Postcards From Myself

I went to bed last night thinking about all of our veterans who have served throughout the years. Some served in war time, some in peacetime. Some fought in popular battles, others fought quietly in battles we have never heard of or battles that were later regretted. Some have served on our home soil while others have served in foreign lands far away from friends and family. Some that served were my friends and family, while others that served will forever remain strangers to me. But the one thing they all have in common is that they served. They served our country, they served our citizens, and they served our ideals. For that, there is only one thing that can be said – thank you. Thank you to all those who serve, served, or will serve in the future.

Craigslist is a great site. I have bought and sold on it for a good while now, and it has replaced eBay as my daily site to browse for deals. I have sold two cars on CraigsList with an average time of listing to sale of under six hours! So, it amazes me how people can screw it up for themselves. Too many listers think that since the ads are free that they don’t have to put any thought into creating them. Not true.

So, let’s look at the most common ways people screw up their listings on CL so that things don’t sell.

1. No Picture – This one kills me. Almost every cell phone in the world these days can take a picture. Crappy little digital cameras can be had for under $50. (I didn’t say it had to be a good picture.) So why would you not have a picture of your item? People are simply going to move on to the next car, boat, or computer listed if you can’t show them what you have. And the ads for cameras without pictures? Freakin’ absurd.
2. No Price – If you want to sell something, you know what you want or will take for it. Come on, give us an idea if you are a reasonable person or one of those people who thinks your crud is gold. Best you can hope for if you don’t list a price? Lowballers or people who have the same thing wanting to know what theirs is worth.
3. All Caps – Same goes for emails, discussion groups, advertisements, and all other forms of communication. NO ONE WANTS TO BE SHOUTED AT! If an ad is hard to read, people won’t read it. And if they don’t read the ad, you can sell the item. That simple.
4. Lame Description – You have all seen them. The are the descriptions that have absolutely no info but just say “call”. Sure, right. Better yet, drop dead. Then there are the descriptions, especially common in computers and electronics, that just are a copy and paste job of the manufacturer’s product brochure. And these are often accompanied by a “representative photograph”. Sucks, but at least there is some picture. Come on people, tell me about the item you are selling – give me specifics and experience, not just quoted marketing speak.
5. Broadcast and/or Non-Location Posting – If I am looking for a car in Charleston, SC, I really don’t care that you have a car lot in Las Vegas, Nevada. And if I am in a big city like New York or LA, I need to know what part of town you are in. Are you a 15 minute drive or a two hour trek. Come on people, the glory of CraigsList is that it is localized. So post local and tell us where the item is. This is guaranteed to get you more qualified shoppers.

Again, CL is a great tool. You can buy and sell all kinds of the stuff you need, or at least want, without a lot of the hassles of eBay or the local newspaper. But you have to use it correctly and not abuse it to make those sales.

While I was writing this I kept thinking of other things in the ads that piss me off, but I don’t want to put them down just yet because maybe I am the only one. I know I am picky, so maybe certain things (like spelling) just tick me off. Let me hear your thoughts on Craigslist. Anything that really gets you going about the posts there? Or maybe even the service in general? Sound off!

In celebration of the victory of Hope and Change in this year’s presidential election, you can get a free Barack Obama sticker. It’s designed by Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the iconic HOPE poster. And MoveOn’s giving them away totally free–even the shipping’s free.

MoveOn.org really wants to make sure everyone who helped make this day possible gets a “Yes We Did!” sticker. So please pass this on to anyone you know who might want one — they are happy to send them one, free. You can order more stickers, but only the first one is free.

Also, tomorrow, Friday, at 12:30 p.m. ET, MoveOn.org is going to offer 5,000 limited edition, poster-sized prints of the “Yes We Did—Victory!” design. So today, you can get a free sticker to commemorate this historic moment—and tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to own a timeless piece of art. For more information on the limited edition prints, visit the MoveOn.org site.

Preacher Ludlow looked down at the train schedule in his hand, glanced up a the large clock on the railway station wall, and then neatly folded the type written schedule back together and tucked it in his wallet. Preacher shifted his gaze out the window and saw the people on the platform start shifting from foot to foot and pick up their bags and packages.

Pulling into the station precisely at half-past nine in the morning, the train was late again as usual. That the nine-fifteen train would arrive a quarter of an hour late was the norm here. The first train of the day arrived on time at fifteen minutes past eight, but after that each successive train would be about fifteen minutes later. This causes a slow but steady shift of the schedule where the ten fifteen train would arrive at ten forty-five and so on. By the end of the day, entire runs were shaved off the route. Nobody seemed to care much though because the trains still ran throughout the day, there was plenty of room on each one for everyone who cared to ride, and most everyone who took the train out of the little country station knew the actual schedule by heart.
Continue Reading »

OK folks, today is the big day. No matter what happens in the election today, history will be made. We will either have the first African American in office or we will have the first woman. Amazing progress this country has made. And what I am hoping is for one more bit of progress. Whichever way the vote goes, I am hoping that we can all come together and work to repair what is broken with our system.

Neither candidate and neither party can fix everything alone. The effort and ideas of all Americans of all races, wealth categories, and belief structures will be required to fix the problems we have.
We are staring down divisiveness, a battered economy, a struggling war, a screwed up health care system, an energy crisis and much more. Without the unselfish effort of everyone involved, nothing will get fixed and we will be in the same position four years from now. And I hope and pray that that is nothing any of us want to see.

I was watching an interview with a pastor from somewhere out west the other day, and he was seeking to remind everyone that while politics is important, it does not make or break us and it does not define us. No matter who wins the election, you are still your own person and can and should pursue the things that you deem are important in your life. Just as we tell our children that they should not allow peer pressure to force their decisions, we should not allow the way a vote goes to change us personally. It can inform you, enlighten you and help you, but it should not discourage you, dissuade you, or cause you to quit working for what you believe in.