It's been some time between rants, but the drought is over, and here I go...
I picked up an infection of the sinus while down in Melbourne for Christmas, and went to my trusty supply of Codral, which I have known in the past works like a charm to get the stuffiness out of my head and get me breathing again - as well as numb the pains in the other parts of my body. The box was "Codral: New formula". I thought this was good - "If it's new, it must be an improvement on the old formula". All it was is the same stuff as before with the pseudoephedrine taken out and phenylephrine put in to replace it - actually I can't confirm the ingredients of the tablets, but the packaging and the marketing of the tablets was exactly the same. On the next day, I noticed digg.com had an article about this. The article suggested that phenylephrine is just a placebo compared to pseudoephedrine. But here's the problem, pseudoephedrine has been "quietly" taken out of common over the counter decongestants, and been replaced with phenylephrine. This is to curb the increase of methamphetamine production - don't ask me anything about this, I'm not a chemist in any way. After consuming some new formula Codral, I noticed that while my headache was gone, my nose was still blocked up. I went down to the chemist to find that you can still get the original formula Codral, but had to go through the process of being identified with my driver's licenses - obviously to track me and my purchases in case I wanted to start a career as an illicit drug manufacturer. No problem, except the packet of tablets I was handed looked nothing like the original - it was a different colour. Even the tablets looked different to the original. Thankfully the original formula worked, and I am breathing a whole lot easier.
If anyone is having similar problems, and finding that the medication is not working "like it used to", you're probably in the same situation as I am, and your body doesn't find phenylephrine as useful as pseudoephedrine when clearing a blocked nose. At least in Australia, you can ask for the original stuff, even though it doesn't look at all like the product used to look.
This leads me to what's wrong with other products. I've been a big fan of the Sony PlayStation since the original came out. I remember going over to a friend's house and watching a basketball game and thinking how awesome it was. When the PlayStation2 came out, I had obtained one 3 months later - waiting for the first sale that had a price drop, thus paying only $600, not the original $800. It introduced DVD technology into my home. On top of that, it also introduced DVD technology to my extended family (when players were $1000+, not like today where they're $35). Most importantly, I didn't need 2 machines connected to my television. The PlayStation2 was backward compatible with the PlayStation. And I do still play my old PlayStation games. This leads me to the PlayStation3. They came out with a 60GB hard drive, and backward compatibility with the PlayStation and the PlayStation2 for around $1000. Recently they came out with a 40GB model, no backward compatibility and a price drop to around $650. While this would mean I would be paying less for the PlayStation3 than I did for the PlayStation2, it means I would have to keep two machine under my TV to play all my games - something I do not want to do. And it's bad in the long run for Sony. It's another day I do not upgrade my TV or adopt BluRay - or even worse, go with HD-DVD technology. Sony can fix this by offering the backward compatibility in the current model. Bad decision just to save a few dollars here and there.
Lastly, RayBan have moved away from the "flexi-hinge" on their Wayfarer models, to their original design of the interlocked rivets. None of the optometrists or sunglass sellers can understand why they have done this. It makes the sunglasses not as comfortable. On top of that, the newer model is priced around $309, whereas the older model is still around the $200 mark. Do shop around, you should be able to find some stock, but they are dwindling.
All prices quoted are in Australian Dollars!
Told you I can rant on...
I guess I was fortunate, when I took the 'new formula' codral to the counter, the girl at the counter asked if I wanted original formaula. Being conservative about some things, I said yess. She said to take Id the the prescription counter, and I can get it. Not having a drivers licence, it did require a combination of passport and bank statement to meet the requirements, but I they handed my the stuff in a hard clear plastic box, which when I returned to the sales counter (a line had developed by then - and I had to go to the end of the line) they took it out of the box as they processed the purchase - and I was more or less fully functional for the folling weekend instead of being bedridden :)
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