Who even thought this was a good idea?
You Matter
Posted by anachostic
on January 14, 2014
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Yesterday, I was driving home and nearing an intersection. I saw an emergency vehicle approaching on the cross street with its lights on. I stopped at the intersection, although my light was green. I certainly could have made it through before the emergency vehicle, but when you see lights flashing, you stop. That’s the proper thing to do. The emergency vehicle safely went through the intersection and everyone got on with their drive.
Afterwards, I thought, I might have just saved someone’s life because I waited. From there, my thoughts went further out. The restaurant I was at for lunch was really empty, so I tipped a couple bucks more than usual. I might have just helped someone finally pay off a nagging bill. The hostess was happy to see me that day, so I gave her a pleasant smile. Maybe that will convince her to make that needed change in her horrible relationship. I waited an extra second or two at a green light. Maybe that slowed traffic down a little and prevented an accident somewhere.
The point is, everything you do has an effect. It may be positive, it may be negative, most likely it’s both. You may not know the effects you have with every little choice you make in the day, but that is how everything works together.
Everything you do has an effect on everything else. You are the most important person in the entire universe. Without you, things would be… different. Now go out there and don’t fuck this up.
Watch Out.
Posted by anachostic
on December 14, 2013
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I mentioned in a past post that I have a small watch collection. I say it that way because recently, I considered collecting watches. I thought I had a fair collection – isn’t more than one a collection? I had one valuable watch handed down from my dad, four watches all of the same make, just slight variations, then two gifted watches that I didn’t care for. My plan was to start collecting watches I like.
A little bit of research online showed that that’s not what “watch collecting” means. Watch collectors are, put bluntly, fucking snobs. There seems to be only a couple of ways to garner the respect of a watch collector. Either already have a collection of high-end timepieces, or if you are starting out, ask for advice and say your budget is something like $5,000. So, my “collection” of sub-$100 watches is probably an insult to their art.
I had mused on collections in a really old post and came up with the decent conclusion that a collection really only has value to the owner, not to anyone else. (like hair, I said. Crazy.) I thought a bit more on it and considered the absurdity of the concept of collecting. Here I am buying $70-100 watches and there’s a whole lot of people out there that couldn’t (or wouldn’t dare) buy a single watch for more than $20. In that regard, I am very fortunate for my situation, but I certainly don’t have the audacity to look down on someone because they don’t see some perceived value in watches that I see.
And that’s kind of the point. Why do we collect things? The high-end watch collectors must be smitten with the amazing craftwork in a watch, and I can understand that. The issue is that the appreciation of the complexity of the watch is not what is conveyed to a potential fellow collector. And someone that is buying a watch for a new collection (with a budget of $5k), clearly can’t appreciate the device at the same level.
Really, after all is said and done, a watch tells time. A $20 Casio digital quartz watch is just as accurate as a Rolex, and doesn’t come with a regular maintenance schedule. If you’ve never known about luxury watches, yes, they do need to be serviced regularly. Pay a lot up front and keep paying on schedule. So, the argument “That watch will last for your lifetime,” loses its charm a little when you have to effectively pay the cost of a new watch every few years.
Given all the thinking I’ve done on this now, I am going to go ahead with my “collection”, although it’s not going to be classified as a collection. I’m not sure what else to call it. It’s just a set of watches that I like looking at and wearing and that have the expected purpose of telling time. As part of their purpose, they match my wardrobe and match the activity I have planned while wearing them. That’s a balance of practicality and fashion.
Maybe someday, I will have the desire to own a device with an amazing internal structure and will find the cost of owning it to be worth the reward. But that day is not today.
Doing It Way Wrong
Posted by anachostic
on November 20, 2013
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This story caught my attention, so I had to do a little looking into it. I’m no uber-sleuth, but I can put some things together. I can put together enough to make some conclusions.
My first thought when going to KG’s site was, oh, they’re ripping off ThinkGeek. Then I saw the copyright date of 2001, and thought, maybe they were first. Turns out they’re not, ThinkGeek’s copyright goes back to 1999. But in the course of figuring that out, I found that KG’s internet domain was first registered in 2004. I’m not sure you can copyright a domain name before it’s even registered. Scam flag #1.
