Iniard Watch

Designed for Laziness…. Clorox Toilet Wand

2006-01-20T12:14:00.000-05:00

The makers of the Clorox Toilet Wand understand one thing pretty good… nobody likes cleaning the toilet. They also know something else pretty good…. People will pay money to think they are getting out of some nasty work, like cleaning a toilet. I believe that this concept was their inspiration behind the toilet wand.

Magic Toilet Wand.. $10

They make it look very easy on the commercial. Everything gets so clean, so easy. The brush head is disposable so there is no nastiness. Just pure clean fun!! They even named it a “wand” because most people associate that word with magic. And hey, if you can clean your toilet without it being a nasty job, then it must be magic. And who wouldn’t pay $10 for a magic wand that cleaned toilets. Well, if it was a magic toilet cleaning wand, and you circle it over your toilet while mumbling some chant in Latin to get your stains to disappear, it may be worth the $10 you pay for the starter kit. Unfortunately, it is not magic, and cleaning a toilet is still a nasty job. There are a few “shitty” things you learn in life that can not be changed, sort of like laws of nature:

1. Bears actually do shit in the woods.
2. You can’t polish a terd.
3. Cleaning toilets is a nasty job.

Now, the truth… The disposable foam brush comes preloaded with some Clorox cleaner and also some blue dye, because the nice cool blue color makes you feel like you are getting some instant results. (I think it would be a separate blog to discuss why a bleaching product to get stains off of a white surface would need to have blue dye added to it.) At any rate, the foam brush may be good for those “in between” cleanings, but for a more robust cleaning effort, on a bimonthly or monthly basis, you are going to need some hard bristles. The foam sponge don’t cut it.

In addition to making it look easy to do the hard cleaning, they also dwell on the fact that you do not have to keep the nasty toilet brush around, since the foam sponge brush heads are disposable. What they fail to mention is that you still have the magic wand, that was submerged in the same nasty toilet water as the disposable foam sponge. You still have a toilet-water-contaminated-thing you have to store. For this they include in the starter kit a wand hanger that lets you hang the nasty thing right on the side of your toilet. As if I would!!! Hang it there on the side of the toilet dripping toilet water on the floor and next thing you know your kids are using to swirl the toilet water around because they see you “playing” in the water with it, but I digress…

Besides the fact that this doesn’t really work that good, it is expensive as hell!! The amount of cleaner that is preloaded into the sponges are about the right amount for 1 toilet bowl. I live in a 3 toilet house, so to do our cleaning with these would require 3 of them, at about 50 cents a pop. $1.50 to clean 3 toilets, and I still have a toilet water contaminated wand and had to put more effort to clean them with a sponge instead of a brush. This adds up to over $80 a year for disposable toilet sponges.

Replacement sponges.. $0.50 each

Mr. Rhythm’s good advice is that for about half the price, you could get a 78 cent “non disposable” toilet brush at walmart, use it once to clean your 3 toilets, and then throw it away! You could have a stash of clean new brushes in your closet, and just plan on pitching them after each use. You could also feel good knowing that you are supporting an entire family in China with your extravagant use of Walmart Toilet brushes.

What we do in our house, is leave the brush hanging over the bowl between the seat and the rim overnight. The next morning, the brush is at least dry, so you can put it in an old plastic grocery bag, stick in the closet and forget about it. We’ve been doing it like that for the past 10 years, so the way I figure, we have saved about $1000 so far by not resorting to magic and hype for help cleaning our toilets!!

O.K, I think I should stop ranting before I set some kind of record for the longest blog about cleaning toilets….

up UP and AWAY!!!

2006-01-19T00:44:00.000-05:00

Like the daring baby bird, who has grown tired of eating prechewed worms from mama blogspot, I am getting ready to spread my wings and leave the only nest I have known since I pecked through my online shell. If my wings are strong enough, I will make it safely to my new nest. If they are not, I may crash to the ground and be eaten by the neighbors dog. Assuming the former, it may still take me a few days to learn how to chew worms on my own, digest my new independant thoughts, and begin to excrete new blog material.

www.iniardwatch.com (Yeah, I finally got that darn blog spot out!!)

Do Not Call Registry

2006-01-15T11:11:00.000-05:00

You would guess that someone like me, President and CEO of Iniard Watch, would have jumped on the opportunity to be on the National Do Not Call Registry when it first came to be. Since I also tend to be a procrastinator, I finally signed up just this morning. It was surprisingly easy and took two and a half minutes, after I followed this Link. I have heard some people express concern about having to submit thier SS number, but I did not have to. Maybe they changed the rules, or maybe my registration won't work??

Part of my delay was that a part of me actually liked humiliating the phone solicitors. One of my favorite routines is to act like I have speech and hearing problems while repeating “HELLO”, or giving the phone to my 3 year old daughter. There are several other good ones in a book, Fun With Phone Solicitors by Robert Harris. You can get a few of the routines by searching inside the book here:

Not the Prettiest Burger on the Block...

2006-01-15T01:23:00.000-05:00

If you are like me, your expectations of a fast food meal are about as low as they can get. As a matter of fact, I could probably rummage blindfolded through the dented can cart at Aldi’s and come up with a more appetizing meal than some of the menu items at the local McDonalds, Rally's, or the like. However, there are times when you are on the go, in a pinch and find yourself at the drive through window.

When you order, you think about the hamburger you see in the ads, all neat and orderly,like this:

It kind of even looks apetizing, perhaps just reminding you of an earlier time in your life when you were addicted to them without being concerned about all the fat you were eating. Then, to bring you back down from your saturated fat euphoria, you open up the bag to find something looks like it was slopped together in about 2 seconds with no care or consideration, and is visually more in line with the nutritional beauty of the sandwhich like this:

Well, to get to the point, I stumbled across an interesting explanation of the great lengths they go to when getting a hamburger ready for the photo shoot to be used in commercials,magazine ads, etc. It is a 10 step procedure that has pictures along the way. You can enjoy it HERE. Kind of makes me wonder what taco bell goes through to make their crap look edible!!

Schick Quattro Power Infomercial

2006-01-14T09:46:00.000-05:00

Shick has a new web ad campaign devoted to their Quattro power razor that is pretty funny. It is an infomercial style website that has videos of a late night infomercial campaign. It is very nicely done, with lots of videos and content. Obviously done with a bit of a budget, as they paid the money to get Kato Kaelin for their lead man! In the spoof they are over-exaggerating the powers of shaving with their razor, making claims that it will get you promotions, friends, and even help you score with the chicks. (Kato is in bed with 3 women after shaving). There are also some good and cheesy promotional lines they use in late night ads, like “I can’t stop talking about.. see, I’m doing it right now!”

Although it is very entertaining, I think that the points they are exaggerating in the spoof are the same points they are trying to subtly make for real in their tv and magazine spots. Use our razors and you will be a better than people that don’t use our razors. At any rate, I found it very amusing and thought it was a good way for them to spend some of the profits they are making from all the fools spending $20000 for a close shave.

Campbell’s Soup… Mmm.. Mmmm.. Greed?

2006-01-12T16:00:00.000-05:00

When you keep an eye on Iniards like I do, then you probably already know that just about anytime there is new and improved product packaging, the net price you pay for something goes up.

Today it was “Shock and Awe” in the soup aisle, as I was overwhelmed with the new Campbells soup display system. They have the refrigerator shelf pop can dispenser type things that allow them to have big pictures on the fronts as mini billboards while the soup is stored behind them. Since Campbell’s has about 15 feet of shelf space, this new system allows them to put the pricey stuff in the new containers right at eye level, with big eye catching pictures, and then the economical soups in regular old cans are quietly hidden down on the bottom where you have to really get on your knees to find them. Down there you will find the economical family size vegetable soup which has 6 servings and costs $2.19, or $0.37 per serving.

$0.37 per serving

What they are really pushing is the “Heat & Enjoy” soups, which come in microwavable bowls and are pre-diluted so you don’t have to waste time with pouring soup in a bowl and adding water, since that is too much like cooking dinner. They really like to mention how the Heat and Enjoy soups are microwavable (as if the regular soups were not). It is essentially the same soup, only in a different package. For this convenient package, which holds two servings, you pay $1.00 per serving. (3 times the amount of the original). Don’t worry about the costs.. .just Heat & Enjoy it!!!

$1.00 per serving

For the people that are willing to spend even more money, they have the “Soup at Hand” collection, which is essentially the same soup again, pre-diluted, only this time in a cup shape microwavable container, like a sippy cup for soups. This soup is for people that are too busy to realize how much they are paying for soup…er.. I mean for the people that are too busy to get a spoon out when they want to enjoy a hot bowl (or sippy cup) of soup. For this added feature in the soup packaging, you are paying $1.79 per serving (about 5 times the price of the original!!) Maybe they think that if you can hold it like a starbucks cup, you can pay starbucks prices for soup.

