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.

House with trees and a big gorilla

My last post was September 14th - it's been a while indeed. Many things have happened since the last time I wrote anything for the public, but I'm starting this post without a real subject in mind, I'll just free write and see what happens.

The biggest thing that has happened recently is the sale of my first house, and the purchase of a new house. The wife and I have been passively looking at houses for about three years, so when it was time to pull the trigger, we were ready mentally and financially. The funny thing about people's reaction to the news of "my house is on the market" is that generally people would say - where are you moving to? That is the whole point I guess, what are you stepping up to, but my attitude was and still is - it is all about selling. Making a purchase is easy as long as you have money, and/or credit. So, we went into the process of looking for houses with the emphasis on selling and we'll buy something when we have cash in hand or a solid deal with a real date. Too many stories over the last five years from people saying they got stuck paying two mortgages with a story of how they did it to themselves with blame going somewhere other than to themselves. Always something I knew to avoid, so we did. The sale of the house whet well due to our stellar agent, and the purchase process was par for the course I guess. Nothing too exciting, so I'm skipping that part.

The second biggest thing recently happening is the purchase of a 60-in-1 arcade game. I started looking for an upright classic arcade game a few months ago with the new room a larger house would offer. I wanted to buy a Tron, Dig Dug, or Donkey Kong machine. Tron machines are all too expensive because of the new Tron movie set release later this year. Dig Dug machines were hard to locate on eBay and Craigslist, and Donkey Kong machines were generally pretty expensive. I feel I got lucky when I found a very local seller that had a machine with a 60-in-1 card featuring all classic games, most of which I had heard of. I did the research and found that these "new" cards were the real deal and they used the original ROM sets so the games were the exact same code with the only difference I could notice being in the sound quality in some games. Games features off the top of my head: Pac Man, Ms Pac Man, Qix, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong 3, Space Invaders, Galaga, Galaxian, Mr. Do, Mr. Do's Castle... It is a lot of classic games in one machine and I can say that two months later I'm still very happy with the purchase.

The third item to report is the property we purchased contains many trees, and loads of leaves. I got my Stihl chainsaw repaired and have put it to use removing four dead trees. I have also used the sweet Subaru for some tree removal with 80' of steel 3/8" aircraft cable - see video, it's only 37 seconds. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP8mwJS-SQQ

Lastly, I've got this idea in my head that since I've always liked playing Donkey Kong, maybe I am good enough to be in the top 100 payers in the world?? This all came about after watching the movie King of Kong. I have been playing a lot over the last two months with a emphasis on getting better rather than just having fun. Some days I've done poorly, while others I'm just "on". This evening I have the house to myself and sat down and played two games back to back both scoring over 50k per game. Checking the scoreboard at Twin Galaxies.com shows that a score over 50k is between 69th and 70th place. So, I am in the top 100 if I can record my score and submit it. Now to try to get in the top 50 list - 121,800 points. My high score currently is around 84k.

I'm probably better with a chain saw than those top 50 players.

Warranty and Progress

Follow up for the CO2 alarm wake-up call blog, The Silent Killer.
I got a bunch of Home Depot and Lowes gift cards from my credit card company with their reward program nonsense. I purchased a new CO2 detector to replace the non-working one at the house. I noticed on the packaging that it features a five year warranty! Yup, I'm cashing in on that warranty tonight.

Here's how it goes. Buy the same model CO2 detector, put the old one that is not functioning in the packaging with your receipt and return it to the store as not working - because it doesn't work. This isn't a scam and isn't unethical because the date stamp on the broken detector is 2006, and that is four years. To avoid the PIA that would be an actual return to the manufacturer I elected to do it the big box way. Nice and easy, and it helps to use a razor blade to open the blister pack packaging rather than the Christmas day rip and tear method. Just a suggestion.

Progress on multiple fronts?
On May 9th I posted a blog titled Progress on multiple fronts which contains the quote, "So, yesterday I did a max chest press lift of 250# which is good for a thirty-something guy who is weighing in under 200#. I think I'm a few months from 275#, but I'll let you know when I hit that goal."

It's been a few months and here is what I have to report:

Yesterday I did a max chest press lift of 250# which is good for a thirty-something guy who is still weighing in under 200#. I think it will be at least a few months before I can hit a max lift of 275#. The reason for net zero gain is because I fell off the gym wagon as we all do, or at least I do easily and about a month ago I dragged myself off the couch to get back into it. Yup, I'm still trying to loose the same 15 pounds, but again, aren't we all?

To me it was a pretty big day hitting the 250 number, but what I didn't realize until I sat down to write this was that it wasn't my goal, it was my baseline. Oh well, we're not grading on a curve so there is no reason to make it an easy goal.


King of Kong
I watched a fairly good documentary several months ago called the King of Kong about a Donkey Kong video game competition. I loved this game back in 1981 when Nintendo released it in arcade cabinet version. Being that it is a fairly difficult game I never got what you would call good, or even above average. Recently I've been spending some time at Crab Towne USA whenever I get the urge to play some old school video games in their original format. Crab Towne (yes, it has an E) still has a good inventory of classic games like Tetris, Pac Man, Mario Brothers, Twilight Zone (pinball), Galaga, Dig Dug, Ms Pac Man, Baby Pac Man, Spy Hunter, and several other less popular titles.

