Day 312 of 362

Good morning... Running a bit late as usual, but I did get an early start on the day. Got up and gave Loq's car a jump start, then followed her to the auto parts store and got her a new battery for said car. So, I've been productive...

Heading to the store to receive orders. It's not that bad, except somewhere, with the earlier opening hours, we seem to have picked up a few regulars who pretty much hit the store right at open. This typically cuts into the flow of receiving, but I am slowly learning to live with it.

On the storefront side, T-minus two days before we go look at four more potential spots for a new Gopher hole. Part of me is very anxious to see places, while another part of me just wants to move on and choose from something we've already seen. I'm going to try to display some patience in this, but my gut is kicking at me. Once this weekend is over, we are hitting the ground running. It's going to take a lot of help from folks outside of Loquacious, Skribl, and myself to make this all work in the time frame we have. I'm confident we can get the bulk of it done, but it will be close.

-- GopherDave

Day 311 of 362

Okay... It's Tuesday. It means I need to place some orders. It also means that I need to do a bit of stop-gap soda shopping. I've already been a bit busy this morning, having picked up a stop-gap solution to my wife's car problems, and hopefully I can put that to the side for a couple of days now.

We'll be making a (hopefully final) decision on the new Gopher hole this weekend. Loq and I are scheduled to look at three last properties this Friday. From there, we'll be narrowing it down to a final two and throwing those options out to the Gophers for opinions and comments. The final decision is still ours to make, but soliciting some outside opinions may help us catch and think about some overlooked-by-us details.

It is my hope that this is the final move for the business, but for the right reasons, and not the wrong ones. I've known too many game stores that bit off more than they could chew and either opened or expanded into spaces that were too large for them to handle. I've also known game stores that refused to move and decided to "make do" with a space that had become too small for the items they carried AND the crowd they would pull in. It made for a claustrophobic atmosphere that was NOT enjoyable to shop at, and that's close to where we are now. There some ways to make our current space more efficient, but at the rate we are trying to grow, it'll be less than another six months before we're right back where we are at currently.

Adult decisions are hard...

-- GopherDave

Day 310 of 362

Hey there! It's Monday and I have about as much time as I did yesterday... stupid book.

It's 40K night, so I'll get to go home early. No idea what I'll actually do for the night except hag out with the kids. Ehhh... I'll find something....

-- GopherDave

Day 309 of 362

Hey there... It's Sunday, so I'm running late. even with an extra hour due to reclamation of Daylight Savings Time. I blame Clinton J. Boomer and his book, The Hole Behind Midnight. It takes a bit to get going, but it's turning into a fun read...

There are stuff and things going on at the store today. Mostly RPGs and Board Games. I'm running one of them. Can you tell how behind I am?

-- GopherDave

Fallen, But Not Forgotten

I created this pastiche from two other images I found on the 'net. To the original copyright holders of these photos... no infringement of your copyright is intended. I just wanted to show images different from the same shots that every other outlet is showing.

On Wednesday, November 2nd, the metal band, GWAR, played a show in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After the show, band member Cory Smoot (a.k.a., Flattus Maximus) eventually crawled into his bunk on the band's tour bus and went to sleep. When the band went to cross into Canada for a show the next day, they went to roust Smoot so he could do the obligatory showing of passports and identification in order to get into the country. They quickly found that Cory would never wake up again.

In my short 44 years on this planet, the world has lost a number of talented musicians. Joe Strummer... Kurt Cobain... Stevie Ray Vaughan... Johnny, Joey, and Dee Dee Ramone... "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott... just to name a few. Now we've lost Cory Smoot...

What's the difference here. Well... all of the other musicians that I named we're fairly famous and known. Cory? Well, until a few days ago, Cory was just another guitar player in a long list of musicians who have donned the guise of Flattus Maximus. This is not to take away from Cory's talent as a guitarist and producer. As I listen to the last four Gwar albums (War Party, Beyond Hell, Lust In Space, and Bloody Pit of Horror), it's obvious that Cory could play, and play well. He was also the longest lasting Flattus that had every existed in the band, and that's saying something. Now that he's passed, most of the mainstream media is reporting Cory's passing as another tragic "rock'n'roll death", which does Cory, and the band he dedicated eight-plus years of his life and talent to, an incredible disservice, because that's ALL that they said.

