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THIS BLOG IS DEAD!

2006-07-11T19:56:00.000+10:00

we're moving.....

www.superfunkychicken.com

yes - superfunkychicken.com.... which is living proof of how creative you can be in 5 minutes when you really need to be

blogging action will now happen in super funky chicken land

would you like stitches with that?

2006-07-09T15:44:00.000+10:00

so i gave eyepee a hand yesterday rebuilding his front end..... kingpins, wheel bearings, cv's - 600 bucks worth of parts.... basically everything except the diff

i discovered why everyone raves about this whole martack concept - getting the cv back together while trying to compress the inner circlip sucked in a big way.... which leads to my story

we tried hose clamps, we tried belting it, eventually we got it done using a cable tie - this then left us with the problem of having a super tight cable tie around the axle that needed to be removed..... eyepee told me to grab his leatherman and cut the cable tie while he held the axle - he mentioned "it's pretty sharp".... what he should have said is "DANGER! it's a freakin katana that'll slice you open if you just look at it wrong"

you can guess what happened next

i ended up with a mad slice in my left thumb and a slightly less mad slice in my left pointy finger..... if my mum was there she woulda made me get stitches in my thumb - it was nearly half a cm deep. when i was a kid if i cut myself with anything it was off to the doc for stitches - now that im older and dumber i don't see the point - plus, what kind of a weenie would i have looked bailing with parts everywhere to go get some stitches?

when i got home several hours later i had the joyous task of cleaning out the diff oil and random grease with dettol - you don't seem to be able to buy those butterfly clip things anymore so i had to use a combination of gauze and electrical tape (cos band aids wouldnt stick)

as of this afternoon i can bend my thumb (carefully) without splitting it open again.... and it didnt seem to hit any tendons or anything so i should be fully recovered in time for brass monkey.

i spent today watching movies trying not to move my thumb while eyepee still had to do the other side of his front axle - i think i had the better day :)

in other news... we have 40+ ppl signed up for brass monkey this year - logistics are going to be a challenge but with so many ppl it's set to be a HUGE weekend

there's a reason you're a bouncer and not a stock broker

2006-07-01T08:05:00.000+10:00

i've had some disagreements with the security staff of the GPO before.... but i've never been ejected - until last nite.

yesterday was the annual ITfest - which is really just an excuse for the whole dept to indulge in some excessive drinking and forget about work for awhile.... was a good day with everyone well over .05 by mid afternoon.

long story short, we ended up at the gpo - i hate the gpo because it's filled with pretentious yuppie wankers, but that's probably why the skanks at work love it so much (and fight as much as you want you can't beat the influencing power of skanks)

anyway - one of the lads had a bit of a run-in with this particular bouncer fairly early in the evening.... the conversation was going pear shaped so i jumped in and promised to look after him and delicately dragged him back inside - no problems, everyone's having a good time and life is good.

as the night wore on the 8+ hours of heavy drinking started to take it's toll.... grahame decided to have a bit of a snooze on the table - this was interpreted by this same bouncer as a sign that he was wasted and needed to go home.... probably a fair call. but during the eviction process there seemed to be a communication breakdown - i intervened just as it got to the "DON'T #@$@!ING TOUCH ME MAN!" stage...... for people that are supposedly trained in this stuff, bouncers really suck at communicating with pissed people.

so anyway - i dragged grahame onto the footpath and calmed him down..... i then went to go inside and round up a few people to go somewhere else (where grahame promised to stay awake)...... at this point the same dumbass bouncer decided i was not allowed back in!!!!! i saved him from what was going to be an ugly altercation and now im banished too?!?!?!?

i tried pointing out the obvious stupidity of the situation to no avail - i then said that i didn't feel i'd been given a fair hearing and i'd like to speak to the guys boss for an independent review of my case.... for some reason this seemed to set off some roid rage and *i* ended up having one of those "DON'T $#@$@!ING TOUCH ME MAN!" conversations. my parting shot was "IVE BEEN THROWN OUT OF CLASSIER PLACES THAN THIS!"

so we wandered off to the elephant and had a few more beers there (where funnily enough none of us had any problems with the security staff) - i put grahame in a cab and caught up with a few people in the valley for some late night pizza.

