And you didn't read my entire post - I'm not making generalizations, I'm talking about my local EB in relation to the article that started these postings. Your store, if properly run and transplanted to my town, would most likely make my bosses worry somewhat - the EB that is there, however, simply gives us something to point and laugh at.
Now, although the spelling "piss-ant' is an acceptable form of "pissant", it has a much more negative and degrading connotation. When you use it to describe your competition and don't give any background (like, say, rude salespeople or erroneous information they've given their customers) it simply comes off as a corporate lackey badmouthing the competition. Your use of company jargon and acronyms do nothing but back up that interpretation. Stop that.
I am glad that you didn't spend three hours indoctrinating that girl into the vagaries of MMOGs and the various things you need for them, but the point I was trying to make was that meetings to explain core things about games should not be needed if the people hired are at least somewhat conversant with the stuff. Do you also have meetings to point out the differences between sizes of bags to use for different sales? Do you have meetings to point out the difference between PS2 and Xbox software? I don't think so. Can you explain to me why I had a customer come in who was told by EB employees that Final Fantasy 11 was free on PS2 in any way that doesn't involve them either lying or being completely uninformed on such a basic, key part of that particular game? Can you explain to me why that isn't an isolated incident in dealing with customers who come from that store?
Were it not for the fact that I know the local EB harbours a loathing for the GC, I would be expecting people coming in telling me that you don't need the Bongos for DK: Jungle Beat, or the drum for Taiko Drum Master on PS2.
As to the LP/External Shrink thing - I was coming from a job interview when that particular incident happened. That means I was in a dress shirt and tie, not baggy jeans and a t-shirt. I was nothing but polite, and I explained what was in my bag, but the guy was still quite rude to me. There's a reason I don't go to EB, and from the looks of things in other comments on this article, I'm not the one in the minority on this issue, nor am I one being the asshole - as I said before, look in the mirror.
Your local "piss-ant" video game store. Cute. You exemplify a number of qualities I dislike about EB employees in that statement alone - you think you're better because you're EB, and instead of giving reasons (like I did) you simply denigrate your competition instead. I am partially to blame for this, though, as in reviewing my initial post I realize I was too general in my description of EB. My experiences have only been with the local EBs that I stopped shopping at 5 years ago and have since only interacted with over the phone (I stopped shopping there due to an employee asking me to leave my bag at the front of the store - my bag was at that point holding about $200 of books and a $1500 laptop - I had no problem with this, until I asked to set it behind the counter, a request to which he responded "No, it has to be out in front where I can see it", so I left and never returned). Perhaps they are better run in Saskatchewan, but here in Southern Ontario, they're staffed by idiots.
You hired a new girl - good on you - but then you had to have a 3 hour meeting to explain something that should be patiently obvious to anyone working in a game store. Could you do me a favour and send out a chain-wide memo with notes from that meeting? It took me half an hour and two websites the other day to convince a guy that you have to pay for Final Fantasy 11 on the PS2, as those fine fellows at my local EB told him it was free - "They don't charge on consoles, only on PCs!".
As to your "quality sales that last" and "0% returns", what I hear from my customers is that the local EB does that by refusing them any returns whatsoever - even on unopened merchandise that hasn't left the store.
I am a clerk in a game store in a small city in Canada. Our only competition in the city is an EB and several department stores, which means I occasionally have to phone them in order to check a price.
That said, almost every EB employee I have ever spoken to (you know, after that huge spiel when they answer the phone) is a complete idiot who wouldn't last a week in the store I work at. They lie to their customers about anything and everything in order to make a profit, they've completely bought into the "Nintendo is dying" BS that is being spread around, and they rarely know anything about the game they're selling if the title is something other than "Madden" or "GTA". They are casual gamers for the most part, with a small minority being hardcore FPS-freaks (usually Halo) who make minimum wage, don't care about their customers, and have little control over what is on their shelves (meaning if it's rare, it's not there).
Case in point, I had a mother come in the other day who had bought her 6 year old an Xbox at EB along with a Shrek game at the advice of the sales clerk. He neglected to mention that games aimed at 6 year olds make up a decimal-point percentage of the titles on the system, but he did tell her that since Nintendo was going out of business, the Xbox was the 'smarter' buy, and although the GC was cheaper, she believed him. She was rather shocked when I told her that Mario didn't come on anything other than Nintendo consoles, and that I usually recommend the GC for people with younger kids as there are a number of games that can be played together. I don't know why they do this, and although it's bad for the people who shop there, I don't want them to stop as most of those people tend to stop going there and come to my store instead.
Now, that doesn't mean that I view the GC as a system for kids - I just feel it's the best buy for people with kids, as there are games that will appeal to more age groups on it (the GC was the first console of this generation that I bought, being a broke student and all). RE4 and Eternal Darkness are great for older players, and the first-party games tend to work for everyone (I've gotten drunk playing Mario Kart with a bunch of my buddies). The number of games limits the GC, but those that are good on it are very, very good.
No, sorry, Nintendo offers a one year warranty on new systems - it's the best in the industry, and their customer service reps are really good. The games only get 90 days, but that's still better than the thirty days given by Sony and Microsoft.
Want some proof? Go here. As I tell the kids that come into where I work, never argue with the guy who sells the stuff for a living.
$80 is really not an unreasonable amount of money to pay for a repair on a high-tech electronic device, regardless of the simplicity of the repair or how much the device costs new. you can expect to pay more than that to have a crappy VHS deck adjusted.
Yeah, sounds unreasonable, but maybe you should RTFA - it's $80 American plus shipping. Have you ever picked up an XBOX? They're the heaviest console ever made, which means it costs more to ship the damn things. Microsoft needs to do something about this - Nintendo has authorized repair shops across the country (and they give a 1 year warranty on all new systems), and Sony will fix Playstations for $120 CAN, including shipping, which is expensive, but guarantees you a working system even if yours can't be fixed.
NCIX.com warrants product(s) to be in good working condition and free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one (1) year for OEM packages, and for thirty (30) days for RETAIL packages, from the original Invoice date unless otherwise restricted below or by the manufacturer's own warranty policy.
which means it is as good or better than Futureshop. As to the cables, screws and jumpers, NCIX sells a package with those for $3, or I can get them for real cheap from the local army surplus.
Also note that I'm in Canada, and those prices are in Canadian dollars.
I'm guessing you were at the Futureshop at Metrotown mall...2 blocks away from NCIX's Kingsway outlet. I've walked out of there a couple times after their commission hungry salesmen insulted me.
Nope, I was at the Waterloo, Ontario location, and it's actually the second time that I've had bad service at that location - there's another one that's about 20 minutes farther away for me, but it's twice the size and the sales staff is actually polite, so I go there now when I have to go to Futureshop.
I've been considering building a new computer for myself, as the one that I'm typing this on is coming up on 6 years old (PII 400 MMX - ohhhh yeah!). This means that I've been pricing out parts for the last few months, and I've noticed some serious discrepancies between prices on the exact same product at online retailers and in store.
I've been eyeing this combo CDRW & DVD drive for my CD burning / DVD watching needs. I was in Futureshop about a month back, and noticed the same exact drive in their computer section, above a sign that read this price. I assumed that this was wrong, and pointed it out to the guy behind the counter.
"No," I'm told, "that's the correct price."
"But I can buy that exact same drive for about $75 online - don't you think that $120 is a little expensive?"
Once the guy finds out that it was NCIX that had this price, he starts ranting - yelling basically - about authorized distributors, and how as an authorized distributor, Futureshop doesn't have to match that price - besides, NCIX doesn't guarantee their products!
"Yes they do," I tell him, "plus they don't yell at their customers for asking questions."
At this point I walked away to pay for my purchase, and the cute girl at the register asked me how my visit to Futureshop was - I replied that it would have been great except for the jerk in computers, who I pointed out to her.
"That's the manager, sir."
