An Annonymous Thesis

The following is a thesis paper I had a friend turn in for me annonymously to a class she was taking a few weeks ago. I'm not enrolled in the class, I just did it for shits and giggles. Enjoy

It’s All your Fault; Why Shit’s Fucked
By The Chief

Throughout the early months of 2009, many Americans are struggling to understand exactly what is going on in our country. A lot is happening in our nation today, and topics that are too complex in nature for the common man to grasp are a nearly common occurrence. It’s no secret: Shit’s fucked. Ask a passerby on the street why he thinks the nation is in a recession and you’re likely to get a blank stare, or recite some long-winded piece they memorized from an article in a publication from their favorite political media assclown parading around as an ‘investigative journalist’. Between the recession, prison overpopulation, overzealous religious fanatics (Read: Idiots), the housing market collapse, the auto industry taking a shit and crime rates unnecessarily skyrocketing, American’s have a lot on their plate…or so they’re told. So it is my intent, here in this thesis paper, to touch on a few of these topics for those who obviously can’t get their heads out of the asses in which they are firmly placed.

The recession plaguing our nation has been in the making a long time, though most really never saw it coming. American’s today seem to be so consumed by their own trivial everyday lives to even bother notice when the economy starts tumbling down like a retarded kid at cheerleading tryouts. The lack of regulation in place signifies two things:

1. Our government was completely happy not monitoring or regulating companies that manipulated loopholes and people for pure profit and

2. The average person is so stupid they couldn’t even question why a family that breeds knee deep in Budweiser cans in the back of a rusty Toyota truck bed 7 times can afford a loan for a $600,000 house and still have leftover cash for a carton of Jacks, a 6-pack and the 200 channel Nascar Super package from DirecTV.

When you attempt to take out a loan, the bank runs through their magic number-crunching process and determines if you are eligible for a loan. This is usually determined by your FICO score, or credit rating. The lower the rating, the less eligible you are for a loan. Those who met the requirements for a loan were ‘prime’ candidates. Those like our aforementioned friend bubba, who do not meet the requirements, are turned away…or at least that’s how it USED to work. Now they’re considered ‘sub-prime’, and even though they are more likely to default on their loan and not pay money owed to the bank, the bank stamps the seal of approval on the loan anyway. This gives people like bubba a better chance at being a homeowner, at the risk of the bank (and now the taxpayer, ala federal bailouts). Oh, but it gets better…

Several years ago after fed chairman Alan Greenspan lowered the interest rate to 1% as a result of September 11th and other factors, investors looking for a safe investment and wanting a better return stopped buying from the fed and decided that it would be a good idea to get connected with homeowners. A mortgage lender would sell the mortgages to bankers, who would sell the individual mortgages to investors who would then get the mortgage payments from homeowners. It was a great deal for them at the time, they had hundreds of homeowners paying their mortgages directly to them and lining their pockets, but they wanted more mortgages. So the mortgage lenders sent out their brokers and let them give loans to consumers considered ‘sub-prime’ because the prime candidates who could afford to get loans and own homes already did.

After some time, the ‘sub-prime’ homeowners would default on their mortgage. No big deal for the investors, they owned thousands of them and were still getting cash flow from other active mortgages. Unfortunately over time most of the homeowners eventually defaulted, and the price of houses began to fall so fast, prime candidate homeowners were left wondering why they were paying for a $500,000 mortgage when the house was only worth $60,000. So they got smart and ditched it for better prospects. The investors stopped buying the mortgages, the banker got shafted with the mortgages he couldn’t sell off, and the lenders couldn’t sell what they had left over leaving everyone with a ton of debt that no one could pay off. The misconception is that it was a good idea in theory. The truth is that you’d have to be a mental fucktard to even think about taking part in a scheme like this. How can you give thousands of dollars to someone you KNOW isn’t going to pay it back? It all backfired and kick-started the recession and our government sat back and watched it all happen. It was only after everything collapsed when talks of regulation started and now the taxpayers are paying for it in the form of bailouts and stimulus packages.

