In Purple I'm Stunning 2.0

Sunday Song.

2012-01-29T11:27:00.001-05:00

Autographs.

2012-01-28T10:04:00.001-05:00

It is amazing how many cards show players signing autographs. This is just a small example of the them.

Creative Marketing.

2012-01-27T11:21:00.001-05:00

The last couple of weeks I have not been the person who puts out the new releases. They have had me working in other departments instead of electronics. Had I been the one putting them out I would've mentioned this on Tuesdays post about new releases. Paranormal Activity 3 is available only in a Blu-ray/DVD combo. What they don't tell people is that the DVD by itself will be available on February 10. This is the third time that I have seen that happen. The other two releases were by Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and the re-release of The Lion King. In both of those cases, the DVD was released about a month after the combo.

What they are doing is basically shoving Blu-ray down your throat. It is inevitable that DVD will be gone, my estimation is two years. Right now the hangup is the cost of a Blu-ray player, which continues to drop. Once you have an assortment of models under $50, then DVD will be gone. The same thing happened when the format was switched from VHS to DVD. One of the nice things about Blu-ray is that your regular DVDs will play on them. I do not like this tactic, but I think will be seeing a lot more of it in the future. One of the reasons it is happening is that DVD is no longer the cash cow that it once was, and the movie studios are doing everything they can to increase their revenue. I will be keeping an eye on this and any time that I find it is happening in the future I will be mentioning it. It is not a real hindrance to me personally because I rarely buy anything when it comes out. I would much rather wait until the price goes down to about $10. That is what keeps my inner Jack Benny very happy.

Topps American Pie, Part 2.

2012-01-26T08:12:00.000-05:00

My plan for this set has changed dramatically. Originally I figured I would just select five cards or so, post scans of them here, and move on. Instead, this will be an ongoing project and I'm not exactly sure yet how many parts it will contain. I will not be posting on these daily, but there will be at least two posts a week until I cover them all. Right now, I do not have a full set, but hope to correct that shortly. I remember learning about the Doomsday Clock in grade school. The clock was originally set at seven minutes to midnight. I wasn't sure if they still used the clock. It still is being used and the current time is five minutes to midnight. Hopefully, the world leaders can come to some kind of agreement and the clock will no longer be necessary. I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. I really don't look that good in blue.

In 1948 Polaroid introduced the first instant camera. For the first time people could actually take a picture and have it complete in a few minutes. They called it the model 95, named for its price of $95. Polaroid kept improving upon the camera. But, of course, as digital took over the need for instant pictures dramatically dropped. In 2008 Polaroid got out of business altogether. The company has fallen on hard times and has twice filed for bankruptcy in the last 10 years.

The first credit card came into existence because a businessman forgot his wallet. He was at a restaurant, and his wife bailed him out. He came up with Diners Club and the rest as they say, is history.

When pagers first came out they were only available to doctors. They weren't approved for everyone's use until 1958. While no way near as common as they once were, they still are used today.

A professor in Turkey ran a computer program and determine that April 11, 1954 was the most boring day in the 20th century. The conclusion was achieved because there were no major events that happened on that day.

Topps American Pie, Part One.

2012-01-25T14:08:00.002-05:00

Topps has issued a new American Pie set. This is the third set that they have done, but the first since 2002. The previous sets were a combination of baseball players and non-sports figures, historical events, and other assorted subjects. This set focuses mainly on history, starting at World War II. I bought a hobby box, which guaranteed me three relic cards. Those cards include autographs, celebrity worn memorabilia, patches, stamps or coins. The first one I got was from Louie Anderson.

Until I read the card, I did not know who Justin Willman was. Until I lost cable a few months ago Food Network was one of my favorite channels and I had never heard of Willman. Then I found out he was on some of the shows that I never cared to watch, Cupcake Wars, Last Cake Standing, and Halloween Wars.

I saved my favorite card for last. What you see is actual dirt from the Lewis and Clark trail. I like offbeat stuff like that. Tomorrow I'll talk about the basic set.

New DVD Releases.

2012-01-24T12:36:00.002-05:00

When the first Paranormal Activity came out in 2007 it was a surprising hit. Made on a budget of $15,000 it grossed over $193 million worldwide. The budgets have gotten bigger, but people still flock to see the movies. The third chapter in the series brought in $104,028,807 in the United States and almost that much overseas. It's not my kind of movie, but it does have its audience. It is rated a 6.2 on the IMDB.

When I first heard about the movie Real Steel, I joked that it would turn out to be Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, the movie. The movie did very well at the box office where it brought in $85,255,428. It was a huge hit overseas, bringing in $210 million. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to watch it, but I have enjoyed most of Hugh Jackman's movies. The IMDB rates the movie a 7.3.

50/50 is a comedy about cancer. It was inspired by a true story about a young man diagnosed with cancer and his subsequent battle with the disease. The young man was screenwriter Will Reiser. After a six-year struggle he was declared cancer free. The movie brought in $35,014,192 and is rated an 8.0 on the IMDB.

Smile, It's Monday.

2012-01-23T10:22:00.001-05:00

Sunday Song.

2012-01-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

Baseball Cameramen.

2012-01-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

Overreaction.

2012-01-20T11:49:00.000-05:00

An elementary teacher for the Gwinnett County, Georgia school district has resigned due to some poorly worded math problems that were assigned to some students. The questions attempted to teach a little history as well as math. His question about Frederick Douglass was in poor taste. The question asked "If Frederick got to beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in a week? In two weeks?" Why he thought that was a good idea, he has not explained. He did say his intentions were good, and when the controversy came out, he turned in his resignation before it was asked for. I really don't think he should of had to resign, but some kind of punishment was called for. A suspension without pay could have covered that. Of course, since he did resign it is a moot point. That is not the overreaction that I was referring to with the subject of this post. The overreaction is mentioned in the story where some parents are now requesting that counseling be made available to the students who received these questions. It is ridiculous to believe that simply reading that question would emotionally scar a child. It would not surprise me for a lawsuit to end up being filed over this. It is an unfortunate happening, but life really will go on.

The second overreaction took place at a Subway in South Carolina. A 19-year-old employee there made sandwiches for his friends and charged them $1.50. It's not clear how many friends were involved but instead of firing the young man, the manager had him arrested. I agree that the young man was in the wrong, but having him arrested is going a little too far. I can only assume that this was done as a warning to the other employees, but unless he had 50 friends in there being fired should have covered everything. The way the story reads it was a one time occurrence. Why the harshness in dealing with it only the manager can explain.

Active Toys.

2012-01-19T09:15:00.004-05:00

I was going to blog about this game for Christmas, but since I basically took the month of December off, it didn't happen. The object of Doggie Doo is to go around behind this dog and clean up after him. I'm not sure exactly how popular this game is since I don't work in toys very often, but I do assume that it sells fairly well. After all, it's disgusting enough that kids would have fun with it.

Baby Alive is billed as the real surprise baby. You give the doll something to eat and drink and she does what real babies do. Fortunately, one of the accessories that you can purchase is disposable diapers. I think that's taking realism a little too far, but at least I don't have to clean it up. You can buy food packets, drink packets, and diapers to go along with this doll.

I like finding weird stuff like this. This will probably become the Thursday theme. I'm going to limit this to items that you can purchase in, as they call it online, the brick-and-mortar stores. It's more of a challenge that way than just simply going online, because there is so much weird stuff that you can purchase online only.

A Nightmares End.

2012-01-18T15:27:00.002-05:00

I don't buy as many comic books as I used to. The biggest reason is I am not a fan of the direction that they're using for superheroes today. Someday soon I will talk about the titles that I do buy, but one title that I have been getting just came to the end of the tale. Marvel Comics has finished a 31 issue adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. I will do a full review of it at a later date after I have reread it. This adaptation was very well done and I have enjoyed revisiting the story.

I was first introduced to The Stand by She Who Left in the Middle of the Night. My introduction was the TV miniseries. After watching that I bought the revised edition of the book that King put out, the one where he added 400 pages. I'm a big of Stephen King and this is my favorite of all his works. A few years ago, when I heard that Marvel was going to adapt the book, it immediately went on to my pull list. For those of you who are not familiar with that term, each month, the comic book store that I go to, Fantasy Factory in Dalton, saves for me the books that I want. That is call my pull list. Now that The Stand has ended the only Marvel title that I am buying is an adaptation of Stephen Kings Dark Tower. There is talk that the next adaptation will be Salem's Lot. If they follow through with that I'll be getting those.

The thing that I am not enjoying about today's superhero titles is too many titles are being tied into one major story, or in the case of DC comics, they have restarted everything. I don't have a problem with characters being refreshed, but I have read too many restarts and really don't want to go there again., Heroes have also gotten darker which just isn't my cup of tea. A lot of my friends of been enjoying what's going on and I'm glad that they are, but I'm going back and rereading the tales from the time that I like best. One great thing about fictional characters is that you can pick and choose the tales that you prefer. If you don't like a certain story, you can simply ignore it.

New DVD Releases.

2012-01-17T15:02:00.001-05:00

The Ides of March is a movie about a political campaign. I get enough of that with regular news and really don't care to watch a movie about it. The movie brought in $40,962,534 and is fairly well thought of by the people on the IMDB where it ranks a 7.4.

Courageous is the fourth movie from Sherwood Pictures, which is owned by the Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. This is their most successful movie so far. It brought in $34,311,609 and is rated a 5.8 on the IMDB.

A lot of people in Hollywood think that Taylor Lautner will become one of the next big stars. Outside of the Twilight movies he has not been very successful so far. Abduction brought in $28,087,155 and is rated a 4.4 on the IMDB.

Speaking of major disappointments, Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star will go down as one of the worst movies ever made. It had the dubious honor of getting a zero rating at Rottentomatoes.com. If you not familiar with out Rotten Tomatoes works, they gather all reviews of a movie and rate it according to the number of positive reviews the movie receives. No reviewer liked this movie. It only brought in $2,529,395 and is rated a 2.5 on the IMDB.

