Over a month after the order had been placed, Take2 got hold of me. (As an aside I did not think anything wrong because month long waits were not uncommon for getting video games in South Africa at the time). What I received that day was a not a videogame. What I had received that day, was bullshit.  Without any warning or providing any alternative solutions, they cancelled my order. They told me the videogame was not available.  By that time it had been in shops for about a week already. But for a more expensive price. Instead of admitting their mistake, they lied to me. Then to add insult to injury they forced me to take store credit. I was not allowed to spend MY money elsewhere.  I wanted the fucking game, not your bullshit.

So, I vowed NEVER to use their site again. It took a few weeks for the anger to pass. Eventually I settled down and went on with my life.

The next month and the month after that, and after that, and after that, they kept reminding me that I had store credit and that I should use it. Them reminding of me of why I would never use their site. This continued for at least a year, reminding me of my anger. In the midst of my rage I realised that the taunts would never stop and something would need to be done.

At least a year or so after the original order was placed, I got black out angry and ordered the CEO some items from his own store.

Below is a copy of the invoice. (Notice the titles on the products.) Click the image to view a larger version

Take2? More Like TakeCustomersAndFuckThemInTheAss.

In case you were wondering, I did know I had to spend more of my own money to do this. Fuck Take.co.za… fuck ‘em hard.

What you say? You’ve no idea what I am talking about? If you’re’nt* from the states, you may not know that internet segregation exists. It does though. If you don’t live in the states, try watching a Hulu clip or try watching something on Comedy Central. Under normal circumstances, you can’t! That’s called internet segregation. You may think, “Gerard, Lord of darkness, why does this matter, it’s one site.” True, but if you understand the true nature of the web, it’s all interlinked. This detracts from the whole web experience not only on hulu but digg and all sites that reference locked content. There are ways around this though. By using a proxy it can appear as though you are browsing from inside the United States, thus allowing you to watch the content. Hulu however have begun to shut down content for people using proxies even if they are for a valid reason. All this leads to is people finding other methods to watch the content, namely torrents. Pointless.

Hulu, it's pointless.

Another example of internet segregation is this talk of Microsoft trying to buy the news from News Corp. My current belief is that Google currently hold an information monopoly on the world. Don’t believe me, check out Google Dashboard and just see how much they know about you. If you are anything like me, it’s a lot. So if you could ignore my paranoia about Google until the day I get to say, “I told you so”, you would see that I am all for removing the Google information monopoly. (Losing it to Microsoft, is another issue all together, but still). Assuming it’s the actual news and not the news brand that is more important. And assuming it’s possible to get the same news on the internet from more than a single source. With all this in mind is it a good idea to prevent content being viewed from a specific network. Even if somehow it did make sense, ultimately it would be pointless. All this will do is broaden the the market for something I thought previously useless, search engine aggregators.

These are just more examples of big business messing up the internet.

*you’re’nt: contraction for “you are not”… I totally just invented that

This one: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/britains-new-interne.html. This is rubbish. If it happens I will leave the UK. I promise you this. I don’t like petitions because I don’t believe they work but  go here to “help prevent” this: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/

The other post is this: http://gigaom.com/2009/11/22/should-web-page-speed-influence-google-pagerank/. This is bullshit… because I say so. The internet is currently a level playing field for everyone, big and small business alike. Are you going to skew it towards those with most cash? Are you Google? Recently I’ve become A LOT more untrusting of Google.

Ok, it’s true that one swallow does not make a summer, but these things seem to point to the trend that the internet is now going to become more of a corporately controlled entity? I hope I am wrong.

Edit: Also?! Why is my text justified? Justified text?! WTF? This also angers me.

Update: Ok. I removed the justified text. At least I feel like I have the power to change something.

The way I see, it you should be able to work towards your goals easily. And if you are faltering, take a break. A proper break. If that does not work, re-asses and decide if you want to carry on. And you should only stop doing it until you make a conscious decision that you don’t want to do it anymore. Don’t waste time thinking about doing and not actually doing it, in my case that wastes energy, breeds guilt and prevents me from relaxing when it is time to relax. And one of the things I believe is that relaxation is as important as working towards your goals.

Yeah, don’t feel you have to do something because you have to. Especially if it’s activities you do with your free time. That’s just bullshit. You don’t HAVE to do anything, you have a choice. So if you’ve made your choice, do it. You might be saying, “Oh! But my work, I don’t enjoy my work, I don’t want to work.” Yeah sure, maybe. But what do you get out of work? Money? What do you with that money? You live under a roof, you go out, buy drinks, food, clothes, etc. Surely you want those things? I am pretty sure you do. So if that’s the case, you want to work. So just fucking do it, and enjoy it. Be happy that you are working, others are not so fortunate.

Get it? Good.

I am going to bed. Good night.

Digg, the social networking bookmark site, is a way of alerting other users of interesting and/or funny news, pictures or movies. It does this quite well. Every now and again you find articles or comments about Digg users complaining that their self written articles or submitted articles do not do that well on Digg. It all seems to be about status for the users. It seems to be a way of saying: “Look at me. Look at what I have dugg. Recognise me for finding this cool link that I have in no way had anything to with but wish to take some credit for. I crave your attention.”

Twitter does not even pretend to be anything else other than a tool for attention whores. At its heart is says “Look at me, look at my fucking breakfast, here is a photo, please reply to my inane tweets about my overly mundane life so that you may provide the feedback that I so desperately need to know if my life actually means something. I crave your attention.”

I am not even going to bother with myspace. Everyone knows it’s for attention whores. If you don’t know this, you are either in a band or a natural born attention whore. The two are not mutually exclusive.

To twitter’s credit I did see some use in it the other day. Gmail went down I was not sure if they company I was working for had suddenly blocked it or if it was actually down. In my experience it would have been the first time a google service was not available. A quick search on twitter revealed that gmail was infact down and people all over the world were reporting this in. So for any major events in the developed world and the more advanced developing worlds it makes a good world pulse. And it if it wasn’t for attention whoredness of the site in question having a world pulse would not be possible.

I supposed that I am angry because the more I use these sites, it seems the more I seem to rely on others for validation of my actions. This angers me. Never in my life have I ever done this. Never in my life have I cared what others thought. I have always strived to be the best I can be in my own eyes. While doing that I was capable of selfless acts or creating things that others appreciated. Never the other way round. I always tried to operate unseen. Doing my thing (and doing it well) from the shadows without anyone noticing or even knowing who did it. Only to step out of the shadows to prevent others from taking recognition for work that is not their own.

That’s enough I think.