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Car rental company gave away my reserved and paid for rental car because of my flight being late

Then the rental car I was expecting from Advantage Rent A Car in Los Angeles because of my travel reservations through Expedia was not available anymore because of my flight being late. Then the car rental company charged me almost 4 times the amount to get me a brand new PT Cruiser, 2007 edition, which was the only thing they had left. Then the rental company gave me wrong directions to downtown Los Angeles, which were supposed to be shortcuts but resulted in me wasting an hour trying to find my way in a place I had moved away from less than 3 months ago.

People told me after I flew down around 500 miles that they needed more papers

Then the business people I had to go visit told me that they needed some more documents that they had forgotten to ask me before. Then the university appointment I had got canceled because of me being late. I was told to come later at night. Then when I got there, I was told that the professors in question had already left for the day, even though they told me earlier in the day that they wanted to see me. I also canceled 2 other appointments because of me being late due to the rental car.

Hotel reservation and computer at hotel both messed up

The hotel reservation got changed because Advantage Rent A Car notified Expedia that I had came to a new agreement with them for the rental car, resulting in the hotel reservation getting canceled for unknown reasons. Expedia support told me that I needed to book again and apologized. After getting the hotel room, the computer at the hotel that I had reserved for going online had a broken space bar, something that I have experienced in the past. Thus, every space you see in this post required me to push the central space bar connector built into the keyboard very hard, resulting in a lot of time spent going through the entire post to make sure I have the necessary spaces and that I do not have any extra spaces.

I met good friends at night

Later in the night, I met a few friends I had not met for a long time, and even though our meeting was very short, it was good.

Should I look for something to blame, or should I be happy because of what happened later in the night?

Here is the golden question: Who should be blamed for these series of blamable events? Here is the priceless question: should anyone or anything be blamed at all? This is a normal day in Southern California, but it seems like a waste of energy compared to what can be accomplished with better planning:

List of blamable events

• If only I had waken up a few minutes earlier.
• If only I had printed important things the prior night.
• If only the plane had left on time.
• If only the rental car was ready for me the minute I landed.
• If only the rental car company would not argue with someone who just posted about the dangers of telling someone they are wrong.
• If only the rental car company would give correct directions.
• If only I would not ask for directions.
• If only I had been told that more papers were needed for a business meeting.
• If only the university could reschedule me for another appointment soon.
• If only the professors would stay after their late night class instead of telling me to come while they leave early to head for the bars.
• If only appointments could be rescheduled when you call people in advance, instead of being told “Sorry, I can only cancel appointments at this time but you have to call between 8 am and noon to make new appointments.“
• If only Expedia would not cancel entire itineraries simply because some part of a trip changed due to the mentality of a car rental company.
• If only the space bar on this computer did not warrant more attention than the rest of the keyboard.

So tell me, my online friend: would you look at this day as a way to see who to blame based on “If only“, or would you look at this day as a day you met good friends?

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Telling someone they are wrong can be like telling them they are inferior

When you tell someone they are wrong, you make an argument very personal. When people are arguing about a personal argument, they are usually not looking for the truth. They are instead looking for ways to prove that they are not wrong. Try not to make an argument personal. You never know how some people may react when they think you are trying to act smarter than them. Why would people think that? Because when you tell someone they are wrong, it means you are smart enough to realize that they are wrong. People do not like to feel inferior compared to someone else. Instead of telling people they are wrong, tell them why an argument may not be logical, or why another argument may be better.

If you simply must tell others that they are wrong, first tell them that you maybe wrong

Instead of telling people they are wrong, first find anything in their argument that you can agree on. Online, through your reactions, even acknowledging the fact that you may have made a mistake or that you understand the logic others used when saying something shows that that you agree with someone’s criticism. That someone will then try to not be too defensive, since you already agreed to something and they got a sense of relief that you are starting to understand their viewpoint. How can someone argue with you when they see you accepting their ideas and admitting to your own mistakes?

