You're fired.

Last week, I was sitting in a chair at the salon.  The lady, who cuts my hair, seemed a bit preoccupied and slightly irritated.  More than a few times, I thought my ear was going to wind up on the floor.

The receptionist approached her and asked, "So what are you going to do with that lady?"

"Fire her." the stylist replied.

I chimed in, "You're going to fired a client?"

It blows my mind just how much money women are willing to spend on a hair cut.  I gripe because I have to pay $20 but some of these women stylists go upwards to $200.

Now it's understandable that if you're going to pay $200 for styling for your hair that you should rightfully expect a $200 styling.  The client-business relationship states that the more you pay, the higher the level of service.  This applies to anything, be it clothes or cars.

So what happens if you pay the $200 and the service sucks?  Demand your money back?  Refuse to pay?  Maybe.  Odds are the one action you would take would be to never, ever return.  After all, why would I pay an additional $200 for another crappy hair cut from the exact same person?

Well my stylists had a customer who did exactly that.  For years, she would come into the salon and do nothing but complain about how awful her haircut was "the last time".  And every time she came in, my stylist would be mentally drained.  Now to give you an idea of how psychotic this customer is, my stylist has changed locations four times in the last 8 years.  During each move, my stylist alerts her customers to her new location EXCEPT this lady.  She somehow tracks down the stylist and resumes her badgering.

In this tough economy, where everyone is cutting back on their expenses, my stylist made the command decision and fired this client.

Good for her.

I've always balked at the phrase "The customer is always right."  Tim Ferris took this concept to task in his book and I agreed whole-heartedly.

No matter what you do, a certain small percentage of the population is going to nit-pick every detail and do everything they can to run you into the ground.  I'm not sure if this is some deep rooted issue stemming from a spoiled childhood or insecurity issues.  All I do know is that it thrills me to no end that customers have a choice and businesses have a choice.

Television on Demand

Last week, ABC relaunched the successful "V" mini-series from the 80's.  And thanks to my rather hectic schedule, I missed it.  Even with a DVR at my disposal, I missed it.  Please RSVP if you'd like to attend my pity party.  Word through the ether spread that V would be available on Hulu.com.  Sunday morning, I sat down with my coffee and earbuds and watched V on my Mac. 

That

was

cool.

Watching television on the internet existed long before this.  I somehow stumbled onto this show called Shark Tank which I was able to watch on ABC's website.  For being online, the quality of the shows was actually very crisp.

Then I asked myself, "What if I shut off cable tv completely?"

Of course the first thought that popped into my head was that $60/month would be saved.  My monthly cable bill is $130 which includes internet and a few hundred channels.  Cut out the television part and suddenly I'm left with a $70 internet bill.  That leaves $60/month.  Well if the savings were only $10/month then I might not entertain the idea.  But anything over $50 is definitely worth taking a look at.

My next thought was a promise I made to myself: I refuse to sacrifice the quality of life for the almighty dollar.  So if cable tv were to be shut off, then I'd have to find an equivalent source of entertainment.  Two of my television shows were located online.  What about the rest?

Between sites like Hulu.com, tnt.tv, QuickSilverScreen and FanCast.com I found nearly 95% of our television shows.  I had no idea so much content was available online!  But more and more of it is becoming available so what's the problem?  And it's on demand.  Nice.  The weiner heads at NBC don't broadcast their shows on the internet.  But HD is broadcast for free with a thirty dollar HD antenna.  Then there's Netflix: over 75,000 movies and television shows on demand.  This is not free, of course.  But the $9/month charge subtracted from the potential $60 in savings is still $51/month.  PLUS we now have access once again to Foreign films (oui, je parle francais) and Independent films which I love.

Dare I say the quality of life just might improve?

There is the problem of logistics.  One advantage cable television has is the ability for all these various channels and programs to be available through one interface.  With my remote, I can scan hundreds of channels and push one button to start watching.  Now internet tv viewing involves remembering which websites have which programs.  Lots of keystrokes there.

