Dead batteries always get my goat. Why do they still even build a car battery that can drain completely. In this age of fifty-cent electronic gadgets, Ford really shows their ignorance. It would be so simple to put a cutoff switch that always leaves enough juice to start the car. But no. I had to get a boost in the rain. The word on the street is that there is a new European company recruiting salespeople, and it would seem they have already heard of my performance. Sales, that is, not music. Dang. Anyway, there is a meeting tomorrow afternoon and I’m invited. My contact, who will not tell me anything about the company, just says to wear a suit and tie. In case you are wondering, I always wear a suit and tie to work. I’ve already noticed that I get 12 rejects for every sale, telling me I work too hard for the money. The other people say that ratio is normal and I’m doing well for so new at it. That isn’t the issue. So I’ll go see what is so hush-hush tomorrow.
Regarding ethics, I don’t really care what they are selling. Some of you may note that is a real change in my character. Yes. Recall a few months back the blog about the world’s youngest billionaire, the Enron salesman? The guy was a crook shyster, and now he’s a hero and a role model. There is not a salesman alive who doesn’t know when his product is worthless. Yet, he clearly got away with it and I am clearly learning to look selling from another point of view.
It is now mid-afternoon and there is a roaring rainstorm going on. I’m snug inside with my coffee, make mine a Maxwell House. The European coffee did not deliver and now I know where Starbucks is getting their beans. The coffee has a somewhat sandy dry taste, as if something has been added for flavor during the roasting. It is not bad but nor can it compete with the real thing. If you notice Starbucks’ coffee has an edge to it, that’s what I mean. Almost as if they bought it from some salesman because he was wearing a suit and tie.
The storm saga continues. I decide to go get groceries and found some fat free mayonnaise. I’ll try that, and it was in a glass jar which is unusual these days. It was twice as expensive as regular mayo but zero fat. I had to drive miles out of my way to get around the flooding and when I pulled up here, of course the rain got worse. That is because I had to carry groceries inside, see? Naturally I grab everything in one hand to make one trip. Are you with me? Nine bags of groceries in one hand? I get up to the door soaking wet and my grip loosens on the plastic bags. Guess which bag fell and guess what broke.
If you like this day in history, it has been 29 years since I’ve seen snow. Can’t say I miss it. I’m finally able to report some success with the Pinnacle video recording system. This does not let that company off the hook for their biggest shortcoming: problems that are not mentioned in the user manual. I estimate I’ve likely put in several hundred hours getting the thing to work, and that was not part of the deal when I bought the material. The interest in video is because I’ve been reprimanded for not having any footage of my act. That is correct. My unique single electric bass show has never been recorded. My cameras suitable for that project require 8mm tapes. I’ve got 52 of these tapes.
Why 52 of these tapes? I can explain. Because I can’t get the raw data onto DVDs, I have to buy a new tape whenever I need to make a new recording. What is supposed to happen is a burn the tape to a DVD and use the tape over again. Question—why do they call it a video editing computer when I still have to go get my camera to replay anything? It should have a tape deck built in to one of the bays.
I’ve produced some fairly sophisticated DVD movies and documentaries. Anyway, I am now burning much of the material direct to DVD, freeing up the tapes, and the plan is to get some recordings of my gig, probably next Friday. May I point out that Blogger still will not upload videos as claimed. Otherwise, you might see something of my show here. As it stands today, there are not even any still photos of my act.
