Calendar Conundrum

I am looking at one of those desktop day calendars where you rip off the day once it is done.  This happens to be one of those learn a word a day types.  I can't say this is completely wrong, but I can't say it is completely right either.  I feel so conflicted.

I received the calendar as a stocking stuffer last year.  I appreciate the gift because it does, in fact, seem very suitable.  I am an English teacher, I like learning and I like words.  This last point is evident because I am writing a blog and I do crosswords almost every day.

There are two problems with this calendar, though.  The first is that I really don't look at it every day.  I look at it once a month.  I attribute this to the fact that it sits in the corner of my desk I am least likely to look at, or most likely to ignore.  I cannot, in good conscience, blame the calendar for this.  I could put it in a more conspicuous place on the desk, though no space seems to be offering itself.  The problem is that once the month is gone, am I gone to look through thirty or so words?  Most likely, I will rip off the stack of words until the day in question.  I might glance through them, but will study them?  I have used the word unlikely already, so I will answer that it is improbable.

The other problem is that most of these words are not new to me.  As I said, I am an English teacher who does crosswords.  Yes, I have learned a few (sanguine, for one, which really didn't mean what I thought it did) and I have come across words that I had no idea existed (October 16 was ailurophobia--and now Microsoft's spellchecker is rejecting it).  Will I remember these words?  Does glancing at them mean that I have somehow absorbed them?  Can I learn through osmosis (no, I didn't get that one from the calendar, but there are still two months to go).

Christmas is soon upon us, and perhaps I will get another one of these calendars.  While I cannot say I would reject getting one, I would say the idea of it doesn't thrill me.  As I gather up these papers and prepare them for the recycle box, I wonder if I should give one to the person who gave me this one.  Retaliation--that word was in the calendar.

Vending Machine Envy

the latest hi tech vending machine from Japan

 

 

Why can't we have cool vending machines like they do in Japan?  Several of the Jvloggers (Japan Video Bloggers in case you didn't know) I follow have done some posts about vending machines in Japan.  They are pretty cool, and offer a hell of a lot more choice than I can get in Canada.



availability

Is it a population density thing?  Is Canada just too big with smaller concentrations of people to place vending machines in convenient places?  Granted, I haven't seen any outside in a long time, but I have seen them in schools, hospitals, community centres and other places where either the service was needed, or somebody thought they could make a buck or two.  (Okay, I sometimes look at business pessimistically--It might be different if I were getting a cut)

Perhaps the powers that be just don't want to put vending machines on the streets where they could get vandalized.  I can understand, though not agree, with this argument.  And in reality, it has been a long time since I came across one outside and don't really miss them.  I don't like paying convenience store prices, but I have found enough alternatives that it doesn't matter so much.



Choices

However, for the ones that we do have, why can't they be cool like the ones they have in Japan?  Why do I have make do with four or five choices when most Japanese machines have more than 20 (hot and cold)?  The newest ones have considerably more.

It can't be a coin issue because Canadians have one and two dollar coins (the loonie and the twoonie).  The ones in Japan take bills--I even used one once that took the Japanese equivalent of a one hundred dollar bill.

Is it just wishful thinking?

Turkey Effects

 

 

Every year around Thanksgiving we hear various stories and old wives tales (maybe this is no longer the politically correct term...if someone knows what that would be please leave me a comment in the box below) about how turkey makes you sleepy.  Is there any truth to that?  Does it need to be a combination of wine and turkey?  What if you just drink beer and watch hockey?

I do not know.

Maybe turkey has an effect on your sleeping.  I really can't say for sure.  What I can say for sure is that it surely has an effect on a person's ability to operate a motor vehicle.  I don't base this on extensive, or even efficient , laboratory testing.  Mostly it is anecdotal.  Driving home on both Sunday and Monday of Canada's Thanksgiving long weekend, I was witness to a spectacle of pure driving folly.  So many turkey addled drivers were unable to make wise and useful decisions on the road.  So many made me want to pull my hair out--I didn't, because that just wouldn't have been fair.

Left turns that took up three lanes.

Ignoring advanced greens (and consequently obnoxiously loud horns--and not just mine).

Talking on cell phones while driving.

Improper lane changes.

Poor musical choice on the stereo.

I saw it all this weekend, and I can never unsee it.  That is what makes it really bad.

Perhaps we need a new campaign.  "Arrive alive.  Don't eat turkey and drive!"

The Gift Card Season

 

 

While I am by no means so organized that I am shopping for Christmas right now, I am thinking a bit about it.  Perhaps that is because is will only be another day or two before the Christmas decorations rear their pretty heads--I haven't actually been shopping, so it might have already happened.  This blog is not a rant about selling Christmas before Halloween is over, it just has a Christmas theme.

Family traditions are what they are, but lately, I notice that more people give gift cards rather than actual presents.  There are several reasons for this, and they seem sound.

