November 2007 Archives

Time again for those fun search terms...  The Top 10!

1.  latter day movie - A movie that I like.  Low budget, but quite good.
2.  organ - which one are we referring to?
3.  largest organ - oh, that one!
4.  super glue butt - dear lord, why would you want to do that?
5.  where can i find a nasty looking burger - over 99 billion served...
6.  pooed panties - someone did that at my store the other day...
7.  men armpits - women have them too
8.  old hemorrhoids - what are those better than new ones?
9.  danger - my middle name
10.  names of all the different kinds of nuts - at this point there are too many to list

I was going to make a post about the GOP YouTube debate.  There's enough rhetoric in there (as with the Dems) to post for an entire year.  I ended up watching 5 minutes of it as the candidates talked about keeping the military a "Judeo-Christian institution" and protecting people's right to not be offended, and I started to gag.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to bring myself to watch it or even read a transcript because I will vomit uncontrollably.  And I've revamped my little space here to look all nice, and explosive barf wouldn't fit the new decor.  

Every year around this time I read an article in the newspaper about the topic, "The Customer is Always Right."  I have to respectfully disagree, even though some customers wouldn't be so respectful.  It's a shame that people have to be weary of each other, but the fact is that many people will steal a child's lollipop given the chance.  And when people come to a store making demands, it isn't rare that the person is lying through their teeth and making an ass of themselves in the process. 

Take for instance the man who wanted to open a bank account with his "$1 million bill."  Try applying "the customer is always right" to that one.  Especially considering they don't even make bills in that denomination.  Or it's the guy who comes in wanting his money back for food he bought several days ago, in which he claims there was a hair - no proof of purchase either.  Or the one who brings back shoes after wearing them for 6 months and wants a refund.

Simply put, no one is always right.  Certainly not the general public.  Hell, they elected Bush again....

Late last night after enduring a full weekend of holiday shoppers, I did some of my homework to get caught up.  One of the assignments that is usually a few paragraphs response had a question that seemed like it wanted a novel of an answer.  So, did some research and hit on the key points.  Today a classmate responded that my answer was short...  So I took a look at her response to see what perhaps she thought was a better answer.  75% of it was copied and pasted from Wikipedia.  Nice...  At least she didn't plagiarize it like another classmate I know of.  Oh, and here's a hint: If you're going to get your ass kicked out of school for plagiarizing freaking Wikipedia, when you cut and paste it into your Word document, take out the light blue background so you're not as blatantly obvious!

A little, old lady surprised me today.  I was called up to speak with a customer - when I first saw her she seemed calm and collected.  The first words out of her mouth though were, "That bastard told me the wrong thing!"  To myself I thought, which bastard?  Then this lady really got going with her "son of a B this" and "that wasn't f--king funny."  She also mentioned something about her bad hip.  All in all, I'm really not sure what she was complaining about, but we never did figure out which bastard she was speaking of...

Unless I have a senior moment and forget to eat some fish...

(source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21921009/)

So I'm reading in the news about some of the Black Friday stories from other stores around the country.  They make my experience seem like a trip to the baths on the day herpes broke out.  Well, not quite..  But seriously - people waited in crowds of 10,000 people in Idaho?  OK, so once the line gets to... oh say, 2000 people you have to realize they're not going to have enough for everyone, and you're not going to get your coveted doorbuster.  One store manager opened his doors to almost get trampled by 500 people.  It's not like they're starving people running for a meal - WTF?  But all this will supposedly result in US consumers forking over $475 billion in Nov and Dec. 

(sources:Black Friday’ shoppers lay siege to the malls, Hundreds flock to Black Friday sales)

"I hate the outdoors.  To me the outdoors is where the car is."
- Will Durst

Normally I would disagree, but when the lows are now getting into the teens I might agree.  Meanwhile, my partner is in South Carolina where it is significantly warmer.

