kubitsky.net

Over the past couple of months, my experience with shopping in retail stores has been extremely terrible. I used to just complain that brick-and-mortar stores were terrible because they never had what I wanted in stock. Selections were poor and stock was always low. Now I can add poorly kept stores, terrible customer service and ERRORs everywhere to that list.

I shop online, but I’m not a fan of shopping online for everything. Sometimes I like the experience of being surrounded by the physical goods, inspecting them, and trying them. Especially for clothing and electronics. I don’t enjoy needing to return things, which seemed to happen far too often when purchasing goods online for me. But, now I can extend the pain of needing to return things to my in-person shopping as well.

Every single shopping trip I’ve taken in the past 2 months, including large grocery store trips, has resulted in me returning items to the store. I’ve had to return a faulty aluminum water bottle, a ripped purse, a pair of 2 right shoes, wilted spinach, missing parts from Ikea lamps, cracked pot for plants, etc. What’s up??? Why are products in stores so poor. Why are the staff so mean when you return them nicely?

my first pair of glasses

Originally uploaded by ckubitsky

I’m getting old.

I’ve been a Hillary supporter from the beginning. Lately I’ve been hearing more friends pledging the support for Obama instead. In most cases, each person claims that the candidates are very similar in where they stand on issues and the plans they are proposing. So, what’s different that makes people proclaim their support for Obama? What’s involved in a person making that decision?

My husband told me last night that he contributed to Obama’s campaign. I don’t have a problem with this, but it made me think more about my current choice to support Hillary. My husband chooses Obama (even though he can’t vote yet) because he is inspired by him and wants to give him the benefit of the doubt that Obama will be better and uniting the country and its officials towards change. I look at Hillary’s record and I see that she’s done very well pushing change through the system with support from all sides, but people still don’t see that as success or fail to see those points at all.

It’s obvious that personality and character are what people vote for, but that’s not as important to me as all the other values I hold dear. Obama is a very, very inspirational and honest candidate. I like that quality in him, but it’s not enough to counter my need for demonstrated experience and a record of change. Regardless of who is chosen as the Democratic candidate, I will vote for them because I like them both and agree with the majority of the plans.

How come I don’t hear about anyone questioning their support for Obama?

If you want to see where you stand with the candidates from either party to help you balance your decision with personality and character, visit Select 2008 and see. Here’s where I stand so far:

I saw the Pogues last night at the Electric Factory. Dinko and I were crazy enough to venture out into the snow and ice storm to see them. The last time we saw them was at Friju Briju in Zagreb in 1998. They put on a fantastic show. We had a great time despite the numerous fights that broke out around us.

Shane was his usual slurring self. Cigarette and alcohol in one hand, microphone in the other. The only difference is that he sang from a wheelchair. A couple gigs earlier he fell on stage and broke his knee, but he still rocked out.

This is an interesting resource. Check out the 53 tricks.

After a few days of feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing anything with the wedding, I finally found the dress. I bought it right away and took it to my sister’s for safe keeping.

Next thing to buy — the ring.

Don’t be alarmed by the sudden changes in styles over the next week or so. I’m trying on new themes to see which I like and what modifications to make. I can hack my own theme, but I’m too lazy :)

I’m currently redesigning my site to use WordPress instead of MovableType. It will all be up and working soon. Come back soon to see what’s news.

If you like, you can still check out the old site while this one is being updated.

Thanks!

Welcome to my new web site!

I am currently exploring Movable Type and exercising my super CSS skills to build this new site.

Some pages are not complete, some images are still under development, and I’m also looking to roll out a map of my travels, include my photo gallery, and talk more about my passion for IA and UX.

Stay tuned!