Holiday Promotion Disaster

30-Day 15-Minute Writer Challenge: Day #3

Have you ever had one of those days that nothing goes according to plan? Yesterday, Kristen and I planned a quick trip to the Kroger Marketplace to spend the $130 "credit" we had earned for a special promotion.  There were several problems with this:

Courtesy of Jason Brackins via Flickr

• The nearest Kroger Marketplace store was 30 minutes away.
• There are only about 7 Kroger Marketplace locations in the Columbus area, while the number of Kroger stores offering holiday "credit" numbers over 50.  The credit was redeemable only at the Marketplace locations.
• The time to redeem your credit was limited to 4 days.
• The types of items that you could use your credit on were limited. Mainly toys, housewares, clothing (although I didn't see any clothing at this particular location), some office supplies and some cleaning supplies.
• No price tags on any of the items, so if the item was removed from the shelf where the price was listed, you had no idea how much the item was.
• A stipulation that you had to spend ALL of the credit or you'd have to pay full price for the items you bought. For example, if I bought $129.85 worth of goods, the credit was no good and I'd waste it unless I found something else last minute to push it up over the $130 mark. And none of this information was communicated in a clear, meaningful way until you entered the store.

Result: Mass chaos.  The first clue should have been when we couldn't find a space in the parking lot.  Once we entered the store, it was packed with irritated looking people.  Since you couldn't redeem the credit on grocery items, the reason for the crowd was unclear... until you hit the Marketplace section of the store.

I have never seen shelves picked so clean.  Not even during the last week of a going out of business sale.  The store was trashed. Discarded items tossed everywhere. The lines for checking out were stretched to the back of the store and wound around the aisles.  None of the scan-it-yourself bar code scanners worked, none of the items that qualified for the credit were marked, so you had to find a harried Kroger employee with a hand scanner and ask them to scan the items for you so you could add up what you spent so far as well as determine if the item was even eligible to be used for the program.

So our modest goals of picking up a new frying pan, a couple of nifty Christmas decorations and a few board games for the kids had to be abandoned.  We bought exciting things like a cake server, basting brushes, some storage containers, a clock, a couple of card games, a sock drawer organizer... etc.  Nothing that could be useful to give someone else as a gift or something that we really needed, but we didn't want to waste the credit since we were already in the store.

I get it.  Companies want to attract customers with special programs around the holidays.  They offer special deals but also count on the power of our (the customer's) laziness to offset the cost to the company for those special deals.  We forget we have the credit. We forget about the date when you can redeem that credit.  We don't take the time to read the fine print and show up to redeem the credit too late. This is why stores offer mail-in rebates.  The stores get to offer a great deal, but the customer has to do some work to get that deal, and a lot of us don't do that.  It's a win-win for the company. They graciously offer great deals, yet only take a hit on part of the cost.

But this one was clearly an epic fail.  The customers weren't happy, the employees weren't happy and really got the worst job of trying to manage this poorly planned fiasco, while the brilliant marketing executive who came up with this gimmick was probably sleeping in on this sunny Saturday morning, oblivious of the hurricane that he unleashed for the Kroger employees and managers around the state.

We spent 3 hours at a store when we planned on a quick 30 minute trip to shop for a few things on our list and take it easy the rest of the day.  No one in the checkout lines was smiling. None of the employees were either.With a little foresight, planning and communication of essential information, this could have been a good experience. Kroger failed.

What should you take away from this rant?  Ideas are great. Ideas are wonderful. But if the idea has no organization to support it it will die, and in extreme cases like this one, it will maim you and others along with it.

Are You Ready for Disaster? (Part 2)

In Part 1 I discussed how to manage your files (both paper and electronic).  Part 2 covers how to handle some trickier (and potentially expensive) problems.

Dealing with hardware failure

Courtesy of David Baker via Flickr

Equipment has a way of breaking down at the worst possible time.  Either in the midst of trying to meet a critical deadline or needing something to print out without smudges or fading ink as the cartridge starts running out.

A good solution for this is to hold on to an old working computer and printer. At a minimum it should have a working CD-ROM drive and internet access.  You can also keep it protected using free anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. They don’t have to be fancy, simple programs such as avast! or AVG Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware for virus protection and Ad-Aware and Spyware Terminator  for spyware protection are powerful enough to keep your computer safe for a short period of time.

