My Commonplace Book

• Paid Washington Post bill I kept misplacing (kind of late, but in time to avoid delivery stoppage)
  
• Went to Costco for cheese for tonight; ran into a friend and found out Trader Joe's opened yesterday (yay! we finally have a Trader Joe's!)
  
• Went to Trader Joe's (it was an absolute zoo) and got a more appropriate size cheese (as it was most of it was left over); now I need to return the other one
  
• Put cheese platter together and went to neighborhood party; ate too much

Is making $100 productive enough for the day?

For 90 minutes of talking about and demonstrating how I search for health information on the Web, I was paid a hundred bucks. This wasn't a focus group, it was an individual interview. The interviewer was great -- she wasn't fazed by anything I said, and I say some pretty nonstandard things because I have different ideas about marketing than most people.

(I'll never forget the focus group on paper products where the interviewer asked what we think of when we see "New and Improved" on a package. Every single person in that room but me said they liked it, because it meant the product would be better. I said I hate seeing that, because usually it means either there's less of it or that they've made a random change just so they could raise the price. "I like my toilet paper the way it is," I told them. "I don't want it changed." Everyone looked at me like I had suddenly grown antennae on my head -- including the interviewer.)

( Description of today's interview )

Last time I mentioned a focus group, someone asked me how you get connected with them and I probably forgot to answer. (I love comments and very much appreciate them ... but despite my best intentions I don't always manage to get back to answer them.)

So here is the answer: Focus Forward is a national company that accepts enrollees from all over the country. There are two things to sign up for -- you can complete surveys online for $1 to $5, and/or you can register for in-person focus groups, phone interviews and product testing. I signed up for both, and they were the source of today's largesse.They ask for a lot of demographic info, but they need it in order to get appropriate subjects for their studies -- I can vouch for them being a legitimate market research company, not a front for spamming or sales.

The other two companies I've done focus groups for are local to the Baltimore area. One is House Market Research, but they never call me any more -- I don't know why, maybe they got turned off by my answer in that paper products study. They always tell you to be completely honest, and to give you opinion even if you don't like what they're presenting, but not all group leaders can deal with it.

The other is Baltimore Research, which I found just by googling market research maryland. I'm willing to travel a little to make $100 for a couple of hours of giving my opinions! (The last time I went there, a few weeks ago, I didn't even have to stay for the study! They always recruit a few more people than they need in case of no-shows, and the extras are dismissed but paid the full amount anyway, so I got a crisp $100 bill just for showing up!)

( Making the trip worthwhile )

I have Comcast cable service. Well, sometimes I have cable service. Lately that hasn't been much of the time.

My Internet connection has been on and off for quite some time. For awhile it was mostly on, going out at random times for several minutes to a half hour or so then coming back on -- it was incredibly annoying, but usable.

But then at the end of last week it started being off more than it was on. Between being out of the house for one thing and another, and the connection being down much of the time, some days I wasn't able to get online at all. My freecycle co-mods were covering for me, but I felt bad about not doing my share of the work -- there are only three regular mods in my main group of over 2,000 members, and only four regular mods in my other group of over 6,000. So what little time I could get online was devoted pretty much exclusively to catching up there.

After getting off the phone with them the other day I was so frustrated that I was a little sharp in a message I sent to my co-mods. As soon as I had sent it I realized I had been too critical, so I sent an apology, and a description of the horrific phone call.

( Rant about Comcast's 'service' )

But meanwhile I haven't read anything at all here in days. I haven't been posting many comments in my recluse mode, but I was at least following along. Now I have no idea what's been going on. I'll try to catch up as best I can. If there's anything important going on, please tell me!

Awwww, I didn't get to do the car study yesterday.

They always schedule more people than they need in case some don't show up, but this is only the second time I was dismissed. I wasn't happy about it -- this one seemed like it would be particularly interesting and I had been looking forward to it.