gpo bouncers - YOU SUCK
gpo in general - YOU SUCK
influencing skanks who force me to spend time at the gpo - YOU SUCK

now i can understand soccer riots

2006-06-27T02:59:00.000+10:00

we spent the last 30 minutes CAMPED in their half and couldn't get that stupid round ball in the net.....

and then it all comes down to one crap decision from a ref in the final minute.... im not a big soccer fan but even i wanna find the nearest italian and punch him in the face

dodgy foreign ref with a crap un-pronouncable name - YOU SUCK!

washing machines are teh sux0r

2006-06-25T20:03:00.000+10:00

my 18month old simpson washing machine died yesterday.... it was in the middle of washing and it just turned itself off, never to turn on again. why????

and of course when it died it was full of water - it's like the egg in the milk bottle thing..... water goes in real easy, getting it out is a different story.

i pulled it to bits and waved a multimeter around in there and everything points to this magic computery looking box that controls the stupid lcd panel thing..... i rang a coupla repair guys who were too busy anyway and said it's most likely the ecu (wtf does a washing machine need an ecu?!?!).... which costs around 200 bucks.

so the washing machine i paid 200 bucks for at the auctions (cos it had a mad dent in the back of it) was gunna cost me another 200 bucks..... not to mention the massive pita of going to bludge someones washing machine or do the laundromat thing. so i said screw it and went down to see my indian mate at the local bi-rite. $650 later and i own a new "fuzzy logic" lg washing machine. it has much prettier lights and makes cool beeping sounds..... other than that all it does is wash clothes.

brass monkey III teaser

2006-06-25T19:50:00.000+10:00

dibbzeh put together a bmIII teaser... the choice of soundtrack is a cracker.

right click > save as.... http://dopegoat.com/media/misc/BM3%20Teaser%201.wmv

21 ppl and 9 trucks rsvp'ed so far - with prolly another 5-6 slackers who just haven't clicked the damn button yet.

so im guessing we'll end up with around 25-30 people and 15 or so rigs..... there's even a handful of tacos in there.

angry got the bronco running again today
dibbzeh's got a new zorst
foodie's got new shackles
munga's got new t-case, shafts, and uni's
the mighty mq will have a new drivers seat and new front wheel cylinders
fatty will prolly have a new sub (maybe even one made for a vehicle, not for a pc)

adam f was talking up some kinda short film based on more than just wheeling footage - something along the lines of the blair monkey project maybe? we'll see how much footage he gets when he's plastered before it even gets dark

brass monkey III

2006-06-20T20:11:00.000+10:00

i finally got the brass monkey III invites out last week - lot of people talking it up this year... will have to wait and see who actually rsvp's.

so far we have 15 rsvp's and quite a few new faces - set for an awesome weekend

mad props to eyepee for putting together the invite (which is included below).... and also to iron chef Dibbz for agreeing to do the catering again - with an expected 30-40 people the catering is gunna be a pretty major mission.

if you don't have a bmIII invite and you think you should, drop me a comment - if i don't reply it's cos you're not worthy :P

state of origin....

2006-06-15T19:21:00.000+10:00

so i scored a box for the origin.... normally im not a big fan of boxes due to the corporate wankers they tend to attract - i was a little skeptical. but it turned out to be a pretty good night regardless.

billy j smith was the guest speaker before the game and hung around and watched the game with us - i had the honour of having billy next to me for about the first 20 minutes of the game.... it was like having my own personal commentator. he's a pretty cool guy and it was awesome to get his take on the game.

at half time i ended up next to mario fenech in the toilets - the goose was wearing a bright pink shirt. i hit him with a "what's doing with that pink shirt mario?" which i thought was hilarious at the time - fortunately he took it in good spirits.

i had planned to have a cruisy day today.... my phone started ringing at 8am and pretty much went consistently all day, everyone screams for more desk space for months and nobody cares, then suddenly we need to fitout space for 100+ ppl in < 2 weeks. once upon a time we were reactive to be innovative and lead the market etc, now we're just reactive to cover our own lack of planning and general disfunction.... *sigh*

sunday sportsfest

2006-06-12T10:38:00.000+10:00

did winternats all day yesterday - i'll confess.... we left early (around 7pm) - for several reasons

