Heart Still Beats... Life Goes On...

So, it's been two and a half months since my last post... What's been up? Oh... just about everything...

There's a lot, so I'm going to sum up in as small a chunks as I can...

BUSINESS: We lost a competitor here in town, making us the oldest active (8+ years) game store now. Things have been interesting, as we absorb some extra customers and work out game schedules so "everybody gets to play". It's kept us hopping. We've also been offered a game store to buy that's just over an hour away, we've been offered space (when it's ready) for a second location about 25 minutes away, and have heard about yet a third prospect that may be ready for the buying as their ship is not currently stable. Opportunities abound, but I'm not certain what path (if any) to take at this point.

GAMING: The Champions game continues to get better, though it is not without its fits of drama. If the drama with fully within the game, it'd be no issue, but it's not. One player feels picked on by a few of the others, and while he's not entirely incorrect, given what he's established his character's history to be, the way the player is playing it, the player is drawing legit aggro. The player in question does not read, nor has he ever really read, superhero comic books. He's a fine player, but he's come with a character with an extesive written history that if it gets tampered with in any way, he loses his nut. The last time he had a semi-meltdown, I told him that if he wants to write a story that he has complete control over, then he should go write a book. Within an RPG, it's cooperative storytelling and improvisational theater, and he needs to be flexible as the story unfolds during play. We'll see how it goes...

The Feng Shui 2 game is actually going fairly well. Almost lost two characters last run as the group gets thrust further into the Secret War. I have the PDF of the upcoming book, and while there are a number of questionable bits in the way of typos and little mistakes, the overall feel of the updated system is solid. I, at some level, wish they had done away with the shot cost/initiative/turn system in favor of something a little more "fair", but it still works and doesn't really slow the game down.

LIFE: Still married to a wonderful woman... still have two great kids (one of whom is now engaged)... and have increased the number of dogs in the household from one to two... and that's been a struggle. The new dog is fine. The old dog is not... He's nine years old and is pretty much the pulling the whole canine version of "get off my lawn, you punk" with the new dog. They are both absolutely sweet dogs alone, and the new one stays sweet when they are together, but the old guy is a furball of aggression. It's slowly getting better, but we have a ways to go...

MUSIC: Been seeing a few shows lately and buying music here and there. The only concise things I can say is...

FAITH NO MORE: SOL INVICTUS: BUY IT!!!
ONE-EYED DOLL: WITCHES: BUY IT!!!
PSYCHOSTICK: If you have the chance to, see them in concert!!!

That's it for now, as my sleep-deprived brain kind of wanders off to another place...

peace... GopherDave

Waking Up With The House On Fire...

Day 2... Step 2...

Lately, things have been rough from a business standpoint. I won't lie. A new competitor hit the scene and has really given us what for. In an effort to retain the business they were taking away from us, we altered and evolved our approach to be more like them. Then, out of blue morass of one of the longest depression fits I've dealt with in recent memory, a thought occurred to me...

I had lost sight of who I was as a person, and by extension, lost sight of what our store is as a business.

We had become a poor imitation of another store, and we've never been that. Armored Gopher Games has always been uniquely... Gopher.

So it shall be again... It is going to take a long time to recover from the mess I've led it to, but I, as a person, and we, as a store, are no longer going to concern ourselves with what "they do over there". We're going to concentrate on what we can do to make our store better...

Which is as it should be...

peace... GopherDave

Retract... Refocus... Recover... Reemerge... Represent!

Okay... It's been longer than I anticipated since an update, so I figure anyone who is "listening" (all 34 of you) might actually want to know what is happening in Gopherland...

A few months back we had another game store open up in town. It is a franchise of a small chain from a nearby city, owned by two guys, who honestly, are pretty good people. This store makes three game stores in town. In the 35+ year history of gaming in this community, I have never known the community to be able to support that many retail game establishments for terribly long. When this store opened, I knew we would take a hit. What I didn't know was how big of one... The hit has far exceeded my expectations...

I had an inkling of the trend a month ago, but didn't want to believe it could get much worse than what it was. I was wrong. Sadly, because of this, I had to do something I desperately didn't want to do. We laid off three employees, and cut hours to the other two (besides me) in an effort to stop the bleeding. Truthfully, I should have done this a month ago when I first witnessed the trend. I, however, don't like to let people I call my family down. It makes me ache inside...

