As most of you have known, Laurel posted on Facebook that Benji finally got his very own Build-A-Bear. To those who doesn't Facebook (like yours truly), yes, Benji has a Build-A-Bear after seeing his good friend strutting around with one. No, we didn't just say, "OK. Let's go get you one". Instead, we took the opportunity to challenge him to a money-saving initiative, teaching him to value saving money. It was hard for him in the beginning and we are very proud of him to come through with the challenge. We did not make him save every penny the bear would cost, we padded the difference, but we were still very proud of him to be able to save $15.50 towards it on a weekly net allowance of 90 cents (after 10 cents being set apart for God's Kingdom). Putting that into perspective, if he have not spent a dime since day one, it would have taken him 4 months to get to $15.50. Since he was learning the ropes of saving, he obviously took longer than 4 months. That's the quality I guess I'm the proudest of all - that Benji had set the goal and persevering towards it for over 4 months without losing that perseverance or just plain giving up. A friend once observed that, "he's very spirited". I couldn't agree more.
I guess I could say I should thank Build-A-Bear for providing an initiative for my son to save. However while I was there to witness Benji building his very own bear, I was thinking to myself, "Wow! What a simple but very, very profitable business model". This really is a million-dollar idea in my books. To those who don't know the Build-A-Bear concept, let me fill you in just a little. Fundamentally, Build-A-Bear is just a teddy bear shop with a twist - you get to see a teddy bear being filled with the "stuffing". The hook-line-sinker to this is the personalization part of it. They get the little ones to personalize EVERYTHING. You pick your very own bear; you pick a voice for it; you get to help stuff it up; you bring it to "life" by putting a heart shaped token into it; you "bathe" it; you pick the outfit of your choice; you can further accessorize it; finally you give it a name. Having kids of my own, I know kids love these kinds of stuff. Every kid in this world has an imaginary friend of some sort - the privileged ones typically have theirs in the form of their favorite stuffed animal. This is where Build-A-Bear capitalizes on - sure you can get a plain naked bear for as little as $10. But what kid would want a naked bear - look at that Razorback football outfit! Oh look here, it's a firefighter (what Benji decided on) or a police bear. Hey, cheerleader bear if girls fancy that. It's almost halloween, how 'bout some halloween costumes for your bear? A car? They even have a car for the bear???!!! Wow! OK, I'm being a little sarcastic here, but you get my point. Every little accessorizing adds up and it's no longer that, "Oh, it's only $10". I'm not being bitter or negative about this at all, I'm really marveling at the genius of this business model. It absolutely works, and I wished it was MY million-dollar idea! They really put a lot of thought into how to make this very, very attractive to children. The personalization highlight of all this (in my opinion) is the part where the store employee helped Benji bring his bear to "life". With the heart token, she asked him to follow this little ritual with words (I don't remember all of it):
(put it on one eye): So he sees everything you see;
(rub it on the nose): So he smells like you;
(rub it on the forehead): So he is smart like you;
(rub it on the arm): So he is strong like you;
(rub it on the tummy): So he is never hungry;
(rub it on the feet): So he will go wherever you go;
(rub it on the heart and give it a kiss): So he knows he is loved.
Then she put the heart token into the bear (even at the anatomically correct location, mind you!) and stitch the bear up. There you go, the bear is now alive. Wow!
The marketing genius doesn't stop there - they also put a lot of thought into how to make the store "acceptable for consideration" to parents shopping for their children. They know there are two kinds of parents in this world: the ones that walk in and are very good about keeping to the budget, the ones that walk in and just let the children go for it, and all the ones in between (OK, more than two then, but that's good news for them). With that in mind, all accessorizing are optional and come in a range of prices to cater to every kinds of consumer. But you know and I know that Build-A-Bear definitely gets the better end of the deal. It just becomes a huge playground for them to try many things to see what sells and what doesn't. Of course, since the bear is accessorizable, that means there's a long term value to the bear. See, you don't have to buy the bear again to get that brand new, must have outfit. But it is these accessories that rake in the profit. They also market the fact that each bear has it's very own unique ID tied to the owner, so that if Mr. Kind returns the lost bear to the store, the store can contact Benji and return the bear to him. That's an insurance sell to the parents right there.
