Starkville got its own GameStop in the summer of 2004 while I was in Ohio. When I returned I was so surprised to find out that one had been built. After living in this town for 7 years, it finally had a real video game store. I’ve spent so much money there since it opened. A lot of times I go just to browse and kill time.
Now it seems like the store is going to shit. There’s a new manager and many new employees. These new employees seem unprofessional at times. I’m sure they’re not all bad, but the ones that have stood out are. It seems like when you’re ringing up customers, you shouldn’t stop to answer your cell phone. Your cell phone probably shouldn’t be out there to begin with. Back before things started changing there, one of the employees asked me if I wanted to apply for the open manager position because I was in that store so much and he thought that customers make the best managers. Maybe I should have considered that.
John and I went there a few nights ago and the guys behind the counter were loudly joking and laughing the whole time. They never said a word to us the whole time we were in there. Of course you should have fun on your job, but you shouldn’t disturb or overlook the customers while you’re doing it. On Tuesday I went to buy the copy of Eternal Sonata plus the bonus item that I had reserved. The person that rang me up didn’t know how to perform some of the tasks she needed to do, even though I’m pretty she’s been working there for a while. They didn’t know that they had strategy guides for it. I already knew that they had copies because I had looked it up online earlier. I asked them if I was supposed to be getting a bonus item for pre-ordering the game with them. I figured that if they didn’t have any I was going to just forget about it. They looked around confused and said that they didn’t know what I was talking about. I finally helped them out by telling them it was supposed to be a face plate for the 360 and they finally found it.
I don’t even like going in there anymore and when I do the visits are usually short. After I buy the last game that I have reserved there (Halo 3), I think I may be done with GameStop for a while. I’ll have to either order games online or go to Wal-Mart or Sam Goody to find games. Too bad.
I just saw on Dragonmount that one of my favorite fantasy authors, Robert Jordan, passed away today. He was suffering from a rare blood disease called amyloidosis.
My friend Seth introduced me to the fantasy genre around 1999 or 2000 when we were working in New Orleans. He seemed to enjoy the books I always saw him reading a lot so I decided to give it a try. We were on one of our many lunchtime trips to the bookstore and I asked him to pick out some books that he thought I would like. The ones he picked out were The Eye of the World by Jordan, Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind, and Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist. Of those 3, The Eye of the World was easily my favorite and I’ve read most of the books in the Wheel of Time series that it belongs to on multiple occasions. Despite whatever complaints I may have had about the progression of the series, I really enjoyed reading it and it’s a shame he won’t be around to write more books.
I finally finished reading What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy by Thom Hartmann. I don’t really have a lot to say. It’s an interesting book and it’s informative. He gives a lot of information about decmocracy in the world and in the United States and argues that democracy is being threatened. For some reason, I just never really got into it much and that’s probably why it took me so long to read it. It was probably just the wrong book to read right now.
I added another book to the bottom of the list. It’s been in the back of my mind for months, but somehow it never made it onto the list.
Dreamcatchers, Stephen King
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls
The Hedge Knight, George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword, George R.R. Martin
The Taking, Dean Koontz
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy, Thom Hartmann
I have started watching another show that I missed out on: Friday Night Lights. It’s another one of those critically acclaimed shows that not enough people are watching. I had heard a lot of positive things about it, but I never got into it. I wasn’t a big fan of the movie and I’m not into football as much as I used to be. And besides, I had a ton of other new shows I was watching last fall. It wasn’t until a week or two before the DVDs came out that I finally decided to watch the show.
I started watching it last week and now I am hooked. This may be a cliché, but FNL show isn’t just about the football. I’m finding myself getting really emotionally involved in every episode (I’m a softie). I blew through 3 discs on Friday and Saturday and now I’m waiting for Netflix to send me the last disc. I heard somewhere that if you buy season 1, NBC is offering a money back guarantee if you don’t like it, but I don’t know that for sure. I don’t think a lot of people that see it will want their money back. I hope that now that the DVDs are out FNL’s audience increases and it can get enough support to stay around for a while.
I have once again gotten to the urge to play an MMORPG. This time I’m looking into free MMORPGs. Free is good and I won’t feel guilty about paying a monthly fee when I go a long time without playing the game. I was hoping for something with pretty low system requirements so that install it on my laptop as well, but that’s not a requirement.
The ones I’ve decide to take a look at so far are:
John and I recently finished out second play through of Gladius. I wrote a lot about it after we finished it the first time. I liked the game a lot more this time around than I did the first. Although we spent more hours on it, it seemed like we went through those hours much faster. We played through a different character’s story, but I don’t think that’s made much of a difference. It’s definitely worth playing if you like strategy RPGs. I wish they would make a sequel.
I’ve really been enjoying listening to a CD set by Pearl Jam called Live at the Gorge 05/06. I love Pearl Jam and they are a great live band, so I knew I had to have it. It’s 7 CDs long and is a recording of 3 concerts they did at the Gorge Amphitheatre in September 2005 and July 2006. I think that these shows were bookends on all the touring they did from 2005 to 2006. Since I bought the set from the Ten Club’s website, I got a limited edition postcard set.
I’m always worried about giving too much away, so I’m not going to say much about Stardust. We went to see it over the weekend and I had lots of fun. Michelle Pfeifer looks pretty good for her age. Witches, magic, action, adventure, special effects, humor, and a gay pirate are all so much fun. I think I want to see it again.
I really have one this time. Actually, we have 2 DVRs that we can use and we got one of them for free. It’s the best solution for now. So far everything is working well. I’m glad that I can conveniently record TV shows. If I miss a show, I won’t have to get them on iTunes or wait for them to come out on DVD or …
I’m currently recording 6 shows each week and when the new season starts that number will probably double. I hope I can find the time to watch it all. I should go ahead and buy a spindle of blank DVDs and block out my Christmas holiday.
I finished watching season 2 of Dead Like Me. Dead Like Me was a Showtime series about George Lass, an 18-year-old girl who dies and is selected to become a grim reaper. The reapers take the souls of people and guide them to the afterlife. It deals with life and death issues, so it can be a little morbid at times. Everybody seems to be depressed about something at some point. However, I think it has enough lighter moments to balance it out and I really enjoyed watching it.
I think I liked the first season slightly more than the second, but they are both really good. Recently it was announced that they are making a movie based on the show. Awesome!
The 10th Wonder Podcast is one of my favorite podcasts. It’s devoted to the show Heroes. The podcast is produced by Mississippi State University students. I first found out about it in MSU’s student newspaper, The Reflector.
Recently, they put out an open call for contributors for the website who would write about all the latest Heroes news. I offered to be one and some of the stuff that I’ve written has started to show up on the site. Check out the site and the podcast.
I don’t think I’m the only one who is not really taking sides in the high definition format war. I’m not so secretly hoping that neither one will last. I’m happy with my standard DVDs. I’m sure that when DVDs first came, out there were plenty of people who were content with VHS tapes, but I wasn’t one of them.
I probably won’t get my wish though. Blu-ray is out selling HD DVD and I heard somewhere that it is finally outselling VHS. The price of players is going down and it might be low enough to tempt me in a year or two. Even if I do start buying high definition discs, I won’t be replacing all of my old movies. At least that’s what I’m telling myself now.
I don’t think I’m the only one who is not really taking sides in the high definition format war. I’m not so secretly hoping that neither one will last. I’m happy with my standard DVDs. I’m sure that when DVDs first came, out there were plenty of people who were content with VHS tapes, but I wasn’t one of them.
I probably won’t get my wish though. Blu-ray is out selling HD DVD and I heard somewhere that it is finally outselling VHS. The price of players is going down and it might be low enough to tempt me in a year or two. Even if I do start buying high definition discs, I won’t be replacing all of my old movies. At least that’s what I’m telling myself now.
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