Mocha Monday

Well, Black Friday 2009 has come and (almost) gone. Another high point in my day to day observation of the human condition. Ah, humanity…

Yeah.

Actually, once again, I didn’t really get it. I mean, I read the flyers and checked what would be on sale. In truth, most of the good stuff wasn’t even on sale that much. I mean, if you track the toy sales like I do, you start noticing trends, and the Black Friday prices for most stuff weren’t that impressive. There were a few steep discounts on particularly cool Lego sets and things like that, but it doesn’t really grab me. I would much prefer to buy several large cool Agents sets or Space Cop sets over one large Indiana Jones or Star Wars set. Three sets for $40 might not be so bad. One set for $60 is out of hand, I don’t care if it is 50% off.

Thankfully, my kids tend to agree with this line of thinking.

And don’t even mention the TVs and such. Sure they have some deep discounts, assuming you get one of the 5 or 10 guaranteed in stock. This year it was reported that several big stores guaranteed as few as 3 units of several of the most desireable items. Are you F-ing kidding me?

And you do know the other deep dark dirty secret, right? A lot of the big retailers like Walmart will sell a name brand TV like a Sony at a steep discount. At first glance it will appear to be the same model that other stores have for hundreds of dollars more, but you better check those model numbers. Look for unfamiliar model numbers or extra characters in the model number. It turns out that places like Walmart are notorious for offering products that appear to be the same as what the other guys, but are of inferior quality. TVs with fewer connections and no cables in the box, computers with inferior chipsets or inadequate RAM, GPS units that look like the ones in the other store, but maybe a few features are missing, or they don’t have the full hemisphere map set, just the continental US…maybe there’s no usb connection to upgrade the maps.

I don’t want to sound like a Conspiracy Theorist or Walmart hater and I’m not…at least not the former. These are facts. Consumer advocacy groups know that the big bad blue guys play these games every year, but it doesn’t end. And that’s why people get injured or even trampled in the stampede. And that’s why all the cops in Kingston were pulling down time and a half this morning.

Forget about Black Friday sale prices. Forget about seasonal business gifts from local merchants. Forget about free coffee with your three chocolate frosted and two jellies. Nothing beats approved overtime as we roll into the holidays.

Well, the hype is behind us. Another Black Friday goes into the history books and we can hear the distillations from the so-called experts come Monday. Swell.

Covered

Today I handed in my health insurance paperwork at work. Another year, another increase in costs and decrease in overall benefits. Actually, I shouldn’t complain. My company has done an exceptional job of keeping benefits intact this year. I mean, we are switching providers for the 5th or 6th time in 8 years, but that seems to be par for the course.

It seems the varies insurance carriers will low-ball a company to get them on board, and then jack the plan rates in the second or third year. So what happens? The company goes looking for the next carrier. Wow, that seems like a good use of resources, huh?

With all these second and third rate b-school graduates out there, hasn’t anyone figured out that long-term customer retention is pretty much a requirement for successful businesses? And customer churn is the kiss of death? Don’t they teach that in business school or do they spend all their time doing trust falls and discussing the manufacture of widgets?

Seriously, we are being crippled by insurance. Health insurance, unemployment insurance, business insurance, disability insurance, property insurance, auto insurance. I think I saw an ad for insurance insurance the other day. It protects you from insurance when your insurance is not properly insured. Or something.

Jack Frost Nipping

It’s getting cold, kids. I kept hearing this was going to be a bitter cold winter, so I’m a little surprised at how mild it has been so far. Now exactly breaking out the heated blanket just yet. But I guess time will tell. When we hit February, we’ll see how I’m feeling. Maybe, not so hot after all, right?

It is nice to get the woodstove running, though. I love the smell of the wood. It’s not just the burning, but it’s that wonderful smoky, smell. It gets on my hands and makes me think of these delicious smoked almonds my Aunt used to have in her basement. They were in cans, part of a holiday gift or something. I was forever asking for those. She must have had a dozen cans.

I remember one time, when they’d been gone for ages, maybe years, we were cleaning out her basement and we found a can. The last can in the back of the pantry. It was this wonderful discovery, better than pirate treasure. We had smoked almonds and ginger ale in her little den. So good.

You can roast all the chestnuts over open fires that you want. I’ll take a can of roasted almonds by the woodstove any day.

Growth

I just read a great article on green gardening. Funny concept, huh? Green gardening. But it is an important concept. After all, there’s a good way to do things and a bad way. Avoid chemicals, use natural compost, capture water in rain barrels, use native or local plants, and use plantings that draw butterflies and bees.

I also like the concept of a runoff garden. It’s a great way to deal with areas where natural runoff pools and puddles and wrecks your yard. Proper plantings and strategically buried clumps of stone allow drainage. It minimizes erosion and, hopefully, reduces the swamp effect. I have a spot in my front yard that needs this kind of attention.

How long until Spring?

Another Advanced Degree Program

I’ve checked out a number of online schools in the past that offer advanced degrees, usually in the nursing field. I’m always interested in the players in the distance learning field since ti is somewhat related to my work in alumni networking, so when I find a new one, I like to check it out.

This time I’m checking out Lewis University. They have a number of advanced degree programs in Information Security, Organizational Leadership, and Nursing. Their public safety degree is particularly interesting to me. It targets professionals in law enforcement, emergency medical services, disaster response, or fire services. It also seems an interesting advancement from the BA in Fire Advancement degree they also offer.

As the Lewis Univerity literature points out, this is a time when emergency response and issues of security are in the front of many people’s minds. Better trained and prepared professionals insuch crucial fields…well, I think we can all see the benefits.

Thinking of the handful of times I’ve had interactions with law enforcement, I can think of only one incident in which the police officer was human, polite and humorous without dropping the mantel of authority. A few other occasions were marked by a more or less lackadaisical attitude on the part of the officer, or the cop was actually a real jerk.

While the police work in a highly tense professional environment pretty much all of the time, and they are certainly physically well trained in the vast majority of cases, I have to wonder how well they are trained in dealing with the masses. There is a huge power imbalance between cops and citizens in the vast majority of interactions between the two groups. I would certainly like to see more police officers with advanced degrees in public safety on the streets. I think it could only improve relations, and success.

I had a conversation with a friend a while back about law enforcement and fire fighters. The friend was of the opinion that cops and fire fighters need not be overly educated. He was not disparaging these professionals, he was just of the opinion that advanced degrees and ongoing education were not very important for them. I am of a very different opinion. I said then, and still believe, that if our greatest minds (or at least the most educated ones) went into police work, rather than becoming tort lawyers or plastic surgeons, we might actually see a real decline in crime.