One of the common items I generally have to plug during work are insurance plans. In some cases the can be a genuinely great thing to buy. For instance on a Notebook computer typically most of the chipsets are integrated onto the Motherboard. Sound chip goes? New Mobo. DVD drive goes awry? Refurbishment happens.
If this sort of thing happens after the manufacturer's support ends it's pretty much a Chicken & Egg scenario.
On other things it makes little to no sense. How many people would spend $5 to insure a $10 item? Not many I'd wager.
Of course most people in my predicament are supposed to mention these things to everybody just on the off chance you come across one of the rare ones, or because you want to be able to help someone day 367 when they come back enraged their product decided to break.
Anyway the big wigs want us shilling this sort of thing because they make the short sighted move of getting people into the doors with loss leaders. So if people DON'T pick up the insurance, and whatever profitable accessories there are, the company loses money. The flaw in their logic becomes apparent when they assume everyone, and their mother will buy everything together if one proposes it properly. This is completely preposterous of course.
What the big wigs actually cause with this attitude however is the opposite of what they want.
Flogging employees who don't convince 100% of the client base to spend the extra either gets them to become insanely confrontational or simply disenfranchises them to the point of barely scraping by enough to not lose a job.
This in turn results in less people coming in the door.
To prove my point after work I stopped in a certain chain store looking at some last minute stocking stuffer stuff for a relative I see maybe only once a year.
Anyway I found a copy of Viewtiful Joe for $3. Yes. THREE DOLLARS.
When I made my way to the counter the cashier did his spiel, and asked me if I wanted to spend a buck on scratch protection. Sure. I know you should never manage a customer's pocketbook, so I explained that had I been buying a preowned epic $40 game disc that looked like it had been through a war, I might have considered it. But not for something that merely costs THREE DOLLARS. Which at that point the poor sod wouldn't stop badgering on about it, even going so far as to spew hyperbole about Xboxes eating discs.
As a result not only did I only spend THREE DOLLARS, but I probably will go to that location as a last resort in the future.
I also got a satisfaction survey on the receipt which I normally don't bother with, but this was something I just had to mention with a dab of snark.
Weirdest of all though was the $5 SHOE store coupon I received on the bottom of a GAME store receipt.
Hey there!
I had to take a quick break from wrapping holiday gifts. I'm pretty terrible at doing so.
Not that it matters as if I gift you something you're probably going to tear into the package so fast you won't care what the hell it looks like.
That said, I did find a few nice preset "Gift Kits" at a Dollar Tree this year. So to anyone who gets a gift that looks 90% wrapped properly, this is why.
Anyway assuming I get a cam up, and running I'll post about another curious unlicensed cartridge I found.
That's all I'll really say about it for now.
Written and Copyright (C)2009 Richard Hossan
It didn't kill her but she isn't any stronger
She's chopping off her foot to spit in his eye
It doesn't make sense to her either
But she's doing it anyway
Making another enemy out of a friend
Going to replace the addict with an abuser
It makes perfect sense in a cereal bowl
So she's doing it anyway
They're not doing anything for her anyway
So why would she want them?
She's not doing anything for you anyway
So why would you want her?
It didn't do her any favors falling on her face
She's always in the process of falling down a peg
It doesn't make sense to her either
But she's doing it anyway
Burning the bridge of the only way out
Replacing a pile of shit with a bag of manure
It makes perfect sense to the masochist
And she's doing it anyway
Growing up, and even today I've been a wrestling fan. Yes the Sports Entertainment with scripted stories, and over the top stunts. Sure, it's got it's share of soap opera silliness. It's got it's share of camp factor. But to fans there are things that resonate. Of course as in many circles of various fandoms there are the cynical snobs who sometimes take it a bit too seriously, but in the 80's watching guys like Hulk Hogan gave fans hope.
I recently received a copy of the previously unreleased Hulk Hogan set WWE put out, and It's brought back a lot of those happy times. There are of course a lot of dark matches that weren't televised, but it's fun seeing guys like Bobby The Brain Heenan, Million Dollar Man, Junkyard Dog, Rick Rude, and Kamala again.
It is sad that some of these guys aren't with us anymore, especially the ones who aren't because they made foolish choices. But that's not what this post is about.
Right now I'm watching one of the matches Hogan had with Sgt. Slaughter leading into WM VII. This was memorable because at the time Slaughter had made the controversial decision to go heel (Bad guy) by becoming an Iraqi sympathizer, and of course we had just started the first gulf war at the time. Needless to say a lot of casual viewers were notably upset. But the angle did what it set out to do, and everyone cheered the Hulkster to victory.
I was in 7th or 8th grade at the time, and I can remember classmates bringing it up in class when current events were being talked about.
Of course, as time went on Hogan would go over to rival promotion WCW with Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash where they formed the nWo, while back in the WWF/WWE Stone Cold Steve Austin would eventually take his place as main face. but even though wrestling grew with it's audience it was still enjoyable. the nWo would prove to be a bad guy team we loved to hate, Stone Cold would do what we all want to do at times, and that is tell our bosses to go to hell.
