Well that escalated quickly!

Ok, ok, ok, OK! Ok? Ok. The majority of my entries here have been thrift related, mostly bashing Goodwill and singing the praises of Salvation Army, although not all posts about the latter have been shining reviews. When shortly after my last entry everything seemed to turn on it's ear, drastically!

I'm in a desperate way in need of finding myself Sega CD games to allow my Sega CD to really do it's job, and to enjoy it. I was willing to use all the thrift stores, and even Disc Replay stores, at my disposal, which turned out to be a major, MAJOR mistake. The Goodwill stores had games I wanted, but the games were fairly cheap and I still decided that I would hold off and wait for this weekend's 50% off sale to see if they're still there, if not no big loss.

But its what happened when I walked into the Salvation Army that shocked me to the point of hypertension and the need to march straight out of the store. They had a Gameboy with a 4 player adapter for, what the chicken scratch deciphered to, $6. Which isn't a bad price at all because it was in great shape, although there was no way to tell if it worked or not.

Next up was a stack of cased Gameboy games ranging in price from $1.99 to $2.99, not bad although I don't see why they put the well known titles at $2.99 and the less known titles at $1.99. This shows the store's desire to wring every cent out of thrifty shoppers. Then there was a stack of Gameboy games, all in cases, taped together so that you couldn't tell what was what, except the top game, for $12 (again chicken scratch so it was probably more!), and again for the maybe 7 to 10 games in the lot it wasn't a bad deal, but I can't see what games were there and I'm NOT going to buy something from them unless it is an absolute steal, because I not longer want to support such an ignorant, money grubbing company.

But until I saw the complete in box Gameboy printer, I was ok with them being complete and utter douchebags, but this was my breaking point. Yes, it was complete, yes it looked like it was in great shape, but they wanted (again chicken scratch!) $20 for it! Ok, NOTHING and I mean NO-THING in a thrift store should be over $9.99, unless its furniture or jewelry.

I'll be honest it shouldn't shock me, the manager or duty was the same asshole who argued with me last year over an SNES that he just couldn't let go for less than the number he pulled out of his ass. This guy is rude, arrogant and his only job is to rape the customer, yet it seems the majority of people who shop at Salvation Army aren't willing to fight for a better price, and most video games go to resellers.

Salvation Army used to give me so many good deals and I wanted to stay loyal to them in favor of the deals I've gotten. Over the matter of 6 months I simply can't stand Salvation Army anymore, and I've grown to despise their employees and their business ethics, or lack there of.

This time last year I would have urged anyone to donate to Salvation Army over Goodwill, but today I have to say if you are going to donate, donate to Goodwill! I see the only people Salvation Army is helping are themself and the resellers who buy up all the over priced shit so they can sell it at even more insane prices. If thrift stores weren't the only option to find things for the retro systems I love, I wouldn't shop at any of them.

How I long for yesterday..

Years ago you would have found it hard to throw me off my game, simple changes wouldn't have impacted my life in the least. These days with a sudden onset of panic disorder and stressful anxiety, shit really gets under my skin and drives me literally insane. Even just the simple matter of fucking up what should be nothing more than a simple drive to a thrift store.

I know I've complained about them in the past, but thrift stores have been an integral part of my self-therapy for dealing with anxiety, as they've been a part of my video game hunting pursuits for the past 2 years. But it seems that fate or perhaps even big business has other plans for my recovery, since they can't seem to keep a thrift store in the same format I'm familiar with anymore.

I've seen so many thrift stores, that I've literally spent hours at, simply shut down for seemingly no reason, relocate to inconvenient locations or even stop carrying bric-a-brac entirely! The only place that stays halfway consistent has been Goodwill, and by that I mean consistently overpriced! I will give Goodwill credit for the outlet store, but even there has changed up the switch out order, making it less of an experience and more of a trial in patience to see if you can give a shit long enough to find anything good.

Goodwill stores have had some good deals lately, but I'm sure its just another rare occasion of the person with the pricing gun not knowing what they're doing. One controller that I want is $.99 while another is $3.99 simply because it has more buttons, what sense does that make?