Monday Mayhem.

2012-01-16T10:25:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my neighbor knocked on my door. When I opened it I looked at and said "Yes?"
She asked me, "Why do you always say yes when I knock?"
I told her, "You never come over unless you are wanting something."
She said, "That's not true. Will you take me somewhere?"
She really did not see the irony there.

Sunday Song.

2012-01-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

Multiple Images.

2012-01-14T09:58:00.000-05:00

They don't do the multiple image cards much anymore. I think it's a shame because they do make the cards very interesting.

Fines for Singing.

2012-01-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

Most people agree that the Star-Spangled Banner is a very difficult song to sing. There's been a lot of press about the way certain celebrities have sang it. An Indiana State senator is trying to get a bill passed that would find any performer $25 if they don't meet certain criteria with the way they perform the song. Any place where the anthem is sung would be required to keep recordings of it for two years. The bill is good intentioned, but wrong on so many levels. First of all, who sets the standard as to the way the songs to be sung? Secondly, who then judges whether or not the performance was within the standards? What one person deems as good, another may loathe. I like Barry Manilow, but you won't hear him on my friend Don Colletts' radio station, Project 42. The person judging the performance may simply not like the artist and will hit them with a $25 fine just for that reason. I would be greatly surprised if this bill actually becomes law.

In business news, I read where the Hostess company has fallen on hard times and has filed for bankruptcy. They just emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 and things are still not going well for them. Hopefully they will recover this time and continue to produce their tasty treats for a long time. After all, without their help, how would superheroes ever defeat super villains?

Whatever happened on Facebook on Wednesday seems to have been corrected. I was able to post a link to this blog on my page yesterday. Things have really quieted down at work, which is a good thing. The next big event will be inventory, which should be in March. Also, I am once again beginning to feel like a human being, having spent the last week with a nasty cold. Next week I am planning on finally starting my other blog, The 1956 Adventure. I reserved the title almost 2 years ago and it's now time to get busy on it. My goal is to have two posts a week on it. It will mainly be about the 1956 Topps baseball card set. I will post a picture of the card and talk a little bit about the player. I'll put a link here when I begin.

Strange Products.

2012-01-12T10:22:00.002-05:00

I have 23 years experience working in retail, which started in 1974. I have seen many strange products in that length of time, so it takes a lot to surprise me. A few nights ago, I got a surprise. We are always finding stray merchandise throughout the store. One product that had magically found its way back to electronics was a bottle of Lady Anti-Monkey Butt Powder. My initial response was the laugh, especially since the bottle had the image that you see above. Of course I had to spend the rest of the night pointing this product out to my coworkers. After researching the product a little bit, I found out that they make a product for men, women and babies. For babies the product is used for diaper rash. Its use for adults is to prevent chafing on your backside caused by sweat inside your clothes. I never knew that was that big of a problem, but if you suffer from it here is your solution.

When I mentioned the powder to a friend of mine who works in that area, she told me about another product that I had to go check out, Gorilla Snot Hair Gel. I looked it up online and found a few reviews for it. Several who use it said once you put it in your hair you have to wash it twice to get it out. I also found out that guitar players like the product because it helps them to keep a hold of their guitar picks. The product has been around for a while, but for obvious reasons I don't spend a lot of time around haircare section.

I tried the link to my blog on my Facebook page yesterday but they rejected. I'm not sure if it's because of my account being hacked or someone from Blogger has been playing around. Several other people had the same problem. I'm going to try again today and we will see what happens.

Hackers at Work.

2012-01-11T13:52:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago my e-mail account was hacked and spam was sent to everyone in my address book. A couple weeks after the first instant it happened again. I wasn't sure exactly how to deal with it, but I figured if my address book was empty, nothing more could be sent out. If I need to send an e-mail I simply type the address in, which works fine because I rarely communicate by e-mail.

Yesterday somebody got into my mother's e-mail account. I received an e-mail from her that I knew, just from the subject, that she hadn't sent it. A little later in the day she sent out a message telling everybody what it happened. Curiously enough, I had another message waiting for me, this one from Facebook, which informed me that someone had accessed my Facebook account from a different device than what I normally logged in from. Because of that my account had become frozen. When I responded to that, and confirmed that it was not me, I was shown that the attempt had been made from somewhere in South America. I am fairly certain that I did not travel to South America yesterday.

Several years ago I had my Yahoo account hijacked. Whoever was doing it was going about it while I was online. I ended up having to cancel the account and start again. It is hard for me to understand that thrill the someone gets from doing something like that. Those that do it think they are the smartest people in the world, but at some point their overconfidence gets them, and they learn what payback really is.

New DVD Releases.

2012-01-10T13:52:00.001-05:00

There were two new releases this week based on true stories. The first one was a baseball tale, Moneyball, which tells how Billy Beane had success with the Oakland A's, using what he called sabermetrics. I don't fully understand how it works, but is a way of building a winning team in a small town market. The fact that Brad Pitt starred in this movie helped it to gross $75,267,105 and it is rated a 7.8 on the IMDB.

I have not yet looked into the story that Killer Elite was based on. The movie definitely has star power, with Jason Stratham, Robert DeNiro, and Clive Owen. That, however, did not translate into a box office blockbuster. As it only brought in $25,124,966 at is rated a 6.6 on the IMDB.

What's Your Number only brought in $14,011,084 and is rated a 5.6 on the IMDB.

The Scorpion King 3:Battle For Redemption was a direct to DVD release. This is the second sequel to the Scorpion King to be released straight on DVD. I passed on the first one, and I intend to pass on this one to.

Star Wars Cakes.

2012-01-09T11:19:00.000-05:00

The tasty side of the force.

Sunday Song.

2012-01-08T09:45:00.001-05:00

Take Your Children To Work.

2012-01-07T10:05:00.001-05:00

Each Saturday I'm going to scan a few of my baseball cards and will try and have a theme for them. Today's theme is obviously cards of players with their children.

The Tony Womack card is one of my all-time favorite cards.

Vader Burger Anyone?

2012-01-06T12:00:00.002-05:00

If that burger with the black bun looks good to you then you need to get in touch with your travel agent right away. It is only available at the Quick restaurant chain located in France, Belgium, and several other foreign countries. It would have been nice had they checked on the spelling of Vader before they came up with their advertising, but you can't have everything. As you can see by the ad it is timed in with the release of Star Wars Episode One in 3-D. I don't think I would care for the bun, but to each his own.

One other news item that caught my attention is an eBay dealer is trying to get a class-action lawsuit filed against eBay. What has upset him, is the eBay feature of maximum bidding. It is his belief that the bidder should pay that amount instead of the amount that the auction ends on. I don't think he has a full understanding of what an auction is all about. I have used that feature many times. When bidding, I decide exactly how much an item is worth to me, and what the most am willing to pay for it is. If I get outbid I let the item go. Even though I'm willing to pay a certain amount for anything I bid on, if I can get it for less I'm not going to complain. It is no different than if you go to a live auction where you don't tell the auctioneer how much you're willing to spend. I don't see any way that this person is can win this suit. It is not surprising that it was filed in California, where several suits a been filed against cereal companies because somebody discovered that crunch berries weren't real, and that Froot Loops are not made of real fruit.

Not A Good Start.

2012-01-05T09:44:00.003-05:00

I had planed on doing some short reviews of what I read last week, but I am not feeling well. Not the best way to start a new year. Enjoy a little wisdom from George Carlin. I am going to bed.

Resolutions.

2012-01-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

I don't do formal New Year's resolutions. To me it is like setting yourself up for failure so I avoid it. I am new to be making a few changes, most of which involve simplifying my life. I have too much stuff, so it is time to get rid of some of it. I'm going through my books and a lot of them are going. Likewise, I'll be weeding out some of my baseball cards, the collection is just getting too hard to maintain a so I'm going to focus on fewer sets. When the weather gets better I'm going to go to a flea market and sell as much as possible. Other things I will donate to the Salvation Army. I'll let you know how this goes.

Sometime this year I will return to Florida for a day, this time to see the Gulf of Mexico. During the return trip I will stop by the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. I'll be posting pictures when I do that. I did do more traveling last year, but not as much as I had planned on. That is another change that I want to make. There are plenty of one day trips that I can make around here, and I'm going to see more of this area. This year I get three weeks vacation, so in addition to my annual Illinois trip and the Florida excursion, I will to at least one other overnight trip, probably going to the Memphis area. I have a lot of my friends that I've never met there, so I will try to see as many of them as I can.

I had mentioned that each day of my blog will have some kind of the theme. Right now, Wednesday's theme will be there is no set theme. I will be trying to post everyday, but of course when I am traveling, there won't be anything here.

New DVD Releases.

2012-01-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

Contagion is the tale of a disease that goes out of control and kills a large part of the worlds population. The movie did $75,658,097 at the box office and is rated 6.9 on the IMDB.

This horror movie was loosely based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story titled "The Rats in the Walls." It took in $24,046,682 at the box office and was rated 5.8 on the IMDB.

Shark Night is one of those movies that tried to latch onto the 3-D boom. It did not work out very well for them as the box office totals were $18,877,153 and the IMDB rated it a 4.0.

I didn't put the new movies out last night because I was not scheduled work. Since New Year's Day is a paid holiday, most of us were given an extra day off to this week. I could've gone in if I had wanted to, but I'm at the point now in my life that I would rather have the time off than the money.

At Dawn We Ride!

2012-01-02T14:01:00.001-05:00

Sunday Song.

2012-01-01T09:27:00.003-05:00

New Year's Day is the time when we all make plans of changing our behaviors of the past and try and improve ourselves. One of my big goals for this year is to not neglect this blog like I did last year. I gave it a new look, and we will see how far I get with my plans. I mentioned in the last post that each day will have a certain theme. On Mondays the plan is to post some pictures that I have found online. There will be some kind of theme and each week will be different.