That said, if our business is to survive, I did what I had to do, and on some level, I hate myself for it. Now that it's done, it is time to get back to the task at hand, and that is righting the ship...

• Retract - With the layoffs, we've just done this to some degree. There is a little more room to go if necessary, though I am truly loathe to do to it.
• Refocus - Left with a crew of myself, Loquacious, Skribl, and Snowlady, the workload just increased for all of us, and yet there's still a store to put back on track. Lo, Skribl, and myself have already begun tossing ideas about. We've also taken some input from some of the regulars and former employees. An attack plan is forming, and we hope to have enough things in place to enact it, at least in part, by the beginning of December.
• Recover - This is the long stage where we take back what we consider ours. I'm not one to begrudge anyone their success, and we're willing to share nicely, but not to the point of endangering our business. Sorry. Not happening.
• Reemerge - This stage is where we begin to reacquire some (if not all) of the family members that have been left by the wayside due to the recent happenings. This WILL happen... sooner, rather than later if I have anything to say about it.
• Represent! - Gopher Mafia REPRESENT!!! Weather the storm, come out not only none the worse for wear, but stronger than ever, our family by our side...

We've taken the first few steps, and more will be taken in short order. Do not, however, wish us luck.

Where we're going, we don't need luck...

-- GopherDave

Falling Off The Radar...

Looking at the blog, it has been about three weeks since I last posted. A number of things happened in that time with games, life, and stuff in general, but probably the most significant thing that happened was that I kind of took a mental vacation from the bulk of life. Most (not all) of my gaming obligations got met, and I did most (not all) of what was needed to keep the store going in regard to behind the scenes work.

Last night, I caught up on some financials, as well as a small bit of backlog in terms of physical work that the store needed done, and when it was all done with, I came to a conclusion that had been staring me at the face for a bit, but that I hadn't wanted to face. As much as I have enjoyed my break, I can no longer be an absentee owner if I expect my business to survive, let alone thrive. There are too many things going on in the local scene, and deep down, I knew this already.

So, after six to eight weeks of not really being here, it is past time for DonGopher to come back and herd the Mafia back into fighting shape. Honestly, he (read: I) should have never left when he did. At the time where guidance and direction were needed most, I stepped away. Now my family and my store need me desperately to be "theMan" once again, and I know that it will take at least twice as long to put it all back together again, so it is the time to step back up or step aside...

Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely step aside... and this is not one of those times...

-- GopherDave

Working Day Off...

Well... the schedule said I had the day off. Too bad reality said otherwise... =)

In general, I am beginning to pull out of my funk. There's no doubt I'll end up there again sometime, but it shouldn't be anytime soon...

Took care of a couple of items at the store today, and ran a fair amount of errands. I'll be heading back to the store later after running another errand. What time I'll be going back remains nebulous. Just... later...

Over the last couple of months, we've been dealing with some employee turnover due to our employees getting better jobs. We cannot compete with $20/hr and benefits, and we are genuinely happy when our folks make good. That said, it means we've been doing some hiring and training recently. Tonight, AngryG will be running the store for the first time tonight. Skribl is there playing Warmachine, so the Angry One has back-up if he needs it. Another person (Z-Mo) begins training tomorrow, which means our staff is refilling up to capacity once again. Overall, these guys are young, new, and green, but they are teachable. We can work with teachable.

We've been gathering more folks as we are about to lose Double-L for at least two weeks, if not for good. He got a job that will pay him very well, but has some danger involved, and he's not certain he will be up to the task when push comes to shove. Working at crazy 300+ feet heights will do that to you. It's one thing to climb a tree. It's quite another to climb a 450' tall windmill with not a lot of safety equipment to keep you from splatting on the ground. He'll go through the training and see if he can handle it. If so, cool. If not, our door will still be open.

Unfortunately, errands will not complete themselves, so I need to get gone. I just wanted to get back some regularity in posting.

peace...

-- GopherDave

Coming Out Of Hibernation...

Okay... I've been away for a while. My apologies for that, but all the drama bombs I had spoken about previously pretty much paled in comparison to what has been happening lately... A great deal has happened as of late, much of which has had my guts tied up in knots.

I wish I could put things in nutshells to explain, but most of them are not short stories... Here are some highlights, though...

