DanceBombing?

I guess it's sort of a video analogue to *photobombing*.

From Hooters Family Restaurant

Actually my precious daughter is messing around with hula hoops these days...

But this video is *giving me pause*!

How To Outsource on Odesk

My wife nearly died laughing when I read that applicant's self-description to her the other day.

Must be a *Google Translate* situation...

As I mentioned previously, I'm experimenting with outsourcing the creation of some info-products to the Third World.

My first attempt(s) were, well, horrible.

Without rehashing them directly, here's what I learned:

• Don't work with anyone who doesn't respond RIGHT AWAY.
• Give PRECISE, easy-to-do tasks only.
• Don't offer to pay anyone on an hourly basis - not at first anyway.  Pay on a per-task basis only.
• Use Dropbox (or Google Drive) to monitor their work.
• Fire anyone the instant you get a bad vibe.
• Have a sample of work that applicants can do to demonstrate competence before hiring.
• And, so far, I would say,....HIRE WOMEN only.

Right now my first female hire (a Filipino) is finishing up making 100 math worksheets similar to the one above...

And I'm only paying her $18, total.

Guess what....I think I could have done it even cheaper too.

Heaping Burning Coals On The Angry

Don't let the funny pic throw your off....this a post about something I usually steer away from on this here blog, *politics*.

But LeagueIslander just sent me this article - The Power of Cool - which eloquently captures the hypocrisy of our pagan-socialist elite.

If you were already *angry*, that article isn't going to calm you down....I don't think.

Say What?

So they *stabilized* the stock....even though it went down faster than a Jersey girl on prom night...

Oops, sorry.

And somehow they stabilized without buying the stock - BECAUSE that form of stabilization would surely have resulted in monetary losses, sizable ones at that.

I don't know. It's a stupid article that can't possibly be true in any way shape of form.

Just about everything, and I mean 99.7% of what Big Media spits out is pure BS if not outright falsehood. They just manipulate Morons with sensational headlines and by pushing emotional hot-buttons.

Unless the overall market rallies yet again....I could see this stock at $16, easily by Christmas.

Lawyers Ruling Spineless Morons

Would y'all believe me if I told you that our town's baseball league has decreed that all players (age 7) have to wear a *heart-guard*???

Not just catchers or pitchers, but everyone.

This is flat-out ridiculous!

They also say that all the boys need to wear cups. Whatever. I can guarantee you that the cups would CAUSE more injuries, by a factor of 100, than they would prevent.

A few years ago I blogged on kids in San Diego having to wear helmets(!) while they play soccer...

But I think the heart-guards top that in terms of insanity.

See also - Over-Protection Run Amok.

Real Estate, Bottomless Cheapness?

My buddy who traffics in Naples real estate just sent me this listing.

Only 80k for 1,000 square foot condo in the development we stayed in January 2009!!!

It's a pretty good location; very, very close to Vanderbilt Beach and major roads; in northern Naples so close to the airport; there's a pool; etc.

It's also a bank sale so buyers won't have to pay any back taxes, utilities, or HOA fees.

It sold for a ridiculous $255,000 back in September 2006.

At this price I could ALMOST justify buying because the annual upkeep wouldn't be much more than only two months of snowbirding (5-6k).

Almost. I'm going to keep waiting. I'd rather buy when rates are higher, regardless of the market price - and after the stock market crashes.

(Note this place also sold in 1988 for 67k. Of course back then gas was $1 per gallon and America wasn't $16 trillion in debt.)

Baby-Proofing?

It's come to my attention that people afflicted with NFPS (New F*cking Parent Syndrome) actually PAY contractors to *babyproof* their houses!

It's not cheap either, in NYC anyway.

I believe that's called MJP ("Moron Justice Pricing")...

How brutal is it to be around NFPs in general?!

My wife says the only remedy is for them to *have another baby*.

It doesn't cure anything but it at least takes some of the edge off.

Breaking Out, Finally?

After holding out for a high price and precisely the work I want....it seems that I've finally landed some work teaching math here on Long Island.

Instead of poor-performing rich kids, I'm getting hard-working, ambitious Asians!

It's a summer enrichment program on *competitive math*, the stuff I used to dominate some 20+ years ago.

I'm pretty excited, as is my wife who's presently figuring out how many more weekly hours of work I'd need for her to be able to quit her inhumane Wall Street job!