$1.79 per serving

What I also found interesting, is that the low sodium version of the regular condensed veggie soup was also $1.79 per serving. Same soup without as much salt costs 5 times more? Seems they must have done some research to figure out that is the most people will pay for soup.

Designed for Gifting… Black n Decker Power Scissors $30

2006-01-12T11:10:00.000-05:00

Since Christmas is over, I have decided to convert my “Designed for Christmas” series into “Designed for Gifting”, since the retailers and manufacturers of these items like your gift budget money anytime of the year, whether it be for Christmas, Valentines Day, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, or any gift giving occasion.

The Black n Decker Power Scissors seem to be a good gift idea, because let’s face it… not too many people already have one, and everyone needs scissors. Plus, the price is just right for gift budgets… $30.

I look at this item and see a very limited use tool. I am sure it will make cutting some things easier, but is it worth it to have a $30 pair of scissors for cutting just some things? In the commercial they show some flooring contractor cutting carpet padding with it. Isn’t it just easier to use the razor cutter you already have out for cutting the carpet? Plus, if you are doing a big project, and cutting through heavy material, like flooring material, I am sure the battery life will drain pretty quickly, just like my black and decker cordless drill.

The ads also like to show the people cutting fabric. Despite my cutting edge blog, I am not a ginsu cutting expert, although we all have dreams about being the ginsu chef in the commercial cutting through pop cans and tomatoes like there is no tomorrow. Anyway, my experience with fabric is long blades result in smoother cuts. I think you would have to be careful with such a short blade to not end up with a jagged cut line. Not to mention, my wife has a simple rotary cutter and cutting mat that makes quick work of cutting through fabric, and it doesn’t even require batteries.

The other thing about this item that I do not like, is that around my house, the two things you can never find are the scissors and battery chargers. I would be afraid that if this item were in my house, one of the two components would always be MIA, probably snatched up by the elves that come in at night and hide the remote controls, kids socks, Tupperware lids, and my spare Honda keys.

Once again, black and decker comes up with a novel idea that looks good on paper, and probably looks good on their sales reports, but fails to live up to the vision created in their ads. And because most are purchased as gifts, they do not get many complaints since the people using it (if they do even use it) got it for free anyway. My advice is just to get a decent set of manual scissors that you can use for anything.

The Dairy Diet Update....

2006-01-10T11:48:00.000-05:00

Last year I expressed skepticism about the Dairy Diet being promoted by the Dairy Industry. Nine months later, there are more studies being done showing that it is a bunch of crap and information is getting easier to find about how the promotion is funded.

As it turns out, it is funded largely by tax dollars collected from milk producers. Out of the 273 million in taxes collected for promotion of milk, about 100 million was channeled to the Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Program who has spearheaded the promotion of the dairy diet. Now, as a result of their campaign, half of the women in this country have heard that drinking milk helps you lose weight, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

What is interesting is that government also funds the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee who has reported that there is not sufficient evidence to support the claims of the dairy diet being effective for weight management. Since this committee only has a budget of 1 million dollars, and can’t afford to spread the word, I am helping to do it here. Here are some more reports and studies about the dairy diet:

Washington Post: “Children who drink more than three servings of milk each day are prone to becoming overweight, according to a large new study that undermines a heavily advertised dairy industry claim that milk helps people lose weight.”

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: “Despite dairy industry claims, scientific studies actually show that adding dairy products to the diet does nothing for weight control. If anything, milk contributes to weight gain. Three very recent studies, one at the University of Vermont, another at Purdue University, and the third just published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, reconfirm these findings

National Public Radio: The dairy industry’s latest advertising campaign offers up an appealing formula for weight loss. The message is eat more in order to slim down…. Some scientists say that the industry does not have enough evidence to support the claim in its ads.”

Wendy's Loosening up on the Greed?

2006-01-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

My new blogger friend Killired informed me that it was reported in her area that Wendy’s is bringing back the 99 cent value menu. Perhaps Wendy’s CEO Jack Schuessler read my previous blogs and now is buckling under the pressure of Iniard Watch!! More likely, it may be because their sales are on the decline. I think there are a lot of people like me that don’t go to Wendy’s as much since they started getting greedy with the value menu shoppers

This is happening is in Columbus, which is where Wendy’s is based. Hopefully they are starting there and spreading outward, and not just throwing a bone to the people in the same community as their corporate headquarters that may be protesting outside their doors and heckling the employees about the price of a cheap lunch. I should know soon though since the Wendy’s I frequent for lunch is about 45 minutes outside of Columbus.

Notes for Jack:
1. Accepting Credit/Debit Cards – Good Idea.
2. Raising prices on value menu items – Bad Idea
3. Using leftover hamburgers in Chili – Bad Idea (especially when you can make out a corner of the patty.)
4. Using forks and spoons instead of sporks – Good Idea
5. Getting rid of Fat Free Low Cal Italian Dressing and replacing it with fat free French dressing – Bad Idea
6. Price gouging health conscious consumers with overpriced entrée salads – Bad Idea

Customer Service Cheat Sheet

2006-01-05T10:55:00.000-05:00

Customer service of banks, credit cards, phone and utility companies really leaves a lot to be desired these days. Many companies are hiring people in India to answer people’s questions, which usually adds to the confusion of things when you can’t understand someone very well.

Other companies go out of their way to make it very difficult to actually even speak to a person. Most of the time you spend on the phone is listening to their automated messages trying to channel you into the right pre recorded message, or listening to them promote how easy it is to find answers on their website. It is good to have resources on line, but when I call, it is because I need to talk to a person.

I stumbled across a cheat sheet for getting through to actual people at most of the companies you would call. You can find it here. It is interesting to note how difficult some companies make it to actually get to a person. (example: Fidelity Net benefits you have to hit 1, then the # key 17 times!!) It is also noteworthy that there are still some companies that have a human answer the phone directly. I think I will refer to this list next time I need to enlist a new service for anything.

ING, AIG, Sprint, Verizon phone repair, Vonage, XM Radio, and Southwest Airlines are several of the companies with direct to human numbers.

2006-01-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

Perhaps to answer the demands of my blogging brother over at Electric Short, XM Radio has announced that it will start selling an XM Passport satellite radio receiver that costs about $30. Previously, you had to spend several hundred dollars to get a small portable receiver, like the Pioneer Airware receiver. I never could figure out why they cost so much other than they had people willing to pay it. From what I understand, this new device will be like a memory card that will hook into some devices made to accommodate them, but can also be plugged into an adapter that would work with your home or car stereo.

I guess we will see how well they work once they are out there, but it is good to see that to use the service you no longer need to spend a couple hundred dollars on a radio. Now, what can we do about the $12.95 a month usage charge???

I like several of the XM radio stations that are piped in through my Direct TV satellite service, but I have a hard time justifying paying $12.95 a month more to have it separate from my home.

Wendy's Value Menu A Little Less Value Now...

2006-01-03T22:47:00.000-05:00

Well, back in the spring, when Wendy’s changed their 99 cent value menu to the “Value Choices Menu”, I blogged about how name change was essentially a clever way to get rid of the idea that the value selections should be 99 cents. When they did that, they added a few things that were more than a dollar just to get the ball rolling. Now, with the new year, they have 19% price increase of the side salad. My $2 side salad combo meal is now $2.58 thanks to Wendy’s profiteering on the more healthy items. With low inflation rates and cost of living increases, 19% seems a little much.

At the same time, Burger King, who loves to cater to cheap people who don’t mind getting fat, is starting up a dollar menu of their own to compete better with McDonalds and Wendy’s. I wonder if they will have a $1 salad…

Gillette M3 Power - The $20,000 shave?

2006-01-03T10:41:00.000-05:00

How much would you pay for the closest shave? Is having the “closest” shave worth $20,000?

One of my great milestones of year 2005, was that I broke my addiction to the expensive disposable razors and went to the cheapo disposables. I was buying the Gillette sensor blades, and when considering upgrading to the Gillette mach 3 turbo, I decided that I was sick of dropping $20 on razor blades refills.

I started using Gillette custom plus razors, which I bought at sam’s club for $14.82 per 40 pack. After a week or two adjusting to the much lighter handle, the shave I was getting did not seem to be any better or worse than with the expensive blades.

I figure that I get about 8 shaves per razor, whether it be expensive or cheap. If I shave 5 times a week, for the next 40 years, with the cheap razors, and put the money I save in the bank, I will have over $20,000 saved up. This is a great deal of money!!

