Out of the norm.

I was talking to my brother about restaurants recently and he said that a restaurant he used to work at would make their own honey butter.  That got me to thinking about what a company can do to set them apart from the competition.

You can make your own dressings, flavored butter, ice cream, even your own butter.  Put it on your menu that you make something from scratch and don't buy it.  Might you run out?  Might you make too much and it goes bad?  It's a business and that might happen, deal with it.  Anything you can make and put your own spin on can only increase business, unless you do it wrong.  If you only make enough for the first five orders then rethink your plan.

For the holidays you could do a nutmeg butter for the table bread, for July 4th you could make your own barbecue sauce.  Make your own barbecue sauce anyway, brag on your menu how you start with tomatoes and go from there.  If it's popular buy some jars and sell it by the jar.  I've actually wanted to make my own barbecue sauce with a base of mustard instead of ketchup.

There are so many little things in restaurants that can be done from scratch that the chains can't compete with.  Most of the chains are promoting how wherever you are in the world the food will taste the exact same.  Have a sensitive stomach but you can eat McDonalds?  You can go anywhere and eat McDonalds safely.  You might be bored going to certain countries and arranging your itinerary around meals at the Golden Arches but you can still do some things.

You can't compete with the biggies when it comes to consistency but you can do things they can't.

Capitalism.

We went to Canton today.  For those of you not in the know it's www.firstmondaycanton.com.  The place is I don't know how many acres of stores and shops.  It's capitalism and the free market system in action.

Some of the vendors buy stuff and sell it, some create stuff, some find junk, some buy stuff and change it, and some do combinations of the above.  One table had a sign on it with the simple tag of "junk on this table $1".  Can you say truth in advertising?  Some of it was junk but some of it was just stuff like books, magazines, knick knacks, and etc.  The books were best sellers of a few years past, if you go to a book store they will be how much?  It's a dollar at that table and maybe you collect some of the other stuff.

We stayed in the "garage sale" area, people clean out their attic or garage and sell it.  Old kitchen appliances, old clothes, grandmother's knick knacks.  If you've been to one garage sale then you know what was there.  Sometimes you see some gems, a beautiful rocking chair or some depression glass.  Sometimes you see something that you wonder why they dragged it up there to sell; table legs, the big wood ones that go with big American dinner tables.  Why are they there?  Do they think that someone with table tops will stop by and start whipping out cash?  That's the beauty of capitalism.

If it works you make money, if it doesn't you don't.

A quickie business idea for "Mr. Glass".

In the movie "Unbreakable" the "villain" is a guy with a genetic disorder that makes his bones brittle.  If you know the film then you know him as Mr. Glass.  Great film by the way.

I got to thinking recently how if you have this condition (yes, it's real) you're only defense is constant vigilance.  Not too effective really.  I used to collect comic books and there is a character named Wolverine who has metal strips put into his bones to strengthen them.  We don't have the technology to do that now and even if we did getting around the rejection factor and the weakening of the immune system would be another set of problems.  But we do have the technology to make a simple exoskeleton, not like a suit of armor but something unobtrusive.

My idea is to get carbon fiber rods (super strong and lightweight) and put them in a fabric "sleeve".  Arms and legs would be easy; for a prototype use the tattoo cover sleeves (Ink Armor makes one) as the base, sew the rods into one, slide the next sleeve over the first and then finish sewing the rods into place.  The customer base is small enough that custom ordering would be the norm.  Or would it?  The sleeves could also be used for anyone with osteoporosis, bone spurs, and various other reasons.  Certain sizes could be ready made and available to ship, others would be a custom job.  From what I hear Olympic level skiers use forearm protectors that have something like cornstarch in them, they're flexible until sudden kinetic pressure is applied and then they become rigid.  I don't think that would work for people that have osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) but maybe I'm wrong.

These would give some protection for the arms and legs; joints, ribs, pelvis, etc would have to be protected differently.  Possibly a real engineer could get involved with that.  In thinking about this I watched Children of Glass.  That told me a lot about the other problems that OI people deal with.  This invention wouldn't help those other things but it could help with walking in a crowded mall or at a sporting event.

I don't know if the actuality of this idea would work or not, if it does I'm not expecting any money from it.  If someone makes and sells them I would like acknowledgement (it looks great on the resume) but if this could help someone then I'm pretty happy.  If someone gets the idea and makes body armor for the military or sports, then hell yes I want a cut.

Striving for mediocrity.

Years ago I had a GM (general manager, responsible for the club and the managers) named JW.  He said that he managed on the pigeon style of management; he would swoop in and crap on everybody.  He didn't really but he definitely was a "the sky is falling" kind of guy.  That's if one little thing went wrong he was talking about the club numbers going down in flames.  If the place was rocking he was telling us managers that we were "phenomenal, phenomenal I tell you!".  Some times those "pep talks" would be in the same day.
No matter how crazy he was (a bottle of Coors Light in one hand and a chainsaw in the other kind of crazy; yes, I saw that) he wanted you to stand out.  Our office was tiny in that club, he would do a lot of official GM type business in the parking lot.  I stole a trick from him, if you bitch at someone do it in private.  If you want to praise someone, sometimes do it in public and sometimes in private.  In the first year I worked with him he took me outside four times, once to kick me in the butt for being mediocre and three times to tell me about a raise I received.

JW was a real big believer in personal accountability.  If you screw up, own up to it and learn from it.  If you do well then YOU should be rewarded for it.  At these clubs the bartenders would pool their tips, he hated that.  On weekends we would have three bartenders; bar one would handle the customers, bar two would be split with customers and servers, and bar three would only be servers.  He thought that if bar one was making their money by flirting with the customers while bar three was making their money by server tip out then shouldn't they keep the tips they made (bar two would get a split of both)?  If one flirted more than three was tipped out then why should one have to give her money to someone else?

We would tell him that's the way it's always been done.  He would reply with whole litany of things:  we are rewarding mediocrity, we can't keep the better bartenders because they have to split their tips with a slacker.  Then he would bring us into it:  "What if we pooled the managers salaries and gave everyone an equal share?"  HELL NO!  (redneck club)  We liked being recognized for our work in the best to be recognized, frequent raises.  Some of us had worked at a sister club that had an upstairs VIP room and the servers there would pool their tips.  We mentioned that.  He was ready for that one, "Who are the VIP servers?  Young pretty girls?  And the older more experienced servers say they want to stay on the main floor?  Think about it, what does that tell you?"  He would talk to us about this because he wanted to know what would the owner say when he brought it up.

He brought it up to the owner.  The owner made his money on numbers; the more servers the better, the more dancers the better; in general, the more women the more money he made.  If a few bartenders or servers went somewhere else and we replace them with not so greatly skilled servers it doesn't really matter.

To paraphrase JW:  Fuck that bullshit.  You come in and work your ass off and you will make money.  If a slacker doesn't want to work then they can go home with chump change.

Dinner and a show.

Years ago a buddy and I went out to a steakhouse in Fort Worth that we had heard was really good.  We go and instantly on the menu we see how they proudly serve only corn fed beef.  My friend and I know more about the restaurant industry than the usual person so we wondered what the competition fed their beef.  We assumed from the tone of the menu (and the server and manager that we spoke to also) that the competition sold orphan fed beef.  We were amused how the server and manager didn't know or were pretending to not know that grass is the preferred diet for cattle.  All beef is fed corn (in restaurants) unless you get the more expensive grass fed beef.  Don't put anything on the menu that makes you look like an idiot.  The show part of the meal was watching the employees run outside with a fire extinguisher, pitchers of water, and the huge tea urn.  The landscaping outside the front door was on fire.  As I said, dinner and a show.

Other blog time. About music and catering.

Other blog about music and catering, check it out here.

A simple haiku.

I love my wife.  This morning she wrote on the bathroom mirror "I love you", I being so vain didn't notice it until lunch time.  I wrote my own piece for her on the mirror.

While the wind whispers,
As long as the stars burn bright
I'll love you always.

As I said it was simple, a lot of rules that are possible for a haiku I didn't use.  The sentiment is summed up rather nicely I think.

Basic silliness.

Normally in the back of my head is "What shall I write on my blog tonight?"  I've been busy today.  I have no idea what I'll write about.  I read some of my old posts for inspiration and I think I found a filler topic.

I want to be in politics...no I don't, I want to be in a position to help people.  My topless bar background will give me a lot of free publicity.  My wife being a cop will help as well.  Photogenic wife and kids, check.  Not so photogenic myself, I can work on that.

Looking at this town and I've seen some things that I wonder about.  Could I get voted into the city council to make some changes (hopefully improvements)?  Could I just try and do the same thing by being a grass roots activist?

I have no idea.  Still new to the area.  I need to determine if the things I see that I think are failing might actually be improvements.  Really don't want to make a law or do some changes just because.  Definitely don't want to be that kind of politician.

Short and sweet tonight because I'm tired.

Humorous bit about "stripper tipping".

Years ago I'm in a topless bar (as a customer) with a friend.  He invents a game called stripper tipping.  For those of you not in the know, when you tip a dancer (we actually call them dancers but stripper tipping has a better sound) she crouches down on the stage in order to accept the tip.

My friend would tip the lady (he did tip well) and then tip her over.  He said that she was so off balance he had to.  He just had a sixth sense about who would laugh or try to tip him over instead.  I was never that lucky.

When I went back to work I tried it.  I found a lady that had been drinking a little too much (I also didn't like her, she had a stage name of Ivory) went up to her stage and spoke to her.  After I finished speaking to her I tipped her over.  She laughed and said that she needed to stop drinking for the night.  I only tipped over the ladies that had been drinking, so much safer for me.

A few years after my friend created this game I'm dating a dancer and explain the game to her.  She of course doesn't like it, at first.  Then she tips over a few friends and really enjoys it.  She and a dancer friend create a variation on it:  Manager tipping.  A little harder because you really have to push hard to get them off balance.  I did try it a few times and I have to say that it was fun and even more challenging.

I'm still hoping that stripper tipping will become an olympic sport.  It can be done in winter or summer and really the only competition the US would have would be Thailand.  I think we could take the gold without a problem.