If you still want to show that others are wrong, first admit that you may be wrong, and then pursue the situation with something that will convince them voluntarily that they may be wrong. Try to show the other side the facts that may make them realize their own mistakes. People never like being told they are wrong since they feel embarrassed over such a pinpointing by other people. Compared to being told they are wrong, people will love admitting they are wrong on their own, since that shows they have the skills to analyze a situation and they have the courage to admit mistakes. Many people love exhibiting such traits.

Convince people something is right instead of telling them they they are wrong

If you want to convince people that something is wrong, you have to show them why you think something else is right. Showing people they are wrong may get you agreements in heated arguments, but those people will hate you for forcing them to realize in public, whether on the internet in front of millions of people or in person in front of you, that they were wrong and you were right.

The basic idea of this entire article can summarized into one question: Do you like the idea of people realizing why you think something is right, or do you like the idea of telling and showing people that they are wrong?

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While everyone will try to appreciate on a regular and constant basis, the Reader Appreciation Week is supposed to send a vibe through the blogosphere to show that we all mean business, by actually giving back to our readers. Please note that even if you are a full time blogger, you are still a reader and thus can win too.

What can you get from me?

The things I will be donating will depend on what people want. All of my readers, both via e-mail and through the online comments are automatically eligible to win prizes. I can offer everything on the RAW Prizes page, except the prizes from the “Non-monetary Prize Ideas” on that page as they need to be discussed with you. If there is something you would like to see, please let me know.

One thing that I like about the Reader Appreciation Week is that the prizes are not limited to certain categories. I will even mail your prize to you if you wish, at no extra cost. However, if you win or want something like an online membership, I am not sure I can mail you anything, since an e-mail would do a better job. If you still let me know your address, I will mail you an appreciation letter.

Please tell me what you would like to get

So please go ahead and start requesting. I am listening. If you want, e-mail me, or contact me via any of the instant messengers. I am always asking you to comment and interact with me more, and you always interact with me also. Please start making requests so I can try my best to do more things for you also. If you want something and I can provide it, I will go ahead and offer it as a prize.

I invite you to please participate in the Reader Appreciation Week in any way you can and in any way you wish. I will really appreciate it.

Thank you for reading.

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It is a good thing to tell people to donate. It is an even better thing to donate yourself. However, in my view, it is not a good thing to use the poor and homeless people, who need help, to get yourself more comments. Manipulating people’s emotions to get more clicks and comments on your site so that you can donate to charity means that you are not willing to help others without getting something back along the way. For many blogs, more comments mean more traffic, which results in more money through ads. Thus, you are simply going to give charity only if you can get more customers.

What happens if you do not get even a single comment? Are you going to change your rules and donate anyhow? Why not donate right away in the first place when people are dying because of hunger and other things every single hour, instead of playing marketing gimmicks on innocent people’s lives so that you can get more traffic and more comments on your blog?

Do not let innocent lives hang on a thread simply because you crave for more comments

If you want to tell people to donate, go ahead. But if you want to donate yourself, do it without any hesitation, and do it without being selfish or without looking for a return investment. The people who are in need have done nothing bad to you, so try to help them and not base your donations on the number of customers or comments you get. That is not respectful to the people in need, as their lives are worth more than the number of comments you will ever receive.

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If a site tries hard to appear in the top search results, it better provide better content too

Let us take a hypothetical situation. If I see ProBlogger appearing first in search results when searching for the words “Make money online”, and I notice the quality of content on Problogger is inferior compared to the content on JohnChow.com, I will think that Darren Rowse, owner of ProBlogger, simply focused on getting higher listing on search engines instead of coming up with better content than other sites like JohnChow.com.

Why? Because I would notice that his content, in this hypothetical example, is of lesser importance, value and quality compared to other sites which do not rank high on search engines. I would also think the same thing for JohnChow.com, if his site appeared higher in search results compared to other sites but provided content of lesser value, or content that has already been discussed elsewhere compared to other sites which have unique and more useful content.

Of course, as you get more popular, people tend to agree more with you. Reading a post about having good anchor text on hundreds of new blogs on the internet for the last 5 years does not spark much interest in some people, while those very people jump to commenting with great excitement because of someone like John Chow bringing up the same point. I wonder if some people are simply looking to praise anything written on prominent blogs instead of focusing on what is being said and why it is being said.

