Backish

It's been a hellish long time since I wrote anything. Sorry to any who still read this. I'm busy with work, busy trying to look after my best interests. I've made some inquiries about getting my own domain name and doing this a bit more often and a bit more professionally. Perhaps trying to do some freelance work. Hell I might even have something worth buying. Still I'll never be a Cosh no matter how hard I try.

The dollar store continues. I'm tired but I am continuing onward and forward. Retail is a bitch no doubt. Truely remarkable the amount of theft that occurs. Truely remarkable how little help the police provide chasing away these deadbeats that beg for money.

I've been only marginally paying attention to hockey this summer, but to steal a phrase: Kevin Lowe has been pissing in other peoples pools and he's fresh out of chlorine. I had to look up that Vanek fellow and then Mr. Penner to see what the big deal was but bravo for someone doing something new and exciting. Then again, the amount of money that players get is just crazy to begin with. Never mind this RFA sheet thing.

I went out and bought myself a nice car finally. An 02 Honda Civic SIR completely stock and in exceptional condition. It's been sometime since I had a car that I adore driving. Actually it has to be the first one. I had a new Intrepid once but it wasn't a car that I loved and it was a fleet car (bleh). I drove a 350z for about 25kms once when I was working for Nissan and it's handling was amazing. The SIR, while obviously not as powerful, is equally adept at handling. It'll be hard to go back to something that's sloppy.

Politics. The pilot light is on but that's it. From what I follow along the conservatives seem to do things only with an eye of how it plays in Quebec. In my woefully under researched position they seem to spend like Liberals and haven't given me what I wanted from a Conservative government. Lower taxes, lower debt. It's the economy stupid.

I'm mr. Edmonton Public Library now and yeee haw. It's fun to put a hold on books online after checking them out on amazon. Stupid but it amuses me.

Nothing muc to say now. Perhaps big news later on.

I'm off to Toronto for good times. Actually going for a trade show. Should be a fun time, all that buying and booth's to see.

Went back to visit the old dealership the other day. The atmosphere is fun there, you know everyone, all the sales guys have a sense of humor, laughter and enjoyment. The dark side rarely raises it's ugly head. I heard that things have become yet more aggressive which is too bad for the sales people. It puts alot of pressure on them and puts them in a very uncomfortable spot (if you actually like people) having to hound the heck out of them. Still, it's always nice to visit old friends.

Things I think I think
- I'm going to buy an old car and fix it up. I've decided. Likely choice right now is an 86 Audi.
- I'm scared to hell about working on it. I've got little mechanical ability, but am determined to learn. I was planning on starting with little things and working upwards as my confidence grew into more major things. Apparently, the exhaust manifold is cracked and replacement of it is pretty major. The dude does have another engine for it so he was simply gonna swap engines. I'm paranoid, part of me says might as well plunge ahead and go for broke. The other part of me says "are you nuts, start with changing the oil yourself and move on from there"
- Big Tuna retired. Good move. TO would drive me nuts as well.
- Bowflex is good, solid, but still forsale. I'd rather have the free weights I think.

PokerStars is fishy

Something doesn't seem quite right with poker stars. WhenI play in real life straights tend to be fairly seldom but yet almost every other hand seems to be a straight on poker stars. I know the detractors say that it is because you see so mayn more hands per hour adn I used to think that but honestly, what wins hands here really is different than when I play with my friends. I hope some smart person out there has been tracking it's statistical information in regards to how the cards are dealt and who wins with what. However, if my hunch is correct, I can't wait to join that class action lawsuit.

I went to cash out my money so I can get out of that infernal thing and delete it from my hard drive but I only have 35 bucks so they won't send me a cheque. More crap.

Hillary is running for prez in the states, well good for her, at the very least this is going to create some interest in the primaries: Hillary, Obama, possibly Gore, and so forth in a fevered battle for the ultimate prize.

I'm still slugging stock at the store, it's fine, I enjoy it for the most part but am not too sure what to think overall. I suppose it's better than anything I've done before..... I think that if it's goign to be gobs of work it had better pay really well, if it wasn't too much work and earned low pay it's be a lifestyle business and that'd be ok too. The worst of both worlds is hard work and lousy pay. I suppose I'm just naive, spent to much time in business school and not enough in the real world to have that opinion.

I sent a letter for Forzani's about an expired gift certificate (from jan 04 of all things) and we will see if they send anything back to me. Coast Mountain Sports said that it was too old and they are sorry. So we'll see what the COO has to say on the matter. Given how my life is, it'll be a "Sorry Bemused now PFO".

Note worthy article

Now here's an article worth noting about spending within your means. I may not be a domestic fan but $3000 dodge truck is better than 500 a month for a maxima.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/TheRealReasonYoureBroke.aspx

Awoke once again

Time to blow the dust off of this thing. Lots of hits still coming car salesman related. Average income seems to be a popular search term along with car salesman closing ratio.

My income would have been mid 40's for the first year. I expected to be around 70k for the second year.

My closing ratio including junk ups, waste of time phone calls was miniscule as the advertising the dealership pushed generated lots of leads, but most of them were a waste of time in my opinion. On numbers that I tracked it was about 19-20%. The holy grail is 33%.

Nearly a year since I've left the game I still think about it lots. The other salesmen were friends and you spent alot of time with them. I went back not so long ago, due to the high turnover nature of the industry only 4 of the old sales people were there out of 14 currently employed. It was crazy to see so many bodies on the floor. With that many I probably would have starved over the winter.

In moments I've thought about going back but only to dealerships/products that don't haggle on price. I was very good at making friends out of customers, very bad at making $$$$. Lexus possibly if I was to go back. Still it's likely that I'd try to stay in the retail world, it's fast paced and fun.

Got a new link from http://www.buyingadvice.com/whatdoesittake-tobea-carsalesman.html. The author takes note that the dealership was turning high pressure. I should clarify that I wasn't high pressure and was able to withstand the general sales managers pushes to make me high pressure as he was overloaded with work to do and wasn't able to effectively micro manage me. Blowing my own horn a bit, I'm smarter than the average car salesman and so as long as I was getting sales I was pretty much left alone. Just avoid the bad habits and he didn't worry too much about me. After the dealership restructured with two assistant sales managers who's job was to keep better track of what you were doing things were changing. I was not comfortable and was happy that a new opporunity came along. For instance, we were once going through my log book (just as the new computer tracking system was being introduced) and the boss actually harassed me about not phoning a certain customer in my book. I thought that the person would not appreciate the call during work hours (it was a lawyer) and that if this person wanted to come back they would regardless of phone call or not. It was a guess on my part. The assistant sales manager gave me a little cheap shot about not doing my job and phoned himself. The customer practically shit his pants on thr ASM and said that he would talk to Bemused only and wasn't very happy to be interrupted with this "Crap" as he put it. I only smiled my best Mona Lisa like smile (male version of course).

Speaking of which, the dollar store (yes, only items for $1) rolled along quite nicely at xmas. It's tons and tons and tons of work though. I know mentally that nothing in life is easy, it's just a matter of dollars vs. effort I suppose. does it make sense to work this hard for that amount? Stay tuned.

I had hoped the Denver Bronco's would make the playoffs, but it wasn't to be. Now I'm just watching as a fan of the sport and have no real hope on any one team. I will say that I enjoyed Tiki Barber and think that it's a shame he's packed it in. Brandon Jacobs if he can be a everydown back is scary.

I'm in good strength shape for the upcomign ball hockey season. I'm slowly adding cardio to the mix. Bowflex ultimate was a good investment. Calves are teh area I've noticed the biggest improvment.