Lazy days and lazy nights....

Ahhh..it is soooo good to be home. To not have to pick up and carry a lot of heavy stuff all day. Okay, so I had to move a fridge. And a futon. And a load of stock. Hey wait a minuit....grin!
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=BHC1821 here is a link to a collection of ship paintings. Just thought it would be interesting to see and do something different. I expect I'll publish more later, when I get back from the states with the new order. Rob did well at the new show for me....sold about 2 to three dollars per patron he did!

Wot a surprise!

The new show at the Royal Botanical Gardens actually happened. I couldn't believe it! I think they got 500 people on Saturday, and Sunday it rained....so I expect 300 or so. Lets see.....800 people....after taxes and RBG's cut, ten bucks a head. That would be 8000 bucks. Thirty five actors at 60 bucks a day. (or more...) The Tartan Terrors at $1300 bucks a day, The Limey Birds at $800 or more a day, Zoltan at a grand a day, (oh cummon Z....think you would even unpack a razor blade for less?) a dozen security guards, ticket takers, and a dozen kids picking up garbage. Nope....it'll have to do better than that! Here's a hint guys....drop the security guards...they don't do anything you couldn't do yourselves. Drop the actors to 20 or less! Get rid of the Morriss dancers...I know they are not doing it for nothing, and there are 25 of them at least!

Ah well....at least Rob was enjoying himself as owner of his own business.

Wildlife here on the site

Here is a very scared baby eagle....just learning to fly. His wings were just so tiny that he flew much like a chicken...that is, not at all. He looked fierce enough though when Bailey the dog got close to him!

Just a pile of wreckage

Here it is. Already to load into the container!

pix of the site

Sucess!

Its been a long hot summer....heat emergency after heat emergency. The only good part of this heat is that the wood is being put in the container dry, not wet. Lots of ants in this wood. I can just imagine what is going to happen if I don't unload the container in Ottawa quickly...I'll go into it and find a huge load of sawdust! I found a lot of the ant killer in the local Rona store, and used it liberally, as well as the ant hotels. Don't know that any of it will work, but, better than nothing. I may try and find a company in Ottawa which will come in and fumigate the thing...or else put a "roach bomb" in it and close the door.
I just hope I have not trapped a racoon in there somewhere. If I have, well, it will get pretty whiffy by the time I open the container in Metcalfe!
Chatted with Jon Angel. He bought three more booths just two weeks before the show got cancelled. He gave Brenda one of them, and yesterday I took an hour out to take down the beams. 12 foot six by sixes. Would not want to leave them behind. Brenda wants me to build her a second story deck with them, and Jon thought that was just so cute that he gave Brenda the booth. Me get to take it down...grunt grunt!!
The new Abingdon Faire looks to be stalled in the water....not a lot of stuff being built there. Oh well, it is supposed to be a "soft" faire, that is, a faire made up mostly of tents, so perhaps things are better than they look. I have asked for the insurance information to be faxed to me, but as usual, I seem to be overlooked. Oh well....won't be so bad if I can get in on a group insurance plan, better than the several hundred dollars insurance it would cost otherwise.
Rob L.... will be doing the show in my name, but he will essentially be doing it on his own hook. I dunno....if I were offered a chance to run a business, use somebody elses merchant credit accounts, and get the stock provided free...I would be a lot more keen on getting my own pst numbers and register my own business. As it is, he seems to have an "employee" mindset which is hard to shift. Of course, it IS summer, he has a nice bike and a hot girlfriend, and a business would cut into his free time A LOT! Running your own business sounds good until you try to do it, and try to get some free time at the same time. I would almost be willing to state that you cannot run a business and a family at the same time, though I have known people who have done so. Me....I have the best of both worlds. As long as I don't get too big too quick, I will have a lot of "me" time.
Chatted with Darryl last week. He dropped in to pick up some cheap wood, and worked all day in the heat. As a blacksmith, he is not unused to the heat, but even he found it hard to keep on slugging it out.
Well, enough of this....time I got to work

Saturday Activity

The place is really rockin today! This is the sound of demolition....the Thud Thud of heavy mallets and the "krick" of boards being pried off. The sound of a Renaissance Faire dying....
I got the roof off, and the rafters for the dormers came off, though not without a struggle. Mattie, Dave's son, was watching me the whole time, and every time a piece of wood would crash down, he would yell out "Oy Vey! Timber!" I like Mattie....
There is a crane truck on site, and Brenda is checking out his hourly rates. I didn't think I would need a crane truck, but I wonder if it would be useful. Might be better than using an engine hoist chain fall. Hard to say. Next week, the beams will be coming down. Today, I pried off the nice grey barn boards from the front of the building. It looks very bare now.
Mood......don't ask.....
Bill

Racoons, Blue Jays.

