OK, I know I missed the deadline, but ... "Wasn't this a Fable III quest?"

Okay, I know your family crest says not to be a dick, but I feel compelled to ask: You are, by virtue of who you are, marketing primarily to the Geek crowd, and yet your shirt sizes only go up to 2X? And no Talls?? You, sir, are discriminating against a non-zero (well ... at least ONE, anyway) population of tall and/or husky geeks out there! Shame, Whil Wheaton .... SHAAAAAME!!!!! Cool designs, btw!

It remains every bit as bad as you remember, probably in no small part due to the fact that it wasn't even finished. Is there another example of a product so poor that it was more worthwhile to bury it in a landfill rather than sell it for even a penny?

Curse you, Whil Wheaton!! See, the nice thing about being a kid was that my parents had complete control of my disposable funds (which rarely approached $500) and they had an extremely effective unary system for administering it ("No."). Now that I'm all grownified, it's pretty rare that I can't scrabble together $500 ... except that all too often it goes to buy iStuff instead of, say, formula for the baby. (I kid! She's 12 now anyway!) It would be a lot easier to resist the passion song of such extravagances if it weren't for the enablers such as Wil and his ilk! I will be on queue Sat. morning to adopt early yet another toy for which I really have no need. And then I'm going to the batting cages, and then to have birthday cake with a group of strangers.

Homesick? So ... then ... you DID get sick at PAX after all ;-p

Did I say "prawn shops"? Of course I meant "PAWN shops". This was Miami, after all, not District 9.

This was so true of Miami (at least when I lived there in the late 80s). It always seemed a movie set to me. The glitzy buildings along the main stretch were just a facade. Go a block in an all of a sudden it's all dingy alleys and prawn shops every five feet.

S-s-s-s A-a-a-a F-f-f-f E-e-e-e T-t-t-t Y-y-y-y

Wow - you are a much better stepdad than I am. I mean, my stepson is a terrific kid and I truly do care about him, but I've just never been able to completely knock down that "he's not mine" barrier. It's not a very big or very solid barrier, but the fact that it's there at all sometimes bugs me. I know it stems from my own father who is a great dad, but just (due to his upbringing and the era of his youth) is not terribly "male-affectionate", if that makes sense. Consequently, I am also not especially open when it comes to showing affection to my male friends and, again, my stepson. But, with my stepson I think it's amplified a bit more because of that weird "step" barrier. Plus he doesn't like Button Men -- so I'm probably somewhat justified in the occasional shunning, right? My daughter, on the other hand LOVES Button Men. 'Course, she's only three, so it's really just the buttons and the dice she loves. But that's a start!

Is that ... is that glitter on your lips?

Your "I Voted" sticker is WAY cooler than the ones we got. Luckyyyyyy

I'm SO telling about the ascot.

Hey, fella, that's gotta be at least 16-bit to pull off those colors, champ. zest-filled, tho - fo sho

As I close in on 40 I find myself getting really nostalgic on news like this. Maybe it's that I feel so many "eras" of my life are starting to pass. Maybe it's that I'm on cholesterol meds. I don't know. But thanks for bringing me a little bit closer to one of the few pieces of entertainment that truly shaped my life, if only a bit. I appreciate perpectives like these.

Senpei ... if you are going to use "senpei" as your moniker, then learn how to spell it. And, you aren't THAT much younger than me. Unless you mean ... mentally?

Mr. Hunter, I think you owe ME an apology for contributory negligence in causing my eyes to suffer physical and emotional trauma when you did so willfully and negligently (did I say that already) force them to view the name MindArk ... ACK!! You did it again!

There's a lot of quality entertainment available for computers or game consoles. Some is just mindless fun, but some can be quite educational and provide your mind with a good workout. Beats the hell out of dropping your ass in front of the TV!

Thanks, man! We do like to have our fun. There's a lot of interesting talent in the band, beyond just music. And I have to say, our drummer is one of the best natural drummers I've ever played with, and I've played with some of the best (God only knows how).

And, yes, the print version of Billboard carries the story and is available NOW

Same story made Reuters (via Billboard)

Yes, and Raisin Bran Crunch. That's a good campaign (although a little long in the tooth now for my taste).

Sorry! Still haven't started it yet! I've been driving to work lately so I don't have my regular reading time on the train to finish my other 3 books!!

Yeah ... sorry. I'm having periodic problems where my domain hosts records choke on the remapped TypePad records and suddenly I find my blog pointing directly to my domain (which redirects to another of my sites) rather than this blog. For now I am using a link redirect instead of CNAME record remap. The difference is that people will know this is a TypePad blog, which ... you know ... who cares?

Please! Start! :) I think a great deal of it is incorrect training ... or, more appropriately, wrong-minded training? In the effort to empower the frontline staff, they focus too much on controlling the conversation (which is valid), and they forget that the customer is always right (even when they're wrong). Nobody expects you to endure personal attacks, but you DO have a duty to your customer. And that means that, from time to time, you WILL have to deal with people who are unhappy with their experience with your company. If you deal with it rather than cop-out, you will have a satisfied, or at least pacified, customer. Achieving that will get you a LOT farther than avoiding conflict.