I'm a slacker...

I've been a real slacker lately when it comes to blogging/writing. With nearly a month and a half off between semesters, I completely went into lazy mode. Now, with week one of nine complete this semester, I'm going to force myself to be better, particularly after this semester is over March 30th.

Writing eases my mind, as I'm able to put into words everything that is normally bouncing around inside my head. It doesn't matter what I choose to write about, it just seems to work.

So, I'll be back soon enough. It's budget time at work and once the dust settles on that and the new semester, I'll get into a comfortable rhythm and start to write on a more regular schedule.

Until then, hang tight...

BestBuy.com (Best Buy) in store pickup...

A few days ago, I tried the in store pickup option offered at BestBuy.com for the first time. In a nutshell, the process is:

• add items to your cart
• choose a preferred store
• check inventory at that store
• place an order with the intent of the order being picked by an associate and ready to pickup at the customer service counter by you

I've used a similar system at CircuitCity.com in the past and it was trouble free. This is not the case after my interactions with Best Buy.

I had a handful of items that were last minute gifts for Christmas. Best Buy has a great website that has a boat load of product on it, and it just so happens that they allegedly had all the items in stock that I was looking for. I ran through the order process, selected one of the three stores that are within 20 minutes of me and submitted.

According to BestBuy.com, there were two emails that I was waiting for: an order confirmation email and a stock confirmation email. At this point, the stock confirmation email worried me. I realized that there is a retail/corporate/web database issue here and that more than likely, BestBuy.com was not running a realtime inventory database system ala WalMart. I trudged on though, thinking that the little items that I was ordering weren't on the 'Top Gifts of Christmas 2007 list'.

I used my Gmail address for the order, as I have for almost all important things lately (another post for another day), as email generally arrives to it nearly instantaneously. I wasn't disappointed this time either, as the order confirmation arrived before I even left the BestBuy.com site. However, things went differently with the second of two stock confirmation emails. The first listed two of the items as being in stock in the store; they were ready, come pick them up. The second listed two of the items as not being in stock.

Because I wanted to grab all the items in one shot, I called the 800 number from the website and cancelled my order. This was a completely pain-free operation.

Now, I'm not blasting Best BuyorBestBuy.com for this. I just think that they need to improve the process a bit. There are a few suggestions that would have made me a happier comsumer:

• Don't dish out multiple emails for the stock confirmation. After receiving the first email, my first assumption was that they were just scanning the items as they picked them and that the other items were going to be in an email to follow. This turned out to be true, but in my case, they didn't have the items in stock
• After receiving one email with all the stock statuses, there should be a cancellation option linked right from the email. If all the items are in stock, I'm alright with not including it. If even one item is not in stock, add the link.
• Fix the inventory tracking system that links with BestBuy.com. This drives me crazy with banks too, but it's nearly 2008! There is no reason that checks need 5 days to clear and there is certainly no reason that inventory updates should not be nearly real time. Walmart has been doing this for years, so there's no excuse!

Procrastination...

If there's one bad habit that I developed in high school, it's procrastination. Bad habit you ask? You meant art form, right?

Someone on Wikipedia defined procrastination as follows:

-the deferment or avoidance of an action or task to a later time and is often linked to perfectionism. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination)

The only problem is that I'm usually not trying to be a perfectionist. I'm not saying that I'm sloppy and not a perfectionist to some degree, but I have a little calculator/clock combo in my head that continually tells me that there's enough time to goof off and finish later. This is why this is a much better definition for me:

-to put off intentionally and habitually (thelifeprescription.com/glossary.html)

I'll explain all this on another night...

New York Mets Premium or Poor Gotay?

I was happy to listen to the Mets conference call tonight, regarding the signing of Luis Castillo. Like others have mentioned, the length of the contract causes you to scratch your had though. If you scour the rumor sites like I do, the word on the street was that Castillo was entertaining offers of two years and out of the blue, he signs with the Mets, for four years!

Listening to Boomer & Carton on the way into work this morning, they brought up an interesting point. They were rattling off players that the Mets have signed over the last few years and for all intents and purposes, how they overpaid for them when compared to the market conditions at the time. If I can find the examples he gave, in the interest of posting factually correct information, I'll edit this post and add them later. In my opinion, what they were saying made a lot of sense and it definitely made you wonder.

How is it that the Mets can be in the largest market in baseball, be one of the teams with the highest payroll and still not have the aura about them, where players want to be here. I think that they took significant strides towards getting there by establishing some credibility; bringing in players like Pedro, Beltran, Delgado and Glavine. However, it obviously wasn't enough to attract players without throwing them an extra year on their contract here or there. I know we're not the [insert Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox or the Cardinals], but I'd imagine the chance to play for the Mets, in New York, would be a big enough draw on its own. We've been a competitive team for the last few years and up until 'the collapse', we were doing a great job under Willie.

Anyway, prior to Castillo coming back, a part of me was pulling for Ruben Gotay to get the nod at second base. I'd love to see what the kid could do if given a full-time opportunity. With the signing of Castillo though, we probably won't be the market to see him get his shot.

Yorvit Torrealba?

Why was this ever a possibility?

I'm not quite sure what Omar was thinking with this one and I'm glad that it fell through. Let's hope it's a dead issue now. Paul LoDuca hits better and throws runners out more consistently than Torrealba. So what if he opens his mouth a little bit? God forbid someone speaks up a little bit or has an opinion.

Was he wrong to chastise his teammates for not speaking to reporters? In my opinion, this depends. If the first time he complained about it was in front of the press, he was wrong. If he did it privately first with his teammates then no, he wasn't wrong. Can you really fault him if this is the case? The press does tend to go to him and David Wright all the time. I'm not going to get into what has been discussed to death on the internet, but if the shoe fits.

Come on Omar, let's get Paulie back in uniform. Now that he's your third choice, it's probably going to be a bit more difficult, especially since you've probably insulted him now. What other catchers are out there? There's nothing wrong with a platoon of LoDuca and Castro. Our problem has not been catching, defense or offense. It's been pitching! Are you paying attention Omar?

Go give Rivera the fourth year that the Steinbrenners allegedly said no to tonight. That should solidify the pen rather quickly. It's not like you spent the dough on Posada or A-Rod...