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Pinworm45

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My Paypal Account was Hacked. What should I do?

 To start off, I know the correct answer to this question is "call paypal". Except I am, and their offices are all closed for American thanks giving.
 
Basically I checked my email today, and saw I had tons of emails from Paypal saying I made payments, which I did not. I figured they were phishing attempts, so I logged into my account by typing the link myself. 
 
There is about 9 payments I apparently made to a person named "Brett Locke" and 3 payments to "Chris Hendricks". All of them are for the amount of 75$ USD. I never made any of these payments. They were made today at about lunch time, before I was even awake. The money was sent to email accounts, all of which I now have listed.
 
My bank account as well as credit card are tired to my Paypal account. He attempted to take the money from my bank account. However, in my bank account I only have 500$, all of which is frozen from when I recently got a credit card. As far as I can tell, I have not yet been charged anything, likely do this pre-existing money freeze. However, the idea that someone has all my bank account and credit card info, not to mention my password to paypal (which I have since changed) is terrifying. 
  
 As well, I can not contact Paypal at all because as I said, their phone simply says they're on holiday. So basically, there's nothing I can do right now. 
 
It does look like my account on Paypal is limited (it says so), and there also is 12 open disputes and claims (which were there before I did anything) and 9 claims requiring my action (clicking on them is confusing, it doesn't say what's going on or what I should do).  
 
Has anyone experienced this? What should I do? Should i contact my bank? (I live in Canada and it isn't thanksgiving here, so it might be ok?) Should I contact law enforcement?     

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Phrases That Annoy Me

I could care less

 We've been over this one a hundred times, but apparently it'll take a hundred and one until people figure it out. 
 
You could care less? Does that you mean you care a lot? Well obviously you care some amount, if it's possible for you to care less. How much do you care? 
  
What it really means
Of course, what people are trying to say is that they couldn't care less. Why they don't simply say that, I'll never know. 
 
Sometimes people say it's sarcasm. Well, in that case, the statement is just as stupid. It's very poor sarcasm. In fact, most people inflect "care less" when saying this statement, so I don't even think that holds up. But even if the sarcastic word is "could", it's still a very poor way of expressing it. A proper sarcastic variant would be "I care a lot". Or you could, you know, just say you couldn't care less. 
 

That's just like, your opinion, man

 Every time I see someone say some variant of "that's just your opinion" I want to gargle razorblades. Who's fucking opinion do you think I'm giving?  
 
What this really means  
What they're really trying to do is belittle your opinion, but having absolutely no empirical evidence to argue against it, they attempt to minimize it's value by saying "that's just your opinion".  
 
What a completely useless statement. It literally says nothing. Do you people who say this really want every sentence to end with an asterisk and a disclaimer saying "note: this is my opinion"? Why? This statement says literally nothing. It's a complete waste of bandwidth. You may as well quote every single person on the internet and say "well you just typed that". Wooptyshit, Sherlock.  
 
But I guess that's just my opinion.
 

Have your cake and eat it, too

 In this one, it's not the actual phrase that bothers me, it's people thinking they're hot shit because they realize that what's the point in having cake if you can't eat it? 
 
What it really means 
What this phrase is NOT saying is that I want to be able to eat cake. What it is saying is that I want to have cake while also being able to eat it. You can not have something that has been consumed, ergo, the phrase is saying I want to have it both ways, have the best of both worlds, etc. I want to have money but able to spend it too is an analogy. If you spend your money, you have lost that money and then do not have it. Simple. You're not clever for realizing cake is useless without being able to eat it, and the phrase wasn't suggesting anyone wants to have unedible cake. 
  
 

That's it for now. What are some phrases that grind your gears? (I just set you up to say you're bothered by "grinds my gears". Roll with it.)
92 Comments

Louie, The Best Show of 2010

In a time where TV shows generally cater to the lowest common denominator, and a massive excess of channels and genres is vying for your attention, it's very rare that a show can be unique, and if it's unique, it's generally not successful (Firefly, for example). 
 
Considering that, it's really a treat to watch a TV show that takes risks, is unique and different, and surprisingly Intelligent. 
 
If you couldn't guess from the title, the show I'm talking about is Louie. 
 
I was a big fan of Lucky Louie when it aired on HBO. It was a sitcom in the vein of shows we've all seen a million times, typical down-on-their-lucky family. However, the show managed to be funny and watchable thanks to HBO allowing it to be slightly dirtier than say, Everybody Loves Raymond. 
 
Given that I loved the show (which was, to no surprise, a failure), I was ecstatic when I heard that Louis CK had another show with a different network in the works. It was announced, by the way, with this hilarious video: 
 
  

    
If you asked me to describe Louie, I wouldn't know what to say. It's similiar.. kind of.. in structure to Seinfeld. It can be about the silly 'non-issues' things, and segments are split up (sometimes) between story and Louie giving stand up comedy. However, some clever twists are done on this and in the end, it's really not all that similiar to Seinfeld 
 
Louie's greatest strength in my mind is that it changes every week. It's always refreshing and you never know what to expect. One episode might be tons of different, unrelated segments mixing between story and stand up. Next weeks might be drama, which is surprisingly well executed, especially given that this is a comedy show - I think? It definitely made me laugh more than anything else I've seen in years but in a strange way, It's not entirely a comedy. In fact, the fact that this show pulls off the balance is a testament to it's execution. 
 
The show is also just plain weird. And weird in..a good way. Without spoiling anything, the shows first episode starts by staying very, very realistic in gritty, in the small details of things that can go wrong (to give a small example, opening a door for his date, and having her get stuck behind the door making it pointless and awkward) but having the show end with a completely over-the-top, unrealistic, completely unexpected and yet oddly understated moment. You never know what to expect with this show. It's a complete mess, and yet the mess is so well executed and calculated that Louie surely deserves the title of Best Show of 2010 (so far), and it should be checked out by everyone in the mood for something new, a comedy, a drama, and have a pallete that doesn't mind completely-offensive and yet not-offensive for the sake of being offensive. 
 
