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What do you do on Black Friday?
 Of course, you’re probably aware that the day after Thanksgiving has earned the nickname Black Friday. Black Friday has become the traditional day that retail sales soar and the number at the bottom of the profit/loss statement turns from red ink for 11/12 of the year to black ink. As an Internet marketer, what do you do on Black Friday? When we moved to the Pacific Northwest in ‘85 it was a wondrous world with lots of opportunity and possibilities. Not that Modesto was podunk town, but the one mall was rather limiting, AND boring. So we had nearly three quarters of a year to find our way around town and settled in on a favorite mall before Thanksgiving arrived. For me, the strongest attraction to this mall was Captain Beans, one of the few places where you could buy a good cappuccino. The only problem was, it was about twenty miles down the freeway. Those were my corporate days, but being a resident employee, my boss was 650 miles to the south in Hayward and I was free to roam during the business day. Oh wait, my job actually required me to roam. But it wasn’t unusual to make two trips a day to Captain Beans, even on those days when I worked in my office… but I digress. That thanksgiving in ‘85 was so different from today’s Thanksgivings. Our families were all down in California. We had two kids then and it was a family day just for us. But what did we do on Friday? We hit that favorite mall. Little did we know that it seemed as though everyone in the Pacific Northwest had the same idea. We didn’t go to shop necessarily, but just to enjoy the atmosphere. We ordered our favorite Captain Beans drinks and strolled. The only unpleasant thing about that day was the very frustrating experience of trying to get out of the parking lot when the day ended. A road circumvented the perimeter and was bumper to bumper the whole way around. It took an hour just to get out. Now, twenty four years later, we’re still trekking to Clackamas Town Center the day after Thanksgiving. Things are different now. The parking has been improved with multilevel garages. Captain Beans is now called something else that I don’t remember because Starbucks is too convenient to take a twenty mile trip for a cappuccino. And we now number thirteen instead of the original four. No, not thirteen children, but thirteen sons, daughter, son in-laws, daughter in-laws, and granddaughters. And yes, we all go! So as an Internet Marketer, I spend Black Friday as a family man…
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Earbuds and Potato Chips…
I originally posted this in a members only section of the Affiliate Trust Forum and the members seemed to like it so I decided to publish it as a follow up to the last blog article about cellphones. I promise I’ll get back to business with some new affiliate marketing posts soon.
I’m new to the earbud thing. To me a good quality headset is one that fits over the entire ear and has nice soft cushions to seal in the sound. Had I been using this kind I might have attracted hecklers, but I wouldn’t have had the trouble I experienced.
I paid for higher quality KOSS earbuds as I wanted to gain every advantage in listening to the tinny minuscule audio produced by my new phone. My wife is out of town helping her dad, so with the fully charged phone, the new earbuds and the necessary adapters in the stylish little spring closure pouch in hand, I trekked to the nearest Panera Bread to enjoy some soup and a sandwich while listening to a podcast of an old radio drama, “The Shadow”. The restaurant wasn’t busy so my food arrived promptly. I sat down in a two person booth, and after preparing my sandwich with all the condiments I could muster, I set my phone on the table and pulled out my new earbuds. I spent the next five minutes untangling the wires. Now, in order for earbuds to produce any bass at all, they must be tightly seated into the ear to produce a good seal. So I inserted and twisted until I was satisfied that they were secure. The first thing I noticed about these earbuds was that when they’re properly inserted, don’t plan on being able to hear ANYTHING from the outside.
So I scooted forward in the seat and leaned back in a relaxed posture, picked up the phone and loaded the podcast. This particular one was fairly low in volume and sounded like it was recorded from the actual broadcast on an old fashioned AM radio. There was quite a bit of bleedover from adjacent stations, which really added to the nostalgia. Turning the volume all the way up made it comfortably loud. Ah, this is going to be good. So I listened for a couple minutes and then took a bite of my sandwich. Whoa! Chewing is really loud in here (in my head) when outside sounds are totally blocked! Well, that’s ok, I can still hear. Then I pulled out one of those potato chips, which are extra crispy at Panera. Man alive! There may as well have been a jack hammer running in the next booth! I could hear nothing but crunching potato chips. I tried chewing very slowly, but it didn’t help. So back to the sandwich.
My next bite revealed a whole new problem. When chewing there’s no way to keep those earbuds in your ears. The chewing action of the jaws quickly works the earbuds right out of position. First the left one lost it’s seat, then the right one, then back to the left one. I was constantly cramming the things back in my ears. So my relaxing meal with The Shadow ended up not being so relaxing after all. Guess I’ll have to stick to Starbucks if I want to get away from the office with The Shadow… unless drinking coffee sounds like getting a swirly!
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