuff - but I would have loved to know what his paintfume "enhanced" mind saw. Probably thought a ghost or demon or something had risen to get him. It's called karma, bitch. As you may have guessed, I got pretty pissed off over that. Graffiti, tags, whatever - doesn't bother me a whit. But dammit, anyone that has the cahones to vandalised a cemetary deserves a sharp kick in the cahones of their own. Moving right along.... It's impossible to find cloves in Auckland. The shop I was assured had them was closed the whole weekend. Grrrr. So I spent most of Sunday wandering around poking my nose in everywhere and avoiding the Armageddon expo, and then went and saw the Eels (why they made people wait outside for an hour after the doors open time, I'll never know)... But anyway, the gig. It was precluded by some weird-assed russian animation thing with a crocodile, an old lady, a group of poachers, and some little fluffy thing called cheburashka. It was pretty confusing, even subtitled, because people that appeared to be enemies ended up being friends straight after, and the constant introduction of new characters was odd. The gig itself kicked ass. E's damned tiny and sounds nearly exactly like the albums, The Chet played on two rubbish bins and a suitcase for a kick drum, and the strings section was hawt. It was all acoustic except for a few songs, and they played Novacaine for the Soul, Now You're Really Living, Flyswatter, Monster, I Like Birds, It's a Motherfucker.... all my favourites, pretty much. Notable exception was Manchild, which I thought would have been perfect for that venue. Or Susan's House. So afterwards I hung around with some water trying to settle my bass-frazzled stomach down and chatting to some people, then went and got possibly the worst kebab in the world, and went home. Woke up at 6am, caught a bus to Te Arahuruha or something like that (just south of Aucks), got a lift to Taupo in ten minutes, then to Turangi, waited for an hour and a bit (I hate Turangi), to Palmy, and home. 11 hours back - not bad. Then I slept for a long time and went back to work. Listening to Lux Occulta - Pied Piper Add a comment View Comment ( 1 comment )      Posted on Friday 21st of October, 2005, 11:03:39 AM. After a long week and a particularly shitty day, I made a snap decision last night. So I logged onto Ticketek, spent $75, and will be leaving Wellington about 8.30 or 9 tomorrow morning to hitch to Auckland, where I will see the Eels at St James Theatre on Sunday Eve. I've never hitched before, so this should be an experience.... Downside: I'll miss Electric Six @ Indigo, which I quite wanted to see. But I look at the decision like this: I go to Auckland to see a band rumoured to be on their last tour ever that I've adored since I was fourteen; Or I go see Electric Six. Easy, really. Listening to Snog - The Ballad (Lightarmour-Work Will Make You Free) Add a comment   I could never get the hang of it in Sim City, either... Posted on Monday 10th of October, 2005, 09:11:57 AM. Ok, so I just got to work and was planning my trip up to Auckland to see the Eels over labour weekend - $67 for tickets. A bit steep, but about what you expect for an international act in NZ. So I go to transcenic.co.nz and put in my details - leave on the 23rd, back on the 24th. Prolly end up staying up all night. Crash in a YHA on the cheap or something. So, lets see about these tickets... $230. One Adult, return to Auckland, TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY FUCKING DOLLARS. Fuck that. No way in hell I'm paying nearly three times as much on transport as I am for the concert itself - and then there's food and accomodation and so on and so forth, which would push it to about $350 all up, and that's just... ffffffffffff. HOLY CRAP! So much for trains being a "reliable, cost effective mode of transportation", yes? *grumbles and goes to check airline prices* note bene: I also have to beat Duncan around the head because the Ticketek website won't let you login using Konqueror. Stupid IE-centric javascript cobblehack. What? Hey, he works there, right? He's personally responsible for the website then! Raarr! I've gone a little peculiar. -------------- Update: Air NZ: $258. Qantas: $242. Freedom air don't do national flights anymore (ASSHATS!) Looks like I'm not going. Mood Monday. Listening to Broken Social Scene - Our Faces Split the Coast in Half Add a comment View Comment ( 1 comment )      Posted on Friday 07th of October, 2005, 04:53:16 PM. Although it seems to be all I ever do on this journal, there's a big-assed party at 7/21 tonight. I don't know of anything else on, so there's no excuse not to come =P Bring friends! Bring pets! Bring booze! (And don't set our carpet on fire this time!) Listening to Killing Joke - Primitive Add a comment   A test! A test! My kingdom for a test! Posted on Friday 30th of September, 2005, 03:37:57 PM. 1. