Multiple Choice Olympics Quiz

Q1. How many different events are included in the all-around competition in women's gymnastics?
a) 4
b) 5
c) 6


Q2. Cleveland was recently appointed host city for the 2014 Gay Games. In what year and city were the first Gay Games held?
Note: do not confuse this with the Outgames
a) 1982 San Francisco
b) 1984 New York City
c) 1986 Los Angeles
— 

Q3. Which Winter Olympics country has the most lopsided medal count in terms of % of total medals won in a single sport?
—a) Norway – nordic skiing
b) South Korea – speed skating
c) Austria – alpine skiing
— 

Q4. Where were the Southernmost Winter Olympics held
—a) Salt Lake City, USA
b) Turin, Italy
c) Nagano, Japan


Q5. Where were the Northernmost Summer Olympics held
a) 1980 Moscow
b) 1952 Helsinki
c) 1976 Montreal


Q6. London 2012 is the 30th Olympiad. Including London 2012 and excluding the three games cancelled due to war (1916, 1940 and 1944), how many different cities have hosted the summer games?
a) 22
b) 23
c) 24


Q7. Somehow, yachting is an Olympic event. How many crew members are on each boat in the Star class competition? Be sure to include the skipper!
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3


Q8. How many times has a single nation swept the podium in the men's OR women's 100m dash:
—a) 0
b) 2
c) 3


Q9. In 1972 American Swimmer Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals. Which of the following events did he NOT win:
a) 200m freestyle
b) 200m butterfly
c) 400m individual medley


Q10. In 2008, Liu Chunghong won the gold medal in the women’s 69kg weight class
What was her winning lift in kg’s in the Snatch (as opposed to Clean & Jerk)?
a) 108kg
b) 118kg
c) 128kg


Q11. The 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia, but due to biosecurity concerns the equestrian events were held early. In which city were they held in September 1956:
a) Tokyo
b) Dover
c) Stockholm


Q12. Which of the following nations has NOT been represented by athletes at all 32 Modern Olympiads (excepting those cancelled due to war)?
a) Great Britain
b) France
c) Switzerland


Q13. What is the smallest city (by current population as of 2010) to have hosted the Summer Olympic games?
a) Antwerp
b) Stockholm
c) Athens


Q14. Which of the following island nations has the highest overall medal count (Summer Games only)
—a) Trinidad & Tobago
b) Mauritius
c) Puerto Rico
— 

Q15. Europe’s reigning monarchs have how many Olympic medals between them?
a) 0
b) 2
c) 4
— 

Q16. The ancient Olympics were held at Olympia, Greece. In what US state is a modern city named Olympia?
a) Tennessee
b) Washington
c) Nevada
— 

Q18. Anne, Princess Royal competed in equestrian events at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. What was the name of her horse?
a) Doublet
b) Goodwill
c) Rarity


Q19. Which of the following actors did not appear in the Classic 1981 made-for-TV movie Miracle on Ice?
a) Karl Malden (Patton)
b) Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy)
c) Dennis Quaid (Great Balls of Fire!)


Q20. The Olympic marathon record (42km) is 2:06:32. What is the current record in the wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon?
a) 1:12:28
b) 1:18:32
c) 1:22:06


Q21. The tug-of-war was an Olympic sport between 1900 and 1920. How many competitors were on each team the last time it was contested in 1920?
a) 5
b) 7
c) 8
— 

Q21. Pigeon shooting appeared as an event at the first three modern Olympic games. What total did the gold medallist get in 1904 St Louis?
—a) 22
b) 32
c) 42


Q22. Ramadan is the month of the year when Muslims fast during daylight hours, and will affect Muslim athletes in London. In what year did Ramadan last fall during the Olympic games?
a) 1972 Munich
b) 1980 Moscow
c) 1988 Seoul

Q23. Contested since 1972, which nation has won the most Olympic medals in Handball (men's)?
a) Romania
b) Spain
c) Germany
— 

Q24. Since professionals were allowed to play basketball at the Olympics starting in 1992, how many of the 5 contested gold medals has the USA's men's “Dream Team" won?
—a) 3
b) 4
c) 5


Q25. This is a picture of the famous "Black Power" display on the podium at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. From which nation did the silver medallist hail?
a) England
b) Russia
c) Australia