Looking at the next level: the address. A reputable company will display its address prominently to provide credibility. However, the address is a Michigan address and there is no corporate record in Michigan for their company – no DBA record either. Looking further, the address is simply a mail drop, not a physical location. Scam flag #2.
So where is this company? The BBB website says that KG’s legal department had an address in San Antonio, TX. No corporate records found in Texas for them either. A quick search in LinkedIn shows three members, the CEO and the CMO of KG (Rob Key) and a freelance writer who contracted with KG. The CEO and CMO are both in Michigan. Hmmm. Rob Key also might have an address in San Antonio, TX according to internet searches.
So let’s just assume that’s a dead end. The biggest red flag is their help page, which basically spells out how you’re going to do business with them. in short, it’s the most unfriendly terms possible. There isn’t any way to check the status of your order. I couldn’t even find a login to check your profile. When you have so many other options out there, why would you even buy from this site?
I’ve seen this business approach before. It was in my Finally Fast review. Companies like this need to die a quick death because they are doing no one any service. The unfortunate thing is that the owners live on and create a brand new entity just like the last one.
Out With The New And In With The Old
Posted by anachostic
on November 7, 2013
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I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I am back using “the tank” – my old keyboard. I gave the new slimline KeyTronic keyboards a fighting chance. but I’ve ruined three already – not a good sign at all. The first one, something happened under one of the keys, so I pried off the key caps to fix it and wound up breaking the spring on one of the keys,resulting in the key being stuck down. I RMA’d that keyboard and I think I had to pay shipping. Its replacement, I spilled a very little bit of Coke on it, and the Delete key started sticking. There was no way I was going to pry off the keycap to clean it! So I lived with the sticking delete key for quite a while (and I use it a lot). The keyboard I took to work has actually failed from use. The left Control key sticks randomly. With all the key commands I use every day: Ctrl-X/C/V – cut/copy/paste, Ctrl-E – Execute query, Ctrl-S – Save, Ctrl-A – Select All, Ctrl-Z – Undo, it just couldn’t handle the stress.
I’m taking the other tank to work and will start using it there again, too. I have some new co-workers, so I suppose they’re going to be ridiculing me for my ancient technology. Laugh if you want, but it is damn good technology. They don’t make ‘em like they used to. When I started typing this post on the old keyboard, I was surprised at how much better the action felt than the thin, low-profile style. It’s much more forgiving.
I still have one of the slimline keyboards. It’s still new in the box and I’m unsure what I even want to do with it. I think it’s going to be donated to a junk sale.
Going the Extra (Rewards) Mile
Posted by anachostic
on November 1, 2013
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Ya gotta be hustlin’, all the time.
In a previous post, I had talked about my Capital One rewards miles and buying gift cards vs. statement credit. It was a couple years ago and in that round, I bought up some gift cards because they were a better value than statement credit. This recent rewards shopping session has given me an interesting opportunity to take advantage of.
Normally, a $100 gift card is 15,500 points (miles, whatever). However, they offer some $200 cards for 20,000 points, which is clearly a better deal, but sadly, they never have any cards I want, like restaurants. In my regular browsing visit to see if they have added any $200 dining cards (nope), I saw a Neiman Marcus gift card for 16,000 points – a $200 card. Wow, for 500 more points than a $100 card, you get a $200 card. Too bad I don’t have an ounce of care for Neiman Marcus. $200 might buy me a pack of handkerchiefs.
But, that is still an awesome value and I can’t get it out of my head. I have enough points to get $600 in cards. That same number of points equates to only $240 in statement credit. Maybe I can sell the cards for cash. After some quick research, I found a website (cardpool.com) that buys gift cards (at a discount, of course). Their simple online calculator says I can get $510 in cash for those cards. That’s over twice as much as I could get from statement credit.
Quick math time: Statement credit is about .5 cent per mile, gift cards at normal rate are about .65 cent a mile, these NM cards are 1.25 cents a mile. Even with the premium for selling the cards, it’s still 1 cent a mile.