My parents.

Years ago my father would drive to New Mexico and buy Indian jewelry and artifacts.  He would then bring it to Texas or New York and auction it off.  Some years later he would go to New York and buy antiques, bring them to Texas and auction them off.  Those smoke filled auctions were probably the only part of my childhood that I didn't try to repress.

My father used humor a lot in his auctions, he would tell the lady that had just bought some item "Ma'am, what's your number?"  She would hold up her card with her bidder number on it and my father would say "No Ma'am, I meant your phone number."  He would do that once a show and yes, I meant to call it a show.  My mother would always be there counting and handling money.  That's one of my earliest memories, I was seven and bothering her so she gave me a stack of cash, a pen, and a sheet of paper and told me to sit under the table and count the money.

Once my parents were out of the auctioning business they still kept their hand in it.  My father could watch the good auctioneers do a sale without a problem.  These guys had names like Machine Gun, he was that fast and articulate.  Or my mother would volunteer him to do a charity cake auction.  He did them for the Boy Scouts, my mother's church, and the Special Olympics among others.  Like clockwork he would sell and my mother would keep track of how much he sold, she might not be handling the money but they still wanted to know.

These charity auctions were great for the group.  Let's say that twenty people donated a cake/pie/cookie each, these were auctioned off by my father for free and they sold for an average of $20 each.  $400 profit for the charity without any real outlay of money or time.  I remember the first charity auction my mother volunteered him for.  It was for the Boy Scouts (my brother's special needs troop), he was as sick as a dog; he looked sick and sounded sick, even had a fever.  He said he would do it so he went to the dinner.  After the dinner it was time for the auction, he got up and said that he was sick "so how about we all put in $20 and pick a cake?"  Nope.  "Okay, and the first cake is..." He went on and sold all 20 for a total of over $400.  Then he went home and collapsed.

When my wife and I were first living together we went to a Special Olympics charity dinner, my wife (girlfriend at the time) made two items (rice krispie block and fancy cookies); the rice krispie block sold for $40 or so, the cookies went for $75 if I remember correctly.  A few dollars of ingredients, a few hours of labor (both donated) and the charity did very well.  Something to remember.

There were some naysayers, at the church someone complained that the cakes were too expensive so the next year they did a cake walk.  Even at the Boy Scouts a mother complained that people were spending too much money so they also did a cake walk the next year.  You ever been to a cake walk?  You don't spend an average of $20 to get a cake.  Who really lost on those decisions?

One of the Ten Commandments.

Writing about theft.  Check it out here.

Gun restricted areas.

Seattle has been doing a initiative to convince businesses to put up no-guns allowed signs.  Washington concealed carry holders can carry in Texas but us Texans cannot carry in Washington, so this doesn't really concern me but I want to put in my two cents anyway.

This is something of a grassroots effort and not a government effort from what I've read.  I'm against it as a gun person and as a business person.  As a gun person I think these restrictions are silly, you are basically telling this law abiding person that you don't trust them.  This person who has the government sanctioned trust to carry almost anywhere else (except government places, but that's another post) but in your store because you don't trust them.  The sign doesn't affect criminals in the least  because it only applies to concealed carry people.  So, in other words your saying "I don't trust you and I don't want your money".  You probably do want my money but why should I spend it where I'm not wanted?

As a business person (in Texas it's known as the 30.06 law) if I see the 30.06 sign in a store I pretty much just don't spend my money there.  They don't want my money and they don't trust me but I do wonder if the right (or wrong) legal person has thought this through.  If anyone can sue anyone for anything, then if you are denying me the legal right to protect myself does that mean that the onus of protection falls on you?  The government has already ruled that they are not beholden to any special duty to protect you (Warren v District of Columbia, 1981), they are only required to enforce laws and protect the general public; but if some business requires that I forfeit my best means of defense then do they willingly take on a special duty to protect me?  If so, then if something does happen are you and your business partly responsible?  When I go into the places that don't allow me to carry my chl (schools, churches, some hospitals, and a few others) am I extra vigilant?  Oh, hell yes.

No matter what the laws are I am the first layer of protection I have.  If that protection involves a .40 cal or knowing where cover is at then I'm doing it.  I teach my children the same because this is a crazy world and I want them to see it for decades more.

Food.

Food is a major part of life.  Yet we don't really care where it comes from or how it's made.  People are starting to care and think about it but do we really need to have someone tell us that we need to pay attention to what we put in our body?  I've seen parents argue about training wheels for their kid's bike yet they have no problem giving the same kid whatever junk food is nearby.

A lot of people might not know that grocery stores as we know them are a pretty recent development.  My grandparents were born around the turn of the 20th century and they would be amazed with what is in grocery stores now.  The farmer side of them would be sad that farms are still a bitch and a half to work but the farmer side would also be amazed with aqua and hydroponics.  Below ground greenhouses and gmo products and Kobe beef; all new to them.  Some good, some they might not be too thrilled about.  People raising a stink about if the chicken was fed organic produce; of course it was fed organic feed and scraps I can't afford anything else.  They were poor farmers.  My father says that the former slaves down the road had more money than his family because they had beef cattle while his family raised chickens. 