Pretty! impressive work by Paul, my truck driver. He slotted that container right onto the spot first time! Boy oh boy, is it ever big. Now, after two weeks of loading it with pieces of deck and rails, we are starting to wonder if it will be big enough. Oh well, its only a third full now, and the big beams are due to come down next week. Still a little scared of that project.
For those who are coming into this blog late...Brenda and I are taking apart my post and beam building in Milton. It has been up now for almost 8 years, and has provided a fine home for the local wasps, racoons, and chipmunks. This is a big job, and I'll try to get pictures up here in a week or so of the carnage. So far, nobody has been hurt...a good thing.
Dave E showed up day before yesterday, and we went to a Blue Jays game. Pretty neat, never been to a game before. St Louis Cardinals. A lovely stroll up Queen street, a bloody lousy veggie dog.
The roof is all off...the dormers are coming down today. I'm tired all ready, and have not even begun the day!

Late nights

So my friend Jim decided not to purhase that parcel of land beside me after all. I think he was talked out of it by this dip stick of a realestate agent who probably has a neat little piece of land in her listing book that she can actually MAKE a COMMISSION on! Oh well...not that it matters much. I'll re-list the property and make a sale at going rates, rather than at "friends"s rates. I resent the wasted time I spent down town at the registry office this week sorting out "severances" and "minor variances" and so forth. The work time has to be made up, and here I am, nine thirty in the evening, playing catch up on my jobs. That ticks me off. I also resent the fact that now I might get neighbours I can't stand instead of really good people like Jim and Catherine. And I resent paying eight dollars to a registry clerk to punch up my name in her computer, and give me a printout on the history. I mean, really....it was, like, 2 minutes! What a scam this all is!
Oh well, now I know more than the average bear about zonings, variances, right of ways, covenants, and easements. Nothing like doing a thing to become knowledgable in it. My head is still spinning from the sheer mass of things involved in making a parcel of land "clean" for sale. The cost of doing all this paperwork is under 5 thousand bucks...(is that good news?)
Brenda got most of the stock packed for the summer shows....who knows..there may be a Ren Faire, but a "soft sided" faire at some location around Milton. Or maybe not...have not heard boo about anything happening, so I will assume there wont' be one. Ahh well...at least there is the Star Trek convention...which still allows vendors to carry knives and swords.... so far. She is not looking forward to the summer....a last chance to visit with David E, and D'Arcy, maybe ever! So many good bys. Think I will make some wine. Might have time for it to work before we have to leave.
Rob wants to take over the business. I will do my best to set him up as an entrpreneur, but I dunno...you either have it or you don't. Rob might be able to do it...if he can keep from chasing the girls all summer! Trouble with running a business is that you rarely have time for a business AND a family in the first few years!
Well, enough of this...time to get back to work!

Trademarks and Tarrifs and Trouble

I remember when Walmart first showed up in Ottawa, and even before they put shovel into ground, they took on a little mom and pop operation for name copyright infringement. Wool-Mart had been in Ottawa longer than Wal-Mart had been in Canada, but that didnt matter to the lawyers. (an out of court settlement allowed Wool-Mart to change their name to Wool-Time) Then a few years later, Rockin' Johnny's restaurants are popping up all over Ottawa. A well established US company called Johnny Rockin' again took them to court,same reason, even though they were in a separate country, and no competition can possibly occur. Don't really know the results of that case, but the owner sold one restaurant in South Keys, but is still hangin in there on St Laurent blvd.
Now I see that the Supreme Court of Canada granted US toymaker Matel Inc permission to appeal rulings by the "Trademarks Opposition Board" (ever hear of that before?) that allowed a Canadian company to continue business as Barbie's BBQ Restaurant. This case is a little different though.....seems they really are blatantly ripping off Mattel, who registered Barbie and Barbie's marks many years ago for Doll related items, but neglected to register them for restaurant, and presumably clothing related items.
I am reminded of when KFC used to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. Until sometime in the late 80's when the state of Kentucky demanded huge licenceing fees for using their name...so they changed it to KFC. So why KFC Canada? Another lock step move from the parent company I suppose...
Ahh well...I remember when my friend D'Arcy came up from Texas and we drove all around the Milton Oakville area looking for the UPS depot. She said it looked so much like West Texas that it was uncanny! Same little strip malls, same big box stores, even the big traffic signs over the highway had a sort of universal look to them. She noted at the time that Ontario was looking more and more like just another midwest state every year. I wonder if that is all bad though....

