Bemused Indifference

I'm back. Sort of

2008-10-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

Much like the crack addict is unable to get away from the drug that drags him down I'm back in the auto business. I was briefly at a Lexus dealership but it wasn't for me thanks to a variety of factors. Lexus while a nice product is pretty damn dull. The Lexus IS-F was a blast but most of the rest was duller than my love life.

I'm a lease account manager which means I work for a private company and can lease any vehicle to anyone. Quite a good time. A good way of staying in the professional world, in the auto world while working 9-5, weekends, with brand new demo vehicle. Mostly business to business which is the way to go. So I've found something that works. I want to roar, so here's hoping.

I'll write more, when I have more to say. Yay. I'm back!

Backish

2007-08-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-01-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-21T00:06:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

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.

Fortes fortuna iuvat

2006-09-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

I finally took a peek at my site and saw the lack of updates, but yet, the hits keep on coming. Philip Reed over at Edmunds.com has kindly linked a blog post I did and has been worth 2500+ hits.

Interestingly, I'm getting a smattering of hits from things like "auto salesman average salary". I guess if you've searched that I should tell you what I know. The way I did things at the dealership I was expecting to gain significant momentum in year#2 and was hoping to earn approximately $70,000. That is realistic BUT, with a huge downside of not being around home much, being at the dealership on weekends, going in when they call you to say a customer of yours is there and so forth. Time intensive. First year earnings are really going to depend on a lot of things. I didn't make very much, and basically went two months only selling 4 cars. After that I clicked in at 12ish a month which makes a comfortable but not lucrative living. I don't have the exact tally here but I'd guess around 40-45ish. Be wary any potential car sales people that find this page. It's a rough life - not condusive to extra curricular activites, don't expect to get a single weekend off if you wanna earn the bucks. Expect to put on weight, expect to be pushed around and treated quite poorly at times by both management and customers. Of course there are good ones and bad ones and you're experiences may vary. My experience seems to be middle of the road. Philip Reed did a fantastic article which covers the experience nicely.

Onto more news, the dollar store that we own now rolls along quite nicely. I basically spend most of my day either ordering stock or chucking stock onto the shelves. There is, nor will never be a reprieve in that department. I've been thinking a night shift to stock is needed, but now, it feels looming like we have little choice. We get interrupted waaay too much as it is when trying to work during the day. More on that as it develops. It's interesting to see the battle. The independant franchise vs. the corporate giant Dollarama. We will prevail in our local battle hands down that store can't match a franchisees desire and effort. Simply doesn't happen when it's corporate. After all, look at the amount of effort I put in every corporate job I had. I really, couldn't care any less about what I was doing in that office tower and that claims office. Now, I'm focused, motivated and relentless.

My guitar skills, sadly have not been improving as I have not been putting enough time into it. Although I did do a nice Bemused style Rockstar by Nickelback tonight just for kicks. No, it sounds nothing like the original and no it's not seemless and yes I suck. But I had fun.

Zero to report otherwise. Ball hockey is off till next summer, I'm hitting the bowflex every few days and just to geek it up a bit I found an old box absolutely overflowing with my old star trek books from when I was 14. Geek city baby!!!!!

Bemused

Interesting

2006-08-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went back and visited my old dealership. While I enjoyed speaking with my former sales collegue's, and must confess I miss some of the old work I didn't miss the grief I felt floating in the air. The feeling that you must harass, you must stay on top of, you must not let your customers go. As much as the good stuff came back, that awful feeling of too much push came with it.

Interesting, inbetween being hugged by girls that work there (parts, reception, fleet, and one crazy sales chicky) no less than 3 sales people told me that they were getting my customers on a regular basis. STILL. Imagine that. The receptionist said that they still got calls for me. I shudder to think hwo busy I would have been this summer.

Speaking of cars. Check this out. http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/cars/volvo_c30.asp Nice eh? Reminds me of a Honda SIR. That car will be a hot car for a brief time. Knowing Ford, I mean Volvo, they'll cave and add a 4 door option despite being designed to be a 2 door. Knowing Volvo it'll be expensive. Knowing Ford they'll rebate teh crap out of it.

I have a summer cold. I hate summer colds.

Noted:
- NHL 06 for teh ps2 is driving me nuts. Perhaps I should just toss the damn thing.
- Guys, I like Star Trek, but preemo bucks to buy the series on DVD sucks ass.
- Dollar store items fly off the shelf. Bemused is waaaaayyyy too busy.
- Headache, clogged sinus. did I mention I hate summer colds?
-

No title needed. Just more disconnected ramblings

2006-07-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

So Ball Hockey is done for another season. I’m not going to participate in the winter league as the dollar store goes absolutely crazy over the winter season and the winter league has games at crazy times like 11pm Tuesday nights, or mid afternoon Saturday when I have to be at work. Too bad though, I have tons of fun with this and it’s a good way to get some intense cardio in.
If I had to use one word to sum up the season it’d be frustrating. True to form, the last game was no different. Most of the games we had few players show up, reasons ranged from work, holidays (both of my excuses for missing) to no reason given. The second last game, we had three subs. Imagine running ones eyeballs out while only have 3 guys sitting on the bench. Needless to say we were tired and moving pretty slow. Thankfully the other team was hopeless and we won big time. The last game was a bit better in regards of players as two of the young guys brought their dads to the game(!!) and some more guys showed up and we actually had 6 dmen. I didn‘t know what to do with myself sitting on the bench, my stamina and recovery has built up since I played so many games with so few players. Still, it was the same old same old for me, plus 3 on the night, no points and we lose 7-5. Next year the team will be run by a few different guys, they’ll be some new players and hopefully things will go our way. I must admit this team gets the strangest bounces of any team I’ve ever been on, and those bounces do cause losses.

