Tales From The Video Store...

First let me start off by saying WOW!  I can't get over how fantastic an actress Emma Stone is.  I really hope she keeps going on this track and doesn't end up a Lindsey Lohan 2.0, she's not only funny but subtle and genuinely likable & relatable in this film.  It's basically a teen sex comedy..... but with a brain, and that is a pretty refreshing change.

The movie itself has a pretty basic storyline, girl lies about sex, lie spreads and snowballs, hilarity ensues.  But the movie is so much more then that.  A lot of the humor in this is very subtle and doesn't rely on dick and fart jokes or poop gags to get the chuckles from the audience.  And in the film it's not just Emma Stone who's outstanding, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive's parents are flat out funny.  And it's so nice to see Lisa Kudrow and Thomas Haden Church back in action! 

This movie for me is a full price 5/5 !  I cannot recommend it enough.

One of the most utterly awkward things about working in a video store would have to be meeting customers outside of working hours.  Now don't get me wrong, despite having some of the most amazingly funny and generally wicked customers when I worked at the video store, there are always a couple you simply dread bumping into when you are out and about shopping.

One customer bump-in in particular was a gentleman who had gone on a porn renting bonanza the previous weekend.  Now he had hired a stack of new releases, a goooood $50 worth of all different and slightly odd types of porn (you can never say that my video store wasn't diverse) and had brought them back late the next day, so he got fines for each dvd.  Unlike many customers he paid the fines without a fuss and even made a bit of small talk.  However.....

What the fuck do you say to the guy when you bump into him at the local mall?!?!  Which is exactly what happened to me.  He came up to me while I was shopping and asked me where we knew each other from..... and he was not best pleased when I refreshed his memory of how... exactly... we knew each other.  I managed to stumble my way through an embarrassing conversation with this guy while he sort of mumbled and looked at his shoes turning an ever increasing shade of red............................. 

Not one of my better shopping trips, although I did giggle about it for about 10 minutes after he left.  Poor bugger.

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.