This is just a brief review, my opinion, of Monopoly City Streets. I know I have missed a bunch of stuff that I wanted to say when I first thought of writing this, but here goes anyways.

When I first heard about Monopoly City Streets I was interested and looked forward to giving it a try. After the first couple days of chaos with the site being down and simply not operational, Hasbro finally got their you know together and the system started to run smoothly – but not without issues.

The issues in the game have brought me to the point where I have completely stopped playing, and have permanently turned my back on the game.

Here are the reasons I stopped playing after such a short while:

Glitches in Game
I had an offer from another player to purchase my best street. When I clicked on the offer I was never given an decline/accept option, the link merely took me to the street. After 7 days (had I kept playing) the user would have automatically got my street as I had no way to decline the offer. All offers are automatically accepted after 7 days if no action is taken.

Bonus Buildings and Hazards.
In the rules it states the bonus buildings protect streets from hazards and bulldozers, however, other players can still bulldoze your bonus buildings, a contradiction to the unclear rules. On my biggest money making street, I had a bonus building, and the next time I logged back in that building had been destroyed and several hazards had been placed on my street.

The only way to remove a hazard is to bulldoze it via luck of the draw and collecting the proper chance card. Getting chance cards is completely random, and I went a few days without any bulldozer cards (and I needed 3 of them). This frustration made me say, screw it, I just wont play any more. After all, why on earth would I spend my time playing a frustrating game, there is no point, I’ll spend my time doing something that doesn’t annoy me.

If the bonus building bulldozer issue is a glitch, then it needs to be fixed, or if this is supposed to be allowed, it should be clarified in the rules. In my opinion, that bonus building should keep the street safe forever, period.

Cheaters
After only a few days, there were people with literally trillions of dollars, yet they owned little to no property – this is simply not possible with out cheating, and unless these holes are filled by Hasbro, I see no point in playing a pointless game.

Here are a few of my suggestions

• My wife had an idea that I kinda of agree with – rather than getting rent income automatically from the bank each day, why not have rent taken from competitors. Every day each player could randomly be sent to a random street (either globally, or locally) and required to pay rent on that street to the competitor. This would make the game a bit more like actual monopoly.
• Make those bonus buildings immune to bulldozers
• Stop the cheaters – not sure how, but find a way, they ruin the game
• Change the “offer” system so that it actually works, when the “decline” option does not show itself, it is incredibly frustrating
• Add a “search for user” option within the leader board, rather than just the top 10.

So that in a nutshell is why I am no longer playing Monopoly City Streets. Some of you may think I am just a baby, and should suck it up – games need hazards etc. Sure, that’s true – to a point, but when it comes as far as to become frustrating, why bother? Life is too short – games are supposed to be enjoyable -  a way to escape and think about something other than the grind of every day life – when the game starts to frustrate me more than everyday life does, its just time out of my life that I could be spending out on the golf course, kayaking, or simply spending quality time with my family. As Eric Cartman would say, “Screw you game, I’m going home”.

I follow a lot of people on twitter, and that number is growing – well over 5000. Currently about 5100 follow me back. Some of accused me of being a twitter spammer, so I thought I would take a moment to explain why I choose to follow so many people.

It’s really quite simple. I like random stuff and tidbits of information. Now that I follow such a large number of people, every time I log on I see something different and unique – I really never know what I am going to find. Everything I read is from someone with a random lifestyle in a random part of the world. You see a lot of different perspectives.

I don’t consider mass following to be spam, quite simply because, I don’t ask for anything in return. Some people follow me back, some don’t. Either way that’s fine. I also don’t consider it spam because I am not messaging everyone pushing a product or service – the only time I DM or @ people is if I have something of interest to say related to their tweets. The DM’s I get from people saying “buy my book” or “visit my site” I tend to unfollow, unless their message has some meaning to me directly related to something I tweeted or commented on.

So, if you are one of those who think that I am a spammer, it’s simple, don’t follow me. I contribute, and try to be an active member in the twitter community – so I just don’t see me as a spammer.

If you were given two options which would you pick:

1. Get shot with a hand gun
2. Get shot with a taser

If you like me, you’d probably pick the tazer, granted, neither would be much fun. With the options of bullet ripping through my body, with an end result most likely being death, compared to being electrocuted with the end result most likely being life – I pick taser!.

I am so entirely sick of people complaining about the use of tasers – its all over the news these days, but tasers are a good thing. Look at all the criminals who have been stopped dead in their tracks with a taser, who otherwise would have been shot and likely killed… hmm… criminals killed, perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing?

