runescape is the best java based game ive ever seen even when it was runescape classic it was awsome.. you people who have issues with the game just cant handle true gaming.
Nothing analytical about my comments, just from the gut.
We live in a suburb outside of New Orleans. Our market is very different from anyplace else in the country now. I was an apartment dweller until I married 10 years ago. We purchased a huge estate sale fixer upper. That became a five year project. I insisted that we sell at that point: you haven't made the money until you sell the asset, right? We did make about $80K after expenses were taken out.
We rolled that into a property in a better neighborhood in January '05. Along came Katrina in August of that year. We didn't have any flooding or house damage, just fence damage. Despite this, our insurance co. dropped us after raising our rates. We are now paying double for homeowner's insurance.
Many, many houses have been on the market for a year or more. It's different here - it's not foreclosure, these are people trying to get out of the catastrophe zone.
Despite this, the property tax assessment for our home has gone up $40K. We're going to pay an extra $800 in taxes this year. I'd like them to send the buyer on over that would pay anything like the assessment; they can have it!
Many people concentrate on a company when they have a negative experience, but it is just as important to let a company know when they are doing something right. In March, we wrote a letter to an airline letting them know about the great job one of their ticket agents did making sure we got where we were going despite weather and non-changable tickets. A few weeks later, we recieved 2 $100 vouchers for the airline, and a copy of the commendation letter that they gave to the ticket agent. I just wanted to make sure the agent was recognized for all of her hard work, and we got a little something for ourselves in return!
As an Australian, I have a different perspective on home/private label brands in the supermarket. My country has two dominant players in the supermarket industry. One company in particular uses all imported fruit from South Africa and Namibia in their private brand tinned fruit while local farmers are ripping up their orchards. Also this company pays the farmers supplying fresh fruit and vegetables a pittance while price gouging their customers at the same time.
One needs to consider more than just price when supermarket shopping.
I have to concur with the posters who said that the best way to avoid the problem of contaminated formula is to breastfeed, if at all possible.
My little guy stopped nursing at 2 months for various reasons, but I was fortunate that I was able to pump till he was 1 year old and could be switched to cow's milk. I was also blessed with a tremendous supply and was able to donate extra breastmilk to a couple of moms I knew whose supply was insufficient. I'm pregnant again, and I hope that if I have supply issues with this baby (or future ones), that other moms will in turn be generous with me.
We really need to work to make the U.S. a culture of breastfeeding. We need to protect moms' rights to nurse their babies and to pump at work. Nothing that comes out of a chemical factory can ever hope to reproduce the (free!) food that babies are intended to eat.
I'm glad that their response to your car issue was satisfactory. Let me tell you that owning a VW is no fun - and if you haven't figured this out already, you will. You have to REALLY like your VW to jump through all the hoops to keep it maintained. It's the poor man's Porsche - except when it's needs to be maintained or repaired....then you might as well have bought a Porsche. Good luck.
Excellent advice. When I a recent request for a discount in medical bills was at first denied, I took my case to the clinic's CEO in the form of an email complaint letter. My issue was quickly directed to the appropriate person and resolved in my favor.
Buy U.S. and only U.S. products. With The Chinese not playing fair in the free markets, profit margins seen by U.S. retailers have continued to shrink while the Chinese profits, and the trade deficit, have continued to rise. The Chinese Government has artificially pegged the Dollar to a slightly changing Yuan. The Chinese, to facilitate this transaction, purchase U.S. debt. This keeps the Dollar from having an affect of placing pressure on their currency and at the same time increases the Chinese position as the largest holder of U.S. Dollars and debt in the world.
At the same time their markets are booming this places more pressure on the oil markets, directly affecting what we pay at the pump, and not to mention all the other pressures on commodities, such as metals they use in the manufacturing of goods they end up selling to us, which causes more price pressure on nearly everything, and so on....
The trick here is to know that the markets are fluid, unless someone tries to control the flow. China’s actions towards absorbing the trade imbalance by subsidizing their merchants has not hurt them as their sales have continued to increase, which gives the Chinese Govt. the revenues needed to continue these practices, and transfers world wealth to their population. But since this fluid must flow the markets around the world have to adjust to China’s greed.
The Chinese may be doing this on purpose. If the Fed is forced to cut interest rates, the interest bearing debt held by China goes up in value.
If Americans would Buy U.S. and only U.S. goods and services, as the largest purchasing power body in the world, the U.S. consumer can fix the markets, except for China, around the world, nearly overnight.