I've even lost Play n Trade, a place I frequented yet rarely, if ever, bought anything at. It was the only place I could go and see consistent pricing on retro games. Disc Replay's pricing is sometimes cheap, but that is mostly the same games everyone already has 3 of, everything else slowly crawls higher and higher the longer it sits on a shelf, it seems.

Since I got my Sega CD I've been on the prowl to find games to use it with, as I really don't like a system just sitting there doing nothing. I've seen them before and I know I'll see them again, but it just frustrates me to no end knowing most of them are overpriced, but people are all too happy to buy them anyway, giving thrift stores the false sense that those prices are totally acceptable.

Its quickly becoming apparent to me that the market I was so comfortable with, to the point I was using it as therapy, is crumbling beneath me. I'm not scared to adventure out from where I'm comfortable, I just don't think it gets any better on the other side. The prices I see other people bragging about are sometimes even higher than what I already think are too high in my local market.

Whether this is a sign to look deeper, look elsewhere or completely move on from where I am, or whether there is a good change upon the horizon, I don't know. All I know is that my price range will not change, no matter what, I'd rather go home empty handed! But the biggest reality shock is knowing as fucked up as I am with my anxiety, the world around me is so much worse off than I am.

If I plan to plan, I plan to plan on failure.

I'm wanting to change things up for my blog here. I know that I don't get many views, like I, myself, and a poor lost traveler may wander on to this thing on occasion, by accident. But even so, I feel I want to change things up and become more active here.

I'm booked with trying to come up with articles for the vintage gaming website, and I want to devote anything vintage to that site, so that isn't happening here. I do pick up videos on youtube, and much like this blog I only get accidental views. So I feel as though I should take the highlights of my pick ups and show them here.

I see plenty of blogs that show off their pick ups and I know it isn't original, but it is my blog and I'll change it up however I wish. I also know that a long time ago I posted more modern find here, so it really isn't something new, more of a rebirth of that concept. So that is more than likely what I'll be doing!

If you like the blog, feel free to leave a comment! If you've reached this blog in error, please hit the back button until you're in more familiar territory and enjoy your day. If you view this blog regularly, I'm sorry.

Don't know what you've got, until its gone!

I know I've talked shit about the thrift stores I went to for nearly 3 years. Literally hundreds of great deals, between the countless shameful price gouging sessions. But since March I've forgone the traffic jams, gas prices and the very real possibility of wasting time and finding nothing worth buying in favor of the Goodwill outlet, where I rarely leave empty handed.

Today I decided that I wanted to head out to the good old places and see what I could find, most of which were either closed or moved to a different location. Over the time that I've been checking thrift stores I've lost nearly half of them. Strangely enough I've seen more thrift stores close than flea markets.

It hurts to see a place close down, knowing the countless hours I've spent walking the aisles and finding the video game stuff that now clutters my room, instead of the thrift store shelves. The Goodwill outlet seems to be my only source of video games and video game stuff anymore. With the economy being the way it is, thrift stores should be booming, but I see their price gouging has backfired and most of them are shutting down due to their greed and ignorance.

Even though I hated their business practices, for the most part, I have to say that it sucks that I'll never be able to walk down those aisles anymore, looking for good deals. Even though I would often come home empty handed and upset that I couldn't find a deal, at least I was enjoying the wasted time. But once those doors are chained and bolted.. there is nowhere left to go.

How long ago that seems..

About 10 years ago I remember using Launchcast from my Yahoo Messenger panel. That is how I learned about almost every metal band I currently listen to, almost. It would play songs and have you rate them so it would associate what kind of music you liked.

It took me maybe 5 months to finally get it to where it would play 15 metal songs and then on occasion the current top 10 playlist would creep in, but it wasn't bad because I could skip it. It only gave you so many skips and I reserved all those for the crap that it tossed in on purpose. But eventually the whole service went to hell.

It seems that I woke up one day and I couldn't skip enough songs, all it would play was the music I DIDN'T want to listen to. And only on occasion it would play the songs that I did want to hear. Its sad to see a service like that go so commercial.

I'm sure had it stayed the way it was it would still be very useful today. Technology changes in the blink of an eye, but sometimes we still yearn for how it was yesterday. That is why I'm a vintage gamer.

