tilted behaviour

I have a huge dilemma and need your help to sort it out.

My Dad’s computer broke down the other day and he decided to head to Harvey Norman to Flexirent one. For some reason they gave him a free Wii – and since he knew I wanted one – he also bought me FIFA 2010 so that I would have something to play on it.

Problem you may say with a definite undertone of sarcasm.

Well, yes, because recently I’ve decided that I’d rather get a PlayStation 3 instead of a Wii after spending many hours at my friends and cousins house playing it.

However, I’ve also been looking at some new sunglasses – something similar to the BVLGARI ones below – and therefore have the dilemma of either trading the Wii in at Myer and getting the sunglasses or going to an EB Games or JB HiFi and exchange the Wii for a PlayStation 3.

Tough decision.

Help needed . . . NOW!!!

Growing up in Australian surrounded by Australian friends, there was never a doubt that footy code I would pick up as a little part-haired kid would of course be Aussie Rules Football . . . but times change!

Although I’m still – and always will be – a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter, recent times have seen me switch codes to soccer, or football depending where you live.

This is mainly due to my mates and fellow indoor teammates James and Mat who are huge soccer fanatics and Manchester United fans. Now having them sweat matches as they loyally support the Red Devils, made me get thinking that maybe I should support a team since I tend to follow the sport more regularly nowadays.

When I was younger I use to like Liverpool because Harry Kewell (since he was Australian and all) played for them, but due to him moving to Galatasaray at the same time my interest in the game began to increase, it doesn’t seem appropriate to support them.

There are a lot of players that I enjoying watching in the English Premier League, and picking a team was really difficult, but when Lucas Neill signed with Everton to join fellow Australian Tim Cahill, I found it completely appropriate to latch on and support Everton. Throw in the fact that their star player is Australian and also named Tim, and that my dad lived near their home ground when he was a kid and that their major sponsor is a Thailand beer company . . . did I really need any other reasons to support them?

I may only know a handful of players, and may even get some names wrong (thanks to James for the corrections), but I enjoy watching a team that I can now say I support and consequently can get passionate about.

However saying you support a team is one thing, but wearing their colours proud is another!

Consequently I jumped online the other day and had a look around the Everton Online Store. After spending the good part of half an hour looking at every item for sale, I decided to grab just two items.

Firstly a blue Everton Training Vest to slum around when the weather heats up or use for heading down to the beach or cricket training and secondly a black Everton Training Top to wear on a casual basis. Expecting them to arrive in another week or two, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see a package on my desk containing two wonderful gifts!

Although they may not be the most highly sought after gear for Everton supporters, I feel that I’ll get the most wear out of these two items . . . and anyway . . . I’m still a noob supporter, because who knows what we’ll see in the future . . . maybe a personalised DUCKWORTH #10 will soon be on order!

Covering tournaments around the world over the past few years has re-ignited my school-boy crush on photography, and consequently, I have been in the market for a high-end DSLR for some time now.

With a new one rather pricey, I have decided to sit tight on making a rash purchase, but when I stumbled across the website Bid Rivals, I thought I might be able to grab a bargain!

Wrong.

Flicking over the numerous pages on ongoing auctions I found a Canon EOS 50D with lens available, and began some research on the camera. With a retail price of around $2,500, the chance to grab this high-quality camera locked my attention to the site, and how exactly it works.

Basically each product listed on the site is placed in an auction-type sale where people can bid on the product, and if you are the person with the highest bid when the time expires then it’s all yours. However, when the timer is in the last 15 seconds, if someone else places a higher bid then the timer re-sets another 15 seconds and so forth. Each bid raises the price of the product by only 2 cents, but each bid costs the bidder 80 cents . . . that’s obviously the catch.

They also have a function called a Bid Agent where you can list the maximum amount of bids and price you are willing to spend on the auction, and even if you are not online, the Bid Agent will bid for you once the timer ticks down to 4 seconds if you aren’t the highest bidder.

Now getting back to the camera in question.

Previous auctions of the $2,500 Canon EOS 50D had sold for just over $100 and I therefore bought a bundle of bids to hope I could grab a bargain when everyone else had spent too much.

Waking up this morning I logged on to the site to find the camera at just over $105 with five Bid Agent’s battling it out against each other. There of course was no point bidding now as I would be just wasting my valuable collection of bids and therefore decided to just monitor the auction very closely. My plan was to wait until there were only two bidders’ left and then switch all my attention to the auction knowing that each bid was costing the Bid Agent’s 80 cents a click, and that no one in their right mind would be putting aside 3,000-odd bids for this camera.

I waited and waited and waited until it was time to go to cricket training and decided to set my Bid Agent up with the current price at around $135.

After running around rolling the arm over and hitting some balls round the nets I expected that there would be a message on my screen basically

“Congratulations! You out-smarted all the other Bid Agents and are now the proud owner of a bargain fully sick $2,500 camera for just the price of $145.12!”

Once again. Wrong.

The auction was unbelievable still going with new bidder’s clicking away 80 cents at a time!

Once the auction was finally over – 43 hours and 14 minutes after it started – and lintonfarm was the proud owner of a new Canon EOS 50D DSLR camera after wagering 1,554 bids for a final price of $242.80, I decided to take a closer look at the whole auction.

