Half Measures

On the last work day of the year I was happy to see six of the twelve Studio Beams sell and ship to Indiana. I have had our twelve Studio Beams listed for sale at what I consider a LOW price for about two years. I listed them on GearSource.com about the time that PRG and the rest of NY was dumping their Studio Beams because Mac 2k Wash took over the wash category. I was a little late on pulling the trigger on the sale and didn't feel that lowering my price drastically was justified because the gear was making fair money in Baltimore. The thinking goes something like this - Sell now if that fixture won't make that much money in the next 18 - 24 months. So, I just sold six perfectly good fixtures for $925 each because it is doubtful that the 7th - 12th fixtures would go out enough in the next two years to all earn $1000. Other things to consider is shelf space, potential repair costs, and mostly - are people really asking for that particular piece of equipment.

When payment comes in from the sale I will be faced with the next choice - what to purchase to replace the equipment? It can be six LED Impressions at about $3k each, or Mac 700 Wash at $5500 each, 2k XB Wash at $7500? each. Just how much am I looking to invest for the replacement / update? Not really worried about the cost because constant investment is required to grow a business, any business.

So the year ends on a high note. Profitable year, bought and sold a house, bought a motorcycle that I love and rode many miles, and got a long wanted arcade game. That's pretty good in my opinion. I hope you had a good year too.

Before we start again

As the end of the year rapidly approaches things wind down at work and home for me. Christmas now isn't what it was when I was a kid, but I certainly enjoy the time off from work. It always seems like the days off are shorter than they should be and I'm back at my desk. This time of year works slows practically to a halt and I have time to myself.

I have been thinking about getting a Twitter account, but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. I always feel like I should blog more, but don't have the topicality on hand - and readers / or lack there of don't want to hear constant updates on Donkey Kong high scores. Maybe Twitter is for me - tiny blogs.

So, while clicking around on Twitter I looked for some bands that I like to see if they actually use the new craze. (I guess it's not so new, but kinda new to me)
I found Faith No More's tour ended on December 5th in Chile and that was it for now. Only 8 US dates on that tour and 5 were in California, mostly European festivals. Megadeth had a lot of postings and there was even a Christmas Card contest. They are certainly trying to stay close with their fans.



the note on the nuclear missile reads "Don't open before judgment day"

I have spent a good deal of time at work fooling with the end of year accounting to make sure all profit is spent as planned in order to avoid paying excessive income taxes. Paying taxes isn't a bad thing, it indicates that it was a good year and you were profitable - which is especially fortunate in a struggling economy like 2009 and 2010. We have always been profitable so it's just a mater of degree, but end of year accounting does require proper planning, I can't just spend on whatever. As an added challenge most of the vendors that I purchase from shut down on 12/24 and don't reopen until the Monday after New Years. Not a problem, I got it covered and purchased equipment that was needed and offset the profit as planned. I'm still paying taxes, but that was my plan.

Right now I have two screens active on my desk. This blog is the right screen, and the left screen is a stock ticker showing active trades of USG Corporation. They are the company that makes Sheetrock and the joint compound called "mud" by the construction guys. I bought USG on 11/14/06 because new home building was gangbusters and Warren Buffet was buying into the company. The ticker is sitting at 16.74 for the last 5 minutes with my limit trade set for 16.75. I purchased the shares for $50.40 each. Selling off this stock is a quick way to work down that profit / tax situation by taking the paper loss on the chin before the end of the year. The only stock I've picked the last few years that has never let me down is Philip Morris, because you can count on the smokers - they will stand out in the cold and rain to send the dividend payments. Exxon is the runner up for similar reasons.

I hope you all had a great 2010, I feel pretty good about my year and think 2011 will be just as good or better.

remove the nuts please

On Monday I rode my motorcycle to work in snow. Actually it was flurries, but that is snow none the less. It was about 34º so it wasn't sticking to the road surfaces which was the reason I was able to ride the bike safely. I've always wanted to ride in the snow (or flurries) because it's so unconventional.
While on my way to work I was in the right lane on Route 100 moving at a fast clip and I passed a large Chevy truck with truck nuts. I thought to myself, Mr. truck nuts you should remove those right now - you just got passed by a motorcycle in the snow.

Working backwards now - on Sunday my dad brought his log splitter to my house so I can get some of the firewood split and stacked to season. I used this log splitter when I was a teenager, and it still runs great today. I was alone at the house and had a few hours of uninterrupted wood processing to look forward to. About ten minutes into the splitting activities I yanked a piece of wood to separate it from the other side that was attached by a few shards of wood fiber. The other side of said piece of wood swung around and slapped me in the side of the head next to my left eye. This knocked me pretty hard and I stumbled around as if Mike Tyson landed a punch. I took off my glasses expecting to find the left lens broken - but thankfully it wasn't. I continued to stumble around with the vision of Smokey from Friday saying, "you got knocked the fuck out!"

