Randomness

[zamb]

if you are shipping priority, you should just do free pickup online..

my car is in the shop so i don't need to dig myself out tomorrow..

even the damn people at the post office tells me this all the time, and
The post man comes to my house everyday
but there is something in me that is too methodical, I just like to have the boxes written up by hand and dropped off at the PO.
my business is getting to a point where it isn't efficient to continue like this so I might have to just embrace technology..............its also cheaper too...............

[endersgame]

zamb, you're probably the kind of guy who deposit checks by filling out the deposit tickets and wait on line for a teller? while everyone takes a picture of their checks and emails their deposits..lol

but regarding the usps, i made the mistake by trusting click-and-ship so much that the auto-fill screwed up my return address to italy. i even brought it to the post office counter and they told me the address was wrong. i insisted they ship it because i trusted my computer label, but the computer screwed up and now my 10 day return is now going to be 3 months...

but i still prefer printing labels on the computer..

[zamb]

zamb, you're probably the kind of guy who deposit checks by filling out the deposit tickets and wait on line for a teller? while everyone takes a picture of their checks and emails their deposits..lol

but regarding the usps, i made the mistake by trusting click-and-ship so much that the auto-fill screwed up my return address to italy. i even brought it to the post office counter and they told me the address was wrong. i insisted they ship it because i trusted my computer label, but the computer screwed up and now my 10 day return is now going to be 3 months...

but i still prefer printing labels on the computer..

well,

not really,
i have a tendency to be impatient, i dont like waiting at banks because i always believe the tellers are wasting time anyways......
where I live there is a small PO that is never really busy, so five minutes or so i'm done, and all the people who works there know me by now so its kinda cool to go there

I have an administrative assistant now that has been handling some of the mailing responsibilities, so maybe she can set up the whole electronic thing for me..........You see, I am one of those throwback type designers, I'd rather make patterns, figure out the technicalities of a garment and sew..............the other things I do only because I have to...........

[Faust]

Hmmm, never did carrier pick up, even though I always print labels from the computer (and then just dump it off at the post office). I suppose I don't trust the carrier to actually bring it to the post office, lol.

I must say, one advantage of living in an immigrant ghetto is that no one trusts technology, moreover technology in English. I have taken to calling the machine at the post office "my machine," because I have never seen anyone else use it.

[endersgame]

you didn't pick up my package today.
i don't care if there's 3 feet of snow out..

[zamb]

well,
i tried to go there on foot today,
then tried in the car, which got stuck three times and had to be dugged out by myself and three other people in two different instances........

My first instinct was to stay in and not leave my house, but then........

its days like these i wanna give myself a merciless flogging with my own belt!

[sam_tem]

awesome, even more fodder to throw on the pile of the revolving doors of washington:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/12/26/defense_firms_lure_retired_generals/

recently, a full 90% of retired generals are going in to consultantancy jobs within the defence industry. it's usual that once you're in an industry you will always stay in it, but the conflicts of interest in these specific cases are astounding.

[zamb]

awesome, even more fodder to throw on the pile of the revolving doors of washington:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/12/26/defense_firms_lure_retired_generals/

recently, a full 90% of retired generals are going in to consultantancy jobs within the defence industry. it's usual that once you're in an industry you will always stay in it, but the conflicts of interest in these specific cases are astounding.

Some of the greatest amounts of money to be made now is available by working in US defense........
i know of a company that made over 126 million dollars from the government by supplying the military with products for the servicemen..............

I for one could have been extremely well off in that sector if I were a US citizen..........I dont blame them, there are two never ending wars going on and lots of money to be had!

[zamb]

Living in a first world country and constantly being reminded that i'm a man from the third reaches of the Globe...................

[endersgame]

i'm taking on a huge home improvement job on my own and so far i've done more destruction than improving..

