Category: Business

Psst! I final got a blog entry for you to read!

~ K ~ Leave a comment

Hey, it’s a new year and I’m finally getting around to posting a new blog entry,  what a way to build that readership up to high levels!  Maybe, I’ll get a whole two new readers.  In fact, I gave my grandma one of my old computers and made the opening page on here search engine my blog page!  Now she is forced to be one of my readers!  Only 6 billion people more to go….

What have I been up to lately?

As you know, I split my interests between photography, reading, and real estate.  Once in a while the three major interests of my life converge together in a most interesting way.  This hasn’t happened to me recently so I don’t have a great story to tell you, however, I did have one of my clients’ homes sell and close this month.  We are looking for a new home for them in the Fairwood/Renton area of Washington.  There are a great deal of homes for sale and there definitely is no lack of inventory to see.  One of our greatest challenges is finding a house with a fairly nice kitchen, a decent size backyard, and a decent master bedroom and master bathroom.  We are looking in the $300K to $430K price range.

Now, this would be easy but once you get into the upper price range, the houses do get large in size: 2800-3500 sq ft.  There are only three people in the family so that house size is extreme.  The smaller and cheaper houses tend to have less square footage and less upgrades making them less appealing.

Add   this mix falling values and overpriced homes, a narrow search area, and you get a lot of homes to look at that don’t quite fit the bill.

You want to know a secret?  I love looking at homes!  I love seeing the layouts, the landscaping, the extras people have added to their homes.  It is fun stuff!  The best part is hanging out with people you enjoy while looking at houses…it is addicting….like Facebook.  Speaking of Facebook, I’m in a dry and sober mode now.  I haven’t been checking out Facebook or updating my Facebook page and I feel free!

Of course, now with a new blog entry I have to post it on Facebook.  Hmm, a problem.

I can log on for just a minute…I can get through it…I can resist to urge to stay of Facebook for hours and hours….I can do this!

How to help your fellow coworkers with sarcasm!

~ K ~ Leave a comment

One thing I really find annoying (well, there are quite a few things I personally find annoying) is the fact that people who don’t quite appreciate sarcasm and it’s helpful, constructive, team building uses.  If you think about it, sarcasm is quite useful in a number of business situations.  It helps to keep that crazy new fad business ideas in check.  If a co-worker has a stupid idea, isn’t it better to let them know now that is a seriously stupid idea with a little well placed sarcasm?  What is the alterative?  You could let them take their stupid idea it to your boss and let her deal with it?  But does that really help your coworker out?  Does it help them become a better employee?

Suppose your coworker comes up with an idea that would involve slamming cute little kitty’s paws in the door of a car?  Now, that is a pretty stupid idea, right?

Doesn’t a well structure sarcastic comment such as:

“And my fairy godmother is going to help too!” when your co-worker suggests the slamming of a cute little kitty’s paws in a car’s door idea.  That is really much better than saying:

“Dude, that is a stupid idea.”

Really, the sarcastic comment is clearly a career saver compared to the easy, put down comment.  You are doing your co-worker a favor by being sarcastic.  Your co-worker would certainly appreciate and admire your ability to point out the flaws in his idea in a humorous manner.  If you weren’t sarcastic, you would simply default to the mean “stupid” comment.  That does nothing to help your co-worker understand that their idea is utterly brain-dead.  Plus this gives them an excuse to backslide and evaluate what they thought originally was a good idea but clearly it isn’t.  You have given them the time to improve their idea and come up with ways to make it better.  You have saved them embarrassment of taking that unimproved idea to their boss before it’s time.  You have made the idea and the employee better off in the long run. 

See how sarcasm is a good thing?

So go out there and keep up the good work my fellow sarcastic helpers!

Blogging and the “un”natural feel of it

~ K ~ 1 Comment

Recently, I was listening to the radio in my truck and the DJ had a caller/listener tell her that he reads her blog all the time.  Of course, I was jealous because I don’t have anyone call me up (or write to me for that matter) telling me that they read my blog everyday, seven days a week.  Admittedly, I don’t post as regularly as I should if I wanted to create a devoted following besides Cyndi and my therapist.  My therapist keeps telling me I need to “work” on expressing myself.  I keep telling her to stuff it and mind her own business.