How GTA Vice City nearly killed me!

I had just acquired my first Xbox, because a friend of mine had one that wouldn't read discs anymore, and I figured the best thing to do was to start buying the GTA series because I had always wanted to play them. I didn't have a PS2 yet, because their's was still working (lol), so after fixing the Xbox I went to work on GTA III. After I was bored with GTA III I moved on to Vice City, the map was smaller but the fun was bigger and there seemed to be more things to do than before.

One night I was cruising the streets of Vice City doing what I would normally do, running people over, collecting my business income and using cheat codes to go on rampage killing sprees, when I received a phone call. Now for some reason I'm not a normal human being, or perhaps I am, in the fact that I simply can not sit still while I'm on the phone, I need to be up and walking around, for whatever reason. Part of my habit of walking around while on the phone was looking out the kitchen window and across the horizon, which had quite a surprise in store for me.

As I looked out from the kitchen window the sky hung heavy over the horizon with lightning and darkness looming eerily in the distance. I had been so enveloped in doing my business in Vice City that I was completely unaware that there was a tornado warning issued for my current area! Normally there are storms that would alert me to any impending alarming weather, but that night there wasn't.

I abruptly ended the phone call and went to switch the TV to the local news stations, which confirmed my fears that the weather was about to become extremely and violently severe. No sooner had I changed the channel to the local news and saw the incoming threat, the power went out. Nothing but the sounds of the wind wishing and washing against the trees and windows outside.

Lightning came closer and closer, followed by deafening crackles of thunder. Soon came the rain, as I collected myself and headed into the central bathroom and listened to a local radio station for further news about the storms. The wind and thunder shook the house and the trees started to bend, it seemed as if the roof was going to come off!

For what seemed like forever, but perhaps only lasted 30 minutes, I huddled in the bathroom hoping for my safety, wishing the storm would go away and leave nothing harmed. When the storm finally subsided I walked into the living room and checked all the windows, to make sure nothing was broken, luckily everything was in tact and ok. But without power the house was quickly heating up inside, so I decided to open a few windows and await the return of electricity.

The electric company came and checked for any down lines, blown transformers and power was finally restored in the early morning hours. Later that day I went to check out any possible damage or evidence that a tornado had come through, and as a matter of fact there had been! Many trees were broken, uprooted and the standard of bare without leaves, but not even a mile south there was a clear path of where a tornado had touched down and carved it's way through some trees, luckily it only went through the trees.

I can't blame GTA Vice City for nearly killing me, it was the storms that would have done the damage. But Vice City was so addictive that I played it so inventively that I wasn't even aware there were storms headed my way. A strange story, but something Vice City and I will always share.

Where is home?

Home is a place that makes you feel safe, a place where no matter how you feel you know everything is going to be ok. But what happens when you feel all solace is lost? What happens when not only the physical home in which you live, but the complete society and system in which you live leaves you feeling insecure of your very existence?

Almost a year ago I decided that my health was becoming an issue and I needed to seek medical attention, I walked out of the ER with what was essentially a painful fart and $1200 in debt (I'm dead serious). For something so trivial to be so expensive, how could you sustain faith within the medical system setup to help sustain your health? I can't, and that further dissolved any faith within the system that holds power above said medical system.

Due to deeply rooted brain washed fears, implemented by my parents, I've lived life on the straight and narrow, I don't smoke, I don't drink on any regular basis and I've never tried drugs. I assumed that would have upheld my health further than say, The Rolling Stones, but perhaps heroine is a preservative. But now as the tingling sensation in my legs and sometimes my hands and arms start to grow more concerning, I can't help but feel unnecessarily shunned by the American system.

I have chest pains and I don't know why, but being an American I can only assume it is heart disease, even at 29. I feel things that I assume are just growing pains, but I'm also socially groomed to be hyper aware of my health and it's importance. At the same time I would never want to live the rest of my life being in debt to a scheme set forth to make a portion of the population rich and the other portion fearfully throw money at the problem.