1 - it was ridiculously cold
2 - the rugby was on @ 8pm
3 - there were 400 junior dragsters lined up

i *HATE* junior dragsters.... i recognise kids need to be encouraged into the sport blah blah blah.... but for crying out loud - they DONT NEED TO RUN DURING THE FINALS OF WINTERNATS!

and while im whingeing about stuff - if you have a solo run in the semi's YOU SHOULD DO A FULL PASS REGARDLESS! ppl pay good money to come and watch and when you give it a quick stab off the line and then shut it off YOU SUCK and deserve to be booed. Phil Read you're on my shitlist.

all we really missed that i care about was the final for top door slammer (which Victor Bray won) and the final for top fuel - which ended in a grassfire and blown engine.... i'll watch it on speedweek. *shrug* the thought of sitting around for another 3hours in the freezing cold watching junior dragster crap just for 2 x < 6second passes didnt make sense.

so we bailed.... and i got home in time to watch us bash the poms in the rugby - and then straight onto the f1 coverage where that dirty cheating german in the red pos got pwn3d by renault again.

and of course i forgot my camera again

the trouble with vendors....

2006-06-09T16:22:00.000+10:00

there's a certain vendor who shall remain nameless -

he has a seemingly bottomless expense account.... last night he took us out for "a few drinks"

aside from the troubles with the bartender, a few of the lads getting shut down by some rather uptight young lassies, and me having a case of the stumbles on the way to the gents (what kind of idiot designs a bar so that you have to walk up a set of stairs to get to the gents?) everything was going really well for the first part of the night.

then we ended up at a rather questionable establishment which i won't name..... one by one everyone snuck off to bed - before i knew it, it was 3am and fatman and I were the only ones left.... something bad happened at the elephant and wheelbarrow - i really can't remember what, but i have this nagging feeling that something bad happened. i also have vague memories of eating pizza and playing pool until around 4am.

i was expecting a hangover today so i took the day off in advance. i wasn't disappointed - 3 gatorades and about 4 litres of water and my heads still pounding.... i've spent the whole day in bed catching up on soprano's episodes.

angry and i are heading to the winternats on sunday, hopefully i'll remember to take my camera - there's no alcohol allowed on the grounds, which is good. i'm off beer for awhile.

went to purga today

2006-06-04T17:55:00.000+10:00

so i coulda spent today washing the mud off from last weekends levuka trip - or just done another mud filled trip to purga. easy choice really

the 40 got stuck HEAPS... fortunately i was there to rescue it. chester's jeep did the jeep thing and mark mcclod's lux did what lux's do.

highlight of the day was me driving this MAD hillclimb... of course no-one got any video footage of it so i'll have to just post some pics (which of course don't do it justice).

it was a 90foot vertical cliff with a pond on one side full of crocodiles, and a pond on the other side filled with man eating piranha's. one slip meant death. fortunately the mq was up to the challenge and made everyone else's rigs look ghey.... i may have *slightly* embellished the story, but that's what happens when ppl with video cameras are too lazy to point them at my pos.

pic below is me lining up the mega climb (the croc and piranha ponds are just out of shot)

working into a better line (again the crocs and piranhas are out of shot)

lots of dust.... but that's what happens when you drive the MEGACLIMB (and believe it or not the croc and piranha ponds are out of this shot too)

point the camera at me next time chumps - my pos is sekzi

there's far too many ppl reading this...

2006-06-04T17:23:00.000+10:00

after speaking to some ppl over the last week i've come to realise there's a lot more ppl than i realised reading this blog.

who are you and where did you come from?

there will be no new content for 12 months - so stop reading, stop checking, forget about this url

that is all

levuka - she'd get it

2006-05-28T19:47:00.000+10:00

back from a weekend at levuka with eyepee, dibbz, and munga... surprisingly it didn't really get that cold - i was a little under the weather on saturday nite so perhaps that helped, but it really didn't seem to be that cold.

plenty of glorious mud - eyepee found one particular mudhole that was filled with the most bizarre mud i've ever seen.... it was like cement that hadn't quite set. he sank like a stone - once we snatched him out his entire front end was coated in evil goo. this evil goo added about 2+ kilograms to each wheel which ended up causing us to stop on the side of the highway on the way home - pulling his wheels off and cleaning them so he could drive above 60kph without being wobbled off the road.

