Fuck Amazon

 "I can just get this on Amazon" is a phrase I would hear all too often, after spending an entire week driving hundreds of miles, staying at cheap motels, and working 12-14 hours days to sell our product at an event. 

Amazon has effectively cannibalized the entire retail market. People don't want to go to a store when they can just get anything delivered to them. So stores closed. A lot of them. And most of the ones that survived did so because they were selling on Amazon, or were selling something you can't get on Amazon.

So we started selling on Amazon. At first, it was great. Now, not so much. The honeymoon is over, and all that's left is a nightmare of cheap chinese crap, false reviews, and moronic, entitled customers. All facilitated by a corporate juggernaut that loves to promise wondrous opportunity so long as you play by their hilariously inhuman rules.

Virtually everything is handled by algorithms, and attempts to reach an actual human for support often results in robotic responses that makes you question if you're even talking to a human. I've seen many legitimate sellers have their accounts flagged because they happened to have the wrong keyword in the wrong place. Recently, a group of unrelated accounts were flagged because they violated "Washington State NFL" trademark. None of the sellers sell anything related to football. The connection? They all had mentioned somewhere in their description that they were based out of Washington State. Shit like this is far from an uncommon occurrence.

Amazon is taking every step to stymie a sellers ability to sell. You used to be able to leave responses to incorrect feedback, now you can't because "It was a feature that was barely used". You can't communicate with customers outside of the Amazon messenger, but get this, many customers will block their ability to receive messages from Amazon sellers. They will ask you a question, you will respond, they will never receive your response, then they get frustrated because they haven't gotten a response. 

Amazon recently reduced the available space Amazon warehouses allocate to sellers by 1/3, and they didn't say a god damn word about it. Many sellers were struggling to maintain stock as is, and now they're suddenly way over their limit, and Amazon is still telling them "Hey, restock this item" only to be met with "You can't send more stock to Amazon". What the fuck.

Buyers can return pretty much anything, for whatever reason, and the seller is the one that's expected to foot the bill. Sellers have virtually no recourse, so long as the customer checks the "right" boxes in their return request. There are countless stories of fraud via Amazon purchases, and most sellers at this point have just built it into their pricing and expected losses.

It's not really Kabam's fault.

Everything is soulbound because of a duping outbreak, so no one can trade. This is causing Kong chat to be filled with a lot more "FUCK KABAM" than usual.

There's already a thread on that's exactly what this post is about, so I'll link that here...

https://forums.wildshadow.com/node/194303

As of right now, it was posted 16 hours 40 minutes ago, and has 115 responses. I'd say that's a hot topic.

I'm just gonna counter some of the common complains that come up in chat.

"Kabam is ruining the game!"

As far as I know, WildShadow was trying to sell the game because they couldn't handle the increasing costs of running the game. Kabam acquired the game because they were the only company that offered to buy it. So, as far as I can tell, if Kabam didn't buy it, and no one else did, there might not even be a RotMG to play right now.

"Duping is Kabam's fault!"

I'm under the impression that it was always possible to dupe, it was just a matter of how many people knew about it, how reliable it was, and how time effective it was. WildShadow never really tired to fix duping. Kabam is at least taking efforts.

"Kabam sucks!"

Well, this one is pretty much true. There's a couple reasons for this.

1. They had nothing to do with the creation of the game, so they had to learn everything before they could do anything, and probably still don't fully understand everything.

2. I don't know how things work over at Kabam, but they're a rather large company, and own a lot of games. I imagine they only devote a small portion of their resources to Realm. They also assign different people to different tasks. The people that are being yelled at to fix the game are entirely different people from the people who are actually working to fix the game.




Now, I'm not really defending Kabam, because I happen to disagree with most of what they do and how they run things. I'm just really tired of people spewing their "FUCK KABAM" without really making a valid point or knowing what they're talking about. People should be happy they can still play the game at all.

I will JUDGE you!

http://mousewilljudgeyou.blogspot.com/


I decided to make something out of the many conversations that go on in the Kong chat-rooms. This is what I came up with.

Keeping busy.