As an American we are told that we are the best country in the world and as a child I fed into that bullshit ideology, something that some people never seem to grow out of, and I now see it as a country that can't get it's priorities straight, unless it revolves around money. Why do we look down at other countries that obviously have their systems sorted out well beyond our own, while we're told that system would never work, no matter how long it HAS worked? When I tell a friend from another country that I don't feel well, the answer is always so simple for them to say "Go see a Doctor", because in their country, THEY CAN!!!

I'll never forget a PBS documentary about Tanzania, where they were interviewing children miners who work the mines to find their nation's export. What struck me as odd was that these children weren't scummy and filthy like the documentary actually said, in fact the children had some of the straightest and whitest teeth I've ever seen, anywhere! Now why would that matter, you may be asking, if these children were so poorly taken care of, as the documentary was trying to portray, why would these children's teeth be one of their top priorities?

I've lost faith in the system and it dawns on me that I probably wouldn't be accepted anywhere else, or maybe that is just another American scare tactic. As freely as the US is allowing illegals to stay and reap the rewards they unjustly enjoy, I can't survive here, but where could I do the same thing the illegals are doing in the US? Where could I freely move in, claim things as my own, avoid taxes and still get all the benefits of being from your country, or even more benefits than they afford their own citizens?

Within the US I fear for my life, health wise, but it seems I'm walled off from being any better anywhere else. All the places I would love to move I would probably just be looked down upon as being an American, much the way Americans do those places anyway. Even if I could become a citizen of another country that would afford me all the benefits to flourish the way I deserve, the US isn't kind to those who find the system lacking and give up US citizenship in favor of a better life the US refuses to offer them.

With a country that forces you to work to survive, because there are very few programs for the unemployed to gain good health insurance, yet supports companies that force jobs off shores, we can't sustain any means of existence. When a case of only the strong becomes only the wealthy, we really need to step back and take a look at the overall system. My health issues may pass, but the fear and uneasiness knowing that if something serious ever happens to me that I would owe a severely flawed system large sums of money that I could never repay will always be a thorn in my side.

FIFA '04: Mini Review

Since I now own a quasi-working PS2 I've decided to pick up games for the system again. This started after yesterday's trip to the Goodwill Outlet store, where I found 3 football games, 2 Madden and 1 FIFA. Sure FIFA is Football, just not to the US.

I started playing the FIFA series in late 2009 with a demo of FIFA '10 on my Xbox 360, which I still have. The game was fun and there was an extreme rush of adrenaline when I scored a goal, thus I was hooked. Later I happened upon a FIFA game for the SNES, and even with it's isometric point of view it was still pretty playable.

This lead me to venture out into Nintendo's Soccer for the NES, as well as Technos' World Cup Soccer, both of which I like. Although I don't fall into the whole need to own every FIFA due to the ever changing roster, I will pick them up due to technical enhancements through the aging of the game. But I don't need every football game ever made.

FIFA '04 isn't really that far apart from it's 6 year younger brother FIFA '10, although a great majority of the changes are undoubtedly due to the whole different system in which I'm playing it. The graphics and gameplay are a bit choppy at times, but overall pretty much on par with what I expect of a game from 2003.

My only real complaint is the over saturation of shitty Euro pop music in the sound track. This isn't an issue strictly with FIFA as EA loves to license completely irrelevant music for games that these songs have no business in. Need for Speed Underground 2 is pumped full of easily licensed, yet completely worthless, rap songs, and they don't make turning them off an easy task.

The reason why this review seems to have very little to do with FIFA itself is the simple fact that FIFA 04 is simply good enough to stand on it's own. It has minor flaws, as all games do, but since I don't know much about football I can't really make judgement on anything other than the gameplay I experience, which is thoroughly enjoyable! FIFA '04 was well worth the pick up and perhaps if I find a newer version I'll give it a try as well, I just don't see myself going and paying retail for any FIFA game.

Gran Turismo

Nothing gets my blood pumping like a good old run through Gran Turismo. I don't mean adrenaline, I mean this game pisses me off like no other, especially with the critically impossible license tests! The racing can be frustration, but the absolute worst are those fucking license tests, considering you can't do much in the game without getting your license first.

