So with switching guilds and trying to make a good impression, I was thinking of ways I could utterly humiliate myself and how I could go about avoiding such ways. One of the first things I thought of was, you know, getting hacked. I mean, that’s embarrassing (and a pain in the ass) at the best times. So how does one go about not getting hacked? Well, one way is to create an email specifically for one’s battlenet account. Check! How else could I improve my security? With an authenticator (duh!). What an amazing idea! I’ll go buy myself an authenticator!
I grab my credit card and hop onto the Blizzard store. I look around on the page for the Authenticator. I click on a few tabs. No authenticator! I ended up using the search tools, which is probably what everyone else does, I just have a thing against search tools. I think they’re weird. Anyway, I get the choice between the iPhone app and the little keychain. I’m not rich enough for an iPhone (damn 10 years of student loans), so keychain is it! 6.50$ Eh, it’s a lot but the peace of mind will be worth it. I order it and with postage and shipping the price goes up to something like 17$. WTF. Why is shipping more than item itself? I try to find a cheaper option but can’t, so, sigh, I go with the ridiculously expensive keychain. I fill in my address and credit info, press send. Feeling happy with my purchase.
The next day I get a nagging feeling like I screwed something up. “Naaah” I think. I shrug it off.
Sure enough, 3 days later, I get an email from my mom. “A package from Fresno arrived for you!” ….I had entered the WRONG address. Instead, I paid a crapton of money to ship my authenticator to my parents’ house on the other side of the country. Gah! I’ve been living on this island for 4 years, you’d think I’d know my address by now.
* * *
And in other, less fail, shopping stories, I bought myself a Christmas calendar! You know, those calendars with chocolates where you can eat one every day until Christmas! I usually don’t buy them, but the idea of choosing between the Barbie Princess Christmas Calender, the Hot Wheels Christmas Calender, the X-Men Adventure Christmas Calender and the Madagascar The Movie Christmas Calender was just too exciting. When I was kid, we only got to choose between the Snowman Calender and the Christmas Tree Calender. (I always got the Snowman and my brothers got the Tree.) Obviously, I chose the Madagascar Calender since it matches my bedsheets.
When in doubt, always choose the item that matches your bedsheets. (Unless you have the option of something that matches your Happy Feet Pyjamas, in which case, just flip a coin.)
Anyway, it turns out that the calender actually counts down to New Years because apparently Christmas isn’t politically correct anymore. While I am somewhat concerned about the lengths we go to for PCness (seriously, I’m not from a christian upbringing and I’m fine with Christmas calenders counting down to Christmas), I can’t really complain about more days of chocolate. Now I sort of need a calender to help me count down until I’m allowed to start eating my New Years calender. December can’t come soon enough!
