(For context see here.)
Kirk Skeptic
I'm all for that, but what about buying smuggled goods from the source?
I'm afraid to report that over the last year or so I've been sorely disappointed over the smuggled goods I've purchased from "the source." (Ahem, *wink* *wink* *nod* *nod* - I won't mention his name but I know precisely the person to whom you're referring.)
I mean, sure, "the source" has had a fairly decent track record over the years of catering smuggled goods to my mad scientist operation. If we're talking several years back, or maybe even a couple of years ago, then I'd definitely rate "the source" at least a 4 but likely even 5 stars out of 5. No question.
However, ever since the IPO launch, things just haven't been quite the same. For one thing, I feel as if "the source" has become too commercialized now. He's lost the ma and pa shop feel. It's not the same beloved family friendly outfit I once knew.
For example, "the source" used to have my uranium-235 as well as plutonium-241 hand delivered to me in lovely little hand-crafted heavy metallic storage containers, which in turn were even shaped to look like their own miniaturized nuclear reactor units, complete with control rods and cute external digital displays that would flash funny stuff like "Critical mass has been reached" or "Supernova or bust"! But now I'd be lucky to get such quality service and packaging. Let alone if the entire amalgamation didn't experience a catastrophic meltdown before it arrived in my barriered underground supervillain lair.
On another occasion, I ordered a wormhole portal gun from "the source." I knew something was wrong the second I fired it up. The tachyon particle levels instantly skyrocketed to above what I'd normally expect to see, the anti-gravity machine went on the fritz, and causality reversed direction. But it was when Stephen Hawking walked through the wormhole with Schrodinger's cat on a leash that I had had enough. After all, this isn't rocket science 101! I'm familiar enough to know there is no parallel universe in the multiverse in which Hawking can walk! So I put Hawking, the cat, and the wormhole portal gun in a big enough box along with a small flask of hydrocyanic acid, and returned to sender, posthaste.
Anyway, 1/5 I'll not use "the source" for my smuggled goods ever again. I'm going to go with Han Solo instead.
