Views from a Demented Mind

I don’t know why this is bothering me so much, but it is.  Maybe it is was the hopes of getting something for nothing?  Maybe it was the bone that was thrown in my direction only to turn out to be rotten.  Maybe it is because I am already beaten down being unemployed and this maybe would have been a little bright star?  I don’t know, but it bothers me, I’m really upset over it and I know I shouldn’t be.  If all was good, if  I was working hard, I wouldn’t care, but as it is, every little bit counts and this would have just been a nice little bonus.

Today I picked up the newspaper early this morning and there, on the front page, the grand opening of the second Microsoft Store at Mission Viejo, CA was happening this morning at 10am.  I figured, I have nothing better to do, let me head on over there and check it out.  Besides they are giving away goodie bags.  Sweet, free stuff.

I get there and there are a ton of pre-teen girls and their parents.  W.T.F?  Well from what I understand is that they are giving out concert tickets to see Justin something (some Disney singer) and hey have been waiting in line all night because only the first 1000 would get the tickets.

I don’t care about the tickets, and when I did get them I quickly gave them away to the woman standing next to me.  But what this cause was a mad house, people filing into the store, getting their tickets and leaving.  Since I didn’t show up until late I was far back in the line, which, fortunately moved very quickly.  Finally I get my “goodie” bag.

Microsoft’s idea of a goodie bag includes : Two tickets (see above), A water bottle (no water) that says “Microsoft Store” on it, kinda nice, but cheap.  A sticker with the Microsoft logo — wow!  A 1 month free Zune pass (already gave that away).  Chapstick (wtf?) and a $25 gift card.  Ok, so really, all I wanted was the $25 gift card.  As they were handing out the goodie bags, they specifically state the gift card is good either here at the store or online.

So, as I’m leaving, the crowd is dying down, but I figured I would head home and take advantage of this $25 card right away so I don’t have to keep it around.  I log into store.microsoft.com.  Initially I was thinking of buying a family license for Windows 7 for $150; but then settled on Fable for $19.99 ($5 shipping, and $2.25 tax) because it would be the least amount of money out of my pocket and I’m not working right now so that is a good thing.

Upon checkout I find there are only three payment types, Visa, Mastercard, and American express.  But I know I have to pay the tax so I figured I would put in my MC and the next screen called “confirm” should allow me to put in my gift card.  Which it “does”.  There is a section for Promo Code, but nothing that says gift card specifically.  I looked at the card more and there is a scratch off to enter in a code so I scratch that off and enter the code.  ”Code Invalid”.  WTF?

After a half hour of searching the site, and there being lots of information about gift cards, just nothing that says how it can be used.  So I call up customer service to find out what is going on.  I first get someone who seems as clueless as a moldy rock; no matter how many times I told her I wanted to find out how to use my gift card she kept asking me which version of Windows 7 I wanted to order.  I finally asked for the supervisor who got on the line and understood what I wanted.  She was generally very nice and helpful but in the end it turns out that YOU CAN NOT USE THE GIFT CARDS ONLINE!

So we have the staff at the Microsoft store giving out gift cards and telling people they can use them online, and the online store saying NO you can’t.  I’m stuck.  I have this $25 card sitting here, that requires me to drive back to the store to buy something.  Well guess what, the store has MUCH less inventory then the online store and I have to spend my time and gas to go all the way back there.  No thanks, man this really has pissed me off!  I have no desire to go back there again.  Sure I could go back and buy the Family pack Windows 7 license I wanted, but come on, I’ve already burned enough money and time that this $25 gift will end up costing me money.

Thanks Microsoft, you really managed to make a really bad first impression with your store launch.

This is in response to Gabe Newell’s comments at DICE ‘09.Video Games are too expensive

What this tells me is that valve and Gabe are dead right! I hope that this translates into cheaper games, better sales for everyone and better overall products for people. I respect Gabe for being able to stand up there and make these types of comments; and it isn’t like he HAS to, he doesn’t. HL2 is one of the best selling PC video games, and that was at full price. But sometimes it just takes this type of radical thinking to reinvent the market. In these tough times, maybe it is time for the gaming companies to drop their price and start off with something simple.