Last night after my on par performance at the gym I went directly to Crab Towne to see how much entertainment $2 in quarters could get me. Last night I finished the "elevators" level on Donkey Kong. Big deal to me since I like the arcade video games, less impressive to most grown ups. I would like to get a arcade game at the new house when things settle down, we'll see.

Moving lights

It's getting busy at work just as expected as the month of August winds to a close. We had a production booked where additional lighting was added on Friday evening and confirmed on Saturday morning causing a Saturday shop call to pull the gear and I had to come in to get paperwork sorted. On my growing list of things TO DO was to get custom road cases built for the new Mac 350 moving heads. We are the first in the area to invest in these LED powered moving lights so we don't have the option to call a case company and ask what is on file. Being that Saturday was my only off-day for the week and I was at work I figured I'd do my best to do a little of work and play. I'll take one of the lights to the case company via the motorcycle and then I'll get to talk face to face with the designer and we'll work things out for the design without the use of email and phone calls.

I called Jack up at Tour Duty case company in Delaware and asked if I could possibly drop off a light today at his shop if he happened to be near his shop. He said he was at work too, and that it would be no problem. I finished up my paperwork and called the wife to tell her my brilliant plan for the day. Told her she could come with me or do things on her own but I needed to get this done and not put it off another day. She said she was in, so I packed up my light with case foam that we have in stock for the 1.5 hour journey North. It's a Saturday, there won't be any traffic.



We get on the road and everything is smooth until we hit Delaware. There was major traffic and as our speed slowed from highway to crawl the reality of the heat set in. Miserable is a good way to describe a fully loaded motorcycle with a passenger, in the heat, in heavy traffic. After sitting in stop and go for a while we made it to our location and meet up with Jack. We talked for about five minutes about the best way to build the case with the plan B of using the case in the future for more standard gear if the market just doesn't like these fancy LED lights. We are having the cases built from the shell of double 1-ton motor cases so we can retrofit the case easily if the manufacturer puts out the version II model that is twice as bright and 3" wider in three months. High End System has had a habit of doing that sort of thing, and I'm sure Martin would do the same thing given a willing market.



My one goal of getting some work done was accomplished, but the play for the day part wasn't exactly complete because the slow burn of Delaware beach traffic wasn't satisfying. I asked Jack where we should have lunch in the area since we are in a different town and he directed us to the Dutch Market that was close by. We rode over to the market and parked by a bunch of Harley Davidsons, one of which had zebra stripes to complement the chrome touches. The market was more like the "Dundalk Dutch market" - if you get the joke good, if you don't I can't explain it here. Anyhow, we walked around and had chocolate covered bacon as a treat which was really tasty, then a hot dog in a soft pretzel dough and then a slice of pizza. And, no I didn't go to the gym on Saturday.



On the ride back home I pulled over on the side of 95 in a shaded spot so I could stop burning my clutch for a little while and to have a drink. No sooner did I pull off the road to have a drink of water than the traffic starts to move at a reasonable pace. Five minute break and we're back in the mix. The rest of the trip was uneventful except for honking my horn at a teenage driver next to me who was text messaging while driving at 65 mph. She snapped her head up and then looked at me with a WTF glare then honked her horn back in protest. This detail was satisfying.

President / CEO / Truck Driver

We did lighting for Mixfest last night and a few of the bands were Hanson, Backstreet Boys, and Train. It was a festival show with several bands, sound check, band gear, and tour buses. Lighting and audio production loaded in the day before to allow for several bands to sound check without lighting getting in the way on the stage. The day went incredibly smooth and the show started on time with all of the bands starting their sets on time. The load out was slow for lighting because it was a lot of lighting gear, but I have nothing to complain about because Showtime Sound had two 26' trucks vs. our single truck. Lighting looked really good and the audio was thumping which was necessary to overpower the screaming crowd - it was LOUD in the 99% sold out venue.

One of the benefits of being a company owner is the glory of being the truck driver. I had the distinguished honor of driving last night. Normally driving from Baltimore to our warehouse by BWI is a fairly simple task... not so last night. I was tired from a long day *out* of the office. I drove the normal route with minimal traffic after midnight on a Sunday night. I was moving right along and realized BWI, brakes, brakes, brakes. Um, I can't drive this to baggage pickup, the airport police don't like that sort of thing I'm sure. I've never seen a 26' box truck at the airport drop off or pickup, just short buses. Quick, think, what to do. Authorized Vehicles only, go to the security person and explain the error and request the method to not get police attention.

I slowly approached the secured gate thinking, it's 1:00 in the morning in a plain white box truck, nothing suspicious about this, no reason for alarm. Either this happens all the time, or it's really not a big deal. After explaining that I'm not lost, just tired the guy said - just drive "downstairs" around the airport. Don't drive upstairs!

Okay, I backed down the secured gate ramp and drove toward the airport arrivals. OH NO - clearance 13'-0". The truck is new, how tall is it? If I rip the roof off of the new company truck the second day we own it I'll never hear the end of it AND it would be quite expensive. Drive really slow, that makes you shorter. I guess I was 12'-something because I didn't scrape. So, you can drive an unmarked box truck through Arrivals without the police taking note - seems like a security problem but I'm happy to not get questioned.

