Monthly Archive for November, 2007

for every stupid action, there's an expected consequence

Published on November 29, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Earlier today someone posted about a friend’s dognapped pet on a Yahoo! Group that I belong to. Her friend is traumatized that her dog has been dognapped, and will do anything to get her baby back.

My first thought was oh, no, a dog taken from its own backyard. That’s criminal . . . thieves consistently find new lows.

But then I read further. . . the woman left her dog tied up in front of Whole Foods. I don’t care that she was just “gone for 5 minutes”. Would you leave a child tied up in front of a grocery store? No! I don’t think so. So if that dog was so dear to you, why did you you tie her up to a post outside a grocery store and walk away?

The woman goes on to say that the “moron got caught on camera” stealing the dog. I don’t think the thief is the moron in this case, esp since the camera did not catch the guy’s face, so he’s in the clear. They seek any and all help to get media coverage for this travesty — droughts in the SE and SW of the US can wait until next week, for tonight, we must unite a woman with the dog that she abandoned.

Los Angeles is definitely an animal-centric community. . .but people are just stupid. You can’t even leave a bike out in front of store without locking it up. Why do people assume that strangers are less likely to steal pets than bikes or cars or wallets?

I have on more than one occasion stopped to play with an adorable dog left tied up in front of store; no one even notices. I could own several dogs at this point. I have seen dogs left tied to posts for an hour or more by the Santa Monica stairs because their owners want to get a workout in and taking Fido home first is too troublesome.

It just frustrates me that people leave trusting, loyal animals dangling from a leash in a parking lot and  act surprised when someone takes advantage of theopportunity and takes the dog.

I hope the dog at the center of today’s tale is being treated well wherever she is.

Archipelago Botanicals: Candle Warehouse Holiday Sale

Published on November 29, 2007 in Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

DECEMBER 2008 UPDATE.

THE ANNUAL WAREHOUSE SALE WILL TAKE PLACE DECEMBER 13TH AND 14TH FROM 8:30AM-3PM. CASH ONLY. SAME ADDRESS AS BELOW.

Two Saturdays Dec 8th and 15th from 8am-3pm
1844 E. 22nd St, Los Angeles, Ca 90058

It is CASH ONLY.

Archipelago has its own line of candles and body products, but also manufactures private lines for department stores, specialty retailers and boutiques.

I went to this sale with a friend last year and was overwhelmed by the amazing scents and the rock bottom pricing on everything from designer candles (which make great hostess gifts) to bath & body products.  I picked up very high quality candles for $2-$4 each and scored an amazing pomegranate body scrub for $5/jar though it retailed at $35

By far, my favorite sale of the year.

I smell election season

Published on November 28, 2007 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

An election year is just one Times Square ball drop away and candidates will be out in full force trying to convince you to throw your money and your vote their way.

Do you know which candidate you support as of yet? There is a myriad of non-partisan sites that would like to help you decide. Just my two cents on two of them. . .

 Glassbooth asks you to first evaluate the importance of different key issue in evaluating who you will support.  Once you assign 20 points across  a number of issues, you are asked to rate your level of support on subissues.  Then your top 3 candidates are shown, with an open fourth slot to look at your compatibility with the remaining candidates.

Clean and aesthetically appealing, it’s a simple site to use.  Once the numbers are crunched, you can look at how you match up with each candidate, whether by candidate or issue.  Clear visuals quickly  show where I match and where I don’t — indicating which issues I might want to read up on.
I aligned with Edwards on 83% of his platforms, with Obama, Kucinich and Clinton coming in at 80% each.   Surprise! I’m a Democrat. . . talk about non-news.

Votehelp is a second site that offers the same candidate-selection assistance.  A smattering of Google ads makes the site look a bit amateur. You are asked to rate the importance of 10 issues to you, as well as your level of support for 10 statements.  (It is entirely too busy with multiple drop down menu choices for each issue.) If you’re lazy, you can stop there. Otherwise, you can respond to a 2nd set of 10 and a 3rd set of 8 statements. Upon completion your compatibility with the candidates is calculated to the 2nd decimal point.

I’m not impressed with the findings here. Upon looking at the details of my  suggested list of candidates, I get blocks of text to read through on each issue.  This site is text heavy, and lacks the visual representations.

My findings: 97.79% Kucinich,  96.19% Clinton, 95.82% Edwards, 95.86% Obama

Neither helped me a bit, since I already am resigned to voting for a Democrat, given the lack of a viable third party candidate. But maybe it will help you :)

dexterity

Published on November 28, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Is it just me?

When I’m doing things that involve speedy typing on my laptop, my right hand can type just a little bit faster than my left. Every so often I’ll look up and realize the words are all garbled and my right key strokes are entered in faster than the left.

Uncle Sam wants you

Published on November 26, 2007 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Earlier this month, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released really disturbing news via their study on homeless veterans:

The report exposes a shockingly disproportionate representation of veterans among the homeless population. Veterans, who represent only 11 percent of the civilian adult population, comprise 26 percent of the homeless population, despite the fact that, as a group, they typically have a lower poverty rate than the general population.

