Category: Stores

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Holy Shit it’s only Tuesday!: A bit on things about things 1.

I know I have not posted too much over the year but I keep saying the same thing, I’ll fucking post at one point. Over the past year I have picked up another hobby- Interest.  Archery.

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You may think what the fuck. in all the interest in the world you come up with that! Well… yes … Yes I have .. Because if your are going to  do something you might as well have fun doing it, In the past year I have had more issues with loosing the ability of moving my arms to a degree.  It’s annoying,  It makes me want to be like an old G I Joe.  if the arm is fucked… add another.  But , Anyways,  I was in therapy at the time and I knew someone that took up archery , Their movements was exactly replicated what I was doing in therapy,  And I thought to myself, Hey….. I can do this and destroy things……?

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Well now… Fuck me I am in! Mind you it has not been the easiest road and Its been a journey into myself that made me realize how much I have lost.  That day I went to a sporting goods store and tried my hand at shopping for a bow. At the very moment you enter a sporting goods store that’s bigger than your average Cumberland farms You will realize three things if you purchase something from a big box store.

  1. As much as the employees give you recommendations… They don’t know shit about things.
  2. The first purchase you make at a big box store in order to acclimate yourself to a new hobby will be a waste.
  3. What ever money you put out you will realize you should of gone to “X store” to begin with.

In those three things you will reflect and end up realizing every mistake you could possibly make is in the first 20 minutes of buying your first bow with no help.  After you buy your first bow you will have delusions of grandeur, The first time you hit the center of the target you think your motherfucking Rambo,  and can take out the army

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But in Archery there is something that will snap you back  into reality faster than an exploding tank. The first time you do it , its an awe inspiring shot of reality of how well you really know archery.

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The first time you do that , You will reflect for a moment of how exactly you fucked up and attempt to never do that again and not two seconds later you will end up doing the same thing like a sadist on the weekend at a convention.

 

In almost a year , I have got some strength in my arms.

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Its a good feeling to be able not to feel like you’re falling apart or even able to pick up things. Even with the advent of this I have my problems, fine coordination is out the window .  but in the very least I  can do a bit more . I figure this is a good starting point for now… but for now this is it and I will add more later.

 

-Mike

 

 

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Phone Fun part 3.141592653589793238462643383, So long and thanks for all the fish.

Well its been fun sprint.  We’ve had a fun ride and through troubled times and the fun times you’ve been with me but , There is a time where is it possible that Sprint and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness? As I have moved on and my life has gotten a bit more complete that the room for sprint has taken the squeeze of outliving its usefulness.  Mind you sprint at the time of having more bells and whistles than you can count is an excellent thing.  But when my bills were going north of 150$ I was starting to choke.   Sprint at times could be a love hate relationship..

I have gone to the nexus 6p from the nexus 6 … while the nexus 6p is a bit smaller it retains the size of an aircraft carrier and is easier for me to use , I have realized that i am getting worse in the way of doing thing and that a bigger phone is needed for me to retain coordination.  The sound on the 6p from the speaker is astounding.

As I’ve had this phone only a week I am going to have to revisit this in a month.

 

thanks all for now .

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Attack of the Christmas part III

Another year another holiday , What used to be called Christmas creep to me is now attack of the Christmas. When they started Christmas stuff in October I was angry, but now it seems we cant get the fuck through summer without some sort of Christmas.  Every Year we are losing the war on Christmas , soon we are going to get Christmas advertisements in April .. I was walking through a store in AUGUST… and what do I see to fill me with enough rage to make me light plastic santa clauses on fire… this…..

20140825_170952Are you fucking kidding me… ?

My answer to this ..

