Mindconnection eNL, 2009-10-18

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"Why," I asked myself, "do I want to listen to someone like this on any kind of regular basis?" The answer was, "I don't." So, I opted out.

Today, I listen to audiobooks. At the time I made my "opt out" decision, the audiocassette was the state of the art. Today, I have a tiny audiobook player. The audiobooks are free, from the public library.

Instead of hearing for the 100th time some idiot's crooning over love denied or whatever vacuous thing they compose to sell records, I listen to informative books. History is probably my favorite topic, but other genres I enjoy and profit from are finance, business, and science.

If you haven't made the switch from music to the more mind-enhancing audiobooks, give it a try. You can listen to these books at various times throughout the day. I listen to them during workouts, housework, yardwork, and car driving. Sometimes, I just chill in a chair and listen with my eyes closed. Very relaxing.

While I knock down 50 to 70 paper books a year, adding audiobooks to the mix helps me add another 100 or so books a year without increasing the time I set aside for reading.

Here's the typical scenario.

Suzy buys John a "Christmas gift" and John buys Suzy a "Christmas gift." This exchanging of "gifts" indicates a problem. They aren't buying gifts; there is a difference between giving something to another person and conducting an obligatory exchange of merchandise with that person. So the whole concept of "exchanging Christmas gifts" is, by definition, flawed from the outset.

But it's also extremely expensive. Let's do the math.

Each bought a "surprise" "gift," not knowing what the other wanted. The typical "Christmas gift" either goes in a closet or gets returned to the merchant.

Typically, the purchase is by credit card. The merchant pays fixed and variable fees to the credit card company for each credit card transaction. The cost to the merchant is between 2.5% and 4%, depending on the card. For simplicity, let's assume a conservative 3%.

In January, Suzy spends 90 minutes of her 60 hour workweek standing in line to return the item John "gave" her in exchange for the item John didn't want. For simplicity, we can assume that neither John nor Suzy value their limited time on earth and thus assign a value of $0 to their time. You may assign a different value to your time, as I do myself. But let's just set that aside for now.

The merchant pays an employee to process a refund to Suzy. Let's assume this retail employee is so well off that she simply donates time in January to do the refunds. Again, this isn't reality but it simplifies the calculations.

The merchant, who paid 3% for John to buy this item, now pays 3% to take it back. Only a month has passed. That 6% per month works out to 72% per year (6 x 12). When a business pays 72% on a loan, where do you think that money comes from? It has to come from somewhere. Consider:

1. The typical retail business is on thin margins, so if it makes 5% after tax profit on a sale it will have to sell 15 more of the item Suzy is returning just to break even.

2. Remember that time-donating employee? On our planet, this doesn't happen. What does happen is that employee works for a lower wage or fewer benefits or in some other way helps make up the difference.

3. The store has to raise its prices to consumers for other products to help cover this 72% loss, or it goes out of business.

So when you buy "surprise Christmas gifts," you are creating a cost that you and others will pay off all year long. What's the solution? There are several, including:

1. Opt out. This is my personal favorite, but it may not be for you.

2. Just send each other checks in the mail. Each of you can simply shred the received check, rather than taking unwanted merchandise back to the store so that you and others pay nearly the full cost of the item all year long and have nothing to show for it anyhow. Something about this just doesn't inspire me.

3. Instead of trying to prove how clever you are and then failing at it, tell the other person, "I want to buy you something to celebrate Saturnalia/Christmas/Holiday X." Then ask that person to pick out the item personally. This kills the romance of the tradition, but then it's not very romantic to stand in line for 90 minutes with a bunch of people who are still producing turkey farts. Probably the best option if you don't want to opt out entirely.

4. Think through several options, and come up with one that doesn't force the recipient to lie about how wonderful your unwanted "gift" is and that doesn't result in the high costs previously mentioned. Requires creativity, and is a great option if you are creative.

On that last item, here's a real-life example.

Many years ago, I had a stepdaughter who wanted a new bicycle. Badly.

I talked it over with her mother, who said the girl could have one for Christmas. But that was 7 months away, and she'd have to ride the old crappy bike during the summer. So I told her to watch for a sale on bikes, and when there was one we'd go to the store and she could pick out whatever bike she wanted.

She decided on a 12-speed that wasn't on sale. I told her that's fine, as we wouldn't be saving any money if we bought a bike she didn't want. Then I asked her to choose between getting the bike now as her Christmas present or getting it at Christmas. She said, "I can't ride a bike in the winter, so I should either get it now or in the spring. Why don't you decide?"

Smart kid. I chose "now," and she had a new bike for summer.

Unfortunately, her mother was fixated on the Christmas thing and at first argued to take it back to the store and then buy it again at Christmas. That didn't happen, but my (then) wife had no flexibility on this whole Christmas thing.

My philosophy is that the point of getting a gift is to make the other person happy. If that also fits with a predetermined schedule, fine. But I can't understand sticking to a schedule in a way that just makes someone else miserable so that you can check off the box that you "gave" someone something for Christmas.

Some people will argue that "everyone gives gifts at Christmas," but the reality is that most of the world does not honor this particular holiday and many who do honor it do not also do obligatory purchases as a part of the celebration.

When engaging in this costs 72% interest, it's time to interject some common sense and come up with a better, less costly way of doing things.

This talk about politicians isn't fair to nuts and seeds. Unlike politicians, the food variety of nuts and seeds are actually beneficial.

When eaten in moderate quantities (a few nuts, not handfuls), nuts and seeds provide healthy fats and minerals that are hard to get from anything else. They also provide protein and fiber. Plus, they usually taste good!

People who are into the "fat free" thing (much to their detriment, both in terms of health and food enjoyment) would actually be leaner if they changed their dietary regime to include nuts and seeds.

The key, of course, is to avoid overdoing it.

Here's an article that explains more about the topic:

http://www.supplecity.com/articles/nutsandseeds.htm

As regular readers know, I'm 48 years old in the picture (above, right), taken in December 02 2008. I don't diet down for summer. I don't have good genes for maintaining a lean body, I really have to be conscientious and disciplined about it. That doesn't mean I suffer, eat bland foods, or starve myself.

At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

Nor does it mean being hungry all the time (you are less hungry on six small meals a day than three large ones), being weak from hunger (on a proper dietary regimen, you will have much more energy than otherwise), or "giving up pleasures" (I have no idea where this concept comes from, unless a person considers being sick a "pleasure.").

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. A politician can do that, too, though.

The C4-series talking pocket dictionary has large wordcounts and 7,000 phrases per language. For most language pairs: slang, idioms, and general expressions.

The Spanish is the most popular, but it comes in many other languages as well.

For a limited time, we have a promotion going. You get the $27 AC Travel Kit for FREE with the purchase of any C4.

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