[sam_tem]

at least you're still on the fun part then, i hope

so as not to derail any other threads, watched that walmart movie through part 7 and can't say i was that impressed. maybe it's just because i didn't start working until this past decade, but everything mentioned in the film was common practice at every company i knew of. i did work with a large regional sporting goods store that did treat their employees well, all things considered, but they went bankrupt around '02. The new owners first things to do were to reduce hours and cut all overtime to drastically reduce benefits expenses as it was one area that was way out of line with the competitors. Perhaps walmart did pioneer all this by themselves a long time ago, but today it's just the reality of being in a flexible labor market. i at least applaud walmart for being proactive in getting their employees onto gov't benefits.

the whole union and no overtime thing was bad practice, but i wonder how much of that was actual company policy rather than regional/store managers just being asshats to goose earnings in order to climb up the corporate ladder.

but i can't help but think that walmart is no longer the enemy here. i can go to amazon and find cheaper prices than what even walmart can offer online. on top of that, i don't even have to pay sales taxes so i automatically save 8.25% just by not buying from walmart. that's absolutely ludicrous, but how many walmart haters are going to stand up and vote to tax all sales on the internet? this isn't so much about walmart as it is about the undereducated being a shooting gallery for the taxpayers in order to keep america competitive.

[syed]

Sorry to derail the Walmart discussion, but just wondering if I could get some advice, got an email that scared me a little

On my personal blog I posted an image of this Topman sweater, alongside this Phillip Lim sweater. Along with which I wrote...

A quick example of what I would consider to be the grey area of copying. The colouring and loose striped design is arguably something that is not particularly unique as a design, and therefore is available to be copied. That is until you notice that the composition for both sweaters is identical (albeit with cheaper quality materials in the Topman example) [50% wool, 40% acrylic, 10% alpaca]. Whilst a blatant copy to my eyes, for many it is perhaps not as clear as say, the ASOS/Margiela fiasco [I linked the rip off ring].

Anyhow, I received an email today from a personal Yahoo address asking me to remove the post. The meat of her email...

I am the knitwear designer for Topman. I would like to point out to you that the piece with you have highlighted in your article is in no way a copy of the Philip Lim sweater, this is the first time that I have seen that Philip Lim design.
Both of these garments are using exactly the same yarn, which is Italian, from Pinori Filati. This yarn has a natural stripe to it as it is space dyed and as it is an italian speciast yarn has a colour card, therefore only specific colours can be used, a colour is not exclusive to a designer. The Topman crew is our basic crew shape the the stitch is a typical cardigan stitch, which is basically a ribbed stitch. I would also like to point out that this was designed on my last trip to Italy which was in July, which was way before the Philip Lim version was available to buy/copy.

I use many designers and brands as 'infulence' when i design for Topman, which in many ways does come very close to 'copying'. However the sweater that you have pointed out was not copied.

I work very hard at my job and I am very good at what I do, I have worked for a number of brands here and in New York and I do not appreciate people implying that I have copied other designers work when I have not.

I would like to know if you would consider removing the post from your blog?

My brother laughed it off and said I should ignore it. But I'm worried I ought to do something? It was purely my opinion on a personal blog - or did I do something wrong? Any advice would be nice please!

[sam_tem]

that was actually a very good response from her true or not. you don't have to remove though, i'd suggest asking her permission to paraphrase her response (so it's clear that she wasn't the one who sent it in) and adding it to your post.

...or do nothing at all, the internet was made for opinions. the world would survive just fine without both these companies.



edit: now that i looked at the sweater (i hate it), this statement from her just makes me laugh.

"I work very hard at my job and I am very good at what I do, I have worked for a number of brands here and in New York and I do not appreciate people implying that I have copied other designers work when I have not."

[kunk75]

The film is remarkably naive to the way business is done in an allegedly free market economy.

[Faust]

what's so naive about the film - that they acknowledge that businesses are run by unfeeling, immoral assholes? where is the naivete?

sam_tem, two things:

1. yes, that's how many places work, so the biggest one of them - whose owners are some of the richest people on earth and whose GDP is bigger than that of many countries - gets it on the chin. It's natural. The same way McD gets it for the entire fast food industry, and Nike for the entire sweatshop industry. I remember there was a small and quite funny article in the Economist about how it's good to be number 2, because you don't get all that criticism.

2. not all places are like that - do some research on Costco, for example.

And in the end, I don't understand - sounds like you are saying "everyone is a piece of shit, why single out the worst of them"? Walmart is notorious for union-busting, for twisting the suppliers' arms into giving them huge discounts at their own detriment, and for driving small shops out of business. And small shops matter - they give neighborhoods character and charm. I thought you live in fuck-knows-where-USA - you don't feel that? Even I feel it, in my area of New York that now seems to consist of only fucking pharmacies and banks - my commercial street is ugly and characterless - unlike Park Slope or Carroll Gardens, where residents are intent on supporting small business, like book and clothing shops, even though they can get the same shit cheaper on Amazon.