Return of the Jedi - Asus Customer Service

Hmm... so I started with the Star Wars-themed titles to my posts, realised it didn't make any sense, and now I've managed to finish them off =P

I go my laptop back Friday. I've got to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with the level of customer service from ASUS. I got my laptop back 3 days after I sent it, with the hinge repaired, the front and the back of the LCD cover replaced, the top of the body replaced (the part that you rest your hands on - and it didn't need to be), and the laptop cleaned out (the fan is working significantly less hard).

That and they only had the laptop for 24 hours anyway.

So I got it back with all my packing in tact, packed in the same way I sent it, with a bit of bubble wrap around my laptop. So I've now got free bubble wrap to pop when I get stressed out while studying =D It's a win win.

But yeah, I'm very impressed with the level of customer service, and I'm very glad I've purchased an ASUS product (use that in your ads!).

Other than that.... I realised the other day that I can't recount the national anthem with 100% certainty. I think I might be switching corresponding lines between the first and second verses. I guess it's been a while since I've heard the national anthem, and even longer since I've actually listened to the words.

Hmm... so what have I done since Tuesday? A lot of programming in the computer labs actually. A lack of a laptop meant that I had to be in the computer labs. Unfortunately I'd been too lazy to pick up an after-hours key, so I had to stay in the lab until I finished. On Wednesday I left my room at ten to 8 in the morning, and got back at about 10:30pm. That'd be the longest day I've had in a while.

Hmm... other than that, the latest craze to hit Mackenzie House is Water Pong. Apparently it's a based on a US-game. You put 6 cups in a triangle, each with approximately 1/3 of a can of water in them, on each end of a table (generally a Table Tennis Table, but there's been some improvising). You play in 2 teams of 2, and each pair takes turns in trying to throw a ping pong ball into the opposition's cups. (So each team get two shots, then the opposition gets two, etc).

Should you manage to land a ball in the opposition's cup, a member of the opposition team may or may not voluntarily or non-voluntarily drink from a separate cup of beer the equivalent of the amount of water in the cup that was landed into.

If, on your teams 'turn,' both of you manage to get it in the same cup (the cups are removed after the turn is complete), it counts as three cups (instead of 2). Also, if you bounce it off the table, it counts as 2 cups.

Of course, it would make more sense to have beer in the cups, and drink the cups that were landed into, but it turns out that all drinking games are banned in this state, so this is a nice little work around.

The game also causes beer to be consumed at a fairly fast rate. A bunch of guys went on a beer run on Friday, and came back with 160 beers. That's a lot of beers, quite a few of which were consumed on Friday night:

I should've got a better photo...

Anyways, also on Friday night, we had Brainopoly, which is basically a quiz night. So I got signed up a week or two ago, and Friday night rolls around and we realise that we don't have a uniform/costume. So we figure that we'll be lazy and just do white t-shirts and jeans. Then we decide that ties would be cool. Then suit jackets. Then sunglasses. The end result:


Unofficially the best dressed team in the competition. Although the judges gave it to another team dressed as Superheroes, but everyone knew we were better (and cheered louder for us - which was meant to be the deciding factor). One of the judges/hosts was actually our RA, so we've been giving him a hard time about that since =P

Now I'll jump back to Friday daytime, when I voted. =D Beat you all to it! =P So I went to the Consulate office, and requested the vote stuff. The scary thing is, they didn't even need ID. You just wrote down your name and address, they went to check which federate you were in, gave you the slips, you filled them out, gave it to them, and that was it. It was also on the 12th floor of some building, which was kinda cool. The elevator was fast =P

I also went to Science World after voting. It wasn't really that great. There were heaps of little display things, some of which were quite cool, but there were a number of school groups there, and unfortunately I've decided that I know how most of the things there work before I mess with them, which makes then significantly less fun =(

They did have a really big and cool ball-moving-around-thing-to-make-noise machine-like thing though. The balls played a couple of little tunes and things, which was cool.

I also watched Dinosaurs Alive on the big screen (inside that sphere at the top). That was kinda cool, they used more of the screen than I thought they would - so I sat a little bit too close to the front. The picture size was quite amazing though, as was the lack of distortion.

Yesterday was a bit of a relaxing day. Slept in, didn't do much during the day (although I should really get my teeth stuck into that ray tracer), and played games at night - someone brought in a Wii, and Guitar Hero III, which will be purchased upon my return.

Today I went to church and bought a suitcase to replace the one which was trashed on the way over here. I'm getting ready to leave I guess. I'm out of here in a month's time.

It's been a while since I've posted, so sorry about that =P I think I've talked to most of the people who read this since I've got my laptop back. I started this post on Friday night, and didn't manage to get it done before now. Umm...yeah, that's it.