I got back to the shop and was questioned as to where I was for the last 30 minutes. Oh, just driving the truck around the airport to check things out on a Sunday night. Maybe I should retire the truck driver job description?

ratified contract

We got a ratified contract on the sale of our house today. The house inspection is scheduled for this Sunday. I'll be working the Backstreet show on Sunday so I'll get a text message reporting on what the inspector is putting on his report. The list of pain in the ass things I'll have to repair, or pay for before the closing will break up my day nicely. But, the buyers have been very straight forward and professional so they might be less interested in nit picking and focus on just closing which is my hope. On Saturday I will go to Lowes to buy GFI receptacles for the three bathrooms in our 11-year old house that don't have them. That will be one less thing on the inspector's report.

Today at work we picked up our new Freightliner 26' box truck. When I say new, I mean new to us, it has 120k miles on the odometer, but as I'm told that is low mileage for a diesel truck. We went through the expense of having large aluminum lift gate installed, as well as the addition of two more rows of E-rail making a total of four rows. The frustration of rental trucks over the last two years caused me to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to get a large and safe lift gate, and additional E-track so securing the loads won't require so much planning and effort. We still have to take the truck back to the dealer on Monday to put it in to get the box painted. They will have it for at least 4-days for this simple process.

I didn't have a camera with me today, but if I did I would have taken a photo of the gaff tape US DOT number that I have currently on both cab doors. The posting of a DOT number is required on all big trucks (yup, that is how the law reads, it says "big") and they don't care how it's on there, it just needs to be readable from a specific distance (20'?).

backstreet boys

Tonight was my grandmother's birthday cake event. While we where there we were talking about well water and she said that their system is filtered. It was mentioned that salt is used in the systems generally to soften the water and her response was, "I don't want to drink all those chemicals." "What about all the Diet Coke you drink," I said. "Well, I'll drink some chemicals if they're in Diet Coke." yeah, okay.

My short work day:
The 10:00 real estate meeting turned into the 10:30 meeting because there was rain. This isn't the first meeting where an agent has run late, but it's only thousands of dollars in commissions so why is it so important to be timely? I say that but I really like the agents we are working with and think they are doing a pro job, but the fees do get under my skin.

I ended up getting to work today a few minutes after noon which wasn't a big deal today as it was a very calm day. The weekend is busy with an event, but the prep for the event is mostly taking place on Thursday and Friday. Since we are now putting in an offer for a house there was a second meeting for more paper signing. That meeting was set for 4:30 today, so my work hours today were noon to four. Not my most efficient work day, but probably the shortest in a long time.

Our agent asked if we remembered to bring a checkbook to write the contract deposit and I said yes. We put our offer together so it can be sent to the seller's agent as soon as we have a ratified contract in hand. When it came time to write the check I was all ready to write the $1000. check (like we saw earlier this morning), and she was like, umm it's a $4500 check. Nope, not ready to write that check right now. Give me a day or two to transfer some money and move things around, choke. When we started this process 50+ days ago she did let us know that it's a 1% deposit generally, but I wasn't paying attention. (for those at home doing the quick math the price offering is 450k, it's just the offer, it only get's more expensive).



View of the front of the house from the street

Then we'll get to go through the negotiations back and forth, more time away from work. Fortunately the timing of these meetings is working out since it's August and it's slow. When we are planning to move will be a different story, it will be mayhem at work. In the meantime IF everything goes as planned and there are no hitches EVERYONE is getting paid for inspections and docs:

Septic Test
Well Test
Home Inspection
Radon Test
HOA Documents for buyers ($225 and it was a pdf download!!!!)

My upcoming work:
Since I've been light on comments and recently found out there are actual readers I'll throw in this tidbit to get some comments. We're providing concert lighting for Hanson and The Backstreet Boys this Sunday at Pier Six in Baltimore. Did you just read that, The Backstreet Boys, for real. When checking the web to get the link above I found out they have a Backstreet Boys cruise that is sold out. Did you get your tickets for the cruise?

first offer

Today we got an acceptable offer on the sale of our house. There is a meeting set for the morning with our Realtor to go over the details of the 40 page contract. Everything sounds good from what I'm hearing, but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet. I know two couples that have put in official offers via contract and flaked out on the purchase due to their own bad projections in one case and irresponsible banking behavior in the other case. I'm being realistically cautious, but I'm happy that we got a real offer none the less.

Moving on to another subject now. I've been doing some Summer reading and need to note the books I have completed in this here blog:

Road Show by Neil Peart (the drummer from rock band Rush)
No Angel by Jay Dobyns (motorcycle, undercover cop, Hells Angels)
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (yes, I did have to look up how to spell the last name. It's the guy who wrote Fight Club)

I'm looking for my next book but have not settled on it yet. Actually it was just decided that it will be Cat's Eye by Margret Atwood as this book is an in stock item in the house and I recall liking The Hand Maid's Tale and Oryx and Crake.

