The Next Level Forum - Blogs - Satsuki http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/blogs/128-Satsuki Video game message board with news, humor, an arcade, and more. en Sat, 25 May 2013 19:27:46 GMT vBulletin 10 http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/images/tnl4/misc/rss.jpg The Next Level Forum - Blogs - Satsuki http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/blogs/128-Satsuki Old PSMs, Game Informer....from 1997! http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/entries/190-Old-PSMs-Game-Informer-from-1997! Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:11:55 GMT I love going to thrift stores, which takes up a lot of my weekends. I love shopping in general, but shopping at thrift stores always yields the strangest finds. This last weekend, I found a huge lot of old video game magazines. That's not too rare in itself, usually you can find a few GamePros and things like that sitting around. This lot was strange though, the PSM magazines went back to issue #1, from 1997. I sat in the thrift store for about 45 minutes, looking through all these old issues, old memories. In 1997, I was in about 7th or 8th grade, and that's when my passion for games really took off. Like a lot of kids my age, Final Fantasy 7 was the game the really cemented my love of J-RPGs and general weeabooness. It's hilarious looking back at these magazine from 10+ years ago, all the crazy incorrect translations of names, weird speculation, and rampant fanboy writings. Gaming journalism has changed in a lot of ways, but in some ways it's still just as ridiculous. I took a bunch of pictures, sorry they are all cell-phone quality. enjoy!


Game Informer Sept 1997


Old Funcoland coupon


Victor?


PSM #1


Mischief Makers write up


Sears ad...does anyone still have this shirt?

to be continued... ]]> Satsuki http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/entries/190-Old-PSMs-Game-Informer-from-1997! In which I bitch about the lack of customer service....oh, iPhones. http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/entries/120-In-which-I-bitch-about-the-lack-of-customer-service-oh-iPhones Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:58:22 GMT I decided after a lot of late night article reading and youtube comparison videos - i wanted to get an iPhone 4. My current cell phone plan will run out in a few weeks, so I figured I'd take the plunge and get one of these newfangled smartphones. I know there's lots of smartphones out there, however, I am a 25 year old girl and apple enjoys marketing to me. Coincidentally, the boyfriend hates his shitty month to month current phone/plan, so we both decided, "hey! let's go down to the at&t store and get us some iPhones!" I grab my large wad of cash and off we go to at&t store #1.
We walk in, I tell the gangly sales dude that I'm interested in an iPhone 4.
"Oh, we're sold out of those."
"ok?"
"Yeah we don't know when we're getting any more in stock."
"...."
"So, uh...?"
"well, you can reserve one. It has to be on a credit card though, not a debit card and we don't take cash. I don't know when we're going to get any in though. And they are totally sold out everywhere. everywhere." (You're telling me that GAMESTOP has a better reserve system than you guys?)
"......ok? so what are my options?"
"If you don't want to reserve one with a credit card I can't help you. And they are sold out everywhere. Yup. everywhere. "
"......ok see ya dude."
(note: I don't have a credit card because i am a compulsive shopper and i thought it would be best if i didn't go down that road of being morbidly in debt by the time i'm 30. very un-american, I know.)

So we leave the at&t store, which I'm kind of questioning, because I haven't heard ANYTHING about iPhone shortages for months. When you google "iPhone 4 shortages" you get articles from June. I figured, being August, and being one of the craziest selling items of the year, maybe apple would have dealt with this by now. Ok, fine, let's go to the Apple store! Maybe they have more information.
Go to apple store, apple store is mobbed. (as always.)
Wait around.
Employees talking amongst themselves, make eye contact with me, turn away. I know, crowded stores suck.
Wait a bit longer.
Flag down a guy.
Ask, "Hey! Do you guys have any iPhone 4s in stock?"
He begins walking away and says "oh we just have the 32 Gig model," and crosses the store to go talk to another employee.
".....what if that's the one I want?" Of course, he can't hear me. Being across the store and all.

I make a face sort of like this.
I'm frustrated at this point, and leave. I figured I'll just order it online.
ughhh. I know customer service blows, but seriously. I just want my phone. I don't think I was being impolite or unreasonable. /vent

sidenote: apparently the iPhone 4 is sold out on the apple store for 3 weeks+! I think I'm going with a 3GS for now.

Also: tl, dr. sorry. :| ]]> Satsuki http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/entries/120-In-which-I-bitch-about-the-lack-of-customer-service-oh-iPhones What the ! http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/entries/78-What-the-! Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:25:26 GMT It just occurred to me to actually read some of the blogs that people have posted recently, it's actually a pretty cool feature. It's weird, I haven't posted any sort of anything vaguely personal bloggish type anywhere in years...most of my "real life" updates are done in short bursts on facebook or twitter. (i.e., "oh boy, today I went to see _____ band, they were ok.") But hey, I've been on TNL for god knows how long...almost 10 years, yeesh, so I figured I'd do something vaguely attention-whoreish and just post a normal old blog entry. As if anyone does that anymore!

Anyway, as some of you may know, I turned 25 on June 23rd. I'm actually really happy about this - my early 20s were kind of annoying and dramatic, much like my late teens were. Unrequited love, college, friends, drugs, a couple of art shows, etc. etc. 23 - 24 was a lot calmer, and I "settled down" with a guy who I've been with a little over a year now. He's a musician (hahahahaha) with a good job (!) so I'm pretty down with that. I tinker a lot with art, music and records (both he and I are avid record collectors like the little hipsters we are.)
I'm still a weeaboo and I hide that fact pretty well, minus the hello kitty embellishments and extensive knowledge of stupid japanese nerdy shit.

hello kitty flair and it's like 100+ degrees ugh
my life revolves around a lot of girly shit these days - fashion, makeup, shopping. I've replaced a lot of video gaming with these subjects, but I still actively keep up on industry news....I just don't really have the time for games like I used to. I play my DS and SNES emulator a lot, but I haven't touched a single current gen game. The whole Itagaki leaving Tecmo thing really killed any interest I had in any modern gaming. I think a lot of us just don't have the time or drive to pour the hundreds of dollars we used to into collections. I mean, it's totally cool if you still do that, but I know I really couldn't at this point.
Anyway, this really isn't going anywhere - it was just an excuse to play with this blog feature. So yeah, happy b-day to me, 25 is awesome so far. Feel free to ask me questions about things if you want? blahblahblah /attention whore ]]> Satsuki http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/entries/78-What-the-!