Random life questions
This is what has been on my mind lately.
- Why do people speed up after they pull over into the right lane to let you go by in the left lane?
- Why do people get fake married to someone on facebook? I see tons of straight girls “marrying” other girls. Is it supposed to be funny or something?
- Why does our travel system suck so much? It took me 14 hours door-to-door to take a 3.5 hour flight without significant car rides on either end. It seems like the only part that ever works smoothly is the takeoff to touchdown — which I suppose is good, since it would be far worse if something went wrong in the air.
- Is it just me or is SportCenter absolutely terrible post-NBA but pre-NFL? I usually miss being able to watch normal SportsCenter (ie, not the crappy ESPN Deportes which is basically ESPN Soccer) quite a bit when I’m in Costa Rica, but then I got back to the States for a bit and I realized that I wasn’t missing much at all.
- How do shortages of something like the 3G iPhone happen? I can see it when a bunch of bumbling idiots at Nintendo screw up supply for a solid two years and forgo billions of dollars of revenue in the process — but Apple? They normally launch things smoothly. It seems like they always have enough supply to meet demand even on new products. And their products stay in demand because in a bunch of markets, they have the best product hands-down. Anyway, I’m tilted that I can’t get one.
- 3G problems notwithstanding, why is Apple so awesome and why does everyone else suck so much? I just don’t get it — Apple has the best laptops, the best phone, the best monitors, the best music player, etc. How do they “get it” so much better than HP, Dell and the rest of the buffoons out there making the same old crap over and over? Don’t they see Apple growing and growing? It baffles me that they’ve let this show go on for this long and haven’t put the clamps to Apple by coming out with similar hardware but with lower prices. If there’s one place Apple is vulnerable, it’s pricing — and Dell & Co could really hit them hard. But yet, Apple is still better. Maybe some day…
- How is Waffle House, a restaurant that appears to be dirty, shady and low quality, also so goddamn awesome?
- Holy crap Atlanta is hot in the summer.
- What is the most powerful entity in the world? Google? I might say military because of nukes and whatnot, but the problem is that the military can’t actually use nukes because doing so is like hitting a self-destruct switch. On the other hand, Google can do whatever it wants and it could be considered the most powerful single tool in the world because of its ability to determine what people see and what people read online. Anything else that could be considered to be above Google in terms of power and ability to use that power?
- This is pretty awesome, even though I don’t know who the site is that got it made or what their agenda was in getting it made. I still laughed at a bunch of it.
Still no responses on the web designer thing. I guess no one is interested? If I was a web designer, I’d be jumping at the opportunity to get my work onto quasi-popular blog that hundreds of thousands of people visit every year.
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Comments
Yea, I get the thought process on why designers wouldn’t want to work with me. If it’s any consolation, I have a terrific track record on RAC - http://news.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SoftwareBuyers/ShowBuyerInfo.asp?lngAuthorId=1698529. I don’t fuck around when I’m working with freelancers and I’m not all wishywashy about things. I don’t ask for one thing then change it a day later (which I know is extremely annoying). I also lay out my expectations very clearly.
However, in return for that… let’s say I request that my blog entries mimic the font and line-height of the NYT website exactly. I expect they will do so. Same with if I ask for a design without ANY inline styles… I expect to get back a template and stylesheet and the html won’t have a single mention of style=”whatever”. So I certainly am picky, but only about things that I ask for. I don’t make up new requirements along the way like some people.
So while I understand the designer’s perspective, I can also guarantee that any talented WP designer with excellent XHTML and CSS skill will find me to be pretty easy to work with.
All that being said, I think I’m just going to do it myself.
-Nat
PS - Regarding the price thing, it’s for a few reasons. First, the promotional value of designing an actively-read blog and the blog post that I would probably make naming the designer. Second, the link that would go along with it in the footer.
RE 6: why does everyone else suck so much? Compared to Apple everyone might, but do they really? I work in a big corporation and see really a lot of inefficient and ineffective procedures/activities/behaviour. But we are still making a lot of money. My conclusion: it’s incredibly difficult to create/run a big corporation.
Have you ever worked within a big organisation? What did you think of the quality level of the employees? What about the managers and all the political stuff on their agenda interfering with almost every decision? Why are people going to work everyday? Most of them just want to get paid at the end of the month and don’t want to be bothered too much with difficult stuff. And if you are giving all you have, you get promoted…promotion continues untill you have a job you are underqualified for…because there are more complex jobs than intelligent/motivated people.
10. This is not spam, I have no interest in this company other than I use to work with one of the principles. This is the wave of the future. The next “online poker”. Play all you want for a fixed membership fee. Legal in the USA. They are starting to get a little traction.
BTW, we have mutual friends in CR. Cal (P5), Chris (Poker Source), Dan (just Dan).
Hey Nat,
I’m always lurking around ur blog when I have a chance so I thought I might be able to help. Try http://www.getafreelancer.com they have an awesome bidding system where designers will bid on your project to see who gets the job. You can check out their reviews before hand and all the ones I used for my websites have been outstanding.
Hope it helps man.
LOL at the video posted on number 10! Genius! It sometimes feels like that’s how the US government sees things! Good find!
Love your blog.
Re the designer thing: As a designer, I can’t tell you how many times we have heard the words quoted below before having nightmarish engagements.
“I’m willing to pay, although I don’t think more than a few hundred dollars. And I’m very picky… I dislike 95%+ of the themes in the WordPress Theme directory.”
It’s not you — it’s the environment. It’s skilled designers valuing their services; plus opportunity costs. The ones who volunteer for it might be a little suspect in skill level, unless it’s a hobby for them.
Re Apple: they put customer first in every aspect. They’re not “monetizing” or “leveraging” or any of that. They are concerned with users and respect them and their time. Love Apple.
nh.