Much appreciated, Ziming. I've always felt that even if the tweetathon didn't help, it was a good outlet to display our disappointment with Sega over it, and that's a little something, at least. I believe we gotta stand up and not shut up about it. If you're not happy with something ya gotta speak up or you're forever getting your fudge packed.

There was a scene in the movie About Schmidt (later omitted) that echoes an earlier iconic scene from a much older Nicholson film, 5 Easy Pieces . In it Schmidt gives in to the demands of a waitress, instead of getting what he ordered. It was in early test screenings, but was pretty much deleted, yet a glimmer of it still remains in the movie at the beginning. In 5 Easy Pieces he's in a diner and asks for some toast, but the waitress wouldn't give it to him, and so he spoke up abut it. Here's the clip on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvXVP5lSF1s


This was a normal way of doing things back in the day. Your parents ever embarass you by making a huge fuss over something in public? Same thing here. People don't do this often enough anymore. We're too conciliatory. You might be surprised how often and easily this works. I once got a mailed threat from Blockbuster Video that they would take the money I owed them to collections unless promptly paid. They sent me this for a late fee of about 4 dollars that was only 3 weeks old. Normally, you might expect your customer to pay it the next time they rented a movie, but nooooooo, Them fuckers wanted their cash right now. So I wrote out a check to Ballbuster Video (literally) and in the memo portion wrote " Blockbuster sucks fucking donkey balls. Netflix is better!" They cashed that shit. A few months later, Blockbuster got rid of all late fees. I must not have been the only one to complain. and not too much later, Ballbuster Video pretty much went out of business. That's what happens when you lose sight of things.

One time I was at my local grocery store when the old lady ringing me up (who, I might add, coincidentally looked a lot like the waitress in 5 Easy Pieces) looked at the back of my card, saw no signature (it was a brand new card, got it that day), and reprimanded me on not having my signature on it, She wasn't nice abut it either. So I asked her if I could use her marker, as to oblige her. she gave it to me and I wrote EAT SHIT on it. I handed it back to her and said "HOW YA LIKE THAT, LADY?" The look on her face was priceless! I kept it on my card, and for years wrote it on all subsequent cards, for it really was just a colorful way of writing check ID. This tactic worked like a charm as instead of just glancing at the back of my card, people would go "Whaaaa?" and actually check my id. You should try it if you're having card issues. Most people would just laugh, but once in a while I would get frowns, and one time I was even kicked out by the manager of a Subway for it. More like forbidden to come back to the premises, as I got to finish my sandwich before getting the heave ho. Not like it mattered, the place was out of my neck of the woods. Speaking of Subway ....

A few years ago I would often stop by the nearest Subway to pick up my lunch on my way to work, until suddenly they stopped taking Master Card, and would no longer accept my only form of payment (I refuse to walk around with cash. We live in the future, goddamnit!) The other Subway in town was owned by the same person and thus didn't accept Master Card either. I took it upon myself to send both stores a Txt-to-land-line message every day that read "I am boycotting your store because you won't take Master Card. Because of that, I now eat at Jimmy John's. I am an unsatisfied customer, hear me roar!" It was a celebrity impersonator txt to landline service, and of course I chose Arnold Schwartzenegger. Because when it comes right down to it, ya gotta go with the running man. This went on for 3 and a half weeks until I woke up one fine morning and actually got a reply from the Manager of one of the Subways. She said that they were in negotiations with Master Card, but that they'd take my card anyway. So I went and got me a muthafuckin sammich. Nice happy ending, eh? Years earlier they had a sandwich called the Southwest Chipotle Guacamole crunchamunchfuckafuckafoofoo or smething like that. Either way it had Guacamole, which I had thought was what made the sandwich so tasty, but I was probably just too intoxicated to know I was eating garbage. Anyhw, I only got to eat it three times, the first time drunk, second time right after having a wisdom tooth pulled and still flying high on sodium pentothol, the third time while taking shrooms. The first and only time I took shrooms, and I didn't even really get many visuals, though my senses went into overdrive, felt like I was the six million dollar man, could hear everything outside clearly, and my subway guaca crunchasouthwestafuckafoo sandwich was the best thing I ever ate in my life. It was like angels pooping golden daffodils in your mouth. Wait, that's kind of a shitty metaphor. Anyhow, the sandwich was a limited time deal, I guess. I wrote them an email every day for a few months begging them to bring back the Guac, but it fell on deaf ears. I would make up the dumbest reasons for them to bring it back, like my great grandma was on her death bed, and she had finally mustered up the strength to utter 3 or 4 whateverthefuck words "S-s-suuu-uubbway S-S-southwest G-G-guacamole C-C-cr-crunchamuncha fuckaduppadadippittydo sandw-w-w-wwich." Years later they did indeed bring back the Guac, but it tastes like a fart tart. Maybe it was because I was sober?

