Back to the grind…
Work was always going to be a pain after the long weekend, I knew that. After falling into holiday mode after four days of sleep-ins and mucking around, the return to work was always going to be a harsh mistress. Somehow it managed to be even more taxing than expected. I felt like the proverbial sandwich; caught in the middle, and pressured from all sides. The day started with a failed Dell Inspiron laptop. The LCD screen was working.. but you could barely make out the very faint image - it was almost pitch black. A blown back light? A dud inverter?
Cue a couple of hours on the phone with Dell Tech Support. What a joke that is… initially spent thirty-five minutes on hold to finally get put through to Bishanpal Gurnam-Poorvi who spent all of two-and-a-third seconds with me telling me I needed my ‘Machine number’ and I had to speak to another department. Add another fifteen minutes of hold music and ‘Your call is valuable to us, we apologise for the wait, your call is in a cue, the next available operator will be with you shortly’ voice-over.
Next up was a soft-spoken women whose name I didn’t manage to catch - who told me I’d probably need a warranty for this sort of thing - which would cost about $6-700 and then we would have to pay an additional $700 or so for a replacement screen.
‘Kidding… Right?’. We could almost buy a new computer for that, I thought.
‘No, I put you through to correct department’, and the phone clicked as I was put back on hold again. Simple as that. No time for question.
Finally through to what sounded like ‘Priyaranjan’ who told me it was probably a busted inverter, or maybe a back light - but because the Dell is out of warranty he can’t help me. Great. Tell me something I don’t already know.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel though. An additional one-year warranty could be purchased - after re-certification of the said Notebook - for a whopping $790. For this small fortune, they would then be able to assess the Dell with their ‘next-day, on-site service’. The technician said he would have someone call us back soon (unsurprisingly, we’re still waiting for that phone call).
After all that, the boss passed on the idea. We brought in an old 17″ CRT and plugged it in. Problem solved - for now.
The phones ran hot for most of the day - mainly problems, dramas that had occurred over the long weekend and needed fixing, people wanting money, people wondering why they hadn’t seen their parts yet.. umm.. long weekend maybe? Just a moment, mate, while I drive to the local transport company, grab your parts, drive all the way out to who-knows-where and hand deliver them for you? How’s that sound? It’s no problem, I’m only processing a new nine-thousand item pricelist which needs converting from Euro to AUD. I got plenty of time to burn.
I survived the long, arduous day (obviously, or I wouldn’t be writing this I guess) to come home and find that Activision have released 8 new characters for the hit (well, my favourite anyway) title; Marvel Ultimate Alliance. And get this; included are The Hulk, Sabretooth, Nightcrawler (sweeeet), Dr. Doom, Cyclops, Magneto, Hawkeye and… Venom (OMFG awesome)..
So I read on, intent on a couple of hours blasting around the various Marvel worlds with Venom as part of my Alliance. Imagine my frustration when I read they are only to be released for the Xbox 360. Which of course, I don’t own.
Fantastic.
So that’s only $600-odd for the Xbox 360, $100 or so to buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance again and then an additional $10 to buy the additional characters. Rich!
Talk about annoying.. I mean releasing characters for only a single platform is one thing, but releasing perhaps Marvel’s most fan-favourite character on a platform I don’t have is just cruel. I support the developers by buying the game, by not pirating it like loads of people probably do, only to get shafted in the post-release expansions. Ironic when you consider its probably the easiest to do on the PC. And I’d be surprised if the sales are higher on the 360 than on the PC. Looks like I’m not the only annoyed fan either.. plenty of PC players/forum users disappointed in the decision.
Ah well.. I now live in hope that someone will port them over!
And if my Brother would get home with the car, I could go out and meet up with Kate too, but that’s seeming more and more unlikely as the time ticks past.
*sigh*
Welcome back to the work-week grind, Scotty 
