Continue reading… »

In my view, setting achievable goals does not seem like a good concept. Following are five of the several different reasons due to which setting achievable goals can be bad.

1. You limit yourself before you start.

   People who think of what they cannot do in their entire life usually look for smaller things they can do to feel better. If you want to simply feel better by faking levels of accomplishments by limiting your boundaries, go ahead. If you think your life should improve or you want to keep on improving the satisfaction of your life, you have to increase some thing, like effort or your targets or even your thinking, in order to expect or get more. Since you set goals usually to achieve something, setting limited goals means you want to achieve something that is easy and limited. Even the simple concept of thinking more about thoughts themselves or something helps.

2. You avoid obstacles.

   Have you ever come across the saying “Look for challenges.” Well, people who look for challenges in life simply because they want to face challenges worry me because such people are very weak: they usually simply want to prove to themselves or others that they are better. How about achieving something through a challenge? I am not sure if “The Challenge Facer” is a goal some people are out to achieve: maybe they are. Similarly, people who keep avoiding obstacles and living a life without obstacles usually end up not doing much.

   Focus on what you want. If there are challenges along the path of what you want, then facing those challenges is more logical, reasonable and ethical than simply going around saying “I’m a challenging person. I look for challenges.” Of course, once you are aiming for something, then you can look for challenges or try your best to avoid them. Now you should realize that your goal itself may be to face challenges in life for some reasons only known you². If such a goal exists, then sure, you can go ahead and look forward to such challenges in my view.

3. Life will not improve for you.

   How can life improve when you only set out to do things which are easily doable based on your existing life? If you want to change life, you have to do things differently to achieve a different result than what you are experiencing at the moment. How can a goal, which requires no change in the essential elements or views in your life, result in your life changing due to that goal?

4. Achievable goals are an excuse to simply have goals.

   Usually, it seems, many achievable goals exist simply because one wants to feel better by having any goal in their mind. Thus, you make plans on what to do in a year simply because making such a plan makes you feel that you are doing something good³. Sure, such a feeling is important also, but you can try to convert those feelings into other things also to see if the new results help you even more.

5. Stereotypical tradition of setting goals will continue.

   This reason usually happens because we see many others around us planning their upcoming year or analyzing their previous years to see what goals they can achieve or have achieved. If you set out to do something about your goal planning simply because people around you set their yearly goals, you may be simply making goal plans in order to fit into the society. You already know where I stand when it comes to doing things simply because the society does and loves them, right?⁴

Set goals regardless of their achievable status

Now you should realize that the very idea, of setting up goals that are easy to achieve or are simply achievable since the beginning, being bad also means that any goals you set are theoretically achievable. Thus, when you set goals, do not think about their achievable status or their achievable future. Think of the process and the actual goal. The more dreamy the goal, the more important it probably should or may be for you, even if that dreamy important goal is one of the dozens of other goals in your mind.

As time passes, you will realize that some goals are being achieved, some goals are failing miserably, while other goals have surpassed your expectations, have slowed down, or something else. That is normal, and that is how life is utilized to achieve something.

What do you think?

Please let me know what you think about the idea of simply having goals instead of achievable goals, or if you have any questions or comments or anything to share, like your own goals from the past or why you had them. Please let me know if the above thought or theory can be a universal law, or if there are exceptions where the above listed traits or other traits of achievable goals can do more good than this thought of mine, or if the idea above can be modified to be more accommodating.

When we have goals, we can work on achieving them. If we fail, we will learn and that feeling and experience becomes part of us, enabling us to hopefully try new and different ways of achieving other goals in the future. Say no to setting goals that are easily achievable on purpose. Focus on setting goals based on what you want your goals to be.

Thank you for reading.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

The below Twitter messages exist just because Twitter exists, and just because one can Twitter, and because one cannot think of any other reason to Twitter, and just to increase Twitter followers³. It seems that the same mentality that has turned innocent blogs into money making professional-services-claiming-to-be-blogs and the non-blog arena into website-filled-with-keywords-and-tags-to-please-search-engines world has also flooded Twitter: people keep describing Twitter and similar services with as many complicated terms and terminologies as possible so that the end result will be more direct or indirect money somehow by making people think “Wow, this is useful because it is sophisticated. I’ma gonna use it! COOL!”

It is as if the fact “Bes eats because there is food” has become the universal law upon which Twittering for many people revolves around. They Twitter because there is Twitter. So I present to you 14 Twitter messages that should help you realize as to what the focus of the message is, and what the real focus should be. Keep in mind that the poster of such messages had no reason behind the message other than to Twitter it. You decide what you would want your focus and reasoning to be for each message if you had a chance.

1. In the bathroom.
2. Out of the bathroom. Realized I only went in there to Twitter that I was in the bathroom.
3. Throwing up while typing this. Food poisoning. Crap got some on the phone
4. She is confused as to why I am Twittering during this interview. Just ask me the questions.
5. This exam sucks and the moderator keeps looking as if I was cheating through my cell phone.
6. Waiting for the cash register to process this sale, holding the customer credit card in my other hand.
7. In police station. Handcuffed. Drunk-driving-over-rabbits-offense. Thank god they didn’t take phone away. I can twitter w/phone behind me.
8. I woke up.
9. Neighbors woke up.
10. With my boy friend. He doesn’t know he is my boy friend yet.
11. Wife woke up. $&^%
12. Following this stranger, a beautiful girl, for hours now. Hope she doesn’t notice; I’m only following to make sure she gets home safe.
13. I am Twittering because this is Twitter.
14. I am Twittering so Bes can talk about me.