Look at how the iPhone sales have been, it took the developers only a few weeks to realize that they can get a ton more sales at $0.99 then they can if they priced their apps at $4.99 or $9.99. Those expensive apps quickly were replaced by similar apps at much lower costs. People are making millions off of $0.99 cent apps!

I have been saying for a few years now that I think that the price of games are too expensive. I have no problems affording the games that I want, but when a game is $49.99 the games that I would be willing to buy are a lot less then say games at $19.99. If a new game was $19.99 I would pick it up without really thinking about it much. But a $49.99 game requires thought, it requires me to wait and see what the community thinks of the game and hopefully I get a chance to play the demo. Often I wait for games to go on discount, sometimes a year or two later and buy them then — only because I don’t know if I really want to play them or not. I just picked up Tomb Raider Anniversary for $3.99; it was a complete whim… but I haven’t played it yet.

If I was to have my say in a pricing structure I would say $29.99 for a brand new game. 3 months after release lower the price to $19.99. 1 year after release lower it to $9.99. At those prices, I’ll be buying and playing games all day long.

OK, I don’t know why there is such a big deal with the number 1234567890 and that appearing as the number of seconds since 1970.  You know, it’s really not a good geek number at all.  Why do I say this?  Well 1234567890 is just 0×499602D2 in hex.  The number is just a base ten value that has been converted from a base sixteen number.  Hex is base sixteen, and is a direct representation of the binary values that computers operate in.  Computers operate in binary, everything is either a zero or a one (well there is tristate but that’s a whole different ballgame).  Every number is represented in binary, but for a human it is a little cumbersome to work in.  For example, the number 0×499602D2 is 0b01001001100101100000001011010010.  Each of the four bits are directly mapped to a character of the hexadecimal digit.  Thus hex is just a short hand notation for binary.  Computer do not operate in base 10 at all, and thus we (the true geeks of the world) do not think or operate in base 10 unless we are displaying something for non-geeks.

So the decimal value of 1234567890 is meaningless to us geeks.  Better values would be 0×12345678 (which already past), 0xFEDCBA98 (which is a long way away), 0×5A5A5A5A (very common number used by geeks — and isn’t all that far away), or even 0xDEADBEEF.  Of course, the most important number will be 0xFFFFFFFF; but we have a very long time before we get there.

Those of the world who are excited about the 1234567890 representation of the time is just proving to the entire world that they are NOT geeks!  They have no geek cred, and should be ashamed of themselves for being excited about 0×499602D2!  Wake me up when 0×55555555 is about to roll around.

I have received a lot of feedback about my son and working toward the goals we have established. Many people have questioned if he was actually interested in working to become a national competitor or if that was my dream. The reality is that it was something that he chose to do; we had a lot of long discussions about what it takes to be that good, what it takes to be successful at just about anything. He understands that it does take a lot of hard work and dedication, but he has the “take the path of least resistance” gene passed on from myself. He does what is necessary to get through it, even if it means just sliding by.

The sliding by is the part that really bothers me. I know that I did it, I know that I still have a tendency to do it. But I have been making such a strong effort to stop doing that. When he started down this journey to become a god TKD competitor, we had a lot of talks about that it would take and how long it should take him to get there. The easy thing to do would be to allow him to just give up now. He may not want it today but that doesn’t mean he won’t want it tomorrow. I think that is the problem with being a child, you see what you want and feel that you can accomplish it, but when it takes hard work and dedication, they quit. I will not let him quit so easily. He may not be the best, he may never make it to the national level; but he will never look back on it and say that dad didn’t try his best to give me all the opportunities that he could.

I will continue to push him to go, and to push him to be the best that he can be. If he is successful; that would be great, if he isn’t, it’s OK, I’d love him just the same.

p.s. Thanks for all of the feedback; I have read them all and considered everything. I have not responded to each of you individually, nor have I allowed the posting of the long comments. But thanks for the support and the criticisms.

For those who may not know, there are a few podcasts that I am really into.  The first being “The Instance” and the second being “Extralife Radio” both of which are done by Scott Johnson and Randy Jordan. They make some of the most entertaining pod casts out there; if you don’t listen to them, then there has to be something wrong with you. Go to the websites and give it a listen, or subscribe via iTunes and leave great feedback (ok, leave great feedback even if you don’t listen).