In-effing-sane. Like I said to my buddies when I recounted this story, there's a serious problem somewhere in the supply chain when the same product costs 50% more at one location than another - somebody is getting screwed, and given the choice between the two retailers, I'm going for the one that causes less damage to my wallet.
what the hell else are we supposed to do? Sterling is attacking Lovelock based solely on fear of Nuclear weapons - not energy, and a nuclear plant has about as much of a chance of blowing up as my chair does when properly designed. Chernobyl happened because the Soviets let regular Engineers perform a test on a reactor - not Nuclear Engineers who actually would have known what they were doing. Three Mile Island happened because of pure stupidity. A properly designed nuclear plant, with proper safeguards and well trained staff is a fairly safe place.
I think Sterling's comments would have been decidedly better had they actually proposed something else, instead of attacking an idea that is a feasable solution to significantly lowering the emission of greenhouse gasses. I have to wonder if he would have been among the people objecting to wind power because it ruined the view, if he lived in Martha's Vineyard.
Also, a few months ago I went to buy a new Game Cube for my nephew's birthday and they tried to hard sell me into buy a used console.
I honestly don't know why vendors (both software and hardware) just stop selling them stuff. They do all they can to steer you from buying new and getting used, and that's sales lost to the vendors.
I'll tell you why they tried to push you towards the used GC over the new one - the profit on used is much higher.
Where I work, I sell a new GC for $140 Canadian, with a cost to us of $135 CAD. I sell used GCs for $100 CAD, and our cost on those is, on average, $50 CAD (we hold our used stuff for two weeks before selling, though).
So, $50 profit versus $5 profit - and quite honestly unless that used GC has been treated like complete crap by its previous owner, it's still just as good as a new one. I've only ever seen one GC that refused to work properly, and that was our store demo that we've had since launch and which was run for a minimum of 6 hours every day.
I really wish I could figure out what it is about those Genesis games - the exact same thing happens where I work. The loose Genesis games do a complete turn over about once every three weeks, but some of the games in the cases have been there for over a year. SNES games are the same, though they tend to turn over every other week. When it comes to NES games though, I can't keep the boxed ones in - but I have about 15 copies of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt that refuse to sell (the lack of light guns may have something to do with that though).
And dude, 25 grand a month? That's pretty slow - I do it in a week
According to the information I have at my workplace it is set to launch at about $55 CAD, which is mid-range for GameCube games (it has a cost of just under $49, and we usually make a minimum of $5-6 dollars on a game).
But.. how can half of a 2 way process be illegal? It seems to me this is similiar to it being legal to buy something but illegal for someone to sell it to you. Im probably missing an obvious example of this but I cant think of any now.
Here's one for you then - here in Canada we have laws that allow people to use Marijuana for medicinal purposes, but it's still illegal for them to buy it from the neighbourhood pot dealer. So that means if they are found with it in their possession, that's fine, but if they are found buying it, that's a fine.
I love my country, but sometimes our laws drive me nuts - I'm just glad that I keep my MP3s in a separate folder from the one that I share on Kazaa ("No Officer, I've taken steps to keep from uploading my digital music").
You know, usually I'm the first to start Wal-Mart bashing, but in this case I think they're on the right track. Why exactly do you think it's a bad thing to not sell M rated games to little kids? Would you prefer a store where children can by hardcore porn over somewhere where they check ID?
I don't care for censorship, but I do believe in age-related restrictions.
That manager obviously never had an irate parent come in and yell at him. I personally will not sell GTA3 or GTA:VC to kids (or Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball for that matter), and I make sure that I inform parents what exactly they are buying. Of course, that can backfire too, as I've also had a mother freak on me saying "Don't you tell me how to raise my children! They understand the difference between a game and real life! It's just a game anyway!" (The kid started yelling at me too - I love that, I really do, getting told how to do my job by a kid less than half my age).
Oh, and to the whole "there's nowhere else that child would've gotten the money" you obviously haven't run across the kids who would steal the money out of Mom or Dad's wallet (also been there).