There you go, my Twitter loving or Twitter hating or Twitter confused beings⁴. The above Twitter messages, and many other Twitter updates on similar notes have no purpose for them. Many people simply use Twitter to let everyone else know what they are doing, while others do it to gain attention through more Twitter followers or through the stereotype that the more you Twitter, the cooler you are.

Of course, the funniest thing is to see how many Twitter-obsessed people have no communication skills, no interest in making real friends, no interest in the well being of others, and no interest in how to focus on content instead of creating a hype through presentation.

Thank you for reading and not Twittering.

I will stop here please, so I can think of what to Twitter now. I hope I made you pause your Twitter for at least a few moments. Please let me know what you think, if you have any comments, or if you would like to see more of such messages or would like to share your own messages or ideas.

Thank you for reading. You can get back to your pro-Twitter or anti-Twitter activities now. I will go back to being confused and giggling nervously in my head⁵.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Obligations of a shipping company during shipping delays

For me, keeping both me and the sender in the dark about the reason for the delay is something that should not happen. As a customer, you are assumed to have an obligation to make a payment before the shipping company will take your package. The shipping company itself, however, does not feel obligated to some things it should do for customers or the package. Behold below the 4 obligations that I think shipping companies like FedEx should feel responsible for, when it comes to delayed deliveries:

1. Notify the sender after they make a payment

   Did you notify either the sender or the receiver about the reason for the delay after the sender pays for the shipment? Simply saying “On route for delivery” for 2 days in a row through the online tracking system tells me nothing. I know it is on route for delivery: that is why I am paying to have the item shipped. What I want to know is what kind of a route is causing the delivery of the package to be delayed, and I want you to tell me immediately, automatically, when any delay happens.

2. Notify the sender before they make the payment

   Did you notify the sender of any possible delays in the shipment of an item before they paid? If the shortage in staff has been going on for “weeks“, as FedEx told the sender’s secretary, would it not have been responsible for FedEx to tell the sender, before they placed the shipping order. The shipping company can say something like “You are sending this item overnight, but we have to tell you that because of the shortage of staff in the area where this package is going, we may not be able to deliver this item faster than the regular post office.”?

3. Refund the wasted money

   Did the shipping company reimburse the sender for the money they paid for an overnight delivery that took 4 days to deliver in reality? Sure, telling the sender that no overnight delivery is 100% confirmed is a good protection idea, but if you know you are not going to have enough staff to deliver items beforehand, how about reimbursing the sender some of the money they could have saved by shipping using a slower shipping method? The sender paid for overnight delivery, and the package got delivered after 4 days. The sender paid money for a service they did not get because the shipping company hid the fact that there could be delays due to staff shortage.

4. Apologize voluntarily and sincerely

   Imagine someone takes your money in order to do something for you, but the thing they actually do is not worth the money you gave to that person. That someone never apologizes to you until you inquire about the situation, to which they say “Oh yeah, the people I knew could not be found, thus the result was not what you expected. You should have expected it since anything can happen. Sorry”

   Would you consider such a reply to be an apology? If you do not think it is sincere or even an apology, why would you accept a similar apology from a shipping company? How many of us are not robots who would love to hear a sincere apology without us asking for it? An apology is not needed because of wanting emotional attention. An apology because you hid information from me so that you could wast my money, time and plans for your own gain. Very few businesses realize that: that is why most businesses simply keep saying sorry without feeling guilty or even knowing how the customer was affected.

Shortage in staff does not always have to amount to the suffering of the customer

The above points are what a shipping company should keep in mind. Simply being short on staff, which can either be signs of an innocent struggle or bad management, does not mean the only one suffering is the customer. In the above case, FedEx got all the money knowing full hand there would be delays, delivered the item late, and did not notify either the sender or the receiver about the reason for the late delivery. In the end, the winner was FedEx which got more money than what it actually provided in return to the sender and the receiver. In the end, the people who suffered were the direct and indirect customers: the sender who paid for the overnight shipping and the receiver who received the item late.

What do you think?

What do you think? As a customer, do you think a shipping company can do anything differently than what FedEx did above? If you owned or worked for a shipping company, what would you have done in a similar position? Would you have acted the same, or differently?

Oh, before I forget, I went to a FedEx Kinko’s store on Thursday to send a package overnight, and saw around 12 staff workers. 7 were working, while 5 were laughing and talking to each other in different areas. Maybe those 5 should be turned into drivers who can deliver packages in case of “shortage in staff.” The package did get delivered by Friday noon, which was good.

Thank you for reading.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Now keep in mind that if you would have slapped me first, I could have apologized or done something else, instead of slapping you back. For example, if you slapped me first as a result of me causing you to spill something on your clothes, I could have immediately run away screaming “Wooohooo!! I have a topic for my site!” while you chase me. Thus, a preemptive action is not an action that is the only solution to something that can happen. It is an action that the preemptive person or entity chooses to take.

The Preemptive Initiative

What I propose is that we try some preemptive things, listed below, in our lives. Why can we not take an action before there is even a need for such action in any form or manner? Whether I am serious or joking or being myself, you decide. Life would be completely different in many perspective if we start taking actions, including the act of not doing anything, before there is a need for such actions. The preemptive points listed below will help you get started.

