Hawaii =Zen

Hawaii =Zen

Why Do Assholes Love Watches?

Why Do Assholes Love Watches?

I stumbled into a article on Gawker entitled "Why Do Assholes Love Watches?"

The article is filled with fascinating anecdotes and insight. Since I am the Editor and Publisher of three major watch related blogs, I obviously disagree on many levels with the author, and on other levels, I understand his perspective. If you have some spare time to read, I very, very highly recommend reading the comments left by readers in the story. They are absolutely fascinating!!!

The reason I am writing this post is because of this fascinating response from somebody who uses the handle of Suburban Brawl:

It's pretty funny all the reactionary defenses of consumption habits on display here.

It's pretty simple: what people want in aggregate determines what they demand in aggregate. What they demand in aggregate determines what people produce in aggregate. What people produce in aggregate determines how labor time is spent, how natural resources are used, how land is apportioned, &etc. Accordingly, changing people's consumer preferences, in aggregate, affects what the world makes, what the world uses, and how people spend their time.

So if you think there is inequity in how time is spent, how resources are used, and in what is or isn't produced, then one obvious path to remedy this is to... change what people spend their money and exert their labor to get. Change preferences in aggregate, you change what gets produced in aggregate - like shifting resources from, say, watches, to charity or scientific research or leisure or whatever.

Lost Vegas The Gaming Center Of The Universe

Lost Vegas

The Gaming Center Of The Universe

I just got back from Las Vegas. My company attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) trade show, which is the biggest electronics trade show in the world.

It is amazing to me how rigged Las Vegas is for making money.

I remember, up until about 10 years ago, if you went to Las Vegas, everything was really cheap. This included hotel rooms, food, alcohol and taxi cabs. I believe the logic was that they wanted to do everything they could to make you comfortable so you would gamble and lose your money.

This is not the case anymore–at all. If there is a big convention in town, all the hotel rooms go up significantly in price, which is understandable. When I say go up in price, I mean they more than triple in price.

The most interesting thing is that you can still get a decent room for $40 a night, but they charge you an additional $18, for what is referred to as a "resort fee." This is bizarre to me because the hotel we stayed in said part of the resort fee was for complimentary internet access, but it is not complimentary if I have to pay $18 a day for it, not to mention, it was often slow as molasses, and the hotel did not even offer wireless internet access!?!?!? 

I mean c'mon it's 2013!!! Everybody has an iPad, iPhone and wireless laptop, but they are too cheap to install a wireless system? Why? They don't want you in your hotel room, on the internet when you can be drinking and gambling away your hard earned money.

We went to see Cirque du Soleil and it was over $150 per ticket for nose-bleed seating. I mean it would have looked more impressive watching it on a TV set.

Everything in Vegas is optimized to take your money. After my girlfriend and I saw Cirque du Soleil, we wandered through the casino and she said "Hey, do you want to play penny slot machines!?!, to which I said "No", since I don't gamble. She said c'mon, let's have some fun. She made me sit down next to her at "Sex In The City" themed slot computer, she handed me a dollar bill which I refused to insert in the machine. She put a five dollar bill in her machine, and in less than 30 seconds it was gone, and she grabbed the $1 bill she gave me and put it in my machine which was gone in a few seconds.

I was just stunned at how expensive everything was in Las Vegas!!! The hotel we stayed in charged $9 for a bottle of water that would normally be about $1. Even the Starbucks charged almost double for everything. Even all the taxi-cabs charge a $3 fee if you want to pay with a credit card!!! Scam, Scam, Scam.

The supreme irony is that if you study Las Vegas, you realize that there are obviously full-time employees who do nothing but figure out how to take advantage of guests.

American Accent Is A Singing British Accent

Jake's Though Of The Day

An American Accent Is A Singing British Accent

Personal Thought: Have you ever noticed that when British people sing, there British accent completely disappears, and gets replace with an American accent? Ironically, perhaps an American accent is nothing more than a singing British accent?

Just to be specific, if you listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or even Eric Clapton when they sing, you can't hear any British accent, but when they speak in person you hear a thick and obviously British accent. Hmmmm!?!

Jake's Random Thought of the Day

Jake's Random Thought of the Day

"Timeless things that endure make me happy because they seem to stop time." –Jake Ehrlich III (November 25, 2012)

Superhydrophobic Waterproofing

Superhydrophobic Waterproofing

Jake's Random Though Of The Day

Jake's Random Though Of The Day

Life without passion is like driving in the dark without headlights. –Jake

Jake's Though Of The Day: On Passion

Jake's Though Of The Day

"Life without passion is like driving in the dark without headlights." –Jake Ehrlich III

I was talking to a friend of mine today who told me he found my passion to be intoxicating to which I responded "Life without passion is like driving in the dark without headlights."

Jake's Key To Life Quote: On Quotes...

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations."–Benjamin Disraeli

It's Lust or Lonliness, but seldom Love. –The Style Council

What A Fool Believes Lyrics by Michael McDonald...

What A Fool Believes Lyrics

by

Michael McDonald

He came from somewhere back in her long ago
The sentimental fool don't see, trying hard to recreate what had yet to be created

Once in her life, she musters a smile for his nostalgic tale
Never coming near what he wanted to say
Only to realize...It never really was...
She, had a place in his life...
He, never made her think twice...
As he rises to her apology, anybody else would surely know...
He's watching her go...

What a fool believes, he sees
No wise man has the power...to reason away...
What seems...to be...is always better than nothing
And nothing at all...keeps sending him, somewhere back in her long ago
Where he can still believe there's a place in her life, someday, somewhere–she will return
She had a place in his life
He...never made her think twice
As he rises to her apology, anybody else would surely know
He's watching her go...

But what a fool believes–he sees
No wise man has the power...to reason away...
What seems to be...is always better than nothing...
There's nothing at all...
But what a fool believes, he sees...

No wise man has the power...to reason away...

What seems to be...is always better than nothing

There's nothing at all...

Steve Jobs & Happenstance

Random acts of the universe. Chaos Theory...

Anybody can stop anything for anybody if they want to, the question is whether they want to or not? –Morris Stark

If you never expect anything you'll never be disappointed. –Dora Jane

Basis Of Friendship

Basis Of Friendship

People base their friendships with people based upon what they think they can get out of them. Notice, the emphasis is on the word, think. So it is not what they get out of it–it is what they get out of it.

Quid pro quo.