Category Archives: miscellaneous

Target: A Store I Like

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I was just reading through my previous posts. I notice I do a lot of nitpicking. So I’m going to devote some time posting about things I like as well.

That brings me to Target. I’m not price conscious as much as I am convenience conscious. I’d rather spend more if my whole shopping experience is positive. I’m not saying Target is more expensive than other stores. I’m just saying price (as long as it’s not outrageous) is not a major consideration. I wouldn’t want to wait on longer lines if it meant saving a few dollars.

I’ve been to a handful of Target stores. The most frequent is the one right by my house in Levittown, NY. It seems they all are the same wherever they are.

So, here is why I like Target:

  • They have a wide variety of products.
  • Their aisles are always clean and clear.
  • There is always staff around to ask for help.
  • The staff is helpful when needed. Both in the store and at the pharmacy.
  • And no matter how crowded the store gets, the lines at the registers are never long.

So, bravo Target for winning a loyal shopper (an otherwise grumpy shopper to boot).

Congrats Microsoft, you lost me

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I’ve been a Microsoft defender for the longest time. I never really understood all the negative sentiment they’ve received.

I actually despised the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials. I thought they were overly pretentious. Plus, I never got the meaning of the commercials. Because up until a month ago, I’ve been using XP. Well, then my computer dies and I go out and get a new laptop with Vista. Jeez, what a downgrade.

I’ve been using it a month and not only do I think it’s a downgrade from XP, I can’t find one single advantage of it over XP. I’m not uber-technical, so I’m sure (sceptically sure–if there is such a thing) that there are “behind the scenes” improvements to it over XP. I held back, figuring I’d just have to get used to it. A month in and I hate Vista with a passion. It’s hard to navigate folders, hard to navigate the start menu, slow to log in and out (switch users, etc). I don’t know why on earth there are so many usability downgrades.

Had I known it would be such a disaster, I would have “downgraded” to XP. But now that I have everything set up, it would be too much of a PITA for me to do now. I’ll be thinking Mac next time around, since the Mac commercials are loud and clear now.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em

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No not poker, but cars. It’s great having cars with no car payments for years. It kind of feels like playing with house money. But sooner or later you’ll be faced with weighing mounting repair costs vs. the cost of getting a fresh new car. That’s where I am now. With 2 cars mind you. A 2000 Mazda Protege and a 1994 Ford Explorer. The car is holding up well (knock on wood). But the truck’s 4 wheel drive doesn’t work anymore, the AC doesn’t work anymore, has a crack in the windshield that spreads more and more every day, it’s been making more and more noise, and now the speedometer is acting funky. Just the windshield alone isn’t worth fixing, in my opinion. Because the next day might bring a more costlier repair. When do you stop? Well, I fold on the truck. Time to go car shopping!

Thank you craigslist

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I’ve dabbled with selling online both on eBay and reselling books on Amazon. Not to profit, but to get a little pocket money for things I don’t have use for anymore. Until last weekend, I never tried to sell anything on craigslist. We sold a dresser in less than a day and an entertainment center in only two days. The dresser had been laying around for months, waiting for that perpetually re-scheduled garage sale. Actually it hadn’t sold at our last garage sale. Storage at our house is at a minimum, so having stuff lay around endlessly is not ideal. So with a few clicks of the camera, one or two sentences, and prices to sell, we were able to find buyers quickly. Each came to pick up their items too. Could not have been easier.

Ugg. New iGoogle

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From what I’m reading on blogs and hearing from friends, I’m not the only one not pleased with the new iGoogle. For me it’s not the layout, it’s the functionality. It’s not working all the time as it should. Links become unclickable, check boxes become uncheckable, feeds don’t update properly. So I find myself refreshing the page hundreds of times a day. What’s supposed to help with productivity is actually hindering productivity. Hopefully they get the bugs resolved soon. Or let users revert to the old (working) version.

My Google Wishlist

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I love Google and use almost all of their apps, but some things just bug me. Especially seemingly simple things and how all of their services are tied together (or not tied together). I’d like not to have to use other apps or services to manage or hack (e.g. gmarks or Remember the Milk). I use the Toolbar, Gmail, Reader, Notes, Docs & Spreadsheets, Blogger, Calendar, Webmaster Tools, Analytics, AdWords, AdSense, Chrome, and try out most if not all of everything else they offer.

Reader
- Add “Blog This” to Google Reader for a one click posting to my blog.
- Have shared items show up in “your shared stuff” page.

Bookmarks
- Let me edit urls.
- Allow for a public html page (sort of like delicious) so I don’t have to log into Google to access my bookmarks. Preferably set some to private and others public.
- Allow subfolders or sub tags for better organization.

Picasa
- Allow for more than one account to access and update so my wife and I can maintain one photo gallery. This applies to both the desktop software and the online pages.

Gmail
- I know this kind of goes against one the things Gmail is all about, but have a “traditional” view so e-mails aren’t grouped by conversation. It’s a pain in the neck and hard to follow when a conversation is forwarded and there are several threads with the same subject.

Calendar
- Give me a simple to do list feature. Nothing fancy.

Shared Stuff
- Let me share calendar items, bookmarks, Picasa items, blog entries, reader items.

Blogger
- Use the same profile info as my main Google account profile. Instead of updating separate profiles.
- I HATE the blogs I follow feature. C’mon. Let me manage this through Google Reader instead of having to import and maintain 2 lists.

Chrome
- For the love of God, integrate the Google Toolbar!

Is this soon enough?

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Wow, well over 2 years ago I set up this blog in hopes to get it up and running one day. Well better late than never I guess. I’m going to blog about my interests, my career, and random thoughts.

My interests. Sports. Mostly football and baseball. I’ve been a lifetime Yankees and Bills fan. Yes, Bills even though I’m from Yonkers. I’m more a fair weather basketball and hockey fan (Knicks and Islanders). Besides sports, I follow politics casually and am glad I’ve found a career (internet marketing) that taps into my interest in e-media and marketing.

My career started out in sales, but who was I kidding? I’m no salesman. Besides I did more direct marketing than cold calls to build leads. I guess it was a sign of things to come. I started my marketing career on the “paper” side, but soon fell into online marketing. I have almost 10 years of online marketing under my belt. Mostly on the retention side, but most recently acquisition. I presently work for a vitamin and supplement company. Check out my LinkedIn profile.

In my spare time I co-founded and run the website for the New York City Buffalo Bills Backers. It was the prefect melding of my interests in sports with my career and interest in web marketing.

I hope this isn’t too much of a boring introduction. :-)