I’ve hired a few people on my own at the store now. I’ve got three helpers so to speak. Two are young kids, one going into grade 10, another Nigerian kid going into grade 12. They are both very raw let’s say but learn quickly and are willing. The Nigerian’s dad just came by to see how he was doing. Very nice family. Fun to be a little older (I’m turning 30 next week) and seeing kids in a first job. As long as they are willing, show up when they are scheduled too I’m happy. Trouble with the dollar store is a victim of our own success thing. Sell so much can’t keep stock on the shelves and have trouble restocking it all fast enough. We are going to run a Sunday night stock shift till 10 or so. This is only going to get worse as xmas approaches. Ahem. WE HAVE SILLY STRING FOR A DOLLAR.

I’m a bit torn with my pursuing my other idea, but any way you look at it I’m doing well and am happy.

This blog has just passed 2000 hits. Most hits have viewed my entry about leaving auto sales and most of those hits have come from an editors blog on Edmunds.com (http://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/category/cat.BuyingNewCars) about halfway down.

A good smattering of hits have also come from thetruthaboutcars.com and thecarconnection.com.

Things I think I think
- I’ve been following along with the business of hockey once again, but not the game. Odd really.
- Consumers are absolute demons. Wrecking the store almost daily. The toy aisle looks like we are running a day care here with all the packages ripped open. Don’t want something, just toss it out of your cart wherever you want.
- I haven’t been following NFL football at all.
- We’ve just bought an expensive guitar, I’m trying to learn chords and what not. My first goal is Times Like These - Foo Fighters. My finger tips are sore. The next song will be I’m an asshole by Dennis Leary.
- Bowflex workouts are ok. The machines 90+ exercises are a farce. Maybe 35 useful ones and I haven’t done all the leg exercises yet. Squats doesn’t look good and I’ll try it tomorrow or Monday. Arms and pecs and shoulders are ok. Back is a bit hit or miss.
- I’ve not gotten squat all done in my back yard yet. Both my neighbors have tons of stuff done already.
Fin.

Hi

2006-07-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

Stupid friggin internet. Drops me in the middle of a wonderfully written, nobel prize winning (nobel prize for blogging, ya why not?) entry.

I still play ball hockey. I still dream like a little kid yelling: I’m Mario, I’m Gilmour, I’m the G man. Me, I’m Luke Richardson. I’m Murray Baron. I’m Jay McKee. I’m Scott Stevens, ‘cept without the toughness or the points or the ability…nah, I’m not Stevens. My team went 4-15-2. 6 of those losses were by a single goal. We are just missing that one little push to get over the edge. The forwards were talented enough I suppose, but maybe one more guy who could put the puck in the net would have done the trick. Of course, offense from the blue line was nasty bad. We basically were a D that tried to not fuck it up and let the O do there thing. With two games to go I have 7 assists in 15 games and 22 pim.

Work is fun. I’m challenged, motivated and happy. It’s a real bugger at times, no bed of roses but still, it beats working for someone else. In past corporate jobs at which I was competent but highly disinterested the quote from Office Space says it best

“That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.”

I can’t ever see me back in a corporate spot, office towers, cubicles, large lumbering nonsensical companies filled with layers of technologically challenged superiors who exist based on the idea of seniority and experience vs. the new wave of technology embracing youngsters. Corporate = crushing. I don’t believe in the corporate ladder anymore, it just ain’t there to climb and it’ll probably never be me again.

I bought a bowflex. Tired of watching late night infomercials I kept and eye on the bargain finder. Eventually, after a few weeks of watching on popped up that I was interested in and he only wanted 1400. Pfft….ONLY 1400. AS IF I’D PAY THAT.I offered 500, the guy came back and said he was going to hold out for 1000. I said ok, fine, my real number is 750. So a week or so passed and he emailed back. Now I have a bowflex ultimate in my basement with all the attachments (dude said he paid around 2800). Did my first workout tonight, a bit of a pain in the arse moving those pulley things around, but still it does a decent job. Different feel than free weights, not sure if better or worse yet. So to recap, I turn 30 on the 20th, I live in the burbs, I own a bowflex.

I helped a friend buy a car on holidays. Since you asked, yes, that was my idea of a great holiday, I had great amounts of fun helping with the purchase. After looking at several solid options he decieded on a 97 mustang GT. I was a little worried that it might have been driven hard, but it ran well on the test drive not an ounce of smoke out the tailpipes at start up. The sales dude said a woman in her 50’s traded the machine in and she had owned it since new. Good enough deal, a nice treat after many years of exile in Dublin completing med school and on a tight budget. Good car, drove out well. Not much of a winter machine but it’ll be good enough.

I told my friends at Nissan about helping him buy that Mustang. I told them he bought that over a Volvo (they aren’t a fan of) and a Maxima. One guy asked if I fell and bumped my head. Mustang over Maxima. Untrue to my roots. Lol.