Q26. Jamaica famously entered a bobsled team in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, and was coached by John Candy in the movie Cool Runnings. How old was Candy when he passed away in 1994?
a) 43
b) 47
c) 51


Q27. How many nations competed in the first Modern Olympics in 1896 Athens?
a) 10
b) 14
c) 18


Q28. Since when has American fast food chain McDonald's been a title sponsor of the USA Olympic team?
a) 1968 Mexico City
b) 1976 Montreal
c) 1984 Los Angeles


Q29. Who was not an official mascot of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing?
—a) Beibei
b) Nini
c) Singsing


Q30. As of 2012, how many members of the USA Men’s gold medal 4x400 relay team from the 2000 Olympics have not admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2


Q31. The 1994 movie Muriel's Wedding features the title character marrying an Olympic hopeful from which nation?
a) South Africa
b) France
c) Poland


Q32. Contested since 1956, what is the mens’ world (not Olympic) record in time for the 20km walk?
a) 1:17:16
b) 1:25:32
c) 1:37:22


Q33. What nation has won the most medals in Men’s aerial freestyle skiing since the event's inception in 1992?
a) Belarus
b) USA
c) Switzerland


Q34. Canadians get a bit excited about ice hockey. How many times has Canada won the men’s gold medal, out of the 20 Winter Olympics held?
a) 8
b) 12
c) 16


Q35. How old, in months, was the youngest medalist ever, speedskater Kim Yoon Mi from South Korea, who took home a medal in Lillehammer?
a) 154
b) 158
c) 162


Q36. Greg Louganis famously hit his head on a dive tower at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. During which event was he competing?
a) 5m Springboard
b) 10m Platform
c) 3m Springboard


Q37. The Detroit Lions are a notoriously terrible football team. How many times in a row did the city of Detroit bid, and fail, to be nominated the host city of the Summer Games, starting in 1952?
a) 4
b) 5
c) 6


Q38. The 1992 Winter Olympics were held in Albertville, France. In which provence is Albertville?
a) Lyon
b) Champagne
c) Savoie


Q39. Pre-London 2012, how many medals has New Zealand won (including Summer and Winter games)?
a) 75
b) 87
c) 99


Q40. The ski jump is everybody’s favourite Olympic event. How long is the world’s longest ramp at Vikkursunbakken, Norway?
a) 175m
b) 200m
c) 225m


Q41. Romanian Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in an Olympic event, in 1976 Montreal. Which of the following scripts spells her name in the Cyrillic (Romanian) alphabet?
(ref: translit.cc)

a) Приме Дирецтиве
b) Цаптаин Авесоме
c) Надиа Цоманеци


Q42. US figure skater Tonya Harding was involved in an unsavoury incident leading up to the 1994 Olympics, in which her partner assaulted another competitor with a police baton.
How long was her 2000 jail sentence for having assaulted her partner with a hubcap?
a) 3 days
b) 3 weeks
c) 3 months


Q43. Which of the following actors did not appear in the monster movie Lake Placid, set in Lake Placid, New York?
—a) Bill Paxton
b) Brendan Gleeson
c) Betty White
— 

Q44. A total of twenty-two nations officially boycotted the Montreal Olympics because the IOC refused to ban which country from attending:
a)Soviet Union
b)Taiwan (Democratic Rep of china)
c)New Zealand


Q45. Montreal famously racked up $1.5 billion in debt to host the 1976 games. In what year was the debt finally paid off?
—a)1996
b)2001
c)2006


Q46. Which of the following is not an event in the “modern pentathlon”
—a)Long jump
b)Show jumping (equestrian)
c)Shooting


Q47. Which of the following was permitted in ancient Olympic wrestling:
a)Biting
b)Hair pulling
c)Eye gouging


Q48. In the NBC sitcom Friends, which Olympian was on Ross’ “5 Celebs” list?
a)Katarina Witt
b)Dorothy Hamill
c)Florence Griffith-Joyner


Q49. Chariots of Fire is an inspirational 1981 film about the Olympics.
Who wrote the inspirational 2011 autobiography A Shore Thing.
a)Jwoww
b)Snooki
c)Mike “The Situation”


Q50. The Olympics have had 40 host cities. How many of them has the quizmaster Dustin personally set foot in (airports and train stations do not count on their own)?
a)12
b)20
c)28
—

Rugby World Cupdate: Tournament Review

My apologies in advance for the wacky formatting - Blogger changed my interface and I'm still getting used it it, and accidentally tripped the "highlight background" function on about half of the text, which got messed up and will take too long to correct. But try to enjoy the photos despite this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This post is significantly overdue, but since I haven't really addressed the World Cup in detail I better put some thoughts to it. The Rugby World Cup was, in all, a success. For a tiny little nation at the edge of the world, New Zealand did right by itself by throwing a national event across 12 host cities, with only one little mishap at the start.