Nuke_itStores wonder why there Christmas sales are so poor around Christmas. They do not think that forcing christmas down our throat early and earlier is a bad thing. Actually it is . It starts to wears people out faster when they start having christmas music vomited out of every speaker in store just to get in the “spirit” of shopping.  This does not get me in the spirit at all, moreover it gets me in the spirit of getting the fuck out of that store faster.  In the long run companies lose out on profits by spreading out christmas more because people are like likely to impulse buy with christmas that is months and months away. Instead they will make decisions that will save some money and not do the christmas rush.  Not that I support the christmas early thing, but it spreads a lesser profit over a year and actually could result in less profits for the company.  These companies should put christmas back where it belongs after thanksgiving and focus on that time rather than bitch and moan that black friday was a huge loss.  Well fucking Duh …. People bought all there shit in August when you started putting your shit out.

If you give me the choice of proctology by hand grenade or Christmas music in the middle of the year. I will most definitely take the hand grenade thank you .  It is less painful and it gets you out of listening to the Christmas music.

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As far as advertisements are concerned K-mart has earned a special place in hell this year.  They put on a commercial for christmas by saying it was not a Christmas commercial. They seriously need a lesson in fucking timing.

They use weasel wording to get around the topic that its a christmas related commercial and try to act coy about it .  By saying its not christmas and having santa drive by in a handicap cart … wow fuck you K-mart.  Whoever the suit at K-mart thought this was a great idea should have a polar ice cap shoved up his ass.

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More coffee….. We all need it some days.

Since I’ve moved into my new place, I have a conundrum for the ages.  As a drinker or better said a former drinker of outside coffee because I was too impatient to wait for the coffee pot , have the coffee cool down than make it into an iced coffee. I’ve bought coffees from almost every major company that served iced coffee.  But as the years press on and the coffee gets watered and cheapened its getting very hard to make a choice , Now i can’t blame the companies , Its more over the franchisees . There are problems all around, They have crazy employee turnover and skip on machines in order to earn more money.

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Formally, You’d have well trained employees that could manipulate the machines , now they just do whatever the hell they please when making coffee. For the milk and cream containers they have straws that need to be cut to a certain length , You just do not see that anymore, also the portioning has gone fucking nuts. Dunkin Donuts for explain if you ask for extra sugar , You summon the Brimley god and have to sign a contract.

WilfordBrimleyI’ve said in other post that i’ve sort of cracked the enigma code of ordering from dunkin donuts, if you look at the receipts they do not list regular sugar/ Medium sugar /Extra sugar/Extra super Diabeetus sugar.  If you watch the cash register when you order a coffee you will see the coffee droid press the Sugar button with a fix amount of sugar 1 2 3 4 5 6 sugars normally, I’ve seen these go higher. For the poor souls that do not know this system and ask for extra extra sugar they normally get this in there coffee!

SugarThere maybe a dunkin donuts under that pile! After they get a bulldozer to check where it is .

Honey Dew on the other hand 95% of the time they are fairly good repulsing the Brimley god away, Even asking for extra sugar the does not quake with the Eventual resurrection of the Brimley god.  On a rare occasion at honey dew though you will get a new worker that makes the mistake of it but they are whipped tortured and appeased to the brimley god so he does not rise. My only problem with honey dew these days is travel time. I walk or ride my bike so its a little bit of a huff to get to my preferred coffee. Though my bike was just stolen not too long ago. So my options are not really that great right now due to limited travel and health issues and being disabled does not help me get a bike .

imageccsStarbucks ….. Is …. Special , there is no way about this, they are just damn special.  The last time I attempted getting coffee from there was a failure on all levels. Ten monkeys on miralax had a better chance of getting my coffee, I walked in thinking hey no line, A guy working on a particle physics book and 5 workers…. I thought to myself “this just might work” The person in front of me ordered a simple coffee and I thought this will be quick.  I have no idea of the mental breakdown between five workers and two customers could reach critical mass this easy. So after standing around watching these coffee baristas in action, THis is where all things started going down hill. Out of the 5 coffee droids 4 had short outs and the register droid was broken as well. The order was made and from Cashout to coffee serve was longer than 10 minutes. I have never seen so many question in my life about an order and I tried to be patient. While Starbucks is a bit higher in price i was  ready to pay the premium to avoid Dunkin Gonuts.  Wrong move there, I should of just rolled around in coffee grinds while forcing K-cups into my eyes. I ended up leaving ten minutes into this exorcize of watching how coffee is made by professionals.

