Hey Jamba Juice- Listen Up!

I walked into Jamba Juice today because I had walked a long way without eating, and wanted to have a large drink. When I walked in, I saw that for the Holidays, they were doing a special- Free Jamba Juice for a $25 gift card. Sounds good, right? I'm a customer, I really like going there, and I would probably use the gift card myself, and as a result, buy more Jamba juice.

Which is WHY you offer gift cards- so people will give you money NOW, for something they will probably use more often because they have it.

 The woman in front of me ordered a POWER, their largest size, and a gift card. However, the special was only for the 16oz. size, like it said on the poster. She begrudgingly paid the extra $1.16 for the power size, took her gift card with the "buyers remorse face" you've seen before, and walked over to wait for her "free" drink... which as far as she's concerned cost her $26.16

But Bones is different.

Bones said "Hi, I WAS going to get a gift card, but I wanted a POWER size drink, and since I can't get that for free by spending the extra $25, I'm not going to buy the gift card. Please tell corporate that limiting the special to the 16 oz. size is stupid marketing."

 The girl at the counter looked at me with frustration.
"I guess aside from her, I am not the only person to say that to you today. You should definitely tell corporate they should fire the idiot who made that policy."
She said "Are you serious? You're not going to get the Gift card because of the DOLLAR?"
"That's right. I'd rather buy what I want, and maybe spend the other $25 somewhere else."

That's when she said "If I give you a POWER size, will you get the gift card?"
"Happily" I said.
And she did.

Now it seems like this story is about me "winning" something, but it's not-

The story is about a minimum-wage register clerk who took it upon herself to make the customer happy and took responsibility for HER customer's experience at the store she worked at. She didn't earn any extra money for doing that, and frankly, she'd probably get in trouble for it-

BUT I BOUGHT $25 MORE THAN I WAS GOING TO because of her initiative.

Tell the suit at corporate that I have his replacement.

My friend Jules Price made a fun video for Holiday cards, and I thought I'd show you her brilliant work:

Didn't she do such a great job?

CLICK HERE TO SEND A FREE CARD!

What Kindle should be doing...

As an author, I recently uploaded a bunch of my books to KINDLE, and told people they were available.

A bunch of people bought them, but many told me they didn't have a kindle, so they couldn't get them.
So, the first thing Amazon should be doing is telling people that they do not need a kindle to read the books more effectively than they are.

In fact, I am a "kindle Author", and I don't have a kindle either why would I when I can get the kindle apps on my PC and my smartphone?

But here's what Amazon should be doing with Kindle books-

LET PEOPLE SELL THEIRS.

That's right- let people sell them to other people for 1/2 of what they paid for them. All of a sudden, there is a market for USED Kindle books, and people can pass them around, still generating money for them, and yet paying less than just getting them from Amazon. After a few passes, the book could expire.

Let's say I buy "Captain Kirk's Guide To Women" for $11, someone else can buy it for $5.50, the next for $2.75, the next for $1.35, etc. The same people still get paid again- the Author, Amazon, the Publisher, etc, but the previous purchaser gets a piece too.

This is a good idea.

And I believe it will save the book world.

If you like this idea, share this post and get it to someone at Amazon please.

Osama's Dead- LET'S PARTY!?!?!?!

So last night, the big news came out that Osama Bin Laden was killed by special forces. Strange news, as it's been 10 years. There were people celebrating as if something great happened, and I have a mix of emotions about it. Of course I'm glad he's gone, but I just feel weird celebrating someone being killed. Facebook was where I went immediately, and made a ton of jokes along with a lot of other people.
Out in front of the white house, and here at Ground Zero, people were congregating, chanting "USA! USA!", and I even saw a beach ball or two. That's what inspired this:

I just had to!

Gold went up $10 TODAY... TODAY!!!

No seriously you guys. I'm a big Robert Kiyosaki fan and if you have't read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by him, go get it now.Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

 He's been telling everyone that the US dollar is headed for serious collapse (along with everyone else), and he's been advising buying Gold and Silver as a hedge to protect against the devaluation.

So, I went and bought some silver last year, and a little more two weeks ago.

Last year, around April, I bought some silver at $20 (spot price was $17).
Two weeks ago, I bought some more at $40 (Spot price was $38).

That is to say that silver has more than DOUBLED in the past year, and I am of course mad at myself for not buying a lot more last year.

However, here's the thing- TODAY, silver is at 43. So that means the silver I bought TWO WEEKS AGO is  now worth about $5 more today (43-38). So, without doing ANYTHING, I have made more than $5 per piece. Are you listening to that?

And then GOLD went up today $10- so you would have made $10 per piece just today!

However, with gold at $1489, the percentage is only .72, whereas today's move on silver was 2%.

You get that? So, you are better off having silver in your earrings than money in the bank right now!!!!

I had to tell someone.

I get ego-maniacal...

So, I found a site called animoto.com where you can create videos from clips... here's one of me:


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Neat, right?

Tubin' at the pool....

Tubin' at the pool...., originally uploaded by bonesrodriguez.

I just thought I'd let you know that we're on vacation in St. Kitts. We are here because The Marriage Ref awarded us this trip, and we're finally here! I am sunburned already!