OK folks it's on!!!
I wrote in May that we should boycott movies. They've gotten too expensive and the prima donna actors are rich enough.
You can see my two posts on this topic here:
http://adam-1001words.blogspot.com/2008/05/boycott-movies.html
http://adam-1001words.blogspot.com/2008/05/movie-prices-are-set-to-rise-dont-let.html
Well now the movement has doubled in size. There has been a new comment posted in support of the movie boycott!
You're all going to want to get on board here. One day, when we bring the massive entertainment-industrial complex to its knees, you will be able to say "I was a part of that."
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
eBags, I love you but you're actin' weird
I have posted several times now about eBags. I like them. I like the site. I love the products. But I've had a couple of relationship glitches with them that I truly hope they fix. (* eBags: If you're reading this, see my note to you below. If you're not reading this then stop reading this.)
Well I just placed another order with them. I had a promotional code which I entered at the end. After doing so, I got a page that offered me two discount options: One was the 20% based on the code I had entered. And another was a free shipping option. For both options, they transparently showed me what my total cost would be. And, as it happened, one was more expensive than the other.
Huh?! Why not just ask: "Adam: Are you an idiot?"
I understand offering customers different discounts. Some might benefit over the long run from a 20% discount more than a free shipping discount. And choice is good. But once I have placed an order and the choice results in a transparent difference in cost, why would anyone pick the more expensive "discount" offer?
Am I missing something folks? Is this any different than going to a bricks and mortar store, bringing your items to the counter, having them ring you up and then offer you an option of getting nothing else extra but paying a few more dollars?
Here is the text from the page they showed me (italics added):
The coupon code you just entered can not be combined with your current discount.
Please choose which discount you would prefer. See all discount details below.
Option A - The coupon code you used (CC203NYJ06) offers the following:
"20% off your purchase."
Your order total with this offer would be:
$50.92
($43.97 + $6.95 shipping + $0.00 tax)
Continue with this coupon
Option B - Your current discount offers the following:
"Summer Sale: Free Shipping on Orders $50 and Over"
Your order total with this offer would be:
$54.97
($54.97 + $0.00 shipping + $0.00 tax)
Continue with my current discount
(*eBags: You screwed up my last two orders by leaving out an item despite showing it as having been delivered. Your customer rep provided a vague assurance that this would not happen again. If it happens with the order I just placed, you will be placed on the banned list until you earn my love again.)
Well I just placed another order with them. I had a promotional code which I entered at the end. After doing so, I got a page that offered me two discount options: One was the 20% based on the code I had entered. And another was a free shipping option. For both options, they transparently showed me what my total cost would be. And, as it happened, one was more expensive than the other.
Huh?! Why not just ask: "Adam: Are you an idiot?"
I understand offering customers different discounts. Some might benefit over the long run from a 20% discount more than a free shipping discount. And choice is good. But once I have placed an order and the choice results in a transparent difference in cost, why would anyone pick the more expensive "discount" offer?
Am I missing something folks? Is this any different than going to a bricks and mortar store, bringing your items to the counter, having them ring you up and then offer you an option of getting nothing else extra but paying a few more dollars?
Here is the text from the page they showed me (italics added):
The coupon code you just entered can not be combined with your current discount.
Please choose which discount you would prefer. See all discount details below.
Option A - The coupon code you used (CC203NYJ06) offers the following:
"20% off your purchase."
Your order total with this offer would be:
$50.92
($43.97 + $6.95 shipping + $0.00 tax)
Continue with this coupon
Option B - Your current discount offers the following:
"Summer Sale: Free Shipping on Orders $50 and Over"
Your order total with this offer would be:
$54.97
($54.97 + $0.00 shipping + $0.00 tax)
Continue with my current discount
(*eBags: You screwed up my last two orders by leaving out an item despite showing it as having been delivered. Your customer rep provided a vague assurance that this would not happen again. If it happens with the order I just placed, you will be placed on the banned list until you earn my love again.)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
What the hell are they smokin' in Ohio?
I recently wrote about an incident where an Ohio public school science teacher was fired for preaching after repeated warnings and using some sort of device to "burn" an image of a cross on the arms of several students. [See my original post.]
I don't really care what you think about religion in the public schools. I would think the burning of a cross on a kid's arm would pretty much be a deal breaker.
Apparently not in Mount Vernon, Ohio. According to the AP, the town is split over this.
Are these people nuts?!
I don't really care what you think about religion in the public schools. I would think the burning of a cross on a kid's arm would pretty much be a deal breaker.
Apparently not in Mount Vernon, Ohio. According to the AP, the town is split over this.
Are these people nuts?!
