A Pet Peeve: Re: Email Subject Lines
This is over and beyond the "cc the world" irritant I often encounter in CYA business emails. For example, in my last position, a DBA providing feeds to my production database was using old Oracle client software which did not support the more secure algorithm I was implementing for client connections. (I had gone through the channels over the change, but the message had not gone through. So there were high-visibility data transfer failures, and I became his scapegoat.) I did not have any documentation of his tech stack and would have assumed his client software version would have been an issue during a recent database audit. He insisted that upgrading the client software to a different version would have unintended consequences on his tech stack. I then provided Oracle documentation on how to install an upgraded client into its own Oracle home. Basically he started appending civilian managers to his uncooperative responses, raising nonsensical FUD, trying to convince them the STIGs (government audit compliance objectives) had a huge loophole for software which would "soon" be upgraded and if I wanted to implement an algorithm, I could downgrade to SHA1 which his client software accommodated (but had been deprecated at least 5 years ago and explicitly rejected by the STIGs). I responded (paraphrased), "Dude, it takes maybe 15 minutes to set up the new client software, less than it takes you to write an email." Basically, this got me in political hot water, because the government managers thought that I, a mere expendable contractor, was trying to tell a civilian (civil servant) what to do. My contractor supervisor and program manager got complaints from government managers. My dotted-line functional manager said, "Jeez, Ronald. This guy is a civilian; I have to work with him on other things. Contractors come and go. I didn't get the word out to him on this; it was my bad." [There was a prior issue with the rogue DBA I won't discuss here. Let's just say he was difficult to work with, that he didn't understand conceptually what he was reading.]]
All of the managers were in a difficult position, because they had to support my audit compliance objectives. It was more a question of knowing my place; for example, Information Assurance did have the authority to mandate compliance, and so I reported the incident to them. I left my position before he complied.
But in this segment I'm really targeting other abuses of RE: headers, which is fairly new to me, a tactic I've only noticed over the last few months in personal emails. I'm getting RE: headers from businesses and recruiters; to me, it's suggestive they are responding to one of my own emails, but in fact I never read an earlier email. I think the gimmick is annoying and counterproductive in the sense I have no intention to reinforce the tactic.
Sometimes you have to put up with people's idiosyncrasies; for example, my Mom, rather than compose a new email, will reply to an old email. I will often defer opening those emails. (My Mom often forwards emails from a different political perspective. For example, one time she sent me a Paul Krugman column. It may have been via Dad's friend Oscar, who is old yellow-dog Democrat who often publishes his anti-GOP rants in San Antonio's newspaper op-ed section, e.g., against George W. Bush. I'm sure in the past I had mentioned I didn't like Krugman, so I asked her why she sent it. She replied, "Because I thought it was interesting.")
Amazon and Walmart
I am actually a regular customer of both retailers, so it's been interesting reading about how Walmart is ramping up its online presence to challenge Amazon, which I think recently passed it in sales. I often use the retailers in different ways. There are certain items that Amazon doesn't really handle well in my experience, like bread and frozen meats.
For instance, I like Ezekiel bread from Food For Life, .I could drive twenty-off miles to a Baltimore area Trader Joe's and buy loaves at a competitive $4.50 or so. But until the last few months, the Walmarts, where I've been probably bought most groceries over the past 6 years, never carried it. I occasionally found it carried in other Maryland supermarket chains in frozen food sections, say, near gluten-free loaves. You could go find it on Amazon, but the shipping basically cost as much, if not more than the bread itself. I haven't bought it yet from Walmart because of a prior Trader Joe's run, when I bought leaves to freeze
I've have some eclectic tastes especially for grass-fed meats and heritage chickens. When I joined Butcher Box, a meat subscription service, they had included one of the latter as a premium. It turned out to be the best chicken I ever roasted, but for some reason, they weren't selling the birds they had offered as a premium. Butcher Box is an interesting concept, typically a variety of cuts, 7-10 lbs at about $120/month. But I suspended my subscription while moving from Arizona. When I moved to Maryland, I found the local Walmart carried a selection of grass-fed items, including roasts for under $7/lb a pound; I can often find the local ShopRite selling Australian grass-fed burger at $3.99 pound. It was like a grass-fed desert when I had lived in Arizona. There are a few other Internet retailers which apparently aren't integrated with Amazon, at least the last time I checked. As for the chicken, I found hey did have Internet sales, but it was like you have to buy six 3-lb birds at about $150 to make it worthwhile, and I didn't have that much room in my freezer. Butcher Box did sell its own premium chicken, not bad, but a letdown because nowhere near the taste of heritage chicken.
I've occasionally ordered via Walmart.com. One of the first items I found was Antartica Guarana, the leading soda from Brazil. I first tasted it during 1995 work assignments in Brazil. Something has changed since my last order because I now see it is only available in store (where I never saw it stocked--I think I saw it once or twice in Sam's Club years back) and it says it's not currently stocked within 50 miles. Amazon Assistant pops up to say I can buy a 12-pack of diet on Amazon for about $1/can. A bit pricey, but advantage Amazon. I'm often mystified. It was at a Walmart I first encountered New England blueberry cobbler flavored coffee--but I couldn't find it after I moved (SC or AZ).. But sure enough, I could order it from Amazon. That's now a typical tactic: if I can't find it in Walmart, I'll check Amazon. In another case, I liked these sunflower seeds from a past Walmart not stocked locally, but I could order from Walmart.com.
