Handyman Stuff

Now, let’s get down to what this blog was originally intended to do. Since I have extra time and there seems to be a need for some tips & trick on how to do basic handyman and DIY projects I’m going to share some of my expertise. Let me explain what qualifies me to do this. I am a master cabinetmaker with over 25 years experience in woodworking, construction, displays, and manufacturing. I have over 10 years experience with AutoCAD design software and could be viewed as something of a guru with this program. Also, as a homeowner there is always some kind of maintenance task that needs to be done around the house from basic home maintenance to complete room renovation. Since I am about done with all the renovation on my house we can now concentrate on your house.

In the coming months I will be creating some how to videos and articles that will address most of the issues that people have with home maintenance and a variety of hobbies and chores around the house. As of now, I’m compiling a list of things that many no-so-handy folks may ask about and any suggestions or comments are welcome. Please feel free to ask about anything because if I can’t answer it I know someone or can find someone who can.

The Economy vs. The Stimulus Package

I was watching the president’s speech the other night and had a few thoughts. First of all, it was a great speech and very inspiring. I think we all hope that this mess can be fixed and I am optimistic but with certain reservations. When you look at what got us here you have to think of the motivation that led us to such ruin and that would be unbridled greed. These rich bastards, you know the bankers and corporate CEO’s, have no clue as to what makes the economy tick. All they care about is hoarding money. It’s like the old saying “He with the most toys wins”. All they care about is getting the most money they can before they die and screw everybody else. Not a very altruistic bunch of folks, and mostly self serving by nature. Quite despicable!

I look at the economy as a big water fountain in the middle of the town square that everybody contributes to and therefore gets to enjoy. The fountain has a pump (business) that draws in water (money) from a pool and circulates the water through the fountain. When it rains (profit) the pool fills up and can even flow over (windfall) and the pump will keep the water flowing and everybody is allowed to get water from the pool and all is well. But when there is no rain, the pool gets lower and has to be refilled (investment or reinvestment) or the pool will dry up and the pump will cease to function. Now when times are hard and the pool is low and everybody needs water, a few of our citizens (the wealthy or elite) are allowed to go to the pool and fill up their buckets while the rest of us don’t even know that it’s going on. So, when I hear that all these banks and insurance companies get to fill their buckets it makes me sick.

Why the hell would we give money to the very same people that wasted it in the first place? If we are to get the economy going again we need to give the money to the consumers not the bankers that like to hoard it and dole it out as they see fit. This, apparently, does not work. They are talking about getting the credit markets moving and making loans available to businesses and such, but isn’t this how we got into this mess in the first place? More loans means more debt and I don’t know about you but I have all the debt I need right now. What they should do in my opinion is give the money to the consumer. That $700 billion that they gave the banks should be distributed to every homeowner to pay down their debt. Let’s look at what might happen….say there are 20 million homeowners and you divide that $700 billion by 20 million and it works out to $35,000 each. Now if every homeowner had $35,000 to pay down their mortgage and pay off their credit cards wouldn’t that help the pump keep flowing? The banks would be happy and people could get out of debt and consumer spending would stabilize and even increase.

The next thing we would need to do is round up all these greedy corrupt corporate greed pigs and put them on an island somewhere where they can’t cause any more trouble. There is a show on TNT called “Leverage” and last nights episode was a perfect example of the greedy corporate CEO who had absolute authority to dictate policy and that usually meant squeezing every penny from their customers any way they could to fill their pockets and those of their “shareholders” (read: rich investors). In the end he was stripped of all his assets and faced legal proceedings. Yeah, I know, it is just a show but wouldn’t that be great if that could happen to people like Bernie Madoff and those like him.

When I see corporate CEO’s getting multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses it makes my skin crawl. If somebody can’t live on a couple of million dollars or even half-a-million a year then there is something wrong with our society. Our capitalist greed and corporate monopolies are creating a society of elitists and slowly dissipating the middle class, which is the life blood of our economy. If I hear one more rich CEO say “I work hard for my money”, somehow implying that the rest of us don’t,
I’m going to hit somebody. When they imply that they work harder than the carpenters, steel workers or any other trade or profession out there it just pisses me off. They rose to their position mainly because they had the education or stepped on the right people to make their way there. There are a lot of educated people out there that work hard everyday to make a life in the American dream without having to step on others. Honest, hardworking people that deserve more than these dishonest, unethical yahoos.

Sorry for the rant, but now that I’ve got that off my chest I feel better.

Work at Home Conundrum

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the last 2 weeks researching work at home opportunities. If you have seen these ads (and there are tons of them) that you get in your email or on job boards then you know what I’m talking about.

It seems like there are legitimate ways to make a living online but sifting through all the different programs is mind boggling. There are oodles of offers that promise a six figure income if you buy their $50 program. What you get is access to a bunch of e-books and articles that basically tell you how well they have done by following the program and doing what they did, so far all I have seen is people telling you can do it and make a lot of money. Very few of these actually tell you the mechanics of how to go about doing it and what it will actually cost you to get up and running.

So I went ahead and spent the $50 to see what you get for that. As it turns out, I was inundated with e-mails and e-books on what needs to be done to get traffic to your website (if you have one) or that you need to have a website. Of course they really don’t tell you how but they are happy to guide you through even more websites that will tell you the same thing.

What it boils down to is that you need to spend quite a bit of time reading and researching, talking to other people on forums (tons of these too) and generally the same thing you would have to do to start any business. So, when you see a website that offers instant money and success if you “join today”, be very wary. The only way to make money overnight is to steal it.

But if you are determined to have this kind of business (as I am) then you need to do your homework. This is what I am working on now and for the past week have learned quite a bit of information but have yet to make any money. If there is someone out there that is willing to mentor me and help me get up and running it would surely be appreciated and I would gladly compensate them for this. That is, of course, if it works and I can actually derive an income from it.

A few years back I actually tried to sell Herbalife with little success. I think the reason that I had trouble succeeding with this is that I am not, and never have been, a salesman and with Herbalife you have to be constantly selling. You sell to friends & family and put out flyers and talk the Herbalife talk wherever you go, it’s almost like a cult mentality. Unfortunately I don’t like people that much and don’t go out much so this method was not right for me. Even further back, when I got out of college, I tried to sell vacuum cleaners and insurance. Talk about tough sales! This involved in home demo’s and pitches and high pressure sales tactics. You got to respect a good salesman, the guys that don’t seem to have any problem getting people to part with their money, but I’m not one of them.

02/19/09 - Let's Begin

How do i start? I guess to begin with i should explain the title. You see, I'm not really lazy but i feel like I am being lazy these days. Just seems there is more that I can do but I've already done everything i can think of to do at home. Yeah sure, there are some little chores that get neglected, but I think that I'm saving those for later, you know, stretch things out a bit.

Let me explain. As we all know the economic ocean sucks right now and my boat has a hole in it. By that I mean that I am without a job right now and things are getting tight. I'm sure there are others out there in the same boat and some that have bigger holes than mine.

I start the day right now by searching the web job boards to see if there is anything new in this area but all i get is searches that come back with "your search did not find anything on that subject". It seems there isn't much demand for my help these days.

If they only knew how good I am at what I do and believe me Ive told them over and over again. But everyone is looking out for themselves until we came drag ourselves out of this economic slump. Can Obama do it? I guess we're gonna find out. If he can't then this blog might get really long in the coming months. Sorry.

Next: The "work at home conundrum".