The first question you should be asking yourself is “How did I not see it coming?” The media has been making things so complex that the average American is audibly familiar with the terms ‘sub-prime mortgages’ and ‘default credit swaps’ but have no idea what it really means. You may as well be shouting Cantonese. The second question you should ask yourself is why any person would take out a loan they couldn’t afford. Just because you get approved for a loan doesn’t instantly make it a good decision, especially for people like bubba. No one spoke up, no one read further into it, and no one seemed to mind giving or taking the loans from the start of this sloppy affair. The housing collapse, and the start of what would become the recession, is your fault.

Well now that we’re knee deep in the recession, what of the auto industry? Simply put, we don’t want their shitty fiberglass gas guzzlers anymore. The cars being made now aren’t like the cars of old. Cars used to be built with solid steel frames, solid engines and decent fuel economy. Now we have SUV’s and Hummers made of cheap, brittle fiberglass rolling around like they own the road sucking down 6 gallons of gas per inch, all so some guy with penis envy can feel like a real man again. Even the so-called ‘green cars’ are only green to the manufacturer’s marketing division.

Although you would love to believe that this green revolution in the auto industry has something to do with companies taking bold strides in the right direction for the future of our species, but since we’re dealing with slimy, scumbag corporate types, it’s just profiteering at the behest of demand. Take the Prius for instance. In Japan the Prius gets 66 miles per gallon, here in the states, it gets 42. Even though it’s a hybrid, the fuel economy standards have hardly been touched since recently, as they were last adjusted to 27.5 miles per gallon in 1990. Everyone started buying these cars to save money on gas and get decent gas mileages not even realizing a better, more efficient type of the exact same car was already built in another country. In addition, There was an attempt in California to crack down on the emissions standards for vehicle manufacturers, lobbyists pressured the state emissions board to scrap the idea (and happened to vanquish GM’s precious EV-1, the mildly successful Electric car…though GM would never admit to an ‘success’ the car may have had). Auto manufacturers tried afterwards to push for Hydrogen Fuel Cells, but the facts about the technology make things worse for the consumer than ever before. It’s expensive to manufacture and therefore more expensive to purchase, you have to have a refueling system in place before the cars go out on the market that would cost billions and quite frankly, the technology to mass-produce these vehicles isn’t quite here yet. The cost of the fuel would cost more than gasoline in the summer of 2007, when gasoline reached record prices across the country. Not to mention the corporate heads at the oil companies make too much money to just abandon their flagship product, they are looking for a product that can be sold at the same rate as gasoline, if not higher, instead of just abandoning it (and their profits). Hydrogen cells seem to fit this description.

Even now, as the auto industry struggles to meet the demand of those wanting green, fuel-efficient cars, we can trace the problem right back to the EV-1. It was a fully-functioning electric car. It was endorsed by celebrities including tom hanks and Mel Gibson, and was driven on the road by commoners until the lease ran out. When the leases were up General Motors, fearing the car was becoming too popular, decided not to renew the leases on the vehicles and took the perfectly good, functioning cars and crushed them to dust at their testing facility in California. Where was the green movement then? Where was the big push for fuel economy and better living and driving standards when General Motors decided there wasn’t enough ‘demand’ for the car and scrapped every last one of them. Where was the talk of our addiction to foreign oil from news networks and political pundits? No one spoke up. After seeing the fuel spike in 2007, most people would love to have electric cars, and the EV-1 debuted in 1996! The technology could’ve been made widely accessible by now. Battery technology has come so far now that the car could have tripled its driving distance and would have been a perfect car for those who care about the environment and their wallet. But, according to GM, the ‘demand’ wasn’t there. Why is the auto Industry failing? Why are so-called ‘Green’ cars unavailable or nonexistent on the showroom floor? It’s your fault.

