College kids...

So, our book rush is over. Nothing exciting going on, now we just return the books we didn't sell and sell any student buybacks back to our wholesalers. I've got a few returns to do, and most of the buybacks are under way so we're in good shape. What I don't remember from college is having class with this many overly frugal people. I know books are expensive and campus stores generally rip you off. I know students look for the best deal so we always try to help where we can and pass the discounts we get on to the students. We saved a nursing student $500 this semester on her books because we were that much cheaper. Anyway, the people that annoy me are the ones that come in three times a day to price the book...the SAME book. Not only that, I held one book for a girl this semester that was $40. She came to pick up everything else she needed and smirked when I picked up that book. She said "I don't need that one. I found a better price." So I said "really, where and how much?" She looks down at me over her nose and says "I found one on Amazon for $39." Seriously, this was the first day of class so we were busy as all get out. No big deal, the book sold thirty minutes later. She came back in the next day and said the shipping on the book from Amazon was $25 so she'd take that one. Well, it was a little late then because we'd sold it. She got so put out that we didn't hold it in hopes that she'd come back that she left angry. This other student that sticks out is a nursing major. She comes in three times a week to price the same book in hopes that "the price has gone down since the semester started." It hasn't, and the book is $20 cheaper here than the book store. So she buys about $300 worth of her books on afternoon and we think "great, she's done." Two days later she returns every single one of them because someone let her borrow them. She did this on the last day to return books. Then she stood at the counter and complained about how much it costs to drive over here and return her books and that she'd buy them if we'd sell them cheaper, but either way she'd be back in two weeks to buy them again. Really, I'm holding my breath. I remember looking for deals, but I don't remember a deal being $1 cheaper and I don't think ever in my life would I stand and argue over a price at a retail store. Anyway, it's been a pretty busy morning for the second week of classes and I've got a bunch to get done. I can't wait for the long weekend!

Movies, movies, and more movies

Okay, before we get in to todays post I would like to ask everyone to send prayers or happy thoughts or whatever you can send to our friends Sara and Brian who live in New Orleans. They actually live in Covington so they're not in the hole that New Orleans is in, but when I talked to them last night they were evacuating. I'm sure they'd appreciate any thoughts and prayers you can throw their way as well.

So, we had a weekend full of movies. Friday night we finished up the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you haven't watched the extended cuts, I would highly recommend you do so. They're great and they explain so much more than the theatrical versions did.

Sunday I went with my brother in law to see the Dukes of Hazzard. We had a free pass so it was well worth that. I can see how some of the TV show purists don't like it because it doesn't promote the same family values. It did have a lot of good chase scenes, Jessica Simpson, the famed 69 Dodge Charger, and Jessica Simpson. Willie Nelson was alright as Uncle Jessie, but I can't imagine (short of Robert Duvall) who would have played him any better. Johnny Knoxville and Sean William Scott were good opposites so I would look for them to do another movie together. If you're a TV purist, I would say not to see the movie. If you like Jessica Simpson, car chases, Dodge Chargers, and Jessica Simpson - see the movie I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Sunday night we went with some friends to see The Brothers Grimm. It was good. I didn't know what to expect, except that I'd read somewhere it was a comedy. It wasn't, but it had it's funny moments and I'd say was worth seeing. It's an interesting take on how the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales came to be. Basically the two brothers go around trying to rid villages of their demons and witches and getting paid to do it. It is of course all set up so they're con artists that eventually get caught and are forced to rid a village of it's curse. The fairy tales only come in small references so the wife and I were talking all the way home about what references there were to what fairy tales so we liked it. The hot girl in this movie was Monica Bellucci. You can also find her in Brotherhood of the Wolf and the Matrix sequels. I wouldn't go see the movie for her because her part is small, but since she's way hotter than Jessica Simpson she deserved mention. The movie is good, but it's basically someone elses fictional take on how the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales came to be.

