I just realized that i had not made a specific blog entry for the shopping evaluation blogs that i found...i simply had them written down for in class discussion.

 

http://www.woot.com/Blog/Default.aspx this is a combination retalier and blog site.  the site sells one product a day at ridiculous(perhaps illeagal) prices.  the interesting part is the commentary from people that are buying something totally spur of the moment...there is limited supply and it only lasts for a day.

 

www.amazon.com I know that this is not specifically a blog.  but the product commentary from people is a resource that i actually use when coming to a decision of purchase.  there is both positive and negative thoughts from people around the globe.

 

http://thecarblog.com/  this is a interesting collection of postings for all manner of autos.

 

http://www.tide.com/messageboard - i am amazed that there are such laundry detergent loyalists that people actually take the time to post ideas/ thoughts about something i regard as fairly inconsequential...but thats my opinion alone.

 

http://community.livejournal.com/utilikilts/ - for those that have seen me in it, i own a utilikilt.  people are incredibly proud of their kilts.  this is a site that immediately brings someone into the fold and allows people to post pictures and discuss their usage experiences.  it also is an excellent source for the manufacturer to post news about product revisions and new offerings

I do agree with the sentiment that the holiday is a bastardization of its origins by the greeting card companies.  But isn’t that the state of all holidays in America?  The breweries have undone Halloween.  The toy companies ruined Christmas. The candy companies stole the true meaning of Easter. The florists created Mother’s day.  You could even say that the BBQ and Fireworks people took over the Fourth of July   I don’t understand the specific resentment towards Valentine’s Day.   Shouldn’t there be holiday cynicism all year round?

 

I know I got suckered into buying a gift.  I know I probably wouldn’t have if there weren’t a holiday for gift giving today.  But it’s now a tradition, its part of our culture and I participated because it is what you do.  Maybe I am not enough of a rebel because right now my thinking on Valentine’s Day is “So, What?”

 

Is it really that much of an ordeal to buy a gift or flowers?  The complaint of how a gift is “expected” just doesn’t boil my blood.  The tradition of Valentine gift giving has been around for longer than I have been alive.  Its not like I didn’t know Feb. 14 was coming.  And it doesn’t seem like buying the gift is that difficult  I know Kate.  I am going to marry her.  I didn’t have the agonizing last minute dash to the mall to get something to placate her or get something I would like to see her in.  I just bought this because I know her and knew she would like it…and she did. 

What exactly am I not seeing?

this was an interesting banner ad that i had to click on because it intrigued me so much. 

 

 

apparently SpikeTV is utilizing Cult appearance and the skull and bones mythos for a new television show.  SpikeTV is a unique channel in and of itself.  Kind of like the Anti-Lifetime or oxygen.  whenever I flip through the channels i see wrestling, monster trucks, or a James Bond movie...all very masculine programing seeking to assert its manlieness.  almost like a television channel of Comedy Central's "The Man Show"

I sent this on to professor Sherry the other day and thought some may find this interesting.  Below are links to re-cut movie trailers.  what people are doing is taking footage from classic films and repurposing the entire  story with actuall footage from the film.  So now "The Shining" is a romantic comedy, "Sleepless in Seattle is a thriller, and "Back to the Future" is...well you need to see it.   I am just astounded at the time and effort that went into these re-cuts.      

 

http://www.youtube.com/?v=vciPfoZ5FtM

http://www.youtube.com/?v=1J9ufqCoqyo

http://www.youtube.com/?v=zfODSPIYwpQ

 

I went to china last fall as part of the interterm.  After a while a number of us went looking for western comfort food.  And so we found a McDonald’s.  the majority of the meal was identical to one we could get in the states.  There were some additional menu options and the fries tasted a little different. 

 

The greatest reaction from my group was in the hot apple pies.  “They’re fried not baked!” people exclaimed.  Apparently in the states McDonalds stopped deep frying their apple pies to be more health conscious.  My fellow ND MBAs however acted as if they had stumbled upon ambrosia.  The revision that McDonald’s made in the west was something unhealthy, but people did not care about.  I was shocked at how some in my group were more excited about the fried pie than they were about some of the sights we had seen.  The memory of a fried McDonald’s pie hit both a childhood memory and the need for western food dramatically.

 

I wasn’t crazy over the pies because I had never had one before.  My family’s McDonalds treat was always a soft serv cone.  I had a pie, it was pretty tasty.

The iPod is a wonderful product.  It is also a hallmark of status.  I was at the gym today and I saw a half a dozen different people with proudly displayed white earphones and an iPod in full view for all to see.  I too have an iPod; however I don’t like the earphones that came with it, so I use a black Sony headset.  At the gym I felt the need to unzip my iPod from its neoprene case so that the rest of the patrons could see that I was part of the group, I was an iPodder.  I didn’t matter that I never exchanged a word with any of them, all that mattered was that I felt reassured being in the same club with fellow exercisers and made me feel like I fit in more