The ScooterBlog

Hey, no one said all of the blog entries had to come after glorious wins, and today’s is the classic example of that. Raiders 20, Bengals 17, and my team of choice has no one to blame but themselves. Costly turnovers late, another bad snap on a field goal, and a very sloppy game are very simple things to blame. Yes, these all could have been overcome if Andre Caldwell holds onto the ball, but face it, he’s won us two games this year with his late game catches, and sadly, he didn’t come through today.

No panicking though, the 1988 Super Bowl team did lose to the Chiefs, a team that ended up 4-11-1. So, this does happen, the question is the resiliency, and making sure they bounce right back.

Other game thoughts:

* No one by the name of Bruce Gradkowski should ever look comfortable in the pocket, but the Bengals did not get any pressure on him today. No, he wasn’t great, but even bad QB’s not named Jamarcus Russell can play well when they get all day to throw.

* Bernard Scott had himself a very nice day, and I’m glad to see it. With all the Larry Johnson talk this week, even though we know he won’t play much, it’s good to get a 100 yard game out of this very promising rookie to make sure the conversation is put away. He’s a solid #2 back and kick returner now, and should get plenty of opportunity to showcase both, good for him!

* Sebastian Janikowski and Shane Lechler are absolutely awesome kickers, but Lechler’s beard is horrible. Sorry, just stating it as I see it.

Other NFL thoughts:

* Not much sympathy for the Browns losing, but that is a tough way to do it. More importantly, Matt Stafford just elevated himself in my book for coming back out for that last throw. It was probably balsy and stupid, but if you make the play, you deserve the credit for toughing it out. Well done, Matt, consider the respect given.

* Thank goodness for the sake of the Bengals that the Steelers, the Browns, and the Ravens also lost, and all in close and sometimes devastating fashion. At 7-3, the Patriots and the Chargers are right there at the top of their divisions all vying for the #2 seed and the bye. The Bengals-Chargers game could well be an elimination game for that provided that they do not stumble, and the Pats need to win tough road games against the Saints and Dolphins or risk falling out of that race. Oh yeah, the Texans loom at the end, and they may well be fighting for a Wild Card.

Oh wait, it’s Week 12! Time to can this and move to next week!

The previous post I made about Micro Center is a solid reminder of something. Common sense is a lost art, people now trust the piece of paper in front of them or their own lazy attitudes more so than actually using their brain to make an educated decision on something. There’s nothing like presenting weird scenarios to people to prove this point in a crystal clear fashion, that if they take a moment to use common sense, and are willing to, you know, call someone, better things would happen. Here’s how the story goes:

I found in my garage about 90 Atari 2600 cartridges in a plastic tub. This by itself is not really newsworthy, but since there is a way to get something out of them, there is in fact a story there. Toys ‘R Us has recently begun to advertise that they accept classic games, stuff that no one else wants, including Atari 2600 cartridges! A look at their web site shows that while for almost all systems, they differentiate between new and used games. However, they do not do this for the 2600, just one SKU. This is where it begins to go downhill.

I proceed to take my plastic tub of games to the local Toys’ R Us. Yes, there’s some shock and comedy factor here. So, I get to the front counter of the store where I was directed, show them the games, and after it taking two people to realize what they actually were (these kids were born after the launch of the SUPER Nintendo after all), they dig for 10 minutes to find their trade in scanner book. Obviously, if no one knows where the trade in book is and it’s buried, they are not doing much of a job of pushing their trade-in program!

When they finally do this, which is already 15 minutes into the trip, they look and find that there are 2 SKU’s for everything, including Atari 2600 games, and when they scanned the SKU for a non-complete (yes, they want box and instructions) Atari 2600 game, it did not allow them to take it in. I showed them the web site, explained that their own corporate office does not require the box and instructions to receive their tiny sum of a quarter per game, but they didn’t care, the book said how to do it and they would not accept them. Oh yes, it took three people to say this, and the manager did not seem interested at all into taking any effort into helping. Completely did not care. So, I took the games and left, disappointed in my experience there.

If you’re paying attention, this is the Sawmill Road location in Columbus. Just in case someone is reading this.

So, it’s about 8:20 at night then, and not a lot of places are left open. Just for fun, I decided to take the tub of games to a local mom-and-pop store up in Powell to see if they would take the games and how much they’d offer. Figured that since they’re common Atari 2600 games, they’d have a ballpark pretty quick. I walk in with the plastic tub, let them know I’m looking to get some trade-in credit, and after one of the associates in a smart-allic response said they’d give “a nickel” for the games, they say it’s simply too late to figure it up and I’d need to bring the games back later. Not even basically, they admitted they are too lazy to look it up, didn’t want to deal with it and told me to go away.