Bike rides and bone heads....

Yesterday, I was driving back from Kingston on my V-Star, and observed most interesting passing behavior. The cement truck in front was blocking the view, and the fellow right behind him kept sliding out into the left lane from time to time to see if it was safe to pass. At one point, he slid left, and nearly collided with the fellow who was passing BOTH of them. They sorted themselves out....and booted forward to finish passing...but by now, they were on a double solid, and should have simply hung back. Sure enough, over the hill comes some poor sap. The buggers slid back into the right lane with less than half a second lee way. Good scare right? naah...the one who was behind is determined to pass. The one in front, feeling no doubt that he was going too slowly, sped up. So we got two fools booting up the Canadian Shield side by side at over 140 km/hr. The cement truck driver just grinned at me and waved me to pass when I gave him the universal "thumbs up thumbs down" signal because I couldn't see around him either.
And these are people who wouldn't risk eating a bit of cheese with mould on it!

power politics, office politics...

I was planning out my future career, and was reminded how seldom we get a chance in our lives to actually do that. Usually, people do what they gotta do from day to day, to make other people happy. There is usually a payoff in the long run, same as there is a payoff in taking the wife to the Ice Dance finals. (something which I detest so much that I have been known to pay people to stand in for me....)
Back when I was in the military, they would always be working at cross purposes. They said they wanted one thing, but always rewarded another. For instance, even back in basic training, they "said" they wanted super shiny shoes, super shiny floors and so forth, but they always rewarded conformity. If they really wanted the shiny floors, they would not have objected to the self shining floor waxes, and if they really wanted shiny shoes, they would not have objected to the lacquer. After a while, it became a bit of a game...."sure you SAY you want such and such, but you really want...what?" After I graduated, right on the grade point average....where I expected to be because of course I was too good too flunk out, but too independent to get top dog...my career followed much the same path.
I was on Bill's blog, and he posted a thing about office politics...some academic who had a theory that not all politics is bad...an excessive amount of verbiage to state the obvious that if it works FOR you, it is good, if it works AGAINST you, it is bad. So you should learn to make it work for you. Fine...in theory. I would like to meet an organization that didn't know that from the get go!
Office politics is okay when it works for you, but not okay when you don't get what you want. It is there regardless, so it pays to learn how to play the game.
It helps to write down your goals, put it on a paper under your blotter on your desk. The first question you ask whenever somebody comes up with an idea is "how will this aid the achievement of my goals". Second question..."If I support that fellow on his tangent, will it affect me and my goals in any way?"
Unfortunately, if they are brutally honest, most goals people would write down on that paper they slide under their blotter is "I want to get paid, get promoted, and look good to the boss, my wife, her brother and my employees." Fair enough...of course, nothing will get done as long as management rewards that goal.
As a boss myself, I would ride roughshod over the office politics, making myself thoroughly unpopular with most people, getting the job done better than anybody had ever done it, but getting no loyalty from the organization when something goes wrong. And it did...eventually something blew up in my face, and I was disiplined not for messing up, but for not picking up a problem my idiot underling did.
When did I become cynical? Well, maybe it was when a person I trained got promoted over me who had never done anything but organize office parties and file log books. He never fixed a problem, just worked in the front office handling the reports from the workers, filing them, collating them, being in front of the bosses all the time. We were aircraft technicians, and this joker got promoted without ever setting foot on an aircraft in his entire career.
All cynicism aside, it was very instructive for me and my group to observe this, and re-define our goals based on solid observation....sucking up to the bosses works....so if you want to get promoted, buy the knee pads, and start organizing parties. We did that, the aircrafts languished, eventually being retired because they were "too difficult to keep repaired", and we partied like there was no tomorrow. In retrospect, with the loss of the aircraft, we all lost our jobs as well, but hey, ya gotta do what works. At least we didn't end up in jail as the last person repairing the aircraft which crashes frequently tends to do.
I saw how to make the organization work (define your goals), how to make it fail (reward the wrong goals) and how to thrive in either mode. Not bad...