Last night after TaeKwonDo I sat down with the Master to fare if he has any insight into what my older son is doing wrong. The last two tournements he went to he just looked like a beginner although he has been doing this for six years already.

I knew the problem before speaking with him, but I am giessing that I needed to hear it from him myself. The problem is that he is not good enough, he is. He has a lot of raw tallent, but he just does not try hard most of the time. He needs to focus himself an push himself to be the best that he can be.

I blame myself for this because he is my son. I was never able to push myself to keep going and be the best that I could be. To this day I have to keep refocusing my mind on getting things done and done the best that they can be. During my youth I was never pushed or even encouraged to be good at things. If something was hard to do them it wasn’t worth doing. That is how I lived for so long an it almost destroyed me. Only in the last year have I been able to see the mistakes of my life, and now I am determined to not let my son fall into the same problems that I had.

The master, of his school, and Olympic gold medalist, thinks that he could be a national champ if he wants to be. But he has to focus himself on his training and that means facing every class, every exercise with the belief that he can be the best.

I do not know if he has it within himself to be able to do this. How can I teach him to push himself when I know that I have only just begin to do this myself. I do not want him to go through school like I did, struggling, unfocused and barely making it. I know that he can be so much better then I ever was. I know he can be great if he just puts his mind to it.

I have told him all of these things. I have explained to him that he has so much great potential that it would be a real shame to waste it. I to not want him to look back on his life and regret not making the most out if it; just as I do. I do not want him to look back and say, why didn’t they (myself and my wife) push him hard to be better; like I do with my parents.

Please son, try hard. Learn to do your best. Be better then I am. I regret so much in my life, things I should have done or tried. Please, please, please do not become me.

Two quick things.  First is that I have been so busy at work that there has been little time for me to do anything other then work, thus the lack of updates here recently.  I would have really like to have written more, and I intended to, but I just couldn’t find the time to do it.  My appologies, I hope to get back to a more consistant schedule of writing.

Now, more importantly, I want to say that a few months ago I wrote a blog about being disappointed in my son for not trying his hardest.  Well, things have really turned around with him; he is now trying harder then ever before!  I’m THRILLED.  He is doing his home work without complaining, and doing it right the first time.  He is taking TaeKwonDo much more serious and doing much better, and he is excelling at Soccer like I never thought that he could.  Last week at his soccer game I was surprised to see how well he moved, he controlled the ball like a master and ran circles around some of the kids.  I was so impressed.  I don’t know what got into him a few months ago, but whatever it was, he seems to have worked it out and is now on the fast track to success.

I would like to say that I welcome Obama to the presidency of the United States, this is a big move and appears to really encourage the rest of the world that we, the US, want change!  I find it hard to believe that so many people were wanting McCain; they wanted more of the same, but maybe they didn’t see it that way, maybe they realized that it doesn’t really matter.  The president can only do so much, so it doesn’t really matter.  If that is the case, then why not vote Obama?  I don’t know.  To me, it was a tossup between Obama and McCain but there was no contest between Binden and Palin.  I wanted there to be NO chance that Palin would become president; and that is what really motivated me to vote for Obama.  McCain seemed to be an OK guy, I didn’t have much problems with him besides that really evil looking smile of his.  But he is old, he has battled cancer, has had strokes, you never know, he could wake up tomorrow morning dead (much harder to do then to type).  Palin would have really turned this country into a ultra conservative christian state, and that is the last thing we need.

I feel that if McCain would have picked a better running mate, he would have had a good chance of winning.  If, imagine this, he chose Hillary, I think he would have won decisively.  But damn I’m glad that Hillary is not in the picture any more, I really hate that bitch.  But, to give credit where credit is due, she knows what she wants and how to get out there and get it.

Obama, please, don’t screw things up.  And don’t be like every other politician, REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  If you can turn this country around, to get us out of this stupid rut we are in, you’ll go down as one of the greatest presidents of all time.  Good luck, I hope you succeed, but you’ve got one hell of a long row to hoe.