CompUHOH

Today CompUSA (which, ironically enough, is owned by a Mexican company!) announced it sucks so bad that it is closing half of its 226 stores! CompUSA has been struggling for a few years and this seems close to the nail in the coffin for them. Honestly, when is the last time someone purchased anything at CompUSA? (if you have, feel free to feel stupid starting.... now!). Their prices have always been higher than their competitors, something that is not so good for business.

After walking into a CompUSA today (aka, Morgue) The few employees that were there milling around like zombies (please note, this is not due to the announced closures, this is normal for a CompUSA employee) seemed more than happy to tell everyone in earshot that they were closing all the Phoenix location stores within 3 months!

Being the concerned and considerate soul that I am, I made sure to drop off numerous Ritz Camera applications with my business card attached.

You sell those here?

OK, seriously, how does something like this happen? Some dude is crusing around a Music City Thrist Shop in Nashville. He spots a document. (apparently they sell anything at the Music City Thrift Shop). The customer asks the clerk, "how much for this?". The clerk responds, "$2.48". (who the hell prices anything at $2.48 anyways?)

So, what does the document end up being? It turns out to be an "official copy" of the Declaration of Independence — one of 200 commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820!! It is expected to sell for around $300,000!

Figure that one out will you? How does an official copy end up in a friggin thrift store in Nashville selling for $2.48?! The only answer I have been able to come up is my usual one - stupid people!

I have today off, plan to spend a majority of it with the woman, who seems in need of attention. So, I do what I can, ya know. My objectives for the rest of the week include taking some extra time off to make up for the horror of last week, as well as hiring on some people in an effort to stem the horrors of future weeks to come. We will see how it all works out.

Time warp

So, I wake up this morning to get ready for a work meeting. Get in the car and realize "oh, its not 9:30, its 8:30..." Great, so I got up an hour early and didn't even realize it. Like I don't get enough sleep as it is! Christ. So, I am back here, waiting to kill another hour. That is, if I do not fall asleep again.

Work has been becoming.. annoying lately. One hundred percent focused around staffing issues. Note to anyone who hires out there: as tough as it may be, try to avoid hiring people who go to school. The school thing will just cause you headaches as the employee at one point or another will suddenly feel that he the job is there to work around thier school schedule. Sorry, not going to happen.

So, now I find myself scrambling for one person minimum, three people optimum. Always love that hiring process as it seems the majority of people who attempt to apply walk in wearing jeans, a tshirt, and fliplops! Love those folks. Friggin clueless.

Try not to be stupid

Everyone has an opinion regarding the war in Iraq. You agree, you disagree. However, there is a certain point where you fall into the fucking total idiot zone. For example: Hillary Clinton. Good old Hillary stated today that"Now it's time to say the redeployment should start in 90 days or the Congress will revoke authorization for this war."

Oh really?

What has happened to this country and it's people? Fucking cut and run all the time from these democrats. I swear, they might as well be French.

Anyways... here is the bottom line. No matter if you agree or disagree you have to at this point see the bigger picture. We can not leave. It is that simple. We can't. If we pull out now, before the Iraqi's have a solid government and a capability to enforce the law and defend themselves, it would be beyond insane for us to just pull out.

We would leave behind an Iraq that would implode on itself within weeks leaving in its wake an Islamic Terrorist state. It would become the safe haven and preparation ground for terrorists planning any and all attacks against the United States and our interests. It would be simply one of the biggest disasters in history.

Fine, you do not agree with the war, you think it is a mistake. Following it up with another, even bigger mistake, is not the answer. Hillary, you are friggin idiot if you believe pulling troops out is a solution. At least, any solution beyond you attempting to garner support from left wing wackos who think the United States is the biggest evil since Lucifer came up with the idea of going solo.

We have to stay. We have to win. The cost is to great if we do not. Fanatical Islam must be stopped at any and all costs.