Not that it would matter much. After buying your shiny new ‘green’ car, some punk at a red light is likely to smash your window and throw your hippie, tree-fucking ass out on the pavement and steal your ride. Our society has its own head stuffed so far up its own ass people can’t see what’s right in front of them half the time, or at least what’s important. Information is distorted and packaged, making cases of fear out of trivial events and spouting opinion as facts. Since the fairness doctrine was abolished in 1987, and since the arrival of the post-September 11th 24 hour news networks, news is biased, packaged, and sometimes blatant lies that media consumers gladly eat up like Rosie O’Donnell at a buffet on half-price Wednesday. No one ever asks where the solid evidence is contained in a news story that is presented to them; it’s just “the news”, it is to be trusted. Now because of the ignorance of the common man, and the will of news media to manipulate them, our country is harshly divided between the right and left, the red and blue. Words like ‘socialism’, and ‘Marxist’ are thrown around on a daily basis, but like the terms in the housing market, people have not the slightest idea what those words mean, just that they are being used to paint a negative picture of political figures and agendas…how can you know if a political figure is doing good for your country if you’re calling someone a term you don’t know the definition of? We could delve further into this particular situation, but it really doesn’t matter. The matter at hand is that the opinion of others is regarded as fact, simply because it’s on the television and people are stupid enough to believe it without looking at the evidence. This makes the masses uninformed, vapid, loudmouthed, mentally challenged twits who think their opinion is absolute and incorruptible when they really only got those opinions from someone else distributing opinion as the truth (rendering their opinion false and irrelevant because it isn’t their own opinion to begin with). A news network is different from an opinion network. How can a network have a slogan like “fair and balanced” or “the most trusted name in news” when there is no system in place to give equal time to the opposing side of ANY story? If police did this, and didn’t look at the hard facts and evidence, you could get locked up at any time or place for doing nothing, just because someone had a negative opinion of you. Scary, isn’t it? Whatever happened to the hard-hitting investigative journalist, out to get the big scoop and deliver ‘just the facts’? They are nonexistent in our society. What does that tell you about the way we handle news in this country?

What’s even worse is that what is considered newsworthy these days is laughable (especially overcompensating loudmouth dickheads like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Jim Cramer). Extended coverage of parades, high-speed car chases, petty thefts and other such nonsense takes up more space than important issues like poverty, laws and bills being passed by the government and especially the men and women overseas dying while at war protecting our right to freedom (as the media likes to say) while simultaneously disregarding the right to know the whole story. They ask for ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ in court for a reason, not ‘your side of the truth, it doesn’t have to be the whole thing, and you can throw in a bit of misleading information too’. Wouldn’t you want the same qualities in a news organization?

The fact that those idiotic and exaggerated stories like celebrity breakdowns and vengeful couples take up more time than important events just undermines the true meaning and relevance of more important stories, and because of this the news networks are slowing down the progress of our society. Think about that for a second. The news networks are a roadblock on the path of societal evolution and are blocking the path forward towards prosperity. Is that such a hard concept to grasp? But, I shouldn’t be telling you any of this, it’s my opinion and you’ll take it and spin it around as your own and tell others how things are and should be…naturally it’s all your fault.

I could go on and on about issues infecting our nation with plight and unrest, but the details would make this paper drag on and on about things the common person (yourself included) wouldn’t be interested in hearing. The importance of details has eluded us. We never look at the fine print; it’s always sign on the dotted line. Health care, homelessness, hunger, poverty, education, unemployment, crime rates, financial instability, who runs our government…even the details of our own constitution and bill of rights that details our liberties as Americans are overlooked, guessed, distorted, misrepresented and forgotten by everyday people like you and I. the fact that they are overlooked is troubling, not because people become blissful ignorant fools by just expecting “someone else to fix it”. They are troubling to those who are unaware because the people that are aware take advantage of these people, and to a certain degree those people deserve it. But just like a festering disease, this infection is spreading to the brain of our nation and smothering it. Instead of playing the infinite blame-game, why not admit that everything that is wrong with our country you ALLOWED to happen. Admit that it is your fault; admit that you’ve done nothing until now. Don’t settle for what others tell you, stand up and be counted. Demand solutions, our elected officials are at your command. Become aware, make others aware. There are many issues that require the attention of all people in our country, and as it stands things look like shit. But it can be fixed, you can fix it…after all, it’s all your fault.

Film Critics and Social Perception Over Time

After re-reading the classic graphic novel Watchmen, I decided to give it a shot at the theatre with Zack Snyder's recent film adaptation of the aforementioned work. To a certain degree, I came in with mid-range expectations expecting the film to be nothing more than a special effects extravaganza (which it is). Suprisingly, the film pulls it off wonderfully. I won't go into much detail here, but the film tries to mirror the book almost perfectly, pulling references in every shot. It's a fan's dream come to life. As of this writing, I've seen it 3 times. Granted, a lot of content was cut out, but the movie is already almost 3 hours long, so in the interest of a reasonable moviegoing experience I can forgive that (plus I hear a lot of that content is going in the DVD release, so don't despair fans!)

