Monday, January 30, 2012

You Get What You Pay For

The expression "you get what you pay for" has been around for a long time.  It generally means the cheaper something is, the less value for your money it has.  The more expensive something is, the more value it has.  This is not always true.  There are expensive items that are not worth the extra cost.  Sometimes you are paying more for the item's reputation and ad campaign versus how good a product really is.

I was reminded of this expression a couple of weeks ago in a very small way concerning my laundry detergent. For a long time I have used a detergent, which I will call brand A, that cost more than most other detergents.  In an effort to save a little money, I decided to switch to a cheaper brand, brand B.  I did not notice any difference in my clothes with brand B.  They all felt the same on me with one exception, my blue jeans.

My jeans felt real nice when I wore them the first day after washing them with brand A.  When I wore them a second day, my jeans did not feel as nice.  On the first day with brand B, my jeans felt like they did on the second day after washing with brand A.  I did not think much of it at first, but after a while, I began to realize why my jeans did not feel as good after washing them.  Sometimes I am a slow learner, but it finally sunk in that the cheaper brand was not as good as the more expensive brand.  My jeans were not as clean with brand B as they were with brand A.  I indeed was saving a little money, and over time, those little savings can add up to a big savings, but my clothes were not as clean.

Now I am have returned to brand A.  I may feel the extra cleanliness only in my jeans, but it makes me feel better when I know my clothes and anything else that I wash in the washer are cleaner.  I am keeping the container of the cheaper detergent I already have in case I need to wash something and I don't have any brand A available.

Now I understand better the expression "you get what you pay for".  Hopefully I will keep that expression in mind more when I am shopping.  That does not mean I will always buy the most expensive item.  It does mean that if something about an item is important to have, I will be more willing to pay the extra expense.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Reading is Fun

I have always enjoyed reading, whether I am reading strictly for pleasure or for studying something.  When I was a kid, I would borrow books from the library, read them all in two weeks, and then return the books back to the library and borrow more books.  I would do that more during the summer when I had more time to do so.  I don't quite read that much now, but I certainly do read something everyday.  I start each day by drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.  That time is my favorite part of the day.

I am currently reading the book 11/22/63 by Stephen King.   Mr. King is known for his horror books, but this book is a science fiction book.  The main character is able to travel back in time, and his mission is to stop the assassination of President Kennedy.  One day last week I was reading one passage where I found that I could not read the passage fast enough.  I could not turn to the next page fast enough.  However, I did pause enough in my reading to realize that I was having fun, a lot of fun.  I was really enjoying myself.  It was like I was on a roller coaster, and I wanted the vehicle to go faster and faster on the tracks.  The faster I went, the more I liked it.  It was quite a feeling.  It reminded me how I much I like to read.  You almost can say reading is a passion of mine.  I just don't read at home.  I like to go to Starbucks or Barnes & Noble, get a Vanilla Latte, and read a book or magazine.  If I go with someone to a shopping mall, while that person is looking around in a store or actually shopping, I will find a place to sit and read with another Vanilla Latte.  Now that I have a Nook Simple Touch, I am reading even more.  At least for me, reading is fun.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Changing My Blogs

In December 2010, I started my first blog.  I blogged for over 6 months fairly consistently, and then I stopped writing in July, the reason for stopping mainly being nothing came to my mind to write about (writers block?).  Then about two months ago I started writing again, but I wrote in a different blog that had the same name as the first blog but was under my Gmail email account instead of my AOL email account.  I wrote more about tech issues in the second blog, and I got at least one comment back indicating that person was not interested in tech issues.  That got me to thinking that maybe I should separate my writings into two separate blogs, one dealing with mainly tech issues and the other dealing with non-tech issues.

I have combined my two blogs under my Gmail account.  I am keeping the name of my first blog, Blog from a Florida Gator in Virginia, and that blog will contain postings of non-tech issues.  I have renamed my second blog Blog from a Florida Gator in Virginia with Geek Tendencies (not a big name change).  That blog will mainly deal with tech issues.  A lot of my tech issues come from Lockergnome.com, a Geek web site, but I will certainly be talking about tech issues from other sources, including myself.  It will be interesting to see how that works out, at least interesting to me.

Amazing, I never thought I would be a blogger, and now I have two blogs.  What is this world coming to.