So there you have it. My take on it. No, I wasn't drifting off thinking all these while Benji moved eagerly from one station to another. I was there because I wanted to witness and affirm the fruit of his effort and wanted to see his joy of working to own things he wants. The final lesson (for completion's sake) we hoped Benji would learn was the feeling of handing over the hard-earned money to the store employee. We did not convert all his coins to bills - we wanted him to hand over that weighty little money bag on his own. And by golly, if Build-A-Bear is going to take my son's money, I'm gonna make them work for it too!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Ramblings of a Tech Geek
My decision is cemented.
After weeks of watching, I finally saw a good deal last weekend on a Windows laptop for my mom-in-law, so I ran to my local Office Depot store and grabbed one.
The laptop itself is pretty decent - more than sufficient for her need and hardware-wise, ready for Windows 7 whenever it's released and should last her for the next 5 years.
But man oh man, after working on prepping the laptop for her, I swear by my iMac I personally will never go back to a Windows PC again, ever. Nope. Not a chance.
Vista itself was.. meh. I haven't spent a great deal of time with it, but I'm just not impressed by my experience navigating around this system. That whole file/folder structure in Explorer is just so weird and confusing. What's up with all these "virtual folders" (don't know the official Softie term for this *cough* *super-wonderfully-great-feature*) that point to some place else but you can't get to that some place else by clicking on the virtual folders. It just throws the error "Access denied" even as admin??!!! Really???!!! If you know where the actual location is, can't you just tell me even if you can't take me there automagically???!!! On top of that, the Start Menu redesign is just not that usable.
Which brings me to the nail - the final nail in the Windows PC coffin. I'm talking about all the Trial-/Crap-/Free-/Share-/Whateverchamacallit-wares. That was what I meant by working on prepping the laptop for her. I spent hours (hours!!!) removing all these stuff. Boy did I work! Did I hear you say, "why don't you just grab the disc and reinstall the system, ya dummy?!" I would if the package came with a restore disc in the first place. No, the vendor decided disc is not the way to go. Instead, they created a restore partition, which you have to launch this handy dandy software to do something (for about 15 minutes) to prep stuff from this restore partition before it is ready to burn onto 3 DVDs. 3 DVDs??!! I thought off-the-shelf Vista Home Premium comes in 1 DVD maybe 2? But of course! It's prepping the restore discs to include restoring ALL the Whateverchamacallit-wares back onto the computer, exactly the things I was fighting hard to remove. I wasn't going to attempt wasting more time just to see if I actually have the option to NOT install the wares during the restore procedure.
My mom's need is uncomplicated - internet and office productivity on a computer that's not bogged down with layers and layers of software complexities. I have no problems with Linux myself, but it might get some getting use to for my mom. A basic netbook (a little less wares) is physiologically not a good solution for her and doesn't make sense in the long term because I can't get a free Windows 7 upgrade. Most netbooks run Windows XP. So I needed to pare down the laptop I got her so that it wouldn't overwhelm her. That is why I spent so much time in Windows Explorer trying to clean things up that gets left over after the uninstalls so that there won't be a 50+ menu items staring at her from the Start Menu. The new Start Menu is, in my opinion, just not a good design for those who have tons and tons of software. Unfortunately, you WILL get tons and tons of software when you buy a new Windows-powered computer. That is why you could always get a Windows PC so cheap. PC makers get kickbacks from all the vendors of these wares they install. I'm glad they have the scruples to pass the savings on to the consumers instead of hording the profits, but at the cost of consumer experience that would have otherwise improve their image and brand. Like I said, they make decent computers, it's what they chose to put in it that they fall short on. The analogy I can come up with is if Ferrari details the interior of its F430 all over with cheap plastics and fit in a 4 cylinder instead. Still a Ferrari, but the experience is not one of Ferrari's.