Things I think I think:
- I think Xmas is going to be insane this year for business
- I think people who gripe about the GST cut only being a few pennies on their purchase should shut up and realize that over the course of a month, year, decade it adds up.
- I think that Dudesons show was quite funny on spike tonight
- It would seem to me that the business of hockey, although not the game, has me interested once again. Player movement and the cap = fun. Game = still kinda dull
- That Bowflex 51 year old grandmother has a website http://www.fitgrandmother.com/
- Nissan is down 19% this year in Canada. http://www.nissannews.com/corporate/news/current/20060705100036.shtml
- That nutbar in North Korea, I can’t even fathom his logic at the best of times. Maybe they should buy him a copy of World of Warcraft and he can get hooked like South Korea. “ In South Korea alone, there are nearly 2.5 million people playing online games on a regular basis, and it’s the inertia of South Korea’s vivacious game culture that is forging the path that other Asian countries are following.”
- This is funny. Try it for a workout once. 6 mins of high energy. Bonus points if you can do the wurm.

Who's the biggest baddest monster on the block?

2006-06-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Towbin dodge....http://www.aetv.com/kingofcars/....perhaps being an ex car salesman puts this show a little higher on my list than yours but it's fun to watch and remember what it was like.

Must comment on the Oilers. The Whyte ave thing is just drunken fools in large crowds acting like bigger fools. I think it was psych 101 that talked about the larger the crowd the more likely to get out of control.

However, my real point is the Oilers speak. I couldn't help but hear lots and lots of DJ banter on the radio today about the hurt #1 goalie and which of his backups was going to start. then, I read this article at lunch. Talk about a defeated team. Read this quote from the coach
...But as long as we can deliver the goods and take the ball from here, then I think he'll be fine with it."
that's from the coach. "as long as...." dead team.
Then this one...again from the coach
said head coach Craig MacTavish...."It'd be a pretty nice story." - more defeated talk. not, When we win this it'll be a great story. There was an article which I now can't find with a bunch of quotes from players same thing lots of if we wins, not when we wins. The talk has given away the outcome. They don't think they can. Done like dinner.

Banks suck....ATB closes it's commerical window at 4pm. I'm a small biz guy, can't make it before 4 (although I showed up at 4:05 and got told curtly that they were closed) so I went to the regular window. She counts the money deposits it. Fine. Then I say I need a hundred bucks in quarters. Then I find out that the friggin regular tellers have no rolls of change. IT'S A BANK FOR FUCKS SAKE. Then she goes and checks with the same curt cow that told me that they were closed at the commercial window. "No, they don't want to reopen the cage to give you change." Then I was informed today when I finally got my quarters (by showing up at 3:45 to a prepping to close bag of a commercial teller) that I have to fill out a sheet if I want change. I can't just hand her a hundred and get quarters in return. Why, do banks go out of their way to make things difficult?

So now I've had bad customer service from Scotia Bank, Royal Bank, and now ATB. I have no faith that any other bank will be any different. the best bank I deal with is ING, just because they have no physical locations to annoy me. Although they can't transfer money on weekends, which just sorta ticked me off but that's to be expected I suppose. Not many banks do anything useful on weekends.

Things I think I think
- I went something like 22 games with only 2 PIM. Tonight, I had 4 alone- like 24 on the season. The first one I gave the guy a shot as he was gonna bump me. One of those little guys who jump at the big guy hitters. He went down like a ton of bricks. I think it was a dive. Ok, fair enough. A penalty for me. The second one is the most retarded thing I've done in ball hockey. I tripped over my own size 14 feet, fell into a small guy FACE FIRST absolutely hammering him into the boards. He falls on top of me, gives me a big time shot with his stick. I get a penalty. Now, me, I laugh and have a good time. I get up and chat with the ref laughing "but I fell over my own feet that time". He says good naturedly "you're a goon,, get to the box". I tell ya though despite the PIM, I think I played a darn good game tonight.
- off to chicago shortly. Woo hoo
- Farve seems like he's back for another season. He's fun to watch so good news.
- Our dollar store...it's not a nickel and dime operation. Pure first class. Pure dollar all the way.
- Holidays time shortly. I could sit around wade in a pool, and sit on my butt for a week and that'd be fantastic.
- Cars! I still love em, watch for a decent VW for myself. Cheap cheap as is my way.
- Torn to buy some fitness equipment for home vs VW.
- Cool. Say what you will about nike's labour pratices but they are very good at getting unique technology to the market. http://www.bausch.com/us/vision/products/softcontacts/nikemaxsight_faq.jsp
- I'm beat. later.

Bemused

A new day dawns

2006-05-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

Once again far too much time has passed since my last entry. I've been busy in my defense though.

First off, car sales is but a memory. Interestingly, the sales component still really shines through on me, when I get a customer asking me where something is there is nothing more than me wanting to upsell and cross sell and every other thing. The very first day we were opened when the store was freshly stocked I took some guy from 4 items to 11. I do miss that sale part, but, this is much more satisfying. I feel a sense of ownership, and frankly, for the first time ever in a job I'm concerned about the pennies. Squeezeing the nickel to get the beavershit out. well, maybe not that far, but I like the saying. When I was with those nameless big companies I really didn't get a rats ass about "their" money. It always made me laugh on the performance reviews "treats company money like own" they'd always mark yes. Growing up in business, I always thought that man, these guys have no clue.