When an officer is in danger, and he tazes someone to stop the attack, he gets criticized over its use. Now, what are the alternatives… He could do nothing and let the criminal attack and maybe kill him, or he could fire a bullet in his ass.

Hello people! Tasers, while they have their risks etc, are far more human than shooting someone.

The next time you hear about someone being tazed and want to complain, ask yourself, what if that were a bullet.

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P.S. I am not sure if it is “taSer” or “taZer”. Pretty sure its taSer, although I see it being used both ways. Which version do you use?

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I have to say I do watch my fair share of reality television. I am not a true Survivor fan, I miss it now and then, but for the most part I do tend to watch this show, and enjoy it. As for most of the others out there, I can do without them, the Bachelor can go away, I can’t stand it. When my wife has Americas Next Top Model on, I leave the room I dislike it so much. The only reality show that I do try to watch each and every week is the Amazing Race, My wife got me into this one, and now I can’t miss it.

My wife is also into the Biggest Loser. This is one of those shows that I don’t mind watching, but would never turn it on if it was just me alone with the TV. I watch it because my wife likes it and I don’t mind it, but it is not something I would choose. The problem with most reality shows, especially with the Biggest Loser, is the recaps they do after each and every commercial. Why do they feel it is necessary to recap everything that happened right before the commercial break, including a full repeat of at least a minute of the show! Hello, I JUST watched this. Why must they repeat themselves, why all the filler? Sooooo annoying.

Really the only part of the biggest loser that I find interesting is the final weigh-in at the end of each show. I am truly amazed at the amount of weight these people can lose in such a short time, it really is incredible. Last night, before revealing the weight of the final contestant, the show was “to be continued”. Give me a break – the show was already 2 hours long, and now you have to wrap it till next week?? Why not just cut some of the filler! Its things like this that make me want to boycott the show.

There seem to be more and more of these reality shows popping up, and then the networks go and cancel well written shows like “Life on Mars”, but that’s another blog post all together.

The last time I checked it was the end of February – Boxing day is about 10 months away, but still, for some stupid reason, The Brick has their “Boxing Day” sale on now! What the F is that all about?

It’s NOT Boxing day! Hello Brick, get real already. Cant you wait till October like you usually do – sure its not boxing day then either, but at least its within a couple months.

Save the Boxing Day sale for Dec 26 – if you want to have a sale in February, call it a Valentines sale, or February sale, or “it’s almost spring” sale, or something.

You’re as bad as Walmart – putting up their Easter display on February 15th.

When you are eating dinner and the phone rings, do you answer it? I know some people that don’t, but I for some reason, do – and in most cases will talk with the person, at least briefly, interrupting my dinner. The telephone interrupts my favorite TV programs, family time, work hours, and sleep. – it’s really a nuisance.

Sure I could unplug it, or turn off the ringer – but then how would people call me? I am learning to hate this device, but the reliance on it, and all technology has me hooked. I can’t even leave home without my cell phone – what if something happens, I have to have my phone with me. I hardly ever use our cell, but yet it follows me everywhere. What’s going on with this world? It’s almost like the telephone is a virus we can’t escape. When it rings I think, “Ah crap, who is it now.”

I am constantly checking my email, and spend probably half my life sitting in front of a computer or television. Sure I work on the computer, so that’s an easy 8 hours a day – but why must I watch TV, or use my laptop during my free time. I am sure that all this technology is causing mass tumors to grow in my brain.

My favorite part of vacations is that we often go to places without telephones. We’ll hit up Pacific Village in Tofino once a year – beach front cabins without TV’s, radios, or telephones. I leave my cell turned off, and watch in the car. Complete isolation from technology. Those vacations are the best times of my life. No email, no phone calls, no commercials telling me I need to call Sam. (That lawyer guy in Michigan – you know the jingle: “You can talk to Sam. 1-800-call Sam”. Grrr. Go away Sam Bernstein.).

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time to a land before all this dependence on technology – but then how would I watch Judge Judy?

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I can’t account for all areas of the country and the world, but I would like to thank the city of Courtenay for doing their best when it comes to snow removal this year.

Courtenay has been hit with more snow and colder weather than is normal, and crews are out like crazy plowing etc. It’s driving me crazy that so many people are complaining about a poor job being done, but hello people, there are only so many plows, and only so many employees. Be grateful for what they are able to accomplish.

The only way to do a better job would be to have the city hire more people, and buy more equipment, which would mean a hike in your taxes, and I guarantee you would complain about that too, so SIUP (Suck It Up Princess) and quit complaining to the paper.