We would see DX as the WWE answer to the nWo. We would see Hogan come back to put over The Rock. We saw Mick Foley get tossed off a cell by The Undertaker. We would see new guys emerge who resonate with newer fans.
There are characters for every kind of fan. From the Superheroesque, to the technical, to the hardcore to the comedic.
It's escapism, and while like all of the "Legitimate" sports people enjoy it has it's share of problems
For a few hours there's someone to cheer to victory.
Yes it's silly. Yes it's unrealistic. But for a lot of people it's also a lot of fun.
Who could forget the first two Mortal Kombat games? Or Doom for that matter?
These were great games. (Doom was better but I digress) Both of which brought new conventions to their
respective genres. MK was an early purveyor of photo realistic characters, while Doom showed the corridor shooter could move beyond the ninety degree rooms of it's predecessor.
But there was a title way back in 1983 with the right recipe of gameplay, horror, and a hint of gore
Forbidden Forest was an awesome game for it's time. It featured parallax scrolling something rarely seen on a home system at the time. Especially on a budget title.
It was programmed, animated, coded, and composed entirely by Paul Norman a man who would become synonymous with Cosmi.
Today Cosmi doesn't really do much in terms of budget games, instead republishing older games from other companies. These days they tend to put out budget alternatives to several hundred dollar office software.
But as a young gamer in the 80's Cosmi was home to a lot of titles one could nab on allowance.
My first experience with Forbidden Forest was on a datasette my Father had. I was blown away by the giant sprites of creepy monsters, awesome music, and effects.
The game stages were essentially boss fights.
Stage one featured armies of Spiders. If you survived those you were attacked by Killer Bees. If you got past those you had to shoot down Frogs. After those came my favorite boss: The Dragon. Then came the Phantom, and his undead Skeletons. Then a giant venom spitting Python. If you could get past ALL of those you had 30 seconds to kill the Demogorgon the final boss.
My Sister lost her job today. It had nothing to do with her performance. It had nothing to do with her competence.
It was entirely perpetrated by backstage politicking by a narcissistic, boot licking, lazy, weasel social climber who couldn't stand the fact that she could have usurped his power by simple hard work, and determination.
This person is so petty, and so underhanded he looked for ANY nebulous artifact that could be misconstrued so that he could eliminate the perceived "Threat."
Well the bastard finally succeeded in his plan.
What makes me angriest about this as I type this from the sidelines is that not only did he pull this childish nonsense to get his infantile way, but that he pulled it during DECEMBER. A time when everyone is trying to get by as best they can, and in an environment where everyone is fearful. He didn't only screw over my sibling whom I'm very proud of, he screwed over two innocent children who are supposed to be able to ENJOY life. Two small toddlers are supposed to worry about things like the rain stopping so they can go outside, and play. NOT worry about why Mom is so sad, or why there is such a despondent feeling in their home.
That petty little asshole made those innocent babies feel that anxiety today.
And I could see them getting rid of my Sister if it had been a legitimate problem. If it had been sheer incompetence. If she had been loading up her SUV with money from the safe. If she had let friends have five finger discounts.
All things I wouldn't be surprised her adversary is doing. But no.
The only thing she's guilty of is trying hard. Putting on a smile, and running a tight ship.
Shame on her company too because had they looked at even one page of her history there they would have seen she turned around 5 stores singlehandedly.
I'm not exaggerating.
I can't really say the company by name because she has a whole process to go through, but they have 2 major scandals in the media right now. So I guess my Sister may have been out of a job soon anyway.
But that's not the point. The point is that in all walks of life there will be the ego maniacal assholes who try to step on everyone they can to get to the top, and that karma is a bitch.
I really try not to wish ill will on people, but when this guy falls down, I hope it's hard, and preferably on sharp pointy objects. I hope it's a long, windy, treacherous road to recovery. A road that forces him to reflect upon his hateful, pathetic life, and perhaps seek some sort of penance for all of the lives he's ruined through such tunnel vision thinking.
]]>A few days ago a certain TV Personality came in to get ink. Oddly enough our HP certified research book
had actually given out the wrong cartridge numbers. So we had sent him (And by we I mean me) home with the wrong ones, and on top of them being wrong he had also accidentally put the color cart in the spot for the black cart.
So today I spent twenty minutes correcting our mistake by prying the cartridge out of his AIO 5610.
When I finally got it out, I made sure to test the printer to make sure I hadn't broken the carriage inside.
Thankfully I hadn't, and it worked fine.
We exchanged the inks for the proper ones. While all of this was going on a few customers recognized him, and just HAD to gush which seemed to (Understandably) mildly irritate the guy. But he kept his cool, wasn't ornery, and managed to deal with them without being a huge meanie. Anyway after all of this was finally over with HE TIPPED ME TEN DOLLARS. Pretty swell guy I'd say.
Now I won't say who the actor is on the off chance he stumbles upon this, and decides I'm not that awesome after all.
But I will leave a hint you'll need a magnifier to read.
(*He played the bad guy in Superman III)
I used the money on a Christmas gift for somebody. I contemplated putting "Celebrity Name" next to "From" on the tag.