However, my therapist is merely doing her job and I respect that.  She gets to listen to all this great wonderful stories from an assortment of characters.  I only get to use my mind to create these same scenarios and settings that have no bearing on my real life.  Then again, who would really want to change lives with the next average person they meet?  We all have our little quirks, problems, and hang ups.  Would we really want to exchange our lives for a stranger’s presumed “better” life?  How do you know that person is in a better situation that you are in?  Is there life that much better than yours?  Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence?  Perhaps it is greener because their lives is full of crap (which makes excellent fertilizater by the way).  Maybe they have to put up with the nagging wife, bratty kids, or insensitive selfish husband and they really just want to put a gun up to their head and end it all.

Now, if you didn’t know me as a sarcastic person, you might think I just endorsed suicide.  I don’t endorse it at all and don’t believe in it.

Clearly, things could be worse and you might think of that when you are thinking about how handsome I am and how extremely lucky I am.  I know, you can probably just barely contain your excitement each time one of my new blogs come up or a new story of KOTS appears.  Just remember that I am a tortured soul who’s only release is to write and blog…

Cyndi – my stalker lives (and I’m so excited!!)

~ K ~ Leave a comment

It’s update time for our favorite stalker Cyndi.  Rather it is update time about our favorite stalker Cyndi; whom we all thought was imaginary but has emailed me just yesterday.  Yes, Cyndi was kind enough to inform me that she is actually real.

Now, this no doubt is a huge ego booster for someone like himself who can his count readership on one hand.  Of course, how do we know for sure that I didn’t invent the supposed email/comment posting we see on my blog?  Or I’m just bringing Cyndi into “reality” myself to boost my meager readership?  Is it just a cheap trick?

Would I be that creative to inject Cyndi into the realm of reality? Or perhaps someone from Indiana University is more creative than I (which honestly is not hard to do) and helped to create the wonderful stalker that is Cyndi.

I just can’t wait to hear more from Cyndi so that we all can enjoy and share in my writing and her witty comments.  It is just more enjoyable for myself and my two readers to read my blog posts with the knowledge that Cyndi my stalker is reading it as well.  Just think, a whole new world awaits us with a special stalker/stalking relationship that will influence my writing from now on.

So sit back dear readers, read my blog (which is fantastic..am I right?  I know I’m right…just say I’m right) and enjoy my witty and thoughtful commentary on life.

Why spend time with the family?  Take a lesson from Cyndi and start stalking me!

An Inch Of Milk

~ K ~ Leave a comment

I enjoy a nice tall cold glass of milk like the next person as long as the next person isn’t lactose intolerant.  Personally, I need a calcium dose daily to avoid leg cramps in my calf muscles.  I grew up in a home paid for by a self employed small business person so every cost directly affects the success of the household.  At meals, you took only what you could finish because you were taught to stretch the food budget by not wasting food.

I thought I had passed this helpful tip onto my children.  Like myself, my children enjoy milk and pour themselves a glass here and there.  This would be a good thing besides the fact that KOTS (King Of The Slackers) insists on leaving an inch of milk in his glass all the time.

It doesn’t matter how thirsty or hungry he is, KOTS will always leave an inch of milk in the glass.  It has been my experience that most teenagers eat and drink like it was going out of style.  Every time you chat with a parent of a teenager, they always complain that they can’t keep milk in the house.  The teenager will consume it to the last drop much like small children unatteded with a bowl of candy:  nothing will be left.  Not so with KOTS.  KOTS will always, without fail, pour a glass of milk and leave one inch of milk in the glass.  He can’t seem to finish that last bit of milk whether it is glass of milk at a restaurant or at home.

There is no rhyme or reason to this.  It however, is a fact of life much like the rising of the sun or KOTS ability to not find a job.  He will always leave the inch of milk in the glass.  You could question him about it but it is generally a waste of time and energy to do so (remember this is KOTS we are talking about).  He doesn’t know why he does it but he does it every time.  I have the strong belief that is done just to annoy me and to cause yet another tip in the balance of slacker vs. contributing member of society with slacker winning.

