Monthly Archives: August 2012

An Open Letter to Yelp’s Email Marketing Team

Posted in Thoughts by

Dear Yelp Email Marketing Team, 

I was away for the past week and you sent me an email, “Yelp Screams For Ice Cream!”. Since I had my away message up, my mailbox automatically shot you an “Out of the Office” type of email. However, as with most email newsletters, this message was sent to a mailbox that wasn’t being monitored, the address returnto@yelp.com. Typically, this would be OK, except for the fact that that email address keeps bouncing and I end up receiving messages EVERY DAY SINCE THEN letting me know that it will attempt to retry sending again. 

Every time I see the “Yelp Screams For Ice Cream” subject line, I want to scream, not for ice cream, but at your poor message management. In a perfect world, this is how it works, Yelp. 

You send email. You receive OOtO response. You accept return message either to a black-box inbox where messages are discarded since your marketing email is no-reply@yelp.com, OR you receive messages to a working inbox. Either way, my message to you needs to be received or it will bounce and it will keep trying that I will be informed every day and that will make me mad!  

Now, you have an annoyed customer who has to wait 8 more days for the mail system to stop trying to deliver. After 8 days, please be certain that I would not want to receive ANY emails from Yelp in the future. I’m just waiting to hit the “SPAM” button whenever I see your emails in my inbox, because, after this, you are practically spam to me, and I don’t open spam messages to “unsubscribe”. 

Yours Sincerely, 
Shanella

A Youtube Education

Posted in Media, The Web by

I’m a Youtube fan. I love that people can create videos and express themselves in this way. There are some great video creators out there and content that teach as well as entertain. I thought I’d highlight some of my favourite channels today!

Crash Course
Learn History and Science on this Vlogbrothers channel  in a fun and understandable way. I’ve been making my way though the history section.

Vlogbrothers
Speaking of, the Vlogbrothers was one of the first site I subscribed to. I love the videos that Hank and John Green make and I love the little community (well, rather large community) that they have built. There are funny videos, thought provoking videos, videos on current events, and they are all thoughtfully made. Also, I’m a fan of John Green’s books!

Charlie and Alex
Two guys from across the pond; Charlie and Alex have very different channels, but I find they both have some interesting videos. Charlie is just a funny guy and I find myself laughing at a lot of his videos (which are well made). I actually first started watching his videos after seeing his How to be English video. Alex also makes some funny videos, especially his reading of Twilight. He’s also one of the creators of Sopio, a fun card game.

Sorted
One of my favourite cooking channels is Sorted. They make quick and easy dishes and they are a lot of fun to watch. Annnd, they made a dish based on something I requested (a long time ago and with a few other people).

What an awesome God we serve

Posted in Religious Musings, Thoughts by

Awe: (n.) Dread; great fear mingled with respect. [Websters]

The word awesome has lost its meaning. Today, anything is awesome. Anything that we think is wonderful is awesome. Simple things that give us pleasure is awesome. It wasn’t until someone pointed it out that I realized that we have lost sense of what awesome really means.

Whilst thinking about how awesome God is, I saw an image in my head of a magnificent building, or making grilled cheese sandwich in a toaster, because those things – in my vocabulary – were awesome. But, this isn’t what awesome means, and when I’m talking about God being awesome, I’m not trying to relate Him to a sandwich. So, I’ve decided to reclaim the definition of awe.

To be in awe – to find something awesome – is to be in a state of reverence, respect and fear. When I think of an awesome God, I think of the one who said “Let there be!” and there was. I see in my mind the three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, walking around with a fourth who looks like the Son of God. I see Saul knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus. When I think of awesome, I see the throne with the four creatures around it singing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” and I see the twenty-four elders, bowing before him, casting down their crowns singing, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

When I think of awesome, I think about the God who put away all the splendors of heaven and became like the ones He created. When I think of awesome, I think about the knee-buckling, tear-jerking, dumbstruck feeling I get when I realized that this same God, loves me so much that he would give his life for me and that is infinitely greater than grilled cheese. When I think of His awesome power, I know that, “at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father.” When I think about these things, I stand in awe.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.

Coffee and a Book

Posted in Bookish, Vacations by

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I’m back in New York and it feels great! I loved my trip, but I love New York, it is my home and I love coming home. 🙂

I just thought I’d post a picture that I took in Paris. I was in a Starbucks getting “un grande caramel macchiato. Froid, s’il vous plait?” when I saw this sign… It basically says, “A coffee and a book. This library is here for you to read a good book while having good coffee. If you like the book, you can continue reading it at home. You can bring it back when you are finished, or bring another book in its place. Another reader might enjoy it as well.”

I’m in love! Where in NY can I find a Starbucks like this? 🙂

On Saying Grace

Posted in Religious Musings, Thoughts by

I’m on vacation!!! So, while I’m away, I’m going to be posting some things that I wrote in the past. This one isn’t from me, but from the patriarch of our family who recently passed away. He shared this with us a few years ago and I wanted to share it again.

Shalom Mishpochah…

When I was working with the Immigration Service, I was often amazed to hear the reasons and excuses presented by applicants on why they should be naturalized as citizens of this great country. I would say that maybe 90% had no idea that this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. In my office, I had a painting of Normal Rockwell showing a woman and her son in a restaurant praying – Saying Grace, and occasionally, I would glance up as if to remind them to look and ask a question or two, but like I said many did not.

I, too have gotten in the habit of Saying Grace before I eat a meal, regardless if it is at home, on the road or in a restaurant. I have checked and could not find anywhere in the Bible where I am instructed to pray before I eat.  However, in Deut. 8:10, we read that we are to eat and then pray –“and you shall eat, be satisfied, and bless the Lord your God.” 

Nowhere do we find an instruction to bless the Lord before we are satisfied, let alone before the first bite.  Yet that is exactly what so many of us quite appropriately do.

You see, the Bible never asks us to do the easy and the natural. In fact the Bible made the western civilization possible by introducing this revolutionary idea.  It is not only possible, but vital to overcome nature, particularly our own. 

When we potty train a toddler we make important progress in the quest to teach a young human that doing what is right is better than doing what comes naturally.  When a young person makes the holy commitment to remain chaste until marriage, he or she is doing what is right rather than what is natural.  When a man shows up for work every single day – on time—he is doing what is right rather than what is natural.  Soon after we are born, our parents direct us toward doing what is right.  For the rest of our lives, our goal should be to elevate ourselves above the natural.

Since hunger induces spiritual awareness, most sensitive humans feel the need to say a blessing before satisfying hunger.  Thus, we can be counted on to do so without instruction.  This, is in fact what both Christian and Jews do.  But it is unnatural for the satiated diner with bulging belly to pause prior to staggering away from the table, in order to express profound gratitude to the Creator.  That is precisely why God demands it of us, through His words in Deuteronomy.  It may not be the easiest thing, but we should strive to be good rather than to be natural, and to teach our children to make the same analyses. 

Shabbath Shalom everyone…