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...who led a trivial life.

Why Ex Yay Zee. This is my contribution to society.

It all started with W. Phonetically: "double you". That's three syllables, right?

How many other letters in the English alphabet have three syllables? And how did U get a monopoly? I'm sure that I've scratched the surface of some vast conspiracy here, but I digress...

I'm changing the name of the letter W to "why". One syllable. And then to avoid confusion, changing the name of the letter Y to "yay". Why Ex Yay Zee.

See how it rolls off the tongue and with two fewer syllables for your poor, battered tongue to stumble over?

Just think of the countless hours wasted by having to teach kids those extra syllables. If time is money, this could save trillions!

I don't want much. Maybe a small statue erected in my honor...in Times Square!


You're welcome.

Part of my job used to be field manager for projects I sold. That means visiting construction sites... places where construction boots are required by OSHA. Optionally, hard hats depending on the work being performed.

As the workload increased, it became more difficult to visit every project as much of the time was spent traveling to and from the office to each project. Last year, we hired someone to handle the field operations. His responsibility (in addition to taking measurements for the cabinets we were contracted to provide) was to make sure the other trades did what we needed for a smooth project.

My guy is on vacation and two new projects of mine are moving along quickly. The general contractor needed my help as the electricians and plumbers are at the 'rough-in' stage and needed direction. The means I had to be there in his place.
I keep tools for the job in my car... measuring tape (several) laser level, angle finder, red spray paint, heavy black marking pens and steel toe work boots.

I arrived on the jobsite around 9am and had a set of cabinet drawings for each room. I went around marking lines (usually on the floor) for the center of the sinks, make notes where they have to put wood to support the cabinets and drop wires for electrical connections. Most everything went as planned with the exception of a few pipes coming up from the concrete slab that were nearly a foot off the mark and interfered with the location of the dish washer and sink cabinet. That's when I got out the red spray paint and marked the correct location.

Considered a normal adjustment in this business, the General Contractor will bring in a company to cut away some of the concrete so the pipes can be moved. I met the electrician and plumber to show them what I needed to change to make the layout work.

By 11am I had answered all their questions, measured everything I needed and marked all the locations for cabinetry. It was 97 degrees Fahrenheit when I got to my car (dripping with sweat) and I didn't bother changing back to regular shoes. I clumped clogged and stomped around the office all afternoon and didn't get those boots off until I got home around 8:30pm. My feet were aching from that ordeal and this morning I can still feel some pain from those steel toe work boots.

For those who don't know... OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is a government agency that sets standards for worker safety. Most jobsites are strict about workers following safety regulations established by OSHA.

A few years ago I stopped to see an old friend. He commented that I was driving a Korean car. My reply was "Korea is the new Japan"
If consumers can purchase less expensive products from another source, they will. Maybe with hesitations at first, but eventually... they will.

I remember cheap Japanese transistor radios. It wasn't the fault of the Japanese. It was the American companies designing/engineering inferior products and having them shipped here. They only made what they were instructed to make.

Same with all the low-end products made in China. They were brought here by American corporations and now the markets are flooded with low-end products made in China.

I'm in the kitchen cabinet business and have to deal with competitors who provide products made in China. Recent tariffs on Chinese made products will soon affect what and how many of those Chinese manufacturers will survive.

We are already hearing stories of Chinese companies who are relocating manufacturing facilities into their neighboring country Vietnam. Everything goes... all the machines, finishing materials, hardware... all the way to the processing of lumber... grown in Vietnam!

What once was Chinese cabinets will now be Vietnamese cabinets... without the tariffs.


"Vietnam, it's the new China"... and you can quote me on this.

One of my sales associates left the company last week. He may have told the owner sooner, but I heard about it on Wednesday, he was gone by Friday noon.

I won't miss him.

