So I’m sitting at work on another ho hum day at work when I receive a delightfully surprising email from my friend No_Style who cites an interesting tidbit of information he probably found on the Gaf.  Little did I know at this point that I was about to embark on a mission that would raise the interesting bar of my day ten fold.

His email stated that over at Red Flag Deals people were hooting and hollaring about a select amount of PS2 games (namely Kingdom Hearts (1 not 2), Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Manhunt 2, and Grimgrimoire) that you could trade in to EB Games for a 3 for 1 deal on anticipated upcoming titles such as GTAIV.  The catch is that these select few games were also on sale at Blockbusters nationwide for $7.99 when they are normally in the $50.00 range.  So as soon as the 7.5 hour work day was complete I rushed out to the local BlockBuster to see if they had at least 3 of the 4 games in the list.  Lo and behold, their computer said they had them!  So I excitedly followed the low brow employee over to the rack of For Sale PS2 games and waited patiently as he looked for them.  After about 3 minutes I decided I would help him look for them, but to no avail.  And this is not the first time this has happened to me at Blockbuster.  This famously successful video store hires employees whose only task in life is to make sure the computer files match their piddly selection of video games, but no, they fail at that and they fail at life.  The guy was not even eager to help either, the only thing he muttered was a muddled interrogation as to why everyone is searching for these few games for $7.99 today when they haven’t even gotten off their lazy asses yet to go and re-label the video games to the correct price.  Anyhow, he could find none of them even though he was supposed to have 2 or 3 of each of the game in stock.  I asked him to check behind the counter and he found a copy of Tomb Raider but it had no box so he was kind enough to find another box for it and give it to me.  Task 1 of 3 completed.

I then asked him to call around to other Blockbusters in the city to check for available copies.  The Rideau Street location had a copy of Manhunt 2 and a copy of Kingdom Hearts “on file”, but I was smart enough to get them to go and search for it and get a physical copy in their hands before I made the trip out there (I dont have a car so all of this had to be done by bus).  I then got the guy to call Carling which said they had none of the games on the list, but when he called West Gate Mall, SUCCESS! a copy of Grimgrimoire was available AND in physical presence!  So I got them to hold a copy of the game at each location (and by the way, I know some of you might not know where the fuck these places are that I’m talking about if you’re not familiar with the city of Ottawa, but do you think I give a damn?).  So the mission objectives were in place and would be accomplished in 3 easy steps, and if the plan went just right, I could do it all with the use of one bus ticket (1.5 hours).

Task 1: Acquire Tomb Raider from Blockbuster on Bank Street (check)

Task 2: Bus all the way to butt fuck Westgate mall and acquire Grimgrimoire

Task 3: Bus all the way back to town and acquire Manhunt 2 from the Rideau Street location

So I set out to take the 101 to Westgate, 20 mins later I arrive and get the game without incident. Task 2 of 3 complete.  Leave the store to catch the 85 back to town because it goes right to Rideau Street.  I had to  run across the divided street to catch th 85 just as it was pulling away while dodging cars that were trying to turn right and cared not for pedestrians such as myself.  The bus driver was kind enough to open the doors at the lights since I had already missed the bus stop, and I continued my journey back to rideau street.  Once there I got off and ran through the Rideau Centre to get to Rideau Street to catch a bus to the next Blockbusters to complete task number 3.  I could have sworn I knew where the Blockbusters was but I was mistaken and ended up busing past it looking on the wrong side of the street.

After reaching the Seven Eleven about 15 blocks past the Blockbuster, I was about to ask the bus driver if he knew where the store was on Rideau Street, but I was interupted by a trailer trash scuzzy lookin hagwoman probably straight out of Vanier who burst onto the bus and wanted to take it up the street a few blocks for free, but when the bus driver said no she yelled at him and called him the N word about 10 times in front of everybody, as he was indeed, black.  The mild mannered gentleman just rolled his eyes but I could feel the anger of a thousand brothers pumping like pistons ready to steam roll over the next person who said a word to him so I quietly rang the bell and got off the bus at the next stop.  Crossed the street and waited to take one in the opposite direction.  However, murphys law had other plans for me and I ended up waiting for another 10 minutes at a stop where about 10 buses were supposed to pass by every 5 minutes during the rush hour time of 6 o’clock pm on a wednesday that it was.  I knew I had to hurry this up because my bus transfer ended at 6:40.  Finally one came 10 minutes later and I bused back 15 blocks and got to the blockbuster to find the manhunt 2 behind the desk waiting for me.  EURIKA!  So, for fun I asked if they had any copies of the other games I searched around for and they said they did, but they couldn’t find them. surprise surprise!  At least Blockbuster seems to be consistent with thier hiring policies…

Anyway, I ran across the street and over to the Rideau Centre to finally get to EB Games and see if they would go through with this proposterous deal that I had just gone through an adventure to get the supplies.  There was a huge line up about 20 people long there for some reason and at around 6:30 I am finally served.  I am greeting with a friendly smile and the guy promptly accepts the three games and asks what game I’d like to get.  As I decided between GTAIV and Mario Kart Wii, I noticed about 5 other stacks of PS2 games behind the counter, and all of them were either Manhunt2, tomb raider, or kingdom hearts, I didnt see any Grimgrimoires…could I have been the only one?  Anyway, I wished I could have picked up 6 titles so I could preorder both games but I apparently wasn’t the only one in the city to go about this little scheme.  So I picked Mario Kart Wii even though there were two price points for it, one for $55 and one for $59 and the guy did not know what the difference was between them although I suspect one of them comes with the wheel.  He said the one with the wheel would be the lower priced one but it didnt make sense so he figured the prices were just swapped, or could the wii wheel really be that bad?  Whatever,  I picked the $59 one since it was free either way.  I left with about 3 minutes to catch the bus and pondered buying deodorant on the way by shoppers due to all this running.  As I left the Rideau Centre, I saw the #1 bus just about to leave so again, I dodged traffic illegally and just caught the bus at 6:39…one minute to spare before my transfer ran out.  awesome.  Then as I got home I was so happy to just get home that I wasnt aware enough of the slippery terrain to avoid stepping in a 2 foot deep puddle, fell, and drenched my preorder receipt for Mario Kart.  Thankfully I remembered the guy said I can just use my ID if I lose the receipt, so that immediately quelched my impending curses.  I didnt really care that I was soaked.  I made it home and here I am writing all this before I forget the details.

The mission was accomplished.  What an ordeal, but it was worth it.  What a weight off my shoulders!  And if anyone of you complains that I picked up Mario Kart Wii instead of GTAIV in the end, then fuck you, no seriously, Fuck You!  I’ll close with thanking No_Style for saving me the hardest worked for and therefore the best damn 29 dollars ever.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Entertainment News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.