August 20, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 20, 2018, Tarpon Springs.
Five years ago today: August 20, 2014, I miss coffeehouses.
Nine years ago today: August 20, 2010, early guitar coincidence.
Random years ago today: August 20, 2013, I wanted that bracket.

           Here’s the finished product. The jigsaw itself has no covering, so that the pieces are uneven and exposed to the touch. That’s part of the charm of such a setup. They are not meant to be enduring, the backing is a sheet of cardboard. Bur now I’m semi-enthused and would like to build another with and inset lip like a real picture frame. The dark wood maybe isn’t the best compliment to the colors but I had fun with the process. I was going to make a plug to fill that missing sky piece, but opted for realism, artistic bent that I am. What? No, I didn’t sign it.

           Another day with the heat dragging everyone to a halt. This is one long stretch of nothing and I’m thoroughly making the least of it. I read some passages on arms sales, all were updated versions of the original “Arms Bazaar”, but this time with more politics woven in. By that I mean the way the system is set up that the government makes the decisions on who to sell the weapons to. It has never been put to a vote by the people. This displays the arrogance of DC and illustrates how far removed America has gone from representative government. I was most interested in the sale of offensive weaponry to countries that have known positions that negate American interests.

           Stepping away from politics, however, I was looking at what happens when the weapons get used. Most of these places don’t have the trained personnel to maintain modern equipment. That essentially makes America their de facto ally when they get into any degree of war. They need spare parts, ammunition, and training that can only come from America. This is in marked contrast with places that used to acquire Soviet equipment. Those weapons were designed to be maintained by unskilled labor. But show me a place with American gear, and I’ll show you barracks with thousands of American technicians swarming the place.
           The follow on there is if a host country gets into any type of quarrel, that makes the technicians fair targets. I’m surprised no enemy has yet blasted the hell out of one of these installations. My position on Americans who take these jobs is the same as the Iran hostages of years ago. Leave them. They got their on their own, let them get out on their own. It’s not like they asked anybody’s permission and don’t hand me that “they’re American citizens” line. Because what were 10,000 Americans doing in Iran in the first place? The country was an unpopular regime.
Rescue them. Then send them the bill.

           I missed some excellent footage of the dogs and I at the dam today. The Sony camcorder got into a snit. It kept saying buffer overflow and shutting itself down. The problem is clear. Sony is not going through their engineering department and systematically firing the slackers. By the time a company’s own camera recording to its own media at the lowest resolution starts overflowing the buffer, the problems are far more deep-rooted than a simple bad design. Here’s pic of an orbital sander, cost is $13 and it works. Harbor Freight. It’s featured because that is what a tool like this should cost, but it’s price if made in America would be six times higher.
           We went from there to Harbor Freight. If you want to see the goodies, drop back tomorrow. Something to ponder, this is now the 16th year this blog is keyboarded rather than hand-written. How many keystrokes so far. I don’t know, so let’s do a rough calculation. Typing is considered to consist of five letters per word, six if you count the space. Let’s go with five. In 16 years, there are 5844 days. I type a minimum of a half hour per day (usually more like 40) and my average speed is up there. But because I sip coffee and thumb through notes, let’s say I amble along at 40 wpm.
           So every half hour, I crank out 1200 keypresses, which seems consistent with the number letter counter on the word processor. Hence, since this blog, “went computer”, I’ve typed 35,064,000 keystrokes. If you add in other typing, it’s close to twice that. Not bad for a bass player.

