I Have a Better Idea

The countdown clock on my desktop says 61 days until we move into our new house. Then I came across this while looking for lighting fixtures. I say I sell my house as is, unfinished, and get one of these instead.

Borobudur

There's something that happens when you have a personal connection to news from around the world. Most of the time, a report of a violent uprising or a natural disaster in some far-off region of the globe is filtered into the back of your mind where it quickly becomes a distant memory.

But last week's 6.2 earthquake near Yogyakarta on the island of Java meant something to me. 25 miles outside of this crowded, dirty city lies Borobodur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world.



I had visited Borobudur in 1990, while on a 3 month backpacking trip through New Zealand and up to the Far East. This huge monument, built in 750-842 AD, is nestled in the middle of a quiet forest on top of a hill and is the most spiritual religious place I have ever seen. It's scale is unfathomable, but like any great piece of architecture, no matter where you are, you feel intimate and "at one" with your surroundings.

While I've heard their was little damage to the structure, I picture all of the 72 Buddha statues sitting inside of their bell shaped stupas and looking out at the ruined world below. Buddhist philosophy says that reaching into these stupas and touching the Buddhas brings good luck. Since I can't be there, I'll send this electronic wish.

After Mail In Rebate

One of the great things about shopping for something is when you come across a deal. Kinda makes you a little more interested in buying it, doesn't it? Well marketing gurus and ad execs in large companies around the world somehow found this little nugget and have used it to their advantage.

Now I have been a party to the "deal" tactics in the past, but now it's just getting plain silly. When you walk into Best Buy, they claim to have the lowest price guarantee, but it's not just the price they're selling it at. Seems like everything in that store, from the HDTV sets to the little thing that takes scratches out of CDs (it doesn't work) is on sale, with the added benefit of a mail-in rebate.

Sounds fishy, right? Yeah, to me to. I think this whole idea of walking into a shop for some instant gratification and being told that something is cheaper because 6-8 weeks after you mail in your receipt, your box and your right leg to some hitching post in Deleuth they'll send you a $10 rebate check that you can only cash at your bank -- well, this whole concept just spells BS to me. If they're so intent on saving you money, why don't they just give you the discount right there? I'll tell ya why. Because if you took the total dollar amount of discounts in that store and every store in the country and stuck it in the bank for 8 weeks, you've got a nice chunk of change. And if you make people fill out what equates to a college entrance essay to get the rebate submitted, chances are you're gonna get a few people who are going to just plug that toaster in and forget about the money they're throwing out the window.

Hhm. Commercialism is a shifty concept.

That's my 2 cents (after a 50 cent rebate)

Cool Packaging

I was in Whole Foods the other day buying a $6 apple and came across this "herbal mood" product. Don't know if it's any good or just another attempt for the Whole Foodites to ripoff wealthy Democrats, but I liked the packaging.

Come to the think of it, maybe if I bought it I would feel better about the $6 apple....

UPS (Utter Positive S*!t

I order a lot of equipment for work from this one company in Chicago. (Ask for Matt Fisher -- great guy.) Matt processes the order and the stuff ships straight from some warehouse in Vegas direct to my office -- like 2-3 times a week. Matt uses Fedex and UPS and charges me up the wizwang for delivery. But hey, am I complaining? Stuff shows up 2 days later.

Usually, the loot arrives at my office door and I come around and pick it up from Brady, another great guy who is too good at his job and deserves to be in a better position. I give him minor thrills by opening the packages in front of him -- kinda like Santa Claus and Christmas, except here Santa is a geek in Chicago and the children (that being me) like to play with electronics and things that go "beep."

So I'm driving to work this morning and thinking that I'm missing something. You know that feeling where your mind says "you're gonna get your ass kicked for this" but doesn't quite tell you what it is? Yeah, that.

So later, I realize that the "that" is a package that should have arrived from Senor Matt days earlier. But there is no box, no call, no evidence whatsoever that the box has shipped (other than the charge on my credit card bill).

So today, I get a postcard from UPS. Arrives in the regular mail. Tells me that they are sorry, but they could not deliver the package because it did not have a suite number on it. Ok, Postcard...yes, Package...no. Hhm. Here's the letter I sent them.

Dear UPS,

While I appreciate your attempts to always make me a happy recipient of the packages you bring to my door, I am a bit puzzled by a postcard I received from what (I assume) is a confused UPS employee (you do call them employees, don't you? They're not like "courier associates" or "transit enablers", are they?)

Anyway, I got this postcard IN THE MAIL, telling me that one of your happy brown "transit enablers" could not deliver a package I so desperately was waiting for to my office because the sender did not include the suite number. This is very odd since I know Sean, our UPS man, very well (he does a smashup job, by the way -- his socks are always pulled up just below his knees and he's always ready with that plastic pen signing thingie and it doesn't smell like other guy's pens) and I have received packages from the same shipper to the same address many times.

Has something bad happened to Sean? Or has there been a change in policy at UPS regarding me and/or my suite number. I am finding it hard to understand how you can get a postcard to me through the US Mail (and we know how bad they can be) but you can't send the package through. Even worse is that on the postcard it tells me I can pickup my package at the UPS office. While I would love to come and see all of those cardboard boxes and where those little "We're sorry we missed you" sheets come from, I would rather if you delivered the package to my door. Either that or you can give me a discount for me driving -- I mean, that seems fair, doesn't it?

Please let me know that Sean is ok and, if he isn't, could you have someone bring my package by the office?

Thank you,

Your ever thankful customer,

LK