Ps3 @ MindSay

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Today was the May Day bank holiday Monday.
I spent the day with Ash at her bungalow. Shelly couldn't come - her and her family were going out somewhere for her nana's birthday.

As usual, dad couldn't take me at a NORMAL time - so I ended up there at like half 10.
Ash and I sat in her room for a while, talking randomosity.

Denham was asleep in his room, so we couldn't get in there to play on the Wii.
I suggested that Ash completed Super Mario Sunshine.
I sat beside her with the guide, aiding her with some printed directions.
And of course, I was there to take over (about 4 or 5 times) when Ash started to give up on some of the dodgier levels.

I'd like to see Ash complete it with 120 shines, but I don't think she has the patience to collect all the blue coins.
That, and she falls to pieces every time a timer appears in the corner - so she hasn't really got a chance at collecting a lot of the hidden shines.

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When Denham was awake, he was playing Crash Bandicoot on his PS3.
It seems that the PS3 runs a service similar to Virtual Console on the Wii.

I impressed him with my awesome skills - owning Road To Nowhere, after he'd lost about 20 lives on it. :)
He swapped to Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped later on - and I aided him on Deep Trouble - collecting the crystal, box gem and hidden red gem - ALL IN ONE GO.

RESPECT MAH UBER SKILLZ.

I like Denham - so I was more than pleased to help him out with a few levels.
I do that. :)

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Ash and I played a few gigs on World Tour.

The highlight of this was when Ash failed B.Y.O.B. on Expert bass, then switched to Hard, failed again - and had to stick to MEDIUM BASS.
There I was, thrashing the song on Expert lead.

(Well, not THRASHING - but not failing it.)

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We ate Super Noodles for lunch and watched some episodes of South Park on Ash's laptop.
I suggested we watch the Christian Rock Hard episode. Not hilarious, but some parts are quite witty.

Then Denham insisted he show us Noby Noby Boy.
It's seriously the biggest pile of shite I've ever seen.
You roam about on a little piece of town. You're a giant bobbly worm with a face. You eat trees. You eat people. You eat dogs. You grow longer. You float around slowly in the air.

It's trying to compete with the greatness of We Love Katamari - but it's epically failing. :)

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Everyone had fish and chips for tea.
I actually don't mind the batter from the fish shop Ash's dad goes to.
It's not proper thick, crunchy and greasy Ada like the Burns Road chip shop my mam goes to.

I caused mass hilarity and mass embarrassment for Ash when I showed her mam the greatest text she's ever sent me.
Her mam has a funny voice - she's slightly common, slightly higher than Ash and she has a moderatley strong Middlesbrough accent. Hearing her read out Ash's text was absolutley piss.

With every time she read it - Ash just burned.
It's rare to even see Ash blush, so I savoured this. :)

The funniest part was when I forwarded the text to her and she texted it to the house phone.
THEN THE RANDOM ROBOTIC MONOTONE WOMAN READ IT BACK TO US.

"Plans for tomorrow came crashing down. Apparently they are having bergene over an some meal no the night. The cars food in so my dad cant take me. Plus in still jumpy on sound abouts so it isnt birchu idea to be driving myself quite yet. Le sigh it warmt meant to be so. Maybe ye should try cinema trip during the week to make up for it. Lol long text is long."

I think Ash just decided to MAKE UP SOME WORDS when she sent me that text. :)


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I actually felt okay all day - up until my mam and my dad rang me and spoke to me like shit.
It depressed me earlier - Ash's mam asked me what my ideal career was.

I  said writer - but then added, "but I won't make it".
She was more of a supporting mother to me in those five minutes than my mam's been in a whole 17 fucking years.

I came home and spoke to Adam on MSN about it.
He cheered me up and made me feel a little better.
I love Adam. :)

So, I did a little bit of exploring outside of Mindsay. It was fun!

Lots of things have happened lately. It all went by so fast, it wasn't easy for me to share it all. Then again, it's really nothing special. I'm just glad that everything is going smoothly at the moment. Here's a run-down on my life as of late:

December 19, 2008 - Oni-Con Anime Convention (Houston, TX): Cynthia and I visited the Oni-Con anime convention. We got there a little too late, so we really didn't get to go into the Merchant area.



January 4, 2009 - Twee and I jammed out at her dad's house. Unfortunately, we didn't shoot any videos. By the time we were done playing music for her family, we wished we would've recorded it, especially when we spontaneously played "Still Alive", the ending song from Portal. Her gamer brother got a kick out of it.

January 18, 2009 - Houston Raceway Park (Baytown, TX): Though I had no intentions of racing, I went to visit the Houston Raceway Park with a friend of mine from Austin, TX. It was fun, I got to see a lot of nice cars, and inhaled a lot of burning rubber.



Other than that, I've been playing on my PlayStation 3 lately, mainly High Stakes on the Vegas Strip; Texas Hold'em Poker, online. Some days, I get lucky, some days, I lose it all. My biggest loss lately: $100,000; a Flush beat my Straight. Since then, I've been stuck at the bottom rankings. I decided to take my game to Facebook's "Texas Hold'em Poker" app.



If you have a Playstation 3, add me to your friends list: CallmeRoger.  I now have the audio / video chatting capabilities.