A book that touches on the subject is Peter Navarro’s The Coming China Wars. His book goes into some of the trade policies of China and the affects around the world but I wish he would have gone into better detail to explain the simple ramifications and solutions we as U.S. consumers, the largest purchasing power block in the world, control with our purchases.
Basically if you look at the money multiplier effect, and instead of purchasing U.S. or local goods and services, a person purchases foreign goods and services, the money multiplier, through fractional-reserve lending, ends. Therefore the ratio of actual dollars to commercial dollars, or demand deposits, M1, as reflected on liquidity, becomes extremely distorted and unstable, even though it can’t be seen. But if everyone were to stop buying foreign goods and services, such as Chinese products, and products that use Indian call centers to service the products, and instead buy U.S. products, or save their money, the liquidity in the market would not only be restored but thrive.
Please tell a friend.
I will be checking back for any feedback, and believe me if enough people did this, jobs, the environment, wealth, medicine, and medical benefits, insurance premiums, world peace, etc.... would all be improved, I am not kidding. Its the fix the government can’t talk about as China’s position as the largest holder of U.S. debt is so controlling of what they can say, as the Chinese can start dumping that debt anytime, which is another reason. But only you can control what you buy and where it was made.
I learned this while working as a business reporter. CEOs often have a very rosy view of how their company is running, since everyone below them gives them good reports. And naturally they also take even small aspects of the business quite personally. They can be quite shocked by customer service problems that are actually all too common. I wouldn't complain to the CEO on the first try, but I would definitely cc any complants to the CEO if the first complaint didn't get results.
It was known among reporters that if the PR people or other gate keepers were not helping get us an interview or some information, as a last resort getting through to the CEO personally could make things happen.
A CEO who actually reads his/her paper mail, though? That was a new one on me. For larger companies, if you really want to get the CEO's attention, I'd still aim for email. It's the only way (unless you also have their phone number) to circumvent the secretary and other gatekeepers who would read paper mail.
I have always used the snail mail letter to the CEO to get attention to a problem. It's obvious that the smaller rental company CEO called you personally. However, it took me several years to catch on that all letters mailed to CEOs of large corporations are "filtered" with complaint letters going to what they call "Executive Assistants", but are, in fact, a team of corporate troubleshooters. If it gets the desired results - that's all that matters. Also, I learned that some CEOs insist on personally reading a "sampling" of complaint letters regularly. The troubleshooting team also writes up short executive summaries to the CEO on a weekly basis advising the CEO of any trends, etc. There's no question - this works!
A letter mailed in receives extra attention vs email, but I did once get a computer company to take back a system 6 months after the date of purchase, it was a $3k system back then.. Can't officially tell you the name of the company, but it begins with A and ends with E, the CEO happens to wear a black turtleneck a fair bit of the time as well.. The damn fans, it was like a jet taking off all day long..
Funny thing, in the end we have to A***e computers again, a Macbook and an iMac.. Doing the right thing keeps the customer around.
We're in the same boat. We're both young, renting, no kids.
My husband is a plumber and he loves his job. He makes good money. I was working in a job that I could not stand and developed panic disorder because of it. Finally he told me to quit. That was about 3 weeks ago. Slowly, I've started to feel better. He likes me better this way than the weepy, depressed, bitter person who worked all day and came home and cried. I'm taking some classes to earn another AA degree and looking for a part-time job. It's not that hard like this. You just have to be less material and less worried about "things". Thank God I have always been a very thrifty person.
:)
And I don't consider myself a "Status symbol". I'm not walking around with a Chanel bag or driving a BMW
Here in PA, I like a lot of the Safeway "Organic" and "Eating Right" brands - they are very good quality - no HFCS or trans fats etc but I must say - I will pay *whatever* King Arthur charges for flour. I'm a baker and flour MATTERS, I wouldn't even buy Gold Medal let alone a store brand. Besides which I buy mostly whole wheat (or other specialty grains like whole cornmeal) which never come in store brands. I think what I'm saving in terms of cost and nutrition by baking my own bread, biscuits, cornbread, cakes, cookies etc more than makes up for the premium price.
Safeway's O (organic) brand of all natural peanut butter can't be beat along with their soymilk, frozen fruit & veggies and canned tomatoes.