A New Look.

2011-12-29T09:32:00.001-05:00

Actually, some of the changes are already here. I have been contemplating doing this for awhile, and the time has finally arrived. New posts will begin again on Sunday. December posting was light because I found myself mentally exhausted from the Christmas sales rush. The previous year when I was working frozen foods and dairy, I was physically exhausted. This year, when I got home I found it hard to write anything coherent. (Alright, what wiseguy said who would have known the difference?) Next year, I'm going to try and do this blog a little differently. I still don't have the exact days down, but on one a try and do certain themes each day of the week. Right now I intend on having a song video every Sunday, Tuesdays will be new DVD releases, Fridays will be comments on news articles from the week, and Saturdays will be devoted to baseball cards.

One other thing that I have added is a sidebar devoted to my current reading. As you can see, there are four books listed. When I am driving I enjoy listening to books on tape. They are a little harder to come by, considering all new books released on CD. I keep a book in my locker at work and read it on breaks and lunches. At home I like to read a little bit before I go to bed. One of the books is either comic book or comic strip related. The other book that I am currently reading is actually three books in one. The book consists of the first three Spenser novels. If you follow this blog regularly, you will learn that when it comes to reading I have extremely varied tastes.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I do play a little bit every day. Currently I am playing Final Fantasy 12. I'm not one of those who just sits and plays, and it probably will take me at least two months to finish the game. I look at it the object is to have fun with the game, not rush through it to get the next one.

Sunday Song.

2011-12-04T11:06:00.001-05:00

Jedi Weight Lifter.

2011-11-30T09:38:00.001-05:00

More Black Friday Tales.

2011-11-28T10:23:00.001-05:00

There have been a lot of news stories about what happened on Black Friday. Probably the worst was a lady who used pepper spray on people at a Walmart in California to try and get an Xbox. There were scattered reports throughout the country about people being attacked in parking lots and a few other reports of violence that took place in stores during the sale. Obviously, people ignored the petitions that were trying to shame stores because they dared to open earlier. They are saying that sales this year were higher than they have ever been. That's really punishing those retailers and making the point about them ruining Thanksgiving. Look for next years sales to start even earlier.

I did have to deal with a couple people that didn't quite get the concept behind the Black Friday sales. The big sale items are limited quantities. One man asked me when we were going to get more of the laptop computers in and for that price and another made the comment that when we got more Xbox's in that he could get one for that Black Friday price. Neither one wanted to accept the answer that I gave them when I told them the items would no longer be available at that price. Last night we had a gentleman who came in who had bought one of the 40 inch television sets and the set was not working. The set had been purchased at another store in another state, and he wanted a replacement for that price. The only 40 inch TV that we carry sells for over $300 more than he paid for that particular set. He couldn't understand why we would not sell him the one we had in stock for that price since he had waited in line for four hours to purchase his set. We did offer him a 32 inch set we sold for $20 more than what he had paid but he wanted a larger size than that, so he had to settle for a refund. That does happen and unfortunately, this time of year there's nothing more that we can do.

Early Sunday morning, I had the pleasure of talking with a lady who knew more about where to find items in the store than I did. Just because I'm in there five days a week I obviously know nothing. She was looking for a home security system that we had advertised. When I told her that we didn't carry that in electronics, she argued with me. After spending about 3 minutes trying to convince her I finally told her that I would put her on hold and get someone from the hardware department to help, which is where this security systems are located. She had to have the last word and told me, " You can transfer me to hardware, but I know they are in electronics."

I have a lot of fun with the pallets of merchandise that are brought out that have items on it that don't belong in electronics. I make jokes about it and I'm not upset with the guys in the back, as I have unloaded trucks and when you're dealing with as many pieces of freight as they do every night there are bound to be mistakes. Whenever I see something I'll make a joke of how it could fit into electronics. Saturday night on my pallet I had two of these:

For those of you who have never seen one of those before it is a 10 inch buffer which is used to polish a car. So how to use it in electronics? Easy. This is the new way of cleaning your TV screen. It will definitely help us increase sales when people bust the screens up and have to buy new ones.

Sunday Song.

2011-11-27T10:15:00.001-05:00

Alderaan Weather Forecast.

2011-11-26T12:18:00.001-05:00

Surviving Another Year.

2011-11-25T08:02:00.001-05:00

Another Black Friday is over and nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. The best description that I can come up with is it is like watching piranhas feed. I spent the first part of the night guiding people to a line where we were selling laptop computers for $198, and I was also near several pallets of small appliances. At 10 o'clock I attempted to cut plastic that the pallets were wrapped with, and I wasn't very successful at it. People were pulling stuff off before I could do anything, not to mention I had to be careful not to cut anybody. The sale actually started a couple of minutes early because one customer shouted it was time and started ripping the plastic. Of course, that started the feeding frenzy. I wasn't nearby, but I was told that they had some excitement around the towels that were on sale. One enterprising young lady basically jumped onto the display and began tossing towels over her shoulder to a friend. Naturally, there were several people who could not understand why the items that went on sale at midnight were not available at 4 AM.

When I returned from lunch, I was drafted into running a register in the electronics department. I don't mind as much doing it there because you're not trapped in one spot. After getting the lines caught up I spent the rest of the morning assisting customers and ringing up a few more sales. The first part of the night, drug a little bit, but then the second part flew by. I left around 5:30. There had been reports that people are not going to be turning out like they had in the past. I'm not sure how things were in the rest of the country, but the crowds here were as big as ever.

Happy Thanksgiving.

2011-11-24T10:27:00.001-05:00

I hope that everyone who reads this has a really nice Thanksgiving. I have already had my Thanksgiving meal, beef tips and gravy and mashed potatoes, which I ate at eight o'clock this morning. I don't eat turkey because I don't believe in cannibalism. ( Sadly, I have actually had to explain that joke to some people.) A couple of my friends had invited me to their homes for today, but since I have to go to work at eight o'clock tonight, I declined. Tomorrow I'll comment on the madness of this year's Black Friday sale.

The first Thanksgiving that my wife and I had together was memorable. She had injured her knee and was not able to cook. We were living in Hanover Park, Illinois, and were about 200 miles away from family. She enjoyed turkey and I offered to fix it. Following her directions on how to do it everything appeared to be going well. When carving up the turkey, I found out that they had placed two bags inside the turkey. I had removed the one from the main cavity, but they had also put one inside the neck, which I hadn't bothered to check. Of course, throughout the years, I had several reminders of doing that. However, anytime she brought that subject up, I reminded her of the first meatloaf that she made for me. I don't really know what she did wrong, but that thing was inedible.

Find A Different Profession.

2011-11-21T10:50:00.001-05:00

A man who work for Target in Omaha, Nebraska, is protesting the fact that he has to come in to work at 11 PM on Thanksgiving night. He has started an online petition wanting people to sign to tell Target that they should not make anyone come in that night. Considering the fact that he has worked for Target for three years, and should have a basic understanding of the nature of retail, he should realize that the season we are entering into is the busiest time of the year. I can sympathize a little about schedule changes, considering I am going in two hours earlier than normal, but again, it goes with the season. The customers are there to buy and if you don't take care them, they will go elsewhere.

Not all retail establishments are open on Thanksgiving, but a lot of them are. My employer is open 24 hours a day, I worked for Kmart, which was always open on Thanksgiving, plus working in hospitals and nursing homes were somebody has to work on the holidays. The advantage to working holidays is added pay. It was a little harder when my wife was alive, but the extra money was always too good to pass up. Now that I am single, it really doesn't matter to me whether I work them or not. In retail working weekends and holidays goes with the territory. If you're not willing to do that, you really need to find a different job. I agree that Black Friday is starting to get a little ridiculous, but that is the nature of the beast. Each year, somebody seems to want to up the ante. This year my employer announced that there will be a sale starting at 10 PM Thanksgiving night and another at midnight. Toys "R" Us took that one step further and announced their sale will start at 9 PM. Most other stores will be opening at midnight, Sears is scheduled to open at 4 AM and Kmart at 5 AM. If people are truly upset with the stores doing this then they won't come and shop. Does anybody really see that happening? That is the only way that opening at these times will stop.

Part of working retail is customer service. If you don't like helping people you need to be doing something else. I have always tried to do anything I can to help people. Last night I made a lady extremely happy. She was looking for a PSP, the portable PlayStation, which happened to be out of stock. It was a Christmas gift for her husband and she had just put in a 13 hour day at a restaurant to pay for it. I told her that we could order it through my employer's website and have it delivered to the store for free, which would take about a week. She really brightened up and we went to the computer and placed the order. She kept telling me how happy she was, and she knows one of the managers at the store and she is going to tell him about the service I provided. I don't see where I did anything spectacular, I just was doing my job. The look on her face was my reward. That is where I get most of my work satisfaction, knowing that I was able to help somebody. It doesn't work out that way all the time, but it really is nice when I am able to. Too many times when people ask for help, all they will get is we don't have that. When somebody is there with cash in hand, ready to buy something, you need to do all you can to close that sale. If not, they will go somewhere else to find what they need. There are those customers who no matter what you do for them will never be happy, but I've always found them to be in the minority. I still do everything I can for them and if they're not happy with it, they are the ones that have to deal with it.

Sunday Song.

2011-11-20T11:28:00.001-05:00

Bikini Bottom Aquarium.

2011-11-18T11:09:00.001-05:00

Second Chances.

2011-11-17T10:00:00.001-05:00

Next year looks to be a pretty interesting year for the Chicago Cubs. There is a new general manager, Theo Epstein, a new manager about to be announced, probably Dale Sveum, and a major headache will be given another chance.

