Decisions, decisions

Difficult decisions are a part of everyday life. Some require careful consideration due to the impact on the decision maker's life. "Should I ask her to marry me?" While others are quite trivial. "Soft taco or crunchy taco?" Others decisions can leave a person in such disaray that they start cursing the heavens in frustration. Such is the case with the new line of Apple iPods.

Apple recently unveiled the latest updates to the popular line of music player to much media fanfare. Among the new line are the iPod Nano with a larger screen and video capabilities, the iPod Classic with more hard drive space than most would know what to do with, and the iPod Touch with a large touch screen interface and internet browsing capabilities.

For someone looking to purchase one of these new iPods, it looks like a simple decision on the surface, until one take the price into consideration. An 8-Gigabyte iPod Nano can be purchase for $200. That seems like a good deal for an unbelievably small device that can play music and videos, until you look at the iPod Classic. The slightly bulkier 80-Gigabyte iPod Classic can be purchased for $250, a $50 dollar difference. Wow, seems like a great deal. Oh, but look at the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch can be purchased for $300, yet again, a $50 difference. Keep in mind, the $300 iPod touch only holds 8-Gigabytes.

It all comes down to minimizing buyers remorse. Storage, capabilities and price. With so many factors to take into consideration, one might just give up and never purchase an iPod at all.

Disturbing Signs

In the film "Stranger Than Fiction," Harold Crick, played by Will Farrell, is asked by literature professor Jules Hilbert, played by Dustin Hoffman, to discover whether he is living in a comedy or a tragedy. Crick starts keeping a tally of events that support his living in a comedy or a tragedy. Washburn University is certainly shaping up to be the the setting of a comedy.

It is not uncommon to see large tent on the Washburn campus. The kind usually associated with fireworks stands are regularly pitched on the lawn around the union for one event or another. However, the signage that adorns the tent is a cause for concern about the state of the human race.

Posted inside the tent are the standard "No Smoking" signs. There was really no arguing with these painted ply wood signs, mounted to the two inner tent poles. Smoking while under a large cloth canopy isn't the brightest of ideas, even if the fabric is flame retardant. No, it was not the "No Smoking" signs that is cause for concern. It is the "EXIT" signs.

The small ply wood signs hang from the edges of the canopy, showing the way out of the tent. There in lies the ridiculousness. It's a tent. A wall-less tent. There's no excuse for not finding the way out of a wall-less tent.

The existence of these "EXIT" signs absolutely dumbfounding. A great comedy in the making.

Discredited, so to speak

Credit card companies will never cease to amaze the masses. Take for instance the latest service offered by the Chase Credit Card company. (Offered meaning harassing customers via phone in the evening.)

For the low price of $7.95 a month, Chase will alert their customers within 24 hours if any fraudulent activity is detected on their credit card account. That means it you don't pay them they will turn a blind eye to crime. Hmmm. That's nice to know.

Fraud detection? The fraud here isn't hard to detect, probably because it's coming from within Chase.