The problem with FF: TSW was that Square let their own people write the story. Don't get me wrong, those guys are tops at there craft, but they're used to being able to have a story line that takes 60+ hours to get through, not one that has to be done within 2 hours. I think that had they gone to someone one and said "Here, these are the basic tenets of Final Fantasy, write us a two hour screenplay" they would have had a much better movie.
Well, speaking as a guy who sells games to said parents, I think you'd be surprised how many of them just don't seem to give a crap. I've had parents buy GTA 3 (both original and Vice City) for their under ten children. I tell them "Sir/Ma'am, this game isn't suitable for a young child - it has depictions of violence and adult situations" to which I get the reply "It's a video game - how bad can it be?". The strange thing is I've yet to get a returned game on the grounds that it is too violent, which leads me to believe these kids either aren't being supervised, or the parents just don't care.
It's kind of sad in a way, but what can I do? If I don't sell the games, the store goes out of business and I don't earn money.
I'm also going to assume that someone is going to bring up the ESRB rating system. Parents don't notice that (I'm serious). I've been asked why games aren't rated with the same system as movies (an idea which appeals to me), and "What does this 'M' mean?" - the system doesn't seem to be intuitive enough for people to understand at a glance (reinforcing my belief that most people are mostly stupid).
I don't look down on Lab Techs; I actually admire them as they are doing something that I know that I can't. I just have no interest in culturing E. coli, sequencing DNA or cloning inserts for the rest of my life when I could do something that I would enjoy a lot more. I've been through a lot in my 22 years, and I just don't want to do something that I don't enjoy for my living. English will hopefully provide me with an enjoyable life; something that Molecular Biology couldn't do in my case. I know numerous people who are continuing on in it who are quite happy to work in labs - I'm just not one of them.
I'm not motivated by an urge to 'greatness'; I'm motivated to enjoy what life I have. If I die happy, I will consider myself to have lead a good life.
The fact that the field was booming was why I originally entered it. I left it because I couldn't see myself doing it for thirty or forty years - it just didn't agree with me. I would have most likely ended up being a lab technician, doing menial research for other people as my marks weren't good enough to get me into a Masters program (and thus, no doctorate). I would have most likely ended up a burnt-out, bitter man, much like my father - something I swore I would never let myself become.
English, however, presents me with a number of different possibilities. My marks in the classes I've taken so far are in the mid-eighties, high enough to allow me to continue to a masters and a doctorate, or I could hit up teacher college, get my diploma and work for a private school teaching both Science and English. I could be the journalist that the science people like, as I understand what they're doing. I could find the girl of my dreams and be a stay-at-home dad, writing Sci-Fi and freelance work in my spare time.
I could do any one of those things, or I could be a Lab Tech. In the end, I would much rather be happy than be rich or be working in a field that I am no longer interested in.
I couldn't agree with this more. I started University in September of 1999, and it took me until the beginning of last year to realize that the degree I was in (Molecular Biology & Genetics) simply wasn't for me. Like the questioner, I would simply procrastinate until I simply had to do the work or face failure, leading to all-nighters that left me physically and mentally destroyed for the next week.
A friend of mine, after having listened to me complain about my marks (I was a straight A high school student, as I was never pushed there, and I couldn't understand how my marks were so bad in University) suggested to me that perhaps I wasn't in the right program. I took a week where I looked at what I was doing with the majority of my time - it was reading, just not for class - so I changed my major to English, and I begin doing that full time in September. For the past year, since I decided that I was going to change to English, my marks have risen 15 percentage points and I feel much happier. I also tend to start my work earlier (except for right now, I have a project due on Wednesday worth 25% in my last science course ever, and I haven't started yet) and my work ethic has risen from doing about one hour of studying to four hours straight.
English isn't for everyone; you need good reading and comprehension skills, plus the ability to bullshit (read: compose) essays. I would suggest to the questioner that for one week he should write down what he is doing instead of working - be it talking to people, surfing the web, or whatever - and try to find a degree or program that will allow him to do that for a living. It may turn out that University or College isn't the place for him. I would also suggest he consider Trade Schools, as most people in the business are retiring in the next 10 years, so there is about to be a high demand for Plumbers, Electricians and Millwrights. Hopefully, he'll be able to find something that suits him.
