And I'm REAL Busy...
Well...The bad news is that two of my tallest--about 5' high--tomato plants got blown over in the gusty rain yesterday and I was forced to stand them back up and pound giant 7' long pieces of 1/2 and 3/4 inch re-bar into the ground in order to keep the flimsy "tomato cages" from falling back over.
Then I got a couple of phone calls and had to start working on a couple of proposals for new work and found out I had more pneumatic valves coming in to be rebuilt and the first activities which suffered on my schedule were sitting outside smoking cigars and blogging.
OK, blogging suffered first because I'm going outside now to read some more of Bruce Feiler's "America's Prophet--Moses and the American Story."
If I could I'd send everyone a copy because it provides a great historical lesson relating to our countries founding.
Meanwhile, at the risk of having published this before (and I'm too lazy to look), go check this video out and then get back to me with a 300 word essay trying to make the case that it's wrong:
That will be all...for now...
Friday, June 11, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
I Finally Found A New Truck With The Options I Need
Use Your Turn Signal Or Else...
More...
Now if you change lanes every five seconds around me, roll through four way stops, or just generally drive like an idiot while texting they'll have to do DNA testing to figure out who you were...
More...
Now if you change lanes every five seconds around me, roll through four way stops, or just generally drive like an idiot while texting they'll have to do DNA testing to figure out who you were...
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Question 'O The Day
Inquiring Minds Want to Know...
Why does virtually everyone wearing white plastic "Tyvek" chemical suits cleaning up "tar balls" down on the Gulf Coast shown on all of the TV coverage have dreadlocks?
Just wondering...
I have to go shave my back now, I'll expect an answer in the comments when I return.
Why does virtually everyone wearing white plastic "Tyvek" chemical suits cleaning up "tar balls" down on the Gulf Coast shown on all of the TV coverage have dreadlocks?
Just wondering...
I have to go shave my back now, I'll expect an answer in the comments when I return.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Bye, Bye (Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Butt)
If I Could Dance...I'd Be Dancing...
Did you hear the news?
Someone's no longer going to be sitting every day in the White House.
No, it's not this guy...a caricature of a President:
It's thislovely woman who should have retired at age 65 so she could be cast on Broadway as The Wicked Witch of the West a ancient Grandmother in the local community theater:
Go here and read the details if you missed the story.
I'm not dancing, but I have a little extra spring in my step as the rabid barking moonbat liberals like Helen Thomas continue to get their due once in a while.
Heh...
Did you hear the news?
Someone's no longer going to be sitting every day in the White House.
No, it's not this guy...a caricature of a President:
It's this
Go here and read the details if you missed the story.
I'm not dancing, but I have a little extra spring in my step as the rabid barking moonbat liberals like Helen Thomas continue to get their due once in a while.
Heh...
Sunday, June 06, 2010
No Cripples (Mental or Physical) Allowed
Spreading The Misery Around...
Dang it if they--the professional "Do-Gooders"--didn't manage to haul off and do something again this morning to piss me off here Ladies and Gentlemen.
Actually this latest bout of the Shaking, Spitting, Sputtering, Government Induced Conniption Fits (or SSSGICF for short) began yesterday afternoon while sitting adjacent to the Turbo Pup pool smoking a cigar and reading the latest issue of our localfish wrapper Newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel.
By now my regular readers might understand that sometimes when I initially find something worth blogging about I don't have the time to just sit down and write a good missive and publish it from my own personalLittle Island of Insanity Little Island of Insensitivity.
Some of that stuff gets lost or slipped into the non-published files upon further consideration.
Then sometimes I have a fit of self control and I'm able to intentionally give things a rest for a while to see if my brain calms down and the foaming at the mouth recedes a bit so I don't damage my computer keyboard while writing...but I still end up writing SOMETHING when the dust settles.
This specific blog--delayed almost 12 hours in the making--would be the result of a combination of both circumstances:
A. Wanting to calm down a good deal and...
B. having a dinner of Country Fried Steak and roasted corn & New potatoes to cook for Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup yesterday evening.
That said, now let's get down to business and talk about this morning's politically incorrect rant...
Ready?
OK...(taking a big breath...)
I'VE HAD IT RIGHT UP TO HERE this morning (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding head) with all of these simpering, whimpering, sniveling, booger eating, bed wetting "activist's" efforts to make every and any thing "affordable" and "accessible"...
... to each and every single person on the planet.
I say that if they keep it up at the current pace they're going to "empower" us all right out of business and existence, and if you're not following me yet on this issue, here's what I really mean.
I'm talking about crap like the the so-called "V-Chip" in everyone's Television Set which comes to mind...courtesy of the Imperial Federal GOVERNMENT of the By-God United States of 'Merica.
You remember the V-Chip, don't you?
A group of Canadian "do-gooders" teamed up with Massachusetts Congressman Markey back in 1999 and by the year 2000 every TV sold in the US and Canada had to include the cost of the "V-Chip" so stupid adults' children could be stopped from watching things like "excessive violence" and other"manure" "mature content."
I know that it might sound like a good idea at first, but then upon further consideration tell me the answer to a couple of simple questions:
Question #1: If you have kids, have you ever...Ever...EVER EVER programmed your V-Chip to stop your kids from watching "Debby Does Dallas" or "Deep Throat" or whatever other stupid BS that's on 99% of the broadcast channels and 50% of the cable Chanel's on any of the half dozen TV's you've purchased since the law went into effect in 1999?
Question #2: Even if you have employed the power of your V-Chip to marginally limit the content of your minor children's TV viewing (remembering that the TV sets already had a on/off switch and a channel knob since the inception of the TV in the early 1900's)...
WHY SHOULD I? A grown man who turned 40 in 1999 and never owned or operated a single child under the age of 21, be FORCED TO PAY FOR A DEVICE DESIGNED TO HELP YOU DO SOMETHING THAT IS NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
I guarandamntee you that at least 75%...heck...probably 90% of the TV's out there have never had their V-Chips programmed, and as I understand it any kid over the age of about eight that is computer literate can simply enter the menu on the TV and easily reset the "Parental Code" back to 0000 because so many parents are too stupid to remember their codes and have to have a way out of reversing the programming.
My answer to the ill-perceived "societal problems" which spawned the V-Chip and most other stuff like "Seat Belt Laws" and "Child Seat Laws" is to give people a test, and when society finds out that any given person is STUPID and unable to function without intrusive laws like this, I'd gladly pay the government to cut the testicles off of and the ovaries out of the offending citizen...else stuff a couple of rubber stoppers so far up a couple of offending orifices that producing chirren' that need Government Mandated protection from the programming content of Cable Companies would be a non issue during their child bearing years.
That would lower the cost of my new TV's by $25 or $30 each and I could get back to watching important things like Food Network and HGTV in peace.
But after that trip down memory lane, then what really got me started this morning was not the V-Chip but was this Knoxville News story about the shrieking "do-gooders" supporting the Americans With Disabilities ACT (ADA) shoving another legal settlementup the butt down the throat of a local businessman.
Apartment developer settles ADA suit
A Knoxville apartment developer is among the defendants who must pay up to $425,000 and make improvements at 21 complexes across the state, under an agreement with the Justice Department.
...snip...
According to a news release, the case grew out of work by the Tennessee Fair Housing Council, which provided the DOJ with information that several apartment complexes were inaccessible to people with disabilities. The DOJ filed a lawsuit in 2008.
"Equal access to housing for persons with disabilities is an important right protected by both the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act," Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in the release. "This comprehensive settlement will ensure that equal housing opportunities required by law are provided in these 21 housing complexes."
In a prepared statement, Murphy Development said it has hired architects, engineers and construction firms that have contractually committed to meet all federal, state and local standards. The firm also said that in more than 10 years of owning and managing apartment communities, it has never received a tenant complaint related to the accessibility of its apartments.
"We plan to correct design flaws that are brought to light through this process and will continue in our commitment to providing accessible, affordable housing," the statement said.
OK...
Let's step back for a minute here and look at this situation rationally.
Say I make a little money and in the process of wanting to make a profitable investment I look around and see that the town is growing and people need a place to live.
And say that in the process I come to understand that the local job market is such that most of the people needing a place to live fall into a couple of broad categories.
1. People that have enough money and/or make enough money to buy their own building (house in legal terms) to live in.
2. People that either don't have enough/make enough money to buy their own building (house in legal terms) to live in else otherwise don't want to own a building to live in.
It seems pretty simple, based on that market analysis, Right?