I of course won't discuss numbers, but we are doing fairly well in my opinion. Things are only going to get better once we get our shit together (so to speak). At present I'm doing lots and lots of stocking. Don't get that statement wrong, I like doing it, recognize that it'll always be a part of the job however, I had hoped that we'd have enough staff that I wouldn't have to constantly be sprinting to get more stock onto the shelves. A victim of our own success, so to speak. The good news is that it's only what, 10 days in and lots is to be fixed and amended.

Ball hockey continues to roll, I've passed some sort of physical barrier, I'm not sure what it is, but I'm much more effective now. I feel faster, feel less fatigued during games and after games. Could be my energy shake with akai, and l-glutamine in it. Now if only I'd get more offense happening. I feel like I can run down those little guys, feel that I can contribute all over the place. Best of all, I'm having tons of fun. Want to know something scary? I'm the leading point getter from the blueline. 5 Assists in 7 games. SCARY because I ain't that good.

I'm basically a geek when it comes to learning. The vast majority of people prefer to just do it and figure it out as they go. I learn that way too, but, I also love to dig in to a book to gain more of a theoretical knowledge, maybe read someone elses ideas on how things should be done, and gain tidbit's that way. Basically, I think that it doubles up your experience and you learn more and faster. To that end, the merchandising, the "how to get people to buy more" part of me is learning by both doing and reading. At present I've got a extremely good book "Why we Buy, The Science of Shopping also have 1001 Ideas to Create Retail Excitement. I'll let you know how much I apply, and what works in the store. Dollars dollars dollars.

Things I think I think:
- I think that having Sundays as my day off is excellent, NFL sunday's baby!!!!
- I think that Flutie could play another 10 years as a NFL backup, but he probably made the right choice retiring now
- Does everyone treat stores like crap, and just rip it apart forcing the staff to be constantly cleaning up after them?
- I'm trying to buy a beater some 1000 buck or so machine. Some high KM ready to fall apart beast. I want to learn something about mechanic's and want something that I can tinker with and not feel guilty if I bugger up trying to change the timing belt or something like that.
- My GF said to that idea "now when will you have the time to do that" touche.
- Moving one item from the middle of the hardware row to a "clip strip" on the end has resulted in 50% of the product moving on one sunday. That is pretty damn interesting and more experiments with these sorts of things will continue.
- I haven't been video gaming lately, for a whole long while. Makes me sort of sad.
- My best friend is now a Doctor.
- I don't care how stupid it looks, I want to go on a driving segway scooter tour in Chicago. Way to look like a tourist though eh?
- I saw the Kentucky derby, nice looking horse, but as I'm busy this year, I haven't really been paying that close of attention.
- No, we don't have oilers flags at the dollar store, the friggin things cost 17.99 at the mall, as if we'd get them for less than a buck.

Put a fork in me, this roast beef is done

2006-04-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm now a former member of the automobile sales industry. Happily, I've moved on to the dollar store retail game. Quick, tell me which is likely to make more money: selling one 50,000 vehicle or selling 50,000 one dollar items?

Things you should now about the car sales industry:

- The vast majority of car salesmen (who don't have demos) drive vehicles $5,000 and under. Myself, I drive a truck I bought for 3,000 that runs like a top. One of my last sales the people were going to be paying 640 bucks a month for 5 years
- The markup on the big 3 imports (Toyota, Honda, Nissan) runs about 4.5% or so.
- The items sold to you in the business/finance office have huge markup (pro packs, life and dis, etc etc) and those items are negotiable
- Car dealers fear people who can do the Principle x Rate x Time formula
- Try and pick a vehicle that you are going to keep for a decent length of time, thanks to the nature of the industry, if financing you are assurd to be "upside down" in your machine for several years

At some point, I'm going to add up the selling price on everything I sold and give you some interesting stat's from teh saleman point of view.

If I had to buy a vehicle, it'd be a Murano (possibly FX, but price value is better on murano) car would be a Maxima.

Best part about working at a car dealership is getting to drive the trade in vehicles. Old beaters, high milers, low milers, every make you can think of. Rusty old s-10 trucks, $60,000 Lincolns, and so on. Fun times.

Long Awaited Entry

2006-04-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm back and blogging. I realized I was lying in bed and was mentally thinking about things (work) and noted that I was speaking to myself in a narrative type of voice, I thought "shit, I better go make a blog entry." So after one quick 3rd place finish in a for money tourny on poker stars here I am.

Professionalism has passed the car sales industry by, and it's clear that the old school (owners mostly, some old time sales managers) exist to keep things the way they are as they are profitable. Not one thing will change till ownership changes it's mindset and the way they deal with people.

How to explain where I'm at.

It can by summed up by this: How many times a day do you get called "weak", or "weak peice of shit" by your boss?