Last August I wrote about Carlos Zambrano's meltdown and his subsequent suspension. Zambrano has met with Epstein and will be given an opportunity to make the team next spring. I have mixed feelings about that. While I agree that everyone deserves a second chance, Zambrano has had more than one to mend his ways. As good a pitcher as he can be when he has his head on right, he can be one of the worst when he lets his emotions get the better of him. The decision to keep them probably rests on the fact that he will be paid $18 million next year whether he pitches or not. It would be hard to find a team willing to pick up that salary, not to mention taking the risk on the attitude. So, for better or for worse, Carlos is still around. Hopefully the suspension opened his eyes and he will come to spring training a reformed man.

Unless something drastic happens Aramis Ramirez has played his last game for the Cubs. I like Ramirez and he puts up very good numbers, but the numbers don't translate very good into wins. Considering the amount of money that he wants, he is not really worth the price that he wants. I am sure he will get it, but I don't see the Cubs paying that much.

I really don't have in the predictions for next year, but I am looking forward to see what Epstein has up his sleeve. He did a very good job in Boston, ending the curse of the Bambino, and now we get a see what he can do with the curse of the goat.

A WWE Style Wedding.

2011-11-16T18:32:00.001-05:00

This is an usual way to celebrate your marriage.

Now On DVD And An Underhanded Marketing Decision.

2011-11-15T13:00:00.001-05:00

There were only two "new" releases this week, and only one of them appeared in theaters. The Tom Hanks movie, Larry Crowne, brought in $35,608,245 and was rated 6.0 on the IMDB. I really have nothing to say about the movie because I have not seen it and don't plan on changing that.

The second release was two short cartoons based on the movie How To Train Your Dragon. The titles of them are Gift Of the Night Fury and Book Of Dragons. Again, I don't have much to say about these because I have not seen the movie that they are based on.

Two other DVDs did come out last night, but considering that they were released a few weeks ago in a different form, I don't consider them new releases. Both movies were from Disney, The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. When first released. You can only buy them in a Blu-ray/DVD combo set. I had several people asking me for just the DVD by itself, and I disappointed those people by telling them it was not available. Now they are available, but I wonder how many people paid the extra and now have Blu-ray copies that they can't use. To me it was kind of underhanded of Disney to release them this way. I understand the marketing behind it, but I totally disagree with it. It strikes me as being insensitive to the wants of the consumer. Blu-ray is the wave of the future and in my opinion it will be about two more years before the option is taken away from us and DVD goes the way of VHS. Still, I think it was kind of dirty of Disney to do it this way.

Video Game Madness.

2011-11-14T10:22:00.001-05:00

Last week I mentioned about the madness that went on with the release of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. This is by far the best selling video game that I have been associated with, including the time when I was electronics manager at Kmart. I do not play these type of games myself because I am no good at them, but this game seems to be bringing out the warrior in some people. The weekend before it was released, a gang in France hijacked a truck and stole 6000 copies of the game. In Modern Warfare style, they used tear gas to stop the truck. The estimated worth of the shipment was $500,000.

In Aurora, Colorado, a man went into the local Best Buy and claimed that he had pre-ordered the game. When they informed him that they had sold out, he got angry and threatened to shoot the employees when they went to their cars. If that wasn't enough, he also threatened to blow up the store for good measure. The man was not arrested but was issued a summons to appear. In an interview. He said he did not know that his words could get him in trouble. Obviously he's not been paying attention to the news lately.

On that same night in Kansas City, Missouri, a young man got tired of waiting in line at a Game Stop and decided to simply follow somebody home and rob them of their copy. That part of the plan went well, but unfortunately for the robber his intended victim decided to fight back, even though the robber did have a gun. It obviously was not the smartest thing that the intended victim had ever done, but he did prevail in this instance. Police went to the Game Stop to investigate, and the robber was there waiting to purchase his game. It probably will be a while before he gets to play the game.

Sunday Song.

2011-11-13T11:41:00.001-05:00

Downfall Of A Legend.

2011-11-10T07:57:00.000-05:00

The sad story out of Penn State University got a little sadder yesterday when the university was forced to fire head football coach Joe Paterno. Earlier in the day, Paterno had seen the handwriting on the wall and had announced that he was retiring at the end of this season. My friend John Simcoe had posted that article on his Facebook page and I had commented that Paterno should have resigned immediately. I don't believe the Paterno is guilty of any crime, but I also believe he did not do enough when he was told about the accusations against Jerry Sandusky. It is a bad way to bring to a close such a brilliant coaching career.

Of course, there are people commenting that the authorities are overreacting by firing Paterno, since he has not been accused of anything. I wonder if any of those were among the ones who wanted Paterno fired in 2004, after Penn State had losing seasons in four of the previous five years. Penn State students have taken to the streets to protest the firing. I wonder if they would be there if the team was 1-8 instead of 8-1. There once was a time when athletes could get away with almost anything , but fortunately, that day has passed and players are being held accountable for their actions.

The officials of Penn State are doing the right thing by cleaning house of those who knew what was going on. Criminal charges will probably be brought against several other people for protecting Sandusky. I have no sympathy for them. Covering those crimes up is inexcusable.

Personal Shopper.

2011-11-09T12:58:00.001-05:00

Personal shoppers a been around for a while. Usually they are employed by either stores as a service to their customers or by those rich enough to afford the service. Now several people are trying to take it to the next level by offering their perform the job is for one day only. The day they are offering their services is the day after Thanksgiving, or as those of us who work retail lovingly call it, Black Friday. Most of those who are offering this are unemployed and trying to earn some money for their Christmas. I really do wish them well and they will definitely be earning their money.

I have worked enough Black Friday's that the only way you will find me in a store on that night is if I am working there and they are paying me to be there. There is no bargain worth going through all the hassle that you have to put up with on that night. I would much rather pay full price then to go through that. Of course, I will be working it again this year, but I like to have a major change from what I have done in the past. Since I am now cash register trained I more than likely will be doing that. The idea of that really doesn't thrill me, but it actually would be better than standing by a pallet waiting for the proper time to begin selling the merchandise. Just standing makes for an awful long night and if you're running a register you stay pretty busy. I'll let you know how that works out that day.

New Releases And Midnight Madness.

2011-11-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

Last night was a very light night for new releases. I lead with the box office champion, but this one wasn't very hard for the movie The Change–up. Of course, had the movie that's coming out Friday night been released last night, this would not be the case. The Change–up was a box office disappointment. It had a $52 million budget and only brought in $37,081,475 and it is rated a 6.5 on the IMDB. I have not seen this movie and do not plan on doing so. This basic story has been done too many times and I really haven't cared for any version of it.

The Reunion is the latest movie from WWE productions. I think Vince McMahon wants to become the next Cecil B. DeMille. This movie was supposedly released on a limited scale. If it was Box Office Mojo did not track it. The IMDB rates it a 4.1.

The real big release last night was the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Last night was the first time that I had seen a big crowd waiting to purchase a game. Of course the fact that we held a tournament before the release time helped that out tremendously. I did not hear exactly how many copies we sold, but with two registers running it took half an hour to take care of everybody that was waiting. It was like a mini Black Friday, with the major difference being we had a very civil crowd. There wasn't anybody trying to cut in line, and nobody complained about having to wait. I have been told that the busiest that the store has been on a midnight release was when Twilight: New Moon came out. That gives me something to look forward to when the next Twilight comes out next spring. As far as the game goes, it is one that I do not play. I am no good at those type of games. I can hit the button fast enough and end up getting killed real quick. Of course, If I was playing somebody else, they would enjoy it because they would be winning all the time.

The New Fast And The Furious.

2011-11-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

Sunday Songs.

2011-11-06T10:57:00.002-05:00

This was the number one song on the Billboard charts on this day in 1956. Why am I posting it? That was the day I was born. My original plan was for that to be the only song that I posted today. However, the time change created a lot of confusion at work last night. A lot of people had trouble grasping how it worked. I decided that the night needed a theme song and this was it.

A Specialty Salad.

2011-11-04T09:59:00.002-04:00

It's always nice getting something extra when you buy something. A woman in South Pasadena, California got that when she bought a prepackaged salad at Costco. The salad came complete with a live tree frog in it. I had recalled reading a story a few years ago about the same thing, but that story was unconfirmed. This time there is some credibility to the tale. Just watch this video:

It is believed that the frog made it through the processing system because the lettuce was not chopped. The salad was organic, so no pesticides were used and it would've been possible for the frog to have passed through the packaging process. Normally when you read about a story like this you see the person obtaining a lawyer and preparing to file a lawsuit against the store. Happily, this story doesn't have that in it. All the lady who found the frog wanted was a refund on the salad, and to keep the frog. It is refreshing to read about somebody with that kind of an attitude. Not everything that happens should lead to somebody trying to get rich quick.

They Transplanted What?

2011-11-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

The things that modern medicine can do today is astounding. I can remember hearing about the first heart transplant, which was done in 1967 when I was 11 years old. The hospital that I worked for in Illinois did a lot of kidney transplants. Doctors have been successful with many other types, including double lung transplants and in the last few years, they've added faces to the list. I just recently read about the most recent types that doctors have been doing and it really is a little disgusting. They are now doing fecal transplant's. To phrase it like Mike Rowe would, they really are taking poo from one person and putting it in somebody else.

So why would a doctor do this? There is an infection called C. diff, which causes chronic diarrhea, and can be fatal. By placing the fecal matter into the colon of a person that antibiotics cannot help, it allows the natural bacteria to overcome the C. diff infection. The infection mainly effects older people, but it is becoming more widespread. I am not sure who came up with the idea to do this, but it is proving to be very effective.

We are seeing more and more diseases that are antibiotic resistant. I wonder if we not be coming to germ conscious and are bringing a lot of it upon ourselves. There are a lot of antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers that are becoming more widespread and their usage. It is possible that this is causing some of these infectious strains to become resistant. Not all bacteria is bad, and we run the potential of doing more harm than good. We may be killing ourselves with good intentions.