242.80 / 0.02 = 12,140 bids x 0.80 = $9,712 + $242.80 = $9,954.80 – $2,500 = $7,454.80 profit for Bid Rivals

No doubt Bid Rivals made a killing of us fools . . . but what makes it worse is that the same Canon EOS 50D sold for $18.40 and $110.08 over the next two days!

Heath was still in bed and now GG began to develop something . . . going to be a fun Day 1c!
While the Main Event players were slogging it out, the ladies had their chance to be in the spotlight with a Ladies HK$1,500 No Limit Holdem tournament kicking off as the day began to wind down.

Kirsty Brew and Lynn Gilmartin in action

Playing her first tournament, Lynn managed to make it all the way to just two places from the final table – and she detailed it all on her PokerNews blog.

Kirsty however made the final table with a medium stack to make it two from three at making final tables in ladies events. Unfortunately she would be first to go when her over aggressive approach holding J♦ 9♦ was no match against Queens.

Unlike some other places around the world, the shops in Macau close around 10pm, and with tonight being the last night that we would finish early, Kirsty and I decided to make our way to Xin Ma Lou to shop away!

We had been there the night before, but neither of us purchased anything.

With eyes only searching for shoes, I found this pair of Gola’s for HK$400 or AU$70ish, and am so happy I bought them – with their bright red and ballaness gold . . . easily the best pair of shoes I’ve bought in years! Oh, they’re comfy too!

With only a small team on to cover the run down from 27 to 9, Donnie, Mat, Brendan and I decided to do some shopping at the Las Vegas Outlet Center just down the road.

Everyone picked up something here and there before we ventured to the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre at Planet Hollywood. I found a pair of new shoes and not much else as we decided that enough shopping was had for the day.

Straight over to Harrahs we went to join in the Wednesday night $4-8 HORSE game, while Brendan returned home as Eric joined us.

Donnie continued to run bad (or play bad . . . I’m not convinced he is playing bad as this is like the fourth session where he has lost in HORSE) while Mat went broke and hit the roulette table to recover his buy in and then some.

Eric finished down, while I only managed a profit of $90 after being close to $140 up at one point.

We departed early and joined the rest of the crew at RoadRunners to neck a few beers and play some pool.

With another day off before the Main Event kicks off we decided to venture to the Las Vegas Outlet Center located just down the road from our condo.

Donnie, Eric, Mat and I arrived at lunchtime, and four stores in, Donnie and Eric had both picked up a couple of pairs of shoes each. We all picked up a few things here and there before heading to Fashion Show Mall to continue our shopping adventure.

We didn’t find too much and headed over to the Venetian to catch up with some mates, but instead found a $6-12 HORSE game. Donnie, Mat and I sat down to play in the one, two and three seats, and were soon joined by Rich after he finished work.

Me and Donnie had decided to chop profits 50/50 and after I turned my $300 into just over $470 Donnie walked away a little less unstuck as I really only pocketed $13 profit after a really enjoyable 30-minute massage.

There were many interesting and fun hands, but one in particular I want to share with you.

During the Stud Hi/Lo orbit I completed, and found one caller, before betting fourth, was raised on fifth, check called sixth, and checked down seventh with my board reading:

“I missed” commented my opponent, “just a pair of sixes” he continued.

I quickly looked back at his board to see that my Queen might play, and consequently was shipped the pot when he tabled his hand of:

It was a truly sick hand to see a pair of sixes scoop in Stud Hi/Lo!

Main Event starts tomorrow!

A beautiful Sunday in Las Vegas and it was time to hit the shops with Mat.

We caught a lift with Eric into the Rio and took a cab straight downtown to the Premium Factory Outlets. Once there we hit every store from Adidas to Nike to Polo Ralph Lauren to FCUK.

I picked up two US$39 Polo Ralph Lauren polo tops for Mum and Dad, while picking up a pair of FCUK patterned shorts, Adidas Samba’s and some cool glasses for myself before heading to lunch. After Mat ticked off a few items on his shopping list we ventured over to Fremont Street so that he could taste the Downtown experience first hand!

We walked round scoping a few of the casinos before taking a seat on a Pai Gow table at the Golden Nugget to fill in time before watching the Fremont Street light show after the sun went down.

Mat eventually called it quits to play a $65 tournament while I continued to grind Pai Gow. Two young ladies took up seats to my left while two Cougars took the empty ones on my right.

One Cougar left while the rest of us started to chat and get to know each other while winning a few hands here and there. Eventually one of the younger ladies had to return to her family while I decided to make way with my $130 profit for the long session.

However both Shay and the remaining Cougar wouldn’t let me leave as I was bringing them ‘good luck’ . . . consequently it would be three hours later before I actually left the table and a further $50-odd had been added to my profit tally thanks to a few bonuses I had picked up from both the girls.

Mat and I checked out the light show before I donked off $100 at Binion’s on a $1 roulette table in four spins before returning to the Golden Nugget and a $10 Craps table.

11 minutes later, following a hot roll, I had pocketed $205 profit and we were off home after a great day Downtown.