A Quick Updated Tour (so far)

Tonight I just wanted to walk you through real fast some of the cool changes the store has went through in the past couple days!

If you're standing in the middle of the store, this is what it looks like facing the front. The idea eventually is to have both sides of the walls with tables on each side, hosting flat panel TVs with 360s and PS3s on one side, and then PCs to use on the other.

Now if you turn around, you'll see a lovely counter top currently blanketed by random posters, (a huge upgrade from the previously cliche leaves that really played no role.

If you turn to your right, you'll see a couple lovely Spongebob wall scrolls. He adds interesting diversity to the store and appeals to a lot of crowds, (I guess). The blank board you see there is going to be used as "Post your ads" board. You know, that thing where people post a piece of paper saying they can mow lawns or baby sit? There's also a 32 inch TV on that shelf to keep me from dying of boredom during dead time, and also something to pass the time when customers want some distraction from deck building.

If I step back a little, you can kinda see where more of the card playing may take place. To the left, I eventually plan on squeezing a display case in.

Again, looking at one side of the wall near the front you can see a little more. Getting the tables is no feat - my friend Joe is going to help out.

Here, if you turn, this is where a lot of the comic stuff is going to be at. My buddy Gil is going to be in charge of keeping up to date with the comic side of things.

A closer look if you will.

Moving forward, I'm definitely looking forward to sprucing the place up with some paint, and hopefully some more art.

It's the little things! What can you do without moving to help?

Updates, updates, updates.

But before I get into the progress of the shop, I want to talk about what you guys can do to help. There's a huge spectrum of things you can do.

What you can do, just sitting where you're at now:

• Read my blog! Give feedback, and let me know what you think, or any ideas you might have.
• Visit the links in the ads. Don't worry, they're not going to screw your PC over. But by visiting the links you see around on the blog, you help the blog rake in money from Ads. Clicking the same links over and over is considered abuse, so you don't have to overkill it. Just support the other websites and in turn, you support mine!
• Join my forum. Go to www.truehideaway.com and click the forums and start participating.
• Share my blog on your Facebook. It drives more traffic here. Word of mouth is amazing.
• Let's exchange links. If you've got a blog, or a website, I'd like to do some sort of link exchange so we can trade traffic!

What you can do if you want to get more involved:

1. Donate your broke 360s, PS3s, TVs, monitors, and computers. To set up the cyber half of the store I need 360s, PS3s, TVs, monitors and computers. Unfortunately, I don't have the bankroll to buy them. But I can fix them!
2. Folding Chairs. Yup. In this type of business, folding chairs are gold!
3. Paint. If you've got paint supplies you're not using, or leftover paint, I can put it to use.
4. Curtains. Anyone good at sewing? Anyone have the material to sew with? I need some curtains to hang in the windows of the front of the shop for when we're closed

So anyway. That's some of what you can do to help me out. There are lot of other things you can do too to help out if you really want to. You can contact me outside of my blog. But these favors are within reach pretty easily.

Now onward...

Progress on the shop has been going extremely well. I just ordered a lot of inventory, mainly focused around Pokemon and Magic. Although I plan to open around February 6th, I don't think our "Grand Open" will be until closer to the 18th.

I finally got things arranged and set up accordingly. With some help from one of my friends who also owns a business here in town, hopefully we will have a display case and more tables set up by the end of this week. My friend Gil Wilson and I have partnered and is bringing the comic angle to the store. He's also willing to help work at the shop which is going to extend my hours!

After a lot of consideration on what we should do with the downstairs area, we are converting part of it to a recording studio. Gil is also partnering with me in that aspect. Podcasting and music is something we're both hobbyists of. So we're going to record local bands, and record our own podcasts. Additionally, with a lot of the same equipment we're going to convert the other half of the downstairs to a place where we can start producing a web TV show eventually as well as set it up as a "lounge" for when bands come to record. Not all of this is going to happen at once. Sound proofing the room takes time.

Unfortunately, the pace of which I'm getting the TVs and consoles is the biggest setback. I've come to the conclusion that it might not be instant and I may have to work my way up slowly to getting enough revenue to do that side of the store.

My next blog, we're going to take another tour through the shop and you guys get to see everything we have done thus far! Thanks for reading