Well, as long as we're all flaggellating.... it's all good.

Kinda. It's improving, but I think Thatch said we were "a classless society" and that's clearly bollocks.

[Bold mine.]

Your customers are under chronic financial stress which may influence their value of truth and perspective on reality. There are other circumstances which do the same and you're not alone in the way you deal with it; but, you're shortchanging yourself when you said "... just because ...". For instance, healthcare workers at all levels are trained to interact with people who have dementia, psychosis, developmental disability... etc. within the framework of that person's perception of truth and reality, to the extent that they can without causing significant harm, rather than calling them out on every disparity between their presentation and the truth. It's done primarily to keep the lines of communication open by giving enough leeway to those with challenges to accord their self-perception of dignity (though sometimes to protect them). People challenged with living at; or, just above the survival level, whether in Philly or Cortez, often can't afford to have that perception on their own.

Not.

Right; maybe I should have said "makes it possible to do the job" when trying to align financial reality with ghetto ignorance and lack of polite culture.

Today I was in the shop, and it was a weird day (as all days in the shop are). During the morning, people were polite and intelligent and simply did their transactions; and during the afternoon, there were three separate incidents with older women who had left their jewelry in pawn for too long and lost it.

When people put things into pawn, they have 5 months to retrieve it. At the time they pawn, they're given a ticket which lists the price after 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 4 months. At the 4 month mark, they are sent a registered letter, which tells them their stuff is due and they are being given 30 days of grace period to come get their stuff. All this is explained to them when they put their items in.

But people lose things all the time anyway, because they are ghetto ignorant and simply don't have the tools in their personal tool chest to manage their shit.

And so they come in, one day late, and they are denied their stuff, and it is at that point that there is a good chance they will go apeshit. This is particularly true of older ghetto women. For some reason, they are deeply endeared to the jewelry items that they put up for a $30 loan, left in our care for five months of their miserable lives, and failed to keep track of.

This only generally happens about once a week, but today it happened three times; so I had a lot of compassion for new guy Steve, who works the main window and is only just now finding that he has to figure out a way to deal with this, emotionally.

The first woman just tore him a new asshole for ten minutes, complete with obscenities and whatnot. He kind of just had to deal with it, because she had a second item still in pawn that she was figuring out what to do with. Her first item was past due by two days; her second item had two weeks left on it. So she renewed the loan, then got so angry that she wanted to get her second item out, but didn't have enough money for it.

But then it turned out she was 75 cents short the money to take that second item out, which led to another retarded argument over why that 75 cents should be magically granted, until some gentleman customer in the store gave her the 75 cents and she found a way to move on.

I've mentioned this lie before, but when someone's stuff is late, we lie about it; we tell them that it's gone, that overdue stuff is taken out of the shop the night after it comes due. If this woman knew that her item was still locked in the safe, she would still be there tonight, yelling at the empty storefront.

The lie becomes necessary for self-preservation. In polite culture she would acknowledge her role in her reality; accept that she had mismanaged the situation; and never take it out on the nearest employee, because that's bad behavior. In polite culture she would be given the complete explanation. In polite culture, if a woman goes apeshit, she is taped and put up on YouTube and Vine for all to see and mock. In the ghetto, it's just another childish emotional day.

By the way, Steve dealt with all three of these emotional women in the afternoon, talked with Alan and Sammy about how to handle these things, and then ran for his train to get to the hospital, where his mom has about a week to live.

I've had to wait on too many entitled rich women to buy that.

It doesn't happen to me too often, but on thursday, I had to shut down a women (who was clearly rich enough to have had some plastic surgery on her face) because she did not buy the tire and wheel protection. She first insisted that it had never been offered, and when I printed and pointed out the waiver she signed saying it had been, she shifted to the position that we didn't do a good enough job convincing her to buy it. (Not me. I would have closed her ;) ) she will NOT be buying another Nissan.

I said, "you got a flat tire. What does that have to do with what kind of car it is? "

"I'm not happy. Someone has to do something about it. "

That was really her main complaint. ... that she was not happy. $400 for the tow, and new tire. Probably cost her 2 nights at the bar.

I actually had her laughing by the time she left. .... She threatened to call Nissan customer care, I said, "if you truly feel like the people here mistreated you, then I think you should call. Do you really feel that way? Really? We did this to you? "

That's when her act broke up and she admitted just being frustrated because she didn't want to deal with it. I wonder how often that one lady intimidates clerks at low levels. She clearly had the routine down, and the only thing that ended it was her absolute lack of any progress with the 2 managers she had hammered on before she got to me... where she got nothing but sympathy and advice on buying the tire plan next time.

My ex mother in law is one of these women. If you have a legit gripe about a retail experience, you want her going to bat for you. But I would NOT want to be on the receiving end of her shit storm.

Pete's cousin is the same way. You'd love to have her on your side when you're in the right, but she's a damn embarrassment in most situations.

