So I am finally off the PS3 purchase roller coaster. It was a wild ride, taking me from GameStop to Amazon to GameStop to Circuit City. During this time, I became disappointed with Amazon, but pissed at GameStop. I will no longer be giving them my business.
Now, I am not without blame here. I’ll leave it to you to decide who is more at fault.
Continue reading Boycotting GameStop
As you might have read, I want a PS3 real bad. Well, I ordered one today, paying more than I wanted to. Here’s with how it happened:
So I went from paying $500 plus shipping and getting it before 6/12 to paying $630 and getting it on Friday the 13th. I thought GS was price gouging with the $60 difference, but it turns out they forced customers to also buy the MGS4 bluetooth headset. While I’ll soon need a bluetooth headset for the California hands-free law, I was not planning on getting one that looks like it belongs in some little kid’s playset:
While I would have gone with something from Jabra or Plantronics, this is made from some company I’ve never heard of. On the plus side, I’m all set to play Buck fucking Rogers with the neighborhood kids.
A while back I contacted Samsung to ask them a question about one of their widescreen LCD monitors. Specifically, I wanted to know if it had a 16:9 (AKA 1:1) mode; without it, signals from your cable box get stretched and/or cropped.
Three months later they send a reply that has nothing to do with my question. Some standard “check your drivers” bullshit. Clearly, the dumbass tech didn’t even bother to read my question. So I dropped it. But they didn’t.
They are now SPAMMING me! I actually got an unsolicited marketing email from them. Apparently my question gave them the right to put me on their spam list. So I marked it as such in Yahoo mail and hope others are doing the same.
Bastards.
I am currently renting a house that is for sale. The rent is dirt cheap and includes most utilities, so I can’t complain about that. But I think I may have stumbled across a shady realtor practice.
First, some background info. The owner won’t take less than $700K for the house, and most believe the market will not support that price1. My hunch is that the selling agent agrees, although she has told the owner she fully believes the house will sell for that price.
Before getting the listing, she said she’d have an open house every other Saturday. After the papers were signed, she has held an open house every weekend.
It is important to note that there are two types of open houses. A broker open house is only open to real estate agents. They get to take a good survey of the house and decide whether it is right for their clients. This directly helps out the homeowner, because it increases the number of people selling his house.
Then there is the public open house. Here, every Tom, Dick, and Sally can come off the street, check out your house, and paw through your stuff while you’re trying to figure out what to do for the next 4 hours. This typically has little benefit for the seller, because most people walk into the house, look around, and then ask things like, “How many square feet is this?” or “What’s the price?” or “There aren’t any ethnic people in this neighborhood, are there?” Usually, the answer is not what the buyer wanted to hear. However, the showing agent can now get their contact information and what they’re looking for, adding them to their client list.
The house I’m in appears to be major client bait. It borders 3 streets, one of which is fairly busy. The agent has stated that they get a lot of visitors during public open houses. So many, in fact, that she’s decided to hold one every Saturday and Sunday, from now until the house sells. Oh yeah, she’s got a 6 month contract.
As a renter, this really sucks. In fact, I’d say it borders on harassment. I doubt she’d do this if the homeowner were living here, and if I moved out it would be a big win for her.
But as a homeowner, it doesn’t help, either. First, the selling agent isn’t running the open houses; it’s going to some random agent in the office. My network of Crack Team spies have confirmed that the agents do absolutely nothing to sell the house. Rather, they sit in the corner and collect names and phone numbers. I confirmed this lack of motivation again today. As I was scrambling to get things ready (I was given zero notice this time), I spoke with the showing agent. It became immediately apparent that she had no knowledge of the house or owner, nor did she care to. Clearly, she had no plans to sell the house.
If you find yourself in this situation, there are a few things you can do. Obviously, you can limit open houses. You can also get open house reports asking about the solid leads they’re generating. You can be lied to, sure, but this only works for so long. Then the agent looks like she can’t close since she loses so many solid leads. But most importantly, be realistic about your selling price. Maybe it’s time to call it quits.