In stage lighting news I put in a purchase order today for Mac 350s. As far as I know they are the first LED profile fixtures on the market. We have needed a lower rental cost fixture replacement for our sold off Studio Spot 250s and 575s. In this case I'm glad that I waited for the LED fixtures to finally hit the market. I've been out of the "250" rental market for about two years waiting for this to happen. Since the Mac 350s are built on the SmartMac platform they will be inherently stable. We have had SmartMacs at a club install for over a year in a brutal environment and they have held up fairly well. Now we can do an all LED moving light show with Mac 350s and GLP Impressions and everything can be powered off of one or two circuits of 120 volts current, that's pretty cool.

Five years in eight months

I purchased my current motorcycle at the start of the riding season this year. I was fortunate to pick it up used for about half of the current new cost with 8,200 miles and brand new tires. It is a 2005, BMW R1200 GS. I wanted to do longer rides and the small Ducati 695 sport bike design I was riding wasn't comfortable for me. The Ducati was a great beginner bike to learn on, but it wasn't for me, so I sold it to get the more comfortable and larger BMW this year.

This past Saturday I ran into a friend of a friend (Andy) at a cookout who always ends up talking about his Honda 919 and how it's fast and so on. I pointed out that I always hear about this bike, but I've yet to ever see him riding it. This phenomenon of motorcycle ownership without actual use was further exemplified with a quick tour of the showroom of a local used bike dealer. Last week I was helping my Uncle and Nephew pick out a used bike as their beginner bike and saw a mint condition sport bike with less than 400 miles! A few bikes later I saw two more perfect condition bikes with less than 1,000 miles on the odometer. You'd think these motorcycles were home fitness equipment.

I am by no means an accomplished long distance rider, but I have ridden 620 miles in a single day, and have recently tinkered with the idea of completing an Iron Butt - SaddleSore 1000 event. I would very much like to see the country and even Canada by motorcycle. Riding to Ohio this Summer for work was a great trip, but it's rare that I can ride a motorcycle to an event, let alone an out of state event.

As of today I have 13,186 miles on the bike and that is approximately how many total miles I have on all bikes to date. I have a goal of 16,500 miles by Christmas card time so I can send a card with a photo of the odometer reading to the original owner (Steward Manning) showing that I doubled the mileage on the bike in 8 months - what took him 5 years to clock.

Plane

This evening I rode the motorcycle, knowing it was most likely going to rain. While I rode down Dorsey road I was rewarded for my choice as I accelerated to drive right under a plane landing at BWI. The plane was about 125' overhead I'd estimate. Every now and then you can time the incoming planes and drive directly under their path and it's pretty amazing. It's the justification for having a convertible (which I don't) or driving a motorcycle when you just know it's going to rain before you get back home. If you care to check out the location and try it yourself it's the Thomas A. Dixon Jr. Aircraft Observation Area and park on Dorsey road. Since I currently live and work near BWI off of Dorsey road I have had the chance to view the undersides of the planes more often that most, I guess there is something I'm going to miss when we move our home this Summer/Fall.

Sorry no photo, can't really drive and snap a pic.

When I left to come back home I did get rained on, but it was light. The mild rain seemed to cool things down a great deal so that was a welcome trade.

On the market

Our house is on the market, and has been for about 45-days. In preparation for the sale we paid for new carpet throughout the house, and paid for paint in about a third of the house. Some would say that "they painted and re-carpeted the house", this statement is not true, I just paid professionals to do the tasks as painting is not a skill I'm efficient with. After said payments the house looks fantastic and is staged well for sale and I have to say it looks better than most of the houses I've viewed. I suspect the sale of our house is all about the bottom line and a lot less about the new carpet smell and fluffed pillows.

It has been frustrating from day one. The first part that we (and everyone else) went through is the agent contracts where you realize how much money is coming off the top in commissions. Six percent is a lot of money when it's coming out of your funds! However, I'm not aware of a reliable way around paying the agents so we're playing by their rules and rates. Perhaps CraigsList could be the answer?

The plus side of the situation is that we are selling our house because we want to. We are not selling because of getting laid off, or because of home equity loans for large TV screens in every room and chrome rims for the Hummer. Nope, we're doing this because we want to step up to a property with trees and a long driveway and maybe even some privacy.

I can't imagine what the situation would be like if we had to sell on a time deadline due to a job out of town, or a lack of cash flow, or to pay for iPhone monthly service. I guess we have got it easy - we're in the black and even if we drop the price by $50k, we're still in the black. Could be worse I guess.



*notice the cat door

digital memories

As I try to recall when things happened at the company that are important to me I always have to refer back to the company website. When did we buy the forklift?

I did not design the site, nor do I know code too well, but I do updates and photo uploading and the such. I've very happy to have a company website to update because I've yet been able to keep up a steady blog entry, and Facebook certainly isn't suitable. Today (August) I made the bold entry to note that we've been replacing 19-pin connectors on most of the multi cable. It's a very dull announcement that really doesn't even belong in this blog, but it has been an expensive event that in two years from now I'll have to refer back to the site to remember that it wasn't last week when I spent all that money on the maintenance.

I've had trouble keeping up with blog entries because I (perhaps) made the mistake of making this sort of a company blog, and less of my personal blog. I guess I could start a new blog without the company tilt, problem is the company and work is such a big part of my life. I don't know.

