(no subject)
It never amazes me how surprised some customers get when they realize that I work for a business that is trying to make money. I know, I know. It's extremely rare in a capitalist society, but my store has always leaned toward the Bohemian side of things. I was working in romance the other day (I now shelve romance, scifi/fantasy and the new age side of metaphysics) when I heard a woman complaining about the books. "Come on," she said to her companion. "Let's go. I'm not going to shop here anymore. They only pay you a quarter for paperbacks and then they turn around and sell them for full price."
Now, I'm not going to defend our buying practices because, like I said, we're trying to make money. If you've never been to my store, we pay based on supply and demand, so you can be sure that if it's Sandra Brown or James Patterson or Danielle fucking Steele, we pay very little because chances are, we already have twenty copies waiting to be shelved. We don't need another one. Also, there is almost nothing in our store that is sold for full price, being that it's a used book store, not even the brand new merchandise that was bought at auctions from other publishers that couldn't move it. I love Doctor Who, but Jesus Christ, if I see one more 2008 annual with a new sticker on it, I am liable to buy a goat just to feed the book to it. We don't sticker our paper backs (unless they come to us new because blah blah boring work stuff) and most people that don't know that they are buying them for 50% off usually ask something like, "Are these really full price?" because they realize that they are in a used book store where you can buy a hardcover for less than ten bucks.
My time not at work (and since I open all the time, I'm home by five, giving me quite a bit of free time in the evening) has been spent playing Oblivion. I didn't mean to get back into it, but now I am. I've taken a break from my warrior/sort-of-mage type character to make a stealthy character. I'm not exactly sure how to go about playing her yet because I'm so used to playing hack-n-slash types. I'm also very tempted to turn her into a vampire because I want to see how that goes, though I may make a completely separate character to turn into a vampire.
What I love about the Bethesda games are that they are almost completely gender neutral. I haven't played Fallout in quite some time, so I'm not entirely sure how true that is of those games. With Oblivion, the first time I was ever called something related to my gender was when I was in Bruma for the first time and was made a Knight Sister. Gender does have some effect on base stats (like Khajiit females being weaker in strength but males are weaker in endurance). However, the armor covers everything. The skimpiest I could find for women was the chainmail armor that bared her arms, but nothing else. Seriously: no short skirts, no bikinis, no fucking thongs and stilettos.
Unfortunately, the game is so fucking buggy. I've had my Nook at my side so I can check the wiki every so often and at the bottom of nearly every page, there is at least one bug, usually two or more. Also, the engine generates pretty awkward looking people. They kind of look like something you'd see reflected in a carnival mirror. The caps from Skyrim look so much better and I can't wait for November. I'm hoping that the game will be much smoother, but after Morrowind and Oblivion being so damned buggy, I'm not really holding my breath.
Now, I'm not going to defend our buying practices because, like I said, we're trying to make money. If you've never been to my store, we pay based on supply and demand, so you can be sure that if it's Sandra Brown or James Patterson or Danielle fucking Steele, we pay very little because chances are, we already have twenty copies waiting to be shelved. We don't need another one. Also, there is almost nothing in our store that is sold for full price, being that it's a used book store, not even the brand new merchandise that was bought at auctions from other publishers that couldn't move it. I love Doctor Who, but Jesus Christ, if I see one more 2008 annual with a new sticker on it, I am liable to buy a goat just to feed the book to it. We don't sticker our paper backs (unless they come to us new because blah blah boring work stuff) and most people that don't know that they are buying them for 50% off usually ask something like, "Are these really full price?" because they realize that they are in a used book store where you can buy a hardcover for less than ten bucks.
My time not at work (and since I open all the time, I'm home by five, giving me quite a bit of free time in the evening) has been spent playing Oblivion. I didn't mean to get back into it, but now I am. I've taken a break from my warrior/sort-of-mage type character to make a stealthy character. I'm not exactly sure how to go about playing her yet because I'm so used to playing hack-n-slash types. I'm also very tempted to turn her into a vampire because I want to see how that goes, though I may make a completely separate character to turn into a vampire.
What I love about the Bethesda games are that they are almost completely gender neutral. I haven't played Fallout in quite some time, so I'm not entirely sure how true that is of those games. With Oblivion, the first time I was ever called something related to my gender was when I was in Bruma for the first time and was made a Knight Sister. Gender does have some effect on base stats (like Khajiit females being weaker in strength but males are weaker in endurance). However, the armor covers everything. The skimpiest I could find for women was the chainmail armor that bared her arms, but nothing else. Seriously: no short skirts, no bikinis, no fucking thongs and stilettos.
Unfortunately, the game is so fucking buggy. I've had my Nook at my side so I can check the wiki every so often and at the bottom of nearly every page, there is at least one bug, usually two or more. Also, the engine generates pretty awkward looking people. They kind of look like something you'd see reflected in a carnival mirror. The caps from Skyrim look so much better and I can't wait for November. I'm hoping that the game will be much smoother, but after Morrowind and Oblivion being so damned buggy, I'm not really holding my breath.