If you’ve been to this site before, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve changed themes. It’s really the exact same theme, but with opposite main colors. Where the old theme was dubbed “Fight“, the new one is the inverse: “Give In”.

I made this theme for two main reasons: 1) I was tired of looking at all of that boring blackness. 2) I’m not into theme designing or blogging as much as I used to be, so this theme’s name is attributed to that.

I’m not releasing this theme publicly, though I’m not necessarily keeping it to myself either. I’m just going to use it for a while and see how I like it. What do you think?

This is an email I sent to Amazon but I thought that wasn’t enough, so I’m posting it here for all to see. To fill you in, I bought an HDMI cable from them but shipping took a long time, so they responded to my complaint with an “offer”…

I received the following email from Amazon merchant Eforcity after I left feedback for them on Amazon.com. I wanted to bring this to your attention because I don’t think it’s right that Eforcity is trying to bribe me out of my honest feedback, and I don’t think that Amazon should continue doing business with them unless they stop this practice. It would be one thing for them to give me a refund because they felt that it would be the right thing to do, but it’s completely unethical to try to pay me to shut me up.

This the email I received:

“Dear Dean E Nelson ,

RE: Amazon order #6264875

Thank you very much for shopping with us on Amazon.com.

We have noticed that you left a negative feedback on your order. We apologize that you were not happy with your purchase, and we would try our very best to resolve the problem with you. To extend our apologies for this inconvenience, we would like to offer you a $5.00 refund if the feedback is removed on Amazon. As soon as the feedback is removed, we will issue the refund transaction via Amazon.com as the product did not live up to your expectations.”

The email went on to thoroughly explain how to remove the feedback, and then how to get back in touch with them once I’ve done so. I can tell you this much for sure - I will never do business with Eforcity again. I hope that you will ask Eforcity to stop buying out negative feedback, as it ruins the integrity of the entire Amazon feedback system.

Thank you,
Dean E Nelson

I just watched a video on Dtoid from Fox News, where a bunch of reporters basically said that it’s unfortunate that parents should monitor their kids’ actions, specifically when it comes to the video game Mass Effect.

What’s all the hubbub about? There’s a scene in Mass Effect that shows partial nudity in which the main character has consensual sex with another character. Excuse me - according to Fox News, the game shows full nudity and exploits women. I’m not really sure how that’s possible since you can play the game as a man or a woman, but hey, I’m not an expert reporter.

The “report” is flawed in many ways, but one quote that stuck out to me particularly was this:

“Who’s playing videogames? Adolescents, not their dads.”

I love the false claims that these idiots make through the “report”, but this one takes the cake. I play way more games than my kids, and I bet many other parents would say the same. In fact, even when I was a kid, my mom’s boyfriend played more games than I did (even going so far as to create his own maps of Final Fantasy dungeons - thank Jebus we don’t have to do that nowadays!). Of course, the people who don’t play are clueless and ignorant, which is how bullshit like this “news report” continues to exist.

I’d like to see Fox News get a bunch of barbecue chefs together to discuss the upcoming presidential election, just to ensure accurate coverage among all facets of their reporting. It’s important to have the right people for the job, ya know.

In all fairness, I haven’t played Mass Effect, so my opinion is as much hearsay as that of the Fox reporters. The difference is that I’d be willing to change my views on the game should I see evidence to support that claim, while these reporters seem to be stuck in some sort of mental road block that will not allow them to change lanes.

One last thing. It’s funny that they’ve come to terms with people killing each other (in games), but falling in love and having sex? In a game rated M, where this scenario can be avoided entirely (you don’t HAVE to have sex in the game), on a system that has parental controls? “NOOOOO!” Love and sex are, apparently, worse than death. What is this world coming to…

I haven’t posted a damn thing on this site in months. Why? We had a baby, I have a new job, and I’m lazy. If those reasons aren’t good enough, then you expect too much of me.

I’m really writing this post to direct your attention to one of the best comics on the web - Hijinks Ensue by Joel Watson. It’s a strip about many topics, most of which revolve around geek culture. Rather that go into too many details about what makes it so great, here are a few of my recent favorites:

• Repulsive Behavior
• Rock Band is exactly the same as Real Band
• Geek phone sex is fundamentally different
• When you can see the giraffe’s eyes, it’s already too late
• Not that there’s anything wrong with that

This is just a short list of good’ns. If you like what you see, I strongly encourage you to leave some comments on the Hijinks Ensue website - Joel (the creator) loves feedback - and share Hijinks Ensue with your friends.

From: [my email address]
Topic: Wii
Details: Channel Support / Assistance
Email Body:
Why are you removing MP3 playback from the Photo Channel in the 1.1 update? This is truly a step backwards. While AAC may offer better sound quality overall, MP3 is practically a universal standard; to remove MP3 playback is to alienate many of your customers whose music libraries consist entirely of MP3s. I’m extremely disappointed with your decision to remove MP3 playback, and I genuinely hope that you will reconsider this poor choice prior to releasing Photo Channel 1.1.

Sincerely,
Dean E Nelson, a long-time Nintendo fan

Are you as confused about this as I am? If so, tell Nintendo. Feel free to use my message (but change your name, of course).