Tears in the rain

Kath and I have been having a few days of cinema. On Sunday after a lovely BBQ at Bruce's house we headed to Odeon to watch Avengers Age of Ultron.

Bruce and Nina had put on a great spread, smoked beef, chilli and other tex mex style dishes. It was great to see them and Connie, even is she did cry after Nina made me hold her. Ian and Helen turned up which was a nice surprise, Helen put Kath and I to shame by doing parkrun while we sat in bed. Joe and Holly look like they might be moving home soon which is exciting, and of course Nick and Charlotte, who didn't attend the BBQ are getting married next Saturday.

We watched Avengers on IMAX at the printworks. It was well worth spending the money on such a visual feast. I really enjoyed the film in spite of a few hammy moments, and odd pacing it was an entertaining watch.

Last night was a different sort of film altogether, one I am not sure would be made today. We went to see the Final Cut of Blade Runner. In spite of it being one of the seminal films defining the way futuristic films looked for over two decades Kath had never seen it. Its starting to get a bit dated now, the dire predictions of a future 2019 when Los Angeles is under a constant cloud and humans are colonising space using replicant slaves.

Replicants are banned on Earth and Deckard the main character played by Harrison Ford is a replicant assassin or Blade Runner. Deckard is tasked with hunting down several replicants including a Nexus 6 the newest and most powerful form played by Rutger Hauer. Along the way we meet Raphael, a Nexus 6 who doesn't realise she is not human thanks to implanted memories.

Panned in its initial release in 1982, the film has become a cult classic. While some directors cough George Lucas have steadily diluted their original vision the re-cutting of Blade runner has made it an even more enjoyable film, increasing the tension and immersion of the futuristic world.

The replicants force us to ask existential questions about ourselves, they are more real, more physical with an artificially short lifespan. what makes them less human, is it because humans designed them even though they are superior to humans in physically and in some cases mentally. Towards the end of the film Rutger Hauers' character tells Deckard he has seen things that he can only dream of, in some way the replicant being more than human.

One question I have wondered is whether Deckard is a replicant? At one point Racheal asks him if he has ever taken the test used to differentiate replicants from Humans. The police chief also refers to him as a killing machine after retiring one of the replicants.

Even if in the 1980's predicted the city of the future 2019 would have flying cars but still use payphones and photographs, it is an incredible vision which still looks unique and is one of my favourite films.

Changes

Two weeks ago saw the end of our five years of wait. Kasia said goodbye to Poland and moved to the UK. I went over to Poland, helped her pack up the last of her clothes into suitcases, and we had meet ups with her friends there to say goodbye. Kath was pretty emotional on Saturday night as we said by bye to her close friends, I hope some of them will visit us in the UK before too long.

Back in the UK it has been quite an adventure so far. Trying to reorganise the house a bit and fit everything in has led to no less than four trips to Ikea. Initially the idea was to use a company to make a custom wardrobe, we contacted Sliderobes whom have a local office in Stanley Green. However the prices we were quoted were pretty steep to start with and rose quickly as we configured the interior. In the end we worked out that we could have a very similar Ikea wardrobe with all the extras and have enough money left over to buy a new desk, chair for Kath and to pimp up my old wardrobe putting in a light divider and trouser rack. Our fantastic new PAX wardrobe was complete with mirrored sliding doors, lights, and draws including a special cufflink jewellery drawer. It is a little smaller than the alternative but at 1/4 of the cost we lose only a few square feet.

Kath helped me to clear out my office, tons of old books and wires finally going away. The spare room is now set up for Kath, with her text books, desk and chair.

Apart from furniture building we have been enjoying ourselves catching up with people, we took my mum and dad out for mothers day for a great meal at the Bull Head.  Kath has been studying for the IELTs exam she must take before she is able to get a licence to practice as a doctor in the UK.

Craptops

I bought my dad a new laptop for Christmas, a little HP it was really cheap but surprisingly capable of running all the sorts of application he needs.

The only disappointing thing about it was the amount of junk software installed. Not just lots of useless apps put actually dodgy apps ready to hurt the unwary. For the first time I saw an uninstalled which on one of the steps actually installed more software! Basically relying on the social engineering that most people just keep hitting next then end up with yet more crap ware to remove. If I was head of HP I would not want this junk of my hardware, it just makes it look crumby, certainly the repetitional damage is not worth the few quid they advertisers are paying.

