While this is not a new thought, I felt that it was important enough to repost here for archiving purposes. I went to Qingdao, China to work for a week and there were only squat toilets in the warehouse where I worked. I acutally had to go to the hotel and google search how to properly use these archaic contraptions.

Blog Entry April 12, 2007

Wow, just when you thought you were all grown up and the new things that you can learn are just a few, life throws you a curve ball. Squatting Toilets. Call me crazy but I just couldn’t image how to use a hole in the ground to pee. I mean I don’t want to get graphic but, gees how do you keep your pants that are down around your ankles dry? So yesterday I held it in all day because I was at a factory working where they only had these neanderthal sqatting toilets. I went in and did a “dry run” (no pun intended) and I just couldn’t see myself successfully releaving my bladder without soaking my pants and shoes. Thank God for the internet. I came back to my hotel room, and peed first of all..then I did some research. I really had to see how to pee properly at these things because I couldn’t spend a whole day holding it in again. So I found this article http://www.worldhum.com/how_to/item/use_a_squat_toilet_20060923/ and I read literally dumbfounded that people can do this. Well one thing this other lady said is that it is very smart for beginners to strip from waist down. Shoes and all. Well, she must have been in a slightly cleaner place than the one I am at cuz I would rather pee on my shoes than touch this floor. So anyway, I went to work today with the newfound desire to conquer these toilets. I mean come on….anyone should be able to figure out how to pee right? So come lunchtime, I went to the bathroom…I took off my pants completely. There was no where to put them so I had to make a turban on my head. No joke. Great mental picture huh? Half naked squatting with a turban on my head.!!! It makes me laugh just remembering it. I really felt like someone was going to jump out and yell, “your’re on candid camera!”. But after a few controled adjustments to the aim and pressure, I was able to releave myself in a civil fashion. Not something I would ever wish on ANYONE, but alas I was not conqured by the squat toilet. I still refuse to even entertain the idea of doing #2 there though. No way someone can balance that good. there is nothing to lean on! You’d be better off with a hole at the base of a tree. At least you have something to lean on.

I’m working on a large e-commerce website build for two weeks now. I thought I was set to move forward with the project and I hit a huge brick wall. This site was one of the biggest builds to date for Creative Soup, so I took what I normally paid a programmer and multiplied it by 4 to give an estimate. I got the business and went to the most professional looking programming firm in town to discuss the details. They verbally agreed that working within my budget shouldn’t be an issue. So I designed my site according to their shopping cart. The day I sent over the design my account rep writes me back that they want DOUBLE what they had originally talked about!! WHY is it that when it comes to money people lose all common sense? They want to charge me for just programming MORE than I’ve charged customers for entire site builds and then some. Needless to say I wrote back telling them that they were indeed crazy, and now I’m on the frantic hunt for a new programmer.

I hope to find one this weekend, but I am going to let the client know up front about the situation. That way if there happens to be a delay in the site launch he can at least have expected it a month in advance.

Lesson Applied: Be 100% up front and honest with the client

Lesson Learned: Always have a back up plan, no matter how much money you feel you’re throwing at someone to do things right.