This comparison is based on M3Power blades at $22.49/8 pack vs. Gillette Custom Plus at $14.82/40 pack and 8% interest earned on savings. Do the math for what you use. I know that some disposable razors are about half the price of the Gillette custom plus, but I am taking baby steps here.

Companies like Gillette and Schick have been having a “my dick is bigger” contest for as long as I can remember. Each time they come out with a new and improved razor design, the price per shave goes up. A little bit each time, with occasional big jumps for additional blades and exciting new words like TURBO, MAX, ULTRA, and MACH.

If you have a new years resolution to save more for retirement, and stop wasting so much of your paycheck, here is a good way to start…. Ditch the expensive razors, and add $20,000 to your future wealth.

Merry Christmas and Happy Integration!

2005-12-26T22:19:00.000-05:00

With the passing of Christmas this year, my family is starting a new tradition. The day after Christmas around my house will now be referred to as Integration Day. On this day, we will rest, relax, have family time, reflect on our appreciation of gifts received, and integrate them into our household and lives. With the hustle and bustle of the entire Halthanksmas season, you tend to accumulate lots of stuff that never really finds a home, just gets shuffled around from one spot to the next. With the influx of new Christmas gifts, you also have a pile of stuff under your tree, in your car, in your kitchen, everywhere.

This is one of the few days this year where nobody left the house. The kids got to know their new baby dolls and toys, I found refuge for all my new shoes, and my lovely wife reworked the kid’s closets to free up some hangers for the new clothes.

Citibank Simplicity Card - Simply Misleading

2005-12-21T22:53:00.000-05:00

I normally don’t float prime time blogs, but I am sitting through the encore presentation of “A Very Brady Christmas” on ABC Family which my family seems to be into for some reason. I was able to sneak the laptop onto my corner of the couch.

Anyway, I received my offer in the mail today for the new Citibank simplicity card. This is the credit offer you probably saw advertised heavily stating that you don’t have to pay late fees if you are late on a payment. They go on to say that all you have to do is make a purchase every month. It is part of their “keep it simple” card program. I am glad I got the offer today, because it gave me a chance to read the fine print. Here is the Simple truth on the Simplicity Card Program:

Credit card companies SUCK, and so does this offer. It is true, that they do not charge late fees if you make a purchase. However, they do expect payments to be made on time and reserve the right to raise your interest rate to the default rate if you are late on a payment for this or any other card or credit account you have. This would take my 7.99% interest rate up to 30.64%!!! It would stay at this rate until the balance was paid in full. So if I transferred a $3000 balance to this card, and made a late payment, I would not be charged the $35 late fee, but my interest rate would add an additional $56 a month in interest until the balance it paid in full. I would then transfer the balance to another card, but some people would be in a position that they can not do this, and would basically be strapped even more than they were to begin with, and for a very long time.

So after reading the fine print, I am very disappointed with Citibank. They are going all out to lure people prone to making late payments to sign up for this new simplicity card, and the fine print is setting them to take advantage of everyone that does fall for it. I was able to overlook the fact that Citigroup is partially owned by some rich Saudi dude, but now I must look down on Citibank, for what they are.. blood sucking bottom feeders. I think I will just pay the occasional late fee and pass on this one.

Designed for Christmas.... Nostalgic Hot Dog Cooker $70

2005-12-21T12:56:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for a unique gift for someone special on your list, and have budgeted $70, then with one swipe of the card you can scratch them off list, thanks to the nostalgic hot dog grill. On my list, you have to be pretty high ranking to get a $70 gift budget, but I could see some people looking for a gift for their parents or inlaws (who seem to already have everything they need) stumble upon the hot dog cooker and think “well, they do like hot dogs!”.

There are only two occasions when I eat hot dogs, but I always follow the same rule.. never eat more than one. If I am at a ball game, I will look forward to indulging in ONE hot dog. And when I say one hot dog, I mean the regular size, not the super jumbo half pound wieners that many ballparks serve up. The other occasion I eat hot dogs is if I am at a summer picnic and that is the only thing being served. Eating more than one, regardless of how good it may seem at the time, always comes back to haunt… usually through belching, heartburn, and gas - the kind of gas that would peel the paint off a park bench or crack your leather car seats!

For me to try to understand how some people can get so excited about a hot dog cooker is beyond the scope of this blog entry, but I think every household with a kitchen already has several ways to cook a hot dog. How can you justify spending $70 to cook them a slightly different way? Even if it was free, how could you justify taking up an entire kitchen cabinet for a hot dog cooking machine.

I find the listed product features amusing….”Features fun, carnival-style design, removable drip tray, adjustable heat settings, and on/off switch”…. Fun Carnival style design is usually NOT what I look for in good quality kitchen appliances. Also, out of 4 features mentioned, one of them is an ON/OFF switch!! Is this item that devoid of selling points that half of the features are the carnival design and on/off switch?

If you want to waste lots of money on someone’s hot dog admiration, I would suggest you have delivered to them the $50 gourmet hot dog 10 pack. Although it would be about equal in wasting money, at least you do not curse them with having to store the carnival stand in their kitchen cabinets. It would also save the trouble of gift wrapping!

Designed for Christmas… .Black and Decker Auto Tape Measure $25

2005-12-20T13:59:00.000-05:00

Let’s see… I need a gift for a guy, and my budget is about $25. Well, look here…. It’s perfect for any do-it-yourselfer or handy man… NOT!!! I have a few “Designed for Christmas” blogs in the queue, and I am starting to think that Black n Decker may be the industry leader in creating products that look to be good gift ideas, but are otherwise useless pieces of crap. I had the opportunity to take one of these babies for a spin and I am not impressed.

First of all, it is very big and heavy. They advertise that the main benefit is that you only need one had to hold it, but if you are holding it for any length of time, you might want to have your spare arm on standby. For as big as it is, you would think that it would be a 50 footer, but actually it is only a 25 footer.

Second of all, the actual tape is very flimsy. I tried to measure across the edge of a 6’ display table and it was curving all over the place. Usually if it is a 2 handed measuring job, you are measuring something of distance, which with this, you would still need to use 2 hands: one to support the bulky mothership, and another to support the flimsy tape.

The speed of thing was not too fast either. A simple 2 handed measuring job that takes 10 seconds would likely end up taking more than twice that with the one-hand job. (Did I just say Hand Job?)

So the bottom line is that although the shear gadgetry of it may provide a few moments of entertainment if you were bored sitting on an 8 hour greyhound bus ride from Cincinnati Ohio to Lafayette Indiana, I would not reach for it if I was trying to gather up my tools for a household project. It would not even be used enough to keep the batteries from being harvested out of it the next time your kid’s dancing Elmo starts to slow down.

Guitar Peddlers Love Spam….

2005-12-12T23:58:00.000-05:00

… I think they cook it up for every meal. After being blog-spammed several times by people peddling as seen on tv products or specifically the esteban guitar package, I though I would see exactly what it was all about. What I have found is that the Esteban American Legacy Guitar package (which is made in China), is a cheap piece of crap that gets lots of bad reviews. It sells through late night informercials, on the net, and now on Home Shopping Network.

It seems that through their marketing of this product, they convince beginners and those not familiar with guitars to buy the all inclusive package that will provide them with everything they need to get up and running. Those who are satisfied customers probably do not know any better or never use it enough get an impression about it. According to the people who know guitars, however, your money would best be sent on other entry level guitars that are of a higher quality.

To support my lack of support for blog spammers, I am giving a plug to an interesting blog site that is devoted to exposing the truth about the esteban empire. What is really interesting about this site, is how much the internet guitar peddlers blog spam the crap out of it. The most recent message has 72 comments, and all but about 2 of them blog spam. It’s like they all got together and had a mutual spamasm. In fact, the esteban-as-seen-on-tv people have blog spammed an anti-esteban post on the website www.estebanlies.blogspot.com!! Unbelievable!

The Pope asketh, and Low he shall receiveth…

2005-12-12T14:47:00.000-05:00

The Pope has peeked through his window to warn that the real Christmas spirit is being polluted by the over commercialization of the holiday, which I tend to agree. He also encourages that every Christian household display a nativity scene in their home as a “simple yet effective way of showing their faith and conveying it to their children.” I am wondering if the inflatable Jesus, or now the rubber ducky Jesus falls into the Pope’s “simple yet effective” category. Does it cheapen the concept to display the concrete goose version of the nativity? Is it acceptable to the church to represent Jesus with rubber bath tub toys? I think I will ask the Pope directly, and let you know what I find out.

