Wednesday, September 21, 2011

This and that and the next thing.

The New Yorker Magazine is a bridge too far. Linda kind of subscribed to it by accident, (the tricky invite is another reason not to get it). I was sort of pleased, at first. But I just don't have the time to read it.

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Texas in the Pac12? Or -- gasp -- Oklahoma? No way.

Sometimes I think only natives in certain regions should have votes on changing those regions.

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Sometimes I think I turn my laziness into some kind of existential angst. But, at the end of the day, I'm just being lazy.

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The City of Bend shouldn't be trying to game the market. (Buying steel while they think it's cheap.) I think that's part of their problem -- they think they're smarter than everyone else, and all the evidence is the opposite.

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I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that a online poker site isn't on the up and up. (Full Tilt Poker is a ponzi scheme.)

I'll state again my disapproval of gambling, no matter how innocent. It just can't lead to good places.

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The "underground" market, the surge in college applications, part-time workers -- they are all explanations as to why the economy in Bend hasn't fallen completely apart.

Or -- maybe they are symptoms of the economy of Bend falling apart.

At any rate, I don't believe the economy has turned around on tiny bit.

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My store is showing a typical "Sales are up because a Product Gets Hot" scenario. Normally, the outside economy has less effect on my business as whether or not what I'm carrying is in vogue.

Which shows how big this downturn was that I felt it so much.

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The Hot product are the new DC 52 #1's.

They are selling through almost 100% on the first prints, and I've made heavy orders on the second prints, and I've upped my orders on the #2 issues, and so on.

All just about a recipe for Over-Ordering -- but I just can't stand not to have the product in stock.

Most of the second prints aren't showing up for a Month, which is probably too long to wait.

I love the higher sales, but I suspect it will be all be neutralized by the continuing uncertainty and the almost certain over-reaction on my part. The danger of any bubble is losing money on the backend.

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Disappointed in the Sarah Michelle Gellar show, Ringers. I turned to Linda last night and said, "This show would be vastly improved by a few vampires..."

Still enjoying Alphas, though I expect it isn't long for this world, since no one else is mentioning it.

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I made HUGE reorders this week. Games. Books. Cards. Card Games.

I was riding the increased sales in comics over the last few weeks, and had gotten to the point where I was sold out of the big three boardgames: Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne. Had sold down about half on my backstock of Magic. About half my dice sets.

Didn't have any Game of Thrones left; sold down on Hunger Games, etc.

Counter-intuitive. Make the big orders in the slow months, and ride the momentum of the busy months.

All taken care of.

4 comments:

yokem55 said...

Am I the only one that feels the firing of Dave Kanner by the Deschutes County Commission to be more than a little fishy? The whole, he was good at his job, but he had a poor "leadership style" and was "too negative" reeks to me more of a political falling out between him and DeBone and Baney than any real failing of competence on his part. And if that is the case, I really don't have a problem with it as the Administrator serves at the pleasure of the commission and is thus subject to their politics, but hiding behind some BS rationale is downright smarmy.

Duncan McGeary said...

Well, Baney does seem to want happy talk. So it's possible that he was just being realistic and truthful and they didn't want to hear that.

But I don't know that. I really don't know what went on behind the scenes.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"I'll state again my disapproval of gambling, no matter how innocent. It just can't lead to good places."

That's your Calvinist strain. In your guts you believe anything that's fun is wrong and probably immoral. Well, except comics.

Gambling is like alcohol; some folks can do it in moderation, others can't. No reason to take away the enjoyment of the former because the latter have a problem.

Anonymous said...

The New Yorker always has at least 2 very, very interesting in-depth articles in it that you won't find anywhere else. I have learned an awful lot from that magazine, and it suits my political tastes.

However, when it's around I can get no other reading done (lots of things to do!), and I so I recently let my subscription lapse as well.