Picture of the day.
Ruby electus parrot.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I’ve spent $39.90 on the pets since this trip, over half on fancy pet food. The grub is now prepared by hand and ladled out twice a day. With added oils and vitamins. If I didn’t enjoy it, I’d be jealous. The pets glom on to me instantly by now, following me from room to room and around the yard. I’m waiting for a nice day to build boxes for my power tools. If I’m learning box-building, make them useful, I always say, for the first time, yeah. The Thrift back home has learned from me, now removing the hardware from donated furniture and selling it for $5.00 per set. In Tennessee, it’s rare to find a good scrap of anything left. It’s like Miami, if it’s worth anything, it’s gone, stolen, or somebody is living in it.
           In preparation for the rehearsal tomorrow I’m running through the song list once. Twice is overkill and from experience not a great tactic. Remind yourself what you know and don’t know. I’ve not been asked to participate, but it’s almost a given they’ll be curious what I’ve been up to for the past ten weeks. The correct way to prepare is to skim over the list and go for an extra cup of coffee with a crossword puzzle. Then do some puttering in your back yard. Do not knock yourself out even if it is Nashville at stake. I’d add advice to get plenty of rest, but the dogs are listening.

           However, I didn’t haul you away from your daily rounds to chit-chat about music today. It’s time to face that emerging situation with the home business proposal. My stance on these is simple—if it is even remotely like MLM, and all of them are, either you make the money or they do. The most common outcome is people who become distributors wind up poorer than when they got into the situation. That is where I take my closest look, if only because the suppliers are not obligated to reveal that statistic to you. The Reb has the patience to sell one-on-one. I don’t. People buy things from her that they would never consider from me. I’m about to put all of this into a big pot and start stirring. There is very little risk from me and once again, it could be quite the eye-opener. In that context, I’m obligated to take a closer look.
           That’s why you’re interested, as well, Win or lose, this blog is where you get the facts on what happens with such endeavors. I was prepared to let you examine the books with the hotdog cart, but we never found any locations. Or put another way, the locations will be found when and if I find them. This is not similar to the arrangements with the Reb, who has an active interest and history of following through on her own. We have a strong ethic of paying attention to each other’s strengths. Contrast this with Agt. R, who would have to be convinced the books are supplying relevant information. He mistrusts data that is not seat-of-the-pants oriented.

           This is why, if the Reb says the products are worth plugging, I will pay attention. If she can market this with my help, then my help is available. Is there any formal agreement between us? Nope, that is not how it works. Here is a situation where she likes doing the parts I shy away from, and she knows I can supply a lot of the logistics that are missing when most of these ventures fail. I can tell you the true costs, which is what a lot of these startup places are counting on becoming confused in the process. Millennial school doesn’t train people how to keep track of the real expenses.
           At this point, I have no inclination to get into the business directly. She knows that, but also knows if things take off with my participation the rewards must be enough to keep me tempted. One known factor is that what I provide just cannot be trusted to an outsider at any reasonable cost. I have not even seen the product line, but is that important? What I need to see is the bottom line. Because in these businesses, it has to be calculated and most participants don’t have the years of training required to do it right. Yes, for the Reb, I would be more than willing to supply what is required. See addendum for more details.

ADDENDUM
           I view MLM and pyramid schemes as identical in concept, marginally different in practice. With MLM supposedly the money you make primarily is commission on sales, with pyramids, the money is mainly how many new people you recruit. Note, both are sliding scales. There are bound to be times the line is crossed both ways but of these two cousins, pyramids are the evil one. Ponzi schemes with product instead of money. Discount home products are the usual inventory and one of the first things I watch for is the “startup package”. Is there enough to make your money back plus purchase the replacement inventory plus a premium for your time and effort. Usually not.
           Most startups fail because the sheer numbers aren’t there coupled with the new person unable to comprehend the numbers to start with. I’ve seen people go for months peeling money out of their own pocket with the illusion they were making a profit. They usually wind up in impossible difficulties before realizing something is hooped. In the worst case scenarios, they’ve gone into debt (usually credit card) to replace their stock and are now stuck with both that and the liability.
           Hence, my part is likely to be preventing bad moves like buying stock on credit. But without even taking a look, I can warn everyone that these home businesses are not simple from an accounting standpoint. Not only is the process somewhat intricate and time-consuming, they must be kept up on a daily basis, not because you need information daily, but because falling behind causes pileups that never get rectified.

Last Laugh