Filthy Animals?

Last night an incident occurred in my household where Kory (my three year old brother) urinated on a piece of furniture (I think it was in a draw... lol). A pretty retarded thing to do and he claims to not know why he did it (he's not 100% toilet trained oddly enough). Naturally, it would make any mother rage and his mother was no exception. In her anger one of the things my step-mum said was that "only dogs wee on furniture! We are not doggies, we are boys and girls, we wee in the toilet!". I took a bit of offense to this as, as you know, doggies are my friends and in all my experience, I don't think any of my dogs have pissed on any of our furniture. It's always been the floor if they're not toilet trained, and once they are, it's always outside and very rarely there would be the odd whoopsie, and that could usually be justified (staying inside for eight hours straight without a human mustn't be easy for a dog). 

However, we used to have a Persian cat called Charlie, who would pee everywhere! She even peed on my mum's laptop once! Every time it rained, we would have to be prepared with a wet cloth and the pet stain remover. She refused to go to the toilet outside in the cold and wet. We ended up giving her away to new owners who could pay more attention to her. I feel sorta bad for not being able to give her the attention she craved, but on the other hand, she was pretty fucking annoying. Each time you'd enter the kitchen, she expected to be fed, even if she was given food less than an hour ago. She had the most annoying 'feed me' meow too. If you ever see me in real life, I will do an impression for you. I hope she's doing alright now and she is less annoying for her new owners. Therefore, if my step-mum said that cats are the ones who piss on furniture, I would have agreed.

Charlie. Cute but Annoying

Anyway, back to my main point. Are animals really that disgusting? Are humans so much more superior in hygiene? I don't think so. Of course there are exceptions to each. Some of the things non-human animals do can be pretty gross. Dogs do some pretty disgusting things, such as eat cat poo, roll in duck poo/other gross substances, and eat their own vomit. The reason why they do these things is because cat poo smells meaty and they think that rolling in things will make them smell nice... Well not a to a human anyway. (I have a friend who's studying to be a vet nurse). On the other hand, humans do some pretty gross stuff too, such as intentionally spreading disease and many, many disgusting sexual acts, such as shitting, pissing and vomiting on each other, and violating children/animals/women/men (i.e. everything). But many animals are hygienic for creatures who are 'uncivilized'. They wash themselves regularly, bury their poo, don't pee where they sleep, and don't intentionally infect others with pathogens. I would consider those the basics of hygiene. 

My step-mum doesn't like dogs. However, she was attacked by a Rottweiler a couple of years ago. This would make almost anyone anti-canine. But we need to bare in mind that there are waaaaaay more dogs who don't attack people than those that do. I think many people forget this when ever there is news of a dog attack. And let us not forget that there are far more humans who brutalize dogs and don't get any punishment. Anyway, digressing a bit. My step-mum didn't like dogs before the Rottweiler incident anyway (in fact I don't think she likes any animals...), so in her lack of knowledge she would think dogs are disgusting and piss anywhere and everywhere. But in reality, once you toilet train a dog, they will generally pee in the same area every time. I observed this when we were toilet training Tara. When she was a baby, she would just pee anywhere when we took her outside. But now she always goes on the grass. She knows this is the toilet and she can even take herself out there because she can fit through the cat flap.

In conclusion, humans can be just as disgusting as non-human animals. Also, it seems that it is quicker and easier to train a Cocker Spaniel puppy to pee in the correct place in comparison to a human child.

No puppy pee on this furniture!

Product Review: Lucas' Papaw Ointment

I never really thought about reviewing products, in particularly health and beauty products, until the other day. I thought that it might be a good idea as I'm just a regular person who doesn't know too much about these sort of products nor can afford the expensive brands. While that might sound a bit discouraging, I am focusing on the outcome/effects of these products and think that people similar to me might get something out of me talking about the stuff I use on my body (might save them a bit of money haha), plus the opinion of someone who's not biased and trying to impress some company. I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, Lucas' Papaw Ointment. Probably one of the best things I have ever used on my dry lips. After Christmas I had a pretty bad case of dry lips, they were cracked in the corners. I had run out of lip balm and other similar products that help stop dry lips. So my mum gave me her papaw oinment to use. Within a few days I had noticed a difference, the cracks had started to heal; and within a week my lips had pretty much returned to normal. A similar situation happened last week: the right corner of my lips had cracked again. I applied the papaw ointment and they have now fully healed. In my experience, it usually takes a reasonable amount of time for corner cracked lips to heal, the reason being that you re-open the wound every time you open your mouth. Therefore, I was impressed how quickly this product worked.