1. It's easier than shopping for something.
2. The people getting the gift have given no hints (subtle or not so subtle) as to what they want.
3. They are likely to return your gift anyway, so this saves the intermediate step.
4. They can get what they want (though if they couldn't give you any hints, it probably means they don't know what they want.)
5. Gift cards are an easy fallback--and for all those guys doing their shopping on the 24th, what a great fallback it is.
6. Gift cards are easily re-gifted.
7. They are easy to wrap.  They often come with their own envelopes.
8. Transporting them is easy.
9. They've become so popular you can even get them at the gas station.
10. People, except young children, do not express disappointment in getting them.

I guess, I just miss the excitement of getting a gift.  Usually when people ask me what I want, I can give them about ten ideas.  I usually keep a list of things that I want, and when people ask me, I email it to them.  I have even gone so far as to point out which stores offer the best deals on that particular item (and yes, it is often Amazon).

I do not know what Christmas has in store for anyone in my family, but I am starting on my list today.  And to make it easy, I will even include some ideas of where I want gift cards from.

The Candy Conspiracy.

It's still September and the Halloween candy is already for sale.  Sure, why not get a head start on event.  It makes sense....but does it?  What I realized is, the candy you buy today, really isn't for Halloween.  That candy is for you.  You are going to have to go back to the store and buy more candy before the night  is actually here.

Don't worry.  That's all part of the plan.  I am not talking about life's plan. I am talking about the junk food companies' plan.  How else could they sell so much candy?  They know you'll break down and start sampling the products.  They count on it.  They bank on you not having the willpower to resist.  Buy candy now, and buy candy later.

Now, don't get me wrong.  There are some people out there with the willpower to resist.  There are some people who can fight off the temptation--I'm not one of them, but I know they exist.  Those people are not the ones that the candy companies want to talk to.

I wish I could help you and give you some useful tips.  All I can say is the more you give away, the less you eat.

By the way, when I was young, Halloween was spelled differently.  What happened?

A Bright Idea

 

I notice that there is a new iPhone available.  They call it the iPhone 5S.There has been a lot of hoopla and a lot of media noise.  Nobody asked an interesting question.  Why isn't there a solar charging feature?

I know, I know.  You're going to tell me that a tiny solar cell on the top of the phone couldn't possibly charge up the phone.  Although it works for a watch and a calculator, it couldn't do the job of a USB cable.  No argument.  The only thing is, couldn't it help?

The way I look at it, there is always the time when you really need your phone and that is the time when the battery dies.  At that moment, wouldn't it be nice to have a chance to get a little power back into your phone?  Maybe a solar cell could provide this emergency power.

I guess I should have contacted Apple before now.  Do you think they would have listened?

What's my Size?

Japanese beer comes in many sizes

 

Who determines what size something should come in?  I mean, who decided that we need four litres of milk in three bags?  Whose idea was it to sell hamburger buns in packages of eight?  What genius determined that my bag of spaghetti should contain 900 grams of dried pasta?

Now, I know, I have ranted about the size of things before.  Mostly, though, I was complaining about how they have made everything smaller.  I still feel quite strongly about that injustice, but this rant is different.  I am not complaining, just wondering.

I was making spaghetti earlier this evening when I noticed that the weight of the pasta package was 900 grams.  Why didn't they just make it a full kilogram?  Dried pasta is not exactly a high ticket item.  I stopped to reconsider.  I considered maybe they were selling it in pounds.  Nine hundred grams comes close to two pounds.  I checked the label, and no, actually it equals 1.98 lbs.  I don't know who should feel more ripped off.

If you really think about it, how do you decide what is the right size to sell something?  Is there a certain quantity that we can not exceed?  Is there a certain price we won't pay for something?  Considering how popular Costco and Price Club are, neither one of those things can really be true.  If someone is willing to buy a 20 litre container of mustard (for whatever price 20 Litres of mustard must cost) then you could almost sell them 20 Litres of anything....couldn't you?

Some of this must be historical.  Anything sold in sets of twelve must be connected to a bakery.  This still doesn't explain the hot dog bun versus hotdog package...but don't get me started.  I am pretty happy with the 24 of beer, but since I have seen 28 packs and 32 packs, this number seems kind of arbitrary.

Beverage companies decided that cans of pop should be 355mL.  It seems to be the right size--but then why is the coke company trying to foist those 700mL bottles on us?  I guess they thought we needed more, so instead of screwing around they just said double.  I guess nobody bothered to suggest triple.

Maybe none of this should really bother me, maybe I should let is slide.  The problem is that I live in a country that uses the metric system.  The whole beauty behind the metric system is the nice, useful, easily manipulated numbers it produces.  They still sell butter by the pound, but at least they print the metric numbers on the label.

I guess somebody made the decisions, and that is what we are left with.  If somebody had asked me, I might have been able to convince them to choose another size.  My pasta would come in 1Kg bags and there would be five tennis balls in a can instead of three.