A number of people dismiss a band like Gwar as all show and no music, which could not be further from the truth. I've seen the band live twice. They can flat-out play, and they can do it while wearing 35 to 80 pounds of costume under hot lights. That no only takes an incredible amount of endurance, but it takes a dedication to craft and art that very few bands show these days. No, songs like "Tick-Tits", "Bring Back the Bomb", "Eighth Lock", or "Metal Metal Land" will not win any real awards, nor should they. However, among songs like those hide gems of satire such as "I Love the Pigs", "Krosstika", "Let Us Slay", and "Hail, Genocide!", that made societal targets of corrupt police, organized religion, pointless wars, and the old men that send the young men (and women) to fight them. Gwar uses the gross-out songs to get your attention in hopes you'll listen long enough to actually listen to what they are REALLY trying to bring to your attention...

Cory Smoot added greatly to that artistic legacy. His fluid, shredding lead guitar lines within songs helped draw more people in to hear the real message. Cory Smoot will most definitely be missed...

The rest of Gwar have announced that they will be retiring the Flattus Maximus character from here on out. That doesn't happen every day from them. Five other people have donned the Flattus Maximus guise prior to Cory Smoot. Three others have worn the the armor of bassist Beefcake the Mighty prior to the current one. People come and go in this group. The stable roles of the band make the transitions easier for the fans to handle. With the retirement of the character, the band is saying that this transition will not be easy for them. The absence of Flattus will also serve as a reminder to all of us that flesh-and-blood humans play these characters on stage for our amusement, entertainment, and education, and now one of those PEOPLE is tragically gone...

Rest In Peace... father, husband, son, songwriter, producer, guitarist, and Antarctican monster from another planet... The show will go on without you, but stage-left with Gwar will never be the same, Cory...

-- GopherDave

Day 308 of 362

I once mentioned that morning comes too early... ugh...

Still, I'm up and running. Not much is going on today at the store except the huge World of Darkness game tonight. Beyond that, it's a pretty open day. I'm looking to catch up on some work, and put a bug in someone's ear about a possible spot for the move. Before folks start asking questions, though, it's just that. A bug... a tiny nugget of inference in order to get a conversation started. Until that happens, I don't know much more than you do.

We also find out that the avenue that we thought closed, but apparently was at least slightly open still, is indeed closed. Even if it opens back up, we're done. Loq and I have the future of our store to plan for, and our proverbial road map can't be filled with "maybes" and "what-ifs". Time to move on.

With tonight being Loq's night at the store. I'm coming home and doing laundry. Exciting, yes, I know, but a night at home doing mundane things keeps me grounded and appreciative of what I do have in my life... =)

Later, all...

-- GopherDave

Day 307 of 362

Hey there... It's Friday, so that means Friday Night Magic. It should be good, as usual. On other fronts...

I think I have what the girl has pretty much recovered from. If so, the only thing I can say is that this sucks, and while I know that I'll get over it in time, that time looks to be no fun.

The sickness made the game last night pretty much a non-starter. I was not on my game and it showed. Even as a player, I think I managed to drag the game down with me. I apologize to my fellow players if that's the case.

I still have game stuff going through my head. I started a design journal for this iteration, only to find one I had started earlier this year that said pretty much everything I was saying currently. With that work already done, I can (hopefully) proceed to think in a forward manner, and not revisit the same stuff in my head repeatedly.

In about an hour, Loq and I are looking at a couple of potential spots for a store move. I don't want to say I'm not expecting much, but I wasn't expecting much out of our current spot, and its served us VERY well over the last few years. Thus, I might be surprised. We'll keep people apprised of what is happening, once we determine a path. Promise.

-- GopherDave