Today's customer advice: 'It never hurts to ask', but please do so respectfully. "Gimme all the discounts you can" or "How much off of this will you give me?" are not pleasant ways to be addressed. Try "Are there any specials you can tell me about?" or "Are there any discount programs I can join today?" Much nicer, and it gives the employee an opportunity to discuss the matter with you respectfully if there are no discounts available.
Remember: Employees do not work FOR YOU. They work for their employer, who also doesn't work FOR YOU. They are either working for a wage or in business to provide a service in exchange for legal tender, so please remember to treat everyone with respect, and not like 'the help'. Treating people like 'the help' can make 'the help' want to poison you. Y'know that common phrase "The butler did it"? Try to imagine why the butler did it, and avoid those instigating actions.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
No contrary opinions allowed
No, really. I mean that title.
Why do we, as a species, feel the need to join groups where our opinion isn't wanted? Why is there always the one person at the "We Heart Ferrets Only" group who thinks their lower opinion of this questionably noble animal must be voiced? What is it about our pre-loaded ego that makes us think that honesty, even when not wanted or necessary, is something we should air?
In short, why do people join a thread or chat room and voice a contrary opinion to the one stated on the header? If it's a whoopin' they're a wantin', there are easier ways. Still, this phenomenon is interesting if you can remember to step far enough back to view it from a safe distance. Like watching predators disembowel a kill, there could be splashback, and your high horse doesn't like to be spattered with gore when it carries you through the thoroughfaire so you can spit on the peasants. Filthy mongrels, aren't they?
Why do we, as a species, feel the need to join groups where our opinion isn't wanted? Why is there always the one person at the "We Heart Ferrets Only" group who thinks their lower opinion of this questionably noble animal must be voiced? What is it about our pre-loaded ego that makes us think that honesty, even when not wanted or necessary, is something we should air?
In short, why do people join a thread or chat room and voice a contrary opinion to the one stated on the header? If it's a whoopin' they're a wantin', there are easier ways. Still, this phenomenon is interesting if you can remember to step far enough back to view it from a safe distance. Like watching predators disembowel a kill, there could be splashback, and your high horse doesn't like to be spattered with gore when it carries you through the thoroughfaire so you can spit on the peasants. Filthy mongrels, aren't they?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Online Etiquette, or How to Keep a High Horse Healthy
I just read some more rants on Ravelry (I'm wondrousitem, by the way) and I'm always surprised (and then almost immediately enraged) at the constant bickering of online rights, pattern copyrights, photo credits, etcetera. True, there are hundreds of seemingly valid opinions for the various stances, but there is one amazingly simple solution to "How Do I Make Sure My Thing Isn't Stolen?"
Do not put it on the internet.
The internets are wonderful, but evil. Like eating an entire yellow cake (with chocolate frosting). I know this. It's fantastic, and great in the process, but the possibility of gastrointestinal distress is potentially cry-worthy. The long and short is this: If you don't want others to have it (whether this is limited to a particular usage of your product/item, or merely an insistence on crediting you with its creation), do not put it out there. At all.
If you must, must share this thing, consider the medium you choose to do it with as a sort of filter. Books are harder to steal than PDFs, but will be loaned and borrowed due to their restricting costs. Magazines are a closer bet, as their limited circulation and availability make it hard to mass reproduce your contribution. The internets? That's megaphoning while standing on the roof. Those pictures of your kids covered in ice cream? Just got downloaded for a clown's advertisement for parties. That carefully constructed pattern for fishnet hair snoods? A screenshot is being emailed and modified to make a toy net. Yay for sharing, but the only downfall is that you can't take it back.
Think of it like gossip. You can say what you want to a close friend, but you can't control who they might tell. You can trust your friend (I hope), but a coworker overheard and remembers a year later at a picnic at just the moment when you pass by. It's a clever joke you thought up. Because of the funny, it gets retold and spread across the world. You can't stop it, and most times you wouldn't want to, but you have to let it go, like children to college. Release your fear that you are responsible for, or have any control over, what it/they do next. You could prosecute, sure, but are the costs worth the constant hassle of having to remain ever vigilant? If they are, be my guest. If not, you will be cast as the evil and greedy person persecuting the underdog time and again, becuase those underdogs will never stop.
It's okay, Spiderman. It wasn't a spider bite, it was an internet post. You are not responsible for this. (Also, that vulture guy? Needs mental help you can't provide. And stop making deals with the devil. He's the/a devil! It never works out in the end.)
Do not put it on the internet.
The internets are wonderful, but evil. Like eating an entire yellow cake (with chocolate frosting). I know this. It's fantastic, and great in the process, but the possibility of gastrointestinal distress is potentially cry-worthy. The long and short is this: If you don't want others to have it (whether this is limited to a particular usage of your product/item, or merely an insistence on crediting you with its creation), do not put it out there. At all.
If you must, must share this thing, consider the medium you choose to do it with as a sort of filter. Books are harder to steal than PDFs, but will be loaned and borrowed due to their restricting costs. Magazines are a closer bet, as their limited circulation and availability make it hard to mass reproduce your contribution. The internets? That's megaphoning while standing on the roof. Those pictures of your kids covered in ice cream? Just got downloaded for a clown's advertisement for parties. That carefully constructed pattern for fishnet hair snoods? A screenshot is being emailed and modified to make a toy net. Yay for sharing, but the only downfall is that you can't take it back.
