NewYear, New Old Stuff

Another Year Starts

And hopefully a better one. The first week is a little slow. Less old back bathroom as it slowly goes away to make room for the new. Going to advertise in the newspaper next week. The Skilled Trades Business Services section in Craigslist is just too full of over-posters and fly-by-nighters. There's one guy who has as many names as I got fingers and toes, if not more.

Some Borrowed Books

Two good reads by Jim Butcher, Storm Front which is about a wizard set in Chicago, ala Sam Spade. This is the first of a series. Solid read, has organized crime, black and white magic , including vampires, which makes for a fascinating mix. In the best pulp detective fiction tradition, our hero does not have a smooth time of it. He's perpetually broke, gets beaten up now and then, and is in trouble up past his neck.

The next is Captain's Fury. Note that this is the fourth of a fantasy series, The Codex Alera. No flat spots but a good run all the way through, somewhat more traditional fantasy with a touch of the Roman Empire even down to Latin names. Being later in Butcher's career and that he is more successful, the author's name is at the top and the title is at the bottom in font half the size. Usually this means that the author is grinding out the same tired plot but with with different names and places. Not in Jim Butcher's case, each book is as good as the last, and the reader gets a fresh plot.

P. T Deutermann, The Firefly. A terrorist/assassin is going to do something really bad. Granted, many a tree and much ink has been used to make many a book with this very old plot. Deutermann refreshes it however, and it is a reasonably paced well written tale. Many twists and turns so it isn't dull. Worth borrowing. I still like his sea story better, The Scorpion in The Sea, and have marked that as an addition to my permanent collection.

Harold Coyle and Barrett Tillman, Harold Coyle's Strategic Solution's inc./Prometheus's Child. First off, the dust jacket shows a picture of the USS Wisconsin firing a broadside. Nowhere in the novel is a mention of any navy ship, let alone a battleship. Also the Wisconsin is now part of a museum and is a permanent exhibit in Norfolk, Virginia. It's definitely retired from active duty.

Harold Coyle has always been a little behind the times. He was writing about the Cold War going hot when the entire East Bloc was collapsing under its own weight. This tale is about a private security agency undertaking training and later an operation in Africa and later on, action on the high seas. Considering how Blackwater and other private security firms made the news last year in a very un-positive light, it's doubtful if this will ever be the case in real life. However it's a good read for a slow day.

The 401 K? What 401K?

It's now an IRA. It's going to be mostly Dodge and Cox Stock Fund with some bonds. However, the "adviser" thinks I'm way too aggressive in investing, being a hundred percent stock. Not really keen on bonds, since the Fed is turning the dollar into toilet paper instead of just letting the subprime mess work itself out on it's own. Ah, we shall see. At least the Time Warner stock will be history. Seven years I had it and it's done better then a loss but not by much.

The Biz.

Someone wanted me to replace a shutoff valve for a toilet. No big thing but the house water shutoff wouldn't. I was certain the valve would break before it would close, causing much flooding that could only be stopped by shutting it off at the street. Yikes. No need to test my liability insurance like that.

The Eye

I can actually read with it. Well, up to a point. Definitely no small print right now. Slight double image but I can focus most of it out. The lens must have been displaced when the iris was damaged. Not going to get that fixed though. Eyes just do not like being messed with. It's bad enough having to watch out for retinal detachment and glaucoma without making it worse.

Finally, Thinning The Herd

Iowa Caucus today. Polls that really count. Opinion polls are useful up to a point, per se, a business deciding if to go with scented spark plugs or pastel brake pads for instance. Politicians deciding to trot out empty promises on cutting taxes or drugs for everybody, another example.

The Presidential Hopeful Candidates herd is way too large, and over the next two months will get some much needed culling. It has been so bad, some were found as far north as Alaska.

Been Awhile

Da Blog.

It's been awhile, twelve days. A lot has been happening. The business is finally underway, and some work is flowing in. No advertising as of yet. I thought this blog could be a vehicle for advertising the biz but no. It may describe what I do, or something the rest of the world can learn from whilst I drip blood upon the ground from a new and wrong way of getting something done.

So today, the blog gets cleaned up a little. Too many commas or too much whining, that gets snipped. The italicizing isn't doing very well, so the font for that has to get changed. The pictures are staying for the most part but they do hog a bit of bandwidth, so some of the big monsters are going away.

The Eye

.....is doing much better. I'm up to a month between appointments now. The doctor seems happy at the progress, and for my part, it's actually useful most days.

