Yet Another Brief Rant
I will return to my discussion of AFFC in my next unnecessarily-long post, but right now, I feel the need to call attention to a couple issues raised by our Loyal Readers in our comments section. These issues, as you might have guessed, have to do with the absurd gall demonstrated by our esteemed Secretary of Weight. (Did that one work for you? I'm not sure about it. Feedback, please.)
First, there is the issue of Nate Barnes, an artist who, along with several other artists, got screwed out of the money he was owed after doing ASOIAF-related pieces for the Game of Thrones RPG. This was posted up by one of our Anonymous visitors, whom we thank for the stalwart research. As the poster also notes, a few visitors to Nate's little web spot suggested that he maybe bring the issue up to GRRM himself, but nobody seems to have any faith in that option.
Second, another Loyal Reader, Taliesin, asked Joe and I to check out the calendar discussion going on on George's NAB. By now, just like a lot of you, I can predict what is going on over there with about 85% accuracy. Football...miniatures...edited by...signed copy...buy this....buy this...buy this. And of course, the calendar discussion is hardly shocking. As Taliesin notes, GRRM is attempting to foist off water-damaged RPG books on his fans at a whopping discount of 50% -- that's $55 after discount, mind you. But if you look down further, you can note that those are only those books with minor water damage. If you want one with major water damage, they're only $20...plus shipping, "natch," as George puts it. The man will not even cover shipping when his readers are willing to remove water-damaged garbage off his hands.
Update on that previous paragraph: after a little more sleuthing, I discovered this original post in which George announces his recovery of the entire remaining stock of RPG books. He originally offered them to his readers at $100 with shipping. However, in his recent re-offering of these RPG books, he has apparently decided that they have increased in value since 2007, since he now wants $110 plus shipping for each mint-condition book. Raising your price 10% and demanding shipping costs on unsold merchandise that is sitting in your garage? Are you really that full of yourself? Wall Street could learn a thing or two from GRRM when it comes to fictional returns.
Seriously people, if you want any of those RPG books, wait about a month and they'll be sitting in a dumpster behind George's house, right beneath the empty boxes of Yoo-Hoo and Moon Pies. I mean, I'm not even sure what to think at this point. Does he truly and honestly hate us? (And by "us," I don't just mean Pesci and me. We know he hates us. I mean, does he hate all of his fans so much that he will rape them for every penny and Pop-Tart they have?)
On another note, tell me that this piece of crap doesn't look like a rejected concept molding for a new Skeletor action figure:
Final note: in honor of the approaching new year, I'd like to take a moment to recognize that almost exactly two years ago, Variety reported that GRRM plans on having the "seven-book cycle" (remember when it was supposed to be a trilogy?) done by 2011. Since we are hours away from 2009, and we have yet to see book #5, I wouldn't set your watches.
Happy New Year, everyone!
First, there is the issue of Nate Barnes, an artist who, along with several other artists, got screwed out of the money he was owed after doing ASOIAF-related pieces for the Game of Thrones RPG. This was posted up by one of our Anonymous visitors, whom we thank for the stalwart research. As the poster also notes, a few visitors to Nate's little web spot suggested that he maybe bring the issue up to GRRM himself, but nobody seems to have any faith in that option.
Second, another Loyal Reader, Taliesin, asked Joe and I to check out the calendar discussion going on on George's NAB. By now, just like a lot of you, I can predict what is going on over there with about 85% accuracy. Football...miniatures...edited by...signed copy...buy this....buy this...buy this. And of course, the calendar discussion is hardly shocking. As Taliesin notes, GRRM is attempting to foist off water-damaged RPG books on his fans at a whopping discount of 50% -- that's $55 after discount, mind you. But if you look down further, you can note that those are only those books with minor water damage. If you want one with major water damage, they're only $20...plus shipping, "natch," as George puts it. The man will not even cover shipping when his readers are willing to remove water-damaged garbage off his hands.
Update on that previous paragraph: after a little more sleuthing, I discovered this original post in which George announces his recovery of the entire remaining stock of RPG books. He originally offered them to his readers at $100 with shipping. However, in his recent re-offering of these RPG books, he has apparently decided that they have increased in value since 2007, since he now wants $110 plus shipping for each mint-condition book. Raising your price 10% and demanding shipping costs on unsold merchandise that is sitting in your garage? Are you really that full of yourself? Wall Street could learn a thing or two from GRRM when it comes to fictional returns.
Seriously people, if you want any of those RPG books, wait about a month and they'll be sitting in a dumpster behind George's house, right beneath the empty boxes of Yoo-Hoo and Moon Pies. I mean, I'm not even sure what to think at this point. Does he truly and honestly hate us? (And by "us," I don't just mean Pesci and me. We know he hates us. I mean, does he hate all of his fans so much that he will rape them for every penny and Pop-Tart they have?)
On another note, tell me that this piece of crap doesn't look like a rejected concept molding for a new Skeletor action figure:
Final note: in honor of the approaching new year, I'd like to take a moment to recognize that almost exactly two years ago, Variety reported that GRRM plans on having the "seven-book cycle" (remember when it was supposed to be a trilogy?) done by 2011. Since we are hours away from 2009, and we have yet to see book #5, I wouldn't set your watches.
Happy New Year, everyone!