Now, to be clear, I am grateful for finding and being able to take advantage of this opportunity. Part of my gratitude is that I just happened across it and part is that I don’t have to do this. There’s a lot of people who have to do similar things like this just to get by. Buy low/sell high/make it through tomorrow.
After signing up for an account on Cardpool, I got looking at the cards they sell. They’re sold at varying discounts. It got me thinking some more. if I know i ‘m going to be spending the money somewhere, why not buy a gift card at a discount first? Really, 10% off at Outback or Chilis is still 10% off. And since gift cards are just like cash, you’re not restricted to coupon use. I think I have a new source of savings.
Prime Season
Posted by anachostic
on October 31, 2013
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A little while ago I was shopping on Amazon’s website and the product I found had two sellers from which to buy. One seller was cheaper, but wasn’t eligible for Amazon Prime’s free shipping. The other seller was Amazon itself – so, free shipping – but the price was more expensive. If I had to pay shipping, the cheaper vendor would have won out.
This got me thinking about a couple of things. First, I had a little bit of pity for the seller who wasn’t Prime, but he probably gets business from non-Prime members, so that’s ok. The other thing I thought of more carefully is the Amazon Prime membership itself.
Let’s forget the other benefits of Prime like the free streaming videos. Let’s just say that when you buy a Prime membership, you are paying shipping costs in advance. That is, you put $80 in a shipping escrow account and you use it up throughout the year as you buy Prime-eligible products. How long will it take to use up that $80? Maybe 10 purchases, give or take a few?
Now, what if all the products you were buying with free shipping were a little more expensive than other sellers, but still cheaper than whatever it would cost with shipping from those other vendors? Even if it was just a couple of dollars, it’s still cheaper, right? A bag of gummy bears for $8 with free shipping or the same bag for $6 plus $4 shipping. It’s $2 more on the product, but $2 less after shipping is considered.
But… you’ve paid for shipping in advance, remember? You are chipping away at your escrow account slower than you might have thought, because you’re contributing a little bit towards shipping by paying a slightly higher price. So, while you may think you’re getting an awesome deal by purchasing Prime, it’s not that awesome. It can still be very good, though. That 10-purchase, break-even point we estimated earlier could easily double.
The more important part is that Prime incentivizes you to buy from Amazon and not from other sellers – even other sellers on Amazon. This means the profit from the sale of the item stays with Amazon. And if Amazon is lucky, you won’t use so much free shipping as to burn through your escrow.
To summarize: You pay more for a product from Amazon than from another seller. The additional profit for Amazon goes to offset the cost of the “free” shipping. You are also paying for some of that shipping from your purchase of Prime.
This is like a wet dream for number-crunchers: to come up with the perfect balance of item pricing that undercuts the competition by the smallest amount and still convinces the buyer to choose Amazon. Can you imagine the computing power that is likely devoted to this formula every single day?
Un-Disposable
Posted by anachostic
on October 23, 2013
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Today I felt pretty good about myself. I kept myself from spending more money. I did this by simply repairing what I intended to replace. This story goes back a little ways. It’s about my watch.
I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned my watches before, but I have a small collection – a collection I recently am trying to build up a little. I don’t really like heavy things on my wrist, so I have been attracted to Skagen watches because they are so thin. When you get them in titanium, they’re even lighter. As an aside, the current trend of huge watches offends me greatly.
I’ve been wearing Skagen watches for probably over 15 years. One of the first watches I had, I loved. Then the battery went dead. So I filled out an RMA form and mailed the watch off to Skagen for battery replacement. I never saw the watch again. Worse, I never saw that model again, so I was never able to replace it. I think I didn’t wear a watch for a period of time after that incident out of grief and protest.
Years go by and I’ve got a few more watches, a couple Skagen and a Wenger. One day, I snag the mesh band on something and it pulls a link out, causing a sharp spur. So I go to Skagen’s repair site and find that a replacement band is about $25. That’s $25 on a $70 watch, quite a decent percentage of value. So I balked at replacing the band. Instead, I spent $100 on a new, nicer Skagen. It made sense, and that watch has served me very well for years.