According to the official website (http://lucaspawpawointment.com), Lucas' Papaw Ointment can be applied to the following:

• Abscesses Boils 
• Bruises
• Burns
• Carbuncles
• Chafings
• Cuts 
• Cysts
• Dry and Cracked skin on hands and feet
• Gravel rash
• Heat rash
• Insect stings
• Mosquito bites
• Open wounds
• Pimples
• Scalds
• Sunburn 
• Swelling associated with injury
• Splinters and thorns 
• Tinea 
• Whitlow 

That's quite a few things. I've only tried it on cuts (i.e. cracked lips) and chapped lips, which it worked beautifully on. I'm interested in trying it on some of these other things to see if it works as well as it did on my lips (I'll let you know if it does).

The official website also states: 

"Lucas Papaw Ointment is made in Australia from pure papaws.

Papaw or Papaya we all know as a delicious fruit, but the beneficial qualities of Papaw greatly aid the skin.

Lucas Papaw Ointment cleans away infectious wastes. Papaw contains Papain which helps clean wounds.

The base used in Lucas Papaw ointment is certified to be free of carcinogens.

The ointment is approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration."

Another pro about this product is that it isn't sticky. So once you apply it, where ever you placed it won't feel all sticky, you also won't have sticky residue on your fingers. I point this out because quite a few ointments are quite sticky and you pretty much have to wash you hands after putting it on (Bepanthen is a good example of an annoyingly 'sticky' ointment, that doesn't even work that well to tell the truth). It is also quite a light ointment and you won't feel as though you have a whole tub of it on your face or make it look obvious that your lips are dry as fuck.

It also does an okay job at giving your lips a bit of temporary shine:

In conclusion, I would recommend Lucas' Papaw Ointment. It's effective, fast acting and doesn't have a disgusting texture. I actually can't think of anything bad about it. Would be nice if you could get it in a lip balm form, but a tube is all good. If you suffer from dry lips and are prone to getting cracks in the corners, I would suggest you purchase some of this stuff. It's about $10-15 and you can get it from pharmacies and from Farmers.

Big Day Out 2012

Last Friday I partook in attending the Big Day Out, which has been a tradition of mine since 2005. Unfortunately this would be the last year that New Zealand would host the Big Day Out, apparently there has been a decline in ticket sales to not make it worth their while to have it here anymore. This year's line up wasn't full of star-studded names, which left many people disappointed. Kanye West was pulled from the Auckland show (much to my happiness), which according to a poll I read the other day, left quite a few people upset (much to my surprise). Kanye West was meant to be the headliner. How he can headline over grunge legends Soundgarden, I have no idea. He's still playing in all of the Australian shows apart from Perth and Adelaide. Anyway, enough about Kanye.

I arrived at BDO at 12.30pm, just in time to see Cut Off Your Hands on the Converse Stage. Was a little disappointed I missed Parkway Drive because I wanted to check them out but I needed to sleep in a little bit as I was out until 3am. Probably not the best idea but I think it was worth it. Cut Off Your Hands were good. They have a bit of a Joy Division influence going on there, which I love. I would like to buy their new album at some point. After they had finished I bought an American hot dog at the ridiculous price of $6 and headed over to the main stand to listen to Regurgitator. I didn't pay too much attention to them, but they sounded alright from what I heard, reminded me a bit of The Beastie Boys. The Living End were next on the main stage and I went a bit closer to get a better view. Just as they started playing, the weather suddenly changed to a downpour of rain. I was unimpressed with this and prayed that it would clear up, remembering how horrid it was at last year's BDO getting soaked. The Living End are one of those bands who are better live in my opinion. I've seen them a few times at music festivals in New Zealand. The highlight of their set would have been when Jon Toogood joined them on stage to perform Nirvana's Breed. Apart from Jon's mic not working at first, it was awesome! My one gripe about The Living End's performance is that they didn't play What's On Your Radio? (I like that song; catchy as) or Wake Up (I like the drums in that song).

Cut Off Your Hands

The Living End

The Living End feat. Jon Toogood

 After The Living End had finished, one of my favourite and one of NZ's best metal bands began on the Skate Stage. Beastwars! The weather had finally cleared up and became hot once again. I was pretty excited to see Beastwars as I had only seen them once before back in Christchurch and this time I knew all of their songs off their self titled album they released last year. They opened with Damn The Sky and the sound fucked out at first, with Matt's (the vocalist) mic not working properly, making the speakers crackle. Fortunately this was fixed reasonably quickly. I think Matt is a pretty good frontman, he gets right into it. Other tracks they performed included Lake Of Fire, Mihi, Call Out The Dead, Red God, Empire and two new tracks which I don't know the name of.