You also might consider keeping the old system loaded with the common software programs that you use (even just an older version of them), or use cloud applications such as Google Docs to do your work while your primary computer is getting fixed.

If you don’t have an old computer available, you can always check out Craigslist to find cheap used computer equipment and printers.

A backup printer is pretty inexpensive.  You can get a good one for well under $100. Most printer companies make money from printers through replacement ink or toner cartridges these days.  This shouldn’t be a huge factor though since this is a backup printer. Since many stores bundle inkjet printers with a new desktop computer purchase, there are many people who already have a printer who might not necessarily need an extra one and sell them on eBay or Craigslist for $50 or less. This is a worthwhile investment if you ever have a desperate need to print a document.

Addressing the loss of primary phone service

Losing phone service is a little more tricky to deal with. Most people now have mobile phones that can serve as a backup in case that your landline goes down, but if you’ve gone completely wireless, a service such as Skype setup on your computer might be a good option for you.

Handling the loss of internet access

Losing internet access is a pain but the easiest problem to address. With all of the businesses offering free Wi-Fi these days, the cost of Internet access could be as inexpensive as a cup of coffee or an order of fries. In addition, many libraries offer free Wi-Fi access so all you have to do is bring your laptop or your cell phone to download critical email or information. Learn where your local free Wi-Fi access points are so you know where to go in the case of Internet access emergency.

Are there other writing disasters that you have encountered?  Comment below and let me know about it.

Are You Ready for Disaster? (Part 1)

A severe thunderstorm rolled through the area Monday night. Several lightning bolts struck fairly close to the house, one of which managed to blow out our cable modem. This was quite a challenge for us, I need to have Internet access and phone service for my day job, not to mention that my wife is currently taking an online class, so any downtime is a huge problem.  And, of course, the cable company couldn’t  replace the modem for until over two days later. So I sneaked off to local cafés and McDonald's to sponge off their free Wi-Fi in order to check e-mail and do just enough to keep up with things.

There isn't much we could've done about this, but this does bring to mind many other potential disasters and all writers should be prepared for:

• Losing critical project files
• Misplacing paper copies of notes  and information
• Dealing with the failure of critical hardware, such as a computer or printer
• Addressing the loss of primary phone service
• Handling the loss of internet access

Losing critical project files
This is the easiest disaster to prevent, but the hardest for some of us to remember to do.  Scheduling daily backups is critical to avoid the most painful of situations: file loss.  Whether through file corruption, equipment failure or simply losing your storage media, there is nothing (and I mean NOTHING) worse than losing your only copy of a novel or book proposal.

Photo courtesy of Leszek Leszekcynski via Flickr

With high capacity flash drives costing less than $10 at any store, you should have a couple of them around at all times. But other methods for backing up files are available, such as using a rewritable CD in your CD-ROM drive for your daily backups.  Just let the new files overwrite the old ones.

There are also online solutions such as Dropbox, Google Docs or even e-mailing critical files to yourself at the end of the work day. These types of solutions are also good because they provide off-site storage.  That way even if your house burns down or is flooded, you always have your backups in another location.  If you don’t feel comfortable relying on online storage for off-site storage, consider storing back up files (either on flash drives or CD-ROMs) at a friend’s house or even in your car.

Misplacing paper copies of notes and information
Managing paper is one of the biggest challenges any writer faces. Little is more frustrating than digging through reams of paper and notebook pages to find those critical notes you took from a phone interview or careful research.

When I start a new project, I select a hanging file folder, label it clearly, and put it in a prominent place in my work area. Then I simply put any information related to that project into that hanging file folder.  I also use manila file folders to organize information within the hanging file folder. That way all of the information is in one place and harder to lose.

Another option to consider is to create electronic copies of your paper files by using a scanner or photocopier.  With multi-function printer/scanner/copiers costing less than $100 at many electronic and office supply stores (probably even cheaper on Craigslist), this might be an excellent way to “back-up” your important papers.  You can also use a digital camera or a phone camera with a decent resolution to capture info quickly.

Reading Elimination Tournament Begins - Preview of Round 1

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying if a book doesn't make it past the first round that it isn't a good book.  That might be the case, but a publisher somewhere decided to take a chance on it, so it probably isn't too bad...  It just might not be the book for me... and some of these books have been sitting on my bookshelf for almost 20 years.  Either I'm going to read it soon, or not at all... and if I'm not going to read it, I need to pass these books on.  They've been here too long.