I've heard some foodies and slow food movement people talk about how we need to appreciate the soil again.  I definitely believe that.  I also think we need to respect and appreciate our bodies just as much.

Back on the bike.

I like riding my bicycle.  It's hot as hell in Texas and I'm a stay at home dad (for the nonce) so the best time to ride is when the minions are asleep.  It's dark out and I'm riding with the wind in my hair and the only sound in my ears are the tires on the road.  It was so peaceful that it was kind of freaking me out.  A little too peaceful if you know what I mean.

Since I'm riding in my neighborhood with a low crime rate and this town pretty much rolls up the sidewalk at sundown I'm not packing.  For the past decade and change I've always had a pistol on me.  I'm used to the weight, I can feel it without reaching for it; I'm not carrying it when I ride so I think I'm leaning to the side to compensate.  I know I'm not but it feels odd.  I'm a city boy and this is the country; seeing some gangbanger wannabe doesn't frighten me but shrubbery too close to where I'm riding in the dark with no one around and I'm a little disconcerted.

Something else odd (to me at least) are the smells.  I don't have the greatest sense of smell; in fact, it's not that great actually.  That little quirk did make managing a restaurant interesting at times.  When I smell my favorite perfume (barbecue) I'm all happy, but when I smell some other things I'm not so happy.  We use an ozone system for our laundry (we used to spend close to $400 a year on detergent) so I'm not used to scented laundry anymore, a lot of people were doing laundry this night and it's all scented.  When my wife was pregnant her nose went into hyperdrive, she could smell everything; I think she would have gotten a headache from all of the detergent out there this night.

I did two miles and change tonight.  I'm going to get a part I need to attach a trailer and then I'll bring my youngest with me.  Help her sleep and if she sleeps well then we all hopefully sleep well.

Kids.

I love my kids, but man they can scare you.

My wife and I believe in alternative punishments (if the kid hates wearing green then have them wear green as a punishment etc.) and sometimes they don't work.  One kid made a mess so we had her clean it up, it was in the shower so we had her clean it up with water from the shower, and wouldn't you know it, the water was cold.  She hated it at first and then she started having fun sliding in the bathtub.  Turns out that after the initial complaint she didn't care about the cold water.  Every time we do a some punishment she doesn't like it at first and then she doesn't care.  Her brain becomes acclimated to the discomfort (or to the dislike) so quickly that it doesn't really count as a punishment anymore.

One child is going to kindergarten this year.  She went in to be tested; the school does that to see if they can skip some things because the kids already know it.  I think she was trying to drive them crazy, or me.  Ask her to count and she will do it wrong and giggle.  Then, later on she'll do it right.  If you ask her to count a small number of toys she might tell you "1,2,3,green" and then giggle again.  And she's stubborn.  Stubborn like a cast iron mule that was pissed off.

The youngest?  Even more stubborn.  I can't wait to go back to school again.  I'll miss seeing them all day but they are truly driving me crazy.

Charities and Business.

Other blog, it's about Charities and Business.  Read it here.

More living in a small town.

Living in a small town is different.  For example; consider the following.

We went out to dinner and ice cream tonight.  The restaurant is new, if I were to review them now it would not be that favorable, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on the service (two servers for a place that seats 90 give or take 10%, somewhat busy and they were in the weeds), the sushi was great, the kids meals were good, and my meal was mediocre but the dressing on my salad was awesome.  I asked the server what the dressing was and she said their chef makes it.  She said that some people buy it in bottles for their house, I believe it; if I ate more salads I would have.  When we left the restaurant we went down the sidewalk to the ice cream shop.  Over half the people in their were in the sushi place with us.  After awhile a group came in and my wife knew one of the ladies.  I see that a lot in grocery stores here, one person will see a friend while out and about doing errands.  I never saw that in Arlington.

After the kids were in bed I went out to ride my bicycle.  I'm riding around and I don't see many cars out and about.  Lights in houses were off, I saw a few people out walking their dogs or just enjoying the not 100 degree weather.  Where I'm from the last few weeks before school and the parties would be happening, drinking and cooking out until who knows when.  Here...I saw a lady playing horseshoes

Striving towards mediocrity and business cowardice.

Read it here.

What annoys me about sports.

I don't watch sports.  I don't play them either; I'm more of a person vs self competitive person.  Being in the martial arts I have a knowledge of my body's capabilities.  That lets me respect the sports people and appreciate what they are doing.

Look at baseball, this guy has a big stick to hit this ball.  If the ball goes too far out of a small area then the batter doesn't have to hit it.  Sounds pretty easy doesn't it?  After all the pitch isn't a surprise, you can watch the pitcher wind up and release.  However this ball is also moving at around 80 to 100 mph.  It's going fast enough that if you catch it without a glove you will probably get bone fractures in your hand, maybe even break it.  The combination of physical athleticism and psychology going on in the pitcher, batter, a runner trying to steal base, and the coaches is amazing.

You could say the same about any sport really.  I just wonder if these sports people thought that they had it made and nothing could go wrong.  Me, I would let them know if they were my team it's just like another job.