It's precisely this attitude that causes a good number of Canadians to dislike Americans out of hand - it's called smug superiority and it's effing annoying.
If you don't like American Culture, then don't partake of it. Create your own. Enjoy your own.
We have our own culture. We had more of it before some people realized that they could make more money by showing/playing cheaper imports from the USA (which leads to our Canadian content rules for radio and television). Ever heard of The Tragically Hip? How about BNL? Read any Mordecai Richler lately? Maybe some Robert J Sawyer?
Stop blaming America for your problems.
I will stop blaming America for problems when America stops causing them (and that includes discussions like this where I'm probably going to get modded -1 Troll for being Canadian).
Glad to be of help. The only thing that really ticks me off with Space is the repeat of Voyager at 10pm, but I think that will change with the coming of Stargate in September.
And as to crap in primetime - Brimstone is Monday, Farscape is Friday, and the rest is so-so, with Angel, Enterprise, and Tremors: The Series, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively, but it's better than nothing (Tremors is watchable if you're drunk or really, really bored).
Slashdot Mirror
Now, although the spelling "piss-ant' is an acceptable form of "pissant", it has a much more negative and degrading connotation. When you use it to describe your competition and don't give any background (like, say, rude salespeople or erroneous information they've given their customers) it simply comes off as a corporate lackey badmouthing the competition. Your use of company jargon and acronyms do nothing but back up that interpretation. Stop that.
I am glad that you didn't spend three hours indoctrinating that girl into the vagaries of MMOGs and the various things you need for them, but the point I was trying to make was that meetings to explain core things about games should not be needed if the people hired are at least somewhat conversant with the stuff. Do you also have meetings to point out the differences between sizes of bags to use for different sales? Do you have meetings to point out the difference between PS2 and Xbox software? I don't think so. Can you explain to me why I had a customer come in who was told by EB employees that Final Fantasy 11 was free on PS2 in any way that doesn't involve them either lying or being completely uninformed on such a basic, key part of that particular game? Can you explain to me why that isn't an isolated incident in dealing with customers who come from that store?
Were it not for the fact that I know the local EB harbours a loathing for the GC, I would be expecting people coming in telling me that you don't need the Bongos for DK: Jungle Beat, or the drum for Taiko Drum Master on PS2.
As to the LP/External Shrink thing - I was coming from a job interview when that particular incident happened. That means I was in a dress shirt and tie, not baggy jeans and a t-shirt. I was nothing but polite, and I explained what was in my bag, but the guy was still quite rude to me. There's a reason I don't go to EB, and from the looks of things in other comments on this article, I'm not the one in the minority on this issue, nor am I one being the asshole - as I said before, look in the mirror.
You hired a new girl - good on you - but then you had to have a 3 hour meeting to explain something that should be patiently obvious to anyone working in a game store. Could you do me a favour and send out a chain-wide memo with notes from that meeting? It took me half an hour and two websites the other day to convince a guy that you have to pay for Final Fantasy 11 on the PS2, as those fine fellows at my local EB told him it was free - "They don't charge on consoles, only on PCs!".
As to your "quality sales that last" and "0% returns", what I hear from my customers is that the local EB does that by refusing them any returns whatsoever - even on unopened merchandise that hasn't left the store.
How exactly are these people kept happy again?
That said, almost every EB employee I have ever spoken to (you know, after that huge spiel when they answer the phone) is a complete idiot who wouldn't last a week in the store I work at. They lie to their customers about anything and everything in order to make a profit, they've completely bought into the "Nintendo is dying" BS that is being spread around, and they rarely know anything about the game they're selling if the title is something other than "Madden" or "GTA". They are casual gamers for the most part, with a small minority being hardcore FPS-freaks (usually Halo) who make minimum wage, don't care about their customers, and have little control over what is on their shelves (meaning if it's rare, it's not there).
