Do people living on the streets live up to city code?

We forget that we live in a capitalistic society. You may ask why do I bring this up, well think about it. The rancher is charging $300 to people and they are willing to pay it. This is what low income housing looks like. Are you accusing him of being a slumlord? well his “clients” aren’t. He is willing to take them in. He’s isn’t a mega corporation setting up housing for a great tax break. He isn’t the government using tax dollars to setup low income housing. He is a lonely individual doing what he can to help people out.

Could he out his own money pay to fix everything up? Maybe he can, but isn’t that besides the point? He opened up his land and people are better off because of it. What more can you ask for?

I leave with this final question, Should the man let the city come in scrap everything and then let people stay in their tents? Is that your proposed solution?

On friday i read the news of circuit citys demise, and while i feel for the employees, I have become a closeout liquidation specialist. That same day I did a scavenger preflight. As a good scavenger you always have to fly a few circles prior to the feast in order to see the lay of the land, and make sure you don’t get eaten. I wanted to see what the regular prices looked like before the liquidators showed up. See what some of you may not think about is that the liquidators are there to make money. One of the first things they do is jack up the prices on some items way above what their original or msrp cost would be.

Most consumers see a discount price and they think “oh this is discounted I must be saving”. Ladies who shop at Kohls are a great example of this shopping trick!

What i found on friday shocked me greatly, i only went to one store so I do not know of this happened at multiple locations. There were several items marked “clearance” that i believe the store manager was trying to get out of the store beforw the liquidators show up. These were items that they had many in stock and where greatly reduced. An example was guitar hero aerosmith version, $40 with guitar!!! Any system, and yes a wireless guitar.

So back to my original idea. I read last night that there were lines at multiple circuit citys. The other vultures must of smelled the carcass about to keel over. Fair enough, there is enough meat for all of us, but i better go on sunday in order to find more than just bones. So I went early today to circle some more around the body. Guess what, no one was taking big ticket items, well a few dumb people where, those who hadn’t done research before hand. Some items marked 10% off had been raised as much as 20% over the regular price. Let’s not even get into what was discounted 30%!!! The best part about the store I went to, they used one of those contraptions that cuts off your cell phone signal, why you may ask, well if you have an iPhone you can’t go online! Even a plain phone couldn’t call a buddy and ask what he thought. Good luck clearing the store out with those tactics. We may all have to wait 6 weeks from now in order for the real fire sale to begin and then we can enjoy some meat. Then again, with what I saw today, employees may take care of their unemployment and liquidate the store even faster. Now let’s get to the intersting part. The liquidators were in such a rush to raise the prices that they didn’t enter the discounts on the computers. Every register had a calculator, which they would use for figuring out how much each item should be.

So the process works like this. You walk up to the register, tell the poor employee condolences, then he scans all your items, then he goes to his calculator, and the he manually overrides the price on every single items. Now, granted I haven’t audit in 7.5 years, but what are these idiot liquidators thinking. Forget the time consumption and lack of efficiency that is caused by this system, people will wait if they think they are getting a killer deal (tell me you haven’t waited forever for a register at Fry’s). The liquidators have empowered the employees who are soon to be out of a job the power to liquidate the liquidators!!! Now that was a true stroke of genius!!! 5 out 5 coyotes on that one! Allow the employees that will all soon be jobless to calculate the discount! “Hey Dude, come over to my job man, for $20 i’ll get you World Tour for 50% off, don’t give me the 20 at the store, wait till I get off. Hey what if you get two and we sell one on eBay”

The dictionary defines ingenuity as inventiveness: the power of creative imagination. My two year old son displayed that and then some today. A couple of weeks ago we went to Toys R Us with my 2 1/2 year old son and I as we had previously discussed he had the right to buy one sports article. Before we got to the store he had stated that he wanted a basketball hoop w/ basketball. You can imagine when we got to the store what happened. First he wanted the football, then the baseball w/ bat, then basketball, but wait the volleyball, and over and over. He had a hard time because he knew he could choose only one. He settled at the end with the basketball hoop and ball. But insisted on carrying the baseball bat and ball all the way to the register. He knew he wasn’t taking them home he just wanted to carry them as long as possible.

I grew up in the projects in the heart of East LA. My hand me down’s came from my second to youngest brother, he was 7 years older than me!!! You learn a lot from not having much. Like making due with what you have. Just because I could of bought both of those for my son, I want to teach him something, and today he made me proud.

My sleep cycle is all messed up. Not sleepy at night, feel like sleeping afternoon. I guess the change is kinda stressing me out. Life has continued. But what is next?

The problem with passing milestones is you have to focus on the next mile. For the first time in my life I may have to say that I don’t have a major goal lined up. Is that typical? Is this what getting older is all about?

Well there really wasn’t drama, well maybe. What is the definition of drama? Bored to death. Yeah I think that is it. So then yes, there was plenty of drama. First of all I don’t know why I am in court. The place I work for had nothing to do with the incident but since we have an insurance policy apparently it has now become our responsibility to make things right in the world. But lets not focus on that, lets focus on the important part. Why do we have lawyers? Why do we need lawyers? Judges I understand but lawyers? I have a few friends that are attorneys, and most of the time I like them.  The point of this is not to end with a “shark” punch line I promise you! I have come to the conclusion that lawyers blow things out of proportion in order to make more money off their percentage. I was at what is called a Mandatory Settlement Conference. What a waste of time. The judge doesn’t care about the facts; all he cares about is making the two sides agree to an amount so that his calendar doesn’t have another trial. How does that help our legal system? And don’t get me started on the clerks. By 10:30 one clerk was on the Weight Watchers website, eating and taking personal phone calls.  A 15-minute discussion occurred about water roaches in the jury that they couldn’t be expected to pickup.

            My point, well my point is, we keep hearing about how the court system is overloaded and how you’re better off arbitrating. If you want to defend yourself with facts you may be better off arbitrating, at least then the facts may make a difference. Undo the legal profession altogether hire half of them as judges and just let it all work like small claims.  Why not?

1. Work out what matter. A+

2. Know your entitlements. B ( I know them but don’t like using them, big believer in showing others by your actions how they should deal with life)

3. Negotiate an agreement. (with who??? my wife doesn’t really negotiate!!! I know it is talking about work etc) I refuse to grade myself. Besides grades are childish. 

4. Schedule your time. B possibly C (If not why would I be writing this!!!)

5. Learn to say “no”. And keep my job!!!! Right!

6. Ask for help. (Dear Heavenly Father . . .) I believe I am a great delegator (A+) but like most control freaks, (I’m fessing!), I believe there are certain jobs that only I can do right. (F–)

7. Be web savvy. A+ I put most IT guys to shame

8. Look after your health. B- Its keeping up! Except for sleep, rest, relaxation. What is stress burn out anyways, I think I live there!

9. Focus on end results. Here is where it gets hard, thanks to this commute of mine even if I finish earlier there is no way to get home early.

10. Take time out for you. They are kidding right! What is a boundry. That article must have been written by an Australian, or a Gen Y’er!

AM I ALONE??????