My digital memory for today notes that I reached 13,000 miles on the BMW R1200GS this evening while driving to the gym. Speaking of the gym I took a long break this Summer and now have made another attempt to get back into the swing of things and have started going again. Making a note that I started going to the gym again would get repetitive if it was noted on a time line so I'm not going to make something about nothing just yet. Last night the wife and I went out for some beers after the gym (net gain). Tonight there were no beers or junk food after the gym visit, so that's good.

Double Air Bag Deployment

This was a big week for me. On Friday, 6/25/10 my house went on the market. Now I'm living ONE mile from work, but it's time to move to a nicer neighborhood and house, I'll leave it at that. The process of getting ready and paying for new carpet throughout the house, and getting all of the trim painted, and paying to have a few rooms and ceilings painted is stressful and expensive. But, we are now listed so the hard part is over?

On Wednesday, 6/23 I put a down payment on a 26' Freightliner M2 box truck (for the company obviously). The delivery date for the truck is four to five weeks from now due to the customizations to the truck. We are having the box painted to match the dark silver metallic color of the cab. We are switching out the steel lift gate for a larger aluminum self-leveling lift gate. Lastly we are extending the wheelbase and frame to properly fit the 26' box vs. the 24' box that is currently on the truck. All of the changes are adding up to the four to five week delivery time, but we'll have the truck in time for September when things get very busy again.

In getting prepared for the arrival of the truck we applied and were issued a US DOT number this week. That is the number you see on the doors of all large trucks on the roads that clearly identifies the company that owns the truck. I figured the application process would be slow and difficult but it took about four days, I was impressed.

On Tuesday, 6/22 I was a passenger in car crash this week. Yellow light, Honda accord in front of us hit the brakes, the driver of the car I was in hit the gas to make it through the yellow light and the collision occurred about two seconds later. Both air bags deployed on impact but thankfully nobody was seriously injured. Luckily enough we didn't make known contact with the airbags because my nose and/or glasses were not broken. The driver of the car I was in wasn't injured at all, but I had some cuts on my left leg from where the airbag hatch opened, and my pinky finger on my right hand was jammed on something and five days later is still swollen and sore. The driver of the Honda wasn't injured and was pretty relaxed considering the rear bumper and muffler of his car were messed up. The driver of the car I was in was pretty down about the incident because his car was totaled, and I did my best to push the fact that this was a best case accident - nobody was hurt, the totaled car has 201k miles on the odometer, the tires needed to be replaced, and the driver you hit wasn't a crazed madman at the accident site. Sure, it is never pleasant to be involved in an accident (especially with an injured Pinky!), but things could always be worse, you could have hit a new Mercedes or a dump truck.

When I rode my motorcycle home after work after the car crash I was a bit extra on edge regarding the cars around me. I couldn't help but to think about what an impact from a car or truck would be like on a motorcycle. I guess it would be as fast as the airbags deploying - BOOM, what just happened? I hope to never find out.

Starscape 2010 and Nelson Ledges Quarry Park - Ohio

The hot month of June is in full swing and we have provided lighting for two Festivals so far. The first event was the Starscape Festival held annually at Fort Armistead park off exit 1 of of the Baltimore beltway. This is the 12th year for the festival which has grown year after year and this year featured three stages (main, beach, and drum & base), one huge Dance tent, and a large VIP area. The main stage featured The Disco Biscuits, Pretty Lights, Lotus, and many others.

The load in days were among the hottest days of the year, and recent memory. The amount of labor (and planning) that goes into a festival is never fully understood by the audience member, but let me rattle off a few of the logistical issues that a festival faces. First thing that comes to mind is weather, then a close second sanitation such as the port-a-pots and trash cans / dumpsters. Don't forget the generators for the stage power, vendor booths, and area lighting. Food vendors, merch vendors, first aid, the massive security required to manage 15k people, parking crew, ticketing, and management. Then there is production with audio, lighting, and lasers. We provided lighting for all areas with two bands from the main stage bringing in additional equipment.

On Saturday morning I rode my motorcycle to the show site and parked by FOH. The 53' trailer for The Disco Biscuits was there at 8:00AM to my surprise. I started talking to the truck driver asking if he knew where gear was going and he explained that he was the driver and that he came from Red Rocks (Colorado) from a Thursday night event. The driver asked me if the motorcycle was mine and I said yes, that it's a new used bike to me, but I love it. He said that he rides whenever he can and showed me some photos on his iPad of beautiful mountain scenes from all over the country. I told him that I was reading a book called Road Show by the drummer from Rush who happens to ride the same model bike. He then told me his name was Mac, and that he was a driver for Rush AND that he rode with the guys in the book from time to time on the spare bike. I told him that he was in the book several times, and what a small world this is. What a strange coincidence, meeting a real life character from a book I'm reading - all be it a minor character, a character none the less.

Back to starscape: Hot, lights, blinky blinky, TONS of people, still very hot. Showed back up for load out which was very long and you might have guessed it - HOT.

I checked the web for show pics and found a few that were memorable.

I'm certain that a lot of beer was sold as a result of the three of them walking around. There was other body painting around the festival, but I think these girls were the only corporate sponsored marketers on the site.