awesome weekend - levuka is the priority spot for brass monkey III. the park owner seemed like a nice bloke and he's happy to cordon off a dedicated camp ground for us.

i had about 6 beers in me when i ended up in the pose below - i didn't realise there was a 1+ metre drop on the right hand side. i reckon i got my front wheels to about where the orange winch dampener is - and then slid all the way back down again. fortunately eyepee got up there in the 40 and winched dibbz and i to safety.

view of the drop on the right hand side - there's less than a foot between my tyre and carnage

eyepee and the evil goo...

i got no action shots of the dibbz mobile so the obligatory group shot will have to do for the time being...

i love old trucks.... this weekend i couldn't turn the mq off cos of a failed edic, eyepee couldn't open his drivers side door due to a dodgy latch, and dibbz had power steering that kinda worked sometimes, but not others. but while the pajero and ifslux owners sat around the campfire we were out wheeling. who's laughing now eh?

i think dibbz has already updated his blog - now everyone needs to hassle dibbz and eyepee for video footage :)

citibank comes to the party...

2006-05-24T18:45:00.000+10:00

i used to have a guy's business card on my desk - whenever i was having a crap day i'd ring this guy up and give him a spray, he was a crap acct mgr so there was always something to rant at him about.
i dunno if it was my continual harrasment or what but the guy ended up quitting.... so for about 9 months i haven't had a ranting post - a few weeks ago i put citibank in this guys place.

it only took 3 sprays to un-suspecting complaints drones at citibank and they rolled over.

they conceded they stuffed up and as a result they've given me what i think works out to be about 200 bucks worth of reward points and waived my annual fee.

personally i woulda forgone the apology just to have a ranting post again..... *sigh*

a stitch in time saves 9 greasy fingers...

2006-05-24T18:25:00.000+10:00

today was the coldest day all year.... -2 degrees in ipswich at 6am. OMFG!

today also happened to be the day i had to be up at 6am to get the mq down the road for a wheel alignment.... so after having a shower and trying to stave off frostbite i jumped in the mq to take it down the road.

the glowplugs are shot so it's a bit hard to start at the best of times - but this morning the world was conspiring against me.... the edic motor which has been on its way out for awhile decided it wouldn't activate - which means no fuel to the injector pump. the problem with the mq is you just walk past it and you get covered in grease - so im dressed for work getting covered in grease. everything i touched was freezing cold.... awesome. eventually jiggled the edic into life and got the bitch to start - filled the entire neighbourhood with white smoke and off i went.

worked all day - picked up the mq when i got home and the mechanic shows me a sheared off snapon spanner.... "tie rods are siezed mate" - good news is the wheel alignment is actually pretty straight.... and with the tie rods siezed it's not gunna go out of alignment anytime soon.

so after more jiggling with the edic i left the mechanic feeling pretty good about things - made it 50 metres down the road and the edic completely dropped it's guts - no fuel, no go. so im stopped on the side of the road 50 metres from the mechanics. finally accepted the inevitable and disconnected the edic and got going again.

all the edic does is cuts off the fuel when you turn the ignition off - just about every mq still on the road has a manual kill cable hooked up and the edic disabled.... i took some pride in the fact that after 1/2 million k's my mq's edic still worked and everyone else's didnt. pride's out the window - i'll just use a manual kill cable

so after the whole saga the mq's in tip top shape and i'm good to go for this weekends trip.

psycho chicks...

2006-05-23T19:57:00.000+10:00

you may think you've found a chick that's sane and rational and behaves like a human.

you haven't

it might take a week, a month, even a year - but sooner or later the psycho train will come a knocking

be afraid

politicians and email...

2006-05-15T20:02:00.000+10:00

so i got 1 reply - from Cheryl Bromage (local Ipswich council).... as far as politicians go she's a bit of a hottie.

she basically agreed that the road sucks, highlighted the major issues with the road (which at least shows she gets it), and kinda intimated that as a pissy little council there's bugger all that ippy council can do. she gets a 6.5 out of 10, no real content but at least she was prompt and sympathised.

my lovingly elected state and federal members have yet to reply or even so much as send an automated response to confirm receipt of my email. perhaps they're busy recruiting doctors or making babies. i'll be sure to treat my tax return and rego payments with the same urgency.

ranting at politicians....

