I just received this comment to my previous blog posts about Canada allowing the slaughter of baby seals. Apparently, some people believe the propaganda about the seals not being babies, simply because they have shed their white coats. 95% of the seals slaughtered each year are under the age of 3 months – how is that not a baby, Barry? Perhaps you and other Canadians are trying to soothe your conscience by saying, “well, it doesn’t have the white coat anymore, so it’s not a baby.” These seals are still nursing, and few have eaten solid food yet. Last time I checked…that is a baby.

At any rate, why is it ok to slaughter these animals anyway, simply for their fur? It is a disgusting practice that contributes little to the Canadian economy. I have yet to hear a good argument about why this practice should continue. I, for one, will continue to boycott Canadian seafood.

As far as your argument goes in regards to using old footage – that simply is not the case. There are RECENT pictures of people killing these animals. Nice try.

Barry Says:

March 30th, 2007 at 3:33 am e The Seal hunt that takes place on the East Coast of Canada Do NoT Kill Baby Seals.The seals that are killed are older seals. The Killing of Baby seals took place years ago and was banded on the East Coast. The IFAW are still using old footage with White Baby Seals,Big Black Eyes and Red Blood and a Mother Seal. This is a good tool for the IFAW to use . In the East Coast Hunt we….. Shoot Older Seals Not Baby White Seals . The Law do not permit you to kill white coats. Your Blog would be ok years ago, But is now out of date. Next time please get your facts from a good sourse . Not the IFAW or other groups. They will post false facts to make a point.
.Try the Goverment of Canada and ask for the facts about the seal hunt.
When you do this please make the correction in your opening Blog and post it again……………
Barry
Every March, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the seal hunters gather to slaughter baby seals for their fur pelts…………. “

So Barry, YOU are the one that needs to do some research. This is a disgusting out-of-date practice that needs to be abolished. Killing baby animals to sell their fur is barbaric, and so are the ones slaughtering them.

My husband and I religiously watch the office every week. When there isn’t a new episode on, we’re bummed, but we always love to watch the reruns anyway. Looking back, I’m realizing there is sometimes some wisdom to Michael’s often dim-witted character.

In starting a small business, I’ve come to realize that mistakes will always be made. It’s just a matter of how those mistakes are dealt with. People, for the most part, are good, but there are those that tend to look out only for themselves, sometimes at the expense of others. Whether this is on purpose, or just as a result of not thinking actions through depends on the person. I like to think people are generally good, however, and don’t try to screw others.

I recently watched an episode of The Office – the one when Dwight quit, and went to work for Staples. Michael realized he had been a jerk and made a mistake, and so he apologized to Dwight for that mistake, and searched him out to give him his job back. He went so far as to call himself a big man for doing so. I had to laugh – I’m sure it was hard for Michael’s character to apologize, yet he realized he had screwed up, and needed to fix it.

It takes a lot to apologize, however, it’s always important, especially when a large mistake is made that can impact a business or person or whatever. I think owning up to our mistakes is important, but what’s even more important is changing ourselves so we don’t repeat them, and doing what we can to fix what we did. That’s how we improve ourselves – by learning from those mistakes. Just like Michael Scott.

Tonight my husband Preston and I decided to go to Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Salt Lake City for dinner. It was so easy to make reservations – they have a great online tool that will let you make reservations, and it will recommend an available time if the one you selected isn’t available.

We got to the restaurant early, and they seated us at our reserved time, 8:30. I was glad I made reservations because it was an hour and a half wait for those that didn’t have any.

We ordered our meals with no problem, but it seemed like our salads were taking a really long time. Our waiter came over to assure us that the salads were on the way. Just a minute later, our steaks came out, and we mentioned that we didn’t get our salads. They were very embarassed – they took the steaks back, and brought out the salads right away. When we were done, they brought out our steaks (new ones, not the ones they brought out originally, because they wouldn’t have been either cold or overdone at this point), which, of course, were perfectly done. Preston’s Filet Mignon seemed to be rather oversized, but he said it was good. The waiter came back to apologize profusely for the length of time it took to get our order, and he noticed that the steak was a rib-eye, rather than a filet. He immediately brought out a perfectly cooked filet mignon, and said Preston could have both, and he was welcome to take home what he couldn’t eat. He also said that dessert was on the house, and apologized again for the mix-ups. The manager also came over to apologize and make sure we were happy.

We were, of course, very happy. We understand that companies will make the occassional mistake, however, they should be given the chance to make things right. That is the sign of a great company – how they handle their mistakes. Every company will have problems they have to resolve, but if they do a good job, it will only reaffirm the loyalty of their customers. Despite the mistakes made tonight, all of the employees at Ruth’s Chris that we dealt with went above and beyond to make sure we were happy.

I was amazed at how well we were treated at Ruth’s Chris, and how they made sure we were happy with our meal, and with the service received. I guess I shouldn’t be amazed, after all, the reputation of RC is that of a very fine restaurant with excellent service. I just wish other restaurants would follow their lead. I will forever be loyal to this restaurant as a result of how we were treated. Great job, Ruth’s Chris!

As an afterthought, I don’t mean to make Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Salt Lake City sound disorganized. I’ve eaten at this particular restuarant before, and they did an excellent job. It was just a very busy night, and mistakes are bound to happen. I would recommend this to anyone living in or visiting the Salt Lake area.

This is a bunny cake that I made for my husband for his birthday. He wasn’t exactly a bunny lover when I met him but I made it clear that was a prerequisite before marriage.

By the way, the master of 360 images, Devin of Printer Hacks, put this together and took the pictures. Jordan created the flash template for it.

Well, I have to say, this announcement didn’t surprise me too much. With the influx of inexpensive online computer hardware stores, they just can’t charge their exhorbitent prices anymore and stay in business.

Case in point: When I was a sophomore in college, I needed to purchase a cable for my printer to hook up to my Vaio notebook. I went to CompUSA and told them what I needed. The sales guy told me I had to purchase a 24 karat gold plated Monster cable, because it was the only kind that would work with my laptop and printer. Price tag: $65. I had no idea that he was full of crap, so I went for it, and bought the cable. I wondered why it had to be 24 karat gold, and the salesman said it would transfer the information much faster, and other cables might mess up my computer, and would slow everything down.

Later on, I told my boyfriend at the time, Preston that I had purchased the cable, and he couldn’t believe how much they charged me. He told me I’d been duped, and that I should return it and buy another one. I did so, and asked to talk to the store manager. He implied that I was retarded for purchasing the cable, and didn’t care that his sales dude had lied to me. I asked to speak to the district manager, and spoke on the phone with him while I was still in the store. He implied the same thing – that I’m retarded. Ok, so maybe I’m a little bit slow when it comes to computer hardware, but I knew there should have been some consequences for that dishonest salesman. I probably should have pushed it further, but just figured I was happy with my refund, and I went and purchased another printer cable for $3.99 at the nearby LS Micro.

Needless to say, it seems like CompUSA didn’t do anything to fix their customer service situation (obviously it came from the top), and this is the result. This is the beauty of capitalism – when a store is overpriced with no customer service, people take their business elsewhere and the store either has to fix the problem, or lose money and go out of business.