It not just hardware manufactures getting caught out though. I recently fixed my barbers laptop and like a lot of computers I see it had all sort of dodgy browser extensions installed. It displayed fake adverts for Adobe flash which installed yes you've guessed it more junk software. The laptop was so full of this junk as to be unusable. These programs are for some reason not recognised as viruses, in spite of their virus like behaviour, changing settings ruining the user experience and driving the user to specific pages for finance gain. I am unsure why this junk is allowed to exist.

Overall I have to hand it to Apple, every Mac which I have used comes with software that enhances the computer not just to sell advertising space. There is a hell of a lot less of this junk which affects Apple.

Road to Sata

I just got a message from fitbit to tell me that I have now recorded enough steps to walk the length of Japan 3,007. It reminded me of a book I read some years ago, when I was trying to learn Japanese.
The books were The Roads to Sata: A 2000-mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth. His first book written while he was living as a writer living in Japan. He basically set off on a strange journey across Japan on foot. Charting his experiences, anecdotes of the people and places he met on the road intermingled with historic information. It is a very good book, full of fantastic characters and a real product of its age the 1980's when Japan was conquering the world before the crash and the stagnation which followed.

I never did get very far with my Japanese course, after the first two enjoyable semesters the third went down hill after the college amalgamated two classes. Strangely later to just like my Polish course also hit the buffers after three semesters thanks to a lack of students.

I am really looking forward to the release of the Fitbit Surge which should mean I can wear that instead of the two devices I use now when running; my current Fitbit flex and Alpha Mio heart rate monitor. The flex has been a great device and having a fitness tracker really does help to motivate me to get out more often, however its not got a watch and its annoying to wear two devices.

Is it 2015 already?

I had my car serviced today, in an odd experience they emailed me a video of my car being inspected including a breakdown of the many expensive fixes it needs. Sign new Brakes, callipers and disk sigh just what I need after Christmas.

Kath was here for nearly two weeks over Christmas. She arrived on Boxing day at Liverpool. On the 27th we had redux of the Christmas meal with my parents. They made the full works again, from turkey to cranberry sauce to sausage meat and sprouts.

We had an awesome time together. Kath got me a new camera lens for Christmas, 70-300mm. We took some really nice photos whilst on walks to Poynton Canal, Lyme Park and Macclesfield forest. It was a great present, took great photos and memories.

Apart from walking we managed to catch up with as many people as possible. Including a lovely meal out at Sam's Chop house with Andy, Tilly, Ian, Helen, Dave, Claire, Will, Tracey and Macca. We also had a couple of Japanese style meals thanks to the sushi set Bruce and Nina got us. We made a meal for Jo and Holly one evening and had enough to make another for Phil and Caroline the next day.

Making the Japanese food was both fun and stressful, somehow we managed to have an argument about measures of water for the sushi rice. On a positive note I don't think I will forget how to season the rice. After the hiccups we managed to make up and in the end prepare some great food which I think Jo and Holly enjoyed very much.

On New Years eve we were invited to Matt and Christelle. She made a lovely meal and we all had a great evening chatting drinking and eating large amounts of food.

Christmas 2014

Last night was fun, a group of us met up in the Victorian in Bramhall. Nick Charlotte Helen Ian and Myself. As we arrived to a very packed bar, I saw one of the weirdest sights I have ever witnessed while stood at a bar. A young and very drunk young lad stood behind us guzzling a takeaway including shovelling a pie into his face and a cup of peas, it was very entertaining.

The Victorian was very very packed, and very humid so we decided to switch the venues. Mark and Helen joined us and we strolled over to Beluga. Unfortunately it was ticket only so we ended up sat outside Nappa. Eventually the cold had us move back inside.

Bruce, Wooller and Andy Bruce joined us in there. Bruce was in a great mood, still waiting on Nina to give birth. It was nice to see everyone chat and catch up.

I cadged a lift home with Bruce, and we exchanged our presents.

Today I went to my parents for Christmas dinner, they made the full works turkey stuffing sausage meat. It was delicious, and there is plenty more to have with Kath when she arrives. Kath bought me a new lens for my camera which is awesome. Wanda got me a gorilla tripod, cant wait to get out and try them.

Kath arrives from Poland tomorrow I cant wait to see her, that is the best Christmas present.