Now On DVD.

2011-11-01T14:24:00.000-04:00

The big movie this week was Pixar's Cars 2, which of course was a sequel to the 2006 movie Cars. I may be alone in this, but I am not a huge fan of Pixar movies. They are not bad movies, but there is just something about them that I do not enjoy. The only one that I really like was The Incredible's. I have seen the first Cars movie, but I have no desire to see this one. It was somewhat of a box office disappointment as it only brought in $191,130,189. The disappointment being the fact that they spent $200 million to make the movie. Of course, overseas sales did help tremendously and it ended up totaling over $551 million. The IMDB rates the movie a 6.5.

The second new release was the romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love. I like Steve Carell, but I'll pass on this one. It did fairly well in the box office, bringing in $83,904,895 and is rated a 7.6 by the IMDB.

The other new movie released was a love story Water For Elephants. This one stars Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. This movie has somewhat of a local connection as part of it was filmed in Chattanooga. That still is not enough for me to want to see this movie. It brought in $58,709,717 and is rated 7.0 on the IMDB.

Sunday Song.

2011-10-30T16:27:00.000-04:00

Get In The Car.

2011-10-29T15:58:00.000-04:00

I'm Feeling Old.

2011-10-27T14:36:00.000-04:00

I've been busy the last week trying to get some stuff together to sell at a flea market Saturday. I have too much stuff and I'm trying to simplify things a little. We will see how this works out.

Today I went to Rome and experienced something that I never had happened to me before. I stopped off for lunch at CiCi's Pizza and was given a senior citizens discount. This gave my inner Jack Benny a major conflict. While it is good to save money wherever you can, you don't want to acknowledge the fact that age is creeping upon you. To top that off, I was given the discount without even asking for it. My birthday is in about 10 days, at which time I will turn 55. I will just take this as an early birthday present from CiCi's.

I am on vacation until Monday. I do this every year to get a little break before the Christmas madness begins. Last Sunday morning, I revisited my old stomping grounds and worked a couple of hours in dairy. The guy who works it was falling behind and needed a little help to get the job done. Of course I couldn't resist needling him a little bit and I told him that they had called in a professional to show him how to get the job done. This was the first time since I moved to electronics that I had been sent over to grocery to help out. I have no problem doing that once in a while but there is no way that I could do it on a regular basis.

Sunday Songs.

2011-10-16T12:25:00.001-04:00

I am posting two videos today. On his Facebook page my friend Don Collett mentioned he had programmed the song Baker Street by the Foo Fighters on his internet radio station, Project 42. The original by Gerry Rafferty is one of my favorites, but the Foo Fighters version is interesting. Here are both videos.

Now on DVD And A Retail Story.

2011-10-14T10:04:00.002-04:00

Green Lantern was released today on DVD. It is one of the movies that I saw and my review of it is here. As I mentioned then, I was rather disappointed with it. It was not a bad movie, I just wanted to see more than what they showed us. It was a box office disappointment, bringing in $116,601,172. It brought in almost that much overseas, but considering they spent $200 million making it, it was not very successful. It is rated a 6.1 on the IMDB. I will be buying a copy of it when it gets down to around $10.

I made a customer mad the other night but I really don't feel bad about it. A man tried to return a cell phone, claiming his phone didn't work and he wanted to exchange it for another one. Normally that is not a problem, however, he did not have the original packaging that it came in. I don't want to go into great detail about everything that I check out during a return, just in case somebody stumbles across this post and tries to figure out a way around what we do. Let's just say what I saw from this phone gave me reason to believe the man was being as truthful as a politician. He claimed he had talked to somebody "up front", and they had told him that exchanging the phone was no problem. Not having the original box was a major problem, and he also was missing the charger that went with the phone. He did have a receipt, but I refused to make an exchange for him. When I told him I was in a do anything for him the man went storming towards the front of the store and said, "Something will be done about this phone tonight." There is no doubt in my mind that the phone was either stolen or just an old phone that he was trying to exchange for a new one. After he left, I called one of the managers and told her what had happened. She told me not to worry about it, and that she would back me all the way. If there's something legitimately wrong I will do everything that I possibly can to make it right for a customer, however, I'm not going to let anybody rip me off. I've been doing this long enough to know the tricks that people can come up with. Incidentally, the man has not come back yet. Some other store may have had to deal with things, but we haven't.

So Clown. We Meet At Last.

2011-10-12T08:28:00.001-04:00

Now on DVD.

2011-10-11T13:59:00.002-04:00

We have another week where there will be two movie release days. Green Lantern will be coming out Friday and I will talk about that on that day. For this week the movie that did the best in the box office was Horrible Bosses, the tale of three men who decide to help each other eliminate their bosses. The IMDB rates the movie a 7.2 and it brought in $117,338,069.

Zookeeper was somewhat of a disappointment at the box office but made up for it overseas. It actually did a little better there than it did here in the United States. People on the IMDB were not overly impressed with the movie as it is rated a 4.6. They spent $80 million making it and in the United States it brought in $80,112,560. Since it brought in $84 million overseas it was a profitable movie. I would say there is a possibility we might see a sequel to it. That is only based on my opinion not anything that I have read.

The final new release was a major disappointment for the studio. Based on a series of books by Megan McDonald I think they were hoping for a new franchise. Unfortunately this was not the way to get started. The IMDB rates it a 3.0, and it only brought in $15,013,650, which is not good for a movie that cost $20 million to make. They titled the movie the Not Bummer Summer, but unfortunately it turned into the bummer summer.

Halloween Slug.

2011-10-08T11:42:00.001-04:00

Ready For Battle.

2011-10-07T10:11:00.001-04:00

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition.

2011-10-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, will be hearing arguments today concerning a Georgia state law that forbids carrying guns into places of worship. An organization called Georgia Carry is claiming that that law is illegal. To support their case they have used three examples were there were shootings in churches. None of their examples occurred in the state of Georgia. Also mentioned is the fact that some churches have large amounts of cash. They are claiming that it should be up to the individual churches and not the state to make that decision. Personally, I don't have a problem with the law. I am not against people carrying guns as long as they have applied for and been granted the proper permits. However, I do not feel church is a place that they need to be armed. Yes, it was tragic where those shooting incidents happened, but one point that they are missing is had the people in those churches been armed, the body count might've been even higher. Friendly fire anyone? It does happen, especially in a situation that moves as fast as shootings do.

Before today I had never heard about Georgia Carry. After spending a little bit of time on their website. I am almost scared of them as I am the armed criminals. One of their members protested about having his carry permit checked at a national park. He was clearly carrying a handgun and the Park Ranger wanted to see his permit. According to him, that was a violation of his rights and he protested and actually received a ruling in his favor. Now anyone carrying in one of the parks will not be stopped, which basically means all a criminal has to do is not conceal his weapon and he won't have to worry about it. This organization is so worried about tragedy happening in churches that they are stopping to consider the tragedies that could happen in national parks. I hope that the court rules in favor of the state and the ban on guns in churches is not lifted. The odds of guns being needed is very slim, and having people carry guns in their legally will not make them any safer.

For the record, I do not own a gun, nor do I plan on changing that. Growing up I never went hunting, although my dad and both my brothers would from time to time. I never saw any sense of getting out of a warm bed to go stand out in the cold woods.

Staying Focused.

2011-10-05T10:10:00.000-04:00

Normally, staying focused on the job is a great thing. That way you can get the job done and not make any mistakes. However, when your job is robbing a convenience store, not paying attention to your surroundings can have consequences, as a young man in Snellville, Georgia found out the hard way. He walked up to the counter of a QT convenience store and demanded all their money. What he failed to notice was the police officer who was in the store. The store manager complied and put all his bills in a bag and handed it to the young man. Had he not been so focused on getting the money he might've noticed the manager was smiling the whole time he was putting the money in the bag. That should've been a tip off that things were not going to go well for him. While he was getting the money the officer moved to the door, where he greeted the young man upon completion of his task. Hopefully now the young man will have plenty of time to contemplate the error of his ways an try and honest profession when he gets out. You can watch the robbery here:

Now on DVD.

2011-10-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

There were three big new releases this week. Actually, calling the one that leads off a new release is misleading, since technically it is a re-release. There is a 3-D version, which is brand-new. That is the version that has been in theaters the last couple of weeks. The Lion King has brought in more money than Disney was anticipating and it probably will be in the theaters for another couple of weeks. The IMDB rates it an 8.3, which places it number 112 out of the top 250 movies rated. On its initial run the Lion King brought in $312,855,561. It has been re-released several times and now its total box office draw is $407,751,570. I have no plans of buying this since I already own it.

Fast 5 is the fifth entry in the Fast and the Furious franchise. Personally I have never seen any of them, even though I am a fan of Vin Diesel. This movie also has the added attraction of another one of my favorite actors, Dwayne Johnson, but I just don't care for movies that are basically one long car chase. I know more than that happens in these, but I'll still pass. It is fairly popular, as shown by the 7.4 rating on the IMDB and it brought in $209,837,675 at the box office. I would say the odds are good of a sixth movie being made.

The other new release was Scream 4, another movie that I have no intention of seeing. I consider all the movies like the Scream saga nothing more then gruesome death movies. I don't mind scary movies. I just don't care for gory ones. The IMDB rates this a 6.5 and at the box office it brought in a somewhat disappointing $38,180,928. That was disappointing, considering they spent $40 million making it. Don't cry for them because it brought in more than that overseas so they did show a profit on it.

We are now hitting the time when the big summer blockbusters will be coming out on DVD. It was a little crazy last night at midnight, and I look for that to get worse as the weeks go by. I did buy one DVD this morning.

"Weird Al" Yankovic had a special on Comedy Central Saturday night which was titled Weird Al Yankovic Live: the Alpocalypse Tour. It is a concert film of one of his shows, and I really enjoyed it. If you are a "Weird Al" fan, I strongly recommend this.

