Thursday, January 10, 2008
Why am I Here
I have been here for about 1 ½ years and have seen a decline in business from 4 million annually with 40 – 50 employees to 1 ½ million in 2007 with 20 employees. The extremely despairing issues are that the overhead has not decreased in proportion. We have 6 family members, 2 engineers including myself, a receptionist, and a maintenance man on the payroll that is all overhead or non production. That is ½ of the employees but about ¾ of the payroll. Of the 10 people in the plant 2 are in the tool room (some of their time is paid production and some is non-paid tool maintenance) and 7-8 people in the plant that is in production, these are mostly Mexicans making an average of $7.00 hour and they have the burden of producing enough product to support the rest of us.
We are very top heavy but there is a problem. They are not going to let any of the family go and they need the rest of us to keep the plant running. Besides the out-of-proportion of overhead employees to production employees we have a large facility to maintain. No way can the sales be covering the overhead. Last year we lost (or didn’t get) a million dollar contract because of lack of organization. We now have a meeting pending with Batesville Casket Company that is another million dollar job. That are requiring the same quality requirements that we didn’t provide for the Ice Machine Company. We are preparing for another horse and pony show for them hoping that they don’t look in depth at how we really do thing. We received this e-mail laying out the meeting agenda. Again I am repeating myself but I have setup all that they are requiring but none has been put into action. They will eventuality have to make some hard decisions. I Hope that I can hold on until I am ready to leave for school. If we get Batesville then I will be secure till then. They will need me to get the design work done.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Starting School in February
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Starting School in February
I talked to the school (Tennessee Tech @ Nashville) yesterday and was told by admission that I was number 5 on the list and that I would be in the February 25th class. I go for orientation on February 8th. I am really looking forward to getting started.
This is my 4th day on my diet. I started the Alli capsules today. I have been staying slickly with the plan. It has not been easy but it is manageable. I will weigh next Sunday and see if anything has changed yet. I don’t have a lot of expectations for one week. I did seem to get into my tight jeans a little easier this morning but of course that might be because of lack of food.
I have changed to a low fat creamer for my coffee and I drink tea during the day. Shelly has been creative in fixing meals and that helps. It is mainly proportion control (elf food) and low fat. I can have a lot of vegetable so that I can live with and again Shelly does a great job of making them good to eat by spicing them. Her Cajun background comes in handy. Learning to cook and making it desirable without adding fat takes some imaginative but it is the secret to success. I love salads but again keeping them low fat is a problem. I am not a large red meat eater so that helps. I love fish and seafood and have learned to like chicken. Fried is out but I can bake some mean fish.
We are having pecan crusted grouper tonight. I am fixing it by coating of it with egg whites and rolled in pecan meal and baked. I add some salt, pepper, and garlic. Another way of fixing it and chicken is rolling it in corn flake crumbs. You can also use low fat ranch dressing to coat them with. Bake at 350 F. Another item is stir fry. You can use vegetables, scrimp or chicken, and a small amount of boiled rice. Be sparing on the oil. Coat pan with Pam and add a small amount of olive oil. I use frozen vegetable but let them thaw and drain before cooking. I don’t like to overheat the olive oil.
Starting School in February
I talked to the school (Tennessee Tech @ Nashville) yesterday and was told by admission that I was number 5 on the list and that I would be in the February 25th class. I go for orientation on February 8th. I am really looking forward to getting started.
This is my 4th day on my diet. I started the Alli capsules today. I have been staying slickly with the plan. It has not been easy but it is manageable. I will weigh next Sunday and see if anything has changed yet. I don’t have a lot of expectations for one week. I did seem to get into my tight jeans a little easier this morning but of course that might be because of lack of food.
I have changed to a low fat creamer for my coffee and I drink tea during the day. Shelly has been creative in fixing meals and that helps. It is mainly proportion control (elf food) and low fat. I can have a lot of vegetable so that I can live with and again Shelly does a great job of making them good to eat by spicing them. Her Cajun background comes in handy. Learning to cook and making it desirable without adding fat takes some imaginative but it is the secret to success. I love salads but again keeping them low fat is a problem. I am not a large red meat eater so that helps. I love fish and seafood and have learned to like chicken. Fried is out but I can bake some mean fish.