Having said that, I've been reading reviews of the film left and right, watching as critics bash Zack Snyder's style and cardboard performance of Malin Akerman (Silk spectre II in the film), and while those accusations are true to a certain degree, my personal opinion is that Jackie Earl Haley's performance as Rorschach was perfect and well-rounded, and other characters like the Comedian add depth to the story and make up for its shortcomings. The soundtrack seems oddly placed, but critics obviously won't understand that the music is a direct reference to the book (which they keep referencing as a masterwork, though i'm doubtful they've even read it). Songs like All Along the Watchtower, The Sound of Silence, and The Times They Are a' Changin seem perfectly placed to me, a break of pace from the somber orchestrated melancholy a composer would have filled those auditory spaces with. I get it, critics won't get the book to film translation. I suppose I can respect that, I think what I'm getting at is that they don't expect a film like this from Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Dawn of the Dead, but Critics' words DO have influence (as evidenced by Watchmen's 60% decrease in ticket returns the following weekend after opening).

As I think about this, I urge consumers to think for themselves. I remember a time, when 300 first came out and you weren't a MAN if you didn't like that movie. Not literally of course, but the movie in HD is a moving painting, and while the color palette doesn't range very far, the crimson red of a spartan uniform stands out. It spawned internet Memes left and right (some still ongoing, I'm looking at you Annonymous!). And while it seemed like everyone loved 300, now I'm hearing people say 'what a crock of shit', seemingly because critics are quick to pan the film NOW when it's irrelevant and they need to prove a point pertaining to the film they are reviewing (in this case, relating 300 to watchmen through their director).

why are we so quick to put off our favorite things just because someone else says it's bad. I think it's a social problem myself. If all your friends said eating dog shit was all the latest rage and that food from Ruby Tuesdays was terribly put together (even though you all ate at Ruby Tuesdays without complaint last week), would you shovel dog shit into your mouth? This is partially why I don't like to follow critics. I've had a longstanding 'invisible war' with Roger Ebert over his opinions on video games as art, and I enjoy the challenge of debate enough to continue it whenever the subject arises. I won't get into that here (that's another article altogether), all i'm saying is stop shoveling dog shit into your mouth and go see watchmen, who knows, you might actually like it (watchmen, not eating shit)

Recession, Depression, and Why the Bailouts Won't Work

By now I'm sure most of you are aware of the current economic downturn in the United States that began to show itself at the end of 2007. 2009 is here and the problem still has not been fixed, leaving Americans scratching their heads in confusion. It would seem that the end of the Presidential race took the focus away from the economy as Obama Mania set in, and McCain supporters scrambled to catch up. There was a short burst in-between when McCain suspended his campaign to go help fix the economic downturn with bailout negotiations in Washington, but not only did that do little to no good, but it was made to look like the bailout would solve the country's problems, when it was really only sweeping our problems under the rug. What it really did was make investors look at how much free money was being given out 'just because the economy is bad' and make them beg like hungry dogs for the government to give them money to pull them out of the slump.

For one to understand exactly why our country is in a recession, you have to understand how the system works. Sure, we know the buying/selling of debt by banks and other financial institutions put them in the position they are/were in, but if you ask a normal American citizen on the street why our country is in a recession, you'll probably get a blank stare or a general statement about how money just wasn't well spent in some areas, or that the government just didn't act swiftly to rectify the economic situation. In some cases you may not get an answer at all. It's important to understand why the country is in such financial disarray so that once it's fixed we can ensure it doesn't happen again.

