Doxory Choices (geoff)The latest public Doxory choicesgeoff: What is the best way to protect loved ones from the terrible secret of space?...geoff2008-11-07T03:45:39ZPushing vs. Shovinggeoff: Equivalences, part 1...geoff2007-11-06T00:50:02ZSix of one vs. Half-dozen of the othergeoff: Equivalences, part 2...geoff2007-11-06T00:49:42ZA bird in the hand vs. Two in the bushgeoff: The infamous Mermaid Question: http://rave.ca/?s=member_gallery_image&u=DJneoform&i=125083...geoff2007-02-25T23:14:17ZMermaid vs. Reverse mermaidgeoff: Obligatory Doxory metaquestion...geoff2007-01-30T06:52:40ZValue your input vs. Laugh my ass off at your "opinions"geoff: Did you know you're supposed to negotiate mattress prices? By acting sympathetic I got the salesman to "reveal" that his target margin is 35%, and go down to 31% with vague references to largely imaginary Internet competition (supposedly this will require a "note in the computer".) He's trying to get the sale booked by the end of the month....geoff2007-01-30T06:41:44ZGive him my business at 31% margin so he can take his kids on a slightly nicer vacation; pay more than I have to (by at most, oh, $200); recognize that I fell for the "level 2" close story; feel slightly dumb for about a day, then forget about it; write software instead (of value >> $200) vs. Take advantage of weakness ("weakness", "advantage") and tell him he'll either sell at 15% or I'll find someone else on Mattress Row that will; feel like a manipulative shit misusing fragile, vulnerable human beings who on the whole are just looking for a little companionship and sympathy in an objectively meaningless world; be forever haunted by his fallen face, like a dearly cherished puppy who has just been beaten with a stick; enjoy the rush, the overwhelming exhilaration that comes from crushing the competition, from beating a skilled professional at his own game *at a time that it mattered to him*, where we were playing not for money but for status, ego, the right of self-determination, /spirit/, the little moments of your life that drip down the drain and are lost forever; savor victory like the taste of human blood, in the jungle, 5000 years ago, taking the only thing that is really important from one who needs it desperately and exulting in it even as you see a hollow vision of an ancient, sad-eyed vampire breathing still, stale, bittersweet air, all alone at the moment the peasants at last overrun his broken-down castle, thinking, what a worn-out, dessicated husk am I, but at least I *lived*, I pierced the hazy veil, pleasure and pain were real to me, biting and stinging and vivid.. I guess this has stopped being a question so much