We are having pecan crusted grouper tonight. I am fixing it by coating of it with egg whites and rolled in pecan meal and baked. I add some salt, pepper, and garlic. Another way of fixing it and chicken is rolling it in corn flake crumbs. You can also use low fat ranch dressing to coat them with. Bake at 350 F. Another item is stir fry. You can use vegetables, scrimp or chicken, and a small amount of boiled rice. Be sparing on the oil. Coat pan with Pam and add a small amount of olive oil. I use frozen vegetable but let them thaw and drain before cooking. I don’t like to overheat the olive oil.
A Divided American
January 8, 2008
A Divided American
New Hampshire Primary Day. If you think that anything in this country is going to improve whether the conservatives or the liberals get in then you are sadly mistaken. It hasn’t happened and it won’t. As long as they keep us fighting among ourselves as to whom to put in office then we will continue to take it up the ass by both parties. The only solution is to first get control of the government. Get it back into the hands of the people and out of the hands of special interest groups. Anyone that believes that the politicians’ listens to the voters (other than just before an election) instead of the lobbyist with suitcases of money doesn’t understand human nature or politics. The power follows the purse. If we stop the money from lobbyist and corporations and make it so that only the voters can donate money to a politician you will see change. This will return the power back to the voter. Keep those donations to a max of $1000. A $1000 won’t buy favors in Washington. Do this and see how quick the politicians start listening to the voter.
The politics in Washington today has become so divided that compromise in a word used only in a context to degrade the opposition for not flexing to the desire of the one using the word. Compromise is plural but is being use only in the singular. But the government is reflective of the people.
This country has become so divided that having a civil discussion on politics is about impossible. We are bombarded with radio talk shows that use the terms liberal and conservative in a derogatory way. They inflame the listener and increases their ratings but serve no valuable propose. We understand these meaning as well as if an ethnic slang had been used. A meaningful debate can not be had without respecting the opposing opinion. We need to show the same respect in a political debate that we would in any other if we truly care about getting our point across. We should let the politicians and the talk show hosts know that even if we agree with them in principal we do not care for the rhetoric. We must take the high road on the way we treat each other. It is unacceptable to use ethnic slangs and it should be as unacceptable to use any word meant to be derogatorily. It is unproductive and only serves to make everyone feel worse including you.
Let’s stop the nastiest that has become such a way in this country. Let’s make it a better place to live and work and a kinder environment for our children.
A Divided American
New Hampshire Primary Day. If you think that anything in this country is going to improve whether the conservatives or the liberals get in then you are sadly mistaken. It hasn’t happened and it won’t. As long as they keep us fighting among ourselves as to whom to put in office then we will continue to take it up the ass by both parties. The only solution is to first get control of the government. Get it back into the hands of the people and out of the hands of special interest groups. Anyone that believes that the politicians’ listens to the voters (other than just before an election) instead of the lobbyist with suitcases of money doesn’t understand human nature or politics. The power follows the purse. If we stop the money from lobbyist and corporations and make it so that only the voters can donate money to a politician you will see change. This will return the power back to the voter. Keep those donations to a max of $1000. A $1000 won’t buy favors in Washington. Do this and see how quick the politicians start listening to the voter.
The politics in Washington today has become so divided that compromise in a word used only in a context to degrade the opposition for not flexing to the desire of the one using the word. Compromise is plural but is being use only in the singular. But the government is reflective of the people.
This country has become so divided that having a civil discussion on politics is about impossible. We are bombarded with radio talk shows that use the terms liberal and conservative in a derogatory way. They inflame the listener and increases their ratings but serve no valuable propose. We understand these meaning as well as if an ethnic slang had been used. A meaningful debate can not be had without respecting the opposing opinion. We need to show the same respect in a political debate that we would in any other if we truly care about getting our point across. We should let the politicians and the talk show hosts know that even if we agree with them in principal we do not care for the rhetoric. We must take the high road on the way we treat each other. It is unacceptable to use ethnic slangs and it should be as unacceptable to use any word meant to be derogatorily. It is unproductive and only serves to make everyone feel worse including you.