The reason the bailout will fail is simple. Money isn't just created out of thin air. when the government says they're giving out free money to save an institution, such as Banks or Automakers, what they are saying is that they'll order newly printed money to supply those companies with. The money is ordered from the Federal Reserve. Don't be fooled by the name 'federal reserve', it is neither a financial institution, nor does it hold reserves of money. It is a private bank, the only private bank in the country allowed to print the country's money. Because it is a private bank, when the money is ordered the Federal Reserve treats it like a loan. for every dollar printed, an interest rate is applied and over time this amount must be paid back to the private owners of the federal reserve. That means that every single last dollar in the country automatically has debt attached to it. how does the government pay the loan back? Tax dollars of course!

the current bailout plan is aiming dangerously close to $7 Trillion, which means that when the federal reserve wants its money back, it will cost MORE than the original $7 trillion ordered to begin with, and YOU will have to pay for it with your tax dollars. what startles me is that no one in this country seems to care. Doesn't it bother you that companies are getting your hard earned dollars, and not just a small amount of it, but SEVEN TRILLION of it? It bothers me...it bothers me a LOT.

Most of the companies involved in the bailout are financial institutions that made bad financial decisions and as a result were forced to ask for money. The resulting economic downturn forced consumers to tighten their budget, forcing auto manufacturers to make massive layoffs (they aren't the only ones though, we're down several million jobs as of December 2008) and subsequently ask for money, for fear of complete collapse of their respective companies. If I don't pay my electric bill, the lights get cut off. If a small business owner can't make the payments on the lease, the shop gets closed down. You can't just appeal to the government to hand out taxpayer dollars to help you out "just because". These companies made terrible financial decisions, bought and sold debt, gave multi-million dollar bonuses to CEO's, flew in expensive private Jets and spent money all over the place. they couldn't sacrifice any ONE of those things, or at least adjust their budget from the approaching problems they must have foreseen?

Companies folding is how our system works. If you don't make enough money to pay the bills, you close shop. It's that simple. If you spend money unwisely, eventually it's going to catch up to you. This is the system flushing itself out, and needs to take place. the system is clogged and unable to clean itself now that the government has decided to bail out these companies, and supply the country with a stimulus package to keep these companies afloat. It's a temporary solution that needs closer examination and restructuring, and I'll tell you right now friends, it's going to be a HELL of a lot worse later on. When the country has fixed itself, the money is flowing freely, and everyone is finally happy, the reserve will call on you to return the trillions of dollars, plus interest, and it will come from your paycheck.

And who said the bailout was going swimmingly? Some aren't even disclosing how they are spending billions of your dollars already!. According to this article executives at Insurance giant AIG spent almost $500,000 dollars of the bailout money they received on a vacation to a spa in California! This is how your money is being spent, and the sad part is, you're not even doing anything about it. Doesn't that make you angry? If it doesn't, it should.

-The Chief

Reverse Porn

it takes a lot to be a total douchebag, but I pull it off rather nicely. I don't think it's been mentioned on the show, but I began making what I lovingly refer to as 'reverse porn' (taking a pornographic picture and making it 'work safe', or non-pornographic'). Since I'm a sick, twisted fucker (and i'm sure most of our listeners are as well) I put the photos up on my personal Deviantart page for mass consumption. The internet is a strange place, i'm just here to help

I took these photos to Walgreens and got them developed and I'm going to start keeping a scrapbook of all of these for those who get curious at my house. The pictures are pretty funny, and I'm an absurdist at heart. Comments are appreciated.

-Chief

Why I Am Becoming a Dick

Pardon the title, this is primarily about Ebay.

I've been going a little nuts lately, I'll admit, buying up everything I see on Ebay. It's not too bad, as I tend to search for exactly what I want and watch a whole bunch of auctions, searching for the best price rather then doing general searches and buying a whole bunch of things I didn't even want in the first place. Nevertheless, I still manage to spend quite a bit and I've just started selling a bunch of things to get money into my Paypal account so I don't go spending my entire checking account.
But this isn't about my online spending habits, this is about shitty sellers. I myself, when I sell an item, am very descriptive and cover ever loose end I can think of. I detail my policy on bidding, packing, shipping and feedback and make sure to mention every defect pertaining to the listed item.
Some sellers however, if not many, choose their words carefully in order to mislead buyers. They make the listing look better than it is so the item will sell for more. Additionally, they will offer flat rate shipping, which will often be more than parcel or first class because chances are, they are selling off single items they initially purchased in lots. There's nothing wrong with re-selling, especially in the online market, but a few cases I encountered recently are worth mention.