 

imageszzThis was the final straw, I’ve gone to making my own iced coffee. Sure it has a learning curve, but the money savings are excellent. In 3 weeks i’ve only bought myself coffee outside the house 2 times and both were goooooood.

bruce-almighty-its-goooodYou can make your coffee any damn way you want it . Even if you want nuclear death coffee or coffee that you can mess with genetics with and rewrite the base of the universe. Overall i’ve spent 10 dollars on making my own coffee and its worked out really well.  I keep perfecting  my coffee to the taste i want. which is pretty much Stronger than all of the coffee shops aaround without tasting like burnt donkey ass (starbucks) Coffee Flavored Water (dunkin)  Or A fairly ok Coffee for day to day that i miss (Honey Dew) .  But the savings are extreme by making your own coffee…. I’ve likely been saving somewhere around 5$ a day by avoiding coffee shops.

 

Note: this post was made at 4:30, I’m half brain-dead.

With a new place to live i am testing more ways to make coffee and trying to replicate drinks from coffee places and see what I can come up with.  I have pretty much nailed down iced coffee to perfection of what i want.

 

In two and a half weeks my wallet is also noticing that i am saving money on my attempt to make my own coffee,  From my own math so far in 2.5 weeks if i had gone to a store for coffee everyday I would of spent over 70.40 in coffee , Thats fucking insane,  Since I’ve started this i’ve spent less than 15$ for coffee and still have half a bag left.

I am curious to see where this goes and see how much of a savings there is by the 21st of this month… Lets see…

Coffee post to follow up shortly!

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Teva Shoes the revisit.

A shoe post! It has been ages since i’ve posted anything about shoes , the last time I did was due to a problem to which Teva/Decker shoe company where absolutely incredible helping me out with getting my shoes replaced. Since then I’ve stuck with the company and their shoes due to there reliability, My most recent pair of shoes was a pair of the TEVA Churn Watershoe.

4153-BLK_1Although most sites list these as a watershoe I can not say that they are since I’ve never tested them in water, they have been my day to day shoes for the entire summer. as far as fit , they are a seemingly good fit and remind me of the Teva X-1 Control shoe. GEARIMAGE-616_teva-x-1-controlWhy Teva ever stopped making these shoes is beyond me… If anyone out there from Teva is watching , Please bring back these shoes, those were about the best shoes I’ve owned and I had 2 pairs of those,  They weighed next to nothing and were extremely comfortable, The Churn though could be regarded as the cousin to these, while not as rugged as the X-1’s the style of the shoe is based on alike construction and weight although the major differences are in the treads of the shoes the Churns are more like road wear while the X-1 were trail wear.  But both shoes are very alike in construction and weight , they are almost like wearing socks treads . If you are on your feet all day these will stand up to the test of the day , I’ve worn shoes that you want to light on fire just to feel a bit more comfortable because the heel or other parts of your foot are in agony .

 

For the churns I’ve done a ton of walking in them and they do not wear as easy as the X-1s, If you do alot of road walking or walking in building these are the shoes for you, the no lace thing is also very nice due to the fact you can throw them on in a hurry if you are going out.

 

So my opinion for the shoes.. Awesome!

*Yes! I get to use the shoe tag!

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Phone Fun MMXXIV – thank you sprint….(nexus S 4g)

After Much Dealings with replacing my phone more times than the amount of explosions in a Michael bay movie, Sprint has worked with me and I have gotten away from HTC..

After going back and forth with the executive customer care since my phones kept having issues. they offered to restart my contract and pick up a phone at new contract cost, which was alot better than returning phone after phone. I tried to get a brand new EVO in hope of getting a phone without issue.
It just seems sprints flagship phones from the refurbished end are TERRIBLE.