The Golden Preemptive Rule

There is only one rule for Preemptive Actions Initiative: forget every other rule and focus only on the action itself. The below preemptive actions are being committed solely and only because of the very nature of each specific preemptive action itself. There is no other information or reason for which these actions take place. This very article is intended to let you know both the fun things that can result from preemptive actions, and the horrible things too. Hopefully by the end of this article, you will realize a bit more than before as to how preemptive actions and assumptions affect our life in different manners.

12 random & interesting Preemptive Actions

While some of the following may look like pranks², imagine making these part of your life and also imagine accepting the fact that others do the below things to you daily. Imagine that your life is empty without this, and that anyone telling you otherwise would only make you mad. How then will you live your life? Will you be able to realize when you are analyzing something and when you are assuming something?

Here we go:

1. File for divorce before you get married
   Found the girl or guy of your dreams? Take them to divorce court before you even get married. If they ask why you would want to do such a thing, tell them they were going to cheat on you, take your money, or do something else to hurt you. If they ask for proof, tell them your proof is your ability to preemptively analyze preemptive things. See how they react. Even if you get married after that, they may want to divorce you.
2. Break up before you start a relationship
   Similar to the divorce point, but for people not having marriage in sight. Walk up to the guy or the girl you want to ask out, and say “I want to break up with you.” Walk away, and let the gossips start. Launch a preemptive gossip yourself against the gossipers.
3. Sell the car before you buy it
   Go to the car dealership, test drive the car and put the car for sale on eBay or Craigslist while sitting in the salesperson’s office that same day, before you even sign any papers or pay for the car. When the buyer comes, take their money, leave and have the salesperson deal with the situation and that buyer.
4. Run from the cops before they have any reason to run after you
   See a cop and run. When they chase you, catch you and ask why you ran, say “I may end up doing something wrong in the future, which is why I was running since you may catch me then.” Wait a few hours while they search you, your house, your car, or anything else you own, check your background and your DNA and your blood and your pockets, before they scratch their heads in confusion((Please note: They might recommend or order you to go through a psych test to see if you are crazy or not.)). Be prepared to be faced with an authority that does not believe in your preemptive beliefs. If the cops ask you again “Why did you run?” Ask them back “Why did you run after me? You also preemptively though you would catch me before you knew I did anything wrong!
5. Apologize for what you did before you do the thing you apologize for
   Walk up to a stranger and say “Sorry man for stealing your money“, and walk away. Keep looking back to see how the stranger looks at you, or if the stranger comes after you to slap you.
6. Return a call before you get the call
   Call all your friends and say “Hey, I am returning your call. Wassup?” When they say “I didn’t call you…” Say “I know. I realized that there is a possibility that you were going to call me, I was going to be away from the phone and thus I was going to miss your phone call. That is why I am returning your call before you even called me. Wassup? Tell me quickly, I don’t have much time.” See their reaction and make a note of it in your friendship diary. See how many friends start calling you fewer times after that.
7. Tell people you are closing your website, before you open your website
   I want to announce that I am closing my shoe website. It has been a very hard decision, and I know a lot of you would have been disappointed had it actually existed, but I have been forced to take this action since I knew the website would have consumed a lot of my time. On top of that, I do not know if the website was going to sell shoes or talk about shoes or something else. Heck, I do not even know the name of my shoe website or what the domain name url would be. Sorry all, and I hope none of you cry because you miss my shoe website. May my shoe website live in your hearts forever, as it surely lives in mine!
8. Quit a job before getting that job
   Walk into the corporate office of any large company and ask the first employee you see what the proper procedure is for someone who wants to quit a job that they have not yet even gotten the offer for. After that person looks at you for a while, slap them. When you get arrested, refer to my above example and say you exercised your right to preemptive strike as you knew they were going to slap you for asking a weird question.
9. Ask for a refund for your computer before you buy that computer
   Walk into Best Buy and request a refund for your computer. When the sales associate asks you for the item and the receipt, say “I haven’t bought the computer yet.” See whether or not you can end up making the sales associate call for the manager. Say the same thing to the manager and in the end, when you have had enough, say “Ok, I guess you do not respect my preemptive refund rights.” See the reaction.
10. Tell the bus driver “Thanks for the ride” before you get on the bus
    Stop the bus. When the door opens, look at the driver, thank him/her for the ride and walk away. See what happens then. Make sure you have medical insurance; preemptively buying medical insurance is a good thing.
11. Thank the guests for the great party and close the door before the guests even come into your house for the party
    This one is interesting. Invite guests to a party. When they show up at the door, open the door, thank them for coming and immediately say “It was a nice party, bye” and close the door, without letting them in. See what happens, and see if they ring the door bell to ask what is going on.
12. Thank and pay for the food at the restaurant and leave before ordering the food
    Walk into a restaurant and ask for your bill. When the cashier or waiter asks what you ordered or who served you, say “I haven’t ordered yet.” Everything that follows will test your preemptive initiative oath: if you laugh and simply walk out, you were only a prankster playing a prank. If you actually end up paying the money and believe this should happen daily to others and to you, you are preemptively initiating the preemptive initiative.

The above are some interesting preemptive actions that can add fun and frolics into your life. Be careful: not realizing what is the real message in this article can result in a lot of slapping and beating by cops and other people.

Do you support the preemptive initiative?

What do you think about the above points? If you realistically did any of the above, would you feel happy? Would you feel sad? Would you feel stupid? Would you not feel anything? Do you think preemptive actions can result in anything good or anything bad? Do you think such a thinking can improve or worsen your life? Can you think of any other actions, ideas or things that can hint at a preemptive action?