Case in point, I had a mother come in the other day who had bought her 6 year old an Xbox at EB along with a Shrek game at the advice of the sales clerk. He neglected to mention that games aimed at 6 year olds make up a decimal-point percentage of the titles on the system, but he did tell her that since Nintendo was going out of business, the Xbox was the 'smarter' buy, and although the GC was cheaper, she believed him. She was rather shocked when I told her that Mario didn't come on anything other than Nintendo consoles, and that I usually recommend the GC for people with younger kids as there are a number of games that can be played together. I don't know why they do this, and although it's bad for the people who shop there, I don't want them to stop as most of those people tend to stop going there and come to my store instead.
Now, that doesn't mean that I view the GC as a system for kids - I just feel it's the best buy for people with kids, as there are games that will appeal to more age groups on it (the GC was the first console of this generation that I bought, being a broke student and all). RE4 and Eternal Darkness are great for older players, and the first-party games tend to work for everyone (I've gotten drunk playing Mario Kart with a bunch of my buddies). The number of games limits the GC, but those that are good on it are very, very good.
Want some proof? Go here. As I tell the kids that come into where I work, never argue with the guy who sells the stuff for a living.
Yeah, sounds unreasonable, but maybe you should RTFA - it's $80 American plus shipping. Have you ever picked up an XBOX? They're the heaviest console ever made, which means it costs more to ship the damn things. Microsoft needs to do something about this - Nintendo has authorized repair shops across the country (and they give a 1 year warranty on all new systems), and Sony will fix Playstations for $120 CAN, including shipping, which is expensive, but guarantees you a working system even if yours can't be fixed.
which means it is as good or better than Futureshop. As to the cables, screws and jumpers, NCIX sells a package with those for $3, or I can get them for real cheap from the local army surplus.
Also note that I'm in Canada, and those prices are in Canadian dollars.
Nope, I was at the Waterloo, Ontario location, and it's actually the second time that I've had bad service at that location - there's another one that's about 20 minutes farther away for me, but it's twice the size and the sales staff is actually polite, so I go there now when I have to go to Futureshop.
I've been eyeing this combo CDRW & DVD drive for my CD burning / DVD watching needs. I was in Futureshop about a month back, and noticed the same exact drive in their computer section, above a sign that read this price. I assumed that this was wrong, and pointed it out to the guy behind the counter.
"No," I'm told, "that's the correct price."
"But I can buy that exact same drive for about $75 online - don't you think that $120 is a little expensive?"
Once the guy finds out that it was NCIX that had this price, he starts ranting - yelling basically - about authorized distributors, and how as an authorized distributor, Futureshop doesn't have to match that price - besides, NCIX doesn't guarantee their products!
"Yes they do," I tell him, "plus they don't yell at their customers for asking questions."
At this point I walked away to pay for my purchase, and the cute girl at the register asked me how my visit to Futureshop was - I replied that it would have been great except for the jerk in computers, who I pointed out to her.
"That's the manager, sir."
In-effing-sane. Like I said to my buddies when I recounted this story, there's a serious problem somewhere in the supply chain when the same product costs 50% more at one location than another - somebody is getting screwed, and given the choice between the two retailers, I'm going for the one that causes less damage to my wallet.
I think Sterling's comments would have been decidedly better had they actually proposed something else, instead of attacking an idea that is a feasable solution to significantly lowering the emission of greenhouse gasses. I have to wonder if he would have been among the people objecting to wind power because it ruined the view, if he lived in Martha's Vineyard.
IIRC 'priscilla' typed into SimCity 2000 opened the debug menu, which would allow you to do anything - including starting with fusion.
I'll tell you why they tried to push you towards the used GC over the new one - the profit on used is much higher.
Where I work, I sell a new GC for $140 Canadian, with a cost to us of $135 CAD. I sell used GCs for $100 CAD, and our cost on those is, on average, $50 CAD (we hold our used stuff for two weeks before selling, though).
