Category: Life

Commercialization of Schools

Commercialization of schools is nothing new. It has been around over the past decade and non-overtly infiltrated many school programs like computers, cafeteria, athletics, and so on.

Now, there is a hotly debated topic going across the country – overt marketing and advertisement in schools. Due to cuts in school funds, many school districts are being lured by dollars in marketing and advertisements.

I noticed, recently in Houston, some of the CyFair ISD school buses have advertisements on the side. I see this as an analogy to the camel’s nose metaphor and commercialization of schools may look like this in few years…

Black Friday

My wife and I went out to eat on the night before the Black Friday.  We were amazed (not really) to see the number of folks that were already camping out for the early morning opening.

Shoppers accuse Walmart of false advertising

Buyers Battle For Black Friday Bargains

Long lines at mall and specialty stores in Michiana on Black Friday

Shop till you drop on Black Friday

Long Lines, Cold Weather Await Black Friday Shoppers

Black Friday shopping draws crowds to major retailers across Washtenaw County

Bureaucracy Gone Wild

Recently, LA Fitness (the gym that I work out at) instituted a reservation policy for spin classes by a popular instructor – replacing a simple “first come, first serve” policy. To implement this new policy (requiring additional LA Fitness resources and time commitments), a number of additional policies were created – like signing-in, attendance taking, enforcement, etc. By the time they are done with this, they will have umpteenth number of intertwined policies – one policy to enforce another and so on. This has resulted in a very unpleasant outcome – unhappy customers.

Why couldn’t they have left the original (and simple) policy of “first come, first serve” alone? Here is a good example of bureaucracy gone wild!