Brian's Blog http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/cat_5-rss.xml Random Thoughts and Comments en-us Brian 2009-11-18T06:54:34-05:00 http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2009-11-03T10_03_39.html The Encounter Comics and Games - Service Disappointment 2009-11-03T10:03:39-05:00 Brian Games, Miscellaneous Magic the Gathering (MTG) a few years ago there were a fair number of local gaming stores. One of my favorites of the time was The Encounter in Allentown. I used to go to their MTG tournament on weekends and just hang out there for some fun and games on weekends. Back then the store was reasonably well kept, organized, and clean. And even if it wasn't all that clean and organized the people were nice, both the other customers and the people who worked there. That seems to have changed though.

I introduced a co-worker to MTG a month or so ago and he wanted to know where he could look at cards. Of course, my first thought was of The Encounter. We headed over with me expecting to find it much as I remembered it. Instead what I found was a bit of a dive. There was so much stuff on the counter I couldn't see through the top of the glass at it's contents. Everything on the shelves struck me as dirty and almost dusty. Additionally, the back gaming room was a sty even by my standards, and I'm pretty messy. Let's face it, most gamers aren't exactly known for their organization and cleanliness so it's not like I'm holding them to a high standard. There were also giant piles of stuff in the main part of the store.

Let me say though, this may not be the way they normally are. I understand that they had just come back from two back to back comic/gaming shows which may account for the disorganization. Still, it leaves a bad impression. Especially if a new customer walks in.

I know I've gone on about organization and cleanliness a bit now but that's not really the deal breaker. A place can be cleaned, no biggy. And they did just come off of those shows, so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt in that regards. What has turned me mist off is the customer service. My co-worker, Mike, decided he wanted to call them to see if they had a few singles rather than driving over to ask. He called both the Allentown store and the Stroudsburg store asking if they had any Blightning in stock. A few examples of the replied received were:

"I'm 14 hours behind! I don't have time to look up singles!"

"I'm not supposed to look up singles!"

"There's no such card."

That last one was given after we provided the MTG Card set and name. According to Gatherer the card sure as hell does exist.

My first thought is that there was a bad apple employee who answered. That thought was dashed when he got a similar reply from both the Allentown store and the Stroudsburg stores telling me the problem is systemic rather than an individual.

I'm not going to totally discount The Encounter yet. I think I'll give them a visit in a month or two and see how they are doing. Until then, the preferred alternative is The Portal Comics and Gaming. If the Encounter doesn't shape up The Portal may end up being my go to place for geeky games.]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2007-12-15T12_01_46.html The Nerd Handbook 2007-12-15T12:01:46-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous TLLTS IRC. It's called The Nerd Handbook and I have to say it was an amusing read. Very much of it is true, at least in my case, and I imagine true for many others that I know.

It even mentions the nerds tendency to have a room they refer to as "The Cave". The reason this is funny is I've been referring to my dark computer filled room that I have as "The Cave" for quite a few years now. I never knew anyone else used the same phrase.

The only thing I wish is they didn't use the term nerd. I've always preferred being referred to as a geek rather than a nerd for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. I guess nerd sound a bit more derogatory than geek does.]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2007-11-28T18_41_48.html Comments Working Again 2007-11-28T18:41:48-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous
Thanks Ricardo for pointing out that the error I thought was a catastrophic one really wasn't. It pays to have friends that are developers.]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2007-08-11T11_12_31.html Time for Reading 2007-08-11T11:12:31-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous WARNING: Tolkien Geek Ramblings Below. Continue at your own risk. :P

I am very happy I'm done with my tests because now I can actually take time for pleasure reading and not feel guilty. As a result, I finally finished pass four of The Lord of the Rings. This time I did something different though, I actually read a big hunk of the appendices. There was a nice summary of the relevant histories of Numenor and it's downfall. It also went into the histories of the Northern Kingdom (Arnor) and it's fall. Essentially, all the stuff that is relevant to the story but only as background. It's not essential for enjoyment of the story but for crazies like me it adds depth to the story. Having read the Silmarillion I was already familiar with much of it but it was nice to have a summary rather than reading the Silmarillion again. For as good as The Silmarillion is it is far from easy reading.

Another interesting section for the semi-hardcore was the bit on Durin's Folk (aka Dwarves) which went into stuff about Thorin Oakenshield, how the dwarves were driven from Moria and how they came to live in the Lonely Mountain. Of less interest was the histories of the Rohirrim. I'm not sure why I didn't find it interesting because I've always liked their race in the story.

Probably the best section and most relevant to the books themselves was the story of Arwen and Aragorn. I know Arwen was a major character in the movies but in the books she really doesn't appear much. Much like the story of Beren and Luthien the story of Aragorn and Arwen is actually pretty darn sad. After Aragorn's death Arwen goes to Lothlorien, which is of course abandoned at this point since most of the Elves have already left for Valinor. There she dies alone unable to ever go to Valinor and see her people even if she tried to.

Whew, all of this is in the first appendix! There's still B through F which I may read some more of later.]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2007-04-22T23_13_18.html An Earth Day Video 2007-04-22T23:13:18-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous
It can be found here in Flash or at Rocketboom in Quicktime.

Tags:
]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2007-03-18T13_05_19.html Category RSS Feeds 2007-03-18T13:05:19-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous
Hopefully this is my last Nanoblogger horah before changing to something else.]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2007-03-17T21_19_52.html Happy Belated Pi Day! 2007-03-17T21:19:52-05:00 Brian Personal, Miscellaneous, Fun Stuff Pi Day and I was asleep at the wheel. I'm not a math geek and I've never even made the connection of 3/14 being Pi Day until I saw this posted on boing boing. Apparently they had pointed it out on 3/14 but I missed it. Still, I don't need much of an excuse to have a celebration and to eat yummy pies so I think I'll add this day to my calendar.

I wonder if I can push to have this be an official paid holiday at work? ;)

]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2006-02-22T18_18_33.html Pausing means honesty? 2006-02-22T18:18:33-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous
For quite some time I've noticed this especially in financial commercials or any commercial that is trying to give that "down home" feel. I wonder if this really works on the mindless masses? I mean, I've never once in my life heard an honest person talk... like this... in normal conversation. Come to think of it, I've never heard any one talk in this way, honest or not.

Funny the things that advertisers come up with to sell things. And even more amazing is that they actually work. ]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2006-02-08T19_44_43.html The Musical Dice Game 2006-02-08T19:44:43-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous, Entertainment, Fun Stuff The Musical Dice Game . Basically, the entire thing is generated by rolling dice to choose the measures. And each measure is written in such a way that no matter how it works out it still sounds good.

Well, I thought this was one of the coolest things I've heard of in a long while so I just had to hear it played. Unfortunately the only working site I could find requires Quicktime. Even so, I booted up into Windows, installed Quicktime and generated a few versions just to hear and they really did sound good no matter what I rolled! Pretty neat stuff.]]> http://rignesnet.tzo.com/archives/2005-12-31T21_17_56.html An Odd Question from Amazon 2005-12-31T21:17:56-05:00 Brian Miscellaneous