BTW BJ's store brand of extra virgin olive oil is quite acceptable and every Traders Joe's store brand I ever tried was top notch.
just to add to the list of: if you want________ try __________
amazing and cheap Thai food/Thai Thoms in the U district on University Way and (about) 47th. Note: it is a hole in the wall, but do not be decieved, the best Thai food I have ever had.
Great sushi happy hour/Cutters on Western Ave by Pikes Market.
Great views of the sound with lighthouse, mountains/Discovery Park in Magnolia.
Rental bikes, inexpensive used bike/Recycled Cycles down on the water by the University (1007 NE Boat Street)
Rollerblading on the water including rentals/Alki beach rentals. The rental place is located right on the Water taxi dock when you arrive at Alki beach. You then have 4 mi. of paved path to blade that follows the beach all the way around Alki Peninsula. BTW the water taxi leaves Pier 55 and costs $3. A fun ride!!
What's a "high gain power antena" that one reader speaks of and where do you purchase them? Please e mail me at "fasteddie50@juno.com" and let me know...Thanks!
I've been doing some reading on food history and food processing, in order to talk about 1870s foodways a bit more at the historic house museum I work at. I do agree that a lot of what goes on in food processing is scary, but it is fear-mongering to say that all food processing is bad. Take pasteurization for instance. You could not pay me to drink unpasteurized milk or juice. Why? Well, people used to die quite regularly from drinking tainted milk and tainted fruit juices. It was one of the great public health achievements that pasteurization led to a safe milk supply for children. And it's not just food poisoning to worry about with "raw milk." Tuberculosis used to be spread by milk from cows infected with bovine tuberculosis. And humans can contract bovine tuberculosis. Pasteurization helped eradicate that risk. Of course we should be more aware of what goes into and what happens to our food, but we shouldn't let knee-jerk reactions like "processing = bad" compromise our collective health.
runescape is the best java based game ive ever seen even when it was runescape classic it was awsome.. you people who have issues with the game just cant handle true gaming.
Nothing analytical about my comments, just from the gut.
We live in a suburb outside of New Orleans. Our market is very different from anyplace else in the country now. I was an apartment dweller until I married 10 years ago. We purchased a huge estate sale fixer upper. That became a five year project. I insisted that we sell at that point: you haven't made the money until you sell the asset, right? We did make about $80K after expenses were taken out.
We rolled that into a property in a better neighborhood in January '05. Along came Katrina in August of that year. We didn't have any flooding or house damage, just fence damage. Despite this, our insurance co. dropped us after raising our rates. We are now paying double for homeowner's insurance.
Many, many houses have been on the market for a year or more. It's different here - it's not foreclosure, these are people trying to get out of the catastrophe zone.
Despite this, the property tax assessment for our home has gone up $40K. We're going to pay an extra $800 in taxes this year. I'd like them to send the buyer on over that would pay anything like the assessment; they can have it!
It's like being nibbled to death by ducks.
I'm wishing I was still a renter right about now.
Many people concentrate on a company when they have a negative experience, but it is just as important to let a company know when they are doing something right. In March, we wrote a letter to an airline letting them know about the great job one of their ticket agents did making sure we got where we were going despite weather and non-changable tickets. A few weeks later, we recieved 2 $100 vouchers for the airline, and a copy of the commendation letter that they gave to the ticket agent. I just wanted to make sure the agent was recognized for all of her hard work, and we got a little something for ourselves in return!
This didn`t work for me :(
Would be interested if anyone has tried this with organisations outside of companies (such as public service or embassies)
it does the same thing as airbedandbreakfast - i.e. let travelers stay on your couch, charge them a fee - but, there isn't any transaction cost.
As an Australian, I have a different perspective on home/private label brands in the supermarket. My country has two dominant players in the supermarket industry. One company in particular uses all imported fruit from South Africa and Namibia in their private brand tinned fruit while local farmers are ripping up their orchards. Also this company pays the farmers supplying fresh fruit and vegetables a pittance while price gouging their customers at the same time.
One needs to consider more than just price when supermarket shopping.
All I have to say about Obama is that he is definitely favored by the folks that caused this financial meltdown:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
3 years in the senate, #2 in contributions from Fannie & Freddie. Nice.
So if all this medical debt is erased, who absorbs the rest that isn't paid?
I have to concur with the posters who said that the best way to avoid the problem of contaminated formula is to breastfeed, if at all possible.
