Monday, April 28, 2008

Doom and Gloom

The news as of late would lead one to believe that the Exodus is upon us. The housing market is falling. Empty homes that have been foreclosed on liter every street. Gas prices keep climbing. The war is dragging on. The economy is weak. It goes on and on. With all these dire situations that we face each day we still find it in ourselves to move ahead. We glance at the paper, sigh, and head off to work. We're resilient in our desire to better ourselves and we lumber on.
My point is that nothing is changing. People still drive SUV's and don't even bat an eye to fill the tank. The people who wanted to buy a house are now reaping the benefits of the 'flipping houses' times that we went through. The war is out of site and mind until another statistic of casualties is posted on the front page. We have become immune to those numbers as well.
I'm proposing change. This isn't a plug for a presidential candidate. My thoughts are pointed directly at each and everyone of us. We cannot remain sheep that are blindly lead through life only to realize what is happening when we have reached the end of our destination. We need to wake up. We are all sleeping. The change as to come from within us and ourselves. If your thinking right now what difference can one person make then you've already missed my point. Society at large must be held accountable for its own actions. If the CEO's of large corporations are stealing from their companies does that make it alright for everyone else? If your neighbor still commutes to work everyday with his gas guzzling vehicle so should you? We need to look inside ourselves and ask what is right. The answers will come quicker than you think.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Jager Foods - The Art of Customer Service

I've copied dialog from another blog that I was interacting with. The blog is about this couple that have taken over a soup business. It all seemed straightforward but I thought I would explore it a little further. The following is comments that we wrote to each other:

Opinonsmatter said...

This all looks very interesting. I'm tempted to try it. Heres my hang up. Why is this dry packaged soup any different than the ones I can pick up at the grocery store.

P.S. I checked out your website. Very nicely done!

April 15, 2008 8:34 AM


orangewedge said...

Thanks for looking at our web-site. We've included the back of the labels for each soup on the web-site. Compare it to the products that you find at the grocery store. Our soups nutritional value will exceed these other soups.

April 15, 2008 12:12 PM


Opinonsmatter said...

O.k. I'm not going to hop in my car and make any special trips but I will look a little more closely at what your pitching here. The no MSG is big and your web-site mentions 'Vegan friendly'. From a nutritional stand point you make a good claim. Can you give me another reason to buy your product?

April 15, 2008 1:48 PM



orangewedge said...

We sell gourmet quality foods. The bottom line - I don't think you'll find anything that comes close to our product in a grocery store. My parents always believed that if you could get someone to try the soup that it would sell itself. I appreciate your questions and you taking the time to look at our product. Heres my offer to you. I'll send you a sample of each of our soups. No strings attached. Just e-mail me your address to sales@jagerfoods.com
Sincerely,
Nicholas Jager

April 16, 2008 8:27 AM


Opinonsmatter said...

Thank you. I was looking for some conviction from you and I believe I found it. I wasn't looking for anything for free. I'm going to purchase something directly from your web-site. I just wanted to know how strongly you felt about your product and if you would stand behind it. I'll be placing my order today and I look forward to trying your soups!

Best regards,
Anita

April 16, 2008 9:17 AM



orangewedge said...

Anita,

I'm glad this all worked out. Please let us know what you thought of the soups after you've tried them.

Nick

April 16, 2008 9:52 AM


Opinonsmatter said...

Will do.

Your not going to find that kind of customer attention at Wal-Mart. Not only did he respond to all my inquiries but he remained civil throughout the whole process. Customer service isn't dead its just hard to find.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Windows Media Player vs. Itunes

Why aren't the music formats interchangeable?

My grandson set both these up for me on my computer. My first question was 'Why do I need two?'
He went on to explain that although they basically both do the same thing there are features that both have that separates them. The music formats are not interchangeable. He said I would eventually default to a favorite.

I was told that sound quality can be found in Windows Media Player. But the ease of organizing your music can be found in Itunes.

I'm too old to try and figure any of this out. It all sounds the same to me so I opted for Itunes.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Child Support In America

This is a hot topic for me personally. I'm not going to elaborate on who it is that I know personally that is dealing with this right now to allow them some privacy. The whole thing sickens me to no end. I can't believe the system is this flawed. What will it take to fix it?

Here's how things play out:

The custodial parent (this is the parent that has custody of the children) asks the social worker for money. A room full of government paid employees is more than eager to assist this person. They have the means and the know how to extract the money from the other parent. Through wage garnishment to tax refund intercepts, they will dutifully do there job.

This is to be expected. Every parent has an obligation to their child.

The non-custodial parent (the one whom the child does not live with) gets a letter in the mail stating that he or she will now be expected to pay child support.

There you have it. All nice and tidy. Government involvement has cured the problem.

Wrong.

This is the face of the situation. To truly understand it you have to dig deeper.

What if the non-custodial parent wants to see the child? There is no room full of government employees to assist them. They are instructed to find an attorney. Imagine, you are obligated to pay child support for your child and now you have to hire an attorney to visit them. Whats wrong with this situation. As if the child support payments weren't enough now you have to shell out more money to actually see your child.

They have the dollar amount all wrong. Each parents obligation is based on a % of their income. This doesn't make any sense either. Some children will receive more than other children? Why should a child with a single parent be given more money than any other child with a single parent? That's like awarding wrongful death suits to individuals based on the size of the persons wallet. Its just completely wrong.

Enough ranting. I have a solution. Government establishes a committee of five people. 3 men and 2 women. This committee's sole purpose will be to establish an exact dollar amount needed to raise a child each month. They split this 40% for the custodial parent and 60% for the non-custodial. No more percentage of income. Change the disbursing of funds. Some of the money should go to the school that the child attends. If little Timmy needs a calculator the size of a computer monitor so he can do his homework well then Timmy will have the money available to get it.

All of this money is contingent upon the custodial parent allowing the non-custodial parent the right to see there children. If this is not being observed then the custodial parent loses all right to receive child support. Think about that one for a second. All I'm saying here is that if a parent decides that they don't want the other parents involvement than why should that parent be held financially responsible?

O.K. I got that off my chest. If anyone would like to comment on this I all ears. I hope this changes soon. Too many kids grow up not even knowing who there other parent is and that hole inside them can never be filled. To every parent out there that hasn't seen their child in more than 6 months my heart goes out to you.

Greetings

I hope everyone can handle another newbie to the blogging community. I feel I've found the perfect place to express myself. I may be opinonated at times (my friends would say) but I'm always welcome to constructive critism.