Let’s stop the nastiest that has become such a way in this country. Let’s make it a better place to live and work and a kinder environment for our children.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Barbara's Not So Good
Monday January 7, 2008
Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant
I was real disappointed with my dinning experience at Barbara’s. The restaurant was very beautiful, built with southerner red cedar inside and out. The owners obvious had some great ideas and experience in building but that is was it ended. The real disappointment began with the service. The restaurant would probable sit 200 or more but only had about 30 people while we were there. There was one server and he seemed to lack experience. The owners sit on their behinds while he did all the work. He was slow in getting us our menus and then taking our orders. We had to wait on our drinks and salads. They evidently weren’t anymore prepared in the kitchen because it took forever to get served our food. All the while the owners sit at the bar drinking beer, seldom attending to customers or even sitting guest. The server did it all including running the cash resister. The food was mediocre and with a limited menu to chose from. The food was overpriced for the quality. The pricing would have been justified if the food and service had matched the beauty of the place. I don’t believe they have a clue on running a restaurant. If they place ever got full it would be a disaster. There are too many good eating places to choose from to go back to Barbara’s.
I started my diet Sunday. Today is the second day. I did okay yesterday until late yesterday. Today hasn’t been too bad. Shelly has been managing the food so all I have to do is follow it. That’s not hard except I do get hungry. On the Alli program you go a few days before you start on their pills to get the fat out of your diet. When you start taking the medication it has it’s built in incentive to not take in too much fat. It blocks about 25% of the fat intake so if you take in too much fat it can have unpleasant results as it is passed through.
Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant
I was real disappointed with my dinning experience at Barbara’s. The restaurant was very beautiful, built with southerner red cedar inside and out. The owners obvious had some great ideas and experience in building but that is was it ended. The real disappointment began with the service. The restaurant would probable sit 200 or more but only had about 30 people while we were there. There was one server and he seemed to lack experience. The owners sit on their behinds while he did all the work. He was slow in getting us our menus and then taking our orders. We had to wait on our drinks and salads. They evidently weren’t anymore prepared in the kitchen because it took forever to get served our food. All the while the owners sit at the bar drinking beer, seldom attending to customers or even sitting guest. The server did it all including running the cash resister. The food was mediocre and with a limited menu to chose from. The food was overpriced for the quality. The pricing would have been justified if the food and service had matched the beauty of the place. I don’t believe they have a clue on running a restaurant. If they place ever got full it would be a disaster. There are too many good eating places to choose from to go back to Barbara’s.
I started my diet Sunday. Today is the second day. I did okay yesterday until late yesterday. Today hasn’t been too bad. Shelly has been managing the food so all I have to do is follow it. That’s not hard except I do get hungry. On the Alli program you go a few days before you start on their pills to get the fat out of your diet. When you start taking the medication it has it’s built in incentive to not take in too much fat. It blocks about 25% of the fat intake so if you take in too much fat it can have unpleasant results as it is passed through.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant
Friday January 4, 2008
Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant
Friday at last. We are going to try out a new restaurant tonight. It is Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant. I have heard good things about it. It’s on Center Hill Lake at Johnson’s Chapel.
I have been really down today. I guess it is part post Christmas blues and being back at work at a job that I dislike so much. Anyway I will get over it.
The weather is warning up so I will be working on the house this weekend.
I am starting a diet Sunday. It is either loss weight or buy clothes. I am at 215. This is the largest that I have ever been. I am going on the Alli thing. I will keep you informed as to what I think of it. I have never dieted before and I am not much into medication. Shelly is going on it with me. Her goal is to loss 10 lbs, mine is 38 (177; my idea weight according to the plan) so I will be own my own for the most of it.
Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant
Friday at last. We are going to try out a new restaurant tonight. It is Barbara's Cedar House Restaurant. I have heard good things about it. It’s on Center Hill Lake at Johnson’s Chapel.
I have been really down today. I guess it is part post Christmas blues and being back at work at a job that I dislike so much. Anyway I will get over it.
The weather is warning up so I will be working on the house this weekend.
I am starting a diet Sunday. It is either loss weight or buy clothes. I am at 215. This is the largest that I have ever been. I am going on the Alli thing. I will keep you informed as to what I think of it. I have never dieted before and I am not much into medication. Shelly is going on it with me. Her goal is to loss 10 lbs, mine is 38 (177; my idea weight according to the plan) so I will be own my own for the most of it.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
3° This Morning. Burrrrrrrrrr!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
3° This Morning. Burrrrrrrrrr!
