Oh hm, I haven’t updated in a while. Work’s been keeping me busy, and when I get off – usually late – I’m prone to lying around, watching an episode or two of Scrubs, and general vegging in front of the TV.
‘cept nowadays, Pan is no longer with me (yea, I posthumusly named her).
The story’s not that interesting; I posted once or twice, half-heartedly, on Craigslist just to see whether anybody was interested in the older, slightly scratched up girl and gauging the price buyers were willing to pay. Craigslist, of course, is full of cheapskates, and I did get a good amount of insultingly low offers, but ultimately someone with genuine interest in the set and had the means of transporting it (giant pickup will do the trick) took her away.
So now I’m really just staring at a wall.
Ah, always a sucker for figurines, I am…
Doesn’t help when Square Enix opens up a merchandise store, it seems, specifically to cater to people like me who don’t mind overpaying for a chance to reminiscence. So despite only launching for a few hours and having to pay for $18 UPS Ground shipping from Illinois, I got my hands on some goodies.
Pictures of which you can find in my gallery here – you’re looking at a Tonberry, a Bahamut statue, and a Knights of the Round statue, plus a bunch of older toys I have lying around.
My office is fun!
It was a while since I bought any videogame-related toys and collectibles, and my upgraded room started to fill a little empty with all the unused shelf space, devoid of the paraphernalia which adorn most geeks’ bedrooms.
Of course there are a ton of sites who love people like me that go on random spending splurges, and video games are enough of an enthusiast hobby that almost any piece of branded crap can be sold for massive profits. In particular, anything imported from Japan (at great shipping and handling costs) for some reason is especially cool. NCS is one such company.
So this solar mushroom thing looked pretty cool, and for good measure got this cute Mario plush to make the shipping costs worthwhile.
And two weeks later, Sui gives me something cute she found in the hobbyist store next to her work… ()
RMA‘s are such a hassle; spend hours convincing a customer rep. the product you bought in pristine condition imploded, and many shipping adventures later hope that you get a working replacement which isn’t too worn out from its previously unsatisfied owner (i.e., refurbished).
Sometimes, though, the process is so easy you wonder just how much they’re making selling it to you the first time around.
The last time this happened, I spent a few dollars on a cheapo flying saucer thingy which did not take crashes well; the styrofoam split after a particularly vicious encounter with a cubicle closet. Fortunately, customer service turned out to be a pleasant experience as they immediately offered to send out a new one on 3-day shipping at no charge and to trash the broken one since it was, after all, around $1 of construction material and electronics.
Just a quickie entry before I dive into the happy world of tax forms and W-2 crunching. This is a pretty good documentary on the state of credit cards in America and how the words “credit card nation” mean what they do today.
Frontline: Secret History of the Credit Card
It’s quite educational, and in this corporate-run-amok world of credit debt and revolving interest, it certainly pays to keep informed.
For some reason, the unholy destroyer that are my ears have a tendency to destroy any earphones I buy, as I’ve documented a little over a year ago. I went through a ton of cheap Sony earphones, and eventually settled on a pair of Shure E2g’s.
Well, turns out my ears are too strong even for Shure’s materials. To their credit, their luxury gear has lasted me two to three times longer than the cheaper Sony fare, and it’s really just the plastic cracking on the wiring and not any actual loss in functionality (unlike the Sony phones, which have had amps die while they were in my ear and by god it hurt). They also have better construction quality overall and more fulfilling, deeper bass for only twice the cost.
So all the points above would have already made me a happily satisfied repeat customer, and I was ready to lay down another $80 for a new pair if these deteriorate any further. To my surprise, though, Shure goes one step further in garnering respect by including a two-year warranty on their earphones, which covers trivial cases such as cracking plastic wires.
