I hope everyone living in the midwest is safely indoors during this horrible storm :( My dad is travelling today. He was at the airport for more than 12 hours in Denver waiting for a flight home (his original flight got cancelled and he’s been on standby the whole day). He finally got on a flight at 10pm tonight and should arrive in Tulsa any minute.

On another note, I’ve been on the phone several times these past few days with United trying to see if I can change my dad’s flight with the impending storm. I’m not sure how long this has been but United is yet another company who has turned their call centers to India. I am *extremely* tolerant and I think I am pretty good about listening to people with heavy accents. I try to be patient and realize that it’s not their fault that I can’t understand them. Let’s just say that after calling them multiple times I gave up. It was too frustrating over the phone and I felt bad after asking them to speak more slowly or to keep repeating what they are trying to say.

I can understand companies outsourcing tech work to India and other countries but WHY WHY WHY would you do that with call centers? I read an article last year that the suicide rate for these indian call centers is rising. Gee, I wonder why. I am a pretty patient person when it comes to these things but I know and have seen people blow their top off at these people. It’s sad, because they are just doing their job.

And yes, I know companies are doing this because it is so cheap…but what about customer satisfaction? I know the next time I am shopping for ticket prices, and I find a price that is 50 bucks or so more expensive than United, I will go with them. Even if it’s SW! I am also upset that they did not let my father change his ticket even though they KNEW about the bad storm. I knew he was going to get stuck in Denver, at least they could have just booked him on the next flight later on this week. I also read on their OWN website that people flying to Oklahoma today would get their fee waived if they wanted to change their flight. When I spoke about that to them they totally dismissed me. I could tell they did not give me the time of day because it was an extremely busy day at the airport. I would have argued with them longer but my dad was cutting it close on his current flight to Denver so I didn’t want him to get stranded in LAX and having to buy a new ticket because UNITED IS DUMB.

So yes, I’ve added United to my BLACKLIST. Boo on United!

I know at least half of you have “eat more healthy” or “lose weight” as part of your new year’s resolutions….which hopefully you are still trying to do! It’s only been a few weeks since January 1st :P Here are some foods that promote weight loss:

1. grapefruit – they aren’t sure why but several studies have shown this fruit to help people lose weight…which is the reason the grapefruit diet was developed. it also helps fight cancer and has a low calorie count.

2. sardines – loaded with protein, helps you feel full, and stimulates metabolism. they are also supposed to boost your mood and you know how some people eat more when they are depressed! they are also free of contaminants since they are so low on the food chain.

3. pumpkin – loaded with fiber and low calorie count. fiber is known to help with weight management.

4. grass fed beef – high protein which stimulates metabolism, helps you feel full longer, decreases the desire to overeat. avoid normal beef since it has all of the contaminants and hormones injected into it.

5. green tea – rich in antioxidants, promotes heart health, aids digestion, and regulates blood sugar. also raises metabolic rate and speeds up fat oxidation!

other foods: broccoli, blueberries, watermelon, beans, etc.

Hey I think I found the missing Friday Links from a few weeks back:

How to organize your legoes – wow, ultimate nerdom. I like!
The personal MBA reading list – great resource for people serious about learning some business skills
Good samaritan demands money for her good deed – what kind of person steals from a disabled man????
2007 NYTimes Year in pictures – wow, their slideshow with commentary is very cool
MSNBC’s must list for 2008

Random Friday picture:

Fedex vs UPS

I can’t say I promote Southwest in any way, but sometimes they have the cheapest fares and you just have to book with them if price is your main concern. Everyone knows about the boarding groups that SW utilizes and the oh so coveted “A Group”. Now there is a website that lets you pay $5 to secure an A group pass.

BoardFirst.com:

Get the seat of your choice
Avoid getting stuck in a middle seat
Sit with your travel companions – great news for families!
Find overhead bin space for your carry-on luggage

There’s also CheckInSooner which works with a variety of airlines and is free!