Think of it like gossip. You can say what you want to a close friend, but you can't control who they might tell. You can trust your friend (I hope), but a coworker overheard and remembers a year later at a picnic at just the moment when you pass by. It's a clever joke you thought up. Because of the funny, it gets retold and spread across the world. You can't stop it, and most times you wouldn't want to, but you have to let it go, like children to college. Release your fear that you are responsible for, or have any control over, what it/they do next. You could prosecute, sure, but are the costs worth the constant hassle of having to remain ever vigilant? If they are, be my guest. If not, you will be cast as the evil and greedy person persecuting the underdog time and again, becuase those underdogs will never stop.
It's okay, Spiderman. It wasn't a spider bite, it was an internet post. You are not responsible for this. (Also, that vulture guy? Needs mental help you can't provide. And stop making deals with the devil. He's the/a devil! It never works out in the end.)
Withdrawal
I left my knitting at home. It's lunchtime and I have no knitting. That is what lunchime is for, aside from a few quick moments to stuff food into my head.
I am working on the second of these socks, but the one photo will have to suffice. Photos take away from knitting time, as does sleep, and that hateful need for food (and its usual requirement of at least one of my knitting hands. Yes, I do have another pair, har har. I'm keeping the second pair in the box. For resale value.). Also, bathing, usually. I'm excited to finish these socks as I have many other things to do.
Things to do:
Post review for chumps (Hellsing Ultimate 1 - 4)
Knit something for impending niece2 (daughter of niece)
Make two knot bags (nieces)
Find quality kitchen knives or blank dvds (mother of brood)
Find a very casually specific pokemon game (nephew for late birthday)
That last one's a doozy. I carefully explained my "no christmas" method to the family. Nephew, who was born in February, immediately believes he will be skipped for 2009, since his birthday is over. I explain the concept of back-dating a birthday card. All is solved, right? Well, I ask what he'd like. A toy, or something to play with. Right...like I know Bakugan from the latest Power Rangers incarnation? Besides, I'm thinking educational. Something to read or at least something with complicated instructions. Oh! He'd like a game! But what game? Well, any game really. For any of his systems, but especially a pokemon game. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Any game, really. Except not the Mystery Dungeon that takes place in the cave. The other one. Or any game, but mostly the Mystery Dungeon not-in-a-cave for the DS.
Good try, kid. Just skip and go to the begging, okay? You'd save time. Besides, your groveling pleas might amuse me.
Today's customer advice: Don't send an anonymous letter of complaint. You don't care enough to leave your name and contact information, then I don't care enough to read your letter. The postal service probably appreciated your patronage, though.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wedding Surprise: Revealed!
This is my super secret project, a lacy lovely shawl to become some heritage piece in a branch of my family. Instead of throwing a bouquet at our cookout/very late reception, I intend to bunch this puppy up into a bouquet shape (somehow) and toss it to my sisters regardless of their own marital status and let them take home not a crumpled bunch of dead plant genetalia (which could be lovely, but are unarguably hard to keep nice), but an item they can not only personalize with dye, reblocking, etc, but something that might become an heirloom with time.That's my fun thought, really: That some future generation, long since separated from Auntie LJ, receiving their only working knowledge of me as a doddering but doting distant relative via birthday cards and the occasional reunion, would have this treasure made by my own hand. It's a nice thought for me regardless of whether or not that future recipient would ever know that the blue-haired (electric blue. I'll be old, so I won't have to pretend any adherence to convention.) old lady made this in her youth while planning her elopement.
I wonder...
Y'know what's awful? That no one who sees this will understand that the above line indicates, no, INSISTS that you take immediate cover and attempt to become invisible if you have any self-preservation instincts at all. Well, i take it back. Someone might see it and understand, but not for a long time, because i intend to keep this blog a semi-secret for a time, just to be sure I don't spend all of my waking hours when the internet is available attempting to coerce deservingly annoying people into a firm belief that suicide isn't only 'the answer' but quite possibly the only socially responsible action available to them.
Things you should know:
*I don't like capitalizing my "i"s midsentence. That should be reserved for deities and proper nouns. "I" is not my name, hence it is not a proper noun. And actually, i'd prefer to refer to close friends and family using lowercase letters anyway, since we're already being informal. I will quite possibly lapse into capitalizing the "i", simply because i spend my days writing business emails, and my personal preferences regarding grammar are too vast to convey to persons with an average lifespan, so I conform.
*I intend this to be a crafting blog, giving me an outlet for rage/pride that my non-handicraft Belov'd might not entirely understand, though his sense of fairness would behoove him to listen politely and nod at the (hopefully) appropriate moments. So I shall spare him, and inflict these ravings on the unknown.
Good morning, Unknown, Anonymous, and Random733tspeak.
Today is monday, and it is a workday. Today's customer advice is "Don't complain that a free product is not awesome enough for you. It was/is free, and you get what you pay for."
Things you should know:
*I don't like capitalizing my "i"s midsentence. That should be reserved for deities and proper nouns. "I" is not my name, hence it is not a proper noun. And actually, i'd prefer to refer to close friends and family using lowercase letters anyway, since we're already being informal. I will quite possibly lapse into capitalizing the "i", simply because i spend my days writing business emails, and my personal preferences regarding grammar are too vast to convey to persons with an average lifespan, so I conform.
*I intend this to be a crafting blog, giving me an outlet for rage/pride that my non-handicraft Belov'd might not entirely understand, though his sense of fairness would behoove him to listen politely and nod at the (hopefully) appropriate moments. So I shall spare him, and inflict these ravings on the unknown.
Good morning, Unknown, Anonymous, and Random733tspeak.
Today is monday, and it is a workday. Today's customer advice is "Don't complain that a free product is not awesome enough for you. It was/is free, and you get what you pay for."
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