As sales staff, we all have a list of responsibilities. He wasn't pulling his weight and it's been going on for a long time. The 2 managers before me bumped heads with this guy that ended up in arguments. They were right and he was wrong. I've asked him to follow his jobs more closely and he said he would but the same problems came up over and over. Basically, he over-designed layouts making the installations difficult. His drawings were always lacking notes and interpretation how his projects were to be installed sometimes often failed. It always took more time and materials to finish his projects and get paid.

Getting him to have his clients choose hardware when they selected doorstyle and color never happened. It was always after cabinets were installed and required an additional trip where we had to pay the installer to go back.

Our IT administrator was out for a few days and as soon as he returned I had the password to this guy's account changed and all his mail gets forwarded to me now.
I haven't looked at the history of emails on the computer that was assigned to him, but the new stuff had lots of spam and BS subscriptions that were not work related. I'll get to his old emails in a few days. It won't surprise me to find a stack of complaints from his customers.

Other than personal, there was no stated reason why he left, but I suspect is had something to do with his clients no longer wanting to work with him. One contractor said he was pleasant to work with in the beginning, but didn't listen to his customers needs/wants and always steered the design to what he wanted and not what they wanted. Hearing that from several unrelated sources was unusual. The same pattern over and over.

I was more concerned with the 'bottom line' in that, he wasn't selling enough to justify his salary. Add the number of mistakes and reworks of his designs... The company didn't profit from having him. I have other sales people who can share the projects he was working on and it won't be long before he's just a memory.

I know there is a rock band with the name Nine Inch Nails abbreviated NIN where the 2nd N is backwards, kinda like the backwards R in Toys "R" Us. Anyway, with all the music videos I've seen, I have no clue what they look or sound like!
The catchy logo and sound always stuck in my head. (note to self: do some band research)

This blog is about excessively long fingernails.

I remember reading a news story (a few years ago) seeing a woman's photo where her acrylic fingernails were at least 3" long. She had some amazing paint job that looked like an airbrush technique you'd see on a customized racing motorcycle.

The woman had a job working for the county and was cited for the (excessive) length of her nails. Aside from the constant distraction from customers always commenting about her nails, they were a hindrance to her getting her job done. She refused to cut them and risked losing her job.

There was no medical reason nor 'handicap' that would legally allow her to have nails so long, she was seeking an attorney to defend her case against the county.

Unfortunately, I didn't see a followup story to her plight, so I never got to hear about the outcome. Either way, it 'could' have been newsworthy so others would understand the power of dress codes, especially when working for government agencies.

Two weeks ago, I was in downtown Miami having dinner at a restaurant and saw a woman with a 'Medusa' braided hairstyle that could easily have been 20 pounds of hair down to her butt. She was wearing a uniform with the ID 'County Corrections'
Logically (in my mind) that was a hazard and shouldn't be allowed. She puts herself in harms way should an inmate decide to tug on her (fake) locks and make a break to escape.

It's my thought and my blog, but I'm surprised the county would allow her to have such a vanity style that could be devastating to her and put the liability on the county for allowing such a situation.

Next blog subject: Fat cops, fat cops... whatcha gonna do!
(sung to the tune of bad boys)

Life has it's ups and downs and sometimes (on good days) I feel like the organ grinder where I'm orchestrating things to my tune.
There are days when my workload is too much, especially when I get BS calls like the guy who has water damaged kitchen cabinets and wants to salvage the doors and drawers and only buy new boxes. I told him it's not worth the labor uninstall the old boxes, take out all the old parts and inventory them, install new carcasses and install the old doors and drawers to the new boxes. It's faster at the same price to purchase new.
I'm trying not to be the monkey and getting involved.

He's stopping by the office to show me what the existing doors look like and explain his part in the inventory.

Some days I feel like the grinder... and some days...

How does this work ?

I recently purchased a camera adaptor for $45 plus $7 postage from an online store...

I needed another and as the last one got lost in the mail and took over a week due to delivery problems to get to me I looked online on ebay

I can buy the same item(both generic no name brands)with free shipping direct from China for $1.45 each

Ok the delivery time may be 2 weeks but I have bought 4 adaptors for a total cost of $6 which is less than the postage cost here

From experience, I see there are usually three sides to every story...