Someone could argue it is the nature of the teenager to do something that they know annoys their parents.  This “something” has developed into a habit.  I think it is etched in his personal habits and no matter what, he cannot and will not take that last drink of milk.  You could threaten to pour the remaining milk in his glass on his head and he still wouldn’t finish it.

I pose an economic and psychological question: If KOTS paid for his own milk, would he still leave that last one inch of milk in his class?

One will never now until he moves out in 6 years……

King of the Slacker’s Lastest Adventures

~ K ~ 3 Comments

Another day of doing nothing….

I clearly remember that after I finished my first year of college, I was working at a warehouse during the summer full time (after going to school the past year full time AND working full time) and usually got in about 10-11 hours a day of work.  I had to pay my own college tuition, car insurance, gas, and food.  I think at that time I had a pager (no cell phone in those days).  At one point, I had a second job during that summer being a lifeguard for a short summer program.  Now, I tell you to put into perspective when I tell you I really have a very hard time with KOTS (King of the Slackers) not having a job.

It wouldn’t be so bad if he just got back from a very successful year at college studying pre-med and getting a high GPA.  Instead, at 11:25 am, I get to hear a new excuse of “my stomach doesn’t feel good” and another day of not looking for work.  However, I was pleased to discover that his dear mother (my wife) listened to me and told him that IKEA was looking for workers in their restaurant.  He did manage to leave the house after a nice long shower and a good breakfast of eggs, toast, and milk (all supplied by yours truly). Supposedly he headed to the Renton IKEA to apply for a job we had to tell him about.  I’m surprised I didn’t have to hold his hand and walk him across the street to apply for the job.

A lot of KOTS’ (King Of The Slackers) life is based on “supposedly” and “allegedly” doing things that involve improving his life and looking for a job.  Supposedly, KOTS was going to clean his room….allegedly he was going to stop by our friend’s KFC (our friend’s nephew is the manager) and get a job application.  Yet this never seems to happen in his realm of reality.  In the meantime, I still end up paying and getting really, really annoyed.

It wouldn’t be so bad (at least I tell myself this) if he picked up after himself, turned off the lights, put his own dirty dishes into the dishwasher, and just pulled his own weight.  Instead, we get the pleasure of cleaning his dirty crusty dishes and burnt egg on our frying pans.  Even after I tell him to his face in the kitchen that he needs to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, he ignores me.

What do you think would be a good answer when I remind him to take care of his dishes?  A normal human might say “I’m sorry, I’ll do it” or simply say “thanks for the reminder”.  What do I get out of KOTS?

“My bad.”

“Oops.”

Or my favorite “I forgot.”

How the hell do you forget something I told you flipping 30 seconds ago?  If I smacked you across the head with a baseball bat do you think you’d forget that in thirty seconds?  This isn’t rocket science; it’s simply good manners.

Now one would wonder why I put up with this crap.  I really wonder why myself.  Mostly it stems from my love for my wife and my avoidance of having to deal with arguing with my wife over KOTS lack of respect and motivation.  If I was a violent individual, I really probably would have put my fist thru KOTS’ face a hell of a long time ago.

I would argue that to encourage KOTS to actually do something, one must set goals and work towards them.  If he doesn’t like it he can move out.  There is no free ride in this world, even the bus costs you something.  I’m asking for something if you plan to ride the bus.

KOTS’ mother’s fear is that when we actually put our foot down, KOTS will be so upset, he’ll move out.  Her poor 18 year old little boy will be homeless and starve to death if we put our foot down.  She seems to forget that:

  1. His father lives about 60 minutes away and has a house.  Gee, do you think he could live there?
  2. He has numerous friends that he could crash with.
  3. He could actually find a job and rent an apartment with a roommate.

Honestly, do you really think his Dad isn’t going to take him in?  Come on, let’s wake up and smell the coffee.  Let’s shift the burden over to his Dad’s household.  Hell, I’d pay for the moving van on this project.

Until next time my two readers (and Cyndi my stalker)……

Upcoming subjects:

One inch of Milk

Kevin’s Generous Moving Out Offer

Cell Phones and Left Arms

Finding a job is REALLY tough when you don’t even try!