What do I think of JohnChow.com?

As for me, I initially started reading John Chow’s site because of his humor and the way he discussed random things that he wrote about so well. As time passes, his blog is focusing more and more on being commercial, full of reviews and stuff related to making money. I guess directions change from time to time. Even my site has gone from being completely personal and talking about everything to being a blend of personal thoughts and public trends, among several other things.

As long as John Chow’s site has something that does not focus solely on making money or commercial marketing, I will continue to be a reader. He writes well and in my view, with honesty, and when he jokes, it is good. As for ProBlogger, in my view, I like Darren Rowse being honest and transparent in his posts, and for addressing the issues of making money and commercial marketing well through direct and indirect ideas and thoughts. I will continue to be his reader also.

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An example of how not to follow advice without thinking

A long time ago, one of the community college students I was counseling came to me for help. Her boyfriend was giving her advice about something that she did not want to follow. At the same time, however, she felt obligated to follow his advice because of being in the relationship. Her boyfriend was sincerely giving advice since it had worked for him in the past.

In my view, however, what he was recommending did not apply well to the girlfriend’s situation. I told her to listen to what I had to suggest, and then to think about the benefits and pitfalls of both her boyfriend’s advice and my suggestions. She could then do whatever she pleased since it was her life. She thanked me and went on her way.

Last week, she sent me a text message out of the blue to thank me for helping her back then. Did she follow her boyfriend’s advice? No. Did she follow my suggestions then? No. She did something interesting instead. She took my suggestions, combined it with her boyfriend’s advice and came up with her own unique solution that even her boyfriend was happy with.

Ask for advice only to incorporate it into your own solution

You should not follow any advice without analyzing, dissecting and customizing the advice to suit your own situation. The advice other people give you is a result of their thinking and their past experience. Thus, you cannot simply keep following other people’s advice without thinking about how such advice fits your thinking, your experience, and your current situation. Ask for help only when you are ready to help yourself and when you try to come up with your own solution also.

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The e-mail that Broc sent me was short, up to the point and polite. That throws me into a dilemma: should I look at that e-mail as one of the many e-mails Broc has sent to dozens of bloggers, or do I look at the e-mail as something that only concerns me?

Things I see if I observe mass e-mails as being part of a group

If I look at the overall thing that Broc did and is doing, I can say that he is mass e-mailing his contest to everyone he knows in order to promote his site. That is clear mass spamming in the eyes of many people, it not most, as promoting any idea through mass e-mails is spam in the minds of many, whether or not the e-mails in question are relevant to a blog or an individual. Thus, I notice the following points about mass emailings:

• The e-mail offers some value to me when I am part of a group
• The announcement was mass e-mailed to many people, thus I do not feel extra special
• The e-mail can be considered spam or non-spam, depending on how my group [the blogosphere group] looks at mass e-emails, regardless of the email content
• The e-mail can also be considered either spam or non-spam depending on the type of activities the group is involved in. For example, a group based on human rights activities may view a mass e-mailing about credit card offers to be spam, but may view mass e-mailings about credit cards that donate money to victims of human rights abuse as being good.

Things I see if I observe mass e-mails as an individual

If I look at the e-mail as an individual, from my perspective and observe things based on how Broc approached me and what he offered to me and my readers, it seems like a good e-mail that may benefit people in the long run. This goes along with what I am saying in the new Reader Appreciation Project. Thus, the points for this perspective are:

• The e-mail offers some value to me as an individual and to my readers
• The announcement was e-mailed to me directly.
• The e-mail can be either spam or non-spam, depending on how I view such e-mails and their content
• The e-mail can also be judged based on what I think about different things and how I feel. I may be tired and may view such an e-mail as being spam, while I may be exhausted but if I get such an e-mail from a friend, I may view it as being non-spam.

The way you look at mass e-mail probably depends on what you think about mass e-mails in general and the way you think. You may also judge e-mails based on how you are approached by different people in different situations.

