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.