Photo by Nick Fitanides
http://www.phrazz.com

The following weekend I was hired to provide lighting for Several Species at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in Ohio. I was happy to make the trip to Ohio because it was a chance to work with Several Species again, and I was planning on riding the motorcycle to the hotel. The directions listed the hotel 406 miles from the office, which is a reasonable highway ride on a Friday during business hours. I left the shop at about 10 AM and enjoyed the 400+ mile ride traveling up route 68 to 81 onto the Ohio turnpike. I have to say that the part of the Ohio turnpike I traveled was the best turnpike I've ever ridden. It was scenic, well paved, and the travelers were respectful of the passing lane which is a change from the rolling road blocks in the left lane throughout Maryland.

The hotel was better than expected and for once in my life the check in went smooth, they were expecting me - I was "with the band". After unloading the hard cases from the bike and changing into shorts I walked to the neighboring Ruby Tuesdays and attempted to consume a full rack of ribs. I ate until it hurt than gave up, eyes were bigger than my stomach this time I guess. I grabbed a ride in a minivan with band members to the venue at Nelson Ledges which turned out to be about 35 minutes from the hotel. Our load in was set for midnight after Kashmir, a Led Zeppelin tribute band. I hung out backstage and heard Kashmir belt out song after song from the band in a very true fashion and I was thoroughly impressed with the ability of the singer to do a full three hour set without a break, no break.

It was midnight and the festival goers were nowhere near done for the night. Hundreds of people were in front of the stage area, vendors were selling food and drinks, and the beer drinking was showing no signs of slowing. It was time to load in lighting and what felt like a nice warm June night soon felt like a sweltering August in Texas. The stage roof was far shorter than expected and the lighting was crammed in with moving lights closer together than planned and a general feeling of being crammed. We worked with what we had in the venue and we made it work. Image Engineering sent a laser system for this event as is basically required of a good Pink Floyd tribute band. It is always nice working with Image and I've always enjoyed working with and for them in the past. After several hours and a few set backs we got into a different minivan and went back to the hotel for air conditioning and a comforting bed. I though while falling asleep in the van about the thousands of festival goers that were camping in this heat.

The next morning I woke up earlier than planned and so did my roommate for the trip Josh (from Image Engineering). We joined other band members in a car this time for a quick trip to a nearby Bob Evans. After breakfast we made a stop back at the hotel to grab sunscreen and I grabbed my bathing suit because there was talk of a huge lake. I didn't see a lake last night, but the park website did show such a thing. We were set to take the stage around 8:30 so there was plenty of time to relax and cool off before the work day really started.

After getting to the backstage area and making sure everything was in place from the night before I went to Josh to check out the lake and surrounding woods where the bulk of the campsites were located. The lake was fairly large with a vast camping area that had banners hung for their favorite classics band - Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and even Ozzy. This place was huge and packed to sell out capacity. The general vibe from overhearing conversations and talking to people was that they were there to see Several Species that night.

After the walk around the lake I put on my bathing suit (sorry no photo) and jumped into the lake. It was breathtakingly cool, but did the intended job of lowering my core temperature briefly. I quickly dried off in the hot sun even though the humidity was at best - sticky. I thought to myself, next year I'm bringing a raft to sit around in the lake, but how will I fit that on the bike. I know, I'll ship it in a road case with the lighting gear.

I had lunch while watching War Pigz, an Ozzy Tribute band. The front man for this band had all the Ozzy moves down and really put his all into the performance. While the festival goers at this event were clearly not big metal fans, he did draw quite a crowd in tie dyed shirts and other hippie fashions.

Before Brit Beat, the Beatles tribute band was to take the stage we set all the floor moving lights that were not placed the night before. It was quite hectic getting moving lights and data lines placed while Brit Beat was moving their gear onto the stage. This is always the case on festival stages weather they are giant or tiny, too much going on in the same area with little time to make it all happen. We got everything set just in time. I went to front of house to make sure all of the equipment was responding to the controller while Brit Beat told the crowd in British accent that the next song was from their LP, A Hard Day's Night. The rest of their set was seen while I adjusted positions on the moving lights without the lamps on and made final adjustments before our set started. The combination of moving lights and a very serious Beatles band was ironic, but I think I'm the only person that noticed that detail. Another detail I noticed that Beatles fans (myself not included) would appreciate was that the bass player was playing left handed, in true Paul fashion.


View from backstage right of the beach

The Several Species set started to a cheering sold out crowd. The set was cut short a little bit due to the generator for lighting and audio being under powered or over loaded which caused the PA to cut out four times, mostly during guitar solos. Chris the guitarist who had the PA cut out on him didn't miss a beat as his monitors didn't kick out, or he's just that good. Thankfully the lighting gear never gave out which is probably poetic justice in that we had a great deal of LED equipment so we were using far less electric we would have for the same show a few years ago. The crowd was very energetic and left wanting more, maybe next year.

View from FOH, it's a fairly small stage

Start of the show, it's hard to run the show and take photos too

The show looked a lot better than this photo

After a hot and sweaty load out I was completely exhausted and made my way into the drummer's minivan going back to the hotel. The air conditioning in the room never felt so good. A quick shower and I was out like a light. The next morning I grabbed a table for one at the Bob Evans and rode the motorcycle back home enjoying the scenery and roads of Ohio, West Virginia, and a to a lesser extent, Maryland.