• Mostly due to the two of us being very much alike, I almost completely destroyed my relationship with my son. It is on the mend now, but it is not out of the woods, yet...
• We have another game store joining us in the confines of C-U. It is a franchise of a chain not known to be amiable to their competition. In this case I know one of the franchisees on a cursory basis, and we welcome healthy, friendly competition, as it makes the scene better as a whole. This does give us three game stores in the area, and I've never known the local scene to support that many for too terribly long. We shall see...
• In addition to trying to fix my Champions game, I am gearing up to run yet another set of games in my home-brew fantasy setting, Tai'eres. Yeah, because I have TONS of spare time lying around for that...
• One of my ex-roommates passed away in his sleep at the age of 52. We haven't been close for a while, but his passing was a blunt reminder of my own mortality. Stupid mortality...

In the middle of everything, I have become a big ball of stress, which makes me very prone to a heart attack. I have had heart issues all my life, and I can pretty much recognize when my heart is prime to start giving me problems. I am not where I was roughly fifteen years ago, but I am at a close enough stage where I could will myself into a heart attack should I desired to.

I did that a couple of times as an adolescent, with one time requiring defibrillation. I can say this with the certainty that comes from personal experience... Avoid being defibrillated at all costs. It sucks the high, hard one. Basically, every muscle in your body is electrically forced to contract simultaneously at the moment of shock, and let me tell you... That. Shit. Hurts.

So, as I have typed this, and writing has become catharsis, I have come to the resolution to care about only what I can control, which is the direction I take socially with my family and friends, how I react to adverse situations that require my attention, and the direction our business takes. Beyond that, well...

...it just isn't worth the stress and the energy...

peace... GopherDave

Ahhh, The Possibilities...

It is currently 4:15AM on Saturday as I write this. What is pictured above is what I wore all day Friday from about 10AM until just before now. It was a long night at the store. The day before (Thursday) was one of the slowest we've had in recent history. Tonight (Friday) was good. It wasn't as stellar as we could have made it due to an absolutely *BONKERS* new Magic: the Gathering set dropping today, but we will definitely take it.

The set is called Modern Masters and it is an *EXTREMELY* limited set of cards in terms of print run. The packs MSRP for $3 more than a normal pack ($6.99, as opposed to $3.99), but the set has *SEVERAL* $10+ value cards in it. As it goes, we, as a store decided not to sell any full boxes, nor make any individual pack sales of it. The set is meant to be drafted, so we decided that we would hold back our allotment from sale and break it out for events, prizes, and other big draws. While I know we've upset some people, I believe we've made the right long-term call. A number of places I know are selling full boxes (24 packs) of this set for $225 a box and higher. That's great if you want to make a quick short-term buck, but this set has the potential to draw so much more business than that if a store can market it creatively. We've already got a couple of ideas in mind... stay tuned for those.

I have to be back at the store in about six hours. I will be there, once again, all day. The only part that is even a the slightest bit mitigating is that the last half of the day/evening, I will be playing in Shady's Terracide game. I will also be more than half loopy when I do so. Currently, I'm not entirely certain where we can go in the game. There are some situations that we could clean up, but every time we try to fix something, three other things draw us away from it all. Ehhh... We'll see how it goes. If necessary, I will talk to Shady about it. I really do get the feeling that the game is one the downward spiral in terms of wrap-up, but I've been wrong about these things before. Perhaps it's the fatigue talking... who knows?

-- GopherDave

Sigh... More Of The Same...

Okay... got the new base in for the fixture in yesterday. Put the fixture together, but do nothing else with it for the evening. Get here today and put brackets, shelves, and product on the fixture. Things are okay. Three hours later, the fixture is doing the "Leaning Tower of Pisa". It seems that two of the casters gave out under the strain and decided to pull away from the particle board base upon which they mounted.

Took product off of the shelf, removed the two good casters, put the fixture back together sans wheels, put product back on the shelf, and called Store Supply Warehouse. Talked to them and they will ship out another base tomorrow. It will get here Tuesday due to the holiday.

When we put the fixture together, HiSign noted that the second based seemed different than the first. We just sort of shrugged and soldiered on. Wish we had listened to that hunch.

