For An Urban Boy On A Dirty Tour, I've Never Felt So Clean

• 9May 13

  Redemption

  

  After years of scraping by with crap jobs that didn't fit my skillset (awesome bartender), today I wandered into San Diego's busiest bar with a resume.  

   

  "What have I got to lose?" I thought to myself.

   

  The last 3 or 4 years has seen me struggle harder than ever before.   About a year ago I went back to my old job (from which I was unceremoniously let go 4 years ago from for reasons that had to do with politics more than anything) and have been happy to at least be making money bartending.   Thing is, the shifts are slow.   When I left, all of my old and amazingly profitable shifts went to other people, and there I was again at the bottom of the totem pole.   At least it's a job, I told myself.

   

  Which is true.   Between being fired and eventually returning to Mr. Drunky's (not the real name of the bar), I applied for dozens, if not hundreds of bartending gigs.   10 years of experience, rugged good looks, and an outstanding personality (bear with me here) did little for me in way of finding a job.  Typcially, my interviews would last 60-90 seconds despite my sharp attire (I always dressed really well for interviews), confidence, and incredible resume before being nonchalantly dismissed with scathing indifference by my potential future employers. I kept trying, but eventually it sucked the life out of me.   I'd show up to interviews and be so sure I wouldn't get the job I'd be bitter beforehand. I'd written blogs about how bartending in San Diego has more to do with "who you know", and also noted a sad trend of bars to hire beautiful (but incompetent) female bartenders in place of those with real skill.

   

  Then, today...

   

  I see an ad in the paper. I haven't applied for a job in person in awhile, maybe years.  This time, I wouldn't dress up.  Nah, I was done with that monkey show.  This time, I'd go in, and with the confidence of present employment in my chest, it wouldn't matter.  The chances of me landing this job here were so negligible that I basically just tried to enjoy the beautiful sun shining down on the group of applicatants as we waited to be called in for a face-to-face.  

   

  Finally, it was my turn.  "Ah sh*t, not this song and dance again, this'll be over in 2 minutes" I say to myself.   I see a man sitting in his chair with his arms crossed and a look of jaded exhaustion sweeping over his lazy brow.   I extend my hand, smiling. "I'm James".  The man sits there with his arms crossed and doesn't extend his hand.   

  I sit down, making a quick mental note to not let this slight bother me.  

  I was relaxed but slightly nervous.   I spoke quickly, possibly too quickly, and I made a note of it.  He asked me typcial questions that I answered completely honestly.   Then he said "What's your availability?".  Another typical question, I told myself.  "It's open, except Saturday and Sunday mornings".   

   

  "You got the job... you start training Monday.  I'll call you tonight."

   

  • Posted May 9, 2013 3:41 pm GMT
  • Category: Business
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• 8May 13

  Why, Hello There

  What the hell's been going on around here?

   

   

   

   

  -J

  • Posted May 8, 2013 3:25 pm GMT
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• 15Feb 13

  The Wii U Is The Worst Console Launch In History

  Since my last blog, which had a lot of you defending the slow start of the Wii U, two more crushing blows have been delivered to Nintendo.   First, the 7-month delay and loss of exclusivity of the only Third-Party exclusive Nintendo has lined up for at least 5-6 months in Rayman Legends, which Ubisoft decided to release multiplatform at the last minute to due to poor Wii U sales, and now this...

   

   

  The Wii U sold somewhere between 44k-55k consoles in the month of January.   To put this in perspective, here are the sales of each Nintendo console in the January following launch since the Gamecube, which was Nintendo's least successful home console.

   

  (credit to Dvader for finding these numbers)

   

  GameCube raw numbers, NPD:
  
  NPD Jan 2002: 61,685
  NPD Jan 2003: 79,813
  NPD Jan 2004: 131,000
  NPD Jan 2005: 112,327
  NPD Jan 2006: 66,000
  
  Wii raw numbers, NPD:
  
  NPD Jan 2007 (5 weeks reporting): 436,000
  NPD Jan 2008: 274,000
  NPD Jan 2009: 679,200
  NPD Jan 2010: 465,800
  NPD Jan 2011: 319,000
  NPD Jan 2012: ~148,000
  
  Wii U raw numbers, NPD:
  
  NPD Jan 2013 (5 weeks reporting): 45,900 to 59,500
  
  
  A Nintendo console has NEVER had numbers in January so low since Iwata has become president. The 45-59K figure is unprecedented. UNPRECEDENTED

  
  

  
  

  
  The Gamecube was the lowpoint for Nintendo, hardware-wise.   And now the Wii U has failed even worse.

   

  Here's another set of sales numbers from around the time the Gamecube was at it's peak.

   

  January 2003 NPD (4 week period):

  PS2: 448K

  XBOX: 164K 
  GCN: 81K 
  GBA: 266K

   

  More numbers from back when this generation was EXPLODING...  note that the GAMECUBE (at this point considered dead for 3-4 years) sold almost as much as the Wii U did, last month.

   

  January 2007
  
  Wii - 436,000
  360 - 294,000
  PS3 - 244,000
  PS2 - 299,000
  NDS - 239,000
  PSP - 211,000
  GBA - 179,000
  GC - 34,000

   

   

  

   

   

   

  Yes folks, the worst launch in videogame console history.  

  • Posted Feb 15, 2013 2:29 pm GMT
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