There are dozens of skills I acquired over my life. Salesmanship....with one exception....was a big zero.
At some point, around my 17th year in the Air Force....my boss needed someone to serve as 'snacko' for the shop. This was typically a person who had a refrigerator in the breakroom....bought snacks....controlled the money.....and occasionally did some positive things like run a burger-day for the office. I ended up with the job for about 4.5 years.
The first problem I came to face was an Air Force regulation that says if you hold more than X-amount of money....you have to have a 'club'....records....and a bunch of extra problems. In those days, it was roughly an income of $100 a month or more....that would get you into some hassle. Just in man-hours, you could figure three man-hours a month on paperwork, meetings, bank-episodes (they wanted you to run an account with the credit union). One of my golden rules in life was to avoid paperwork at all costs
At the end of six weeks of operation, I found that I had around $200 in profit. I did something the previous guy didn't think much over.....I bought only when items were on discount at the commissary, and bought in bulk. I bought larger selections.....ten to twelve different sodas, and various health-drinks.
So to avoid profit, I spent as quickly as possible.....this meant a full-up hamburger bar-b-q with everything free of charge.
By the end of the second month, I decided to dive into frozen food offerings and odd snacks. Within ninety days....I had almost $400 as profit, and then started bar-b-q's every two to four weeks to dump the profit.
I had the BX drink truck start pulling up to front door and buying bulk. I got to know the commissary guys and the various sales that they ran....and would buy cases of Pop-Tars and various snack foods.
I walked in on one afternoon to find Pop-Tarts at half-price, and bought roughly 120 boxes of Pop-Tarts.
When summer came.....I bought cheap ice cream via the commissary at discounted prices, and was turning $30 a week just on ice cream profits.
When the Micheal Jackson Mystery Drink came out (ever so brief), I bought a case of it and even tried to sell it (the only thing that I ever lost money on).
Over a period or roughly 55 months.....I ran this fund and probably arranged for forty bar-b-q's. I had the most profitable unprofitable snacko fund that you could imagine. Almost every single soda that I bought over the period....was on discount price...so I barely paid 25 cents for it at the BX or commissary, and resold it at 50 cents.
So when I came to retire from the Air Force....I handed the snacko fund over to another NCO....and in less than three months....it dissolved. They couldn't sustain the profit....they started accepting IOU's (a habit I refused), and they were buying mostly diet drinks (don't ever let the healthy folks operate a snacko fund).
It was my brief play into business operations and the one thing that I could brag about. Every profit I made.....dissolved into burgers and grilled chicken. In the end....I was still worth zero, but I had enhanced the morale of the office by leaps and bounds. I never lost a penny....which is kinda remarkable (well....except for the Micheal Jackson Mystery Drink).
Sunday, 1 April 2018
Friday, 30 March 2018
Lack of Numbers
I read a piece today that suggested that 59.3 million households in America.....hold a minimum of one weapon in the house or apartment. So I went and researched....how many households exist in America, and the number presently is set near 126-million households.
I sat and looked over both numbers and tend to question them.
For example....when you reach the 126-million households....are you counting dorm rooms, and barracks rooms....as a household?
Are you counting RV units parked on long-term beach fronts in Myrtle Beach, SC.....as a household?
Are you counting a retirement village apartment....as a household?
I worked with a guy years ago who owned a RV trailer which was permanently parked on the outskirts of Las Vegas....while he lived in Tucson. He'd fly up to Vegas on Friday night, and stay till early AM hours of Monday....to fly back to work on Monday morning. In my mind, he had two households.
As for the households holding weapons? I don't really buy that 59-million number.
In the county where I grew up in Alabama....I'd take a guess that 95-percent of households there....have a minimum of one weapon. In fact, I'd take a guess that 70-percent hold a minimum of two rifles, and a pistol.
In the state of Montana? I'd take a guess that it's near 90-percent of the households which hold a single weapon or more.
So if these numbers thrown around by the news media are bogus....what does that say? Some would suggest that we need licenses and true government auditing....in order to control things.