Beastwars

Cavalera Conspiracy played after Beastwars on the main stage. They are a metal band from Brazil, with the front man and drummer being the Cavalera brothers and former members of Sepultura and Soulfly. I hadn't heard these guys before and I thought they were pretty good. The lead guitarist was quite good looking too (his name is Marc Rizzo). Unfortunately I didn't catch any of the song titles because Max Cavalera would introduce them all as "this song is called rawr-rawr-RAAAAWWWWRRRR!" in true death metal style. It kinda grinds my gears when bands do this - I want to know what the song is called!

Cavalera Conspiracy

After Cavalera Conspiracy had finished, I headed back over to the Skate Stage to watch Cairo Knife Fight. I was looking forward to seeing these guys perform as they are a two-piece, where the drummer is also the vocalist (like myself). It was interesting the way they performed. Nick Gaffaney would play the base drum beat and then loop it so he could do other things, such as play synth, perform vocals and play extra drums over the top of the looped drums. Aaron Tokona (the guitarist) said that Soundgarden "better not be stink!" to which Nick Gaffaney replied "you could get fined for saying that. You won't be invited back next year". Lol. Oh and on a side note, my mate Tony designed Cairo Knife Fight's website n' shiz. Yeah that's right.

Cairo Knife Fight

Once Cairo Knife Fight had finished, I headed over to the Converse Stage to watch Californian band, Best Coast. They're a female fronted indie rock band. I would describe their songs as 'cute' and 'girlie' and not in a lame way either, I think a lot of girls would be able to relate to them (myself included). Their songs are quite catchy too. Quite refreshing to hear non-slutty/happyish songs from a female perspective. I'd like to buy their album at some point. I'd also recommend people check them out too; their music videos are quite cool too.

Best Coast

I then went over to the Boiler Room after Best Coast, although it's not a room anymore. The massive, sweaty tent known as the Supertop has now disappeared and the 'Boiler Room' is now just a regular stage outside. I think this was better as it was pretty much a sauna in the original Boiler Room. However, the 'vibe' inside of the old Boiler Room was pretty cool and the lighting looked good too. Anyway, Battles were playing here. I fell asleep for about half of their set as I was pretty tired (not bored). They were pretty good from what I heard but I was a bit confused because I thought they had a vocalist (the only Battles song I've heard is The Line off the Eclipse soundtrack, which has vocals). Their set was primarily instrumental and the last few songs had vocals but they were pre-recorded.

Next up were My Chemical Romance on the Main Stage. MCR was one of the bands I was looking most forward too, as they are one of my favourite bands. Quite a few people think I'm mega lame for liking them but I don't really care. I'm not gonna feel guilty for liking a band that is actually decent and the only reason that it is 'uncool' to like MCR is because of the now dead (?) emo subculture (MCR aren't even emocore anyway, more alternative rock in my opinion). Anyway, I was also looking forward to seeing MCR perform because their last album Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys was really good, possibly my favourite album of theirs. And thirdly, last time they played at BDO in 2007, I thought they were pretty average. This may have been due to guitarist Frank Iero being ill and not being able to play that show. So I was hoping to see an improvement. And there was. MCR's performance this year was a fucktonne better than that of 2007. My one shallow complaint would be that Gerard Way has blonde hair again (black or red hair ftw). MCR's crowd interaction was great and they had a pretty good set list, which included tracks from all four of their albums (would have liked to hear a few more songs from Danger Days but oh well). I heard someone say "I didn't realize they were this heavy!". Haha. Well they're not that heavy but it just shows that there a few misconceptions about MCR out there, people don't want to give them a chance because of the 'emo' label attached to them. 

MCR setlist:

Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)

I'm Not Okay (I Promise)

Planetary (GO!)

Mama

Helena

Our Lady Of Sorrows 

Teenagers 

Famous Last Words 

Welcome To The Black Parade

Destroya

Kids From Yesterday

My Chemical Romance

Gerard Way

After My Chemical Romance had finished, I went over to the Converse Stage to watch The Adults, which is a side project of Shihad's Jon Toogood and features Julia Deans of Fur Patrol. I didn't pay too much attention to them, but they seemed alright, quite chill. I also finally caught sight of my friend Tony and his girlfriend, Alex, who had sprained her ankle the previous night and was walking with a crutch. That would have sucked so much. If that was me, I would have spent the whole day paranoid that someone would accidently stand on my foot. Was good to see it didn't get in the way of her having a good time. We went to get some food. I got some noodles this time. They were $6 and much better value than the American hot dog of the same price. We then headed over to the main stand to watch Kasabian. I only know like two Kasabian songs and I think I should learn more because they sounded really good.