Go Shop Somewhere Else.

2011-10-03T11:21:00.000-04:00

I have worked retail for over 20 years. I know there are those customers that you are not going be able to please no matter what you do. The saying," the customer is always right" is not true. Even then, I would not knowingly go out of my way to insult a customer. A clothing store in Australia feels otherwise. The clothing chain GASP has decided to defend an employee who insulted a customer.

A young lady went there recently to look at bridesmaid dresses. When it became obvious that she wasn't going to buy anything the clerk told her, "Have fun shopping at Supre... I knew you were a joke the minute you walked in." Supre is an Australian clothing store known to carry larger size clothing. Of course, the young lady was outraged and wrote a letter to GASP. Imagine her surprise when she received a response to her letter basically telling her not to come back. You can read the full article here, which also contains both her letter and the companies response.

GASP seems to be unrepentant. In fact, they are reveling in the publicity and seem to think that they have done a great thing. They claim that sales are up tremendously. In one sense, that doesn't surprise me, but I believe it will turn out to be a very short-term success for them. I think more people will be outraged then will support them and that will turn into their down fall. There have been several customers that I would have to love to have told off, but that kind of behavior does not solve anything. That would have been reaching down to their level and I refuse to stoop that low. Another day, I will do a post on the theme the customer is not always right. Regardless of how I have felt in the past I would never have insulted a customer the way that that they did. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Now on DVD.

2011-09-30T11:09:00.000-04:00

Last night Transformers:Dark Of The Moon came out on DVD. It is not unusual for a big movie to be released on Friday. Transformers is the first of the big summer blockbusters that we will be seeing in the next month. Originally I was going to see it in theaters, but I read enough about it that I decided to wait for the DVD. I also am not buying the DVD right now, but will wait until it goes down to $10. If you call me cheap I will consider that a compliment. It is rare for me to pay full price for any DVD. There are exceptions, and one of those is coming in about a month. Transformers is rated 6.6 on the IMDB and brought in $351,991,232 at the box office. It more than doubled that overseas, making it a billion-dollar movie. Of course, that means there will be a Transformers 4.

You Really Thought This Was A Good Idea?

2011-09-28T07:21:00.000-04:00

The movie 127 Hours is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who while hiking in Blue John Canyon, Utah, became trapped by an 800 pound rock. To survive, he ended up amputating his arm. He had not told anyone where he was going and paid the price. You would think that based on what he went through that no one else would ever try to do that. Of course had that happened, I wouldn't be having this post today.

A 64-year-old North Carolina man recently did the same thing. He took the same path and did not tell anyone where he was going. Fortunately for him, he did not injure himself as badly as Ralston and still has all his limbs. He did manage to dislocated shoulder and broke his leg. He was able to get the shoulder back in the place and was crawling back to his vehicle when he was found by Park Rangers. The Rangers had been looking for him for two days when they had found his abandoned campsite. It took them two days to locate his car, at which time they realized where he was headed.

I realize that some people like the solitude of being out in nature, but should at least let someone know where you are going. Too many things can happen, and by not letting anyone know it could prove fatal. Life is risky enough without doing things like this.

Now On DVD.

2011-09-27T14:15:00.001-04:00

This was a very quiet week for new releases. The only movies that came out were direct to DVD. That will change Friday, and I'll cover that movie, then. The first movie came from WWE Studios. Vince McMahon is trying to become a movie mogul and his latest effort is called Inside Out, which stars his son-in-law, Triple H. You can watch the trailer for it here.

The second movie was a twin pack of Halloween stories from 2 movie franchises, Scared Shrekless, and Monsters Versus Aliens:Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. I don't have much say about them because I've never seen them.

I did have one surprise from last night. I had a young lady that wanted to purchase a videogame that had just been released.the game was FIFA soccer 12. I find it amazing that somebody wanted to get a soccer game at midnight.

RedLighter.

2011-09-26T11:19:00.000-04:00

Reviewing something written by a friend is like walking a tightrope. You have to be honest and you want to keep your friendship, which sometimes can be difficult to do. Fortunately for me, I am able to do both and make everybody happy.

I recently purchased a comic book from my friend John Simcoe. It was a self published book titled RedLighter. John describes the book like this:
"Welcome to RedLighter, a comic that tells the story of Captain Denny Amberjack, a lighthouse keeper for the 'U.S. Light House and Rescue Corps.'"
Captain Amberjack is warned that Pirates are coming and he rushes to warn the town. Unfortunately for him, they are already there. It was fun watching him match wits with the Pirates. I enjoyed this adventure and look forward to reading more. Well done John.

John was also kind enough to send me a little booklet about the hamsters he has owned. If you'd be interested in getting this you can contact John here. John has an interesting blog that he calls Comics on the Brain. Check it out while you are there.

I also wanted to respond to a comment left yesterday by my friend Brian. Nothing is wrong. I've been a little busy trying to to get organized. It's quite an effort for me. Posting should be almost daily from now on. Just remember, you asked for it.

Now on DVD.

2011-09-20T15:11:00.000-04:00

It was very light week for movies. Only two came out today been in theaters before, one being the movie Bridesmaids and the other was Dumbo, which is being re-released by Disney. Bridesmaids was one of those surprise hits which brought in $168,944,100. It is rated a 7.2 on the IMDB.

Spooky Buddies is a direct to DVD movie and not enough people have voted on it for the movie to have a rating.

Actually, the big release last night was the Xbox game Gears of War 3. I had a crowd waiting to purchase it at midnight.

Memories.

2011-09-19T11:15:00.001-04:00

I didn't realize it until this morning, but today would have been my 33rd wedding anniversary. Part of my not realizing it is the fact that I don't dwell on it much. It's not that I don't care but that is the easiest way for me to cope with it. Everybody deals with loss differently in my way is to focus on what is going on now. You can't change the past and thinking about it can be a little depressing. You can beat yourself up and think, gee, I should've done this or said that, but that kind of attitude doesn't change a thing. As in any other relationship, there were good times and there were bad times. I focus on the good that happened and let the bad lie in the past.

I'm good to make this post short and sweet. Let those that you care about know how much they mean to you. I found out the hard way, you never know when it will be the last time you'll get to. In case this is sounding a little depressing, I want you to know that I am not the least bit depressed. This morning I bought on DVD the movie Grease. That was the movie that we saw together more than any other. It has helped me to be in a very good mood. I hope you all have a great day.

Truth In Advertising?

2011-09-13T19:41:00.000-04:00

The Remake Of Office Space.

2011-09-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

The Half–Blood Prince.

2011-08-29T07:41:00.001-04:00

Sunday Song.

2011-08-28T09:25:00.002-04:00

How About A Nice Death Star Cookie?

2011-08-27T11:37:00.000-04:00

The Not–So Superman.

2011-08-26T11:05:00.000-04:00

Gollum Is Watching You.

2011-08-25T10:49:00.000-04:00

Cleaning House.

2011-08-24T15:52:00.000-04:00

I have come to the conclusion that I have way too much stuff. If you came to my apartment you would agree with me. I keep telling myself that I'm going to get organized, but it just isn't happening. For the last couple weeks have been changing that somewhat. The plan has been to take stuff to a flea market, and sell what I could. Most likely that will still happen, but a lot of stuff is going to the Salvation Army first. Posts here on this blog will be short for the next couple of weeks. Part of that will be from trying to get organized and the other part will be because I will be on vacation and in Illinois. Saying I am going to do this is not be getting the job done, getting off my lazy butt and doing it will. Let the show begin.

Now On DVD.

2011-08-23T13:56:00.000-04:00

This was a very light week for new releases. There is one movie that came out this week that I'm not including here because I didn't see any copies of it. That one is the movie The Beaver, which starred Mel Gibson. I'm not sure why we didn't get any copies of it, but I'm only putting in here what I saw. Of the three movies that I'm going to mention here. Only one of them was released in theaters here in the United States. So, by default, the money winner this week is Win Win. I don't have an opinion about this movie because I have never seen it, nor had I ever heard of it. It is rated a 7.5 on the IMDB and did $10,179,275 at the box office.

The second movie released was Blitz, which was seen in theaters in the United Kingdom but not in the United States. The movie stars Jason Statham who plays a cop chasing after a serial killer. It is rated a 6.3 on the IMDB.

The final movie was a re-release of Walt Disney's Bambi II. This was originally released in 2006. It is rated 6.2 on the IMDB.

How About Some Fried Chicken?

2011-08-22T10:20:00.000-04:00

Sunday Song.

2011-08-21T10:53:00.000-04:00

A Beer Battleship.

2011-08-20T11:47:00.000-04:00

Coming Soon to Riverdale.

2011-08-19T10:47:00.000-04:00

In November Archie comics will be running a four-part series where the rock band KISS comes to Riverdale. What will they be doing? Fighting monsters, of course. One of Sabrina, the teenage witch's spells goes wrong and Riverdale finds itself inundated with monsters. The Archie gang and KISS team up to defeat them. The storyline starts in Archie comics number 627. KISS will also be appearing in an ongoing series being published by the comic book company, IDW. KISS has appeared in comics before, but this will be the first ongoing series they have been in.

This is not the first time that Riverdale has seen an unusual guest. In 1994, Frank Castle came for a visit. For those of you who are not comic book geeks like myself, Frank Castle is better known as the Punisher. It was an interesting story where the Punisher was sent to Riverdale to apprehend someone who looked a lot like Archie. Of course, Archie was mistaken for the man the Punisher was after, and that man was mistaken for Archie. I believe I still have that comic in my collection and someday I need to get organized and find it. Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen, unless you like your face turning a wonderful shade of blue. I will be passing on this series. I have nothing against Archie, but I'm not that big of a KISS fan.