From a life standpoint, things continue apace. I really wish I wasn't as busy at the store as I have been as there are a number of things that sort of require my attention. I'll get through it, though. Always have... always do... always will...

-- GopherDave

Angry Gopher Is Angry...

Wow... To say I've had a bad twenty hours or so would be a huge understatement. I'm not going much into it other than that.

I will say that Store Supply Warehouse is both maddening and a champion with their customer service. Earlier today, due to some shenanigans with them, I was seriously considering arson, but they came through in the end. Basically, we had ordered some fixtures for the store just prior to the weekend. They showed up on Monday, a day earlier than expected. On Tuesday, HiSign broke the cases open to find the both of the bases for said fixtures were damaged enough that they could not be used. Called up SSW, they said "no problem", and shipped two more bases to arrive today. This morning, only one base showed up. In a rather hostile mood, I called them back to see what the deal was. The sales rep spoke to me, then to her manager, then came back to me and said "No worries. We'll ship out another base and it will be there later today around 5 or 5:30PM."

I was not surprised by the today part, because I was irate and rather insistent that be the case. I put the phone down, satisfied that things would be taken care of. Less than thirty minutes later, I get a call from SSW saying they found the missing base (U.P.S. damaged it before it even got on their delivery truck, so *THEY* had sent it back) and that my new one would be here tomorrow.

My face scrunched up a bit as I questioned this whole "tomorrow" thing after a representative of their company said a new fixture base would be here later today. The voice at the other end tried to tell me that would be impossible. Really? SSW is in St. Louis. We are in East Central Illinois. It is a four-hour drive. We are open until 11PM. It was Noon. From my perspective, they had an eleven hour window. That didn't seem impossible to me. Said representative insisted it couldn't be done. I disagreed. Vehemently. Asked to be kicked further up the chain. That person said it couldn't happen. I asked for the next level of employee. Got to the shipping manager. He also said that no one they deal with in terms of courier could make this happen. Once again, asked for the next level of management up. A few moments later, the shipping manager comes back on the line saying his boss is busy. My response... "I don't care if you have to send two guys with a U-Haul to bring me what we ordered. Your company said it would be here today. I'm holding you to that statement. (brief pause) Tell you what, put the owner of the company on the phone. I'll explain what has happened thus far and then you can explain to him why he is dealing with an upset customer."

(pause)

"Let me speak to my traffic manager about this. Maybe we can get someone we don't normally use. I will call you back within the hour."

It was 12:20PM at this point. About fifteen minutes later, I get a call back saying that while my part may not make it by 5:30PM, it would indeed be here today.

The courier rolled up at 4:50PM with an undamaged part.

See? Not impossible.

So, in short, will we use Store Supply Warehouse in the future? Probably. They won't be my first choice, as it took them five bases to get two undamaged ones here in a reasonable time frame, but they ultimately pulled their reputation out of the fire today after having stuck it in the inferno themselves. The fixtures that we got? They look good. When they are all assembled and product is on them, we'll take pictures.

Onward, angrily...

-- GopherDave

One Month In...

Well... I still haven't found the camera charger. I may just have to suck it up and buy a new camera. Nothing fancy. Just something that is made to be just a camera. Not a multi-purpose phone-camera-MP3 player-random gadget. I *LIKE* discrete machines. That's one of the reasons why we have a printer, a scanner, and (eventually) a fax machine. Discrete machines tend to do their jobs better than all-in-one units, and if one breaks, I replace it and I am not down the other two functions.

Anyway... we are a month into the new space and I have come to realize something... Be *VERY* careful what you wish for, because you may just get it.

Case in point, with the new store, it's a large enough space that when it gets even moderately busy, we need two people on the floor. Unlike our previous, smaller space, one person cannot manage everything well unless it's really slow. As in, slow enough to actually be worried about lack of sales. That hasn't happened too much yet, but as the Notorious BIG once stated, "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems".

Currently, sales are such that we are doing a fraction more than we were at the old space, but we are placing more work and labor into attaining those sales. That being said, if we can get things and new systems into place, we could actually begin catching up to the curve.

As for upkeep? Yeah, we need to do the floors... badly. Trouble is, our main employee who would do most of the janitorial got a 40-hour a week gig that pays twice what we could with benefits. He still works for us, but it is very much part time and around the schedule of his new job. Don't get me wrong. I have no anger at his taking the new job. Hell, if it had been offered to me (I did not apply), I might have taken it as well. It's that good of a spot in the working world.

