Kalamaf Drackonsbane

 We sell used games and tvs at our store and each time customer would asked if we have some   flat panel tv stands for sale  after buying the  tv from us.  We don’t have much luck hunting down a distributor but I know that they are in demand. Anyhow, when i do come into this situation, I usually re-direct them to a  place that I’ve found online and all is good and the sale is done.  It’s handy to know where one can direct the customer to – when they need something and we don’t have it.  Normally, we like to tell them a local company has the product but at times, online may be a better place for some to get them because they are a lot cheaper.  Anyhow, we loved to be the one stop kind of store but it’s not always possible, so we try our utmost best to give as much information as possible to our customers.

With the weather a lot warmer, you and I know that the spouse is going to go crazy about the bugs and flies – but the flies are the ones that comes into our store overnight and we don’t even know where they came from.  I found some  insect control products  online that you can DIY and don’t cost a lot of money and this year, I’m going to be ready for the flies and bugs.  They even have spider killing spray in a bottle, now that one the kid is going to like it a lot for she doesn’t like spiders at all.  Lucky for us, there are no roaches around but if you have termites at home, I know where to get you a solution for it.

So what is WhatsApp?  I was asked the other day – and my answer ?  what the hell is that? yes, I didn’t know but since the spouse wanted to download it – so that she can use it with her friends from Asia.  So I did some reading up on WhatsApp and this was what I found out.

Ever since the new cafe opened its door, the spouse is changing over from drinking coffee to tea.  But designer teas from cafe/shop are quite expensive, so the spouse found  tazo chai from cw-usa  which by the way is a lot cheaper and organic too.  She loves it and wants everyone to try it, so those coming into the store are being forced to drink tea or sample them because she loved those chai tea so much.  I know one can buy similar stuff in the supermarket but buying them online are way cheaper, so for those who have had some and wants to bring them home, you can get them online as well.

I don’t remember having school dances as early as Grade 3 but the kid’s school had been having dances for them since school started this year.  The entrance fee is $5 and they provide snacks and drinks with supervision  of course from their own teachers.  And it’s a real dance, like a prom dance with  strobe lights  and music but no live bands of course.

When we were kids, we only had dances during high school and my parents didn’t allowed us to go at all because she felt that we were too young to be out so late – after school that is.  But I guess times are different now and kids are a lot more mature these days.  I thought about letting my kid attend too but at 9 years old, I still think that is too young – what do you think?

Bought a whole load of music stuff from a supplier in Toronto – to re-sell at the store.  People always asked for picks and we only have guitar strings for starters, so this time, I ordered a few more things to see if it would sell.  Hopefully, it does – so that we have another line of products to cater to our special customers.  Now if they don’t sell, I’ll be pissed hahaha! since everyone had asked for them.

I didn’t know that guitar strings were different, so when my dad wanted some for his 12 string guitar – I bought him some  Electric Guitar Strings  instead online.   So for those of you who are looking for guitar strings, make sure you tell them exactly what kind you want – for an electric guitar or the classical ones.   The electric ones are slightly more expensive I found out but they come in different colors if you so desire, I saw one that is pink in color and another lime in color and just to trick my dad – I thought I would get him a pink one.  But guess who had the last laugh.  Oh well, I can always keep them at the store, just in case someone needs a set of pink electric guitar strings.

Denzel Washington plays the role of a airline pilot who is drunk and into drugs but yet he is able to land a crashing plane, well enough so that the impact didn’t cause much lost of life.  Yet in the end, when he can walk away with being a hero, he chose to throw it all away with more drinks and cocaine and the fact, he refused to blame a dead stewardess who was in bed with him the night before the crash with the drinking problem. Don’t make sense to me because he ended up in prison and serving a 5 yrs term but in the end, he said he was happier.  Fella must either be crazy or Jesus Christ reincarnated – for a normal person would totally stop drinking and try to keep his high paying job and his pilot license and start all over again.  So I guess I’m not as selfless as I thought I would be.

The store is overloaded with games that I’ve bought of late, loads of sellers these days – trying to paying their income tax or recovering from Christmas shopping.   To keep them off the floor, I had to make some room for them at the store, so the kid’s play area had to be used as well.  Although, she wasn’t happy, there is not much I can do as space is limited at the store, I bought some  dowel pin  to hold some gaming shelves together at managed to arrange another few hundred games there.  I’m hoping to find a bigger store to buy soon, that way the kid and the spouse can get a proper play and work area at the store.

Everquest will turn 14 years old in a few days, in fact – I started playing Everquest a week before the store was opened – Interesting eh!  And now you can play Everquest for free – no more monthly fees but of course, there is a catch to it.  If you see the chart I’ve posted below, you can see that there are some stuff that you cannot do without paying but overall, it’s still really good to play for FREE.  So check it out yourself or if you have stopped playing like I did, this is the time to try the game again, I am.

We have several used guitar pedals for sale but a customer who came in for pedals asked to test the ones we’ve got but didn’t like it so much.  He wanted the fulltone gt 500 – and we didn’t have it.  So I checked around for him and found a  fulltone gt 500 at music123  and recommended that he goes on this site on the web to purchase them himself.  Since he didn’t have a credit card, he wanted to know if we can order it for him and he will pay us instead. And no we didn’t mind helping out a customer when we don’t have the item readily available – why not right?  you keep the customer happy and he will come back to our store for some other things.

So everyone had been talking about the PS4 and the new Xbox 720 that will be released this Christmas 2013 and how both Sony and Microsoft are thinking of phasing out the disc.  Therefore used game stores like ours would be impacted – but how impacted will we be?  Firstly, I don’t think both Sony and Microsoft could be doing anything like that anytime soon because there are just currently too much disc games for people to just discard and move away from.  What about those who doesn’t have high speed internet ?  to download the games they want?

Some geeks in the industry had compared this move to doing away with CDs for music and old catridges for old NES or SNES games – but are you aware that even till today some 25 yrs later – the demand of both CDs and old games are still a lot?  Yes, we do sell a lot of these old games.  People are not just going to throw away their PS 3 or Xbox 360 just because the new systems are coming in – no way – not all can afford these new systems and I still have customers playing the original Xbox games and the PS 2 games.  So no – not anytime soon will this be happening – so don’t go fretting yourself and worrying yourself silly.  Even with iPods and iTunes – CDs are still on the rack at Walmart and other retail stores – so there.

The Factory is a must watch for anyone out there but not for kids I have to remind you – John Cusack put on a very good performance here but the girl who plays his daughter – Mae Whitman, she did a better job.  Mae Whitman is quite new to the movie industry, she is known for her role she played in ongoing TV sitcom Parenthood.  And although not a looker, she is very good in crying as you can see in this movie.

The movie is about a cop Mike Fletcher who had been trying to catch a serial killer and became more obsessed because his daughter Abby went missing and he strongly suspected was abducted by the same serial killer.  The movie took a twist in the end and although I’m not happy with the ending, it is said that this movie is based on a true story – or motivated by one.  Go watch it – you won’t regret it – that’s for sure.

So I finally managed to get a chance to test out Windows 8 for a customer had brought his laptop in for reformatting and it had Windows 8 on it.  What do I think of it? Very different from the other OS that I’ve used thus far. You noticed immediately that the interface is totally different from Vista and Windows 7 – and you immediately know that this program was written for a touch screen but of course, you can still use it with a mouse and keyboard.  And if you have old files running on the older Windows OS – no worries, you can easily transfer them and make them workable with Windows 8 easily.

Although Windows  8  doesn’t have the start up menu like the old OS – it will only take you a few minutes to figure out where thing are and you will find that it is so much more better than Window Vista or Windows 7.  The little square boxes might intimate some for a bit but if you don’t like the way they are arranged you can just drag it along and place them where you want it to be.  I really like how the Charm Bar works – it’s new in the Wiindows OS – it’s user friendly once you get use to it.   I will play a little more with the new Windows 8 and let you know what I find in another post – but thus far, I feel that Windows 8 is totally different from all the other Windows that I’ve had before, so prepare to spend a little time with it when you plan to upgrade or buy this new OS.