Collecting Updates

Hello hello hello!

Time to be random!

So, at work, I'm working on a project. We do this cool thing at my company where we name our projects. Because my group consists of 80s children, we decided to name our group Project Oregon Trail. If you spent your middle school years under a rock, here's a link to help you join your generation: http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html
(ps, apparently, dysentery is bloody diarrhea)

In other news, http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/21/memory_drug. Apparently, it's going to be the new thing to erase painful memories. Can't you just hear a bunch of therapists screaming? I thought the whole trend was to UN-repress those memories so we can grow into healthy, whole, human beings. I haven't argued through this yet, but my initial reaction is to say that who I am today is a compilation of everything I've experienced and that erasing/repressing portions of my past can only mean I'm erasing parts of who I am today. Or….I suppose, that could be possitive if your person today is adversely affected by your past….but then doesn't it all get into people choosing the way in which they react to situations in life? Oftentimes, I feel, our only choice is how we react to life.

ATMs.
Here's the news: http://adage.com/article?article_id=113384 (summary - As the ATM has become a ubiquitous presence throughout U.S. culture, its users have been recognized as a massive and fertile audience. Its screen has increasingly been exploited to broadcast ads and various sorts of third-party direct-sales product and service offers. But those campaigns for things such as postage stamps and movie tickets have also tended to slow the machine that was originally designed to provide consumers with virtually instant access to their money on a 24/7 basis. Last week, in a move designed to outflank its competitors, JPMorgan Chase launched a campaign for its QuickChoice ATM service, which has eliminated ads and sales clutter in order to complete cash transactions in as little as 24 seconds.)
Here's the question: Do you think JPMorgan Chase is correct -- that most consumers value speed over any other aspect of an ATM transaction? Or do you think the financial-services company is making a mistake as it circumvents a potentially lucrative venue for reaching its audience of bank-account owners with relevant ads and direct-sales offers?

And in less "this is what I think about" type of commentary, here's my lovely start to the day….

This morning, I had to go and get gas. I clicked the pump so that I didn't have to stand there and hold the pump while it filled my car. It's filling, and filling, and filling….I'm watching the gallons go up and as it's getting past 14 gallons I was thinking that my car must have REALLY been on empty….and then I look down and gas is POURING out of car because it didn't click off when it sensed my tank was full!! HUGE puddle.

I go into the gas station to talk to the guy….and of course he does not understand English. I try and tell him that the gas didn't stop and he understands me to mean the gas won't start. No, I say, and try and clarify that there was too MUCH gas and it didn't stop. He asks if I want money back. I say no (I kinda did though) and again try and explain that there was a HUGE puddle of gas under my car and the whole place is liable to blow up when I start my car. Don't worry he says…we'll get it later.

It was a huge fiasco. Luckily I didn't blow the place up, but all I could think was that I was going to explode like in Zoolander ("In other headlines today, a woman was blown up at her neighborhood gas station when she started her car after spilling a gallon of gas…what WAS she thinking??"). Or someone later today will since the guy isn't going to fix the pump. AND NOW I SMELL LIKE GASOLINE! Grrrr.

So, Monday, how I love thee.
Time for more work, woohoo.
OUT!