My precious . . . The Webb Ellis cup

Here's a few background facts on International Rugby Board (IRB) competition leading up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in New Zealand

Tournament Structure

• the tournament occurs ever 4 years
• 20 teams compete in four pools of five
• The teams selected are the top 12 IRB ranked teams at the end of 2009, plus 8 qualifiers
• All teams play four pool games, and the top two teams in each pool qualify for quarterfinals
• Teams cross pools so you won't replay a team in your pool until the finals

New Zealand History

• The first RWC was held in New Zealand in 1987, which New Zealand won
• New Zealand had not won since the inaugural championship in New Zealand, despite being the #1 ranked team for much of the past 24 years
• New Zealand had not made a final since 1995 (which was held in South Africa, and was made into a little movie by the name of Invictus)

[In Team America voice] Matt Damon

                                   Loves me some Matt Damon (Photo per Warner Brothers)

• Pools are sorted so the teams ranked 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 are placed in separate pools
• Lead teams were New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England

Who to Cheer For

If you live in New Zealand, it is not difficult to figure out who to cheer for. Here's a handy guide in case you find yourself in a Kiwi pub during a rugby match.

Rule #1 - If the All Blacks are playing, you cheer for them

It is not uncommon for fans to participate in the 
pre-game haka,regardless of how public the bar they're in

Also, for kicks: worst haka ever.

Rule #2 - If Australia are playing, you cheer against them

 We hates Australia, trying to takes our precious

I personally have some mixed feelings

This Recovery Session photo courtesy of Zimbio

Rule #3 - In descending order, you cheer against England, France, and South Africa

Results

Here's what the IRB rankings look like today, 7 July 2012, which are largely unchanged since 2010.

IRB World Rankings - 02  July  2012

Position (last week)	Member Union	Rating Point
1(1)	NEW ZEALAND	91.43
2(2)	AUSTRALIA	87.05
3(3)	SOUTH AFRICA	84.87
4(4)	ENGLAND	83.09
5(5)	FRANCE	83.03
6(6)	WALES	82.26
7(7)	IRELAND	79.85
8(8)	ARGENTINA	79.25
9(9)	SCOTLAND	77.97
10(10)	SAMOA	76.23
11(11)	ITALY	76.03
12(12)	TONGA	74.79

The five top teams are the only ones to have ever played in the final, thus the other 15 teams in the tournament essentially have no hope of winning. What makes the pool play fun is that upsets from the number 6-12 ranked teams can dramatically affect later rounds.

Results

• Ireland beat Australia 15-6, becoming the #1 team in their pool
• South Africa narrowly beat Wales 17-16, retaining the #1 spot in their pool
• New Zealand and England swept their pools
• France was in New Zealand's pool, and crossed as the #2 team

Quarterfinals

• New Zealand walked over Argentina
• Wales defeated evenly matched Ireland
• France squeaked one over England 19-12
• Because Australia lost to Ireland, they had to play South Africa in the quarterfinals and escaped 11-9

Semifinals

• New Zealand played Australia and won 20-6. Tickets were extremely hard to come by, and several cruise ships docked in Auckland and offered rooms for a cool five or six hundred a night
• France played Wales

Wales was winning 3-0, but had possession, momentum and all that other good stuff going. Then, in the 17th minute, this happened. It's the equivalent of Zennadine Zidane getting sent off during the Soccer World Cup final in 2010. Down a player for the rest of the match, Wales lost 9-8 and their 23-year old captain Sam Warburton joined Sad Keanu and Sad Tom Brady on the bench.

Photo pulled from the Telegraph.co.uk

Hilariously, the two would run into each other again courtesy of Air New Zealand.

Finals
The World Cup Final featuring hosts New Zealand versus those cheese-eating surrender monkeys who infamously [in New Zealand] knocked them out in the quarterfinals at the 2007 RWC in France.