But if you went that far....how much would it cost? Billions? And would people admit anything now? I have my doubts. Just getting people to admit how many bank accounts they have....would trigger people into deceiving the government.
I sat and looked over both numbers and tend to question them.
For example....when you reach the 126-million households....are you counting dorm rooms, and barracks rooms....as a household?
Are you counting RV units parked on long-term beach fronts in Myrtle Beach, SC.....as a household?
Are you counting a retirement village apartment....as a household?
I worked with a guy years ago who owned a RV trailer which was permanently parked on the outskirts of Las Vegas....while he lived in Tucson. He'd fly up to Vegas on Friday night, and stay till early AM hours of Monday....to fly back to work on Monday morning. In my mind, he had two households.
As for the households holding weapons? I don't really buy that 59-million number.
In the county where I grew up in Alabama....I'd take a guess that 95-percent of households there....have a minimum of one weapon. In fact, I'd take a guess that 70-percent hold a minimum of two rifles, and a pistol.
In the state of Montana? I'd take a guess that it's near 90-percent of the households which hold a single weapon or more.
So if these numbers thrown around by the news media are bogus....what does that say? Some would suggest that we need licenses and true government auditing....in order to control things.
But if you went that far....how much would it cost? Billions? And would people admit anything now? I have my doubts. Just getting people to admit how many bank accounts they have....would trigger people into deceiving the government.
Wednesday, 28 March 2018
The Value of a Degree
I was reading a piece yesterday that went into detail what some companies are facing as they go out and hired new graduated college students. They found that the 'kids' were lacking in various skills that they should have acquired in college. Mind you....we are talking about four-year university graduates. The piece discussed the problems of analytical concepts, project design, time-line construction, teamwork, etc. All of these....used to be taught at least in some marginal way, and you'd finish college with a basic understanding how your skills would fit into a commercial company.
The humor part of this....which is left out of the news piece....is that this 21 or 22 year old 'kid' is standing there and all happy that HR hired him for some $40,000 a year job, and then he likely discovers the the next week as he shows up.....he's automatically signed up for five seminar episodes taught by some fifty-year old individual from some private firm, and discussing this mystery thing called 'project management'.
A whole week will pass with 'Professor Bob' talking about this big science agenda called project management. The kid will be amazed at all the facets and benefits of project management. Then at the final hour of the class....the 'kid' will ask why they don't teach something like this in college? 'Professor Bob' will just grin and tell the kid that in the 1970s and 1980s....it was a regular part of any business degree, and that they've weakened the whole program to such an extent....that your degree is mostly worthless.
A week or two will pass, and another three-to-five day seminar will occur. Over that year, the company will waste at least thirty days of work production in getting the 'kid' to a level that they are beneficial to the company.
So the question is....is a bachelor's degree really worth the $50,000 to $90,000 that it cost today? If you get hired and they automatically revalue the degree to a three-quarter situation....did you get cheated out of the full value of the education? Does the college even care?
The humor part of this....which is left out of the news piece....is that this 21 or 22 year old 'kid' is standing there and all happy that HR hired him for some $40,000 a year job, and then he likely discovers the the next week as he shows up.....he's automatically signed up for five seminar episodes taught by some fifty-year old individual from some private firm, and discussing this mystery thing called 'project management'.
A whole week will pass with 'Professor Bob' talking about this big science agenda called project management. The kid will be amazed at all the facets and benefits of project management. Then at the final hour of the class....the 'kid' will ask why they don't teach something like this in college? 'Professor Bob' will just grin and tell the kid that in the 1970s and 1980s....it was a regular part of any business degree, and that they've weakened the whole program to such an extent....that your degree is mostly worthless.
A week or two will pass, and another three-to-five day seminar will occur. Over that year, the company will waste at least thirty days of work production in getting the 'kid' to a level that they are beneficial to the company.
So the question is....is a bachelor's degree really worth the $50,000 to $90,000 that it cost today? If you get hired and they automatically revalue the degree to a three-quarter situation....did you get cheated out of the full value of the education? Does the college even care?
