The word inspiration comes up frequently in my business, usually mentioned by clients and their designers. They email or text to me photos of kitchen or furniture ideas they have seen online.
If you didn't know, I design and sell custom cabinetry.
Today, I received a photo of a long TV wall unit with floating shelves and a fake fireplace in the middle. The customer gave a description of what they liked about the photo and what they want different. Got it. My meeting with the client is tomorrow. I'll be ready.
Yesterday was a similar scenario. I received a few photos on Monday, we met in the showroom on Wednesday. The woman was very impressed with my presentation and the products we manufacture. When asked how long I've been doing designs, I said "I had brown hair when I started in this business!" We laughed, she liked the joke and felt comfortable with my ability to design a great kitchen for her and her husband.
I was at a previous job for 8 years and it's a good feeling being in the groove again.
A little personal life reveal here.
I thought at my age, I would semi-retire, pick a few projects and have more than 50% free time. That hasn't happened. The company I'm working for got stronger after COVID. We opened a showroom last year and the owner wants greater sales this year.
While we were allowed to use the showroom during construction, we couldn't make any financial transactions until the city signed off on the building permit. I had a client meeting the morning the building inspector gave us the 'go-ahead' and I made the first sale in the new building. Milestone.
That means, new logo, shirts, business cards. I'm enjoying the new look!
This week was hectic with lots of appointments and a few new projects to price.
I'm feeling some pressure to have all my commitments on time. If there is a time constraint, I still make my meetings and gather more information for the next meeting. This is okay as every project has multiple sets of revisions. So if my drawings aren't 100% complete for the meeting, my presentation is good knowing client revisions are normal.
I reached out to some older contacts and they have started bring me new business. Passing by a jobsite with a new house going up, I connected with the general contractor and will have the opportunity to bid that project and get added to bid any future projects they have. Win-win.
I think the new car purchase this year is also a boost of positive energy. Nothing wrong with the previous car, as it was only 3 years old. I do a fair amount of highway driving and the new car rides nicer, more comfortable with less interior road noise.
Things are good. Real good. My mood is up, I decided to use a designer who had some free time to help me with drawings. I'm using her as a tool to allow me to be more productive and not use my additional free time for play and not work.
That brings me to a few things. Hopefully we all know the distance of Internet (not seeing, hearing people as in real life) often reflect a view that is different to what the person is like in real life. Because of this, some people could be perceived as arrogant, moody, aggressive, mean spirited or bitter when they are actually not. Like a mirror, I've returned less-than pleasing comments with less-than pleasing comments. That doesn't show me in the light I would like to be seen. Someone said 'don't argue with a fool, they will bring you down to their level' I must remember that.
Member gonelikethewimd who is like her name, comes in only to comment and quickly disappears. She commented on another blog that I appear to be taking all the news surrounding ex-president Trump personally. Could it be? I respect her opinion, but every news channel, Yahoo page, YouTube video is 95% about him. In truth, there is nothing I could that could add or subtract to what is going on with the lying and legal mess he created. We can only wait and see the outcome.
My inspiration blog...
All politicians make promises if elected. Some have good intentions, but a lack of understanding how to actually get their promise implemented. For example: Repealing the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare that went into law in 2010 and replacing it with something better and cheaper. Not happening. Constructing a wall between Mexico and the US to reduce illegal immigration and having Mexico pay for it. Not happening.
Another?
"I"m going to enforce all lors concerning the protection of classified information. We can't have someone in the oval office who doesn't understand the meaning of confidential or classified"
Anyway... there's a new video about it.
(Some people from New York mispronounce laws as lors, about the same way they pronounce caulking as corking or soffer in place of sofa)
The concept of a flying car isn't new. Every wannabe inventor dreams of building one. Popular Mechanics magazine has been writing stories about them dating back to the 1950's but those were full sized vehicles with gasoline engines and huge wings to give them sufficient lift.
In the last 10 years, I've seen the 'winged' versions disappear and the multi propeller electric 'drone style' high lift vehicles show up on technical and aviation news.
A Chinese company had a 2-seater with 4 sets of dual counter-rotating propellers. The problem was the propellers were at knee level without any protective shroud. that idea 'didn't get off the ground' as it failed in safety.
Why is this talking so long?
A few things I can think of.
Cost.
All the wing style vehicles need a runway.
The idea of being stuck in traffic and unfolding the wing to take off won't happen as aircraft need to have a flight plan, start and land st an airport to be on their radar.
FAA certification of the aircraft and one important detail is YOU MUST BE A LICENSED PILOT.
This year is a new flavor... it's a car with a framework like a wall fan and lots of rotors that give it lift. $300,000 for pre-orders. The first of it's kind to have the go ahead of the FAA. Delivery of this flying car is estimated to be a few years away.
Company site:
I like this video showing DOZENS of these cars flying in unison like they are on their way to work!
My car has a front radar used in the safety system for Forward Obstruction Warning (FOW) and Mazda Radar Cruise Control (MRCC) but sometimes the system gives a failure warning. I called Mazda USA and spoke to someone in customer relations who says they have no records of this happening to my model or others.
Last month, I dropped the car off for it's first service and told the service adviser about the failures and showed him photos of the warnings that appeared on the dashboard display.
He did a search and said there's nothing in history of this happening to any other vehicles.
