.: On Tokyo Time :.

I just paid 2 parking tickets or ‘parking citations’ as the DPT refers to them. Damn street cleaning! My car needs a street cleaning aware GPS system that sends warnings to my cell phone the evening before. Well, one was actually a real parking ticket. Not enough money in the meter. But I digress…

I went to pay them online and had to pay $2.50 convenience fee - per ticket! WTF? I pay more because it’s more convenient?

All payments in the U.S. are heavily check based (compare this to Europe). So it doesn’t come as a surprise that you don’t pay a fee if you mail in a check or pay in person at the office (M-F 8-5). I kind of got used to the checks but still don’t quite understand it.

Everyone writes checks for rent, utility bills etc. instead of setting up recurring payments.
Which is less expensive for the DPT? Processing the mailed in checks or the automated credit card processing? And for which do they charge a fee? Exactly!

“Plagiarism article plagiarized” (on Media Culpa) is an awesome idea and reminded me of what I call a self-sustaining phenomenon.

Take blogging for example. Some bloggers write about blogging exclusively. Take blogs out of the equation and you’re left with nothing. Or philosophy students that become philosophy professors to teach philosophy to students. (Probably not a good idea to get in an argument with philosophers…)

On the other hand there are self-destructing phenomena and even businesses. Online dating sites are a great example. The goal of a such a site is for its members to find a date. Once they have one (or the one) they don’t need the site anymore and cancel the membership. The business only survives because there is an infinite supply of singles out there (and relationships don’t last forever).

Any better examples?