So I drove 50 miles, half of it in very heavy rush-hour traffic, and waited around for a half hour, only to find myself all dressed up with no place to go, as it were. But I can't say it was all for nothing. If you show up you get paid, whether they use you or not, so I got my $125 and used the time to do some shopping at the nearby Trader Joe's instead. I like Trader Joe's, and that's actually the nearest one right now, but they're building one about 5 miles away from me, and I'm eager for it to open (I think it's scheduled for November).

But I'm disappointed that I didn't get to show off my car or talk about what I like about it, or get comments on my collage (they took it, but I didn't get to talk about it). It was a tiny study -- five of us were in the waiting room, and only three were taken, two men and a woman.

I don't know how they choose the participants from among the people who show up, whether it's random selection or they choose which ones they want. While the other rejected woman and I were getting paid, though, someone came out and reported a problem. One of the men had to be removed -- either he was being loud and unpleasant or he had a relative who works for a car company, I couldn't tell which from the cryptic conversation. I can't see how it would be the latter, since they screen that pretty carefully on the phone when they qualify you for the study, so maybe he was being uncooperative and when they realized two outsiders were standing there they tried to put a good face on it.

But I don't know where I can break a $100 bill! I guess I'll just take it to the bank. The twenty and the five will be noooo problem.

hitchhiker posted about this, and I was appalled.

American Girl Place mocked a 6-year-old for having a doll from Target, and refused to style the doll's hair.

Little Etta was invited by her friend Julie to go to the American Girl Place to have her doll’s hair styled. Etta was thrilled. Frommers Guide to New York says "don't forget to bring [your] favorite doll so it can get a makeover at the store's own doll salon." So little Etta brought her favorite doll -- Gracie, an 18-inch doll that Etta had bought with her own money at Target for $29.95. I remember when my 6-year-old daughter carefully saved her money to buy something, and how proud she was to pay for it herself -- it's a big milestone in a small child's life when they can save up enough money to buy something important to them, and wonderful training for a bright financial future.

Etta waited excitedly in a long line. When at last she got to the front she was shown a menu of hairstyles to choose from. But when the stylist saw the doll, she exclaimed "This isn’t a real doll!" and flatly refused to style Gracie's hair, even in the face of little Etta's crying and begging. The other mothers in line, far from trying to persuade the stylist, defended her. One mom chided the 6-year-old for not knowing she couldn’t bring a fake doll to the store. Another muttered that Etta probably couldn't afford a real one. One smiled and said patronizingly, "Well, American Girl Dolls aren’t for everyone, you know."

American Girl Place's own site says of the Doll Hair Salon:

Treat your doll to a new ’do! Give her a sassy ponytail flip, an elegant bun, or a long braid. Visit the Doll Hair Salon, and let one of our specially trained stylists work magic on your doll’s hair. And be sure to ask about adding on a Pampering Plus package for dolls, complete with a facial scrub and nail decals!
    * The Doll Hair Salon is open during regular store hours
    * Prices range from $10 to $20 for styling
    * Pampering Plus package is $5 with any hairstyle
    * Appointments not accepted
    * Please stop by early to check availability

Do you see anything about "only American Girl dolls' hair will be styled"? I sure don't. You might think it goes without saying, but it doesn't. It just says Doll Hair Salon. Gracie is a doll, but she was rudely turned away because she was a fake doll.

The mom's original blog post has the whole depressing story.

The one bright spot is that the very first comment on the post was from Customer Care at Emily Rose, which sells affordable clothes, furniture and accessories for American Girl dolls. "I hope Etta will visit us at http://www.dollsclothes-emilyrose.com", the comment said, "and we will ship any order she places for free. We are proud to be 'fake' and we are proud that our daughters are learning the value of money and resisting the evils of commercialism and superiority complexes."

If an American Girl or other 18-inch doll lives in your home, shop at Emily Rose rather than American Girl.

Via ms_interpret ...

Women’s shelters in the US and Canada go through thousands of tampons and pads monthly, and, while agencies generally assist with everyday necessities such as toilet paper, diapers, and clothing, this most basic need is often overlooked. 

