The blog post which updates a bunch of prior blog posts · 4:06pm Jul 19th, 2017
Or: 'I'm too tired to think of a better title.'
* The closed-down comic book/T-shirt shop is getting ready to host its next tenant. This time, I pulled over and took a long look in the window, while there was still time to do so. It is about to become -- a collectible card games store.
Which also sells a few comics. Plus toys. And maybe a Funko or two.
...I dunno. Maybe some people are just really slow learners.
* With the Starr Mazer situation: a restraining order has resulted in the game being put back on Steam. The successful installation of said order resulted in the composer firing her attorney, which is just one possible sign for her future career in politics. The other is that she's starting to receive coverage in the games media, and the two most major articles published to date have conveniently left out a few details. Like the DMCA strikes. And the death threats she's been tossing around. Plus any suggestions that somehow, some way, any of this could possibly be her fault.
So if you're looking for some Actual Media Bias? Well, first you'd have to convince me that a good portion of games coverage qualifies as Actual Media. Because it sure ain't Actual Journalism.
(ETA: And upon being told what the actual events had been through their comments section, at least one article writer responded by -- shutting all comments down.)
* As far as turning Triptych into a visual novel goes? I never heard back from that individual. Not a word, not a peep, not a single suggestion of continued existence. And there's only one possible conclusion I can draw from that.
Obviously trying to put together the first sample image produced a fatality.
...no, even for me, that's too dark. It wasn't trying to construct a sample image. That's never killed anyone. Reading the material necessary to get the sample, however...
* In the end, I cleaned out my MCR account on Amazon gift cards, then used the leftover change for sweepstakes entries. And because the program could not conclude without one last fiasco, said sweepstakes were supposed to draw on the 14th -- and no winners have been notified. As one of the contests had a thousand prizes available, I'm having a hard time believing the entire community went 0-for-finale. Therefore, there's been a delay. Again.
The new site? We were supposed to be offered a bunch of new redemption chances on the 1st. We have received -- well, see for yourself. Some contests (a few of which read Smartphone Required) and instant wins, but absolutely nothing which allows people to get a reward after inputting codes. Coke's response to all inquiries in this area has been to change their Twitter name. This has left me with a couple of bags full of unused caps which have nowhere to go. Fortunately, there's a charity program for that -- or was. Turns out charity isn't cost-effective.
...freeform sculpture?
* I'm still considering opening another Twitter account. Name: KillAllLiberals. Hashtag: #killallliberals. Position on every last event: solve it through killing liberals in the quantity of 'all'. Central role in the Twitter universe: asking people why they aren't killing liberals. Reason I haven't done it: because I don't really need five million Twitter followers. Plus someone would take it seriously. Someone always takes it seriously.
But I do have my main Twitter account. And it's doing... about as expected. Every so often, I'll pick up a new follower. Two days later, they'll leave. This happens fairly regularly, to the point where I'm starting to suspect there's some kind of contest out there where you have to follow random new people in order to qualify. And my biggest celebrity faving of a tweet I composed? Was from a groundhog. A celebrity Broadway groundhog.
Basically, it's me and three dozen people who occasionally listen to 140-character (or less) rants.
I can so write short!
* This one's probably too long to put on a sign, but I thought it was worth reporting. A few days ago, while driving, I came to a stop behind another car. There was a red light in front of us, and we were both in the left-turn-only lane. I quickly noticed the following:
#1. The car had its hazard lights on.
#2. There was no driver.
However, there was a man standing on the corner, chatting on his phone while standing next to another male. Well -- arguing. Many gestures were involved. He was essentially performing a martial arts demonstration with the air, and the local atmosphere was winning. And after the nitro-oxy teamup had taken him down, he took a paper bag from the other male, marched up to the car, got in, and made a right turn.
From the left lane.
During a red light.
I stared. Lacking the ability to cast Summon Ticket Pad, there didn't seem to be anything else I could do, at least not when you took out all of the rather dark thoughts which I had no ability to act on. So I just waited for the light to change and, once it had finally done so, turned left.
It took me a while to wrap up at the destination, but I eventually headed for my next stop. In doing so, I went through that same intersection, this time going in the direction a right turn would have provided. And shortly after doing so, I passed a tow truck, parked on the side of the road, carefully loading up a recently-injured vehicle. One whose driver was dejectedly sitting on the curb.