Thank you for reading. I will stop here and will go eat now, since I may become hungry soon.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

A simple example of an article without a picture is my post “Question: do you like using your real name online?.” Sure, an article may have other pictures like the site name logo on the top of this page, though such pictures may be connected to the site directly and may not necessarily be only applicable or connected to the article in question².

Some benefits of a writing without pictures include:

• No distraction, resulting in full focus on the text
• Better understanding of what is being said because of being able to imagine things, instead of being biased by what the picture may be showing
• Understood by many people, including those who prefer having pictures

Articles with pictures

A good example of a post that uses pictures would be my recent article titled “10 stereotypical elements to offline unprofessionalism.” That article has pictures to give some brief examples of what I am referring to in different areas³.

Some benefits of a writing with pictures include:

• Better understanding of what one may be referring to, specially when the picture may explain things when the author cannot explain easily through text or when the author wishes to explain more through the pictures
• A pictorial or an extra word association with the writing itself⁴
• In some cases, a simple visualization of stuff through a specific picture or a group of pictures, as an alternate to reading the entire text

Do you prefer online articles with or without pictures?

As you may have noticed from the above text, having pictures can help or can cause issues in some cases for different people. There is probably no definite answer to whether or not text with pictures is a good thing. So, do you prefer reading articles with or without pictures?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Following are 10 reasons for which you can avoid American Airlines, as of 2007. I am going to avoid American airlines for these very reasons, and a few more. The list below is not supposed to be in a chronological order: I will go back and forth in my trip to show you different aspects of how American Airlines operates, and how their operations affected me. This is also a way to tell you of my trip: you will find out where I was going and some brief details as to why I was traveling, among maybe a few other things.

1. Their in-flight food service is bad

   There used to be a day when you could eat all you want on a plane. “It’s ok, I will eat on the plane“, I used to think. Now, while the top executives reap in millions, customers are not served food so that the airline can save money. American Airlines only gives out a few soft drinks on most flights.

   American Airlines does allow you to bring your own food, but nowhere is this policy about bringing your own food printed on tickets or mentioned on their website. Only when you are in the terminal or sitting inside the plane do you slowly find out that people can bring their own food. The hunger at that time can drive you into thinking “If I take one or two of her Oreo cookies while she is sleeping, will she notice when she wakes up?” Wondering about that question enabled me to survive the journey while being extremely hungry.

2. Their baggage care and service is bad

   American Airlines lost my luggage when I was flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Then, after more than a day when the luggage was found, I found out that my luggage was missing items that were inside it. I had around $1000 worth of 3 items and a gift from someone that went missing. Not only that, my luggage had a few things and garments that belonged to some other passenger: noticeable, a man and a woman.

   After 3 weeks of phone tags and giving me an investigation numbers, American Airlines sent me papers to fill out to tell them the exact same story. Hopefully they can find my things. Here is the funny thing: American Airlines did not take the items from me that did not belong to me, telling me to hold on to them and someone will get them from me. It has been 4 weeks and I have someone else’s trousers, bra and a few other things. I keep forgetting everyday to drive to the airport and throwing them in front of the American Airlines baggage counter. Throwing them into the trash seems like a bad thing to do.

3. Their prices are bad

   American Airlines supposedly has the largest fleet, and still they charge more than others. Their planes are usually full. One good thing though: they have deals with different airlines, so you can probably find a good time to fly, most of the time, if you are willing to pay the price. Even with all the money coming in, they still complain of losses and other things. Where is all the money going?

   All of the money is definitely not going back into the service they provide, that is for sure. Nowadays they do not offer anything extra, serving only some soft drinks and water. Even when you ask for water 3 times on a 6 hour flight they make a weird face as if you were a kidnapped refugee who was not supposed to ever ask for water.

4. Their in-flight entertainment service is bad

   No TV, no audio jack, nothing. They do not even carry magazines or newspapers on both short or mid-long flights anymore. I remember the early 90’s, flying on several Asian, European, Middle East and a probably-then-Russian airline, and they all had TV’s, audio jacks with local radio, and lots of newspapers and magazines.

   Yet, American Airlines does not offer any of those. You just sit there, bored to death. I guess American Airlines can say “We are in the transportation business, not in the entertainment business.” If you want to avoid boredom, bring your own laptop and see if you can use it while in the air, or fly any of the several other airlines in America, like jetBlue or Virgin America. I tried to play text tags with Valerie while on the plane.

5. In my experience, majority of their staff’s attitude is bad

   Was it just my experience, or does the American Airline staff going from Texas to Alabama not greet or say bye to anyone who is not “white” or “black“? Was it just my experience, or does the American Airline staff going from Alabama to Texas not greet or say bye to anyone who is not “white” or “black“?

   Similarly, at the baggage claim counter in San Francisco, the staff acts as if they were kidnapped and forced to work there, and that they are letting out their frustration on the customers. Sure, when you work long hours you may probably be the person who bites others, but that is probably one of the exact reasons why American Airlines has staff with bad attitude: they do not hire more people to replace the already moody people. Again, where is all the money going?

   How about the attitude of the minority of their staff? I can say that ranged from no moodiness to being very happy to help. This is a very small minority from my experience. There was this very serious old guy who was working near the counter when I was checking in to fly from San Francisco. He was very serious and kept yelling at me to “not go to that counter” or “go to that counter.” Even though he was serious, he started asking me about my flight and started yelling at the top of his voice “You young person, you gonna miss your flight, hurry and don’t be lazy! Run to the gate. Don’t walk, RUN RUN or you cry!”

