Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Today has been something of an emotional roller-coaster. Someone whom I hired, someone whom I used to work with day-in and day-out, someone whom I consider a friend, called me today to talk about his future. And it wasn’t an optimistic conversation — I couldn’t really give him a good reason whyContinue reading “On Life in General”
Tag Archives: EB-Games
On Customers and Entitlement
Sometimes, only sometimes, customers annoy me. A guy had bought, for his son for Christmas, a Nintendo DS, the special red Mario Kart edition. It was a limited edition, like the teal blue Nintendogs edition, and once it was gone it was gone. We offer a replacement warranty on the systems we sell, though weContinue reading “On Customers and Entitlement”
On Video Game Ratings
Movies have their ratings. Some music CDs carry a “parental advisory” warning. Video games have their own rating system, the ESRB rating. I deal with this every day at work–What’s the game rated? Is this appropriate for my child? It’s not just something to be reactive about, we also have to be proactive, to beContinue reading “On Video Game Ratings”
On the Day After Christmas
In no random order, some thoughts on the day. After sleeping a lot yesterday, the alarm going off this morning at five was incredibly unwelcome. I got to work before the sun came up. Somehow, I got coffee in my eye. Tepid coffee, but it still stung like a muthafucker. The gift card system wentContinue reading “On the Day After Christmas”
On a Span of Time
Today I will have worked for EB Games as long as I worked for Payless ShoeSource–just slightly shy of seven years each. And remember, Festivus is two days hence. Have you put up your Festivus Pole? Are you ready for the Feats of Strength? Have you prepared your Airing of Grievances? Festivus, the holiday forContinue reading “On a Span of Time”
On a Case of the Mondays
“Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays,” said that annoying phone operator in Office Space. I must be having one of those, because I kept thinking that today must have been something other than Monday. Surely it was Tuesday, or Wednesday, or possibly even Friday. Monday? Not possible. And yet, today is Monday.Continue reading “On a Case of the Mondays”
On XBox 360 Madness
People need a sanity check–you can buy an XBox 360 system on eBay for 11 million dollars. I don’t expect that anyone would match Jack Dell’s “Buy It Now” price–there are better things one can do with 11 million dollars–but I have to wonder at the thought process that leads someone to put up anContinue reading “On XBox 360 Madness”
On Making December's Schedule
Nothing puts the month into perspective like making the store’s schedule through Christmas Eve. The schedule, at least two weeks out, isn’t set in stone. It’s a kind of guestimate, an ideal for how I want to schedule the store. There’s every possibility that the schedule for the week beginning the 18th will need someContinue reading “On Making December's Schedule”
On Christmas Songs
They’ve begun to play Christmas songs on the muzak at work. It’s not all Christmas music — we still get the insipid Hillary Duff and Kelly Clarkson songs every twenty minutes — but there’s a nice mix with maybe one out of every three songs being a Christmas song. And they’re not old Christmas songs,Continue reading “On Christmas Songs”
On the Day After
I’m so glad I no longer work in a mall. The day after Thanksgiving is, traditionally, the busiest shopping day of the year, the start of the Christmas shopping season. The company wanted its stores in strip malls to open at seven. I got to work at six, brought the registers up, and at 6:15Continue reading “On the Day After”