I should probably mention that I got a new job a few months back, working at the camera store on Transit Ave. There are two locations, and the Delaware store is the bigger one, but the Transit one has the online sales office in the back, so we actually have more stock. But if you go to one or the other we send stuff back and forth all the time. Black and white film gets developed at Delaware. Color 120 film comes over to Transit. Any prints larger than 8x12 go to Delaware. Slide film actually gets sent all the way to Philadelphia.
Oh yes-- the chain is no longer locally owned. Used to be one family that owned allll the stores. Well, a number of factors contributed, but largely, as I found out today, there was a tragedy in the family-- I believe the daughter that was to inherit died young or something awful-- and they sold the chain instead.
They sold it to another independent family-owned chain down in Philly, and so now we *sort of* have corporate overlords. But not really. The district manager, who has been in place for about fifteen years, runs the place in the way that seems best to him, and our two little stores make a reasonable living. His philosophy is openly that his employees are his most important asset, which is kind of nice. The pay is negligible, but there are no stupid rules, there's no stupid dress code, and what's most awesome is that if a customer is being unreasonable, the management will totally back you up. You just have to be reasonable yourself.
So I like working there. I feel like it's useful work. I'm helping people, I'm doing something meaningful, I get to be a little artistic (unlike Rite Aid or Walgreens, we actually manually color-correct every print, so they come out as nicely as they can; there's no automatic setting. The downside, if you're a weirdo, is that we do have to look at every one, so when we're printing someone's fetish pics or whatever, I admit, we do snicker a little. I haven't seen nearly as much sausage as I anticipated when I started, though). Mostly, there's a refreshing lack of bullshit to the place.

And our prices on cameras and lenses are extremely competitive. We don't get the profit margins Best Buy does, since our distributors don't get to do nearly as much volume and so don't give us those margins, but Best Buy, believe me, doesn't pass their savings onto you. They charge the same amount we do, and get a bigger profit. But it's OK, because we're not spending a thousand dollars a day on advertising either. We're not a real high-profit company, but we're an institution. And it's nice being involved in that.
I just wish *I* made a little more money.

Oh, hey, for you photo and arty types-- DCV's running a promo contest thing with the Music Is Art festival. Send them your photos from that festival and you can win a nice camera. Also, friend the store on Facebook, or become a fan-- it would warm the cockles of my manager's surprisingly un-evil little heart. For some reason he likes that kind of thing.

Asked the boss when I got in & he said, huh. If we got robbed nobody called me. So he called the Delaware Ave store & they said everything was normal. Shrug! Store closes @ 8 so they were long gone by then. Must've been some kids fighting inthe lot or something... Boss says he's been robbed 8, 9 times in his 15 years, & it totally sucks. So we're glad whatever the cops were doing, it wasn't us. (I work @ the Transit Ave location.)

Finally I have achieved my ambition of blogging from the bathroom at work.




Edited to add: What, I get no love?! That's a moblogging milestone, that is!!

This is my maiden attempt at (e:strip)ping via iPhone. I am hoping to figure out how to add photos too because I am sewing a really cool case for the new phone and I want to post progress pics!

I posted a bunch-ola of photos up on my Flickr account, lest you think (e:zobar) stretches the truth about Pennsic a tad. I didn't take any of topless women, or of anything that might be nudity, or whatever. But that doesn't mean I didn't take any that were fun.



One of (e:zobar) in garb

And one of me, in garb!

It was a good time, if the pictures don't make that clear. Along with (e:zobar)'s description. Which is approximately correct.