Consume hell (with bonus rah-rah BS)

Yeah, I'm a little late posting this... Friday was a late one, and I don't have to be up too early in the morning, so here we go.

I admit that I'm a consumer whore. I like technology, I like getting things like games and CDs the day they're released, that sorta thing. So when I got the email from Gamestop on Thursday telling me that they'd be taking pre-orders for the Nintendo Wii (their new system), I figured it would be a quick trip to the mall on Friday and my system would be reserved before I had to hit the office.

Wrong.

I get there at 10:15, didn't want to seem like too big of a geek by being there when they opened the store. This is the same game store I worked at before I went to VGTP, and a lot of the same folks still work there. My turn at the counter comes, I ask about reserving a Wii (I know, that sounds dirty) and I'm told they're out.

OK. How the fuck do you run out of a reserve?

Apparently, Nintendo is releasing a TINY amount of these consoles into the wild. The assistant manager told me he expects to be getting yelled at all through Christmas. He thought it was dumb, too. I turned around and left, my parting statement: "Nintendo can bite me."

I was all set to spend money. I wanted something I wasn't sure I really wanted, and then they took it away from me -- presumably, so I'd want it more.

Wrong.

Fuck off, Nintendo. You too, Sony, with your $600 PS-fucking-3. If you can't make enough to meet demand, go to hell. Yeah, I'm bitter about this. You need to tell me why it's so worth my while to fight to get your new systems. For starters, PS3 is too god-damned expensive. I don't know enough about the technology to decide if it's worth the price tag. I was going with the Wii because it's $250 and should have some decent games -- like the new Zelda. Which I can purchase for the GameCube.

Walking out of the mall, I felt like I had been had for buying into the hype. I did it with the PS2 and the GameCube. I've still got a working PS2 and the GC hardly gets touched, but I have it for the Sega titles and some cool RPGs.

I don't need either one the day they come out. I don't have an Xbox 360, don't want one. I need a new laptop, which is what I should save my money for.

I may try and reserve a system online, I haven't decided yet. But the truth of the matter is, I play more table top war games than video games these days. Who the hell would've seen that shit coming?

For the record, this is the kind of stuff I play with. Yeah, I painted it. I'm a geek, remember?



Now for your bonus rah-rah bullshit...

This is another scene from Friday, this time, the Corp X lunch room.

The lunch room is for all employees from both projects. Our side of the building doesn't hold functions in the lunch room because well, we don't do that shit. The other side, call them Garden City Communications, uses the lunch room for their shit an awful lot.

Friday was graduation day. We actually had a class graduating from our side, they did too apparently. Their side had the head HR wench and the call center manager. Their trainer presented certificates and made speeches. He talked about how "so and so took 15 calls... and wasn't even nervous! Give up for Cletus Ray Earnhardt! Woooooooo!" He did this with everyone. He sounded like a fucking moron.

And everyone clapped. That's what Garden City Comm does... they clap for everything. "Dale Wayne Andretti just had a customer tell him he doesn't suck!! Give it up! Everybody clap, goddammit!" We can hear it on our side of the building. And we hate it.

So clap. And wear your stupid colors, and keep thinking you're better than us. We know the truth. Your ghetto performance says it all.

Besides, it won't be long before those fuckers are clapping their way out the door. Their turnover is way higher than ours.