Monday, 26 March 2018
The 12-Cent Interview
I sat and watched through part of the Sixty Minutes with Stormy and Anderson Cooper, and then I stopped to look at a frame picture of Anderson Cooper with perfect sized eyes...flip forward 3 seconds, and here is Stormy....with seriously dilated eyes.
What gets you to that stage? Typically cocaine or opiates.
Then this odd thing comes up in this taped conversation.....some ten-month 'affair'....yet she suggests only one bedroom romp. Ten months.....one romp?
In Alabama, you'd tell this story over at the general store, and someone would typically stop you and ask if you pulling their leg. Yet Anderson kept looking real intent and glazed over.....ready to believe just about anything.
The other odd thing....you come to some point of pinpointing all this stuff that Anderson is getting out of her, and then you come to realize....well, we aren't talking about 2016, or 2015, or 2014, or 2013, or 2012, or 2011, or 2010, or 2009, or 2008. If the romp did occur.....it somehow goes back to 2006/2007 era.....eleven or more years ago.
So all this hype....from a washed-up adult-film actress with a drug habit...from a supposed fling nearly eleven years ago, and dragged out into the public scene by a nearly washed-up Sixty Minutes guy?
If this is really nifty stuff....with public appeal....could we have the dozen-odd ladies that Bill Clinton did it with as well? Most of them weren't even paid for their services....like Stormy got the front-money from the Trump lawyer, and later from the Sixty Minutes crew.
What gets you to that stage? Typically cocaine or opiates.
Then this odd thing comes up in this taped conversation.....some ten-month 'affair'....yet she suggests only one bedroom romp. Ten months.....one romp?
In Alabama, you'd tell this story over at the general store, and someone would typically stop you and ask if you pulling their leg. Yet Anderson kept looking real intent and glazed over.....ready to believe just about anything.
The other odd thing....you come to some point of pinpointing all this stuff that Anderson is getting out of her, and then you come to realize....well, we aren't talking about 2016, or 2015, or 2014, or 2013, or 2012, or 2011, or 2010, or 2009, or 2008. If the romp did occur.....it somehow goes back to 2006/2007 era.....eleven or more years ago.
So all this hype....from a washed-up adult-film actress with a drug habit...from a supposed fling nearly eleven years ago, and dragged out into the public scene by a nearly washed-up Sixty Minutes guy?
If this is really nifty stuff....with public appeal....could we have the dozen-odd ladies that Bill Clinton did it with as well? Most of them weren't even paid for their services....like Stormy got the front-money from the Trump lawyer, and later from the Sixty Minutes crew.
Friday, 23 March 2018
CNN at the Airport?
It's come up in the last couple of days as a major topic.....as various folks are peeved and fed-up with CNN being the only option at airports across the nation.
Having traveled a good bit over the past decade, I'm one of those who had to sit there and endear CNN.
In the 2008 to 2012 era....I didn't mind CNN that much although if this was a four-hour wait (like at some Raleigh Airport), then I came to some point where my patience was running out. Summer of last year, I had two hours of waiting at Nashville, and another three hours of waiting at Atlanta....where CNN was the only thing possible. You could sense various people sitting there and in a fairly angry mode over what was coming across.
These days, I tend to look for a seat that has no view of the TV....and find a newspaper to read over. If they've got the sound pumped up.....I go and look for some airport person to whine about the sound.
How many folks would prefer to see CNN gone from the airport? No one does statistics on stuff like that. My guess is that fifty to sixty percent would like to see it gone. Some would like to see all TVs completely gone. Some probably would like to see just Animal Planet type shows on the air, or some travel documentary pieces.
In a way, it's driving some folks nuts. It'll trigger a political conversation, and get people hyped up right before a flight....aggravated and frustrated at the absolute wrong time. I'm surprised that some mental health freaks haven't invented a new syndrome word for CNN at the airport.
Having traveled a good bit over the past decade, I'm one of those who had to sit there and endear CNN.
