Tag: shopping

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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.

forearm-bruise

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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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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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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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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Retail Zombies riiiiiiiiiise!

just when you thought circuit city was down and out there website is back up .

the only thing that’s weird is

Systemax Inc., a leading multi-channel retailer of computers, electronics, and industrial products, has purchased the Circuit City brand, trademark, website and other assets. The purchased assets include the customer records of the original Circuit City.

As part of our “Customer First” initiative, and respect for your privacy, you can opt-out of having your personally identifiable information transferred to the new Circuit City. Personally identifiable information may include name, address, email, phone, and purchase history. However, it DOES NOT include credit card data or other personal financial information; this information will not be transferred to us at all. If you opt-out prior to June 9th, your personal information will be purged and you will no longer receive email communications from Circuit City.

although they do include and opt-out form for the data retained by the new company.  but if you opt out, they will expell your data from the site.

compusa was also bought by the same company. the funny thing i’ve notice is they have a twitter feed on the compusa page.  I personally don’t like twitter due to its retard factor of dumbing things down to 140 letters. Media has attached themselves to twitter like its the best thing since sliced bread.

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Console Gaming without a TV part IV (Samsung 2253BW monitor)

I’ve written in the past about not having a TV to play Console games on , And through many trials I settled on the VD-W2 Wii VGA cable.  The cable definitely served its purpose, after trying many TV Cards that just could not hold up to console gaming I decided to try that cabled on a whim.  Honestly it was one of the best things I bought to use with my monitor.  So if you have a small room and do not want to deal with the annoyences of  TV Card or having a TV and a Computer monitor in the same room with your console and PC, The Vdigi Wii VGA Cable is worth the buy!

well….

The cable earned its retirement after almost a year of faithful service, I had given away one of my monitors due to the fact we still had a monstrosity of a CRT monitor in the house, That given, It started me on a new quest.

To find a monitor to fit my needs….
Since I was using both the VGA and the DVI inputs that meant I needed a monitor to have at least 2 inputs. The last time I had purchased a monitor was 2007 and, I was not sure exactly sure how things have changed in that technology.

Well I took a little crash course.

(click more to read on)

Continue reading “Console Gaming without a TV part IV (Samsung 2253BW monitor)”

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Attack of the Christmas part II

Two days ago I posted about the Christmas Creep well, Today I went to mall to discover unfortunately how bad how the Christmas Creep was. It’s not a creep anymore. Its the christmas War on Holidays, the casualties so far .. Halloween, Thanksgiving and anything inbetween. From the front lines which I’ve personally witnessed and My friend david whom was overwelmed at the scene and cried on sight..

Corporations are destroying Christmas, People are already starting to be worn out of the meaningless push on wanting consumers to buy useless shit for christmas.

I dont mind so much about the week after thanksgiving for Christmas, but NOW? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO go away get out.. GTFO…

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Phone fun III: there is No spoon edition…

After all the fun with the two Samsung phones that had battery life shorter than a 1meter marathon and several billion calls to sprint, to which they were very helpful about my problems and have been overall very good to me.  The problem I Have is due to where i bought the phone .. radio shack it makes dealing with sprint a little bit crazy, Since the phone was purchased at radioshack sprint doesnt deal with the phone  till its 30 days old, and as far as choice of phones at radioshack your fairly limited to what you can pick unless you know what your doing.  Also dealing with sprint because of having previously swapped my phone, which the last call to sprint helped me the greatest in not getting stuck with a phone that was like trying to power your house with a AA battery.

At Radioshack you will spend a little less to ALOT less on the phone, but as I said before its very slim pickings, they will generally have 5 or so phones to choose from in a store. After dealing with the 2 samsungs , I decided to take a more detailed online search for phones. Looking at the radioshack website shows alot more phones than are instore, but if you look carefully it doesn’t have the little warning of “you have to online only sucker.”

But, I did notice something, Different radioshacks Stock different items. So i went around to a few different radioshacks, and the radioshack closest to me which is at a mall thats not a mall anymore, its what malls look like when they die, there was a phone that caught my interest. The HTC touch , compairing it feature-wise to the M520 they were very alike in features, the only thing missing was the GPS feature (so I thought). I had also looked at the samsung instinct, but the killing factor to that phone was the fact i’d have to change my plan massively in order to get it and paying 25$ more a month for the same features i get now doesnt really float my boat. I did not want a crackberry because the stupid services you have to get.   For me to get an instinct I’d have to get an “everything” plan, which is already close to what i have now, I have data , text and unlimited data for 45$ a month. the cheapest “Everything plan sprint has is 69$ a month….. Do not want… Anyways.

