Ever notice how it's the little things in life that amuse us so much? More to the point, ever notice how it's the silly little idiocies in life that amuse us more than anything else? Well, this is not as much ''the little blog that could'' as it is ''the blog that enjoys going up the down escalator in your local mall.'' Will it have anything of real importance? No, probably not. But enjoy the ride never the less!

 


A few years ago, Hit Entertainment started bringing out the Fraggle Rock seasons on DVD box sets, and those boxes were nothing short of glorious, filled with lots of extra bits for the raging Henson fan (such as myself). And then, roughly a year ago, they went and stuck their corporate heads up their corporate asses and decreed that there would be no 4th & final season box. Instead, they released a "complete series" box set, forcing those of us who'd bought seasons 1-3 to either go without the final season, or cough up even more cash to have two sets of the first 3 seasons.

At the time, Hit did promise to make the complete series box one loaded with lots of extras, one that (and I am pretty much quoting the Email they sent back to us when Mel asked about this kerfuffle) "would honour the spirit of Jim Henson and his works."

Spoiler: it didn't. In fact, it failed. Hard.

Needless to say, the backlash from fans was impressive. No one liked the idea of having re-buy seasons 1-3, but the series box had jack-all to offer in terms of the promised extras. More to the point, it was still worth keeping the original season boxes since they had extra things that the complete series didn't include. I think the fanbase ended up being divided down the middle: half didn't buy the complete series out of protest, and the other half bought the series box if only to have the final season. Amazon's feedback on the complete series was particularly scathing: most everyone posting on it stated they were buying the box to support the show, but they despised the way Hit had done this.

I ended up falling more or less with the former crowd. I waited, partially because I despised what had happened and partially because I had no the finances to buy the $120 series box.

Today makes me happy. And here's why:

http://www.amazon.ca/Fraggle-Rock-Complete-Final-Season/dp/B002OHROA6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1253273777&sr=1-2


Some days one can't help but smile. The inner Henson geek in me rejoices.

Hold on...Mel has just informed me there's nothing inner about my Henson geekery. She's also informed me that whenever Henson is involved in the conversation, I can't shut up about it. She's also informed me that yes, she rejoices with me, but my geeking is drowning out her Katamari Damacy.

I'll revel on the couch in the meantime.

Labels: Fraggle Rock and Roll

posted by Phillip at 4:25 AM

 


The Back-To-School season has reached its endgame, and yea, though there were casualties on both sides of the counter, I am relieved to say that I have survived. Not without a newfound dose of general contempt for the consumer mindset, but I think that’s just the cynicism talking. Though this does bring up an interesting question, one that I fear shall never be answered or remedied without the use of large firearms or snarling rottweilers ironically called “Muffin.”

That question remains: if a mall is open for 5 hours, and thusly people have 5 hours to shop however they like, why is it that our store is ridiculously empty for the first 4.5 hours and insanely crazy for the last half hour (plus an extra 5-10 minutes after the mall has officially closed)? Are people physically incapable of doing their essential shopping earlier? Are they terrified that if they don’t get it right now, the world might end and they’ll be mocked by St. Peter at dem Pearly Gates for not having a stylish enough purse or suitcase? Are they compelled by the power of Christ (or alternately, asshattery) to gather in our store at the very end of the day and demand everything under the sun?

Now I’m not a particularly violent man…well, usually, unless zombies are involved, in which case bring on the shotguns and gin!…but I really do fear that one day I will end up on the news for having done some rather unsavory things to a last-minute customer who just “had to buy something” in the literal last minute before I closed the store.

Or maybe not. That’s only if they find the body, and you’d be surprised how much our luggage boxes can hold…not that I’ve hidden in then to scare small children or other store employees, oh no…perish the thought…absolutely…tee hee! >)

So, for those of you who haven’t frantically clicked the “Back” button in sudden fear of being left alone in this blog with me, welcome back!

There could be the usual sad, sad apologies for not having updated this little bit of nowhere over the last month and a half. Excuses could be listed, such as “we had to go grocery shopping after a long shift and got home really late” or “my nose itched.” In the end, the truth is probably the better way to go: I was too tired and really didn’t care. Now I know that sounds bad, not wanting you all to read about all the silly little bits and aggravations I experience, but fact is lately all I’ve had to write about have been the aggravations and fatigue. I’m sure there were a few sill bits here and there. Alas, I’ve forgotten them. Maybe if I can recall a few I’ll add them here. As it is, I had to dust off my laptop when I sat down tonight to write this.

Mind you…there is one funny-in-a-maddening-way anecdote worth commenting on. It involves our Head Office, and the usual rectal-cranial conversion they’ve become rather known for. For this tale to be properly understood, you need to remember just one critical thing: our current store is small, temporary and due to be vacated for our new location in less than a month.