This is spot on IMO

http://cellar.org/2013/triggerdiscipline.jpg

I had to lecture Steve about trigger discipline.

Spoiler: It's a paintball AR-15. Pawn shops in Philly do not deal in actual weapons.

That's one of the main things Montana pawn shops deal in. Buy a car, an old toaster and a second-hand assault weapon in one place.

No shit? Zat a city ordinance thing, or what? I've never been in a pawn shop (and I've been in a few:D) that didn't have multiple racks/display cabinets full of guns.

That's kinda odd.

Yeah it is the City of Philadelphia that has issued the ordnance ordinance.

I award fifty points for wordplay.

:p:

Today's "picture left on pawn shop electronics" is of Donte's ammo. This is Donte's iPhone and Donte had it stolen or just didn't want to wipe his phone when selling it. Donte himself is in the photo following this one. I will leave that photo out to protect Donte.

http://cellar.org/2013/dontesbullets.jpg

Is that another iPhone in Donte's left pants pocket? Maybe that's why he could afford to pawn one of them.

No, he's just happy to see you.

;)

Blackout his face...Let us see, let us seeeee.

Blackout his face? That's racist!

Yeah, f'in milky!

This is funny to me because one of my 4 year old guys called my TA an f'in milky yesterday. Good thing blacks can't be racist, otherwise I'd have to tell him to stop calling his classmate's Dad an f'in Chinaman.

Heh... Guess he's one of your high-functioning ones. :) At 4, I would have been like, "f'in milky?" That's an adjective before a noun--way to go, kid!

When the watch in the photo shows up at the pawn shop, you'll know that Donte bit the dust.

He's a really bright behavioral kid, his best buddy is on the spectrum though, there'll be hell to pay if his friend takes that new vocabulary home.

The music we play at the shop is broadcast to Broad Street, because there is a big speaker just above our outside door. This announces to the crowd that we are playing all black music, from classic soul/R&B to soul/R&B that is only 3 decades old.

Just now a woman comes in announces loudly "You playin the song about me!" Coworker Mike realizes it's "Oh Sheila" on the radio, and asks "Is your name Sheila?" She rolls up her sleeve to show her SHEILA tattoo, and then just leaves.

Apparently there is a guy out on Broad Street that is alternately barking like a dog, and yelling at his imaginary pit bull to sit down and shut up.

Hence the phrase barking mad?

And elsewhere, in a world not so different from our own, a dog is seen alternating between talking like a human and barking at an invisible man.

The man found a creative way of talking to himself.

We're all missing the other possibility: he has an invisible dog.

Or as a street performer he's not a very good ventriloquist.

Reminds me of that old story about a man standing outside a bar with his dog, telling people his dog can talk. Patrons coming and going past him just figure he's drunk; but, one of them says "I'll bet you ten dollars that dog can't talk." The owner accepts, looks at his dog and says "Dog, what's on top of a house?" The dog says "rrrrrrrrrrooof" and its owner says "That's right, a roof is on top of a house." The owner demands $10 from the patron who pays him. The patron figures the same thing couldn't happen again and tells the owner to ask the dog another question, the bet to be double or nothing. The owner nods, looks at his dog and says "Dog, what does sandpaper feel like?" The dog says "rrrrrrrrrrruff" and its owner says "That's right, sandpaper feels rough." The patron again pays the owner; but, demands yet another chance to recoup his losses, only this time the patron insists on being the one who asks the dog a question figuring that way he can't possibly lose. The dog's owner reluctantly agrees. The patron looks at the dog and says "Dog, who was the 25th President of the United States?" The dog looks up at him and says "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrMcKinley?

Has the pawn shop, being in that location, had any veterans come in to pawn their old military stuff since you've been there?

Being in that location, many veterans of the crack wars of 1987 have sold off their vintage pipes.





Not one single solitary military item. Not one. Unless you count katanas, which we don't take anyway.

What's the price range/availability of a laptop with a fairly large screen/keyboard, good graphics card, and lots o' trilobites of RAM?

I'm cool with windexing.

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. We could use a new used laptop. Our old ones are so freaking slow, the kids refuse to use them. I hate using them too. And they both need to get on the computer to do homework now, so there is quarreling for the desktop.

I was looking at ebay factory refurbished/off lease Dells with Windows 7, and they seem to be going in the $250 range. The Latitude E6410 is catching my eye. It seems to have been a nice machine 2-3 years ago, and is still probably pretty good.

I was just looking up the value of my two old Dell Latitude D610 laptops, and they seem to be going on ebay in the range of $20 to $70, depending on condition. A lot of delusional people not selling them for $150 or so. That's for an 8 year old laptop. Maybe I should sell some of this old stuff when I get a newer laptop. I also have an old desktop.