It was, for you Canadians, the USA versus Canada at home for the Gold Medal game in Vancouver 2010. Except if Canada hadn't won a single other medal at the games, and it was generally acknowledged that this would be the last Olympics held in Canada.

Photo from Getty Images here

Right, so it was the All Blacks against the French, and it was dangerous because France had just squeaked out two wins by fewer than 7 points each. And they were a notoriously sneaky bunch.

We went to a real Kiwi bar to watch the final in the big screen, and it was a pretty harrowing adventure. 15-minutes in, the All Blacks got on the scoreboard when Loosehead Prop #1 Tony Woodcock slid across the try-line on a set play from a line out. In NFL terms, this is the equivalent of throwing the ball to an offensive lineman because the defense won't expect it (except legal). Conversion was missed and New Zealand was up 5-0. Just after halftime in the 46th minute, Steven "the Beaver" Donald extended the All Black's lead to 8-0, which put France out of range from one score, and success seemed assured for New Zealand.

A minute later France's captain scored a converted try, leaving the score 8-7 for a spectacular 33 minutes of back-and forth rugby.

In the end, New Zealand held out for victory, and two of their more adorable players made confetti angels.

Pic from Yahoo! UK here

Then, we got the single most fascinating moment that John Key has delivered in his stint as Prime Minister, including his stint doing the Top 10 List on Letterman.

If you thought the worst haka ever featured above was bad, have a look as our Prime Minister (the investment banker on the left) tried to hijack this handshake.

I think this original image is from TV3, but it's been

reposted so often it doesn't really matter.

At least Key's got a decent sense of humour when it counts.

I do apologise for the false advertising, as

Kiwis most certainly don't ordinarily look like this.

Photo pulled from GayNZ.com

So with that in mind, who's coming to England for Rugby World Cup 2015?

Acronyms in Facebook Status Updates

Hello friends, Today I have a short update for you, as I've been fairly busy of late. However, that's not a great excuse for the fact that I haven't updated for a really long time - I just haven't made the time, so to make up for it I will soon post a video of me and my new keyboard (since we're going to JC Superstar next month). Hopefully this one will have fewer than four costume changes, and none of them will involve a mesh shirt.

Anyway, I just saw the following post on Facebook:

As an accountant, I live in a world of acronyms - so I'm usually pretty good at picking out what someone is referring to. But this "DPS" intrigued me . . . in inter-web terms, it usually refers to "Damage-Per-Second", which is one of the three archtypal MMORPG character classes [that you find in games like World of Warcraft and Diablo III]. But this post came courtesy of someone a few years older than myself, who I'd never known (or even suspected) of being a gamer, so I was more than curious to find out what it referred to.

Based on sales, the eleven year wait seems to have been worth it.

This didn't make any sense, so my next thought was to go to Urban Dictionary. The first few entries were expected, but not helpful. The next few were a confusing, and not at all related to what I was looking for.

Finally, things got really explicit, which went from uncomfortable to hilarious in about 3.5 seconds, as I imagined the reaction of the original poster to read the definitions Urban Dictionary came up with.

Enjoy!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dps

Random Funnies 5

It's common knowledge that I want 2.5 Corgis and an apartment in the CBD (ie. Central Business District) of a mid-sized city in ANZ.

So Simple Dog Owner sent me this adorable picture a few months ago with the question: "So, when are you getting one of these?"




Note: I do not actually know the blogger linked to above, but our friend does indeed have a simple dog. She was originally supposed to be a hunting dog, but that ended badly when they started compiling a list of her fears. So far, the list includes such wonders as mushrooms, fluffy pink cat toys, and dead goats (but not live ones).


Simple dog is the one on the right - Helper Dog is on the left.

Random Funnies 4

One of the areas where ANZ is miles ahead of North America in terms of civil rights, is that when a reference to a romantic partner holds connotation of it being a same-sex lover. Kiwis (and presumably Aussies) routinely find that talking about their partners while travelling in North America often gets a look that means one of several things.

"Oh, I didn't know you played softball."

I *think* Jenny Fitch is married with a kid, but you know, stereotypes abound. But she's the only softball player I could name off the top of my head."


"Aren't you supposed to be wearing a mesh shirt and leather pants?"


Yes, I sucked it up and Googled "mesh shirt leather pants" - this was by far the least uncomfortable image that came up.


"Are you ALLOWED to be in a store that isn't the Home Depot?"



