BB&T in Sylva/Cullowhee

Back in early July, I applied to the part time position of bank teller at the BB&T in Sylva. I was invited back for a second interview shortly after. At both interviews, I was informed that there would be a full time position opening up shortly in Cullowhee, and my interviewer (P.M.) asked if I would be interested in that position and I said of course! The Cullowhee position was full time and 15 minutes closer to home.

Soon after, I got an email saying I didn't get the part time position. I call P.M. and asked about it and she said that they felt that I was "better suited for the full time position," which made me very happy. Now things get annoying...

About once per week, I attempt to contact P.M. on the full time position to see if it was open yet. At first, she says there is a computer problem getting the job posted. Sure. A few weeks later, I notice that the job is actually posted on the website! Immediately I post my resume since she failed to call me back several times and my faith in her is almost nill. I keep calling her and leaving messages, since she never picked up her phone.

Tired of being given the cold shoulder, I show up in person. She tells me that she's glad I keep calling and that I showed up since it shows I'm still interested in the position. She tells me that she "will call me to schedule a 3rd interview" since she wants me to be interviewed by someone else. Also, she makes it a point to mention that I am still a strong candidate for the position, which of course makes me very happy. She tells me this on a Thursday and she says she will call me, and that she might be able to reach a decision on who to fill the position by that Friday (just 1 day away) and Monday. It struck me as odd that she would call me, get me an interview, and reach a decision in less than a day, so automatically I felt like she was jerking me around.

Friday, I hear nothing from her. Monday, I hear nothing from her. No phone calls or rejection emails. It is now 7 business days after the day she said she would "definitely" have a decision. The ironic thing is that during my interview, one of the interviewers asked about my job at Jackson Hewitt, and their policy on returning phone calls from customers. I said we always called back our customers back that very day. The interviewer said that's what BB&T's policy is as well.

I've even thought that the reasons for the delay on a decision was that the financial world is very fragile right now and that BB&T didn't want to spend money on a new hire. But instead of being told anything, I'm jerked around and given promise after promise.

Even when I was applying for the job at the Mountaineer, my supervisor told me she was still waiting to see if more applicants came in, which meant she didn't think I was a perfect candidate for the position. I didn't like knowing that she was wanting to see if anyone more qualified people applied, but I love the honesty and professionalism that she showed me!

With her complete lack of professionalism, I am very angry at P.M. and BB&T for jerking me around and for so many broken promises. In a conversation with Ben recently, he said that you can't expect professionals to act professionally. How appropriate.

Nintendo

Nintendo's end is coming. Its doom is palpable to the tongue. The Wii was great at first, but after a while, the coolness factor of wielding two nunchuks of mighty power is fading. There were many times when playing Twilight Princess that I just didn't want to have to swing the controller to make Link attack. Just let me press a button to make him do that.... Please? There were a few times I avoided playing TP just because I didn't want to swing the controller around.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such a problem if the motion sensing actually sensed your motions. Playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids the other day was frustrating because the Wii kept misreading my movements. Sure, the MotionPlus is coming out someday, but the Wii has been out for over 2 years. This new motion sensing technology is long overdue. Also, the Wii has 512 MB Harddrive space to store all of your game saves and Virtual Console downloads. That's not even 1 GB of space, while the Xbox 360 Pro comes with 120 GB - That's 240 times the amount of Harddrive space.

What makes me believe that Nintendo's end is coming is that the Wii is so weak compared to the Xbox and PS3. Sure it's a neat system and it's innovative. But does Nintendo even have the resources to create a new system that is HD-ready and has the processing power of either of the current competitors? If it does, then the big N has given no indication that it can do such a feat. Nintendo is so far behind in power that I'm going to have to buy an Xbox 360 or PS3 just to play Resident Evil 5. For shame.

I've been a fan of Nintendo for a long time, and I would hate to see the company get left behind in the console wars. Sure, the DS is a fine system and Nintendo has always been the leader in the handheld market, but I would hate to see them die off in mainstream console gaming.

Microsoft has had massive problems with the Xbox's red ring of death and other hardware problems, and Sony has had problems selling PS3's for many reasons. But Nintendo hasn't had any problems with console systems ever since the NES's game reading problems, which were solved by blowing on a game cartridge. It would just be a shame to see Nintendo get left behind after so many years.

Some things that would make me happy with Nintendo's next system:

-No more motion sensing crap, except in first person shooters. Resident Evil 4 is fantastic on the WiiMote, but everything else is just a gimmick.
-An actual harddrive. And no more of this 'Blocks of free space.' Speak to me in English. I know how to read the number of megabites I have left. I still don't know how much space a 'block' is.
-More online play. The Wii is a great party system, but put more emphasis into online play. Hypothetically, I can play Mario Kart with my friends, but I would have to talk to them on AIM.
-More power! Since it will be after February 2009 when the next Nintendo system is released, let's get some high definition! More processing power and better graphics would make the next system much more desirable. Recent gaming news shows that developers are just starting to utilize the full potential of the Xbox 360, but it will take developers quite a while to find a way to use the PS3's full potential. And the Wii? It's potential was maxed out on release day with Zelda: Twilight Princess. You might could argue that it's potential was reached a year after release, in which Super Mario Galaxy showed that the Wii could create some beautiful graphics and smooth gameplay. But still, it only took one year at most.

I cross my fingers for Nintendo. I don't want to see them go the way of Sega and create their games for other systems, or be stuck in the handheld market - But N has to make some major changes to keep me loyal.