Designed for Christmas… El Paso Fajita Grill $30

2005-12-11T12:58:00.000-05:00

While Christmas shopping at Linens and Things yesterday, I couldn’t help but to notice the El Paso Fajita Grill prominently displayed on a center display in the main aisle. The tackiness of it caught my eye immediately, and I was reminded of the last time I saw one of these: several christmas’s ago as my wife and I were lucky recipients!! I then started to sing in my head the song “Earth to Grandma” by the Asspony’s. (I hope my G-Ma-In-Law doesn’t frequent iniardwatch!).

Anyway, the fajita grill is an odd shaped electric skillet pre-decorated with Chili peppers, and has a tortilla warmer built right in. The skillet part is kind of small relative to the HUGE amount of space this things takes up. Most people already have a skillet they cook with, and many even have an electric skillet already, which is why I put this freakish appliance in the Designed for Christmas category. Nobody in their right mind would buy this for themselves, but when shopping for someone else, with a $30 gift budget, it seems like the perfect gift for someone who may have mentioned that they like fajitas. My advice would be to get them a nice electric skillet or a decent one for the stove. $30 can get much better quality in a traditional skillet or even electric skillet than this pepper shaped work of art.

So, my fajita grill is still in the original box, I thought I would be able to get rid of it during the company white elephant gift exchange, but we stopped doing this type of exchange, so I am now wondering….what is the time required before re-gifting items? Does anyone on my list like fajitas? He he he…. HO HO HO!!!

Laziness Sells... Swiffer Carpet Flick

2005-12-09T17:02:00.000-05:00

There is a big hungry industry out there trying to sell people the vision of effortless cleaning. They have these commercials where cutsie little stepford housewives are maintaining an already clean house, and are using some stupid gadget to clean up a mess that someone may have just made. It looks soooo easy. Life would be great if everything were so effortless. Unfortunately, it is not. If you want to spend money to achieve effortless cleaning, hire someone to clean for you. Don’t waste your money on something like the swiffer carpet flicker. It is intended for use “in between regular sweepings”, and works just like the carpet vacuum that came with my 3 year old daughters “pretend” cleaning toy set from Walmart. The toy actually has a rotating brush that flicks stuff into the sweeper and can pick up most things the swiffer claims to be capable of. The swiffer is a bit different because it uses a removable mouse glue trap type of thing to catch the stuff. My daughters toy just keep the stuff around the brush and up in to the housing of the toy and after it starts to grow a beard, it doesn’t really pick up anymore. Maybe that is why the swiffer costs $14, and the toy costs about $4, despite probably being made in the same Chinese factory. Anyway, when you are done swiffing, you simply throw away the glue trap (which costs about 40 cents each), and then you can relax knowing that your carpet is sort of cleaner than it was, and you no longer have to sit there wondering how you are going to clean up those colorful little beads and cheerios.

Many say I am a super husband (others say I’m hen-pecked), but I do my share of the cleaning around the house except for dusting, and bathrooms (because I am not genetically capable of doing that correctly). However, I know that the hardest part about cleaning is getting to the point where you are ready to run the sweeper. You have to pick up the shoes, toys, books, laundry, coats, mail, crayons, etc, wipe of the tables (onto the floor of course), and then maybe you are ready to sweep if your kids haven’t already made new mess somewhere else. If I am going to go through all that, why would I want to top it off with a half ass floor sweeping? In between vacuums? If it needs swept, sweep it!!

Also, if you have a bagless sweeper with a collection pot that needs emptied, you already know that most of what gets swept up is stuff that you don’t even see laying on the carpet. It does not take much to vacuuming to come with enough dust, lint, and hair to stuff a regular size bear at the build-a-bear shop at the mall. Only a small portion of what gets vacuumed would make into the swiffer glue trap machine. Right after it mentions on the box that it is meant for “in-between sweepings”, it says it is good for dirt, grass clippings, mulch, kitty litter, small stones. Here is Mr Rythym’s good advice….. if you look around your house and see dirt, mulch, grass clippings and kitty litter on the floor, you are due for a cleaning, not an in-between cleaning, and especially not a half-ass-in-between cleaning.

Inflatable Jesus (Christ!)

2005-12-08T10:21:00.000-05:00

Holy inflatable Jesus, Batman!! It seems the inflatable cronies can now celebrate the true meaning of Christmas thanks to the inflatable Holy Family decoration. The only drawback is that you won’t find this at Walmart, the usual wondermall of tacky inflatable goods. I keep searching their website, but I think it has too much of a "God" undertone for them to carry it. They wouldn’t want to insult people by selling merchandise that referenced the concept of religion intermixed with Christmas. I have yet to see one of these pop around my area, but I am sure it will eventually. If nothing else, it towers over 9’ high, which means some with a competitive spirit may consider getting it just to "one-up" their neighbor with the modest 8’ snow globe.

The True Meaning of Christmas....

2005-12-07T09:08:00.000-05:00

I am not known to be an overly religious person, but it was refreshing last night to watch a kid’s cartoon (The Charlie Brown Christmas Special), that was made before the ACLU and liberals made it offensive for everyday America to openly celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. In case you missed it, here is the text from the scene where Linus explains to Charlie Brown during the school play what the true meaning of Christmas is….

Lights please….
"And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them! And they were sore afraid ... And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings o great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord."
"And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men."
"That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Designed for Christmas... Febreze Scentstories

2005-12-05T13:54:00.000-05:00

Every Christmas shopping season you see some cheesy gifts that are basically designed and marketed to be gifts for some one else. You usually see these items hit the stores big time just before the shopping season. These items are not usually items you would consider buying for yourself, but when they are at the store, seem a little “different or neat”, and are priced at your budget gift amount for someone, they sure do seem like a good idea for someone else. They seem to be priced at $25, $35, $45, etc, which I think many people use as a budget amount for gifts. A couple of years ago, it was the foreman grill, then it was the gizmo cordless cheese grater, last year I think it was the singing santa’s, and this year I have picked up on the Febreze Scentstories disc player scent machine.

This thing looks like a cross between a cd player and a diaper wipe warmer, and has a fan that blows air over a special multi scent disc that rotates in the unit to change the smell every so often. You can also fast forward to the next smell if you get tired of smelling the same thing before 30 minutes is up. The smell is not any different than the glade plug-ins, or a scented candle. This thing, however, is huge, makes noise, and needs to be plugged into the wall. Not to mention the replacement discs costs $15 bucks each for about 50 hours of smell. That works out to be 30 cents an hour to use the thing after the initial investment of $50! Here is Mr. Rythym's good advice… if something in your house stinks, find it and get rid of it. If you want your kitchen to smell like fresh baked cookies, bake some cookies!! It will be cheaper than using this thing, and you can eat the cookies. If you want your house to smell like spiced cider, get some cider and let it simmer on the stove all day!! It will be cheaper, and you get to drink the cider too. I kind of have to wonder why this product even made it to the shelves, and then I remember… It’s Christmas time… and it would be oh so nice to scratch one more person off your list.. and hey, look, its just the right price... Happy Halthanksmas!

Sony BMG Keeping a Big Brother Eye on You...

2005-11-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

Well, since my digital music revolution, I don’t see myself buying CD’s anymore, but because of the recent scheme by SONY BMG that blew up in their face, I will NEVER even buy their CD’s as gifts for anyone.. In an effort to keep track of people copying and sharing their music from CD’s, the iniards over at sony-bmg put secret computer programs on their CD’s that automatically install when inserted into a computer. This program keeps track of your playing and copying music files and connects to the sony servers to report the findings. This program is essentially a spyware/virus program that also opens the door for even more harmful hackers to access your computer. Although they have now recalled these CD’s after being exposed, they have yet to apologize for thinking they had the right to invade your privacy and opening up your personal computer for the outside world to invade. I am putting them on my personal boycott list, and I officially no longer feel bad for joining the BMG club under several different names to get more free cd’s back in the good ‘ol days.

Hollywood is Selling Out…

2005-11-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I have been noticing many more product placements in tv shows and movies lately, where companies like pepsi and coke pay big bucks to have the on screen actors taking a swig of their product, and other companies pay to have their products used or visibly in the background. While watching medium the other night, on NBC, I began to think that we are about to be bombarded with this type of advertising. Not only was there a product placement, but basically the script of the show was written to promote the Memoirs of a Geisha movie. The main characters talk about going to see that movie, there is a scene at the movie theater where they talk with other characters about how good the movie was, and throughout the episode the little girl character keeps asking her mom out of the blue how to spell “Geisha”. I am not surprised that the network whores would sell out for few extra bucks, but I am surprised that the artsy writers’ guild union script writers would sacrifice their art of script writing so that the networks can make a few extra bucks by turning the shows into commercials.

Happy Halthanksmas!!!

