Tag: random

The Traumatized Consumer

Somewhere in my LJ archives is a post I made about deoderant. For years, I used Secret Solid, and then FOR NO APPARENT REASON it just stopped working for me. After trying some other products, I hit on Adidas Solid. I loved the scent, and it worked. Then our relationship also went to hell because it began to make me itch. So did everything else I tried.

Jim suggested that I find a deoderant only, that it could be the anti-perspirant ingredients that were causing the problem. It’s not easy to find a deoderant-only product, especially in Houston’s climate.

Finally, in despair, I started using what must surely be the lowest-end product in the deoderant world: Tussy Cream. It works beautifully, without irritation.

Tim and I were shopping the other night, and there was no Tussy on the shelves. “Huh,” I said to him, and referring to my recent C2 trauma added, “Coke must be making it now.” Tim said I should make a post of what would happen in my world if Coke took over more of my preferred products. So here it is.

click here for my consumer nightmare

Corporate America

Two things might have kept me in corporate America (which I finally left permanently in 2002). Being able to Instant Message my friends on my work computer. And this…

Dogs at Work: A Perk That Pays Off
Some Companies Find Furry Companions Keep Employees Productive

(Sept. 21) — There’s something about where Ryan Hayes works that millions of Americans would love.

Replacements Ltd. is a large china and silverware retailer with cookie-cutter corporate contemporary looks — until you look closer. As CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports, Hayes has company in his cubicle: Coco, his beagle puppy.

He’s not alone. There are dogs all over the company, which encourages its 500-plus employees to bring them in. It’s a perk that pays off.

“You do work better because if you’re maybe having a bad day, you can just look down at your feet and you smile,” Hayes says. As for the barking, he says, “It doesn’t bother me because I’m used to it.”

Bob Page owns the company and has built it into a roughly $70 million-a-year business. It was his idea to allow dogs.

Dogs are welcome in the office, in the warehouse, and even in the showroom.

Bringing dogs to work might make good business sense, according to one survey that found 46 million Americans would work longer hours if they were allowed to bring their furry companions into work with them.

So what used to be unheard of is now becoming almost commonplace. About 20 percent of American companies, including giants like Google, allow dogs in the office. The theory is that dogs reduce stress — and that’s good for business.

“Anytime you have an employee that’s content, I think they become more productive in general,” Page says.

By and large, the dogs get along and express themselves only occasionally.

But have the dogs ever had an accident in the store?

“Well, they do occasionally have accidents,” Page admits.

Coco got a little overexcited, but Hayes handled it. He went on with his day, Coco went on with hers — and throughout the office, it was business as usual.

9/21/06
Copyright 2006, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Snack Purgatory

I’m in the crabby mood that was predicted by Button Sunday. Not toward the people and dogs (and one cat) on The Compound, however. They’re great.

But whose idea of a cosmic joke is it that these things exist: BBQ Fritos, Coke C2, and yet not within easy access of me? Clearly, this is not a world run by an Aries.

Here’s something for the Tim fans. Timothy J. Lambert looks really hot today. Not in the “oy, it’s so humid” way. In the good way.

What? You want photos?

Now you know what it’s like to live in Snack Purgatory.

Text messaging can be fun

So Ric, who met me in a bar tonight somewhere in Chicago, text-messaged me at 3 a.m. and asked “what are u going to be on.” It’s too bad I don’t know what the hell that means. What am I going to be on? Um, Oprah? The Daily Show? Vicodin? My period? Interstate 10 when it reopens? My desk chair? MySpace? WTF??

But it was fun to text him back and let him know he dialed the wrong area code, because it gave me a chance to tell him to play safe. I’m sure he’s all, WTF? back at me now inside his head. Or he may pause and think that the universe is trying to tell him to wrap that rascal. You never know…

And I’ll give Ric credit. If he’s going to misdial my cell phone, at least he’s on MY schedule.

Crazy little thing

Greg may have his Crazy Laundress and Rhonda her Crazy Coffee Lady, but I have the Crazy Dialer. There is an obviously quite elderly woman who frequently misdials my cell phone number. It must be very similar to the one she wants. She never leaves a message to say “wrong number,” and of course, I never recognize the number, so I’ve often returned her calls to ask, “Were you trying to reach me?” “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I had the wrong number.”

I finally put her number into my cell phone’s contact list, with the name “Wrong Number” so I’d stop calling her back. One of her habits is making her calls around 7 a.m. This doesn’t work for me, because I’ve usually only been asleep between one and three hours at that point.

So now I’ve made her ring style “silent.” Hopefully that will solve the problem. Strangely, no matter how annoying this has been, I’ve been patient because I keep reminding myself that she’s old. Getting old doesn’t have many advantages, but one of them is that the elderly get a free pass on behaviors that would leave anyone else barely standing on scorched earth. Age is probably why Greg’s Crazy Laundress still lives.

Mostly, I wonder about the people who are related to Crazy Laundress, Crazy Coffee Lady, and Crazy Dialer. I’ll bet they’re the ones who turn into Crazy Drivers. At least they provide plenty of excitement for Rex.

Good health wishes

Nobody gets why I care about Gerald Ford. I just do. If I couldn’t have had the father I did, Gerald Ford would have been my second choice. (Bonus: Could have gotten stoned in the White House with my brothers.)

The 93-year-old Ford has been hospitalized for the third time this year, for tests, they say. I wish him good health and a quick return home.

Here, Ford is pictured standing next to someone with whom I wish I’d gone to school. Except he’s lots older than I am, of course. 😉