From the B spot to random reboots and bad sound…

I wondered if HTC’s release products are the same – there is no way quality control should of ever let these phones back on the market. A refurbished phone is like a repaired car, It should look and act like NEW..

Anyways I am fully done with HTC.. the only way I’d use one is if one was given to me…

well, This time i’ve gone with a Samsung… though, The second phone problem going back to Phone fun 3 was a samsung.  This time I’ve gone with a Samsung Nexus s 4g

Now in previous post I’ve had my “Requirements for my phone”.

  1. to make calls –
  2. The Phone is configurable
  3. good battery life
  4. add/make ringtones
  5. Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country
  6. Durable

Basically The nexus S is as follows.

  1. This phone makes calls and does it well with one small stipulation.. in some areas the antenna for the phone is lacking.
  2. Configuration on most android phones is your mileage may vary.. but this phone you can configure it pretty much ANY way you please… rooting is fairly simple. reflashing is simple.
  3. This point Really needs a to be explained, since any smart phone will not hold a candle to a “dumb” phone , On average a smart phone lasts about 1 day on a decent charge. The EVO on average would require charging after about 18hours. The nexus easily passes the 1 day marker and most days it gets close to 2 days before requiring to be charged.
  4. on android phones this is a dead simple process.
  5. Android Market has all kinds of applications- but, Its now not cost … but moreover privacy with apps now.
  6. While this phone feels very light its fairly durable. the EVO in comparison weighs alot more.

So far  this phone has served me extremely well .. and hopefully (knock on wood a tree or something) I will not have any issues with this.

Im leaving this post fairly short.

Hopefully I will not have to go back to this post and make phonefun MMMXXXVI

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Gamestop part XXXVI

Shortly after i had posted about gamestops website and use of the holy computer of knowledge of video game prices.

My biggest aggravation is searching something on gamestop and than going into the store to find different prices.  If your shopping you’re not going to go to the product page to find out if the price is “Online Only Price; Not Valid in Stores.” r

Now when you search you get that. personally they should have both store and online prices to sort out confusion overprices. I don’t feel that you should have the same ethic of actually understanding the Dow Jones Industrials just to get a fucking game price.


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Gamestop – the new Moviestop of deceptive advertising.

Gamestop is really pissing me off lately. It seems that gamestop is actually not run by humans. Seriously.

I went into gamestop about a week ago and I ended up getting aggravated to the point of asking if they have secret binary rituals to which this went right over the workers head.

on July 3rd I went into gamestop figuring I’d try out dragon age, the price was right.  so I went down and and attempted to pick it up, boy did that turn out to be a lesson in how not to do customer service. Now if you do a quick scan of the price of Dragon age you will see that its 37.98 or so, When I went to game stop it was 39.99 or so i thought.

When I am on the gamestop site and I look for a game I’ve always used a simple method. Search it and find my system. So looking up Dragon age at first look you see.

You’d think “oh cool its $40 . Not so fast there.

I went down the gamestop picked the game up and brought it to the desk.  Figuring I had the edge card it would run me about $36 Dollars or so . Again not so fast. the Borg at the register goes “41.23 “. Me not thinking started to hand my card over and it struck me . I Said 41.23?  with the edge card that doesn’t sound right.  Than it came.. Well what the computer says is what the price is  we have no control over that and if you have found a price otherwise I can compare it.  I open My phone and show him the listing for dragon age and apparently I must be tuned into the incorrect universe because the guy goes , well you see  we don’t use the prices from the gamestop site, that’s a different company. At this point i Just wanted to get away from this great example of a Android, I ask him if that’s even legal at the point of that question he answers a condescending tone, I just work here I don’t set the prices the computer does. What the hell. is gamestop short for judgement day, every time you ask a question you are refered to the computer.

I pay the higher price for the purchase and my friend goes “hey lets stop across the street” .  The Gamestop across the street tends to be more caring in its customers rather than treat them like biological anomalies that need digital input.  I must of looked pissed because the person working asked if I needed help with something. I explained everything above and he took his time and gave me the price difference without speaking of the grand and mighty computer.  So I went home and decided to see what was going on. I Searched the game and it was only when i clicked game to the second page of the game itself.

