Monday, May 31, 2010

If I knew it would be the last time

If I knew it would be the last time
That I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute
to stop and say "I love you,"
instead of assuming you would KNOW I do.

If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
Well I'm sure you'll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.

For surely there's always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
and we always get a second chance
to make everything just right.

There will always be another day
to say "I love you,"
And certainly there's another chance
to say our "Anything I can do?"

But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget.

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance
you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you're waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you'll surely regret the day,

That you didn't take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today,
and whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you'll always hold them dear

Take time to say "I'm sorry,"
"Please forgive me," "Thank you," or "It's okay."
And if tomorrow never comes,
you'll have no regrets about today.

Monday, May 24, 2010

It's Up To You

If you think you're a winner you'll win,
If you dare to step out you'll succeed.
Believe in your heart, have a purpose to start,
Aim to help fellow man in his need.
Thoughts of faith must replace every doubt,
Words of courage and you cannot fail.
If you stumble and fall, rise and stand ten feet tall,
You determine the course you sail.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Dont Blame Me I Just Work Here Take 2

The Beer Store Morley

Guests are coming over tonight and I wanted to try a new Merlot.. so I whizzed down to my nearest local The Beer Store Morley.

You can see they had great display of Wine from the one vineyard and the special price was 2 for $14... and with the wine glut... that sometimes buys you a GREAT drop.

I selected my Ballast Stone Merlot and went to pay... the young guy on the check out said "these aren't on special [they are the ones on the lower left box] and they are $14.99 each.."

I protested... he said, they special is all the other selections but not that one... and I said that they were falsely advertising and inviting me to buy at the special price.

His response was "mate I just work here, and I don't know why they are there and not the same price as all the others but they are not on special. Don't blame me I just work here..."

So I took my business elsewhere where I proceeded to spend over $100... and got a Rosemount Merlot 2 for $20 which I think is a much better buy...

Isn't there something that stops people falsely advertising prices... and not honouring prices when they are set up to get you to buy because of the Special Offer...

Again, I say, when you see this, complain loudly, someone will hear... [pigs might fly]

Dont Blame Me I Just Work Here Take 1



Fletcher Jones Forrest Chase Perth May 2010 Clearance Sale

I like Fletcher Jones to buy reasonably priced men's clothes. And I was really clean to go into the Perth city store after receiving an invite from the Frequent Shopper Email that I get from FJ's...

Everywhere the banners blared "May Clearance 40%" with some very tint type... on selected lines.

On entering the store, I noticed many tables had the "40% OFF May Clearance Sign" whilst others didn't. And this is what gets my goat... I selected a shirt from one of those clearly marked tables with a RRP of $89.95 and expected the price to be reduced by 40$ or roughly $36. Silly me... only "some" of the items on the table were "for clearance" and if I read the "really fine print" I would realise that what I had carefully chosen wasn't on special...

I shared my angst with the shop assistant and he said "I agree with you but this is retail and that's how we are told to display the goods". I protested and he replied "Don't blame me, I just work here."

I told him that I though it was dishonest and I wasn't paying full price for the and left the store, but not before I suggested I would complain to the "powers" that handle these things to which he helpfully suggested: "If more people complain maybe they will stop doing this sort of thing..."

Pigs might fly.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

This is for you, Daddy

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.

He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said,"Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as humans have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, friends, family and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

Wisdom from Seth Godin

Here are 10 favorite quotes by Seth:

1.“Expectations are the engines of our perceptions.”
2.“Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death.”
3.“Go ahead, do something impossible. “
4.“You can’t shrink your way to greatness! “
5.“Don’t try to please everyone. There are countless people who don’t want one, haven’t heard of one or actively hate it. So what?”
6.“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”
7.“Why waste a sentence saying nothing? “
8.“If you could do tomorrow over again, would you?”
9.“Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.” 10.“Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.”

Monday, May 03, 2010

The Language Perfectionist: A Chrestomathy of Misuses

Whenever I encounter an interesting linguistic error, I toss it into a folder. When the collection becomes large enough -- which doesn't take long -- I have the raw material for a column like this one.

Review the following mistakes, and you'll avoid committing them.

"We're in the halcyon days of smartphone growth, and it won't last forever."
The word halcyon (pronounced "HAL-see-un") means calm, peaceful, tranquil. The tech guru quoted here meant that phone sales are currently booming. Ironically, if sales decline precipitously, as he suggests, the market will then really be halcyon! (Some dictionaries sanction a secondary meaning of halcyon as happy or prosperous, but this sense is often criticized. In light of the ambiguity, it's best avoided.)

"In the 30 days allotted for public comment, this decision, and all of its permeations, must be fought for the sake of our students...."
The word wanted here is permutations, meaning changes or variations. The word permeation means a passing or spreading through, as a liquid permeates a cloth.

"The judge's decision had clearly extended the protection of First Amendment rights to online writings of a non-threatening manner."
Maybe the writer can get away with the word manner in this context, but a better choice would have been nature. Or, more simply: "First Amendment rights to nonthreatening online writings." The hyphen isn't needed.

"It's not a bad movie. But the plot meanders, development stagnates where it should've been moving forward (right around the middle, to be precise)...."
If the story bogs down around the middle, which indicates an approximation, it can't be precise.

Finally, two editorials recently appeared on the same day in a major newspaper. One included the comment "That is not a surprise, but it is still worrying." The second expressed the view that some recommended changes to textbooks "are very worrisome...."

The adjective worrying is a Britishism. In America, worrisome is standard. But the more serious problem here is that both words appeared on the same page. Most publications provide written guidelines regarding "house style." Writers and editors are supposed to refer to them to ensure consistency. In this case, that didn't happen.

By Don Hauptman

For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing

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Sunday, May 02, 2010

FreshDigital2010 Perth


Big crowd of invited guests attended Marketforce's Digital media show today at the Perth Convention Centre.

There were some great examples of how social media works into the overall media mix for big companies and how best to capture the 15 to 19 year olds who only know the world of "instant on."

I found the show disappointing in that it was more show than substance... and used US examples rather than successful Aussie ones.. with the exception of Nic Hodge , Digital Creative Director of Clemenger BBDO who to a workman like job on the MBF Mr Invincible campaign.

I as very disappointed with the figures quoted for the take up of Social Media with figures for Facebook and Twitter being very out of date - both figures quoted were 25% less than currently available figures following Twitter's Chirp love in last week... gee how hard is it to change a powerpoint??

So, for all that expense, what do you think the audience learnt?? Not a lot when the big end of town is relying on this level of support from people like Marketforce.

What I was impressed by was Nic Hodges being receptive to feedback - answering my Twitter critique and agreeing to "suffer me" for breakfast tomorrow. I will give you an update on that [I did notice he had an iPad so I don't think I will be eating much...]

[Would have some photo's of FreshDigital for you but the iphone didn't handle the light well at the presentation - it needs a flash Steve! So, I have a photo of the ceramic cow in the lobby of the Perth Convention Centre]

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