That being said, things need to settle down a bit so I can look at them clearly, and not through a lens of chaos. We will figure it all out, it's just going to take time, a bit money, and a *LOT* of work...

-- GopherDave

Updates on Gopher V3.0...

Okay... It's been a bit so I thought I'd give folks some updates on how things are looking in the new space. I will throw out the caveat that I cannot find the charger, so I've been taking pictures with my phone and hating every minute of it.

I *HAVE* been trying to get back to the uniform. This is what I wore yesterday.

The front of the new location in day light.

The Gophers are back on the front door in their rightful places...

A shot of the store from the front as you walk in...

A shot of new expansive play space. GAWDS, it's an undecorated white box... =P

A shot of the playspace from the back of the room...

Our playspace in use with Malifaux, Pathfinder, and Only War...

What I wore today...

In general, things are moving along. There are still snags here and there, and things have to be picked up in places, but it's all coming together slowly. It will all come together in time, but we're pretty proud of where we're at for only having been in the space seventeen days.

Now, if we can only get the back room in order then we'll be ahead of the curve...

-- GopherDave

Been Busy...

Yep...

Been gone for a few days, I know, and I will probably be gone for a few more.

The move is mostly complete and we are open for business. There are some nagging details to take care of to make things more final (chief among them, cleaning up the "old" space).

As it goes, as the store grows, I find myself moving away from regular counter duties and into of more of a managerial role. I'm not entirely certain I am enjoying where that particular road is headed. One of the biggest thrills for me in this business is connecting people with a game I know that they will enjoy and get a kick out of, or a Magic the Gathering card that they've been searching for forever. With my store role shifting, I am noticing how much I miss that aspect of what we do here at Armored Gopher Games.

Overall, though, things are different, and I am slowly getting used to them.

I will post some pictures of the new place when things get more put together later on this month, but I will leave you with this...

 
It's blurry, but it's a picture of our new sign for the lightbox at the new spot... We like it...  =)

-- GopherDave

T-Minus 12 Days...

Things move slowly with the... uhhh, move.

There are a number of things we cannot do until after the actual move, including inspections for building occupancy limits and fire stuff.

There are some things I am trying to line up in terms of ducks and rows, like getting whatever requisite "change of address" forms from distributors. I do find it odd that while some places make it as simple as a phone call, others want you to "re-apply" for an account. That seems backward and is more than a touch frustrating. It is, however, the cost of doing business.

Today, I have busied myself at the store with placing orders and trying to sort a chunk of the MtG cards that have come in over the last week or so. Later on, I will be scanning some fixture sites to see if I can time the arrival of some slatwall panels to coincide with a time I will be prepping the new space and will have the help to unload the shipment when it shows up. Last time I paid for "driver assist" not knowing that all that means is they will move it from the front of the trailer to the back of the trailer. One then has to unload it from the trailer into the store one's own self. With my spine, that ain't happening anytime soon.

Not much is going on beyond that, but I do need to get back to work... ciao.

-- GopherDave

Now The Real Fun Begins...

Okay... Tonight was the first Friday Night Magic in some time where we didn't actually *need* the extra space. That being said, it was still a good day...

This morning, I walked away from the landlord's office with a signed lease for the new space. It's done. It's happening. Now, things begin to move. For the last ten days or so, I've felt like a drag racer that has its rear wheels propped up about three inches off of the asphalt, but they're spinning full bore. Not going anywhere, but ready to hit the ground running...

We are now burning the proverbial rubber...

Monday, I will begin contacting distributors and filling out the paperwork for the address switchover. I will also need to get the business license updated. This weekend, I am hoping to get the business card template updated, a graphic for the light box at the new space done, a new door graphic put together, and two signs done for the door at our current space. One, detailing the upcoming move, and another pointing people to the new space after the move. The landlord said he is willing to leave the second sign in the windows of the soon-to-be-empty space until he rents it out. Little things like that are why we *REALLY* like our landlord and wanted to continue renting from him if we could at all help it.

