Customer Quote of the Month - March

A woman on her cell phone walks in to the store and starts to wander. She's in the middle of a conversation, so I leave her be until she's done with the call. After a few minutes of discussing her hair or some other BS, AWoHCP comes up to the counter and looks at me with a "Are you going to help me or not?" look. Bear in mind she's still on the phone having a conversation.

After a mental bitch-slap I ask her, "Can I help you find something?"

AWoHCP (barely pausing in her previous conversation), "Do you have those earplugs that you can dive with?"

Me, "Yep, they're over here." I show her where they are.

AWoHCP, "I need a pair."

Me, "OK, but they come in sizes, so we'll have to measure your ear, and fit the correct one to you." In other words get the frak off the phone lady!

AWoHCP, "Ok, then what size do I need?" She then turns her head to show me her ear and tells the person on the phone about her her overly gassy labradoodle.

I use the measuring template and select a size, but then tell her, "This should work, but you really should try it on."

AWoHCP, without a pause in her inane conversation, moves the phone to her other ear, then leans her ear toward me. At this point she obviously wants me to stick the earplug in for her.

Me, "Um, you'll have to do that for yourself. I'm not sticking my finger in your ear."

AWoHCP sighs, takes the earplug and sticks it in while explaining to the poor person on the other end of the line about how loose her gassy labradoodle's stools are. She then turns to me with a look of "Well, does it work?"

Me, "OK, now you have to hum," (BTW, I'm not just frakking with her here - it's part of the fitting process), "If it's the correct fit, you'll hear the hum louder in the ear with the earplug."

AWoHCP gives me a disgusted look and says (to her poor phone partner), "SIGH, I guess I need to go. I'll call you back." She then hangs up, hums and we complete the fitting. The rest of the transaction went fine. After paying, she hadn't taken 5 steps before she was back on the phone.

Now I'll admit I can't really remember what her conversations were about, but I do know it was all inane chatter. The conversation was certainly one that could have been paused for 5 minutes to be polite and get what she needed done. This is why I have a pet peeve of people and their cell phones. I'm all for them personally, I have one too. But I think it's incredibly rude to walk into a store while on the phone - I always try to finish my call before I walk in. Ah well, another day, another dollar.

Although I do like gassylabradoodle.com...

For the Math geeks...

Happy Square Root Day!

Yep a day that only comes 9 times every century. Party up, or at least as much as you math types party.

You know, grab an appletini and rotate 4th dimensional objects through 7th dimensional space...

Good times....good times...

From the mouths of babes

And this is why I'm planning on introducing my child to the Wii ASAP:



I would kill to get that laugh!

The "Real" Reason

OK, personally I think the whole Digital V upgrade is ri-god-damned-diculous. However, it's happening and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I do, however, have to wonder how much it's costing the government. The cost of the "coupons" to get converter box alone must be billions of dollars. That's

I'm not even really sure what the impetous is behind the change, so I googled it. My favorite response is here. According to this guy, the reasons are two-fold. First, It allows the government to more easily manipulate the images coming to our sets. Second, it's so the government can keep tabs on us by watching us through little cameras built into the TV. That's right, according to these crackpots, every TV built since 1995 has the ability to transmit as well as receive. Not only that, but the bastards in Washington have added mini cameras in the screens!

I guess I better stop "watching" those late night Cinemax movies...

Eye of the beholder

An "artist" brought this into our shop to see if we wanted to buy it for decoration. The boss, not being hard-of-seeing, politely declined. We are however displaying it for her to see if anyone wants to buy it.

I suppose someone may want to buy it, but frankly it looks like my son did it - and he's 3 weeks old!

The best part? She wants $335 for it! And yes, that's US dollars, believe me, I checked...

Virtual Darwinism

Researchers at the University of Durham have modded the Source engine (Half Life 2) to be used in simulations for real world scenarios. During testing, researchers used a model of their rooms to simulate a fire and run people through evacuation routes.

It's an attempt to use video game technologies in the real world. Apparently one that works pretty well, for most people. Apparently those that are gamers, and used to "simulations" blew the study results. Gamers that were part of the study would run through burning doors to see what happened.

as a friend commented, "Why not just camp in the corner with horded health packs and wait it out?"

Customer Quote of the Month - February

Customer looking at fins, "Do these come in pairs?"

I wish I was kidding...