Last week I saw a blog about a place where people can go to smash-up objects like computer screens and TV's to release their 'pent up energy' as a form of therapy.
Take a baseball bat and head to a warehouse with some discarded objects and 'have at it' and soon after you'll feel better.
My experience in the few years I've been a part of the CS blogging community there has always been a few members who love gossip and often express themselves by making comments to other members... provoking them out of the normal 'I blog, you blog, we all blog' and everyone gets along mentality.
Some people need excitement in their boring lives and fabricate situations that really don't exist or... they have suspicions (without proof) about other members. I've known a few women who came from the South and lived in small towns where gossip and prejudice ran high. Rowdy young men who enjoy getting drunk and picking fights is their way of releasing energy.
Every few months someone will come to a blog of mine and take an unprovoked swipe at me. I got 2 small ones on another bIog I comment on and I thought it would great to start a swipe blog of my own... a place where you can 'let it out' and make yourself feel good for doing so.
Pandemic got you down?
Been grumpy lately... more than usual?
I offer you The Swipe Blog...
Take a swipe at me or any other member, go ahead, say something offensive here and not leave a turd for me on someone else's blog because they don't deserve it.
A woman called looking for a full bathroom renovation and was dissatisfied with the price and treatment from a nearby firm. The lead came to me so I was dispatched to her place to see what she wants and gather enough information to create an estimate. Estimates are free.
The entire meeting was prefaced with "My budget is thirty thousand and not a penny more."
I went to her house, took measurements, listed some of the points for her design, made a followup appointment at our showroom to go over the layout and prices. She came in and we showed her drawings and a line item for everything we can do and keep the price within her budget. Everything is transparent. No hidden charges.
We did good and I worked a design that was just around $28 thousand.
She looks over the layout. Decides on a more expensive door style, more expensive bathroom fixtures, add more drawers to the layout. that brings us right up to $30 thousand.
We don't supply lighting so she would have to purchase 4 of her own fixtures (that we will install) and they could be as low as $50 each to $250 each if she buys something ornate.
One issue is her want to change a swing door to the water closet into a pocket door.
The existing opening would have to be completely rebuilt, electric moved, new door, pocket door cage with sliding track installed. I explained while it's not in my normal scope, I have a carpenter who could do the work but I'm estimating the cost to be around $1,600 and that's taking her over the budget.
The woman's mood changed and she became angry. I explained every thing is clearly listed and she has choices to simplify the layout, choose less expensive fixtures and forget about the pocket door. I'm offering choices.
She waved a check in front of us thinking we would come down in price and my associate explained she needs to go home and make some decisions. We priced what she asked for with options and cannot bend a few thousand to make the deal.
With a huffy attitude we couldn't come down to her price, she wanted to take our design drawings on leaving. The estimate is free, giving away drawings that took a few hours to make isn't.
After she left, my boss wanted to know the outcome of the meeting and we told him the details. His comment was it's better she walked as his experience is customers who are difficult in the beginning are like that through the entire job.
My associate and I sold 2 kitchen remodels this week and meeting a client for a bathroom remodel today. Lots of work to get it done. Lots more to process the shop drawings, material lists and place orders. I'm doing 6 days a week and a few late nights...
Happy Friday!
I'm not an accident attorney nor do I play one in a TV series!
On the way home I was in the outside lane behind someone slow to start away from a red light easily 5 seconds after it turned green. It's a 6 lane divided road with turn lanes and the speed limit is 45mph. He was doing 30. Getting ready to go around, I looked in my rear view mirror. I could see flashing lights of a Fire Rescue Ambulance... one of the big ones and the car in front hits the brakes and prepares to make a full stop. Really.
I waited for the ambulance to pass (he was in the middle lane) and I got into the middle lane too... yeah, except for the ambulance doing 60, it was empty. So... I casually followed for a few miles and coincidentally made the right turn toward the hospital. He took a left at the hospital and I continued straight.
The snoring duo made a guest appearance at my house last night and I'm thinking we could perfect this and take the show on the road.
Actually, I'm thinking of a trip to Ohio to visit my brother. The only thing holding me back is the temperature there was 33 degrees.
I asked. She chose chocolate covered doughnuts. Entenmann's had a buy one get one sale!
Mmmm... it was good. I expect to get some tail every night this week!
One translation called it Chinese Lettuce and another called it vegetable core and another says it's AA Choy Stem.
My partner calls it tail. So, I'll be getting tail all week!
Peel the outside, slice thin and saute.
35 years ago I worked for a high-end custom cabinet shop and the owner had a sterling reputation to his clients. His relationship to the employees was very different. But... one thing I learned from him was not to use the word hate. He said it was the 'end all' and there is no way coming back from using it... especially if it pertains to a relationship, business or personal.
That said, I disliked working there. His expectations from everyone he employed was often unfair, even when they did a good job.
Our biggest disagreement was his method for calculating the amount of time allocated for a cabinetmaker to work on a project. He used a 'man days' formula that was strictly by the sales price and not by the difficulty of what was sold.
A lacquered wall unit could take a few days to build, then go to the finishing department to be stained and painted.
If it was a mica unit, the cabinet maker would need nearly the same time to cut and build but the laminating didn't go to another department. It was the job of the cabinetmaker to do all the laminating and assembly. More work (for the cabinetmaker) than a painted product.
Two totally different procedures but the boss used the same calculations in the time needed to build the furniture.
I was in charge of production scheduling using his formulas and suggested we use different formulas for wood cabinetry and mica cabinetry. It was as though he wanted the guys making mica furniture to fail as no one could achieve the time schedules imposed on them.
We would give a cabinetmaker drawings of what was needed and how much time allocated to do the work. Depending how desperate they were for a job, many would pack their tools and leave.
Putting an ad in the paper for a cabinetmaker was a joke as he probably employed everyone in the county at one time or another. He had quite a reputation for having a bad company to work for.
Hurricane Andrew struck and the area was without power for nearly 2 weeks. The owner demanded I work outside in the sun, so I took a portable drafting board and folding table and set up in the parking lot making shop drawings for the upcoming orders.
I stayed until a door of opportunity opened and I moved on.
Often when asked who some of my previous jobs were I mentioned that place and so many knew how bad it was there.
While I wanted to say I hated working there, I always said, I disliked it.
If you poll 100 people asking if they think Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide, probably 98% would say no. That's my opinion and I could be wrong... the number could be higher!
Yeah, dead men don't tell tales... but their secret tapes do.
Last week, Ghislaine Maxwell admitted Epstein had secret tapes of DJT and BC. There is a good chance there could be more.
Old story? Possible motive on her part? To date, from what I've read, no tapes have come to light. Another conspiracy theory for the books.
Everyone was his friend, yet everyone 'hardly' knew him. Distancing is crucial.
I'm convinced we won't know the true details and much of the evidence has vaporized into the night.
Dead men don't tell tales and the secret tapes may be gone forever!
Saturation of photos on the internet is logarithmic. Take someone with a Facebook account posting a single photo that a hundred people 'like' adding to their accounts and you now have a hundred identical photos on the internet, who spread that to another hundred who spread that to another hundred. Digital Pandemic (you can quote me on that)
Do the same with the websites Pinterest or Houzz and one photo turns into a gazillion clones on the internet.
Clients come to me with examples of furnishings/designs they see online and ask me to reproduce that in their houses. Small problem when they see a 15' by 25' kitchen design and want it to fit their 8' by 9' space.
Of course that make me look like the bad guy to tell then it's not possible to fit all those things into their kitchen.
"But, I showed you a photo of what I want" said one client.
I don't have a better name for them right now, but it's a traditional Chinese New Year meal where you have seasoned pork in the center, beans around that and sweet rice on the outside. The entire loaf is wrapped in banana tree leaves and tied with string.
Boiled for a while and allowed to cool then sliced into sections about 2" long.
There you have it... Mummified rice cakes!
Most dating sites I've been a member of have rules for photos.
No nudity (including guys bare torsos showing off muscles) one person in the photo, face shot where the person must be clearly recognizable, no children, no display of weapons, etc.
That doesn't stop people from doing what they want and not what's listed in the requirements.
A feature that was on POF allowed members a chance to view random photos uploaded by other members. It was amazing to see what people tried to get away with on their profiles. I believe if you flagged a photo it went on a list for the staff to review.
Tattoos for example. I suppose if you were an inkaholic posting only photos of your tattoos and none of your face is your calling card in life.
Your face obscured by smoke billowing out of your nostrils while you're holding a reefer is a clear sign what you are and your bait for what you are interested in.
Another form of bait is a photo of an older woman with her young, attractive daughter in the foreground. I'm sure she gets lots of hits that way as guys will check out the daughter and then bypass the profile of an older woman... that is unless guys are thinking that by getting to meet mom, there's a chance they can actually get to meet her daughter!
Using the wrong type of bait could catch you the wrong kind of fish.
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