My little guy stopped nursing at 2 months for various reasons, but I was fortunate that I was able to pump till he was 1 year old and could be switched to cow's milk. I was also blessed with a tremendous supply and was able to donate extra breastmilk to a couple of moms I knew whose supply was insufficient. I'm pregnant again, and I hope that if I have supply issues with this baby (or future ones), that other moms will in turn be generous with me.
We really need to work to make the U.S. a culture of breastfeeding. We need to protect moms' rights to nurse their babies and to pump at work. Nothing that comes out of a chemical factory can ever hope to reproduce the (free!) food that babies are intended to eat.
I'm glad that their response to your car issue was satisfactory. Let me tell you that owning a VW is no fun - and if you haven't figured this out already, you will. You have to REALLY like your VW to jump through all the hoops to keep it maintained. It's the poor man's Porsche - except when it's needs to be maintained or repaired....then you might as well have bought a Porsche. Good luck.
Parties, even our simple ones, seem to produce so much waste- I would love to see what this book recommends to keep them green.
Money market funds which invest exclusively in direct Treasury obligations should be immune from any NAV fluctuations
Excellent advice. When I a recent request for a discount in medical bills was at first denied, I took my case to the clinic's CEO in the form of an email complaint letter. My issue was quickly directed to the appropriate person and resolved in my favor.
Buy U.S. and only U.S. products. With The Chinese not playing fair in the free markets, profit margins seen by U.S. retailers have continued to shrink while the Chinese profits, and the trade deficit, have continued to rise. The Chinese Government has artificially pegged the Dollar to a slightly changing Yuan. The Chinese, to facilitate this transaction, purchase U.S. debt. This keeps the Dollar from having an affect of placing pressure on their currency and at the same time increases the Chinese position as the largest holder of U.S. Dollars and debt in the world.
At the same time their markets are booming this places more pressure on the oil markets, directly affecting what we pay at the pump, and not to mention all the other pressures on commodities, such as metals they use in the manufacturing of goods they end up selling to us, which causes more price pressure on nearly everything, and so on....
The trick here is to know that the markets are fluid, unless someone tries to control the flow. China’s actions towards absorbing the trade imbalance by subsidizing their merchants has not hurt them as their sales have continued to increase, which gives the Chinese Govt. the revenues needed to continue these practices, and transfers world wealth to their population. But since this fluid must flow the markets around the world have to adjust to China’s greed.
The Chinese may be doing this on purpose. If the Fed is forced to cut interest rates, the interest bearing debt held by China goes up in value.
If Americans would Buy U.S. and only U.S. goods and services, as the largest purchasing power body in the world, the U.S. consumer can fix the markets, except for China, around the world, nearly overnight.
A book that touches on the subject is Peter Navarro’s The Coming China Wars. His book goes into some of the trade policies of China and the affects around the world but I wish he would have gone into better detail to explain the simple ramifications and solutions we as U.S. consumers, the largest purchasing power block in the world, control with our purchases.
Basically if you look at the money multiplier effect, and instead of purchasing U.S. or local goods and services, a person purchases foreign goods and services, the money multiplier, through fractional-reserve lending, ends. Therefore the ratio of actual dollars to commercial dollars, or demand deposits, M1, as reflected on liquidity, becomes extremely distorted and unstable, even though it can’t be seen. But if everyone were to stop buying foreign goods and services, such as Chinese products, and products that use Indian call centers to service the products, and instead buy U.S. products, or save their money, the liquidity in the market would not only be restored but thrive.
Please tell a friend.
I will be checking back for any feedback, and believe me if enough people did this, jobs, the environment, wealth, medicine, and medical benefits, insurance premiums, world peace, etc.... would all be improved, I am not kidding. Its the fix the government can’t talk about as China’s position as the largest holder of U.S. debt is so controlling of what they can say, as the Chinese can start dumping that debt anytime, which is another reason. But only you can control what you buy and where it was made.
I learned this while working as a business reporter. CEOs often have a very rosy view of how their company is running, since everyone below them gives them good reports. And naturally they also take even small aspects of the business quite personally. They can be quite shocked by customer service problems that are actually all too common. I wouldn't complain to the CEO on the first try, but I would definitely cc any complants to the CEO if the first complaint didn't get results.
It was known among reporters that if the PR people or other gate keepers were not helping get us an interview or some information, as a last resort getting through to the CEO personally could make things happen.
A CEO who actually reads his/her paper mail, though? That was a new one on me. For larger companies, if you really want to get the CEO's attention, I'd still aim for email. It's the only way (unless you also have their phone number) to circumvent the secretary and other gatekeepers who would read paper mail.
