Got up this morning and thought it time to catch up on reading a few of my favourite blogs; wasn't going to post.  I have been a bad blogger lately, letting life get in the way.  As most who read will know, I work as a librarian in a university, so September and October are write-offs for me.  I insert here that you should never make friends with an academic librarian unless you are willing to forgive the two months of the year that he/she is unlikely to have the time to send you an e-mail, let alone go out and do anything that takes more than an hour.

What prompted me to break the silence, however, was a great post made by my bosom bud (no pun intended here) aubree on the "sexification of cancer".  This makes me think of my own beefs with our office United Way campaign.

Once again this year, they have put up a huge whiteboard infested sign in our office that highlights our aggregate office contribution to the cause (office participation: 55%, it proudly states).  If you offer a minimum paycheque deduction, you will even receive one of those ubiquitous rubber bracelets in a festive shade of red to wear so that everyone in the office will know you contributed.  The bracelet proudly proclaims "I care".

Here's my beef.  I believe the United Way to be a very worthwhile charity that does lots of good work.  However, I resent the implication that if I choose not to donate, I don't "care".  I resent the pressure of having the office co-ordinator for the organization pester me in my cubicle about when and how much I am going to contribute.  I dislike the heartbreaking stories that appear weekly in my e-mail in-box ending in statements like "with these sorts of stories, how can you not give?".

Here's how I can not give: I can choose to donate money directly to local charities, I can donate time where I do not have the financial ability to donate otherwise, I can support the children's and school organizations who canvas outside the local department store, I can decide to give money in a private way rather than advertising it to the world by wearing a silly red bracelet.

Nothing against the United Way or my workplace's desire to choose it as a preferred charity, but is this kind of peer pressure really how you want to encourage donation?  Wouldn't it be better if participation was truly voluntary?

-H.

Had a bit of fun tonight flipping through Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans.  A few of my favourites:

• The Waltons - no, not the television family.  Seems the Wal-tons are the force behind Wal-Mart, and worth almost 16 billion dollars each.  Guess it pays to sell discount merchandise with an animated happyface mascot.
• The Mars family.  Took me a minute to figure out that they are the chocolate bar mavens- and worth about 10 billion a piece.  Worth pointing out that they are worth about 8.2 billion more than the person who came up with Slim-Fast and the owners of New Balance. 
• The guy who invented Beanie Babies is worth a cool 4 billion.
• Wrigley (of chewing gum fame) is the 65th richest American.
• The Donald is only worth a couple billion - though that's more than enough to get a decent haircut.
• Oprah chimes in at number 235 on the list - the first television celebrity to appear (unless you count Trump, but his acting is so bad that I don't think that's realistic).
• Even after prison, Martha still has 975 million to her name.

-H.

I am a bit of a retentive sort of person, and my desk reflects this.  As bills arrive, they get placed in a particular spot on my desk.  And as they get paid, they are relocated to the filing cabinet, where I keep the current year neatly organized and shred the item from precisely 365 days earlier.  Anything 'in process' also finds a home on my desk: a contract from the consignment shop, a page from the Sears catalogue with some luggage I like and think I might ask for as a Christmas gift, and - right now - a photocopy of the mail-in rebate I sent to McAfee in July.

Anal as I am, I carefully bundled my proof of purchase, the little form one has to fill out to qualify for the rebate, the original CD-ROM from my last McAfee purchase and whatever else they wanted into a little jiffy bag, affixed proper postage and mailed away my rebate.  A couple of weeks later, I got a nice e-mail telling me that my rebate had been received and was being processed.  What exactly is it that it takes over two months to process?  Religiously (because I'm me), I have tracked the status of this $45.00 cheque.  Daily, I have opened up my mailbox hoping for a little financial boon.  Alas, until today I was always disappointed.

Just when I thought their ploy was to hope I wouldn't remember I'd sent in a rebate request and "forget" to send my money, I got another e-mail informing me that my cheque's been cut.  Was cut September 27, in fact.  Oh, and to wait up to 30 days for delivery.  Holy crap, McAfee - where are you mailing this cheque from, Nepal?  I only had to send my rebate documents to just outside London, Ontario, for cripe's sake.

Of course, I'll wait, good little consumer that I am.  But I think we can all agree that this is silly; I could have spent my cash on a new rake long before the leaves started to fall.  Perhaps it's time for those of us who believe in the promise of the mail-in rebate to make ourselves heard on this important issue.

-H.

I think the subject line says it all.  Thank you Canada.

-H.

I just have a few random comments, and I thought I'd piece them all together in one entry rather than creating a handful of smaller, less substantial entries.  Here goes:

1. Watched Canadian Idol tonight and I am worried about the Casey situation.  Remember: just because she is good once, doesn't mean one ought to forget about her horrific track record.  Frankly, it's to the point where I just don't like her, so please get her the hell off there.
   
   
2. While watching Canadian Idol, saw a disturbing television commercial for "Oust" - a spray that masks odours.  The advertisement's heroine casts her hands aloft in dismay saying something to the effect of "With two kids and a dog, the garbage around here just smells awful, so I need Oust - thank you Oust!"  Pan to overflowing garbage can full of crap.  Here's a thought, lady: try taking the trash to the curb once a week and see if a big, stinky truck from the city comes to pick it up.  Might save you some cash at about $4.50 a pop for a bottle of sickly smelling scented water.
   
   
3. Read an interesting article the other day that said John Kenneth Galbraith (a famous economist) once noted that "should advertisers support women's emotional well-being rather than undermining it, our economy would suffer a devastating blow...".  In the same article, the authors pointed out that "Americans spend $33 billion dollars a year on diets and diet related services. This amount does not include plastic surgery or liposuction. This figure totals more than all the money America spends each year on social services and education combined...".  I admit that I have not had time to confirm these figures or to find the source of the Galbraith reference, but if this is true, we're in a sorry state, don't you think?  Have a look at the article yourself, if you're interested.

-H.