But NooooooOOOOOHHHHH...just like the V-Chip and the Government and it's Big Government "Nanny State do gooder" supporters, it doesn't work that way when the "Americans With Disabilities" Nazi arrive at the local planning and zoning office.
Now in the past twenty-five or thirty years, according to the whining, sniveling, booger eating, bed wetting ADA "activists", if you want to build buildings (housing in legal terms) and make them available to thepubic public, you have to make each and every single unit you build "accessible" to people as defined in all of the ADA mumbo jumbo.
The bottom line is that compliance with this standard (the ADA) cost MONEY...and somebusinessmen business people want to provide "affordable housing" while at the same time not passing on the cost of ADA compliance to their customers...because by and large their market is...for instance...twenty something year old students at a nearby college or university.
And what the news consuming public fails to recognise is that the Government can tax and mandate things to infinity, but when abusinessman business person has to absorb a cost--any cost--in a project...
3' wide doors in bathrooms
Elevators and ramps beside stairs in multi story buildings
Handrails in bathrooms
etc...
etc...
etc...
THE PRICE OF RENT OR OWNERSHIP GOES UP FOR EVERYBODY, EVEN IF THEY'RE NOT "DISABLED."
This CRAP and CRAP LIKE THIS in every single possible shape and form and fashion kills me, Ladies and Gentlemen.
And of course the unsaid bottom line, the underlying issue...heavy on the "lie-ing"...
is the idea that somehow it's better by passing the cost of the imagined "rights" and other government-mandated "services" on to the entire populations...
Thereby "Spreading The Misery Around" while at the same time making the "do-gooders" and "busybodies" feel good as they slap themselves on their own backs and snivel and simper and whine and cry and booger-eat/bed-wet themselves on to their next line item on their socialist/progressive agenda.
I guarandamntee you that within the foreseeable future the government is going to put mandates on the owners of single family homes--places like your house and my house--dictating that in order to build a new house it will have to meet the ADA guidelines in some form...
whether you need it or not personally...
because in the FUTURE someone might want to buy YOUR HOUSE and it wouldn't be FAIR for them to have to modify it in order to roll their wheelchair in the bathroom.
Further, just like the "GREEN ENERGY BULLSHIT INITIATIVES" being promoted today which will end up requiring owners of older homes to update windows, doors, insulation, and HVAC systems, just watch as the Government makes people add ADA accessibility to their property as a MANDATE in order to sell your old house because the people trying to get a loan in the purchase process can't receive financing without the modifications.
They're coming for ME and for YOU...
The useful idiots...the sniveling, bed wetting, booger eating, pawns used by the professional commie, socialist, Marxist, so-called liberal progressives out there that want to control EVERYTHING.
In many places like California and New England they're already here...and they're slowly slipping into places like Tennessee as I write.
You can sit around and worry about stupid crap like "American Idol" and the latest "Shrek" movie (I haven't been to the movie theater since the last "Lord of the Rings" film) but I'm in the process of cleaning up my financial situation and keeping my powder dry.
Is it just me?
MORE 1:15 PM SUNDAY...
I forgot to mention the crap which occurred while I was in college in Atlanta..."Adult only" apartments were all the rage and a place called Riverbend Apartments up off I-285 on the Chattahoochee river was the hip place to be.
They even had their own night club INSIDE the complex.
But no good thing can survive the sniveling, bed wetting, booger eaters, and some single mom decided that it was unfair that she and her brood of out-of-wedlock 'Chirren wasn't allowed to live in the complex so she could find her next "Babydaddy", and in response the Georgia Legislature and the Fed's got together and made it illegal to have apartment complexes which didn't allow children--under the guise of protecting the visits of weekend kids of divorced parents.
So a couple of self important assholes decided that the ONLY PLACE THEY COULD LIVE out of all of the apartments in Atlanta was a place like I wanted to live...a place free of other people's rugrats running around bouncing Frisbees off the hood of my new Car and cluttering up the picnic area by the river with "family outings."
Today I wonder how the "Active Senior" communities get by without the Feds stepping in and forcing them to allow a bunch of punk ass, backward ball cap wearing, subwoofer thumping idiots to move in and take over the pool every weekend.
Speaking of pools...time to go back and see what the Turbo Pup is doing in mine...
Dang it if they--the professional "Do-Gooders"--didn't manage to haul off and do something again this morning to piss me off here Ladies and Gentlemen.
Actually this latest bout of the Shaking, Spitting, Sputtering, Government Induced Conniption Fits (or SSSGICF for short) began yesterday afternoon while sitting adjacent to the Turbo Pup pool smoking a cigar and reading the latest issue of our local
By now my regular readers might understand that sometimes when I initially find something worth blogging about I don't have the time to just sit down and write a good missive and publish it from my own personal
Some of that stuff gets lost or slipped into the non-published files upon further consideration.
Then sometimes I have a fit of self control and I'm able to intentionally give things a rest for a while to see if my brain calms down and the foaming at the mouth recedes a bit so I don't damage my computer keyboard while writing...but I still end up writing SOMETHING when the dust settles.
This specific blog--delayed almost 12 hours in the making--would be the result of a combination of both circumstances:
A. Wanting to calm down a good deal and...
B. having a dinner of Country Fried Steak and roasted corn & New potatoes to cook for Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup yesterday evening.
That said, now let's get down to business and talk about this morning's politically incorrect rant...
Ready?
OK...(taking a big breath...)
I'VE HAD IT RIGHT UP TO HERE this morning (pointing to the top of my ever greying, ever balding head) with all of these simpering, whimpering, sniveling, booger eating, bed wetting "activist's" efforts to make every and any thing "affordable" and "accessible"...
... to each and every single person on the planet.
I say that if they keep it up at the current pace they're going to "empower" us all right out of business and existence, and if you're not following me yet on this issue, here's what I really mean.
I'm talking about crap like the the so-called "V-Chip" in everyone's Television Set which comes to mind...courtesy of the Imperial Federal GOVERNMENT of the By-God United States of 'Merica.
You remember the V-Chip, don't you?
A group of Canadian "do-gooders" teamed up with Massachusetts Congressman Markey back in 1999 and by the year 2000 every TV sold in the US and Canada had to include the cost of the "V-Chip" so stupid adults' children could be stopped from watching things like "excessive violence" and other
I know that it might sound like a good idea at first, but then upon further consideration tell me the answer to a couple of simple questions:
Question #1: If you have kids, have you ever...Ever...EVER EVER programmed your V-Chip to stop your kids from watching "Debby Does Dallas" or "Deep Throat" or whatever other stupid BS that's on 99% of the broadcast channels and 50% of the cable Chanel's on any of the half dozen TV's you've purchased since the law went into effect in 1999?
Question #2: Even if you have employed the power of your V-Chip to marginally limit the content of your minor children's TV viewing (remembering that the TV sets already had a on/off switch and a channel knob since the inception of the TV in the early 1900's)...
WHY SHOULD I? A grown man who turned 40 in 1999 and never owned or operated a single child under the age of 21, be FORCED TO PAY FOR A DEVICE DESIGNED TO HELP YOU DO SOMETHING THAT IS NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
I guarandamntee you that at least 75%...heck...probably 90% of the TV's out there have never had their V-Chips programmed, and as I understand it any kid over the age of about eight that is computer literate can simply enter the menu on the TV and easily reset the "Parental Code" back to 0000 because so many parents are too stupid to remember their codes and have to have a way out of reversing the programming.
My answer to the ill-perceived "societal problems" which spawned the V-Chip and most other stuff like "Seat Belt Laws" and "Child Seat Laws" is to give people a test, and when society finds out that any given person is STUPID and unable to function without intrusive laws like this, I'd gladly pay the government to cut the testicles off of and the ovaries out of the offending citizen...else stuff a couple of rubber stoppers so far up a couple of offending orifices that producing chirren' that need Government Mandated protection from the programming content of Cable Companies would be a non issue during their child bearing years.
That would lower the cost of my new TV's by $25 or $30 each and I could get back to watching important things like Food Network and HGTV in peace.
But after that trip down memory lane, then what really got me started this morning was not the V-Chip but was this Knoxville News story about the shrieking "do-gooders" supporting the Americans With Disabilities ACT (ADA) shoving another legal settlement
Apartment developer settles ADA suit
A Knoxville apartment developer is among the defendants who must pay up to $425,000 and make improvements at 21 complexes across the state, under an agreement with the Justice Department.
...snip...
