Somehere deep in the corporate mind...

...is the idea that you can make it difficult for people to do what they're supposed to and still reasonably expect them to do it.

You can ignore human nature if you want to, but it's not going to get you anywhere.

I guess the only thing cheesier than a fake Rolex...

...is a real Rolex. A case can be made for something being the absolute best of its kind, but this is just something that's better than it has any real reason to be.

Maybe Rolexes and stretch Hummers and other ostentatious crap can be seen as a reaction against the overwhelming impulse of capitalism to make things cheaper and cheaper with only a vague regard for quality or function. But it's really just good old-fashioned elitism. The way things are going, a privileged few will have Kobe beef and milk-fed sturgeon hand-delivered to their homes 3 times a day while everybody else struggles to get a cheeseburger off the value menu.

I have nothing against capitalism, but I would like it better if I were richer.

The thing to remember when you're dealing with the public.

Is that people aren't necessarily stupid just because they don't know as much about your business as you do. They could be a rocket scientist and not know Tuesday's lunch specials or that you need a credit card to confirm a hotel reservation.

It's important to keep this in mind.

Of course, if you've spent a lot of time dealing with the public, you'll realize that many people are, in fact, stupid.

A lot of people ask for directions that are incapable of following directions.

Tell them to make three rights and a left and they're already lost. They ask for directions hoping you'll tell them the place they're looking for is right across the street or a half-a-mile ahead on the right. Now, I can't follow directions, myself--not even a little bit. But I don't ask.

Of course, a big chunk of the population can't give directions, either. But that's a whole other issue.

Misplaced Confidence

I hate confident people: people who fully expect to get the room they want at the price they want to pay no matter how late they wait to make the reservation--or whether they make a reservation or not. There's an arrogance about them that I just can't tolerate; it's a pleasure to tell those sort of people that they're out of luck.

Of course, some people make a greater distinction between confidence and arrogance than I do. That's a distinction that's never been all that clear to me.

If the Universe were fair...

...I'd probably have to be reincarnated as an animal and slaughtered once for every animal I've ever eaten. Fortunately (in this case) I've seen very few signs that the Universe is fair.

I always find it interesting...

...to see what other people are buying in the grocery store. It amazes me to realize that it's possible for people to buy a full week's worth of groceries and not buy a single thing that I would buy.

People make me nervous.

Probably, I make other people nervous, but it's not an even exchange: I'm still outnumbered.

The first obstacle...

...you have to overcome (if you're not a reckless narcissist--and a lot of people are) is the idea that nobody cares what you think. It's almost certainly true, but you have to ignore it or you will never write anything--on a blog or anywhere else.


I wonder what it would be like to be a reckless narcissist. To be so sure of your own greatness that you simply didn't care what other people thought of you. Everybody would hate you, but you wouldn't care. Wouldn't be that be better than worrying that nobody likes you and only being wrong about .04% of the time?

Of course, I just spent the last 10 minutes taking pictures of my own right eye, so maybe I don't have any room to talk.

In the beginning...

Well, I've never wanted to do something just because everyone else is doing it. Far from it; I tend to avoid things that are too popular. But that still leaves you at the mercy of the mob, doesn't it?

Lately, I find myself wondering what I would say if I had a blog. I'm not a particularly interesting person, really. Just an average mildly creative white American with a middle class background. I may have had a few ideas in my life that I think might be worth sharing. But I could be wrong.

Every day I feel more and more anonymous; more and more invisible; and less and less like I have anything in common with the rest of the world. I'm sure *everybody* feels that way, but maybe not that sure.