2006-05-14T20:00:00.000+10:00

perhaps we're all getting old.... i remember the good old days when we just got drunk and bitched about the state of the world -

nowadays fatty is engaged in his ongoing war with the EPA, brisbane council, emporium mgmt, and certain IT vendors. dibbz continues his jihad on anyone who parks in his street or dares to turn on a hose.... and now i've joined the "im gunna write a letter" crew. not my finest piece of literary work - but no doubt it's the beginning of months of backwards and forwards emails with my elected officials, i feel it better that they waste their time corresponding with me than at the pub.

Sunday 14 May 2006

Councillor Cheryl Bromage
cbromage@gil.com.au

Don Livingstone MP
ipswich.west@parliament.qld.gov.au

Cameron Thompson MP
Cameron.Thompson.MP@aph.gov.au

To my elected representatives of local, state, and federal governments,

I write to express my current dissatisfaction with the state of Ipswich Road. I’m certain this is not a new issue for any of you so I don’t think I need to waste people’s time re-stating the problems with the congestion and safety of Ipswich Road.

I relocated to North Ipswich over 12 months ago and have the misfortune of using Ipswich Road upwards of 10 times per week for my daily commute to Brisbane CBD.

I am putting you on notice that my votes now and into the future will be cast based on your ability to deliver a solution to this long standing issue.

As a relative newcomer to the area I invite you to outline for me what steps you have taken to date, and what steps you plan to take in the immediate future to see upgrade works agreed to, funded, and completed on this notorious stretch of road.

I look forward to your responses.

Regards,

xxxxx

citibank - you suck

2006-05-14T11:19:00.000+10:00

i sent the following FAX to citibank complaints today (because their complaints line only operates during business hours and of course their pos website complaints form is permanently broken)....

it's not really inconveniencing me - but I've been meaning to can the card for awhile and switch to a cheapo virgincredit or similar card..... it shits me that i've paid 80 bucks a year + premium interest rates for years and the one time i actually want something from them they stuff me around. at the very least i should be able to can the card and get a refund on my (charged in advance) yearly fee.

I have been a goldcard customer of citibank for many years now - every time I have the misfortune to speak to a call centre drone i'm told how much Citibank appreciates my long term business.
For the first time in years I actually needed to put the citibank customer service to the test - I was contacted on Monday 8 May by a citibank representative to inform me there was a chance my credit card number had been compromised so my card was to be cancelled straight away and a new card issued. Today is Sunday and I am *STILL* without a credit card.
One of the supposed benefits of being a gold card customer is "emergency card replacement" which promises to have a card to me "anywhere in the world" within 48 hours. I'm not "anywhere in the world" - I'm in the same bloody city I was in when I first got the card, I can only imagine how long it would take to get me a card if I was in another city.
Why has a week gone by and I'm still without a card?
As I explained to the call centre drone I spoke to today - I want a replacement card in my mailbox by close of business Monday 15 May (exactly one week since the card was cancelled).
I'd also like a response from someone other than a call centre drone as to why this has happened and what Citibank is going to do to re-assure me that paying premium interest rates and charges for all these years has been worthwhile.

more housekeeping...

2006-05-09T19:17:00.000+10:00

added reciprocal links to fatman, dibbz, and munga blogs.
I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU CLICK THESE LINKS!

i wish there was an easy way to dynamically remove ppl from the list if they don't post at least once a week. *nudge* *nudge*

road rage

2006-05-08T20:20:00.000+10:00

for centuries man has debated what came first... the chicken or the egg?

i put forward an updated version of the same question... what came first - the right lane retard or the tailgater?

on any given day i strike at least a handful of right lane retards (rlr's).... for the uninitiated a "right lane retard" is one of those assclowns who sits in the right hand lane doing 20 k's below the speed limit, happily banking up traffic for miles. depending on my mood i handle rlr's differently - this morning i was in a particularly good mood so i thought id just wait until she was far enough ahead of the truck in the left hand lane that i could overtake her in the left lane. as i was checking my mirrors to see when i was clear of the truck in the left hand lane this particular rlr decides to put on her brakes - now some rlr's will maintain speed and lightly touch the brake.... this is intended to freak you out and make you back off - not surprisingly it almost always has the opposite effect. this rlr was not just trying to freak me out, she was trying to kill me, she wiped off about 20kph for no reason other than to make a point. i jumped on the brakes with literally millimetres to spare.... i jumped on the brakes so hard i locked all 4 tyres (whilst doing 100kph in dual lane traffic with several cars up my clacker).