From their website:

Experts say that every time you fly you should check in early. Why? On Southwest, people checking in early get the coveted “A” boarding group which lets them pick a good aisle or window seat and have overhead bin space for their bag. On American, Continental, United and Delta, elite flyers with status in those airlines programs stand a better chance of being upgraded if you check in early. Give yourself the best chance of getting upgraded to first class everytime! There are other benefits too. United offers a bonus of 500 miles every time you check-in online.

I recently started bringing my lunch with my Mr. Bento. I’ve taken to doing 90% of my shopping at Trader Joe’s thanks to my roomie, yangbot! I love TJs, they have healthy, cheap food. While shopping there, I always notice they have the organic option of a lot of their foods but always opted to get the less expensive, nonorganic version just because I wasn’t sure if the price difference was worth it. So I did a little research to see what the benefits of eating organic food are:

1. it’s not covered in those poisonous chemicals
2. contains more vitamins and nutrients
3. it tastes better (does it really?)
4. better for the environment

I also read that in California, the price difference of organic food is less than other places so now I really feel like I should go organic!

I feel so much healthier bringing my lunch now. For lunch today I had tri tip, tomato soup, carrots and hummus, and edamame….all from TJs! Normally, I would be eating some fast food. Yay for Mr. Bento. I hope I can keep this up.

I just logged into my Discovercard account and noticed they have a new 5% cashback promotion.

You’ll get 5% Cashback Bonus for up to $1,000 in
purchases on:
Airlines
Cruises
Hotels
Car Rentals
Amtrak® Trains
Greyhound® Buses

Travel whenever you wish. Whether it’s a weekend getaway or a dream vacation, just pay for your trip through March.

SWEET! Just in time for my new 2007 trip. Looks like we are aiming for Costa Rica…

I saw a commercial for hairapy the other day and the main girl’s hair was EXACTLY like mine! Unbelievably flat. And the fact that I put zero effort into my hair doesn’t help. :) Anyways, Hairapy’s Anti-Flat line of products promises to “add body and bounce to even the most lifeless do”. Sounds like what I need. Anyways, turns out they are giving free samples on their website so sign up if you want to try out their products to see if they work. They also have products for poofy hair, frizzy hair, dry hair, kinky hair, and ….perfect hair (they promise to keep your hair perfect hehe).

Get your free hairapy samples!

Here is the link to the soup nazi’s secret recipe for Kramer’s favorite soup. The soup nazi episode has to be one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes of all time.

Check out the website for other “top secret” recipes!

My favorite celebrity news/articles of the week:

My day is complete when Britney releases a new “letter of truth“. Unfortunately, this one is not filled with as many funny quips as her previous ones. It’s pretty straightforward and promises her fans she realizes how the media has tried to portray her and that it might have disappointed some fans. haha.

Justin finally ends things with Cameron. Is it just me or does Cameron look really bad 90% of the time?

And this news comes at such an opportune time. Brit and Justin single again?? No wait…there’s rumors Justin is with Scarlett!!!!???

ohhh much better! :)

And I can’t really mention Britney without mentioning FEDex. Lindsay’s denies kfed and he fires back with “firecrotch”. lol.

Made some New Year’s Resolutions and want to keep track of them? Joe’s Goals is an easy and fun way to do just that. You can add checkmarks on days where you accomplished your goals and Xs where you didn’t. Here is the full Joe’s Goals description:

Joe’s Goals is a simple yet powerful tool to make tracking your goals the easiest part of accomplishing them. Use the simple single page interface to setup daily goals and track them with just a click. Watch your daily score to gage your success and use negative goals (or vices) to confront and overcome bad habits that finally need to get the boot. Share your success with your friends and family or post your personal score badge to your blog or MySpace page. Add as many Goals as you want and update them all from a single interface.

Hmm, I’d be embarassed to post my score on my blog since I haven’t been doing any of my resolutions ha ha.