I'm still researching the process.  Right now I'm stuck on the Mac Mini.  I believe the key to this project is within this tiny piece of technology.  It will easily support the LCD television in my living room.  But getting all this to work together will be a fascinating research project.  I'll report back in the future on what has become of this.

Halloween Policy and Procedures

SnowWhite has taken to Halloween.  In a big way.

Frenchies don't celebrate Halloween.  Yes, I know it's a big surprise.  The entire world does not unite in celebration at the thought of headless horsemen, vampires or serial killers roaming amonst us. 

For SnowWhite, I had to lay down the actual process of how this entire celebration worked.  If you know the words, sing-a-long.  You put your right foot in.  You put your right foot out.  You put your right foot in and-

Sorry.

Halloween Policy and Procedures

1. Kids wears some kind of custome.  Points award for costume being hand made.
2. Kids yell out "Trick or Treat"
3. You give candy
4. Kids say Thank you and leave

Really it's a no-brainer.  Being a little kid, I remember this process took about 25 milli-seconds for me to master.  Considering I had the attention span of a fruit fly, that was quite impressive.

One particular family showed up.  Four kids, ages four to fifteen, started the walk down the path towards our house.  I remember them simply for the fact that they failed the first rule of Halloween Procurement: wear a costume.  C'mon: how much effort does it take to grab a sheet, cut two holes into it, and put it over your head.  Even Charlie Brown had this feat of engineering down pat.  So what gives?

They then violated the second rule of Halloween Procurement: not a single one of them said "Trick or Treat".  Instead, each one stuck their bag out (paper bag from Ralphs) with the full expectation of getting at least 1 pound of sugar in their bag.  The eldest couldn't even be bothered to look up at SnowWhite; he was too busy texting his friends.

Not a single thank-you.

The littlest ones face changed from joy to disgust as she realized she was only going to get 3 candy bars.  Yes that's it little girl; only three.  Her eyes said it all as she turned away, "How cheap are these people!"

If you're not going to extend the curtesy of at least trying to dress up for this holiday you should probably be grateful for whatever you can get.  And considering we were one of only six hours giving out candy out of the 20 on our street, be thankful you got anything.

Next year, we'll have two bowls: one filled with candy and the other coal.  No costume means coal.

Cleaning Out

This past month, my objective was simple: clean out my storage unit.

What started out as temporary solution morphed into a permenant fixture.  One that has steadily been grating my nerves.  Each month, $110 floated out the door to pay for an 8' by 10' cell to hold my personal effects from my past.  It seemed odd that one person, could have enough personal effects as to warrant filling up one house and one storage unit.  How much stuff can one person have!

Our little house now full of little boxes, the choice was simple: keep it or toss it.  My logic to accomplish this task was quite simple: if I hadn't touched it in a year, toss it.  How much sentimental value can something have if I never see it?

One dusty box comprised VHS tapes.  Yep, VHS tapes.  What does VHS stand for anyway?  No clue.  I don't even have a VCR anymore.  Many of these tapes were directly from my childhood.  Do you remember Superfuzz?  Exactly.  Neither did I until I found the tape.  Superman 2, Star Trek 2, Grease 2 (why oh WHY did I record that?!?).

But each tape holds a memory.  That movie, for whatever reason, brought back memories of times long-since forgotten.  It was tough but some things do need to be let go.  I'm not interested in keeping a stack of old VHS tapes.  What I am interested in keeping are the memories that accompany those tapes.  How I'm going to remember is beyond me.  Maybe this blog entry will serve as the single reminder of those days long since passed.

The further back into the storage unit I go, the further back the memories go. 

Just in case you missed it, the pictures from Santa Barbara have been posted.

Pictures from Santa Barbara

The entire gallery is posted here for your viewing pleasure.

I captured a few highlights from the trip and posted them here.

 Downtown Santa Barbara

Beautiful ShopsHow sweet it is!Outside the wineryIf I keep swirling, it might get better.