According to a news release, the case grew out of work by the Tennessee Fair Housing Council, which provided the DOJ with information that several apartment complexes were inaccessible to people with disabilities. The DOJ filed a lawsuit in 2008.
"Equal access to housing for persons with disabilities is an important right protected by both the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act," Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in the release. "This comprehensive settlement will ensure that equal housing opportunities required by law are provided in these 21 housing complexes."
In a prepared statement, Murphy Development said it has hired architects, engineers and construction firms that have contractually committed to meet all federal, state and local standards. The firm also said that in more than 10 years of owning and managing apartment communities, it has never received a tenant complaint related to the accessibility of its apartments.
"We plan to correct design flaws that are brought to light through this process and will continue in our commitment to providing accessible, affordable housing," the statement said.
OK...
Let's step back for a minute here and look at this situation rationally.
Say I make a little money and in the process of wanting to make a profitable investment I look around and see that the town is growing and people need a place to live.
And say that in the process I come to understand that the local job market is such that most of the people needing a place to live fall into a couple of broad categories.
1. People that have enough money and/or make enough money to buy their own building (house in legal terms) to live in.
2. People that either don't have enough/make enough money to buy their own building (house in legal terms) to live in else otherwise don't want to own a building to live in.
It seems pretty simple, based on that market analysis, Right?
But NooooooOOOOOHHHHH...just like the V-Chip and the Government and it's Big Government "Nanny State do gooder" supporters, it doesn't work that way when the "Americans With Disabilities" Nazi arrive at the local planning and zoning office.
Now in the past twenty-five or thirty years, according to the whining, sniveling, booger eating, bed wetting ADA "activists", if you want to build buildings (housing in legal terms) and make them available to the
The bottom line is that compliance with this standard (the ADA) cost MONEY...and some
And what the news consuming public fails to recognise is that the Government can tax and mandate things to infinity, but when a
3' wide doors in bathrooms
Elevators and ramps beside stairs in multi story buildings
Handrails in bathrooms
etc...
etc...
etc...
THE PRICE OF RENT OR OWNERSHIP GOES UP FOR EVERYBODY, EVEN IF THEY'RE NOT "DISABLED."
This CRAP and CRAP LIKE THIS in every single possible shape and form and fashion kills me, Ladies and Gentlemen.
And of course the unsaid bottom line, the underlying issue...heavy on the "lie-ing"...
is the idea that somehow it's better by passing the cost of the imagined "rights" and other government-mandated "services" on to the entire populations...
Thereby "Spreading The Misery Around" while at the same time making the "do-gooders" and "busybodies" feel good as they slap themselves on their own backs and snivel and simper and whine and cry and booger-eat/bed-wet themselves on to their next line item on their socialist/progressive agenda.
I guarandamntee you that within the foreseeable future the government is going to put mandates on the owners of single family homes--places like your house and my house--dictating that in order to build a new house it will have to meet the ADA guidelines in some form...
whether you need it or not personally...
because in the FUTURE someone might want to buy YOUR HOUSE and it wouldn't be FAIR for them to have to modify it in order to roll their wheelchair in the bathroom.
Further, just like the "GREEN ENERGY BULLSHIT INITIATIVES" being promoted today which will end up requiring owners of older homes to update windows, doors, insulation, and HVAC systems, just watch as the Government makes people add ADA accessibility to their property as a MANDATE in order to sell your old house because the people trying to get a loan in the purchase process can't receive financing without the modifications.
They're coming for ME and for YOU...
The useful idiots...the sniveling, bed wetting, booger eating, pawns used by the professional commie, socialist, Marxist, so-called liberal progressives out there that want to control EVERYTHING.
In many places like California and New England they're already here...and they're slowly slipping into places like Tennessee as I write.
You can sit around and worry about stupid crap like "American Idol" and the latest "Shrek" movie (I haven't been to the movie theater since the last "Lord of the Rings" film) but I'm in the process of cleaning up my financial situation and keeping my powder dry.
Is it just me?
MORE 1:15 PM SUNDAY...
I forgot to mention the crap which occurred while I was in college in Atlanta..."Adult only" apartments were all the rage and a place called Riverbend Apartments up off I-285 on the Chattahoochee river was the hip place to be.
They even had their own night club INSIDE the complex.
But no good thing can survive the sniveling, bed wetting, booger eaters, and some single mom decided that it was unfair that she and her brood of out-of-wedlock 'Chirren wasn't allowed to live in the complex so she could find her next "Babydaddy", and in response the Georgia Legislature and the Fed's got together and made it illegal to have apartment complexes which didn't allow children--under the guise of protecting the visits of weekend kids of divorced parents.
So a couple of self important assholes decided that the ONLY PLACE THEY COULD LIVE out of all of the apartments in Atlanta was a place like I wanted to live...a place free of other people's rugrats running around bouncing Frisbees off the hood of my new Car and cluttering up the picnic area by the river with "family outings."
Today I wonder how the "Active Senior" communities get by without the Feds stepping in and forcing them to allow a bunch of punk ass, backward ball cap wearing, subwoofer thumping idiots to move in and take over the pool every weekend.
Speaking of pools...time to go back and see what the Turbo Pup is doing in mine...
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Alzheimers Induced Insanity?
Apparently I've Forgotten More Than Most People Ever Knew...
I'm embarrassed to report that in the past half month we've conducted two hysterical fire drills here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River relating to things like missing debit/credit cards.
And as a grand finale...last night we spent a couple of hours searching for an entire wallet with Visa/MasterCard and ID and DNA samples and whatever.
Whatever...
I seem to have developed the annoying habit of spending time talking while checking over the itemized bill, and calculating tip amounts in my ever greying, ever balding head, so TWICE recently we've had to sheepishly go back 24-48 hours later to a restaurant/watering hole and say...
"did I leave my card here?"
Fortunately through sheer honesty and a bit of luck, being "regulars" people have held on to my plastic instead of going to Best Buy and taking home a new computer or a 2000" HD TV Surround Sound system.
Then last night after dragging one of Pat's cards around in my wallet since we were out of town in the Midwest, when I delivered it back to her she realized she couldn't find her little hard case "clam shell" wallet...something she tends to leave in the console of the old Chrysler 300 more often than not over my objections.
We looked high and low...
and low and high...
and by 6 PM we were convinced it was lost as we cancelled the bank debit card and took a belated minute to go out for cheap Mexican.
Obviously someone--possibly one of the people that came by on Thursday selling unwanted Pest Control and Driveway Asphalt Sealing Services--had taken liberties with our unlocked car doors and absconded with her stuff we thought.
Then we came home and after she continued damage control and cancelled a Corporate AmeX card and a couple of other things I, in the process of re-enacting the purported crime...
FOUND HER WALLET ON THE WINE BOTTLE COOLER JUST INSIDE THE CARPORT DOOR UNDER MY TAPE MEASURE AND A STACK OF JUNK MAIL.
Dang it...
All I have to say here is IT SUCKS getting old, and it takes all I can do all day sometimes to keep my faculties focused enough to take a shower and find clean undergarments a couple of times a week.
When the Turbo Pup thinks that I smell too stinky to chill out with me on the sofa (and that's pretty stinky as everyone knows if you own a Hound Dog...particularly Dachshunds) then it's time to take a shower and start rummaging around looking for my ID and credit cards I guess.
Maybe I should buy Missy the Turbo Pup a new harness with a Velcro wallet and put her in charge of the checkbook and finances.
"Hey... what's this charge for $250 worth of Milkbones..."
I'm embarrassed to report that in the past half month we've conducted two hysterical fire drills here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River relating to things like missing debit/credit cards.
And as a grand finale...last night we spent a couple of hours searching for an entire wallet with Visa/MasterCard and ID and DNA samples and whatever.
Whatever...
I seem to have developed the annoying habit of spending time talking while checking over the itemized bill, and calculating tip amounts in my ever greying, ever balding head, so TWICE recently we've had to sheepishly go back 24-48 hours later to a restaurant/watering hole and say...
"did I leave my card here?"
Fortunately through sheer honesty and a bit of luck, being "regulars" people have held on to my plastic instead of going to Best Buy and taking home a new computer or a 2000" HD TV Surround Sound system.
Then last night after dragging one of Pat's cards around in my wallet since we were out of town in the Midwest, when I delivered it back to her she realized she couldn't find her little hard case "clam shell" wallet...something she tends to leave in the console of the old Chrysler 300 more often than not over my objections.
We looked high and low...
and low and high...
and by 6 PM we were convinced it was lost as we cancelled the bank debit card and took a belated minute to go out for cheap Mexican.