And let me tell you....these kids are pretty darn smart. At an open house for this *school* yesterday I already met a few who had 800s on their math SATs. They were 13-14 years old.

I also have a potential opportunity brewing at another place nearby, one closer to Queens, and a WHOLE LOT MORE ASIAN KIDS.

I'm extremely confident that I can quickly build up a reputation as THE go-to math instructor around here. And with that would come steep *rate increases* and even the possibility to open up my own shop.

Furthermore, I will be creating my own math curricula for all this teaching that I will then re-package and sell as an info-product via HomeschoolDad. Passive income!

Career re-invention is never easy and definitely takes some time. But this was my plan all along, to set up a tutoring business here in the ultra-wealthy NYC suburbs. Although originally I thought and said that it would be a hedge against not being able to make money with my website. Now it seems they can complement each other nicely.

New York City may be a tough place to live....but it's also a fount of opportunity for hard-working, competent Earthlings.

And this is precisely why we moved here 2 years ago.

Taxing School Slaves, And The Rest Of Us!

What's that?

Well I was one of the scant *No* votes this past week.

I voted AGAINST raising the town's school budget a mere *1.7%* or whatever it was sold as.

I figured that the existing $83 million allocation was plenty of money ($26,000 per student!!!)....and they didn't REALLY NEED $85 million, annually!

It's the same $hit in all these wealthy towns.

They run around telling all these gullible parents that their kids will "fall behind" if taxes aren't raised to pay for football, gifted programs, driver's ed, college guidance departments(!), special education, for low student:teacher ratios, etc.

But really it's just to keep paying lavish pensions...

What kills me is that even people who fancy themselves smart/educated are so easily manipulated. It's only the wise 'old coots' who show up and vote against these annual tax hikes, and only some of them. The really wealthy ones here don't even care to vote.

I can get a little confrontational about this stuff, but what's the point, really?

I usually just mock these Morons by yelling at them that *education has NOTHING to do with money* and that they are fools for thinking so.

I heard a great quote the other day, "Education is a process, not an institution."

Indeed.

Bear Market Rally, Over?

It's hard to believe that these bankrupt, over-valued stocks have managed to rally for 4 EFFIN' YEARS...

Whatever.

It's going to the toilet where it belongs, price-wise.

How do I know?

Because I'm no longer short, not beyond a negligible position anyway. And I have no stomach for more puts on the banks and REITs.

I myself have moved on to my tutoring and educational website endeavor. In fact I'm all in on them these days and that explains the diminished blog output.

Let me just tell y'all, that the New York economy has lost steam and is about to nosedive. All it will take is another 1,000 points off the Dow....even if it doesn't come for several more months.

And I'm not exagerrating when I say that Wall Street has never been booming like this. It's been a four year skim-fest for stock, commodity, and bond *asset managers*. Almost everyone I know in finance is still cleaning up. So we have a long, long way to fall yet. All good things do come to an end...

Get flat at least.

Elizabeth Warren....Really Is Red!

Now I have to admit I HAD NO IDEA who this woman is until the other day. And even up to this morning I had mistakenly thought she was an Obama appointee or something rather than a Massachusetts (my birthplace!) candidate for Senate.

Whatever. Y'all should strive for my advanced level of selective ignorance!

Her argument can be made, of course, ad infinitum. Agitators like can her always demand that *the rich* continue to pay more in taxes because they allegedly made their money on the back of government services....right down to the point where they have to hand-over EVERY SINGLE, RAPIDLY-DEPRECIATING DOLLAR THEY EARN.

Some dude posted a very insightful response to her Commi sophistry - here.

One of his key points is that there is a large distinction between giving someone a benefit that they ask for....and forcing someone to accept benefits and then labeling them *perpetually indebted*.

Now go back to whatever productive endeavor you were engaged in and forget all about this contemporary irrelevance.

Thanks to the Ukrainian Fop for this link!

Wedding Homophilia

Just have to admire the work the *boys* put in on this one:

BUT....was it a prom or something? They looked pretty young, at least to this incipient 'old coot's' eyes.

I enjoyed watching it nonetheless.

Remember, just because 1/32 of the music I listen to is of the Justin Bieber variety, that doesn't make me an invert, androgynous, transgendered, or vaginal in any way shape or form!

(Click the link to decipher.)

