Let's start with Hofstra. Since I matriculated there, I have often been bombarded with brochures for various study-abroad programs. I don't doubt that some of these mailings are effective at attracting people. But I'm not one of them. I saw
They just pass along the postage to your tuition bill. Stay classy Hofstra. Plus checking records involves too much work.Sounds like as good an explanation as any to me.
I got this solicitation from USAA a couple of weeks ago. I left the "PO3 USN" unblurred because that is the point. For starters, as I mentioned at the top, I've been out of the Navy for over two years. Second, it's been nearly six years since I was a Petty Officer Third Class. I took the exam for PO2 in September 2005 and found out that I passed two months later. I'm not sure that USAA can be held to blame; I'm not sure exactly how they would update their records, other than possibly the same way they got my name in the first place. Regardless, making an error like that is a sure way to draw negative attention and to not make a sale.
This came in the mail yesterday; since it came from Ford Credit, I opened it, figuring that it might be an important notice regarding my payment plan. Nope. It was a solicitation to get myself into a brand new 2011 Fiesta. The first thing to note is that Ford is pitching me a higher interest rate than the one I currently have. Beyond that, this simply made me realize that they can't see into my mind and read my personality. I've only owned my current car for seventeen months, and I bought it new. In other words, it has plenty of years and miles ahead of it, and therefore I won't be in the market for another car for a LONG time. Generally, I don't replace things until they irreparably break. For example, I'm still using the same "clamshell" phone (a Motorola V220) that I've used for six and a half years. It's branded Cingular, a company that was subsumed into AT&T four years ago. There may be people out there interested in trading in for a new car just before the end of the model year, but I'm not one of them.
This has nothing to do with mail, of course. This was my haul from the Borders in Syosset; I saved about $30 off the listed prices. I didn't intend to buy any of these when I walked in...I was just poking around and happened upon them. I'm looking forward to all three, and I'm not sure which I'll read first. I'm also not sure of how fast I'll get through these books. I may have been able to read at the ripe age of one and a half, but I'm not really a "born" reader, unlike Jaclyn. All these books should nicely help to fill out the three weeks until the start of the fall semester.