FINALLY!!!

2 Coles (Beechboro and Morley), 2 Woolworths (Beechboro and Dianella) and 4 IGAs (Beechboro, Dianella, Inglewood and Morley) later, I am victorious!!! Finally found Ambrosia Custard close to home. Morley IGA to be exact. There were 6 cans there, 2 in great condition (got those) and 4 with dents. I picked 2 with the smallest dents, and left 2 with bigger dents. At $3 a can, not the cheapest stuff, but hey, it's Christmas....

I hope they replenish the shelves and are not just clearing stock.....

EPIC Fail on savings

30/09/08 INTEREST PAID INTEREST 77.09 CR
31/10/08 INTEREST PAID INTEREST 70.53 CR
28/11/08 INTEREST PAID INTEREST 62.02 CR


...Despite saving about 4k in the past few months, interest has been falling like a sack of shit. I know it will be good for when/if I have a mortgage, but it still is a bit disappointing that all this effort results in less reward (interest)... Stupid world economy.....

Abandoned car

My commute to work involves two highways and a freeway, so there's always cars broken down on the side of the road. On Roe Highway, there's been this broken down Daewoo which has been parked on the side of the highway for over a couple of weeks.

At first, the car remained mostly whole for the first week or so. It then got a sticker saying it was reported. After a few more days, someone decided to smash the windows, where it stay like that for a few more days. Yesterday, someone decided to take the wheels, and so it was a shell resting on the road.

Over night, someone finished it off. It was a burnt out shell.

Games Galore!!

Typical games industry .. a whole load of releases just before Christmas..

Within the past couple of weeks, I've bought/received:

1. Midnight Club Los Angeles
2. Fallout 3
3. LittleBigPlanet
4. Guitar Hero World Tour

My wishlist contains:

1. Valkyria Chronicles
2. Rock Band 2 (most likely import as it will take too long to get to AUS)
3. Resistance 2

All these games and not much time to play em! Argh!!

From a news article about the US election...

Senator McCain was given Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, North Dakota, Wyoming, Louisiana and Kansas.

Hahaha, no surprises there.

Asians are terrorists...

That's the conclusion that I've come up with. Or maybe it's just me. For some reason, 6ft Asian guys are dodgy.

On my recent trip to Sydney, I was bomb checked on both flights there and back. The security personnel explain the "random" searches and ask if they can perform a swab test. Do I look more suspicious if I tell them where to go?

A realisation at the Dragonforce gig

You know you are no longer a spring chicken when young people piss you off. And that's what happened last night at the Dragonforce gig.

The crowd at last nights gig were of a younger type and decided moshing was the way to go. When I first started going to gigs, all you had to do was bang your head, raise your fist in the air and enjoy the music. Young metal heads now take from their grunge counterparts and think that pushing and slamming into everyone is cool.

Whilst I believe in horses for courses, I paid good money to watch a band and feel my eardrums getting blown to bits. I don't need some sweaty, musty, fucktard slamming into me every time a fast riff / solo comes on.

And that's the end of my rant. How was the gig? Not including the aforementioned, it was a bit mixed for me. Both Universum (support band) and Dragonforce had mixing issues (I felt it wasn't balanced) and Dragonforce definitely sounded different live. This is probably due to the amount of layering they do. The CD may have 3 or 4 guitar tracks, whilst live, they only have 2 guitarists. So in some sections, the sound sounded "hollow".

I also knew the bands intro music too, and found it when I got home. It was Last Ninja 2 from the Commodore 64. Yes I'm a nerd....

Sony PS3 updates

Bloody hell. Sony seem to take the Microsoft mentality of system updates. Seems I'm forever updating this #&!(en thing just to get onto the Playstation Network. And every time they want me to update, it's > 100mb of quota.

Sony, take note: Get your shit right the first #*@(en time.

No need for new glasses

I got a letter from my optometrist last week saying it was time for a checkup. So today, I went for my appointment.

Whilst my eyes have gotten slightly worse over the past 2 years, the optometrist said there's no need for new glasses. They will only improve my sight marginally, but I can go for them at a later date. Good thing I guess.

Where's my money?

So Kevin Rudd wants to kickstart the economy again and is giving over 10 billion dollars in handouts.

I'm not a pensioner.

I can't afford to buy a house.

I don't have kids.

Pensioners already get money from the government. People with kids claim family benefits from the government. Where the #*@! is my share? How about giving ordinary tax paying Australians some of the bloody kitty? What complete BS. Who the #*@! voted these #*@!ers in.