If you buy a concert ticket and the performer is sick and doesn't perform then your ticket is refunded or you're given a raincheck.  The raincheck is for the venue not for the performer, the performer only gets paid when they perform.  How about your job?  You only get paid when you work.

I would love to own a professional sports team and put everyone on a performance pay system.  Let's go with football, The players are paid a base salary and then they get a bonus on performance.  A touchdown gives them a bonus of however many thousand for the team, an interception gives them however much, sacking the quarterback gives them something, etc.  Also, whenever the opposing team does those things to you then a cash penalty is applied to the pool.  Since winning is the name of the game then a bonus is given for winning and a major penalty is given for losing.

Additionally, in their contracts would be a morality clause.  If you do something that makes the team look bad (child molestation, dog fighting, drugs, dui, etc.) then you are out, by doing one of things you broke the contract.  People may say that you would shrink your talent pool if you did that.  Okay, how many pro and semi pro teams are there in the nation compared with how many people that would try out for a spot?

Every job I had there were consequences for slacking off.  Why can't we do that with sports people also?

I am therefore I think.

Years ago I got the advice to figure out how to get someone to pay me to do my hobby.  My hobby is reading.  For awhile I thought about various professions that would pay me to read.  The more I thought about it the more I realized that it wouldn't work for me.

When I read too long my eyes start to hurt, if it's a good book that won't stop me but what if I'm reading drivel?  After a few years of it would I start to get bored with books?  Would I not read for fun anymore?  Then I had an epiphany.  I was reading an okay book and I put it down to rest my eyes.  My brain is spinning on how the book could have been better, why the author wrote it the way he did and various other questions.  Then it hit me, figure out how to get paid for doing something you can't stop doing.  I can't stop thinking.  How can I get paid to think?

A buddy of mine is going to open a pub and I said I would give him some ideas and advice.  He's offered me a job twice now.  The first time because I know what I'm doing.  The second time because every night I send him a few paragraphs about something (table coverings, wall decor, promo ideas, and even menus).  He called me up and said I seem to be really into it, would I like the job?  Nope.

I explained to him that I'm giving him these ideas because I can't stop thinking about them.  Once I wrote a business plan for an idea.  It took me forever to write; partly because I've never done it before and partly because I wanted to add this idea to it.  And this one.  And this one.  Etc.

I gave this advice to a high school senior recently, figure out what you can't stop doing and then figure out how to get paid to do it.  He was in high school and had already figured it out.  He was even working on getting a scholarship for it.  Lucky bastard.

Other blog time, about hacking it.

I was inspired and that made me think.  Check it out here.

I'm living the good life.

I'm living the good life.  Last night after the kids went to bed I was up partying with a super cutie.  There was crying, puking and drinking.  This wasn't my wife though.  One of my minions vomited which is one of her ways to say "Why yes, I think I should have another bath and/or shower.  I'll let you decide this time."  The crying and milk drinking were also her.  I wanted to cry because I wanted to go to bed.  Instead of milk I ate a little ice cream before bed.

It's a Saturday and it's packed with stuff for the kids.  Sports for one (I think I walked onto the set of "Varsity Blues" watching some of these parents), swim party for all of them.  And I either have an allergy attack going on or the bubonic plague is hitting me.

When we get home I think about taking a nap.  I lay down and I feel worse, screw this nap I have things to do around the house anyway.  We go through a lot of laundry, dishes need to be done, still more unpacking, and who knows what else needs to be done.  That got me to thinking.  That does scare my wife occasionally.

In the military and in certain parts of the robotics industry robots that can determine "shoot/don't shoot" are the holy grail.  If the robot engineers could make a robot that would only shoot the enemy they would be writing their own checks for quite a while.  If the military had these robots then they could get problems resolved quicker because who cares about casualties with 'bots?

I had an epiphany.  If the robot makers could make a 'bot that could clean a house right people would kill to get them.  Yes, I know that the Roomba is out and about.  If you have kids or roommates will they work that well if stuff is on the floor?  Nope.  From what I hear they work great with big open areas.  The Roomba and it's competitors all have pluses and minuses like anything else, yet they still can't clean as well as human with a decent vacuum.  If someone could come up with a robot like Rosie from The Jetson's people would be standing in line to get them.  It wouldn't even need to be that advanced, just so it would know how to clean properly and do laundry it would still sell like hot cakes.

But human nature being what it is some engineer will invent a robotic soldier and their spouse will be there saying "I don't care what that general says, you sleep with me.  That whole "love and honor, sickness and health" stuff also has an implied build me a cleaning robot in it."  I'm telling you, cleaning robots is where it's at.

Even if it's not one really impressive 'bot, but a small squadron (some flying to dust, three legged walkers to put away stuff, short ones to vacuum, etc.) to do those menial chores that everyone hates doing but if you stop then the place looks like crap; I would be happy.

If the robotics people can eventually do this in my lifetime then I'm calling dibs on short humanoid 'bots that do laundry.  I'm going to call them "Laundry Gnomes".  I think they'll sell.

Dragonflies.

