Day 8 for the garden

Everything has sprouted. The tomatoes are growing especially quickly, now about 1in. tall. The basils have finally broken through the soil. I thinned the thyme a bit yesterday, much as it pained me to do so. The oregano dots the surface of the soil with bits of green. Now the next challenge is for them to grow their second set of leaves and be independent of their seed reserves.

I had a great idea to recuperate some cost for my garden. I'll thin out the plants and plant them in individual little pots then sell them for $1 each. Probably not much profit, but at least the seeds and pots and maybe even the potting soil will pay for themselves. 

On a different note, my crew leader from the Census called last month and it turned out to be a pyramid scheme. I don't know if it's common experience, but in my life time, I've sat through four or five of those. I'm always curious/amused to see what they are. For this one, it's a prepaid legal service. You pay $46/month and get the opportunity to make "residue income" (I'm not quite sure what the exact term was, I fell asleep during that portion and heard it while on the border of consciousness and unconsciousness.) Having just gone through sales training where we learned about the "benefits statement = benefit + product," this video should have been shown to demonstrate exactly how to connect with your audience (by relating personal anecdotes to show they are everyday people just like us) and sell the benefits that comes with the product.

And on that subject, I am really glad to have the experience from the other side of the sales table. I recognize what the process looks like. I know what a bad sales person is like. I know what a good sales person is like. They have the ability to make you feel excited and great about whatever you just got. You'll feel like they did you a huge favor by selling that product to you. If you strip away the veneer of words, a product is just an object/service, neutral and gray. It's when people add personalized fireworks to it that makes it shiny and interesting to others.