Better Blogging Chronicles 12 - Adsense Experiment

For years I've been wondering how much money - even though I'm sure it's a pittance! - Google Ads would bring in on this blog.

So I just enabled them in the sidebar and at the end of what seems like only the first post.

I think I'll let it run for 2-3 months just to see what happens.

Ideally, there'd be a gadget/widget that would only display ads to my *search engine traffic*. This way my most loyal fans wouldn't have to look at hideous ads. Sort of like a municipality taxing tourists...

Personally, I can't stand looking at ads. Please bear with me and accept my apologies. All my regulars should be following via Google Reader anyway...

See also my last installment:

Better Blogging Chronicles 11 - Facebook

Dumbing Down The Web

With all these airheads going ga-ga over Pinterest now it just dawned on me that the internet has been in steady decline for some time now.

First, you had to code your own page if you wanted a website...

Then Geocities came about offering template websites.

Next blogs took over. The public was starving for something to READ that didn't come from the Big Media monopoly...

But then the masses opted for the puerile *Likes* and *status updates* of Facebook instead of feisty comment threads and posting well-thought-out blog comments.

Now we've fallen even further. Pinterest is nothing more than a cheesy magazine, full of glossy images for the illiterate and aliterate Morons among us.

Essentially, the web is becoming the new *idiot box*, a haven for the brain-dead.

Did y'all know that something like 80% of all web traffic after 5pm is *streaming video*???

'Old Coots' Versus SmartPhones - A Drubbing!

My mother recently told me that she and my father were going to get iPhones!

Son - Why? Are you going to get email and the internet on them?

BiologicalMother - No.

Son - Well then why are you going to get an iPhone? That's what they are for. Almost useless otherwise.

Okay, so then this weekend I saw them again AND they were equipped with iPhones.

Son - Did you get the internet on Dad's phone?

(Dad barely uses email!)

BiologicalMother - No.

BiologicalMother - I mean yes.

Son - You know it's 30 bucks a month, right?

BiologicalMother - The second phone is *included*, it's a family plan.

Son- No it's not. You have Verizon, right?

BiologicalMother - Yeah.

Son - It's $30 per month, per phone for data.

BiologicalMother - My sister said it was all included.

Son - Yeah, for $30 a month, per phone, it's INCLUDED. Is your sister getting a sales commission?

BiologicalMother - (silence)

Son - How much is your bill going to be?

BiologicalMother - $123 (?)

Son - There it is, $60 for two data lines....and $60 for phone calls. THAT'S YOUR FAMILY PLAN.

Son - You're paying $360 this year for Dad to have email and internet access...

BiologicalMother - Well if he doesn't use it, we'll just cancel it.

Son - NO. You can't. You signed a two year contract. You are committed to paying $720 for him to have functions on his phone THAT HE WILL NEVER USE.

The best is how my father whispered to me, multiple times that he didn't understand just about anything on the phone....as if I had no idea!

To mess with him, right now I'm going to text him! This works on 75% of fossils...

iPhones....what a great idea for 'old coots'!

I wonder who has their's stolen or lost first, and has to shell out for a new *unsubsidized* smartphone, Mom or Dad?

There were so many more angles to this that I didn't convey.

For example, my mother thought that if she wanted a data plan....that my father had to have one too. That's wrong of course. My wife has a clamshell phone and I have a Droid with data through Verizon.

Also, my mother said she wanted my father to have some mobile access to his email mind you this is all *rationalization*. So I informed her that she could set up his account on her phone too and it would be fine because they are together most of the time. (I myself have 4 Gmail accounts set up on my phone - my two and each of my kids' accounts.)

But the gist, to go back to the beginning, was that they decided to get iPhones not knowing really that such an acquisition implied a lot more money for something they didn't really need. So instead of scrapping the iPhone idea they bought them AND at least one extra data plan.

My Son, Playing Chess

Just now my son was white and doing okay with an aggressive opening....until his queen got fatally pinned in the 12th move.

He was losing on points 15 to 6 but still managed an amazing victory.

I was trying to help him, but after the 19th move he shushed me....AND declared that he was going to sacrifice his rook and win.

Click the forward arrow, repeatedly, to watch the game:



I was blown away, as was Black no doubt!

John is only 7.49 year old - which oftentimes can be very easy to forget.