You and I may take our monthly trips down the feminine care aisle for granted, but, for women in shelters, a box of  tampons is five dollars they can’t spare. Here’s some good news: you can help contribute to rectifying this situation by making a virtual donation at no cost.

For each virtual donation, Seventh Generation will send a pack of organic cotton tampons or chlorine-free pads to a shelter in the state or province you choose.

It doesn't say they'll end a whole box -- a "pack" could be a sample pack of just a few. But it's better than nothing. And if enough people click to donate, it could add up to a meaningful amount.

Go to the TamPontification page, choose the state, and then drag the orange heart along the path and into the shelter.

Pass it on.

I ventured out yesterday for the first time since the sleet storm started on Tuesday.

( Chocolate )

( Birdseed )

( Hiking boots and Yaktrax )

I tried them out, and they're great! I highly recommend YakTrax to those of you who get snow and ice!

When I got home I found that my strategy of shoveling two strips in my parking space worked perfectly! I put ice melt in them before I left to get rid of the residue I hadn't been able to remove, and when I came back I backed the car in, and not only did the wheels fit right into the strips of clear pavement, I had a few inches on the left side to walk (well, sidle) in. I was very proud of myself for not only shoveling exactly the right places, but also for backing in so perfectly. I used to be terrible at backing up, especially after I stopped being able to turn my head and had to do it with only the mirrors. But I've gotten much better at it over the years.

The MoveOn.org house party I signed up for was cancelled --  not because of the weather, but because the host said something had come up that afternoon and she had to do something else. I was half disappointed because I really wanted to go, and half relieved that I wouldn't have to go out with the parking lot still so icy and worry about the condition of parking at the host's house. So I just stayed in and stayed cozy.

This morning eudyptes came over to pick up his Yaktrax, and while he was here he brought in the birdseed and filled the feeders for me. (Thank you, Ken!) They've been empty for months so I asked him to scatter a bunch of it on top of the snow, both for the ground feeders and to show the birds there was something there. Unfortunately the squirrels found it first -- within 15 minutes there were four of them sitting in the front yard going to town on the seeds.

( Good Deed for the Day )

I've been absolutely thrilled with the way my car has been getting in and out over the ice! I was apprehensive yesterday about whether I could even get out of the parking space -- the plow had shoved some snow in the way, and it had frozen solid. But the CR-V barely even hesitated, and went right over the big slippery lump! Backing in was the same, as was going out today, so I felt confident enough to pull straight in tonight instead of backing in. I'm glad I didn't pay the extra $1200 for all-wheel-drive. Since I'm retired I usually just opt not to go out when the roads are bad, and on the rare occasions I may have to (or choose to), it looks like my front-wheel-drive car will do just fine!

So I got a lot accomplished in the last few days and I'm feeling good about that!

A California "lifestyle pet company" called Allerca has developed cats that don't produce the protein that most commonly causes allergic reactions. At a price, of course.

( Hypoallergenic cats )

I finally got my act together and gathered everything I need to apply for my passport, and I'm going to the Post Office tomorrow! (All of you world travelers stop laughing at me, this is my first passport and I'm excited about it, because it means my trip next May is really happening!)

( Luncheon )

( Passport photo )

( For gadget freaks only )

woofiegrrl had sent me a wonderfully helpful email with links to each Web page I'd need, and I found that you don't have to print the application out and fill it in by hand -- they have a page where you can fill in a form on the computer and it generates a pdf file to print out with the info already on it. So I have the form filled out and printed, my birth certificate, and the photos, and my picture ID (driver's license) and checkbook are in my wallet. So tomorrow I'm going to the Post Office and hope I did everything right!

I hope they don't look askance at the fact that I'm only going to Canada. The idea of needing a passport to go to Canada still feels silly to me. I've been in Canada several times (though only once for any distance -- most of the visits were at Niagara Falls, where the touristy stuff is mostly on the Canadian side) and each time we just went back and forth with barely a pause at the border. "How long were you in Canada?" "About three hours, we just looked around Niagara Falls." "Do you have anything to declare?" "No." "Okay, go on through." So I feel almost like I'm getting the passport under false pretenses because I'm not going to an actual foreign country ... just Canada!