Once in a while, someone will randomly start talking to me about something they read on my blog. It makes me realize that some people will actually read this, and as such, I should at least give it more attention than I currently am. It's not that I'm lazy or have nothing to write about, I've just been doing other things with my time. Like, currently I'm working 2 jobs.

Peter Townsend's Irish Collection is a rather unorthodox job. It's a small family business that travels to Irish-themed festivals to sell their product. My job, is basically to do most of the work and be the right-hand man. I drive to their house 2 hours away, then I drive Peter and all his stuff to wherever the festival is, and we stay there all weekend.

I worked a few festivals last year. I got to go to Pittsburgh PA, Cape May NJ, and Cincinnati OH. Other than Cincinnati, it was all good. This year, he offered to pay me a weekly-salary if I would work all the festivals for the year. It's hard work that consumes a lot of my weekends, but I get to travel and it's an awesome job overall.

I also work for hourly-wage at a UPS Store. It's much less exciting compared to traveling around the states to deal with seemingly endless waves of festival goers, but it's a fun and interesting job none-the-less.

And pretty much the rest of my time goes to Kong. I've been thinking I should start a separate blog specifically for Kong. That sounds like a good idea to me...

"Rage not-quit"

After playing enough Starcraft2, we've encountered several individuals who have shown us a different take on the term "Rage quit".

Once the moment of certain defeat is upon them, instead of saying "gg" and leaving the game so they can get a different opponent and play more Starcraft2, they decide they are going to stick around and draw out the game as long as unnecessarily possible.

I'd call this "Rage not-quit".

There is a legitimate reason for unfaltering persistence when victory is still achievable, but when all your units are dead, and all you have is a command center in the corner of the map, what do you plan to achieve? Waste your time and mine for no reason? Mission accomplished friend.

I try to reason with these people. Explain to them, as nicely as I can, why I beat them and what they could have done to prevent this. Not surprisingly, this usually just fuels their desire to annoy me, call me a noob, and say something like "I'm just gonna afk now, have fun motherfucker"; they never actually leave, which always amuses me more than anything else.

These people fail to realize that I am not someone who is annoyed by such antics, only a bit disappointed that they can't really appreciate what makes Starcraft2 so great.

Starcraft2 is a masterpiece of a game. Able to provide a range of variance most games cannot achieve without sacrificing core balance. If you lose at a 1v1 game of starcraft, it's your fault. There is no "cheap" unit that is better than the rest, everything has a counter. There is no master tactic that will always work. There is just the knowledge and skill the player has for starcraft2, and if you have less of those than your opponent, you will probably lose.

But, anything can happen in a game of Starcraft2. That's why it's such an awesome game. This game has provided more "This is completely ridiculous! There's no reason that should have worked!" moments than any other game. Seeing everyone huddled around the ol' starcraft box is something that has become more of an occurrence. It's fun for everyone to yell and freak out at whoever is playing.

I can see why Starcraft is the biggest sport in South Korea, because it is a sport, and a damn good one.

This is a post for my blog.

I haven't posted anything here in a good while. That's because I guess I don't care about my blog.

Should I consider this a problem? I think I'm going to start treating it like one. It's something I need to stop ignoring at this point. Too many people are going to start reading this, simply because it's the link that's attached to my Kong profile.

I wonder how many people that actually is? It's more than 3, which is enough for me to start to want to care about what I post here.

So the question I've been asking myself is, what do I do about that? What do I post here? What should I be spending this time on? I need something else to attach to my name. I need to produce something. What I'm doing on Kong is awesome and wonderful, but I need something concrete to help justify the time I've spent.

I need to start "working" on something. Easier said than done. But there is a source of motivation I've found, and I plan to abuse it.

Think-it-through.

When I was a wee child, I had an amazing toy. I don't know how much of a "toy" it really is, I have a pretty broad definition of the word. It's more like a series of activity books with a hands-on tool.

It was called "Think-it-through". Made by Discovery Toys in 1989. That's also my birth-year, so clearly this was something that was created specifically for me. I'd like to dedicate this post to properly thank Think-it-Through, and give it the credit it deserves.



I was just brain-storming like I usually do. Questioning what separated me from the rest of the world in terms of intelligence. Then I remembered the prevalence of the Think-it-through tiles in my childhood, and how much I loved them. I then began to wonder how much it really impacted my overall intelligence. I'm going to assume, a lot.

