I am so annoyed I feel like I'm about to implode.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Has anyone ever felt this way? I'm sure you have. When you wake up annoyed so you can go to work and be annoyed even more? I just want to scream!

*This is a long post. This all happened today before this was posted, except for the rant about the mini van.*

Roommates

I just moved out with a friend of mine from high school. He has compulsive disorders, so he can be VERY annoying. I woke up this morning to him screeching! Yes, screeching!

That seriously annoyed me. Or when he claps his hands out of the blue, UGH!

Hence why I mentioned "leaving the house to go to work, already annoyed".

Flying Mionkeys

At the hobbyshop, we keep a lot of "neat" things at the register for customers to play with...we need to rethink this policy...one of the things is a flying monkey. You attach him to your fingers, pull him back and let go. The force triggers an awful screeching monkey sound. I hate it. I HATE SCREECHING. My only consolation is that while the SC might play with it too much, they end up buying it and taking it far away from me. Until, that is, another SC comes to the register and the cycle continues.

Rollercoaster

We keep an HO scale model of the Comet, a 1920's ride from coney(sp) island. It is a working, tiny, rollercoaster, not just a model.

Little kids love it a bit too much. Two little boys so far today have gushed over it. They ran up to their dads and screeched, "DAD!DAD! LOOK AT THIS ROLLERCOASTER! LOOK AT THIS ROLLERCOASTER!"

We have a big, yellow sign on it that says, "Do Not Touch." It doesn't stop them from touching it. I say, "Hey, don't touch that." And they still think they can get away with touching it while they think I'm not looking. It's called a computer monitor! I can see what you're doing in the reflection! What? You think you're so clever?!! Fucking brat.

Now guess what? It's broken! I just had to tell my boyfriend, who spent ten hours building the damn thing, that some asshole kid broke it and I don't know who did it. Probably that 3 year old that ran up to it and grabbed it by the track and tried to pull it off the counter.

Holographic optical illusion thingie

It is a concave reflective bowl with another reflective concave bowl on top of it. It also has this little hole on top of it so you can see what's inside. Basically, it creates the illusion that whatever is inside of the thingie is sitting on top of the thingie. Has anyone ever seen these thingies?

We have had customers come up to it, pick it up, shake it, and exclaim, "What is this for? What does it do? Is it so you can look at it up close or something....?"*Sticks their face into the thingie*

I'm Lost!!!!

How hard are these directions?

-Take HWY XX west until you come to HWY XX. Make a left, you will be going south. At the VERY NEXT LIGHT, make a left, we will be right there.

SC- "Wait...what? I don't get it...left turn?"

Where are all the employees?

I am in full uniform with a nametag on, buried deep in boxes worth of merchandise and the SC will still ask, "Do you work here?"

No, it's my own personal halloween. No...wait! I don't work here! I'm stealing this pre-stickered merchandise in disguise! They'll never know what hit them!

The know-it-all.

We have these "sticky stones". They are magnetic. They could be hematite, I don't know and I really don't give a crap.

SC- What is this?
Me-Magnetic stones. We don't sell them yet, those are just demos.
SC-You mean hematite?
Me-Yeah, it could be I guess.
SC- It's hematite.

I really don't give a rat's ass lady. So you know what hematite is, why did you ask me, "What is this" if you already knew what it was? Bitch. I hate it when people pick arguments, especially with people they don't know.

I NEED KEVIN!!!!!!!!!!

We have quite a few customers that depend WAYYYY too much on our RC guy, Kevin. I have picked up the phone and the person on the other end has demanded to speak to Kevin about something I could have just as easily taken care of.

I know I'm a girl, but that doesn't mean I can't help you find a certain part for your RC car. We have a computer system and a book that has a parts list. You just can't expect me to do it all for you, know exactly what you want. Don't call it the thing that hooks to the thing that's metal....ALL OF THE PARTS ON YOUR CAR FIT THAT DESCRIPTION. But, you call me an idiot because I don't know what you're talking about?

We just want to come in and look...

They pull up in a mini van full of kids 2 minutes before closing and wonder why I dash like my life depends on it to the door to lock it.

Me- Sorry, can't let you in, we're closed.
SC- But we just want to look....
Me- Sorry.
SC- We just got here and we have a couple minutes before closing...
Me- That's not what the store clock says, and that's the one we go by.

I'm not going to let a family full of people in two minutes before closing because they want to hang out here. I've seen this several times, they rush in, stay and don't buy anything!

The robot.

We have this robot, not really a "robot" robot, just a toy that you can control with a remote that looks like a robot. You can't program it or anything.

It can shoot discs at people, and that's what I do. I shoot people with foam discs, and pretend it's a whole different kind of arsenal.

It keeps me from actually killing anyone.

[Sharsarannon]

Those annoying rocks- Magnetized hematite. If you don't like screeching be sure to never carry the torpedo shaped ones- they make a horrific noise when two of them clatter against each other.

