Tag: Fail

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I think I’ve been going about this all wrong… Story of my life!

What, you might ask?

Well, my answer would be pretty much everything!

It seems that I’ve been giving away my knowledge when I should have been charging for every single bit of useful information that I know.

I’ve confirmed this only recently, but have suspected it for a while now. I chose however to live in denial, comforting myself by believing that what I knew, or had to say was of little to no value.

How did I come to this epiphany? 

That’s a slightly interesting tale. I was looking at starting a podcast. In the course of that investigation I was led to the more important question of how do I monetize a podcast. After all, I’d like to earn some cash…

The easiest ways are to charge a subscription fee, or come up with some advertisers. Okay, that makes sense, but as always the devil is in the details. To monetize, you’ve apparently got to use some payment processor like Stripe, Venmo, or Square. Each of these folks take a % and often they add a flat fee too.

Some transaction processors will charge 2.9%+0.30 per credit card transaction. Wow! I should start a processing center!

If my math is correct that works out to about 0.33 per dollar. Meaning that if you charged a dollar for a subscription you’re only getting  0.67. By the way, that doesn’t account for normal taxation Federal and State which works out to about 30%. So in the end you, the person actually doing the work, end up with about 0.47 of every dollar you make.

But wait! There’s more! A podcast requires specialized hosting services, Figure around $20 a month, So before you’ve gotten your first subscription you’re already in the hole $240 just for a year of podcasting hosting services. It’s better to purchase a year than to pay month to month because that’s about 3% higher.

Some of the podcasting directories which typically are not hosting services may add even more fees. Apple for example might charge 30% if someone subscribes to your podcast via their podcast application. So that immense wealth of 0.47 you’ve made may get whittled down again to 0.17 of every dollar.

That depends on how Apple takes their 30%. I’m assuming they’re going to take it right off the top at 30% per dollar, because… They’re Apple! Then the payment processors may also take their fee on the original transaction amount and so on. I could see a scenario where the person doing to podcasting ends up losing money on subscriptions.

Amazing!

So all these podcasters absolutely have to come up with additional sources of income besides subscriptions and at the same time have to produce content that is entertaining enough that the listener count is pretty high for the podcast to be worth an advertisers time.

Don’t get me wrong, pennies add up, but as the pennies add up, so too do the taxes and fees.

I’m going to keep looking for a combination of systems that net the largest potential amount of $$ in my pocket. Now I know why some of the popular podcasts have commercials for something every 6 minutes.

This made me think, “How long have I been writing my blog?” All that time with no subscriptions, 13 -14 years? I should have been selling advertising space, and figuring a way to create more engagement. I thought it was a labor of love and that people would enjoy it on its own merit. Some have and to those loyal followers you have my profound thanks. 

I realize that Blogging, Podcasting, & Social Media engagement are all potential income streams. Now I begin to understand the difference between me & folks that have been doing these things for a while. They know or believe in their value. For them, engaging in these things are actually a business and they charge for their time one way or another.

I’ve never had that kind of faith in myself, or that what I brought to the table was worth a damn. To some degree, I think that is a function of a career in corporate America. After 20 or 30 years of shitty bosses, policies, and being ground under someone’s heel it’s tough to believe you have any value, especially when you’re thrown away on a whim in layoffs, or when you or your department are pawns between to executives settling old scores.

Corporate America’s mistreatment is not the only reason I never had faith in myself, but they sure helped cement my lack of faith in myself.

This year because of that lack of faith in myself,  I almost terminated my blog and my web hosting entirely. Part of my reasoning  was because instead of charging a reasonable fee for 3 years as they had done in years past the hosting service wanted almost $1000.00.

I’m not going to do that. I renewed for one year and am in the process of comparison shopping for a new web hosting service. The current company I’ve been using for years, maybe 13, has relocated their help services to the Philippines. They’ve made changes to the web control panels and their billing panels which have made the service far more difficult to use, and to top it all off, They’ve decided that I don’t need to see invoices or have the ability to look at past invoices.

