BillyStyle

Okay, here goes. As I mentioned before, I recently got a lot of my thoughts on Amway/Quixtar out there in a MySpace forum. I call it Amway/Quixtar because the company used to be known as Amway, but then changed to Quixtar when online ordering was made available to the members. Word is that they are dropping the Quixtar name over the next year and transitioning back to Amway. I could go into why that is, but that doesn’t really matter for now.

In the said forums, I grouped my thoughts and observations into 8 categories to start, then posted 4 more times following that. I’ll put at least the first 8 on here, and I’ll take it from there. This being the intro to the series of posts, I’ll explain a bit of why I’m doing this. I’ve known at least 10 people over the past decade who are actively involved in Amway. Every time I’ve had it explained to me, I get confused over why anybody would want to take part in what sounds like such a poor business plan. All of these people seem to be really fired up about the whole thing regardless of any criticism they face. With those factors combined with all the vague, obviously misleading information (or lack thereof) I’ve received from participating members, I became very curious as to what this is all about.

So I began to research. I came across many web sites (mostly very poorly designed) with very pro-Amway content as well as many with very anti-Amway content. I was after an explanation as neutral as I could find, realizing it may not be possible with such a heated topic. In September of 2005, I eventually found a gem that opened my eyes. Eric Scheibeler actively participated in Amway/Quixtar for around 10 years (if my memory serves correctly, I’ll try to get the facts better as time goes on). He worked as hard as he could and did everything he was told over that time to try to get the dream life that was promised him by his associates. Long story short, he finally realized it was a lost cause, did some research, and was blown away by his findings.

After leaving Amway/Quixtar, Scheibeler refused to accept any money from Amway to remain silent about what he found. He went on to author a book entitled Merchants of Deception which presents his experience with Amway/Quixtar, his exit, and the after effects of his actions. I read the book (around 300 pages) in only 10 days or so, and I’m not a fast reader; I just couldn’t stop. I feel that he did his best to be as unbiased as he could, presenting the facts as honestly as he could. Obviously, he is upset with the business, and that shows a bit in the reading, but I felt that he kept the material as straight forward as he could.

My reading of his book completely blew me away and made me realize that Amway/Quixtar gives dishonest people power to take advantage of people who are hopeful for a better way of life. Even honest people end up in a position where they unknowingly take advantage of sympathetic friends and relatives, eventually ruining those relationships for years and years. I felt that I should do my best to share what I’ve learned about the business to those around me so they don’t fall into this financial nightmare. Until now I’ve only posted a couple small things on here about it, but those posts have received some hits, and I figure with a full series on the topic, I may be able to help people research the whole thing for themselves before making a decision they’ll go on to regret.

So that’s why I’m doing all of this. I hope to give people a place to read up on this new opportunity they’ve just found out about so they have a better basis to make a decision upon. If you want to read the experience of a former member of Amway/Quixtar, I strongly suggest reading Eric’s book. That will give you a better understanding of all of this than I can give you, but for those who want to take less time, you can read my stuff. You can download the entire book free of charge at its website, which is linked to below. My only complaint is that the book, as far as I know, isn’t actually in print in hard copy, so to read it, you’ll either have to do so on your computer, or print it all out.

Free Book Download Link: Merchants of Deception

Now, this isn’t particularly an Amway/Quixtar post, but I put it in here because it’s an MLM thing. I was driving home tonight at 12:30am from a friend’s house. I came to an intersection near the Dixie Center to find a group of men in suits, every one in a red tie, crossing the street. Further up the street I saw more well dressed people (all the men had red ties) making the late night walk back to their hotels. I figured it must be some kind of Quixtar convention. Upon further research, it appears that it’s a 4-day Team Freedom convention.