Obviously someone--possibly one of the people that came by on Thursday selling unwanted Pest Control and Driveway Asphalt Sealing Services--had taken liberties with our unlocked car doors and absconded with her stuff we thought.
Then we came home and after she continued damage control and cancelled a Corporate AmeX card and a couple of other things I, in the process of re-enacting the purported crime...
FOUND HER WALLET ON THE WINE BOTTLE COOLER JUST INSIDE THE CARPORT DOOR UNDER MY TAPE MEASURE AND A STACK OF JUNK MAIL.
Dang it...
All I have to say here is IT SUCKS getting old, and it takes all I can do all day sometimes to keep my faculties focused enough to take a shower and find clean undergarments a couple of times a week.
When the Turbo Pup thinks that I smell too stinky to chill out with me on the sofa (and that's pretty stinky as everyone knows if you own a Hound Dog...particularly Dachshunds) then it's time to take a shower and start rummaging around looking for my ID and credit cards I guess.
Maybe I should buy Missy the Turbo Pup a new harness with a Velcro wallet and put her in charge of the checkbook and finances.
"Hey... what's this charge for $250 worth of Milkbones..."
Friday, June 04, 2010
Find Something Stupid In The News...
Then Start Your Own Blog This Morning
Sorry, but my head hurts from reading about the stupid crap going on in the world this morning.
I'm also physically tired from being up since 2 AM tearing down pneumatic valves.
I hope you'll excuse me if I take a few minutes off here on the blog because I'm worn out generally and don't feel like trying to explain stuff that should be simple.
Talk to Y'all later...
Sorry, but my head hurts from reading about the stupid crap going on in the world this morning.
I'm also physically tired from being up since 2 AM tearing down pneumatic valves.
I hope you'll excuse me if I take a few minutes off here on the blog because I'm worn out generally and don't feel like trying to explain stuff that should be simple.
Talk to Y'all later...
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Bush Responsible For Hurricanes and Hemorrhoids
Now He's Responsible For Owl/Tipper Gore's Split???
I hate the lamestream media's use of "unnamed sources" and "person's not authorized to speak publicly" as primary sources in controversial--usually political--stories.
Call me dense or a "partisan hack" or whatever...BUT
In an effort to avoid veering too far off topic, I'll instead zero in on my REAL subject of this posting this morning.
That would be the recently announced "separation" of Owl and Tipper Gore.
Last night some idiot was quoted as saying that the split began with the 2000 electoral loss of Gore to Bush for the US Presidency.
All I have to say is...
Plueassssseeee!
Since when is it a new concept that the stress placed on a relationship--married or co-habitating or otherwise--by personal or professional or political aspirations and the associated resulting problems those situations cause in the bedroom or in common people's public/social life can have negative outcomes?
Speaking authoritatively, I, personally, ended a near ten year marriage back in the mid 1990's because my now ex-wife wanted a little mindless worker-bee husband with a 9 to 5 job and my old job was a eyed 8 AM to 7 PM effort five or six days a week, and then when I started my own company and we had to live with the realities and uncertainties of self employment cash flow she proceeded to lose her mind and make us both miserable in the process.
Needless to say I left the childless relationship after enduring a couple of years of hell, and today I can honestly say that I've never looked back.
But...
I don't blame my ex employer or my now ex-business partner for the demise of my marriage.
I made a considered, conscious CHOICE in the situation, and in deciding I wanted to be independently self employed with the associated financial uncertainties rather than settling for a salary with the lovely "two week severance pay guarantee" and I don't mind admitting making that decision today.
And the idiots out there that insist on shifting blame from the responsible parties to other individuals and outside circumstances...avoiding responsibility for the outcomes of their decisions...will be the death of our culture, society, and Nation if we let them continue to drag us down this path.
Is it just ME?
I hate the lamestream media's use of "unnamed sources" and "person's not authorized to speak publicly" as primary sources in controversial--usually political--stories.
Call me dense or a "partisan hack" or whatever...BUT
In an effort to avoid veering too far off topic, I'll instead zero in on my REAL subject of this posting this morning.
That would be the recently announced "separation" of Owl and Tipper Gore.
Last night some idiot was quoted as saying that the split began with the 2000 electoral loss of Gore to Bush for the US Presidency.
All I have to say is...
Plueassssseeee!
Since when is it a new concept that the stress placed on a relationship--married or co-habitating or otherwise--by personal or professional or political aspirations and the associated resulting problems those situations cause in the bedroom or in common people's public/social life can have negative outcomes?
Speaking authoritatively, I, personally, ended a near ten year marriage back in the mid 1990's because my now ex-wife wanted a little mindless worker-bee husband with a 9 to 5 job and my old job was a eyed 8 AM to 7 PM effort five or six days a week, and then when I started my own company and we had to live with the realities and uncertainties of self employment cash flow she proceeded to lose her mind and make us both miserable in the process.
Needless to say I left the childless relationship after enduring a couple of years of hell, and today I can honestly say that I've never looked back.
But...
I don't blame my ex employer or my now ex-business partner for the demise of my marriage.
I made a considered, conscious CHOICE in the situation, and in deciding I wanted to be independently self employed with the associated financial uncertainties rather than settling for a salary with the lovely "two week severance pay guarantee" and I don't mind admitting making that decision today.
And the idiots out there that insist on shifting blame from the responsible parties to other individuals and outside circumstances...avoiding responsibility for the outcomes of their decisions...will be the death of our culture, society, and Nation if we let them continue to drag us down this path.
Is it just ME?
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Top College Degrees That Will Get You Hired
Following Up On My Earlier Rantings...
Here...go read this article discussing a survey of employment statistics based on college major if you're less than 35 years old and in the market to spend time and money going to college:
Degrees that will get you hired
(and it can't hurt if you're over 35 because you're never too old to keep learning.
Here...go read this article discussing a survey of employment statistics based on college major if you're less than 35 years old and in the market to spend time and money going to college:
Degrees that will get you hired
(and it can't hurt if you're over 35 because you're never too old to keep learning.
Cameras, Cameras, Everywhere...
Stop Or I'll Shoot!!! (A Photo)
Isn't it amazingly convenient that, with virtually everyone from age 9 to age 99 carrying a cellphone with a camera function these days, that when stupid crap happens like a small flotilla of boats attempting to run through a INTERNATIONAL NAVAL BLOCKADE in the middle east, the two sides (sane, patriotic, income earning, self sufficient Americans versus barking moonbat tye-died, kumbaya singing, patchouli stinking, eco-friendly, tree hugging, Palestinian-loving, rocket launching "activists") can't get two minutes of decent video or a few clear still shots to tell us if the "activists" or the Israeli Navy Seals shot first?
And now rumor has it that a couple of more boats (at least one with a Irish flag) is headed the same direction...possibly facing the same consequences...right now.
I want the photo rights, because clearly events like this cause some kind of Palsy or Conniption Fits or other malady preventing any competent coverage of the proceedings.
Sort of like when four or five black Senators/Congressmen decided to not use the underground tunnel in Washington DC and instead waded through a crowd of"Teabaggers" Teaparty Protesters and then went on the news and said that people yelled "Nigger" at them dozens of times.
Yet there's not one single piece of video or audio recording the event.
So later this week when the UN is issuing statements and all of the pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel crowd is bitching and complaining about excessive force and the demise of a few more dead "civilian activists" remember my commentary here.
Somethings going down, bring your camera/camera phone...
(and then be prepared to live with "PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE.")
...dammit...
Isn't it amazingly convenient that, with virtually everyone from age 9 to age 99 carrying a cellphone with a camera function these days, that when stupid crap happens like a small flotilla of boats attempting to run through a INTERNATIONAL NAVAL BLOCKADE in the middle east, the two sides (sane, patriotic, income earning, self sufficient Americans versus barking moonbat tye-died, kumbaya singing, patchouli stinking, eco-friendly, tree hugging, Palestinian-loving, rocket launching "activists") can't get two minutes of decent video or a few clear still shots to tell us if the "activists" or the Israeli Navy Seals shot first?
And now rumor has it that a couple of more boats (at least one with a Irish flag) is headed the same direction...possibly facing the same consequences...right now.
I want the photo rights, because clearly events like this cause some kind of Palsy or Conniption Fits or other malady preventing any competent coverage of the proceedings.
Sort of like when four or five black Senators/Congressmen decided to not use the underground tunnel in Washington DC and instead waded through a crowd of
Yet there's not one single piece of video or audio recording the event.