I bet the armed forces recruiters are leaving this statistic off their list when they’re trying to recruit high school seniors to join the army. The returns on serving aren’t looking so impressive. . . either those accrued college tuition dollars and “job skills” just don’t seem to go as far as the Army would like you to think or the psychological damage of serving is so great as to render veterans unable to serve as productive members of society.

Yes, there are trees in California!

Published on November 26, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Leafphoto © 2005 Jeff Kubina | more info (via: Wylio)My family lives on the East Coast; each falls someone mails me leaves ironed between sheets of waxed paper in case I forget what fall looks like.  It appears that some eastern seaboard natives are under the impression that Sunny Southern California does not experience seasons.

Thus, I would like assure all non-California residents that yes, our tree leaves do turn colors and fall off their respective trees each fall.  They litter our lawns just like they do yours.  There is no need to send care packages of pressed leaves to distant relatives; save the postage for more relevant items. . . like a good bagel or Vermont maple syrup.

Success Paradigms

Published on November 26, 2007 in Business, Health, Money and Politics. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

This weekend I watched Michael Moore’s Sicko (Special Edition) and finished Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order by Noam Chomsky.

Here are my takeaways from the weekend.

  1. American “democracy” continues to act in direct opposition to the wishes of the American people. . . the electoral college handing Bush the election despite him getting fewer votes. . . NAFTA . . .cutting back on social programming like education and health care, while cranking out more and more corporate welfare in the way of government bailouts of failing industries and subsidies that do not allow the market to check itself.
  2. Industries like health care are meant to serve a population. Their success should not be judged based on how many medical procedures are denied in order to grow corporate coffers. Instead, such industries should be judged on how much good they do, and their ability to be sustainable industries that put any profits back into improving services offered. HMOs with billion dollar valuations are simply profiting off of denying people care they need. . . with potentially fatal consequences for those covered. What if we instead determined the valuation of such companies based on their customer satisfaction and longevity rates?

Thoughts?

Lessons learned: only bank near your home

Published on November 24, 2007 in Business and Money. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I do all my banking by ATM and online so I can avoid bank employees as much as possible. It all goes back to college when as a student at UPenn, a friend told me the tale of her roommate (a Wharton undergrad — yes, that Wharton) who asked to show her how to write out a check to pay a bill. The scary part. . .the Wharton girl interned at the student credit union processing deposits several days a week! Ever since, I’ve tried to avoid bank employees, and sometimes sticking with ATMS just isn’t far enough removed from banking employees.

I swung by an unfamiliar Washington Mutual on Wednesday to make a deposit since I had been in the neighborhood for dinner. I deposited $40 rebate check and a $50 check from my mom (in my family there is a Turkey Day fairy, much like Santa and the Easter Bunny). Basic math would show that $50 +$40 = $90. And my online banking profile shows a $90 deposit was made.

My online banking profile shows that bank removed $50 of that deposit as a “key in error,” implying that there was no $50 check.

How do I prove that there was a $50 check in the envelope with the $40 check?

I suspect I’m going to have to wait until my mother gets back the $50 check cleared and get a copy of that to prove that I did indeed deposit the check. Or do you think the bank is going to take my word for it? I so don’t look forward to field tripping to that bank on Monday.

Why are bank employees so stupid?

Update on 2/08:  Within a week of that phone call, I received a letter telling me they were removing funds from my account over that miskeyed entry.

Two weeks later, i have a copy of the canceled check in hand.  Before I can get to WaMu to deal with the brilliant staff, the $ is added back into my account. Seems they caught the error on their end.  No one bothered to inform me in writing that they made a mistake.

The person at that branch I spoke to all but called me a liar on the phone when I contacted them about the problem initially, but they just put the money back and go about their business.  I would like to think their mistakes would also merit a follow up letter, apologizing for the inconvenience of losing my  money.   Good customer service is hard to come by.

A few years ago, I ordered a block of checks that never came. The company couldn’t figure what happened to them, and 250 blank checks for my account should not be hanging out unaccounted for. So I went to my local Wamu explaining that I’d like to close that account and open another one because of the missing checks. The account manager told me that there’s no evidence of fraud on my acccount as of yet, so why bother? Maybe because I’d like to stay fraud free!

The stories I could tell about banking at WAMU. . .but sadly, the competitors seem to be just as bad.

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Zak's Favorite Things of 2007

Published on November 23, 2007 in Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

In an effort to back up my criticism of Oprah’s very lame Favorite Things of 2007, I offer you my take on great gifting this holiday season. Since I spend a lot of time researching great products for donation outreach for a variety of non-profit events, I’m always stumbling across great products. I offer you ten such items below, in no particular order.

