Parking at PDX

Posted by random olio

So I have a bone to pick. Each time I come back from a trip and park at the Portland Airport, I get frustrated. Here is my recent dilemma:

I parked on Saturday, March 15 at 9:15 am and returned to pick up my car on March 17, at 11:46 am. This would be a total of 26.5 hours. I was charged $30, or $10 a day. Standard Parking (the vendor for parking for the Economy Lot at the Portland Airport) states on their website that it is $10 a day. However as you leave the lot there is a sign that states rates by the hour, yet their website does not state their hourly rate. Other websites show that the Economy Lot (where we park) is $3 an hour. If I was there 2 days + an extra 2 hours then my fee for parking should be $26 not $30. Now let me tell you I am not complaining about $4, I am wanting to paint a picture of what $4 adds up to if you think of all the spaces in just the Economy Lot.

If there are 7900 parking spaces in the Economy lot, and they each stayed the exact amount of time I stayed, that would be an extra $4 they are charging for each car. 7900 times $4 equals $31,600 a day. That is a TON of money. My gut says that the parking company is hoping that folks are not thinking about the small overage they are charging to each customer. Over time $31,600 a day, equals $211,200 a week or an extra $11,502,400 in profits for a parking lot company. Now that is a gross generalization because not all spots are going to rollover like that, and not all of them are going to be under their daily amount. However it does feel like they are stealing from each of us.

The last time we had a stay and this same situation happened, we sent an email to Standard Parking and got an unhelpful response. What frustrates me further is there is no signage that says that after x # of hours, you will be charged for the full day rate. What is this world coming to if companies can sift, bleed, and steal from customers? It just feels wrong to me.

I am curious what you think.

A man and his TV…

Posted by random olio

What is it about a man and his TV? I was traveling this weekend and while running on the treadmill at the hotel I was staying at, I watched a bit of “Love it, or List it.” A Canadian TV show with 2 hosts, a realtor that wants to find that perfect place for the family, or the designer that can make changes to your home and make you want to stay. At the end of the episode the couple decides if they are going to stay in their current upgraded home (Love it) or sell their current home and buy a new one (List it).

While watching “Love it, or List it” over the weekend, there was an episode about a man and his massive TV. The realtor (a man) was in heaven seeing the massive TV. The designer (a woman) did not get why such a large TV was a big deal. So what is it about the man and the big TV? Such a variety of options, sizes, HD, pixels, etc. Yet, most of the women in my life could care less about any of it. So what is it about a man and his TV? Why do they get so over zealous to watch a football game on high definition? Is it because it feels like you are literally at the game, with a crisp, clear picture?

I never saw the end of the show, as I had finished my run and was back to my room for a shower and on to the rest of my day, however somehow I think that TV was allowed to stay. (The wife had remarked in an interview that they always fought about the TV). It is not an argument topic for us, but I think a big TV might always make it on the top ten list of must haves for Chris.

Regardless, I have resorted to chalking a man and his TV in the category of “it I what it is.” What item would you say about a woman? “A woman and her …”

Give and take energy

Posted by random olio

I have written often over the past year about energy. What energy do you bring into a room, a group of people, a home, your place of work? I constantly go back to the idea of energy and how we always have control over our own and how we allow it to ooze, and cover whatever we touch. Some days the sun is shining brightly and it brings a smile to your face and that energy is spread to everyone else. Those are the good days and that is the energy that is contagious. Other days we step in gum, cannot find a parking spot, and feel our energy is just off, and sometimes that bummer day is spread to everyone else.

I love this quote about energy from a Daily Om “A Question of Balance.” While it talks about intimate relationships, it actually really applies to any relationship:

“One of the most beautiful qualities of an intimate relationship is the give and take of energy that occurs between two people.”

Whether the relationship is with a co-worker, a close friend, a sibling, or significant other, the energy you share with them matters. Think about how it feels when you walk into a room and you feel completely welcome. There is a warm and happy glow. Do you ever think about the energy you give, or what you bring to each interaction? How does your energy level, your positive (or negative) emotions bring others up or down? Do you come into situations with the intent to help elevate others, or do you intend to bring them down?

At times I feel like a sponge, absorbing the energy around me. What takes the most energy and effort is to walk into a room of negativity, and gloom and keep yourself above it while also attempting to elevate or raise the energy and emotion of others. It tends to be easier to join a negative environment then it is to raise the bar from negative to positive. A happy and positive environment is always easy to join, as I said before, it is contagious.

Bring on a positive, slap happy, environment full of laughter. I will be there with you any day.

Conversations Matter…

Posted by random olio

Every day, every interaction is a story. Often the stories that unfold in front of our eyes, are not fun. There can be events and actions from others that transpire and make our story turn into a drama. Other days the story is a comedy and we laugh and have fun throughout the process. Regardless of the genre of our story, the key to it all is that we have control over how we act and react to the stories that fill our days.

I just finished reading the book: “Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillian, and Al Switzler. It is such a great book both for work and personal life. I took copious notes of ideas that I could use in a professional setting and at home. I am the first to admit that I am not always on my best behavior each and every day. Sometimes an individual’s comment spark the wrong bone in your body, and a reaction occurs. Another individual can make you feel angry, frustrated, hurt, even invisible. There could be a multitude of emotions. What I loved about this book is it helps you to take control of your emotions, be upfront, and not hide behind difficult conversations.

“If we take control of our stories, they won’t control us. People who excel at dialogue are able to influence their emotions during crucial conversations. They recognize that while it’s true that at first we are in control of the stories we tell—after all, we do make them up of our own accord—once they’re told, the stories control us. They first control how we feel and then how we act. Any as a result, they control the results we get from our crucial conversations.” Page 111

Where I sometimes struggle the most is how the story controls us. At times, the story of the day agonize us. We lose sleep, we go on and on about the drama to friends, family, or our spouse so they can feel our pain. Other times we might discuss the issue and talk it out as a resolution so that tomorrow we can rewrite our story. How then can we keep the conversation in our control? How can we ensure that the conversation (especially the bad ones) do not control us, make us unhappy, and mean that we lose sleep? We are all writers for our stories. We decide what will bug us, or get under our skin. We decide what controls us.

What will you decide about the stories you create today?

Have you Spritzed yet?

Posted by random olio

Have you heard of Spritz? A new app and technology that allows you to speed read. Spritz, the company that invented “Spritzing” defines it as: “…reading text with Spritz Inc.’s patent-pending technology. When you’re spritzing, you’re reading text one word at a time in our “redicle,” a special visual frame we designed for reading.”

I have tried the examples and am interested, although I have to say it does make my head spin a bit. Your eyes do not have to move back and forth across the page, rather your eyes stay in the exact same place and the words move fast right in front of you. Allowing you to focus on the words and thus read faster. Elite Daily explains it well:

“The “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) is slightly left of the center of each word, and is the precise point at which our brain deciphers each jumble of letters. The unique aspect of Spritz is that it identifies the ORP of each word, makes that letter red and presents all of the ORPs at the same space on the screen. In this way, our eyes don’t move at all as we see the words, and we can therefore process information instantaneously rather than spend time decoding each word.”

You can try it for yourself on the Spritz website – just “click to Spritz” on the top right part of the page. Here is more Q + A on Spritzing. Currently this technology is only available on the Gear2 and S5 Samsung phones. I have to say it does sort of remind me of Chuck. Did you ever watch that TV show? He would put on these glasses to review intel that would go into his brain very, very fast, and sometimes it effected him for the worse. Are we to the place where we have to absorb words so fast we no longer “read?” Is curling up with a good book a thing of the past?

What do you think about Spritz?