Month: June 2012

A few pennies

Berkeley Postal Service Selling Main Post Office

I wrote this blog after emptying my mailbox of an armful of junk mail and 2 actual letters. It made me think. I wish post offices would stop increasing prices on stamps and instead increase prices on the 93 millions pieces of junk mail credit card companies send to my house.

When the stack of mail gets too big for your mailbox they send it back to the Post Office for you to pick up. But when you pick it up, it’s not always worth it. Most of my junk mail is credit card offers, insurance offers and local grocery store flyers. The first two are really big industries that make lots of money. Why can’t the Post Office just raise prices on the businesses that use them most often?

Why continue to raise prices on the little stamps so all of the rent payers have to spend a dollar to get 2 of them? I wonder if that balances the books for them? I’m sure I’m oversimplifying the entire situation, but it seems to me it would be better for them to get money from the customers who have the most of it.

Just a couple cents from me.

Seeing Yourself

A goal properly set is halfway reached. — Zig Ziglar

I’m not entirely sure what this quote means, but I liked it instantly. This blog is a gym for me and I said I’d come around more than I have. You workout because you want to feel strong, and if you do it often enough it becomes true. I’m not sure what I’m working out, but maybe people will notice and let me know.

I just realized something earlier this week that makes sense now that I’m writing. Listening to someone speak let’s you know how they see themselves. You can hear it. In much the same way blogging helps you find your own voice. It gets stronger as it gets clearer. The less you sound like other people, the more you sound like yourself.

I’m not completely satisfied with my voice so far. I thought I’d be a lot funnier. I can admit I mostly write because I want to say something original. But when you think about it, it’s a hopeless mission. Rearranging words everyone knows into ideas no one has heard. Thousands of articles and blogs are printed every day.

But if it was easy it wouldn’t be worth it.

Efforts and Optimism

A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them. — Henry Kravis

You never know what people think of you. I walk past the same homeless person near my work at least twice a day. I have an incredible amount of respect for him. I’ve given him money a few times. He assembles massive amounts of rummage he can sell (e.g. cardboard, small electronics, bottles, etc.). He has a cell phone, I’ve seen it. The piles in the carts must stack 7 or 8 feet in the air, and he parks them right on the sidewalk. Then suddenly, he’ll disappear and come back with newer clothes and a cart that’s barely full.

Once he disappeared for two weeks. I was randomly walking alongside a young girl who yelled “You’re back!” when she saw him, smiled and continued walking by. There must be a few hundred people with some opinion of him and he probably has no idea what they are and probably doesn’t care. 

Napoleon once said “Respect the burden,” but I think mine is different. I respect his efforts and optimism. I wonder  what I might do in the same situation. Creativity and determination are like the spoon Andy used in Shawshank Redemption. Figure out what you want to do with what you have and do it.

Glory Stories

A man is already halfway in love with any woman who listens to him. — Brendan Francis

Men like to tell glory stories so that they can relive the good times. They’ll find new people to talk to just so they can repeat the same old favorites. There must be something to storytelling that let’s them live it again.

I think this is also the reason lots of guys never repeat the meat of old war tales. The interesting parts you want to hear. They never tell you how hard their time in prison was, or what they did during their long unemployment, or even talk about serious arguments. But bring up a time they won money in Vegas and you’ll hear every detail.

There’s something about explaining yourself to someone, who doesn’t understand, that is very exhausting. They might need to convince you that it was worse than you could ever imagine. Maybe you still wouldn’t get it. So they skip the questions that require them to relive the past long enough to describe a few scenes. That makes sense to me.

On the other hand, it doesn’t seem very honest. Have they conceded defeat to past experience? There is also glory in describing how and what you survived, but only if you see it that way.