So I want a Blu-Ray player, and the PS3 appeared to be the logical choice. After considering the setup and looking at the features, I’m not so sure.
The house where I’m staying has the TV (a 70″ Sony LCD rear projection) set into the wall. The A/V components are above it on a shelf also set into the wall; it’s a sort of cubby hole. There is a hole between the components and the TV where wires are fed. It’s the kind of setup that, when you have to modify the wiring, you start by staring at the system for five minutes, mutter “Fuck me,” and then try to find a way to not do that.
I thought I had accomplished that. There’s an existing DVD player, and it’s connected with component cables, so it thought I could just do a drop in replacement with the PS3.
Not so fast. The PS3 does not have direct component out. It has a proprietary analog A/V connection, which forces you to buy a special cable for $20. You can’t just use your existing cables and plug them right in. If you’re in my situation, or the cable is too short (which it might be since they don’t tell you how long it is!), you need a component video coupler. This is a set of 3 RCA female-to-female connectors, known amongst electrical engineers as a lesbian 3-way adapter. Luckily, it’s only $4 at Radio Shack. So I gotta shell out another $24 bucks I shouldn’t need to, but I can live with that.
What I can’t live with is the PS3 Blu-Ray remote. It’s Bluetooth, not infrared. Yes, this means you don’t need need to point it at the console – but who isn’t trained to do that anyway? I already shelled out $160 for a Universal Automator remote with macros, volume punch through, etc. The BR remote isn’t even back-lit. And there’s no one-touch power off, meaning that even if it did have infrared support, you couldn’t use macros to turn it off.
So as much as it pains me, I think I’m going to have to pass on the PS3 and go with a straight up BD player. Hopefully they have some that fully support BD-J. For me, that was the big selling point for the PS3. Of course, the games wouldn’t hurt, assuming it gets some good ones.
I’ve decided I’m against hit and runs. This epiphany came to me about 8:25AM. That also happens to be 5 minutes after my car was sideswiped by someone who did not stop to leave a note. The event may have influenced my opinion.
I didn’t hear a thing, but my roommate did. By the time he ran out there, the criminal was gone. I called the cops who came pretty quickly. Several neighbors came out to survey the damage and console me, but nobody witnessed the crime. After inspecting the damage closely, however, we came to a few conclusions.
There is no paint on my car – the damage was done by large tires, and a fair amount of rubber was transferred. It was clearly a big truck of some sort with tires that stick out. There was a street sweeper, but his truck didn’t match the pattern (the cop waved him over and checked). And yes, I’m an asshat and forgot about street sweeping day. I wasn’t supposed to be parked there. In my defense, I’ve only been in that neighborhood a month and there are no signs to warn you, as you don’t get ticketed if you forget.
There are two trucks in the neighborhood that match that description and must drive past my car to leave the development. One was parked in his driveway and a neighbor confirmed it was there all morning. Plus, the owner came out to see what was going on and talk with us.
The other truck is owned by someone named Robert1. Robert is a neighborhood punk. Twice he’s tore up the grass in the park by doing donuts. Nothing was done about it, except the HOA put some big boulders around one area to keep him from driving on it again. The repairs came from everyone’s dues. When the cop asked if anyone knew him personally, one neighbor said his only contact with Robert was when he confronted him about driving drunk through the neighborhood with his friends. The cop thought that might suggest he’s the type of person to also hit a guy’s car and flee. Unfortunately, the criminal did not leave anything useful when he left, like maybe some white paint from his truck, or a side mirror. Only my side mirror was found, about 40′ from my car.
It’s worth noting that 30 minutes later, my roommate caught Robert returning to the scene of the crime. Robert spent a while surveying the damage done to my car, and then sped off when my roommate walked out. My guess is that he was thinking, “Wow, that looks just like I hit it with my truck. Time to buy new tires.”
