Thu, 8 January 2009
The Show Notes Where I Am Show errata Intro New Year's Eve in Bethlehem PFA's gig über turnaround Rupert’s McClanahan’s Indestructible Bastards - Leon Trotsky, Blackbeard
Flannel sheets, gift certificatesAbstinence Report Minoishe Interroberg's To Make With the Good English - Anyway vs. Anyways from Hayden Bodily
Ask George - Couldn’t care less from Seth Hanisek - Spelling and grammar from Dwight Dunlop - Pipe or pike from Kristin - Losing Weight? from Tony Steele
Say hi at Long Beach- Drummer's Career? from Jason Reed - Immortality? from Ben Tylka - Lyrics? from Mike Oliver Show close ..................................... Sign up for the mailing list: Write to Geo! Score more data from the Geologic Universe! Get George's music at CD Baby and iTunes, and Non-Coloring Book at Lulu, both as download and print editions. Have a comment on the show, a Religious Moron tip, or a question for Ask George? Drop George a line and write to Geo's Mom, too! Ms. Information has decided online banking will solve that problem of writing 8 instead of 9 on her checks. Happy new year! Comments[11]
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Gift Certificates are cool. I get the impersonal nature of them - especially considering they are for a specific dollar amount. So what you are essentially saying is, \"You\'re worth exactly this much to me\". But at the same time some people can be really hard to shop for (I\'m one of those), so a gift certificate assures they will get something they really want. I like receiving them but I don\'t like giving them. So there ya go.
Speaking of Django Reinhardt, there\'s a great 1998 short film, \"The Week Before\" by Dave McKean, which uses Reinhardt\'s music. There\'s a tr
ailer for it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5iAn-8l7W8
As for gift certificates, my wife prefers to give them, but I prefer giving something more personalized, so we compromise: we generally end up giving a hand-picked book or DVD, plus a gift certificate for books or DVDs. In my family, that works out great. This year, my father got Kino restoration of Metropolis, my mother got the Met\'s production of Doctor Atomic, my brother got The Animation Show DVD collection, and my sister got the book of the website Kawaii Not! -- and they all got HMV gift certificates.
That\'s actually proven very popular, and some of the family do the same thing in return. Which ends up with the odd situation where, say, I
give my mother \"Doctor Atomic\" + $50 at HMV, and she gives me a book of dog photography + $50 at HMV. We might as well have kept the money
!
Scott Adams, creator of \"Dilbert\", refers to gift certificates as \"the same as money, only less useful\".
ailer for it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5iAn-8l7W8
As for gift certificates, my wife prefers to give them, but I prefer giving something more personalized, so we compromise: we generally end up giving a hand-picked book or DVD, plus a gift certificate for books or DVDs. In my family, that works out great. This year, my father got Kino restoration of Metropolis, my mother got the Met\'s production of Doctor Atomic, my brother got The Animation Show DVD collection, and my sister got the book of the website Kawaii Not! -- and they all got HMV gift certificates.
That\'s actually proven very popular, and some of the family do the same thing in return. Which ends up with the odd situation where, say, I
give my mother \"Doctor Atomic\" + $50 at HMV, and she gives me a book of dog photography + $50 at HMV. We might as well have kept the money
!
Scott Adams, creator of \"Dilbert\", refers to gift certificates as \"the same as money, only less useful\".
Thanks for the well-wishes, Keisha! Had a great time. Took the day off work, watched Wall-E, then had a huge steak and wine as old as I was for dinner.
That is truly the main problem with getting older: I\'m having more and more trouble finding (and affording) ethanol as old or older than I am.
That is truly the main problem with getting older: I\'m having more and more trouble finding (and affording) ethanol as old or older than I am.
About gift cards.
I feel very similarly as you do, but in the final analysis, I\'m good with them. When I\'ve been on the giving end of gifts cards it is generally for a couple different reasons.
1. The person I\'m giving them to is super-hard to shop for. My father-in-law falls into this category.
2. For gifts of smaller value, for coworkers for example, giving a gift card is better than giving cash because it appears more valuable that way. For example, my husband\'s co-workers, who are teachers, exchange small gifts. IMHO, a $5-10 gift card for McDonald\'s or the local movie theater is more valuable than a. cash or b. some small trinket that they might not use (such as a candle). For men especially, when the gift price limit is low it can be very hard to find a good lower-priced gift.
Furthermore, there are situations where a gift card is actually a better gift. Two examples. My Mister and I, when we moved into our house, needed a lot of stuff from Home Depot for repair supplies. We much preferred Home Depot gift cards to a jar of toilet wax. And, frankly, only the most devoted family or friends would know what kind of toilet wax we\'d need for our specific home improvement project.
Second of all, if someone really doesn\'t know you or your tastes, a gift of \"stuff\" can seem somewhat thoughtless. A scented candle for me, yeah it\'s a nice gift. But my best friend who is highly allergic would just appreciate a gift card.