So, the cost of my narcissism in terms of cash and annoyance to maintain has exceeded my ego’s ability to justify. That being said, I’ve got an organization that I’ve been providing hosting for, and moving my stuff and theirs would have been a Royal pain in the ass. So I’ll wait until they find a new host and someone to do their web site. I’ve got a year to plan and handle the move.

All of this kind of underscores the fundamental truth.

I have not been valuing myself. I’ve been giving away too much of myself in various forms, for free, for years.

Jerry had it all over me in that regard. He knew what to charge. He was often not charging the full price he could get, but at least he was charging more or less fairly for his services. To be fair, he’d charge more for weddings and he almost never discounted them.

He knew he was going to have to deal with a monster bride or worse, the bride’s mother! He really could take or leave a wedding. He once said that playing funerals was more satisfying because he wasn’t going to hear the deceased bitching & complaining, trying the wheedle a discount after services had been rendered, when it came time to write the check.

I saw him on multiple occasions tell a bride he was refunding the deposit because the whole wedding had become such a pain in his ass the price he was charging was insufficient. He hated outdoor weddings, especially those in the Palm Springs area. Oh, they paid pretty well, but often the bride would expect the musicians to be sitting with their instruments in the blazing sun and gusting wind blowing sheet music all over the place.

Hint to any soon to be brides… Put the musicians under an awning. Acoustic instruments don’t like sitting in scorching sun for hours. They tend to fall out of tune when heated. The musicians are also none too pleased to be sitting in formal attire usually black out in the desert sun. Jerry would say I know that it’s the Bride’s special day, but she doesn’t have to make it literally hell on earth for everyone else.

Jerry was on the verge of putting a clause in wedding contracts that charged for broken harp strings incurred at an outdoor wedding. One of the last Palm Springs weddings he played, due to the heat, humidity, and lack of awning or any shade he broke 9 strings on the big harp.

In addition to him having to remap the music in his head avoiding the notes that he couldn’t play with broken strings, while he was playing, the cost of replacement strings almost wiped out the fee he charged for the wedding.

I wish I’d had more confidence in myself. I could have learned a lot more about putting myself “out there” from Jerry. I tried to handle all the technical stuff and let him be a Musician. Now that he’s gone, I’ve got a lot of technology laying around and I’m wondering if I should sell it, or do I have enough of value to say, that putting the tech to work could turn into a profitable enterprise?

I put together a prototype podcast episode just to see if I could. I liked the result, and the one person I’ve shared it with liked the effort as a first step.

That same person has floated the question of having fun in a podcast in the flavor of the old Mystery Science Theater TV show. That show hearkened back to earlier SciFi shows on Friday Nights or Saturday Afternoons. One of the most famous was “Elvira Mistress of the Dark”

Depending on subject matter, that could be fun to do and perhaps entertaining to listen to.

I’ve got a leg up because I already own the audio tech, so if I push forward into podcasting, the investment would be pretty close to zero. Although the technology for producing voice tracks has become dirt simple and cheap. A lot of the audio gear I have laying around may be overkill now.

There are USB mics that have a shit ton of intelligence built in. If you add some decent audio processing software, it’s as simple as just having a computer, one of these mics and you’re going to produce high quality results by default.

Some of the podcasting hosts have the recording software on the server side of the equation. That means that your computer doesn’t have to be terribly powerful, all it has to be able to do is get the audio stream to the hosting server. Then all the processing is done there. Thinking about that, I suppose you could do a podcast from a dang phone with zero investment in equipment at all.

Jerry and I had been looking into “Smart” Mics. During COVID Jerry was doing a ton of Zoom sessions. He was using a borrowed USB mic to capture the harp music. Eventually, he started using the USB mic all the time because it did a fine job and could be powered by his iPad and / or his computer.

There’s one of those kinds of mics that I’ve considered. I was thinking more toward working from home and knowing that I’d have to deal with conference calls. This particular mic also works on video game consoles. Those were my original use cases. But if I were to find a suitable podcast host, subject matter, and start podcasting too. It might be a win all around.