I don't know why he was sitting so still. Clearly there was a lot to be gesturing about.
Semi-instant karma's gonna getcha...
In regards to the game... It's actually kinda fun to play.
~Skeeter The Lurker
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I thought about picking it up to support the creator, but my Steam balance is really low right now and I'm horrible at shooters. Maybe once I get both a recharge and feel delusional enough to believe I can get past Level 1. Or, given my history with shooters, Enemy #1.
(Most recent Steam purchase: Planescape: Torment. Haven't actually loaded it yet.)
This might not be idiotic. CCGs, by which I mean "Magic: the Gathering" are basically the only things keeping FLGS's afloat. You can profitably operate a store just off CCGs, although you cannot, generally, stock JUST CCGs.
If that makes sense.
Many other things need to go right, of course, but if you can pull in a reliable cadre of CCG players, enough to regularly host tournaments, you can keep your store going a long time.
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I know the original occupant sold CCGs and hosted tournaments, so I recognize that there's a market in the area. I just don't know if it's enough to keep a store afloat all by itself. It's the same location, so the rent likely hasn't changed. And if the focus of the store is narrowed down, it'll have to sell that much more stock in its main category just to break even.
So my question is 'If you can't make it as a mixed-media shop with a heavy emphasis on CCGs, then how can you make it as a CCG shop with a little bit of mixed media?' Is extra specialization the way to go, or are they going to discover that the market pool has a finite depth?
But... ultimately, I'm not their market. The most I've done with CCGs lately has been twofold: I watched ProJared open a pair of MtG booster boxes for no reason I could think of (he pulled a Thoughtseize) and I randomly posed a question to someone: "Do you think that if Magic and Pokemon knew they were going to last this long, they would have designed a more interesting card back?" Never got an answer.
The Wasteland? :V
Maybe take a no on that Twitter account. >.> Someone will take it seriously, and no one will appreciate it when they do. According to Horse News, for instance, someone just threatened to kill bronies at the MLP movie premiere. Those fuckos exist.
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*sigh* I know. I'd love to have it as a parody account and personal venting operation, but all it takes is one idiot -- and if the Internet has proven anything, it's that the idiot supply runs way above single digits.
Having someone declare their intent to kill us doesn't surprise me. Having that person discover that some of us are armed will probably surprise them -- briefly. Very, very briefly.
(Not that I want violence on either end. Aurora has not faded from memory, and firing back in a dark theater doesn't help your odds of hitting the original shooter. It does do horrible things for your chances of getting Anyone Else. The near-legendary 'good guy with a gun' also needs a clear shot, steady hands, and fantastic aim -- all of which are hard to arrange in a crisis.)
That Sprite instant win game which I claimed my new Xbox from? The console wasn't the only prize available, and I did get a few of the smaller ones. Sprite-themed merchandise, mostly. Towels, sunglasses, socks. And it turns out those are shipping to the early winners as well. No tracking numbers because the company isn't going to insure and notify on socks, but they are going out. In fact, someone on the old MCR thread just received their socks win.
static.slickdealscdn.com/attachment/1/1/2/8/6/7/7/5763064.attach
And I quote: "My condolences for the folks that won a pair."
Despite the definition of insanity, I wish that card shop the best. I'd also offer my money if I lived in your area, but I'm 99% certain that that isn't the case.
Also, I'd definitely follow you on Twitter if I actually used my account. (I was forced to make it and a Facebook account as part of a job offer that fell through.)
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Speaking as someone who lost the shop that hosted his FNM tournaments of choice a few months ago, "a long time" isn't as long as you might think. And yes, they did stock more than CCGs. I'm currently playing at a hobby shop that is vastly more diversified, and they seem a lot better equipped for the long haul.
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Fun fact: The first Magic expansion, Arabian Nights, almost had a much brighter variant of the usual card back.
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From an artistic standpoint, I'm actually a little sorry for them. They can do whatever they want on the front for art, foil, holographics, and The World's Most Confusing Ruleset -- but they're stuck with the exact same card back until the day their presses shut down.