instantly my good mood was gone - the game was on.

the rlr could obviously sense that the stakes had escalated well beyond what she was prepared to play for - so she put the foot down and took off. this played right into my hands as i was able to get alongside her.... with the hilux screaming at 5grand in 3rd gear doing 100 i pulled up beside her and very politely explained to her how undesirable i found her actions.

some rlr's will get all indignant and explain their own point of view, others will focus on the road ahead and pretend like the angry madman next to them screaming out the window doesnt exist. this rlr was of the latter variety. we just didnt seem to be communicating - i realised i needed to get her attention.

so i changed lanes in front of her.... im in a ute with a nice solid towbar, rlr is in a nice new model magna with a bonnet height just designed to mate with my towbar. in order to get her attention i jam on the brakes - new model magna's obviously have abs as she managed to avoid trashing her nice new magna on my ugly old towbar. but now i have her attention and i feel that we are at last communicating effectively.

just as i felt we were making real progress towards resolving our differences the rlr slowed down to about 60 (still in the right hand lane i might add)... i needed to get to work so i continued on my merry way.

but beware you freakish fran fine lookalike magna driving skank - i remember your numberplate and your big hair.... i'll be watching for you, and next time i'll get ya.

my credit card got pwn3d!

2006-05-08T20:10:00.000+10:00

i got a call today..... it was a call transferred to my internal line from reception - as a general rule i don't take these calls because they're never good. today i was feeling lucky, so i took the call.

"hello sir, this is rajput from citibank credit card fraud division"

ALARM BELLS RINGING!

so this could be one of two things - something really really bad has happened at work.
OR
my personal credit card has been pwn3d.

i was actually happy to hear it was just my personal card. rajput was very vague on the details but i did manage to get out of him that my cc was in someone's dbase that got compromised. rajput being the good little indian call centre drone that he is wouldn't disclose who got pwn3d. i only really use this card with big companies - it's not like ive bought stuff from nanna's nappy supplies or similar.

which begs the question - who got pwn3d?

so anyway - i now have to wait for my new cc to arrive.

hotel rwanda

2006-05-07T17:48:00.000+10:00

today i watched hotel rwanda... i'm embarrased to say i had no idea of this true story until i watched the movie. if you haven't watched this movie you should - and feel bad about yourself.

half a million people were killed (or up to a million - depending on which source you believe), hundreds of thousands of people packed up and legged it to bordering countries and the UN watched on and did nothing. actually the UN did do something - they pulled their "peace keeping" troops out because it was too dangerous.

makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesnt it

more super stuff...

2006-05-07T12:37:00.000+10:00

Leigh posted about unclaimedsuper.com.au..... she's correct - they will find your "unclaimed super" for free. HOWEVER - the definition of "unclaimed super" is important.

when the bastard swine eat away at all your super taxes (cos that's what super is - a deferred tax payment) your super becomes "unclaimed". i think the magic number is $200. so when they've gobbled all your super taxes to below this magic number they're no longer allowed to deduct any fees - i believe as a protest they also stop paying you any interest, your account also becomes classified as "unclaimed" and the unclaimed super mob is notified.

findmysuper.com.au claim to search EVERY fund, not just where you're balance has become low enough to be classified as "unclaimed".

incidentally the govt declared it ILLEGAL to charge for locating people's lost super. so the loophole they're using is that they're not charging you to find your super - they're charging you to handle the paperwork to roll it over into your fund of choice. real effective law huh.

after my last rant about the findmysuper.com.au turkeys i rang them up and gave a spray to one of the indian call centre drones - it made me feel slightly better and i actually got some info out of it.

apparently because i was so pissed about them stuffing me around for 6 weeks they decided to rush through the rollover of the 10 funds i know about. the searches will continue over the next 6 weeks and then they'll get me to do the forms for the other funds they dig up.

so far this has cost me over 10 hours of my time - perhaps i can claim a deduction of 10 x $100 per hour on my next tax return?

housekeeping...

