of being absolutely wiped out. I never sleep in the day – and have done both. I never have headaches as bad as this 2 days in a row. Feel shattered. Drained is the word, it’s beyond tired. Running on automation. Not running, just moving. Very very slowly.
It arrived, all the way from the USA:
Disgaea - Afternoon of Darkness
It is perfectly sealed. No holes, no scratches on the covering plastic. Mint. But do I play it? Took a while to find, I have a few games on the go right now (Fallout 3, FF VII, Monster Hunter and SOCOM) and if I do open it the resale value falls considerably. Metacritic scores it very highly which is one reason why I bought it. Not sure so for now it can safely with all the other games..
At some point in the last couple of years Jacq signed us up to a service called CreditExpert. I will have chosen a password, told J what it was and left her to do whatever it did. I don’t care for any money issues, it’s all down to Jacq to sort (which she likes so that’s okay). Anyway, a couple of months or so ago I got an email from them along the lines of “Hey, missing you! Sign in to see the great changes!”. I must have been bored but I went to their site and could not login. Tried a few times and gave up. Following month I get another. I try again and I still cannot get in. I have lost all the information I need – which shows how throwaway I thought the service was.
I email them. I send their email back along with a note saying I’ve forgotten so could they close my account. Get one back saying they can’t be sure who I am so could I call them. I reply that No, I will not phone them. I include every detail I know they have of me, my phone number, everything. I add that if I was an imposter then I’m showing I know everything, that if I was I have control and that if I rang them or they rang me how would they know it is me. Get a reply saying they can’t be sure it’s me. I swear and give up.
Jacq tells me that I’m paying for this service which sends me emails, tells me how great they are but I cannot access. So I ask her to cancel it. I happened to go downstairs this morning and find her exasperated on the telephone. Because she set it up for me and used my financial details they – she is talking to CreditExpert – say she is guilty of fraud. Not in a big bad way but they are still saying it. She passes the phone to me, I talk, then the woman on the phone asks for Jacq, then me, then Jacq. End result is that I am no longer with CreditExpert. Bearing in mind the previous emails the woman had to be sure it was me, right? She asked my name, my address and my date of birth. She then asked for 1 piece of information which can probably be found by Google. She asked for a lot less than I had sent them in the first place. So how does she know it was me? Because she initiated the contact? But then how do I know she is with them? Like I care now. It’s a bit like those identity insurance services – how do they know it’s you? And now – I routinely print every order, invoice, new login/account.
As far as I’m concerned, Google Groups is dead.
Usenet is an online bulletin board system that began at Duke University in 1979. Usenet users can post messages to newsgroups that can be read (and responded to) by anyone who has access to the system through a newsreader. Over the years, the number of newsgroups has grown into the thousands; they’re hosted all over the world and cover every conceivable topic.
Google Groups contains the world’s most comprehensive archive of Usenet postings, dating back to 1981. Using Groups, you won’t need a newsreader and you can search this archive the same way you’d search on the web. You can also use Groups to post your own comments to an existing Usenet newsgroup.
It started in 1979. Google bought Deja.com’s archives in 2001. And what happens with each and every Google product without a single exception? Spam. You’d think they would (1) recognise it and (2) have a clue how to deal with it. But they can’t, they don’t and their lack of interest means one of the most interesting places on the net has gone. Just went looking for uk.people.bodyart and it’s all spam. rec.arts.bodyart is slightly better but only just. alt.games.mame is spammy. Everywhere is. Yet the company that says it makes billions of dollars cannot be bothered to clean things up. Brightest people work at Google? So why can’t they figure spam out? Anyway, it’s a shame because Usenet was a great place despite some trolls.
Thanks Google.
I have decided to move the contents of my old /T2 blog into this one. Not sure of some of the finer details – like showing the posts as opposed to making them all private – but I’m finding some images that have memories.
Looking South on Stinson Beach
This was July 2007 just after WordCamp. The first picture I took was looking down at my feet as I stood in the Pacific Ocean for the first (and only so far) time. And then I took this which I uploaded to my old domain and sent Jacq and the girls the link. So the scene is nothing to look at really, the photograph is poor but the actions surrounding it were good, really good.
Some radio Jpop
You know that thing on the net where if you didn’t take a screenshot it didn’t happen? You can absolutely guarantee that the recipient of a phone call regarding this item would deny it was ever made which even if they did not answer implies that the person saying it did happen is lying. Implications tend to stick more than lies? Anyway, a letter from 1985.
Walk into any Orange mobile phone shop.
Buy a phone
At the till the sales person will open the box and insert the SIM. They say they are “setting the phone up”.
You pay.
On leaving the shop turn around and walk straight back to the same person. Say you have changed your mind, that you want a refund.
He will say you cannot because the box is opened.
True.
Never buy anything at all from them and certainly not toward xmas because the ability to change it does not exist.
And the Orange shop at Fosse Park in Leicester? Stay away. That’s one place for this scam, this rip-off, this theft, this con.
Joe’s Bar
An undistinguished bar, yet the social center of Upper Sandusky. The front door is almost lost amidst the hazy maze of neon that shrouds the grimy glass of the south wall. Doors marked “Ladies” and “Gents” lead, respectively, northeast and northwest.
In every game that comes to mind right now where I could choose the gender of my character I always choose female. In the above text adventure – Leather Goddesses of Phobos – I went NE. In Monster Hunter I created a female as I just did in Fallout 3. There are others I have and have had where again it’s been a woman every time. I wonder if that says something about me? I don’t recall a driving game giving the choice (Race Driver: School Run) or a shooter (Call of Duty: Rations under fire) and that says something about something.
Currently listening to http://oyakan.hp.infoseek.co.jp/radio/. I have not the faintest clue what they are singing but it sounds great. Station found and being recorded with Snowtape. iTunes has no idea how to name/tag the exports which is also amusing. It has the Genre as ‘music’. That’s it.