Yesterday I called Tennessee Tech @ Nashville and spoke with Gary Warren to check on my status in starting the January class. It is pretty much decided that I won’t make it for this class. They have selected the students from the waiting list and it didn’t get to me. I was instructed to call next week to check on my status for the next class starting February 25th. He was confident that I would make that class but said that admissions would have to confirm it. I still have things to get done to my house before I go on the road so I am not concerned about the wait but I do want to get started. If I can’t get into that class then I will go to plan B (go to a different school). I don’t really want to do that. This school will work best for me. I go for 7 weeks instead of the 3 weeks of other schools and I go for 6 hours a day instead of the 10 hour days of a boot camp school and I don’t have to leave home to do it.
My current job. In our production meeting yesterday the owner was reviewing 2007 and what we needed to change to improve in 2008. We had a very bad year. One of the items was to set up a quality assurance program. Last year we had scraped over $150,000.00 in bad parts. These were only the major scraps that were obvious since we have nothing to track anything. It didn’t include all the smaller rejected parts that could have been avoided that probable added another $25-$50.000. That is extremely large considering that we only did 1 ½ million in sales for 2007. We also lost a million dollar job because we didn’t have a Q.A. program in place. I had set up a program that was going to start at the beginning of 2007 (one of the first things that I did when I started here) but it was overruled because it was too expensive to hire a quality assurance person. It also required the training of someone to enter data into a database program (it would track time and quality) that I had written that controlled the system. I was told that there wasn’t enough for them to do and that the operators controlled their own quality while they ran the parts. We are talking Mexicans that don’t speak English and some cannot read or write even in Spanish. I stated that we could not afford not to have one even if they sit half the time they would more than pay for themselves.
Then the company was trying to sell their services to an ice machine manufacture and they used the paper work that I had produced to show them our quality assurance program. They accepted the programs documentation saying that it looked very good but then wanted to see it in operation in the plant. Our company went as far as placing the paper work on each job and trying to make it appear that we were using it but they didn’t fall for it. They flat out told us that we had good plans but we weren’t where we needed to be in our quality program for them to use us for a supplier. They were being diplomatic.
Instead of going ahead at that time and implementing the program they waited and we had another $50,000.00 scrape job that also cost us potential future business. It would not have happened with the program in place. The problem would have been caught on the first piece approval inspection. They still didn’t learn. Now we have Batesville Casket and Hennessey (they manufacture tire balancing equipment) that are requiring the same Q.A program. In our production meeting the owner stated that we could no longer afford to be without a Q.A. program. I couldn’t resist saying that I told you so. That went over like (well you get the picture). Telling your boss that he is a dumb ass in a meeting is not How to Win Friends and Influence People. Not a good career move as if I give a shit. I hate being hired to do a job and then having it undermined by that person because he can’t understand the importance of it. If you don’t want me to do a job then don’t hire me and waste my time.
If you haven’t figured it out, I have a bad attitude. I hate working for nasty rude dumb asses. I can’t wait to remove myself (if they don’t remove me first) from this place.
3° This Morning. Burrrrrrrrrr!
Yesterday I called Tennessee Tech @ Nashville and spoke with Gary Warren to check on my status in starting the January class. It is pretty much decided that I won’t make it for this class. They have selected the students from the waiting list and it didn’t get to me. I was instructed to call next week to check on my status for the next class starting February 25th. He was confident that I would make that class but said that admissions would have to confirm it. I still have things to get done to my house before I go on the road so I am not concerned about the wait but I do want to get started. If I can’t get into that class then I will go to plan B (go to a different school). I don’t really want to do that. This school will work best for me. I go for 7 weeks instead of the 3 weeks of other schools and I go for 6 hours a day instead of the 10 hour days of a boot camp school and I don’t have to leave home to do it.