4606346 I'm starting to think I got a Twitter account just so I could follow Sean Spicier (the parody account) and Tara Strong. And now Estee.
4606303 Yeah, bad idea. You know the sayings "There's a sucker born every minute" and "There's one in every crowd?" Well, they all have Twitter accounts. I never realized just how much hate and spite would fit into 140 characters until I took a look. Now I mostly watch just for the same reason people slow down at traffic accidents.
"Oh, look! Somebody else took the Spicier account seriously."
Yeah, if I ever really want to get a MLP Twitter account, I'll have to totally divorce it from my political comments. I'm a cranky old man.
It's one thing to make claims which are backed by evidence, and another to make claims which are backed by probability theory.
Fortunately for you, the internet is a big place, and there is, in fact, evidence. Someone out there has already attempted to make a parody website, and quite a lot of people took it Seriously.
Meet UndergroundNewReport.com. Yes, this website is real. Tracked the actual, original website from a news article I read a while back.
But I did mention that the internet is a Big place, so for your viewing pleasure, here's another semi-ironic poster. Or website maker. Or whatever you want to classify this dude as.
Yeah um...we got some in-bound problems in the future.
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There are Double Faced Cards but they are not something that is going to be done in every set because of printing costs.
Another little fun fact about the MtG cardback: Deckmaster is no longer a thing, so all of those card backs make reference to something that doesn't exist anymore, but they can't remove it for obvious reasons.
Those socks are a special shade of ugly. All the elements of bad Christmas socks without any of the festive cheer.
Dude, people who don't know how to drive but insist on doing so anyway are the worst. Making a right out of a left turn like that is supreme douche behavior and I'm glad karma actually caught up.
There's times when I'll look at one of your tweets and understand all the words but still have no idea what you're referencing lol.
Cosmic balance. Killing liberals without being sure to kill an equal and opposite number of conservatives would seriously disturb the Whichness of the Wherefore, and no-one wants that to happen, now do they?
(It'd be the biggest disaster since Waking Up the Sheeple.)
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Presumably in the US? Because I imagine if in the UK, that gentleman (and I doubt I would be wrong in assuming that) could likely be in a lot of trouble, since I think one terrorist attack on a media presentation primarily for younger people (who are, let is not forget, the actual target audience) is quite enough for one year, thank you (or ever, actually), and I imagine that this is the sort of thing that would be making our police all... Twitchy ... about clamping down on at the moment.
(Presumably it has been reported to the authorities? (If not, it damn well should have been.)
When presented with facts contradictory to one's cozily-constructed world-view, a trip to that big river in Egypt is always an nice choice.
The thing that scares me most about Face Book
I don't even HAVE a Facebook account, but I STILL get email from them telling me that people I've never heard of have friended me.
(OK, I'm a total techno illiterate. I suppose it's POSSIBLE I accidentally signed up for one. Even for me, that's pretty extreme. I'm not getting billed for it, at least)
I swear, every time a new movie comes out, they add another foot of shelf space to the funko pops. They never sell, they never move out. They're slowly overtaking my local comic shop, intent on eventually reenacting the finale of the Kim Possible movie.
Baby Groot shall steal your soul.
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...those are socks?
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I see two options here, one scammers are sending those emails because who doesn't have a facebook, or two lots of site have integrated logins so you may have clicked on "sign up with facebook" without realizing it and got led down a rabbit hole that ended up with you having a facebook account.
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Actually, I'm convinced that it's because Bill Gates hired Satan to run the Internet. (It's The Wages of Sin). The part I find most annoying is that I never got to sin.
Still, I'm not too worried about identity theft. I've never been able to make money out of being me, I doubt they can either. If they think that they can ruin MY credit rating...talk about "to dream the impossible dream"
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Planescape Torment: it's basically an interactive novel disguised as a CRPG. If you're in the mood for a game that's heavy on dialogue options and relatively light on combat, you'll like this game.
I could be wrong but it looks like there is a strait offer on the website. From Shutterfly. I couldn't see the catch, maybe it's that the supposedly 29.99 book thing is much cheaper than that suggests, or some hidden fees, but it sounds like it's really take codes, get thing.
Shipping & handling. Depending on the speed chosen, eight to forty dollars.