And your roomie? Move out before you kill each other. NOW.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That roller coaster sounds really cool. I hope it's fixable

The question "Do you work here?" just makes me twitch...

A friend of mine at Store2 used to come up behind me all the time and ask "Do you work here?" Luckily for him I always knew it was him

[Aldous]

The roller coaster story reminded me of a project that we had to do on Coney Island for Sociology. Great memory, thanks for letting me go down amnesia lane to remember that. Coney Island, the place where grown men spent millions to one-up one another, and people were entertained by lights, rides, and weird stuff. Fun Fact, the first working Incubator was at Coney Island, because hospitals thought it was a bad idea, until it was proven that there was a 75% increase in the survival rate of premature babies while inside the Incubator!!! I'm gonna go hide now, for knowing that.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Those annoying rocks- Magnetized hematite. If you don't like screeching be sure to never carry the torpedo shaped ones- they make a horrific noise when two of them clatter against each other.

And your roomie? Move out before you kill each other. NOW.

Okay, so they're magnetized. They don't just come that way. I have seen buckets full of hematite at geology type stores and they didn't stick together. This lady was implying that ALL hematite was magnetized.

My roomie is allright. If he ever bugs me, I just say, "Douglas, shut the fuck up, I SWEAR I will kill you with a poison tipped, sharpened, egg wisk. Or I just ignore him and repress it. Ever seen that family guy episode when they show a close up of Lois' brain? There's this Peter shaped tumor on top of her brain singing, "I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor"over and over again...yeah, that's going to be me with a Doug tumor, but he'll be screeching AND singing about poop.

And that thing about the incubator...I didn't know that until you told me. I love to learn things from other people, unless of course you're an asshole know-it-all like that lady. Anyway, elaborate on the incubator, I'm trying to get a history degree. Random knowledge is useful!

[karma_gypsy]

Has anyone ever felt this way? I'm sure you have. When you wake up annoyed so you can go to work and be annoyed even more? I just want to scream!

I have . . . it's called PMS. Don't cross my path or you'll get the glare of doom.

I just moved out with a friend of mine from high school. He has compulsive disorders, so he can be VERY annoying. I woke up this morning to him screeching! Yes, screeching!

Heh heh, take an alarm clock (one that's really noisy, really obnoxious) and hide it under his bed. Set it for 3-4 in the morning. You should probably do this on your day off or somethin' because you won't get much sleep that morning. Probably wouldn't hurt to have a camcorder/camera ready either . . . He'll be furious with you, but it'll probably be funnier than hell.

At the hobbyshop, we keep a lot of "neat" things at the register for customers to play with...we need to rethink this policy...one of the things is a flying monkey.

Those things drive me nuts, they attract children especially . . .

We keep an HO scale model of the Comet, a 1920's ride from coney(sp) island. It is a working, tiny, rollercoaster, not just a model.

That just sounds downright cool.

Where are the parents? Why are the parents letting these little youngsters put their hands all over an intricate model? Don't you have a "you break it, you buy it policy?" (Although, you didn't notice who broke it, but usually that policy makes parents think twice). When I see kids playing with our arcade game (one of those huge ones you see in an acarde) that we have for sale (over $1000), I remind them of the "policy."

"Getyourhandsoffofthatrightnow!" is usually the following statement made by the parent.

Has anyone ever seen these thingies?

I have and I usually know what it is/does by READING THE SIGN or BOX located NEARBY.

SC- "Wait...what? I don't get it...left turn?"

Apparently this person makes a living by making right turns only . . . Eventually, he'll end up in Nunuvit with an 867 area code tattooed to his forehead.

No, it's my own personal halloween. No...wait! I don't work here! I'm stealing this pre-stickered merchandise in disguise! They'll never know what hit them!

"Here's your sign . . ."

We have these "sticky stones". They are magnetic. They could be hematite, I don't know and I really don't give a crap.

Exactly. Usually when I get the 'I know what it is' speech, I usually make a point to promptly forget it when the person leaves. I don't need useless information taking up space in my head - in which I *really* the space for: how to get to my work, my phone number and address and images of hot muscley guys.

We have quite a few customers that depend WAYYYY too much on our RC guy, Kevin. I have picked up the phone and the person on the other end has demanded to speak to Kevin about something I could have just as easily taken care of.

We had one of those as well (except his expertise was video games). Luckily the guy quit. It's fun watching "his" customers run around fearing for their life.

They pull up in a mini van full of kids 2 minutes before closing and wonder why I dash like my life depends on it to the door to lock it.

Oh hell no. I've done the dash before myself - although, I just flat didn't want to deal with customers anymore . . . not because we were closing . . . (we'll, we were closed to carryout orders . . .)

Plus, little do customers realize, the time it takes them to fart around the store, they're taking up employees time. Now, employees are getting paid, most owners don't want to pay 3-6 employees the extra 10 or so minutes they are forced to wait for dumbassary. And, come on, that $1.99 candy bar isn't going to cut it.