   It was like me being scolded in front of everyone at the airport as I was the youngest and everyone thought I had upset him or something. A young girl started asking her mother “Mommy, did this guy do something wrong? Why is he [the guy] yelling at him [me]?” Well, since I was younger than most people at that time the old guy sincerely wanted to help, thinking I was not aware of how serious it was for me to hurry. If I had not listened to him and had not run to the security check point and then to the gate, I would have missed my flight as within minutes of me passing through the security check point, dozens and dozens of people passengers started pouring in, and very long lines started forming.

   I prefer this old guys’ attitude and willingness to sincerely care and help instead of all the fake and forced smiles and serious faces that I saw on majority of the faces of American Airlines staff, who did not even care whether or not I am going to get my lost baggage or items back, let alone caring about me missing my flight. If that young girl ever finds this site, she is probably going to grow up to tell all her future kids “I saw Bes getting yelled at, hahaha! Hurry up or you will get yelled at too by someone!“

6. Their “shortage of staff” reason causes massive delays for customers after landing

   When I landed at San Francisco, Los Angeles, then San Francisco, Dallas, Birmingham, Dallas, and finally San Francisco again, the plane had to wait a long time before being able to connect or get near any terminal, each and every time at every airport. Sometimes the wait was as long as 40 minutes. We just sat there, on the runway, waiting for the American Airline or any other staff to prepare a gate for our arrival.

   The pilot gave this as the reason: “Due to shortage of staff in the entire airline industry, we have no one to work on our terminal gate, just like other airlines, and thus we have to wait for a while. Sorry about that.” Sure, it is not the pilot’s fault as he probably has to read the lines that American Airlines tells him to read, but I have rarely experienced such delays, after landing and being stuck sitting inside the plane, on 4 other airlines that I have flown at least 50 times last year alone within and outside California.

7. The probability of accommodations for missed or possible flights is very bad, even though American Airlines promises otherwise

   I wanted to meet Valerie going on my 2nd trip. When I was booking my flight, I called American Airlines over the phone and after hours of negotiation, I was told to fly to Dallas in Texas early in the morning, and to try to see if there was an available seat ona ny flight going to Missouri. I was told that there were usually no full flights going from Texas to Missouri, and that if I asked all the that went from Texas to Missouri, I would surely find something to take me to Missouri as part of a connecting flight that stayed for several hours in Missouri, and then onto Alabama.

   Well, I arrived in Dallas and realized that American Airlines staff there had a thing for beggars. They wanted me to beg. I reasoned, I pleaded. They kept telling me all flights are full and that even if they were not full they could not change my flight to have an extra connection. I told them I was “guaranteed” over the phone that if there was any seat availability I would be able to get it, specially I had paid extra to find a later flight to Alabama just in case I could not find any connecting flight to Missouri. “You would have to talk to the person who told you that over the phone.” Such answers seemed typical of American Airlines. After spending about 7 hours trying to get a connecting flight, I gave up, and flew to Alabama on the last flight for the day. Sorry Valerie for making you drive and keeping you waiting!

8. If you get your luggage but are missing items that were inside your luggage, American Airlines’ solution tactics are bad

   When my luggage was missing, I told the baggage claim counter at San Francisco International airport [SFO] about it. They filed down everything in the computer. Then, a day later, early morning, they called and asked the same information again. I told them the information and they said they have completely different information from what I was telling them. So I had to retell them the whole information. I kept asking them how they could mess up the information, and the lady on the phone kept repeating “You would have to ask those people you told about it.” Great answer, American Airlines. That answer is one of the worst examples of customer service.

   When my bag arrived after more a day, after midnight, I found that it was missing stuff and it had some guy and a girls’ stuff in it, mixed with whatever of my stuff had survived the journey, as I told you earlier. I filed a report about it on the spot, and called and filed another report about it over the phone within 4 hours.

   After 4 days, while I was on my trip in Alabama, I called to ask about my missing stuff from my baggage that had already been found. I was told that American Airlines had no information about me filing such a claim. I was told to contact the baggage service counter at the airport where I had landed, at the time the baggage went missing. That meant I had to talk in person to the people working at the American Airlines baggage counter in San Francisco. I could not fix the problem from Alabama. That was not a bad thing, as hanging out with Ronald in Alabama turned out to be more than a great experience.

   After I got back from my trip and immediately when I landed at the airport, I filed the report again by talking to the American Airlines baggage counter in San Francisco, who also said they had no information about me filing such a claim, and that the people who were present on the day I had originally filed a claim were not working that day. I was told that American Airlines would send me a single paper in the mail that I only needed to sign and send back. When I got the papers after 2 weeks, I found out that they were claim papers, where I had to fill out everything from scratch. I even had to report what items I was missing. Why was I told to file my claim in all those other steps and departments then?

9. The communication between different departments of American Airlines is bad

   The American Airlines phone support did not know that I had filed a claim for lost luggage in person at the American Airlines baggage claim counter at San Francisco Airport. The lost and found baggage warehouse of American Airlines, about 4 miles from the San Francisco airport, did not know about my claim of missing items even though the baggage claim department over the phone did later on. The American Airlines phone support was not aware of me filing a claim for missing items from my lost luggage that had been found, and about some other passengers’ items in my bag. The American Airlines baggage claim department at San Francisco airport was not aware of me filing a claim for missing items from my luggage, which was previously lost, which I had previously filed at the American Airlines lost and found baggage warehouse and also over the phone with the American Airlines lost and found baggage.