Wierdest reCaptcha evar: \"lungs WATERMELON\" (capitalization theirs).
I feel very similarly as you do, but in the final analysis, I\'m good with them. When I\'ve been on the giving end of gifts cards it is generally for a couple different reasons.
1. The person I\'m giving them to is super-hard to shop for. My father-in-law falls into this category.
2. For gifts of smaller value, for coworkers for example, giving a gift card is better than giving cash because it appears more valuable that way. For example, my husband\'s co-workers, who are teachers, exchange small gifts. IMHO, a $5-10 gift card for McDonald\'s or the local movie theater is more valuable than a. cash or b. some small trinket that they might not use (such as a candle). For men especially, when the gift price limit is low it can be very hard to find a good lower-priced gift.
Furthermore, there are situations where a gift card is actually a better gift. Two examples. My Mister and I, when we moved into our house, needed a lot of stuff from Home Depot for repair supplies. We much preferred Home Depot gift cards to a jar of toilet wax. And, frankly, only the most devoted family or friends would know what kind of toilet wax we\'d need for our specific home improvement project.
Second of all, if someone really doesn\'t know you or your tastes, a gift of \"stuff\" can seem somewhat thoughtless. A scented candle for me, yeah it\'s a nice gift. But my best friend who is highly allergic would just appreciate a gift card.
Wierdest reCaptcha evar: \"lungs WATERMELON\" (capitalization theirs).
I guess I’ve always been an adult because I’ve always liked receiving books.
Gift certificates: I like getting them if they’re what I asked for or if they’re for a place I will definitely go to (a bookstore, for example), but if I asked for other things that are easy to acquire and I get a gift, well, that kind of irks me. It does seem impersonal, when I’ve given other suggestions. Gift certificates also run the risk of losing value for every month you don’t use it or sometimes they charge the buyer an “activation fee.” B.S. I say!! But if I asked for it, then I’m glad to get it.
I did give two gift certificates for the family exchange this Christmas, but that was specifically what each person asked for and it’s a set gift amount so they knew beforehand they were only worth $40 to me.
Personally, I would rather give up on the gifts altogether (except for the nieces and nephews) and give to charity instead...
(my captcha? Sundry pose. that I'd like to see)
Gift certificates: I like getting them if they’re what I asked for or if they’re for a place I will definitely go to (a bookstore, for example), but if I asked for other things that are easy to acquire and I get a gift, well, that kind of irks me. It does seem impersonal, when I’ve given other suggestions. Gift certificates also run the risk of losing value for every month you don’t use it or sometimes they charge the buyer an “activation fee.” B.S. I say!! But if I asked for it, then I’m glad to get it.
I did give two gift certificates for the family exchange this Christmas, but that was specifically what each person asked for and it’s a set gift amount so they knew beforehand they were only worth $40 to me.
Personally, I would rather give up on the gifts altogether (except for the nieces and nephews) and give to charity instead...
(my captcha? Sundry pose. that I'd like to see)
ha... I wondered when you said Django (not Reinhardt) and thought, \"hmm... there\'s another Django who\'s a jazz musician? OK.\"
I guess I wasn\'t being skeptical enough.
~Dan
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/
I guess I wasn\'t being skeptical enough.
~Dan
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/
Unfortunately our society has decided that giving cash is rude. Which is annoying since that's what I tend to prefer to get. It's practicality as much as anything else. My family is flung all over the country and we can't always afford to get from one end of it to the other to see. Nor can we afford to cough up a huge pile of money to UPS or FedEx to ship them something easily purchased around the corner from them. A card with a check through first class mail, though, is entirely useful and inexpensive to send.
I second Scott Adams' opinion of gift cards. Especially this year, with so many outlets that sell them not honoring them in all cases (ahem, Circuit City, ahem) or going bankrupt before they can be redeemed.
As far as the weight loss, I need to get me one of those scales. I tried one out once, and knowing my actual body composition gave me something to throw back at my idiot doctor that insisted that BMI is the be-all, end-all of weight loss guidance. I figured out that, for my body type, I would have to lose every ounce of fat on my body, PLUS 10 pounds of muscle, to hit the "healthy" BMI he wanted me at. Nevermind that I would be in the hospital for malnutrition at that point.
I second Scott Adams' opinion of gift cards. Especially this year, with so many outlets that sell them not honoring them in all cases (ahem, Circuit City, ahem) or going bankrupt before they can be redeemed.
As far as the weight loss, I need to get me one of those scales. I tried one out once, and knowing my actual body composition gave me something to throw back at my idiot doctor that insisted that BMI is the be-all, end-all of weight loss guidance. I figured out that, for my body type, I would have to lose every ounce of fat on my body, PLUS 10 pounds of muscle, to hit the "healthy" BMI he wanted me at. Nevermind that I would be in the hospital for malnutrition at that point.
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