Kasabian

After Kasabian had finished playing, the 45 minute wait for Soundgarden began. We were reunited with Tony's other two friends, Mike and Bob (we all went out the night before, so I was acquainted with them). Tony, Mike and I moved a bit closed to the stage. Bob stayed with Alex because he felt bad ditching her (she said we could). Some Mexican-esque band called Mariachi El Bronx played on the Skate Stage during this waiting period. I didn't really pay attention to them. Around 9pm, Soundgarden took the stage! I think we had a pretty good view. It was the closest I'd ever been to a headlining band at BDO. Soundgarden sounded awesome, as expected. Chris Cornell's voice was top notch and I was surprised they played Jesus Christ Pose, as the vocals are quite high in that song (I didn't think he could still sing like that). I think there were a few problems with his guitar but I didn't notice anything. As expected, Soundgarden played a 'greatest hits' setlist, which is what we all wanted anyway.

Soundgarden Setlist:

Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Let Me Drown
Jesus Christ Pose
Outshined
Rusty Cage
Blow Up the Outside World
The Day I Tried to Live
My Wave
Ugly Truth
Fell on Black Days
Drawing Flies
Ty Cobb
Black Hole Sun
Room a Thousand Years Wide
Slaves & Bulldozers

Soundgarden

Soundgarden

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds were next to play, but over on the Converse Stage. It took a little while to get there as everyone was trying to leave the main stadium. We were meant to meet back up with Alex and Bob but we couldn't find them, so Tony went to look for them and we lost him too. Noel Gallagher was quite enjoyable. Played Oasis' Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger (which was the last ever song to be played at BDO). After they had finished Mike and I tried to look for the others but didn't have much luck. Eventually we were all reunited and bused into town at the ridiculous price of $10! Should've been $5 or under. The original plan was to have a drink when we got back to town but I don't think anyone could be bothered. Mike, Bob and I had Burger King. They went back to their respective hotels and I went home.

In conclusion, it was an enjoyable Big Day Out. I had a really good time, despite the non-hype surrounding it. I was busy the whole day and there were no significant timetable clashes for me to have a cry about. Having less people there was good because it meant less people to push you around and what not. I thought the absence of the 'D barrier' was good too. It meant people were able to get reasonably close to bands without being all squashed in. The way they changed the stages (i.e. only one main stage, one Converse stage, and the placement of the Skate Stage) worked well, better than how they previously had it in my opinion. Rest in peace Big Day Out. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see some amazing bands over the last eight years. I hope to see you reincarnated as something bigger and better in the future!

To see more/bigger versions of the (average) photos I took visit: 

www.flickr.com/photos/killajules

The Importance of Man's Best Friend

I already knew that dogs played an important part in people's lives, but this idea was further reinforced yesterday when I took my half brothers to the local park. There was another family there who had a Labrador with them. It was tied to one of the park benches while its owner helped her kid play on the playground, and was barking because it mustn't have liked being tied up (which is fair enough). As Kory (my three year old half brother) and I walked towards the playground he seemed to be afraid of the barking dog. I said that it was only barking because it was tied up and that we could go over and pat it. He seemed interested in this idea but lost interest as Jayke (my five year old half brother), who was sulking decided to join us. A few minutes later Kory yells "Jules, are we going to pat the doggy?!", so we went over to the owner, who now had her dog with her and I asked if we could pat her dog, to which she said we could. The dog, who was a he, was really soft and friendly and enjoyed the attention. I was glad to be patting a dog as I miss Tara (my Cocker Spaniel in Christchurch) terribly. Kory was reluctant to pat the Labrador (I guess because it was pretty much as tall as him), which surprised me as he seemed enthusiastic to go over to it. He eventually gave it a quick pat, which I'm unsure if either parties enjoyed or not.

This encounter got me thinking how important it is to have contact with animals as a child. Jayke and Kory don't have any pets as my dad and their mum don't like them (sad, sad people), and I'm pretty sure that none of their relatives have any either. As a result of this, they are reasonably afraid of dogs and lack understanding that we share this world with many other wonderful creatures that deserve to be treated with respect. The reason I say this is because once Kory was playing and pretending to be a dog and Jayke said "naughty dog, get back in your cage!". This shocked me a bit because I had never heard anyone say that before in a game of pretend, and most people don't want animals to be in a cage, especially a dog.