If I'm ever going to have offspring of my own, I want to make sure they are as smart and good as possible. My parents wanted the same thing. They succeeded. If Think-it-Through was one of the building blocks to my greater intelligence, I want the same for my potential children.

I called my mom to ask if she still had them somewhere and to explain my theory on my intelligence. She managed the find Think-it-Through and all the books that went with it. I was pretty happy about that.


It's an extremely simple device.



Each page has 12 question, with 12 answers. Just match the number with the letter and you're good to go.


To check your answers, you simply flip the thing over and open it.


and you get something like this! Or this...




On the bottom of every page, there's the answer picture. If your shapes and colors match the picture in the book, you win!

What did you win exactly? Knowledge. It's the gift that keeps on giving.


You'd have to look through these books to truly understand how much they're exactly what an aspiring smart person would want as a child. The variety of activities and range of difficulty spanning all these books is astounding.

In an attempt to share Think-it-Through's astounding teaching capabilities, here's more pictures taken to give me an excuse to use this new webcam.

Think-it-Through has some pretty simple problems.

Shape matching.



Pattern recognition.



Shape combination.



Then there's the math books with more involving problems. All colorful and generally fun to look at with it's stories and illustrations.

Learning multiplication with pizza orders



Division with animal feet.



and fractions with space-ship gauges.



There were several books with paragraphs of English problems. They looked more like something you'd see in a standardized test.



Then there were the more abstract problems.

Like matching a picture of a food item before it's processed into food, and what it'll look like on your dinner table.



Matching the dinosaurs with their skeletons.



Pretending you're a doctor, and matching the patients with the method of treatment you'd use to treat them.



Hell, it even tried to teach you how to identify people of different cultures.




It's things like the Think-it-Through that make me question the entire education system.

The devourer of time was unleashed.

I've done a terrible thing...

I found a working ROM for Puzzle Quest 2. What's worse is that I shared this knowledge with those I love and care about most.

Didn't we learn from the first time this happened?

The Nintendo DS's awoken from a long slumber. Ready to endure the punishment. The anguish and despair caused by that cursed game. It could drive a man mad.

The game hates you. It knows you have to play on it's terms. You're only able to do what the game allows you, where as the game can do whatever it wants. You'll match those gems, not because you want to, but because you have to. There are no other available moves. You need that color in order to survive. You need to make this move so the game can't make that move. While you're not entirely sure what move it is the game is going to make, you just know you don't want it to make it.

But none of that matters, it never matters, because you'll win eventually. Having no penalty for losing means there's no reason to not try again. So no matter how demoralizing or frequent your failures are, you can always fail again, and again, until the game decides it's your turn to win.

The worst part about all of it. Is that once you start playing, you'll keep playing. "Just one more puzzle" you'll tell yourself and others. You're lying. You'll finish that puzzle, but wait! There's a treasure chest for you to open! Puzzle for your rewards!

Hours will pass, and you won't know it. If you manage to turn the game off, it'll still be there... in your mind. You can feel the puzzles. Not as an experience itself, you don't picture the puzzles or re-live previous encounters or imagine and plan for the puzzles to be. Instead you just yearn for more puzzles. It's a feeling similar to hunger.

You'll be playing Puzzle Quest in the presence of others, it is a hand-held system after all. If you can play literally anywhere, why not do so?

Someone will ask you.

"Hey, how's Puzzle Quest treating you?"

You'll respond.

"Good."

You're lying. You'll also realize that a significant amount of time has passed since you last checked, and that those were the only spoken words you've heard from anyone in recent memory.

Sometimes you'll be randomly surprised by the mere existence of those around you; sometimes your presence will be a surprise to those around you, even if you've been within proximity of each other the whole time. Puzzle Quest has its way of taking you to a different place without moving you.


Even right now, I'm beginning to think about how all the time spent writing this post could have been spent playing Puzzle Quest 2.

A problem that shall soon be corrected.

The internet is where it's at!

Lately I've been spending a lot of time talking to and studying people who have become "internet famous". It's become a goal of mine to become one of those people myself.

