I built one of these without the bulb part. Here is an LED light bulb for sale at Best Buy, the outfit that advertises, but rarely stocks, your print cartridge. Seventeen bucks for a lightbulb. Discounting the worthless plastic housing, I know the parts in this gadget cost 62.239 cents. I recall my graduate year of accounting, where the lectures were more on abstruse topics like product life-cycles and psychological marketing.
This product is a prime example of induced pricing, also called an impulse item. Find some quality that triggers the customer’s price-value association. This bulb claims to last 22 years. That’s a good one. If it doesn’t, will Insignia and Best Buy even be around to pony up? Anyway, this excessive tag is called “leading edge pricing” characterized by the late-introductory phase of a product life-cycle. It’s something new, so Yuppies will pay an augmented amount to have one.Last day I said I’d patronize a self-serve bar if one existed. Apparently they do, but with something I don’t drink: draught beer. There is something offensive about a community glass. Oh, you washed it, did you? In solution? I’ll have a bottle of Bud. Not lite. Why drink more and enjoy it less? Enter the Tap Shack, in Newport Beach, CA. (Sorry, no link as a search brings up nothing but static like “localYahoo” and “yellowbook”.)
They have beer-dispensing robots. From what sources I can find, the beer price is based on the weather. That is, $1.50 plus the weather, so if it is 70 degrees outside, the beer is $2.20 per serving. There are some jobs that need replacing and food servers are near top of my list. Those thirty-something ex-stripper single-mothers with tattoos claiming to be in college and their “you better tip me good on every round” mentality. They got it comin’.
No, I won’t bend on that. I should be able to go out on Saturday without waiters and other panhandler-types harassing me. If you got some lousy job where you can’t live on your own paycheck, I don’t want to hear about it. The Tap Shack may get my business for another reason. The local jocks complain that the TVs are too small. Good move, Tap Shack. Let them go find a sports bar and raise the IQ of both establishments. If the theory that many intelligent men are sports fans, how come one never personally encounters any? Read on for a theory as to why you never meet any.
I used to publish a spoof on the company newsletter. My edition was called “The Probe”. It was nasty. I used to remove the foldover front and back page of the true issue and replace it with a carefully designed counterfeit. A favorite target was the department bum-boy, Paul, Mr. Ex-Jock. I am reminded of his motto, “I kin punch the headlites of any buddy who’z smarter den me. So dats a good thing not so many of ‘em hang out the same place what I do.”
Here’s a shot I missed, but decided to upload anyway. This is the stop sign corner of Monroe & 20th. For some reason, every spider in town must have decided it was home. Moments earlier the sunlight revealed a complete shroud of web, but it was gone in the few seconds it took me to pull over. Here it is anyway so you can see what is trapped so far. I’ll try again but this one [this photo opportunity] isn’t going to last [some kid will destroy it].A new guitarist was on the line. Since he played real dance music, I surmised he wasn’t from around here. We swapped basic song lists, but the guy never called at the appointed time. Too bad, he was almost in an instant band. The Florida meatgrinder will get him now, in six months he’ll be another semi-employed singles act with a bad attitude. Maybe he’ll call yet, but once unreliable, always unreliable. Maybe there’s a good excuse.
Last, I don’t like Whoopi Goldberg. She’s ugly and she can’t act, and that is that. There is only so much room in the entertainment industry and she is blocking the way of some younger, prettier gal who has another thing Goldberg doesn’t have, namely talent. Goldberg’s sole tactic is to drag every conversation down to her level of ignorance where she always wins by experience. The first twenty times I saw her, I honestly thought it was a man. If some people think think she is attractive, fine. They're probably equally ugly. I’m not saying Goldberg's useless, at least not until I see if disliking her brings up my ratings.
ADDENDUM
Finally, a new and this time hand-picked camera, which should markedly improve our images. I am not a professional with photos, so you can expect my selection to involve choosing the practical over the fancy. And I’m so far happy with my Nikon S30. Best features include almost instant on and off, defaults to camera mode, option to cancel button sounds, image stabilization, self-timer, and macro lens. Downside: it is three times the weight. Here is a montage of photos showing upgrades on the red scooter.This photo medley was produced in a fraction of the time required with the old Panasonic. Some of the [scooter] improvements to factory issue are not immediately obvious, but at least this new camera can show them. In the upper right, for instance, you can make out a Lincoln penny that replaced a useless plastic disk on the brake fluid reservoir. The basket, the heavy duty tires and the turn signal buzzer you already know about.
Other features of the camera not required but probably handy are time-lapse, waterproof (to ten feet), six minute time-off mode, and for reasons unknown, an incredibly fast photo transfer rate using the same SD card as before. If you stick around for a few minutes, I’ll activate the macro mode and see how that works right out of the box.
Here you go, a close-up of the chain I use to hold my glasses around my neck. This is taken from 3 cm, if desired you can blow this photo up to inspect the detail (right-click on the photo and choose "Open"). Until I saw this, I never noticed the gold finish wearing off on the chain links. The new electronics booklet will move ahead rapidly now. I did try using the phone camera, it took great photos, but in the end it was too unwieldy and required a tripod to really close in. The $149 Nikon was on sale for half price. That’s for my birthday, gang, not my Xmas present. Ah, new camera, and it took long enough.
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