Personally, I have spend the large majority of my life around dogs and love them to bits. I'm actually finding it a bit hard to not have one around. I love how dogs love you unconditionally and are always excited to see you. When I was younger I thought it was strange how anyone could be afraid of a dog, as most dogs wouldn't hurt a fly. The reason dogs become aggressive is because they have been poorly treated by humans. Now I think I understand why some people are afraid of dogs. I think it is because they've had lack of contact with them and have a lack of knowledge of animals in general. Now that I think about it, most people who I've come across that are afraid of dogs haven't been around pets very much and aren't particularly interested in animals anyway.

Therefore, I believe it is important for animals to be a part of the family. They teach people how to respect and understand animals, as well as teaching them how to be responsible and caring towards another creature. Children are way less likely to be afraid of dogs and be more confident around them if they have one as part of the family (unfortunately it's not possible for all families to have a pet). Dog's are man's best friend. If you don't believe me, adopt a dog and then you will see.

Unconditional Love (Tara and I)

Film Review: Puss In Boots

I'm pretty cool and started to make vlogs for YouTube. I quite like the YouTube culture and wanted to be a part of it. Anyway, here are my thoughts on Dreamworks' 2011 film, Puss In Boots. Enjoy (I hope it's not too terribad).

PS. Do you think Tara (the puppy) is a cutie? (The correct answer is yes) xD

I Hate Jetstar

Jetstar have to be the worst airline ever (well in NZ anyway, although I wouldn't be surprised if they made it into the all time worst airlines of the world).

You'd think I would have learnt my lesson not to fly with them as I always have some issue with them. They're notorious for having flight delays, charge you extra to have checked baggage (wtf), don't provide you with refreshments during the flight (not even water - you have to purchase it), are inflexible with checking in and boarding, and have a terrible phone service, with phone operators who barely speak English.

Last year in June, that wretched Chilean ash cloud made its way over to NZ and caused a few issues regarding flights. Air New Zealand decided to fly but at a lower altitude to avoid the ash cloud. Jetstar refused to do this and forced you to ring their shitty customer service line and re-book a flight. You'd think you could do this online as it is the 21st century, but alas, you have to wait on hold for a million years (pretty sure I waited more than 40 mins) and then talk to someone who is rather hard to understand and probably doesn't even know where NZ is. I ended up getting an Air New Zealand flight (I needed to be in Auckland by a certain date for Walking With Dinosaurs), luckily; however, my break from earthquakes was cut short from a week to two days. People who were supposed to fly with Jetstar during this time but didn't, got given a voucher (which you had to ring up and claim).

I went down to Christchurch (I live in Auckland now) for Christmas and New Year recently and we decided to use my Jetstar voucher for my return flight to Auckland. You had to ring up to book a flight with this (the internet is obviously a bit too advanced for Jetstar). Because it was a holiday period, all of the flights were ridiculously priced, which sucks because it discourages people from going to visit their families. Anyway, my mum rung up for me to book my return flight and it would cost about $70 more to book over the phone than what it would to book online... Wtf... That is actually retarded. You'd think they'd keep their prices the same no matter what way you decide to book your flight. They are meant to be the 'cheap' airline after all. So my mum got pissed off and hung up. A few days later she decided to try again because it would work out to be cheaper if we used the voucher and then pay the extra money with credit card (the voucher was for $111 and flights ranged from about $170 - $270ish. Bare in mind this is for one way domestic... You can almost go to Australia for the same price...). It then turns out that my voucher is expired but on the email (I think they actually emailed you the voucher number! My dad did this so I'm not 100% sure of what the process was, you did have to ring them though) it said it didn't expire till June next year! So someone messed up somewhere. Because it was apparently expired, Jetstar refused to honour it. My mum then rung up House of Travel (she works for them and the voucher flight happened to be booked through them) and asked them about it. HoT said they'd honour it and pretty much told my mum to never book with Jetstar again, said they're always giving refunds and what not because of them. You know when a travel company thinks that an airline is shit, you are completely justified in thinking that too.

So yesterday was the day I flew back to Auckland. We were running late and I went to check in six minutes after when you are supposed to and they wouldn't let me. They close everything off half an hour before the plane leaves and don't make any exceptions. I suppose this is fair enough but six minutes is not that much of a big deal... So then I have to pay another $90 to get on the next flight. When I put my baggage on the conveyor belt, it apparently weights more than 15kgs, which was the amount that was purchased for my flight (I think it was $11 for a checked bag up to that weight). Seriously?! Air New Zealand let you have up to 23kgs and at no extra cost! I got let away with it (amazingly) and got my extra kilograms for free.

Just because you're a budget airline, doesn't mean you have to be cunts.

Pacific Blue were budget and I never had any problems with them and I actually enjoyed flying with them.

In conclusion, fuck you Jetstar. I hope to never fly with you again.