Broc’s e-mail is both spam and non-spam

I think some people may delete or even block Broc’s email, as mass e-mailing regardless of having good or bad intentions, is still mass e-mailing. I prefer the concept of giving back to the readers without making them do extra stuff, like making readers join communities, but giving back something is a good step in the right direction that Broc is taking, compared to the thousands of bloggers out there who are not giving readers anything back.

What is your view on this? Do you look at incoming e-mails from your own individual and personal perspective? Or do you look at e-mails from the perspective of a community and see if everyone is being mass e-mailed or not with the same message and then look at any possible benefits?

As for me, I joined Broc’s MyBlogLog community myself in order to keep my opinion in the matter lean less towards calling the e-mail a form of mass “spamming“, and to bring up an interesting point that we need to think about when looking at mass emails. I also want to see if I get a printer along the way or not. Even though my current printer is on the verge of death, the printer from Broc’s MyBlogLog contest will go back to the readers through the Reader Appreciation Project.

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How Reader Appreciation Project started

Ronald Huereca originally approached me earlier this year to see if such a project could be started. I was excited over such an opportunity, since I see so many people pretending to appreciate others but in reality they only use others. So the two of us, along with Shawn Blanc, decided to brainstorm together. I would like to present to you the RA Project, which is the result of the brainstorm, and a lot of chicken tenders from Burger King.

Some basic ways Reader Appreciation Project pays you for not doing anything more than what you already do

Please take a look around the site and let me know. This entire project depends on you. Not only that, Ronald has posted a nice post explaining how you can get many prizes from the RA Project. You can win prizes, get money, get coupons and get more things. The best thing about all of this is that you do not have to do anything, since the time you spend reading and commenting on the site already helps us!

You already come to the site and comment, and that is enough. I do not want you to go through extra steps so we can benefit a lot while we give you $10 for your efforts and call it a form of “appreciation.” I want to spread the mentality that the mere fact you read a blog or comment on it means that you have done that blog a huge favor. I want all of us to focus on how to repay that favor.

Thank you for supporting me so far!

You can not only participate by leaving comments on the RA Project site but you can also write posts for the site. Please contact me personally if you are interested.

Thanks for being a good reader of mine all this time. I hope the new project increases awareness that we have to appreciate people not only through words but through actions also.

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Copyright Laws are not supposed to be confusing

One thing I like about Daniel’s simple list is that it is a simple list. Copyright laws are usually written and explained in complicated ways. Such complication confuses people. One thing you may get a sense of, while reading the list, is that Copyright Laws have nothing to do with morality. When you deal with the law, your point of view or your ethical beliefs usually do not matter. That is why when you use someone else’s work or you see someone else using your work, you should not focus on your intentions or emotions. You should focus on what rights others have, and the legal steps you can take to ensure the legal protection of your content.

If you have good intentions and copy something, will you be held accountable?

I think we should think about one important dilemma: what if your intentions were good, but you still did something that the Copyright Law prohibits? What if you used someone’s pictures on your MySpace profile without knowing that you need permission? What if you tell someone via email that they “can quote an article” from your site, and in response that person quoted your entire article and added a simple line or two to make it a bit more unique. How can you defend yourself in such cases, even though your intentions may have been good?

I guess, because of such things, we have to take precautions and make sure on a regular basis that no one is stealing our work. Having good intentions is good, but actions are sometimes more powerful than thoughts. Legally, Copyright Laws are only powerful when you are willing to legally enforce them. You should sometimes treat your work as if you were writing essays at a University. You can show your work to others, but you also have to make sure that other people who are also writing essays do not copy something from you. You also want to make sure you do not copy from others without following proper quoting procedures, as the person reading your essay will also read all the other essays from where you copied something from.

What is your opinion on this?

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This change can be considered a minor update compared to the last one, v 0.94 . This current update should hopefully have a significant impact in the long run. The numbering system is a random system I chose in order to make it easier for both myself and you to keep track of changes. The latest change is v 0.94 .