(The aggressive, suicide-looking opening was a variation of Muzio's Gambit.)

Wage Slave Hazards - Sleep

When I was an addled youth....I used to get horrible headaches.

Then one day I read in a science periodical that *getting up early all week and sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday* could cause headaches. Aha!

But I could never really avoid the cause.

I got so much school work - to the point where I was pulling 1-2 all-nighters per week - that on Friday night I could barely stay awake until 9:30pm.

Then of course I'd sleep in a little, which pushed me back late on Saturday night....and I'd sleep until 11am on Sunday, then stay up all night doing homework. And so on...

The other day some article was going around on the web calling this *social jet lag*. Check it out - here.

Notably, they link irregular sleep patterns to obesity. I don't want to argue that point, but would like to point out that wage slaves trapped in offices and burdened with tedious, un-stimulating work are also very prone to eating unhealthy food and a lack of exercise.

I'm A Deadly Shot!

My son joined a homeschool archery league a couple months ago.  With his fees one parent was entitled to a lesson and shooting session.  So today I was up...

Yeah, and it was my FIRST TIME ever shooting a bow and arrow!

It's just like golf: take a deep breath, sight the target, use big muscles, posture(!), smooth release, have a   repeatable ritual, etc.

Archery is definitely a *cool* hobby.  If I wasn't so overloaded right now I'd be tempted to start getting into it.

We go to an indoor range near the middle of *The Island*.  What an operation they got there!  Who knew that archery was a money-maker.  It's usually $15 to *shoot all day*.  But there are hordes of enthusiasts that spend a ton of time and $$$ there.  Why?   Well, apparently it's illegal to shoot a bow and arrow in your backyard - at least in New York.

There's probably a little boom in the archery biz right now on account of The Hunger Games too.

(See none of y'all can do math....the shooting distance was an impressive 4,572mm.)

Time Robbers

While it wasn't that bad....I've been busy cleaning up a watery mess in the basement.  Note that all our computers are down there!  This is going to end up costing me a few days of productivity and chi though...

Also, I mentioned that I was experimenting with outsourcing some math-workbook creation and whatnot to Asia for $3 an hour....well, it hasn't been going that great either.

I've pretty much spent more time and energy trying to get it done cheaply than it would have taken to freakin' do myself!

Then I fired some dude today and at the last minute he *logged hours* to stiff me with a bill!

There's definitely an art/science to outsourcing online....while I haven't quite figured it out yet, I've at least learned some valuable lessons.  I'll tell the stories in subsequent posts.

Other developments include another tee time later this week at Bethpage Black!

And the Asians are after me again.  Another *enrichment academy* on Long Island is trying to hire me to teach competitive math (at their summer school).  The other place....well, they promised me all sorts of work but never delivered.  (I think they had a customer problem, but I could be wrong, I may have just been too expensive for them.)

BTW....y'all might notice that my blog looks a little different.  That was an accident!  I was trying to show my SIL how to set up a blog and configure it....anyways, I modified my template and couldn't restore!

My *time*....come and steal some, everyone else is!

Warren Buffett = A$$hole Crook

While it wasn't said by Buffett directly....he's guilty by association AND for his own transgressions.

Civilized people? I guess he means that since they have direct access to the printing press they don't need to buy firearms and canned food for the apocalypse like the rest of the uncivilized world has to!

If you read the article you'll hear Buffett's apparatchik admit that their fund is *opportunistic*.

That's just code meaning they exploit dumb, corrupt politicians for sweetheart bank and insurance deals - deals that come on the backs of taxpayers.

Taxpayers? Oh, yeah, those are the people Buffett thinks should have MORE MONEY confiscated from their wages...

See also:

Warren Buffett - STEALING From Taxpayers!

Dumber And Dumb

It was most probably Moronic to get out of the car and *confront*...

And it was also rather stupid to *not report* the incident. At least the logic - if you can call it that - behind the decision was.

The thing is, the racial/political/economic divisions have been MANUFACTURED to a large extent. People on both sides of the split don't really know whom to get angry at or what can be done.

I say, for starters, end all entitlements and start deporting people! Then we can move on to liberating the economy, shrinking the government, etc.

I really do need to buy a gun for post-apocalyptic America.

Any suggestions? My wife has been nagging me to get one.

I don't think I'd *carry* though...

They Just Don't Seem So Innocent...