They are some of the happiest individuals you will ever meet because they've found a way to make a living doing what they love. Drawing web-comics, making Youtube videos, writing blogs. These things, if done correctly, can provide an income that rivals a full-time job. It's astounding to me.

Penny Arcade is the most successful web-comic to date. What started off as two guys who decided to stay home to play video games and make comics instead of going to college, has grown into a huge success of a company. Owning a charity that raises more than a million dollars a year to provide video games to hospitalized children. And a yearly expo that is overshadowing E3 in popularity. These guys are my model of success, and I can only dream to reach the same level of success as these guys have.

Tasselfoot is an individual who has made a living off internet flash games. He does random jobs for flash game producers and makes video walk-throughs for the games themselves. Between the money he makes from doing the jobs, and the ad revenue from his Youtube account, he apparently doesn't need a real job.

Allie Brosh is another individual who has made herself happy and successful through the power of the internet. In July of 2009, she started a blog in the hopes that it would make her famous enough to not have to get an actual job, as she'd much rather sit around on the couch all day in her underpants. By now, she makes enough money off her blog, her merchandise, and a part-time internet writing job, to financially support herself. Goes to show that anything is possible when you're an intelligent and attractive woman. Makes me feel like I'm at a disadvantage, being not an attractive woman.

These people have drawn a blueprint for me. Showing me that dreams can become a reality. And if all you want to do is write, talk into a camera, or draw silly pictures, you can make a living off it if you know how and have a lot of patience.

School's done.

Schools done for now, but I should really figure out what I'm doing about the summer semester.

For the moment, I'm going to worry about figuring out the features and capabilities of a Google account. Seems to be pretty extensive. I'll try to keep this updated even if only for my sake, I like reading my old shit.

I've uploaded a bunch of my short essays I wrote for facebook into Google documents. Google basically gives you a gigabyte worth of space to have word documents, excel spreadsheets, pictures, PowerPoint presentations, and questionnaire forms all online and easily shareable with others.

Uh, yeah. That's it.

Bananas are GREAT!

I wore my obnoxiously yellow Mario t-shirt today, in support of bananas.

I love bananas, and you should too. They're inexpensive, delicious, and nutritious.

Just check out this list of good shit eating bananas does for you.

Not to mention there's like, a zillion different recipes that utilize bananas. All of which I'm sure are delicious.

Next time you're at the store, pick up a 2lb tub of strawberry yogurt and a bunch of bananas. Then, the next time you're looking for a snack that's guaranteed to hit the spot, peel a banana, dip it in the yogurt, and enjoy! This has become my staple snack when I need a quick boost in energy and feel good.

If you need further convincing that bananas are great, just look at monkeys. They know what's up.

If you haven't yet...

Create a Google account. I felt with how huge Google has become, having an account with them was pretty important. I put it off because I couldn't have the name "Mousethecat", but I finally got past that and now feel like I've planted my flag on the internet.

Google is a monster of a company, and I feel that they are the ones that are going to be responsible for connecting everything in the internet to each other. We're already seeing it with facebook. You can log-in to many websites simply by connecting your facebook account to that websites account. It's a very useful addition that significantly simplifies the process of participating in several online communities by allowing a person to use just one identity for all of them.

One day, you'll be able to look at your phone and have a button to check recent facebook updates, twitter posts, see what's up with your friends on xBox live and PSN, Program your DVR, see if your ebay auctions sold, see if you were outbid on an epic item in World of Warcraft, check your grades, play a game of Tetris with someone across the hallway, and do just about anything else you could possibly think of.

Oh wait...



Technology is an amazing thing. And I really want a smartphone.

1st

People who comment "First!" on a post really piss me off. No one cares. There's a good chance someone else will actually get the first post. It's not saying anything useful. It's fucking stupid. Don't do it.

I've been feeling the need to start a blog for a while. Here it is. I have no expectations really. I just know that some people out there actually enjoy what I have to say, thank you, you guys are awesome!

As a result, I'm going to write and tinker around here, if something greater becomes of it, great!

No, I do not have a plan or general idea of what I'm going to do here. Why would I? That's like, completely counter to how I operate.

We'll see what happens, for now, I'm content with talking to myself.