I gotta go for now. I'm supposed to have dinner with Uyoku.

So I worked today.  I work at GameStop for those of you who don't know.

And while I was working, a seemingly non confrontational older man walked into our store.  I immediately asked if he was picking up Halo 3 but he said he was picking up Skate.

Admittedly, I am not as on top of new releases as some of the other employees.  I mean... I'm really only ever going to have a full knowledge of the games I personally care about.  So I didn't realize that Skate for PS3 hadn't been released with the 360 version... but was actually being released today, the same day as Halo 3.  In fact, I believe that both versions were scheduled for launch today, September 25th.  I could be wrong, but I believe that was the case until EA decided to pull Skate up a couple of weeks.  I'm pretty sure that was what happened.  But see, they only pulled up the 360 version.  They left the PS3 version to fend against the blood-red tide that is the Halo 3 launch.  I don't care about the PS3, so you can understand my confusion.

Anyways, back to the point.

This seemingly non confrontational older gentleman whose last name, for reasons of privacy, shall rhyme with Schmenderson walked into our store.  I asked if he was picking up Halo 3, he said Skate.  Since I believed the PS3 version to have already been released with the 360 version, I had noticed the utter lack of pickups for the PS3 version (of course, due to the fact that it hadn't been released).  Automatically, I assumed he was picking up the Xbox 360 version of the game.

At this point in time, as I hand the incorrect version of the videogame to the customer, whom, we shall assume, knows what he or she is picking up, most customers would become wide-eyed and quickly correct my mistake.  "Hey, wrong version, buddy."  No harm, no foul.  It costs the same, it's a simple swap.  Numbers can be corrected later.

Interestingly enough, this old man did not know that I had handed him the incorrect game.

So let's enlighten ourselves with the little back-story of this guy:
This old dude had driven "a long ways" to come and pick up "that Skate game for my kids."  MOST smart parents would badger their kids into telling them the correct version of the game before they waste a trip and a pocket of gas money.

Keeping things fair, I also should have paid a little more attention to what SKU I was pulling up when I was bringing up his reserve list.  THEN AGAIN, next to the 6-digit SKU is written "Skate OLC."  That's the title listed for BOTH versions.  It's very easy to make this mistake, I can assure you.

So the guy picks up the game and walks out.  No money was exchanged for it was paid off.



1 hour later



We get a call on Line 1.  I pick up.  "Thanks for calling GameStop where we buy and sell used games.  This is Alex how can I help you?"
OLD GUY: "Hey... yea.  I am Schmobert Schmenderson, I came in and picked up Skate today about an hour ago."
ME:  "Yes sir."
OLD GUY:  "Well, you gave me the wrong version of the game.  You gave me the Xbox 360 when I came to get the PS3 version."
ME:  "My apologies sir, I made a mistake and if you come back by tonight we can quickly swap the game out with the correct version with no further hassle."
OLD GUY:  "NO FURTHER HASSLE????!!!?!  I just drove a LONG WAYS to come and pick up THAT SKATE GAME FOR MY KIDS!!!!  I'm very mad!!  No, I'm PISSED!"
ME:  -more profuse apologies... my tone doesn't imply so ;) -
OLD GUY:  "LOOK BUDDY!  You gave me the wrong game!"
ME:  "I understand, and we can quickly swap it out.  I made a mistake in giving you the wrong game.  I mistook your reserve for a copy of the 360 version."
OLD GUY:  "You DO realize that the 360 version came out a while ago???  Like... a week, two weeks ago??"
ME:  "I understa--"
OLD GUY:  "Am I correct???!!!??"
ME:  ...."Yes sir, you are correct."
OLD GUY:  "The PS3 version came out TODAY."
ME:  "Yes s-"
OLD GUY:  "AM I CORRECT???"
ME: "Yes sir."
OLD GUY:  "So I'm gonna have to drive ALL the way back out there tomorrow and come and pick up the right copy of the game???  I mean... I drove all the way up there, got the game, drove back, and then the kids get pissed at ME.  I do a LOT of business with you guys.  This is just poor work.  You guys should really pay more attention to this.  This is a HUGE MISTAKE!"
ME:  "I understand sir (profuse apologies)"
OLD GUY:  "I'll be back there tomorrow.  I hope you know that I'm not just a LITTLE pissed.  I'm VERY pissed."
ME:  "I understand sir.  I apologize profusely."
-CLICK-



Ok.  So I made the mistake.  My bad.  I've done it a few times before and people have been very courteous.  They understand I'm not perfect, neither are they.  We kindly right our wrong.

But this guy... this guy belongs among the ranks of the truly mentally handicapped.

If you can actually quote me the release dates of BOTH versions of the game you are buying, then I can expect you to know WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE BUYING.

Mr. Schmenderson, if you insult me at all tomorrow (if you come in while I'm working, that is) I'm not going to take it sitting down.

Fuck you and your old man brains.  You're the bastard child of a molested crack whore who attempted an abortion but failed miserably at the task, therefore causing irreversible brain damage to your unborn brain.

Nah, just kiddin.

You can kiss my ass though.

Some guys are way too attached to their gaming consoles, like this yahoo who boned his PS3:


And to make it all just so much more sublime he even tried to sell his violated PS3 on eBay.


That's hella-sick.