All My Gameboys Have Battery Covers

For whatever reason, I decided that I wanted to collect Gameboy Colors. I wanted to have one of each initially released color and maybe a few special editions. My only prerequisite for such a purchase was that it would have to be an official GBC in decent working condition and have all of its original parts, including the original battery cover, or same colored cover.
For some ungodly reason, the majority of Gameboy owners in the world have managed to lose the battery cover for their GBC. Nearly half of all auctions I found stated that the Gameboy was missing its battery cover, so I would move on to another which either pictured the back of the system with the battery cover or stated that it had the battery cover.
I came across one particular auction for a red Gamboy Color. I was not aware that a Red GBC was made (only a Red GB Classic and GB pocket) so I was intrigued. In the picture of the system it definitely looked to be a deep, rich red and it came with a Gameboy Camera. It had a Buy It Now! price of $24.99 so I figured why not.
A few days later I received the system in an unpadded envelope. When I opened it up, the GBC, with GB Camera inserted into it, was wrapped only by a folded piece of corrugated cardboard with tape around it. I let this slide, then carefully removed the cardboard to find that the system did indeed have a battery cover - a yellow one.
Logic would insist that when listing an item, especially a piece of electronics, a replacement part should be mentioned, more so if that part differs to some large degree from the original. This auction simply stated that all of the systems included battery covers, neither mentioning nor hinting towards the fact that they include unofficial, mis-matched, replacement covers.
Long story short, I sent a message to the seller stating that I would like a refund or a replacement battery cover since they failed to mention this in the auction. Initially, the seller told me there was nothing they could do. After I mentioned the possibility of opening a dispute and a few more messages back and forth, the seller magically found an official red GBC battery cover, complete with 800 number for Nintendo Customer Service. And on top of that, it was not red at all, it was Berry Pink, which I had already ordered and received from another seller.
I suppose I should have done my research and known that there was no such thing as a red Gameboy Color but that wasn't my issue.

Will You Please Send Payment for $22.22

This one really boggles the mind.
I won two auctions from the same seller. The listing for each item quoted a $9.99 flat rate fee from Canada to anywhere in the U.S., however, in the auction description was stated that shipping would be $5.99 to anywhere in the U.S. for each game.
Most sellers will combine shipping, especially when they offer a flat rate box, which will cost them no extra to throw in a few more items.
Both of the items I won were Super Nintendo games: Killer Instinct and Starfox. I won KI for $0.99 and SF for $1.25 for a total of $2.24. Add in the flat rate shipping and you got $12.23, and that is exactly what the invoice in my email said.
I clicked the pay now button as I always pay immediately following an auction (or directly after the last auction won from the same seller who combines shipping) and was taken to Ebay, where I found an invoice for $14.22. I paused, since it didn't match the initial invoice, then figured that they were charging the $5.99 for each game, as by weight. Fine, I thought, that was in the auction.
When I moved on to the next step, I found the final invoice which requested a total $18.22. Now I was beginning to wonder. Apparently, between the time I viewed the last invoice and this one, the seller had sent a new invoice charging me a $9.99 flat rate shipping fee for one game and the $5.99 shipping for the other. Since this made absolutely no sense, I decided to send the seller a message asking what was going on. No sooner than I was able to compose a message did I find a message from the seller in my inbox. I opened the message to find the following:

Hi,

I would ask you to please pay separately for the 2 items you bought which means pay 11.24$ (cost of the item and shipping cost included) for StarFox and 10.98 for Killer Instinct (cost of the item and shipping cost included)for a total of 22.22$. Thank you

I didn't know what to think anymore. Between the email I initially received, the invoice on Ebay, the statement on Paypal and this message I was quoted four different prices for my auction, all amounting to a ten dollar difference!
Needless to say, I replied to this message. But I didn't think that was enough. I first contacted Ebay to alert them of this particular seller and their shady shipping practices. After a few messages, the seller agreed to a total payment of $12.23 and within a week I had the games, but still...