The Biz

....had it's first job and first pay and first receipt. It was a townhouse, a sibling of mine. It's better now. It's a little tighter, the doors work a little better, some paint, quite a bit of caulk. Adding electrical coverage to my insurance but that's so I can screw in light bulbs and clean out vent fans. Please use licensed electricians for messing with electrical systems. Not me.

My Townhouse

The back bath is finally getting back into gear. The waterlines are capped off. It's too much trouble to cut holes for valves in the floor of the cabinet and then have to patch it up after getting it in. I actually preserved the entire hookup for the kitchen sink, and wound up having to redo it all anyway.

Much easier to drill two 3/4" holes. Besides, the old valves were meant for compression fitting on copper lines and I have plastic. The cast marble sink met destiny with a two pound mini sledge. That was a good feeling. Forty Whacks, a la Lizzie Borden. Pictures, I promise.

The walls needed some spackle and paint after two years of general use including banging furniture against, migrating white-boards and nomadic fire extinguishers. Much better now.

The Great Presidential Horse Race

Finally, the polls that do count. It was getting old having herds of politicians wandering the countryside making promises and pestering the populace.

The Democratic race is pretty much defined, Clinton, Obama and Edwards in that order. Biden, Lieberman, and the others add some color to it but my money is on the front three to win, place , or show.

The Republicans have no clear leaders in front like the Democrats, so the primaries will actually help by thinning that herd out a bit. Still my impression is that Guilani and Romney are about even, McCain trailing. But no money on any of these guys yet, the field is just too crowded.

It will be nice as state by state, the people do their thing and weed out the no-hoper's, and we get to see who to make fun of for the next four years.

Things in General

Da Blog

So the counter isn't ....counting. One more shot at it, and it's gone. I'm going to mess with the heading as well. Also the colors aren't what I like. I'm thinking about Google Adsense but not really keen on advertising. If done, it would be a small presence.

Job Hunted?

Explored Apex and environs, was scoping out a drive in job before I drove in. I kept on driving by and then my phone rang. Drug test. Cool. Getting somewhere. Hopefully, employment. Not much coin but at least I'll have withholding. Also waiting on the business license, that should show up soon. Then to get the liability insurance. Part time business, see how it goes, if well, then full time business.

Scam

The Do Not Call list has got to be worthless. Yet another call. Job hunting is also getting kinda horrible. The sleaze balls and con artists have taken to posting jobs on the main search engines. At least on Craigslist, we can flag them, and I do flag them. If it ain't a job, don't bug me. A lot of it is people looking for door to door sales suckers. Ugh. Wouldn't be such an issue, but a lot of crap gets posted and a lot of "employers" are scraping the public resumes. Looking forward to taking mine private.

Poly-Ticks

Hillary still way ahead....Edwards still way behind. Obama in the middle. He's just too, well, perfect. Just doesn't seem to have enough warts. What is he hiding?

Republicans still have no clear front runner unless one counts Guilani, and that only because he raised a ton of money. Mitt Romney still in the news....not good for him, ever since he did the American Vacation thing with a dog in a carrier on top of a station wagon.

My Townhouse

The townhouse is in a state of arrested repair. It's waiting on more income. The back bath is going to need about six hundred dollars total. The chimney chase will probably take a thousand. The lower level floor needs rosin paper, flooring, and two back doors. Insulation as well. The whole thing needs repainting again. The one good thing about the whole mess, is that it can be done piece-meal, a hundred or so bucks at a time. The labor is free. Once done, it goes on the market, and I'm free. At least a year or so. No rush, real estate market still shaking out.

Book Reviews

Sean Williams, The Resurrected Man. Good read, usual sci fi future but written quite well.

Kevin J. Anderson is currently doing the Saga of the Seven Suns. Humans inadvertently start a war when turning gas giants into stars. Goes on from there. Good beach read and well worth borrowing from a library. Latest book in the series is Of Fire and Night.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I've read the book. I've listened to the radio series. I have both the BBC television series and the new movie on DVD. Each different but all well done. I even had his PC game, Starship Titanic. Doesn't work anymore, even my antediluvian W2000Pro is too modern for it, but when it did, it was pretty good. Still, if one gets bored of thumbing a ride among the stars, there is his series about Dirk Gently, a Holistic detective. Not only worthy of borrowing from the library but worthy of purchase from a bookstore, used of course.

Some light amid the dark

Poly (Many) Ticks (Bloodsuckers)

For the Democrats, Hillary still way out in front, Obama a near second, and Edwards is getting closer but still no cigar, cigarette, or pipe. The Republicans still have no clear front runner yet. Both parties extremely ticked with states moving primaries up early.