Honestly, my time and sanity is worth more than the few hundred bucks saved. Alas, it was not a computer for myself! Don't get me wrong, mom. I don't despise your decision to get a Windows PC nor did I mind helping you out. I'm a tech geek at heart. I live for these kinds of opportunities. I'm saying I wouldn't have gone the Windows PC route if it was my own decision to make. From what I learned from this last opportunity, I'm even more inclined to stay a Mac user. So maybe when you shop for your new computer in the future, I might press the issue to get a Mac more than ever! :)
So what's so great about Mac? Simply put, it's simple. I remember when I set my iMac up, it was setting up my bluetooth keyboard and mouse, setting up wireless connection, creating a user, register product and I'm ready to go. There is nothing left to do. If it was a MacBook, you just skip the keyboard and mouse setup entirely, meaning you're ready to go in 3 simple steps. 3 simple steps!! Now you tell me which typical consumer wouldn't want this kind of simplicity.
The other thing is pricing. Since Apple controls the prices, prices are the same anywhere you get one. Sure, some retailers may have slightly better prices by doing some software bundling, but not by much. What does that mean? That means I don't have to spend too much time watching for the "right" price to come like I did with a Windows PC. That means a typical user can walk into any store that sells Macs and doesn't have to worry about the store "sticking it" to them, as long as the user says, "no, thank you" to all the "value-add" propositions the store employee is trying to sell.
So while mom plods around in Vista for now, I'm just waiting for Windows 7 to arrive. Will 7 carry over some of the things I dislike about Vista? Probably. 7 will also have some improved navigational features (I'm thinking the new taskbar) useful for simple users. The biggest plus is that I will get to totally wipe the current setup and replace with a clean, clutter-free install. That, I can't wait to do.
After weeks of watching, I finally saw a good deal last weekend on a Windows laptop for my mom-in-law, so I ran to my local Office Depot store and grabbed one.
The laptop itself is pretty decent - more than sufficient for her need and hardware-wise, ready for Windows 7 whenever it's released and should last her for the next 5 years.
But man oh man, after working on prepping the laptop for her, I swear by my iMac I personally will never go back to a Windows PC again, ever. Nope. Not a chance.
Vista itself was.. meh. I haven't spent a great deal of time with it, but I'm just not impressed by my experience navigating around this system. That whole file/folder structure in Explorer is just so weird and confusing. What's up with all these "virtual folders" (don't know the official Softie term for this *cough* *super-wonderfully-great-feature*) that point to some place else but you can't get to that some place else by clicking on the virtual folders. It just throws the error "Access denied" even as admin??!!! Really???!!! If you know where the actual location is, can't you just tell me even if you can't take me there automagically???!!! On top of that, the Start Menu redesign is just not that usable.
Which brings me to the nail - the final nail in the Windows PC coffin. I'm talking about all the Trial-/Crap-/Free-/Share-/Whateverchamacallit-wares. That was what I meant by working on prepping the laptop for her. I spent hours (hours!!!) removing all these stuff. Boy did I work! Did I hear you say, "why don't you just grab the disc and reinstall the system, ya dummy?!" I would if the package came with a restore disc in the first place. No, the vendor decided disc is not the way to go. Instead, they created a restore partition, which you have to launch this handy dandy software to do something (for about 15 minutes) to prep stuff from this restore partition before it is ready to burn onto 3 DVDs. 3 DVDs??!! I thought off-the-shelf Vista Home Premium comes in 1 DVD maybe 2? But of course! It's prepping the restore discs to include restoring ALL the Whateverchamacallit-wares back onto the computer, exactly the things I was fighting hard to remove. I wasn't going to attempt wasting more time just to see if I actually have the option to NOT install the wares during the restore procedure.
My mom's need is uncomplicated - internet and office productivity on a computer that's not bogged down with layers and layers of software complexities. I have no problems with Linux myself, but it might get some getting use to for my mom. A basic netbook (a little less wares) is physiologically not a good solution for her and doesn't make sense in the long term because I can't get a free Windows 7 upgrade. Most netbooks run Windows XP. So I needed to pare down the laptop I got her so that it wouldn't overwhelm her. That is why I spent so much time in Windows Explorer trying to clean things up that gets left over after the uninstalls so that there won't be a 50+ menu items staring at her from the Start Menu. The new Start Menu is, in my opinion, just not a good design for those who have tons and tons of software. Unfortunately, you WILL get tons and tons of software when you buy a new Windows-powered computer. That is why you could always get a Windows PC so cheap. PC makers get kickbacks from all the vendors of these wares they install. I'm glad they have the scruples to pass the savings on to the consumers instead of hording the profits, but at the cost of consumer experience that would have otherwise improve their image and brand. Like I said, they make decent computers, it's what they chose to put in it that they fall short on. The analogy I can come up with is if Ferrari details the interior of its F430 all over with cheap plastics and fit in a 4 cylinder instead. Still a Ferrari, but the experience is not one of Ferrari's.