My dad used to tell me that if someone punches you, you HAVE TO punch them back, and it's advice to live by. It doesn't matter if they're bigger than you, or that you don't stand a chance. Fucking man up and retaliate, he'd say, otherwise they own you no matter what. We gotta be less like Schmidt, and more like the old codger in this video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-BoAw0l4Q

I'm making a who's who type of vid for the Shenmue campaign showcasing people, sites, and the like involved in it. As a gesture of solidarity, as a means to introduce newer fans to the campaign, and to bring all the veterans up to speed on everyone currently involved with the conflict.

It'll just be pictures accompanied by music. If anyone would like to be included, let me know, and whether or not you want your profile pic to represent you, or another pic of your choosing. It doesn't have to be a real pic of yourself. I will feature sites, Facebook profiles, Facebook groups, Twitter accounts, and members at forums like here, Shenmue Master, and UK. I know most of you guys don't really know me, as I post here too infrequently, but I am an admin on the Dojo's Facebook page, along with 500k and Team Yu. I also had a Shenmue blog I did every day for over three years straight. Mostly haiku, but entirely silly bullshit. So while you may not know me, I know of a lot of you, and would much appreciate any participation on your part. You don't even have to do anything, just give m an ok to add your name and profile pic to the Shenmue Dojo roster in my ramshackle video.

Anyhow, cheers, fuckers! :beerchug:

Thanks, and rock on, Ryudo. You're one of the most ubiquitous members on here, it's good to have ya onboard. The afro guy pic is my old man from like 25 years ago, haha. It's one of my favorite pics of him.

south carmain - Maybe my Aspergers is flaring up, but can I take your response as a yes?

It's good to have you both participating, but I hope more see and respond to this thread. It'd just look stupid to only see a couple names from the most popular Shenmue site in the vid after all.. There are a lot of you guys here that really stand out. If I have to, I might just discretely send some of the more visible members messages regarding this. I'll give it a few weeks to accumulate as many names as possible. Not even sure how I'm gonna approach everyone at Shenmue Master, considering the language barrier. Babel bot here we come!

Thanks, Yama! It's pertinent to the campaign that we all work together as one. The Shenmue campaign still has a long ways to go before we can all hang up our helmets. 3 years till Shenmue 3 comes, and then years more for the rest. In the meantime, it's great to have multiple Shenmue outlets. There are many types of people out there, and it's best to accommodate them all. Come to the Dojo for some refined discussion, then go to TeamYu for specific campaign details and discussing ideas for that. And then saunter on down to 500k, laying in bed before sleep on your phone's Facebook app, to unwind a bit with random shenmue fans the world over. There's something for everyone, and the more the merrier.


I don't come here very often anymore, and never was much of a member. I was a lurker for years before finally making an account in an effort to share my daily Shenmue blog with other like minded folk. I tend to spend most of my time keeping the 500k from falling apart and maintaining the #SaveShenmue campaign with TeamYu. I'll try to come here more often, but if you guys need to talk to me, you can always find me on Facebook fending off the masses, haha. Some of you guys have been involved with the collages and other stuff in the 500k, and I look forward to working more with Yama and the rest of you all.