Consumer Thoughts

I walked into Wal-Mart yesterday and the two greeters were having an argument about one giving away the last Mart Cart, the motorized scooter. One of the greeters was an elderly lady who walks with a cane and is allowed to sit for her entire shift. This greeter said to the other, “But he didn’t look like there was anything wrong with him!” To which the other greeter replied, “but he said it was for his mother.”

Do you know how many times my friend (who’d had a broken leg after a car accident) and I would be walking around a store, and she’d get tired and sore and I’d have to go back to the front of the store and get her a Mart Cart? I had to leave her where she was because it hurt too much to walk all the way back.

Did I “look” like there was anything wrong with me when my ankle was injured in the same accident and I used one for a couple of weeks? How about the time I dropped the bowling ball on my foot and rode one around?

People, you can’t always tell if someone is disabled by looking at them. My friend can now sometimes walk without a limp, but she’s still often in a lot of pain.

A friend who used to work at our local YMCA and I went to tour our new facility. She suggested I get a membership and maybe even a job in the child care center there. Her friend, the current director, allowed us to go into the child care area and talk to another ex-co-worker, whom I’ll call YMCA Lady. I was mostly listening while Friend and YMCA Lady talked, and YMCA Lady picked up a little girl who looked to be about 1-2 years old.

The little girl began playing with YMCA Lady’s necklace. YMCA Lady shoved her hand away and said, “That’s mine, leave it alone, it’s older than you.” Umm, a. she’s just doing what babies do – explore; b. she’s too young to understand “it’s older than you,” and c. perhaps if you don’t want to risk babies playing with your precious antique necklace, you shouldn’t be wearing it?

YMCA Lady and Friend go back to talking. Meanwhile, a little boy, perhaps 3 or 4, crawls up to me while pushing a firetruck and said, “hi!” I said “Hi!” He said, “Look at this firetruck!” I said, “I see!” Him: “It’s got a ladder!” Me: “That’s a big ladder!” Him: “It’s got lights too!” *showing me lights* Me: “Wow, that’s neat!” Little boy wanders off and continues playing.

Around this time Friend turns to me and I said, “That little guy was just showing me his firetruck.” YMCA Lady: “That’s OUR firetruck.” Uhh, okay lady, it’s not like the kid could hear me, and I’m sure he either knows the toy has to stay or Mommy or Daddy will explain it to him. Jeez.

I am not sure if she would be my boss or not if I got a job there, but I don’t think I could stand to work with her if she’s like that all the time.

Too cute! I love gaming-related shirts!

I think I’m going to die of cuteness.

Honestly, I want to buy out half of Sugarraindrops’ shop on Etsy!

This article on Walletpop is pretty much nonsense. I thought back to the last several times I went to the buffet. I *always* sit in a booth, rarely sit facing the buffet, always browse the entire selection before I choose my food, and I love chopsticks. I very rarely clean my plate. I chew my food well, thanks. And the buffets I go to only have one size of plate. So why am I not stick-thin? Pish posh.

The very graphic accident re-enactment video about texting while driving is causing quite a controversy. As someone who was recently in a serious car accident (which was not caused by texting, but by a 17-year-old with no driver’s license and an expired permit whose parents chose to let him drive with 3 friends as passengers), my answer is that no, it does not go too far. Teenagers and others who text need to take driving seriously and know that they are in a multi-ton vehicle that has the power to kill in the blink of an eye.

A recent study shows that a texting driver is 23 times more likely to be in an accident. No one needs those odds, but teenagers or novice drivers especially don’t need additional distractions behind the wheel.

As teenagers gain confidence driving, they may feel like they can handle the multitasking, but it only takes a split second of inattention to seriously injure or kill someone.

I am in favor of all drivers seeing this video. If it can make them feel even a tiny bit of what I felt as an accident victim, then maybe it can save lives. Parents may say it is too graphic. Think how your child will feel if he/she is ever really in this situation, and turns to see his/her friend(s) severely injured or dead in the next seat. You may think it’s a horrible video, but it’s even more horrible to see your injuries and those of your passengers, to be cut out of your car using the jaws of life, placed on a backboard and taken to the hospital in an ambulance, and listen to your family – parents, spouse, children – cry on the phone when you call them.

Bottom line: If you’re old enough to drive, you’re old enough to see the potential consequences that may arise should you make bad choices while you drive.

I’ve been playing with Google Voice and there is just one major thing that keeps me from switching over.

Anyone can call or text your GV number, but for outbound calls and texts it displays your real cell phone number instead. (It seems that if you reply to a text sent to your GV number, it will return through GV, but not if you initiate a new text from your phone to theirs.)

Now I know there is a workaround to make voice calls use your GV number as outgoing caller ID, but it’s a real pain. You dial your own GV number, then dial 2 and the number you want to call. (I am disregarding the other 2 workarounds because of inconvenience and expense; those workarounds include buying a smartphone that supports a GV app/site, or making phone calls/texts from your computer using the GV website.)

This is not only a nuisance – having to explain to non-technical people why a different number will show on their caller ID when you’ve already told them you have a new single number – it’s also a privacy issue for some people. Part of the benefit of Google Voice is the ability to block callers or mark them as spam. However, if you at some point forget to call or text them using the GV interface, they will have your other phone numbers and will be able to bypass your block.

Maybe some day I’ll have a smartphone that can use a GV app to get around this, but in the meantime I am not sure about switching over and having to explain to anyone new that I text that texts may come from a separate phone number.

*update 08-25-09* The comments backlash has begun, although they never did post my comment, which oddly was more polite than the 2 they did post.

Gizmodiva has posted about larger seats being installed on a train. They use such hateful words as…well, read it for yourself:

We know that the world is slowly turning grotesquely fat, what with all the Mcdonalds and other fast food chains and their up-sizing around. It’s quite a painful experience to watch fat people squeeze into seats with half of their body spilling out! Thankfully, they don’t have to endure the tiny cramped seats anymore as special chairs have been installed on trains to cope with rising obesity rates. I’m not sure I like this, because it only gives them lesser motivation to shed all those excess pounds. So instead of catering to them, we need to tell them to get up and exercise a bit. That’s the only way the obesity problem will come to a halt. What do you think?

First of all, what makes you think it’s your place, a stranger, to tell someone to get up and exercise? How would you feel if I came up to you and said, “You’re too skinny, you need to put on about 20 pounds.” Or, “You’re grotesquely ugly, you should have plastic surgery.” Don’t you think you’d feel a little bit embarrassed, and angry? Wouldn’t you yell at me and tell me to mind my own business? How do you expect a person to respond? “Oh my gosh, I had no idea I’m overweight, thanks for the insight!”

I’ve already left a comment but it hasn’t shown up yet, so who knows if it will be approved. I’d like to direct you all to Kate Harding’s Shapely Prose, specifically this page, and specifically points 7, 8, and 9.

“7. Human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Fat people are human beings.

8. Even fat people who are unhealthy still deserve dignity and respect. Still human beings. See how that works?

9. In any case, shaming teh fatties for being “unhealthy” doesn’t f***ing help. If shame made people thin, there wouldn’t be a fat person in this country, trust me. I wish I could remember who said this, ’cause it’s one of my favorite quotes of all time: ‘You cannot hate people for their own good.’”

Okay, I really like some of the shirts at Rizzo Tees. There are some Twitter-related shirts too! Only downfall… American Apparel tees, which means sizing issues.

I think So Long Suckers is my favorite…

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