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If you ignore it, It keeps getting worse.

When you see those less fortunate than yourself, perhaps living rough, you think, “They’ve had a rough enough go of things I’ll leave them be.” 

Out of kindness you might make sure that these folks have water, or food. Or you choose not to call the police to have them move on. These days in California, calling the police is a useless exercise if these folks are on public land, or even in your home or vacation home. Turns out squatters have more rights than owners.

I could probably wax politically about this state of affairs. I’ll sum up by saying, Squatters have more rights than property owners because the State doesn’t want private ownership of houses or land. If ownership of houses or property confers no advantage, then people will forego the horrendous expense of home ownership and rent or squat because it’s the fiscally logical thing to do.

Remember Klaus Schwab famously said, “You will own nothing and be happy”

It looks like laws may have been enacted, which bit by bit are moving us toward that supposed utopian end point.

I always ask utopian for who? 

What Schwab is saying essentially is, “The underclasses, will own nothing and be happy with the largess of the Elites who allow them to live as long as their numbers are few and their usefulness is moderate.” In Schwab’s version of utopia the elites are wealthy and own everything, possibly even large swaths of people living as something akin to serfs. 

This has been explored in countless dystopian books and movies. Elysium and Altered Carbon for example. Altered Carbon is a bit more layered about it.

I choose these two works because the dystopian societies explored are not the result of nuclear war. Instead, the society is the result of technological innovation coupled with unbridled greed, and laws which failed to keep up with technological innovation. You might be able to include Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 in my list as well.

There are countless other books, short stories, and movies exploring ‘what if’ scenarios from a cultural standpoint, so my list above is by no means exhaustive.

I digress a bit. I was considering all of this over the past 2 weeks for a number of reasons. One reason has been that the squatter issue is increasingly in my face.

First, it was just a little trash left behind by snow players. A few brightly colored bits of plastic from broken sleds.

Had the snow players been sledding in a designated ares instead of the rocky areas where they were, their sled would have lasted longer.

The Winter always brings this kind of trash, and includes water bottles, dirty diapers, food containers and food waste which can endanger the neighborhoods by attracting large predators.

The Snowplayers have zero concern for any of that. They tend to treat the homeowners here in the mountains as though we’re employees at Disneyland, as if we exist to serve their needs.

They’re here to have fun and we, the residents are supposed to shut up, keep the roads and our driveways clear so they can park, provide bathrooms for them, and allow their children to play in our yards.

Second, was a sleeping bag, blanket and pillow. These items kept moving around indicating that they were being used by someone. Recently, the wind carried these items into the wash bed. At that point they were collected and put in a pile for trash pickup.

Third, was a campsite that lasted a couple of days which was built on an abandoned trailer that has been along my walking path for years. Under the trailer the person or persons stored mats and a few items presumably with the intent to come back for them. Oddly, there was also a rather expensive looking telescope mount left behind as well.

Fourth, Jesse noticed a crack pipe off the access road to the wash, When I called him away from it two stoned out people jumped out of the bushes to protect their pipe.

Neither Jesse or I appreciated being surprised like this and to his credit he remained between me and what he perceived as a threat.

When we returned from our walk the pipe and the people were gone. The next day we found more detritus where we had encountered the druggies.

Fifth, it appears that someone decided to use the wash access road as a dumping spot for difficult to dispose of items. At this point I think it was a single person emptying the bed of their truck.

In this case they left a can of paint. It’s been reported to the flood control folks since they’re supposed to police the lands they’re responsible for. They have a camera on a pole to watch the wash during storms. Perhaps they need to improve the camera so that license plates or photos of perpetrators can be turned over to police.

Sixth, we get to the full encampment. Which popped up and was then abandoned.

This left behind a ton of trash all of which will have to be packed out of the area if the locals clean up the mess. Although again, this is adjacent to the flood control access road and the flood control folks could pull right up with a pickup truck (since they have the keys to the gates,) and easily load the trash.

