Tag Archives: nostalgia

Feb 19 2009
Games

Gamestop Woes

I didn’t preorder Dawn of War II fast enough on Amazon, so I had preordered it on Gamestop’s website and had them deliver it to the Whiteflint Mall store.

This was a mistake.

The mistake was ordering from Gamestop in the first place.  Now, I don’t know what happened.   I’m sure there’s another side to the story, but long story short, I did not walk away from Gamestop with Dawn of War II.

I called earlier today, to check to see if they had it in.  I am informed that they are sold out.  I state that I had preordered said title and was promptly referred to a manager.  I asked why I was not called.  He stated that the automated system did not call anyone.

Note:  Gamestop has a policy where if you do not pick up a preordered game within 48 hours, they will charge a $5 restock fee.

The manager was apologetic, but then stated that he would call another store and make sure they had one on hold for me, today.  He took down my name and assured me that there would be a copy waiting for me at the Montgomery Mall location.  I asked about the restock fee and canceling my preorder and he stated that I would have to come in person to cancel the preorder to avoid the restock fee.

I canceled my pre order at White Flint, and then promptly decided that I didn’t need to purchase Dawn of War 2 from Gamestop, but another person might want that other copy.  I call the other store to free up the copy that was on hold for me.

I’m told that it is the last copy, and they don’t hold games.  I ask if the manager called ahead and either the message never got through, or there was no call.

I wasn’t really surprised.  Either way, Gamestop lost pretty much all of their future sales from me. They won’t miss my money, considering that they posted $8.8 Billion dollars in sales last year.  I saw the business model in action tonight.  Someone traded in a copy of Forza for one dollar and thirty cents.  They sell it for $14.99.  I should have bought that copy for five dollars and given it to someone.

Dawn of War II did get released a bit earlier than expected, and I’m guessing that the automated call system can’t handle variables outside of its schedule.  I guess that’s a plus for the “filthy human” column.

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Feb 07 2009
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Sovereign Nation

I had this idea about while every time you go into a corporation, you actually leave the United States and enter into the sovereign space of that particular corporation.

I was wondering how long it would take before I became persona non grata in the Wal-Mart territories.

Probably not very long.

This was brought on today by actually going to a shopping mall today.  I stopped by the old EBGames today in Pentagon City.  Old store one-seven-six.  Lots of good memories in that store, but it’s been rebranded and now it’s fully a GameStop.

For some reason that makes me just a little bit sad.

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Feb 03 2009
Technology

What to do?

I’m so focused on digital right now.  But I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this box of photographs.  It’s sitting, almost forgotten in a banker’s box in a closet.  There are developed pictures and negatives, but without any sort of metadata, they might as well be images from an alternate reality that I’ll never really know.

Like an imperfect mirror, I’m looking at a strange reflection of a life I once knew.

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Jan 29 2009
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There is only one

I can recall it, not clearly, but I can recall it.  It comes, through the haze of a decade, through the rose tinted lens of nostalgia.

The memory comes not easily, but in tiny parcels, piecemeal, like the slow striptease of a lover.

I recall the November chill in the air, the warmth of the coat on my shoulders, and the reassuring weight of the the sword at my belt.

I remember thinking it was going to be an interesting night.

The night in question is one of those ideas from another era.  Let’s blindfold my roommate for his 21st birthday, take him to a public place, then draw live steel swords and then have a man dressed up as the pope stop the fight.

I’m really glad that we had the foresight to videotape it.

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Jan 28 2009
Technology

An older tradition

I’m thinking about changing my calling cards.

I know, it’s a strange thing to think about, especially in this interconnected 24/7 social community immersion thing we have going on with twitter, blogs, social networking sites, talking on cell phones, texting on cell phones, newsgroups, instant messages, and chat clients disguised as video games.

But sometimes I feel while, I am able to “keep up” with everyone, I’m not actually taking the time to have a real conversation.

Thus, my calling cards.  I got them a long time ago, when I was in college before the internet and cell phones.  I even have the engraved plate.  You can see on the backs of the cards where the plate “bruises” the paper.

When I visited a friend’s dorm room, I would leave one on their board with a quick message and a date and time.  Professors loved them.  Meeting people was a snap, all I had on my cards was my name so I could put as much or as little information that I wanted on the card.  Handy for study groups.

Now, of course, I can’t just stop by a friend’s house.  We don’t really have visiting hours like we used to.  But the cards could still be handy in other ways.

I’m just looking at fonts now, trying to decide whether or not I add the URL or add a design, like a stylized gear or monkey.  Or a gear and a monkey.  Or a monkey made out of gears.  But not a gear made out of monkeys.

That would be strange.

I could just go incredibly quirky and get plain ivory cards with a QR code.  Because you know, that’ll be timeless.

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