Jason Montgomery's Blog

Here's what I have to say about getting games new or used, chiming in with today's Penny Arcade.

I don't neccessarily think that buying games used rips off the original developers.  Somebody already bought it in the first place.  But I've never gotten used games from GameStop, as I think their prices are too high.

There are some games that I get new.  I've got in pre-orders for Final Fantasy XIV, Halo: Reach and soon Rock Band 3, but those are to take advantage of collector's editions or pre-order goodies I want.  But what I've been doing mostly is trading games online.  I want to get Metroid: Other M, but I think I'll get that one used instead as there are titles not that high on my gaming priority list or the pre-orders don't entice me enough.

I call this "frivolous thriftyness."  Get the big A+ stuff new, and trade for everything else later.

I don't know what to make of those "I am the River" billboards that are currently on buses and C-Trains.  To me, they kind of look like the photo the forensics investigator takes when the find a body that jumped into the river, and the font looks like something out of a suicide note.

Besides, I don't think the city would encourage us swimming in the Bow River, lest we get sucked into the weir and get turned into chum.

And on those pleasant thoughts, this is Mr. Sunshine wishing you a good night Internet!

Here's a mild story from my youth connected with this earlier tweet.

Back in the 80s, I think before the 1986 Canadian census, my family was visiting relatives out east and we went to the Ontario Science Centre.  There was a computer set up in the lobby by StatsCan where visitors can answer questions about where they live to demonstrate what the census does.  (And see their data tabulated into glorious 16-colour 320×200 resolution CGA graphics!)

I took the test twice, not knowing the second time that their terminology for "community" meant a rural area outside of a city and not the name of my neighbourhood back home, so I quickly answered the questions randomly as we were all about to leave.

Now I don't know if the data collected on this computer was included in the actual census, and it likely wasn't and only for citizen outreach, but if some rural community in Alberta got slightly less federal government grants that year, I apologize.

Later on that year, I saw other computer stations like it pop up in other places like airports so I avoided them to not further contaminate the census.  I think I was destined for an accounting job.

She is a psychic who can control the weather with her mind named Rain.

He is a master archer named Bow.

Together they fight crime.

They are DOUBLE RAINBOW!

Make it happen, Hollywood.