The signs of a troubled structure were ignored. Nearly half of the Champlain Towers a 12-story condo on Miami Beach (town of Surfside) collapsed last week and rescue operations are into the 5th day hoping to find survivors. More than 11 confirmed dead and 150 unaccounted for.
Sure there are going to be thorough and full investigations but engineers reports of structure damage years ago weren't followed up.
Already photos of cracked supports and accounts of water penetration around the building have surfaced. Nothing was done. Last night on the news they showed a report from an engineering company stating the supports were unstable and a report after of the building inspector saying the building was in good condition.
Official news reports state that 55 apartments of the 136 units were destroyed.
My prediction is the remaining 81 units will be destroyed when the structure gets condemned.
Lawsuits will be into the billions...
Okay, I sold my house that had possibly the best mangoes in the land and I didn't have a clause in the contract granting me free mangoes for the next 50 years. Very sad about this, I am.
However, another source came up as someone with a large tree and a commercial duty food dehydrator. I'm getting fresh mangoes and a bag or two of dried fruit strips.
It's mango season!
One of my coworkers from a previous job raved about the Miami mangoes and offered to pay me for some. I refused to accept money. After moving, haven't talked to her in more than a year. I sent a text Mangoes? and she replied "sure" so we met up in the parking lot of a local pharmacy and under the lights I held out a bag of mangoes as she pulled up.
With a Hispanic accent I said: "You got da money?... I got da stuff"
I got home and a few minutes later she texted: "OMG!!! They are so sweet, thank you so much :-)
Calling all moderators... Calling all moderators... Be on the lookout for 40 bogus profiles.
They are giving out phone numbers and email address, using photos stolen from Twitter and Instagram. They come from non-existent locations like Dallas, New York and New York, Virginia.
Considered annoying by CS'ers and possibly dangerous to the unsuspecting newbies.
end of message.. over (squelch chirp)
On the way to an appointment today I found myself behind a glass company delivery truck. Most of the smaller companies have a rack attached to the driver's side where they strap down their orders for delivery/installation.
After many years, the suspension on these vehicles wears down on the side that carries all the weight and they lean to the driver's side.
The truck was dangerously overloaded and pulling toward the left. The driver was making corrections and swerving back and forth. At one point I thought it would tip over and drop the load. I kept my distance worrying that the shattered glass would be in my path.
It was a 2 lane road and I followed for a few miles waiting for a break. The driver slowed to a crawl preparing to get into the turn lane giving me a chance to change lanes and get in front!
Phew... heavy load.
I gave several months notice and phased out of a sales position working for a company who specializes in kitchen and bath remodeling. It was a problematic position and the company understaffed. That forced the salesmen to do jobs (like project manage) that cut into time needed to sell. There were other reasons, but I wanted out and agreed to finish the contracts underway and not accept any new work.
Something else (more to my liking) came along and I started working for a high-end custom manufacturer. It was agreed that I would often be called away (from time-to-time) to finish obligations of the other job.
They are using a design program that's considerably more difficult that other industry software but I'm being paid to learn it and make drawings for my boss along with some of the other sales staff. I'm assigned to follow up on sales leads as they come in.
One of the designers (fancy name for a sales person as we all are called designers) has some personal issues and decided to leave the company. I noticed some of her work is/was problematic that requires meetings with the owner and factory manager to resolve manufacturing errors in her designs. She's had issues with clients who also complained about not getting things in her designs. I don't know her track record but after she left they passed 17 leads to me she wasn't following up on. We subscribe to a client monitoring system from Google we use that keeps track of leads, notes and client correspondence. It gives reminders so if you forget for follow up on a lead it will appear on a list and how many days it's been since you contacted the client. It took 3 days to go through the list (while doing other things) and 4 of the leads are still alive.
She didn't answer email to a client who bought a condo in Florida and will visit from their New York residence. I read some email complaints from the customer who didn't get a reply, met with her this week and received a deposit to start shop drawings.
The designer who was leaving had a meeting with the owners to pass her projects to them and they would decide who to divide her projects to. We are a team and often help the other coworkers when something needs to be done. I'm made drawings and gone on field measuring trips to help the other sales staff. It's fine with me as I'm learning their procedure. While I have 30 years experience in this business and handle a wide range of situations, my forte as sales manager was fixing the mistakes from other designers/salemen.