I did a little searching, and from my findings, it looks to be a pre-paid legal services group. Now, from the little I’ve seen and dealt with from these pre-paid legal groups, it seems like a fully functioning MLM Ponzi scheme. So naturally, all the men wearing “power ties” isn’t a surprise. One funny thing I noticed is that this here calendar shows the scheduled meeting time is 8am – 2pm. That means that this 6 hour meeting went 10 hours over the set time! 10 hours! I’ve heard of Quixtar meetings lasting til 2am at times, and apparently those ridiculously long winded meetings are spread across the entire MLM world.

Now, one last bit here. For a couple weeks, I’ve been tossing an idea around. I took part in a little forum I found on the INTERNET about Quixtar. I planned on posting my input here on BillyStyle. I’m still not sure if I really want all that negativity on here, but I think I’ll go through with it over the next week. Being that these MLM schemes are such a sneaky trap, I feel it necessary to do what I can to warn people. And the couple times I’ve posted about MLM garbage, I’ve received a fair amount of traffic, so I know people read it. Anyway, if that’s not your bag, sorry for the next group of posts I’m going to put up.

There’s a Harts mini-mart here in St. George in cahoots with a Philips 66 that is near the mortgage office at which I work. From time to time I’ll stop there to get a drink or a snack. Every time they scan the bar code of the thing I’m buying, the cash register makes a chime sound that is the exact same sound from Sonic the Hedgehog when you collect a ring. It’s often the highlight of my trip to work.

I haven’t been to any other Harts stores recently, so I don’t know if this is a unique situation or not, but it really is super awesome. That’s all.

I had to mail something to a friend today, and for some reason I got the wise idea of throwing the whole ZIP+4® code on there. It’s easy these days with the INTERNET to find the full ZIP+4® (yes, apparently it is a registered trademark, which is awesome) as they call it, so I did. Curious as to what the USPS has to say about it, I looked it up and found that:

Using the correct ZIP+4® code reduces the number of handlings and significantly decreases the potential for error and possibility of misdelivery.

I also found what each part of the ZIP+4® code means:

The nine digits of a ZIP+4® code (e.g., 12345-6789) may be grouped as follows: [123] [45] – [67] [89 ]

• [123] : Sectional Center or Large City
• [45] : Post Office facility or Delivery Area
• – : The required “dash” or “hyphen” separates the first five digits from the last four digits; the +4
• [67] : Sector or Several Blocks
• [89] : Segment or One Side of a Street

So there you have that. Here is the full article on the meaning of a Zip Code, including what the acronym, ZIP, stands for!

Finally! Every time I’ve installed Windows XP on a computer (maybe 7 times I figure), I try to find where that song is that plays during the initial setup. That song is so soothing and wicked awesome. Well, I finally stumbled upon a video that had a little walkthrough of where to find the track. Instead of showing the video and making you wait through it, I’ll just show the address here:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images\title.wma

That’s it! I copied it from there and converted the file to an mp3. Now I’ll have it forever and ever! GREAT SUCCESS!

Okay, I’ve uninstalled World of Warcraft. So as a parting thought, here’s this video of some character dancing along with their non-WoW inspiration:

This is a bit delayed, but I realized I hadn’t put my feelings about the draft in here. I thought it was wonderful! I was excited to hear them actually announce that Oden was the #1 pick. Their moves after that were again surprising and impressive.

I was hoping Randolph would be traded for Garnett, but that was a bit out there. They instead traded him along with Dan Dickou and Fred Jones to the Knicks for Stevie Franchise and Channing Frye. Channing Frye is a solid young player and will be a great depth addition to the bench. Francis probably won’t stay on the roster, but if he does, I won’t complain. He’s still got some 30 point games in him and can help the team out with his experience.

They picked up a couple of foreign players, including another Spaniard from the Suns, just like in 2006 with Rodriguez. What I think will prove to be their steal of the draft, however, is Josh McRoberts. I didn’t know at the time they selected him, but McRoberts played with Oden in high school I believe. They are great friends and should really help encourage each other in their respective rookie seasons. In fact, the draft commentators mentioned that McRoberts was heavily recruited when playing along with Oden. He seems to thrive when he’s on the court with the big guy. I can’t wait for the 2007-2008 season!