It can shoot discs at people, and that's what I do. I shoot people with foam discs, and pretend it's a whole different kind of arsenal.

It keeps me from actually killing anyone.

Would be nice, wouldn't it? You could probably use it to annoy people though. Kind of like water torture. That could be fun. Beware the flying foam discs of ANNOYANCE! Be annoyed, damn you!

[Sliceanddice]

Flying Mionkeys

At the hobbyshop, we keep a lot of "neat" things at the register for customers to play with...we need to rethink this policy...one of the things is a flying monkey. You attach him to your fingers, pull him back and let go. The force triggers an awful screeching monkey sound. I hate it. I HATE SCREECHING. My only consolation is that while the SC might play with it too much, they end up buying it and taking it far away from me. Until, that is, another SC comes to the register and the cycle continues.

OMG I LOVE THOSE THINGS!!! the floor coachs at my work love them!!! They really make the SCs livable and they freak out people not paying attention and...
*Notices the glares coming from the CSsers*
Um....
*Hides behind her Purple Mewing Kitty Boinker*
Please dont kill!!!! I have kitty you can abuse instead!!

[Imogene]

Purple Mewing Kitty Boinker

Er...?
Is the Purple Mewing Kitty boinking? Or is it for Boinking kitties?
Either way, stupid mind, get out of the gutter. And into the sewer, where it's filthier.

[Aldous]

Okay, the incubators were used in the Dreamland amusement park. The first infants to be in the Incubator were premature triplets. Doctors advised the parents of the incubation system, but could not use it because Incubators were not a normal process at the time. So the parents put their children in the hands of Coney Island. Of the three, two of them survived and grew up to have normal lives.
Note: I research history, and write papers for fun. I'm full of facts that no one needs to know, but little things that are fun to know. Now go impress your family with the history of the Incubator. I am a God of Nerds.

[Sliceanddice]

Er...?
Is the Purple Mewing Kitty boinking? Or is it for Boinking kitties?
Either way, stupid mind, get out of the gutter. And into the sewer, where it's filthier.

lol Actually i misspelled it. Its Boinger not Boinker. Make since.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Omg, aldous, karma gypsy, you are fucking hilarious I swear. You're all hilarious.

I have more for you:

Do it for me?

Some guy came in and wanted to know how to make some drill go in and out...no one ever tells Kevin WHY they want to do things like this, but I'm sure we'll find out on the evening news...he wanted to know how to hot wire a servo and blah blah blah etc. Well, you can't hot wire a servo. Kevin told him he needed to progam it instead using a computer radio system. His response?"Can you do it for me?"

Or the people who came in earlier today, after the first post, who did the, "Hmmmm...she's in uniform and wearing a name tag, but I'll have to ask to make sure...Excuse me? Do you work here?"

Anyway, they asked Kevin if he ever watched TV.
Kevin-.....uh...yeah.
SC- Have you ever watched *certain food network cake show*.
Kevin-...maybe once...
SC- Well, we do stuff like that and we need a motor that will rotate a cake pan...blah blah blah...more about cakes.

Kevin tells them what they need to know and what they need to do with a motor to make it spin something as heavy as a cake, but they didn't give him any input. They couldn't understand what gear reduction was and Kevin wasn't prepared to do their project for them.

When they left one of them said, "Thanks for your help." And then they left. But I could hear the other person ask, "Why did you thank him, he wasn't any help."

Asshole. We are a hobbyshop, not a "do it for you" store. "Hobby" implies that you do it yourself!

[Aldous]

I think that a requirement for most hobbies is a working brain. Which it seems that alot of your worse customers don't have. You might want to point them in the direction of a Neurosurgeon, because I'm sure he could use a few "weird cases" to tell his friends and family. And in an off-topic note, I wonder if any Doctor has a hobby of collecting "weird shit I got off a patient."?

[JustaCashier]

I love to learn things from other people.......

Hey, Gabrielle! Didja know..........

......unless of course you're an asshole know-it-all.....

........Uh ......Never mind!

Mike

[Jadedcarguy]

Gabrielle, you have my sympathy on the new roomy. I've had some bad ones, the worst of which sold Ecstasy out of MY house and dumped his car trash out in the driveway. The other bad ones just trashed the place as fast or faster than I could clean it....... Good luck with that.

[earl colby pottinger]

Hobby stores

I think that a requirement for most hobbies is a working brain?

First, I find there are two main type of hobby stores. The ones you find in big malls tend to be selling for no-brainers. Kits are either already assembled, or only have a a few snap together parts and just need a paint job or decals. And no I am not talking about those paint jobs using a delicate set of brushes and 10-36 hours of careful paint. I am talk slap-dash-thank you madam type paint jobs.

The other type basically sell you a bunch of part, manuals of designing your own stuff and expects to figure it out, or go to you local hobby club where you help someone learn something at the same time you are taught something new.

There is a type that is half way in between, but at-least some of the hobbies they sell still require you to use you brains otherwise you just have a bunch of junk parts.