The Economy

The economy seems to be doing better because of the weak dollar. According to the Wall Street Journal (Best biz news ever), this summer we reached a new high in exports. Also, the weak dollar means less imports. Well, somewhat less. It's still hard to compete with someone working for a buck an hour or less. Yet another North Carolina furniture maker, Henredon, has thrown in the towel and is moving it's production offshore. The upscale guys are doing better though. Agricultural exports are up as well, as we had a decent growing season and some of the rest of the world did not. Combine that with a weak dollar and our farmers will get some coin too.

The subprime crisis is not as bad as I thought it would be. Houses will still need upkeep, and if people will be living in their domiciles longer, will want to keep replacing and upgrading fixtures and what-not. Also, the funky loans are no longer being made and the foreclosures will gradually work their way out of the pipeline. Some subprime loans may be replaced with regular loans as some buyers refinance, especially those who had good credit but got "taken". Housing prices are starting to go to a more realistic level. Some big builders and developers cut a hefty percentage and managed to move some product. My investments have recovered fully and are slowly increasing in value as we speak.

The war is pushing the economy by being four percent of GDP. It may not be much compared to other wars, but it gives us less margin and resiliency when yet another crisis happens. If the war can be scaled back or eventually ended, it could help make up for the other pressures, such a weak dollar, imported illegal labor, and higher energy costs. Homeland Security is helping a little bit by trying to crack down on illegals. Only problem is, is that they tend to slack off when public attention turns elsewhere. Still, illegal immigration is going to be a hot topic as long as the economy remains sour.

My own personal economy is hanging in there. My investments are up, the townhouse is still worth....something (well after the chimney gets fixed), and no health issues.I cut way back on spending and utilities, and managed to repair some equipment that would have had to be replaced...so happy.

I'm still on the fence about being a business but can get the license for very little and decide to activate later. Liability insurance is affordable as well. Benefits, less so. Health insurance companies only want young-healthy, not old-healthy, and charge accordingly. Yet another reason for single player, single payer like in Canada. Go Hillary! Might be the only reason why I'll vote for her, and that she is as mean as a junkyard dog. The biz doesn't go until it's all legal though....thats a given. No under the table for me. I still want to have a job as it simplifies bookkeeping and cuts out that pesky quarterly estimated income tax. Still, see what happens.

The Townhouse

I painted up three pieces of siding and gave one to my neighbor. The plan is to finish up the flashing on the chimney and just do some caulking and touch up.

Painted with Kilz primer, good for oil or water-base. Backprimed as well, something most builders don't do here.
Plan to stain that deck someday.... Olympic exterior paint, the good stuff. The color is called Sheffield Gray.

Yet another use for a Baja that Subaru never thought of.......

Mad Dogs and Englishmen and Us

Poly-Ticks

The Presidential Race has to be frustrating from a Republican point of view. A guy gets out in front and then self-destructs. Mitt Romney's transportation of a dog on top of his car was a good one. Couldn't help think of Chevy Chase and American Vacation. Sadly, there are few Wagonqueen Family Truckster extant in the world. One of the few cars that's actually uglier then my Baja. Guilani, the former mayor of New York., he has some baggage. He did do a good job during 9/11 and said all the right things.....but he did once tear down an apartment building and prevented any of the occupants from rescuing their pets, never mind their belongings. I have a large feline myself so no need to explain my feelings on that.

Democrats, it's the Hillary and Obama Channel, nothing but. See the occasional ambitious hopeful throwing caution to the winds, but it's a semi-foregone conclusion. They might as well hang it up.

I'm an independent with Libertarian leanings, so it means nada for us. The closest we ever got was H. Ross Perot who really screwed things up for Bush the Older by bugging out as he did. Though in hindsight, Old George, though excellent in international and business, was a whole lot clueless how we great unwashed were getting by on the streets.

Of course I live in North Carolina. One of our current Senators, is Republican Elizabeth Dole who seems to be as every bit worthless as the former Senator, aspiring Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards. Then there's the state gummint. Ugh. Talk about an "owned" system....it sure ain't the people.

House Banging

The Garage-House is going. The room has been mostly framed and wired. The solar hot water heater is mostly done, just needs the panels. We worked on Loblolly Pine stock yesterday and milled it into trim. If I can, some pics of the grain. It's rather pretty stuff. Nice strong pattern and color contrasts. It kinda interferes with job hunting though, since it is located just on the edge of a cell tower. Some days there is no reception at all. Also been a hundred degrees more often then not. It's really hard to think or work in that heat.