I blog at www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
I have always used the snail mail letter to the CEO to get attention to a problem. It's obvious that the smaller rental company CEO called you personally. However, it took me several years to catch on that all letters mailed to CEOs of large corporations are "filtered" with complaint letters going to what they call "Executive Assistants", but are, in fact, a team of corporate troubleshooters. If it gets the desired results - that's all that matters. Also, I learned that some CEOs insist on personally reading a "sampling" of complaint letters regularly. The troubleshooting team also writes up short executive summaries to the CEO on a weekly basis advising the CEO of any trends, etc. There's no question - this works!
Good post.
A letter mailed in receives extra attention vs email, but I did once get a computer company to take back a system 6 months after the date of purchase, it was a $3k system back then.. Can't officially tell you the name of the company, but it begins with A and ends with E, the CEO happens to wear a black turtleneck a fair bit of the time as well.. The damn fans, it was like a jet taking off all day long..
Funny thing, in the end we have to A***e computers again, a Macbook and an iMac.. Doing the right thing keeps the customer around.
We're in the same boat. We're both young, renting, no kids.
My husband is a plumber and he loves his job. He makes good money. I was working in a job that I could not stand and developed panic disorder because of it. Finally he told me to quit. That was about 3 weeks ago. Slowly, I've started to feel better. He likes me better this way than the weepy, depressed, bitter person who worked all day and came home and cried. I'm taking some classes to earn another AA degree and looking for a part-time job. It's not that hard like this. You just have to be less material and less worried about "things". Thank God I have always been a very thrifty person.
:)
And I don't consider myself a "Status symbol". I'm not walking around with a Chanel bag or driving a BMW
This actually sounds practical and UN-advertisey....I'd love to read it!
Here in PA, I like a lot of the Safeway "Organic" and "Eating Right" brands - they are very good quality - no HFCS or trans fats etc but I must say - I will pay *whatever* King Arthur charges for flour. I'm a baker and flour MATTERS, I wouldn't even buy Gold Medal let alone a store brand. Besides which I buy mostly whole wheat (or other specialty grains like whole cornmeal) which never come in store brands. I think what I'm saving in terms of cost and nutrition by baking my own bread, biscuits, cornbread, cakes, cookies etc more than makes up for the premium price.
Safeway's O (organic) brand of all natural peanut butter can't be beat along with their soymilk, frozen fruit & veggies and canned tomatoes.
BTW BJ's store brand of extra virgin olive oil is quite acceptable and every Traders Joe's store brand I ever tried was top notch.
just to add to the list of: if you want________ try __________
amazing and cheap Thai food/Thai Thoms in the U district on University Way and (about) 47th. Note: it is a hole in the wall, but do not be decieved, the best Thai food I have ever had.
Great sushi happy hour/Cutters on Western Ave by Pikes Market.
Great views of the sound with lighthouse, mountains/Discovery Park in Magnolia.
Rental bikes, inexpensive used bike/Recycled Cycles down on the water by the University (1007 NE Boat Street)
Rollerblading on the water including rentals/Alki beach rentals. The rental place is located right on the Water taxi dock when you arrive at Alki beach. You then have 4 mi. of paved path to blade that follows the beach all the way around Alki Peninsula. BTW the water taxi leaves Pier 55 and costs $3. A fun ride!!
Have fun!
What's a "high gain power antena" that one reader speaks of and where do you purchase them? Please e mail me at "fasteddie50@juno.com" and let me know...Thanks!
My only thought on this subject is........
Why so much?
I've been doing some reading on food history and food processing, in order to talk about 1870s foodways a bit more at the historic house museum I work at. I do agree that a lot of what goes on in food processing is scary, but it is fear-mongering to say that all food processing is bad. Take pasteurization for instance. You could not pay me to drink unpasteurized milk or juice. Why? Well, people used to die quite regularly from drinking tainted milk and tainted fruit juices. It was one of the great public health achievements that pasteurization led to a safe milk supply for children. And it's not just food poisoning to worry about with "raw milk." Tuberculosis used to be spread by milk from cows infected with bovine tuberculosis. And humans can contract bovine tuberculosis. Pasteurization helped eradicate that risk. Of course we should be more aware of what goes into and what happens to our food, but we shouldn't let knee-jerk reactions like "processing = bad" compromise our collective health.