Here are the criteria that I'm using to determine if a book goes on to the second round:

• Whether the first five pages grab and hold my attention making me interested in continuing to read the book.
• The summary on the back of the book.
• The blurbs and critical acclaim on the inside of the book.
• The design of the book cover. You all know that you do it... such a cliche, but we do all judge a book by its cover.
• The author's name and reputation. This might not seem fair, but all publishers (and most readers too) evaluate the writer's name recognition, sales of past books, awards won, and respect of their peers.

I then will divide these into 8 groups of 8 books and write up what I liked about them, what I didn't like and why it passes to the next round or fails. I may also place some of the books in a "maybe" pile where I'll evaluate them against the other maybes if I need to do so.

Without further ado, here is the list of 64 books:

• The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad – Minister Faust (2004)
• The Risk Pool – Richard Russo  (1986)
• 100 Years of Solitude – Gabriela Garcia Marquez (1992)
• @expectations – Kit Reed (2000)
• If I Don't Six – Elwood Reid (1998)
• LA Woman – Cathy Yardley (2002)
• Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry  (1985)
• Freezing – Penelope Evans (1997)
• A Slipping Down Life – and Tyler (1970)
• The Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley (1988)
• The Businessmen – Thomas M. Disch (1984)
• The Dead Zone – Stephen King (1979)
• The Hollow Man – Dan Simmons (1992)
• The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman (1995)
• Life After God – Douglas Copeland (1994)
• Silicon Follies – Thomas Scoville (2001)
• Black Water – Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
• Saigon, Illinois – Paul Hoover (1988)
• A Firing Offense – George P. Pellicano's (1992)
• A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham (1990)
• About the Author – John Colapinto (2001)
• Outlaw School – Rebecca Ore (2000)
• Music for Torching – A.M. Homes (1999)
• Farm Fatale – Wendy Holden (2001)
• The Sweet Hereafter – Russell Banks (1991)
• Tokyo Sucker Punch – Isaac Adamson (2000)
• Layover - Lisa Zeidner (1999)
• Lying Awake – Mark Salzman (2000)
• A Bigamist's Daughter – Alice McDermott (1982)
• Treason – Orson Scott card (1979)
• The Grid – Philip Kerr (1995)
• The Difference Engine – William Gibson and Bruce sterling (1991)
• Stronghold: Dragonstar Book 1 – Melanie Rawn (1990)
• Manifold Time – Stephen Baxter (2000)
• Lord Foul's Bane – Stephen R Donaldson (1977)
• Downbelow Station – C. J. Cherryh (1981)
• Night Duty – Melitta Breznik (1999)
• Love Invents Us – Amy Bloom (1997)
• Salem Falls – Jodi Picoult (2001)
• elsewhere – Gabrielle Zevon (2005)
• The Feast of Love – Charles Baxter (2000)
• Seven Types of Ambiguity – Elliot Perlman (2003)
• Skipped Parts – Tim Sandlin (1991)
• 21 – Jeremy Iversen (2005)
• The Silence – Jim Krause (2004)
• A Regular Guy – Mona Simpson (1996)
• The Man of the House – Stephen McCauley (1996)
• Man Crazy – Joyce Carol Oates (1997)
• Jack – A.M. Homes (1989)
• Paris Trout – Pete Dexter (1988)
• The Sportswriter – Richard Ford (1986)
• The Book of Joe – Jonathan Tropper (2004)
• The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint – Brady Udall (2001)
• Being Alexander – Nancy Sparling (2002)
• Crossing to Safety – Wallace Stegner (1987)
• The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields (1993)
• The Love Letter – Cathleen Schine (1995)
• Ceremony – Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)
• The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (1997)
• John Henry Days – Colson Whitehead (2001)
• Vicious Spring – Hollis Hampton Jones (2003)
• Geek Love – Katherine Dunn (1983)
• Strawberry Tattoo – Lauren Henderson (1999)
• Turn-of-the-Century – Kurt Anderson (1999)