It was the night before Christmas

Nearly Christmas, next year I will be spending it with Kath, this year Christmas Day will be at my parents.

I had to work this morning, leaving at lunch in time to get my presents wrapped. I tok my parents theirs round, finding Jono and my aunty there. Was nice to say hello and merry Christmas. Next stop was Phil and Caroline, I dropped off their presents and saw his mum there. We had a quick chat and a coffee before I headed home for dinner and a change.

I am waiting for Ian to pick me up with Helen, we are planning an evening in Bramhall with Nick and Charlotte and maybe a few others.

Using Keybase.io to secure communications

I has been over a year since Edward Snowden first started releasing information on how the American secret service along with the "five eyes" (USA, Britain, New Zealand, Canada and Australia) have been monitoring email, and network traffic of millions of people across the world. Including harvesting private pictures of peoples instant messenger chats and maybe even paying private companies to deliberately reduce security of encryption technology.

In the post Snoden era it pays to secure some of our communications to ensure rouge elements are not snooping.

I have used PGP in the past, however it has always been a  real pain to manage the keys and identities.  Finally it looks as though there is a solution. A new service called Keybase.io enables you to link Social accounts and emails to a PGP key. Basically making sending secure encrypted communications simple. It is well worth signing up, I have associated my twitter and github accounts.

If anyone fancies an account I have some invitations, tweet me a private message to @cookiesworld.

All for the best

Friend or foe?

Wearables or technology that you can wear have become a big thing of the last few years. This is set to accelerate with he launch of the Apple watch next year. From the simple pedometers these devices have evolved to recorded detailed information about sleep, movement and even heart rate. Combined with mobile phones they can track a large amount of objective information.

These devices generally collect information to the cloud, held on third party servers. Now lawyers have cottoned on to the fact  a wealth of information is available. A case in the USA is using data from a Fitbit account in a personal injury case to demonstrate the objective and measured changes to the plaintiff's lifestyle.

I myself own a Fitbit  I use it to monitor my activity, it certainly has helped me walk more and be a little more active. It is disturbing to me to realise that lawyers could request this information. I imagine the intelligence authorities are or will be attempting to access this data soon, does elevated hear-rate mean somebody is running a marathon or, maybe planning a terror attack?

Waves

This time last week I was arriving in Poland, after an early morning wake up, a short flight and queuing for what felt like an eternity at Modlin border control I met Kath and we boarded the coach bound for Bialystok.

That afternoon Kath, Wojciech and myself headed out to the Alpha department store to watch a Gone Girl at the cinema there. I had very much enjoyed reading the book and wondered how it would transfer to film. I really enjoyed what they did with the film, it lost a few details of the book but the characters really shined, especially Neil Patrick Harris as the creepy ex and Rosamund Pike.

We were a little speechless after the film, its pretty dark and asks a lot of questions so we went for a walk through the park to  get some Sushi at Tanoshii. We had an excellent platter of Sushi and some Japanese beer.

On Sunday Kath and I decided to have a lazy morning watching TV and enjoying each others company. We don't get enough time together so it was really nice. In the afternoon we went for a walk around Bialystok from her flat to the little Zoo. The wildcats and bears were out. I really enjoyed the wildcats, one of them was stalking round the cat like an more angry, less fluffy version of Coco, with a black harry potter lightning marking on his back.

The bears were being fed as we arrived so we only saw them for a few minutes as they headed into there home for dinner.

In the evening went for drinks, starting at Sherlock Holmes pub then onto Castle, then to a few more before taking a kebab back to the flat. Originally we had planned to meet up with some people but we ended up spending the evening together.

Tuesday was my last day in Poland. We had breakfast at Kaffka bistro, it was excellent fresh eggs delicately fried with bacon sausages with salad and fresh coffee. It filled me up until the evening. After breakfast we had a wonder round the park and took some papers Kath needed to the Polish GMC. Before boarding the coach for the long drive to Modlin before the flight home. Modlin airport is tiny, its a modern building but its overstretched supporting Ryanair. The gates were too small to hold the number of passengers getting on we flowed out into the next gate. After being hurried through by dire warnings over tannoy. I stood in a mass of people waiting, first we were let outside to stand under bus shelter type contraption while watching the passengers from another flight disembark.

