99¢ begal

one of the hassles of paying with cash is getting change back at the register. the checkout person has to open the cash drawer and then get the right number of coins and the right number of bills and put all the change into your hand and count the bills back. this is while you're trying to put all this in your wallet or purse and put the change away and pick up whatever it is you bought and get out of the store.

so one solution that helps a little bit is the self checkout lines. they're even a little bit more convenient even if you're paying with credit card. you have a little more time to put everything away and no one's standing right behind you waiting for their turn. usually there's eight or more self-checkout stations and just one line of people. so if you take an extra 10 seconds to put your money away it's not a big deal. also in the self-checkout Lanes your change comes back in a little dish automatically. and your bills spit out all at one time and are neatly stacked. for dealing with cash this seems like an ideal situation. everything comes back neatly ordered and you have a little extra time to put it away. this all sounds great until it doesn't work.


for that situation the store has come up with an ingenious plan. they have one of the store employees stand and watch everyone as they're checking out. if there is a problem they come over to help you. so this brings us to the point of this story. the other morning at the grocery store a single bagel got carried up do the self check-out line. it was 99 cents. after ringing up the lone bagel a $20 bill was deposited into the machine. little gears whirred and little happy noises came out of the machine making it seem like all was right with the world. and sure enough $19 in bills came out the bottom. then the machine made an internal clanking noise but no Penny came out into the small dish.

 so remember person that is going to come over and help us? well they came over and were told that the penny did not come out. this helpful employee looked at the receipt and looked at me in disgust and said, one penny? Yes, was the reply. the real concern here is not over the penny but rather that the machine may be broken. they went over to a regular cash register and fished out a penny and said well it's probably because it was just a single penny it got hung up in the machine.

 If something doesn't work it needs to be fixed. either there's something problematic with all the machines or with that individual machine, but something needs to be fixed. if you want people to use technology it's got to work. It doesn't matter how many employees make a screwed-up face over that one penny, they're going to go over to the cash register and fish one out until they fix the automated machine.














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almost always wear shoes in an apartment

of course there are always exceptions. apartments are lived in by a passing parade of humanity, many of whom you are fortunate to never meet. there are sweet young things and probably serial killers. they move from place to place, and if you are doing the same, you walk the same filthy shag carpets they do. you can use dry carpet powders and even wet carpet cleaners, but there is no real solution. the best i did in one house was to pull up all the carpet and pour several GALLONS of white vinegar on all the bare wood floors, let that soak in and dry over a few days. then put in new carpet. this is impractical in most apartment situations.

besides the biological hazards there are the physical dangers. There have been stickers and even an open safety pin in the carpets. thankfully a tennis shoe caught the needle of the safety pin. just keep those shoes on.

selfless selfie

where is the outrage ?

Jan 30, 2020

the government will allow airlines to define service animals as trained dogs only. possums and turkeys are no longer allowed on flights. this is intolerable. how are people supposed to live like this¿

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Electronic stock trading and the coronavirus

Sometimes the news reports that the stock market is acting goofy because much of the stock market is controlled by computers that are trading stocks automatically. Well the stock market is taking a digger, but how do the computers know anything about the coronavirus, and even if they did why would they think it is a bad thing for stocks? Why is the stock market falling at all? The whole "computers are in charge" thing is smoke and mirrors. The fact is that people, and more importantly, how people "FEEL" is what is in charge of the stock market. The stock market is simply a reflection of how good the right people feel. If the right people are nervous then stocks stall or fall slightly. If these same people feel great, the stock market takes off for the moon. It has a tiny bit to do with how companies are actually doing, but mostly to do with how the big boys and girls in the sand box feel.








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make mine a double

hurun 2020 rich list

hurun list. the xlsx file is at the bottom of the page.