When I Bought It I Was Told That They Were Real

This happened to me today.
I won an auction for a Sega Dreamcast, which included the system, a/v cable, power cord, two controllers, two memory cards and 33 games. Great deal, I thought, when I won the auction for $51.
Today I received the package and the very second I opened it I stopped - every single game in this lot was an illegal copy, and not only were they copies - they were horribly made copies. It was almost as if they didn't even try to make them look good.
First off, they were copied on to CD-R's with blue bottoms, which I haven't even seen available for purchase since 2003. Currently, most rewritable cd's have silver bottoms. Secondly, the center of each disc was clear, with no graphic on it whatsoever, a clear sign that the disc was not inscribed professionally. Additionally, there were clearly printable labels on the discs, printed from shitty resolution images in even shittier quality and I could see the bands from the print head which apparently was running out of ink at the time they were forged. They didn't even bother using printable cd's, which I use for my own music and they look pretty convincing.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the graphics themselves, including titles and text ran right off the edge of the labels. Pitiful.
Essentially, not a single aspect of these fakes was remotely convincing and this seller still claimes that he had no idea they were copies. He said he bought them from someone who told him they were real, which after you think about it for awhile you have to wonder further how, if he thought to ask if they were real, did not inspect them closer which would have inevitably brought him to realize that they were not. Not to mention, half on the games work poorly, if at all. One of the games, Dead or Alive 2 to be exact, has an image scanned from the original game disc printed on it, and its horribly mis-aligned with the label. I honestly have never seen anything like this before.
I lost it. I was a little bit of an asshole to the other two sellers but this one I full on threatened to contact the Internet Crime Investigation Department (or whatever they're called).
As it stands now, I asked him to propose a solution before I contact ebay, Paypal and whomever else I find necessary to contact. Before I sent my last message he had yet, after 3 messages sent, to offer a solution, so I decided to make my own. I told him to refund me half the amount of the auction and send $10.00 for shipping. In the end he will have made only $15 from the auction and I will have gotten a Sega Dreamcast, a/v and power cables, 2 controllers and 2 memory cards for $25.50 plus shipping. I still feel swindled but I will get some level of satisfaction knowing that I was not fooled, rather simply lied to.

Whatever you, the readers, choose to draw from this, I hope it helps you all to avoid situations like these that I have mentioned or at the very least, helps some of you deal with them in a way to be most beneficial to you.

Letter to anyone interested in setting up local rock shows.

Dear Friend,

I live in a one-horse town and I have done lots of shows here and in the surrounding waist land. You can do shows at community centers, firehouses, through schools, at parks (summer is a great time for outdoor show), community theaters etc. Out here we do what we call barn parties. Find someone with a big open field set up like a make shift stage, run electricity out from the house or barn, set up your PA system. People love barn parties and they usually get a pretty good turn out as long as they’re not to far out of the way. I got involved through an open mike here in town. Most business (including Starbucks) will let you host acoustic “shows,” which can provide a great opportunity to meet and network with people who are interested in music. There are lots of possibilities.

Don’t let the fact that you don’t have a local nightclub stop you from setting up shows. Sometimes those places can be very selective, and dominate the scene with one genre, and making introducing new music into the scene that much harder.

Rock, Punk, and Metal have never been well expected by the mainstream. The DIY attitude is an integral part of the underground scene. Creating alternatives to mainstream out lets is part of hardcore. Everyone involved in the hard rock subculture that has sprung up since the Harlem Renaissance is proud to be deviating from popular culture. Defying the bureaucracy of the establishment is part of our collective identity. If we weren’t the innovators of the music industry we wouldn’t be on the cutting edge.

If you want to read a great book about the origins of the hardcore scene in our area, read: “Get in the Van” by Henry Rollins. You can buy the book here at InterPunk or on Amazon:
http://www.interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=47768&.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Van-Henry-Rollins/dp/1880985764

If you’re not into reading, there is a documentary out on the history of hardcore music (based on the book) called “American Hardcore” You can watch the trailer and buy the DVD from the website:
http://www.americanhardcoremovie.com/

It will give you some great insight into how this whole crazy thing got started.

Sincerely,

-Dara

Dr. Uwe Boll To Stop Making Films?

According to an article posted on JoBlo.com, Uwe Boll, maker of some of the worst movies ever made, stated in an interview that if the petition for him to stop making movies reaches 1 Million signatures, he will stop making movies. I myself have already signed this petition. Why? I had to sit through 'House of the Dead" and it is without a doubt the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. I wish that film upon the eyes of no one. So I urge you, Sign the petition!