So later this week when the UN is issuing statements and all of the pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel crowd is bitching and complaining about excessive force and the demise of a few more dead "civilian activists" remember my commentary here.
Somethings going down, bring your camera/camera phone...
(and then be prepared to live with "PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE.")
...dammit...
Government Induced Educational Inflation
Cheap Tuition Money Yields Cost Increases...
I know that I sometimes come across here on the blog as a pompous, egotistical, asshole.
Right?
It's not like I consciously try to be a public asshole/curmudgeon. Nor do I attempt to suppress the fact that I could be a closet asshole...an opinion that someone who knows me in real life might hold (hint...and some if not many in real life hold similar opinions)...but...
In my efforts to write for public consumption on a regular basis--virtually every day on the calendar--it's been an interesting journey to learn to mix and match words in the English language together to form a cohesive "voice" and consistent "style" to my writing.
I think I've found that "voice"--asshole or not--and although it may never be commercially successful i.e. generate any substantial income, it is my voice none the less and I'm happy with it at the moment.
AT LEAST I DON'T WRITE MOST OF THE TIME IN ALL CAPITOL LETTERS, WHICH IS THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF YELLING, and which in reality more accurately reflects the content of whats going on in my neurons and synapses in my head most of the time.
Any way, getting back to this morning's topic...
Edumacation Education Inflation.
Or more accurately (as stated in my title), government induced Education cost inflation.
And as the primary exhibit in defense of my theory/thesis this morning, I give you this New York Times Story about a 26 year old girl that owes nearly ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS in loans and interest after spending part of the past nine years studying fora chemical injuneering degree an MBA a PHD in underwater basketweaving ...wait...
...ready?
an "interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies."
WTF?
Somebody tell me, what the heck do you expect to be able to do with a "degree" in "religious and women's studies"?
I thought that only men did things like "women's studies" (unless you add the lesbian, gay, transgendered angle to the story,) and some forms of "studying women" is against the law if you happen to get too close to said woman and she objects to your proximity...
but I digress...
Here's the bottom line people.
Colleges are prone to offer the opportunity for you to spend money studying CRAP that might be interesting to you, might sound cool on the "Jeopardy" TV show when you mention you're willing towaste spend your time and money pursuing the endeavor, and will help you pick up pasty skinned metrosexual men or snitty liberal chicks at cocktail parties in San Francisco or NYC, BUT...
these same so-called "degrees" will at the same time do nothing when it comes to getting you out of the business of flipping hamburgers or selling used cars for a living.
As an example, since "graduation" the NY Times' woman with the $100,000 degree in "religious and women's studies" has managed to:
She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies. After taxes, she takes home about $2,300 a month. Rent runs $750, and the full monthly payments on her student loans would be about $700 if they weren't being deferred, which would not leave a lot left over.
And no, don't start bashing me because my subject is a woman. It could just as easily be some dude with a six figure loan balance that partied his way to a degree in Philosophy or Middle Eastern History or Political Science.
Nothing WRONG with those subjects mind you, but unless you're independently wealthy or good enough to get a job as a college researcher/professor your life is pretty much going to consist of holding down a couple of part time bartender/waiter jobs while mailing over half your income to the bank holding the student loan(s.)
And you know what I believe is the most damning thing about our current rush--culturally and politically--to make it easy for everyone to attend college?
Tuition inflation.
Think about it for a minute.
It's happening.
And it's gotten worse since the 1970's--in the time frame that government has started low interest loan programs with Sally Mae and even as a result of college State lottery funded scholarship programs in states like Georgia and Tennessee.
The reality is, when everyone has a college degree, a college degree will mean little or nothing.
Chew on that concept for a minute.
Further, with everyone competing for a seat in classrooms on a college campus, with a wallet full of government guaranteed cheap tuition money, what incentive is left for colleges to compete with each other and keep education costs down?
Heck, schools like Georgia Tech--places that historically maintained slow annual growth in enrollment and was only about 11,000 undergrads in the late 1970's and early 1980's, are EXPLODING as they see the infusion of "HOPE Scholarship" money (Lottery Dollars.)
They can't buy land and tear down old buildings fast enough. Last time I drove though campus last winter they had closed half the streets and were building parking decks on the campus perimeter and filling in the old parking lots with new buildings.
It's just that simple, ladies and gentlemen.
As long as the government throws money at college in one form or the other, a college education is going to become less and less valuable because everyone will have a sheepskin, but by default possessing a degree won't magically transform any given individual into a "rocket scientist" or even a good employee with good work skills and attendance habits.
And what pisses me off is that Obama and the Obamamaniacs are in the process of passing legislation to make YOU, and more importantly ME, pay for these bimbos to study important crap like "women's studies."
And then when things don't work out and $100K is ill spent, they want the government--the same government which made the ill conceived loans possible--to step forward and "bail them out" of their situation...
She may finally be earning enough to barely scrape by while still making the payments for the first time since she graduated, at least until interest rates rise and the payments on her loans with variable rates spiral up. And while her job requires her to work nights and weekends sometimes, she probably should find a flexible second job to try to bring in a few extra hundred dollars a month.
Ms. Munna understands this tough love, buck up, buckle-down advice. But she also badly wants to call a do-over on the last decade. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back," she said. "It feels wrong to me."
Yeah...RIGHT...feels wrong to me also, "Ms." Munna.
I know that I sometimes come across here on the blog as a pompous, egotistical, asshole.
Right?
It's not like I consciously try to be a public asshole/curmudgeon. Nor do I attempt to suppress the fact that I could be a closet asshole...an opinion that someone who knows me in real life might hold (hint...and some if not many in real life hold similar opinions)...but...
In my efforts to write for public consumption on a regular basis--virtually every day on the calendar--it's been an interesting journey to learn to mix and match words in the English language together to form a cohesive "voice" and consistent "style" to my writing.
I think I've found that "voice"--asshole or not--and although it may never be commercially successful i.e. generate any substantial income, it is my voice none the less and I'm happy with it at the moment.
AT LEAST I DON'T WRITE MOST OF THE TIME IN ALL CAPITOL LETTERS, WHICH IS THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF YELLING, and which in reality more accurately reflects the content of whats going on in my neurons and synapses in my head most of the time.
Any way, getting back to this morning's topic...
Or more accurately (as stated in my title), government induced Education cost inflation.
And as the primary exhibit in defense of my theory/thesis this morning, I give you this New York Times Story about a 26 year old girl that owes nearly ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS in loans and interest after spending part of the past nine years studying for
...ready?
an "interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies."
WTF?
Somebody tell me, what the heck do you expect to be able to do with a "degree" in "religious and women's studies"?
I thought that only men did things like "women's studies" (unless you add the lesbian, gay, transgendered angle to the story,) and some forms of "studying women" is against the law if you happen to get too close to said woman and she objects to your proximity...
but I digress...
Here's the bottom line people.
Colleges are prone to offer the opportunity for you to spend money studying CRAP that might be interesting to you, might sound cool on the "Jeopardy" TV show when you mention you're willing to
these same so-called "degrees" will at the same time do nothing when it comes to getting you out of the business of flipping hamburgers or selling used cars for a living.
As an example, since "graduation" the NY Times' woman with the $100,000 degree in "religious and women's studies" has managed to:
She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies. After taxes, she takes home about $2,300 a month. Rent runs $750, and the full monthly payments on her student loans would be about $700 if they weren't being deferred, which would not leave a lot left over.
And no, don't start bashing me because my subject is a woman. It could just as easily be some dude with a six figure loan balance that partied his way to a degree in Philosophy or Middle Eastern History or Political Science.
Nothing WRONG with those subjects mind you, but unless you're independently wealthy or good enough to get a job as a college researcher/professor your life is pretty much going to consist of holding down a couple of part time bartender/waiter jobs while mailing over half your income to the bank holding the student loan(s.)
And you know what I believe is the most damning thing about our current rush--culturally and politically--to make it easy for everyone to attend college?
Tuition inflation.
Think about it for a minute.
It's happening.
And it's gotten worse since the 1970's--in the time frame that government has started low interest loan programs with Sally Mae and even as a result of college State lottery funded scholarship programs in states like Georgia and Tennessee.
The reality is, when everyone has a college degree, a college degree will mean little or nothing.
Chew on that concept for a minute.
Further, with everyone competing for a seat in classrooms on a college campus, with a wallet full of government guaranteed cheap tuition money, what incentive is left for colleges to compete with each other and keep education costs down?