2006-05-07T12:35:00.000+10:00

after constant badgering i found the option to set the timezone to AU. and it does appear to be retrospective. yay.

also set comments to launch in popup window now rather than reloading entire page.

The Fatman drops some sand....

2006-05-07T12:29:00.000+10:00

Fattie posted a comment on my super rantings.... normally i'd just hit publish but i'm posting it here in slightly editted format (and if anyone knows how to edit a comment before publishing PLEASE TELL ME!)

the fatman rant in italics below

FFS Guru I am in no way at all inspired to go searching for my super, I think I've rolled a couple over but there is about 4 of them sitting out there stangnet. There's probably nothing left in them now, the super value would have been eroded wth monthly "investment fees". Yeah here's a shit load of cash go invest, and while you are there take a few hundered bucks each year for the privilage of having my untouchable funds.Man, all this cash has gone to multinationals who use the cash from us twats to invest the capital into shit that makes them all more powerfull than joe blogs. They fud over our super to make it unreachable meanwhile while we mess around to try and retrive they've spun it off to invest into all the shit that the community needs, such as Real Estate. Our next generation has got no opportunity to purchase property because two out of every five (redacted) own 10 investment properties thanks to the Government's open policy to make the rich richer.20 years ago you'd go to University for free, now you're given a $40K+ debt after graduating. Once you've polished off your HECS you then need to come up with half a million to buy a place.Super is just an excuse for the goverment to can social security as our population ages.I heard an interesting one today from a NSW (redacted) Council, (redacted) was telling me that they managed their own super and 7 guys in IT got together and removed their super from the fund, cashed it out then co-incidently all retired at the same time with zip super. It was all leeched into their pockets and they walked away with full access to their funds.

findmysuper.com.au you suck EVEN MORE THAN I CAN BELIEVE!!!

2006-05-03T18:30:00.000+10:00

so following on from my previous post re : findmysuper suckbags....

i get the form via email, i fill it in, and i send it back - i hear nothing from them. so i send them an email saying "can you confirm you got my form?"

this is what they send me back (3 days later) -

Thank you for contacting FindMySuper.com
Please find attached the Sunsuper transfer forms for you to complete.
We require you to complete 10 of these forms, one form will be sent to each eligible rollover fund to initiate a search of their databases for your details. They will then search their databases and roll over any funds that match your details. Please also include 10 photocopies of your passport or drivers’ licence for identification purposes and have each copy certified by a Justice of the Peace (JP)

they know i have 10 other funds because *I* bloody well know I have 10 other funds and I spent 20 minutes filling in all the damn details on their last form. so now i need to spend another hour of my life filling in 10 versions of this crap and getting them autographed by a JP. which begs the question - WHAT THE F%## are you doing for your 55 bucks?!?!?!?!
I could have just got this damn form from sunsuper and sent it off 10 times (to the 10 funds that I know about) for free. but what about the other funds that they supposedly "find" for you?

i am astounded at how much these guys suck - i'm gunna chuck a dibbz and email all and sundry. infoline@asic.gov.au is apparently who you should complain to (who im sure won't care). believe it or not i can't use the fed.gov superannuation complaints tribunal until i've waited 90 days from when i complain to the actual fund. and given that these wankers aren't a "fund", they're merely consolidators there probably isn't anyone who cares.

and they wonder why ppl can't be assed to deal with their super.

www.findmysuper.com.au sucks

2006-04-27T13:48:00.000+10:00

back in the day when i was contracting all over the shop it was the employers discretion as to which superfund they contributed to.... this decision was generally made on a golfcourse with no regard to what was best for the employee.
anyway - as a result i have about 15 different super funds which i should have consolidated years ago.... because i can't access the money for another 30 years (that's 30 years based on current laws - watch the age increase over the next 30 years) i wasn't overly motivated to sort it all out.

eventually my mother's hassling pushed me over the edge and i decided to clean it all up. this is where findmysuper.com.au comes in - they offer a service where for $55 they go and find ALL your super accounts and roll them all into whichever fund you nominate. perfect i thought.
click through the spam, put in all my details, and the final prompt says "searches will take 5-6 weeks". i did notice they debit my credit card for the $55 straight away - a bit cheeky i thought but i was just happy to have it sorted.