I recovered my composure and got back to splitting the wood and thought that the side of my head feels wet. Maybe it's blood - but it's not dripping on the ground, so it's not bad enough to stop working. It was blood as I later found out after the wife got home. She the cut with the lack of a gentle touch that was reminiscent of the school nurse in elementary school. I have a puffy red eye that looks like bad makeup and a stack of split oak now.

Perils of Random

A story from this Summer when Uncle Dave and nephew John came to my work to discuss the purchase of a motorcycle for John. It was a slow day in the office and I was feeling festive so I set iTunes to random to mix thing up a bit from the constant rotation of Wolf Parade and Megadeth. Dave and John showed up mid-day unexpectedly, but it really didn't matter because things were calm, so I had the time for any distraction. The conversation was about what style of motorcycle John should buy so he wouldn't kill himself or get ripped off. The discussion lasted for about ten or so minutes and a customer came in that I needed to attend to. I told John and Dave to hang in my office for a few minutes and I'd be with them.

Josh comes back to me and says that my iTunes was playing some crazy music. Crazy music? What do you mean? He's like, something about "Black studs". Oh snap - the King Missile is playing their classic track that isn't Detachable Penis. I finish up with the customer and quickly get to my office to find the speakers muted. Good, they muted the speakers...

I finished up the conversation and they left. I looked at the iTunes random list and confirmed that the song in question by King Missile was Double Fucked by Two Black Studs.

A quick sample of the lyrics:
"...so I asked her if she had ever been double fucked by two black studs. And she didn't tell me, she just got up and left. So I figured she probably hadn't.
Chorus which plays the whole time: "Double fucked by two black studs in the back of Sophie's Bar."

In the news

I'm happy to see that this WikiLeaks guy is getting the screw put to him. Amazon won't host your site, a SWISS bank closes your account. WOW, you have to do something special to a SWISS bank to get them to close your account. Oh, like reveal documents that embarrass a whole bunch of governments, including the Swiss - oh, yeah - that will do it.

What's the point WikiLeak guy? Letting the people know the truth? As Jack said in that movie - "you can't handle the truth". The people don't need to know such government secrets, whatever the government may be. Go figure - the US did some sneaky things in conjunction with other countries, yeah. What did you think governments were doing? I'm very against censorship, but revealing government secret documents IS a security problem, and it can't be considered freedom of speech. Move to Pakistan if you hate America so much - they have America too. See if THEY are cool with you revealing terrorist secrets all the while. Be thankful for what you have here in the US / England / Sweden / Switzerland... Stop trying to screw it up for all of us that in general DO believe in free speech.

Spark

I often wonder how large companies get to be the size they are in their particular market place. In many cases the big companies are the very worst to deal with, make an inferior product, et cetera. Microsoft comes to mind with their glitchy software, but it's easy to figure out how they got to be huge. Verizon DSL/Cell/Landlines/Fios - ALL with terrible customer service. Comcast. I'm sure you can think of a few names too. This entry isn't going to be complaining - the opposite in fact.

Today I had a great small company experience. Last week I took my sweet Subaru (with 188k miles) to Foreign Auto Experts in Elkridge, MD. I started the car right after the Thanksgiving holiday and it was running really rough - like a piston wasn't firing, or more correctly a spark plug wasn't firing. The check engine light was flashing, where it normally is just on steady. Drove it up and down the driveway and then had my wife follow me to FAE to drop the car off for repair.

We took my wife's car there for a rotor / brake job the week previous and they got the job turned around quickly and didn't change the rear brakes because they said they didn't need to be done yet. Wow, that was really honest from an auto repair shop. Auto repair facilities don't exactly have a reputation for being honest with the public - FAE seems to be the exception to the rule.

I got a call from Brian telling me that it was an error in cylinder three and that he cleared the error in the computer and that the spark plugs look good. He said he took it for a test drive, and then would take it for another test drive to determine if it needed new wires because the problem occurred again. No such luck, problem went away when he reconnected the wires - maybe a bad connection?

I went to pickup the car today at lunch and was handed the key and told - no charge, nothing wrong with it. WHAT? No charge, not even a shop "fee" or clearing the check engine light error with your computer? No test ride fee? This is why I keep coming back for service at Foreign Auto Experts. If only small businesses like this could be the model that other businesses look up to. It's not the point of giving services and time away for free because I'm a repeat customer, and even more loyalty was won for a cheap price. From looking around the net seeing what other people have to say about them they have a loyal following due to their honest work ethics. Good for them, and me.