Year to date I'm second in sales for our dealership. This means that I'm right around 30 cars year to date and have a whole pack of people slightly behind me. The things that have made me successful are being called into question by a changing dealership. The dealership has always felt focused, make no mistake we are there to sell you a car. What's changing is the structure of the dealerships organization chart, we now have a general sales manger(GSM), basically, he's the one that fucks you while you think and he thinks he's a nice guy. He has two assistant sales managers whose sole purpose is to watch over us sales people: harassing us to phone you as much as they possibly can and to meet each one of our "ups" (walks ups on the lot) and see what they can do about not letting you leave and us selling you a car. Sound high pressure, you bet your ass it is and I'm not happy. I'm more than content to spend an hour with some nice person and give them a brochure and a hand shake and thank them for coming in. Maybe I get their phone number, maybe not. I'm comfortable with it, I get people back in droves and have gone in after an off weekend to have the GSM say that I had a small army looking for me on the weekend. Statistically, I know that 33% is the dream mark of a closing ratio. Mine runs at about 18%. So I know that 80% of my time is wasted with no hope of a sale. I can't tell which is a waste of time (for the most part) so I spend time with everyone as though they are buyers. I'm happy with my success, I'm happy with how I feel when allowed to "do my thing" with people. I'm not high pressure, I'm polite and people seem to like me and dealing with me.

This is all changing and quite quickly. With our new terrorist assistant sales managers(ASM) there job is to dive into my log book and ask me what's up with this phone up or walk up, why haven't you phoned them today and so forth. This system, by the way, is about to be changed into a computerized system that's tied to the phone that will generate a log of people to call and track if you actually phone them or not. ASM's will be on your ass watching what you do non-stop. I said at the top that ownership's mentality has to change...ya, well it does, they have the mentality that you should "Phone em till they tell you to fuck off" with the phone and your log book. Now with the computer they have a way to 100% enforce it. Great stuff eh? Harrass you until you buy or die. Wonderful industry.

The phone is a constant battle for me. The higher ups mentality is to get info not give it over teh phone. So in their opinion, answering questions such as "how many km's on the vehicle?" and "what color is it?" are near death. I get beat up on these sorts of things quite often by the GSM and undoubtedly soon by ASM's. Did I mention that they record the calls just to have them handy so they can diagnose what you are doing wrong. The General Manager, a portly fellow who works maybe 6 hours a day on a busy day while wearing $300 jeans, tells us at the sales meeting to always go to the appointment. Knock them off the game plan and always set an appointment. Example

Customer "How many KM's does that Sunfire you are advertising"
GM thinks saying will work "I've got three of them in stock, when can you come by and see them"

Customer "What color is that 00 monte carlo"
GM: "I've got lots of colors available in that type of car, what color are you looking for or, better yet, when can you come by to see them?"

Baffling isn't it. And this man is strangely very wealthy.

We are having some issues at work about turning customers over so an assistant sales manager can beat on them. Myself, and other members of my crew have a pretty similar philosophy and mentality when dealing with customers and we are really struggling with this "no customer can leave without a talk over or turn over". Ya right. It's unfathomable in this day and age that people are put under such pressure and subjected to such bullshit. No wonder car salesmen are held in such undesireable regard.

Not to be outdone, customers (yes you!) have this belief that it's alright to treat car salesmen like garbage, not keeping appointments, not telling you the truth, buying a car from you, then driving to the next Nissan dealer to buy the same car at the same price (this happened last week). If ownership doesn't respect customers (and sales staff for that matter) how will customers respect car salesmen. Simply put, it ain't gonna happen.

So what does a guy do? Think high end import stuff is any better to work at? (BMW, Mercedes, Infiniti?) maybe, but it seems sorta doubtful there too.

I've decided to leave the industry, dust off my B.Com and head either back to the professional world or start my own business. Chat at ya again sometime.

Come buy your car from me soon if you are interested cause it won't be long.

Oh, by the way, if your interested this article is a long but great read:
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/page001.html

Return of the Medicore Ball Hockey player

2006-02-09T23:42:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog. Yes indeedy.

So tonight was my teams second playoff game. I should frame this correctly I guess. This season, our team stunk. Absolutely stunk. We went 1-11-2 on the season. Yes, we only won one game. As it turns out, it was the last game of the season. Our goals for/against differential was a whopping -51. Thankfully, having paid money to play in the league we got a couple of playoff games. Think faint hope clause for nasty prison inmates. So anyways, we finally nab a near full roster for our first game against the second worst team in our division the Karachi Vice. (really, that's the other teams name). If it was a college bowl game it'd be the toilet bowl game.

So hapless as we were off we went to the playoffs to play the Vice. Apparently, at some point we were reborn that fine superbowl Sunday as we whomped them 6-0. I personally had one of my best games, 1 assist, plus 3 on the game and two of my other passes, while not pretty resulted in shots going off the post. Really, for me that was a stellar game. I only spent all superbowl Sunday pacing back and forth, stretching and talking about the ball hockey game. No biggy.

To paraphrase a quote I read “Some say ball hockey is a matter of life and death. I think it’s much more important than that.”

So the next game was against the third best team The Urban Cowboys. Having acquired a bit of a swagger from winning a playoff game we are pumped. The other team has this brother combination, tall, lanky, fast and skilled that tends to eat up opposing defenses. The two times we played them we lost 9-1 and 8-0. I was at the 9-1 game and was a lovely -5 or so on the night. I remembered #14 and was looking forward to meeting him once again. Sherlock Homes had his Dr. Moriarty. I have #14. How little do they know that I bought 10 pound weights for each ankle and have been wearing them every minute I’m at home and when walking the parents dog that I’m taking care of. I feel faster at least. So pre game, when going onto the “ice” one of the other team asks us if we are on the juice (in reference to our 6-0 win last game). I grin and say “no, just crystal meth. Steroids are bad for you”.