I was fortunate with the weather while there was a storm in the UK Poland enjoyed a gorgeous Autumn day, I must have flown over the storm as when I arrived back in the UK there was no wind left but plenty of tree branches blown off.

R.I.P iPod

Wired are reporting Apple have killed off the iPod. It had been on the fall every since the iPhone had been introduced. Oddly phones back then could play mp3, I remember my Nokia could, the problem was it was clunky, the Apple iPod was a thing of beauty, Jonny Ives industrial design. It did only one job playing music, but it did that very well.

A decade ago, I bought my first iPod, a 3rd generation, before they came up with the click wheel. I felt so excited getting it out of the box. Apple were far more generous back then, my 20GB iPod came complete with a dock, a combined USB and Firewire cable for super quick transfer of files.

In those days Apple were on the resurgence, they were cool but not popular in the way they are today. They were not the first company to have an MP3 player, but the iPod was simply better than the other players out there. I remember Bruce had bought a Creative DAP jukebox. It held a lot of music but it was large, clunky and took forever to load music thanks to the slow usb 1 interface. I steadfastly hung on to my sony mini disk player, which while it had better sound quality thanks to the Sony ATRACK compression only held an hour worth of music.

Buying an iPod considered with my second trip to Australia, I remember sitting on the flight playing what track is this with Danny, and listening to music in Paul's apartment in Kings Cross Sydney. I am sad to see iPod disappear, even if I didn't own one for years it  is linked to some special memories for me.

Holiday in Sicily: Taormina

After braving Etna we decided to go and visit the Greek / Roman amphitheatre in Taormina. It was a slightly longer drive than to Catania, again taking us onto the autostrada.
This time I failed to understand the signs and ended up taking the wrong lane and missing picking up a ticket for the autostrada. That meant when exiting at the super busy Taormina exit I had a problem. At first I had visions of a huge fine, fortunately playing the dumb tourist paid off and after serval minutes talking via intercom we paid the 1.60 euro fare.

Making the mistake of setting the sat nav to search for the amphitheatre we drove into Taormina, around and up up up way into the hills on narrow steep and scary roads with nowhere to turn. After about 40 minutes driving up down round and through the pedestrian zone we gave up and parked, parking was a ruinous 3 euro per hour but after the ups and downs I would have paid any price to get out of the car.

After a strong coffee, we found the the theatre is in the pedestrian part of town which we hadn't driven around. It was however worth all the effort, the views were spectacular, and the amphitheatre its self is incredible. Build by the Greeks then extended by the Romans perched with views over the Ionian coast. It must have been a thing of true wonder when it was build, they still do concerts there now, indeed they were setting up for an event. I think Philip would have been impressed.
After having a good look round and taking many pictures we headed back into Taormina for a wonder around the town. It is much more touristy than Acireale, indeed there were plenty of English tourists. We bought some souvenirs and had a walk. It is a picturesque and nice town but not so impressive as Dubrovnik was last year.

Holiday in Sicily: Etna

What holiday in Sicily would be complete without a trip to Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in Europe. We decided to take one of the excursions in offered by Geo explorer after seeing their brochure in our hotel, and have it recommended to us by the receptionist.

Our guide picked us up from the hotel at 9.30am. Getting into the back of the 4x4 Landrover it was a little bit of a tight squeeze in the back with three other couples. The trip cost 50 Euro each plus 5 Euro shoe hire. I certainly would recommend the show hire as the scree could be difficult to negotiate in light shoes.

Our tour guide drove us up to the Etna park stopping first to the park a view inside a cave formed after a lava flow, a walk around an old crater at 2000M and a snack.

After the cave we headed further up Etna, looking at some of the past lava flows. The next stop was a basalt quarry, it was interesting to see how the lava cools, and where all the stone for the roads and buildings come from.

The trip then took us further up the Etna, first to a rest stop then on to the highest point of the trip the Silvestri Craters. These were old craters forming a line, one of which we walked round. The guide explained the process of their formation and pointed out some of the features like the rocks ejected out of the volcano. The views up there were nothing short of spectacular, though it was very crowded.

The final part of the trip was an excursion to a viewing point on the Southern side of Etna, here there were less lava flows but sometimes you can get a glimpse of the active area, this time we did not. The views were stunning though.

Finally we were taken down to the village of Zafferana for a snack. The snack was Arancini, a Sicilian delicacy. They are basically rice balls stuffed with ragu coated with breadcrumbs and fried.

