Best Buy Media department, how can I help you...?

Missed an update in November, but it's not like anything interesting happened of course. All that happened was that I started working at Best Buy near the end of the month. Yup, I finally introduced myself to the wonderful world of retail...I've heard stories about some people who want to evade its everlasting grasp. At first, it didn't seem too bad, but now with only 2 actual weeks of working after my job training, it may not be the best place for personal growth.

For people that are looking for challenges, being the best they can be and all that good stuff, well, retail probably isn't the place to be. From my limited experience there, you don't really learn much of anything besides how the store operates. I'm working in the Media section, for example, and that includes movies, music, games, and other various appliances like microwaves and phones. But one necessarily doesn't need to know jack shit about any item. Product knowledge can be virtually non-existent and you could still accomplish most of the job if you know how the store operates. I am simplifying fair amount though; I would assume the computer guys would know the basic parts of a computer. But, going back to my scatter-brained train of thought...

If you didn't know what the basic features of a Playstation 3 are, for example, you'd simply ask a co-worker and maybe in the future, do a little research, maybe even just a Wikipedia article. I guess that would be one way of learning, of personal growth. Unfortunately, that's more or less the only way I see how one can further his or her knowledge of anything. Once you start getting experience with the computer system, where everything is placed in the store, et cetera, you don't get a lot of personal skill development out of it. All you get is the satisfaction of satisfying a customer. I'm sure helping people could be all that a person could be seeking in their ideal job, but for the more ambitious people, I'm sure there are ways to help others as well as yourself. Unless you think helping others helps yourself or whatnot...heh, I guess retail is just right for altruists.

Maybe retail is the perfect industry for unambitious slackers such as myself. It certainly doesn't make me tired compared to general labour, and even with substandard communication skills, I haven't felt any bad vibes or tremors from the customers I have dealt with so far. But I do agree it isn't too stimulating once you get deeper into it, or when it's a slow day. When business starts to pick up later on in the day, maybe you'll feel the pressure of having to multi-task between a couple of customers, but even then your actions to satisfy said customers will be somewhat routine. I think I'm still in the honeymoon phase of the retail job cycle or something, but I don't think I'll get super depressed or anything, heh. Work is still work, and I'm still a slacker last time I checked.

Now to vi-dee-ya games, of course. I feel like I should just stop playing anything that's remotely competitive and takes skill of any sort. Maybe it's just my frustration of failing at least 10 times on my Megaman Zero run in at least 7 different places in the game. Or maybe it's just getting a consistent last place ranking in the local Toronto Soulcalibur 4 tournies. Maybe it's just that I simply cannot play and adapt, only memorize a game in order to have any success at all. I guess runs are overrated, I was never good at fighting games, and while certain games do require a fair amount of memorization, most will definitely require some sort of improvisational skill. All of this together is an explanation of why I suck so much.

I don't want to give up, but I don't see where I'm going. After so many failed attempts at a 100 point run in MMZ, I just can't see myself doing that perfect run, finishing it once and for all. I don't see how I'll be able to perceive all that is happening during a SC4 match, having to interpret lots of information, come up with a solution on the spot, execute it without flaw in a very short duration, and repeat it multiple times for about 5 minutes. I wish I could just memorize it like a level in Megaman, but it doesn't work that way...

And I wanna play something new, dammit! Actually, I was looking at giving Front Mission: Gun Hazard a spin, especially with the lovely translation job that the awesome AGTP team completed a while back. Actually, I started playing Jericho on the 360. It seems to have a good atmosphere, and I find the voice acting is pretty good (the actor who voiced Scott Mitchell from GRAW!). It's a standard shooter I guess, but the abilities seem promising. Haven't gone too far into it, but I can say that the AI dies quite a lot. There was a level where I had to disable battery placements, for example. Only one character can destroy them, and you have to be controlling this character in order to do so. But even though it was designed like this, the AI should have been smarter in taking up better positions to avoid turret fire while still being able to attack the guards. Hopefully it's just a level design flaw.

Christmas is coming soon, and then my birthday shortly after. Although they say that the "youth is wasted on the young," I sure as hell don't want to get older...