The Germans are coming

Today was a stressful Monday, par for the course. We were expecting two large deliveries of new equipment for the Summer show season and beyond. A small delivery was also expected from German Light Products of a software uploading programmer. The paperwork and accounting "to do" pile was getting in the way of more pleasant items such as - lunch, such is life. I'm not complaining although it sounds like I am.

On the agenda today was the strange repair to a new Impression LED moving head. GLP, German Light Products, is the manufacturer that now has a presence in the US. A few weeks ago I got a call from an experienced LD reporting that one of the six Impressions he was using wasn't behaving like the rest in a color roll. On a Saturday I called the number that I found on the web for GLP and left a voice mail. Much to my surprise I got a return call in five minutes. Then I called last week with two fixtures in front of me to go over all of the possible scenarios that could cause them to respond differently. After two days the GLP rep concluded that somehow the software needed to be reloaded and they sent out the software uploading programmer.

The SUP arrived today and I was able to break away from the paperwork to use the uploader. The pdf instructions that were sent to me in an email were the most detailed and easy to follow instructions I've ever seen. Full color photos showing the particular detail to pay attention to while connecting the hardware, very impressive. The whole process took about five minutes, and fixed the software problem.
That was encounter #1 with Germans.

The caller ID showed "Out of Area" with a string of numbers, most likely a telemarketer. I picked up and heard a bunch of noise then the caller asked for me by name. It turned out to be the tech from Protonic software, whose product is EasyJob software for rental operations. The conversation went well and I'm fairly confident that we will be purchasing the software very soon. We have already purchased and installed a new server for the database software, so half of the work is done. I say that now before we start the implementation of a new software platform, ha.

Here's a picture from LiveDesign of a Paramore concert featureing a bunch of Impressions in action.

Progress on multiple fronts

March and April passed at lightning speed as usual. I'm happy to report that I have still been pretty good about sticking to the gym routine and I'm *slowly* seeing results. To followup on the "net weight loss post". I'd say that my current net loss from about TWO months ago is two to three pounds, but maybe we'll go with my doctor's approach of the muscle gain is off setting the fat loss, so the weight number is rather unimpressive... Not sure on that one, but the key word is slow, results, progress, reporting, whatever.

So, yesterday I did a max chest press lift of 250# which is good for a thirty-something guy who is weighing in under 200#. I think I'm a few months from 275#, but I'll let you know when I hit that goal.

WORK BLURB-
Work has been super busy and things are going great. We have some fun events on the schedule and I'm excited about this month and the Summer. I can't reveal much more except that I have gotten back in contact with
Several Species and we are scheduled to do the lighting for them at the Classics Weekend festival in Ohio at the Nelson Ledges Quarry Park that is on June 12th. I'm not a fan of facebook, but I have to say that it IS good at reconnecting people, and in this case it is how I reconnected with Several Species. Come and see the show in Ohio, they are really a great tribute band and I'm not just saying that because I'm working for them.

The concept of net weight loss

Today I'll write about something other than work related activities and bright lights.

I find it amusing that people like to talk about weight only when it is as a loss, and stock ownership when it is a gain. When the inverse is the case there is little talk about such topics. How many time has a friend or coworker let you know that they lost 10 or 15 pounds, only to gain it back and then a year later report that they have lost 10 pounds. But they are the SAME pounds because you are at a net loss of zero now. This phenomenon only amuses me, I don't pretend to be in much better shape than the general public, but this does lead into the start of my day.

For the last two weeks or thereabout I've been "back in the gym". Since I don't watch TV this has NOTHING to do with Biggest Loser. I see the banners at the gym, so I know these TV and gym promotions are driving gym membership and attendance. I've taken it pretty slow so as to not burn out early. A month ago I started walking on the treadmill for 20 - 30 minutes then doing really light free weight work trying to keep total gym time at or under 45 minutes at a visit. The point of the treadmill is to do a bit of fat burn to shed a few unwanted pounds.

Don't get the wrong impression, I'm not really overweight - I'd say I'm average, or even a little less weight than average, but by my doctor's standard I'm over weight by 10 - 15 pounds. So, when the weight does come off I'll let you know, and if it comes back on - you can let me know.

Last week at weight in I was 195, today I was 192#. I don't really think any weight was lost, I think of it more as a variance. We'll have to revisit this whole weight thing in a month or so to see if there is a trend. I believe target weight is in the 180's.

A few months ago I was at the doctors and she asked how thing were and I told her that I'd been back in the gym a bit more than usual. She said I showed some weight gain on my chart and that was possibly due to muscle gain from the gym, and I replied that it was likely the dollar menu at McDonalds, let's be realistic here. Thanks for being the optimistic doctor and all.


Motivation is quite important when it comes to getting off of the couch and (back) into the gym. Here are a few motivating factors that should make thing different:
* A good friend of mine from High School survived a heart attack recently.
* I just got an iPod Touch that much to my surprise allows me to email while at the gym.
* My wife has gotten her Spin certification and has been teaching Spin classes part-time.
* The guys at work have been asking for a bench press competition in the form of talking smack and calling me "Pops". All joking aside, this is the biggest motivator for me.

