Crap news, Rising Sun, a diatribe about Qunari, and games

1. ( Need a new car. )

Anyway. I have gone on long enough about my whiny problems. The short version is, my car is a hair from broken and I'm going to try to take out a bank loan to buy an actually new car. This is not my first choice, but anythin's better than crawlin'.

2. So last night, we watched the movie Rising Sun.

Pros:
-Sean Connery playing a character named John Connor is hilarious for at least two reasons I can think of.
-Wesley Snipes is fantastic as the lead, and gets to be Audience Self-Insert, rolling his eyes at all the weeaboo but also suspiciously adept at correctly pronouncing Japanese words-- much more so than Connery
-MAKO was in this! Yes yes yes! He is so wonderful. And also Harvey Cartel and Steve Buschemi.
-Unintentionally hilarious

Cons:
-Well, did you want to watch a woman get strangled to death? Oh, I'm sorry: seven more times? Hey, and while we're at it, did you want her death to be justified by the investigators as likely her own fault because she was into erotic asphyxiation?
-How about racism? Did you want a healthy dose of racism? Less, apparently, than was present in Crichton's book, but still: sweeping generalizations about how evil, scary, and weird the Japanese culture is. Did you want those? They're all over the place in here.
-The usual: It's a Crichton book! almost every character is a straw man.
-Conspiracy plots are still incredibly lazy

( Basically, it was all right, but sometimes uncomfortable. )

My favorite, terrible sequence was probably:

Sean Connery: I am very, very okotte!
Japanese Lady: Pissed off.
Sean Connery: Yes, pissed off!
Danny: *laughing* He's not a native speaker, what the hell!

Edited to add: I don't feel like I got to the heart of what bothers me the most about the movie. There was no adequate explanation for why people decided to kill the woman in the first place, since they could still have blackmailed the senator even if he'd just been cheating on his wife, which was clearly what he was most anguished about. They had the footage of him cheating on her! They needed nothing more; so why kill her? The only explanation I can think of is that Crichton couldn't think of a good reason for the police to be brought in to investigate (thus introducing the main character) unless there was a homicide.

3. ( Qunari! )

4. So, on to tabletop RPGs: I ended up deciding to play Aigua, the monk, because she seems likely to fit well with Derek's Inquisitor (Brandtford Waynewright, but he probably is going to go by a nickname?), as well as Melissa's magus, maybe. The current plan is that we might have met before on a previous adventure or in a tavern once or twice, since all three of us have reason to have been through The Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy that the setting for the game boasts.

Edit: Okay, apparently only Christian's character, Ninja Girl The Nameless, matters. I've been set straight. ;) EDIT EDIT: I mean, Christian's character Merys! Double-set-straight! Oh, snap!

Also, Book of Shapechangers

In a potentially unwise, but entirely enjoyable financial move, I bid on Rose Lemberg's auction for a Book of Shapechangers that would be handmade and have images of an animal of my choice. And I was one of the five or six winners! Hurray!

Unlike the new car debacle, which entails longlasting debt and nailbiting, I have no regrets.

Edit: And re: Rush Limbaugh being a sexist jerk, "I was JUST JOKING, geez" is one of the oldest "fail to apologize" tactics in the book. I hope the rest of your sponsors feel the same way. Sheesh.

Edit edit: Relief: bank approved my loan. I will be in more debt, but I might actually have a reliable car. This seems like an acceptable trade.

Interestingly Scummy Tactic of Car Dealerships #5021

Try to net buyers with fake female sales reps on your website.

I know which dealership I want to do business with now, because of the three who sell the car I want in my area that I was even willing to look at, two employed this tactic.

How can you tell if it's fake?

I suspect it's possible that it's not, but have you ever seen a sales rep for a car dealership that is female? There are none in my area, which contributes heavily to my dislike of the process. When asked if they could personally be available for a test drive with me, both supposedly female agents declined to give me a specific answer. After all, it'd be pretty hard for the lady to be there if she isn't real, wouldn't it?

Why I'm going to try the guys I'm planning to try first instead:

They still don't have any female employees, but their website boldly puts up their staff list and shows me what each rep is good at. I could even specially request one if I wanted, probably. That is much more likely to generate good feelings for ME than having a lie issued from the site first thing in a ploy to try to gain my trust without earning it.

Why I'm offended that they do this:

I bet it works on a lot of women. Women are treated very poorly by sales representatives, especially for car dealerships, because they expect to win by intimidation tactics. The same tactics are used on men, but I've never heard stories from men about being told to "respect" the salesman by said salesman and "listen when he's talking".

I'm sorry if this is boring for anybody else, but since I've often wished people could share advice on how to get a fair shake at this damn car buying business, I figured I'd try to post about anything useful I learned along the way, including getting totally swindled, if it happens. It's easy to say "don't be fooled" and "don't let them push you around" when it's not happening; but I'm as bullheaded as they come, and I've been swindled lots of times. HOW to avoid swindling and the like is definitely the advice I wanted, but lacked, so I'll do my best to relate how I did it, anyway.

So, personal rule number one:

Do not give out phone number to car salesmen. They will call you incessantly, long after you tell them that you have in fact purchased a car. I know this from past experience and others around me. I switched phone numbers to avoid this problem. Car salesmen are like outbound phone centers. They will misuse your personal information forever if they can.

Anyway. I've now checked with three dealerships, one of which I definitely like, one of which I'm okay with, and one of which I have no intention of even visiting, especially after seeing the "female chat online" trick played twice. Urgh. Time to gear up for battle.