2005-11-02T11:45:00.000-05:00

Let me be the first to say… Happy Halthanksmas!! No, this is not my botching of a Jewish Holiday, this is the name I give to the festive time of year created by retailers that spans from Later summer until after the New Year. The time of year where you can one stop shop at walmart and get Halloween costumes, Christmas trees, and inflatable animated turkeys. What used to be separate holidays is merging into one big season of excuses to spend money on decorating your home. We do decorate around our house somewhat, but things are starting to get carried away. Two houses in my neighborhood started with the Christmas light display the day after Halloween. Many of the traditional Christmas type decorations are now being used by other Holidays. I have seen Halloween Icicle lights, Inflatable Halloween-Jack-o-Lantern Snow men, Halloween trees with lights and ornaments. The only thing I have not seen yet, is orange, purple, green, red and white lights that you can use for the entire Halthanksmas Season!! (of course the retailers want you to keep buying things separately!!)

Adding Up the Plus Card Gas Savings

2005-10-31T14:09:00.000-05:00

I have problems with the whole loyalty card programs that everyone seems to be having these days in the grocery world. I am astonished that so many people are clamoring to krogers to spend $100 so that they can save 10 cents a gallon on their next fill up. People I work with actually plan on going to the store on the last day of the month so they can reach the next $100 mark in grocery purchases. I am all for saving money on gas, but does the Kroger plus card campaign save money overall? I tend to think not. My own research puts krogers prices about 5-15% higher than other local grocery stores. So, for every $100 that you spend on groceries, so you save 10 cents a gallon on gas, you spend at least $5 bucks more than you would have at meijers, cub foods, or biggs. For reference, my car holds 14 gallons of gas, and I usually have room for 13 when I get gas. If I could save 10 cents a gallon, that is $1.30. I am not excited about spending an extra $5 per hundred to save $1.30 in gas. Why are so many other people?

Once Upon a Child

2005-10-31T13:54:00.000-05:00

I have been known in the past to frequent the second stores looking for good bargains. It has been a while since I shopped a once upon a child store, but I was out of town for the night, and had some time to kill, so I ventured in looking for some bargains on kid’s clothing. It seems that some second hand greed has set in since my last visit to the store. Rack after rack was loaded with items marked at about 50% of the new retail value! This is ridiculous! If an item still had store tags on it, the price was about 75-80% of retail. Plain used children’s Place shirts for $6.. ragged out baby gap shirts for $6.50… do these people ever go to the retail stores to see what you can get brand new clothes off the clearance racks for? After a few minutes of browsing, and a few whiffs of the shoe section two aisles over, I decided to venture to the mall. At the childrens place, I bought 2 pair of pants for $7 each, and $5 shirt. At the gap store, I loaded up on 5 or 6 shirts marked down from $16 to $2.79 each!!! Sorry OUAC, I am a retail man now when it comes to kids clothes. I have seen the light.

Out of their Gourds!!

2005-10-25T10:42:00.000-04:00

I have blogged previously about the exploitation of organic ingredients after seeing lip balm labeled 55% organic. All in all, I have mixed emotions about the whole organic thing, but during this Halloween season, I must again post an organic blog. At the grocery store, they are advertising organic GOURDS!! Decorate your porch with USDA certified organic gourds. How ridiculous is this? I realize that in some cultures people may actually eat gourds, but these were clearly marketed as ornamental fall items. Do people really jump for the Organic Label in non-edible products?

Good News! The North Pole is MELTING!!

2005-10-13T21:06:00.000-04:00

I read an interesting article in the New York Times about global warming. It takes an unusual look at the rarely heard of “good news” about global warming. Kind of makes you get excited about seeing the all the ice melt! Here are some of the highlights….

New shipping routes are being opened up as the ice melts resulting in quicker and cheaper ocean freight for imports and exports. With cheaper ocean freight, that 4-in-one omelet spatula at Walmart may be 72 cents instead of 78 cents!

New Oil reserves, once buried under glaciers are now easier to get to. We might need to start expanding the Alaskan Pipeline to make it easier to get this new oil to our refineries!

Desolate frozen areas, once thawed, will become hotbeds for development and “colonization” – Get the urban sprawl machine gassed up…were going north! With all the igloos melting, the Eskimos are in the market for entry level condos.

New exotic cruise ship lanes going to the seasonally warm north pole would boost the travel industry. Be the first to stay at the all inclusive North Pole resort, where you can swim with the polar bears!!

Haunted "Goat" Rides

2005-10-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I have been a teenager and the big plans for the week during October were to go to the local haunted houses or hayrides on Friday night. Ten years ago the going rate was two or three dollars. I have been hearing advertisements for ten to fifteen dollars to do this now. I am having a hard figuring out why it costs so much. You pay teenagers to wear scary masks and scare people. The minimum wage has not changed much over the past ten years, so what has? I think it is GREED!! Where do kid’s the money for this kind of stuff?

Inflatable Yard Junk

2005-10-07T22:14:00.000-04:00

Well, the Christmas decoration companies have pulled it off. They have been working diligently trying to come up with something bigger and tackier than the huge inflatable snowmen that have become popular over the past few years. At Sam’s Club they now have an 8 foot diameter inflatable snow globe. THIS THING IS HUGE!! When will the obsession of yard inflatables pass? It is getting ridiculous!! Another thing I saw was the 8' singing santa which seems to be the upgrade of last years 5' singing santa.

Katrina Aid

2005-09-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

O.K., someone has to say this… Katrina victims may already be getting enough money. Everyone and their brother is collecting money for the Katrina victims. The federal government is on track to spend 200 billion. If only 200 million people in this country actually pay taxes, each one will be paying $1000. In a sense, we are all contributing already with taxes taken out of our paychecks every week. That kind of cuts down on how much I throw in the boot everytime I walk out of a grocery store. We kind of saw the same thing after 9/11, where most families that lost someone ended up with millions.

Generation Pimp

2005-05-16T14:34:00.000-04:00

It is prom season, and more and more I am seeing the guys dressing up in pimp suits. It used to be a thing for the wild and crazy group to get dressed up as pimps when they go out on the town, but I am starting to wonder if this is actually a fashion trend that is catching on? The mall in our area has a formal tux rental place that always has a pimp suit showcased, but it seems that people are actually wearing these!! Are they for real? Should I be shopping around for an orange and green striped tux jacket for my next formal occasion?

Wasting Time in Congress...

2005-05-09T12:04:00.000-04:00

What the hell are our elected officials doing? There are many big issues that need to be resolved in this country right now (Social Security, Energy Bill, Immigration, etc) and it seems that many of our representatives in congress are dodging the difficult assignments and looking for easier media waves to ride for popularity. We heard all about the congress trying to do something about baseball players using steroids, consuming countless hours of our elected officials. Baseball is a game! Next we heard alot of debate about Terry Shiavo, which was a sad case for all sides, but not necessarily one that our elected officials should try to make an issue out of. Now congress is taking up the steroid debates for football players. Who cares?!! Get to work!!

Ruby Tuesdays joins the "Axis of FAT"

2005-05-06T22:03:00.000-04:00

Well, Ruby Tuesdays has officially joined the "Axis of FAT". They have decided that cutting back on french fry portion sizes and adding healthier menu items is bad for business. Since doing these things, their business has dropped off almost 10%. I was impressed last year during the peak of the low carb craze they put calories and fat grams on all of their menu items. Now they are going back to the old school ways with the introduction of the new ultimate collosal burger, with a pound of beef, 3 buns, and cheese. With fries and pop, you get 2200 calories and 141 grams of fat. Burger King, Hardees, and now Ruby Tuesdays are coming to the same conclusion: Unhealthy people have money too, and they are willing to spend it on big portions of fat laden food.

Put that cookie back....

2005-05-04T14:20:00.000-04:00

I am all for healthy living, and teaching kids about healthy practices, but do we need take the cookies away from Cookie monster? Well, PBS (probably pursuaded by the FDA) has got Cookie on a diet. Instead of gobbling up platefuls of cookies at a time, he is now saying that cookies are a "sometimes" food, and that you should eat fruits and more nutritious foods most of the time. I do not think there are many fat and unhealthy people that blame their weight on the cookie monster. I grew up with cookie monster, and although I can wax off half a box of girl scout cookies in one sitting, I do not think that I was negatively influenced by sesame street. Let the kids have their cookie monster, at least he is not fighting and trying to kill all of the other characters. Maybe to help solve the homeless problem they should make Oscar get cleaned up and get a job instead of living on the street eating garbage.

Quit Hitting Me...