Reading Elimination Tournament -- 64 Books, So Little Time

I buy a lot of books.  My particular weakness, trade paperbacks in the bargain bins of Half-Price Books, at library book sales or wherever else I pick them up.  As a result, I have a huge backlog of books that I may never get too and my shelves are overflowing, so I need to get rid of some books. So here is what I'm going to do.  I'm going to take 64 books off of my shelves and I'm going to put them in an elimination tournament.  I'd love to do this as a March Madness thing, but let's face it, even following my bizarre rules, no one can possibly read 64 books in a month so here's how the process works:

• Round #1 -- I read the first 5 pages of these 64 random books from my collection and select the 32 books that I'm most interested in continuing to read. I'm going to focus on the writing craft of these books and note what interested me (or didn't) and give you at least a brief description of why it made it (or didn't) to the next round.
• Round #2 -- From the reading of the first five pages I will organize the remaining books into "brackets" of those that are sort of alike.  In the books that I've selected is a wide range of literary tastes: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Literary, Popular Fiction, and even some award winners and classics. I will read the first 25 pages of these books and eliminate 16 of them.
• Round #3 -- The Sweet 16: I will read an additional 25 pages of these books (50 pages) and eliminate 8 of them... At this point I may "set aside" some of the books to finish later even if I eliminate them, but who knows.
• Round #4 -- The Elite 8: These books I will read to the end, or until I get bored of it, and eliminate the number to the Final 4.
• Round #5 -- Down to 2.
• Round #6 -- Determines the Grand Champion of the 2011Reading Elimination Tournament.

How does this benefit you? Free books!  If you want a book that has been eliminated, just let me know and I'll give it to you (either in person, or ship it to you for the media mail shipping cost (probably $2.50).  Unless the books in the final rounds absolutely enthrall me, causing me to add it to my Fiction Hall of Fame, chances are that most of the "winners" will be available for you as well.

Spring Cleaning Your Writing

It is hard to believe that May is already here. With all of the rain we've had over the last 6 weeks, the lawn has already gotten away from us and we already are behind on our annual battle with Mother Nature.

Spring around our house always signifies some sort of spring cleaning, where we get rid of the stuff in our lives that isn’t working. 

A few of years ago, I had a lawn mower that was 6 years-old and falling apart. If you could get it started (and each spring, that was a big IF)  it rattled and wheezed… mainly due to several stupid things that I did to it… like when I replaced the blade for the mower and installed the new one on upside-down, causing it to rattle and vibrate considerably, cutting the grass with the dull edge of the blade, and then being too clueless to realize what I had done… at least until all of the bolts on the mower started vibrating right out of their sockets, causing major parts of the mower, such as the gas tank, to simply fall off. 

My friend Matt, after taking a look at the situation and laughing at me for what I had done, thought that the solution would be to buy another used mower, which in his capable hands, worked great... but a week later when I tried to get it started (after about an hour of yanking on the pull cord, wheezing and swearing).  I failed miserably.  I gave up, loaded the two beat-up and barely-functional mowers onto the trailer headed toward the Stoutsville Auction (an annual event which raises money for the local firefighters), and went on down to the locally-owned Toro lawnmower dealer and bought a brand new mower with a 5 year warranty.

And I haven’t had a problem with it since. The saved time and aggravation alone while using this mower has paid for itself 10 times over. Sometimes spending extra money does solve a difficult problem better than buying the cheapest or easiest solution.

So what’s not working in your writing life? What are those little writing obstacles that prevent you from sitting down at the keyboard day after day?

Does your old computer take 30 minutes to boot up?  Are you missing deadlines because of watching the season finales of your favorite TV shows? Are you spending too much time writing email and not enough time writing your novel? Are you still editing that manuscript instead of sending it on to the agent or publisher as you had intended months ago?

Well, May is the perfect month to change all of that.  Inventory the things that inhibit your writing. Are you not writing because your desk chair is uncomfortable? Get a new one. Are you spending too much time playing that addictive little Solitaire game installed on your computer instead of writing?  Delete it. Do you have a mouse that doesn’t quite work right, or a keyboard that makes your wrists numb after 30 minutes of typing? Trash it! Get rid of distracting clutter in your writing space. Throw out magazines that you always had planned on reading, but never have. If you can’t make the time to read them now, you never will. Pitch those pens that don’t work.  File or toss those “important” papers that are piled everywhere. I am as guilty of this as anyone.  If you saw my office right now, you’d know this to be true.