So, $50 profit versus $5 profit - and quite honestly unless that used GC has been treated like complete crap by its previous owner, it's still just as good as a new one. I've only ever seen one GC that refused to work properly, and that was our store demo that we've had since launch and which was run for a minimum of 6 hours every day.
And dude, 25 grand a month? That's pretty slow - I do it in a week
According to the information I have at my workplace it is set to launch at about $55 CAD, which is mid-range for GameCube games (it has a cost of just under $49, and we usually make a minimum of $5-6 dollars on a game).
Here's one for you then - here in Canada we have laws that allow people to use Marijuana for medicinal purposes, but it's still illegal for them to buy it from the neighbourhood pot dealer. So that means if they are found with it in their possession, that's fine, but if they are found buying it, that's a fine.
I love my country, but sometimes our laws drive me nuts - I'm just glad that I keep my MP3s in a separate folder from the one that I share on Kazaa ("No Officer, I've taken steps to keep from uploading my digital music").
I don't care for censorship, but I do believe in age-related restrictions.
Oh, and to the whole "there's nowhere else that child would've gotten the money" you obviously haven't run across the kids who would steal the money out of Mom or Dad's wallet (also been there).
The problem with FF: TSW was that Square let their own people write the story. Don't get me wrong, those guys are tops at there craft, but they're used to being able to have a story line that takes 60+ hours to get through, not one that has to be done within 2 hours. I think that had they gone to someone one and said "Here, these are the basic tenets of Final Fantasy, write us a two hour screenplay" they would have had a much better movie.
It's kind of sad in a way, but what can I do? If I don't sell the games, the store goes out of business and I don't earn money.
I'm also going to assume that someone is going to bring up the ESRB rating system. Parents don't notice that (I'm serious). I've been asked why games aren't rated with the same system as movies (an idea which appeals to me), and "What does this 'M' mean?" - the system doesn't seem to be intuitive enough for people to understand at a glance (reinforcing my belief that most people are mostly stupid).
A Horse is a Horse, of course, of course!
I'm not motivated by an urge to 'greatness'; I'm motivated to enjoy what life I have. If I die happy, I will consider myself to have lead a good life.
English, however, presents me with a number of different possibilities. My marks in the classes I've taken so far are in the mid-eighties, high enough to allow me to continue to a masters and a doctorate, or I could hit up teacher college, get my diploma and work for a private school teaching both Science and English. I could be the journalist that the science people like, as I understand what they're doing. I could find the girl of my dreams and be a stay-at-home dad, writing Sci-Fi and freelance work in my spare time.
I could do any one of those things, or I could be a Lab Tech. In the end, I would much rather be happy than be rich or be working in a field that I am no longer interested in.
A friend of mine, after having listened to me complain about my marks (I was a straight A high school student, as I was never pushed there, and I couldn't understand how my marks were so bad in University) suggested to me that perhaps I wasn't in the right program. I took a week where I looked at what I was doing with the majority of my time - it was reading, just not for class - so I changed my major to English, and I begin doing that full time in September. For the past year, since I decided that I was going to change to English, my marks have risen 15 percentage points and I feel much happier. I also tend to start my work earlier (except for right now, I have a project due on Wednesday worth 25% in my last science course ever, and I haven't started yet) and my work ethic has risen from doing about one hour of studying to four hours straight.
English isn't for everyone; you need good reading and comprehension skills, plus the ability to bullshit (read: compose) essays. I would suggest to the questioner that for one week he should write down what he is doing instead of working - be it talking to people, surfing the web, or whatever - and try to find a degree or program that will allow him to do that for a living. It may turn out that University or College isn't the place for him. I would also suggest he consider Trade Schools, as most people in the business are retiring in the next 10 years, so there is about to be a high demand for Plumbers, Electricians and Millwrights. Hopefully, he'll be able to find something that suits him.
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
And as to crap in primetime - Brimstone is Monday, Farscape is Friday, and the rest is so-so, with Angel, Enterprise, and Tremors: The Series, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively, but it's better than nothing (Tremors is watchable if you're drunk or really, really bored).