It's your birthright
In my last post I wrote about how we size people up by asking the wrong set of questions. I suggested a few questions that I think would be better ways of truly understanding people you meet. Examples: 1) What is your life's ambition? 2) What makes your heart sing?
You can see Tom's comment on Plaxo here.
Jeremy commented and made a very good but sad point. You can read his full comment at the bottom of my post but here's the critical part: "you are right, but my hunch is that few would know how to respond to your questions".
Jeremy is right. Few people would know how to answer these questions.
But that is the problem. We have been told for too long that we are nothing but our skin color, our genitalia, the shape of our eyes, our country of origin... that we have forgotten our own souls. It's not that we don't have them. We do. They lie beneath the surface and periodically remind us that they have something to offer. But we have learned to ignore them.
Well it's time to reclaim our birthright. It's time to acknowledge that in addition to the DNA that defines certain parameters for us, in addition to the nurture that has helped craft what we are, we have a soul. And if we let it, that soul can propel us to great heights and help us develop excellence in us and in that corner of the world that we can touch.
Perhaps by asking the questions I have proposed (or anything in that vein), we can help people get used to the fact that there is something more to them. Something much more valuable.
You can see Tom's comment on Plaxo here.
Jeremy commented and made a very good but sad point. You can read his full comment at the bottom of my post but here's the critical part: "you are right, but my hunch is that few would know how to respond to your questions".
Jeremy is right. Few people would know how to answer these questions.
But that is the problem. We have been told for too long that we are nothing but our skin color, our genitalia, the shape of our eyes, our country of origin... that we have forgotten our own souls. It's not that we don't have them. We do. They lie beneath the surface and periodically remind us that they have something to offer. But we have learned to ignore them.
Well it's time to reclaim our birthright. It's time to acknowledge that in addition to the DNA that defines certain parameters for us, in addition to the nurture that has helped craft what we are, we have a soul. And if we let it, that soul can propel us to great heights and help us develop excellence in us and in that corner of the world that we can touch.
Perhaps by asking the questions I have proposed (or anything in that vein), we can help people get used to the fact that there is something more to them. Something much more valuable.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Since we're not sniffing each other...
Have you noticed that when people meet others for the first time they tend to ask a very small set of initial questions? Where are you from? What do you do for a living? Do you know my buddy Bob? Where did you go to school?
I have always felt that these were such small questions. They don't capture the essence of the person. The question about employment is particularly egregious. Most people would, if they won the lottery, run from their job as if from a burning building. Most people are employed because they have to be, not because they feel their job defines them and represents their highest ambitions. And yet, even though so many people consider their own job to be highly unrepresentative of their own essence, they usually make that the very first question when they are trying to size up a new acquaintance.
The other questions are also misguided. But we ask them for very understandable reasons. They are atavistic impulses. We have very ingrained approach and avoidance mechanisms by which we seek to maintain the proper distance (spatial and social) from other people. We want to feel safe around others. And we default to base tribal instincts in our effort to do so.
You work in my industry? You come from Sheboygan? You went to Jefferson High? You do know Bob?! Ah, well you're "one of us". You're safe. People will often play this game until they can find some common ground. And of course I'm not even mentioning the search they do without opening their mouth like looking at skin color, attire, shape of the eyes, etc.
But is this really common ground? I don't think so. I think we are more evolved than this. So since we're not literally sniffing each other, can we not move away from these base criteria when sizing up other people?
I'd like to suggest a few new questions to ask people we meet. I think these are better ways of determining whether they are "one of us" and whether we'd like to hang out with them. [Note: I make an exception for specific interactions like job interviews and if you live in a jungle where you really do need to rely on your atavistic instincts to survive.]
So here are my questions:
1) What is your life's ambition?
2) What makes your heart sing?
3) Who do you most respect?
4) What is your most important trait?
5) How are you different?
I think you get the idea. We are not just pieces of meat. We have souls. We are capable of sublime thinking and behavior.
So let's move beyond caveman thinking and start elevating ourselves and the people we meet by seeking to define and understand each other in terms of our capability for beauty, wisdom and excellence.
If you have any other ideas for good questions to ask, I'd love to hear them.
I have always felt that these were such small questions. They don't capture the essence of the person. The question about employment is particularly egregious. Most people would, if they won the lottery, run from their job as if from a burning building. Most people are employed because they have to be, not because they feel their job defines them and represents their highest ambitions. And yet, even though so many people consider their own job to be highly unrepresentative of their own essence, they usually make that the very first question when they are trying to size up a new acquaintance.
The other questions are also misguided. But we ask them for very understandable reasons. They are atavistic impulses. We have very ingrained approach and avoidance mechanisms by which we seek to maintain the proper distance (spatial and social) from other people. We want to feel safe around others. And we default to base tribal instincts in our effort to do so.