2005-05-03T13:38:00.000-04:00

It is hard to watch commercials without seeing a networks promote their own shows as "new hit comedy" or "new hit drama". What is the qualification for the new, never before seen show to be labeled a "HIT". I think that maybe Seinfeld, Cheers, and the like would fall into the HIT category, but Stacked?? Life on a stick?? Usually when they stop labelling it as a "new hit show", it is on the verge of being pulled. Let the viewers decide over time what is a HIT. Don't try to pump your show up by calling it one. By the way, thanks for checking out my New HIT blogsite!!

"Bride-to-Be" Media Hype

2005-05-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

Now that the missing bride to be has been found, is anyone else thinking that the whole thing is not much of a news story at all? A bride got cold feet before a wedding and took off. Is that important national news? I think this is a good example of how the media whores are not interested in keeping people informed of current events, but instead they are interested in getting people to watch mini soap operas that they create by pumping lots of hype and coverage into otherwise minor everyday events. They hope to get people hooked into one story after another to get their ratings up. This is fine for reality shows, but should it be labeled as news? If historical statistics hold true for last week, there were thousands of missing people reports filed with probably hundreds still missing. Where is the media coverage for everyone else?

Diet Coke.. Pick your poison!

2005-05-02T09:09:00.000-04:00

Coca-Cola next month will be rolling out a new diet coke, this one called Coke Zero (think they are trying to undercut Pepsi One?) Apparantly they came up with yet another blend of chemical sweeteners to give a slightly different nasty aftertaste that they think will catch on to the young and hip crowd that are too cool for diet coke. Now we have diet coke, diet coke sweetened with splenda, diet vanilla coke, diet cherry coke, diet lemon coke, diet lime coke, c2 coke (the half diet, half regular bastard coke), and now coke zero. Did I forget any? Where will it end? How much is enough? Maybe they are taking notes from the colgate toothpaste company, which I counted 28 different varieties of toothpaste at the grocery store. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

The Dairy Diet (Sponsored by the Dairy Association)

2005-04-27T14:08:00.000-04:00

I have been hearing alot of promotion about the diet where you drink milk, eat cheese and yogurt, and lose your gut. I am not a diet expert, but I am skeptical when the people who profit from dairy products promote a dairy products diet.
There claim is that "Enjoying 3-A-Day™ of Dairy - 3 servings of milk, cheese or yogurt each day - as part of a reduced-calorie diet can help burn more fat and give better results when it comes to trimming the waistline than just cutting calories alone."

If it works out to be legitimate, that would be good, since I do like yogurt, but I am not sure if it is all that. After taking a quick look at the study the claim was based on, it seems too early to tell. The study was based on 32 obese people who went 24 weeks on a severely reduced calorie diet, some with dairy, some without. After the 24 weeks, the people who had dairy lost more weight than those who did not. I am not sure if my situation would give the same results as an obese person on a weight watchin boot camp.

The study also does not touch on the health dangers of higher fat and cholesterol. The research for the study was paid for by the makers of Lactaid, the milk anyone can drink. I also found this footnote on the study of interest:

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed, in part, by the payment of page charges. This article must, therefore, be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

55% Organic Lip Balm.. good enough for you?

2005-04-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

I know that alot of people are jumping on the Organic food bandwagon. I have mixed feelings myself. Yes, it is good to limit the amount of chemicals we eat with our meals, but we bought some organic romaine hearts the other day and it was full of little red bugs that probably would not have been there if there were some pesticides used along the line.

Anyway, I bought some lip balm that was labelled "55% organic". Like there are actually people who would be impressed with that? 50% is take it or leave, but damn, 55% is a must have? The other 45% could be toxic chemicals, but the 55% filler material is organic!

Rental Car Insurance Rip Off

2005-04-25T13:42:00.000-04:00

My wife and I rented a car this weekend from Enterprise. Since I have rented cars before I was waiting for the part where he would explain the expensive insurance options. To my suprise, the guy at the counter did not mention the insurance. As my wife was getting ready to sign the bottom I asked him about where you decline the insurance coverage. He then pointed out the $23 a day in additional charges! He was not even going to mention them! Our $40 a day rate would have been $63 a day. It depends on your own insurance coverage, but in most cases you are already covered with rental cars on your usual car insurance policy. Here is an article that describes some other things to watch for when renting cars.

Getting Greedy with the Pickles...

2005-04-25T11:36:00.000-04:00

Well, pickle greed has bumped the price of my white castle combo meal up over the $6 mark. A #1 combo with 4 jalapeno cheeseburgers, fries and a coke, extra pickles is now reserved for special occasions. Near the end of last year they raised the price from $4.85 to $5.45, and now they started charging $0.55 for a small cup of extra pickles. Add in tax and I'm up over $6.

So now when I go to whitecastles for lunch, I skip the fries, pop, and extra pickles. 4 jalapeno cheeseburgers and an ice water are half the price ($3). It is amazing that the white castle iniards think that people are so addicted to pop and fries (and I guess pickles too) that we would spend twice as much to eat lunch!

Less Sugar More Hype... B-B-B-Busted!

2005-04-12T13:49:00.000-04:00

Remember my early blog, Less Sugar, More Hype? Well, now some lady in California is suing General Mills for intentionally misleading consumers about its products. (Maybe she was inspired by Iniard Watch?) Probably not, but they are seeking a class action status in California to represent anyone who bought the cereals thinking they were healthier. Read more about it here.

The iniards at General Mills are now saying that they never made any health claims about the reduced sugar cereals. They were only responding to consumers interests in providing cereals with less sugar. They are blowing so much smoke out of their ass they can not see straight! They knew it was just a marketing scheme to try to increase sales. Now we can watch the iniards squirm trying to get out of hot water with this. There are some new studies to confirm that they are not any healthier because of the lower sugar.

Wake up with the King - (A Greasy Fat Freaky King)

2005-04-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

Well, I have blogged a few times about how McDonalds and Wendy's look to be getting into the high profit healthier menu items. It looks like Burger King is bucking the trend and going after the people that just don't care about what they eat. Introducing the Enourmous Omelet Sandwhich...

At 760 Calories and 50 grams of fat, this meaty wonder even out fats the whopper. Get the combo with the grease nuggets and an orange juice, and you are starting your day off with 1130 calories and 65 grams of fat.

By the way, is anyone else freaked out by King in their new commercials? I had a nightmare last that I woke up and found that that big ass pez headed king freak laying next to me. It gives me the chills just thinking about it!!

NO MORE (NO MORE LATE FEES!!)

2005-04-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

You may remember my previous blog about Blockbusters No More Late Fee scam. Well as it turns out, blockbuster has now settled a law suit brought on by attorney generals of 46 states. The No More Late Fee program can no longer be advertised unless all other fees and policies are clearly stated. Anyone who paid for the movies or for restocking fees are entitled to a refund. You can read more about it here.

They have already revamped their website so the only NO MORE LATE FEES banner you see is now the court required link from their homepage. What is interesting is how they describe the whole ordeal. They were working with a "negotiating group" (AKA a group of trial lawyers in a court of law) to further "enhance their communications about the program" (AKA to correct the lies and mistatements about their scam). And now they have a new "offer" (AKA court required reimbursement) for customers that "did not completely understand" (AKA were suckers as intended). It is funny how they try to look so good after being SPANKED so hard!!!

It now appears that their new initiative is to dip their balls a more proven business model like netflix offering dvd's delivered to your mailbox. I still stick to my previous prediction that Blockbuster will be belly up before too long.

Time to pack my lunch?

2005-04-06T11:14:00.000-04:00

After keeping up with reports by El Blogo, who is seeing his lunch budget go through the roof because his wendy's extra value menu went away, I started to get concerned about my own lunch situation. After checking the Wendy's website, it seems that the extra value menu is available at participating restraunts only. So if your Wendy's decides to do away with it, complain to the manager or simply find another Wendy's to go to. If some Wendy's are starting to do this, however, I expect they will all be following suit. They will probably take notes from McDonalds.

It has been well publicized that McDonalds had significant increases in their profits last year, despite some negative press about the supersize me movie and the growing trend of people wanting to be more healthy. They did away with their "supersize" menus and started pushing the salads. It is easy to understand why their profits are going up. They charge outrageous prices for the salads knowing that people who are trying to be a little healthier are willing to pay a little more. This is why their entree salads are so expensive, but because the ingredients are expensive, and certainly not because of the labor involved. They make these salads up the night before (or maybe days ahead of time), and they sit in the cooler until you order it. If you order a salad and a dasani water, you pay over $6 and it takes them all of 5 seconds to get it out of the cooler. There is no bun to toast, to hamburger to grill, no ketchup to squeeze, nothing. Minimal labor and drastic markups on the ingredients equal more profit for Mcdonalds.