But the watch with the broken band has been sitting in my watch case ever since. I really do like it – the lightest one I have and it has numbers on the face, instead of just ticks. So recently, I went back to the Skagen website to order the band. Now all of a sudden, you can’t buy replacement parts. You have to send your watch to a service center for repair. Yeah, I’ve been through that one before. No thanks. I search around online and the supply of replacement bands is very small and more expensive. What the heck is going on?
I found my answer: Fossil bought out Skagen. And with that purchase, they completely changed the way service is done. I have little love for Fossil. I owned one watch by them and it never “worked” for me, then it stopped working, literally. So it was a huge disappointment to hear the news of the sale.
Now, I was going back and forth between buying a replacement watch ($70), or actually paying the now $30+ just for the band. Oh, and the battery needs replaced ($12). Then it hit me. The Dremel! I have tools! I can grind this spur down, and if I fail at doing that, what have I lost? I was prepared to chuck the watch anyway.
So, with the precision of an amateur dentist, I chose a grinding bit and went to town. Totally anti-climatic, it took like 3 seconds and I had a flawless result. Why I didn’t think of that earlier, I don’t know. No, I kinda do know. I’m a wasteful, consumerist American. Everything is disposable.
But, I’m compelled to look for a deeper meaning here. Why didn’t I just toss the watch and buy another? After all, I did buy a replacement model and still didn’t throw it out. Maybe I have a deeper connection with that watch than I realize. I’ll get the battery changed this weekend, and I have a new watch in the mail, and I have a plan to buy another watch (maybe even two) on my upcoming vacation, so we’ll have to see which watch gets the most face time in the end.
Revamped Office
Posted by anachostic
on October 18, 2013
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Welcome to my hell. Actually, I mean, welcome to my productivity trap.
Many years ago – 8 to be precise – I made the purchase, nay, the investment, in good office furniture. I ordered from Staples’ business collection, the Bush Cubix series. Not so long ago, I revisited that purchase and was utterly shocked that I had spent nearly $500 on two pieces of furniture: a 60” desk and a bookcase.
However, as time has proven, you get what you pay for. This furniture has been excellent despite the fact that I’ve never taken care of it at all. But all that is going to change soon. As you can see, my workspace has become a storage space for everything. It has no purpose, and when I sit down at it, I am uninspired and lost.
To begin this change, I spent another $500 on two more pieces from the Cubix collection: a 3-drawer storage unit and a stand for my printer and papers. I can’t get the hutch and locker yet. Someday… But, this is going to get the stuff off my desk, giving me a clear view with less distractions. Then once everything is off, I can clean the desk. There are some chips in the finish from a very poor decision I made one night involving a clamp. While bemoaning the fact that my clean desk was still going to be marred, I hit upon an idea that gave me hope and inspiration for the future of my home-office work. That idea is the humble leather desk pad.
Ok, maybe it isn’t humble. In a lot of ways it’s pompous, since it’s a executive thing, but it doesn’t have to be. Look at the current state of my desk. Look at how many things are sitting in front of me. Now imagine a desk pad blocking all that junk. The desk pad says, “No. Not here. This is not storage area, this is creative area.” And that is where I am drawing my inspiration. In the chaos that is my desk right now, the desk pad is going to be a sanctuary of openness. Things enter that sanctuary to be worked on, then are retired to their homes.
Of course, the new furniture is the other part of it. Right now, there is no home for everything on my desk. Also, my files are in a box in the closet off to the side. Because it’s such an annoyance to go to the closet and get the filing box, papers to be filed pile up in my “outbox” on the right side.
Not shown in the picture is my bookcase, which is stuffed full of junk. Yes, there’s books in there, but there’s also spindles of DVDs, envelopes, paper, labels, a drawer organizer with all my office stuff in it, manuals, and some art. Art that is crowded out where it doesn’t even look like art, it looks like junk. So with the addition of my new storage units, I can get the stationary stuff and DVDs out of there. It will give more room for proper display. It will probably kick off another round of downsizing, as I re-evaluate the things I haven’t touched in years.
