So today is Mother’s Day and like most people I spent the day with my mom. Funny enough, one of the thing she wanted to see was that new Target store where since there wasn’t a local store at the moment so we had to drive a little to a mall that did have one. Every mom must have a similar way of thinking as the place was packed with what seemed to be kids taking their mom to go shopping for the day.

What was interesting to me was that in some stores there were these signs on the shelves saying “This is a perfect gift for moms” where at first there didn’t seem to be any real theme to it. For example, at first you would see one on the shelf that sells candy and then the next one would be in the area that sells light-blubs. It wasn’t until I went to the computer section when it dawned on me.

Basically, I saw the same signage in the section that sold computer routers and of course my first reaction was “I’m sure every mother in the world wants a router for Mother’s day.” Having more knowledge in this space I was able to see that the product had a crazy markup on it. Hence, the company makes more money and so it would make sense that they are trying to convince people to buy it.

I guess that goes to show that if you are one of those people who are desperately looking for a gift the last minute and are solely relying on the store to give you knowledge on what’s best prepare to pay more than you should in a lot of cases. Always pays to do your own research as oppose to relying on like the salesmen.

I’m sure everyone has been reading how 3D printers are starting to be offered in consumer retail stores with the price being with the four figure range. While with that price it seems like these things are currently only for the extreme enthusiasts or large businesses, it did make me wonder if people are already starting to think now if they should start research technology to see if it could completely change their business or personal finance.

For example, for a business you can literally just start printing out things like action figures or phone accessories to sell for the public. For an everyday consumer you could probably stop the need of having to say purchase a clothes hangar or maybe even cases. At the same time, this could probably open up more opportunities for people to create a home based business. It makes me wonder if it could put certain people out of business too. Imagine for example a situation where when we buy a new home we will get the print design for our keys and therefore and just print one out if we need spare ones. That wouldn’t bold well for a key cutter.

Situations like that makes me think where irregardless if I am going to be using one or not in the present moment that this is something people should be trying to educate themselves about now. Is it wise invest like $1000 early on to better understand the technology? I suppose that all depends if you feel you have an immediate use for it aside from the educational point of view.

There was a scenario today which made me wonder how many others would do the same thing if the situation arose. Essentially, I went to a restaurant today for a small family gathering and in this place you would check off what you want from the menu which they would then make. Afterwards they return the list of what you ordered and then proceed to cross them out as the food is brought to your table. For one of the orders the staff seemed to have made an error as they accidentally made and charged us for something that was more expensive. Their error was apparent too since you can clearly see which dishes were marked down.

However, it was decided that we wouldn’t make a fuss about it as it will potentially get one of the workers in trouble and so we just ended up accepting the dish and the higher price tag. I was advocating though that it should have at least been brought to their attention because as a business they should want to correct their mistakes. Otherwise they will likely not even be aware that they are making these kinds of mistakes.

It does make me wonder though as I pretty much guarantee if this wasn’t a formal restaurant but rather a fast food chain that most people would have no issues in returning the item and asking for a new one. That makes me wonder, why is it that way? In both cases you could argue that asking for a new item could get the person in trouble in terms of their job evaluation.

It makes me think too about things like tipping where people say in the food industry you tip people because you know that the wage they make is very little and so they rely on those tips to survive. Again though, you could argue it’s the same for like a person that works in a fast food restaurant. So why is it so different there?

Funny enough, even for this I don’t think I have ever been told an official story on how this habit has developed. Maybe someone out there has an actual story or tale about this to shed some light.

So today I was reading various articles about how how a new study came out that tried to say that money does indeed buy happiness as making more money generally makes people more happy and that there was no limit as to how happy a person can get as a result of this. So it’s almost like saying every dollar you make gives you X amount of happiness in life.

I personally find studies like these a little silly. Cause technically isn’t it a more common sense to say that it is more about the environment and what you need to do to survive? For example, if we all lived in some jungle where money was technically non existent and we relied solely on trade skills and resource gathering then this study would change to like gathering bananas or fish makes you happy in life and that there is no limit.

You could argue that more money makes you less happy if you were in an environment where for every extra thousand dollar you make for example it means you will attract a snake oil salesman in your life who will hound you like the paparazzi. To me money is simply a means or resource to acquiring whatever it is you need in our society to build whatever your ideal lifestyle is.

I guess there was no avoiding this piece of news today as even for myself I was putting aside a lot of work to read the news about this. Those videos and pictures are pretty disheartening I must say and makes you wonder what people are thinking to want to hurt so many people at an event that is supposed to bring people together in a positive way.

If that wasn’t crazy enough, apparently here today there was a scare that there were grenades found at a post office here in Downtown which resulted in bomb technicians having to check it out. Actually, as of writing this they still haven’t confirmed if it was say real or not. This is one of those days where aside from business and money you just have to think why people can’t find something more constructive or positive to do in the world huh?

I did find something interesting though for anyone that has family or friends that may have been at the event as apparently Google has a person finder specifically for this at http://google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosions/ which is free for the public to search and submit information about people there. Hopefully they do uncover exactly who did it and why.