Some stores must be really, really sick of people stealing their shopping carts. So sick that they put the cart before the horse's customer's safety... or maybe just don't think how anti-theft devices can put customers at risk ( Read more... )

First, I'll grumble about Amazon.com wishlists a bit. There should be a way to group items with AND, OR, and NOT operators. For example, I want bag A, or bag B, or bag C, all of which look very similar, but not all three. But in addition to those bags I also might like a wallet, which is assigned an equally high priority in my list. So my wishlist ( Read more... )

Last week I went to Lakeline Mall to buy some clothes for a job interview. The mall was as deserted as you would expect on an icy workday morning. In the department stores, barely a ghost of a salesperson stirred between the racks, and the vendors in the little kiosks in the hallways were as idle as always. I am used to those guys stepping into ( Read more... )

There was potluck party on Christmas Eve with just three people at renegade500's place. There was much gossip about boys. There was an Dim Sum with people from four different atheist groups on the day alternatively known as Mythmas, Paganmas, Newtonmas (Isaac Newton was born on December 25th, 1642 in Julian calendar), or Tiltmas (axial tilt -- the reason for ( Read more... )

New car has been acquired. I'm simultaneously elated at Teh Shiny, and worried by extra financial responsibility that comes with it. #

Tonight for the first time there was a man at the Atheist Women's meetup. But we know him and like him, so it wasn't a problem. #

He asked about our experiences with bugs, and a few people came forth with stories of ( Read more... )

Ah, Saturday morning illusion of timelessness and unlimited potential, while my coffee buzz is fresh, and the child is still asleep. #

Though I woke up 2 hours later than usual, I'm wasting time on things like editing old photo captions, savoring illusion of unlimited time. #

The lines at the new Sprouts grocery store are mindboggling, reminiscent ( Read more... )

I've been shopping for a new ultraportable laptop for a while now. There is a particular laptop I think is really neat, but it's not available at the local stores. So I've been trying to order it online. The first place I ordered it from told me they are out of stock (even though their website said it was in stock) and didn't know when they were ( Read more... )

At IKEA (where I went yesterday to look for dining tables and other furniture for the new house) I got an impression that it prides itself on having streamlined the shopping process to a fault, on getting the customer to glide smoothly through their shopping apparatus without disturbing a single cog (read: employee) in the machine.

( Their customer service concept is oddly reminiscent of Communist times. However, they put such a positive spin on it! )

An IKEA store has opened in Austin 4 days ago. So this weekend -- the first weekend after opening -- Steve and I made like sheep and joined half of Austin's population in a stampede to see the new store. I've been to IKEAs in other cities a couple of times, so I knew what to expect. And this one was exactly like others. Yes, its parking lot is so ( Read more... )

Today, as my car was sitting in a shop waiting to fail its state inspection, I walked over to Jollyville Java, a small new coffeeshop in a run down parking lot on the intersection of 183 and Spicewood Springs. (For reference, it's the parking lot with Big Lots store and Sambets Cajun deli.) I was moved by extreme, almost desperate, niceness and ( Read more... )