Impulse

Posted on June 14th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Sponsored Posts, Random.

So I was thinking about mailing lists and the innovative lists company called Martin Worldwide.  I wrote about them previously — their multi-dimensional ResponseCom database helps businesses by identifying prospects with the most “active, responsive, and impulsive buying history,” in order to experience higher response rates, profitability, and new business opportunities through their direct marketing campaigns.  I’ve mentioned how that sends a little chill down my consumer spine — it’s a little scary that businesses you’ve never shopped with can know so much about you — but as a business person, it leaves me intrigued by the possibilities inherent in such information.  Personally, I like getting new catalogs, brochures, coupons, and all that.  Makes me feel lucky, gives me something to look at, exposes me to new things, etc.  A custom, targeted mailing list means that as a consumer, I’m receiving things I might be interested in (instead of, say, a free prostate exam), and the business doing the mailing is using its money wisely.  Still, no one is crazy about having their buying history consolidated and studied — I swear, that fuzzy reindeer sweater was a gift.  For someone I didn’t like. Honest.  ;)

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Heavenly Hawaii

Posted on June 10th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Work, Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Travel, Sponsored Posts, Money, Random.

It looks like my meeting has been moved from Vegas to Oregon, which is better for me personally and financially, but probably will not give me that Calgon feeling I was hoping for . . . I recently read a web release about Hawaii Vacation Rentals from Gebhart Properties that sound simply divine. I never really consider Hawaii an option when traveling just because of how widely publicized the expense is, especially because if I was going to have a wonderful time, I would want to stay somewhere high class and beautiful, and that’s probably a little out of the range of my pocketbook. But Gebhart offers exactly the kind of accommodations I would want, in a variety of popular Hawaiian locations, including the Waikoloa Beach Resort (they say it has some of “the finest condominiums in all of Hawaii” with 2,576 square feet of living space, featuring private elevator access, gourmet kitchen, an extensive collection of Hawaiian art and outstanding views of Anaeho’omalu Bay and Kileaua”). I think it founds absolutely heavenly! What do you think the chances are that I could convince my company to cover costs for us to meet there instead? :)

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Basketball Tickets

Posted on June 8th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Sponsored Posts, Random.

Now, one sporting event I think my whole family can agree upon is basketball. In my last ’sporty’ post, I should have used Miami Heat Tickets instead of the Dolphins. I’ve always found football (and wrestling, for that matter) to be ridiculous to watch. What is the attraction to attending these events? I guess I don’t really see the skill in getting all padded up to knock each other around (isn’t that like bumper cars?? — real men play rugby! :) ) or in dressing down to roll around on a mat that might as well be a petri dish (while fun, and yes, it does require skill, it seems both pointless and useless — just hit the gym and avoid developing ringworm — seriously, I dated a guy who was a wrestler, and he picked up impetigo from his ‘partner’ which I then caught with a vengeance). But basketball is fun, limited contact, fast, and requires such an extraordinary amount of hand-eye coordination that I will never, ever successfully even manage a granny shot. Living within 40 miles of Chicago, I remember the craziness associated with getting tickets to a Bulls game when Jordan was leading the team to championship after championship — even I developed the fever. My dad had friends with box seats, and so my older sister got to go even when all the tickets had been sold ages in advance. I bet that was nice, but sadly, I never got to see them play. Maybe I will use the aforementioned PremiumSeatsUSA to take Fraser to a game or two when he’s older — I bet they would have a whole stockpile of tickets for the Bulls if they’d been around back then . . .

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When Babies Become Boys

Posted on June 8th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Sponsored Posts, Random.

Fraser is already fully transitioned from bubba to boy, and it’s a little sad. He actually said to me the other day that he was playing with “girls things,” a statement that almost made me cry — and I resorted to a very didactic lecture that probably made no sense to my beautiful little three year old, although he nodded very gravely at the conclusion. I think that we have no capacity on my side of the family for dealing with the XY set — we’re all girls, even though we’re not “girly.” I realized that pretty soon he’s going to be liking sports, not just the throwing and hitting of balls in the backyard, but the competing and spectator-ing that seems to be almost inevitable in boyhood and male adolescences. I’ve been imaging taking him to things like the Phantom of the Opera when it’s very likely he will prefer to have Miami Dolphins Tickets. La sigh. At least places like Premium Seats USA makes getting to either event easy by providing a huge selection of first-class tickets online to all concerts, sports and theater shows nationwide — no more hassle racing to ticket windows only to discover that the ones I want are sold out or otherwise unavailable. They appear to have decent customer service, so hopefully they’ll still be around when Fraser wants to go to the big game!

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Phoenix Condos

Posted on June 8th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Omnia Vanitas, Travel, Sponsored Posts, Random.

Although we have decided on Vegas as our eventual hometown, for a while my boyfriend and I considered Phoenix — he’s very familiar with the city, likes the layout, the ASU girls, and the restaurants, but its a little too hot for me personally. I know, I know, Vegas is not much better, but the other advantages weigh that out for me. Still, I read an interesting web release today for some cool Phoenix Condos that are listed on CondoCompany.com. They allow you to easily find the contact information for a number of Realtors, including “building specialists” that have met certain requirements in order to specializes in a particular condo building, especially those that qualify as luxury high rises. As a person who believes there are few jobs that wouldn’t benefit from additional certification requirements, I think CondoCompany wouldn’t be a bad way to start a forray into the Phoenix, Arizona condo market. But I refuse to move anywhere that my boyfriend would include “hot coeds” on his “top three reasons to live in” list — that’s just asking for his heart to be broken. ;)

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