So anyway, my point is there's this connotation in North America when you talk about your partner, but in New Zealand it could mean your husband, wife, common law, fiance, boyfriend, girlfriend, or Rarotongan pool boy.

Apparently I've become somewhat acclimatised to New Zealand because I had a total brain fart when dealing with a client in his 70's.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From: Delegarde, Dustin
Sent: Thursday, 8 December 2011 3:36 p.m.
To: KYLE; PG; SIMPLE DOG OWNER
Subject: Holy Awkward


Client: “Dustin - we finally meet! We’ve spoken on the phone, and I’ve met your partner.”

Dustin: “How did you meet Kyle?”

Client: “Umm, your audit partner – XXXX . . . But that's a very modern response”

AWKWARD TURTLE


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For more on the awkward turtle, see cute college kids explaining it here.

[Oh, DAMMIT. Youtube is now full of ridiculous videos of idiots trying to do an awkward turtle. There used to be a cute Asian kid showing you how to do it. Now it's just a bunch of nerdy high school students posting their entire lives to Youtube.]

Sorry, readers - you'll have to watch this instead.

Random Funnies 3

My boss is a bit of a technophobe, but he's slowly coming around. When I first joined the Group (because we're corporate, not a partnership), we were still doing manual audit files.

Type, print, sign off.
Type, print, sign off.
Type, print, sign off.
[this continued for all ~ 150 files it takes to complete an audit in 2012]

But that all changed when we implemented our new audit software in September 2011. One day I was playing through the menus and found this.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


From: Delegarde, Dustin
Sent: Friday, 9 December 2011 5:01 p.m.
To: KYLE
Subject: Audit Program

Has the following options under “Tools.”




It basically plays out like Dope Wars.

Random Funnies 2

It's common knowledge that I get outed at work on a weekly basis. It's the inevitable consequence of the fact that I've worn an engagement ring for five years, which clients find interesting, then moved to New Zealand for a relationship, which clients also find interesting.


This was my favourite image from the Google Image search "Out at Work" - from Analekta, an online classical music store.


Sometimes this is awkward (thinking back to my first ever audit engagement), but it's usually a bit of a fun aside. I lost track of how many of my clients have GLBTTIQ nephews and nieces, but the one of the consequences of this is that clients can sometimes over-share because I seem pretty non-judgmental.

See below for one such example.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From: Delegarde, Dustin
Sent: Thursday, 20 October 2011 11:02 a.m.
To: K2B
Subject: Client relationships

Had an awesome client encounter yesterday.

After catching up since last year, I had her tell me all about her upcoming 3-week trip to Melbourne. Her son’s is getting married, she’s going to hang out with the grandkids, go to some nice restaurants and will probably end up getting a little botox.

I had to resist the temptation to high five her for owning it, and being awesome.

Random Funnies

I'm being a bit lazy, but wanted to get *something* up on the blog for Easter. So I went through the Sent Items folder in my work email this week, and sorted by "Sent to KBB." Because usually this stuff is golden.

Some of you may recall that I once sprained a finger writing an accounting exam (damn you COMM 112).


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From: Delegarde, Dustin
Sent: Monday, 26 September 2011 1:50 p.m.
To: 'K2B'
Subject: Worst Injury Ever

In a new challenger for the Worst Injury Ever, my abs are hurting.

Not because I went to the gym.
Not because I was doing situps at home.
But because I went to karaoke on Saturday night.

Screw you, Christina Aguilera.

Quarterly Update - Q3 2011

OK, so this quarter was a lot more fun than the previous one. Once we'd dumped the See U Next Tuesday of a Support Coordinator at ACC, it was really just about Kyle and I getting back to basics and moving on with our lives. We did manage to attend a few musical performances, which I've already posted about (the reviews need to be happen right away or I forget the details which make the posts worthwhile).


July

The quarter started out in a fun and hilarious way - I spent three weeks down in Inververgas (aka Invercargill) working at the firm's office down there. The primary goal was learning how to use our reasonably new audit software, with the secondary goals being relationship-building and, I suppose, actually completing some file work.

About Invercargill

Population ~ 53,000

Highways - One (#1)

Is home to a Licensing Trust, which means grocery stores can't sell you wine and beer like other regions in New Zealand

Home to Henry, a 111-year old tuatara who has lived at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery since 1918 or something. His partner Mildred (age 70-80 years) had 11 eggs in 2009. See the full article "Tuatara sex worth the 111-year wait" here from Stuff.co.nz.