It floored me. the website was right in one respect but totally misleading in another. “online only” 2nd page in , How deceptive. This is reminding me of movie stop with there pricematching pre-orders , How ever the hell you do that. I am sure a lot of people may go to gamestop and go “oh ill buy it anyways.” but…… there’s an issue, That first page. Advertises the fact of “this used product is …” and not the First more important issue. “Online price only” In order to be non-deceptive . ONLINE ONLY should be followed though EACH and EVERY page. You can’t just put a price out and slap on the last page “Online only” .

Also is the fact of  How can you have an “Online Only price” when the product has been not Available the whole time. On No place in the page does it list the “store price’ nor does it tell you the store price may cost more money, Even walmarts site tells you

Walmart Stores
Pick Up in Your Store

Prices in Store May Vary
That’s all you need.  A simple disclaimer “Prices in store may vary”
having the store slave tell you that his computer will not take my insolence for thinking I was getting some sort of deal.  Gamestopus of Borg Does not want you to pay that price.
I’ve taken some time to cool off before writing about this because of 3 to 4 incidents with the same gamestop can really make the chances of sanity go away.
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Gamestop/Moviestop the Next Chapter.

Now, I’ve written about moviestop in the past and there parent company is Gamestop . Thinking I’d heard the last of advertising problems with them, I’ve not posted about them till my last few stops at Gamestop.

The Gamestops near me are bunched together , there’s 3 in less than a 1000feet of each other it makes you wonder at night if they play tag or something. The One I had been frequenting was the one Gamestop near the Moviestop I had a problem with.  In this particular gamestop it has a pretty good selection, and the help is generally helpful until recently.

It seems that maybe these people were too helpful and were sent to india to be trained in how to be vaguely helpful without being helpful, I don’t know.  I’ve traded in a few games lately and waited till gamestop has one of the deals of “TRADE YOUR SHIT IN WE NEED X GAME AND WE ARE GIVING MORE THAN A PITTANCE FOR IT”. Looking through my game collection I eye’d a few things and brought down 3 games. which using gamestops Trade in deal sheet plus Prices from CAG . Figuring i had 3 games and a rough price of $52 of trade-ins I figured i’d get Red Dead Redemption and have a little leftover.  So I make my way down to the mall figuring I’d not have to put out cash and go to proceed with the trading process. Now If you’ve done this “trade” process its not really trading its more like pawning off your games for a lump of shit for your gold. Handing the guy the games He spits back “Ok, you have $23 in trades. What the fuck?

He goes yeah these 2 games are worth 10 each and that one is worth 3$. I look at the guy and say , You guys have a deal going on these 2 should be $25 EACH!  This guy just looked at me like I just split a higgs boson particle in front of him and told him to explain it at gunpoint. There was an awkward silence followed by this gem of a comment “well If you have any proof of this You can show me , but our computers give us the prices and Whatever the computer says we Price at”  At this point I’m getting livid, I open my phone up to the exact page on the gamestop site with the listings for “GAMES FOR $25”

At this point the worker looks at me and says , Oh well yeah that must be an Online Only thing.  I look at the GS employee and say “REALLY?! Why the heck would gamestop do an online only, No one would trade stuff in” I Ask for my games back and walkout pissed.

I go across the street to the Gamestop there on the first floor of the mall and talk to the person who i’ve known for a couple years and explain everything that went down. He goes “Uhh wellllllll Was he new?”, now not being sure other than having the rage to kill at that point. I say I have no clue.  Game stop employee puts my trades in the system and proceeds to tell me “You have $53 in credit, and I Have NO clue whats going on over at the other gamestop because I didn’t have to do anything to bring this up. ” The employee than told me he was sorry for the treatment over there and gave me a small discount.

but what the hell gamestop? I really don’t feel like playing deceptive advertisement again from your company .