Now Wendy's could be starting to phase out the extra value meal, now that they are promoting the idea of substiting "healthier" (aka former value menu items) in place of fries. They probably realize that people will pay more combo meals if they thing they are eating somewhat healthier. Getting people off of the 99 cent salad and potatoe meal may also force more people into the pricey entree salad category (which is not necessarily healthy). Time will tell, but we will be watching....

p.s. my $2 combo at wendy's consist of (2) ceaser side salads with low fat honey mustard dressing and an ice water. Two salads together are about as much food at less than half the costs and calories of the pricey entree salad.

Tide ColdWater Cleans Your Wallet Out (in Cold Water!)

2005-04-05T16:03:00.000-04:00

Breaking news alert... Proctor and Gamble, out of concern for the escalating energy crisis, has developed a new laundry detergent for washing clothes in cold water. They claim that the energy to heat the water is the most expensive part of doing laundry and the average household will save $63 a year on utility bills.

I used their online calculator to determine that my households laundry habits would only save about $25 a year in utilities. What they do not figure into their calculation, however, is how much extra you will spend on their detergent.

If you go to the grocery store, the regular tide is the same price as the new cold wash tide for the same size box. However, for each load of the cold wash detergent, you need a bigger scoop, so the same size box does fewer loads. If you are already using tide (which is already about 15% more expensive than the next highest priced brand), then the additional cost of detergent over the course of a year is about $22.

Since I do not like to piss my money away on soap, I buy bulk laundry detergent at sams club. I get 96 loads worth for $10.78 (ALL free n clear). If I were to switch to the new Tide cold wash, so I could save $25 a year in my utilities, it would cost me an EXTRA $71 a year in detergent.

P&G is spending tons of money on advertising this breakthrough product, trying to get people hooked on it. What really chaps my ass about the whole thing is how they are trying to come out as the good guy for trying to solve the world's energy crisis. They have a campaign they call the coldwater challenge. They are trying to get a million people to sign up for the challenge to save energy. If a million people do the challenge, they will donate $100k to help low income families with their utility bills. How special.

If they get a million people like me to switch, they would be getting rich from selling detergent. They do not care about the energy consumers use, they are only after the money we spend on utilities, and then some. The $100k they pledge to donate is only about 0.2% of the extra money they will get out of people. INIARDS!!

Social Security Reform

2005-04-05T10:43:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of propaganda floating around about what people should think about social security reform. Clear your head of all the media opinion that probably comes to mind and take a few minutes to learn more about it and how it will affect your own retirement planning...

The British are Coming! The British are coming! (all over my tv!)

2005-04-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

Every other reality TV show has a british speaking host. Do the network executives think that the american tv viewing audience is addicted to sound of a british accent. Is it true? Personally I am not as wooed by the accent as others must be. There is nothing wrong with a host that speaks english with an american accent. It is almost getting ridiculous. Many of the shows have hosts with obviously fake accents, like they realized that their resume was lacking the british accent, so they are improvising with a bastardized combination of european accents. Have you heard Madonna do any interviews lately? Apparantly she is also trying to gain popularity by adopting a british accent. What's next? Local news anchors, politicians, ??? I say we take pride in being american and quit glamorizing the accent.

Mortgage Insurance

2005-03-31T12:41:00.000-05:00

I have been bombarded with offers lately by my mortgage company for mortgage protection insurance. This is insurance that would pay off the mortgage in the event of my or my lovely wife's untimely departure from this world. I usually ignore these kind of things, but since I am investigating increasing my life insurance coverage, I thought I would enteratain the offer out of curiousity.

The bottom line is that for $36 a month, conveniently added to my house payment, they would pay off the mortgage. For the same amount per month, I could get a 20 year term life insurance policy for almost 3 times the amount of my mortgage!! The offer by my mortgage company is a RIP!!

I told the guy on the phone how for the same amount per month I could get a lot more coverage. His response was that I may have to get a physical with a typical life insurance policy and I would not have the convenience of it being added to the house payment. Like that would make it worth paying twice as much for half the coverage!!

Don't shave your wallet...

2005-03-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

Read some comments about overpriced gillette razor products posted by bschneider5 over at brad's blog, and it resparked a little flame I had burning over the weekend after watching a new gillette commercial. You see commercials all the time between gillette, schick, and others touting the latest and greatest technology in razor blades. This truly is an industry driven by promoting an image. There is little or no difference in my opinion between the close shave factor of a 2 blade, 3 blade, 4 blade, quattro, cinqo, turbo charged, non turbo, with wings, lotion strip, rubber grips, etc. The basis of operation is a blade cutting hair from your face. The rest is hype and marketing. They have teams of people (marketing people, not razor technology experts) that are sitting in board rooms figuring out how to get people to spend more money to shave their face.

Anyway, in the new ad, the gillette iniards are going after my crowd, the 2-3 time a week shavers. They are trying to tell me how much better I will feel if I shaved everyday. Like they even care about how good I feel. If they were to convince me to buy their razors and shave everyday, they would end up making about $1500 more of me in razor products over the next 30 years. If everyone did that, they would be feeling pretty good, don't you think?

I used to be a gillet sensor man, but for the past several years I have been a target brand "sensorish" brand. I actually use the same razors my wife buys for her legs, which by the way, is the same thing only in a greenish color. Gillette for some reason, charges a lot more for the women. They probably figure that the women are willing to spend more, so they think they can charge more.

~No ablay espanyol~

2005-03-22T14:47:00.000-05:00

I called my Chase credit card customer service line this morning (800.545.0464) and was greeted in Spanish. After the greeting, which I have know idea what it said, I was given the option (in english) to press "1" to continue in English. I have gotten quite used to hearing the spanish options on the automated customer service lines such as "par continuae en espanol, pressa numero quatro" enough to the point where I can guess on what the individual words are. This morning, however, the initial greeting was in spanish, as if I (the english speaking customer) was the secondary customer base to the spanish speaking world. Shouldn't a US bank servicing accounts in the US greet its customers with a message in English? I don't know, call me selfish, but I think I deserve to be greeted in English when calling my US based bank from the middle of the United States. Is Chase bank more concerned with sucking up to the spanish speaking crowd than they are their English speaking customer base? I wonder which iniard at Chase thought that was a good idea.

Splenda for one and for all

2005-03-15T12:04:00.000-05:00

I heard on the news that Coca Cola is going to be doing some serious marketing around the launch of its new diet cola that will be sweetened with Splenda, the 8th wonder of the world as some people consider it. I have problems with the negative or unknown effects of many of the artificial sweeteners, and I also have some problems with the big cola companies in general. (look for future blog when I get time on the whole C2 marketing ploy)

My concern about Splenda is how many people I know are hooked into believing that it is good for you. They like the way it taste, and think it is a natural alternative to sugar. We all hear the ads running stating that "it's made from sugar, so it taste like sugar". You can just imagine some little farmer out melting sugar down in an old maple syrup shed to make the splenda out of sugar. Lets be natural and healthy and start eating splenda, right?

Splenda is actually a highly processed chemical compound that is made from sucralose, which is basically made by adding chlorine to molecules of sugar. So splenda is sort of made from sugar, but could have just as well been made from any other carbon chain molecule. Many chemical processes are used to convert the sucralose to splenda. Other chemicals produced as byproducts of these processes include mustard gas. Mustard gas... made from sugar so it taste like sugar? Not hardly.

Maybe this is why the makers of Splenda are being sued by the Sugar Council and Equal for their "sugar" claims. Once you change the molecular structure of sugar, it is no longer sugar, it is a chemical compound that your body reacts to completely different than sugar. The effects of these chemicals from long term use are not known. Also, with artificial sweeteners gaining in poplularity, it is not known how the different sweeteners on the market interact in your body on a short term or long term scale.

Beware of the all the hype you will be hearing from Coca Cola and splenda as they introduce the new diet coke to the market. Keep in mind that they are glamourizing a complex man made chemical and trying to pump it into your body without knowing how it will affect you after 5, 10, 20, or 30 years.

This is another example of corporate Iniards at work. As for me, I will stick to my policy of everything in moderation, and continue to enjoy regular old sugar whenever I can.

