Party Pills. You’ve all heard of them time and time again, but do you really know what they are and how they take effect on your body?

Party Pills are also globally known as “Herbal Highs”, “Pep Pills” or “Dance Pills.” The general idea of the pill is to provide you with extra energy to keep you awake, and energized for a longer period of time.

Tell Me More About The Pills

Party pills are often based on two ingredients, BZP (benzylpiperazine) and TFMPP (triflouro-methyl-phenylpiperazine), combined with other chemicals such as piper nigrum, phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine.  [Please note: we do not yet know what is in the new "BZP free" pills currently being sold - as soon as we know, we will update this page]

Party pills are designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs such as methamphetamine (speed, P), MDMA (ecstasy) and LSD (acid, trips), although without the addictive qualities and known negative health risks of illegal drugs.

On the first of April 2008, the New Zealand government banned two of the main substances used to create party pills, therefore putting a halt on the market. The penalties involved with the procession of party pills since the ban are on the same level as those involved with the possession of cannabis. As a result, many critics believe this will result in handing back power to organized crime, as young people will revert to the illegal drug MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy. Critics claim the two most damaging drugs in terms of self harm, alcohol and tobacco, are still legal because it is engrained too deep in society to ban.

Common Effects Of Taking The Pills

• euphoria, energy, alertness for up to six hours
• aural and visual senses enhanced
• stimulation of brain and central nervous system
• skin tingling
• hallucinations (in larger doses)

Apparently Zac relies on wet wipes (baby wipes) when he feels the need for a wash. Not so much of a heart-throb now is he ladies?

This Christmas I picked up an Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is one console I’ve had my eyes on since it was introduced. The Playstation 3 really didn’t capture me as much as the 360, down to a few different reasons.

There was a brief period where I never touched games on any platform. when I first picked up my Playstation 2 I was quite keen on picking up the controller on a regular basis, this quickly faded away and for the past two years I’ve neglected video games. I wanted to make a re-entrance with all the great new games on the market and the new and developing technologies powering the systems.

When comparing the two consoles (360 & PS3), I looked at two main aspects. The online gameplay, and overall game catalogue. I feel the Xbox 360 leads the PS3 in both of these areas, Xbox Live has been perfectly executed. Along with gamertags, achievements, and all the other features packed under the hood, Xbox Live appears as if it’ll stretch the lifeline of games with all the added content and gameplay abilities over the service.

The exclusivity of the game catalog is currently won by the 360, mainly due to the age of the console compared to the recently released PS3. There are a few games on the 360 which really caught my eye and further stretched my preference over the PS3. 80% of my game catalog I had on the Playstation 2 were solely racing/sport games. I have never got into the whole FPS (first person shooter) scene.

This trend has continued with the first handful of games I’ve picked up for the Xbox 360. Including Skate, FIFA 07, Forza 2, Top Spin 2, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. On the list of games I’d like to pick up include NBA Live 2008, Madden 2008, Grand Theft Auto 5 (on release), and Call Of Duty 4. See the developing trend?

I’ve been very impressed with the console to date after owning it for a week. If there’s any negative points I had to find, it’d be the excessive noise and heat the system creates while in use, and the lack of ability to create a wireless network connection right out of the box. I don’t like the idea of having to drop another $175 NZD on the Wireless Network Adaptor. I’m thoroughly enjoyed playing friends over Xbox Live, and I think it’s this feature alone which will end up introducing me to the world of FPS games such as Halo 3 and Call Of Duty 4 as my friends push me closer and closer to purchasing them for Xbox Live battles.

This won’t be the last I’ll be writing about the Xbox 360. There’s still so much more for me to discover and play with.

Sing, the protagonist, is essentially a good man. He always wanted to protect the world from evil. Having learned at a young age that any efforts for the benefit of mankind are ultimately futile, he is now caught up in several ill-fated attempts at being a very bad man.

His plan is to join the Axe Gang, the biggest and baddest in the whole of 1930s Shanghai.

Captured by his dreams, Sing weaves up a plan. He and his fat friend dress up like members of the Axe Gang and come into Pig Sty Alley, a tenement so far unaffected by gang activity, to demand respect from its poor inhabitants. Of course, this plan backfires as well, while at the same time arousing the interest of the real Axe Gang. When they enter the Alley to straighten things out, and make sure the right people get their respect, they are repelled by three of the tenement’s inhabitants, who are revealed to be masters of Kung Fu. Without much difficulty, they beat what must be about a hundred gang members into the ground, thus severely displeasuring the Axe Gang’s leader and igniting an all-out war between the Gang and the Alley.

The action scenes in Kung Fu Hustle were choreographed by the legendary Yuán Hépíng. Having choreographed legendary martial arts movies like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, Yuán was given the task of reintroducing ancient fighting styles like the Buddhist Palm into the genre and at the same time using those exact fighting scenes for various hidden jokes.

Speaking of hidden jokes, The movie is riddled with parodies and references. Apart from the satirical fight scenes, there are quite a lot of other references to films such as Looney Tunes, The Shining, or even Blues Brothers. All these little things make the film well worthing watching even a second or third time.