And on top of that I'm only going to be in Canada for a few hours, because I'm actually not going to Canada, I'm going to Alaska, which, last time I heard, was still part of the US. But virtually all large cruise ships are foreign flagged, so they have to dock at a foreign port some time during the cruise. (A cruise ship remaining in US waters the entire time must be US flagged, which means not only paying more taxes, but also complying with the US's pesky safety and personnel regulations.)

So we're docking in Victoria, BC for six hours, and I'm told I'll need a passport to get off the ship -- even in Canada. And I want to see the city, and I'm especially looking forward to meeting ms_interpret, who lives there!

If you've ever gotten an oil change at Jiffy Lube -- or think you might want to -- read this first. And don't miss the videos!

Channel 4 in Los Angeles got a tip from an insider that at the Jiffy Lube service centers in the LA area owned by franchisee Heartland Automotive, they were recommending additional work, pretending to do it, and charging for it -- but not doing it! Channel 4 used hidden cameras and pre-marked parts to conduct an investigation at nine outlets -- and got the whole scam on video, including an admission by one store manager.

It turns out that Heartland management had a quota for the shops -- a quota that was higher than it was possible to meet in the hours the store was open. The only way to charge enough work was to not take the time to do it.

You might think that once the Jiffy Lube corporate office heard about Heartland's antics they'd come in and clean house. Well, they claimed to -- but this is the third time Channel 4 has investigated Jiffy Lube outlets in the area, and every time Jiffy Lube claims they'll crack down on it. They close the outlets involved for "training" -- but the insider says that rather than being trained to be honest, they get trained on how not to get caught.

Bolstering that claim is the fact that Jiffy Lube shunned the station, and repeatedly and steadfastly refused to make any statement on camera. Eventually, what little they said was communicated to the station by email.

If a franchisee is found cheating customers, I would expect the company to be more concerned. The insider said the instructions to charge for work that isn't done come "right from the top" -- and I got the impression he means the corporate office, not just the franchisee's office. Apparently Jiffy Lube's expectations are also too great, and it may even be subtly communicated by a wink-wink-nudge-nudge that the quota is more important than the quality -- or even the existence -- of the work.

I'll never take my car to a Jiffy Lube again. The company's response toward the franchisee's lying, cheating and stealing makes it obvious that any franchisee can do it, and may even be encouraged to do it. I don't care who owns the individual outlet I may go to ... I don't trust the whole company.

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
                —Alfred Newman (1900-1970), American composer

I have a question for the math and money geeks (and anyone with an opinion!).

I prefer prepaid cell phone service because I don't use it enough to make a monthly plan worthwhile -- I mostly leave it off and only turn it on when I want to make a call, or if I'm expecting one (or the possibility of one, such as when I'm meeting a friend at a restaurant so she can let me know if she's running late). I've been getting my service from Locus Telecommunications, a reseller who leases AT&T/Cingular's service and resells it at much cheaper prices.

( The background )

There's only one problem: When I called Locus to order a simm card for the new phone, they said this phone is GSM and they'd have to switch my service to one of their GSM plans. Oh. Apparently, TDMA is being phased out in favor of GSM, and while Locus is still supporting my old CallPlus Wireless TDMA service, they're no longer offering new accounts.
I hesitated, and even though momentarily about re-offering the phone on freecycle, but decided to go ahead and order the chip. It's $20, but I guess that's a reasonable price for the phone, since the rest of it was free.

So that leaves me with a real problem: The three GSM service plans offered by this company are all priced differently, and it's very confusing. I have no idea which to choose, so I need help!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:  Given that I my current usage averages about 2-3 times a month and maybe 2-4 minutes per call, which plan would be the cheapest for me?