Since I have at least a week to wait for the new furniture, I have plenty of time to dwell on this, make notes, research and consider different layouts, and write about it all. My home office is also my studio, with a recently-reduced number of keyboards (2), and some guitars. The picture shows the heavily-underutilized rack stand, acting as a printer and mixer stand, with a couple of drawers. I have a couple of torch lamps in the corners that are probably ready to be retired. I can replace them with LED sunlight lamps if needed.
The bottom line is, I need to visualize what I want. And what is it that I want? I don’t host guests in my office. My original layout accommodated stepping between computer and keyboards when recording. Maybe I need something like that again?
And then…
This is my new workspace.
The desk is no longer against the wall, it is now in the center of the room. One of the biggest things this relocation did for me is put the ceiling light directly over the desk. Now I am not backlit while at the desk and my keyboard doesn’t suffer from being completely shadowed.
As mentioned, I now have a three desk storage unit to hold all my desk pieces and files. I have a printer stand that has taken a lot of clutter off of my bookshelf. My bookshelf is now in front of me, where I can put some more artful items. Although the pictures don’t show it, I also have shelves on the wall. I now have more shelf space than pieces to put on them.
And in the center of the desk is the desk pad. I have used this just as I describe. It is a clear space (except when the cat feels like being the center of attention). I bring items into that space: bills, letters, computer parts, whatever. I do the work and clear it out. And as with my new tool kit, there is a place for everything. I do have a junk drawer, which will need to be addressed, but that also means that everything in it needs to receive a designated place.
Has it helped my productivity? I think it’s a little early to tell. I am happy for all these changes, but honestly, it did not cause a huge change in motivation. I think I’ve been going though a slight bout of depression, from which I am now recovering. If that’s what it was, then it’s good I’m coming out of it into a more organized living area which will be receptive to creation.
Shades of Taxes
Posted by anachostic
on October 16, 2013
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I recently watched a video on the dangers of “socialism.” It was an animation and was intended to be humorous while delivering its message. The illustration given was a classroom where it was announced that everyone would get the same grade, averaged from all the tests. After the first test, everyone got a B, the next test, everyone got a D, the last test, everyone got an F. This is how socialism works, apparently.
The problem with the illustration is that the subjects are of two distinct personalities: selfish and lazy, which is how anti-socialism people view the world. You are either selfish and in it for yourself only, which is why you are a capitalist, or you are lazy and don’t want to do anything, which is why socialism is so great for you.
The world is so full of absolutes right now, it’s disgusting. You are either Left or Right, Pro or Con. And that designation, aside from having no variance, also has no subsets. There will always be those that will fight for a cause and those that don’t care about it. There will always be people who care about doing a good job and those who don’t see the point in it.
Here’s an anti-socialist viewpoint: why have garbage cans on the street? Eventually everyone’s going to just throw their trash on the ground, because there’s no gain in using the garbage can. All the effort of trying to keep the streets clean is wasted on those that don’t care, so why bother. I mean, either you’re 100% for litter control, in which case you’d handle all of your trash needs yourself and have no need for government-subsidized garbage can entitlements, or you’re not, in which case the ground is your garbage can.
Flippant as it is, it exposes the hypocrisy of anti-socialists. If it’s something they support, good, otherwise, fuck off. These people want life to be a’la carte. They want to pick and choose every single piece of their life experience. So why not?
Yes, why not? Everyone bitches and moans about their tax dollars going to pay for something that they hate. So why not let them choose? Why not? I think we have enough diversity in America that everything would be funded as it’s needed. You’d have your rich, educated types diverting their tax money to education programs, earth and hippie types allocating for environmental causes, farmers propping up agriculture subsidies, rednecks and bulletheads giving all their tax dollars to defense. Despite all the stereotypes, it would all work out. And you’d have normal people allocating some here and some there, balancing things even further.
So all this stuff about Congress budgeting and allocating and taxing and robbing people to pay Paul, it all goes away. Each year, the income tax forms are collected and everyone has contributed a flat tax of 10%, 12%, 15%, whatever. Everyone has indicated on their tax form whether they want their taxes spread equally or according to the category assignments provided. You will actually have a tangible value assigned to the service, instead of “These people insist their service needs more funding.”