She was waiting for him to get out of his car. When he did they locked eyes. He smiled at her and she returned it. I’ve been waiting for you, her eyes seemed to say.
However her gaze immediately averted when he walked into the restaurant – as though she knew they were doing something wrong. He was here.
“I can’t talk to you.”
That’s all he needed to hear.
“I’m leaving-”
“Please, don’t.”
He saw the desperation in her eyes. After a second which seemed like an eternity he made up his mind. He was done playing the fool; he walked out of the restaurant without saying goodbye. She held back a tear as he drove away.
Writing Prompt from Reddit: I give you the punctuation, you write the story.
One of the things that annoy me when I’m ordering drinks at cinemas or cafes is the way cashiers try to sell me an upsize. The most common phrase they’ll say is: “It’s just one ringgit more!”
Think about that phrase for a second. If it’s just one ringgit more, why don’t you give me the upsize for free? One ringgit is no big deal right? Exactly.
The reason I ordered a small drink is because I don’t feel like drinking so much coffee/coke/whatever. If I wanted a large one, don’t you think I would have ordered it instead?
The way they say the phrase is like I’m passing up on a free upgrade when it’s not. I mean if they told me that I could have a free upsize and I rejected it, I would understand their behavior (I could just take the free upgrade to shut them up – I wouldn’t have to finish the whole drink anyway).
One ringgit isn’t a lot of money, but if I’m not in the mood for a large drink, I’m not going to spend that money. It’s that simple.
Here’s a tip: eliminate all sizes except large from the menu (not just hide them and still sell it to people who ask), and you’ll do everyone a favor – cashiers don’t have to waste time upselling and customers don’t have to waste time arguing they’re not interested. If large is too expensive for most people, you’re either pricing it wrong or people don’t want your drink enough to pay for it anyway.
If there’s one appliance at home I use less than the fridge at home, it’s the television in my living room. If I watch a TV show these days, it’s mostly on my tablet or my laptop. Either streamed or torrented. Why? Because I don’t like scheduling my day around a show. Unless something is live or I’m going to a cinema to watch a film, I like to decide when and where I consume content. But life wasn’t always that way.
Back then we had to wait up to catch movies on terrestrial TV because there wouldn’t be any reruns. If a movie was showing too late, we’d have to record it and catch it the following day. Thankfully the VCRs we had could fast forward. I remember having to pause recording during adverts back then if we wanted to record something seamless. It was quite a fun activity to do. You’d have to remember to pause and unpause during commercial breaks (also, why does paid TV still have ads? we pay for it after all). This skill translated to my Walkman days when I used to rip songs off the air. I had to make sure I started and stopped recording before the DJ came back on.
Did you remember catching test cards on TV?
One thing that I’ve learned while working in the content division of a TV network is that programming schedules matter a lot. TV channels will be running shows 24 hours a day, but not everybody is sitting in front of the TV all day long. You need to run your best programs when they’re sitting in front of it. The rest of the day you can put your not-so-hot shows on because nobody watches them. This is why we have terms like prime time. Also, with slightly better than average movies like Peter Rabbit succeeding at the Box Office, it shows us that timing makes a difference.
Despite the existence of video on demand, I don’t think regular TV channels will ever die out. It’s so easy to just turn on the TV, flip to a channel and just watch whatever’s on. There’s no need to think about what you want to watch (a problem I face sometimes). There are a few benefits to this system. Occasionally you’ll tune into a movie that’s showing the best part and hook you in until the end. It could have been a movie that you were likely to skip due to it not being the kind of show you enjoy or a movie with a slow start. It’s also great for older people and younger kids who don’t really know how to search for content. They can literally tune in and tune out.
Maybe in the future, VOD services will have certain channels that autoplay shows tuned to your preferences and every now and then they’ll play something that they think you might like. We need to give them more of our personal data first. Trust me, it’s worth it.
The latest season of Silicon Valley has been great by the way. I’m looking forward to see how Jared’s character progresses as COO of Pied Piper. His monologue about the analogy to horse manure was so good.