I can't link to the specific individual service plans because they're all on popups, but the links are all on this page, and I can link to the jpeg rate charts -- the rest is mostly just blather anyway. The three services are:

• Locus Mobile -- 15¢/min for the first 5 minutes a day, 9¢/min after that, with money off the next time purchase depending on the amount you buy at one time;


• CallPlus Wireless GSM -- 10¢/min with a 25¢ charge on days the phone is used


• 02 Wireless -- 14¢/min with the same discounts as Locus Mobile

But here's what makes it doubly complicated: Unlike my old service, which was good for 90 days no matter how much or how little time you purchased, with these services the amount you buy expires in varying lengths of time depending on the amount. You have to look at the rate charts to get all of it, but for example, a $10 purchase expires in 30 days while a $100 purchase expires in 90 days, with varying amounts of time in between.

So, if I buy the smallest amount -- which is really all I need -- I'll end up spending $120 a year because I have to buy another increment of time every month. That's still the cheapest, but it's a pain in the neck to remember to do it every month, and if you forget and go too long, you lose all of your accumulated minutes.

See why I'm confused? HEEEELLLLLLLPPPP!

I have AdSubtract Pro (which I'm amazed to find them proudly touting as having been "the #1 Best-Selling Ad Blocker for 2003!" ... which doesn't give me a very good impression since that was the equivalent of the 19th century in computer technology years ... but I digress). In 2003, when I got it, it was the best ad blocker. Well, maybe there weren't any others. But it's done a super job and I've been very happy with it.

But the technology is evolving and my version of AdSubtract isn't -- I'm still using v. 2.55, which is from -- yep, 2003. I'd love to upgrade it, but I can't -- that's the newest version that works with anything but Internet Exploder. (I sent them a question just the other day asking if they were ever going to make it compatible with Firefox "so that people can use the best ad blocker and the best browser" instead of having to choose one or the other!)

I use Yahoo a lot because of my freecycle moderating, and whatever they did in the past week or so has completely defeated AdSubtract. I've heard that AdSubtract works much better than Firefox's ad blocker extension -- and I already paid for AdSubtract back in the Dark Ages -- so I haven't downloaded the extension. But now I'm getting frustrated. I'm afraid to have them both working at the same time, though, for fear they'll interfere with each other, so I'm not sure what to do.

Can I use them together? Should I get rid of AdSubtract and use the FF extension? Is there a new ad blocker extension that's any better? Is there a new program that's any better? (I'm willing to pay to get something that does a really good job zapping ads, the way AdSubtract used to, because with my ADD, I'm literally unable to read pages with colors and motion jumping around in my peripheral vision.)

Tell me what you've heard about ad blockers!

Sent via form to Giant Food tonight:

I send in comments about things I'm unhappy with, and I think it's also important to send in comments when something is above and beyond the expected level of service. And once again I find myself putting in a compliment for the personnel at this Giant. It's the friendliest store in this area, and I go out of my way to shop there because of that.

Tonight I had an errand in that area so I stopped in afterward to pick up some things. Andrew was on the register, and he was smiling and pleasant even though it was very late and I'm sure he was tired and looking forward to going home. I can't carry much, and I always ask to have my bags loaded very lightly. This is a big issue for me and I used to find myself putting in frequent complaints about irritated clerks who didn't want to bother with the little bit of extra work, but that's gotten better all around. They still are sometimes not happy about it, so it's always nice when the clerk is pleasant about it, and Andrew was. Even when I questioned a price, he handled it in a friendly and professional way.

I also needed a rain check, and Andrew said he couldn't do that and I'd have to wait for the manager because she was doing something else. Another customer wanted a rain check also and was told to wait. I was tired myself, and thinking she was doing something in the office I said she should stop and give us the rainc checks (I was worried about my frozen food sitting around in the cart.) But Andrew explained that she was taking care of other customers, and pointed her out at the only other register that was open, and of course that was different so I just waited.

When Val got finished at the register she came over and gave both of us our rain checks, and she was very cheerful and friendly. While she was writing out the rain check for the other customer's ice cream Val even mentioned to her that they had a new flavor. When it was my turn she gave me my rain check and I couldn't believe how bubbly she was at five minutes to 11!