   Confused? Imagine what I was going through, running around for almost 2 days from my first flight so that I could recover my lost stuff and baggage before my 2nd flight to Texas only 2 days later.

   I contacted the American Airlines phone support, phone baggage claim, headquarters over the phone, San Francisco American Airlines baggage counter on the phone, San Francisco American Airlines baggage counter in person, the American Airlines lost and found baggage warehouse over the phone, and the American Airlines lost and found baggage warehouse in person. I did not contact these departments on my own. I was told in each case by American Airlines staff to contact these departments to file the claims for the different headaches that American Airlines had brought to me and my traumatized luggage.

   Thus, I followed the proper procedure that I was told, and even after contact them on all those levels, I was sent through all the loops where different parts of the loop did not know I was doing things the loop itself had told me. Now, I have been sent papers to file my claim and start all over again.

10. If you believe American Airlines advertisements, your expectations may be destroyed because of reality, which is not that good

    There is probably no doubt that if all you want is to fly and you do not run into any issues and you do not want any extra service and you do not run into any issues and you fly from less popular airports, American Airlines may do a better job that many other airlines because of the number of flights they have and the number of cities they operate. However, anything more than the most basic, and you can run into issues.

    You know those ads they show on TV, which show the American Airlines staff remembering all the customer names and talking to them like friends? Well, I met and talked with at least 6 people at least 7 times, and every time each of them would treat me as if they saw me for the first time. No one remembered anyone’s name, even the names of passengers at San Francisco terminal who were yelling at American Airlines baggage staff that they had been “waiting for 6 hours to find my luggage, as I have no clothes and nothing to go to my hotel with, and you keep asking me the same information!” Where are all the smiling and caring people they show on American Airlines ads?

Well, that is it for now. These are the 10 reasons I will try to avoid American Airlines in the future unless I book at the last minute and/or American Airlines is the only airline to fly to the city I want to go to. Can you think of more points?

What do you think? Have you ever experienced anything similar?

Thank you for reading

I really, really appreciate you reading all of this. I hope some of this information can be helpful in some manner to you, should you run into any issues with American Airlines.

Thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

1. E-mail

   I remember an era during the 90’s when signing up for dozens of e-mail accounts was cool. Having so many e-mail accounts did nothing; sending an e-mail was still sending an e-mail. People back then had Hotmail [now called Windows Live Mail], Coldmail, Yahoo Mail, Mail.com, ICQ mail, and AOL mail. Now, people also have Gmail, self-hosted e-mails on personal domains, and more. Having more e-mail accounts was once considered a status. Now, even though many people do not realize that each existing and additional e-mail account can bring in its own unique benefits and downsides, more and more people still keep opening new e-mail accounts daily.

   Opening e-mail accounts is one of the longest lasting online trends ever, and e-mails are still one of the most widely used online tools, if not the most widely used online tool.

2. Guestbooks

   This trend also started more solidly in the 90’s, and continued all the way until the first year or so after 2000 under the original name “guestbook“, after which the name continued and continues to lose its popularity to other terms and concepts which have been derived from it. The term guestbook came from the actual guestbooks and the same term used to describe books at places like museums, where visitors could leave comments and remarks for others to see, whether anonymously or with any detail. Online, in many cases, the guestbook became more popular than e-mail during its strong day, not in number of users but in actual fame, among many people who had guestbooks like Bravenet Guestbooks.

   Guestbooks paved the way for public comments that we see on blogs today. Overall, Guestbooks are still around in their pure form and in some evolved forms like online blog comments. Original, pure guestbooks themselves have lost a lot of their original popularity. In many cases, guestbooks have lost popularity and ground to the very concepts that were derived from them, like comments and forums.

3. Online diaries, blogs and their variants

   Online diaries were the sites that brought blogs into existence. Technically, blogs are nothing more than diaries. Of course, the concept of blogging has been commercialized and now online diaries, the very sites that started it all, are considered immature and not worthy by many of the blogs that aim to make money through non-personal content. I know many people who had and have different online diaries for different reasons. Many people would simply abandon one online diary for the other, as the concept of deleting online accounts was not considered as important by many people in the mid-90’s.

   Among the other things that online diaries have evolved into, blogs are the new normal craze now. Many people get more excited about having a blog instead of getting excited of what they want to achieve and what they can achieve with a blog. Online diaries have evolved into many things including blogs, networking sites, and more. LiveJournal can probably be considered an evolved example of personal diaries.

   Blogs are thriving, and are continuing to get stronger everyday. According to Technorati, more than 70 millions online blogs existed as of April 2007.

4. Chat and instant messaging accounts

   Instant messaging started mainly during the 2nd half of the 90’s, and to this day is very popular. Instant messaging accounts allow people to instantly chat with someone online. In the 90’s, people used to lure their friends into using ICQ to keep in touch. Slowly, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and MSN Messenger [now called Windows Live Messenger] brought more popularity to the entire instant messaging arena.

   Instant messaging itself got popular because of Internet Relay Chat [IRC]. IRC allowed people to chat instantly and live, and thus allowed them to communicate a bit faster than e-mail, if the people involved were online and using an IRC program at the same time. IRC evolved into different kinds of instant messaging, and instant messaging itself evolved and divided into voice chats, webcam conferences, live chat via e-mail accounts such as in Gmail, and more. In some ways, IRC itself can be considered an evolution of e-mail.

   Instant messaging accounts and online chats are also thriving and getting more popular everyday. At this moment, for the first time in internet history, a growing number of online people are using instant messaging more than e-mail.