The whole series is plagued with this fatal flaw, the equivalent of asking someone to take a Ford Tempo and do a 30 second lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speeday. It can't be done! Oh yes it can, if you wish it to be! -- Sure Gran Turismo, sure!

Why the licenses are so aneurysm inducing is because it doesn't play by any of the rules that the rest of the game has to follow, and its a good thing too because if the rest of the game were this strict nobody would play it! But why do we need to follow rules that don't apply in the real thing, the license tests are too much like someone suddenly being burdened by a mathematical equation where they first need to figure out the numerical value of L. Oh sure they taught you that in school, but 99% of the active populous NEVER have to use it.

Tests that require me to apex 3 or 4 corners in a few seconds are frustration as they sometimes set the out of bounds exactly where I need to aim, but what really pisses me off are the whole lap tests. If I aim too far on an apex and get sent back to the starting line, I can do it over and over again, frustrating but no big deal. But when I'm 2 minutes into a 2:20 jaunt around a track and I slide into the wall because the severely under powered car you've sent me out in won't pull out of an over steer, well I want to fucking slit your fucking tires and piss in your gas tank.

You start off with shitty clunkers and they set such impossible goals, its as if they had a robotic Ayrton Senna set these times. They're also quite unapologetic about how hard it is to get gold. I'll take bronze all day long, as long as I don't need to repeat a single test all day long, which is almost what happens the higher up you get.

Gran Turismo makers, cut the shit and lighten up on the fucking license tests. We know how to play the game, just stop being unreasonable about the demands for licensing. Prime example of how a great, fresh idea can be taken way too far and turn a game from a great idea into a complete waste of time.

Oh, aren't you just the coolest?

I don't understand the fanatical lust for branding and it's subsequent consumerism. I will however take the time now to brand myself guilty of loyalty to almost anything video game related: Nintendo branding, Sega branding, etc, but I don't take it too the extremes as some people feel, or even deem, necessary. But I feel as though those companies are worthy of having such a dedicated following, a TV show is not!

It isn't a new concept, most notably wrestling associations are well known for this, but they are essentially travelling shows and need to promote themselves as much as possible. But even so I don't see the extreme degree of fandom brought on by this than I do from what I'm writing about today. This level of fandom blows my mind!

The second I saw the commercials for the series, before it even hit the air, I knew I wasn't going to watch it, and haven't. The show in question here is Sons of Anarchy, a show about a group of "outlaw" bikers, and as I've never watched the show that is all I know about the series. Throughout many years of having access to the Discovery and History channels I've learned there are large numbers of real motorcycle groups with whom you want nothing at all to do with, but lets face it, a group of highly paid actors isn't going to be anywhere near as rough and tumble as a true group of brothers living what the actors are trying to portray.

Since I've never actually wasted my time enough to watch the show, I'll ease off and get back into the fanatical consumerism that came from this show's birth. Now, it seems, I can't go into any store without some fat, bloated couple with spray tans hopping off their freshly washed Harley dawning a leather vest with a "Sons of Anarchy" patch and local chapter patch adorning the back. I'm going to step out on a limb here and say due to numerous possible lawsuits, death threats and assorted other things, Sons of Anarchy is more than likely a made up name for the television show, rather than a real biker group. So who would be so completely and totally stupid as to pretend they're in a group that doesn't exist!? You're so bad, join a real one!

Another good one is Tapout, a clothing line endorsed by the UFC, or the other way around either way they're affiliated in some way, officially. I used to watch UFC and that isn't my problem here, my problem stems from walking through a store and seeing a fat 10 year old crying to his mother how he wanted more candy, and he was wearing a Tapout shirt. I fear the only ultimate fight for tubby will be his battle with obesity, and I bet he taps out first!

I will support a brand I use, or something I feel strong enough about that deserves the attention, although I believe it needs to be done in the right way. Making sew-on patches for a fake TV biker gang doesn't make you anymore of a biker gang than watching Dr. Quinn makes you a medicine woman. And try as I might, no matter how much I watch Red Green, Kids in the Hall, This Hour has 22 minutes, CBC News, Curling, Hockey and the Trailer Park Boys, I am NOT going to magically become Canadian, eh!?