Pen Pen's Evangelion
A Pen Pen for your Thoughts
This section will just be for, basically random thoughts and feelings. Since my thought process is mostly random you can probably expect this to be updated frequently. Back to Previous Pennys. Back to Pen Penny.
Quest for Excel
As many of you may know the sixth and final volume of Excel Saga was due to be domestically (Region 1) released today. I bought the first volume many moons ago after reading a review for it and then noticing it would be released the next day. So I bought it, and was well pleased, as it is one of the better shows out there. Since then I have purchased all the other volumes from my local Best Buy store as they have been released. That is… until today. Such is the saga of the quest for Excel Saga. It is a tale of not-so-horrific horrors, outright stupidity, the nature of the economic climate of Rome in 66 A.D., and a little bit of nonsense here and there to make this seem longer than it actually is (not the Rome thing though).
After many months, today, Excel Saga's final volume was released; although I could've downloaded the episodes from online, I decided to wait for the special features and whatnot. So, when this afternoon arrived I undertook a journey; although I thought it would be short. How dreadfully and terribly and horribly and unspeakably wrong I was (appallingly). When I arrived at the Best Buy I knew that my anime addiction would be sated with hours of anime viewing that evening. I walked over to the section of anime, which is next to the section of science fiction and anime mixed together (I don't know why they did that). I looked… and volume six was not to be found. I looked again, it had not magically appeared. I looked in the science fiction and anime mixed section. I walked around a bit then went right back to the anime section and looked again as if I had forgotten that I had already looked. It is said you could hear my heart shatter as the anime that was so very close, soared out of my reach in a taunting manner (okay, no one said that, except maybe some guy named Ted whom I don't know that was observing me at the time).
Fine, I was just angry. My heart didn't break, although Ted argues that it did. Why would a store who had all the volumes up to this point not get the final volume, it just didn't make sense. So off I went, to Hastings. After encountering a vast field of 20 mph signs due to a slight error in navigation, I arrived at my destination, fairly confident that I would not leave empty-handed. I left empty-handed. What is wrong with these stupid stores? Come on. So, off I go again, to my place of dwelling, to brood. As the brooding began it's initial phases, it was recommended (not by Ted this time) that I call other places with electronics in hopes of finding one that had obtained a fleeting copy of the show.
I was told (by Ted this time) to first call Best Buy, because occasionally they deviously don't set out all of their releases for some reason. That is completely unexplainable; after all how can you sell it if you don't have it out? Moving past the stupid business decisions and onto the call. I was told that they would have it in, definitely, within eight days. Now, why the delay? Is anime so unimportant to you fiendish fiends of fiendom that you would purposely let it ship slower to save your precious money?! What about the Otakus? Think of the Otakus!
Anyway, I then called another store with a fairly large selection of DVDs. When I told them that I was looking for "Excel Saga volume six that came out on DVD today" and the response I received was "is that a computer program," I knew they did not have it. However, I still waited for his checking after I explained to him that it's a DVD of a television series and not a computer program. They did not have it. I then called Circuit City and, at the very least, the person knew it was an anime. However, they did not have it either. It was then that I reached the last resort on my list.
FYE. The "we-price-every-DVD-we-have-ten-dollars-more-than-everyone-else-but-have-a-larger-anime-selection" store. I called, and for some reason they are getting it in on Thursday. However, I asked the price and it was ten dollars more than everyone else because it wasn't going "on sale" it's first week of release. I could order it online, wait for Best Buy, or wait for FYE and get ripped off. Any of my choices involve the arduous task of waiting. After all the waiting for which button to press on my phone to redirect me to different areas after listing ten others before getting to movies and music area and then going into more specific ones ordeal, I came out empty handed. Such is the halting point of this quest. Quest…….. Failed (for now).
Now, onto the real subject: economics of Rome in 66 A.D.! In 66 A.D., Plutarch banned a book by Aristophanes calling it obscene, which restated once again the large role over the economy that the government maintained and controlled. At the same time, there was a Jewish revolt that slaughtered an entire Roman garrison, which drew the military into the task of quelling the riot and thus taking a downward turn economically due to these costs. This task took several years and hurt the economic output of certain areas of the Empire… -4/8/03
Home