Credit crunch

Its Christmas time again and there is the usual stressful hysteria amongst shoppers. How can we enjoy shopping leisurely amongst the carol singers, festive decor and the repetitive Christmas songs loop, when our wallets are tight and there is a concrete deadline.

To add to this hysteria, retailers are tempting one and all with their large sales, turning us all into bargain hunters prematurely.

Retailers are the beggars on the street this festive season- desperate for coins and attention. Usually they are the smug old misers, gloating with goods at ridiculously high prices until they can pity us post-Christmas and ply us with their old and damaged stock.

For anyone working in retail with bosses determined to turn a profit in such a competitive market and reduce the shoplifting rate, the number one rule has become customer service.

There are certain stores I chose solely for their lack of customer service. You can browse freely without the constant 'Can I help you Madam?" or thanking me for coming in.
These shops are becoming increasingly thin on the ground.

My friend and I were in Warehouse Stationery and we saw an ex-classmate who ignores us every time we go in there. She actually grunted "hi" to us when we entered the store, which was amazing but also showed the strength of the customer service concept.

I do love the programmed nature of customer service though, due to its sheer predictability.
"Have a nice day" when it is obviously night. "Would you like a bag"- the planet is dying and I'm already dragging 40 bags, but sure what the heck.
Even "Merry Christmas" is completely hollow at this time of year.
Sugar sweet conversation is sometimes hard to take, that means I actually have to think of a response when I am mentally and physically exhausted from shopping.

It feels like a waste of good oxygen, which makes the self-service checkouts appealing. Unfortunately they loudly rap you over the knuckles if you make a mistake. Just because I don't want to put the item in the provided bag, doesn't mean that I don't understand the instruction.

Oh well its only a few more days. Then we can become real bargain hunters, attacking retail junk sales like rapid dogs on boxing day with the money we saved in the pre-Christmas sales.

New Look blog

Scrawling through the multiple blog background sights, I still can't figure out what would make this blog exciting. Each site seems to have plenty of zip files to unzip and transform your blog site into the craziest place on earth.

The process itself feels like a time-waster and frustrating when the programme doesn't compute with your radical new backdrop. Then I question, whether a holly-homemaker type blog with pictures of cats and sunflowers is what I want to say to the world?

I'm rather changeable so like to experiment, but each time the new blog background sets itself up on my page, I ultimately regret it or make a mental note to get rid of it. I seem to have fallen into the black hole of blog designs, each designer keen to have their Wordpress rip-off version downloaded onto Blogger.

The limited Blogger designs do infuriate but I'm sure a professional blog is based on the content and not the wrapping. I'll just change the layout once and a while, after I figure out how to unzip it.

Weebly

Latest obsession: Making my own website.

I'm gradually plastering an identity around the net on a variety of sites, even if they are all under slightly different guises. I may as well unite them in one common place.

So I began trolling for a new free web-based platform. There are plenty about but most are rather pushy about buying something.
I guess it takes the professionalism out when there is some dodgy name attached at the end of your address, all for sake of staying free but I'm rather fond of my own stinginess.

We all yearn for a shred of professionalism and sometimes that falls a little flat. Guess you try and take things in your stride and hope readers/employers can see behind the fake cardboard backdrop and see the effort.

Think I've been listening to the 'girls can do anything speech' and my grandmother's hype a little long but we all need some confidence in life or that is at least what I think.

Anyway to the matter at hand, finding a site, figuring out the content and launch it upon the masses.
Weebly looks easy, especially the design and layout. Now all is left is to decide on a name and run with it.
No link to post here as I'm stuck on my slightly environmental outlook.
Will my little bit of Internet junk add to the information highway? Think I'll just bite the bullet and send it out there.