How manipulative!

(Cross-posted to pne, goodservice, and subway_eatfresh)

So this morning I decided to go by my local Subway and get a couple of cookies. There only seemed to be one person around: a man in overalls who was apparently fixing something. When he saw me, he went behind the counter and into the back room; I thought he was getting someone to serve me.

Shortly afterwards, a girl popped her head around the corner and said that she'd be with me in just a sec: she had to push the buzzer for the man; I suppose he had asked to use the toilet.

Then she asked me what I wanted and I order two cookies, which she got out of the display and put into a paper bag for me. She said, "That'll be €1.38. But you probably already knew that, right?" I was taken aback a little since no, I hadn't known that, though I could have worked it out given that one cookie costs 69 cents, so two would be 2×(70-1) = 140-2 = 138 cents.

After I had paid, she said, "Enjoy your cookies, and have a nice day—and a nice weekend!" I thought that was a very friendly send-off, and so I said not only, "Thanks, you too!" but added, "That was nice of you to say that!"

She said, "Oh, it's just service—after all, you paid for it!" I replied that while customers may expect service and that that may include a greeting at the beginning and the end, different people differ in how they interpret "good service"; I wanted to say that I felt her greeting was kinder and more friendly than mere "you paid for it" would warrant. She asked me what I thought the €1.38 paid for, and I said, "Well, the cookies, of course—and I guess also the rent for this place, and the salaries of the employees…", whereupon she said, "Exactly! And so I have to be nice to you so that you'll come back and I can continue to receive my salary!"

And she said that not only with a cheery voice and a smile but she also… how to describe it… if she were an aeroplane, I'd say she yawed :) At any rate, she swung her hips around while standing, rotating them left and right. I found it rather fetching and thought to myself that it wasn't fair: she was a girl and I'm a boy and we all know that guys are controlled mostly through their hormones and not their brain! And she seemed to be almost flirting with me.

Though I guess she got the effect she planned for: making me want to come back to that Subway and spend money there. Even if that nice young lady will not be serving next time I come. Damn her and her customer service!

GeldKarte

Gestern habe ich eine neue GeldKarte zugeschickt bekommen, also bin ich heute morgen vor der Arbeit bei der Bank vorbeigegangen um die alte zurückzugeben, damit sie ordnungsgemäß entsorgt werden kann.

Vorher wollte ich sie aber noch entladen, falls da noch etwas drauf war—wie sich herausstellte, waren da noch €16,75 drauf. Und nachdem ich die auf mein Konto entladen hatte, hat der ec-Automat auch gleich die Karte einbehalten. So hat sich das Abgeben erübrigt :p Die neue habe ich dann erstmal mit €16 aufgeladen. (Der Chip sieht übrigens etwas anders aus als auf der alten Karte.)

[meme] Help Pinto Win!

A meme invented by chiisaihito.

1. Go to The Internet Anagram Server: http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html
2. Input your full name and/or username.
3. Post these instructions and your FUNNIEST anagram.
4. Send it on to your friends!

My username doesn't have particularly interesting anagrams, but from my full name, "Help Pinto win!" (my brother-in-law's family name is Pinto) and "Win hot nipple!" are both pretty promising.

Clicking on links

For various reasons, I decided to look for upgrades on my work computer this morning. This involved downloading roughly 60 megabytes of stuff including .NET runtime v1.1 and MSIE 6, as well as a bunch of assorted critical updates. (Oddly enough, after visiting windowsupdate.microsoft.com the after installing the .NET runtime, it prompted me to download SP1 for the runtime, which was nearly the same size—why not offer the patched version for download so you don't have to download essentially everything twice?)

Unfortunately, something appears to have changed the behaviour of clicking on links in plain-text emails in Outlook: they used to open a new window in Opera, my default browser. Now they replace the current window in Opera.

Since I have several desktops and my browser is usually in a different desktop from Outlook, I'd also get visual feedback that the click was registered: the email message would lose focus and the title bar would change from blue to grey. Now, however, the email no longer loses focus; I presume this is connected with the replacing behaviour.

Annoying. I'd like the previous behaviour back, please.