Power politics,

And they are not even Liberals! Some of my friends tried to play in the big leagues and buy the Ren Faire. Like fools, we trusted them, without considering that they didn't have any stake in the show at all, and now we find that they blew several really good chances to make the show happen on the same site. So I am looking at the loss of 80% of my income because some silly person couldn't get her own way and be a CEO!. Not that anybody who reads this really cares....but I just had to vent somewhere!
On a totally non related note, a good friend of mine called me, with jealousy issues. Seems that some five or seven years ago, I kissed his new girlfriend hello, she is now his wife and mother to his children, and he is still carrying this baggage...the kiss was just a little too passionate (he feels) for a hello kiss. It implied that we had had a fling, or something, and still had feelings for her. Even he saw how laughable it was...but there was no denying the existance of the baggage. I simply re-assured him that his wife was still very attractive, that I would love to make passes at her but that would disrespect her, and not incidently disrespect him. And of course, we did not have an actual "history". The last point was the most important to him I think. Its kind of nice to think that even and fat balding guy like me has to think about the jealous husband...what a nice compliment!
I am making my first anime armour. Normally I refuse to have anything to do with cartoon armours....but this one is for the guy's wedding, and may even work! I'll try to post a picture of it here when I finish it.
Time I got to work.

The collapse in slow motion

Today, I witness the collapse of any reasonable sort of government by the Liberal Party of Canada. Despite a frantic attempt to buy votes with our own money, they are spiraling inevitably down the drain. Stephen Harper is bound and determined to nail the lid onto the Liberal Coffin by forcing an election.....and Martin has simply told the world that he needs some time to finish the Gomery inquiry. He "could" order the inquiry to proceed regardless of an upcoming election, but clearly he is keeping the threat that if the government falls, we will NEVER know what went on during the great scandal. Yeah, like Harper wants the Gomery inquiry to falter now! Don't worry Paul Martin, its a LIBERAL scandal, and the tories are not going to let it go away!!! Besides, if Harper becomes PM, you betcha the first thing on his list is to re-convene the inquiry!
And also, we have some vague news that there will definitely not be a faire on the old site. Doesn't matter, rumours are flying....makes no difference to me....the buildings are coming down regardless.
I have a line on a company which sells forty foot containers. A nice trucker named Paul will drop off the container, and later on, will even pick it up off the ground and move it to Ottawa for us. Will cost a bundle, but hey....I am NOT going to let the vultures pick over that nice post and beam building I built!

Road Rage....risk and more.

