'This cow is your face.' by Kara
Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 7:00 AM

I didn't go see Indy last night -- comic took priority. So I may try for it today, but first I'm going to cruise by the movie theatre up here and see how mad it is. And also see how I'm feeling. Because (and now I'm actually a bit thankful I have no true weekend plans) I seem to have received a cold.

It's been a good run for movies this month. Iron Man rocked, Speed Racer rocked, and I thought Prince Caspian was rather good. I'm still rather pissed that they don't see fit to credit voice actors (like Liam Neeson as Aslan and Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep) up where they belong with 'real' actors, but ... eh, I'm not getting started on this, because I've got other stuff to get started on.

So last night I couldn't sleep, and I was surfing around looking at Random Stuff. And so I stumbled upon what looked to be a very neat CD of anime trance remixes. The site had a little button leading to the iTunes storefront, and -- after wrestling with it to let me see the Japanese site -- I got to listen to a few samples. Said few samples were, in fact, rather good. Really damn good, as a matter of fact. Throw-money-at-it good.

Now, I like me some good remixes, and Co-Writer DJs at dances at cons (if you didn't know by now), so this was a win-win situation. We'd split the cost of a CD, then drop ¥200 here and there on a couple of tracks from other CDs that looked mostly miss with a couple hits. So I went to sign in. And it wouldn't let me, because it said my ID was only good for the US storefront. So, what, I have to sign up for a separate account? Fine, whatever.

I start going through it, and it asks for my billing address, including prefecture. Erm. Well, there was a link that said 'Click here for billing addresses outside Japan.' So I did.

And I was informed that, since I am not in Japan, I am not allowed to buy these songs.

What?

So here I am, in essence, holding up $20 and asking for permission to give it to them. But Apple Japan says no, we do not wish to receive money from you. This isn't even a case of wanting it free. I want to pay for it like a decent human being.

'Well,' says Co-Writer, 'who do we know in Japan?'

'Why do that?' I say. I've got a website in front of me that essentially says they don't want my money. And if they're not that bent up about having my money ... well, okay. I'll be bearing that in mind in future.

Anyway, I have it now.

Trust me, if I see it for sale at a con, I will buy it. But when people consistently tell me that my money is worthless when it comes to getting things they're selling ... of course it breeds bad behaviour in me.

Yeah?

If you have been, it shouldn't.