Seeing the images of colleges & universities across the nation after the pro-terrorism encampments, and the aftermath when the encampments were removed. Then recalling the CHAZ bullshit in Seattle during the “Sumer of mostly peaceful protests,” while encountering the trash left behind by people, on my daily walks.

I noticed a lot of similarity between the two.

I’ve been annoyed more than once in the Winters when people pile out of their Tesla exuding an air of smug self righteousness, claiming their “RIGHT” (which they don’t have,) to play in the snow on private property.

I’ve heard stupid things like “You can’t own the land”, and “We’re just going to be here a few minutes…” as they set up a hibachi grill and light charcoal.

These people have no limits, no shame, and no courtesy. Some of them upon seeing how their batteries have discharged in the 20° F temps get upset to find the nearest charging station is 30 miles away. Then you’re told somehow you’ve failed them because you don’t have a compatible socket for their car and that you should because you have solar panels on the roof. Apparently they think you’re  supposed to give them power for free.

All of that is annoying enough. Then there’s all that they leave behind. The detritus of humanity, the 21st century petroglyphs on any available rock, the cartons, wrappers, boxes, and plastic containers.

Somehow these folks have rationalized their entitled-ness and justify it with virtue signaling, instead of real actions. Their entitled behavior continues even when they’ve been forced into the “lower rungs of society”. 

We’ve had the occasional squatter here in town. But never to this extent and certainly not the numbers along the 1.5 mile stretch of access road next to the wash. The squatters/campers of the past at least did a decent job of cleaning up after themselves. They might have been living rough but they didn’t live like animals who shit in their own nests. 

In years past you’d see a trash bag suddenly appear next to your trash cans on trash pickup day. It was the trash from a squatter/homeless person’s campsite. Back then, we’d look the other way because at least the person or persons had respect for the forest. 

These people today have no clue how to camp. They definitely don’t know they’re supposed to pack out the trash they generate, and they’re filthy. Not necessarily in their person but they camp, trash their campsite, and move to the next clean place, repeating the process.

As I walk and encounter these things I ask myself, “Is this where we’re heading?” 

We all know that the economy is bad, regardless of the LIES being told from podiums in Washington D.C. or elsewhere along the reelection trail.

Will the economy being this bad result in more squatters and camps such as I’ve seen in the past 2 or 3 weeks?

What I’ve seen is only on one side of the wash. Jesse likes to walk the other side of the wash and when there’s no water flowing we’ll make a loop crossing at a high point in the national forest then walking down and back up. Right now we’d have to walk a “U” because I don’t want him to play in the muddy water flowing in the wash.

On the other side of the wash after about 1/4 of a mile, there’s National Forest land. There’s also plenty of flat ground that would be good for camping. My concern is that folks might start cooking over open fires. The evening winds coming up the canyon could spread a campfires’ embers quickly into dry brush.

Since I recently saw a video of a young man testing the fire retardant qualities of his clothing while he was wearing said garments in his bedroom.

I have real concerns that some dumb ass will burn the forest down and perhaps the town with it.

In all honesty, I think that perhaps fire is a technology that is beyond some people these days.

All of this contemplation has led me to this inescapable conclusion. I cannot look the other way. I’ve got to report all that I see to proper authorities for the safety and security of the town and my neighbors.

I feel bad that there are people who are having a rough time. But folks trashing the forest, or squatting wherever they can, if tolerated will become the “Norm”. 

That seems to be a universal truth. If you ignore unacceptable behavior, not only does the first unacceptable behavior become normal, but additional worse behaviors will occur. 

God Help me! I’m going to have become a “Karen”

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I saw this headline on Breitbat and blew coffee out my nose.

“Report: January 6 Committee Democrats Say They Fear Trump Will Put Them in Jail”

january-6-committee1.jpgApparently the Select Committee Members are making the rounds on the chat shows, (formerly known as news shows,) saying they’re scared of Trump.

I thought, “Yeah it’s all fun and games until you realize Louis & Marie have seriously pissed the peasants off.”

The members of the committee never once thought about what happened if the worm were to turn.

