Review Team Magazine presents: Short story~The inward avalanche

The water was inviting, beckoning like a comely young lady. Not as hot as it was, but still hot enough to persuade me to creep my way in. My friend, Ronnie, was already in the water watching me. "I have to do this slowly.One inch at a time", I said. He laughs and starts to swim around, telling me that he was headed to the floating docks out in the water. I watch him as he swims swims toward the small Astro-turf covered platforms that kids were wrestling on and throwing each other off of.

The water slides up my legs as I shuffle down the incline of the boat landing. Cool water that takes your breath as it claims more and more of your epidermal real estate. At first you just want to rush out of the water all together;it's natural, I tell myself. Holding my body there until it passes, then I'm used to it.

By now, Ronnie is more than half way to the docks.He is a strong swimmer, bobbing up and down in breast-stroke fashion, looking a bit like a dolphin racing under the bow of a ship. I begin to make my way in the water and I notice how it feels heavy against my body, as if it were lightly trying to squeeze the air from my lungs.

Swimming has never really been a big pass time of mine. I mean, I did as a kid, in the local river on summer days gone by, but today something was different. Something felt ominous as I reached the half way point. This is when I flashed to my childhood, a repressed memory leaping forth the way a swarm of bats might leave a cave. I flashed to being helpless in the open water, flailing and sinking with the icy grip of death on my ankle, tugging me down. I recall the distinct feeling that the water, no, the lake itself wanted to keep me there forever in it's enveloping embrace.

Looking up from under the water I saw warbling images of distorted trees stretched and contracting at the whim of the liquid, then a hand bursting through and grabbing me, pulling me up and out of the water. I was lucky that day, surviving only because there was a skilled boater nearby who caught me before it was too late. There are no boats this time, just water and the docks that seem impossibly far away from me, as if they were spooling out at the same rate I swam; maddeningly out of reach.

It's an optical illusion, it has to be. My thoughts race as panic begins to creep in. I feel my body becoming vertical in the water, a sense of sliding downward, my tired body struggling to hold itself up on the water. This notion began to form in my mind, the idea that I should just quit and let the lake have me. To go easily and quietly into the abyss. To succumb;surrender. This is what terrified me the most, was I really ready to give up so effortlessly? Was my grip on life tenuous rather than tenacious? Or was it the lake, overwhelming me with it's power, trying to swallow me down into it's depths? I know now that the water, no, the lake, yes the lake was after me like so many years ago. This time it has me dead to rights as I am stranded somewhere between the shore and the docks, those goddamn green docks that seemingly won't allow me get close to them.

Around me the water begins to stir and swirl and I see small vortexes begin to manifest then dissipate, then manifest again only bigger. The only thing I can do is tread water and stare mesmerized at the event taking place before my eyes. Bigger and bigger the vortexes become joining each other and growing bigger yet.

Snap out of it! I scream at myself as I realise the water squeezing me around the chest, forcing out the air. Frantically I claw at the water, trying to swim out of the hell I now face. The water is alive! God help me the water is alive and I am it's prey! I look around and the vortex is now more like a depression in the water, like a hole dug out of the sand with me at the bottom, and maybe I've gone insane but I swear that the depression in the water looks like a the palm of a giant hand. The water begins to cave inward, avalanche like, viscus fingers cascading down into a grasping, closing fist and burying me in the water. I swim up as best I can but it feels like running as hard as you can on a treadmill;swimming in space. And now I distinctly feel a cold hand on my ankle, a hellish anchor completely unhampered by my protests. Terrified I struggle toward the surface, wavering distorted images locked in my eyes as I nearly break the surface. I want to live!I want to live!!!A strong tug on my ankle pulls me back down and all goes black and cold.

When I regained consciousness, Ronnie was over me, having just performed CPR. Weakly I asked him if he saw what happened. "You were there one second, and then gone the next. you're damn lucky I was paying attention," he paused, "you could have died."

Don't I know it.

In the days that followed I told anyone who would listen what I saw that day, what happened, and how they should stay out of the water. They all regard me like I am crazy, a UFO abducted creep, fresh from a visit by little green men. I know what I saw that day, and I know it happened, and I don't care if they don't believe me. Something lives in that water. It doesn't go after everyone, but when it wants you, it never forgets and can wait forever.

