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[Brentai]

Veering dangerously close to a reverse racism discussion here, but: I intensely dislike walking into a general area where people are conversing in their native language and hearing them suddenly switch over to English when they notice me.  I definitely understand why that behavior is adopted and am more aggravated at the situation than the people doing it, but still, it kind of stings to know that when people see you they need to assume that you may be an Anglophonic bigot.

[Joxam]

That's not reverse racism, that's actual racism. I mean, not them switching languages, the fact that enough of them have been in situations that make them believe it's probably a better idea to do so than not.

[François]

oh my god canada poooooooost

So I got another package vanished into the aether. Tracking website said it was delivered, but I was there all day, checked my mailbox multiple times, and there wasn't so much as a notice saying "you weren't there lol, go hoof it to a random store halfway across town* tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow to be sure, who knows". I go on their customer support pages, they don't let me fill out the forms since the sender is in the US. I try the phone numbers they suggest, it's all "press X to waste your precious life" bullshit, none of the ways I can think of to get a human operator work, waiting long enough on any given menu simply prompts it to say "good bye!" and cut the line.

I walk to the post office. Attendant says he can't help me since the system says the package was delivered successfully. He gives me a little photocopied piece of paper with four customer service department phone numbers. I'm pretty sure I called those already, but I go home and check: none of those numbers are on the effing webpage.

I call the new number, it seems to be the same system but this time I get the option to press 0 for operator. However, that is only if I enter the tracking number incorrectly; if I enter it correctly the option to contact an operator does not come up and 0 does nothing.

Long story short, the tracking number is in their system but my address is not associated with it (which did not prevent whatever degenerate subhuman protoplasm is in charge from marking the delivery as successful), I gotta contact the sender, who needs to contact the USPS, which then needs to get in touch with Canada Post.

aaaaaaaaagh

*: despite the actual post office being like five blocks away from where i live

[Joxam]

I find it more than a little infuriating that people are going apeshit about retailers being open on Thanksgiving when its traditionally the busiest day of the year to be open for my industry (movies) and we never ever close for any holidays. D:

[Thad]

If your point is that people should be paying more attention to how shitty it can be to work in a theater, I'll agree.

If your point is that it's actually a good thing to have more people working on Thanksgiving, that's an opinion I don't share.

[Joxam]

No, I don't begrudge anyone their time off with their family. Its just that there are a lot of people who don't have that option already. Its shitty that even more people have to work so that someone like wal-mart can make a profit, but there are plenty of industries (and I'm not talking about essential industries like power, water or even gas stations and hotels) that have a 365 day work year already and people act like that shit is just supposed to be.

[François]

oh my god canada poooooooost

Epilogue!

The seller refunded me my purchase.

He got the item back in the mail couple days ago.

CANADA POST LOST MY ADDRESS, MARKED THE DELIVERY AS SUCCESSFUL, AND SENT IT BACK TO THE US. AFTER A MONTH.

 

[Disposable Ninja]

There's something wrong with me that I'm irritated when people mispronounce Pokemon.

[François]

it's "pokémon"

[Büge]

I'm worried that I'm either getting a cold or that it was so dry last night that my sinuses are irritated.

I'm not dripping snot or feeling fatigued so it's probably not a cold, but the upper part of my airway still feels like it's been scrubbed by a brillo pad.

[Mongrel]

It seriously is/was that dry.

Starr slept on the couch just so she could be close to the that big pot of water she put on slow boil and even that didn't help her.

(For the non-residents of Mongrel house: We all had colds. Starr is more harshly affected by such things due to the fact that her sinuses and breathing are already something of a disaster).

[Healy]

I am always annoyed whenever anyone is talking about video games as an art form and ignores pretty much the entire interactive fiction community. (Why yes that big ol' linkdump was absolutely necessary and totally needed to be formatted like that.) Yes I know the text-only style can be very off-putting and the parser is unwieldy and fickle even in the best of times, but (1) the graphics are your imagination, man, and (2) there's been plenty of good non-parser work done, especially in recent years. At the very least you should read Emily Short's Blog if you're at all interested in the artistic potential of games.

[Zaratustra]

No, I don't begrudge anyone their time off with their family. Its just that there are a lot of people who don't have that option already. Its shitty that even more people have to work so that someone like wal-mart can make a profit, but there are plenty of industries (and I'm not talking about essential industries like power, water or even gas stations and hotels) that have a 365 day work year already and people act like that shit is just supposed to be.

Nobody should have to work at Wal-Mart any more time than strictly necessary.

[Thad]

the graphics are your imagination, man

I think this is actually an argument against counting them as video games.

They're certainly computer games.  And I think it's certainly valid to discuss their artistic and literary merits.  But can a game with no video be called a video game?

[Büge]

Well. They use an electronic video display as the primary interface, so yes.

It separates them from, say, gamebooks.

What's really tricky is if you get into things like VCR Boardgames. The game and the video display are not directly interfacing.

[Zaratustra]

the graphics are your imagination, man

I think this is actually an argument against counting them as video games.

They're certainly computer games.  And I think it's certainly valid to discuss their artistic and literary merits.  But can a game with no video be called a video game?

HOW CAN A BOOK BE ON KINDLE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

HOW CAN A SONG NOT BE SUNG HOW CAN A PAINTING WITH NO PAINT ASDGAHREAERHVXVCXBFC 

[jsnlxndrlv]

The "is this or isn't this" slippery slope is a mug's game. Robb Sherwin's Cryptozookeeper demonstrates IF that uses graphics, and if you need actual animation in order to qualify, then arguably Jim Munroe's Guilded Youth—or (I can't believe I forgot about) Adam Thornton's Stiffy Makane: The Undiscovered Country—qualifies. Wherever you'd like to draw the line, you can show games on one side that meet your requirement and practically identical games on the other side which do not. It's not a useful distinction to draw.

Rather, the question of whether something's a video game should really be whether it's a player-driven or -directed experience; whether it's interactive. Although even this question is fraught with peril. The terminology may not be as literally accurate as we'd like, but the inaccuracy is the best of bad alternatives.

[Healy]

the graphics are your imagination, man

I think this is actually an argument against counting them as video games.

They're certainly computer games.  And I think it's certainly valid to discuss their artistic and literary merits.  But can a game with no video be called a video game?

You know I honestly didn't expect you would be such a pendant about this. Like, why do you call them comic books? I read a Batman comic once and it was only unintentionally funny. Etc., etc.

[Royal☭]

If Dragon's Lair can be considered a video game despite not being a game, then interactive fiction should be considered a video game despite not having graphics.

[Thad]

HOW CAN A BOOK BE ON KINDLE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Er, because the medium of transmission is irrelevant to the content?

HOW CAN A SONG NOT BE SUNG

All songs can be sung.  You don't need lyrics to reproduce a series of sounds with your voicebox.

HOW CAN A PAINTING WITH NO PAINT

I...don't know?

You know I honestly didn't expect you would be such a pendant about this. Like, why do you call them comic books? I read a Batman comic once and it was only unintentionally funny. Etc., etc.

Do you really want me to list all the reasons your analogy is stupid, or would you rather I just point and laugh at you for calling me a pendant and call it a day?