Once again the working people get raped of their income and get jack in return.

Everyday mode VS Holiday mode

I wish I were back in holiday mode. A few more weeks and I should be OK, but I feel like this after every time I travel.

It was only a week and a bit ago that I'd be spending money on coffee, snacks, drinks, food etc, however when I'm in Perth, I look at the prices and don't buy anything. I've been hankering for a decent coffee these past few days, but yesterday, I didn't go to the GJs (our closest chain to decent coffee in Perth) at Cockburn Gateway, because I didn't want to spend the money.

What makes things different? I should enjoy coffee whilst not on holiday too....

Back to the daily grind

*sigh*

3 weeks of holidays are over, and I don't have any more leave to book my next holiday... the joys of a new job. Back to the daily grind for me. Boy was it hard getting up today.

Stupid Kangaroo

This is a light altercation with a kangaroo .. it could've ended up much worse I guess. Yesterday, I had fitted some nice suspension bits to the car to keep it flat around corners and got the whole thing wheel aligned. Went for a drive up through the hills last night and BAM. CB was quite startled as it was against the passenger door, but luckily the glass wasn't damaged. Also lucky it didn't hit a third panel... unlucky that it hit two already.

Not sure what happened to the kangaroo, didn't stop to find out, plus it was pitch black anyway. The paint doesn't appear to be broken so hopefully I can get the paintless dent guys out to fix her up. My wheel alignment is now out again, so that's $49 down the drain.

Voting day

Ever since the election was called 6 weeks ago, I've always maintained the view of both the Labor and Liberal parties being equally shit. I fail to see what both parties stand for, and just see a whole load of empty promises and pledges of monetary support for the swing voter.

I had every intention of donkeying today, with a big fat "YOU ALL SUCK" on the ballot. However, absentee votes actually have your name on the envelope, so that wasn't really a good idea. But upon voting, there was a party which saved me.. the "Daylight Saving Party".

I knew right away what this party was about, and checking on their website, their policies included:

1. To reverse the decision to hold a referendum on Daylight Saving Time in Western Australia and instead have the government make a decision on its introduction during 2009.
2. To deregulate Retail Trading hours in Western Australia.
   

Two key things that I actually stand for .... they got my vote....

I also had a walk around the old high school I used to attend. I did the same with the federal election, going around my old primary school. Here are some things I noticed after 8 years:

1. The butter marks on the wall from Azza's Cinnamon Buns are no longer there.
2. The basketball courts have been paved with some weird blue coating... way too bright.
3. Some rooms have ramps, some don't. (For disabled students I'm guessing).
   
4. All the buildings are still standing, and they are looking tired.
5. The Home Economics rooms (my old form was HEC2) have the same stoves in them.
6. The Common Room has a couch! And the lockers have since been painted.
7. There's signage everywhere for the different rooms ... don't students remember where classes are?
8. On the Social Studies block, there's a pergola thingy covering the stairs so people don't get wet when raining ... pfft .. students are SOFT!
9. The computing rooms still have CRT monitors .. WTF? Where are the LCDS?
   

What's with the shitty currency?

All this time to build up a strong currency and now it's turned to shit.. WTF?

PS3 region free? Only half of it is....

So I've been playing Rock Band on and off for the past few weeks, which I ordered from the US when the currency was good (now it is shit). I can play games from the US fine, however it's the DLC that I can't get with an Australian PSN account! ARGH!

Yeah there are workarounds (create a fake US PSN account to a fake address and use a US based credit card or Entropay) to get funds to the account. This costs a shitload (Entropay take 5% of the whole amount transferred to the card).

Should Sony be able to tout that their console is region free?

Damn Aussie dollar has peaked too soon

It was only a few weeks ago that it was 1 Aussie dollar was over 1.30 Sing dollars and 3 Malay ringgit.

Now it's 1.24 SGD and 2.9 MYR ... shithouse!

Nissan dealers are rip off artists...

Replacement remote control - Nissan want $150 + $90 (one hour labour) to program. A new genuine remote control on eBay with programming instructions (and 5 minutes time) cost me $43.

Replacement front grille - Mine has something spilled on it and the chrome is flaking away. Nissan want $200+. Online new replacement cost me $111, plus a little extra for some double sided tape to stick the Nissan badge on (no doubt would have to do the same with the dealer item too).

Idle relearn - Nissan wanted $50 (half an hour labour) to hook up their Consult diagnostic device to "diagnose" a high idle. A quick search on the internet, print out idle relearn instructions, and a couple of tries later, my idle is now fixed for free.

DragonForce are coming!