OK, so my daily schedule at home is more or less like this
- 8am wake up, morning stuff, 15 minute drive to work, 10 minutes to park
- 9am to 6pm at work (not necessarily "working")
- 6pm to 7:30pm Dustin time - get groceries, do shopping, go bowling etc.
- 7:30pm-10:30pm spend time with Kyle, as Kyle needs at least a passive attendant 24/7 and we get 12 hours funded care per day (often at home, sometimes not)
- 10:30pm to 11pm get to bed
- 11pm to midnight TV / Internet / movies while awake in bed


My daily schedule in Inver-vegas was as follows:
- 8am wake up, morning stuff, 15 minute drive to work, 10 minutes to park
- 9am to 6pm at work
- 6pm to 11pm ?????? OMG I NEED HOBBIES ??????

So on Mondays I'd watch TV ONE's awesome TV lineup:

Customs - reality show featuring the weird crap people try to smuggle into Australia, usually from Laos / Cambodia / etc. My personal favourite was the lady who had 12 turtles concealed in her clothing.

Dog Patrol - reality show featuring the Dog Squad in Auckland and all of the random drug busts they make.

Kalgoorlie Cops - reality show featuring cops in Kalgoorlie, Australia, which is basically a gold mining town that never left 1890. Money flows freely, and boozed up 22-year olds blow the fortune they should be making by working in the mines on liquor, drugs and of course, sex (since prostitution is legal in ANZ, as long as the service provider is a permanent resident).

On Tuesdays I'd go to the Speight's Ale House, have two beer and watch The Ultimate Fighter (which is Big Brother, but instead of voting each other out the contestants have a two-round UFC match and the loser goes home).



On Wednesdays, I'd do things like draft blog posts. And one night I went to see Southland's version of Jesus Christ, Superstar (see previous post).


August and September

August was the start of our audit busy season due to standard year-end dates in New Zealand. A lot of companies have 30 June year ends (right in the middle of winter, to offset the 31 December that's prevalent in North America) and reporting entities - listed companies or those with public accountability such as Health Boards, Universities, Municipal Councils, etc. need to be signed off within TWO months of year end. So naturally a lot of work falls into this window and needs to be finished on time.

September was more or less the same thing - I have a few 31 July year ends in addition to a spill over of 30 June's, so it all kind of ran together straight through to the start of October.

I do need to address the Rugby World Cup, which ran from September-October this year, somewhat separately - see review in a later post.

Oamaru
Probably the highlight of the Quarter was getting away to Oamaru for a weekend with Minnie, Mumbly and new Antarctica friends.

Side note: Minnie and Mumbly met in Antarctica in what was basically an East Side vs. West Side adventure - she was at the American base (McMurdo) and he was at the English base (Scott), which are about 3km apart on the ice. A mate of Minnie's has, in the past, blogged about what life is like on the ice, or as he calls it the Big Dead Place (it's also now a book). Anyway, because Christchurch is the departure port for all American transit to and from McMurdo (which is NOT the South Pole station - that's out in the centre of the continent), a lot of Antarctica people tend to settle in and around there, or are routinely passing through.

I can't remember if I've blogged about Oamaru before, but it's a town of ~ 10,000 and New Zealand's Victorian capital. Shortly after the Kiwi invention of refrigerated meat, which opened up New Zealand lamb and beef to the international export markets, Oamaru was the largest port in New Zealand. It's likely now the smallest, but all of the nice old heritage buildings are still there and in decent condition.










Yes, I picked the hotel due to proximity to Mickey-D's for breakfast tastiness.



Oamaru is also home to New Zealand's Steampunk scene, which is set in Victorian England and all that jazz. I *know* I've stuck a post somewhere with an image from a Final Fantasy, so you should all be familiar.



This culminates in the annual Steampunk Fashion show, which leads to some unexceptional home creations. I haven't been yet, and I have a conflict for this year's June 2-3, but hopefully I'll make it up in 2013.

I'm too tired to do anything more useful at the moment, but here's the link if you want to know more and a picture of some of the costumes from the North Otago Museum.



http://www.steampunknz.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=54

Cheers,

Captain Awesome

Quarterly Update - Q2 2011

Hi Team!