A call came through yesterday from a client who paid a deposit and wasn't getting service to finalize the shop drawings so we could start manufacturing. Some miscommunication happened and he got bounced around. One of the staff who is assigned to write up orders is somewhat familiar the job was too busy to take it and suggested giving it to me. With several people in the room, the senior designer also stated it should have come to me. The designer who was leaving wanted one of the other designers to take it. When my name was mentioned she said "He's too Old School" and that she wanted someone else to take the project.
I laughed and said "I'll take that as a compliment, at least I don't have a history of pissing off clients."
She's gone, it's not her decision who should handle the project. I have the time and experience to deal with it. I went over this event with my boss who admitted he was overloaded (didn't followup) and so was the senior designer (who came in Saturday to take on the project) and agreed they didn't make the correct decision.
Sadly, the senior designer looked at the shop drawings and found some critical design mistakes that have to be resolved with the client because they need to be aware of the necessary changes.
So much for New School designers...
If I win the lottery I'll buy this place and make membership free!
Back from late night grocery shopping and reading some Yahoo! news while dinner is being prepared.
(almost) Top story: An elderly woman's decomposing body was eaten by her pet cats.
She died alone in her Madrid apartment and reported her 79-year old body had been eaten from the waist up. A Colombian national who had lived by herself since 1996, was discovered by Spain's National Police Corps last week.
A police officer visited the apartment after neighbors said they had not seen the woman for a month and reported a stench coming from her home.
It is believed she had been dead for at least three months and tests are being performed to see whether she died from COVID-19 complications.
Five of her cats had died from starvation. Two were alive but were in very poor condition and were sent to a local animal protection center.
The apartment was in a state of squalor, filled with animal excrement and garbage.
Personally, I cannot blame the cats for the garbage.
One of the police officers said it was the "worst thing" thing they had ever seen in their career.
Dinner is ready and I lost my appetite...
I lost a long-time friend last year. His death was was a result of pancreatic cancer. While he sought many painful treatments including chemotherapy with chemicals being pumped through his veins, none worked. He withered away and died. I saw a photo of him shortly before his death and it's 180 degrees from a year or two earlier.
For some unknown reason, in my dream I was visualizing this agonizing death and the suffering he went through.
Living through pancreatic cancer has a very low success rate, less than 7%
Typically, a heckler is a person who harasses and tries to disconcert others with questions or challenges. In a public setting they are often known to shout disparaging comments at a performance or event, or to interrupt set-piece speeches, with the intent of disturbing performers and/or participants.
I first learned about hecklers when I saw comedian Don Rickles doing stand-up comedy. Don used to perform in supper clubs around upstate New York... the Catskills.
If someone from the audience became vocal, he was quick with the one-line comebacks to the point of insulting hecklers literally driving them out of the venue.
I've seen some videos where he egged them on as it was possibly a part of his routine!
In the virtual world things are a lot quieter. People blog and hecklers who are often referred to as trolls go from blog to blog (or forum thread) leaving comments to 'show themselves' with other members of the blogging community.
The psychology of it all... well, I believe something is bothering them in their personal life so they seek enjoyment attempting to disrupt the lives of others. Sometimes, it's a group and sometimes they single out a member or two.
I heard of one heckler who was bounced from a comedy club a few times so he decided to stand out front complaining to the patrons about one comedian "Don't waste your money, this guy tells the same jokes every night!"
Ya think?
I always thought Vince Neil who's fame comes from being the front man for Mötley Crüe was a marginal singer. They were a raunchy band so he fit in.
After the 'Crüe' broke up, Vince went solo. I believe his career faded and years later he was on a realty show documenting his comeback complete with plastic surgery. Serious reconstruction and not just a nip & tuck.
As the pandemic subsides lots of touring bands are booking gigs and heading out on the road.
This past weekend, Vince and his band headlined the Boone River Valley Festival in Iowa. Reports were he went there unprepared and his voice 'gave out' to the point where he announced to the crowd "My f---ing voice is gone"
Yeah Neil, we knew that years ago!
Overweight, out of tune and forgetting the lyrics.
I don't blame him as much as I blame his management allowing him to make a career killing performance like he did.
My brother has a degree in engineering. Stacks of books and years of study. He tutored his oldest son in calculus and remembers how to use a slide ruler. He's designer and built bridges... even wrote a book on the subject.
One of his college buddies often talked about the story of the constipated mathematician.
They say he worked out with a pencil!
While on the topic of pencils, I found a really interesting video on the making of Faber-Castell pencils. The video claims they produce 2.3 billion pencils a year.
online today!chatillion Blog (1,896)