Every now and again, power metal comes to Perth. We have already been blessed this year with Nightwish (not really power metal but still sort of in that realm). However, the stars have aligned and DragonForce have announced Australian (and Perth in particular) dates! Fuck yes! They came a couple of years back and I missed it, not missing out this time...

I've just bought tickets. And the venue? Metro in Freo (same as Nightwish). It's on a weekday (and a work night), but fuck it, I'm going. Right before my birthday too! Is 3 months to grow back some long hair?

P.S. I hope this starts a tradition of European metal coming down under. My wishlist include Kamelot, Symphony X, Elegy, InnerWish, Heavenly and of course Gamma Ray.

I'm gonna be a rock star ... in a video game

I finally bit the bullet and bought Rock Band for PS3. At 1 AUD = 0.98USD, it was the perfect time to buy it. I'm really looking forward to having a go at the drum kit, unlike guitar, I know I will be starting out on beginner.

No more Liberty Bell....

Anyone who knows me will know that I love cars, especially ones that are fast. Since I've earned a decentish income, I've put a decent amount of money towards my mode of transport. After this weekend, I will have changed cars again (my 5th in 8 years ......)

But it's not an upgrade. In fact, this car is missing a turbo, leather, climate control and serious street cred. Yes, I am downgrading... Due to the bleak outlook on petrol prices, and the amount I drive for work each day, I've decided to trade in, become totally debt free (hecs doesn't count) and drive something cheaper.

Samsonite!

One of my favourite quotes from Dumb and Dumber:

Harry: What's her last name? I'll look it up.

Lloyd: You know, I don't really recall. Starts with an S! Let's see. Swim? Swammi? Slippy? Slappy? Swenson? Swanson?

Harry: Maybe it's on the briefcase.

Lloyd: Oh, yeah! It's right here.

[He reads the manufacturer's name, which is Samsonite.]

Lloyd: Samsonite! I was way off! I knew it started with an S, though.

But whats the reasoning for this post? Because I bought a Samsonite suitcase!

I went to Victoria Station today and had a look at the Samsonite F-Lite hard suitcase and another model which was exclusive to them. I liked how the F-Lite was a hard shell, but there was no padding or anything inside! Decided against that. The exclusive model wasn't bad, it wasn't a hard shell but was nicely lined with a heap of different pockets. But at $199.95, I knew I could get similar models online for slightly cheaper. I walked away...

The Samsonite Ultralite 6 72cm case (shown above) is what I bought online. From a Sydney store (both online and shop front), they are $155 + 25 postage to WA. However, after searching around for awhile, I found a PayPal code which was for free postage for orders over $60! Score! PayPal is good for something!! haha.

So I got my suitcase for $155 all up. Well, not that I've got it yet or anything. Touch wood they have stock, as their website doesn't show stock levels. Only 84 more days till I can use my suitcase!

Too bad I don't live in Sydney

It's a pity that I don't live in Sydney. Gordon Ramsay is one of my favourite chefs and he's in Sydney appearing in the Good Food and Wine Festival. For those in Perth, our celeb chef list include Tobie Puttock and Ben O'Donoghue......

There is still uproar about his on screen antics and potty mouth. What I don't understand is why people don't change the channel, and why Channel 9 does not beep him out, the same way Fox (USA) and Channel 4 (UK) do when his shows screen....

eBay enforcing Paypal ... good and bad

Anyone who sells stuff on eBay in Australia will know about the new rules that are supposed to come into play soon, where Paypal can only be used (apart from COD) for payment. Whilst this raises questions of double dipping (and eBay/Paypal could easily get around this by not charging fees for eBay auctions, they already know where the transactions came from), there is one upside to all of this.

Enforcing payment immediately! The last couple of months, I've sold a few things, namely XBox 360 stuff as I no longer have a need for it. Out of 5 auctions (or buy it nows), 2 have been late payment. 1 has been sorted, the other has a dispute open. The reason for this is because they checkout saying they will do bank transfer but don't end up doing it for however long, probably cos they have no money.

Now whenever I use eBay, I pay straight away because I want the item straight away. And I know, selling video game equipment probably means I'm selling to some 10 year old kid who needs to save up his pocket money. But it shits me when people do not read auction rules which state payment within 7 days. With Paypal enforcement a possibility, sellers at least can get their money straight away, even if it is 2.4% + 30c per transaction less.....

Perth, the shitty city

WA is supposed to be the economic powerhouse of Australia. Whilst we may produce large amounts of GDP compared to other states, I must confess that Perth is still a shitty place to be living in.