Yes, I do realize that this post is about a year overdue. The truth is some really awful stuff went down last April - June in relation to Kyle's Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). As bad as the accident itself was and the disruption it caused to our lives, it was NOTHING compared to how the state-funded insurance agency treated us (or, more specifically, one individual at said agency).

I'll try to keep this short, and won't dwell too much on it, but here's the overview. All accidents incurred in New Zealand are paid for by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which is a state-owned corporation funded through:

a) worker levies (think WSIB rates in Ontario)
b) Road User rates (all vehicle drivers pay a ~ $200 premium per year)
c) General Taxes (for accidents that don't occur in the workplace or from a vehicle).


When you have an accident of any kind, the local Health Boards treat it, and then invoice ACC for the services. The basic idea is to remove "fault" - everybody pays for it, so nobody sues over a car accident, workplace injury, etc. Seems simple enough, right (and should in theory be the global standard of socialist insurance programs).

As a government-owned entity, ACC has all of the trappings of big bureaucracy. They also have all of the regular public sector problems such as grossly unqualified staff who work the exact hours of 9-4pm and evince a general disdain for the public as a whole.

Rather than give you my own list of complains against ACC, a woman up in Auckland recently gave her own list to a newspaper - I've picked out from her list of 45 (which have been amassed between 2002 and 2012) and recorded them below.

Link to her full list is here (thank you Dominion Post).

1. Repeated non disclosure of correspondence regarding [OUR] claim when requested.

3. No ability to restrict unauthorised access by 2500+ ACC staff and contractors to files, or medical files

5. Lack of procedure around dealing with statements of correction to incorrect reports

11. Derogatory emails by ACC staff

14. ACC167 Consent – used to coerce claimant’s into authorising otherwise unlawful collections of information.

15. Collection of personal information without claimant’s knowledge &/or attempted collection without knowledge

17. Imbalanced and biased decision making by Corporation

18. Covert/inappropriate communication to assessors which bias & negatively influence outcomes against claimants

22. Dictatorial approach of Case Managers, failure to make reasonable accommodations for claimant needs.

23. “cherry picking” of unfavourable phrases from medical reports which contradict the ultimate conclusion.

25. Failure to demand adherence of staff to State Services Code of Conduct and to take appropriate action for breach

29. ACC’s case management approach to [OUR CLAIM] is disruptive and destructive of [OUR] ability to rehabilitate/work part-time

30. ACC staff deliberately lying and writing false reports

31. ACC staff making clinical decisions without appropriate qualification

34. Prejudicial correspondence with independent assessors prior to assessments communicating ACC's desired outcome - that injuries are spent &/or due to non-injury causes

37. Taking advantage of disabled claimants for actuarial/financial gain

38. Poor decision making which adds cost to the Corporation

41. Lack of reasonable consultation and flexibility over assessments/ appointments/referrals

43. Focus on avoiding liability at the expense of effective early rehabilitation


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As you can see, we've experienced about 19 of the 45 complaints she noted, which arose from a 3-month "relationship" with a single Support Coordinator ("Case Manager"). After 3 months of lost sleep, and endless frustration, our request for a new coordinator was eventually granted and the new one has been FANTASTIC since.

I also had to add a couple of my own:

46. Not knowing the difference between their, there and they're.

47. Not knowing the difference between your and you are.

48. Sending us a letter describing how Kyle needs to attend a occupational assessment rather than an occupational assessment.


Here's where we are now, almost a year. Regarding #1, after six months of trying I eventually got half of our claim file - under law we're entitled to the whole thing, which I've been waiting for for 4 months now.

Needless to say, I audited the file in detail and gave a 62-page summary to the original coordinator's Manager, the Manager's Manager, and the National Service Director. It contained evidence from THEIR file of all of the above, including correspondence, notes, etc. that I had in MY file which corroborated the assertions above.

This whole incident was really unfortunate, because ACC does have really good systems, controls and processes in place to keep this sort of thing from happening. Unfortunately, all of these systems, controls and processes were being ignored / overwritten by the individual in question (yes, it's exactly like Enron). I am still following this up to see what kind of a stance they will be taking on my fraud / deceit allegations, since I did give them valid, identifiable evidence.

Anyway, that sums up April - June 2011, so I hope to have more updates soon. Oh, and if you missed pictures of our adorable new flat the first time around, here they are!