Have you ever noticed that the previews to a movie usually dictate how good the movie is going to be? In both cases we saw some good previews. Probably the one I'm looking forward to the most is V for Vendetta. It looks to be really good, and it's another DC comic movie so I'm sure I'll be seeing that one. If you haven't seen it...watch the trailer. The other trailer that sticks out is what I thought was going to be the first Underworld Evolution Trailer, but it wasn't. I thought they had de-hotted Kate Beckinsale but as it turns out it was Charlize Theron. The movie is called Aeon Flux and it's a futuristic revolution movie. Looks pretty good. Last, but not least - The Transporter 2. If you haven't seen the first one go rent it. It's just a good action flick all around. I didn't catch the first one in the theater, but I'll catch this one while it's in theaters. That's all from our weekend. It's monday morning so it's back to work.

Tone it down there credit card girl...

So I went to the bank yesterday to get our company credit cards. It was really a hassle that I didn't need, but I need a company card so we have to spend the time to do it. I'm at the bank, calling the card company and we get the most excited credit card girl I've ever heard of in my life. We told her where we were from and she said "That is so WONDERFUL! I'm so GLAD you called!!!!" She insisted on calling me by my last name - which I can't stand. People don't even call my Dad that. The ones who knew him called my grandfather that, and still refer to him that way even though he's been dead for 30 years. Anyway, you wouldn't think that someone getting a company card was a big deal. I didn't and still don't. So anyway, she asks what kind of business we have so I said "college bookstore." She flew off the handle. "REALLY? THAT IS SO COOL!!! I WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE ONE DAY WHEN I'M RICH AND FAMOUS!!! WHEN I DO I'M BUYING MY BOOKS FROM YOU!!! THAT IS JUST THE MOST AWESOME THING I'VE EVER HEARD!!" Okay, so running a college store is fun, but it's not the most awesome thing ever. I couldn't figure out what this girls problem was. Maybe she just loved her job. The real funny part is that I live in one state, work in another. When I gave her my home address and the work address she wanted to know how I did that. So I said "Do what?" She said "well, Sir, you live here and work here. How is this even possible? Do those state touch?" "Yes Ma'am they are bordering states so I have about a 30 - 45 minute drive to work." "THAT IS SO COOL! THAT IS JUST GREAT!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WORKED OUT FOR YOU LIKE THAT!!!" The girl at the bank was laughing because as many times as we'd turned the volume down she could still hear every word she said. After 30 minutes of this she tells me her system is down and I have to call back on Monday. Hopefully on Monday I'll get someone else. I hope everyones weekend is going well!

What is wrong with people?

Okay, so on the way to work I pass three of those electronic speed limit signs. These are the ones that display your speed on this big electronic panel and if you're going over the speed limit they flash really fast at you. I can see the point of these, but seriously they're not going to shoot you. It doesn't mean you have to jam on the brakes and lock all four wheels every time you see on. I thought people would be used to these, but every day people are stopping like there is a fleet of cops waiting on them. It's nuts. If anyone ever wanted to know, they flash really fast at 99mph and then they cut off because they can't register three digits. I'll have to make a video of that one of these days if people in front of me ever decide they don't have to jam on the brakes when they see them.

Also, I have to question what is wrong with these people and downloading ring tones. I'm all about downloading ring tones - don't get me wrong. I was listening to Sirius the other day when the DJ came on and said "Until yesterday, the number one downloaded ring tone in America was Cold Play's Speed of Sound. As of this moment, the number one downloaded ring tone is Mariah Carey's We Belong Together. How about that?" Then she played that horrid song. I can't stand Mariah Carey. She was fun to look at when I was in high school, but I've since outgrown that and find her insanely annoying. I can't imagine why anyone likes this horrid song, much less wants to be reminded that it even exists every time their phone rings. If anyone comes in to this store with that as their ring tone - I'm confiscating the phone. End of story. I'm sure Mariah Carey is a nice person so I'm not wishing death on her, I just wish she'd stop singing...and acting (did anyone in the world go see her movie? I think it was only in the box office for a week or two)...or she could keep singing if she would sing stuff that didn't suck.