I thought that the trip was a good value, especially considering the excellent context given by the guide and the lunch. I don't feel I would have appreciated some of this had we taken the trip alone. We did not get to see the active area, nor to the higher part above 2000 meters.

Holiday in Sicily: Catania

After several relaxing days we decided to venture from the Hotel and see some more of Sicily. We decided to start with Catania. A tourist and student hub Catania was destroyed by earthquake and volcanic eruptions in the 17th century and rebuilt in the baroque style.  Etna is still a visible presence on the horizon.

The drive to Catania was my second attempt at driving on the right. Again it made me curse Italian drivers for the total lack of empathy. They seem intent of barging through the smallest of gaps only to sit in traffic, honking their horns and gesticulating from behind the wheel.

Stall on the Catania fish market

We made the trip parking a short walk from the centre. Heading first to the fish market, we were pleasantly surprised to find a vibrant market with all sorts of fish from swordfish stake to sea urchins.

After absorbing the sights and smells of the market we stopped for a granita and a coffee in the centre of the town, the Fontana dell'Elefante. An impressive centre flanked by the Cathedral, the centre of which is taken by a rather odd looking statue of a smiling elephant topped with an Egyptian obelisk.

Bellini Theatre

We took a walk around Catania taking in the Cathedral, and the Bellini Theatre. As with Acireale there were many boutique shops. The outsides are sometimes scruffy but looking inside they are often incredible displays, almost art like in there objectification of the wares.

Holiday in Sicily

After arriving we spent a couple of lazy days enjoying relaxing by the pool. I read The Impossible Dead on my new Kindle Paperwhite.

The pool area was lovely, from the pool area you could see out to the sea. The pool itself was a good size if a little oddly shaped, we divided our time between the sun loungers, and the pool itself. Taking lunch al fresco on the terrace. The lunch menu consisted of either salad or a sandwich and a tall glass of Italian beer.

We did also find time to explore the town of Acireale. It is essentially a small compact town full of Churches. It is a popular place to get married and we witnessed a wedding virtually every day we walked around. Similarly to Spain the Sicilians take a siesta during the warmest part of the day, the shops close for this and reopen in the evening.

The architecture is particular to the region a mix of baroque, building are limestone with added basalt lifted from the many volcanic outpourings of Etna. This black and white effect has a pleasing effect and the buildings can be pretty.

There were a few decent restaurants in the town our favourite was Vecchia Aci. They commandeered a strip of park next to the Basilica creating a lovely outdoor area. There was took a bottle of Wine and a pizza, enjoying cool of the evening after a hot day.

Oddly we found in many of the places the starter before pizza is a plate of chips or crisps!

Holiday In Sicily: Arrival

Saint Sebastian Basilica

Kath and I decided to take our summer holidays in Siciliy this year. Neither of us had ever visited this part of Italy before, and the climate though hot being an Island was more hospitable than mainland Italy.

We left on Sunday morning flying form Manchester Airport Terminal 1, via EasyJet to Catania, Sicily. The flight was a brief 3 hour jaunt, slightly elongated by a delay leaving. This was thanks to the security at the airport.  They were really being thorough checking us in the security crewe, much more throughly than I remembered.

This year we decide to hire a car, I have never driven on the right side of the road before, and the car we were given was an automatic, another new experience. There followed a hair raising 45 minute drive, during which I learned, Italians don't follow any sort of traffic rules, Red light appear to be optional and right of way is determined by who gives first. We drove part of the way on the autostrada, a kind of low rent motorway which requires a toll. The toll from Acireale was 1.60 though the collection desk was closed so we didn't pay.

Fortunately we made it to the hotel safe and sound in spite of the super tight roads, my driving Kath's navigation managed to get us safely to the hotel.

The hotel was small and welcoming. We strolled passed the pool area to the desk and picked up the key. After a short siesta we headed out into the town to find some dinner. We stopped at a restaurant opposite the Saint Sebastian Basilica. I ate seafood pasta and Kath had a ravioli with spinach and ricotta in fish stew. It was a great way to start the holiday.

Uptight downtown

Mr Storm having a rest

Yesterday I dog sat Storm for my parents; they were going on a day out to Chester. Storm didn't seem too enthusiastic to start with. I took him for two walks one in the morning and one later before his tea time. He is getting old now only managed a couple of throws before he wanted to head back home. On the way back from the second walk he flopped down half way to have a rest.