Heck, schools like Georgia Tech--places that historically maintained slow annual growth in enrollment and was only about 11,000 undergrads in the late 1970's and early 1980's, are EXPLODING as they see the infusion of "HOPE Scholarship" money (Lottery Dollars.)
They can't buy land and tear down old buildings fast enough. Last time I drove though campus last winter they had closed half the streets and were building parking decks on the campus perimeter and filling in the old parking lots with new buildings.
It's just that simple, ladies and gentlemen.
As long as the government throws money at college in one form or the other, a college education is going to become less and less valuable because everyone will have a sheepskin, but by default possessing a degree won't magically transform any given individual into a "rocket scientist" or even a good employee with good work skills and attendance habits.
And what pisses me off is that Obama and the Obamamaniacs are in the process of passing legislation to make YOU, and more importantly ME, pay for these bimbos to study important crap like "women's studies."
And then when things don't work out and $100K is ill spent, they want the government--the same government which made the ill conceived loans possible--to step forward and "bail them out" of their situation...
She may finally be earning enough to barely scrape by while still making the payments for the first time since she graduated, at least until interest rates rise and the payments on her loans with variable rates spiral up. And while her job requires her to work nights and weekends sometimes, she probably should find a flexible second job to try to bring in a few extra hundred dollars a month.
Ms. Munna understands this tough love, buck up, buckle-down advice. But she also badly wants to call a do-over on the last decade. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back," she said. "It feels wrong to me."
Yeah...RIGHT...feels wrong to me also, "Ms." Munna.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
You're Crazy If You Buy Half The Stuff Politicians Say On TV
But By God They're Going To Make Sure You Pay For It...
OK, Ladies and Gentlemen...it's raining again here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River this afternoon, I'm quite cranky, and...
It's ironic that just this morning I wrote a general missive about Federal Taxes and the IRS and my loathing for the organization and everyone that works for the giant, festering, puss smeared, blood sucking bureaucracy.
Then I came back from the Mail Box and had big surprise courtesy of the IRS.
I've somehow avoided having my head explode but that's still a distinct possibility here in the next 24 hours unless I somehow manage to lower my blood pressure.
Where's my really sharp knife and my jar of leeches?
Remember that we...my new company..LOST money last year while getting started up?
I admit that I was late this winter/spring getting all of the seasonal government BS ax paper work filled out because I had to coordinate one company and two family's households' forms while trying to run a business and sit on the sofa blogging all day.
Then today I got this little love letter in the mail...here's a copy with my own personal revisions:
Can you believe this crap? Last time I did corporate stuff in the late 1990's there was little or no fine if you filed late and didn't owe the assholes in Washington DC anything.
Not so today apparently.
In reading the fine print attached to my government correspondence I noticed that if I commit the same sin next year--losing money in a business endeavor and not filing the forms on time saying I lost money--the exact same atrocity (not filing forms saying I don't owe any money on time) will cost me $195 per shareholder per month...equaling $780 for WHAT?
Doing nothing incorrectly?
What I want to know is, where is the money supposed to come from to pay a shithead government fine for the Felony act of filing a stupid stack of forms late, and in the process telling them (the aforementioned government shitheads) that we already didn't have any money...therefor we didn't owe any income tax on the corporation?
Does anyone know?
Short of going to Law School or getting an accounting degree and a CPA license, am I the only one that doesn't understand how trying to start a company and losing money in the process allows the government to come to my house and steal some of what money I have left over at the end of the year?
I think it would be best if I just stay here at home and spend my time cleaning my guns for the next couple of days...
Talk to Y'all later...
OK, Ladies and Gentlemen...it's raining again here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River this afternoon, I'm quite cranky, and...
It's ironic that just this morning I wrote a general missive about Federal Taxes and the IRS and my loathing for the organization and everyone that works for the giant, festering, puss smeared, blood sucking bureaucracy.
Then I came back from the Mail Box and had big surprise courtesy of the IRS.
I've somehow avoided having my head explode but that's still a distinct possibility here in the next 24 hours unless I somehow manage to lower my blood pressure.
Where's my really sharp knife and my jar of leeches?
Remember that we...my new company..LOST money last year while getting started up?
I admit that I was late this winter/spring getting all of the seasonal government BS ax paper work filled out because I had to coordinate one company and two family's households' forms while trying to run a business and sit on the sofa blogging all day.
Then today I got this little love letter in the mail...here's a copy with my own personal revisions:
Can you believe this crap? Last time I did corporate stuff in the late 1990's there was little or no fine if you filed late and didn't owe the assholes in Washington DC anything.
Not so today apparently.
In reading the fine print attached to my government correspondence I noticed that if I commit the same sin next year--losing money in a business endeavor and not filing the forms on time saying I lost money--the exact same atrocity (not filing forms saying I don't owe any money on time) will cost me $195 per shareholder per month...equaling $780 for WHAT?
Doing nothing incorrectly?
What I want to know is, where is the money supposed to come from to pay a shithead government fine for the Felony act of filing a stupid stack of forms late, and in the process telling them (the aforementioned government shitheads) that we already didn't have any money...therefor we didn't owe any income tax on the corporation?
Does anyone know?
Short of going to Law School or getting an accounting degree and a CPA license, am I the only one that doesn't understand how trying to start a company and losing money in the process allows the government to come to my house and steal some of what money I have left over at the end of the year?
I think it would be best if I just stay here at home and spend my time cleaning my guns for the next couple of days...
Talk to Y'all later...
Stupid Government "Educator" Of The Day
The Thought Police Are Coming After Us...
So did you hear where some government educated moron currently employed out in Arizona in one of the aforementioned "Government (Public) Schools" suspended a Kindergartner for finding a knife on his way to school, picking it up, then leaving it on the side of the road off of school grounds?
What an idiot...and he runs a school?
I was pretty sure in my teen aged mind that some of the teachers they forced me to subject myself to back in the late 1960's and early/mid 1970's were stupid by any reasonable standard.
A couple of them were clinically insane and would be eating ADD/ADHD drugs in a bowl like cereal today.
And of course a few of them were just plain mean spirited and they used their position of government mandated authority to torture kids that didn't conform to the cookie cutter program they mindlessly purveyed.
Today if I were school aged I'd basically be forced to attend private reform school because of the silly crap I did, because most so called "educators" and the associated "administrators" don't know their own ass from a hole in the ground and can't make a logical decision if you held a gun to their head and threatened to blow their brains out if they failed to understand the difference between "thinking" about doing something and actually "doing" it (and of course I'll probably get a couple of comments from hyper-sensitive educators bitching because I wrote this rant...)
Tough tookies...Idiots...
So did you hear where some government educated moron currently employed out in Arizona in one of the aforementioned "Government (Public) Schools" suspended a Kindergartner for finding a knife on his way to school, picking it up, then leaving it on the side of the road off of school grounds?
What an idiot...and he runs a school?
I was pretty sure in my teen aged mind that some of the teachers they forced me to subject myself to back in the late 1960's and early/mid 1970's were stupid by any reasonable standard.
A couple of them were clinically insane and would be eating ADD/ADHD drugs in a bowl like cereal today.
And of course a few of them were just plain mean spirited and they used their position of government mandated authority to torture kids that didn't conform to the cookie cutter program they mindlessly purveyed.
Today if I were school aged I'd basically be forced to attend private reform school because of the silly crap I did, because most so called "educators" and the associated "administrators" don't know their own ass from a hole in the ground and can't make a logical decision if you held a gun to their head and threatened to blow their brains out if they failed to understand the difference between "thinking" about doing something and actually "doing" it (and of course I'll probably get a couple of comments from hyper-sensitive educators bitching because I wrote this rant...)
Tough tookies...Idiots...
Business Progress In Spite Of Holiday
Violating My Own Low Personal Standards...
Well, the bad news is that the Turbo Pup Pool apparently didn't survive storage last winter. It's developed a small air leak in the top "support ring" which appears to not be easy to find.
That's OK I guess, since a new pool without filter pump and cover costs a whole $54 on E-bay.
I'll probably take another crack at finding the air leak again today, then if I can't find and patch the offending orifice I'll just buy a new pool and have it shipped in this week if I get tired of squirting soapy water while kneeling in wet grass.
The good news on the professional front is that I managed to get off the sofa long enough to write a little PLC program code revision for the KC Bottle Sensor project and forwarded it to my customer in a E-mail just now.
