Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 42 of 78).

View-Master scenic reels being discontinued

viewmaster_1-300x200Remember how I was waxing nostalgic about View-Masters last year? Word comes today that Mattel has stopped making the View-Master scenic reels, only leaving the animated ones like Dora and Shrek.

Listen to this moronic analyst:

Toy industry analyst Sean McGowan with Needham & Co. said View-Master has been in decline since its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.

“That’s not what the kids are looking for in the back seat of the car,” he said. “They’re looking for a DVD that plays on the back of Daddy’s seat.”

Yeah, kids aren’t looking for books in the back seat of the car, either, but that doesn’t mean books are endangered.

I believe the View-Master is in decline because it hasn’t been marketed at all. It’s a device that has entertained children and adults for generations – and would continue to do so, given the chance. It needs no electricity, you can drop it and it still works, and what other 3-D toys are out there, seventy years since its invention?

Someone should buy that business from Mattel and run it properly.

Careerbuilder vs. Craigslist

I was thinking this morning that I’ve gotten more spam from Careerbuilder than I ever have from Craigslist. That’s for the whole time I’ve been using Craigslist. Craigslist also has more interesting jobs. Seems I’ve gotten better response from those jobs than the ones I applied to on Careerbuilder.

I’m thinking it might be time to pull my resume Careerbuilder and stick with Craigslist.

Peanuts, and more

I decided to enjoy a snack of peanuts after taking Rocket around the neighborhood. The label says “Harris Teeter Peanuts – Dry Roasted, Lightly Salted.”

They are indeed dry roasted and lightly salted. Unfortunately, they are also a few other things, too. The ingredient list:

Peanuts, Salt, Cornstarch, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Monosodium Glutamate (Flavor Enhancer), Yeast, Dried Corn Syrup, Paprika and Other Spices, Extractives of Paprika, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Natural Flavor, Garlic and Onion Powder.

I really only wanted peanuts and some salt, though its good that they slipped in the “natural flavor” at the end of that list – as long as it’s natural. Don’t want anything that isn’t natural, you know. Also, I’m not sure how “extractives” differ from “extracts,” either. It might be like the way some people say “utilize” instead of “use,” as if the extra two syllables somehow add importance.

At least salmonella wasn’t on the list.

Record stores

I woke up with The Police’s Born In the Fifties on my mind. That got me thinking to my early exposure to The Police – in a music store of all quaint places. I vividly remember browsing through The Record Bar in a Columbia, S.C. mall and seeing the Ghost In The Machine logos everywhere. Must have been 1981.

That got me missing the glory days of record stores. My kids may never grow up to know the joy of browsing actual, physical records in racks. There was a kinship there with other customers: just being around would often lead to someone suggesting a band to you you would’ve not otherwise heard. Its not so easy doing that in the age of iTunes (though Pandora comes close).

A leaky idea

wal-mart-case_less_milk_jugs-smallWe like shopping at Costco because it’s convenient and has great prices. There are occasions where an item we like to buy sometimes vanishes from the shelves but overall we can usually find what we need.

One staple that has remained the same (infuriatingly so, actually) at Costco is milk. Costco’s Kirkland-brand milk (as well as Wal-Mart’s) comes in containers that are by far the worst-designed I’ve ever seen. Rather than the traditional milk container with an angled spout, the Creative Edge Design Group-designed “milk pitchers” are squarish with a minimum of curves (so as to maximize their stacking ability). The result is a container that buckles when milk is poured, resulting in the milk running down the side. In all the many Kirkland milk containers I’ve used, not once have I avoided spilling milk all over the place.

I discovered a message now being stamped on the top of the milk. “Tilt and pour slowly,” it says. So, now spills are apparently our fault because we’re not doing it right.

Yes, the new containers allow big box stores to get more milk into their trucks and freezers. The downside is that the extra milk often winds up on the buyer’s table or countertop. So who is it really seeing the savings here? I’m all for making the process of milk delivery more efficient (and more green), but this container is too flawed to make it worthwhile. Back to the drawing boards, folks!

(I see the New York Times, Huffington Post, and various blogs have covered this. )

Stereoscopic posters

Remember those “Magic Eye” stereoscopic posters that were all the rage during the mid to late 90s? You know, those posters that looked like a jumbled mess until you crossed your eyes the right way and then the images jumped right out at you? Remember how hugely popular they were? You couldn’t walk through a mall without wading through a large crowd of cross-eyed people, trying to see the magic pictures. There’s a fad that dropped like a rock, huh.

Maybe the problem with the posters is just that: a large crowd of people would stare at them in the mall but never buy anything. It was enough to get someone to stop shopping for a few minutes but not long enough for them to want to take it home.

Maybe the posters’ creators should’ve hidden some subliminal messages in the jumbled images to jump-start the sales.

The suckiness of healthcare

Recently on an internal company mailing list, a coworker asked for recommendations for a primary care physician. From a list of perhaps hundreds of members, there was only one response. It wasn’t a recommendation but a cynical “good luck.” His doctor “sucks,” he says. The surprising thing is that no one seemed to disagree.

I shop for a doctor the way I shop for a greeting card: I look for the one that’s the least terrible. There’s always a long wait to become a new patient with a doctor and once you do there’s no guarantee you’ll like that doctor. Many I’ve seen would rather pull out the prescription pad than spend any time figuring out what’s really wrong. Medical knowledge has continued to increase but so has the depersonalization of the patient. How did healthcare get so broken?

I’m still griping about my health insurance premiums going up considerably – not because I’m not healthy but because I have the gall to actually use my health coverage. What if as a patient I was instead rewarded for taking care of issues before they became bigger ones? Wouldn’t that be in everyone’s best interest?

Yessiree, America has the best healthcare in the world. Keep telling yourself that until it seems true. Even when you’re “lucky” enough to have coverage the best you can hope for is something that doesn’t suck.

Grow a Frog

Travis got a tadpole for Christmas, in a package called Grow a Frog. The tadpole arrived a week or two ago. We’ve kept it on our kitchen counter in its square plastic aquarium. “Tad” now has legs visible and almost ready to pop out of his body.

I swear I’ve enjoyed watching that tadpole as much as kids have. It’s fascinating to watch the astonishing transformation that takes place from a tadpole to a frog. I will never fully understand how and why a creature can go through such a phenomenal change.