So right now Robert is the prime suspect. If I can get evidence, the cop will arrest the guy, or try to intimidate him into confessing. Unfortunately, Robert has experience with vehicular crime and knows enough to park his car in his garage. If anyone has any suggestions for collecting evidence in this situation, please comment (or contact me – the form is at the bottom of this page).
Boy do I hate Diablo Cody, the screenwriter. But this is going to be a long-term project, for she does seem to have some talent. It’s a backhanded compliment; just take it, as it is the best I can do. And please notice that I recognize her as a screenwriter.
She had a great debut with the screenplay for the movie “Juno” –a movie that I fully intended to dislike– and the Hollywood community agreed by giving her the Oscar this year. The movie was not too bad, a lot better than I expected, and I went in with totally negative expectations. Her future output should be rather good and if the quality stays constant she’ll do great.
But I hate her new name, Diablo Cody. It smacks of pretention; you could have done better, Diablo Cody. If you wanted to make a statement and have your work speak for you, I would have chosen a name like Jane Smith or better yet, Jane Doe Smith. It would have been a hoot to see a Jane Smith walk up to the podium to accept the Oscar, dressed in the nouveau-goth attire and sporting that annoying, gigantic tattoo that screams “Notice Me !!” That would have been ballsy.
But you took the easy way out and stayed in your post-stripper mentality, choosing a moniker that screams “Attitude entering the room” I really resent your presenting the stripper world as the ninth level of Hell On Earth; if you’d come up through the world of coal-mining in Virginia I would have a little more sympathy. As it is, you made your living through the habits of needy, creepy men (present company excepted) that frequent strip bars. Not really the noblest profession on earth. So saying that you’ve paid your dues sounds rather hollow.
But I’m only one person and this is just my opinion. After you produce a few more outstanding screenplays, I will probably forgive you and forget this piece. But you’ll always be Jane Smith in my heart.
This is awesome. I was visiting the web site for Mann’s Theatres, when I read these truly heartwarming words on their locations page:
Children under 5 will not be admitted to “PG-13” OR “R” rated films
Bless their hearts. I can’t wait for other theatres (you listening, Cinemark?) to follow suit. And also, I’ve always preferred the British spelling of theatres.
If you are in your 40s, male, wear a fanny pack, and have a corded earpiece for your cell phone stuck in your ear while eating dinner, please consider the possibility that you are a massive tool, and regardless of how enthralled with your inane conversation the tardfest you are eating with is, the rest of us really don’t want to hear your opinions, factoids, or ponderings. Talk in a quiet, indoor voice, not the one intended for sporting events. As a bonus, it may make your flock seem more interested in your verbal diarrhea, as they lean in closer to hear what you are saying. Even better, the rest of us will only know you are an idiot by your attire.
The rollout of the Apple TV Appliance reminds me of a story I heard when I was a kid. It involved a man from ancient Segovia buying a donkey for his farm in Spain. He bought this highly adorned donkey for an exorbitant amount and was proudly walking it home. When he started taking off the embroidered tackle, he found the unpleasant truth: the beautiful epaulets and head-dress were hiding sightless eyes, the elaborate tassels that reached to the floor were hiding the infection in the rear legs, and the lacquered and shiny saddle was hiding a lame back on the animal.
In the same way, I hope people are not deceived by the beautiful Apple design and ergonomic, logical menus. I hope that they get to examine the crappy video image before they buy. This device succeeds in *downgrading* all image sources to make them easily available anywhere in your house. Wow.
If it’s too late and you’ve already been screwed, go ahead and use the amazing human ability to justify our mistakes. We are really good at this, gauging from the various studies that�show that our satisfaction with a crappy product decreases markedly at first and then actually increases after purchase. I think it’s our attempt to justify our mistakes and say to the world “it’s not really all that bad if you consider……” Same behavior applies to poorly conceived marriages. Be aware; beware. ��