You work in my industry? You come from Sheboygan? You went to Jefferson High? You do know Bob?! Ah, well you're "one of us". You're safe. People will often play this game until they can find some common ground. And of course I'm not even mentioning the search they do without opening their mouth like looking at skin color, attire, shape of the eyes, etc.
But is this really common ground? I don't think so. I think we are more evolved than this. So since we're not literally sniffing each other, can we not move away from these base criteria when sizing up other people?
I'd like to suggest a few new questions to ask people we meet. I think these are better ways of determining whether they are "one of us" and whether we'd like to hang out with them. [Note: I make an exception for specific interactions like job interviews and if you live in a jungle where you really do need to rely on your atavistic instincts to survive.]
So here are my questions:
1) What is your life's ambition?
2) What makes your heart sing?
3) Who do you most respect?
4) What is your most important trait?
5) How are you different?
I think you get the idea. We are not just pieces of meat. We have souls. We are capable of sublime thinking and behavior.
So let's move beyond caveman thinking and start elevating ourselves and the people we meet by seeking to define and understand each other in terms of our capability for beauty, wisdom and excellence.
If you have any other ideas for good questions to ask, I'd love to hear them.
Stop and Shop, tear down this wall!
Every one of these automated checkout machines should be torn down. With great fanfare. Have a parade. Throw out sweets to the youngsters. Let the adults beat them with their shoes. Just like the toppled statue of Saddam.
Or, you could just make them work.
Not sort of. Not mostly. All the time. I have never seen such a poorly implemented technology. It would be as if the people responsible for helping me with my transaction didn't speak English half the time. Oh wait, that happens too.
Easily half the time I use these machines there is some glitch. The damn thing tells me to take items off the scale when there aren't any there. Or the buttons don't work. Or it gives me some weird error message thereby necessitating a visit from their roving expert.
I can't tell you how it makes my blood boil to go to the automated checkout lane that is supposed to make the process more efficient and convenient, only to be thwarted by the very solution that has been designed for my benefit.
Why hold out the promise of convenience and fail to deliver?
Or, you could just make them work.
Not sort of. Not mostly. All the time. I have never seen such a poorly implemented technology. It would be as if the people responsible for helping me with my transaction didn't speak English half the time. Oh wait, that happens too.
Easily half the time I use these machines there is some glitch. The damn thing tells me to take items off the scale when there aren't any there. Or the buttons don't work. Or it gives me some weird error message thereby necessitating a visit from their roving expert.
I can't tell you how it makes my blood boil to go to the automated checkout lane that is supposed to make the process more efficient and convenient, only to be thwarted by the very solution that has been designed for my benefit.
Why hold out the promise of convenience and fail to deliver?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Maybe I didn't ask the question well
I had a great day with my kids. We went to the Liberty Science Center which is a really nice museum in Jersey City. I get in for free and get free IMAX movies - a very nice corporate benefit.
We then went out for dinner. During dinner, I asked the kids what their objective in life is. OK, it's a tough question. But I wanted to see what they would say. And all of them basically said they wanted to be rich.
The psychologist part of me knows very well that the first person who answered the question biased the others. And that a vaguely worded question like that is tough to answer and the wording of it may have primed professional and financial answers because that's typically what people mean when they ask others what they want to be when they grow up... (Wow, that was a sick run-on sentence! Sorry.)
Still, I'm disappointed. This isn't what I was hoping to hear. Sure, I hope they all turn out to be billionaires. I may live a long time and Depends ain't cheap. But I hope that isn't their mission. I hope they have a more noble purpose ahead of them. Spreading happiness, wisdom, beauty... Ennobling their own souls and the souls of all they touch. Bringing peace to some corner of the world...
Well, looks like I have some educating to do.
We then went out for dinner. During dinner, I asked the kids what their objective in life is. OK, it's a tough question. But I wanted to see what they would say. And all of them basically said they wanted to be rich.
The psychologist part of me knows very well that the first person who answered the question biased the others. And that a vaguely worded question like that is tough to answer and the wording of it may have primed professional and financial answers because that's typically what people mean when they ask others what they want to be when they grow up... (Wow, that was a sick run-on sentence! Sorry.)
Still, I'm disappointed. This isn't what I was hoping to hear. Sure, I hope they all turn out to be billionaires. I may live a long time and Depends ain't cheap. But I hope that isn't their mission. I hope they have a more noble purpose ahead of them. Spreading happiness, wisdom, beauty... Ennobling their own souls and the souls of all they touch. Bringing peace to some corner of the world...
Well, looks like I have some educating to do.
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