My goals are to drop the 10# - 15# to get the six-pack abs back and to have a max bench press of 275#. It should take about four months to accomplish if I stick to it. I hope to report in mid July that I've accomplished my goals.

Off they go

Last week I got the email from GearSource with the purchase order for the Technobeams I mentioned in the last blog post. That was quick. We tested the equipment in the shop finding a problem with one of the tilt motors, but that was a quick fix because we stock stepper motors for our High End Systems gear. I stayed late that night to pack up the lights and with the help of the forklift and a lot of shrink wrap I was able to stank and strap the skid for the next day shipment. They were purchased by the Branson Star Theatre in Branson, MO. Per the Branson.com website, "You may not have known that Branson has more theater seats than Broadway."

In other news from last week - we have received our new purchase of Impression LED moving head fixtures. When we set these up in the warehouse to test them out we were surprised at how bright and fast they actually were. I firmly believe these will be the hot item this year in rentals. Brighter, faster, lighter, smaller, and less power consumption will be quite a selling point. I'm looking forward to seeing their universal adoption as a replacement for Mac washes and so on.

The Great Recession OR Slow News Year

Coming out of the Winter season is always an exciting time in the rental / production world and this year is no different. This last day of February marks the end of playtime, it's time for the busy season. This last year has been an emotional challenge for many Americans due to the constant media attention to the economic meltdown, collapse of the house market, and my favorite exaggeration - the Great Recession! I didn't let the media hacks get me down and I mostly tuned them out and focused on all the good things - such as having the best January ever due to the many Inauguration events happening in DC in 2009. I'm sure if I was writing this from a construction company or auto dealer it would have a different tone.

The Great Recession was great to me for a few reasons which I'll list:
* Fuel prices (gasoline AND diesel) dropped.
* My stock portfolio got beat up, but that's okay, I'm not retiring for a while.
* Interest rates on mortgages dropped and I refinanced without ANY costs to a much lower rate.
* All the vendors I deal with were willing to make a deal to sell more product.
* Purchased a used forklift at a great price and in top notch condition.
* Hired a new employee that was laid off by the county - their loss, my gain.


It's all in the way you look at thing, the glass is half full.

I'm not surprised to report that I'm hearing over and over from customers and vendors - things are really picking up, March and April are VERY busy. I can report the same thing - March and April are looking to be very busy months, but they always are (which I AM thankful for, and I don't mean to sound egotistical). The busy season will feel more hectic than ever because we've come out of the recession finally, sure thing. Many companies, in may industries have made their operations more efficient after years of functioning in the "irrational exuberance" economy that was America.

I was happy and content over the last two years personally and in my business life because my overhead costs were in control. The majority of what you heard about in the media was people in overpriced homes in interest only loans, or similar financial instruments. I've always been conservative with a backup plan, and money in savings to smooth out the bumps. As a result the media hype never got to me and I never really worried about any of it. Business is solid and I'm ready for the busy season, again.

Out with the old

Afterglow Lighting was started in 1998 with the purchase of four Used Intellabeam 700HX fixtures and a I/Beam LCD Controller from Don Turner. When I say that I purchased them from Don I mean that I sat down with him and he told me to draw up a payment schedule and he'd approve it. The next day I drafted the agreement saying that I would pay $2000 up front, and $500/month. Total purchase cost was approximately $5300 for the package, and it was paid on schedule.

Intellabeams were available in the used market because of the introduction of the Technobeam by High End. Since used gear was the only thing I could possibly afford, the tried and true Intallabeam was the ideal moving light for me. I started off doing club work for the Maryland based Pink Floyd tribute band Several Species. After a few shows in the Recher Theatre I started doing corporate work and parties. Other equipment was added to inventory as the cash flow allowed and for many years all income was 100% reinvested. (I had a fulltime day job at the time)

In the year 2000 the *new* Hammerjacks night club was buying used gear to outfit its reincarnation. I sold my four Intellabeams after 2+ years of steady work through the lighting company doing most of the sales for the club. If I recall correctly I got $800/fixture which wasn't much depreciation for 2+ years. My four I/Beams went several others to Hammerjacks for it's short lived existence. From what I understand, Cancun Cantina purchased all of the Hammerjack's Intellabeams at auction, and now they sit a warehouse at Cancun Cantina.

For the first time in the company history I sold perfectly good moving lights to turn around and pay more than double for the new version of the same thing. In September of 2000 I responded to market demand and sold off my Intellabeams to purchase new Technobeam Iris fixtures. My timing was pretty good because I skipped the first version that didn't include an iris.

Just under ten years later it's time to sell the ever reliable Technobeams. We only built up an inventory of six units due to the popularity of moving head fixtures, but they have been a pleasure to own. I listed the Technobeams (and some hard working Trackspots) this morning on GearSource.com with a sense of nostalgia. I'll be sad to see them go because they work great and have always been reliable, but for what we do now it's not the right fit. So we'll sell the Technobeams for under $1300 then invest the money into more Martin Mac 700 Profiles at over $7800 each.

I'll refine the sales plan to "Sell Technobeams and buy CASES for Mac 700s"