Good Karma Day

[buggery]

This incident gave me a warm feeling that lasted most of the day. I'm not posting about it to show off, so much as to squee -- because yes, I do enjoy doing good -- and perhaps in the hope that my example will inspire somebody else to boost their karma if presented with a similar situation.

I went grocery shopping today, as is part of my normal Thursday schedule. While the cashier was ringing up my purchases, the bagger pointed to an envelope on the floor and said, "You dropped something." I was pretty sure I hadn't had a #10 business envelope with me, but I picked it up -- sure enough, it was addressed to somebody else, a woman named Rhonda. The woman before me in line, presumably, long gone by that point. The envelope was still sealed, so my first thought was just to drop it in the nearest mailbox, or bring it over to the customer-service desk and let them do it.

Then I looked again at the envelope... I didn't recognise the company name in the return-address window (it was one of those double-window #10s), but it looked for all the world like a paycheck was in it. Most people in the US will probably know what I mean, as mechanically-printed payroll checks and their attached stubs tend to have a distinctive look, including paper with a pre-printed coloured, patterned background. That's the kind of paper that was showing through the windows.

Now, if it had just been an ordinary piece of correspondence, dropping it in the nearest mailbox would've done fine; it would've been re-delivered to the recipient's address within a day or three. But a paycheck isn't something people are likely to forget they had received, and once they noticed it was missing many people's first thought would be to call and ask for another to be sent... which takes time, and requires that payment be stopped on the gone-missing one, and is generally a pain.

Her name and address were right there on the envelope, though. I went over to the customer service desk and asked to use their phone book. (The woman at the customer service desk at my local grocery store today was courteous and helpful. YMMV.) Sure enough, there was a number listed with a last name and street address that matched the envelope.

At that point I explained to the customer service rep what had happened, and she immediately volunteered to call the number in the book to see whether it was the right one, and, if so, see what the owner of the check wanted to do. The woman was home -- it turned out it had actually been her mother who was at the store -- and wound up having customer service put the check in the store safe until someone could go back down and pick it up.

I'd like to think I'm being overly cynical, but I suspect most people would have just handed the envelope over to the cashier (or left it on the bagging counter, if not back on the floor) despite her apparent disinclination to do anything with it other than maybe throw it in the trash. It took a few minutes out of my day, and I had just bought some ice cream, which normally gives me incentive to get home ASAP, but when I think of the aggravation I probably saved a family of strangers... it was well-worth it, to me.

---

A friend of mine is shopping for a laptop. She's never had one before, and isn't especially computer-savvy -- she uses computers all the time in her job, like most people these days, but doesn't know an E: drive from an IP address. I've never used a laptop either (with the exception of one that's been obsolete nearly ten years and is a Mac to boot -- Zaida needs a PC), but I agreed to ask around and see what people recommended.

Zaida's requirements:

PC laptop
8 lb. or less
preferably in the $500-600 range
compatible with high-speed internet connection
ability to archive data (cd-burner, external HD, zip drive...?)

Zaida's mostly going to use the computer for word processing, and e-mail and research on the web. She has a work computer, but it's antiquated and hellaciously slow -- she works in a state social services agency which has been deliberately crippled by increasing budget cutbacks for several years now. For confidentiality reasons, she can't really copy data off the work computer onto her home computer, but she can, and does, do work at home which she then brings in -- formerly all on floppies. The work computer does have a cd-rom drive, so if she were to get a burner, she could move files that way, provided that the learning curve for the cd-burner is short. I've never had my own cd burner, either; I know there used to be an issue with burned cd-roms not being rewritable, but is there any chance that someone might try to sneak that kind of drive into a new machine on her nowadays?

She plans to tote the laptop around with her as much as possible -- to interviews, to home visits, to conferences, etc., so portability is a big issue. The eight pounds is an upper limit. Any advice people may have as far as durability / shock-resistance would be great, as would any advice about data security should the laptop be lost or stolen.

My main advice to her, what with my lack of personal experience with computers fitting her particular needs, was to check out what Dell had to offer, since they seem to have good prices and will build systems to suit customers' needs rather than their credit limits, but I've never actually bought from Dell myself.

Incidentally, if my Section 8 renter's rebate (destitute disabled folks' equivalent of a tax refund) check is for as much as was suggested to me by the preparer, I will hopefully be in the market for a new computer myself later this year, so any advice people can contribute regarding Zaida's situation will likely be recycled when my turn comes up.

Comments

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

I have an Acer Aspire 1350 and so far, one hard drive drama aside, it's been great. You can look at the specs here. (http://www.epinions.com/pr-Acer_Aspire_1350_lxa1006016_PC_Notebook/display_~full_specs) I got mine very cheap indeed (in NZ). Only thing is your friend would need to purchase her own word processing software, as it only has the standard Windows XP stuff on it. I note that it weighs 8.2lb, perhaps a little too heavy. I've avoided bashing it around but it's fairly solid.

Everyone I know is violently anti-Dell, so I never even went there.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that does look like a good match for her needs. Getting a copy of Word shouldn't be difficult, though actually I prefer to use Wordpad myself and I think it's still included with Windows XP like it was on Windoze's last few OSes?

Everyone I know is violently anti-Dell, so I never even went there.

Hunh, interesting. I hadn't heard anything bad about them yet, but I'll pass the caveat on.

Thanks!