There's not enough water, so we've had water restrictions for quite awhile now. There's not enough electricity, so over summer, Synergy pleaded with home owners to not use air conditioning. Now, some gas plant has blown up in the NW shelf, so now Alinta is pleading not to have too long hot showers and turn down gas heating. If we were to listen to them all, we can't do anything! Fuck sake!

Adding to that, housing is at ridiculous prices and is near unaffordable. Roads and traffic are shit and public transport is unreliable, too infrequent and unsafe outside of business hours. Food is expensive because we are in drought.

And supposedly, we are the 21st best city to live in. Like fuck we are.

BS Traffic

The past couple of days, I've been doing quite a bit of driving due to my new job. Every day, there's a 100km round trip. The commute itself isn't too bad at the moment, but what annoys me is that traffic on highways is not kept flowing.

Someone mentioned that keeping to the speed limit will ensure you will get good light success, but from what I've seen today, that is simply not the case. In fact, what I found was that motorists were able to see a current green light intersection and would accelerate so they could get through. Is the government encouraging speeding? Gives a justification for their "revenue raising" multinovas then, doesn't it?

GTA4 has arrived

My copy of uncensored GTA 4 has arrived today, and I have all of next week to play! Woot woot! Unreal Tournament 3 has also arrived in the same package, along with a Dual Shock 3 controller.

Other games I'm keeping an eye out for include: Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction, Uncharted and Resistance.

Bought a PS3

So I finally bit the bullet and bought a Playstation 3 .. because my Microsoft 360 is a piece of shit.

Target had a GT5 Prologue pack for $689 which includes console and game, with the promo starting on Thursday 24th. I called in the morning asking if any could be held, to which I was told no. They had 10 special packs, but could make more packs by packaging a regular console and game for the same price (just miss out on the box).

When I arrived in the afternoon, I got the LAST console.... lucky I guess. Target should be careful, as their inability to stock decent amounts of product may be taken as bait advertising.

GTA4 is going to be released next week ... I've ordered the US (uncensored) version, along with Unreal Tournament 3 and a Dual Shock 3 controller from overseas. How Australian retailers can charge $99+ per game is absolutely ridiculous, especially when the same games and controllers can be had from overseas for much cheaper. To put it into perspective, I bought said products for $221 delivered, whereas to buy the same stuff in Aus would of cost $300.

One good thing about the PS3 is free online play! There's a new Buzz coming out too, with downloadable questions.

My favourite C&H comic

Not much Ranting and Raving at the moment, so I thought I'd share my favourite Cyanide and Happiness comic. I smile every time I look at it. hahahaha.

Another long weekend coming up .. can't wait!

Your Voice is FUCKED

So I received a Your Voice survey today, with the incentive of 600 points (about $50) which takes 2.5 - 3.5 hours to complete. They say you can take breaks and resume the quiz at a later time, which I tried to do after doing about 50% of the answers.

Guess what happened when I went back to it? FUCKING GONE! Right back at the start. I'm fuming at the moment and I'm not going through that shit again. Fuck that! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time flies when you're not working...

The long weekend is OVER! *pronounced the way they do in Iron Chef*

And so, it's back to work .. the only saving grace is the fact that it's a short week till next weekend!

Didn't get up to a lot, finished off the story mode in Bully on the XBox 360 (I started playing it on PS2 but didn't finish it) .. there's another 25-30% to complete if I want to get the 100% completion achievement (not really)...

Did a bit of cooking over the weekend, allows me to unwind and I guess gives Mum some time off. However she tends to wash things which start to pile up (even when I'm not done with them yet, so they get washed multiple times!), and so whilst she gets some time off cooking, she's still cleaning! Oh well .. Mum will be Mum.

Can't wait for the long weekend

We've got a 4 day weekend coming up, because of Easter. I am looking forward to having a few days off to plod around and relax.

PS3 cheap?

Going through the junk mail last night, I saw that the PS3 is now available for $638 at Big W. I must admit that I was tempted (Unreal Tournament 3, upcoming Gran Turismo etc etc), but in the end, there are still not enough games to warrant the purchase. And by the time the games do come, hopefully the price will have come down further...

New blogging toy

My IBM T30 Thinkpad has gone with me on my two previous trips so I could blog abroad. Whilst it's smaller than most laptops, it still was a pain to carry round (to check mail or upload blog entries) as it was still relatively heavy and it meant I had to carry a backpack.