I hope this update makes it easier for you to comment, as your comment will be published right away once you submit it. This update does mean more work for me as I have to check the site more regularly to make sure no spam got through, though I think such an effort is worth it. If for any reason your comment disappears or does not get approved instantly, please contact me and I will find out what happened to your comment. Thanks for all your comments and support so far. Please let me know if I can do anything else to improve commenting or any other aspect of the site.

I am also going to try some new things on this site: one will be to go through the previous posts and find out the posts which have lose ends. Some ends can be tied, while some blog ends can be kept open. Some ends, like promises or expectations, need addressing. I will try to address them soon.

Thank you for reading this.

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While not being able to drive fast, I found some space among slow drivers

As I said in February, driving up the 5 North reminded me of different situations in other parts of life. One of the things I noticed was that finding elements to reduce boredom due to blogging helps. I also noticed that whenever I drove up a steep hill on the freeway, my car would slow down because of the amount of power required to drive up at fast speeds. I had to slow down and drive in the slower lanes on the right hand side in order to let the faster traffic pass by. Even though I had slowed down, I was still headed in the same direction as the faster cars. There was no reason for me to compete and race with those cars. Competing with myself was better.

Your blog is like your car in a similar situation. Whatever goals you may have in mind, you can move towards them regardless of your speed. If you feel your plans or efforts are not working, you can continue aiming for your goals at a slower pace to make sure you keep doing something useful while you figure out the reasons behind the issues you face. If you feel that slowing down will hurt a deadline you may have, you should try to start early on future efforts, including any efforts and plans for observing and solving the issues you already may be facing.

When facing issues, first thing you should do is to slow down and observe

One way to find out why you may feel that you are facing issues is by slowing down and observing the things you consider important for your blog. If you think the number of comments or RSS feed subscribers is important, then not getting enough comments or subscribers may feel like a problem. Observing the things that affect commenting and RSS feed subscriptions can allow you to find out where the problems may be, even if the problems exist in other aspects of your blog. Stopping because of experiencing problems or disappointments is not a good idea. Slow down instead of stopping first, and then decide what to do after observing your goals and the problems.

Finding other blogs which are facing similar issues can be helpful. You can even ask other bloggers politely about the reasons why their blogs face those issues, while also telling them that the reason you ask is because you are facing similar issues. You can even look at sites getting a lot of comments and RSS subscribers to figure out why those sites are more successful at achieving the goals you are having problems with. If content is the sole reason why a site is getting more comments or subscribers, then you should see if content is the only main reason you are not getting enough comments or subscribers on your site.

Avoid competing with others when you face issues

If you face challenges in achieving your goals, you can try setting up new plans to achieve the same goals. You should slow down your blogging efforts instead of giving them up in order to figure out why you are facing problems. Try not to compare your blogs with others. Do not compete with others; compete only with your own expectations. You should not base your efforts on what others do, but on what you can and want to do. Otherwise, you are basing all your efforts on something that others control. You want to avoid that.

As for my car driving up on steep hills, it just kept on going and going, like an energized rabbit. I did notice a few trucks pass by me a few times. In those situations, I tried to get ahead of them. If you are bored going up a hill and do not have an automobile companion, you can setup short term goals for a few seconds to reduce boredom, like going faster than speeding trucks for a few moments.

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An example of an intrusive ad

I run into intrusive ads all the time. A good example of an intrusive ad is on Yahoo Games, where I sometimes play some games with Valerie. Whenever I go into any game room, I am taken to a full-page advertisement where I have to click a “Continue” link to proceed to the actual game page. That is an intrusive form of advertising, disrupting my normal browsing experience where I am forced to see an ad before I am allowed to play any game. Following is an example of what users usually see before they can get to any Yahoo game:

An intrusive ad takes time away from me without my consent, even when I am agreeing to play a free game. An intrusive ad also makes me go through extra steps before I am able to get to the things I want. Therefore, an intrusive ad is not good in my opinion.

