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Cents

Today I made several purchases of items. The first purchase was for laundry and dry cleaning but that was done via credit card. But later in the day I bought a Chipotle Barbeque Burger from Veggie Grill and some Tomato Basil soup. The soup was very good by the way. I imagined that it was going to be bright red and runny. But in fact the soup was a reddish-pink color with some brown specks. It had tiny tomato bits in it. The soup made my meal much more filling, and satisfying. But I didn’t have exact change for the two items, so I ended up giving the cashier fifteen dollars. I ended up getting some bills and some change. Sounds like a normal day in a monetary based society right? WRONG. I could have stopped there and said, “Ok, I made some purchases today. I’m goona stop now.” But no, I now had coins in my pocket. And when I have coins, by golly am I going to spend them. If I don’t spend my coins by the end of the day, I end up putting them in this bowl on my shelf. And if any more coinage goes into that bowl, then a black hole is going to form in my room. (Probably because of the tremendous amount of mass in such a confined area)

So when I went to Jack in the Box I ordered a medium drink.  After tax it was two dollars and one cent. But here was my problem: I had change, but no pennies. So I decided to break a nickel. Now I had even more coins in my pocket. This whole situation was getting out of hand. I ended buying a Chocolate Overload Cake a little later. But that was $1.95 and I didn’t have THAT much change, so I ended up getting another nickel.

After writer’s group at Jack in the Box I went to the Peet’s Coffee and Tea and ordered a single shot medium whole milk latte. Finally I had a place to put my change, the tip jar. I used a quarter to pay for the fifteen cents of the $3.15 charge for my drink. Then I put the rest of the coins I had in the tip jar. That’s when I realized that money has very little to do with the currency or purchasing power. Money is movement. I want to sway with the system. So what if dollar bills are dirty and bacteria filled because of how many times they are exchanged from hand to hand. I like giving people paper and then watching them do things for me. That’s amazing. A cashless society, as efficient as it may purport to be, lacks the visceral beauty of cash and coins. I’ve worked at a few coffee shops in my life, and you know what? Even though dollar tips were preferred, I always appreciated coin tips as well. Anything was better than nothing.

What’s going to happen to tipping at coffee shops when there is no coins or cash? I’m a little worried about this. Barista’s have it tough enough when people use things like Starbucks cards or gift cards in order to pay for their coffee. It is really easy to forget to tip when you hand someone a card to swipe. Taking out the cash after swiping the card is another step. And in our streamlined society, that extra step doesn’t always make the cut. But baristas need those tips, bad. Most baristas get between $25 – $70 per week in tips, depending on the location and type of coffee shop. That may not seem like much money compared to a restaurant server, but baristas need and use it all the same. So if we do switch to a cashless society, then baristas are going to get the short end of the stick.

Cash also is cool when hanging out with friends. I always carry some cash because I think splitting multiple debit cards over a meal is just silly. But if I am at a super expensive restaurant then that’s different.

I just took a couple minute break to look at my PentyOfFish.com profile which you can view by clicking HERE, and I noticed that I am getting a lot more women to look at my profile. I was wondering why and then I realized I made a couple changes lately. The big change was in my headline. You see, I tried several different headlines and not all of them were getting ladies to look at my profile as often as I preferred. I like to get at least one new girl to look at my profile per day or else I feel like I failed. So what I did was I decided to use my brain and actually use what I’ve learned from blogging and analyzing statistics. So I looked at my current profile headline and it said, “I like waffles.” And that wasn’t working. I ended up trying several other headlines that didn’t get me many profile views so I just put in a placeholder while I slept on it which was, “zzz.” Then it hit me. I started actually looking at the “My Matches” section and reading the headlines of the ladies. A lot of them were really interesting, instead of talking about themselves, a large percentage of the women simply stated what they wanted in a man, or what they were “looking” for. I took a mental note of what the more popular female headline desires were. The most popular ones I found with girls that seemed compatible with me was, “Looking for a good man,” and, “Searching for a good hearted man,” (and “hearted” isn’t even a word because it is coming up under spell check as I type right now) and my personal  favorite, “Looking for a real man.”

After careful consideration, calculation, and contemplation I changed my plentyoffish.com headline from “zzz” to “Good Hearted Man.” And what I observed was that I am getting multiple ladies per day checking out my profile. I guess you got to give people what they want. I am a good hearted man. What is interesting is that even though I am getting many more profile views now. Not a single one of these women had in their headlines, “Looking for a good hearted man.” In fact, the best looking lady so far simply has the word, “orange” as her profile headline. And I find this intriguing. I’m considering messaging her. But I am having trouble deciding on how title the subject field for the message. Should I title the subject with a complimentary color or a different type of citrus fruit? Whatever, she says that her profession is “boring stuff” and from my experience that usually means the lady is a trained assassin. Not going to risk it.