Making my way to the end of the docks connected to the shore I stare at the water, wondering what it wants from me. What could give a lake the unearthly power it wields?"You will never have me!Understand?Never!"I yell at the liquid.

Just then water splashes up from the surface, onto my leg. Horrified, I look down and see the pant leg near my ankle was wet in the shape of a grasping hand. Sprinting I reach my car, put it in gear and leave a cloud of dust and tire smoke hanging behind me as I speed away.

I'm never going to the lake again.

Ever.

Here are all the Eseries articles gathered together for your convenience.

Part 1:A scamers paradise?

Part 2:The dark side of PayPal

Review Team Magazine Presents:Video game review~Fallout 3

Gaming is something that I have done for a long time. Since the Atari 2600 came out I have been pretty hardcore about playing video games. When I was young, I used to think "wouldn't it be cool if video games were an immersive 3D experience?"

These days, they are just that. Starting with Doom, I had the chance to run down 3D corridors blasting my way through level after level. There were others preceding Doom, but they were wire frame style and not as engrossing. Then I moved on to Quake and loved it, especially Quake 2. The multiplayer in that game still is better than a lot of recent titles with options like tuning off falling damage and gravity. I had some amazing battles with my friends playing that game...

3D game play has become an industry standard and is now enhanced by High Definition and 7.1 surround sound, making video games a very realistic experience.

I thought I had reached the pinnacle of open world, 3D gaming when I played Morrowind for first time. It really blew my mind because it was exactly what I thought a 3D game should be. Bethesda softworks nailed it! You could go anywhere you wanted, even up a

mountain, all the way to the top or You could levitate up there instead if you didn't want to do it the hard way. The amount of options in the game was truly stellar.

Fast forward a few years to the Oblivion release.Bethesda really out did themselves on this one. The environments were breathtaking and everything around you seemed alive and

lucid. Sometimes I would just stare at the horizon, watching the sun set and rise. I spent hours playing this game, beating the main quest several times. At the time I thought it couldn't get better.

Until Fallout 3 released.

I had been waiting a long time for this one. And it was completely worth it! This is an increadible game. The most open world so far, the D.C. wastelands are a challenging yet rewarding place to call home. Not at first of course, it wouldn't be Bethesda game if you come up through tough times. If you stay close to safety, and don't wander out too far at first you'll be alright. But go out too far and you are dead meat.

I have been waiting to write this review for a long time, but didn't want to until all the downloadable content(DLC) was all done. Having just finished the mothership zeta DLC I finally feel ready, so here we go.

I waited for two years before this game was released. As a matter of fact, I went to the game store a midnight to pick up my reserved copy. Soon as I got home I ripped off the packaging and fired up my 360. while I waited I perused the game guide that I purchased along with the game. Did I call it guide? What meant to say was I looked through the Bible-thick book that guides you through the game. I am not a fan of guides usually, but the scope of the game is so enormous that it is easy to feel lost and overwhelmed.

The game begins in the safety of vault 101. You see, there was a nuclear war 2077. Two hundred years later D.C. and surrounding areas are a vast wasteland filled with beasts and raiders. Not to mention the radiation, but that is a given. That is where Linda was born. She came up through hard times. There wasn't a lot to do in the vault and it wasn't the most constructive time spent for her.

Seems like she had it in for everyone, maybe because her mother died in child birth. Maybe she was just mean. The only people that she anyone ever show affection toward was her father and his friend, Jonas.

When she was nineteen, her father left the vault. Nobody leaves the vault.Ever.So this caused a real panic, a fever pitch that killed Jonas, at the Overseers' order. He was normally a jerk but this time he went too far. Linda made him pay with his life, destroying the friendship she had with The Overseer's daughter.

This is the day she became Hellinda, scourge of the wasteland, and left the vault to find her father out in the vast wasteland alone.