If you haven’t seen Kung Fu Hustle yet, now would be a good time to change that fact. I would advise against consuming popcorn while watching, for you may actually choke while laughing.

Set times & plan your day

Not many people are going to work well without some structure. Waking up in the morning without any sense of direction for what needs to be done, or what you’re going to do that day is a recipe for disaster.

Start scheduling or setting daily milestones. If you don’t work best in the afternoons but you work well in the late evenings, plan around it. Do the homework late in the night.

The Right Sounds

Pop open iTunes and play an album you like, it is much easier to work with familiar sounds around you. Don’t listen to fast pumping music like pop, heavy rock, or techno. Settle down to some soft or piano rock, like the Postal Service, The Fray, Mae, or Waking Ashland. Their music is all very slow paced making it calming to work to.

Keep an organized to-do list

When you’re juggling a handful of subjects in school, you’re just asking for trouble by keeping a to-do list in your head. Don’t you want to be able to sit down in the evening and have a few worry-free hours from your work? If you’re not keeping a to-do list somewhere other than in your head, you’ll be heading straight for burnout.

The solution is simple. Pick up a notebook then spurt out all the tasks and you need to achieve. Don’t worry about the order, just pump out everything that needs doing. Once these are on paper, focus on organizing them. It’ll feel much better having a visual action list you can look at to see what needs to be done.

Quit MSN

This falls under focusing on a single task. When you’re studying, the last thing you need is to be distracted by people chatting with you on MSN. It disrupts your overall flow and makes starting your work again hard to do. On occasion, leaving MSN open while trying to get things done can ruin hours of your work day.

Focus on a single task

Multi-tasking can be fun, and can be rewarding. You think you’re getting a lot done at once, killing two birds with one stone when all you’re really doing is dragging out both tasks longer. Keep tasks separate. When you’re doing one ignore the other—allowing you to work more quickly and efficiently in the long run.

Do It Straight Away

Someone ask you to complete a quick task which will take less than five minutes to achieve? Instead of writing it down and leaving it for later, complete it right away. It saves hassle when they ask you if you’ve done what was asked of you, and reduces your stress. The phrase to remember, do it and it’s done.

I used to think there was nothing of interest in New Zealand except for sheep and flightless birds. Fat Freddy’s Drop changed my mind. The 7-piece band from Christchurch, and what they call their genre, “Hi-Tek-Soul-Groove Music”, is exactly what the world has been waiting for. Their most recent album, “Based On A True Story” is a fantastic experience. That’s right - it’s not an album, it’s an event.

Melting deep, basslines with folksy guitars, carribean beats with jazzy brass, Fat Freddy’s Drop is truly multicultural. Each track has a different sound, a different vibe to it. This variety is achieved by almost playful experimentalism and the mixing of influences I mentioned before. I would strongly advise listening to the whole piece in one session, sucking up every ounce of the music in the process. Let the melancholy “Dark Days” take you on a trip, or sing along to the upbeat “Ray Ray”, and go completely crazy each time you listen to “Wandering Eye”. That’s what I did, and I had loads of fun. You really can rediscover the meaning of music with this CD.

Based On A True Story is one of the best debut albums I have seen so far. It instantly captures you and doesn’t let you go until the last note fades. It makes a lasting impression, and personally, I can’t imagine my life without it. Go out and buy the CD, you will not regret it.

Find out more at www.fatfreddysdrop.com

The first song, “Help Me”, has the band’s frontman Matt Skiba on vocals.  The song has a very light, soft sound - a clear departure from the band’s earlier work, which was heavier and harsher.  Lyrically, it retains some of the band’s dark style and stark imagery, but in comparison to earlier works, Skiba’s lyrical skills seem to be waning slightly.  That said, the slack is more than picked up by bassist Dan Andriano.  

The next track, “In Vein”, features him on vocals, and shows a very clear maturation of his skills.  The song is vaguely reminiscent of “Burn”, featuring a very pop-influenced verse while reverting to a heavier rock tone for the chorus.  Andriano’s lyrical skills have also matured greatly, and it appears Skiba’s dark imagery and brooding words have rubbed off on him.  Andriano retains some of his previous style of “sappy” wording, but he has gained some edge, making his new style very attractive.

The last track on the EP, “Into The Night” is somewhere in between the pop sound of “In Vein” and the slow-rock sound of “Help Me”.  It has a very effects-heavy intro, taking away a bit from the band’s punk roots, but also has very peppy drums and a catchy hook, adding a bit to the song’s appeal.  Lyrically, it’s quite dark, though not very much so compared to the band’s earlier work.  In fact, for those unaccustomed to the band’s style, the lyrics may even seem gory.  All these elements with a dark yet poppy chord progression make this song a unique dichotomy of dark and bright themes.

As a whole, the EP is a good view on what looks to be an interesting album.  For those interested in a punk-influenced alternative rock band, Alkaline Trio and their new album Agony and Irony are a good place to start getting accustomed to the styles of the genre.  Agony and Irony officially goes on sale in the United States on June 1st, 2008 (those who purchase the EP on iTunes will be given a credit on the rest of the album à la Complete My Album).