They've finally got enough confidence in the prototype system to give it control of the production line--running at 16,000 bottles per hour--later this week and assuming everything goes as planned we have requests to build another couple of panels for other clients. I'll finally get paid to the point of breaking even on the hundreds of hours spent doing design and R&D to date, and maybe by the end of 2010 we'll actually be MAKING MONEY so I can write the IRS a nice check for 30% or 40% of my blood, sweat, and tears come April 15th.
This week's schedule includes getting four more rebuilt pneumatic valves out the door, in the process clearing the workbenches for another shipment of eight valves to come in the door later in the week.
My customer is super impressed with the performance they're getting out of our rebuilds, and told me that I now have all of their valve rebuild business in the Kansas City plant and they're talking to the corporate office about getting me on the vendor list for their other plants.
The coolest thing about our accomplishment is that we're beating another company that's been doing this sort of thing since 1979. We've got a better price and to date some of my rebuilds are lasting TWICE as long as the competition's product.
The only problem with making a product that lasts six months in rigorous service is that at some point we end up working ourselves out of new work for short periods of time.
Starting a company from scratch again only reminds me to be really pissed off when idiots on TV talk about "jobs" and "working families" and the government's role in creating income opportunities.
From my experience, the only thing government--local, state, and federal--has done for me since last October is take money from my savings account (since I haven't made any profit yet) in the form of "fees" and "licenses" while at the same time wasting my time filling out application forms and quarterly/annual reports and "returns."
How can you "return" something (cash) when nothing was "given" to you in the first place?
Like Ayn Rand writes in "Atlas Shrugged," if the government gets any more generous in their "income redistribution" efforts people like me are just going to go back on permanent vacation...
...sort of the "blood from a turnip" mentality I guess.
Is it just me?
Well, the bad news is that the Turbo Pup Pool apparently didn't survive storage last winter. It's developed a small air leak in the top "support ring" which appears to not be easy to find.
That's OK I guess, since a new pool without filter pump and cover costs a whole $54 on E-bay.
I'll probably take another crack at finding the air leak again today, then if I can't find and patch the offending orifice I'll just buy a new pool and have it shipped in this week if I get tired of squirting soapy water while kneeling in wet grass.
The good news on the professional front is that I managed to get off the sofa long enough to write a little PLC program code revision for the KC Bottle Sensor project and forwarded it to my customer in a E-mail just now.
They've finally got enough confidence in the prototype system to give it control of the production line--running at 16,000 bottles per hour--later this week and assuming everything goes as planned we have requests to build another couple of panels for other clients. I'll finally get paid to the point of breaking even on the hundreds of hours spent doing design and R&D to date, and maybe by the end of 2010 we'll actually be MAKING MONEY so I can write the IRS a nice check for 30% or 40% of my blood, sweat, and tears come April 15th.
This week's schedule includes getting four more rebuilt pneumatic valves out the door, in the process clearing the workbenches for another shipment of eight valves to come in the door later in the week.
My customer is super impressed with the performance they're getting out of our rebuilds, and told me that I now have all of their valve rebuild business in the Kansas City plant and they're talking to the corporate office about getting me on the vendor list for their other plants.
The coolest thing about our accomplishment is that we're beating another company that's been doing this sort of thing since 1979. We've got a better price and to date some of my rebuilds are lasting TWICE as long as the competition's product.
The only problem with making a product that lasts six months in rigorous service is that at some point we end up working ourselves out of new work for short periods of time.
Starting a company from scratch again only reminds me to be really pissed off when idiots on TV talk about "jobs" and "working families" and the government's role in creating income opportunities.
From my experience, the only thing government--local, state, and federal--has done for me since last October is take money from my savings account (since I haven't made any profit yet) in the form of "fees" and "licenses" while at the same time wasting my time filling out application forms and quarterly/annual reports and "returns."
How can you "return" something (cash) when nothing was "given" to you in the first place?
Like Ayn Rand writes in "Atlas Shrugged," if the government gets any more generous in their "income redistribution" efforts people like me are just going to go back on permanent vacation...
...sort of the "blood from a turnip" mentality I guess.
Is it just me?
Monday, May 31, 2010
Holiday Rain Yields Quality "Sofa Time"
Practicing Being A professional Time Waster...
Dang it...
Turns out that it "threatened" to rain on and off nearly all day yesterday.
One minute the sun was shining and the next minute there were dark clouds hanging on the horizon.
I think that it managed to actually rain for about a five minute period in the process, but just the threat made me pack up my tools and lay low...sitting on the carport swing dozing, then sitting on the front porch dozing while smoking a cigar and attempting to do the NY Times Crossword.
Did I mention sleeping on the sofa for a couple of hours mid-day after making ham and asparagus crepes for Brunch?
Any way, I basically did everything but sleep on the floor yesterday (because I ran out of time), and it looks like there's a very good possibility that today will be a good opportunity to provide a command performance of uselessness...because when I peeked outside just now it was raining, and the Internet and the weather channel says that we're in for more of the same all day today.
I feel sorry for people that work a regular 9 to 5 job and have crappy weather on the weekend or on Memorial day because I realize that they don't have the flexibility I have to just declare a holiday when ever I want and then proceed to sit around drinking and getting a sun tan.
I have the option of wasting time or doing "inside stuff" again today and then sitting around on the deck tomorrow or later this week if I want to, while still celebrating Memorial Day and thanking the many Veterans--alive and dead--that have served in our military and fought in wars past and present.
While wandering into Kroger on Saturday we bought a couple of Poppies from an old guy from the local American Legion wearing a WWII hat.
He thanked us for our contribution and outlined the local ceremonies to be held over the next couple of days, and handed me a little card with a poem written on it called "In Flanders Fields" written by a Canadian doctor, Lt. Col. John McCrae, while serving in the WWI battle of Ypres salient in 1915.
I remember as a kid going down to the town square in Ozark, Alabama with my Dad to get a hair cut at "the City Barber Shop" and buying a little artificial Poppy for a dime or a quarter back in the 1960's, and since then I've always wondered why people bought and sold poppies on memorial day.
Apparently it's because of the words in this poem:
In Flanders Fields
Dang it...
Turns out that it "threatened" to rain on and off nearly all day yesterday.
One minute the sun was shining and the next minute there were dark clouds hanging on the horizon.
I think that it managed to actually rain for about a five minute period in the process, but just the threat made me pack up my tools and lay low...sitting on the carport swing dozing, then sitting on the front porch dozing while smoking a cigar and attempting to do the NY Times Crossword.
Did I mention sleeping on the sofa for a couple of hours mid-day after making ham and asparagus crepes for Brunch?
Any way, I basically did everything but sleep on the floor yesterday (because I ran out of time), and it looks like there's a very good possibility that today will be a good opportunity to provide a command performance of uselessness...because when I peeked outside just now it was raining, and the Internet and the weather channel says that we're in for more of the same all day today.
I feel sorry for people that work a regular 9 to 5 job and have crappy weather on the weekend or on Memorial day because I realize that they don't have the flexibility I have to just declare a holiday when ever I want and then proceed to sit around drinking and getting a sun tan.
I have the option of wasting time or doing "inside stuff" again today and then sitting around on the deck tomorrow or later this week if I want to, while still celebrating Memorial Day and thanking the many Veterans--alive and dead--that have served in our military and fought in wars past and present.
While wandering into Kroger on Saturday we bought a couple of Poppies from an old guy from the local American Legion wearing a WWII hat.
He thanked us for our contribution and outlined the local ceremonies to be held over the next couple of days, and handed me a little card with a poem written on it called "In Flanders Fields" written by a Canadian doctor, Lt. Col. John McCrae, while serving in the WWI battle of Ypres salient in 1915.
I remember as a kid going down to the town square in Ozark, Alabama with my Dad to get a hair cut at "the City Barber Shop" and buying a little artificial Poppy for a dime or a quarter back in the 1960's, and since then I've always wondered why people bought and sold poppies on memorial day.
Apparently it's because of the words in this poem:
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Here's hoping everyone has a good Memorial Day, regardless of the weather. Try to remember what the day is really all about I guess, and sunshine or rain be thankful for Men and Women willing to get shot at to protect our rights to do silly stuff like watching NASCAR races and cooking hot dogs on a charcoal grill.
You know?
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Miss Teen America's Gonna Solve World Problems
Forget A Map...Buy The Girl A Brain New Globe
Is anyone but me not surprised that so many people these days waste 12 years in government schools and end up thinking/talking like this?
If I were a younger man that age, I wouldn't care how good looking she is, I'd run far far away because...
...just because...
