Black Friday scams

Did anybody fall for the black Friday scams? I surely didn't. Had I not had to work on Black Friday, I would not have ventured out of the house. As far as I am concerned, the "bargains" are most certainly not anything like what I would call a bargain. From what I have seen of Black Friday sales, they are the dog-eared last remnants end of line stock that the shops want to dump on the public. The price has been hiked for the previous month and then dropped sufficiently to look as though it's a genuine reduction. In fact they're still making a massive profit while pawning off end of line junk that's no good to anybody.

I stayed home until 2pm and then drove into work. It took longer than normal to get there (which I had allowed for). There were queues galore on the roads. People were shopping with $100 bills in their fists, falling for every damn scam imaginable.

On previous Black Fridays I have been out to see if I could find any "bargains". There were none that I ever saw. Gasoline, food, essentials like soap and toothpaste were all the same price as normal. Clothing was the same price as normal. It was only the garbage like electronic gizmos and that kind of junk that was allegedly cheaper. Electronic garbage I can almost live without. Additional electronic garbage I can certainly live without. I was impressed by the Google Chromebooks. I was almost as impressed by those as I am by my Mac. The electronics I use as solely my computer, my phone and my camera. I use no other electronics. I have no TV, no HiFi, no fancy radios, no CBs. I live a simple life.

I look at all the new cameras and really I see no great advantage over what I have already. My 8mp cameras will print to 20x30. Who needs more than 11x14 anyway? Who really prints to more than 8.5x11 which is the size of most common printers. Sure - I have one that will print to 13x19 but I have never ever printed to more than 8.5x11. It's just too expensive. That is without even considering the fact that most homes are too small to display more than a few 10x8 prints. In South Carolina, I would not wish to hang anything on my walls for fear of bugs using the backs as a nice hiding place. A black widow bite or a brown recluse bite would surely spoil my day.

I don't know why people fall continually for the fake bargains. They do so all the time. It seems ludicrous but that is what retailers are counting on. They're counting on people wanting the fantasy rather than the necessity.

This piece of garbage was something I bought for a laugh in one Black Friday sale. It was $10 and I had some idea that I would do something with it. In the end I didn't and ended up giving it to a friend. I regret wasting the $10 on it. That was the last thing I ever bought on Black Friday. I will never again buy anything on Black Friday.

Today I was reading about all the other stuff that went on during the Black Friday sales - shopkeepers trampled to death by crowds, fights between shoppers over what is essentially just garbage and even gunfights. I don't think Black Friday is anything more than a cynical confidence trick by retailers. I regard it as one of the few times when going armed is in order. Given that there are so many killings, murders and shootings at stores - particularly Walmart - it pays to be prepared. 

No turkeys today

Today everybody in America is probably gobbling turkey from Walmart and sloshing back cheap box wine (also from Walmart). They're taking cock-eyed photos with cheap cameras and cellphones also purchased from Walmart. After all that, they're going to head off to the Walmart photo center to get prints or CDs made of their film/digital images.

Stop! Think of the poor workers at Walmart. Forced to work at any hour of the day or night, sometimes with back-to-back shifts that mean they leave their house for a night shift and return after having completed 16 hours non-stop on the job. There are those also that are given such miserably short shifts that it's not really worth their while to come to work. By the time the minimum wage employees have been called in to do two hours work (this happens more often than you would imagine) and spent 30 minutes driving to and from work and probably about $7 on fuel for the privilege, their take will be 2 hours at $7.25 an hour or in reality they're working for $3 per hour. In my local Walmart there is a cashier whose dental benefits (if indeed Walmart offers benefits) don't seem to cover much. That cashier has not a single tooth nor any dentures. It is an appalling situation that the cashier cannot afford dentures with which to eat properly. It is a damning indictment of Walmart's low-wage culture.

I need to go shopping for groceries. I refuse to do it on Thanksgiving because of the way corporations like Walmart treat their workers. Whenever possible I get my fruit and veggies from a farmer's market. Aside from being bigger and fresher, they're cheaper.

I am not a devout vegetarian. I do not worship solely the vegetable though I really do enjoy a good beanburger. To celebrate the American Thanksgiving, I raise a glass. I am but an adopted US citizen having been a US citizen for just over a year.

Let all our tomorrows be brighter than our yesterdays. I know my todays are brighter than my yesterdays. I passed through strife and sorrow, hurt and anger, grief and pain to get where I am now. For that, I am thankful. I am thankful that I never threw in the towel and always remained the person I always was.

Kodak is dead

Tonight we are in mourning for Kodak. A true and trusted friend whom we all knew from birth and our fathers and forefathers also knew. Like Agfa, Kodak has now ceased to exist as a camera and film producing company. This is a great loss to the world.

Agfa were responsible for producing the filmstock to make the highly acclaimed Münchhausen film in 1943. Agfa was also the first company to perish under the onslaught of digital imaging. The film-making division was bought out and became Agfa-Photo which went bankrupt after a year.

Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection after digital imaging made inroads into their market share in 2012. This year they announced they were emerging from bankruptcy as a printing only business. I really don't see that as going to last as most people now never print their pictures, preferring to display them online or on screens.

Oddly enough, Kodak should have been the most able to survive the introduction of digital imaging because it was Kodak who in 1975 developed the first digital camera. They sat on it for fear of it destroying their traditional printing and camera business. They failed to recognise that somebody else could develop the same thing and failed to develop a viable strategy around it. It's all very strange.

So, we have the ongoing death of Kodak continuing. The company will probably remain in its death throes for a few years before slipping unloved into the depths of the receiver's hands. It's a company that needs to be shot and put out of its misery.

I used Kodak film and Kodak cameras. Indeed, my first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 126 given to me by my late aunty and my late grandmother. I loved it and took many photos with it - few of which survive today. I used Kodak film for many years until I discovered Konica had better colors for print film and Agfa was better for reversal film. I stuck with Ilford for black and white film aside from Kodak's infra-red black and white film.

I will miss Kodak in my mind though I purchase no Kodak products nor have purchased any Kodak products for years. We all miss the Kodachrome series of films that we never used. It's strange that we all have fond memories and a feeling of loss for something we haven't used in a decade or more.

All I can say is RIP Kodak.