But to be honest, the walmart.com portal is nowhere close to Amazon's look and feel, include ease of checking purchase alternatives. Amazon makes it easy to reorder. There are other ways Amazon makes it easy to shop, get past purchaser feedback, etc.
Just a few examples of using Amazon as a go-to (your mileage may differ). I bought a cheap egg slicer at Walmart (maybe $4); I had recently rekindled my childhood love for boiled egg sandwiches (although I stopped eating white bread maybe 20 years ago; it's more likely 100% whole wheat,) The old adage--you get what you pay for, The strings of the slicer quickly popped. I went back to Walmart and couldn't find a replacement in stock. I went to Amazon a more expensive but sturdier model with no issues over more than a dozen eggs to date.
Another example: I recently had need for occasional use of an eyepatch. I couldn't find one at Walmart or Walgreen (I had to go there to pick up a FedEx package). But Amazon could help me.
There are often times when I've used Amazon as a virtual Radio Shack. A Garmin USB cable needed to be replaced. I also wanted an adapter so I could use car charger devices in my apartment.
Walmart.com's gimmick is you don't need Amazon Prime to get 2-day free delivery (but if you shop Sam's Club online, you need a premium membership for most free delivery options). But I recall I was looking at some device for recent surgery recovery, but the free delivery date would be days after surgery. I could get sooner delivery--at a steep delivery charge. I think Amazon sold the same device for maybe $5 more--but I could get free Prime delivery before surgery.
Of course, Walmart's comparison to Amazon Prime is apples and oranges. Amazon's Prime also includes subscriptions to reading, video and music services, not to mention a choice for a free Kindle book download among editor choices. Among other things, I streamed the "Atlas Shrugged" trilogy recently. No, Prime isn't cheap, but I find value with membership.
I'm all for increased competition from Walmart, but it's not stacking up well in my own experience--just taking one simple example of my not being able to reorder Guarana. Not to mention Walmart doesn't have the selection I would expect for a leading supermarket. For example, if you've ever been to a Trader Joe's, it provides a vast array of nuts and other snacks. I can't even find the quinoa chips sold at Sam's Club st my local Walmart's. I can't find various alternative pastas (like chickpea) at Walmart's but at least two major brands at ShopRite. They do carry a brand of low-carb chicken enchiladas I like, but increased the price to $5; I'll pass. On the other hand, you won't find Oprah's heavily promoted cauliflower crust pizza. And while they sold Blue Bell ice cream in AZ, you won't find it in stock in MD.. I'm sure you can come up with your own list.
There are other niches I don't think I have seen done well on the Internet. Take greeting cards. For contrast, I have wide feet (like EEE or more). Zappos makes it easy to find a relevant. I similarly find it easier elsewhere to find pants that accommodate my waist and inseam. But when I shop for greeting cards, I often find the selection picked over; finding a religious card for Mom or cards for my goddaughters can be hit or miss. Not to mention I can write better verses than most I routinely encounter.
Volatility Among My Twitter Followers
Whereas Google counts only 1 follower to this blog, I don't really know much about my readers; my Mom and a couple of nephews have reported seeing some posts; a past work colleague reported seeing it, which I took as a veiled threat. A recent week showed my reader pageviews dropping into the single-digit range, this after a several week period of higher counts I hadn't seen over the past year. I don't know if Google put me on the naughty list or whatever. My stats have marginally improved, but nowhere near several posts with 2-4 dozen readers. As I've written several times, I don't write for the stats, but any writer likes to see his effort acknowledged.
The Twitter stats are easier to assess, and sometimes the ones drawing impressions are accidental. To give an example today (Memorial Day), I got exasperated by a couple of Dems quoting Barry Obama. (I think it's more of a way of a contrast against Trump). I don't care for Obama or Trump. So I snapped back how international freedom indexes deteriorating under Obama, pointed out the disastrous Libyan intervention, etc. At last count, that reply had 115 impressions--more than several other original tweets.
Now the last time I checked my Twitter followers, I didn't personally know any of them. I think a number of them simply followed me over the quality of the tweets themselves. A plurality are probably pro-liberty. I think for a while I had a subgroup of Trumpkins, probably because there are some things Trump has done I agree with and I often slap back against Dems/leftists. The Gray Lady would promote one of their stupid op-eds, and I would blast them. I'll often play along with popular hashtag games. Others seem to identify with my pro-immigrant tweets, pro-life tweets, etc. But a lot of this is speculation.
For a long time I had a range of 30-40 Twitter followers. Then a couple of years back, for some reason, my followers suddenly doubled or more to the 76 or so level. And then it seemed to be every day a follower or two dropped every day until it bottomed out at about 58. I experienced a small bounceback to 62.and has been stable for some time now. I've now gotten back to a pattern of 1000+ impressions per day, but no new followers.
So for the first time in a while, I saw my followers drop down to 61. It came after I wrote a tweet critical of anti-Iran policy, but the timing could be coincidental. I've also written some unpopular pro-life tweets, I've responded critically to Trump tweets, among other topics.
Personally, I think my feed is diverse and very interesting. I am curious why I lose followers; I know there are people I admire who I stopped following for varying reasons, including a flood of my Twitter feed (and heaven knows, I myself often tweet over a dozen times daily).
Ironically, some of my most viewed recent posts are the new "social media edition" format. However, each embedded tweet has a link to follow me, and I don't think I've gotten any new followers that way..