I really don't want to do this anymore, just too old. Back was unhappy with me after we furred up the old ceiling. I had to grab hold of a stud just to stand up after bending over. I heard somewhere that construction has the same physical stress as a professional athlete, more akin to football. No wonder there are few old active hammer-swingers.

The Cheap Bathrooms

Nada, nothing, zilch. I did seal up a few openings but no ambition. Just too tired.

That Investment Thing

My investments are coming back. What I hold is very solid and one of the things they did not do, was to hold subprime mortgage companies. I'm getting back to where I was. Figure par by next mid week. It was an exciting time in the market though. Most people held on though, those that sold were in the minority.

Job Hunting

Second interview last week. See what happens. One thing I don't do is hold my breath. Best to stay active in the search. Rule of thumb of internet job hunting is if no response by the first or second day, forget it. Sometimes HR departments can be less then speedy, so I'll keep what I applied to in a list. The "hot" file is less then a week, the "lukewarm" file is one to two weeks, the "soon to be deleted" file is over two weeks to a month.

Got to go to work. Life sucks. Especially in the sun.

Grouting, not Caulking.

Another Saturday to be spent at the green house. Another new body, J who seems like a decent guy, did nice work in grouting tile. Tile kitchen floor now wanted. At the time the house was framed, it was a vinyl floor that was wanted. So the house was framed for vinyl. Tile is heavier and requires a stiffer floor so it doesn't crack. Boss spent much time in the crawl space sistering up joists. Doesn't sound so hard until one realizes that there's already plumbing and electrical roughed in, and you have to work around it.

I'm running speaker wire, and just have a few feet to drop outside the inner porch wall for future speakers to be done. Had to be real careful since behind one of the places was a vent pipe and wiring. So I measured down from a vent and then did the same to the outside. On my drill, I put a mark that was the thickness of the siding, foam board, OSB sheathing and band joist. Worked out well. Missed everything I was supposed to. One of the waking nightmares of working on an almost finished house, is nailing or drilling or screwing through wires and plumbing.

The new immigration bill isn't even good, but it's all we are going to get. I disagree with the guest worker provision since we already have twelve million uninvited guests already. The H1B visa program expansion as well, since it's well known that Hi-tech companies are using that to get cheaper tech labor. Still, we do get a doubling of the border patrol force and a means of verifying legit people. In the long run, we can absorb twelve million people and their second generation, which is well extant, are Americans anyway. So you potential new citizens, if you work hard and are willing to play by the rules, come out of the shadows and join us. Always welcome.

Not working at the "brown" house. I have no time. My neighbor and I have to step flash my roof into his wall. Sunday perhaps I can borrow my ladder from my bro-in-law and scope it out. Arrgh, next time my house will be built by me with my own mistakes.

Soon time to cut the ties that bind, or striking off the last fetters of wage-slavery.......

I've been a punch-list guy for almost 2 months. The boss is neat, and my workload is huge, which makes me happy.

Spent most of the day tightening up the siding. It looks quite bit better. The siding after nailing the loose pieces, still looked not good at the front porch, so I did my usual nit-picky, perfectionist caulking of the pieces near the ceiling. Looks a whole lot better now. Oh yeah, stained my heart out. Second coat on doors. My own druthers, if something is going to be stained and finished, buy it that way. Just too much of a headache for production work.

My own place, the skirt board has been painted its finish coat of dark grey. Been trying to figure a way to get a 2 by 8 to double up the joist under the utility room without disturbing the gas pipe. That's so some of the decking can be replaced by the chimney. The coaxial cable is just going to be disconnected and coiled. There's a pile of joist hangers in my living room. It will be safer with them installed then under bare feet. Boss wants me to do part of the weekend, I think, and my house still needs another two full days of work to finish up the underside. The top of the chimney chase needs to be flashed and repaired.....otherwise, all that rebuilding and rot removal will be for naught. So my new ladder will need a stand-off to keep from crushing my new gutters. That will be next next weekend.

John McCain is in the race. It will be interesting. He's his own man and always has been, and he also has a temper. In short, he's more of a human creature then some of those plastic politicians. John Edwards, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Sam Brownback to name a few of the synthetic persuasion. Hillary Clinton is also non-plastic, as is Rudy Giuliani. It would be nice to have someone with a quick temper in office.

38 Minutes

In 38 minutes, I got to grab a shower and get to work. I'm a sub for now. Going to download both quarterly forms and send in the money. Need just a few more things, shop vac, and a decent tool pouch. I'm also going to build a portable tool bench slash work bench.

35 Minutes. If I decide to work for myself and decide I want to make ten bucks net, I need to charge about twenty. Five bucks for Uncle Sammy and Cousin State, Five bucks for the Insurance companies, and ten bucks for me. Or I could work for someone else, and they could do all that. Only problem is, that the economy is so soft, that I'd get about 9 bucks.