I do have one other Archie comic in my collection. A few years ago they reprinted the very first Archie comic. It was published in digest form, which is smaller than a normal comic book. It was interesting in a nostalgic sort of way, but like a lot of comics from the 40s it wasn't really good. The stories in it were very dated. That one I do know where it is so I think I'll reread it again soon. I'll write about it when I do.

A Nice Evening.

2011-08-18T10:28:00.000-04:00

I have been saying for a while now that this time, I really don't want a relationship, but I would like to have a lady friend to got to eat with once in a while. I think I may now have found that lady. I had been talking with a lady that I work with and several weeks ago I asked her if she would like to go out to dinner with me. she was totally taken by surprise and she didn't immediately say yes. Not wanting to seem pushy, I didn't bring the subject up again. Monday night she told me that she would like to go out with me.

We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a great time. She was a little nervous because it had been some time since she had been out with anybody. It was refreshing to talk to somebody where the only expectations were having a good time and getting to know each other. The fact that we knew each other out a little bit helped out, and there really weren't any awkward moments. Considering that the last two ladies that I had gotten to know had turned into wallet leeches, it was extremely nice to just have somebody to talk to without having to worry about being hit up for money. We will probably doing this about once a month, which is exactly what I was looking for. It's always nice to have a new friend.

Protesters?

2011-08-17T14:13:00.001-04:00

The political correctness of this world amazes me. Usually it takes place in this country, however, we are not alone. For the first three days of the recent rioting in England, the BBC referred to the rioters as protesters. Quite possibly when the event which led to the riot first started, they were protesters. They lost that designation when the first window was shattered and the looting began. The BBC did not change their stance until criticism began in the newspapers and they still are not very apologetic about it. Obviously, they just don't get it. Too often today the media tries to downplay terrible events, as if they are afraid to offend the guilty parties. I do understand and accept that before somebody is tried and convicted you call them the alleged suspect, but you don't have to minimize what they did. If it is only an accusation you can give the person the benefit of the doubt, but when someone is witnessed in the act why are we protecting the perpetrator?

We have not seen anything in this country on the scale of what happened in England, but we are seeing some well-planned mob action. Early this summer Philadelphia had a major problem with flash mobs, but arresting 70 youths and returning them to the custody of their parents seems to have calm down the situation. The flash mobs have now taken an extra step. On August 13 a 7–11 in Germantown, Maryland, was robbed when a flash mob appeared and just started grabbing merchandise. Here is the video of that robbery:

Hopefully from that video at least a few people will be identified and arrests will be made. Should we be calling that group protesters? Of course, I'm not sure what they would've been protesting. Maybe it was the fact that society requires them to actually work and earn money to buy things and not just give them what they want.

I have no answers for the solution of this problem, but I do believe a lot of it is caused by the upbringing of today's youth. Some schools don't want teachers to fail their students. Life's best lessons come when you learn from your mistakes. Rules have become more guidelines then something that is actually enforced. Unless, of course, the rule is absolutely ridiculous, then is it administered with an iron fist. I will do another post on that topic later. Right now it seems enforcement is done at either extreme, and we need to get back to the middle, but mostly we need to be consistent about the rules. Children today get enough mixed messages. We don't need to send them more.

Now On DVD.

2011-08-16T15:02:00.000-04:00

The top drawing DVD that came out this week was Something Borrowed, a romantic comedy. It is rated a 5.5 on the IMDB, and brought in $39,046,489 at the box office. Personally I have no desire to see this movie.

Priest is one of those movies set in a post-apocalyptic world that is inhabited by vampires. Priest's niece is kidnapped by the vampires and he goes to free her. It is rated 5.7 on the IMDB, and had box office receipts totaling $29,136,626.

The Conspirator is a historical drama directed by Robert Redford. It is based on the story of Mary Surratt, who was hung in 1865 because she had a lousy choice of tenants in her rooming house. One of her borders was a gentleman named John Wilkes Booth. I trust I don't have to tell you who he was. This one looks like it would be right up my alley, but I will wait a while and by it after the price goes down. It is rated a 7.0 on the IMDB, but only brought in $11,533,409 at the box office.

Jane Eyre is the latest film version of the classic novel. It is well-liked on the IMDB and has a 7.6 rating. at the box office. It brought in $11,242,660.

Hoodwinked Too:Hood Versus Evil is one of the movies that I saw in theaters. I liked it a lot more than a lot of the others. The IMDB rates it a 4.4, and it brought in $10,143,779, which is not good for movie that cost $30 million.

Marley And Me: The Puppy Years is a direct to DVD sequel to the Marley And Me movie from a few years ago. It currently is rated a 6.4 on the IMDB, but that rating is only based on 12 users. It will definitely change as more people vote. On a side note, last night there were actually two people waiting until midnight to buy this movie. That amazed me. I can understand it for a Harry Potter movie or a Twilight movie, but not a direct to DVD movie.

The final movie is another direct to DVD release. This one was John Carpenter's The Ward. It is the story of a woman in an insane asylum where the patients are disappearing. This movie was released in Europe, but not here in the United States. It has a rating of 5.7 on the IMDB.

Grow up, Carlos.

2011-08-15T11:51:00.001-04:00

Most years it can be very trying being a Chicago Cubs fan. This is one of those years. However the last couple of weeks have been going very well for the team. They had a seven-game winning streak, and had won nine out of their last 11. Then came last Friday night in Atlanta. It was Bobby Cox night, when the Braves retired Cox's number. Carlos Zambrano was pitching and was being extremely hospitable to the Braves. He allowed five home runs, including back-to-back home runs by Freddie Freeman and Dan Uggla. The next batter was Chipper Jones and Zambrano threw two pitches at him. Of course, the umpire tossed him out of the game for that. Zambrano is well-known for tossing temper tantrums when things don't go his way. At those times, a two-year-old shows more maturity. He has fought with his catcher, destroyed a Gatorade container, ripped his teammates in the press, and generally acted like a spoiled brat many, many times. This time he went to the clubhouse, cleaned out his locker, and went home, claiming he was retiring. It was a real mature way to handle the situation. I don't think he was prepared for the Cubs reaction, however.

The Cubs have placed him on the 30 day disqualified list which means he not only is not playing, he also is not receiving any salary. Of course, the players union has already filed a grievance, but I really hope the Cubs stick to their guns. I appreciate the fact that Carlos is a very intense player who doesn't like to lose, but we have seen this kind of behavior too many times. His teammates are tired of the drama that he brings. They have made it pretty clear they don't want to see him return. I am sure he will pitch again but I don't believe it will be in a Cubs uniform. He has come close a few times before of burning that bridge, but this time he used gasoline. He can be a very good pitcher, but his skills are clearly diminishing. Factor in that personality of his and he becomes a liability instead of an asset. Some team out there will be willing to give him a chance. Let them try and tame this man child.

The Cubs seem to play much better and August and September. If we could only start the season, then we might see some success. No matter what, I will still root for them. I am a die-hard Cubs fan, not one of the fair weather fans that only root when their team is winning.

The baseball card pictured here is from my collection. It has in it a piece of uniform that Carlos wore during a game.

Sunday Song.

2011-08-14T10:15:00.002-04:00

Jedi Beatles.

2011-08-13T10:42:00.000-04:00

Disposable Printers.

2011-08-12T11:03:00.000-04:00

Last night I had a gentleman who came in looking for a new printer. He asked me how much the ink cartridges for the printer cost. I looked on the box, found out which numbers were needed and then went to the shelf to find out. He told me that he had bought one of those printers and had figured out that it was cheaper to buy another printer, rather then to buy the ink cartridges for it. He had a point on that. It was actually was cheaper to buy that printer than to buy even one of the cartridges. The printer companies today are basically giving you the machine to get you to buy the ink for them, which is where they make their money. I personally wouldn't go that far, but I can see where some people would. It won't work again for him in our store because the printer he bought is not one that we carry on a regular basis, however, it did work last night.

We are living in a very disposable society. It's rare to find products anymore that are meant to last any length of time. We have become so used to things breaking down that we just accept that that's the way it is. It's not going to change anytime soon, it's just a sad commentary on our everyday lives. It is harder to find someone today that takes pride in their craftsmanship. Fortunately there still are a few who do, and it is always nice to run into them. Sometimes all you can afford is the cheapest available, but that doesn't always make the best deal. If you buy something and then six months later have to replace it, how much did you save? I've started using that as a factor when I buy anything. That kind of scares me because it makes me think I'm becoming a responsible adult. (shudder)

During the night my cynical side began kicking in. I thought of a way that the gentleman could be using that to scam us. He could take the printer home, remove the ink cartridges, place the used cartridges back in the box and bring it back for a refund. I'm not saying that he's the type that would do that, but I have seen it done before. When I was working at Kmart I was called to the front to take a gas grill to the back. The first thing that I noticed was that the gas tank was gone. That particular model came with one provided. Then I did what the person who refunded it should have done. I opened up the grill, and saw where the person had used it as a charcoal grill. Sherlock Holmes would've been proud of how I made that deduction, the used charcoal briquettes were still in the grill. What the person had done was come in, bought a new grill, took that home and then brought us back their old grill. Had the person up front been paying attention, it would've been caught. Instead, the guy got him a brand-new grill for free. There are plenty of scam masters out there and you really have to watch out for them. A lot of times is the most unlikely people who will get you.

How About Some Ice Cream?

2011-08-11T08:59:00.000-04:00

Unless you are lactose intolerant, very few people don't like ice cream. However, there are some flavors that you might not be adventurous enough to try. I know I'm not. I ran across a list titled 101 Frightening Ice Cream Flavors From Around The World. A majority of those flavors are from Japan, but there are a few that you can find here in the United States.