I was going to write about the filth known as Ashley Nicole Richards of Houston, TX and her "crush" video work.  It's been a long day, I'm tired, and I want to write about that waste of skin when I'm more capable of giving it the venom and bile it deserves.

As I look out my window I see boxes of books.  I also see dragonflies.  I like dragonflies, not too thrilled with damselflies though.  Dragonflies are great predators.  They eat a lot of the bugs that try to feast on me.  Since I'm on my third round of antibiotics because of some bug bite I would love to have more of them flying around here.

Unfortunately, predator is a dirty word to many people.  You say predator and most people think rapist or child molester.  (What's the difference really?  If someone molests a child aren't they nothing more than a baby raper?  Why should we sugarcoat that?)  Our gut reaction to "predator" is sad.

Without being predators we would not have evolved to become the species that we are.  By eating protein from animals we didn't need to spend 12-16 hours a day foraging for food.  More free time let us devote our energies to other important things for a civilization:  Philosophy, chocolate, and the arts to name a few.

Some may say that we are not predators anymore.  I so disagree, when we are on the pull (looking to score) we still do many of the same things as a hunter only mirrored.  Use our observation skills to see who notices us, our stealth to watch what other "hunters" do, and most importantly our greater brainpower to overcome whatever obstacles our "prey" has before us that the other hunters couldn't get past.  Some may say that women don't get dates by asking someone out, some do and some don't.  I believe that the passive approach that many women have is very similar to many familiar hunters.  Big constrictor snakes climb into a tree and wait for their prey to travel under them and drop on them.  Many spiders put out a net to catch the unwary.  Some fish have "bait" (Angler fish) to lure in prey.  Are any of those any different than a lady laughing and then flipping her hair?  The more subtle crossing legs and letting one heel dangle from a toe?  Or even the more blatant moves such as sucking on a lollipop?

Without our "predator" instinct we wouldn't have made it as far as we did.  Without that instinct we would slowly but surely die out ourselves.  Without us who could watch the graceful and deadly dragonfly?

My wife lies to me.

Recently we cleaned out the garage of moving stuff so we could reorganize it into something more usable.  Texas in the sun, I so miss working at a job sometimes.  We also found out why our insurance was always rejected whenever I went to a doctor.  The insurance company had my birthday confused with our eldest child's.  I promptly told my wife that I'm done working for the day and because I'm seven I'm going to play now.  She didn't go for that.

She does think that I have a problem.  I've already unpacked numerous boxes of books into my library.  Many of the boxes in the garage are totes of books.  My wife counted them and said I have a problem.  I am aghast at her lies.  She's a cop and she has seen addiction.  I'm not addicted, I don't have to read them all.  I just want to read them all.  Again and again.  What's wrong with that?

True, I need to buy more shelves.  These totes are about 7-8 cubic feet of books.  I know, you're thinking that's not a lot of books, but I have 27 of these totes to unpack.  I don't have a problem.  I'm still appalled at her allegations.

Many of the books are from when I had different tastes in books.  Would I still like them or not?  My tastes have majorly changed in the past three decades or so.  Back then I could read Anne McCaffrey and clamor for the next in the series.  Give me some Piers Anthony and I would devour it in a night.  I read the 8th book in his "Incantations of Immortality" series recently and I forgot how much he hates men, but at least it didn't deal with buckwheat honey hair or horses.  Although I did read a short story of his ("The Fleet" series) that didn't make me cringe.  If he wrote more like that I would be very excited about any new book of his.  My books are not a problem.

Now I read more mystery or crime noir.  If the main character is someone that I wouldn't want to invite to my house then I might read it.  As an example, Andrew Vachss is an author whose main character is Burke.  Most of his books deal with child molesters, somewhat disturbing to read a lot of them.  As long as I don't read them back to back I'm okay.  I think of them as having a happy ending, normally the child molester dies at the end.  Mr. Vachss has a job as an advocate for children and has worked with them in "the system".  He brings a level of reality to his works that kind of get to a guy with children (me).  That's why I don't read them back to back.  I don't have a problem with books.

I definitely have some odd ones.  A book on how to make canoes.  Plans for building homes.  Training horses (recommended by a dog trainer),  books on martial arts, books on chocolate, business books, and even things that I have no idea why I bought and read them.  I read them, I put them down.  I don't have a problem.

I'll go through the books and start culling.  There's a website I use for book trading, I'll get a hundred requests or so like last time.  The post office wasn't too thrilled with me that day.  See, no problem.

Drugs are a problem for others.  Books are not a problem for me.  They are windows into the soul of the author and sometimes they are a mirror for your soul.  Maybe you don't like what you see and maybe you do.  Books are not a problem, storage on the other had may be.  But I don't have a problem.

Those stupid customer avoidance systems. Other blog time.

I'm tired, it's short.  Check it out here.

Why do I feel like I'm cheating?

I live in Texas and we moved recently.  It's hot and I sweat a lot.  I also carry in a front pocket holster.  My wife is a cop and sent me a disturbing message:  "Before you hear anything on the news, I'm okay."  no answer and more disturbingly, nothing on the news.  (Later on I found out that my wife is fine, what she doesn't know is that I don't look at the news until she gets home.)