-Tyler

The Social Network Myspace Blunder - click to enlarge

This is hilarious. Myspace is right now, actually promoting a movie called, “The Social Network” that is basically one big commercial for its biggest competitor, Facebook. Now, Facebook may say officially that this is not an official movie. But that does not matter. People are watching a movie that is about the origins of Facebook. The Social Network could be completely fictitious and the mere subject matter that it is about will no doubt work as a form of inadvertent advertising for Facebook. The ridiculous part is that Myspace, a company that has lost tremendous amounts of Social Network market share to Facebook over the past few years, is promoting a movie that will basically drive a stake through Myspace’s heart by drawing even more attention to Facebook. I got the idea of writing this article when I was checking my Myspace Music account and I saw an ad for “The Social Network.” I was thinking to myself, “Um, what genius-patrol advertising executive allowed Myspace to self-sabotage themselves. Fired much?”

This entire situation is a joke. This is like Microsoft at MSNBC.com doing a special report on how much Apple is the best company and how everybody should buy a mac instead of windows based computers. Why doesn’t Microsoft do that? Because that would be dumb.

Myspace is the sick man of the social network scene. By Myspace promoting a move called, “The Social Network.” It is tantamount to long term business suicide. The logic is simple. The movie isn’t called, “A good social network,” it’s not even called, “Facebook The Movie,” the movie is called, “The Social Network,” As in: The ONLY Social Network – OR – The SUBSTANTIAL Social Network. This film is about Facebook and its origins. Therefore it is subconsciously branding Facebook as THE Social Network over all other social network sites in existence. Words and phrasing are extremely powerful and important, and it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to realize that this is EXTREMELY potent branding.

This situation might make more sense if Facebook was about to purchase Myspace, but I haven’t heard anything like that. What the Myspace promotion of The Social Network probably is: A paid advertising campaign that was extremely lucrative for Myspace to endorse in the short term – that will invariably destroy an already crippled company in the long term.

If I was the owners of Facebook right now, I would be laughing all the way to the bank. And would be writing a long thank you note in my best cursive writing to be attached to the fruit basket I’d send to the owners of Myspace.

Honestly, I am a little upset that Myspace allowed themselves to do this to themselves. Even though I don’t go on Myspace all the time. I still really like their Myspace Music and all the cool artists that promote themselves on their. It is a great community for music artists and even though the sites generally load pretty slow, they at least look good, and they’re free to set up. This movie is going to cause a tremendous amount of hype and buzz about Facebook and will invariably make more people switch to Facebook and ignore their Myspace accounts. I can’t tell you how many times on Myspace I’ve gotten messages or status updates from people that say that they are moving their online presence from Myspace to Facebook. This goes for artists and individuals as well. This movie sure isn’t going to help the situation.

I know companies to short-sighted things all the time with the hopes of gaining short-term profits. But this is a total whirladerp that the owners of Myspace are going to regret for the rest of their lives.

The funniest part about this “The Social Network” advertising and promotion campaign on Myspace, is that I seriously doubt the owners who have the most to lose from this campaign even had a hand in it. This stunt was probably perpetrated by “clever” Masters of Business Executives that thought they would get a big bonus by landing such a big advertising deal.

Whoops!

-Tyler

Sitting in Silence can contrast with everyday usual interactions. After sitting in silence for about 3 hours or more, going back to walking around and interacting with people in the world just isn’t the same. My experience with this happened today when I was reading and working in my journal for about three hours this afternoon. I was deeply immersed in what I was doing and even though I was surrounded by people in the Starbucks in Orange, I didn’t talk to any of them and remained still and silent. It wasn’t deep meditation that one would attain in private by focusing on nothing. It was more of a heightened state of focus and relaxation that had some similarities with my experience watering the plants. And when I walked around outside and acknowledged people passing by on the street, life felt totally different and fresh. It was as if refraining from interaction and basic forms of social stimulation charged a reservoir inside me. Then when I was finally re-released into the world, it felt more real and tangible. I cared more about my surroundings and felt more rooted in them. It was the complete opposite of the fuzzy feeling one undergoes when they first wake up. It was an alertness and comprehension of the self and the outside of self. Yet at the same time there was a greater sense of oneness with my surroundings and the people there than I’ve felt in a long time.