I Wondered if this would be a nightmare returning the phone because I was told you are allowed only so many swaps, So I made sure and called up sprint customer service (*2 on sprint phones) and explained my plight, To which I got a very understanding person on the phone and they put me on hold a bit and than sent me to there hardware tech support, I explained my very issue with the phone and told them where i purchased the phone and they said that it was “ok to bring the phone back to the retail store and they would mark the information in the computer so i’d have no problems returning the phone”. I brought the phone to the first radioshack and explained what i was told and that i had seen a phone in a different radioshack that had my interest.

The HTC touch is an interesting phone,

A bit of a learning curve which kind of surprized me but none the less I like it so far. As far as my requirements for a phone

Requirements for a 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

It Definanatly meets #1 , as far as numbers 2,4,5,6 it seems to exceed that greatly, Number 3 though will be the test, i’ve only owned the phone for 3 days. but, a sign of hope was when i got the phone i never charged the battery and it lasted 3 days.  As far as the learning curve on the phone, which logic wise you’d think it would be just something you could just pick up the phone and use. with the HTC touch there are 2 buttons and an omnidirecitonal button, if you make a call you need to pay attention to the touch screen at first because if you just assume where buttons are you are going to end up making a mistake. About the GPS with the phone, the phone at it default settings from the store does not have a GPS, but if you update your phone with the most current ROM file from HTC You will have GPS enabled minding this is sprint only. software installation is fairly simple and does not take alot of time, phone updates are also fairly easy with one drawback, if you update and dont have anything to backup your phone numbers be prepaired to write down all the numbers on your phone or you will loose them.  the touch interface is intuitive , but sometimes it gets in the way. as far as tweaking the phone there are many many things you can do to the phone due to the fact its windows mobile 6.1. I think another few weeks with this phone should tell the tale of this phone..

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Phone fun Revisited, A month and a half with Sprint and another phone (Samsung SPH-M520)

Now that i’ve had some time with This plan and Sadly enough i’ve gone through a few phones , I figure I’d update a little bit. The katana lx is no more, the phone had issues that drove me nuts (no ability to mess with the phone at all).

About a week after my post i had given up all hope on the katana, Its a nice phone for someone who just wants a phone.. but if you like tinkering the katana is no mans land. So I headed back to the store i purchased the phone and stepped up a bit on the phone. I ended up getting the Samsung M520 ,

As far as the M520 was It is a good phone with one glaring problem. The battery.. Now i dont know if i ended up getting a crap phone or just the phones battery lasts for a time shorter than it takes to sneeze.

From the time of my last post and my expectations of a phone have changed a little bit due to changes in my phone plan and experiences I’ve personally had, before it was

basic requirements for a phone.

  1. to make calls
  2. that the phone is somewhat configurable
  3. can add/make own ringtones.
  4. Durable

Since i’m on a contracted phone plan now I have moved my expectations a bit higher since its something I will have for as long as the contract lasts, which the revised list is.

Requirements for a 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

The Samsung M520 Meets 1,2,4 and 6 without a problem and 5 conditionally , but the glaring problem was number 3, battery life. the first week with the phone seemed ok, but after each night the phone would be maybe 1/3rd dead, As time progressed it seemed like the phone would not last more than 3 days on a charge with the light usage.  On my trip to California the 520’s weaknesses showed badly, but as a premptive thought i had purchased a second battery for the 520 which ended up saving the day. reason being is all that day I had been calling people when I touched down in each airport and just using the phone to keep in contact with people to keep them up to date, fairly light usage overall. When I got off the plane in San Jose in the airport i turned on the phone and It instantly died just saying “Recharge battery”. No when i had left chicago I was fairly sure i powered down my phone. but, without a phone and meeting friends for the first time in person, it can be a troublesome thing if you have no way to communicate with them. Thankfully the second battery came into play and I was able to make a call.  All that week i found myself having to recharge the phone whenever i could which to me is totally annoying. When i had left San Jose to go home I had the phone on the charger till the second I left California, When I had got back to Rhode island the phone pulled just about the same thing which was the final straw for the m520.

Figuring that it may of just been a fluke i tried a second M520 and to no avail the battery seemed just not to favor me, Either the store i had got the phone from had a shitty shipment of that phone or otherwise. but, there’s No way I’d go for another M520.

As far as the Phone goes the battery is the deal killer on it , I don’t want a phone that needs to be hooked up to a power outlet every night. but as far as Feature the phone was inline with everything i wanted with a phone with exception to battery life.