Dean Christakos« January 2008 | Main | July 2008 »
February 27, 2008
On Negotiation
This conversation occurred a couple of years ago over brunch with a friend of mine:
Me: So I wanted to get these posters framed at the framing store in Cambridgeport, but they wanted something like $200 for each one! So I decided against getting them framed. Then the saleswoman told me that there was a "poster special" where using a certain frame would cost only $50 for each poster, so I went for that.Since then, I have noticed that I overpaid for a camera battery I bought from Best Buy, but I needed it on short notice.Friend: You're always such a good haggler with these things.
Me: No I'm not. I'm actually way too shy for all of that kind of haggling over prices.
Friend: Oh yeah? Name the last thing you feel like you over paid for.
Me: ..... Um... Huh. I guess you have a point.
I was reminded of this conversation when I found what must be one of the most valuable posts I've ever seen on a blog: Readers share their negotiating stories. These are great tips and anecdotes.
My favorite negotiating tactic, however, is this: know exactly how much something is worth, and refuse to ever pay more than that amount of money.
Posted by Dean at 9:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 19, 2008
This seemed familiar...
One of my favorite features from Marvel Comics is their What If? series. This past month, Marvel released a What If? issue based on one of my favorite comics, the late-80s "Spiderman vs. Wolverine". This was a truly great comic. The What If? issue takes that original comic as a starting point and posits Spiderman becoming a secret agent.
That's not the point of this post, however. Reading the issue, there was this one scene where Spiderman encounters a difficult enemy in the middle of a battle:
Wait a sec... where have I seen something like this before?
Oh, yeah....
Kind of a fine line between "homage" and "plagiarism."
Posted by Dean at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 6, 2008
My Super Tuesday Observations
There was no big blowout on either side. Obama didn't make the knockout blow that he could have had he won California. This spared my neighbors the prospect of listening to me play the Obama Reggaeton song over and over again at high volume on my stereo.
Here are the big stories:
- First, for all the enthusiasm about Obama and good press he gets, Clinton is still the "default candidate." She's the candidate that low-information voters and non-activists are immediately drawn to, meaning that Obama is still an insurgent challenger. While one person derisively wrote, "Hillary Clinton really is like the McDonald's of the Democratic candidates. No good god-damn reason to go there except you've been there before and you know the brand," McDonald's is the place advertising "billions and billions served," and people are going there in much larger numbers than they patronize Le Pain Quotidien (which I recommend, by the way).
- The flip side is that whenever Obama sets his sights on a state and organizes the hell out of it, he wins, or at least fights to a tie.
- Whatever happens, Democrats are turning out in much, much larger numbers than Republicans.
On the other hand, Obama has moved his South Carolina and Missouri staffs to Ohio and Texas, putting a lot of boots on the ground in order to do what his campaign does best: organize voters and boost turnout to drive him to victory. Plus, Obama has raised almost $6 million just on Wednesday. Clinton, meanwhile, had to loan her campaign money for the next month while her staffers are voluntarily going without pay. Next week, Obama is favored to win at least 2 of the 3 primaries in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.
Personally, I'm a bit skeptical of Obama's chances. Clinton's built-in base is huge, and the candidate who gets her base almost always wins the nomination, and she proved her formidability on Tuesday, turning back strong challenges by Obama in Massachusetts and California and crushing them. If she does the same in Ohio and Texas, she wins, and the thing is that she probably will win if she just treads water. It would take an implosion of her campaign of catastrophic proportions for her to lose Ohio and Texas.
Most importantly, one reason that Obama is likely to lose -- or even why he should lose -- is as a means of giving those who express such youthful idealistic enthusiasm about his candidacy a necessary growing experience. You see, as a veteran of the Howard Dean campaign, I know what it's like to watch an insurgent campaign full of youthful enthusiasm get stamped under the boot-heel of establishment support and skepticism of the aged. It was one of those formative experiences that have helped me evolve into the cynical cranky old man that I am today and allows me to really appreciate a certain amount of Machiavellian viciousness in my candidates. Sure, I like Obama, but I'd hate to see all of his young volunteers miss out on what it's like to have their dreams squashed like a bug.
Posted by Dean at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 5, 2008
Let's see that play again
I'll have plenty of insightful comments about Super Tuesday after the polls close in California. Seriously, though, I thought the era of hotly contested primaries that lasted into March were over, but apparently not.
Anyway, I just wanted to highlight my favorite play from the Super Bowl Sunday night which, no doubt, annoyed my neighbors to no end as they had to listen to me screaming at the TV:
See also: A Wittgensteinian discourse on the substitution rule.
Posted by Dean at 11:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 3, 2008
Legal Fun Fact
It would probably run afoul of the broadcast terms and be illegal for me to blog about what was happening during the Super Bowl as it happened.
However, I will say that I enjoy seeing Boston sports fans suffer.
10:03pm update: ouch, that was tense. I thought I would have to eat my words for a second, there.
Posted by Dean at 9:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack