Current Ramblings
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Before I get to my toy talk, I must take a moment to vent about something that annoys me. I don't like bitching about customers in my blog, but since this was something that was also annoying other customers by in turns holding up lines on the Saturday before Christmas and generally creating a scene, I think it's a safe general bitching. I really, really can't stand the Technologically Paranoid. These are generally people ignorant of computers outside the sensationalized accounts of a tiny percentage of people whose information gets hacked. To deter people selling us hot merchandise (more commonly DVDs or CDs than books), we ask for IDs. We put these driver's license numbers in the computer just on the off chance they're needed in a police investigation. There are laws governing this; we fall under the same laws as pawn shops when it comes to buying merchandise from the public as a business and as such we have to get certain seller information in case of stolen stuff. I assume this exempts us from being charged with buying stolen merchandise, too. But of course you have some people who see us getting their precious ID in the vicinity of a computer and they freak out. We don't send this stuff over the internet. It's not something that can be pulled up except in the event of said police investigation. But it doesn't stop a handful of ignorant people from being certain, absolutely certain, that if their driver's license number is entered into a computer, by tomorrow either a random hacker or even one of our own employees will be pressing crateloads of credit cards in their name. Far more women are raped by random attackers than fall victim to this insidious "identity theft", and I bet that'd leave them feeling a damn sight more violated, but they sure do manage to face that risk by leaving their houses to come and fuck with us and annoy our other customers. If they're that terrified by everything, they should just stay at home. Reasonable precaustions are enough to protect us in our everyday life. Too many people act like scared animals, running from any percieved threat because they haven't learned or are too stupid to figure out when it's really a wolf lurking in the shadows and when it's just some perfectly benevolent humans who they're insulting. Who wants their stupid identities anyway?
I would like to point my toy-minded friends to something called Xevoz. I would point you to their web site, at www.xevoz.com, but, um, it's not up yet. So instead I'll point you to Entertainment Earth's listing. I picked up on of these - specifically the Alpha Ranger - at TRU last night during an otherwise disappointing toy run. They're a permutation of Stikfas, complete with the logo on the bottom of the bubble. They're bigger than Stikfas and incorporate a dice game, but otherwise they have all the posability and interchangability of the former line. And they totally rock. It's a shame that my faction of choice took a name from the second best animated series of the 90s.
Also in Trixter's Exciting Toy News: I picked up Alternators Smokescreen the other night, and he also rocks. I went out and found him on my lunch break and even my coworkers were impressed. I'm clearing out Armada now, so I suppose he'll take the spot on the coffee table where my Energon stuff's been. I really need shelves.
posted@1:15 AM by:Trixter: 0 comments