Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Drive Safe, but not like my wife
Before I get into the meat of my blog, let me first wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. How great of a country we have. We dedicate an entire day to gluttony.
God Bless America!
Now, back to the blog at hand.
As mentioned before in the beginning of the blog, Thanksgiving is here. Like most people, Jenn and I decided to take the family to Kentucky to see Jenn's family. Its the first time I am going to experience Thanksgiving in Kentucky. Well last night Jenn, Audrey, Freckles, and I packed into our cars and headed down OH-301 to start our drive to Kentucky. We had to take 2 cars. If you need to ask why, [see also: I Hate the Holidays].
Well I was driving ahead of Jenn and it was snowing. Snow + Country Road = adult version of slip and slide. As Jenn was driving she hit a patch of ice and slid off the road into a ditch. [see the photo on blog. Don't know where it will be because when I send blogs from my BlackBerry I have no say as to where it is placed].
We sat there for close to 90 minutes for a tow truck to come pull is out. By 11pm we were on a dry highway well on our way to Kentucky.
Now my blog today is serving 2 purposes.
1. To inform you of the adventure that has transpired.
2. To create a platform to make fun of my wife for a little bit.
Now, onto making fun of Jenn.
Yeah as her car was sitting in a ditch and the adrenaline wore off a bit, I decided to get out of my car and walk up to Jenn's car and let her know that she NEVER allowed to tell me how to drive EVER again. She said that she is a safe driver and that she didn't wreck the car so I can't say that.
I retorted, that's true, but then again, my car isn't sitting in a ditch.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
I hate the holidays!
Its the holidays and forgive me for being the Grinch, but I say the month of December should not exist. Again, this is coming from a cynical retail employee in the midst of a holiday rush. I am actually writing this on my Blackberry during a quick break.
I just experienced a smart ass customer. I know that people out there view retail sales employees as slimy, crooked, and stupid. Unless you live under a rock, you will know that my employer launched a new product that rivals another competitors product. The only real similarity that my product has and my competitors product has is; the touch screen. That is where the similarities end.
Understandably I'm going to try and sell you one.
I can get into debates all day long about how my product is better and far more superior, but that's a boring argument. I will win every time.
What makes me even more mad is that people have totally unreal expectations.
For instance:
I happen to be standing next to our new product and see a customer getting frustrated with it. He said that the product is just not intuitive enough. It doesn't move as fast as it does in the commercials.
Well duh! Nothing ever is the same as it is in the commercial. My audi doesn't do jack knife reversal moves right off the lot. Should it? It did it in the commercial. But I don't know how to do it, so therefore my car won't do it.
This isn't the Matrix. I am not going to learn something just by watching the commercial or loading a program into the port on the back of my head. I have to spend time learning it.
So when you walk up to a display and start pushing buttons on a screen like court reporter trying to document a boxing fight, no, it isn't going to work like the commercial because the guy in the commercial isn't a screen molesting jerk. He is pushing a button, waiting for the product to respond, like you should in real life.
If you walk up to my sales floor and you tell me that you are a customer and tell me you don't like the new product, that's fine. If you want it to be like a competitors product, then just go buy the competing product. I will not tell you what you want to hear just to make the sale. I will be honest with you and tell you that it has its limitations. It isn't Jesus. It won't turn water into wine. Just by touching my product you can tell that it isn't as intuitive huh? What if I made snap judgments about you? I will walk up to you and touch you, then procede to tell you that you aren't as intuitive as your commercial. Let me do what I do best and walk you through how everything works first before you snap judgment on it. I'm the professional, not you. I'm trying to show this product and help you gauge how this works in real life. You, just touching it and beating it up like an economy class rental car isn't going help you figure anything out. Its like beating your wife and expecting her not to leave you.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
This one is short
I have to walk to the dog this morning. I'm not exciting.
Mother Nature is cruel.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Not sure how I feel
Obama won. I can't change that. So I have come to the conclusion that I either have to embrace the change or fight it. Fighting it will not help anyone. It will not change the fact that Obama is going to be the President.
I need to be optimistic about this. My sister-in-law said it best. Obama could be the best president in the universe. My older brother took a More pessimistic view. Obama will be lucky to make it to January 20th, which is his inauguration date.
My hope is that Obama keeps his views somewhat centered. I think even he might be a little afraid of having a super majority in the government, and I'm sure he will keep the leftist views centered.
I know blacks, gays, and the poor are happy about this change. What is even more strange is that young professionals are happy about this change, which makes me believe that this change could be what the country could need. I am not going to jump on the Obama support train, but I will not discredit what he has to say just because he doesn't hold all my views. I must remain skeptical.
I am happy to see this change, and I believe in this country to take back the power it gives, if they feel that it isn't serving them.
The democrats have the ball. They are either going to fix this crisis, or they or going to make it worse. They will have the glory, and must share the failure if it comes to that.
I do not feel Obama is going to give us a tax cut. It doesn't add up. You can cut taxes and pay for a $700 billion bail out, on top of Nancy Pelosi's economic stimulus plan totalling $150 million.
Obama can't cut taxes for 95% of the people when only 65% of the country pay taxes.
Nonetheless, Obama can rally people behind a cause that I agree with. Help America.
The 44th President of The United States.....
.....is not a Republican named John McCain.
I was up late last night. A lot later than I had anticipated. I was not expecting this election to be the seemingly landslide victory that it turned out to be.
Now I am not going to punch out a blog damning the diligent voters of America. I want to congratulate them. Congratulations on a successful election. I won't lie, my guy didn't win. But it is what it is. The American public voted, and in record numbers, and they elected Obama.
Now I have been sitting up all morning watching the news and all the pundits are saying that America is tired of the Bush administration and its failed economic policy. The pundits are saying that America is tired of the failed foreign policy. Now that Obama is President Elect, I can finally say that they are true.
Now that the Bush Era is coming to a close, I don't think his Administration was a total failure. During the Bush Administration, we saw the worst attack on America besides Pearl Harbor. We haven't seen one since. During the Bush Administration, every tax payer received a check from the government on top of their regular refund called a tax rebate. During the Bush Administration we invaded a country, disposed of a tyrant dictator, and are helping to set up a Democracy, albeit under false pretenses, but nonetheless it was done, and instead of cutting our losses and running, we stayed the course and are helping the fledgling government get on its feet so that we can one day leave their country.
The Obama Era is beginning. Obama was able to energize a people to vote, and vote they did. Now that Obama has made it all the way to the White House, I would love for him to renounce any party ties and have an objective view.
It is one thing to have liberal views because you have them, it is quite another to have party ties. Now every move he makes is tainted with the thought that he is being controled by a political party, instead of being an independent thinker. I would ask the same thing of John McCain.
The Republican party is now dead for now. They need to dissolve and when Obama dinounces his ties to the Democrats, that party will be dead too and we will now have a government run by a person who is in it for America and not his political party.
Thank you America for voting.
I hope America made the right decision.
Thank-you Lance for the picture from your blog.