I just have to wonder what is wrong with people when we stop for flashy speed limit signs and have ring tones that dogs howl at. Enough ranting for now. I've got a college student rant that I have to cool off about before I start putting the thoughts down on the blog. More later, have a good day!

Long days and long nights

So, the bookrush is upon us. It's going well. I can't really complain but hopefully we can move a few more books. Everybody needs books right? This week is going to be long because we work a lot of long hours but I think we're taking some business away from the campus store and I'm hoping that next semester will be a little better.

This weekend my wife and I got in to watching the Lord of the Rings extended cuts. She got them for me for Christmas last year and we've never sat down to watch them. We always meant to, but these are movies you have to devote a lot of time too. The extended cuts each have an additional 45 minutes of footage that we didn't see in the theaters. Some of it is supposed to be closer to the book, but that didn't concern me much. The extra's are great but they had to split the movies in to two DVD's so it's usually a good stopping point. We've been trying to watch one DVD a night and last night we watched all of the second one because we were in to it. If you haven't seen these, I highly recommend you watch them. They are fantastic and if you have a good home theater system, you'll really enjoy them. I think the neighbors were wondering why there were Orks and Urukai warriors walking through our house at 12:30 last night but it's okay - it sounded really good.

Anyway, I've got to hit the books for now so I hope everyone is having a good week.

We shoot every third salesman...

...The second one just left. So I'm not real big on telemarketers or solicitors as you may have gathered. Two days ago I get a blog spammer, and yesterday during our rush we get a guy selling some kind of cleaner that wanted to talk. This guy hangs out near the door for a few minutes then comes to the counter to pitch his product. Since he told me he made a commission on just telling me about it I figured I would listen. Then he started cleaning my counter with it and said "Do you have a sharpie or a permanent marker? I really need to show you how it will take that off the counter." I just shook my head and said "You are not marking on my new counter top with anything if you value your life." So he takes a pen and marks all over his shirt then sprays this cleaner on the marks and tries to show me how it cleans those up. It didn't. So he sprays a bunch all over my new floor and wipes this big circle that even this morning I can still see. Then he asks me "Are you married? Does your wife buy products to clean the kitchen and the dishes with?" At this point I was somewhat annoyed but strangely trying to be nice and I said "Well, yes we buy those things because we have a kitchen as most normal married couples do." So he tells me we can clean the cars, the garage floor, the carpet, the kitchen and any fine china we might have and ended his sales pitch with "Why don'tcha buy a gallon or two?" I just shook my head no and he left. Seriously, why would anyone walk in to a business that had a line of people and try to pitch a product like that? Maybe that was how he made his living, but common sense would say that wasn't the best time to push your product.

It looks like the book rush is on us, so keep your fingers crossed that we sell everything on the shelves!

Hello again Milton3P0...

So, this morning Milton3P0 paid me another visit. I wasn't sure why he was there but his mom was dropping him off as usual and it looked like he was coming to stay because he had his "bubba keg" and his books with him. I thought "Oh crap, he needs money and wants to work today." He came in and honestly said "Sir, I'm getting ready to head off to school and I need the number for the utility board up there so I can make sure they turned my power on." I was thinking how weird it would be if I went in to my old job and asked them to look up something for me. Anyway, I did it for him because I'm a nice guy...sometimes. I was a little mad because he begged for this bookshelf we have down there so I didn't sell it. I just worked around it for a month or two and last week he said "Sir, I'll not be taking that shelf with me. I hope you're not disgruntled by it in the least sir." Well, not much I can do about it but it sucks.

In other news, search terms are new so here are my favorites...again...

