I added a link in the sidebar to the profile for our touring group, the Guitar Gyros. Join us if you’ve got a Wii and you rawk like a Tiny God!

So I’m pretty sure I was the happiest boy on the block when I heard that Guitar Hero 3 was coming out on the Wii. I’d heard so much recent buzz about GH2, and was told that I needed to play it by a handful of my close and most trusted compatriots, and I love games that require ungodly amounts of skill and coordination. Mostly I like video games that give me an excuse to curse freely when I end up just one button shy of that perfect score.

I went about pre-ordering myself a copy that very same day, mere minutes after my most joyous discovery. Browsing my way to one of those oh-so-popular price comparison sites I quickly determined that finding a GH3 bundle priced lower than 90 bones just wasn’t going to happen. But then I stumbled upon a price anomaly…a site selling it for $10 less than any of those competing chumps. A site I had never heard of, but one that sounded reputable to me. Navigating the site I had noticed that things were somewhat sloppily put together, the site was kind of slow, but these were just minor surface problems and I know to never judge a book by its cover. But their prices were lower, and I was convinced that they would uphold their mission statement “to provide you, the customer, with a lower price alternative for purchasing your Video Games”. And from this experience I also learned that you should never shop at a website based on it’s Low Low Prices.

GameFanFanatic.com is run by Chris and January Parnell, or at least that’s what I’m assuming based on the first email I received addressed from Chris and January Parnell. I understood that I wouldn’t be getting GH3 on the day that it came out, and that since the release date was on Sunday that it wouldn’t ship until Monday or maybe Tuesday at the latest. After a series of emails from different addresses – Chris and January Parnell, Chris Parnell, and lastly from cgpkcfan@hotmail.com – I started to become a bit disconcerted. If the hotmail addresses weren’t bad enough (who the fuck runs a business through a hotmail account?) the content of the emails really drove home the error of my ways. The most recent volley of correspondence from them was this:

You have recently placed an order for the Guitar Hero 3 Bundle Wii. Just to inform you of whats going on is that my warehouse is expecting a shipment sometime Saturday 11-03 or Sunday 11-04 this was due to some sorta delay on the manufactures side!

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

It hit me that Chris and January Parnell are probably incestuous siblings running a game business out of their parent’s basement, and I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that they use every product that passes through their filthy hands as some sort of masturbatory device in their ongoing brother on sister inbreeding carnival. Every retail store in my area has this game in stock. GameFanFanatic, if they were professional at all, would have had this item in stock at least the day or two after it came out. But now I’ll have to wait until at least this weekend for them to even have the damn thing in stock, and even then it’ll be another week before I get it, and even at that I’ll likely have to go pick it up from the UPS distro center since those guys always show up during the 5 minutes I’m taking a dump in the morning.

For shattering my faith in the little guy, for making me think twice before rooting for the underdog, and for grievous spelling errors in their email, GameFanFanatic.com has earned its place in the hall of shame. I’ve requested my money back from them, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they won’t be responding to that email.

Don’t buy major label records anymore, ever.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (right after this colon): Royal Crown Cola is a better cola than Pepsicola and Coca-cola.

Wake up from your dreaming, sheeple! You have been deceived by advertising budgets topping $1B dollars into believing you love something when better alternatives exist! Free your mind from the Sodacracy of today and look forward to the Poptopia of tomorrow!

RC Cola is where it’s at, comrades, so drink and be merry!

Note: My claims of soda superiority do not cover RC Edge Maximum Power Cola.

Mark “Dancing With the Mavericks” Cuban posted a we bit about Vulnerability on his blog, and how people are looking for ways to expose us all by everything we say or do IRL or in Web2.0. I’m with him up to a point, but I don’t see this as a long term problem. Luckily, I’ll tell you why. You’re welcome in advance.

There is someone hoping they can snap a picture or video of you at a vulnerable moment that can be leveraged into a payday, career or opportunity.

So says Cubes. I really believe that eventually the checkout line tabloids featuring embarrassing pictures and tell-alls about what celebs aren’t physically perfect will go the way of the Baiji. After some critical event horizon we’re just going to be inundated with so much privacy infiltrating exposé-ism that it won’t matter anymore. The internet crazed youth of today barely understand what privacy is, they’ve given it away so readily as soon as they got it.

At some point, the opinion makers and those in power will actually be those kids who grew up without the ridiculous assumption that privacy was possible. Eventually they’ll grow up without even regarding it as positive. We’re moving toward a world where the word “secret” is defined as “not on the internet.” Information is so readily available and, face it, extremely useful, that it won’t make sense to try to hide it anymore.

The threat of being exposed for lewd behavior or unpopular opinions expressed on the internet will die down when it is the norm, rather than the exception. Why go looking for victims when you realize that you are every bit as vulnerable as your targets? True anonymity will be as valuable as gold in the coming years, and as rare as blue diamonds.

