Golf umbrellas and sidewalk etiquette

Golf Umbrella - what a funny name. I wonder if perhaps it was, at some point, intended for...say...golf?

To all of you making your morning commute with a giant golf umbrella, you are really pissing off the rest of us. There you are, with an impromptu circus tent held precariously over your head, wandering down the dead center of the sidewalk while the rest of us try to make our way to our respective destinations without suffering from a poke in the eye. God forbid if that thing should come down unexpectedly, the national guard would be called in to dig out all the bodies.

While we are on the subject of sidewalk etiquette, people, learn how to share! You may not spread out side by side with five of your closest buddies and try to bridge the sidewalk from street to building. You should not be bopping along to you ipod down the dead center of the sidewalk (possibly with a giant umbrella) while everyone else tries to dodge around you as best they can. Grow up and realize there may actually be other people in the world as well. Criminy. Conversations should be held at the edges and in building doorways. It's getting hard to simply walk down the street - jogging is basically impossible.

Also, absolutely no singing at the top of your voice. I don't care how drunk you are, or how good you think you sound. I would rather not be serenaded at 3am by a group of drunk post-college frat boys when all I really want to do is get some sleep.

That is all.

Outlook icon

Ahh, the outlook "new mail" icon - that friendly little indication that somebody loves you and somebody cares. Or it could just be indicating you have yet more spam to contend with. Either way, though, it makes you a little excited to see it pop up doesn't it?

If you are anything like me, outlook sits open on your desktop all day long, so at any time that icon could put in an appearance, giving you an instant and marginally justifiable excuse to forget whatever important task you were involved with in order to check up on whatever gem the email fairy has just dropped in your lap.

I am trying to think of a worthwhile metaphor, but I am just not sure we had this kind of instant gratification before the technology era...

Transaction Feedback - Chicken or Egg

Who should be first to leave feedback for online transactions (ebay, for example). Recently, I have noticed more and more sellers delaying their feedback, perhaps indefinitely, until the buyer has posted their feedback.

While I understand the urge on the part of the seller to make sure the buyer does not burn them in the final moments, is this really appropriate? I suspect if I were to leave a nasty, negative feedback regarding a seller, they would reciprocate in some way, why else would they hold off on their own feedback until I have left mine.

But here's the thing, what if they deserve it? If I have promptly paid for my purchase, my portion of the transaction is completed. Is my feedback part of my transaction? If i paid promptly and communicated well, but left a nasty feedback, does that warrant equally nasty feedback in return from the seller?

It seems this is becoming a method for sellers to blackmail the buyer into leaving positive feedback. When combined with the more and more common "friendly" emails reminding me to leave feedback about my transactions, online purchasing is becoming only that much more hostile.

UPDATE: Ebay has stopped allowing sellers to post feedback, thus ending any possibility of sellers holding their positive feedback hostage until the buyer provides the same. There are now complaints that buyer fraud will increase in response, but any market favors one or the other. Which way is better is, of course, up to debate.