Hoarding vs Extreme Clutter vs Extreme Couponing

There are a number of "reality-type" shows on TV these days, that focus on what I think are many sides of the same coin:

• Hoarding: Buried Alive (on TLC)
• Extreme Clutter (on OWN)
• Extreme Couponing (on TLC)

If you watch Hoarding, the TV show focuses on people who are literally "drowning" in their stuff (usually garbage). Those people are treated as having a mental disorder, and are shown literally breaking down on camera when the clean up crews try to throw away their 10-year old oranges.

Extreme Clutter is a less extreme version of the show hoarding. It's happier, the host is always smiling. (No surprise it's on the Oprah network.) People may have rooms and rooms of boxes, furniture, suitcases, and stuff. But it's generally not garbage. These people call themselves "collectors" not hoarders.

Yes, some of them have issues to deal with. Family members have been lost, and other personal tragedies that have them hiding their emotions in things.

And in Extreme Couponing, people are shown purchasing hundreds of products that they can't ever possibly use. Their houses and garages are literally overrun with bottles of laundry detergent and packages of Jello. But they are not considered hoarders - they are celebrated as being the smartest shoppers, able to buy $1,300 in products for $100.

Frankly, I don't see the difference between couponers and hoarders. It's a bit of a mental disorder either way. If you feel the need to purchase 80 underarm deodorants, how many years will it take you to use them? 30? 40? Would you even use a 30 year old underarm deodorant? And the next time it goes on sale, do you buy 80 more?

Yes, I get that you paid 25 cents for it, or got it for free. But when are you going to ever use that? It seems wasteful to the planet.  When will it all stop. When do you say, even though it's on sale, I don't NEED it?

Couponers also use the term "stockpile". Like they are preparing for nuclear war or something. "I need to build up my stockpile since I'm having a baby next year."

I'd like TLC to create a show Extreme Couponing: Buried Alive. And focus on these people who are exchanging time with their family, money, and their personal space for hundreds of bars of soap. Seems like the psychiatrists would need to be called in for that.

Update: I'm not the only person who thought Extreme Couponing: Buried Alive. Great post from a former coupon addict.

How Can eBay Still Amaze?

So over the holidays, I dropped my iPad. This resulted in shattered glass for the iPad, a broken heart for its owner, and a missing $300 for the owners' bank account. An expensive lesson in not properly protecting it.

So, after getting a new one, I decided to get a good case for it. Not the cheap slipcover that I was using before, but an actual wrap around case that will (presumably) protect it from falls.

After a trip to the Apple store, I discovered there were no good cases for the iPad there. Oh sure, the iPhone 4 cases were in the hundreds. But Apple just sells either its own $79 overpriced magnetic cover which doesn't actually protect the device from falls. I also wanted the ability to "prop up" my ipad for reading and watching videos instead of having to hold it.

Looking on ebay for "ipad cases", the very first link was an interesting and nice looking black leather case that appeared to protect all the corners and sides, and prop it up. It's only $20, and also has the nifty magnetic cover trick that Apple sells for $75. And did I mention free shipping? So on Monday late afternoon (this week), I hit the buy button.

Today (Thursday), before noon, I had the cover in hand (actually wrapped around my iPad), and I have to say - I love this cover. It's padded, and makes me super confident it's protecting my device. It's excellent quality and built to last me many years. And it just works.

More than that, I love the seller who shipped it to me on Tuesday (and sent me 3 emails to tell me it was shipped). And I love our postal system. And most of all, despite how bad a reputation eBay gets (and their Paypal extortion arm), I am still amazed that I can order a product from my home, for 1/4 the cost of buying it in a store if I can find it, and have it in my hands basically 2 days later.

Fake Reality

We all know reality shows are largely faked. Producers seek to add drama when there normally is none, and interfere (but not on camera) with the natural flow of events.

It's kind of disheartening to see Jeff Probst on the TV Show Survivor ask contestants about their alliances and strategies, and call them out on their lies, forcing them to reveal secrets to the tribe which changes the game dynamics. It's sad to see them change the rules (Exciting! Plot! Twist!) without any prior precedent or announcement to break up a strong alliance and reset the game. And I am inclined to believe they have planted food and fire-making items near the contestants in the past when it looked like a tribe was going to starve to death.

The show The Amazing Race, which I used to love, has also similarly tampered with the rules in order to enhance the drama. In the first season or two, teams could amass large 1-day leads on other teams in their race around the world. Now, they are spoon-fed flights (take one of these two flights) and contestants have large delays that eliminate any lead at all (arriving at a place at 7pm that doesn't open til 8am). They run marathons in Africa, only for the flight out of there to be not until the following day. What's the point of running at all? Just walk it!

There's a show called "Operation Repo" that doesn't even pretend to be real. The show uses actors to "recreate" events, but of course the acting is terrible and the repo men do things they're not even legally allowed to do in real life. Most repo men work in the dead of night, while these guys walk up to a guy sleeping in his car and knock on the window to kick him out. Yeah right.

The most recent fake reality show is one I (used to) really enjoy - Storage Wars. I happened to notice one guy, Darrell Sheets, who would look through a pile of crap and say "That's a $100 bill. That's a $50 bill. That's another $100 bill." and I would say "Bull----. There's no WAY you can sell that for $100, you'd be lucky to get $30". Really, I sell things on Craigslist, you're not going to get $100 for some used 10-year-old drill. So I went online to see if anyone else was noticing these bidders being "overly optimistic" in their profit projections.

And that's when I see the fake reality for what it is. People are complaining about valuable items in lockers that have NO business being there. Someone buys a storage locker for $1,000 and its nothing but boxes and junk furniture. Opening random boxes reveals old clothes, more clothes, broken furniture, and more crap. Obviously the person who abandoned the locker had NO interest in it's contents, and I can see why.

And THEN they discover a 100-year-old Teddy Bear or something. Yeah right. The Teddy Bear has NO BUSINESS being there. It doesn't fit in with anything else in the room. It's not like the room was full of dolls and they found this among the pile. Everything else in the room is clothes and broken furniture, and then there is this antique that pays for the whole room. Online there are reports of the series producers sneaking into the lockers (not on camera obviously) and planting valuable items for the buyers to find. I'm so disappointed. Now when I see that show, I see the obvious manipulation of the outcomes. Without these planted items, obviously the show would be about people who lose a lot of money and would be less interesting.

I'm tired of being lied to by reality TV. There should be large disclaimers at the beginning (or hide it in the credits even) that say the outcome is manipulated. That is all.

Dec 21 Already

Can't believe it's the 21st of December. Christmas is only days away. Ah, what a crazy month it's been.

Plaza de Toros

 
Me standing in front of the great doors of the bull fighting ring (Plaza De Toros) in Seville, Spain. May 2009.

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