I survived another black Friday!  YAY!  This year though I got to close, which was better than dealing with all the crazies in the morning.  I was told that they stopped counting after 1200 people ran in the doors at 6am.  The line this morning went all the way around two sides of the building.  I almost went shopping this morning only because I have never really had the chance to do it - not in the past 8 years or so anyway.  I think I've opened every black Friday in recent memory.  But compared with the chance to sleep in, shopping was a distant second.

The only thing that really got me tonight during my shift was the number of people who came in or called looking to see if we had any door busters left.  Seriously?  Not since about 30 minutes after we opened the doors...

Made the Dean's list once again.  Yay me!

So the site looks a little different right now, and it probably will for a little while longer.  Holy crap - after about 4 hours, Movable Type 4.01 is up and powering TheRhetoric.com.  It was time for the upgrade though - going from version 3.2 all the way to 4.01 was overdue. So bear with me for a bit while we reinvent some things...

Have you seen the recent Ford Explorer Hybrid commercial? While I applaud Ford for its efforts in making SUVs more environmentally friendly, they could try to make the children in their commercials a little less stuck up. The kid asks her father to drop her off a block away from where her friends are because in that neighborhood people are “riding bikes and hybrids.” While I don’t understand why the people are riding hybrids, the kid needs to be told. I’m pretty sure I would have said to the kid, “Hey you know what is even more environmentally friendly? Walking!”

" Americans enter holidays in dark mood: Reuters poll"

As everyone gets ready to have a lovely, five day weekend, I am getting ready for the worst 4 days of the year. Folks are getting ready to travel for Thanksgiving - I'm getting ready to work practically overnight into Turkey Day. Yes, I am complaining, but every year it's just another twist of the retail knife.

(source: Americans enter holidays in dark mood: Reuters poll)

   A co-worker was talking with me this morning about all the fun things that are going on in his life. He has a side job and a girlfriend now, and he was going on and on about how busy he always is. Included in his list of things that keep him busy: keeping up on his sleep. Really? And that keeps you busy? God, I pray for sleep to keep me busy!

   People go shopping for all kinds of different things. Sometimes they come into my store looking for different kinds of things and are pleasantly surprised. But yesterday, I think I saw the strangest shopping list yet. A man walked up to me and said he guessed he wasn't going to be able to find what he was looking for, and that he would have to go to the dollar store. On his shopping list I saw:
Fox
Squirrel
Owl
Rabbit
...

I saw this today in the lid of one of those plastic containers... I know there's lawsuits out there from pharmaceuticals to nose hair trimmers. But do we really have to tell parents not to put their child into a plastic container?

   It's been in the news today and it's the number 82 Google search recently - our nation's school have banned - of all things - hugging. In a country that has seen its fair share of violence in schools, one would think that a freaking hug would be one of the least concerns.
   It seems that a girl was given a day of detention for hugging a friend at school, and now our nation has turned to this important issue. And it's turned up a number of schools that ban PDAs (physical displays of affection) from heavy petting to high fives. The former I can understand, but ALL affection? Is this the radical Christian agenda at work?
   At one school high fiving is specifically prohibited.
“You get into shades of gray,” Kilmer Principal Deborah Hernandez told the Associated Press earlier this year. “The kids say, ‘If he can high-five, then I can do this.’” (MSNBC.com, Oct 2, 2007)
And we shouldn't teach our nation's kids to understand shades of gray should we.. I mean, it's either no touching or a home run right? And I'm sorry, but a high-five leads to what now? If he can high-five then I can flash my friends - doesn't make sense not just in terms of PDA but in terms of decency.
   Now there's a term we can teach kids - decency. I think many kids call it "Get a room." It's decent to touch a friend on the shoulder. It's decent to hug a friend. It's not decent to stick your tongue down someone's throat in front of god and everyone. Simple as that.
   Or the other solution is to also prohibit ADA - any display of affection. Just don't even freaking smile - because if he can smile, I can give you the finger.
(sources: Schools jumping on the hug ban-wagon, Ill. student gets detention for hugging)