It was for those specific reasons that our District Manager deliberately put a freeze on large shipments to our store. We’d have no room to store these items, and since we’ll be moving shortly, most of that excess would just end up being transferred to other stores via Purolator…so you can imagine the waste of money by shipping things to us, only for them to be shipped elsewhere a few weeks later.

Two weeks ago, right in the prime of our Back-To-School sales, our manifest printed out 20 pages of boxes due in. Since at worst our shipments usually number 4 pages, you can imagine our panic. 130 boxes of waaaaaaay to many backpacks (in styles we weren’t selling too, might I add) were supposed to arrive that day. They never did. Two days passed, and the 130 boxes were still on the manifest.

Well…that’s not entirely accurate. It was 130 plus an extra 50 overstock boxes that wanted to show up the next day too, and then there were also a backlog of boxes due to arrive with regular shipments but never showed. So now there were over 180 boxes expected. And we were going through printing paper like there was no tomorrow. Way to be environmentally friendly, Head Office!

Naturally I checked with our D.M. to see what was up. She informed me that because of our stock freeze, those boxes were being held up at the distribution warehouse, collecting dust. She had even gone so far as to inform a Vice President of the company about this, insisting that the boxes be redistributed to other stores. She added that ideally, in a few days the manifest should be reset to reflect the deletion of those boxes from our list.

A week passed. During the busiest period of the entire season for us…guess what arrived? Oh yes, Murphy’s Law is not only alive and well, but also a complete sadist. The first day saw 60 boxes inexplicably show up. We managed to work through them. The following day, the rest of them appeared.

Needless to say, our poor Purolator driver was not pleased. Neither were we, of course. And all this led to a most amusing conversation I had with my D.M. She ended up calling on the day we got the 130+ boxes in, though for a completely different reason. The conversation went something like this:

D.M.: “How’s it going over there?”

Me: “Oh, I’ve had better days.”

D.M.: “Really? What’s happening?”

Me: “You remember that funny joke you told me last week, about how we weren’t getting those 150+ boxes in?”

D.M.: [unimpressed] “WHAT?”

Me: “Oh yeah, we had about 50 yesterday and the rest are here now. We’re attempting to go through them as we speak. And I’ve also managed to create a blockade in the back half of the store that’s taller than me; it’s the only way we could stack them in a way that didn’t create a fire hazard.”

D.M.: [even more unimpressed] “And I told them not to send you anything…”

Me: “I think someone missed that memo.”


Whereupon that topic ended with my D.M. making cryptic remarks that seemed to promise physical violence on those responsible. At least that’s what I’m guessing since here voice played somewhere between “tired and exasperated” and “D.M. SMASH PUNY HEAD OFFICE DUMBASSES!!!!1onesies!”

This is rather sad too, since by all accounts our Head Office has been really on the ball in getting our new store up & running. I think they’re going to be the first contractors to finish the storefront in the mall expansion section. I had been hoping this was a sign of greater things to come.

Sadly, I was only half right. Greater things, yes, but greater doesn’t automatically mean “more competent” or “more respectable.” Hell, I would have settled for “more cowbell” from them. As it is, most of what they gave us will be going straight out to other stores in maybe a week or two. I think this is why I laugh and cry so much at the management in the Dilbert strips: I know that these people exist, and they fear Earth logic.

Other than all of that, with the store activity ideally quieting down (well, as best as it can with an impending move and new location on the horizon), I may find more time and energy to update the blog. At least I’m really hoping for the chance to do that. This little bit of nowhere deserves better.

On the other hand, that may be more difficult now since Mel’s gotten the both of us addicted to Numb3rs. Plus we’re attempting to nab a bunch of the Ghibli movies before any of them go the way of the Totoro. If you missed one of Mel's blink-and-you'll-never-see-another-one-for-six-months LJ posts, there's been a terrible development with the subtitled Totoro DVDs. Namely they're going extinct. If you can find one, I recommend you cough up the money now because if you want it a year down the road, you may be paying about three times today's price.

(As it is, I've spent the last year kicking myself for ignoring the $30 Project Ako DVD box set at Hairy Tarantula, only to turn around and discover that now Ako's gone extinct too. Dammit...)

Anyhoo, back to Ghibli. I surprised Mel with Nausicaa a few days ago…and after watching it again for the first time in maybe ten years, I’d forgotten how much most of the human cast were assholes. It’s kind of depressing when you’re rooting for the weird, nightmarish-looking bugs. But on the plus side, everyone else being assholes is what makes Nausicaa and her gang stand out as being so damned awesome.


Today’s Lesson: your friend’s 9 week-old puppy thinks everything is a chewtoy. Even your chin.

Labels: cheer up Emo blogger, Curse of the store of the back to school season, this is why someone from Head Office was found neatly folded and stuffed into a luggage box

posted by Phillip at 6:06 PM