so today it has been 6 weeks and i havent heard anything - so i ring them up and some indian call centre drone informs me that i havent returned the paperwork (WHICH I NEVER RECEIVED!) so nothing has been done.

indian call centre drone informs me that the paperwork would have been posted to me - i tell him that i receive a lot of mail and that i definitely received NOTHING from them. he tells me it's ok, he'll email it to me now. WHY COULDNT YOU JUST EMAIL IT IN THE FIRST %$#@$!@ PLACE?!?!?!
i ask him if anyone thought to send me an email or perhaps call me to ask where the paperwork was - he tells me that until the paperwork is received they won't do anything. at this point i realised that it's true what they say about arguing with idiots - they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

so now i have to fill in this form and email it back to them - and then wait another 6 weeks for the searches.

congratulations findmysuper.com.au - you suck!

i mowed the lawn today...

2006-04-16T12:26:00.000+10:00

i no longer have a lawn - i have a tightly woven fabric of weeds. if we weren't on stupidity factor 2 water restrictions i could weed n feed.... level 2 means i can water on a full moon when pluto is in the furtherest sector of its orbit.

so after 6+ months of these water restrictions - most people's yards are trashed. but not the ipswich city council!

about 10am today i saw a council water truck..... idling along in the left hand lane - sprinkling water onto the council roadside gardens. the sprinkler head was slopping water everywhere - half of it was going on the road, AND theyre watering at what is supposedly an inefficient time of the day.

brisbane city council give you a $500 rebate if you install a 1000l or bigger water tank - ipswich city council give you $150.

ipswich - we're waterwise.

holiday starts now!

2006-04-11T23:00:00.000+10:00

this weekend im cat sitting at mungaHQ.. next wednesday i have to go into the office for a 4hour love session - other than that im at a loose end for the next few weeks.

what to do.....

bike license?
more work on the mq?
buy a shed?
backyard blitz the yard?
drive west until the pubs run out of beer?

or perhaps i can just make friends with the couch and the foxtel box

you peasants wanted comments - gimme some ideas

firefox users read this...

2006-04-11T19:57:00.000+10:00

whats the point... i don't get it?

just cos your different doesn't mean you're cool.

i bet you're the same people who used QEMM instead of HIMEM.

so ppl want comments enabled

2006-04-11T18:54:00.000+10:00

comments now enabled
so is moderation

don't like it? don't comment!

so im supposed to be on holidays....

2006-04-10T20:36:00.000+10:00

but im not.

another one bites the dust

2006-03-18T16:09:00.000+10:00

fattie got pwn3d today.... it'll be blogged everywhere and photo'ed everywhere, no doubt there will even be video..... so im not gunna rave on about it.
quick ceremony, good feed, light hearted speeches..... pretty damn good as far as weddings go. and that's all im gunna say.

pics...

purga

2006-02-18T10:38:00.000+10:00

done a coupla runs to purga over the last 2 weekends.... last weekend was a write off due to the bronco getting stuck every 5 metres (and i got stuck on recovery duty!). took us 4hours to do a track that normally takes 2 hours max.
so last nite we went out with a small group of 4 vehicles.... munga got stuck in the mud a few times in the zook until we noticed he was getting no front drive at all - red faced munga locked the hubs and popped straight outta the boghole.
purga's a weird place - one minute it's slippery muddy clay and then 500 metres up the track it's all sandstone.
drove a coupla things last night that i normally wouldn't have - nothing broke and i got through so maybe peer pressure is a good thing :)

more pics at http://ironpaw.dopegoat.com/gallery2/v/trips/purga_170206

munga's new maruti

2006-01-28T19:00:00.000+10:00

munga's zook now featuring maruti power!
probably took us a total of 36 man hours..... we're slow but we're dodgy!
did you know.....
a maruti bellhousing is slightly different to a zook bellhousing - words can't describe the joy of finding this out AFTER getting the engine and gearbox mated up.
a maruti flywheel is slightly different to a zook flywheel - also joyous to discover this AFTER everything was assembled and the clutch made noises like a garden mulcher filled with concrete.
now that we're not complete mechanical n00bs and we know about the "subtle differences" i reckon we could do it again in less than half the time. let's hope we don't find out for a long while.

first post

2006-01-28T18:58:00.000+10:00

what am i gunna do with a blog anyway?