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what's the first thing you look at? How dirty the damn mirror is... seriously, it's heading towards frosted glass. 2. How much cash do you have on you?: $2.20. 3. What's a word that rhymes with "TEST": guest 4. Favorite planet?: I wonder how many people answered with "URANUS!! hur hur hur!!" 5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your MOBILE phone?: Mike from work whinging about the IMAP DNS not working. 6. What is your main ring tone on your phone?: Rammstein - Engel 7. What shirt are you wearing?: plain black long-sleeve dealy-o. 8. Do you "label" yourself?: With a VIVID. 9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing?: Docs 10. Bright or Dark Room? I lived without electric light in my room for nearly a year, so dark physically, and SO DARK IN NATURE THAT SATAN WANTS TO MOVE IN! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!. Big windows though. 11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?: *snerk* 12. Ever "spilled the beans"?: No, but I once dropped the spaghetti... AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA hahahaha haha heh heh heh.... mmmmm. *cough cough* 13. What were you doing at midnight last night?: Watching House of Flying Daggers. Couldn't sleep. 14. What did your last text message you received on your cellphone say? "anything on tonight?" 15. Do you ever click on "Pop Ups" or Banners?: pop... ups? Are you being dirty?!!!? 16. What's a saying that you say a lot?: "... the fuck!?" "Where's my booze?" "*thud* OW!" 17. Who told you they loved you last: Abby. 18. Last furry thing you touched?: Abby. =D Nah, it was Fuzzy, my teddy bear o' doom. 19. How many drugs have you done in the past three days?: Caffiene. Nicotine. Absinthe. Oh, and a bit of heroin, weed, coke, crystal meth, speed, and just a smidgen of LSD. 2o. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed?: A BIG FAT ZERO! HAHAH! FTW! 21. Favorite age you have been so far?: Iono. They were all pretty bad... 22. Your worst enemy?: John Grisham. I hate that fucker. 23 What is your current desktop picture?: Wallpaper #3 from Enlightenment's "Clockwork Cobalt" theme. 24. What was the last thing you said to someone?: "When does the drinking start?" 25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to change a major regret?: Depends. I have some pretty big regrets... 26. Do you love/like someone?: Silly question.... Mood Glad it's Friday Listening to Reverend Glasseye - Our Lady Of The Broken Spine - 06 - Mother Is A Carpegian Add a comment View Comments ( 2 comments )      Posted on Friday 16th of September, 2005, 07:52:56 PM. Drinks here at 7/21 tonight, prior to the gig at Valve - we're planning on going down at about 11 or so. Come one, come all! Mood Bouncy Listening to His Infernal Majesty - Wings Of A Butterfly Add a comment   This is really just another test, yanno... Posted on Tuesday 06th of September, 2005, 02:43:42 PM. Well, the long hard slog towards getting my Xenon <--> LiveJournal connector is finally nearing completion (mainly because I'm lazy and haven't managed to work on it as much as I'd like), so this is the big test of true connectivity. Hopefully, this post will go both into my diary here on Bastion, and into my LiveJournal at the same time. All with the handy-dandy click of a button. Yes, I'm trying to use up space because I need at least 50 words in order to have the cropping work. Is that enough, you think? Maybe a few more. Mood Accomplished Listening to Magic Dirt - Envious Add a comment   World of Warcraft humour: Posted on Friday 02nd of September, 2005, 07:19:04 PM. Vexith: is hammerfall an alliance town? Mallek: yes. heh. n00b. *5 mins later* Vexith: liar. Mallek: wtf?! Vexith: you said hammerfall was an alliance town Mallek: HBAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAH Mallek: yes, yes I did Vexith: I haven't been there yet Mallek: I was kinda hoping you'd run into refuge point by mistake or something... Vexith: I did.... Mallek: BAAHAHAHAHAH ROFLTOMATO! Mood Tired Listening to Paul playing Fable Add a comment