Yearly Archives: 2009

Life, Money

Word is the Executive Staffing Group can’t make payroll.

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This morning I learned from a few readers, who are Executive Staffing Group employees, that the Clifton and Savage operation have issued some payroll checks that bounced.  Apparently they also issued a notice to all employees that all direct deposits would cease immediately.  So does this mean that ESG employees should only expect to receive bad checks?

If this is true it’s a bad situation.  The Department of Labor or Insurance could step in a shut down ESG but where does that leave ESG’s contracted employees or the ESG clients they’re working for.   At the time any possible connections between ESG and the Castleton Group were made by investigators all efforts should have been made to shut down ESG before anyone else got hurt.  I personally believe the only reason this was not done was pure greed and arrogance on the part of the Savages and Clifton.   It gives the appearance they wanted to try to maintain some level of prominence and lifestyle in the face of personal bankruptcies and investigations.  They will argue they were trying to keep people employed in a down economy.  But what service are you doing to keep people employed when you can’t pay them?

Life, Politics

Health Care Reform

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Health care reform is in the spotlight again.  No matter what  compromised bill comes out of Congress one thing is certain: As long as health care remains a for profit venture in America it will remain a broken system.  No corporation should measure profits or shareholder returns by wagering on, or attending to, peoples health and well being.  Anyone who disagrees is most certainly too barbaric and immoral at their core to recognize the heartlessness of their position.

Money, Politics

Still don’t think that banks and politicians are in bed?

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Then just look at this article about Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye and calls his office made to influence the distribution of TARP funds to a bank where most of his personal wealth is invested.  The bank did not qualify, at all, for TARP funds prior to his mysterious phone call.  If this continued rip-off by Congress and the banks is not annoying and obvious by now then I have no alternative than to think that most  American’s are dumb ass-hats who genuinely don’t care.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31675539/ns/politics-washington_post/

General, Life

If you drive drunk and hit and kill someone, RUN!

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Today Gavin Hawk was sentenced to 19 to 23 months in jail for (in all probability) driving home drunk from a Carolina Hurricanes game and hitting and killing Spyk Quick on I-440.  Most people think the sentence is light.  Legally Gavin did the smart thing even though what he did was morally reprehensible.

You see if Gavin had stayed at the scene drunk after hitting Spyk he would have been charged with murder or manslaughter.  Because he ran and hid for a few days while Raleigh detectives searched for him, Gavin will serve less than two years.   Prosecutors could not prove he was driving drunk even though he admits being on his way home from a Hurricanes game he conveniently attended with only his father.  And what do you know, from what I understand Dad says Gavin wasn’t drinking.  Ain’t that a shock.

Golf

Zebulon Country Club Course Review

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I played at the Zebulon Country Club this week.  Overall it’s a very good course as far as conditions go.  Among local courses I would rank the fairways and greens slightly above Lochmere and Wil-Mar.  It’s definitely way better than nearby Wendell Country Club (which is barely a golf course anymore). We were told the greens may be a mix of bent grass and Bermuda.  They were almost as good as the bent grass greens at Carolina Country Club.

It’s not a long course and has some easy to par 470 yard holes.  It’s got a couple of easy to birdie par 4’s if you’re even slightly better than me.   All-in-all it’s a course worth going back to many times, again based on the conditions.  But it does have one really bad problem on weekdays: lots of grumpy old men.  I mean, these old timers are straight evil and angry that anyone under 55 years old dare, yes dare, come on their course.  They play with no golf etiquette, none, zero.  They don’t finish out their putts from five or ten feet and then proclaim “ya, I scored a 74 today”.   Right, minus any putting at all.

Since they don’t putt out once they hit the green they’ll pick up their ball and tee off immediately while the group in front of them is still on the fairway.   One thing is for sure, these old coots won’t slow you down.  They’ll spray the ball to bejesus, usually on to another fairway, and then without warning or any dialog drive their carts straight onto a fairway someone else is playing to hit their shots.   We were playing fast (pars and bogeys) but one group behind us was so bad we let them play through since no etiquette, hurry up golf was their thing.  Only to have another Geritol gang come up behind us and almost hit us with a ball (literally) as we  finished putting.  I said something the the effect of “You need to slow down and chill”.  To which one old man replied “No, you need to move boy!”.   So I replied “No. I do not and will not”.  I know what they’re trying to do because I’ve seen it before.  It’s an ego trip for these old guys to be able to say they can play 18 holes in 2 1/2 hours or less, score be damned.  It happened a lot at Winton Country Club in Virginia where the average member age is probably 62.  Nothing makes them prouder than to have the “youngun’s” let them play through.  Somehow in their minds this equates to better golf.  Never mind taking the time to make shots that score low.

I’ve decided to try this course another day at a time later in the afternoon to see if the “Geritol Thugs” might be less of a distraction.   The first time I went to check the location and prices a really nice manager was offering some attractive membership rates.  Even with the wonderful turf this course has, if you’ve got to sacrifice playing a complete game to let angry old people who don’t really care about quality golf have their way, it’s not worth it.  The attitude of regular patrons can make or break a golf course.  I’ve played many, and these regulars are the absolute worst I have ever seen despite the sign coming into Zebulon that says “Home of Friendly People”.  Ya right, friendly people that think they own a golf course because it’s the only one they play four times a week.  I hope my next experience is better so I don’t have to leave these great turf conditions to the cranky old coots.