Now, realize this. Your sign says you are open! Such laziness and the admission that they do not feel like doing work is exactly why many stores like that never succeed, they don’t care. I whispered under my breath how much I appreciated their laziness, and while I hope they heard it, I doubt they did. Disappointing was the word for Toys ‘R Us. Just embarrassed is the word for this video game store, their owner should be ashamed of their employees, not even willing to take 2 minutes and throw out a ballpark figure for the games. Who knows, they might have gotten a deal, I would have sure been willing to sell low, diaper money always wins.

By the way, this was the Play ‘N Trade on Polaris Parkway just west of Polaris Fashion Place. You too have also been called out.

So, the games will end up on eBay, someone who actually genuinely appreciates them will get them for their fair market value. In the end, it’s probably the best solution for everyone.

Maybe my days in retail of wanting to, you know, actually HELP a customer, have jaded me, but it means when I see a salesman who comes off as arrogant and tries to make the up-sell by insulting the customer’s knowledge, it really rubs me the wrong way. Today, that was my experience at Micro Center.

I want to preface this by saying I still love the store, but my experience there, like most places, is that you should do your research before getting there, get what you need, and get out before the vultures hit. Well, except for the floor manager, who seems very nice, and is also rather attractive!

I got to the store, helping someone I am working for on the side trying to find a good fit for a PC for them. Their goals were simple: good at web browsing, decent at still photos, does not have to be a powerhouse. As a result, I came across the Acer Aspire 3610. Cool “net top” form factor, enough power to be solid, 2 gigs of memory, and Windows 7. Thought it was out of stock, but their computer said they had three. When I got back to look at it with the two people I was with, their salesman shows up. He first ridicules my interest in the $329 nettop by calling it the same as a five-year old notebook.

Did I mention your $299 budget laptop that you pimp all the time actually had half the CPU that this Atom PC has?! Yeah, I did my research, and the numbers on a site like Passmark do not lie. Horribly inaccurate statement! He also said it was like a Pentium M, but this Atom has 20% more CPU power than the fastest most expensive Pentium M ever made, and it isn’t five years old. Also, off base.

I responded by kindly reminding him that I had done my research and the CPU was an upgrade from what they had (an Athlon 2800). He noted that the machine was horrible for video editing, I told him that this person did not NEED video editing, and that it had a NVidia Ion chip set inside to allow for video watching in HD. He obviously did not realize this, as he did not have a response for this. By this point, the conversation was very contentious.

He did point to the PC next to the Acer (the only good thing he did), which was a Quad Core Q8200 PC well outfitted for $449. This was indeed one hell of a good price, as every other PC that was even close to it in performance was over $500 by far. So, I had a legitimate option now. Pay a bit more, still get a more compact form factor and get massive performance (that may or may not be needed), or spend a little less, get the super-small form factor, but less processor. I ended up going with the $449 Acer instead.

This, unfortunately, means I had to talk to their crackpot salesman again to get one. Should have just walked over once I saw where they were! Anyways, he then asked what kind of anti-virus we used, obviously trying to up-sell me their NOD32 anti-virus, which I know is good, but I don’t feel like adding $50 to a sale that needs to be a budget one. I responded by saying that I’d typically use a free solution like AVG or avast. He begins to rant on about how they are no good, and I just smile, the kind of smile that said “I’m going to say no regardless of what you say, I do not want it, you are not listening.” He then proceeds to insult my intelligence by saying, and I quote, “I see you’re smiling, but AVG does only detect 30% of the viruses out there, avast is better, but you’re foolish to trust one of those”. I responded by saying we’d be fine, and walked away.

It all just leads me to two things. First, I’m going to file a complaint with Micro Center about him, his attitude to me was unacceptable, he asked no questions about what we actually needed, just trying to sluff off some machine on us to get his commission. Plus, he managed to insult an IT Pro by showing no common sense whatsoever! Micro Center ought to know that I find this unacceptible. The second is that I’m maintaining my normal attitude on any store like this. Know what you want ahead of time, find it yourself, and run like hell from anyone who wants to sell you something. I get needing to have commissions to help with sales, but help people get stuff they need, not just to line your pockets.

Micro Center, you got the sale, but you failed me on Saturday. Epic fail.