Hearts are in this time of year

So, today is Valentines Day! Which means, for all you guys, if you did not get your woman a present yet, you are going to be hating life some time very soon. Of course, you can try to get one of those last minute gifts at the Circle K, but trust me, a car freshener or a hot dog ain't gonna cut it.

I think the woman and I are going to exchange some gifts tonight when she gets home and hopefully enjoy a little dinner I am making.

On the work front, things are fairly quiet, which is good, since I still need to hire about 40 hours worth of people. One of the things that is driving me nuts is, it seems all my employees are taking time off this month and next for vacations or what not. Meanwhile, I do not get to take off crap because I have to cover everyone else! Kinda annoying, honestly. Hopefully I can get some time to break away.

The price of a Rose

Ah yes, another one of those special days is fast approaching! Valentines Day! A day that most of the general public think is for rejoicing in the love of the one close to you. But for those in retail, you see, we know better. It is another day of rampant consumerism! I know this to be true and I will tell you why.

You see, any other week of the year, I can go out and buy a dozen roses for around $12.oo to $25.oo. Except, of course, this week. Every place you look the stores have jacked up the prices to three times that! Now, I know there is no such thing as rose inflation. These stores are just ripping the public off! They raise the prices because they know they got you.

Try to put this in perspective. What if, during say Christmas season (the big daddy of rampant counsumerism) stores doubled the prices of TVs, DVDs, Computers, Cameras.. wow! Wouldn't you be pissed?!

Anyways, despite the crazyness on the roses front, I think I did fairly well this year for the woman. Hopefully she will like her Valentines Day gifts.

Houston, we have a problem

Wow! So much news this week! I will have to divide it up between a few posts!

So, let us begin with the big news! Crazy ass chick Astronaught! Capt. Lisa Nowak, was accused on Tuesday of trying to kidnap (and perhaps kill) Colleen Shipman, who she considered to be a rival for the affections of a male astronaut co-worker. Nowak drove 950 miles wearing adult diapers to confront the Shipman. Yes, Diapers. You see, so she did not have to stop to go to the bathroom! Whoohoo!.

"Nowak drove to Orlando airport around midnight on Sunday, waited for Shipman's flight from Houston to arrive and then followed her to the parking garage armed with pepper spray, a steel mallet and a pellet gun, police said."

This gal was just up on a Shuttle flight a few months ago! Damn, NASA, how did this chick get past your psychological evaluations?

The Aqua Teens are the bomb, Boston!

A marketing scheme by Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, to promote their animated show Aqua Teen Hunger Force has gone somewhat awry in the apparently low IQ'ed city of Boston.

Devices, which were basically blinking light boards, were set up around a dozen major cities. No other cities reported issues - except Boston. In Boston, the devices were found and all hell broke lose. They started to shut the city down thinking they were explosives or some other ungodly devices.

Now, what I find amazingly amusing about this is the simple fact that Boston city "officials" were so stupid as to not realize this was a simple promotion that they shut the city down. These were blinking light boards of some animated characters! I mean, cmon! OK, fine, you get a call from a person who sees one of these things, the cops come out (or bomb squad!) and they *should* realize within minutes that these devices are basically Light Brights powered by four D batteries!

Even funnier is the local news portraying the devices after the fact as "hoax devices"! What hoax? No hoax was being attempted! It was an ad campaign! To that end, the people involved with the ad campaign have been arrested and charged! How sad.

So, Boston, you were owned by the Aqua Teens! Let me tell you something else, Boston - you certainly gave the Aqua Teens more advertising than they had ever expected. I am sure they are laughing behind closed doors right now.

Update: I was just reading another story about this over on Aintitcool.com and allow me to add their thoughts here, as I think they are right on the money:
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"It's illegal to yell FIRE in a theater - you arrest the person who screamed FIRE! This kid didn't yell, BOMB. The media did, the city did. If there was panic in the city, it was caused by the BOSTON news stations, radio stations and the people in government that leaked the story to them. They're the ones to blame, not the cartoon character."

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Judge for yourself, the items in question: