Tales From The Video Store...

One of the worst things about working in a video store would have to be the late fees.  And im pretty sure anyone who has hired from a video store would agree.

Trying to convince people to part with their cash to pay off their late fees is one thing, and was certainly something I was NEVER fond of doing.  But when people would come in and pay for an $8 movie with a $50 note, and then claim they have no $$$ to pay for their oh so expensive $3 late fee really hacked me off.  Seriously?!  It's one thing to lie to me, whatever that's your business.  But to think im an idiot?  Just because I look like one, doesn't mean I actually am lol. 

The video store I work in seems to have some of the most clueless members to EVER hire movies. These are some of their stories

Recap:  I like to call this particular customer Mr Chatty. He's about mid 20's, unemployed, lives alone, doesn't know many people in the area. His Dad lives about 2 hours drive down south from him, and his brother lives about an hours drive north. I found all this out, when he came in to sign up.... And he was in the store for less then 10 minutes.

In fact I know almost everything about this guy's personal life. Every Wednesday, without fail he shows up to pick out his 6 movies for the week. Apart from getting his food shopping once every 2 weeks or checking in with his WINZ case manager every 3 months, (Work and Income New Zealand, where the unemployed scam money off this great country of mine!). Talking to me seems to be one of the few times he gets proper human contact. So every Wednesday I would put on my biggest grin, and ask how Mr Chatty's week had been, and he'd chat away to me for almost a solid hour.

So when I started working at the other video store I stopped seeing Mr Chatty, thank goodness!  However!!!  About 3 months ago, guess who I ran into while I was at the mall doing some birthday shopping for a friend...... yep Mr Chatty *dramatic sigh* .  So what was meant to be a quick shopping expedition to grab a couple of birthday presents and a nice card, turned into a three hour talk marathon from hell!  

Over the course of 3 hours he pretty much told me EXACTLY how his life was going, from the last day he talked, up until that morning............... I have never been so damn bored in my entire LIFE!!  What he's been doing, who he's been sleeping with, what his Dad had been up to, the fact that he moved out of his Dads then moved back in, then moved to his brothers then got kicked out then shifted into a WINZ house but he hates his neighbours...............   AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! 

I DON'T CARE! Ok, it's bad enough sometimes when you accidentally bump into a customer that you serve at the store, occasionally it's ok, but most of the time you just don't know what to say to them "hey, nice to see you at the supermarket.... so how'd that tranny Asian porn you hired he other night work out for you?"..... NO, just no!  But this is just too damn much!  But in saying that I was very nice (well as nice as I can be anyway), and sat and listened to what Mr Chatty had to say, I smiled and nodded in the correct places, and managed to keep the "holy-crap-get-me-out-of-here" look off my face for most of the conversation I think.....

The video store I work in seems to have some of the most clueless members to EVER hire movies. These are some of their stories

Now I have worked in two *Video Stores* both in my little corner of Auckland, and both are the same franchise.  So when I transferred to the store I work in now, I honestly thought I had left Pervy Old Guy, or POG as I like to call him behind........ but alas, the other store closed down due to lack of awesome me being there (or because the business was losing money.... but im pretty sure it was lack of me) and POG started coming to my store again to hire movies.

He came in a couple of weeks ago and well....... it seems he has a new obsession, because he got nothing but Miley Cyrus movies out, we're talking everything from Hannah Montana to her new "grown up" movie 'The Last Song'.  I guess the Olsen Twins can now rest easy knowing he is no longer getting sweaty over their movies since he's moved on.   The guy still gives off this super strong molester vibe, and I wouldn't be surprised if he drove a very nondescript van with a sign on the side saying "Free Candy & Puppies, Inquire Within"

Just wanted to say a big thanks to the creator of I Wish I Invented That who helped me with my blog by doing the layout for it!!

You rock dude!!!

Wednesday night there's an interview with Slater on 60 minutes (tv3 7:30pm) they'll be talking about him campaigning for city council and every time I see the ad for the programme and his dopey almost drunk looking face pops on screen I have this sudden urge to punch my television.  I personally think the man is despicable but I know a lot of people agree with what he's doing and they really like him, each to their own.  Im not going to pick a fight with someone because they like his take on things, I however, find his actions (we're talking about his name suppression campaign here) idiotic.  I think the point he's trying to get across is a valid enough one, that people shouldn't be able to get name suppression just because they are famous or wealthy, but going on a name and shame crusade against people is not the way to go about things.  Clearly the laws surrounding name suppression have to be looked at and changed especially with the internet being such a big part of society these days.  But what Slater is doing to try and remedy the situation just proves how ignorant he is, surely Slater could use his blog and the ability to reach so many people to try and get laws changed without putting people (be it wittingly or unwittingly) in harms way.

Anyway here's a blog I posted for class, I thought it was sort of interesting, hopefully others feel the same. 

How much privacy can the everyday person expect in a world where people use social sites like twitter to tell us what they've had for lunch, how much work they have left to do before the end of the day, if their boss is being mean and nasty or even if their bowel movement was normal. Does anyone really care THAT much about what you're doing that they need an almost hourly update on what mundane things you're doing around the office or at home? But what if the privacy you expected was a little more serious than having you twitter or facebook account locked down so only your closest cyber buddies could see what you're up too..... What if it was the information surrounding a terrible tragedy in your life, what then?

Cameron Slater, a New Zealand online blogger was recently convicted on 9 out of the 10 charges of breaching name suppression orders: each of these convictions came with a $750 fine as well as court costs. Most of the people he chose to 'name and shame' were high profile defendants some of whom had been convicted of sexual assault. But one of the people whose name suppression he chose to breach was the victim of a sexual assault, and he did so knowingly and without remorse. In a statement outside the Auckland courts on the 14th of September Slater said he had "no regrets, and was not remorseful". Well im sure the sexual assault victim he happily outed will be pleased as punch to hear that.

In the court transcript the mentioning of the charge (charge number 2, on page 59 if you want to find it in the transcripts) is as follows "The article also identified the victim of the offending in the following way. "He faces a raft of charges including four charges of raping his wife, unlawful sexual connection with his wife and abduction for sex" the blog this was posted in also had an easily decodable pictogram of the accused. This gave the people reading enough information to figure out who the victim of the crime was.

In class everyone seemed to have a differing idea on what privacy is, and indeed most people do. What is private to some isn't to others, so I can't tell you that yes Slater was right or no he was in the wrong, I can only give you my opinion. In the end it is really up to you to decide if Cameron Slater was rightly or wrongly convicted, or even if a $750 fine is enough of a punishment. I just know that if he had outed someone I love and care about in this way..... I'd want more than a $750 fine to be his punishment.  

Had a pair of teenage girls get into an argument over the last Twilight dvd in our store....... They were bitching over who got to rent it..............

I...... Just....... No.

I wonder how the customers would react if I talked like a pirate for the whole night??

LoL I'm considering it.......

So I saw Salt before I saw Inception today, and despite Inception overshadowing it I still found Salt to be a really good movie.  It's nice to see a female action hero in something that isn't all about Boobies and Bums. 

You can see why they originally made this for Tom Cruise, it's clearly the beginnings of what they hope to be a Mission Impossible type franchise.  And I think with Jolie as the lead, it could be.  Now I know it hasn't made as much money as the studios hoped it would, but this is the kind of movie that will rent SO well when it comes onto DVD.  So really they have nothing to worry about.

It's a solid 3.5/5 for me.  

LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT!!!!! 5/5.  It's an amazing film with a stunning cast and I will be seeing this movie at least 2 more times!

Twilight has forever changed the face of literature, after its violent beating and rape of the English language, it left the corpse to rot in a sticky puddle of its own blood and bitter tears. All subtlety is lost as it rips out the organs of plot, characterization, and basic grammar, leaving behind a hollow shell of a vapid romance that is both void of true emotions and common sense. Where Anne Rice left off with the mere neutering of Vampires as monsters, Meyers has gone and done a full gender reassignment.
As I said in a previous blog last year when Twilight came onto DVD I had a lot of insane rabid fangirls drooling all over our store begging to get their hands on a copy of Twilight, and this a full two months before it came onto DVD. Turns out, im having the same problems with New Moon

In New Zealand Twilight: New Moon comes out on the 14th of April, and again since it came into cinemas all those months ago I have had people coming in and requesting a DVD rental copy of New Moon because for some unknown reason customers seem to think if they see an ad for a movie on TV then they MUST be able to rent the movie RIGHT AWAY! Now those customers I can deal with, I've been working at this store for a couple years now so im use to it. But this guy................

We shall call him... yep HIM, Mr Sparkle. Mr Sparkle came into the store and happily asked for a copy of New Moon, I happily informed him that the DVD will be out on the 14th but if he was to check back in three days before the release date he could reserve a copy so he wouldn't miss out when it was released (a problem we had with the first one, not enough copies for all the customers who wanted it) so he huffed and got a bit annoyed that he couldn't get it right away and went off to think about things.

Now at this point I served a few more customers and hired out our last copy of Twilight to someone (it had been hiring really well since the dvd release date of New Moon, because people want to rewatch the first one before they see the second movie). Fast foward to an hour later and Mr Sparkle comes back in more annoyed then when he left and proceeds to spend 10 minutes telling me off for making him wait to see New Moon when he couldn simply download it but had decided "out of the goodness of his heart" to rent a copy from our store anyway. I give him my little speech about how I can't change the release date of a movie, and im very sorry about this (the entire time I have that fake shit eater grin plastered on my face that ANYONE who has ever worked in retail has for when a customer is driving them up the wall) it's after my little speech that he demands a copy of Twilight instead saying that "it will just have to bloody do then wont it!" Only problem.... I just rented our last copy out and nothing is due back until the next morning. So I tell him this and apologise once again............

And he starts getting all upset.......... to the point of tears................ Mr Sparkle, a full grown adult male........... was standing in my store, crying over his lack of sparkly vampire goodness........... At this point I can only think one thing........
God Damn Twilight!!!!!!!