Spent a week in Toronto. Yet again, I have been amazed at the courtesy of Toronto drivers. Maybe Darwin was right...all the stupid ones have died off. What they DONT do is let you dawdle along doing the speed limit without tail gating you. Some of the unsafe passing was a little un-nerving.
I was working out our future business with my wife now that the Ren Fest has closed, and we were wondering if we should put time or money into one of the alternative proposals. "I dunno" she said "I'm not sure I want to risk whatever we could mortage...twenty or thirty thousand or so... on a business venture. Just at that moment, a Passant passes up at 90 klicks on a double solid line. A little startled, I checked my dashboard...yup, its a 60 zone and I am already doing 70. "Hmmmm" said I, "that fellow who just passed us is risking at least that much in his nice new car, risking the rest of his life, and risking damage to any on-coming car which might be coming over the hill at us. And for a payoff? She looked at me....."so what is the connection?" "There are lots of people taking risk every day....huge risks, like that guy. Risk is part of life...no pain no gain....and of course risk can be evaluated. It helps if you don't think about it too closely." That guy is risking everything just for the hell of it.
My daddy used to tell me that you should never gamble more than you can afford to lose. He played crown and anchor, but never passed on a solid line. Like he said, don't gamble more than you are prepared to lose...and if you are going to do stupid things on the highway, or ride on "those" tires, or put off getting the new brake pads, you are not only gambling, but gambling stupidly because there is no payoff.
So what did we decide about our business venture....well for one thing, we decided that we had no control on the variables. We didn't own the show, didn't know how much the insurance would be, didn't know how much most of the expenses were. On the other hand, we had a fair idea of how much we could earn at the show. We have NO IDEA if earnings will exceed expenses. So investing in this show is like crossing on a double solid....we don't know what is coming over the hill at us. Obviously, most of these questions could be answered. For sure, we would earn SOMETHING....but will it be worth the losses?. The last question was...how much can we afford to lose on a gamble. JP Morgan once showed a broker the door when he said "well, this mining venture right here looks like a good gamble". Mr. Morgan replied..."I never gamble" and fired the broker. On the other hand...the broker went on to buy the mine, and made millions, and all his life regretted using the term "gambling" to describe a business venture. I think this venture is looking too much like a gamble.

This whole line of thought came to me when I read a story in the Winnipeg Sun about road rage,
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/05/09/1031641-sun.html
and it recalled to me our conversation as we were driving. This is kind of funny actually, though of course the results were a little tragic. Four seventeen year olds out for a drive, were in the drive through at MacDonalds, and for some stupid seventeen year old reason, threw candy at one of the other cars. The other car contained some "baaad dudes" who chased them down, trashed their car with a chain, beat them up and stole their wallets. A most interesting lesson in "consequences". They gambled and lost. They COULD have lost a lot more. Some would say, They weren't gambling at all, they were just being kids. Well, they participated in the high speed chase (that was a gamble that they could get away)....they provoked the conflict (gambling that what they did would have no consequences).....I think it was a pretty cheap lesson all in all.

Victoria Island and the Knights.....

Jean, Shane, me and a couple of our students showed up at Victoria Island for a film shoot....Lee Anne Kusak and the news at noon. Nice bit of filler....no editing! Got about 15 minutes of free publicity in the Ottawa region, so can't complain.
Nice day for it too! Sunny! Ottawa river in full flood behind us. It was great! Full armour, bashing away at Jean...it looked really good. I wore chain mail...and Jean wore his Samurai Suit.
This will likely be the first of many "news spots", as journalists pick up on the story. Could be the summer of "Demo's".
Well, enough of this...time to get out and get to work. Got classes to teach!



http://www.southtower.on.ca/LiveSteel.html

Separatists and Liberals at the same trough! My My!

Nothing like a great big bucket of money to bring people together! I see the ADSCAM hearings are proceeding just as predicted by the regulars in the "Logroller's Tavern" over on the Quebec side. It also explains why suddenly the Block Quebecquois has not been using ADSCAM as the hammer to beat on the Liberals lately! I wondered about that... One thing we can all agree on...politicians from Quebec are problematic...look at the last half dozen elected Prime Ministers!

Here is a little cut and paste just to give you a taste...grin!
This is from Greg Weston's column...I suggestd you read the whole thing here...
Greg is a helluva good writer....and one of the best in the business.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2005/04/06/984844-sun.html

ANTI-SEPARATISM CASH

The $250 million in sponsorships that the previous Liberal government pumped into Quebec was supposed to help fight the separatists after the near-miss referendum in 1995.

But another former Groupaction executive, Alain Renaud, said that while the firm was getting millions of dollars in federal sponsorship money, it was secretly cutting cheques to the separatist Parti Quebecois.

Renaud said that in one transaction, a total of about $90,000 was given to the PQ as part of Groupaction's getting a $4.5-million advertising contract for the Quebec liquor board, called the SAQ.

Groupaction apparently won the contract in a competition when a bagman for the Parti Quebecois had a meeting with the firm's top executives.

snip....

Renaud said Groupaction president Brault was personally involved in the tollgating deal. "I was there when he (Brault) was negotiating with the people of the PQ," he said.

Separatists and Liberals at the same trough! My My!