I'm wandering around the house working myself into a panic and I decide to clean my pocket carry because it always calms me down.  I gather the cleaning stuff and pull her out of my pocket.  I bought her beat up and used (Bulgarian Makarov, built in 83) but she was my second firearm and she never had a problem.  Now she's covered in rust.

Not actually covered but way more than a little sweat should do.  I don't know if I left her in my pants pocket and spilled liquid rust on her or what.  I start cleaning, the more I clean the less I think about my wife.  I can't get the rust out with a cloth and gun cleaner, I'll need to go to the next step.  As I'm doing that I'm wondering if I should even carry this pistol anymore.  I carry her because she's never had a problem, other than a .45 cal not liking Russian surplus none of my pistols have ever had problems.  Do I carry her for the sentiment?  She was not my first but I care about her more than the first.  I even bought two other Maks.
I'm cleaning her thinking that I need to carry a different pistol, maybe the 9mm or the .40 cal.  They both fit in the pocket holster that will be getting replaced soon.  They're both more powerful than the Mak, and with less recoil to boot.

I'm worried that if I don't switch then she'll get more rusted and pitted and I want to treat her with the respect she deserves.  I think that I'm going to switch carry pieces because it would be better for her.  Or would it be easier on me?

I have my Mak all cleaned up and ready to sit in the safe until I'm ready to hit the range (and can afford Mak ammo) but I feel like I'm cheating on her.

Prisons Part 3.

I've written a little about prisons and retirement homes before.  More ideas tonight.

We've already determined that prisons are very costly and don't really ready the person for a non-criminal life outside of prison.  How can we change that?  Let's brainstorm.

We want to cut costs.  Do we need to build new prisons?  A lot of abandoned building in various cities, Detroit leaps to the top of the heap.  Put a big double fence with concertina wire around it maybe with some guards and K9s patrolling it, an inner "moat" made of concrete will prevent most people from digging out (or in) and a rooftop garden to grow food in.  What the hell, pour concrete and rebar in the entire first floor (try and dig through 8 or 9 feet of reinforced concrete.  They can use the area between the fence and building as a garden.  Let them do some aquaponic gardens to increase efficiency and output; the more they grow the less that has to be bought and brought in.  The less traffic in means the less chance for subterfuge and contraband.

Speaking of contraband, the most common way for that is through the guards.  My first thought is why do we even have guards?  Nope, you have to have guards or else it would become an "Escape from New York" or "Lord of the Flies" situation.  Would it be possible to have the guards come in and change in the prison and then when they leave they change out of their uniform?  Or would unions say that it dehumanizes their people?  Doesn't bringing contraband into a prison dehumanize everyone else?

Can we use a gray water system for toilets?  If not, why not? Cut down on water usage, may even cut down on illicit stills.

Can some engineer figure out a way to connect a generator to stationary bikes?  Yes, it's been done.  Can an engineer figure out a way to connect a generator to a weight set?  I'm thinking it could be done with a set of machine weights but I don't know how with free weights.

Some sheriff in the American Southwest put his inmates in pink clothes and has them sleep in tents outside.  I've heard they wear pink because he got a batch on sale.  Did he?  does it matter?  What's the cheapest?  Jeans and t-shirts should work, cheap and easy to get a hold of.  They could sleep outside in Texas or most of the south.  You get right down to it and they could sleep outside anywhere.  Eskimo's proved that you can live in the frozen north and various tribes in the desert proved that you could live in that heat.  Let them make igloos or tents.  Give them the materials and let them do it.  How many homeless that can't get into a shelter do the same thing?  Our military does it for training.  Why can't the people being punished actually work for a bit?

I know that various groups would be outraged if these actions took place but may I say that if the person didn't do something wrong they wouldn't be in a place that has more "freedoms" than when my mother was in a nursing home.

More rambling.

Our little corgi decided that we needed to talk to our neighbors more so he figured out a way to arrange that.  Knock, Knock
Me:  Hi, you're our neighbor, right?
Her:  Yes, I'm sorry to say this but one of your dogs got in our backyard and killed our birds.
Me:  Oh sonuvabitch.

Yepper, our little (25 pounds of testosterone in a 28 pound body) corgi slipped through a hole in the fence and broke into the cage that the birds were in and introduced them to death.  Great way to talk to your neighbor.  Thanks dog.  Of course we're going to replace the birds, if Petsmart was open later we would have gotten them right then.  Not his first birds to kill either.  All the others were our own chickens and ducks though.

In other news, I'm going back to work.  When the minions start school in a few weeks I'm going to start at the bottom of the mortgage loan officer totem pole.  The pay will basically pay for the daycare on the kids but it will teach me if I want to go all the way in being a loan officer.  This is like being a real estate agent, all commission and if you don't generate any leads and they don't close you don't make any money.

Since I'm already doing a blog I just might do another one advertising my services.  Make it about credit (very little), moving and possibly eco things for the house like using a push mower instead of a gas mower.  We use one and it's no more work than a gas model.  It's actually supposed to be better for the grass because of the way it cuts.

I figure that if I go for the loan officer gig then the blog will force me to write more and use some of the marketing ideas I have.  If it is lucrative enough for me to write more while my kids are in school then all the better.