Loquacious has already started on her end of things, contacting various utility companies and setting up those change-overs. My beautiful wife has also been in constant contact with the gentleman in charge of small business development for our city. Turns out he's also a gamer, and had no idea we were here for almost four years at our current address until he wandered into our store this past November. I found that weird because the city name-dropped us in a press release and an editorial when we first moved here back in February of 2009. Oh well... it happens.

Our fantastic employees (Skribl, High-Sign, BigBank, and Double-L) are already chiming in with suggestions and thoughts on how the flow of the new space could work.

We are also starting to wrangle help to make the physical things happen. That's where the bulk of the Gophers come in...

As a store, Armored Gopher Games is incredibly blessed to have a community such as we have. If we, as a store, need help putting up slatwall panels, packing up and moving to/from a convention, computer technical support, electrical work, minor maintenance, or even moving the entire store, the Gophers are there for us. It is their love of our community, and *THEIR* desire to see the store be successful that ultimately make it possible.

Loq and I? We're just the shepherds of an incredible flock of NOT-sheep...  =P

That's why the phrase "Gopher Mafia" fits us so well...

Mafia... La Cosa Nostra ("This Thing Of Ours")... La Familia... Family...

Willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done... =)

-- GopherDave

KA. BOOM.

One of the "good" (but stressful) bombs I've been dealing with over the last week...

http://armored-gopher.com/content/ka-boom

Now the real pressure begins...

Busy Is A Good Problem To Have, Right..?

This is what I was clad in on Saturday...

Well... This has certainly been a non-eventful weekend. Given that it was Super Bowl Sunday, and what not, I kind of expected to be more productive on my end. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens, by the way. I didn't get to watch the game, but it looked like a fun one.

Now, onto life...

Saturday... Not much happened. I had planned work the store and then go home and play around with new MtG cards and Fractal Mapper. Neither happened. I left the store around 7PM, went home and changed clothes, sat on the couch watching TV for a couple of hours, and then called it an early night at 9:45PM. I have no clue why, but I was absolutely exhausted.

...and this is Sunday's gear. Notice no discernable pattern whatsoever... =P

Sunday... After spending thirteen hours in bed, I got up to... ...do not much at all. I hung out with the wife and the daughter some, petted the dog, watched some TV, then got ready for work. Now that the store is closed, I am catching up with stuff like financials (which haven't been done for a couple of weeks due to the convention, and placing an order that we got on Friday onto the floor as we have been so busy dealing with the new MtG set that I haven't had time/energy to truly deal with it without getting in other people's way. Once that is done, I need to walk the board game wall and fill holes there from items in back stock.

There are a couple of other things I need to do, but I think once all of that is done, I'm going to sit down and rethink my order schedule a bit. Basically, we've been doing a ton of orders on Monday for Tuesday, a few supplemental orders as needed, and another big order Thursday for Friday. I need to rethink that as I am currently running around a fair amount, and not getting as much done as I could be.

I'm looking at being done somewhere in the 1:30-2:00AM area...

-- GopherDave

Fear, Loathing, And Pity...

[NOTE: This post was started on Tuesday, December 4th. Like I said, I am way behind...]

Another business in the strip mall that Gopher is housed in got robbed this passed Sunday night. Around 8:40PM, a young man (between the ages of 14 and 20) walked into the place, pulled out a handgun, threatened the attendant and two customers, and then ran off with the money from the cash register. Sum total of what he took? Roughly $285. No one was hurt, but the robber is still on the loose.

As I was spoken to by police that night, and while I was talking with the owner of the business that got robbed, a few reactions/emotions ran through my mind...

FEAR: That could have been me on the business end of that gun. We were one of three business open during the time of the robbery, and typically there is no one here at the store at the time the incident took place other than me. That particular night, I was blessed to have about eight to ten other folks here playing games. Thing is, I know myself well enough that I would not have given anything up easily. I sort of live for confrontation, and I have had guns pointed at me on two other occasions in my life. One, I ran like hell because it was safer the than trying to close the distance with the (inebriated) shooter . The second incident, the other individual tried to pull a weapon from his waistband to threaten me, but at the time he tried to do so, I was something like three feet away. Step in, twist arm, take gun, knock him upside the head with it a few times, walk away with the gun, pull clip, empty chamber, and toss parts into a local creek on my way home.