They thought that they’d ushered in a golden age of communist style democracy and they’d never have to worry about filthy Republicans taking the majority, or Presidency again. After what happened in 2020 & 2022, who could blame them?

In plain sight they wiped their asses with Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States & expected to be able to maintain their elitism.

These people shouldn’t be afraid of Trump, He may be many things, but thus far he appears to be interested in obeying the law. He might request that they be investigated for wrongdoing while on the Select Committee. But I don’t think He’ll persecute them without cause.

I’ll admit, I’d pay to see these people dragged from their homes at 4am in shackles and loaded into paddy wagons. I’d buy an album of them whining and crying in general population holding cells waiting for bail.

GettyImages 1402029752 1 640x480.These morons should be terrified of the American People whose faith and trust they’ve violated.

Especially since recent testimony from the National Guard disputes the Committees narrative. Other testimony and previously suppressed video also disputes the Committees assertion of extreme violence, armed insurrection, and myriad other so called “Findings”. In other words, it looks like the January 6th Select Committee hearing was exactly what it appeared to be;

A show, a sham, a kangaroo court, a carefully orchestrated lie, a professional spin job. In short, something that would make Joseph Goebbels proud.

At minimum I suspect that many of these cockroaches will lose their seats in the next election. They might get some slap on the wrists for 500 counts of constitutional violation of individuals rights.

I personally suspect that there is criminality throughout all of their offices, in the form of kickbacks, payoffs, and misappropriated funds. I eagerly hope for, and look forward, to their trials, though I doubt I’ll ever see that day.

I’d love to see them tried with the same rules and manipulation of evidence as they used during the Jan 6th hearings. That would amuse me to no end.

I’m incensed that there are some of the Jan 6th detainees who have yet to appear before a judge, on in fact have legal counsel. Yet they’re sitting in a prison cell.

They’ve been denied due process, imprisoned without trial. (Which seriously pisses me personally off,) It’s certainly  a violation of the “swift and speed trail” clause.

The American People have seen this and many have come to understand this is a miscarriage of justice.

They’ve also come to understand that these same statutes and violations of constitutional rights could come to them if they do something the elects take offense over.

Remember, Democrat cockroaches imprisoned a man over a meme. These are the people who had surfers, surfing alone arrested, (thereby exposing the arresting officers and the surfer to whoever had cooties.)

These people claim the right to bodily autonomy in the case of abortion, while attempting to make rules with the power of law to violate the bodily autonomy of every citizen, with an experimental vaccine injection.

They are the ones behind what is being done to Trump, to his friends, employees, and his businesses. Thankfully the law fare  is being perceived by some of the American People as what it is…

Lady Justice being bent over the railing of the jury box, beaten, gang raped, and beaten again. All the while they’re telling us what a just, humane, and efficient legal system we have.

These are the same people who are essentially funding the Iranian side of the Israel / Palestinian conflict. They’re standing there surprised that the Middle East has blown up. They pay lip service to supporting Israel, while calling for cease fires and sending supplies to Palestinians in Gaza. They know these supplies are being used not by people on the brink of starvation, but are being stolen and hoarded by Hamas fighters. Essentially, we’re supporting Hamas in their fight against Israel.

Those in power don’t like Trump and they’re pulling out all the stops, to use the full power of the government to destroy one man.

E324d4b6 0527 436a a9a7 aae21093f5ff DESK.00_00_17_13.Still009.As Trump has said, “They’re not really after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.”

It certainly appears to be the case. Even though I don’t believe Trump has any standing to start waxing his cross!

At least 1/2 of the country is watching and listening.

The other half, is laughing and celebrating because they don’t understand what’s happening. They see only a man they hate being torn apart, like enemies of the Roman Empire thrown to lions in the colosseum.

These blue haired progressive liberals who have thrown their lot in with ANTIFA, BLM, Pro Abortion, and God knows what other groups, (except they’re all the same group, just with different branches & names,) completely fail to see that their “utopia” is a fantasy.

Even in the face of rising serious crime, increasing assaults, and petty theft, they’re blind to the consequences, believing each incident is an aberration.