An old “friend” who punched me once on the other team starts off against me, whacks me in the corner but I merely shove him out of the way and then nail his defenseman and then follow the ball back to the corner and nail him. I dig the ball away and then he stomps on my toe. Damn man. I was looking at doing that to someone. Was saving that gem. Clearly I need to get more creative.

#14, against me a lot. I was on him like white on rice in the middle of a snowstorm. I was practically his backpack. He did squat all night long against me. Fuck did I have to hustle to keep up to him though. He’s probably 20ish, 6’5 190 pds ultra fast, I’m 29, 6’2 probably around 235 and a bit more, uh, plodding. He did complain about his ankles taking a beating to me. I personally was working over his back with my stick whenever I got the chance. Go figure. At one of our defensive scrambles in the night I was kinda out of position (weird rebound) so I dove, to block the shot. It was a hard shot, and whack, about 3/8 of an inch away from my eye. Just off the bottom of the helmet. You know in a war movie when the character has a loud explosion and things go really muted and really slowly for that 1 or 2 seconds. That’s what happened to me (concussion?) even though it didn’t hit my head directly. When the sound came back it was like the thought processed hey that hit me, then where’s the ball, then oh I feel it under my leg. The other players wanted to dig it out but they stopped, I think I was looking kinda confused. My bench howled “was to use your head big guy”. I went and sat down and about 1 minute later I was fully back in the game. For the record, we lost 5-2 to the Cowboys, but then got a dose of what a motivated Knights team can do, and for sure they were shocked.

It would appear that we are done till summer season which is good news as I stubbed my toe and the nail got partially peeled back. I’m on injured reserve for AT LEAST 6 months now. Har har.

Quick stuff:
- David Emerson, when I first read his profile didn’t seem like a Liberal to me. Thought he’d be a better Conservative.
- Strange, the “not liberal” party gets elected and the first thing they do (literally) is recruit an MP. When it was Belinda going she was all sorts of nasty stuff and names. Now it’s pragmatic. Look, fellas, either it’s ok or it’s not. I would suggest if you want to differentiate yourselves from the red machine you might try and not do the same things as them.
- David Emerson is probably a dead duck for his voters. Save some money Dave, it’s another minority.
- Well, then again maybe not. Maybe they’ll just elect him as a whatever and he can defect to cabinet regardless of who’s in power
- The most important question in this Janet Gretzky betting thing isn’t being asked…..”was she making any money at it?”
- Selling cars continues. No further comment at this time.
- Steelers were definitely a team on a mission during the non superbowl playoff games. The first half of the superbowl they looked lost and were lucky to come out in good shape.
- I’m one of the people that listens to CBC radio 2 in the AM and actually enjoys it. The DJ is quite entertaining. Beats listening to people call in on the rock stations for whatever stupid thing.
- I haven’t been at the track at all lately. No I’m not happy about that.
- How manly am I walking my parents standard sized poodle around. Nice dog, but damn people look at you funny. I’m going to rent a great dane, giraffe cougar combo and walk around with that to get some respect back.
- I have an urge to buy some cheap, smallish car for the summer. VW golf or Honda civic. Gotta love that 5000 and under trader.
- My cats breath smells like cat food.

Monster Hospital

2006-01-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Bam chicka bam

It's hockey night tonight, my waistline grows, I stubbed my toe, in the good old hockey game.

Last game pre xmas i hurt my ankle, well, the pain is still there. Enough to make me go and buy an ankle support. What a sissy. I might have to stick to video game hockey. Yikes. I'm expecting a tiring and grueling game.

I hopped on the scale, I've got a confession, up from a decently shaped 220, to a blobby 245. Guess I need to a) go back to the gym, b) buy that home gym that I've diligently saved for or c) buy an elliptical and go back to the gym if I wanna lift. Decisions. It's apparent that I have to make a decision and soon. I'm expecting monday to be d day.

I bought nhl 06, I dislike nhl hockey, but, the game is fun. I enjoy changing the lineup and watching some of those superstars have their morale tank.

Selling cars is fun times, 86 last year in my first 9 months or so of car sales. Woo. My goal is 150 for this year.

k

later

Consumer Advisory - Video Game suckage

2005-12-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

After reading a couple of reviews and hearing that this game has some profanity I was all for it. Profanity + video game = excellent start. And for much of the game this has proved to be quite a solid little game. The story is about a team that starts out in the cellar and climbs back into the big to take on division 1 powerhouse the NY Nightmare. There is some piss poor cutscenes and scripts involving your first overall rookie & cheerleader, a nearly washed up veteran, an asshole (as the game calls him when you first hear about him) a freaky owner and a corrupt Liberal mayor. Well ok, I added the Liberal part. Haw Haw. Just so you know LT himself is in the game as...well....another asshole.

So the game rolls along nicely. Going through the scrub (bottom) division on the way up the ladder. I choose the rookie to be a HB (or running back). So I would go into the games I formation (my rage has me forgetting the games name for it) and select a HB run off tackle to the right with a full back lead. So bang, in scrub division I'd call the play, the tackle NEVER, EVER, blocks the DE accross from him, the FB happily runs right by and bam the HB is tackled for a loss of two. Alright, you say, time to train the tackle and FB on blocking. SURE. why not. So I do. I'm presently, in division 1, with a well trained tackle and FB. Run the same play. Same result cept now my backup running back is out for 5 games with a shatter wrist or some such nonsense. OK fine.