But, sometimes you just need a little fresh air and some encouragement to get rid of the bad habits that have inhibited your writing during the long winter months and start spring with a clean slate. So make that list, get out your broom, and start cleaning!

8 Ways Reorganizing Your Writing Space Benefits You

Sorry for my absence from posting here last week.  I was busy cleaning and reorganizing my office.  Yes, the office. It probably hasn't been cleaned and organized thoroughly.. .well ever.  I spent at least 15 hours last week emptying, sorting, purging, rearranging, sweeping, vacuuming, recycling and discovering things that have been missing for years.  And I haven't even BEGUN to deal with my Brazil-sized rain-forest-worth of paper yet...

Also, there needs to be some examination in the near future about WHY I decided to do this right now...

Not my desk, but this gives you the idea of what I'm dealing with

Here are 8 ways that reorganizing your writing workspace can benefit you:

1. Change your perspective on your work -- For so long now, I've been limited by the way I set up my desk.  My monitor was smashed up against the wall and I was not able to position it as I would like, and it wasted a lot of space. The light was also poor in the area, not horribly so, but bad enough.  After turning the desk around 90 degrees, it freed up where I could place the monitor and allowed plenty of desk space to fit my laptop and the old 20" CRT monitor as well as some additional workspace. A better layout makes it more appealing to work there and probably will encourage me to spend more time there.
2. Free up space -- I have this affliction.  I don't like to throw out things that are "still good." That is things that will be useful for someone at some point, not in a freaky Hoarder kind of way, just in a I hate to waste money kind of way.  Case in point, a sealed package of thank you cards for "my daughters baby shower gift."  My baby daughter just turned 16 and is driving.  I don't think I'll be sending them out anytime soon, but they took up space in my desk drawer because I saw them as being still useful.
3. Limit choices -- I had a complete desk drawer full of pens, pencils, markers, dry-erase markers that was difficult to open it was so packed. I also had 4 pen/pencil holder cups on my desk. I never have to buy another writing instrument again... ever.  That is if I liked ball-point pens or pencils, (which I don't) so I kept a few of each type of instrument and packed the rest up to donate to the schools in the area.
4. Make it easier to find stuff -- When you organize in piles, it is quite easy to lose important stuff under the gun.  When looking for one thing, I often pile other things on top of more things... which often results in other important stuff getting buried.
5. Find untold caches of office supplies -- Buried in my desk drawers and in several other areas of the office were Post-It Notes and index cards of all sizes and colors.  When I have a hard time finding these things, I just bought more. Now I have enough Post-Its and index cards to last me for the next 3 years... 
6. Get rid of stuff that's not relevant to your work -- Some organization tip I read stated to keep the items you use most frequently in the easiest to reach storage area in your work space. Here are some of the things that I pulled out of my upper left-hand desk drawer: two decks of playing cards, old customs forms that are no longer used by the post office, a broken Sony Digital camera (I've had 2 cameras since then), 3 AC adapters for unknown electronic devices, 5 plastic kid's meal toys that I kept on my desk for some reason at one point, a 160GB external hard drive (not currently in use) a large velour bag of dice from my Dungeons & Dragons role-playing days (I haven't played in almost 20 years), manuals from my bosses OfficeJet from 10 years ago (the printer died at least 4 years ago and was trashed), several Cleveland Indians Topps baseball cards from 1986 (none of them good players or memorable to anyone other than a Cleveland Indians fan), and the usual crap mentioned above: Post-Its in a rainbow of colors, pens, push pins (loose - OUCH!), binder clips, index cards, envelopes, etc.)  Just imagine what I pulled out of the bigger drawers!
   
   Also, my desk had a credenza which provided 3 more drawers of junk space, as well as additional square footage on the desktop.  The drawback: It wasn't working for me, the height of it was about 6 inches shorter than the desk which made the space hard to use (I had to bend over to write on it, so it just became more area to pile up more clutter). I removed it and consolidated all of the crap in those drawers into the 3 remaining drawers. Guess what? It has been almost a week and I don't miss any of it!  It wasn't relevant, so I removed it! 
7. Provide plenty of goods  -- For the church youth mission trip indoor "yard sale" in May.
8. Create a better view of the door -- Never sit with your back to a door. Ever.

