[Rant] My first auction experience

I still want to build a mini-ITX rig. But for that to happen, I have to sell some of the stuff that I have in my PC which cannot go into a mini-ITX system. There are mainly two such parts: the PSU and the case. I can sell the motherboard and the RAM to a shop. Shops don't take PSUs and cases unfortunately. So I have to find someone to hook them up with.

I first posted stuff on Craigslist. But that took me nowhere.

Then I signed up with eBay to sell stuff. That also was too much hassle because I'll have to ship the items overseas.

Then I turned to local auctioning services. The biggest one in Japan is Yahoo Auctions. I'm sure it is possible to sell these items without much trouble over there but there is one catch. To sell stuff, you have to subscribe to Yahoo Premium service with ¥380  monthly subscription fee. On top of that, there is still a service charge when you make a sale. That's too much.

I didn't give up. I searched for auction services that didn’t require a monthly subscription service. And I found one. Guess who? Rakuten! Their service is called Rakuten Auctions. No surprise there. They don't ask for a subscription fee. Only charge is when you make a sale. That's about 6% of the selling price. Sometimes they give back half of it even. Campaigns, campaigns everywhere. Japan must be the country of campaigns.

So I registered in the auction. Since I have never had any experience in auctioning, I wanted to start with the stuff that I really didn't want. I had three such items.

• Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU cooler because I upgraded to the Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme last year.
• Leap Motion Controller because it was a big let down
• Scythe Kaze Master Ace fan controller because I switched to the fan controller on the motherboard.

[Rant] Got almost full marks for TOEIC exam

TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), as the name suggests, is an exam to test the level of proficiency in English Language. Since been to Japan, I've sat for it there times. One might wonder why on earth I would want to sit for an English exam in Japan where English is hardly spoken. It's all about money. When we pass the exam, we get an allowance at work. Just ¥4,200 per month, but hey, it all adds up. (I've been in Japan for 4 years which means I've received almost ¥400,000 just by passing this exam.)

So why three times? The score is only valid for 2 years. So I have to redo it every 2 years.

The exam consists of only the listening and reading (grammar and comprehension) parts. No speaking - which I suck at and no writing - which I think I am good at. That's why IELTS is harder I guess. No, I haven't sat for that. It's just what I've heard. So, only two parts and they give 495 for each; 990 total. Weird scoring system, right? Who cares as long as I get my allowance. By the way, we have to get above 840 to get the full allowance.

[Gadget] My G602 mouse is here

The G602 mouse that I only paid $29 for (OMG!) arrived day before yesterday but I hardly got any chance to play some games with it that day. But last night I did some gaming – like 15 minutes.So let me tell you my initial feelings about it.

There was one major concern. This is a wireless mouse. So input lag will be higher compared to a wired mouse. But I didn’t feel that was the case at all. The mouse was quite responsive. I didn’t feel any lag. Maybe pro gamers can feel the difference. I’m more than a casual gamer and I didn’t feel it was slow. However, I used the “Performance” mode which improves responsiveness sacrificing battery life. (Yet, the mouse supports 250hrs of non-stop gaming battery life).