Nothing like a great big bucket of money to bring people together! I see the ADSCAM hearings are proceeding just as predicted by the regulars in the "Logroller's Tavern" over on the Quebec side. It also explains why suddenly the Block Quebecquois has not been using ADSCAM as the hammer to beat on the Liberals lately! I wondered about that... One thing we can all agree on...politicians from Quebec are problematic...look at the last half dozen elected Prime Ministers!

Here is a little cut and paste just to give you a taste...grin!
This is from Greg Weston's column...I suggestd you read the whole thing here...
Greg is a helluva good writer....and one of the best in the business.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2005/04/06/984844-sun.html

ANTI-SEPARATISM CASH

The $250 million in sponsorships that the previous Liberal government pumped into Quebec was supposed to help fight the separatists after the near-miss referendum in 1995.

But another former Groupaction executive, Alain Renaud, said that while the firm was getting millions of dollars in federal sponsorship money, it was secretly cutting cheques to the separatist Parti Quebecois.

Renaud said that in one transaction, a total of about $90,000 was given to the PQ as part of Groupaction's getting a $4.5-million advertising contract for the Quebec liquor board, called the SAQ.

Groupaction apparently won the contract in a competition when a bagman for the Parti Quebecois had a meeting with the firm's top executives.

snip....

Renaud said Groupaction president Brault was personally involved in the tollgating deal. "I was there when he (Brault) was negotiating with the people of the PQ," he said.

So this is baseball hmmmm?

Sports Commentary or Gay Porn?
Real quotes from the Louisville/Illinois game:


Williams is surprised by just how long Garcia is!
I think Pitino has to love what he sees right now by Garcia because he's taking Williams time and time again inside.
His teammate is pure energy when he comes in. He's so active!
Oh, he comes up short! That's got to be disappointing!
It's man to man now.
Garcia has to penetrate to make things happen. He's being much too passive.
He's wide open...oh, he gives it away way too easily.
He got a lot of good looks, but is just too passive for these boys.
Williams dominates now!
The final score is Illinois 72 to Louisville 57. I guess this isn't Kentucky's year. Well, at least the KY State Highway Patrol should be happy. I have to say, Illinois played a good game. I'll be rooting for them in the Championship. This is apparently a first in their history, so I hope they get it.

Hmmmm...things are worse than I suspected...

Well, the great Canadian Corruption scandal has hit the high point of interest...easily shifting the Pope and Terry whatsername off the front page. I wonder why...its not as if Liberal government corruption is particularly newsworthy! In fact....we are finally getting to the point where we have paid more for the investigation than the buggers stole from us in the first place!

Oh well...be that as it may...I think I will put a proper rant on my Rant blog....http://yusefsjournal2.blogspot.com/ .... right now, I am pretty mellow. Have not turned on Lowell Greene yet...[local Ottawa right wing radio personality]... he usually causes me to work harder and faster. Since my business is pretty much hammering metal this isn't such a bad thing.

Interesting phenomonon........(love that word...never know when to stop spelling it...grin!)...just when I was thinking I would get a week off...another armour order rolled in! As I said, interesting...these "just in time" orders play hell with my bank, but suit my personal life style just fine. My father used to say "God will provide", and lived his life pay checque to pay checque, I seem to be hiring my staff on the not unwarranted assumption that orders will arrive in time to give them work!

I built a power planishing hammer out of an old air chisel.....now I am doing huge panels, planishing them all over just because I can! Much easier on the old shoulder ball! There may be a deposit of calcium up there....or there may be a couple dozen micro tears...might put paid to my profession in a few years at this rate. I have pretty much decided to drop the money on an English Wheel. I was vaccilating between an english wheel and a planishing hammer...but any planishing I need doing, I think I can do with this hand held air hammer. Lots of vibration though...I may have to buy some shot gloves. (Now arn't we getting profesh--I--on--all!!!)

Regards from the Great White North. Well, not so white...it has been raining the last couple of days....the snow banks are all sort of sootty, and dingy. And they have all melted down to make solid ice speed bumps...kind of neat watching the cars pulling in for the church service next door, they go up and over the ice thinking it is snow, and "crunch", I get another rusty old muffler in my front yard! Har Har! I expect the last of the snow will be gone by next week. There are some big piles of snow at the edge of parking lots however which sometimes hang in there until June!