3374 Reluctant Shopper

Saturday, October 22, 2011

I love my country, but I fear my government.
-- Bumper sticker --

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Would you believe I have nothing to say?

Sigh.

Nothing happening.

Oh, something that did happen: In Thursday's mail I got a birthday gift coupon from Coldwater Creek. I don't need clothes! I haven't bought anything in ages, and had no plans to do any clothes shopping in the near future. Far future, either. But there was no minimum to use the coupon, and if I didn't use it soon it would expire, so I figured what the heck, I'll pick out something for the amount of the coupon and get it for free. Note that I've already bought so much from them that I'm a "onecreek elite shopper", which gets me an automatic 5% off all purchases, and free expedited shipping, so it wouldn't cost me anything. I'm too cheap to pass up free clothes.

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!!!!!

So I went to the website, and clicked on the outlet, where stuff is 30-70% off.

Surprise. Thursday evening happened to be one of their big sales. 40% off everything, on top of the outlet discount! Holy crap!

So, outlet. 30-70% off list price. Then 40% plus my elite 5% off that reduced price, then the birthday gift amount off that total. And free shipping.

The order arrived today. I am now out of hangers.

It's official. I've hit the tipping point. I can never again lose or gain weight.

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One of my purchases was this jacket, in a size 8 (I get size 6 for summer, 8 for winter). What they sent instead was this skirt, in a size 42. Repeat, size 42.

I called customer service, and they're going to send me the jacket. They include pre-paid postage labels for returns (for elites), but if you don't want to package it for shipping, you can take it to any store.

I hadn't been to the local store yet, but I'd heard it was in an upscale enclave, so I went there this evening to return the skirt and check out the mall.

Two interesting things happened:
1. They'd never heard of OneCreek Elite. A quick check with corporate surprised and educated them. Apparently I'm the only elite in the area.
2. They accepted the returned skirt, and handed me a coupon for 40% off anything in the store.

Sheesh! I don't know how they're making any money on me!

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Coldwater has some very nice things. And if you can wait until an item hits the outlet, you can get some fabulous deals. But! They also have some pure crap. The kind of stuff that stretches out of shape by the third wearing, or is so thin it's chintzy, or so stiff it's like cardboard, or so badly made it sticks out in odd places and the buttons fall off. You have to get to know the inventory, the materials they use. I've made enough mistakes that I can look at the photo on the website and tell you whether it's quality or crap. I still get crap about 10% of the time, but they are very good about returns, and the other 90% is worth it.

But the main reason I buy from them is that once you've figured out your size, everything fits the same, which makes online (outlet!) shopping a breeze.
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3373 Bits from around the web

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.

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Mr. Diety and the Naughty Bits. God's committee designs humans.
http://youtu.be/G5wYT_IdYac

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Dylan Ratigan, in a passionate plea, makes an excellent point, that the "Occupy Wall Street" type groups need to focus on one problem and propose one fix, and this is it:
http://youtu.be/CJKFw2Lk92g

I absolutely agree!

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The Catholic Church just can't get a break these days. Read this:

300,000 babies stolen from their parents - and sold for adoption: Haunting BBC documentary exposes 50-year scandal of baby trafficking by the Catholic church in Spain

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049647/BBC-documentary-exposes-50-year-scandal-baby-trafficking-Catholic-church-Spain.html#ixzz1bGxfoUwl

They were telling young "unsuitable" mothers that their babies had died at birth, and then they sold the babies to more "suitable" couples.

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Just to be even-handed, there's the story of the (presumably Protestant) prison chaplain to whom a prisoner in Britain had (sort of) confessed his crime, and the chaplain turned right around and told the authorities. The chaplain felt no need to respect any confidentiality, because he felt that the prisoner "was not religious". As noted by the folks at http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/, apparently if the guy had gone to church regularly, he would have been allowed to get away with murder.

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What the hay, let's go for the shotgun effect. How 'bout the church in Winnipeg that shut down their food bank because it attracted poor people, which was "uncomfortable" and created "social unrest in the church". According to the minister, "A food bank is a social service, and that is not who we are." They are cancelling it to concentrate on "more church-specific activities". They say that clients of the food bank have not accepted personal responsibility for their need.

Um --- I don't know what to say. Maybe they're right. Not in their attitude, but in their need to concentrate on church-specific activities, like, oh, reading the Bible for starters.

Story at http://drreid3.newsvine.com/_news/2011/08/30/7532123-headline-church-closes-food-bank-because-it-attracts-poor-people. Pastor backpedals at http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/02/21/church.html.

Note: There's a discrepancy in the dates on those stories that I don't understand. Old story that's been picked up again? Same minister doing the same thing again at a different church? Coincidence? I don't understand.

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Just to be clear, I am not anti-God or anti- whatever anyone's belief is. I *AM* anti-church, especially patriarchal churches, anti-organized and hierarchical religion, anti-human-defined "belief".

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When I saw this, I thought of The Queen (inside joke, ignore). Venn Pie:


How 'bout spiced apple on one side and pork mince on the other?
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3372 The future is arriving, duh?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
-- Oscar Wilde --

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Interesting.

http://chzsetphaserstolol.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/star-trek-is-just-around-the-corner.jpg

Click the link to see, then click the graphic to enlarge. (It's safe. I downloaded and scanned it.)
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3371 Strange

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

There is nothing wrong with having nothing to say --- unless you insist on saying it.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson --

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On the porch this afternoon. A very long, deep, low horn sound that vibrated in my chest. Sounded like it was coming from the bay. Maybe a ship.

I had a very strange reaction.

Back when I was in my early 30s or so, when I was very unhappy and slightly, um, "disconnected", every so often I'd think about aliens, about spaceships, sort of like "War of the Worlds" or any of the dozen or so '50s invasion movies, but more personal. I spent a lot of time alone back then, and I'd imagine a flying saucer or something, something very strange, landing near me, and aliens getting out. I imagined what I'd do. Where I'd hide. What it would mean. It was very strong and very frightening.

I heard a deep sound this afternoon, and for some weird reason I was momentarily afraid, and even though I knew it was most likely a ship in the bay, I looked at the thick clouds above (it's been raining steadily) and I fully expected to see something unearthly there.

And I wondered what I'd do.
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3370 Manifesto

Cards and poster available at www.holstee.com/manifesto.

3369 Read reports with a grain of salt, please!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The author of The Starr Evidence, a compilation of Clinton/Lewinsky testimony,
is Wall Street Journal reporter Phil Kuntz.
I can't believe that name is real! Especially in that context.
--Silk --

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Iraq and Afghanistan are slowing down, so now "they" are hot to attack Iran.

Interesting, eh?

Do we have any more influence over what our government does than the Iranian people have over what theirs does? What does that mean?

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A long time ago I pointed out that the job market died at about the same time as the military needed volunteers. I predict that the job market will not recover until the military no longer needs large amounts of bodies.
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