Yesterday evening I met up with Bruce, he was showing off his new car; an Toyota Hilux. It is very awesome, leather seats aluminium lined trailer, I was very impressed.

Bruce myself and Jono went for a drink at the Unicorn, Bruce drove so we could have a ride in the beast.

The Unicorn was quiet, I wonder in contrast to the Bulls Head which was very busy.

Today is Kaths' birthday. Unfortunately I could not make it to Poland to visit as the flights are currently very expensive. Instead I surprised her with gifts I had her brother intercept, and with a bouquet of flowers. She seemed very happy, so win for husband.

Bendy Man

Last night in an attempt to help improve my posture and flexibility I went to a Yoga class. I found BendyYoga via google.  I liked that this was a drop in class, mixed ability and open for all. I wanted to avoid making a block booking as required by yoga Bramhall. Just in case I didn't enjoy the class.

Last time I went to a Yoga class it was with Martina back in 2007, that class was in Cheadle on a Wednesday night. It was mostly middle aged women so I didn't feel like heading there on my own. Also given the instructor Julia was a friend of Martina, and the way Martina and I fell out with each other I decided there were too many reasons against.

There were about 9 people in the class plus the instructor. He started by working through some basic stretches, then more complex ones. Moving on the posture then finally meditation.

I found 80 minutes doing various poses was very challenging, I am anything but flexible. I knew my hamstrings were tight, however I had not realised how tight my arms and shoulders were. The room was very warm thanks to the day being hot. In spite of the heat thought I felt much better at the end.

Falling down

Last night Bruce came round last night. We watched the classic 1980s film falling down. Starring Michael Douglas as D-Fens a man struggling to cope with what he sees as flaws 1980s society.

The film opens with D-Fens sat in his overheating car, a fly buzzing round his head. Something snaps inside and gets out of the car and starts a long walk towards his home. During the walk he passes through the latino, and affluent areas.

It is an excellent, and complex film. The main character is D-Fens, a man who thinks of himself as the hero, on his way home to his family. On the way we learn more about D-Fens life and why he ended up so angry.

Oddly its one of the first films I can remember where the central character is so much of an anti hero, even if he doesn't know it. I also liked that there were good back stories for the cop on his last day came out from behind his desk to track down the man in the suit. The final scene in which the cop confronts d-fens suggesting that he always knew that he was on his way to kill his family and then himself; point of no return.

My favourite scene is in the burger joint where, firstly he in 5 minutes late so they wont sell breakfast, then after pulling a gun on the manager the burger he is given looks nothing like that image behind the counter delivers a speech about the ills of America to the terrified diners.

The sense of place and time was palpable, the phones booths, huge mobile phones graffiti, strong colours.

I think that the depiction of gangland were naive, the 80s was a time when the city was a dark and dangerous place crumbling while people escaped to the suburbs. Over my lifetime that has changed. Cities cleaned up there acts, now the city centre is a place people want to live and work.

Overall its a classic, well acted well shot and despite what be modern standard (think the wire ) has a naive portrayal of the Latin Americans is a great watch.

Influence

I have just finished reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasionby Dr. Robert Cialdini. I picked up this book after hearing it talked about on Radio 4 a good read picked by Daniel Finkelstein, Associate Editor, columnist and leader writer for The Times, was also an adviser to John Major and William Hague.

In Influence Cialdini writes about the power of persuasion. Using examples drawn both from his own life and psychological studies he examines some common themes which lead us to be manipulated (or to manipulate). Each chapter is about a particular method including;

• Reciprocation
• Commitment
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity 

Each method is a unique example of how people in groups or as individuals react in certain circumstances. He gives specific example of how marketeers use this tactics, sometimes they do so even sub consciously to make us buy, buy more or give references. He also tells us how we can realise when specific methods are being used on us and to say no. I find it quite hard going their are a lot of psychological terms. It was however incredibly rewarding illustrating perfectly moments I have exactly felt. The chapter on commitment and consistency was particularly interesting to me as I have certainly been taken in. Hoisted by my own words by a clever salesman, getting me to commit and have my own words used against me, so much so I felt like I could not back out of the sale.

I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in marketing, or wow has ever felt powerless to salesmen or charity people.