5. Networking sites, which include social networking sites

   The latest, youngest and biggest craze right now is to open a social networking account. MySpace, twitter, facebook, linkedin, Bebo and many other networking and social networking sites came out with a big bang at different times during the last 5 years. As of last week, MySpace had over 200 million accounts. If it is assumed that each of those 200 millions accounts is owned by a unique individual, 200 millions MySpace members are almost 1/3rd the size of the entire U.S. population. Many people have multiple accounts on different networking sites, and many people simply delete their online networking accounts so that they can start afresh with new accounts.

   Networking sites are very strong right now, attracting more and more members everyday. At the same time, networking sites are also in their infancy sage. Social networking sites are the least experienced players in the entire online arena compared to the other 4 types [e-mail, guest books, online diaries and instant messaging accounts]. In many ways, networking sites can be considered children of concepts like Yahoo Groups and the original Usenet groups, now part of Google groups.

   The trend of opening networking sites in huge numbers started recently, and is in full force right now, gaining more momentum. It is happening and evolving live as you read this.

There you have it. Listed above are 5 trends of opening up 5 different kinds of accounts. These 5 services have had a historical trend of attracting a crowd that focused hysterically on opening new accounts. E-mail is the oldest and longest running of such trends, and networking sites are the youngest of the bunch.

Can you think of any trend from the above or any other trend you yourself may have been, or are, involved in? Do you have any questions or comments? Please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Responding immediately

There can be several benefits of responding to non-critical e-mails immediately. Responding to e-mails immediately results in less tasks that you have to focus on, more free time, taking care of important tasks and communication immediately, not keeping people hanging on, etc.

Responding to non-critical e-mails immediately can also result in a few problems including you making mistakes because of composing a response too fast, forgetting to include something important, responding with something or in a manner that you may regret later because you responded too fast without thinking straight, etc.

Responding later

The benefits of responding to e-mails at a later date can be numerous also, specially when we respond too quickly and make some mistake or forget something. Responding at a later time can result in more time to think of a good response, more flexible time schedule that you can modify to your needs, less sense of panic or hurry when it comes to responding to others, not allowing incoming e-mail to dictate and take over your times, etc.

Responding later to non-critical e-mails can result in a few downsides also, including keeping someone waiting longer even when you did not have to respond immediately, communication between you and someone else going at a very slow rate, the other person losing interest in you or your response or the e-mail topic in question by the time they get your response, etc.

Do you prefer responding to non-critical e-mails right away?

So, do you prefer responding to non-critical e-mails right away?

Please let me know, thanks you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Opening a business with a friend can have the following 3 random benefits and downsides.

3 random benefits

1. More honest and open communication about issues
2. More chances of solving business problems as if they were friendship problems
3. Fewer chances of being taken advantage of by the other person in the business

3 random downsides

1. Friendship can get affected because of the existence of money and personal interest in the business
2. Existence of friendship can result in one person not taking the business or business issues seriously
3. Friends may not realize if their honest, friendly communication is satisfactory enough for the business to work properly

Opening business with a reliable non-friend contact

Similarly, opening a business with a reliable non-friend contact can have the following 3 random benefits and downsides.

3 random benefits

1. More formal and effective communication
2. More chances of both parties addressing different issues openly so that they can be satisfied, resulting in more issues coming to the spotlight quickly
3. Professional relation with the business partner means both partners will know exactly what to expect, in contrast to the confusion that may result because of a friendship

3 random downsides

1. More chances of being taken advantage of if one partner does not feel fully satisfied
2. Less chances of talking openly about one’s emotions and feelings about the business
3. Fewer chances of solving a business problem on a personal level

A business with a close friend or a reliable non-friend contact?

So, what do you think? Do you feel more comfortable with the idea of opening a business with a friend or with a reliable contact who is not yet your friend?

Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions, thank you.

[Update: September 9th, 2007 - 2:00 pm PST] For this question, Stacee in the comments for this question asked if the friend was reliable also. I have updated the above question and added the following line in the 2nd paragraph of this article: “Last, imagine that the non-friend contact has shown reliability in other business situations, and that you do not know about the business reliability of your close friend; you only know that your friend is your close friend.” Thank you Stacee. [/ end of update]

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Your friend may expect you to comment on their site, whether or not your current friendship with that friend is solely based on the online world. You can talk to your friend via the phone or even chat with them online, but if you do not visit or comment on their site regularly, they may retaliate by not talking to you that much or by talking to someone else who visits and comments on their blog.

It is as if the friendship is solely based on the number of comments you leave on a blog. A blog can be considered someone’s personal property, thus you have to see whether or not your friend is justified in getting upset over you not commenting on their site. Your friend getting upset over the absence of your comments on your site can either be like your friend expecting you to support them in unrelated things in order for the friendship to continue or like your friend expecting you to support them in a passion they may have.

Of course, such confusion can be solved if you ask your friend what they want, or if your friend tells you what they want. However, I wonder if it is always easy for everyone to tell a friend “You know what, I don’t like commenting on your blog or reading it, because of this and this reason. Is that going to upset you?”

Business and non-business contacts expecting comments

Business and non-business contacts can be different than your friends. Sure, more and more people are calling each other friends, but no one is there for each other in anything from which they themselves do not benefit, or when a business deal is not around. Thus, let us briefly focus on the idea of non-friend contacts expecting comments from you: a random person or a business contact may show you their personal or some other blog, and thus may expect you to regularly visit or participate that blog. What happens if you do not fulfill their expectations?

