While it is unwise to predict, I will be in the shop all day so here is a picture of Millie-Belle on the banks of Lake Okeechobee y’day. The water levels are very low, which is significant in a lake only fourteen feet deep at the best of times. The pylons and piers all showed around a five-foot drop from the high water mark. Millie-Belle’s thick coat lets her shrug off the Angelflies. I’m serious, the infestation of those flying green bugs drove us back into the car. You might note the black water does have a slight green tinge that is not normally there.
Wallace is not having luck with his cellular phone. He is paying up to 60 cents per minute to talk back home. I pay 2 cents a minute, but I have a far higher monthly activation fee. There seems no way around that hurdle. A half hour phone call is setting him back $18. Maybe I’ll price out a VOiP unit once the DSL is connected, maybe even Magic Jack. It costs less than just three of those phone calls. Later I stand informed Wallace is only using the phone cards until the Internet is connected, which should be very soon.The entire day was taken up trying out the Café Manager, it is not anywhere near as user-friendly as advertised. There are dozens of undocumented problems and blind alleys. I could not find a standardized setting meaning each client computer had to be customized, what a bloody headache that was. The consolation is that it works now and the income was the most ever for a single day in three years. There is still no evidence that this has to do with advertising.
I still haven’t gotten my incentive money, you know, the $300 the government gave everybody this year. I may get $600 since other people who are classified as head of household got that much. Also, I was heavily audited for my 2005 and 2006 returns and passed with flying colors. Every last detail was in order. Note: there is no record in this country that I was ever an accountant. What did they expect?
Recall the dog grooming videos? There seems to be more where they came from because the couple is trying to start a business. I took them aside and told them that any labor-based business is not the wisest choice these days. Since they own a computer, I gave them a quick tour of how to do income tax returns. People pay up to $125 to do a simple 1040 these days; I’ve looked at that business myself. I made a small fortune doing returns in Canada years ago and only quit because the phone company changed the calling area I operated from into a long distance, that is, people phoning me had to pay for the call. At that point I prudently folded rather than operate the business on Canadian soil.
Tomorrow I’m going to do a sneaky. Since Kinko’s is obligingly sending me their customers, I think I shall help them out a little bit. You know, kind of take the pressure off by placing my flyers under the wiper blades of all the cars in their parking lot. Nice guy that I am, and all. My prices are low enough to bring people in from across town. Easily. And what do I owe Kinko’s? Actually, I do appreciate the time I worked for them back in 1991, but they paid lousy.
[Author's note 2017: Kinko's paid lousy in 1991 yet hey wanted skilled computer people in the shop. The people they had could barely turn the computers on. But of course, by 1996, they were all "power users". Right. I was the only employee they had in those days that could work a word processor properly. And they still paid minimum.]
The Monkees hit, “I’m A Believer”. I played a bass line that fit until I decided to learn the correct version. Man, that is one of the most difficult patterns I’ve ever tried. A week later and I’m still trying to memorize the beat. The bassist was innovative enough to play flatted sevenths on the downbeat, you just don’t get that any more.
Craiglist, now the largest source of job ads like I predicted, had another position or two of interest, so I sent an email saying to examine my blog. Contact me only if what I already do is suitable. To date, I have not gotten any legitimate replies. Just scads of advertising for writing schools and courses. I steer clear of places that say the work is by contract but still want a resume. I fell for that scam once and had to tear my resume back from their grip. That was in Ft. Lauderdale in 2002. If it is really contracting, my profile and home address is not their business.
I’ve noticed my readership is now 3,044. Only a few are steadies but that is the largest crowd I’ve ever had. My product reviews will also get an update over the new software. As mentioned, it works, but Vibersoft fails the user test. The main reason is that it is difficult to transfer the software to another computer. I understand why they do it like that, but the problem is that they didn’t say anything about it in advance. Now I have it stuck on the computer I use for evaluation, not for operations. If you get into software development, the First Commandment is to make sure there is never a single error message that is not documented in the manual.
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