Several of the Japanese flavors are fish and seafood based. It does make sense considering how much seafood is a part of their diet. I personally cannot see me ever sitting down and eating Octopus, Crab, Shrimp, Fish, or any other flavors of that type. Of course, outside of fish, I am not much of a seafood eater. Food Network used to carry the original Iron Chef series, and some of the things they served there I wouldn't have ate on a dare. Number 43 on that list, I might've liked as a baby. That one is Charcoal flavored. My Grandma Bagby heated her house with a coal burning stove. I have been told that I often could be found eating out of the coal bucket that she had there. However, I'm not so sure that I would enjoy that flavor today.

There are a few American flavors listed here. The Chunky Bacon that I showed here is one of those flavors. That is one I would actually be willing to try. Doesn't bacon make everything taste good? However, I will pass on the Mustard, Chicken Fried Steak, Chocolate Garlic, and the Sauerkraut Sherbet. I do like ice cream, but there are very few on this list that I am willing to try. How about you?

Captain America: The First Avenger.

2011-08-10T14:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went and saw the fourth superhero movie of the summer. Out of the four movies, this is the one that I was least looking forward to. That doesn't mean that I did not want to see it, I just wanted to see the other three more. I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I expected to. In fact, I now rank this as my third favorite of all the Marvel movies. This is an incredibly fun movie, with plenty of nods to us comic book fans. The basic origin story is very close to the comic books with a few minor additions that didn't hurt at all.

The movie is set during World War II, but instead of fighting the Nazi's Captain America is fighting an evil organization from the Marvel comic books, Hydra. They are led by his arch enemy from the comics, the Red Skull. In the original comics Hydra did not exist until the 1960s. I have no problem with them appearing here, in fact, it made it a better movie than had Cap been actually fighting the war. Hugo Weaving was great as the Skull. Weaving is always great as a villain. Chris Evans also did a great job playing Captain America. This is not Evans first time in a Marvel movie, he also played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies.

This movie sets up what looks to be like one of the big blockbusters of next summer, The Avengers. Of course us comic book fans knew how Captain America went from World War II to the present day. There was a small preview of the Avengers movie after the credits. I am looking forward to seeing that next year.

On a personal note, I have now started a Facebook account. If you are reading this and want to be one of my friends, click here. This is actually just what I needed, another way to waste time on the Internet.

Now On DVD.

2011-08-09T17:54:00.000-04:00

I'm going to change the way I do the new DVD releases a little bit. They will be listed in the order of how they fared at the box office. None of the movies this week were big box office draws. Leading off the list is Paul, a comedy about two friends who find an alien. It is rated 7.1 on the IMDB and brought in $37,412,945.

Coming in a very close second to Paul, was Jumping The Broom, a film that was produced by the T.D. Jakes ministry. The people on the IMDB were not very impressed with the movie. They only rate it a 4.2. While it is not my kind of movie, I don't think most people who did like it voted. I say that because at the box office it brought in $37,295,394. That is pretty good for a movie of that kind.

Your Highness is, as the title implies a stoner movie. It is nothing that I want to see but it did get rated a 5.8 on the IMDB. It was a little disappointing at the box office and only took in $21,596,445. The producers had higher hopes for this movie. ( pun intended)

Mars Needs Moms was a huge disappointment for the Disney company. The budget for the movie was $150 million and it only brought in $21,392,758. Those rating the movie on the IMDB were not very kind, either, rating it a 4.7.

The final movie was a direct to DVD title, Tactical Force, starring Steve Austin. It is not yet rated on the IMDB. To be rated a movie has to have five votes.

Thin Skinned Politicians.

2011-08-08T11:14:00.000-04:00

It is sad to see that some politicians today just can't take a joke. I am not making a reference to our current president, by the way, even though that is his picture at the head of this blog. What you see is a product that what was available at the University of Tennessee bookstore. The product was removed when State Representative Joe Armstrong, a Democrat, went to the store and made a complaint. Armstrong is quoted as saying, "When you operate on state and federal dollars, you ought to be sensitive to those type of politically specific products. If it was a private entity or corporation or store, (that's different), but this is a state university. We certainly don't want in any way to put the university in a bad light by having those political (products), particularly aimed at defaming the president."

Of course Representative Armstrong doesn't see this as being a free-speech issue. It's just plain offensive to him. I wonder if he's ever looked at political cartoon? The mints are made by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild, who love the put out products with unusual names. Are they just singling out President Obama for ridicule? The answer to that is very easy.

The mints you see here were sold at the University of Tennessee bookstore in 2004. There were no Republicans going in there demanding that those be removed from the shelves. In 2008 another product appeared on the shelves:

Where was the outrage over that product? Personally, I find them all very funny. As usual, when someone tries to make a huge issue out of nothing, it has a tendency to backfire on them. The Disappoint-mints have sold out and are appearing on eBay as collectors items. Representative Armstrong is finding himself becoming an object of ridicule. He should have seen this coming.

As far as I know, that is a mockup, not an actual product. However, I'm willing to bet very soon you will be able to buy those. It'll be interesting to see if Representative Armstrong gets reelected. He really needs to lighten up a little bit.

Sunday Song.

2011-08-07T12:27:00.000-04:00

How Dumb Do You Have To Be?

2011-08-06T11:33:00.000-04:00

To need directions to put together a box that looks like this. I found this on the floor this morning at work. The sad thing is, I have some coworkers who would have trouble doing this with directions.

You Can't Please Everybody.

2011-08-05T10:50:00.000-04:00

Last night was very interesting. Every night before we start work we have a short meeting where we learn how sales are doing and the managers bring up anything they feel needs to be discussed. As soon as the meeting was over and I went to the sales floor the phone was ringing. There was another person working electronics, but she was helping a customer, so I answered the phone. The caller started out by asking, "Doesn't anybody answer the phone there." According to the lady she had been trying for a week to contact the store. I really don't believe she was telling the truth. All I told her was that I didn't understand why nobody had answered, but then asked her what could I do for her. She was wanting to order something from our website and was having trouble doing so. The way the website works is you can purchase anything listed and have it shipped to the store for free. The item has to be paid for before it is shipped, but what this lady wanted was to have the item shipped to the store and then she would come in and pay for it. I told her that we couldn't do that. She did not want to register an account on the website, and did not want to use her credit card there either. I told her that if she came in a got a gift card that that would be an acceptable form of payment, which didn't make her very happy either. Then she told me she didn't understand why we just simply didn't have every item on the website in the store. I tried to explain that there were simply too many items for that to happen and that some of the items purchased were in limited quantities so there were not enough items to send one to every store in the company. She grumbled a little bit more, but then did thank me for my help and hung up.

That was quite a way to start the night. I have always said, there are some customers that no matter what you do, you could shine their shoes and wax their car, they would still find something to complain about. A lot of people don't seem to understand that even though our store is part of a corporation, not every store carries the exact same merchandise. For one thing, the stores are all different sizes. The one I work in is smaller than several others in this area. For another, they try and merchandise accordingly to what will sell in the area the store is located in. One example of that is being here in Georgia, we would be very hard-pressed to sell any snow blowers, where as in Illinois they wouldn't have a problem. I do everything in my power to make people happy, but the last time I tried walking on water I nearly drowned. Fortunately, people like that are in the minority.

The prank phone calls seem to have totally ended. Maybe they're just taking a break, but if I get any more I will let you know about it.

Andersonville.

2011-08-04T11:31:00.000-04:00

I had mentioned when I made the Florida trip that I had four goals in mind, to see the Atlantic Ocean, to go to Tallahassee, to see the Gulf of Mexico, and to go to Warm Springs, Georgia. The Gulf of Mexico got pushed to next year, and I decided to delay Warm Springs. The reason I'm delaying Warm Springs is that it is close enough that I could do that on a day off. It is about a two-hour drive from here. I decided instead to go to Andersonville, which was home to a notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp. I considered a side stop to Plains, Georgia, but I would had to have waited there about half an hour for the Jimmy Carter Museum to open, so I went on.

About 5 miles south of Andersonville, I saw a sign which led to the place where Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight. I had never heard of that and decided it was something to check out. The picture at the top of this blog here is the Lindbergh statue, which is in front of a the Jimmy Carter Regional Airport. It is nothing fancy but made for a nice stop.

In addition to the Civil War prison, there is a Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville. The building you see here is the Welcome Center as well as the Museum. The museum is a fascinating place to visit. It covers all of the wars that America has been in. There are many items that former POWs had saved and had used during their incarceration.

Naturally, there is nothing remaining from the original stockade. They have not reconstructed the entire fenced area, just to them at the opposite ends of the area. This is the gate that the prisoners first saw when they entered Andersonville. The stockade was built to house 10,000 men, but eventually over 31,000 were held there.

This was taken at the opposite end from the gate. You can see a guard tower, which were built all away alongside the stockade.

This is a reconstruction of some of the shelters that the men used to shield themselves from the weather. Very little of this was provided for them.

One of the reasons that Andersonville was located where it was, was there was a stream that ran through the center of the stockade. This was to provide fresh water for the men kept their. Unfortunately, there was a drought. After the men started arriving in Andersonville. Conditions had gotten very bad. Several months after the place was filling up, a summer storm came up which help to wash out the camp. Lightning struck where you see this little shelter. The men there, said water came up from where the lightning it hit, and they named the place, Providence Springs.

Here is a view of the fountain that is found inside that building. They do post warning signs not be drinking from that fountain.

There are fence posts all the way around the area where the stockade stood. The first post that you see was where the where the outer walls stood. The inner post was called the deadline. Any man who went past that line was killed.

Several attempts were made to tunnel out of Andersonville. This is one of the holes that was dug. There is a fence surrounding it to preserve it.

There also is a national cemetery at Andersonville. It is still used today. I wasn't able to take a tour of the entire cemetery because they were doing a burial that day.

After touring Andersonville, I was ready to head for home. I considered several different ways to go and decided to take Route 41, which took me right through Atlanta. I have always avoided Atlanta because of the traffic, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. This is the first time that I've taken a trip like that, and I will be doing more, because there is a lot I want to see while I'm still able to.