I remember playing blitz in the arcade a few times and I was well aware that the game had catch up AI in it. If it was down suddenly weird shit would happen to contribute to it's return of victory over you. This game is no exception. I do a toss to the right, if I'm down by any points the HB will never drop it, but if I'm up at all in the 4th it's almost assurd to be a fumble at some point during the toss or run. Passes that will connect in triple coverage in the first quarter can be tossed to a open guy all alone who'll promptly bonk (yes bonk, no other word for it) the pass into the air, bonk it off another of my WR and then into the hands of a safety or DB. THIS HAPPENS WITH ALARMING REGULARITY.

Ok, so suspension of belief is required. No doubt about it. But, what kills me is that a cartoony, unrealistic video game can become a massively lobsided cartoony video game simply by winning a little bit over it. I like challenges, I don't like to be insulted that a game that previously was being owned by me can come back so dramatically and look like the friggin Baltimore Colts beating up on Lloydminster high school's B team. Pure, suckage.

The choice becomes to trade this turd in and get another game at EB or to wreck the disc so that it can never pollute a PS2 again.

ya ya. Boo hoo. I know.

Entry for this day

2005-12-14T20:33:00.000-08:00

I had a ball hockey game tonight. Remember, I'm nearly 30 in a league filled with 18-23 year olds. Picture old and fat vs young and skinny. Slow vs fast. So we start off fast and strong. Taking a 2-0 lead in the game. Considering we've not won a game all season, things are looking up. We are playing strong, moving fast, connecting passes, scoring on flukey shots...things that are imperative to success in such a strange and topsy turvey game. But alas, disaster strikes, I somehow make it down the rink to be the third man in on a fast break, a kindly gentleman from the other team, whom I'd whacked in the corner mere seconds earlier bodies me, Mr Red Helmet, which results (predictably in my opinion) of him bouncing off me and stumbling forward. No biggy, however, I managed to step on Mr. Red Helmet's heel causing him to tumble to the hockey surface like a weight watchers dieter diving for a falling donut. This all happens very quickly, and I'm ready to turn around and head back to the blueline/centre area where I belong. Until that magical sound of the ref's whistle "Tweet" (oh ya, you got any better written sound effects??). My first thought was maybe he got a penalty for bodying me which apparently is illegal in this league. Ref yells "Orange, number 9, interference". No sooner does he say that then "WTF" escapes my lips. Suddenly, I have a million things to say. Somewhere in my brain something twigs about me not liking it when players complain to the ref and I refrain from a profanity laced diatribe questioning the refs mental capacity/sanity/ability to ref blind midget peewee hockey. My team calls me a goon (good naturally of course) as I take my spot in the lonely penalty box. Naturally they score and the TSN turning point occurs as we wind up losing 6-4. To top it off later in the game I roll my ankle and now that the adrenalin has worn off I'm hobbling about.

BUT WAIT, there is more.

So I'm driving home, feeling pretty down about losing and playing such a bad game (although, I did get to double punch someone in the head...Penalty free...go figure) and I go to slow down at a light, the ass end of my little truck skids and I punch it. I'm sure I saw a flash. Oh, fiddle de deeeee I say. That'll be like 500 bucks, thanks red light camera. Not more than 3 minutes later another light turns yellow, having learned previously about sliding I just hit it. I see another flash. Now I don't know if those were real flashes or imagined, but I'm running scared. Heading down Calgary trail at 53 ave, the friggin don't walk thing is flashing and I'm on the brake. I come to a stop just as the light turns yellow. WITHOUT FAIL, there is a cop waiting there heading across westward on 53 ave. Just staring at me, wondering how much crack I must have done to be stopped before the light turns yellow. He looks at my truck (presently with only one working headlight) and moves on. Must have been a donut run or yet another gang shooting cause he blasts away after checking me out for a few seconds. So, while stopped at the light I say to myself....How does one rehab a twisted ankle. The answer came back instantly "McNuggets." Damn, I was thinking ice pack or maybe rolling a joint.

Hmph.

Short Bits:

- So there's an election on, I did the drive by stalker thing at Laurie Hawn's campaign office. He attracts some good workers who want to say they helped knock off the Deputy Prime Minister.
- Speaking of election, I'm interested, just not to the point that I was before.
- Harpers commercials are done by the same creative ref who gave me the penalty this evening. Pure crap.
- Has anyone promised to pay off like 30-40 billion worth debt per year instead of making the minimum payments. One would think that since times are good to pay that sucker down. Does this not feel like something that would come back and bite us in the ass?
- I sold three cars in one day (I've done that several times before) but this one is different. After feeling all proud of myself, the first deal the guy walks in and gets his deposit back tubing the deal, the second guy is entering bankruptcy and technically it's illegal to apply for more credit, the third guy takes delivery of his vehicle and brings it back the very next night and gives us back the keys. Ahem, fuddle duddle indeed.
- I was sick this weekend, saturday was a mess, cough cold, flu, ebola, bird flu, you name it I had it. Man I felt awful. Sunday I could barely manage 4 hours at offtrack. I even skipped work tuesday to get better. Sorry to all who's parties I missed. It wasn't selfish jerkish stuff, just damn sick. Like sweating profusely with a fever and shivering at the same time sick. Trust me, it's better I wasn't there.
- I enjoyed watching Manning and the Colts take Jacksonville apart. They are fun to watch.
- That House show has made me a fan for life, last night's episode started out at OTB place, and that House dude is just pure rude/funny. "Oh boo hoo" he says. lmao.
- 40 year old virgin is the best movie ever. Period. How it isn't nominated for best picture, best actor, best whatever is beyond me. Oh wait, artsy, not fartsy, stuff wins.
- uhhh, that's it for now.