First things first, I need to get all of these boxes unpacked.

My type of conservatism.

People always want to put labels on other people.  Hell, we even do it to anything else we can think of.  The only box I want to be put into is the TARDIS, you find me a fully functional one and I'll jump in there so fast you'll think I went through time.

This rant starts because I mentioned that I'm politically conservative to someone and they assume that I'm a Republican.  Or I mention that I'm an atheist and they assume that I'm a liberal.

My politics are a weird blend of conservatism/libertarianism/constitutionalism.  I think that the constitution we started with was pretty good, just a few tweaks and it was damn good.  Then politicians started adding I don't know how many other laws, I guess that politicians get paid by the law.  I'm conservative, and I do believe that I'm more conservative than most Republicans, because I don't think we need to add laws just because I have a pen.

The whole gay marriage argument is a perfect example.  I think that if two or more consenting legal adults want to get married then they should be able to.  I didn't say allowed because I don't think we should have laws that say you can't do something (unless it truly hurts someone) just because someone doesn't like it.  The original marriage laws were flawed; they should have been written without any reference to gender then we wouldn't have this argument at all.

Another difference I have with the GOP is abortion.  I am pro life and I think that if you're old enough to have sex then you're old enough to give birth.  In cases of rape I would like the mother to give birth to the child but I couldn't ask a woman to spend 40 weeks when every pregnancy symptom makes her think of him.   Politically speaking I'm pro choice because it's none of my business what someone else does.  But again, we are at a point of why does the government have any say in someones life?  I don't like the government saying you can't because then what's to keep them from saying you can't about something else?  The government is like a brat, you can't give in to their incessant whining and tantrums or they'll just do it more.  And like a brat they need to be punished for their "bad choices".

Another big issue is drugs.  Many liberals and libertarians want to legalize drugs.  I grew up in a heavy drug neighborhood and I've worked in bars for close to 30 years.  I still say to not legalize drugs.  Pot is a gateway drug, even if the pothead doesn't want to try something else his dealer will mix the pot with something else.  If the dealer is cutting costs (using a filler) or putting another drug into the pot (lacing with acid/lsd/or I don't know what these pills do, let's try it on the next customer), the user will be the one that pays the price.  I'll be the first to say that some of our drug laws are insane, look at what happens to someone with a small personal amount of pot in their car compared to someone drinking and driving.  I've seen too many people get away with murder because they had a "disease" (alcoholism).  My opinion and thoughts on the drug war is another post though.

You might say that I'm more libertarian than anything else.  I disagree, I think that some ideology hijacked the Republican party into something that the Founding Fathers would have considered their bastard child.

More big city/little town differences.

I despise Wal-Mart.  Years ago I read an article about them and one of the vice presidents said that they keep their costs low so they don't have to charge as much so that their customers can save money.  Be honest, you're in business to make money.  You make money by getting the most customers coming in instead of going somewhere else.  You're not in business to help people save money.  If this vp said that they kept costs low so the customers would come back I would have been happy.  Nope.  They tried to be pc and say that everything they do is to help the customer save money.

Tell the truth and I'll be going there all the time.  I only went there today because some of the things I needed (printer ink) wouldn't be in a grocery store and I didn't feel like venturing out into other cities to find a office supply store.

In my old house we had two Wal-marts within 15 miles.  Both of them were scary.  I think the gangs declared them neutral ground so they wouldn't shoot each other but since I wasn't in a gang I don't think that applied to me.  Some of the employees and customers were displaying a lot of dew rags and handkerchiefs in either blue or red.  I made sure I was carrying any time I went into the place.

Then I go into this one and it's clean, there is room to wheel the cart around without a problem.  When I asked an employee where something was he took me to it instead of pointing and grunting like I'm used to experiencing.  It also had a large selection of yarn and sewing stuff.  It even had rifles, the ones in my old city didn't; I think it's because they didn't want their employees to violate any parole/probation conditions.

I think Sam Walton would have been proud of this location.  The other two...he's spinning in his grave because of them.

Done moving.

Yes, it's true.  We are done moving.  I put over 90 miles on the truck today moving the last of the stuff.  Yes, we had a professional moving crew but we didn't want them moving some things like our inventory of cnc parts.  I borrowed some help to get them out of the old house and onto a trailer but I unloaded the trailer on my own except for one big granddaddy of a motor.  I weigh over 250 pounds and it's competitive with me.  That was fun and dangerous.

We are not done moving in yet.  Still looking for the kid's shoes.  I don't know what happened to most of the towels, I think we found them but we have a pool within walking distance so we use more towels now.  Maybe that's why it seems like we don't have as many of them as we used to.

I'm thinking that in the next week or two I'm going to put up shelves.  When I say that I like to read I'm not kidding.  I have boxes upon boxes of books.  I'm going to separate them by keeping or finding a good home for.  The keepers are so varied, how to build a canoe.  Darker fiction, lots of books dealing with chocolate, odd business books (which I think are the best ones), books about teaching and best of all:  books about learning.

An actual quickie this time.  It's sleepy time now.