1. Anurism - I'm sorry if you came here looking for treatments of anurism. If you don't know, an anurism is a blood clot in your brain. Some People can recover, but some people are left not as they were. I had a friend in middle school who's mom died from one.

2. "display your penis" - there will be no penis's displayed on this blog. I'm assuming you found a post about the locker room at the Y, but again...no genatalia on this blog.

3. "i think somethings" line from the dukes of hazzard - Hmm...I can't say that line sticks out as one from the Dukes tv shows, but I hope you found what you were looking for. If it was good - pass that line along to me I'd like to read it.

4. office space sequel - yeah, they're probably not going to make one. Seriously, where would they go with it? However, if they did make one...that would be grreeaatt...mmkay?

5. medival babes - please tell me you were searching for some weird bondage porn and found me by accident. That's the only thing I'm accepting at this point for that search.

Next week Milton will have moved out of town, but I have a good Milton3P0 story for next week that we'll all enjoy. Have a good weekend!

Milton Returns

So, I thought he was gone...really. I get a call last night and it's Milton. He wants to know if he can come by and use my fax machine. I said okay, that shouldn't be a problem and he wants to know what we've done with the store. I gave him a rundown and he was all excited to see the store. So he shows up at about his usual time and ooh's and aaah's over the store for a minute. Then he said "Sir, I wanted to come by and let you know that I'll not be coming by. I feel like I shouldn't stay here until 1:00 because there would be nothing for me to do. My mother will take me to the library where I can use their fax and I'll be able to watch an educational film until 1:00 when she can pick me up. I knew my coming by would put you at sort of a standstill so I felt obligated to show up personally and let you know I would not make it." Kudos to Milton for letting me know he wasn't coming in, but I don't think we would have been at a stand still waiting on him to arrive. My fax machine is in pretty low demand. Milton stayed just for a brief moment, informed me that he did not like that we'd gone to Sattelite Radio and that we should switch back to classical because "that is the best setting for a bookstore sir..." Well, simply put I won't have the best setting if that's the case.

In store news, it's almost ready. The ceiling has been painted, the carpet has been removed and replaced with laminate hardwood, the new front counter is in, the shelves are up, and the books are on the shelves. Honestly, we look like a bookstore. It's amazing. I've got my new signage under way and we'll probably put that in this weekend. Next week we should start selling so we're about to have people here if we want them or not. Keep your fingers crossed, we're about to see how good or bad I am at ordering books.

I can't drive 55.

As Sammy Hagar said - "Go on write me up for 125 and post my face wanted dead or alive." It would appear the State of Tennessee has too much free time as they've now brought all of their part time state troopers on full time hoping to generate $9 million in speeding ticket sales. Officers have a goal of a ticket every 10 minutes. Let's be serious. Is this really necessary? They're considering five miles over the speed limit to be good reason to give you a ticket. While they have you pulled over, they can give you a ticket for anything else (seat belt violations, broken tail lights, etc.) to keep their average of a ticket every 10 minutes alive. Really, there are such better ways to have state troopers spend their time. Our sales tax here is almost 10 percent so why is it this state needs to generate more revenue? Personally I think we should take a long hard look at where the money is going and why we have budget problems every year before the state declares martial law on all motor vehicles to generate revenue. Anyway, if this was years ago and I still had a fast car I'd make them try to catch me. Now I have a Jeep so doing the speed limit on the interstate is about all you can hope for, exceeding is out of the question. Maybe I'm making more out of this than there is because I haven't seen a state trooper yet, but I think it's more the principle of "we need money so we're writing tickets every 10 minutes." That would be like high school bands robbing you at gun point to make money for their trip to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Maybe they should try that, the state seems to be getting away with it. I think as long as they make a public announcement that they're going to be going door to door robbing people blind at gunpoint no one will argue. At any rate, I think it's a bit excessive and just gives our local law enforcement a bigger opportunity to act like bullies did in elementary school. They really don't need more of an excuse, but we just gave them one.