(no subject)
Due to school currently not being in session for me -- though I think my lack of an active social life is much more guilty -- it's been quite a while since the last time I've actually driven a car. Because of this, I kind of worried that I would be rusty enough to endanger myself and those around me; however, taking a trip to the mall today kind of proved my friend was right. Driving a car is quite similar to riding a bicycle, because once you've learned you can never really "forget" how to ride/drive it. Even though I haven't driven for almost a month and a half, it felt so natural the moment I got behind the wheel. That problem subsided, but a new problem quickly arose after leaving the mall. I took one wrong turn, and I soon found out that I didn't know this city as well as I initially thought. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I was in a situation where the roads wouldn't let me go back the way I came without a massive detour. Remind me to never drive without a GPS ever again, because getting lost on unfamiliar roads is a terrible thing.
With that said, there's one more thing I want to get off my chest. Best Buy (at the moment) is my only offline source to purchase anime, so the terrible sight I saw today affected quite deeply. There still had a section in their DVDs dedicated to their anime, but the section itself was quite scare compared to the last time I went to purchase something. This either means that Best Buy has been selling their anime DVDs like crazy, or they just don't think it's profitable to sell anime DVDs since little to no one buys them. It's a topic that's been bothering me ever since Anime Expo, and it doesn't relate to just the anime either; manga and video games have also been suffering. Businesses have been doing their best to bring series' we like here in the states, and while the quality may not always be the best, the support that "fans" should be showing should be a lot greater than this. I know not everyone can afford to support every single series they enjoy (me included), but I'm certain that that's only half the problem. It was difficult trying to decide between three "complete collection DVD pack" series to purchase, butt it was more difficult because I was trying to decide which company I wanted to support (Bandai or Funimation) more than which series I wanted to watch at the time. With that said, I also don't think me buying one copy would really help the company I was trying to support, but I'm not using that as an excuse to say "it doesn't matter if I pirate everything anyways", because that's not how I feel. It's more like... I wish I could make a bigger difference when it comes to these things, because purchasing their stuff just doesn't seem like enough anymore. If there was any possible way where I could actually help carry my favorite companies on my shoulder, then I would do it without hesitation.
I do support series' because I like them and want more stuff to come here, but I think my problem runs even past that. I want my interests to live, and I just don't want people to lose jobs over such stupid reasons. Or maybe I'm just being overdramatic I don't know.
With that said, there's one more thing I want to get off my chest. Best Buy (at the moment) is my only offline source to purchase anime, so the terrible sight I saw today affected quite deeply. There still had a section in their DVDs dedicated to their anime, but the section itself was quite scare compared to the last time I went to purchase something. This either means that Best Buy has been selling their anime DVDs like crazy, or they just don't think it's profitable to sell anime DVDs since little to no one buys them. It's a topic that's been bothering me ever since Anime Expo, and it doesn't relate to just the anime either; manga and video games have also been suffering. Businesses have been doing their best to bring series' we like here in the states, and while the quality may not always be the best, the support that "fans" should be showing should be a lot greater than this. I know not everyone can afford to support every single series they enjoy (me included), but I'm certain that that's only half the problem. It was difficult trying to decide between three "complete collection DVD pack" series to purchase, butt it was more difficult because I was trying to decide which company I wanted to support (Bandai or Funimation) more than which series I wanted to watch at the time. With that said, I also don't think me buying one copy would really help the company I was trying to support, but I'm not using that as an excuse to say "it doesn't matter if I pirate everything anyways", because that's not how I feel. It's more like... I wish I could make a bigger difference when it comes to these things, because purchasing their stuff just doesn't seem like enough anymore. If there was any possible way where I could actually help carry my favorite companies on my shoulder, then I would do it without hesitation.
I do support series' because I like them and want more stuff to come here, but I think my problem runs even past that. I want my interests to live, and I just don't want people to lose jobs over such stupid reasons. Or maybe I'm just being overdramatic I don't know.