When these blue hairs report, or try to report their purse was stolen, or their car broken into they find that the police can’t do shit about it.

Suddenly they’re upset that the police are understaffed. Very few of them being mugged by reality, connect the dots and decide police are a good thing and that their fellow humans aren’t as altruistic as their utopian fantasy world would require.

Meanwhile, the other 1/2 of the country is observing all of this with growing concern. Honestly, if they’re anything like me, they’re seething mad.

In another “In your face,” move, the Elites invited a flood of illegal aliens into the county then gave them better food, housing, and medical care, than our citizens including our Veterans, and our own ever growing homeless population. The increasing homelessness is   directly due to the Elites policies beginning in 2020.

20110709 d0387.In a typical Elitist Democrat party move, they’ve sought to muddy the waters about the homeless by introducing a new term. “Unhoused”. At first this seems like a nicer euphemism but it allows obfuscation of the totality of the problem.

They’ll maintain the Homeless numbers and then add a column for Unhoused. It’s about hiding the problem and how fast the problem is growing. With two columns, they can hide the real story by moving numbers from one column to the other. This introduces the possibility of error and provides a convenient “out” if someone asks the wrong question.

They lied to us about illegal aliens, telling us the border was secure, they told us what we saw at the Southern Border wasn’t happening. When they couldn’t sell that lie anymore they admitted there is a problem and promise to do something about it.

Neglecting of course, to mention that the problem is one they created and that the only reason they’re willing to take action now is because it’s an election year.

Remember these are the same people saying no-one is above the law, while at the same time thwarting the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas.

An impeachment, by the way which had much greater evidence than any of Trump’s impeachments.

But the Mayorkas impeachment would have led inevitably to the White House. So in another stunning display of duplicity the Senate made the impeachment go away. Typical! And all too common in congress and Washington D.C. these days.

These elites hired, or are hiring 87,000 more armed IRS agents. For what? There aren’t 87,000 millionaires or billionaires in this country. We’re told these additional agents are to collect taxes from wealthy people who aren’t paying their fair share.

YET, we haven’t seen the Biden Family paying their fair share and IRS agents have testified to that suspicion  before Congress. We have to call it suspicion because none of the Bidens have been tried and found guilty of anything.

The American People know beyond a shadow of a doubt these IRS agents are targeted squarely at them. Specifically any American Citizen who speaks out against the elites. Anyone who speaks truth to power.

These agents are about intimidation and threat of force from our own government towards its people. But the Illegal Aliens will suffer no consequences. Why? Because they have zero documentation. Our government can’t even tell us exactly how many people are here, so how the hell could the IRS make sure those people are paying their fair share of taxes?

Maxresdefault 702789555.You don’t have to be a history scholar to recognize this pattern. This is how you get to communist dictatorships, or maybe a form of government that looks exactly like the government these elites see embodied in Putin’s Russia.

They say they’re terrified of that outcome but keep greasing the skids right toward it.  Putin himself has said he likes Joe Biden in office. Why wouldn’t he? Over the past four years Putin has been virtually unconstrained.

Which begs the question, “Are the Elites in power colluding with Russia to compromise elections?”

Inquiring minds want to know.

Why wouldn’t we? Time and again, we find evidence that these “leaders” have accused others of what they in fact were doing. Which is straight from the Alinsky playbook.

Mind you, I try to ignore this shit, yet here I am. Sitting dumbfounded and enraged at a government that is obviously compromised.

The Jan 6th Select Committee should be afraid, very afraid.

They’re the faces of corruption the American People can identify. They’re the ones whom the People will want to see humiliated and punished most severely.

God help them if their actions have crossed the legal threshold defining Treason. I don’t know if violation of their Oath of Office rises to that level but I sincerely think it should.

If this is an example of “Adults” being in charge… perhaps we should just say fuck it, and go to governance modeled on “The Lord of The Flies”, or for a more contemporary reference “Mad Max”

Vote like your life depends on it folks. It sure looks like it Does!