1) He said
2) She said
3) The facts obtained when you do your own research.

Last week, I received an angry email (who copied the boss) from a contractor complaining we sent him the same drawings twice and no changes were made. Obviously, the owner doesn't like to see angry email and I had to followup with my people. After some fact finding, I see we visited his jobsite, made notes and submitted drawings showing what areas needed to be revised to fit the kitchen layout.

The contractor claimed to have revised our drawings, sent them back to our design department and we never made the changes. It appeared he didn't respond to our mail so it was sent again. Receiving the previous set with no changes annoyed him. His 'marked up set' of drawings didn't reach us. That happens as our mail server is on high alert status for spam and hackers. Could a phone call from either party have avoided this? Yes.

While I dislike 'being in the loop' for every communication through a staff of 10 or so, sometimes it's necessary. Between the emails, phone calls and playing diplomat, It can easily suck a few hours out of my day...

A deal for you...


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Capt. SB Davies, of the Engineering Unit of the Artillery Regiment Division, a US Army division here in Damascus, Syria. I have good amount of Money which I want to move out of this Country at earliest although this may be hard for you to believe but we stand to share (Nineteen Million USD) between us in a matter of days.

Please grant me the benefit of doubt and hear me out. I want to inform you that I have in my possession right now the sum of (Nineteen Million USD) recovered from ISIS hideout and the United States Military will soon pull out completely from Syria , therefore, I have to act very fast before time runs out.

President Donald Trump Inauguration message were focused on letting us know that our mission in Syria is ending, and it is time to come home.  He said that by the end of this year, America’s role in combat will be over, and the war in Syria will come to a responsible end.

We acquired these funds during one of our normal Military raid in one of the Taliban’s hide out here and we decided to share the money among ourselves as our reward for all the sufferings we are going through in this evil land.  It is better to use this money to better ourselves, help our respective families and also helps the poor and less privileged in our societies than to leave it for these terrorist ISIS to use it to acquire more weapons to continue their atrocities and killing of innocent people. At least it’s better to use these funds to save poor women and children who are dying of Hunger on daily basis, than to allow these ISIS to use this money to sponsor their terrorist activities.

To escape military awareness, I decided and deposited the money in United Nations' Military Base Vault pending when I get a reliable Partner who will receive this Fund on my behalf. While depositing the money I declared the real content of the TRUNK BOX (Consignment) as Family Valuable Treasures. Everything is legal. I have made a concrete arrangement to move the funds out of Syria as a Family Treasures to your door step in your country. The most important Question is, Can I Trust you? I will offer you 35 percent for your assistance, then you have to find a safe place to keep my 65 percent share for me before my arrival to your country, I have a good diplomatic means to send it to you safely.

If you are interested, I will furnish you with more details upon receipt of your response and contact details. I need a straight answer; YES OR NO. If yes, then let's work, and let me have your contact details, because there is no time to waste. I must complete this before we the (US ARMY) complete pull out process from Syria. Already we have started pulling out slowly.

GET BACK TO ME WITH YOUR COMPLETE INFORMATION:

1) FULL NAME :

2) AGE :

3) MARITAL STATUS :

4) MOBILE PHONE NUMBER :

5) OCCUPATION :

6) PHYSICAL ADDRESS :

7) COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Your information is 100% secured and will be used exclusively for the purpose of this transaction only. If this Notification Email Letter hits your Junk/Spam folder, simply move the email from your Spam/Junk folder to your inbox for better viewing and easy accessibility.

I have confidence that you will give your consideration to this proposal and respond positively within a short period of time. I am available to discuss this proposal with you and to answer any questions you may have in regard to this deal. I will never let you down.

 Yours Sincerely,

Capt. SB Davies

Of how the population is becoming smarter


NOT !