On Illinguistic E-mails

There are times I’m glad I no longer work for EB Games/GameStop. Opening up my e-mail inbox today was one of those times. Here’s the subject line: Hugenormous Savings at GameStop! “Hugenormous”? Whiskey tango foxtrot? It doesn’t roll off the tongue, not the way “ginormous” does. How do you pronounce that? “Hug… enormous”? “Hew… gee..Continue reading “On Illinguistic E-mails”

On Super Mario, As Never Seen Before

The Nintendo generation passed me by. It didn’t make me cry. It certainly didn’t make me blue. But when my friends had the Nintendo Entertainment System, I didn’t. I didn’t really even care. That rectangular controller? All those buttons? It made no sense to me. So, the whole appeal of Mario? I don’t get it.Continue reading “On Super Mario, As Never Seen Before”

On Friends and Five Years Gone

My habit of holding onto old e-mails and documents paid dividends today. At Natalie and Beau’s wedding reception Saturday night I found myself talking to Natalie’s cousin. I was trying to figure out how long I knew them. I ran the numbers in my head, and I decided that it was almost exactly five yearsContinue reading “On Friends and Five Years Gone”

On Long Gestating Pre-Orders

So, the plug finally got pulled. Duke Nukem Forever is dead. Gone. Kaput. Will never see the light of day. Yahoo! had an article on their front page, about a gamer who had an eight-year old pre-order on the game. It doesn’t surprise me. The EB Games I managed outside Philadelphia had four or fiveContinue reading “On Long Gestating Pre-Orders”

On Customers and Kindness

I was, last night, sitting on a bench at the local mall. Christmas music played on the PA system. There were decorations strung here and there. It didn’t feel Christmassy. The reason was simple. This mall was deserted. No customers. It’s hard to feel the Christmas spirit without the throngs of customers, the blaring ofContinue reading “On Customers and Kindness”

On Games and Nostalgia

Dear GameStop employees, You can blame me. It’s my fault. No, really, it is. kthxbye! Oh, wait. You’re wanting me to explain that, aren’t you? You bounder, you cheat! Well, okay then. I was at the mall this afternoon. I was looking for the new issue of MOJO at Borders. Mostly I wanted the secondContinue reading “On Games and Nostalgia”

On Barnes & Noble and Borders

I heard at work today that Barnes & Noble has made an offer to buy Borders. There may be some anti-trust investigations, but it’s a formality. Much as when GameStop — itself a division of Barnes & Noble — bought EB Games three years ago. The real issue is probably online sales. I’m sure partContinue reading “On Barnes & Noble and Borders”

On a Week-End Round-Up

Another week beginning, another week done to recap. 🙂 Last Sunday, I discovered that former British PM Harold Saxon has declared his candidacy to be President of the United States. My reaction? How does this even work? Not only is Saxon an alien from another planet, but his wife shot and killed him, and hisContinue reading “On a Week-End Round-Up”

On a Week-End Round-Up

Let’s review some of the things I’ve written about this week. On Sunday I wrote about the tenures of Doctor Who actors in the role. The more I think about it, the more it occurs to me that the ninth Doctor was never intended to be a long-term role, that Russell T. Davies needed anContinue reading “On a Week-End Round-Up”

On Recent GameStop Searches

A few days ago it was “pitchers.” Now, it’s GameStop and EB Games that are clogging up the search engines on the readers’ way to here. Sadly, no fun searches. Nothing humorous like “pitchers of David Tennant.” No, these are generally serious questions. People trying to figure out something, perhaps to understand something. “GameStop Trade-InContinue reading “On Recent GameStop Searches”