I hate my laptop it's slower than flint :(


;)

It's a Dell Dinosaur. I might dump it in the pillowcase of some uncostumed adult who comes to the door tomorrow night if I run out of crappy candy

Here are all the working laptops I've sold recently. Right now there are 36 of them on the list, which covers the last 3 months.

At the shop we use Completed Listings extensively to set prices and establish values.

You can see, the prices for laptops are falling fast and it's crazy. They are competing against tablets. I can't believe that my last week's listing of

This item went for $130. Because it has a lot of things that people don't want. AMD processor, 14" screen instead of a 15". 3GB of memory instead of 4. Not great battery time. No charger, they had to buy an aftermarket one.

OK it was a low-end model. But... $130?? It was $530 at Best Buy, and $299 Refurb at Newegg when it came out... TWO AND A HALF YEARS AGO.

My Windexing scale goes from 1 to 5 minutes...

Even if you go for a new laptop, you might get a ghetto version.

Dell users: Latitude 6430u laptops 'smell of cat urine'

Is that ASUS X83V 15.6" Notebook a good computer?

If so, I'll go for it.

eta: Is it wrong of me to assume that I can connect to wifi with this unit out of the box? The idea behind the purchase is so I can connect to the net from wifi since I can't do that at home.

Did you see the picture in the second row of pictures for that one computer? It showed the "Windows Experience Index" for that Asus is a 4.9, on a 1-8 scale.

I had never heard of such a thing, so I ran the same performance test for my desktop PC at work, and my Desktop PC got a 3.6 because it has a crappy graphics card. So that laptop is as good as my work PC, and I think my work PC is pretty good.

Thanks. I'll check that on this puter at school to get an idea.

That should be a fine unit. There's nothing particularly "second tier" about that year's ASUSes, compared to your HPs and Toshibas and whatnot. I like that type of keyboard more than some others. As we see the Apple items fetch between 100% and 250% more than similar systems just due to the brand; and as a brand, ASUS is a bit of a sleeper.

It's a great price, and if you don't like it, you can eBay it out yourself and get most of your money back. You can depend on my manager's packing, and if you tell them you're a friend of mine he will pack it even better.

I recommend telling him you're my friend. Even if you aren't, it's a benefit to everyone involved.

You will absolutely be able to do WiFi with this, or with any recent laptop. You can get internet service to your home and have WiFi there too.

Cool! I hope it is still there when I am back from lunch

actually, I just bought it. I'll sell it to you for $189!

Heh heh, heh heh.

He said "unit!"

[/Beavis]


eta: Making a Beavis reference really pegs me as middle aged. I gotta stop doing that, but I can't help it.

heh heh heh

He said "pegs"


It's done. when will it get here?

Sweet!

Depends whether the manager is packaging today or tomorrow... I'm sure you'll get a tracking number

Loving the new puter. Simple Greened it last night. It was very clean. Learning 7 Pro.
Thinking of partitioning the hard drive to keep programs apart from the OS. Is this done on 7?

Also is there a way to make a set of back up system disks?

The Bronze/Brown color is distinctly ghetto, I'm sorry but it's true. I feel like I need to get a gold front tooth now.

Very glad to hear it! At least 5 of those fingerprints were mine.

Up today is a Toshiba which will be a real sleeper because it needs a new battery. And what I do is, I put in the link to the right search for new batteries on eBay, right into the listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221311882155...84.m1555.l2649

Evil monster thought: we should all follow this link and then surf ebay for sex toys or vice versa, so when people look at this listing the "People who shopped for this item also looked at" section at the bottom will be much more entertaining :)

I haven't told you lately how much I love you.

Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
 

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

The computer just overheated itself into a half hour long coma.

I downloaded speed fan and saw the temps at about 83c and the fan at 0 rpm.

:(

Looking for a new fan.

dang :( We leave these systems on for a while, as we wipe the hard drives and reload the OS, but it's hard to test for everything. Let me know if you want to try a different system, ah, such as the Toshiba.

Guy: Do you buy movies?
Sammy: Not right now.
Guy: Porn movies? I have Chinese amputee hermaphrodite.
Sammy (unfazed): We don't buy used porn, we bring that in new.

Down here at the pawn shop
 

You guys are a tough and jaded bunch. I've never even heard of Chinese amputee hermaphrodite porn.

Prolly wouldn't buy it either but I might click a link.

I'm gonna open the back and check out the fan. A new one is only about fifteen bucks.

Do you think the Toshiba is a better ride?

Do you know how much he wanted for it? I'll pay extra for amputee pandas

The Tosh is marginally better, but I'll tellya what, probably not for the bump in price. I don't like the trackpad on it. It's smaller and just doesn't have the kind of touch I like.

I like the asus. For the price of a fan it's no biggie

I'm going home in a few and I'll test it.

It seems that the OS is partitioned already so if I have to ever do a reinstall I can just install to that partition wo having to reinstall all my software

Most laptops have that recovery partition where they make it easy to start from scratch. It's a great feature.