Decisions require emotions, so writes Lisa Cron in Story Genius. Maybe that’s why for years my decision-making skill vanished. It returned bit by bit. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, I asked fewer and fewer people for advice. Yeah, I had fewer to ask, but I also told myself not to ask every single person I knew but…
Tag: Consumer
Knowledge Is Scary
A great teacher takes the arduous learning process, the scary knowledge they’re sharing with you, and makes it rewarding. Even actionable. What makes a teacher great? Way back when, students could run all sorts of experiments in their high school labs and witness firsthand explosive chemical reactions. My father told me about one of his…
I Can Still Cook! Yay!!
My CO2 monitor several months ago told me why my oven was making me a little woozy. The temperature control and ability to heat up had been dying for years, and several years ago, a repairman had said I’d have to replace it soon. But when bad drivers injure your brain, throwing you into poverty,…
Amazon, Reliant Cellular: iPhone Buyer Beware
An iPhone Buyer Beware Story: Late last October (2018), my parents bought me an “Apple iPhone 6s 128 GB International Warranty Unlocked Cellphone – Retail Packaging (Rose Gold)” from Reliant Cellular. It came in its retail packaging. Package looked unopened. iPhone and charger looked new. It wasn’t a counterfeit one. But it was only when…
BiblioCrunch and Twitter
When having trouble with a company, go to Twitter. So it was with BiblioCrunch when I had a tiny problem: no response to my support request email within the 24-hour window they had promised on their site. I tweeted my plaint and expected nada, for it was on Saturday, usually when all but the largest…
New COTA Case Manager, A Total 180
Boy, did I fall down on the job. I thought I’d written a final follow-up post on my case manager saga. I hadn’t! Oops. In a nutshell: a total 180. I met with my new case manager in the afternoon. He spent one and a half hours familiarizing himself with my needs, writing down a…
Quitting Squidoo for Violating my Terms of Service
The Error message reads: “Whoops! No publishing allowed. This lens is currently locked for a violation of our Terms of Service, as per the email we sent you. You’re welcome to a) Grab your content and take it elsewhere, if you’d rather not continue with Squidoo or b) Review your content and make edits here…
CBC’s Marketplace Posits A Theory About COLD-FX
Bad science: have a pet theory, manipulate the results to suit it. Marketplace mimicked bad science well this past week. Their theory: COLD-FX does not work. Their results: don’t fit. A little manipulation was in order using panning camerawork, fun quizzes, people-on-the-street interviews journalists are addicted to, jerky camerawork as they follow some poor target,…
COTA Case Manager, the Saga Continues
Update to Case Management drama: I met with my case manager from COTA (see previous post for the story so far). I told her to get to it; I didn’t even give her a chance for her usual draining chit-chat. I needed my energy to get through the session with her; thankfully my moral anger…