This is also a show not a lot of people will get. And I don't mean that in a "you aren't smart enough" way.. It's just not something everyone will get. 
 
Check it out.
31 Comments

Less Games is more Game

 
   

fair warning 
fair warning 

The Good Old Days 

 
When I was a kid, my life was consumed by 4 things, and none of them involved homework: 
 
Warcraft 2StarcraftAVP2 and the half-life 2 mod Empires
 
I must have played each game each day before and after school. Many schoolnights I would sneak downstairs to play them, and when I was supposed to be studying math, I was drawing maps for custom maps I could make in Starcraft. 
 
To say I got my moneys worth would be an understatement; these four games cost me under 150$ and each one gave me easily over 1000 hours of entertainment - probably more.  
  

The Middle Years 


Things started to change when I turned 15 or 16 and got my 360. My living conditions became such that my mom had more money to spend, and as such I had more money to get 360 games. Over time I convinced her to get more games than I'd ever had in my life, and things were great. If I got bored of a genre, I could play another. I still wasn't getting THAT many, but certainly more than before.  
 
It started with games that I tried the demo of. And then it became games I heard were good. 
 
And then I was getting games simply because I liked the premise or it sounded cool - as many of you have probably been burned by, this is a foolish way to buy games. 
 

The Golden 360 Years

 
Things only became worse once I started getting an income of my own. While I got  a small amount of money (Under 1000 a month), I didn't have many obligations. I could (and probably should have) helped out with food and money for my mother, but I never did. I'd like to think it's because I spent equal time at my mothers and fathers and as such paying one would be unfair while paying both would leave me moneyless, I simply can't argue that I spent too much on games. I became a collector of sorts. Why purchase the simple Halo 3 game when I can get a useless helm and artbook I'm not interested in? It's even worse when you consider that I'm not even that huge of a halo fan. 
 
Why buy 1 game when you can get the sequel? Why not get the sequel to a game I wasn't a huge fan of, when it may have improved and it breaks my collection if I don't? 
 
At the time, I didn't think of this as a bad thing. I was purchasing more games than I was playing, but I kept going thinking these games would tide me over when a drought came. Well, gaming became more popular and this drought didn't exist. I just kept buying. 
 

The Steam Years

  
Exactly one year and one month ago, I got a credit card. No cause for alarm; while I fully admit I spent far, far too much on gaming, I'm at least smart enough and aware enough to not put myself in debt. However, despite my enjoyment of my 360, I found myself getting bored of it. Partly because I've always been a PC gamer at heart; partly because I actually felt overwhelmed by the amount of games I had to play. In fact, they felt like a job. I felt I had to warrant the money I spent by playing games, and the result is that I got bored and simply didn't play them. 
 
The credit card offered me a way out: Steam. I never liked from it's conception and in fact only dealt with it for Half-life 2 (thanks for delaying that 2 days, by the way, steam). But I gave it a try to get a game, and was hooked. Instantly. I loved it. Easy access to games quickly, with no tax, at cheap prices. Excellent features that travel between games. Supports Valve. Constantly improving. I won't lie, I'm a steam fanboy now.  
 
Quickly, my collection of games rose. I simply moved my 360 habbit to my PC and was now purchasing. At this point I realized I had a problem; but I was lured back in by Steams delicious sales. Indeed, Steam is the only thing that can make you go broke from sales. 
 

Now

 
A few months ago, I finally admitted I had a problem. I tried to tone it down, but then things kept happening such as games I was interested in going on sale; Christmas sale, Summer Sale. It was hard to resist. I tried to leave, but Steam pulled me back in. However, I did make progress and DID tone down my purchases, and the sales definitely did help in keeping costs somewhat-low. 
 
But a few months ago, my mom got divorced from her second marriage, and had to move into a new place. I had to as well. In fact, I did exactly one month ago today. And I've made changes - so far. I've passed by Darksiders and Dead Rising 2, even though they're 10$ cheaper at the very reasonable cost of 39$ Canadian, and I really want them.  I simply can't afford to keep binge-gaming when the amount of money I make is enough to pay all my balls and barely feed me.
 
But the main reason I'm toning it down isn't financial; though that may be caused my revelation: I simply realized that the more games I had to play, the less I played them. I guess the reason is obvious, your time is divided. However, there's many, many games that I played for 2 hours max and never touched again, for 80$. Compare that to the 150$ I spent in my childhood that gave me thousands upon thousands of hours of gaming. The ratio doesn't even come close to comparing. Sure, those old games are classics that are barely rivaled by games today (in my humble opinion), but when you have no options, and have to stick with one game, you find new things. You experiment. You play around. You don't just rush to the end to beat the game and feel like your purchase was justified. 
  
I don't know if I've just matured now that I'm 20, I don't know if it's the financial responsibility that I now have, or if it was the realization that less is more, but I've finally realized my mistakes and am now purchasing essential-purchases only, and maybe the occasional fluff if I'm lucky enough to have some left over money. 

Anyway my question to you Giant Bomb, at least those of you who stuck this long: Have you ever increased your gaming purchase amount? If so, did you ever feel like the more games you had, the less you enjoyed them?  
 
Now I'm off to play some Starcraft 2, a game I can now enjoy for all the hundreds of hours it's worth, now that I'm not going to be drawn away by Hawx2, Dead Rising 2, Darksiders, and countless other titles, as interesting as they may be. 
 
Besides, if I get bored of it.. my back collection of games I want to play but haven't because of other games goes all the way back to Fable 2. 
 

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