Have you ever noticed that no matter which Best Buy you go into, you end up seeing the same people working there? That’s because there are seven types of people that work at every single Best Buy, with no exceptions.

A little known fact about me is that I worked at Best Buy for a couple of years in high school before getting fired for badly, badly abusing the employee discount system. But while there I learned a lot about the types of people that work in such an establishment, and I’ve noticed the same people in other Best Buys that I’ve been to since. So here are my list of the seven types of people you’ll find there, from a former employee’s perspective.

Next time you go to Best Buy, be on the lookout. I promise you’ll see at least a couple of these characters.

Illustrations by the illustrious Dan Meth, the artist behind such gems as the Pop Culture Charts and the animated Phone Sex Fetishes.

Want to ditch this gallery format and see everything on one page? Click here.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Car Audio Thug
You’ll find this guy in the car audio department. He’s got a big plug earring in each ear, some form of facial hair out of a late-90’s R&B video and tattoos on his forearms. He tears into the parking lot every day, tires squealing, bass blasting, in a late-model Civic that he’s dumped thousands of dollars into. You suspect that if he didn’t have a job selling car stereos, he’d be stealing them.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Marginally Cute Customer Service Girl
This girl works at the customer service desk or as a cashier. She’s maybe 17 years old and is kind of cute, but only when compared to the chubby piles of sadness she’s surrounded with. Because of this, she’s constantly hit on/sexually harassed by the guys who stock CDs and DVDs. She manages to take this in stride somehow and is almost infuriatingly perky and chipper. The chances of her having hooked up with the car audio thug are very high.

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Grizzled Old Home Theater/Computer Sales Lifer
This guy has seen some shit. He’s a refugee from Lechmere or Tweeter or some other now-defunct retail outlet. He knows the most about the products he sells, which is why all the part-time high school employees send customers with actual questions his way. He’s got an air of resigned acceptance about his life, and while he’s all-business with customers, he’s got no filter with fellow employees. He tells inappropriate jokes and talks vulgarly about the managers behind their back. He has a strictly regimented cigarette break every 2.5 hours that he never, ever misses.

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Pervy Geek Squad Guy
This guy searches every computer that’s in for service for porn, collecting everything he finds on an external HDD that he keeps in the back. He talks in graphic terms about what he’d do to women who he sees enter the store, but when he talks to them he’s totally professional. You suspect that he pleasures himself behind the plastic curtains, but you don’t want to confirm this. He’s got a level 80 World of Warcraft character. Somehow, he and the grizzled old sales guy are buddies and eat lunch together.

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Sad Department Manager
This guy went to college then, after graduation, moved back home with his parents to save money. He ended up getting a job at Best Buy while he ‘figured stuff out.’ It’s 10 years later and he still lives in the town he went to high school in, is balding, gained 15 pounds and is the manager of the digital cameras department. He’s perfectly adequate at his job, but talking to him for more than 5 minutes just makes you so damned sad.

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Slick Careerist Manager
This guy wants to go right to the top. He runs team meetings, irons his blue polos, and gets a hard-on when talking about accessory sales and service-plan attach rates. He’s climbing the ladder with everything he’s got, and he spews corporate nonsense with the passion of a true believer. You’ve never seen him have an actual human interaction with someone, and you wonder if he even has any furniture in his apartment. He may be a robot.

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Terrifying Loss-Prevention Guy
This guy is either an ex-con, an ex-cop or a vet. He is jacked yet forced to wear a yellow polo shirt, which creates a false sense of levity when dealing with him. He may seem friendly on the outside, but if you cross him he will snap your neck. He legitimately thinks that it’s unfair that Best Buy security guys aren’t allowed to carry sidearms. He has so much rage bottled up inside him that you know to just say hello and smile and otherwise steer clear.

(Via Gizmodo.)

Make this low-cost camera stabilizer for smooth, professional looking video.
Thanks go to Johnny Lee for the original article in MAKE, Volume 01.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE Magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.

(Via MAKE Magazine.)

This happened in St. Louis, Missouri:

Best Buy employees find cash inside computer.

The
recession has many people going to great lengths to protect their money, but
apparently the bank and even the space underneath the mattress wasn’t good
enough for one St. Louis area resident.

Employees at a Best Buy store in South County discovered about $10,000 cash
inside a computer tower Monday night, St. Louis County police said.

Employees found the money inside a computer that had been dropped off for
repairs at the store at 7017 South Lindbergh Boulevard. Best Buy staffers
called police, who ran a background check on the owner and checked the serial
numbers on the bills stashed inside the tower.

A background check revealed nothing suspicious about the computer owner,
and the bills were not counterfeit or stolen, police said. The owner of the
computer — and the cash — was able to reclaim his money.

I wonder what’s the minimum amount of found cash that prompts a call to the
police?

Note: The image here is just random cash. It’s not the cash left
in the computer.

(Via The J-Walk Blog.)

You don’t need to visit IKEA or any furniture store for a functional yet geeky dresser. As long as you have access to MacBook boxes, this creative example should do. One caveat: durability may be an issue.

[via Gizmodo]

(Via Tech Blog.)

Google Profiles, the page the big G wants you to use as your universal contact page, now lets you choose your own URL cap instead of a number string. So google.com/profiles/TybeeGuy is up for grabs.

Head to the link below and scroll down to find the URL changer. Two big caveats, however: Those who’ve linked their profile pages to their Gmail accounts can’t change it, and you only get one shot at changing your URL, so choose wisely.

On the whole, it makes your profile easier to find and send out as a link, while still retaining the selective info sharing the Profiles were set up to facilitate.

Are you finding your Google Profile page useful, as either search engine bait or a contact manager, or is it just another form for you to fill out? Tell us your take in the comments.

(Via Lifehacker.)

With so much debate about the economic stimulus package and the ongoing plans to rescue America’s banks, this site was bound to happen. Bank of Obama is a quick and fun parody of the current economic climate, allowing you to send virtual or real bailout checks from the President to your friends.

Input the name of who you’re sending a bailout to, how much to send them, the ‘memo’ (with options like mortgage, car loan, and gambling debt), and a personal note and you’re on your way. You can then opt to deliver a virtual check to the recipient (like the one below), or for $2.99 via PayPal, have the folks behind Bank of Obama send the physical parody check to your friend via postal mail.

Actually sending the parody check might be a bit ironic. On one hand you’re complaining about the government frivolously spending your money, but on the other, you’re paying to send out worthless pieces of paper. Nonetheless, the joke will likely be appreciated by those that think the bailout and stimulus package are wasteful – not so much perhaps by those on the other side of the issue.

(Via Mashable!.)

“Our USA is known around the world as the most creative and productive of the 20th Century.  I am convinced that it has been our heritage of individual liberty that has made it possible for us to show the world how to provide abundant prosperity for all.

If each of us can just see the future as positive and act accordingly, we’ll be fine.  It is not helpful to dwell on the dire aspects of today’s “Hard Times”.

Think about how much better things are now compared to the way they were described by Charles Dickens in the 19th Century.”

God Bless,

Keith Burk
AKA: ‘AncientFool’
Website: keithburk.com

Desktop Wallpaper

Summer certainly flew by and while I occasionally wish we had just one more month to squeeze in, I realized that since my fingers are almost frozen, autumn definitely arrived! P.S. Meanwhile it’s Winter!

Resolutions: 2560×1600, 1920×1200, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1440×900, 1400×1050, 1280×1024, 1280×960, 1280×800, 1280×720, 1024×768, 1024×600, 800×480, 480×272, 320×240.

(Via InterfaceLIFT: Newest Wallpaper.)