Next: Stay tuned for my attack on "paper mountain."

How Much is Your Clutter Costing You?

This article written by Peter Walsh, clutter crusher extraordinaire from Clean Sweep fame has a new book out Lighten Up: Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less and excerpted on Lifehacker: How Much is Your Clutter Costing You?

He has some simple ways of adding up the costs by going through your house, room by room, and adding up the cost of all of the items you no longer use.  It has a physical cost and (at times) an emotional cost as well.

He even uses a formula for calculating the cost of your clutter per square foot:

Value of your home ÷ Square footage of your home = Value of each square foot
_______________ ÷_______________ = _______________

So, if you live in a $250,000 home and it's 2,500 square feet, then each square foot is worth $100.

The value of each square foot of my home is: _______________

Now let's calculate how much of your home's space is occupied by things you don't use. Walk around your home and make a rough calculation of how many square feet are unusable because of the clutter. Don't forget the basement, closets, and garage!

The number of square feet in my home that are occupied by things I don't use: _______________

Now let's find out how much that wasted square footage is worth:

Value of square footage × Square feet occupied by things you don't use = Value of unusable space
_______________ x_______________ = _______________

This is interesting, but not as helpful for me.  Another way to calculate these costs is in TIME.  Such as when you spend 15 minutes looking for your car keys in the morning, or the hour spent looking for the medical form that you needed to complete so your son could sign up for soccer. Or the 2 hours you spend trying to find the Robo-Grip Pliers to fix the dripping kitchen sink, and then, not finding it, heading out to Lowes to purchase another tool to replace it.  Time is money. And these days my time is more valuable than my money... most of the time.

But money is also something that gets wasted in the midst of clutter.  You all know of my poor track record with flash drives.  I have purchased 3 of them in the last 4 months, and have already "lost" one of them.  I know that it will turn up eventually in a coat pocket, or under a stack of papers, but it is missing when I need it, so I buy another one for $12.  The cost of replacing the Robo-Grip Pliers, $17.94 for a set of similar tools at Lowes.  I've bought 3 vitamin capsule-sized microphones for my iPod Touch because I simply knew I wouldn't be able to keep track of them (at about $1.50 each) and already 2 of them are missing. 2 sets of iPod headphones (another $12). I bought a second copy of one of my favorite books on time management: Getting Things Done by David Allen, because I either lent it to someone and forgot who, or lost it altogether ($15).  And close to $50 in lost or damaged library books this year alone.

So as you can see... clutter indeed has a cost.  Think of all of the items and hours lost, and spring cleaning is a great time to clear out that clutter.

Losing Things

I am always losing things.  Not just little things like the car keys for a few minutes or a favorite book that I lent to a friend and forgot about... We're talking about big things. Important things. Favorite things. Things that will cost me money if I don't find them soon.

Here are a few of them:

• Car/House keys -- Attached to my blue bottle opener keychain with the logo of the company I worked for before the current one bought it.  Maddening. The only keyring where I have all of my important keys in one place. I also have about 4 copies of our garage key floating somewhere out in the house somewhere.
• 2 Library books -- I am having a record year having broken 2 CDs from different books on CD and now I have 2 other books missing. I have no idea where they are, but I keep renewing them online in the hopes that I find them.  I think it is to the point now for one of them that I need to 'fess up and pay for it.
• RoboGrip adjustable wrench -- I use it a lot, but forgot where it is for now.
• Switch plates for the kitchen outlets -- We took them off when painting the kitchen over a year ago, but I forgot where I put them. Serves me right for procrastinating.
• The New HDTV remote -- We bought the TV in an insane "Black Friday" sale.  The remote has been lost for about half of the time that we've owned it.
• My planner/datebook -- Strange since the point of having one is so you don't forget what you have to do...

This list is an ongoing revolving door that never seems to end.  And it constantly drives me crazy that I can't find these things that should never have gotten lost in the first place. I'm almost ready to start believing in Gremlins at this point.  Or House Elves... a ghost?  


I almost see the advantages of RFID tagging everything.  Although it would be an invasion of privacy in some ways, a little too Big Brother-like for me, it would be nice to look up where all of your lost objects with a couple clicks of a mouse.  Imagine how this would change the way we deal with mismatched socks, unidentified keys that we cannot part with, the REMOTE CONTROLS... Hmmmm.