I mentioned to her that her store is the friendliest one and that I try to shop there even though I'm closer to another one, because I find that store uninviting. Val said she stopped in there recently to shop because she had an errand nearby, and said she wasn't greeted and didn't get a smile. She obviously feels those things are important and makes sure they happen at her store ... and they always do! Even though I was very tired I left the store with a smile and an upbeat feeling thanks to Val.

So I'm walking along shopping in Giant Food, and this diffident young clerk in a Giant smock walks up to me to coax me to buy a Triple Winner card. You pay a dollar -- 100% of which goes to The Children's Cancer Foundation -- and get a card with two scratch-off thingies. One gets you a free product, the other is a chance to win up to $10,000. So okay, I'll donate a dollar and try it.

I scratched off the product side and found that I could get a 7 oz. Tag Body Spray.  I hadn't the slightest clue of what "body spray" was, and spent ten minutes fruitlessly cruising up and down the three health and beauty aisles looking for the damn stuff. I finally went looking for a clerk and found one at the yogurt shelves. She had never heard of "body spray" either -- she was a dairy clerk -- but I wouldn't let her get away, so she came with me to the health and beauty section where she spied a clerk from that section.

"Ask him, he'll know. He works in this area," she told me with obvious relief in her voice, and made her escape as quickly as she could. Fortunately the man was familiar with the product, and led me right to it. He explained that it's a new product for men by Gillette -- no wonder I hadn't heard of it! -- and that there had been a misprint on the card and it was really only a 3.5-ounce can.

"Oh, that's a rip-off," I said jokingly, "but—" -- a bit of annoyance crept into my voice -- "what am I going to do with this?" The clerk wisely recognized it as a rhetorical question and remained silent, and I said, "I guess I'll give it away." I figured I could offer it to Ken, and if he didn't want it I'd just freecycle it.

So I started an email to eudyptes to ask him if he wanted it. I thought he might not know what it was either, so I figured I'd find the website and include a link so he'd be able to figure out whether he'd want it or not. "If you don't know what it is," I typed, "you can go to this website:" ... and then I went off to Google.

I found the website, all right -- the very first link on Google when you search on tag body spray. It's http://www.tagbodyspray.com/ . But I was taken to a page that said only:

You don't have the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player.

This web site makes use ofMacromedia®Flash™ software. You have an old version of Macromedia Flash Player that cannot play the content we've created.

[button]        Why not download and install the latest version now? It will only take a moment.

Macromedia and Flash are trademarks of Macromedia, Inc.

That's it. That's the complete and entire content of the page.

If I don't download the latest version of Flash, they will not let me in to see the site! God forbid I should be blind and using a text reader, or standing in the supermarket with a Sidekick and wanting the "lite" version of the site, or using dial-up and preferring something that won't take 15 minutes to load, or =gasp= using a 6-year-old computer and not wanting to load it down with graphics-and-bandwidth-heavy crap just to get an idea of what the hell their product is about.

I can't get over this. It's a brand new product and they're trying to promote it, according to the store clerk. But unless you have a fast computer and broadband, they will not let you find out anything about it. Not only is there no non-Flash site, they won't even let you try to see it!

I guess the demographic they're aiming at -- Gen Y males, I imagine -- will have the latest and greatest gew-gaws on their computers, or will be so horrified to find out they don't that they'll immediately download the new version of Flash and then use the Tag product site to try it out. God forbid a mom should want to buy one for her son, or a middle-aged woman should want to buy one for her husband or boyfriend to make him smell better when he doesn't shower, or make him feel young, or whatever. Nope. They're not interested in you. You can just go fly a kite. Either get broadband or a new computer or teach your guide dog to read aloud, or you're SOL.

Needless to say, I have no intention of sitting around downloading and installing the latest version of Flash so that I can sit around some more waiting for my 6-year-old computer to limp along loading the displaying their infomercial!

What kind of marketing sense does this make? I may send them an e-mail, or I not bother. At best they'll send me some coupons for their products -- maybe even a coupon for more Tag -- and I'm not interested.

This is just so stupid.