33 Minutes. The system if one wants to call it a system, is disadvantageous toward employing American workers. We cost too much. If I work for myself, I cost too much. Global economy can be a great thing if the playing field was level but the only open economy in the entire world is this one. There is no way anyone here could make a living wage and compete with someone in Vietnam or China doing the same thing for a buck an hour. In fact, the only jobs in the Ol' US of A with a hint of job security are the ones that require actual physical contact and/or communication.

27 Minutes. We also have a big problem with undocumented aliens. They work for cash and don't contribute tax wise. They take jobs from those who need it most, the lower middle class and blue collars. What we really need is a national identification scheme that can weed out those who don't belong here. Who even needs to go into the "Non, nod, and a wink." scheme that employers, especially construction industry types, use to hire illegals? Those guys need some serious fines and jail time.

21 Minutes. Get rid of the Green cards, and replace them with a provisional citizenship requirement, i.e., anyone who wants to work here has to show every intent of becoming a citizen. No more "guest" workers. Their welcome has been worn out for quite sometime.

17 Minutes. My boss is right. What we do need is a national ID tied into DNA and retina/fingerprint records. No ID, no work, no benefits, emergency services only, no collecting two hundred bucks and getting past go. Just a real fast ride to the nearest national border.

14 Minutes. A national language. English only is my suggestion. Or at the very least, English and Spanish Only, but then we would be like Canada which inflicts French on everyone in the place because of Quebec. I like Lowe's, really nice place to get what I need for my daily work, but everything is bilingual. This is America. English only.

11 Minutes. A residency requirement for non-citizens. In most countries, non-residents are required to register with the local law enforcement authorities. We need to do the same.

9 Minutes. Time to post and clean up the grammar.

Miscellaneous

Having already rendered unto Ceaser what I owed plus some extra, it's time for Ceaser to payback that no-interest loan. I spent most of the morning trying to get my Canon scanner to work, to save 40 cents for photo-copying the NC return. No joy what-so-ever. It was unloaded, reloaded, looked at the system, devices, and programs installer. Ah well. Went down to the library and spent the 40 cents anyway, then cruised on over and dropped the Ceaser-Take-My-Money form in a convenient mail slot.

My former neighbor across the way had me pick out and install cabinets.

More phishing from the job side. One was a real lame attempt to have me install a download. Bounced that off to Monster.com. Let them deal with it. Gratis, I included a WHOSIS of the phisher's URL. Ain't I a stinker? Two more Admin Assistant phishes as well. Past time to deactivate Careerbuilder and Monster. Don't need any more of this garbage.

More from the Presidential races. Hillary Clinton isn't looking good lately. Some news stories of how former supporters are looking over their shoulder as they are giving to Barack. She is very capable, but as warm and cuddly as a barbed fence in North Dakota on January the 30th. So far Barack has shown almost teflon-like political skill, not to mention the best web site of all them. He still has a way to go. He could trip over his feet too.

The two interviews went well. Hoping to hear back today and Monday. I'm going to keep the job search going active untill I'm on my first day of work though. Craiglist, here I come.

I was perusing some blogs of how people were getting themselves out debt, having done that myself. Still, one lady had three different types of potato chips on her emergency list. A rather expensive way of buying a potato.

Two more for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

This would be Rudy Giuliani, from the Republican side who was Mayor of New York during 9/11. He did a good job but he did do one thing during his administration before that. He had an apartment building torn down after a wall failed, and the renters lost everything, including their pets. I have a cat, same large fat neer-do-well beastie for the last nine years. Forget my vote if somehow, remotely, he makes it.

The second ambititious politician is from the Democratic side. Joe Biden, a senator from up north, Delaware, the home of sleazy banking and credit card companies. He's done a decent job for his constituents and kept the President more or less looking over his shoulder. His bug-a-boo, is that he inflated his resume rather badly during one of his earlier runs at the White House and did some plagerizing as well. Still, not a baaad choice, but very unlikely to make the final cut.

Frank Wolf used to be my congressman. His problem is that he would be much better suited for higher office but has shown much lack of ambition. Still, as a former constituent of his, I can only say that he looked out for us. He kept the EPA away untill we could fix our emission issues and not lose the road funding. My friend had problems with his disability but he fixed that as well. My current congressman is David Price who just seems to be a run of the mill politician who does very little for his people. If Frank moved down here, he would get my vote. If Frank ran for President, he would get my vote. Dave gets nada from me until he proves his qaulity.