Now, both of those incidents happened 20+ years ago, and I've lost more than a few steps in terms of
speed and reaction time. Had this happened to me the other night, I probably would have just given up the cash. I do know that some part of me would have calculated if I could have taken the assailant, though, in order to prevent loss of money and pride. Even with optimal spacing, however, it would have been shaky given my heart and weight issues, but fight-or-flight would have kicked in.

LOATHING: The general incident left me a touch disgusted. A young man threatened two ladies and a small child in committing this crime. Between that and my built-in belief of working hard and earning your paycheck, it doesn't leave me thinking very highly of the perpetrator.

PITY: Why would someone risk their freedom for a measly $285? What drives someone to do this? Hunger? Fear of living on the streets? Children to feed, but no money to feed them with? Given our current recession, the assailant could have had any number of reasons, good or bad, for doing what he did. Desperate times drive people to do things they otherwise would not in order to insure the comfort and survival of themselves and their loved ones. While there are charities and programs to help such people, many of these places are themselves are being overwhelmed by the staggering level of need currently happening within our borders. Despite the charities not wanting to do so, people are being turned away from such institutions on an increasing basis because the money isn't there.

Now, I am a simple merchant who owns a glorified toy store. I sell very little that people need, and the items I do sell are really nothing but a luxury in the grand scheme of things. I'm just sort of hoping my words on my tiny little corner of the Internet make folks think a bit about their fellow humans in this, our season of giving...

-- GopherDave

Still More Changes...

Okay... I hope to have some pictures up in the next few days, but we have moved some things around in the store once again. We had some shelves we were using for RPGs and used games just absolutely die on us a few weeks back, so we picked up a couple of "make-do" shelves from one of the local DIY stores. Turns out, we kind of liked them for a number of reasons.

So, we picked up a third shelf, and moved some stuff around. The rearrange, if we compact some things, gives us back about six to eight feet of slatwall space. It doesn't seem like much, but truthfully, we can put a *TON* of product in that space. Now we just have to figure out what we are putting there.

Also, the local entertainment weekly put up the electronic version of our "Best Regional Store" write-up. You can find that here. Hopefully, it will be the first of many such awards, but I am trying to stay humble and take things one step at a time.

In gaming, Shady and I had a talk, and we are going to go with a plan he came up with to keep my character in the Terracide game viable given what has happened to him recently. I have trepidations on this plan, but only because the character, like before when he became the captain of a spaceship, really isn't ready to handle what he has been given/offered. The character is either going to be oddly triumphant with flying colors, or (more probably) take the whole campaign down with him. We'll see how that goes...

-- GopherDave

Doing the Stuff...

It's Friday, so that means Friday Night Magic. It'll be busy tonight, so my blogging time will be short.

There is good news to celebrate, though. The Buzz (the Daily Illini's entertainment weekly) does a best of Champaign-Urbana issue every year. This year we were nominated for Best Specialty/Regional store. I really didn't think we had a chance as there are a TON of cool stores in our town, and many of them have been here for 25+ years. Yeah, we weren't up against just other game stores here in town. No, our competition was everything from knick-knack shops, scrapbook shops, local Euro-food marts, and local outdoor/camping stores to name a few. I knew we were in the top three when the editors asked if they could come in and take pictures, and maybe talk to us a bit.

Turns out, we beat them all...

Yes, Armored Gopher Games was voted the Best Regional Store in our local entertainment weekly.

It's a small honor, but it's an honor nonetheless, and one that we could not have accomplished without the support of our loyal friends and customers, the Gopher Mafia. I am humbled.

Apparently, we have been doing the stuff... Who knew?

-- GopherDave

Getting Back To What Passes For Normal...

Not much to report. Practically nothing got done last night in terms of any projects, and it is getting too close to a number of deadlines to have that happen with any regularity. This weekend is shaping up to be packed.

Tonight is Friday Night Magic (always hopping).

Saturday, one of our longtime Gophers is getting married, so many of us will be at that shindig.

Sunday, due to some schedule rearranging, I am working all day.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I need to get artwork done for an advertisement that's going into a local entertainment weekly. It needs to be done and submitted by Monday morning. This will be our first print ad that was not placed in a phone book or handed out on a flyer by us. Hell, this will be our first real advertising, period. I'm kind of nervous to see how it does. If it goes well, we have potential lines on a radio campaign going into the holidays. Just because we can...

Until next time...

-- GopherDave