That vulnerability will stop being currency and be a private matter that we all respect as a universal trait

I agree that vulnerabilities will stop being currency, but not because of some touchy-feely respect for one another. I think devaluation is going to occur by that old principle of Supply and Demand. There are so many vulnerable moments out there that their value is set to plummet.

Remember in the Hitchhiker’s Guide when Zaphod went into the Total Perspective Vortex? You have to remember that you are utterly insignificant. And once everybody else realizes that everybody else is insignificant too, well, then we can all give up on privacy and enjoy our obscurity.

You are the needle in the haystack that nobody is looking for. Relish it.

World War 3?  You promise?

WHAT THE FUCK, W??

I don’t like to think I’m a positive person. I’m usually anti- whatever it is you’ve got going on. In this case, however, I’m left with no option but to heap on the praise and positivity. But don’t get any funny ideas: I won’t be enjoying this.

I ordered another Wii (yeah, that’s right, another one) yesterday from Fry’s online. They were offering the Wii and a Wiimote charger combo for a reasonable price (plus unreasonable tax) and reasonable shipping and handling. Not wanting to spend undue amounts of money I opted for the least of 3 shipping options (betwixt Overnight, 2day, and Ground service I chose Ground) for a scant $7 and change.

That was yesterday afternoon. This afternoon – less than 24 hours from order-time – it arrived at my apartment. DHL, wunderkind of the delivery biz, picked it up at 11:05 last night (while I was watching the Indians) and managed to push it out to me before I finished lunch today.

I applaud all parties involved, especially those persons who clued me in to Fry’s 2 day sale (which ended about an hour after my order was taken, probably due to stock depletion) just in the nick of time.

Dear Musicians:

Less tamborines; more steel drums.

Cordially,
-M@

I think it should be pretty obvious by now that I have very little tolerance for shitty service. I like to think that I work hard for my money, and if I don’t feel like I’m getting what I paid for, then I will do my best to make sure I don’t send any more money the same way, and post here to try and influence others to not spend their money with those inducted into the Hall of Shame.

So, we have a dual-inductee post here. First up is Shirt.Woot. Woot, if you don’t know, is a site that posts a deal a day, of a random (usually) tech-oriented item. Earlier this year, they started up a new site, where they put up a shirt for sale every day. I needed some new tshirts, so I was browsing through and picked out a few – four to be exact. This was on October 4th. On the fifth, I get emails with four tracking numbers for each of the four shirts I ordered – there is no way to buy multiple items in one order, so each one is shipped individually.

Finally on the 10th, one of the tracking numbers worked. On the 11th, another one worked – both of these showed the shirts being picked up on 10/9. A few more days go by, and the other two tracking numbers still don’t work. So I email them on 10/14, asking whats up with my other two shirts. This is the ENTIRE response that I received this morning, 10/16:

“I apologize that you received tracking numbers for these 2 shirts. We are out of the XL. We are currently waiting for them to be reprinted so we can get those that ordered both designs in those sized shipped out.”

Now, if the shirts were out of stock, don’t you think you would email your customer to tell them? Why did I have to contact them? How did their system even let them send me a tracking number? What the fuck? If I hadn’t emailed them, would they have ever even known that they didn’t send me the shirts, since they had already given me tracking numbers?
So I get home today, and there are two Shirt.Woot bags sitting outside my door. Twelve days after placing my order, two of my shirts had finally arrived – or had they? I open the first bag, and saw three skulls looking back at me – as expected for shirt number one. I open the second bag, to see a shirt with a car and a clusterfuck of flora, a snake, a woman, and some playing cards. Not even close to the shirt I ordered.

So here I am, with one of the shirts that I ordered. No doubt that it I will hit the 2 week mark since ordering before I hear back about their shipping screwup. So I’ve sent them an email, asking where I can send this brown shirt back to, and how I can get my $45 back for the other three shirts they have been unable to deliver in a timely manner. I can’t wait for the response.

For the record, here is the shirt I was epecting to be in the second bag (titled “Stop Digital Piracy”, get it?), followed by what was actually in the bag:

And here are the other three shirts I ordered – the only one I have received is the first one:

I really liked the Hot Wings shirt, I’m kind of sad that I won’t be getting it (unless woot refuses to cancel/refund my order).

UPDATE – 10/25

So, I emailed woot, asking for a refund for the three shirts they didn’t send me.  Their response?

“We will have the correct shirt shipped out today overnight at no charge.”

Thats it.  That is all they have to say.  That email was on the 17th, and I received the digital piracy shirt on the 18th.  A few days later, I received the Sore Thumbs shirt.  Still no word on the Hot Wings shirt.  They ignored my refund request all together, and have ignored the email I sent them on 10/20 asking why they ignored my refund request.  I sent them another email, if no reply, I guess I file a complaint with the BBB and dispute the charges over the 4th shirt.

Cavs stunk, Indians stunk, guys who stole shit from my car stunk.  I HATE YOU FUCKERS. Good night FUCKERS.