Just a note about the Borders thing

What seems like a million years ago, but was probably closer to 12 years ago, I worked for Borders. In the beginning all was good. But then, there seemed to be changes on the corporate level that trickled down and affected us at the stores. And our lovely GM quit. And there was a general shake up on the managerial level. And this was the beginning.

We had a very lucrative program going on the weekends where at least one night - Friday or Saturday, we had local talent of some sort come in and perform. Sometimes it was music, othertimes spoken word. People would come in and listen and shop. Then go to the theater down the way. Or come in after the theater. Either way, our sales were up on the weekend. BUT, corporate felt this wasn't good. And wanted us to discontinue the program. And thus came the first firing of the community liason. Followed soon after by a drop in sales. And soon after that by the gm quitting because he didn't want to be a part of what was to come.

Then there was the chinese fire drill among the remaining managers and eventual hiring of a new gm. Followed soon after by another manager leaving. And you start to get the picture. Something was brewing. And this was 12 yrs ago.

Suddenly Borders stores started popping up all over the place. And not doing well. The locations at least near us, were poorly chosen. The rent I'm sure was decent, but the locations weren't busy enough to sustain. And yet, Borders left the stores open and I have no doubt lost money on many of them. I don't know how many Saturday nights I walked into one of these stores (after I left the company myself) and there would only be one or 2 customers in the cafe and maybe the same browsing elsewhere in the stores. Saturday night at the Barnes and Noble a few miles down the road was packed.

Those of us who worked at the chain could see that the changes were not all good and that the company was spreading itself too thin by building too fast. So, I think to some degree the problems they're having aren't totally unexpected, but are very disappointing.

I still enjoyed shopping Borders and visiting the few people I know that continued to work for the company. Now all 3 of the Borders closest to me are on the list of 200 that was published as to be closed. They assure us that the list is not written in stone and some may change status as rents are renegotiated, but I don't hold out much hope. Here is the link to the pdf that they published with the list of the 200 closing stores: http://a2docs.org/assets/files/2011/02/16/48960742-Borders-Closures.pdf And here is a link to the Galleycat article that contained the information http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/borders-releases-list-of-200-stores-to-be-closed_b23533

So, is this the end of Borders?

Now for something completely different...

So, I decided to go to Swap.com to try and save money. You are supposed to be able to trade books, movies, cd's, and video games you currently own for ones you want.


I discovered that "there is no demand for that" is a popular response to things that I own when I typed them in and expected to make a match to swap for something. 


 Maybe if the cd's were newer than say music from when I could last hear (last century probably)? 


Or books that were either newer (I've been making good use of the library and thrift stores) or less obscure (ex. Dancing with the Witchdoctor by Kelly James)? It really makes me assess my reading material. But, I know it won't change what I read. If I am going to take the time to read a book, by God I am going to read something I want to read and enjoy and not just something I feel I should read. Although occasionally the two do intersect.


At any rate, I can't say for sure that Swap.com is a great site since it wanted me to trade my Dixie Chicks "Home" CD, the only thing I owned that had a match, for some Nursing textbooks. But I imagine occasionally people's desires do match up and a wonderful exchange is made satisfying both parties. Or else there are a lot of people posting things with wishful thinking. One of those.

21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act

President Obama signed into law the legislation that will help make some things that hearing people take for granted, like the ability to watch and understand streaming media such as that which can be downloaded from Netflix, open to the deaf and hard of hearing too through the captioning of media like this. Caption2Action along with concerned citizens helped to make this happen. Read more about the particulars in. Lisa Goldstein's blog ADA for the Internet at i711.com.

More on this can also be read at the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology website http://www.coataccess.org/
- Section-by-Section Summary: What S. 3304 (as amended) Will Do For Us
- President Barack Obama Signs 21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act of 2010 on Friday October 8, 2010


And at the Caption2Action Blog http://captionaction2.blogspot.com/2010/10/dateline-2012.html

Netflix Streaming CC choices Dismal

Lisa Goldstein over at i711.com recently blogged about Netflix and their streaming media and closed captioning. 


Once again the Hard of Hearing and deaf/Deaf are suffering. I think she makes an excellent point comparing what Netflix offers captioned streaming to what was available early on in videos captioned. You had to be so careful to check every box for the cc or the symbol. So little was available. And again...


Of all the movies and tv episodes that Netflix carries streaming, only 100 are captioned/subtitled at this time. That's really ridiculous! 


Lisa's blog is worth a read for an overview of the issue and how some of the others in the community view it as well. 


I liked the comment (among others) where the man tried to get his monthly fee reduced because he couldn't take full advantage of everything that they offer. I wish it had worked. 

A loan shark. Well not really.

So, my husband and I were talking about miscommunication through misheard comments. 

Seems one time he was at work talking with a guy who was getting ready to get married. The guy starts talking about his future father-in-law and his line of work. 

Husband hears, "He's a loan shark." And responds, "Wow, don't borrow money from him." 

Crickets start chirping. People look at him strangely. He says, "Not a loan shark?" 
His friend says, "No. A longshoreman."

Would it be as funny if it wasn't true? It's true though.

Campbell's Soup Kama Sutra

One of my most embarrassing hearing mistakes so far happened when I was working as a book clerk at Media Play years ago.

A woman and her teenage daughter came in when it was almost closing time. So, the book department was pretty much empty except for my ride home. The woman approached me at the desk and at the time we had a pocket size guide to sexual health that some company was pushing for the holidays on the counter. She glanced at the book and then asked me for what I thought was the Kama Sutra. I was thinking, "Wow. She must have some open relationship with her daughter if she can look at a book like that with her in tow."

I didn't repeat the title like I usually did. I just walked her over to the section and pointed out where the Kama Sutra books were. She looked at me blushing and puzzled. It dawned on me. I said, "That wasn't what you asked for, was it?"

"No. The Campbell's Soup book. The cookbook."

I was thoroughly embarrassed. At least she wasn't totally offended and I knew where the book was that she wanted. So, she walked out a satisfied if slightly embarrassed customer. And I lucked out that she wasn't offended enough to complain to management about my showing her and her daughter books on sexual health when all she wanted was as cookbook.

After that I learned to repeat back whatever title people gave me before I showed them the book or search results. Didn't totally stop mistakes, but it lessened the really embarrassing ones.

3 Hearing Impaired Women...

3 Hearing impaired women were sitting on a bench.

The first one said, "It's windy today."

The second one said, "Today's Thursday."

The third one said, "I'm thirsty too. Let's go get a drink."

This joke has been around for a while. And while it's funny, it is also a great illustration of the realities and frustrations of communication among and with the hearing impaired.