Later.

Nice Horse

2005-12-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, one of my fav things is horse racing. I'm talking throughbred's not the jiggy joggers. To that end from time to time I'll write about it in this space.

This is one of those times.

A few weeks ago my family friend was in town and he invited me out to the nearby Paddockhurst Stables where his broodmare and unnamed filly are at. The broodmare was as one expects, pregnant to the farms hot stallion Hurricane Center. The yearling was thin and that usual dispropotion between legs and body (ie waiting to grow up and fill out). The young filly is also sired by Hurricane Center.

Later, I got to see the big horse. Hurricane Center himself. A son of the legendary Storm Cat; the same Storm Cat who's stud fee is $500,000. Now I've seen alot of horses in my time but this beast was particularily impressive and made a lasting impression. One would describe him as aggressive, cocky and full of himself. As though he knows he's the king of the farm. I'm weak at judging conformation but it looked fine to me, very muscled and in my opinion he seemed to be of good size for the Alberta race scene. He is a solid looking horse. Here's hoping he gets good results.

We also went and saw Royalty Boy, he was fun to visit, he tried to bite me and wound up nearly missing and getting ahold of my coat. Not sure if he was playing or not after a bit as he didn't seem too interested in letting go. The farmhand said that he's been nipping alot lately so that makes sense I suppose. I said "bad horsey, my coat" but 1500 pds of horse didn't really seem to interested in letting go so I had to yank. Let this be a repeat of a lesson I learned when I was very young. horses bite and it hurts. When I was a little lad (5ish?) I was petting one of the horses that my dad owned while we were at the track, the horse named Big Smoke. I was petting his nose and I remember the horse lowing his head to my leg ( iwas thinking something like what is he doing) and CHOMP. ouch, tears etc. Remember, horses bit and they didn't leave scars on me so I'd look tough for the chicks ;)

So how's that for a non gamling horse racing entry?

New blog, insomnia strikes..concincidence?

2005-12-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

First things first. Guess I should explain where the name of this blog comes from. I used it one day in conversation with a fellow cube dweller over at Marsh, I was refering to the attitude that underwriters used to have towards us broker types. She laughed loudly, and thought that it was a pretty acurate statement.

An update on me:

been playing....ball hockey, the winter league. I'm playing much better as a player since the first futile bigger playing surface days of last summer. I no longer need ice packs on my knees post game and can walk just fine the next day....As long as stairs aren't in the way. I bought some new running shoes from the running room. Man they are good sales people. Did fit me into exactly what I needed though. Kudos to the sales job. Just so you know I made it through the winter league before being injured 9 games, 2 assists. So far in the winter league I'm at 9 games 3 assists. Go me. with this momentum I'll break 100 points some time near 2010. Of course now I'm playing half the game and have been fairly good defensively.....except against #4 of the swashbucklers...damn guy still have nightmares about him scorching me all night long.

been watching....Having cable for the first time in 10 years I find myself watching lots of this silly Mythbusters show on Discovery. REally, really really half assed science, but I do find it entertaining never the less.

been gaming...sadly no. It's on pause for now. I thought about getting an xbox360 but decided to wait and decide what to get once the next playstation lands.

been selling....Well, I'm at 79.5 cars (the .5 is a split commish) in the 8 months that I've done this....but....this past two weeks have been rough, I've only sold 1 car and that was today. I had 3 splits though in that time. I'm getting better though, I think next year could be huge for me.

been at the new hut....I love it. well done Axio.

been doing anything remotely interesting? uh. no. not really. My life is at work now, work 10 days on 3 off, of those 3 off I typically work one or two of those days.

Things I think I think....
- Horse racing rules. It's one of those things where I wish other people really understood the fun of it and it was more popular...but then again, I'm happy it's not.
- I'd hate to see Brett Farve retire after such an awful season
- Watched some of the sunday night game tonight, LT is a machine, but the color commentator was right, his full back is worth every penny.
- I think GM is going to enter bankruptcy protection in the next year to year and a half. They came 40 minutes away frmo bankruptcy in the early 90's. They were literally sitting by the fax machine waiting for notice from a bank on a due loan which would have pushed them into chapter 11.
- I think the new nhl bores me as much as the old nhl
- I think at age 29 I might just have to get my wisdom teeth taken out
- President's Choice beer, pilsner variety isn't to shabby and is damn cheap. I feel like I'm one step away from drinking it out of a brown bag though
- I made a puking pumpkin this year at halloween, I'll post a pic for ya sometime in the future
- U2 is a fantastic band, but Green Day is probably my favorite right now
- I dislike telus greatly. I'm not too thrilled with Shaw either. Vonage so far has been great.
- I've not had a cell phone for quite some time now and I don't miss it in the slightest.
- Does anyone know where a guy can get some decent commercial grade fitness equipment back from lease to a gym? I checked out a few of the home type ones and man are they crappy mccrap.
- I'm enormously jelous of my neighbours, firefighter, 7 days on 7 off. the other a emt 4 on 4 off. sigh. I'm like never off....

bemused