I hate email spammers. I mean, I really hate them. As if it’s not bad enough to have my inbox bombarded with spam every day, now they are starting to have a larger negative impact on my life.

I recently went to send an email to a friend only to have the email bounce back. It seems the ISP has flagged and banned my IP for having a “poor reputation”. Innocent me, and everyone else who has behaved on the IP, are now faced with troubles as the result of one bad egg.

I guess this is just one of those risks that comes with having a shared IP. Wind up sharing with a spammer and get your IP banned.

As a result I have requested a different shared IP from my web host, and they replied saying that my only option was to purchase a dedicated IP. It’s a minimal expense, but one I wish I could pass on to the spammer that is making it necessary for me to make the purchase. How frustrating.

Have you ever paid “regular price” for anything? If so, you’re a sucker – and well, I guess that makes me a sucker too.

What is regular price? Well, it’s whatever price a retail store decides to stick on a product at any given time. Sure manufacturers set the MSRP (manufacturer suggested retail price) but stores are under no obligation to meet this price – it’s only meant as a guide.

You have to love the fact that just before a sale, the regular price seems to magically increase to make the sale price look better. When I was doing my Christmas shopping, one of the gifts I bought my wife was a new waterproof digital camera (The Olympus 850). The price has come down a ton since I first saw it about a year ago. Regular price last week at Future shop was $229. In their ad a week later they had it on sale for $199, BUT they also say “Save $50”. Last time I checked, that was actually a difference of $30, not $50.

Now if you called them on it, they may say, it was a flyer typo or something, but I have seen this happen time and time again, make the sale look better than it is by raising the regular price so people will be more likely to buy it. To me that equals a big time scam, and I am not so sure its legal.

(For the record I went to Walmart to buy it and they matched the Future Shop price – I hate Walmart, but I hate FutureShop more. I like London drugs (sometimes), but they wouldn’t match the price cause I wanted the orange camera and the one in the ad was black – Walmart didn’t care about the color).

Never, ever, buy anything that is not on sale, unless you desperately need it. Sales are stupid these days, they don’t make sense. Everything comes on sale at least once a month – what’s the point? All it does it cause us consumers to have no understanding of what regular price really is. If you pay regular price on anything, you’re getting ripped off because in a couple weeks it will be on sale again.

I have seen cases where the “sale” price is actually the MSRP – what’s up with that? Or better yet, the sale price is some stupid amount, say 5%, or 10%. Ten percent? That’s the best you can do? I can get 10% off just about anything at any time. Several years ago I used to work at Office Depot. Management gave us the authority to take 10% off the price of any item (some exceptions) for anyone, for just about any reason. If a customer walked in and wanted to buy a monitor but seemed unsure on the price, you could drop it 10% just like that. I can only assume that many other retail outlets have this authority given to their employees – and if they don’t, I can pretty much guarantee that management could drop the price for you.

Sure you’d have to take the effort to ask, but the mere fact that you can get it any time shows that the 10% “sale” price is not really a sale now is it. Give us a real sale, give us 50% off, or we’ll go to the store that will. It’s a recession people, these businesses will take just about any offer providing it is high enough for them to still turn a profit. If you walk they make nothing, if they drop the price, they make something.

I would be tempted to just move out to the woods in some secluded cabin with no contact with the outside world, hunting for my food, and burning wood to cook and keep warm. The problem is I like my stuff, I like my technology, and I like my modern conveniences. I guess I, along with everyone else living in the modern world, am prisoner to these retail stores and will be for the rest of my life.

BTW, Incase you are interested, this blog post was inspired by the photo below posted over at FailBlog.

I have noted in a recent post that I love Christmas time, everything about it – such a happy time of year.

In the past I have decorated my car, nothing fancy, just a few lights, and a bow. It’s been a few years, and this year I decided to do it again. I put up some Christmas lights in the back window. Since putting them up I have had numerous smiles and compliments from people. Everyone seems to love it. Except the certain cop who pulled me over last week. Now I am a hardend criminal.

Apparently Christmas lights are “unauthorized lights” and subject to an $81 fine. You have to be kidding me. What a joke. I was fortunate enough to only get a warning, no fine this time, so perhaps there is some Christmas spirit in the officer, but still.

The lights are up for only a few short weeks – if I was a cop I am pretty sure I would turn a blind eye to this sort of festive behavior. Oh well – she didn’t complain about the bow in my front grill or the mini-stocking on the rear view mirror, so that’s a good thing I suppose. At least I tried to be festive.