In the 2008 to 2012 era....I didn't mind CNN that much although if this was a four-hour wait (like at some Raleigh Airport), then I came to some point where my patience was running out. Summer of last year, I had two hours of waiting at Nashville, and another three hours of waiting at Atlanta....where CNN was the only thing possible. You could sense various people sitting there and in a fairly angry mode over what was coming across.
These days, I tend to look for a seat that has no view of the TV....and find a newspaper to read over. If they've got the sound pumped up.....I go and look for some airport person to whine about the sound.
How many folks would prefer to see CNN gone from the airport? No one does statistics on stuff like that. My guess is that fifty to sixty percent would like to see it gone. Some would like to see all TVs completely gone. Some probably would like to see just Animal Planet type shows on the air, or some travel documentary pieces.
In a way, it's driving some folks nuts. It'll trigger a political conversation, and get people hyped up right before a flight....aggravated and frustrated at the absolute wrong time. I'm surprised that some mental health freaks haven't invented a new syndrome word for CNN at the airport.
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
California, Divisions, Fake Solutions, and the Six State Idea
I could probably make this a 100-page thesis type project but I'll try to limit myself to sixty lines.
The first time I ever made it into California was a western-US drive which I had mapped out in 1981. I had three weeks of leave from the Air Force and $3,000 in cash to splurge on this 'expedition'. I crossed over the border near Baker, California....about an hours drive west of Vegas. I made my way down to the Santa Monica area....got on Highway 1, and spent seven days traveling up the coastal highway.
The adjectives to use for Highway 1? Majestic, monumental, and grand.
Except for a side-trip to San Diego and Hollywood in the 1990s, I've never been back.
I worked with various characters who grew up in California or spent part of their lives there. The topic of conversation would come up and you tended to get four references to the state:
1. Most who were there in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s....all describe the state like some classical Hollywood movie. Almost 99-percent of these people would be considered die-hard fanatics of their version of California. In their mind, the state no longer exists.
2. The folks who grew up in the shadow of LA. These are mostly the people who grew up there in the 1980s or 1990s....saw the community go through negative periods, and would question why any idiot would stay there today.
3. The San Francisco crowd. This crowd will go and describe to almost the exact day where good and bad....met, and ended (November 1975). The mayors election that brought Moscone into power would be described for years as a politically rigged election and set into motion the tail-spin. To be honest though....Democratic mayors had been the trend since 1964.
4. The folks who grew up in northern California. This crowd will harp on clean air, great landscapes, and quiet solitude. They also will let you know that they are conservatives.
So here's the reality of what's happened in the past fifty-odd years. Urbanized LA has become a political machine with guaranteed votes for the Democratic Party. Urbanized San Francisco has become a political machine with guaranteed votes for the Democratic Party. The northern third of the state, and San Diego (leading east to the AZ border) is mostly Republican-type voters.
You hold a state election, and the bulk of the power (probably 65 to 70 percent) will stay in Democratic hands. That's the simple truth.
The state is in serious financial trouble, and can't find any solution. Adding to the pain is that the fact that people are leaving the state now....something that no one would have suggested back 25 years ago. Between crime, taxation, and dwindling resources....the state has no future to brag about.
So, some people would like to split it up.....a minimum of two states, to a maximum of six states. I've looked at the maps. Using the six-state formula, you can figure that four of the states will be conservative type states. Silicon Valley and West California would be extremely Democratic in nature.
The harm brought by this idea? The huge tax income from Silicon Valley and LA? It wouldn't be shared any longer with the rest of the state.
Nothing within the Constitution really allows for this, and you could sense that the Democratic Party itself doesn't want this to come up. But the bigger question is.....if you allow them to split up....why not allow Missouri or Michigan to do the same thing? Let's be honest.....NY City ought to be a state by itself.
All of this keeps people busy and talking about something.....that will never be allowed. That's the whole dynamic to this game. Course as each passes and financial woes escalate....you have to wonder.....where exactly will the solution be found?
The greatness of the state? Highway One. Even today.....you could spend a week going up the state and seeing all the fantastic landscape. It would be so easy to sell the state on just the landscape.
The first time I ever made it into California was a western-US drive which I had mapped out in 1981. I had three weeks of leave from the Air Force and $3,000 in cash to splurge on this 'expedition'. I crossed over the border near Baker, California....about an hours drive west of Vegas. I made my way down to the Santa Monica area....got on Highway 1, and spent seven days traveling up the coastal highway.
The adjectives to use for Highway 1? Majestic, monumental, and grand.
Except for a side-trip to San Diego and Hollywood in the 1990s, I've never been back.
I worked with various characters who grew up in California or spent part of their lives there. The topic of conversation would come up and you tended to get four references to the state:
1. Most who were there in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s....all describe the state like some classical Hollywood movie. Almost 99-percent of these people would be considered die-hard fanatics of their version of California. In their mind, the state no longer exists.
2. The folks who grew up in the shadow of LA. These are mostly the people who grew up there in the 1980s or 1990s....saw the community go through negative periods, and would question why any idiot would stay there today.
3. The San Francisco crowd. This crowd will go and describe to almost the exact day where good and bad....met, and ended (November 1975). The mayors election that brought Moscone into power would be described for years as a politically rigged election and set into motion the tail-spin. To be honest though....Democratic mayors had been the trend since 1964.
4. The folks who grew up in northern California. This crowd will harp on clean air, great landscapes, and quiet solitude. They also will let you know that they are conservatives.
So here's the reality of what's happened in the past fifty-odd years. Urbanized LA has become a political machine with guaranteed votes for the Democratic Party. Urbanized San Francisco has become a political machine with guaranteed votes for the Democratic Party. The northern third of the state, and San Diego (leading east to the AZ border) is mostly Republican-type voters.
You hold a state election, and the bulk of the power (probably 65 to 70 percent) will stay in Democratic hands. That's the simple truth.
The state is in serious financial trouble, and can't find any solution. Adding to the pain is that the fact that people are leaving the state now....something that no one would have suggested back 25 years ago. Between crime, taxation, and dwindling resources....the state has no future to brag about.
So, some people would like to split it up.....a minimum of two states, to a maximum of six states. I've looked at the maps. Using the six-state formula, you can figure that four of the states will be conservative type states. Silicon Valley and West California would be extremely Democratic in nature.
The harm brought by this idea? The huge tax income from Silicon Valley and LA? It wouldn't be shared any longer with the rest of the state.
Nothing within the Constitution really allows for this, and you could sense that the Democratic Party itself doesn't want this to come up. But the bigger question is.....if you allow them to split up....why not allow Missouri or Michigan to do the same thing? Let's be honest.....NY City ought to be a state by itself.
All of this keeps people busy and talking about something.....that will never be allowed. That's the whole dynamic to this game. Course as each passes and financial woes escalate....you have to wonder.....where exactly will the solution be found?
The greatness of the state? Highway One. Even today.....you could spend a week going up the state and seeing all the fantastic landscape. It would be so easy to sell the state on just the landscape.
Cambridge Analytica Analyzed
I sat over most of yesterday evening reading through the various bits and pieces of this 2016 election story involving Cambridge Analytica and
So ten observations:
1. While everyone is hyped up and talking about Cambridge Analytica being the ONLY company doing this.....that's mostly a laugh. There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of companies....which use social media data to predict trends with customers and the public. This is simply one of many.
2. Was Trump the first to use their services? No. Ted Cruz laid down $3-million for a brief period of 'customer support'. Ben Carson briefly used the services.
3. Facebook acting all shocked? About the most fake 'shocked' that you can get. Their whole future profit situation is dependent upon having stupid people post things, chat about friends, and take stupid pictures.....which can be viewed and 'graded' in some way. Then Facebook sells that information to someone for a bit of money for profit. If they yank this data collection business out....their profits drop and they marginally can survive.
4. Lobbyists have used various data sets over the past two-hundred years to get an advantage for products, referendums, and candidates. It's just that now.....in 2018....it's so easy to slip info on 100 million people and in a month...come up with positions that might entice 10-percent of the group to vote on something differently.