General

The ups and downs of side jobs.

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I may have just gotten my first side job using my newly acquired Fluke Optiview Series III Integrated Network Analyzer.  Running cable is nasty work but hey, it’s money.  This Fluke meter can test and certify Category 5e/6 and 6a (Gigabit) ethernet drops and LC, SC and MT-RJ fiber connections.   I have no intention of running fiber drops any time soon unless I come across someone willing to pay for the cost of materials.

The only up side is the extra money.  The down side is the time.  I already work 10 hours a day on occasion plus commute time.  I really love my kids and would like to get a chance to see them.  I don’t know that I’m doing this out of necessity but it sure won’t hurt.

The potential for side jobs to grow out of control always worries me because if I do ever start getting bigger jobs I’m going to have to go through the whole process of  getting a Federal Tax ID, filing quarterlies with the IRS, the major accounting stuff – oh joy.  I remember all this from the PC-Pickles days of the 90’s.  I also remember working 60 hours a week plus the accountability and liability that comes from being a small business owner.  I question if I ever want to go that far and quit my day job again.

For now I will settle for jobs of 48 copper drops or less at $59 each plus materials.  I can handle that overhead out of the gate working with one other person at about $15 to $20 an hour.   I’m starting small and might stay small.  We’ll see what happens.

General, Technology

I got kicked off Digg. What took so long?

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It’s about damn time.  If you want to go to a site where Obama is considered Jesus because Ron Paul has already secured the role of God then Digg is your site.  If you praise homosexuality and won’t dare mention what it really is (two men, in bed, having sex) then Digg has an account for you.  If you think the Toyota Prius is the future of transportation and all trucks and SUV’s should be impounded and crushed then Digg will make you smile.  And if you think that Microsoft completely sucks at everything and should be shut down by the government to make room for Apple and Ubuntu then you will receive great honors from the “Digg Community”.  Ya, they even went so far as to recognize themselves as a commune.

But be warned: should you digress from the completely liberal opinions on the site you may be “reported as offensive”.  You see, there is no room for your own thought outside of the liberal confines of the Digg moderators.  Don’t tell the truth.  Just throw out some witty frat-boy banter to make the college kids giggle to see them reply “OMGROFLOL!!!”.  But don’t be too witty.  It will come off as disingenuous and you will be marked for a frat boy rebuttal.  Speak too much truth and you’ll definitely be labeled a “troll”.

So remember, there’s no such thing as an “illegal immigrant”, green is always good, conservatives are always wrong and enjoy yourself on Digg.  And don’t forget to bring your latest Playstation 3, Xbox or Wii game review.  I’m not sure if they’ll let you in without something that important.

Money

Ready for a whole lot of nothing? Here comes “Healthcare Reform”.

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Reuters reported this morning “Obama has invited several large trade groups, including the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the American Hospital Association, to discuss wringing savings from the health system”.

And do you know what every one of these groups is discussing on their way to this meeting?   They’re each deriving ways they can come away from Washington and maintain or increase their profit levels.  All they care about is making sure that revenue stays the same or increases.  The AMA wants the health insurers to pay more, they will no doubt fall to the malpractice insurance argument.  The health insurers will argue that the hospital associations need to reduce operating expenses and the hospitals will want to pay less to Doctors and increase the payouts by insurers to cover their “operating expenses” (that’s code for shareholder return).

Capitalist, Socialist… whatever you want to call yourself, know this: As long as taking care of shareholders is the primary focus of these organizations the one thing that will not come up in the conversation as a point of concern is care for the sick, injured and dying.  Patient care and patient monetary expense is an afterthought in the Wall Street bureaucracy that is the American health care system.

So despite Obama’s nice little gesture only the most naive of the hopeful among us could possibly believe any meeting involving these organizations will evolve into less expensive or better care.  Wishful thinking without the guts to stand up to corporatism is nothing more than pandering to the whims of big business.  That’s what Obama is doing.  When it comes to health care in America you either stand on the side of corporate revenue or patient care.  There is no in between.  Patient care lost a long time ago.  You are a number in a process.  Stay healthy.   But even that concept once promoted by a few health insurers (wellness programs) were cut when they realized it costs money to promote wellness.  Some highly paid think tank ran the math and figured out it was cheaper to let people get sick and deny the claims.

Golf, Life

Trajedy of the week: THE GOLF CARTS BURNED UP.

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CartsAll of the golf carts at the Wendell Country Club (my weekend stomping ground) burned to ashes early this morning.  I am grief strucken beyond my ability to put into words and may need to seek professional help.  These carts were young, only a couple of years old.  Lightening is to blame so perhaps God is trying to tell me something about how I should spend the weekend (I will be working).  Why oh why was there no mercy for these poor, innocent golf carts?