An example of non-intrusive ads combined with an intrusive ads

Magazines sometimes contain more ads than actual content written by the magazine writers. However, people usually expect ads in the last few pages of a magazine, as those ads are usually classified ads. Classified ads are usually not intrusive like the full page ads that you run into while in the middle of reading interesting magazine articles. A full page ad in a magazine is an ad that you see while reading a magazine; such an ad can waste your time. By comparison, a non-intrusive ad at both an expected and an unexpected place usually does not waste any time for the observer, nor does it promote strong feelings of uneasiness.

For example, imagine you are reading an article on page 22 in a magazine and run into full-page ads on page 23 and 24. You have no choice but to keep flipping pages to get to page 25 to continue reading the article you were reading on page 22. The ads on page 23 and 24 are intrusive ads. Placing full page ads in between articles may get people to look at those ads, but they also ruin the reading experience because of causing unwanted interruptions. Placing ads at the end of the magazine where there is no content but only ads saves the readers time, as the readers will know where to find ads and where to find articles. Even placing small ads on pages with actual content is better than a full-page ad that disrupts the flow of an article.

However, placing a lot of small ads on actual content pages can have the same effect as a full-page ad, as having too many small non-intrusive ads promotes distraction. On the other hand, having full-page ads on the inside covers of a magazine works very well, as a user is usually not expecting content on the inside covers.

Examples of a non-intrusive ads

In the offline world, you see ads in buses, on car bumpers and even in many places and on many products in your own home. Even when you buy clothes, you are basically buying a piece of garment that comes with a brand name tag attached with it that reminds you repeatedly about the company that sold you that shirt. I have even seen ads in some public restrooms in spaces sold to advertisers by the property owners.

I saw an example of a non-intrusive ad while at the Bay Street Emeryville Shopping Center in the Bay Area last night. At the shopping center, you enter a parking structure to park your car and get a parking permission ticket that you have to pay for and then return to the staff before you leave the parking structure. To see the example of a non-intrusive ad, please take a look at the following snapshot of the parking permission ticket I got last night and think of anything strange or interesting you notice in it:

Did you notice anything interesting in the above snapshot, other than the fact that I paid for the ticket at exactly midnight, and that I got to keep the ticket even though I said earlier that people leaving the parking structure need to return such tickets? The important thing I noticed among other distracting things is the name of the parking structure gate from which I entered: “Ikea Entry 1.”

Interestingly enough, there is an Ikea store right next to the parking structure. Whether intentional or non-intentional, naming a parking structure entrance “Ikea Entry 1” is non-intrusive advertising. That name fulfills the need to have a name for the entrance, while acting as a non-intrusive ad for Ikea too. That small line of text does not waste my time, and I do not pay anything more than what I owe for parking.

How some forms of non-intrusive ads can upset people

Of course, abusing non-intrusive advertising can look weird to customers also. Take the Angels of Anaheim baseball team as an example, located in Anaheim, Orange County, California. In 2005, the Los Angeles county, located right next to Orange County, managed to get the team name changed to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in order to market to people who knew Los Angeles more than Anaheim. This resulted in many people criticizing the new long name. The city of Anaheim sued the team because of a contract in which the team had agreed to market only Anaheim through their official team name.

Such a name change is an intrusive ad by Los Angeles, even though the original name acted as a non-intrusive ad by Anaheim. Why? Because the brand name people were looking for previously now had an element which stood against the very reason those people trusted the brand name in the first place: the name of the city which was in their own county of residence.

Non-intrusive ads can create more trust compared to intrusive ads

While advertising is getting more creative, it is also somehow getting more intrusive. Displaying creative advertising that is not intrusive in people’s lives helps build an innocent and reputable brand in the long run. Advertisements are going to be around for a while, so why not make them simple, easy and non-intrusive for the customer? If you do not push your product in ways that disrupts the lives or habits of customers, you are respecting your customer.

Put your ads in places where the only reaction a customer may have is “Hmmm, that is cool“, instead of a reaction that shows frustration of any sort. Treat your customers as human beings, the same way you are supposed to treat your blog readers. Respect others and find out what is important to them and what kind of actions could help and hurt them. People will respect you for that by listening to what you have to say.

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