Is anyone but me not surprised that so many people these days waste 12 years in government schools and end up thinking/talking like this?
If I were a younger man that age, I wouldn't care how good looking she is, I'd run far far away because...
...just because...
Friday, May 28, 2010
Let the Hurricane Hysteria Begin
Owl Gore And His Rag-Tag Hippie followers Smile And Run For The Hills...
OK
I had to stop what I was doing this morning and write this in order to stop my eyeballs from rolling back into my cranium and spit from flying all over my computer screen.
The story is everywhere on TV including FOX News.
I assume you've seen it?
According to the "National Hurricane Center", everyone living within 50 miles of the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, North & South Carolina and possibly Virginia is going to be injured or die because in this "Hurricane Season" beginning June 1, 2010 they're predicting...
Ready?
14 to 23 Named storms
8 to 14 Storms which at some point reach Hurricane strength
3 to 7 Major Hurricanes i.e. reaching Category III with winds of 111 MPH
Then the "reporters/commentators/news readers" proceed to tell us that this may be the year that exceeds 2005...
THE YEAR OF KATRINA!
All I have time to say right now is:
"Screw these idiots...and screw you if you believe anything they say and vote to allow the government to pass laws restricting my life based on computer and climatologist's pontifications."
Is that CLEAR enough for you to understand it?
I have to go back to work now and will probably be back later after doing some Googling the topic with some salient points instead of insults, so this will have to do for now.
...dammit...
OK
I had to stop what I was doing this morning and write this in order to stop my eyeballs from rolling back into my cranium and spit from flying all over my computer screen.
The story is everywhere on TV including FOX News.
I assume you've seen it?
According to the "National Hurricane Center", everyone living within 50 miles of the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, North & South Carolina and possibly Virginia is going to be injured or die because in this "Hurricane Season" beginning June 1, 2010 they're predicting...
Ready?
14 to 23 Named storms
8 to 14 Storms which at some point reach Hurricane strength
3 to 7 Major Hurricanes i.e. reaching Category III with winds of 111 MPH
Then the "reporters/commentators/news readers" proceed to tell us that this may be the year that exceeds 2005...
THE YEAR OF KATRINA!
All I have time to say right now is:
"Screw these idiots...and screw you if you believe anything they say and vote to allow the government to pass laws restricting my life based on computer and climatologist's pontifications."
Is that CLEAR enough for you to understand it?
I have to go back to work now and will probably be back later after doing some Googling the topic with some salient points instead of insults, so this will have to do for now.
...dammit...
Turbo Pup Beach Takes Shape
Kicking Sand In My Own Face...
I'm pleased to report that after an uneventful trip we arrived back in Knoxtown late yesterday to the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
After unloading the car and sorting out most of a week's worth of mail, we then made the obligatory trip to Home Depot followed by dinner.
Then we came home and I collapsed into my own bed before Wheel of Fortune ended on TV.
This morning I find myself contemplating the potential uses of three hundred and fifty pounds (seven bags) of "play sand" and a bunch of PVC pipe which is laying around outside awaiting my efforts to be spent re-installing our little 3 foot deep above ground Puppy pool and cleaning up the associated sandy beach area and boardwalk.
The PVC pipe and fittings will be used in the process of taking two old cheap pool filter casings left over from the past two seasons and mating them with a new 1/2 HP external pump in an effort to produce a new and improved filtration system for about $50 total cost.
In the process I get to use my mechanical engineering skills to design some kind of hybrid "Frankenstein" contraption and try to keep it from burning the house down or hurting someone.
Right now I still have five fingers attached to each hand, I'll let you know if that's still true at the end of the day today...
I'm pleased to report that after an uneventful trip we arrived back in Knoxtown late yesterday to the Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
After unloading the car and sorting out most of a week's worth of mail, we then made the obligatory trip to Home Depot followed by dinner.
Then we came home and I collapsed into my own bed before Wheel of Fortune ended on TV.
This morning I find myself contemplating the potential uses of three hundred and fifty pounds (seven bags) of "play sand" and a bunch of PVC pipe which is laying around outside awaiting my efforts to be spent re-installing our little 3 foot deep above ground Puppy pool and cleaning up the associated sandy beach area and boardwalk.
The PVC pipe and fittings will be used in the process of taking two old cheap pool filter casings left over from the past two seasons and mating them with a new 1/2 HP external pump in an effort to produce a new and improved filtration system for about $50 total cost.
In the process I get to use my mechanical engineering skills to design some kind of hybrid "Frankenstein" contraption and try to keep it from burning the house down or hurting someone.
Right now I still have five fingers attached to each hand, I'll let you know if that's still true at the end of the day today...
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Travel & Success Successful Travel
Back Toward The Turbo Pup Compound...
Well, after a good visit with family and a series of profitable & productive business contacts over the past five days, it's time to load the old Chrysler 300 up again and head back east to the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
As we did on the trip westward, we're breaking this journey up into two legs which will see us home Thursday afternoon.
Honestly I'm ready to get back home because I have things to do...important things like sleeping in my own bed and on my own sofa.
And the Turbo Pup needs to give the rabbits and squirrels in her yard a good barking, and Pat's got a bunch of work scheduled for Friday so as the month winds down toward Memorial Day weekend we'll be in a good position to hit the grocery store and the liquor store and then go home and hide from the masses celebrating the holiday.
You couldn't PAY ME to go anywhere near the beach this weekend, and local attractions like Cade's Cove and Dollywood and Gatlinburgh are also definitely off my to do list for the next weekend for the next month for the next hundred years pretty much any time.
The older I get, the more I have an growing aversion to any place with crowds of "tourists" and most anything corporately produced to be considered a "tourist attraction."
I guess the crowd phobia also causes many natural attractions like parks and islands and oceans and things to be on my "not-to-do" list except in the "off season."
So any way, thank God for the Interstate highways, allowing us to make what once was a two or three month journey across country in just two days.
Wish us a safe trip, if you will...
and Regards...Y'all...
Well, after a good visit with family and a series of profitable & productive business contacts over the past five days, it's time to load the old Chrysler 300 up again and head back east to the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
As we did on the trip westward, we're breaking this journey up into two legs which will see us home Thursday afternoon.
Honestly I'm ready to get back home because I have things to do...important things like sleeping in my own bed and on my own sofa.
And the Turbo Pup needs to give the rabbits and squirrels in her yard a good barking, and Pat's got a bunch of work scheduled for Friday so as the month winds down toward Memorial Day weekend we'll be in a good position to hit the grocery store and the liquor store and then go home and hide from the masses celebrating the holiday.
You couldn't PAY ME to go anywhere near the beach this weekend, and local attractions like Cade's Cove and Dollywood and Gatlinburgh are also definitely off my to do list
The older I get, the more I have an growing aversion to any place with crowds of "tourists" and most anything corporately produced to be considered a "tourist attraction."
I guess the crowd phobia also causes many natural attractions like parks and islands and oceans and things to be on my "not-to-do" list except in the "off season."
So any way, thank God for the Interstate highways, allowing us to make what once was a two or three month journey across country in just two days.
Wish us a safe trip, if you will...
and Regards...Y'all...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Seven Hundred Graduating Kids?
Setting Through A Three Hour Commencement...
Sorry about the light posting, but I've been distracted the past couple of days watching tittering hoards of 17 and 18 year old kids being herded through the pre-parties and parties and ceremonies relating to ending 12 plus or minus years of public schooling.
The local high school here in suburban Kansas City, MO has grown to the point where they're opening another high school next year and splitting the GIANT STUDENT BODY between the two facilities.
All I can say right now after last night's adventure is...
THANK GOD...
Because I'll probably be back here in two years doing the same sort of things again.
Time to finish up some paperwork in anticipation of a business meeting this afternoon before packing the Turbo Pup's lockers and sea chests back into the car and heading back east again tomorrow.
Regards Y'all...
Sorry about the light posting, but I've been distracted the past couple of days watching tittering hoards of 17 and 18 year old kids being herded through the pre-parties and parties and ceremonies relating to ending 12 plus or minus years of public schooling.
The local high school here in suburban Kansas City, MO has grown to the point where they're opening another high school next year and splitting the GIANT STUDENT BODY between the two facilities.
All I can say right now after last night's adventure is...
THANK GOD...
Because I'll probably be back here in two years doing the same sort of things again.
Time to finish up some paperwork in anticipation of a business meeting this afternoon before packing the Turbo Pup's lockers and sea chests back into the car and heading back east again tomorrow.
Regards Y'all...
