The Jeff R Project

Anybody who knows me knows that I have an addiction to Starbucks. Specifically to Venti Sugar Free Vanilla Americanos. And can occasionally be talked down to a grande. Well, that has come to an end thanks to the new HST (and the urging of my beloved husband).

This morning I went to Starbucks for my final hurrah, and because we lacked Splenda for homemade beverages and bought my usual drink and pastry for the first time since the HST went into effect. Not that I haven’t had it in the last 5 days, but we were in Ontario so the taxes were different, plus I usually was buying something for Chris and didn’t know the exact effect of the tax.

Well, let me tell you.

My beloved morning combo has gone from $5.88 to $6.27 with the new HST. That’s a $0.40 rise in the price. Way to much.

So, Starbucks, as much as I love you (and I do), there’s no way to justify this price for me. Even having it on just Saturday and Sunday (which I may still do) would amount to just over $650 per year! That’s an extra mortgage payment!

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be back to brewing coffee in my Tassimo, making cereal or toast for breakfast and drinking a lot more free coffee at work.

Unless the good folks at 6/49 or Lotto Max finally shine upon us, and then I’ll buy my own Starbucks. But I don’t believe that will happen.

It wasn’t the best weekend, mostly because Chris was super sick all weekend. It didn’t entirely stop us but slowed us down. It’s now Monday and he’s not 100% better, but improving. Poor guy.

I spent the majority of the weekend working on my WordPress plugin. Standout Comments runs the comment system on this blog and many of my other personal blogs. My partners in this, Alex Shalman and local marketer John Chow hope to launch this to the public on March 25.

I’ve been struggling with Tweetbacks, a system for tracking tweets about your blog across the Twittersphere. I think I finally nailed it 100% this weekend, but it cost me about 8 hours of tracking, testing and coding to get it. The main problem was that it sent thousands of requests and Twitter would rate-limit me. When Twitter rate-limits you, they send back an error that says “Enhance your chill.” Cute, but not helpful.

We had to cancel some plans with friends and the weather wasn’t great for getting out or having the windows open too much either, it seemed like I was opening and closing windows every 5 minutes, or turning the heat on or off too.

Combine that with “Spring Forward” and the new early morning darkness and it was a little confusing. Oh well, now it’s Monday. Which can only mean one thing…

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Anybody who knows me even a bit knows I’ve got a Starbucks addiction, but I’m trying to kick it.

In Downtown Vancouver, there is a Starbucks location within a few (read 2) blocks of just about everywhere. In the last 3 places I/We have lived, there’s been one within a block. And there is one within a block of my office.

Seriously, I didn’t plan it, but I think Starbucks did.

A few years ago I went to Yuma, Arizona for Christmas to visit my dad and step-mother and was tired most of the time I was there. I came up with my Starbucks Conspiracy Theory. Basically, the reason I was tired wasn’t that I wasn’t drinking coffee but rather, in Vancouver the air is so saturated with caffeine from one coffee shop or another (Starbucks, Blendz, Cafe D’Artigiano, etc) that you live in an artificially caffeinated state whether you like it or not.

So, this past weekend Starbucks finally released a store locator app for the iPhone into the Canadian iTunes store!

For me, it’s not about locating a store in Vancouver, it’s about remembering which stores are good (clean bathrooms, friendly staff) among the 100s there seem to be downtown.

And of course it will come in handy when we’re out of our comfort zone and I need a fix.

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A while back I got an email from someone about taking surveys online to earn rewards, and thought “That sounds like a scam” so I did some more research.

This company, Web Perspectives is one of the few legitimate survey companies online that actually offer real rewards to it’s members. The rewards for completing a survey vary from survey to survey, depending on what the survey owner wants to offer.

A variety of survey rewards are offered to all of our members. Survey rewards include monthly prize draws for 5 chances at $1,000. There are also special draws for x-box’s, i-Pods, and much more. Many surveys also offer individual rewards in the form of  “Perspective Points”. These range from 100 points to 500 points with a completed survey.

Web Perspectives reward partners:

• PayPal – Redeem 1000 points to transfer $10 into your PayPal account.
• Chapters/Indigo(Online) – Use 1000 points to claim a $10 gift certificate to purchase books, DVD’s, I-pods, etc
• Sympatico MSN Music Store – Redeem 1000 points  for $10 worth of music downloads.
• Cineplex – Redeem 1000 points for a free movie ticket valid at any Cineplex Entertainment theatre.
• Golf Town – Use 1000 points to claim a $10 gift certificate to purchase sporting goods or apparell.
• The Canadian Cancer Society – Donate your reward to a good cause and help other Canadians. You will also receive a tax receipt for your donation.

So, what kinds of surveys do you get to answer? It depends. You can fill in an online profile inside your Web Perspectives account and they will try to target surveys into your interest area. For me, I’ve been getting a variety of surveys about food, beverage, technology and transportation (cars really).

The time required to fill out a survey varies too. Some are short 5 minute ones, but a big one I did on snack-food took me 45 minutes! Yes, you can save and return in most cases.

Some of the surveys you get in your inbox may ultimately end up not allowing you to complete. They pre-qualify respondents in some cases. I got one survey about beer, and since I said I don’t drink beer, I was sent to a nice “Thanks but no thanks” page. This has happened a number of times.

How many surveys do I answer? I get anywhere from 1 to 4 emails a day offering a survey and I don’t answer all of them. Sometimes I’m just too busy and other times I’m just not interested.

So far I haven’t won any of their contests, and keep forgetting to check my points to see if I can redeem them for anything. I fill out the surveys mainly because they are fun. I’ve actually seen the results of some of the surveys (or what sounds like them) on the news.

If you’re looking for a way to make a quick and easy contribution to market research or those other “mystery” polls you hear about, check out Web Perspectives.

Over the past few weeks, there’ve been several lawsuits filed again Apple Corp which are no doubt keeping their lawyer’s busy.

I’m sure the boys over at Dewey, Cheatham and Howe keep busy every day finding new and more intriguing ways of writing evil things into EULA’s, Privacy Policies and going after copyright infringement, but fighting off a variety of incoming suits must keep them busy.

Everyone wants a bite of the Apple. They’re one of the biggest, most prominent companies still making money in today’s economy. They seem to be able to do no wrong that way. Everything with the Apple logo on it has turned to gold lately, which makes them a target.

The lawsuit that was disclosed today makes no sense, and is just one of the dozens of frivolous ones they (and many others) contend with every year.

AppleInsider.com is reporting that Apple is being sued by a guy who’s clearly after nothing more than money.

Apple is the defendant in two recent, offbeat lawsuits, including one filed by an artist who alleges he invented and named the iPod and iPhone in the 1980s, only to have Apple and actress Sarah Jessica Parker steal his trade secrets.

In meeting these people, Wakefield alleges he was asked by the congressman to disclose his “trade secrets” to the FBI, including the concept of the iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone, the last of which he allegedly specifically named nearly 20 years prior to its debut.

Yep. Wakefield claims to have invented the iPod and iTunes nearly before the internet came into existence, prior to the MP3 being developed and other insanity.

The next suit mentioned in the AppleInsider report talks about someone suing Apple because Lil’ Wayne (stupidest name ever) may have used a concept in one of his songs.

They then go on to mention how Apple was also sued for being connected to the Mafia.

I figure if Apple IS connected to the Mafia (and I have no specific knowledge for or against this), then these lawsuits should quietly disappear.