  1. As a tribute to Oprah’s obsession with kitchen products this year, I want to start with an enviroment-friendly shopping option. Reuseable grocery bags are growing in popularity since it’s finally sunk in that when asked “paper or plastic,” neither is a great option for the environment. I suggest Get Hip Get Green as a stylish reusable bag option, even better that the bag itself is made of recycled plastic.
  2. Dogearred created the Make-A-Wish necklace which would be a sweet gift for girlfriends or daughters. You simply make your wish and wear the string necklace with a tiny wishbone charm until the necklace falls off, bringing your wish to fruition.

    dogearred

  3. Speaking of dogs, Cloudstar makes Organic Buddy Biscuits that are sure to be a winner around the water bowl. The little smiling , gingerman-shaped treats come in flavors like roasted chicken, sweet potato madness and bacon and cheese. You can also choose between chewy or crunchy biscuit options. . . be sure to pick up a few “Wag More, Bark Less” bumper stickers for the people in your life.

    cloudstar

  4. Threadless T-Shirts are a great opportunity to buy a friend a limited edition tee that won’t be found on the racks of any retailer. Threadless runs an ongoing “contest,” inviting people to submit tee designs. The winners are printed up and sold on the site with a portion of the profits kicked back to the designer. The tees are sold in a variety of cuts and colors for men, women and children. Sport sayings such as “Movies: Ruining The Book Since 1920,” or images like “Tragedy Struck” (see below) all in good fun.

    tragedy struck — threadless

  5. I’m a self-proclaimed foodie. Who doesn’t love discovering unusual gourmet treats to try. I was delighted to run across San Diego restaurant Spread‘s array of peanut and almond butters. Handmixed, they come in small plastic jars with enough of the treat for 4 sandwiches. I thoroughly enjoyed the dark chocolate almond; with flavors like cinnamon cherry peanut, dark chocolate lavender peanut, and sexual chocolate almond I’ll be ordering again. Running from about $8 to upwards of $35 per jar; these spreads make a great hostess gift.

    spread restaurant

  6. Scent a room or your body k.hall designs‘s almond cocoa-scented products for bath, body and home. This company has mastered the art of less is more, with a fragrance just strong enough to faintly linger, but not so much as to be overwhelming. From shower pastes and gels to shea butter creams to candles and linen sprays, k.hall designs can cover gifts for the girls or make for a great hostess gift

    k.hall designs

  7. Corazonas Tortilla chips are made from oats, plant sterols and soybeans. Ok, so maybe that wasn’t the best opener for Zak’s favorite thing #7. Plant sterols have been shown to lower cholesterol, and the chip is chock full of complex carbohydrates, so it’s healthy junkfood. And you know what, those chips are darn tasty too. I got to sample them at the recent California Governor’s Conference for Women. So encourage healthy snacking, and look for yummy flavors like Salsa Picante, Margarita Lime, Jalapeno Jack and Baja Bean dip at a grocery store near you!

    corazonas

  8. Let’s face it. Letter writing is a lost art in the age of e-mail. But now and again, a person note adds a special touch that will make you stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Help friends and family make that gesture a memorable one. I suggest Bella Bella Co. They provide stylish and, alternately, elegant couture note cards that can be bought in singles or in sets. Yes, there is more than one way to leave a lasting impression. Why not personalize a set as a gift?

    Bella Bella

  9. Everyone has pictures of someone they care about. Now it’s easy to update and rotate your picture collection using a digital frame. Store your jpgs on an online account that your frame can access via Wi-Fi. Update your pictures from anywhere in the world and share them with friends and family for their own use.
  10. Though I don’t personally own one, the Nintento Wii seems failsafe. Senior citizens in nursing homes are rediscovering past times like bowling that have been lost to arthritic joints. Kids are getting a workout while boxing and dancing along with their game. Given the family friendly game choices, it’s a piece of technology that could unite rather than further fragment family.

    nav_wii_logo.gif

There you have it folks, 10 way more original suggestions than Oprah’s Favorite things. Could there be another installation next holiday season? You just never know.


 

These are a few of Williams-Sonoma's…umm. . .I mean Oprah's, favorite things

Published on November 20, 2007 in Entertainment and Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Oprah brought back her “favorite things” programming just in time to kick off the holiday season. Once audience members and fans at home are done going ga-ga over the abundance of freebies handed out, will anyone dare turn a critical eye to this much loved annual episode?

Does anyone else find it suspicious that 3 of Oprah’s 20 favorite things of 2007 happen to be sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma? Did Williams-Sonoma pay for that privilege? Probably. I wonder what the price-tag is for blowing out sales on those 3 items for that vendor.

Next, did Oprah do a kitchen remodel this year? Isn’t it sort of accepted at this point that most women aren’t putting kitchen gadgets and cleaning supplies on the top of their wishlists for holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries? Just like men’s toes aren’t curling over a top of the line law mower (maybe aside from those working in the landscaping business). Why then, did Oprah’s favorite things include melamine cooking gear, a free-standing mixer, a panini press, and a refrigerator and cleaning supplies. Surely there were better lifestyle offerings being considered.

Finally, I think the inclusion of the latest Oprah Book club pick (Ken Follet’s The Pillars of Earth) and O’s Guide to Life were just lazy and self-serving suggestions.

Right now you’re probably thinking, it’s easy to complain, how about you come up with a sundry list of favorite things that could placate most. . .so I think I will. . . I need to think it over for a few days, but I’ll be back with my list of favorite things this holiday season.