Well, from my personal experience, several things can happen. I have seen business contacts doing less business simply because I do not comment on every post of theirs. I have also seen some very famous business contacts being non-communicative until they need something, which can appear to be beyond unprofessionalism in many cases. I have also heard people complaining about their business contacts becoming more aggressive and unfriendly in business deals if those people post a disagreeing comment about something on a blog. Getting upset in different ways over other contacts not commenting on some site can be signs of people not being able to differentiate between their expectations from their own blogs and their business and other deals with other people.

How do you fix such a thing? You cannot fix such a trend and mentality until you find out what the business or some other deal expects. You entered into a business deal; did it include in any direct or indirect manner your participation on any site? Did the other person get any kind of a hint in the beginning that you will continuously participate on their site? It is best to not mix business with personal life or something like your passion for comments unless you know the people involved in a business deal are willing to be true friends or logical contacts who will not let things get affected by something like the number of comments you post on a blog not related to the business or some other deal in question.

What to do?

It depends. I personally do not want to be obligated to comment on any friend’s or non-friend’s blog. I comment when I want to. Otherwise, I try to communicate with people a lot outside of a blog, like via the phone, e-mail or even chatting online on different im’s. I actually prefer to communicate more offline than online in many cases.

Do you want friendship to continue? Do you want a business or some other contact to continue doing business or remain a contact with you? Do you want a random contact to keep in touch normally? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you can think of ways to come at a solution that satisfied either you, the other person, or both of you. Whatever solution you come up with, you should feel comfortable enough to actually stick to the solution if the other person agrees to the solution also.

What do you think? Please let me know, thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Following are 3 good and 3 bad points, chosen randomly, of having the same contacted listed in more than one of the instant messaging or e-mail accounts you have have.

Pros of having the same contact on more than one e-mail and instant messaging account:

1. Talk via a different account if the primary account is not working
2. Talk advantage of different accounts for different things - one for texting, one for webcam, etc
3. Separate business and personal communication with the same person

Cons of having the same contact on more than one e-mail and instant messaging account:

1. Make communication more confusing with a person by having too many unnecessary channels of communication
2. Have too many duplicate contacts across your instant messaging and e-mail accounts
3. Harder to keep track of all the communication through different accounts between you and the other person

So, do you have any contact who is listed on more than one of your instant messaging or e-mail accounts? Is there a reason for that? Do you think it is a good or a bad thing?

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

1. Laundry

   If you share any laundry machine with any of your neighbors, you can easily annoy them. Leave your clothes in the washer or the dryer, and do not take them out for hours. The next person who wants to do laundry will probably check repeatedly, every half hour or so, to see if you picked up your clothes.

   I currently have many laundry options, including shared laundry with a few neighbors. I decided to do laundry while talking to a friend in Europe. After washing my clothes, I noticed someone else’s clothes in the dryer. I waited for that neighbor to come and pick up the clothes. After almost 4 hours of waiting, I knocked at my neighbor’s door and asked politely if she could help. She had just woken up from sleep, sincerely apologized and took out the clothes from the dryer. That was fine and really nice of her. I told my friend all of this, and he said I should blog about it. This very post is because of that friend and that situation.

   I put my clothes in the dryer for 70 minutes and told my friend I was going to take a nap. I woke up very late, about 2 hours after the dryer had finished drying. I went to the laundry room and noticed the same neighbor waiting for me to take out my clothes from the dryer so she could put her newly washed clothes in it. In my friend’s view, I became the very inconvenience for a person that I may have felt only a few hours ago from that very person. That was a good example of how sometimes a random thing, like sleeping a bit longer than usual, can result in others being inconvenienced even though we did not intend to. When I talked to my friend again and told him what had happened, he could not stop laughing. I wonder if he is going to make fun of me using that example forever.

2. Car

   If you and your neighbors have a car, you can annoy them by parking in weird ways to make sure they have a hard time entering or leaving the parking area. Park in the middle of the driveway, or park very close to their car so that they cannot get in it easily.

   Someone has to go to work? Big deal. Let them learn new driving skills, or let them come to your door to make you move the car. Someone has an emergency? Well, if they have an emergency, they will come looking for me and then I can move the car. I had an emergency 4 nights ago and had to leave instantly. A car was blocking my way, and I had never seen that car before. After trying different neighbors, one of them finally came out and moved the car. In an emergency situation where you have to be somewhere immediately around midnight to help someone, arriving 25 minutes late can sometimes be bad. This brings us to the next point, which is…

3. Your friends

   If your friends come over, make sure you let them do whatever they please. Do not keep an eye on their activities, and if you do notice them inconveniencing your neighbors in any manner, do not tell them anything unless the neighbor comes and asks you about it.

   Friends are making a mess? Who cares. Friends are supposedly forever, neighbors can move anytime. Friends are using other people’s laundries or blocking driveways? Who cares. Friends should have fun, and neighbors should stay away. Friends are being loud? Who cares. Friends can be loud in your place so you can be loud in their’s. That brings us to the next point, which is….

4. Neighbor’s privacy spots

   One of the best ways to annoy your neighbors is to be invade their privacy. The entire area is someone’s property, and not your neighbor’s. Even if your neighbor owns it all, they do not own the right to your body, which you can position and direct to do many things.

   Hover around your neighbor’s car while they are in it. Have loud barbeque right by their window. Use flashlights and scream to points things in every direction in the middle of the night and make sure they notice it by their wind