On Saturday, I bought a Asus Eee PC to blog with whilst on travel. At only 920 odd grams and half the size of a normal laptop, it's much more travel friendly. It only has a 7" screen though and internal storage is 4Gb (solid state flash drive). It's a bit hard to type on, but ultra light to carry when we go on holiday in September!

Harsher fines for "road fools"

So plastered on the front of the Sunday Times today is an article saying the government is going to implement harsher penalties (fines) for "hoons and errant WA motorists".

I wonder how many deaths are due to speed and "hoons"? How about fixing the roads which are shittily maintained, fixing the traffic problem, fixing the problem with people parking where they aren't supposed to and getting the buckets of death trap shit off our roads?

Music Rant / Rave

I've come across a few new albums / bands lately and I thought I'd share my opinions on them:

Avantasia - The Scarecrow
The idea of Avantasia was/is awesome. Get the most respected singers (and musicians) in the world of Power Metal, create a conceptual world and create a metal "opera". The first one was brilliant (and my favourite), the second was good, but the latest one (which I got pre-release... erm... nevermind) just doesn't do it for me. The songs aren't as melodic nor catchy (apart from Lost In Space) on the first listen. Not sure if this one will get better with more listens....

Coheed and Cambria - No World For Tomorrow
My first exposure to Coheed and Cambria is their latest album. Labelled as Progressive Rock, they do have some metal elements in their songs although some of their drumming and riffing are quite "funky", and not really heard of in metal. I quite like this album, but not too sure if I'll see them when they come to Perth (in a few months or so)....

Elvenking - The Scythe and The Winter Wake
An unusual blend from the Italian band Elvenking. Power Metal with folk sounding influences, along with some aspects of Death Metal (both vocally and riffing) makes it an interesting listen. Typically heavier than I normally listen to, but still very melodic and quite catchy! Definitely worth looking for!

Helloween - Gambling With The Devil
I haven't been a big fan of Helloween after the Keeper series and their latest album cements it even further. It's the music, it's Andi Deris, it's everything .. But others like it and that's why their still very popular in Europe today.

Innerwish - Inner Strength
Late 80s, early 90s Power Metal recorded in 2006. This Greek band should be looked up by any Power Metal fan. Catchy tunes, fast songs and soaring vocals. Seriously good stuff. Too bad they're not as big as they deserve to be....

Stormwarrior - Heading Northe and Northern Rage
Stormwarrior picks up where Helloween stopped in the mid 80s. Ultra fast thrash/speed metal with soaring vocals. Helloween went on to literally create the Power Metal genre with their "Keeper of the Seven Keys" albums, but before doing so, had two rather good thrash albums. Stormwarrior is pretty much in the same style as those. In fact, a few of their albums were produced by Kai Hansen (who was in Helloween in that time and is now in Gamma Ray). Definitely worth a listen...

Nightwish and Voyager .. a good night

Last night, CB and I went to see Nightwish at the Metro in Freo. Doors opened at 8 so when we arrived a little after, we were shocked to see the line down the street. Standing in line seemed a little strange as the ratio of wang to females was not the normal typical metal gig ratio.

After joining the end of the line, we got roughly half way down when people with tickets were shortcutted into another line. Sweet! We got in just in time to see Voyager. They played a mix of their old and new stuff, Danny Estrin seemed to play only a few parts on his keyboard and the rest of the symphonic stuff was pre-recorded.

Nightwish were awesome, playing quite a bit of their new record, but also some older stuff. I think the older stuff sounded a bit weird to me because I'm used to hear them with Tarja's (operatic) vocals, and I think Annette struggled hitting the higher notes in some of the older stuff. But in the end, it was a great once in a lifetime show and they played and sounded unbelievable live!

Banks and their slow arse payment system

You purchase something on your credit card, and the available balance gets deducted straight away. You transfer money to your credit card, and it takes 1 (or more) business days for the money to go through. What the fuck is behind this logic?

Ok so we live in an electronic world. With the advent of electronic banking, you'd expect things to be overnight at the very latest, who cares about business day bullshit? It's all automated anyway. If credit card deductions are instant, then payments in should also be. Not this one sided shit that it currently is.

The only reasoning behind it is to fuck the customer. Purchases are recorded instantly so the interest free period starts immediately. But payments take longer cos they want to hold onto your money and invest it, and also if you are late in paying then they get their interest payment.

Perth is getting baked.

I wish I was in Sydney at the moment .. a lovely 25 degrees for the next week. Here on the west side, we're looking at 30+ until next Wednesday, with today and Monday hitting 40, and a few other days hitting 35. Would be good if the airconditioning at work was actually nice and cold....