Month: November 2012

Consumerism is ugly

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It’s time people stop turning into crazed consumers on Black Friday. Is all that insanity worth a few bucks off on an item you and/or your loved ones don’t even need?

This story really fires me up. Kmart refused to price-match Sears even though they are the same company, but what’s worse is that the guy still ordered a Christmas Tree from them! If you’re not willing to voice your opinion by boycotting a company when they aren’t helpful they are going to continue to screw over their customers, just like Best Buy did to this guy who, quite frankly, is an idiot. Why would he continue and shop at Best Buy on Black Friday after they already screwed him over the year before? My brother was out on Black Friday and called me from Best Buy about a great deal on a TV which was very tempting but I passed because I don’t do business with that POS store.

You need to vote with your pocket book if there’s any chance that things will change. Are we as a nation really that desperate for junk that we’re willing to let companies walk all over us? Based on these stories we are, so I guess we deserve to be mistreated. If we continue to give our business to organizations who don’t give a crap about customer service then we don’t have any right to complain about the lack of it. If good customer service was truly important to the public people would refuse to shop at places who can’t offer it adequately.

And this story is just sad. Shoplifting is wrong, but a person doesn’t deserve to be killed for attempting it. Obviously if you work for a company you want to do what you can to prevent theft but in the end it’s the company (the same company who ultimately does not care about you since you’re just a vehicle to their profitability) who is losing out if someone gets away with stealing merchandise. It’s not worth your job, or jail time, to protect the company from losing money on a couple of DVD players. How much could those possibly be worth anyway? More than a human life? I think not.

This time of the year just depresses me with the rampant consumerism.

Staycation Day 9 – The End

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Ugh. Our staycation is over and I’m a sad panda.

Our morning started like every other typical Sunday – a trip to Target where we always seem to travel through a time warp; we were in the store for nearly two hours. Luckily we didn’t spend all that much – only $60 which included groceries, a new sweater (on clearance) for yours truly, and some cool LED Christmas lights they had on sale for $8 which we strung across the top of our blinds on our patio door. All our Fall decorations are still on display along with the new Christmas lights. Classy.

After dropping off the groceries at home we decided to grab lunch at Red Lobster. They have a 4-course meal that is pretty good, although I swear it was $14.99 last time we had it and now it’s $16.99. Either way you get soup, salad, a full entree, and a mini dessert. The dessert is perfectly sized, though, in my opinion. I got the brownie ala mode which was awesome. The warm chocolate mixed with the creamy vanilla is the perfect combination. My soup was the creamy potato which was just ok but I loved my entree which included a skewer of pineapple grilled shrimp, four jumbo coconut breaded shrimp, rice and broccoli. Yummy! Between a $4 coupon and $26 left on a gift card our out of pocket cost was under $10. Gotta love that!

After lunch we stopped at a place called Savers. It’s like Goodwill except better organized. I actually found two shirts I liked which only cost me $10 total. Gotta love cheap clothing! Why pay full price when your money can go further on previously worn clothes? As long as they are in good shape I don’t mind that they aren’t new. I always wash them thoroughly before wearing them anyway.

Tomorrow begins what I’m anticipating will be the single most stressful three weeks of my career. Suffice it to say I’m dreading it. My apologies to anyone whom I work with who may stumble upon this blog but it’s the truth. I’m looking forward to a more laid back 2013 and will do whatever it takes to make that happen…

Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving day went something like this:

Joe went to pick up E at 11 am while I worked on cooking some side dishes to take to my parents’ house (sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn muffins, and pizza dip). When they got home we had White Castle for lunch, then headed to my parents’ house a few hours later, arriving around 4:30. Everyone had their fill and then we played an hour long game of Aggravation. By that time it was 7 pm and E’s mom arrived to pick him up. After E left we played a bunch of rounds of UNO Attack (I won the first few games because I was on fire that night) and just sat around talking until about 10:30 when we finally left and my brother went out to Best Buy to buy a TV.

Staycation Day 8

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Today we went to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing it but it was actually quite good.

This whole shop to you drop attitude around this time of year really gets to me for some reason. Maybe it’s because it seems like those who do it are the ones who cannot afford it. The mass consumerism is disgusting to me.

I don’t know – I think I’m just stressed out and feeling anxious and depressed at the moment so everything is getting under my skin. I would really like to take a long break from everyday life for awhile.

Staycation Day 6 – Denied

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I received a response back from the stock photography site and sure enough, my photos were not good enough. They wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to apply as a contributor with iStockphoto.com.

The iStock administrators have asked that you upload new samples based on the feedback provided below. You’re welcome to return in 3 days, upload some new samples and we’ll re-process your application.

Comments from the iStockphoto Administrator:

At this time we regret to inform you that we did not feel the overall composition of your photography or subject matter is at the minimum level of standard for iStockphoto. Please take some time to review training materials, resources and articles provided through iStockphoto. The photographs provided in your application should be diverse in subject matter, technical ability and should be your best work. Think conceptual, creative and most important think Stock photography. Try to avoid the average eye level push the button perspective of a common subject. Try and impress us, we want to see how you stand out from the crowd.

We welcome you to return after the number of days specified and upload 3 fresh samples of your work and we will re-process your application. Please note that you will not be able to upload new samples until this waiting period has passed.

Well that’s disappointing. So am I sucky photographer in general or just in the stock photography sense? I really hope it’s the latter. I’m probably not going to bother re-applying because the fact of the matter is my photography material is not that varied because my main interest are animals, nature, and travel (and the majority of buildings I’ve photographed are not acceptable via their FAQ). Oh well. I think I’ll look into selling my prints instead, assuming I’m a decent photographer. Now I’m not so sure…