Honestly, my time and sanity is worth more than the few hundred bucks saved. Alas, it was not a computer for myself! Don't get me wrong, mom. I don't despise your decision to get a Windows PC nor did I mind helping you out. I'm a tech geek at heart. I live for these kinds of opportunities. I'm saying I wouldn't have gone the Windows PC route if it was my own decision to make. From what I learned from this last opportunity, I'm even more inclined to stay a Mac user. So maybe when you shop for your new computer in the future, I might press the issue to get a Mac more than ever! :)
So what's so great about Mac? Simply put, it's simple. I remember when I set my iMac up, it was setting up my bluetooth keyboard and mouse, setting up wireless connection, creating a user, register product and I'm ready to go. There is nothing left to do. If it was a MacBook, you just skip the keyboard and mouse setup entirely, meaning you're ready to go in 3 simple steps. 3 simple steps!! Now you tell me which typical consumer wouldn't want this kind of simplicity.
The other thing is pricing. Since Apple controls the prices, prices are the same anywhere you get one. Sure, some retailers may have slightly better prices by doing some software bundling, but not by much. What does that mean? That means I don't have to spend too much time watching for the "right" price to come like I did with a Windows PC. That means a typical user can walk into any store that sells Macs and doesn't have to worry about the store "sticking it" to them, as long as the user says, "no, thank you" to all the "value-add" propositions the store employee is trying to sell.
So while mom plods around in Vista for now, I'm just waiting for Windows 7 to arrive. Will 7 carry over some of the things I dislike about Vista? Probably. 7 will also have some improved navigational features (I'm thinking the new taskbar) useful for simple users. The biggest plus is that I will get to totally wipe the current setup and replace with a clean, clutter-free install. That, I can't wait to do.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
The strange place called the county fair
A county fair is a strange occurrence, if you really think about it. If it was just Shearn Yoong and me, we would have let this week pass in normal fashion and no special trips to fields in the middle of nowhere. But it is not just Shearn Yoong and me. There are two small boys who absolute DELIGHT in the county fair. Benji asks about it every couple of months and looks forward to it all year long. Zac likely will follow in suit this year since he is more verbal now.
The county fair is one of those things, those things that seem to be increasing in number, that really would hold no interest whatsoever to us adults but suddenly holds immense interest because they give joy to our children. (Note: Touch-a-truck is another such event. I mean, touching trucks - totally doesn't do anything for me. Also parades with emergency vehicles. Okay, I'll stop, but you get the picture.)
Seeing animals in small stalls, riding rickety rides, and eating funnel cake never was so much fun ... until we had kids. Just another reason for all of our childless friends to get with the program!
Benji looks miserable but I swear he wasn't really. I included this picture of Zac since his smile was just so cute.
This picture is not that great but perhaps you can see the sense of fun in the face of both Daddy and son's faces. Zac was too short to do bumper cars, even when accompanied by an adult, but we had fun watching from the sidelines.
The county fair is one of those things, those things that seem to be increasing in number, that really would hold no interest whatsoever to us adults but suddenly holds immense interest because they give joy to our children. (Note: Touch-a-truck is another such event. I mean, touching trucks - totally doesn't do anything for me. Also parades with emergency vehicles. Okay, I'll stop, but you get the picture.)
Seeing animals in small stalls, riding rickety rides, and eating funnel cake never was so much fun ... until we had kids. Just another reason for all of our childless friends to get with the program!
Benji looks miserable but I swear he wasn't really. I included this picture of Zac since his smile was just so cute.
Who needs to go to Disney world (another place I would never voluntarily go unless under coercion from my kid) to ride in tea cups? Just head to the Washington County Fairgrounds.
This picture is not that great but perhaps you can see the sense of fun in the face of both Daddy and son's faces. Zac was too short to do bumper cars, even when accompanied by an adult, but we had fun watching from the sidelines.
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