My current job. In our production meeting yesterday the owner was reviewing 2007 and what we needed to change to improve in 2008. We had a very bad year. One of the items was to set up a quality assurance program. Last year we had scraped over $150,000.00 in bad parts. These were only the major scraps that were obvious since we have nothing to track anything. It didn’t include all the smaller rejected parts that could have been avoided that probable added another $25-$50.000. That is extremely large considering that we only did 1 ½ million in sales for 2007. We also lost a million dollar job because we didn’t have a Q.A. program in place. I had set up a program that was going to start at the beginning of 2007 (one of the first things that I did when I started here) but it was overruled because it was too expensive to hire a quality assurance person. It also required the training of someone to enter data into a database program (it would track time and quality) that I had written that controlled the system. I was told that there wasn’t enough for them to do and that the operators controlled their own quality while they ran the parts. We are talking Mexicans that don’t speak English and some cannot read or write even in Spanish. I stated that we could not afford not to have one even if they sit half the time they would more than pay for themselves.
Then the company was trying to sell their services to an ice machine manufacture and they used the paper work that I had produced to show them our quality assurance program. They accepted the programs documentation saying that it looked very good but then wanted to see it in operation in the plant. Our company went as far as placing the paper work on each job and trying to make it appear that we were using it but they didn’t fall for it. They flat out told us that we had good plans but we weren’t where we needed to be in our quality program for them to use us for a supplier. They were being diplomatic.
Instead of going ahead at that time and implementing the program they waited and we had another $50,000.00 scrape job that also cost us potential future business. It would not have happened with the program in place. The problem would have been caught on the first piece approval inspection. They still didn’t learn. Now we have Batesville Casket and Hennessey (they manufacture tire balancing equipment) that are requiring the same Q.A program. In our production meeting the owner stated that we could no longer afford to be without a Q.A. program. I couldn’t resist saying that I told you so. That went over like (well you get the picture). Telling your boss that he is a dumb ass in a meeting is not How to Win Friends and Influence People. Not a good career move as if I give a shit. I hate being hired to do a job and then having it undermined by that person because he can’t understand the importance of it. If you don’t want me to do a job then don’t hire me and waste my time.
If you haven’t figured it out, I have a bad attitude. I hate working for nasty rude dumb asses. I can’t wait to remove myself (if they don’t remove me first) from this place.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
A New Year
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
A New Year.
I can’t believe that it is 2008. It seems such a short time ago that I celebrated the new millennium. Time does fly when you get older.
Well I am back at work today after being off for 11 days. The driving class starts today at Tenn. Tech @ Nashville. I am not in it. I will be calling the next few days hoping that someone dropped and that I can still get into this class. If not then it will be the next one. I came in today to a very low work load. The Mexicans that were off for a week before I was are still not back. It’s so quite here today that you would think we were having an immigration inspection. With new immigration laws that came into effect January 1 they will have a harder time getting this cheap help. I hope that it will improve the unemployment rates here. My employer complains about the quality of people he gets. He does get some good people but treats them horrible, yells at them, degrades them, and pays them poorly while shorting them on their time. Then he gets irritate when they quit. That is why they like hiring Mexicans; they are the only ones that will take it. He doesn’t treat his own family much better but they are incompetent to go anywhere else and make anything. They also live in his houses rent free. It would take a lot for them to stand up to him. He is the employer from hell. I hope to be out of here soon and on the road.
Happy new year to all.
A New Year.
I can’t believe that it is 2008. It seems such a short time ago that I celebrated the new millennium. Time does fly when you get older.
Well I am back at work today after being off for 11 days. The driving class starts today at Tenn. Tech @ Nashville. I am not in it. I will be calling the next few days hoping that someone dropped and that I can still get into this class. If not then it will be the next one. I came in today to a very low work load. The Mexicans that were off for a week before I was are still not back. It’s so quite here today that you would think we were having an immigration inspection. With new immigration laws that came into effect January 1 they will have a harder time getting this cheap help. I hope that it will improve the unemployment rates here. My employer complains about the quality of people he gets. He does get some good people but treats them horrible, yells at them, degrades them, and pays them poorly while shorting them on their time. Then he gets irritate when they quit. That is why they like hiring Mexicans; they are the only ones that will take it. He doesn’t treat his own family much better but they are incompetent to go anywhere else and make anything. They also live in his houses rent free. It would take a lot for them to stand up to him. He is the employer from hell. I hope to be out of here soon and on the road.
Happy new year to all.
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