Since they need to put the car to a test drive to try to reproduce the problem, I need to schedule an appointment for them to have the car at lease 2 days and arrange a (free) loaner. While I can make arrangements, I wasn't real sure about them being able to find the trouble. For me it starts while I'm on the highway and it's raining happening about 80% of the time.
I spoke to a friend who used to work at a car dealer and he asked "Did you Google it?"
Pretty simple and I found a few Mazda Tech sites where people post questions and get responses from other car owners. I found EXACTLY what I was looking for. It appears on my model and several others current and dating back a few years. Not a new problem.
At this point, I now have the ammunition I need to get back to the dealer for something that should already know about. Making my point, I'll send the service manager some links that explain the issue, with photos so they can get to the source quickly.
Thanks Google!
I haven't followed the news about the wildfires in Canada, but a designer I'm doing a project with who lives in New York City was in town today and said the smoke reminded her of 911.
Today, there are alerts on the front page of Yahoo so I clicked the link to get a better understanding of the severity to this disaster.
From what I see New York, Pennsylvania and the New Jersey areas are most affected.
I'm surprised about New Jersey as I figure because they are on the coast they should be getting off-shore winds.
I went to the National Hurricane Center to call up some satellite imagery and the live loop shows movement in a counter-clockwise covering the entire tip of the United States.
Since the news is related to the US, I can only image the air quality in Canada must be 20 times worse there than a few hundred miles away.
Here is the link to live satellite image loop of the area:
Many years ago, I took a cheap serrated blade steak knife and used it for cutting watermelon. To accomplish this, I curved the blade. The plastic handle cracked last month. I when shopping for a replacement at the dollar store... where things are $1.25 now.
Times change and the steak knives they now carry, have a straight edge. No problem, so I bought two. I opened one package, washed it and was amazed at the quality of the knife.
Stainless steel with a moulded handle. It cuts much better than the other steak knives and I plan to go back and get a few more.
It cuts like a knife, but it feels so right!
The old knife served me well...
Seedless round melon
We lost Willy last month. Miclee who was MIA returned briefly. namaron has been gone for a long time with no update. galrads was hospitalized with health issues returned for a short time and is gone again. Does anyone have contact with him outside of CS?
I've been saying this for more than a year now, but today Ron DeSantis made it official and is running for president.
In my last blog about Ron, one of his associates filed an amendment to allow him to campaign and not have to quit his job as governor. Ken commented to that blog saying it was common practice. Maybe so, but Ron is going against Donald J. Trump and if the slightest crack existed, Trump would bring it up.
My questions is: Where does Ron get to draw the line of using Florida taxpayer money versus campaign funds to travel across the country? He's already been running around as though he made the announcement weeks ago.
Governor Ron "Have your cake and eat it too" DeSantis...
Last week, we lost 5 explorers when the Titan submersible imploded on a dive to view the Titanic. This week, it's 5 teens (ages between 18 and 18) lost their lives when the small sedan they were in crashed and submerged in a pond along the highway. Believed to have happened sometime late Sunday night to early Monday morning.
Four of them were workers at a local Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The restaurant was closed Monday and will have a memorial in the coming days.
The tow truck had a difficult time pulling the submerged car out and all passengers were declared dead at the scene.
One photo posted in the first news article shows a front end collision of the car and air bags deployed. I'm sure more information will come forward after police do a full investigation.
Links:
Name that tune started as a TV game show in the 1950's where contestants competed to correctly identify songs. It had gone through changes over the years, but the main part of the game had contestants stating the lowest number of notes to be played for them to identify the song. The host would then say "Name that tune."
In my travels this morning, I came to an exit on the highway where street beggars would usually stand on the corner holding signs usually stating they are homeless, some actually saying they were willing to work for food. Today, it was somewhat different. Technically, he was a beggar, but he came with a guitar and portable amplifier.
The thought came across my mind...is he a beggar or a street musician busking?
He was mumbling and I couldn't guess what song he was playing, but I considered his status as a busker and not a beggar.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a $5 bill, folded it and when the light changed to green, I was able to roll the window down, move up, and handed it to the guy.
Five bucks is enough for breakfast at McDonalds.
It's interesting to see so many profiles on CS listing a masters degree yet they are working in a flower shop making less than $25,000. Not every high degree guarantees a good job. I have coworkers who immigrated from Brazil and some have college degrees and trained as designers and architects, but they couldn't find anything suitable in Brazil, so they came to America for something better.
My nephew has a 4-year degree in political science... great. He sold used cars and now he's a soccer coach. I question his father who paid for the education... Why did you let this happen?
I wasn't interested in the 1960's folk music scene and too young for the coffee-house crowd. I knew who Bob Dylan was and knew he was an influence to the musicians I listened to, but I didn't listen to his music directly.
Dylan has been a major figure in the popular music culture for more than 70 years.
My friends used to make fun of his voice and how Tom Petty with a similar likeness, could have been his son. There was a funny skit on Saturday Night Live about that.
It wasn't until a generation ago that I started listening to some of Dylan's songs. Yes, never too late. He's 82 years old now and had gone through health issues, some related to drugs, financial trouble and he keeps on rolling along.
The video is one of my favorites. It's from a concert in Madison Square Garden with a stage full of musical greats.
My Back Pages by Bob Dylan.
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