Question: What would you NOT buy online?!

I'm paronoid. So much so that I hesitate to charge my card at any random place. I tend to pay cash, if I so much as have a hunch of 'maybe I'll return the item' I go over their return policy before I hand over the cash, and store the reciept for about a month. For starters, I only have sparadic moments of 'lets go shopping'. Juggling between work and school related activities, the rest of the time I'd rather watch a movie.

Oops going off on a tangent

What wouldn't I buy on the internet? a lot. The list of things I would purchase is much, much, much shorter. So I'll tell you what I would buy. Since I'm blogging, I'll story tell a tad. It took me quite a while to make any purchases online.
1. Appx. 7 years ago, I decided airline tickets were a safe bet. Specifically off the airline's webpage, cheaptickets, travelocity and no where else.Priceline had a 'bid your ticket'. eh-no. I thought that was their way of jacking your credit card information- without a confirmed ticket. Not me and my paranoia.
2. I decided that amazon and e-bay were ok too. This was appx. 4 years ago. I'd use them to purchase discounted textbooks.

Those are the only two things I would buy off the internet. (from designated sites).

My close friends on the other hand, specifically two of them, make all sorts of purchases online. I was over at Danny's house for dinner and we started talking about how great the steaks were, he said he orders them in from NY about once a month. What?? Apparently there's this great restaurant that he goes to in NY, and he asked them who supplies their meat- he was able to get them to supply steaks- rib-eyes- scallops-salmon etc to his house South of Tacoma. He pays an average of $1,500 dollars for prime quality. Needless to say- I quickly overcome the parnoia of eating meat that had been processed on the other side of the country and shipped to Danny's doorstep- The steak was awesome. It almost felt like I was dining at The Met in Seattle. Shipping steaks across state borders?-I wouldn't do it. I also wouldn't be too quick to buy clothes. My friend Sophie buys almost all her clothes off e-bay. Some new. Some used. either way its a bargain price compared to the retail stores. How do you know if will fit the same? used.... is it faded? stretched? She responds, "I usually go into the stores and try them on first..." but your right there?!? why not buy them at the store? It probably rounds off to the same dollar amount in gas, shipping costs, return costs(perhaps), not to mention an emotional toil if there's anything about them that was underdeliverd..

I think my biggest pet-peeve about shopping online- is the hassle of not getting what the person promised and having to ship it back. Paranoia kicks in -- back to where? whom? are they real?... too many scams out there. Ever read the book Bowling alone? Buying groceries online just because you can, not because you have to? really? I enjoy my willingness and ability to purchase (most) things in person.

Narrowing down my Vanity search...

Alrighty,

I tried the quote " " unquote search, and the same white pages popped up. I'm not too familiar with search engines.. not to mention I feel like I'm stalking myself in an interesting(curious to know whats out there) yet dissapointing - (I'm not really out there). Its like playing detective with no leads on the suspect!
On people USA for $1.95 I could find out my age,name, address in full, relatives and unlisted phone numbers.That almost bothers me. I pay for it to be unlisted, and ther USA people search still knows about it?? or do they? My professors blog makes a strong case on the safety nets around personal information.

whats a better search engine?

My Vanity Search

Google: ONE RESULT- The white pages via google.!

Yahoo: NO RESULTS

Intelius: TWO RESULTS

amazing.!

I started off with google. I typed in my first and last name without quotations and no luck there. I then put quotations and google pulled up 4 results. One pertained to me, and it was a link to the white pages. From that, never-before-would-I-have-thought-of facts such as my name ranked 3,476 in line in the United States.. (whose number #1... ?!?!?) to more relevant facts such as my physical address and home phone! were proudly displayed...

I proceeded to yahoo. With the tune in mind.. yaaaa--hoooo-oo.. I typed in my name, and voila.. no results that pertain to me.! That's right. I do not exist in yahoo web world.

To complete my vanity search, I went on intelius.com a site that I had never heard of until my current professor mentioned it. During class he conducted a vanity search on intelius and we found out his age, wife's name, and other relatives. Beyond figuring out a solution to 405 traffic congestion or world hunger, people have time to plug all this data on people they have never met.?!? amazing! so there I was on my results page on intelius. It didn't reveal my age or any of my relatives. Why not?!? I couldn't help but undergo a juxatposition between more of my information being there versus hardly there. I quickly took the latter. There's some sort of relief in knowing that there isn't too much out there about me.

I guess not putting out too much information on myself out there has paid-off a tad. Then again google's search enging is such a go-getter, it will find a link on almost anything! I even took the liberty of googling my blogs name mindful biz and a 27 year old guy popped up... ?!?

in any case, I think I win. They really don't have too much of me out there and I'm happy about that.

*Privacy really isn't that private if no one's after it....*

Print news.Web News.

Read all about it!

Read all about it!

Newspapers were the 'in' thing. I would sit on my dad's lap while he taught me the tricks and trades of the stock market, or solving the crossword puzzle. Sunday afternoons were systematically intuned to church, followed by lunch at a fancy restaurant, and by afternoon, we would continue the full skeleton review of the newspaper.

How long ago was this?

Yesterday. Retrospeaking ofcourse.

Today, the web has taken over much of the 'flavor' of a printed newspaper. The cost per advertisement is significantly lower on the web, than it is to print the same advertisement. I mean lets not get into the size of the ad. or the color. or a picture? wow. These were things, excuse me, ARE things that are still calculated when it comes to posting anything in print. The web hardly follows the same rules or price margins.

AND,

the print simply can't execute the dynamics of the web. Today on MSN.com they had a video clip of this past Saturday Night Live episode mimicing the Vice Presidential debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin. Sure, a reporter can write about it, but how much better is it to see the actual video...... waaaaay better!

In economics, the discussions would throw in the words of opportunity cost, or scarcity of rescourses, the gap grows. If I want to find an apartment, chances are I'll use the internet and play along the web worlds of craigslist, the stranger, or apartments.com. If I'm so inclined, I'll go into the classifieds section of the Seattle Times, on their internet website, even though I'm sitting two feet away from it at my starbucks hotspot.

Futuristically speaking, the print newspaper has no hope. Okay, maybe thats a little harsh. So allow me to rephrase.The future of print newspapers is on the web. There. I said it. You may not have heard it here first.

Tomorrow, the tree huggers are going to hug all the trees in the world and protest that the earth must be saved, one print newspaper at a time. Recyled paper, well they too are messing up the whole go green campaign. Web Web Web.....

Web all about it!

Web all about it!