5. Will some idiots from the UK or US political establishment go after Cambridge Analytica? More than likely....but they will simply shut down their UK office and move to some country like Czech or Switzerland.
6. If you were really furious and wanted to make an effect against them? Delete your Facebook, Twitter, social media accounts.....and just live a simple quiet life.
7. Oddly, among the millions of accounts on Facebook, there are dozens (maybe hundreds) of accounts that lead back to 'Hank' the dog, or 'Cindy' the cat. So as Cambridge Analytica does its magic....somewhere in the middle is dog and cat information.
8. What did Cambridge Analytica really tap into? Anger and frustration existing. Something that Hillary and the Democratic Party probably weren't willing to pay a company to tell them that bit of information.
9. Are CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, or MSNBC any different? They are relying upon a psychological profile of the viewers/readers, and they hope enough will be around to view their product. So far, MSNBC and Fox have been correct. The Post is marginally profitable and require cash infusion from their owner. CNN? It's on the line of starvation.
10. Is there anything illegal about what Cambridge Analytica did? No. There might be new laws made but they will be crafted carefully around what Facebook desires. Is there anything unethical about what they did? No....they took public information that people wanted to share. From my home state of Alabama....I would take a guess of the 4.87-million people in the state....probably around 2.5 million have an account. Most folks in the state under the age of thirty (probably 95-percent) have an account. You can walk around and find various people in your community who aren't part of the data collected by Cambridge Analytica.
While journalists want to hype this and make you worried....the question...worried over what? You put all this data in public forums to be read....what did you expect would happen with that data?
So ten observations:
1. While everyone is hyped up and talking about Cambridge Analytica being the ONLY company doing this.....that's mostly a laugh. There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of companies....which use social media data to predict trends with customers and the public. This is simply one of many.
2. Was Trump the first to use their services? No. Ted Cruz laid down $3-million for a brief period of 'customer support'. Ben Carson briefly used the services.
3. Facebook acting all shocked? About the most fake 'shocked' that you can get. Their whole future profit situation is dependent upon having stupid people post things, chat about friends, and take stupid pictures.....which can be viewed and 'graded' in some way. Then Facebook sells that information to someone for a bit of money for profit. If they yank this data collection business out....their profits drop and they marginally can survive.
4. Lobbyists have used various data sets over the past two-hundred years to get an advantage for products, referendums, and candidates. It's just that now.....in 2018....it's so easy to slip info on 100 million people and in a month...come up with positions that might entice 10-percent of the group to vote on something differently.
5. Will some idiots from the UK or US political establishment go after Cambridge Analytica? More than likely....but they will simply shut down their UK office and move to some country like Czech or Switzerland.
6. If you were really furious and wanted to make an effect against them? Delete your Facebook, Twitter, social media accounts.....and just live a simple quiet life.
7. Oddly, among the millions of accounts on Facebook, there are dozens (maybe hundreds) of accounts that lead back to 'Hank' the dog, or 'Cindy' the cat. So as Cambridge Analytica does its magic....somewhere in the middle is dog and cat information.
8. What did Cambridge Analytica really tap into? Anger and frustration existing. Something that Hillary and the Democratic Party probably weren't willing to pay a company to tell them that bit of information.
9. Are CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, or MSNBC any different? They are relying upon a psychological profile of the viewers/readers, and they hope enough will be around to view their product. So far, MSNBC and Fox have been correct. The Post is marginally profitable and require cash infusion from their owner. CNN? It's on the line of starvation.
10. Is there anything illegal about what Cambridge Analytica did? No. There might be new laws made but they will be crafted carefully around what Facebook desires. Is there anything unethical about what they did? No....they took public information that people wanted to share. From my home state of Alabama....I would take a guess of the 4.87-million people in the state....probably around 2.5 million have an account. Most folks in the state under the age of thirty (probably 95-percent) have an account. You can walk around and find various people in your community who aren't part of the data collected by Cambridge Analytica.
While journalists want to hype this and make you worried....the question...worried over what? You put all this data in public forums to be read....what did you expect would happen with that data?
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