Read more about splenda here...
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/100/105877.htm
http://creativehealth.netfirms.com/poison/splenda_poison.shtml
http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm#

tic tac tallywack, give the dog some carbs

2005-03-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

Now that we are living in the low carb world, you see many companies coming out with new and improved low carb options for things we are used to eating. Well, the iniards at the Ferrero candy company, makers of tic tacs, chooses a different route. Instead overcoming the impossible feat of making the popular 99% sugar breath mint low carb, they are putting their chips on deceptive labeling. If you look at the nutritional information on the back of a pack of tic tacs, you will notice right away that there are no carbs!! How could the main ingredient be sugar, and there be no carbs? Well, the answer "lies" within the asterik by the zero. They have conveniently sized each tic tac to be 0.49 grams, of which it contains almost 0.49 grams of sugar. They have also conveniently made the serving size 1 mint. Since they are allowed to round to the nearest gram of carbs, they can say that a serving of tic tacs has 0 carbs*. I know this because I can read microprinting on the bottom of the nutritional information labels, but I am sure there are many people out there swelling up on their low carb lifestyle getting all excited about being able to eat tic tacs. Although there are 0* carbs in a serving, there are 36 servings, and 18g of carbs in a little box that I can usually wax off in about 10 minutes on my way home from work.

Dannon Yogurt - shame on you.

2005-02-26T16:14:00.000-05:00

Last year, Dannon yogurt joined the ranks of many companies that decided to start gouging consumers through drastic price hikes in order to boost company profits. They do not do it through raising prices, they do it through reducing packaging sizes.

They came out with a new yogurt cup that has extra room built into the container for you to add fruit, granola, or whatever you want! They went out of their way to design a new package just for your benefit. What they did, is they took a 8 oz yogurt cup with retail price of 79 cents, and switched it out with a 6 oz yogurt cup that costs the same. By doing this, they increased the price per ounce of yogurt by 33%, and then had the nerve to act they did it because their customers wanted more room in the cup for toppings.

If you compare the actual cup, there is now a false bottom, and there is a little bit more of an angle on the side of the container. Both of these do nothing more than create the illusion that you are getting about the same amount of yogurt as before.

If they really wanted to do people a favor by leaving room in the cup for customized toppings, then they could have put less yogurt in the old style cup and charged less for it.

Many people probably don’t even realize stuff like this, which is why I feel the need to point it out. I still buy it when it is on sale, which seems to be more frequently now that they get a pretty good profit margin, but it chaps my ass every time I think about it. Just about any time a company changes it’s packaging, pay close attention to how the price per unit ounce is affected.

By the way, if you call Dannon to complain about it, they claim that they do not dictate what the grocery stores charge, and that some grocers have lowered the price. (then they will give a couple of coupons.)

Parties for the ladies…

2005-02-26T16:12:00.000-05:00

I have no problem with the ladies getting together on their own to have a get together for no apparent reason. I do however, have some problems with the companies that market through in home party demonstrations. As we speak, my wife is hosting a party for stampin up. She was a guest at a party a couple of weeks ago, and agreed to having a party at our house today.

The whole business model for these companies is very similar to a pyramid scheme type company like Amway. You find people that want to have a party, they get all their friends together, and they get discount and free merchandise depending on how much crap their friends buy. If you get someone else to have a party you get even more free stuff.

The reason why it is successful is because everyone who comes to your party feels obligated to buy at least something. The hosts spend a lot of money usually on stuff for themselves so that they get to the next bonus level of discounts and freebies. The host also usually spends a bit of money on food and drinks. In the end, everybody spends a lot of money as a result of the party.

I have no problem with spending money on a get together with friends. But, if you do not have to pad the profits of these in home marketing companies in order to have a party. If you want to have a part, just have a party. More people will come and enjoy themselves if they do not have to feel obligated to buy crap they really don’t want. If you wanted to have a hobby/craft party, have everyone bring their own stuff to share, and everyone can learn something new, make a new craft, without breaking the bank. As a host, you may not get anything free, but is it really free if consider that for hosting a party you get a $75 value gift (which you could get on ebay for $20) and you spend $50 on food in addition to whatever marked up merchandise you buy?
If you want to have party, but feel like you need to waste some money to do it, just send me a check!

NO MORE LATE FEES!!!

2005-02-24T13:53:00.000-05:00

I am sure that you all have seen the new advertising campaign from Blockbuster video claiming the end of late fees. No more late fees, wow. No wonder all the people in the ads are dancing in the streets and worshiping their local blockbuster video store. Personally I try to buy DVD's of the movies I want to watch, because when I do rent them, I end up paying late fees that would amount to almost what a DVD cost anyway. Anyway, curious got the best of me so I thought I would read the fine print on the "NO MORE LATE FEES" claim, which by the way, was very difficult to even find the fine print published anywhere.

The truth is that you can turn the movies in a few days late and not pay a late fee. If however, you are a week late in turning the movies back in, they conveniently charge your credit card the full retail price of the movie. You can still bring the movie back within 30 days, and they will refund the credit card less a $1.75 per movie restocking fee. (Note: it is not a "late" fee, it is a "restocking" fee. I guess it costs them more to put a late video back on the shelf than it does normally, and they are simply passing those extra costs on to the consumer?)
I do not see the glory in their policy and bet that they will not be losing any money with the new "no more late fees" procedures. They are banking on the fact that half the people that get charged the price of the movie will not try to get a refund, and that they will also be making a fair amount off of restocking fees. They are using clever marketing to try to make people think that the world has changed and is much better now.

What this really illustrates, is how companies like Netflix are really putting pressure on the brick and mortar rental places, and now block buster is getting desperate. I give it a few more years until there really are no more late fees from blockbuster because they will be out of business.

Down with Echeck!!

2005-02-24T13:12:00.000-05:00

Yippee, it is truly exciting times as the Director of the Ohio EPA has recommended that the Echeck vehicle emmission program be discontinued after this year. Reserve your celebrations, however, because the State General Assembly needs to vote on his recommendation before it is official.
The Echeck program has been a waste of time and money since it started. The iniard politicians in Columbus decided that it was a good idea for the rest of the state to have to do this testing. (There has never been a requirement to do Echeck in Columbus). Last year, they decided that any car with the check engine light on would automatically fail the test. They must have financial interests in the Chrysler Service centers! My chysler has passed the emmissions test with flying colors years ago when the check engine light was on. Last year, I had to spend hundreds of dollars to get the check engine light problem fixed so I could "pass" the test. The problem I fixed had nothing to do with emmissions, and did not help the air quality at all.
I am glad to see it will be done away with, but I do have one question left... if it has already been decided that the test is no longer needed, why wait until the end of the year. They claim the state has a contract with the testing company, but even still, why make people do the test. Have the people who are supposed to be tested this year just pay the testing fee, without having to get the car tested. Although still a waste of money, it would not be a waste of time and would not make people waste hard earned money on needless repairs.

$35 a week computer

2005-02-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

I am surprised this is even legal... Have you seen the late night commercials advertising the computer system that anyone can qualify for credit to get? They show a variety of clean cut people representing every ethnic background saying “I got mine!” with a real excited look on their face. For $35 a week for 12 months, you can get yours too! If you can’t afford a computer, don’t worry, we will give you the credit you deserve. What kind of an iniard would pay $1820 for a computer system? What kind of a company would think that people that could otherwise not afford a $399 dell computer, would be able to over the next 12 months pay $1820 for a computer system? Even the shopping channels that try to sell the $1500 computer systems at least give you a camera and other stuff. These $35 a week people sink to an even lower level.

Less Sugar, More Hype

2005-02-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

I am at the grocery store and I see all of the general mills cereals now have WHOLE GRAIN plastered across the front of the box. Wow, are they making them more healthy now? Does General Mills have genuine concern about the nutritional health of my children? Also, I see all of the new "REDUCED SUGAR - 75% LESS ADDED SUGAR". Wow, they are making the cereal with whole grain now and using less sugar.

The fact is, they have always been made with overprocessed whole grains, and their marketing department thought they could create the illusion that they are suddenly more "good for you" than they used to be. No different, just hype. And for the reduced sugar cereal, if there is 75% less sugar added, shouldn't there be fewer calories for the same serving size? Let's see... the calories are the same, the total carbs are the same, and the sugars are about the same. What? How could this be, with 75% less sugar? Well, they take the sugar out and substitute it with corn syrup solids. What are corn syrup solids? Corn syrup solids are sugars. They are not quite as sweet as sugar, but they are sugars. To make up for the sweetness, they put in some artificial sweetener, which may have it's own set of concerns. If you take out the sugar, and replace it with any of the -oses (fructose, glucose, sucrose, dextrose) or syrups, you are only changing what you call your sugars. Nutritionally, the reduced sugar cereals are not any better for your kids than the regular version.

The Iniards at General Mills are really blowing smoke out of their ass trying to capitalize on the new wave of people trying to be "a little less unhealthy" than before.

here we go....

2005-02-14T23:23:00.000-05:00

o.k., so now I am signed up with my own blog site. Now I can dedicate myself to making infrequent and random comments about my infrequent and random thoughts. More to come...