Fallout 3 is one of the most encompassing game I have ever played. It literally ate three months of my life and I don't want them back;Time well spent. The game just draws you in and doesn't let go. It has definite ramifications if you are not careful. They all depend on if you choose to to be good, evil, or neutral. Like when the guards would come after you when they saw steal something in Oblivion, but more fully realized.

I cannot say enough good things about the game, but there are times when it will freeze up, but locking up isn't exclusive to Fallout 3. There are many games that do it and mine didn't do it too much.so you take the good, and you take the bad.take them both and there you have the facts of a video gamers life.

The DLC ranged from pretty good to really great. I found Operation Anchorage to be too linear for my taste but it was supposed to be like a "video game" in the wasteland setting. A video game within a video game might sound like a hard pill to swallow but it makes sense in context. I thought broken steel was the best one with Mothership Zeta a close second. Some people think think it was too linear but how wide open can a spaceship be? On that note, we may all find out someday.

Overall I found Fallout 3 to be an exeptional game that pushes the boundries of what a video game can be. I think back to that child who wished for a fully immersive game experience, and how lucky I am to have had his wish come true.

If you would like to read more of Linda's expoits click here.

Mel

reviewteammagazine.com

Review Team Magazine Presents:paypal inside and out part 2:the dark side of paypal

Last week I exposed the elements of a Craigslist scam. This week I would like to examine a little more closely the finer points of item #4.

4.Anywhere from 1 to 3 months later,the credit card company requests a chargeback on the unauthorized charge

Chargebacks

When a customer disagrees with a charge on their credit card, they can request their money back. This is known as a chargeback, or reversal. Buyers have the right to request a chargeback on several grounds, the most common of witch are Duplicate Prossesing, Unauthorized Payment, and not as Described/Defective.

This is the beginning. The other thing that happens when a chargeback occurs is that paypay Debits the seller the transaction amount total, plus a fee. Say, for example, you sell an item for $50 and the customer is dissatisfied and requests a chargeback. You, as the seller, would absorb all the costs involved. Here it would have been the $50 plus any fees that PayPal incurred as a result of the fund reversal. PayPal also reserves the right to limit your access to your account, if determined necessary.

It could cost you a lot of money if you do not protect yourself.

The most basic way to protect yourself is to understand how you qualify for the seller protection policy. First of all, protection does not apply to intangible purchases(like ebooks for example), items delivered in person, and claims for items significantly not as described.But it does apply to Unauthorized payments and item not received.

It took me a while but I finally figured out that to see if your item qualifies, either partially or completely for seller protection is on the PayPal transaction page that is generated when a sell is made. From there you will know how much protection your qualified for. The next thing you should avoid is sending to unconfirmed addresses. NEVER do this, EVER.Always get proof of shipment that shows status as shipped and shows a postmark(if possible), date, and recipient's address showing(at least) the city/state or ZIP code. You will also want a proof of delivery that shows the status as delivered, the date, and recipient's address just like the proof of shipping. Though they sound the same, they are actually two different things and PayPal will ask for them as documentation.

Another thing to consider is asking for the customers phone number not only to confirm the sale "in person" but you can also cross-check their number with the address online for a small fee. This will let you know if it is a bogus number/address.

Just try to remember that there are many people out there trying to make a buck online and a lot of them are there to scam unwary people. Statistically Americans are targeted more as they tend to be swayed by the idea of making money for little or no effort. Remember that if it seems too good to be true it probably is.

Come back next week for part 3:PayPal and Ebay~Three things you need to know

Mel

reviewteammagazine.com

A little about me

Thought it was about time I let you all in a little bit, let you get to know me.

You just might be wondering what makes me such an authority to be writing reviews here at Review Team Magazine.

To tell the truth, i'm just a regular guy. I have been suckered and sold a real lemon many times and am truley fed up with shoddy business and products. This is what motivates me to write my reviews. I have become a web detective, like Dick Tracey, and want to sniff out the true facts from the useless fluff yielding only the truth,as best I can.

I have many areas of interest including playing music, writing, video games, kung fu, movies and television, cooking/foodstuffs, home business, sleight of hand, just to name a few.

Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you feel like you know me a bit better.

I know I do,

Mel

reviewteammagazine.com