One thing that was interesting about the whole experience was that it affected by depth perception. I was able to notice the great beauty in looking far into the patterns of the vanishing point of a sidewalk. I simply noticed the repeating trees and the lines getting smaller and smaller. People walking to a fro, into my perception and then out of it. There was a serenity and tranquility that felt alien and new.

As I sit here going back to those moments in my mind, I try to remember what I did to get to that state of awareness. The main thing that comes to mind was the feeling of doing something like reading and maximizing the learning and pleasure I gained from it. And when the reading started to get overwhelming and began to feel tedious, I immediately switched gears into journaling. The end result was perfect. I expressed myself without loosing any energy. It was as if I was tired of walking and so I jumped on a bicycle. They both are a form of work, and yet the change from one to the other was energizing. And then when I got tired of journaling I stopped and just sat in stillness and silence. That was the catalyst that brought my outside of my regular ego environment. Time lost its meaning and I was floating along in a stream of possibilities. Every thought was a thought that I actually wanted to experience. I wasn’t focused on desires. Then I drank some of my iced tea and began reading again. This time with renewed vigor. And I started the whole process over again.

Controlling one’s own mind is key. But sometimes the best way to learn control of the mind, is to allow the mind to drift and pull in different directions and then analyze where the mind went, and why. Then after time, one can discern patterns in how his or her own mind works. Do I get sidetracked by certain types of thoughts all the time? Do I loose my concentration often when a certain thing happens? In my experience, I have found that I definitely fall into patterns of behavior. It is almost uncanny how I create situations that I know will distract me from what I really want to be doing, and then I engage in those distractions anyway. It is a form of back sliding that needs to be confronted every day in order to make actual progress into sharpening the mind. Because all our minds really are, is a tool designed to help us navigate through existence.

-Tyler

Starbucks Chocolate Chunk Cookie

The Chocolate Chunk Cookie from Starbucks has 360 calories. So now that we know this, why don’t we combo it with something? I like dunking the Chocolate Chunk Cookie in a Venti Latte. The bitter flavor of the coffee mixes so well with the butteryness and sweetness of the cookie. Now not all Chocolate Chunk Cookies are created equal. Sometimes they are pretty hard by the end of the day. So that’s a double reason to dunk it in the latte. I don’t eat the cookie when I am trying to feel super healthy. I usually eat the cookie when I want to think about things. One thing that popped into my mind when I bit down on a soggy bite of cookie and latte was this: What happens to all the interest that is accrued from when millions of people load money on their Starbucks Cards? Let’s think about this for a second. If the average person loads $10 – $50 on their Starbucks Card, and there are millions of people who use them. Then we are talking about hundreds of dollars being loaded onto these Starbucks Cards per month. Now interest may not seem to be a huge deal to people like you or I. When we accrue interest on our savings accounts we probably make money in the dollar amounts per month, (that’s on a good month). But for a mega-corporation like Starbucks, when they have hundreds of millions of dollars given to them UP FRONT due to their Starbucks Cards something interesting happens. They are able to take that money and earn interest on it. I’m guessing they make anywhere from %1 – %8  per period on this money. So this means they can use the money they earned from the interest and put that money toward paying payroll or supplies or rent for their stores. And the money taken is basically pure profit.

The logic behind this is that the actual products that Starbucks gives its customers are created in bulk. So when they purchase milk for a latte they spend a great deal less then you or I do at the store. That being said, when a company like Starbucks has money up front it is a huge advantage to them. It is like giving them a loan that they don’t have to pay back in dollars. They repay the loan in drip coffee and lattes. And those items cost the company a fraction of their worth on the dollar.

So when I loaded $50 on my Starbucks card the other day it was basically trading the interest I could have earned on my own money, for the convenience and status of using a card. Now you may be thinking, “But Starbucks gives me a free drink every 15 times I buy my drink?” Yes, that is true. But when you factor that they can make any drink in the entire store for literally pennies, it makes you realize that the free drink is just incentive to get you to keep coming to the store.

Now, I’m not trying to convince you not to use a Starbucks card. The amount of money that you could earn on interest from using your card would probably be much less to YOU than the value of a Venti Caramel Macchiato. But what I am trying to bring to light, is that if you use multiple Cards that need to be reloaded like Starbucks Cards at the same time, you may be missing out on a great deal of interest.

-Tyler