~ K ~ Leave a comment

As you know, my stepson hasn’t had a job since he lost his job at Domino’s Pizza for “downsizing reasons”.  With unemployment at 9.5 % here in the Seattle area, it is a tough market.  Mostly likely they discovered he is just a total lazy ass that doesn’t do shit and fired his butt!  Am I being a bit blunt?  Yes, I might be but let’s face it, it isn’t even trying to find a job.  This morning he woke up at 10:44 and had no freaking plans to look for a job.

Now, I know you are thinking “Gee, lay off the kid he’s only been wearing big boy pants for the past 15 years….it’s a hard job market, he’s a loser, and has no experience….etc.”

I have a great deal of stories of how lazy old KOTS (King Of The Slackers) is and how unmotivated he is.  Let’s look at yesterday (Monday) and see how that day in the life of KOTS goes.  It really starts on Sunday evening…

Sunday night:

We (the parents) ask “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

KOTS: “Oh, I’m going to wake up early and head down to Labor Ready to turn in my application”.

The next day, he rolls out of the house (after I wake him up and “remind” him about turning in his application) around 10:20 am, and ends up screwing around most of the day, skatingboarding, and picking up underage teenage girls.  Supposedly he turned in the job application.  He and this new girl watch TV.  During his busy day of not searching for a job, he managed to eat something but heaven forbid that he put his dirty plate into the open dishwasher that clearly has space for his dirty plate.  Really, how hard is it to put a plate into an open dishwasher?  The door is open!  The dishes are dirty, there is a dishing washing soap bottle right there showing that someone had just run out of soap and went to the store to get more!  Why not take the opportunity to put the dirty dish into the dishwasher?  Is it too flipping hard?

I don’t think he was too happy when I went downstairs and told him to go upstairs and put the dirty plate in the dishwasher.  This shit really needs to stop.  He has all the time in the world but can’t keep his room or the bathroom clean, can’t put his dirty dishes away, can’t turn off ANY light in the house, and can’t find a job.  At his age, I was working FULL TIME and went to college FULL TIME.  I paid my own way thru college and I have no empathy for his lack of motivation to get a job.  Hell, I even washed my own clothes, vacuumed my own apartment, and made my own meals!

Really, why would he want to get a job?  He steals money from my business, gets money from his mother, gets a free cell phone from us (oh, he is suppose to pay), gets free car insurance from his dad (that’s another great story), and gets more money from his dad.

In the next few blog posts, I’ll visit a typical day of KOTS, the milk glass that always has an inch of milk in it (it’s amazing!), and much more!  This is just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to all the fun stories we’ll explore.  Hang on my two dear followers, it’s going to be a fun ride!

Back from NYC

~ K ~ Leave a comment

Ok, my two dear blog readers.  I failed to mention that I was leaving town for a week to NYC to attend my cousin Stephen’s graduation from college.   I know this probably upset my stalker Cyndi greatly and my deepest apologies for that.  I had every intention to write my blog every evening on my trip with a nice green tea or perhaps a whisky to get the creative juices flowing.

However, I got back a week ago and I didn’t write a thing during the trip or since I’ve been back.  It was my first trip to NYC and I was busy most of the time.  Pleas keep in mind, my knowledge of New York City is based on CSI: New York, Law & Order, and numerous terrorist movies created by Hollywood.  I also based my knowledge on various subway/gang movies I’ve seen over the years.  As your little worse case scenerio mind can think, I imagined the absolute worse when I got to NYC.  I thought there would be thieves, thugs, and whores on every corner.  Sadly, my dear readers, it wasn’t as bad as one would (or could) imagine.

I did most of the usual tourist things…walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, stroll thru Central Park, ride the subway, visit Little Italy, see Ground Zero and Times Square.  I was impressed and amazed at the architecture, the large buildings, the cities within the city itself.

The one thing I was warned about was the large  amount of walking you’d do while in New York.  Heck, they weren’t kidding.  I walked an amazing distance.  It was like hiking in the Cascade Mountains.  You know those short 15 mile round trip day hikes to Snow Lake or Gem Lake?

So the neighborhood my cousin and his wife in is a nice area, a few blocks from Central Park and not far from the Mayor of New York’s “official” residence.  The mayor of New York doesn’t actually live there since he is a multibillionaire and perfers his own place over the official residence.  Who could blame him?

Enough of my rambling thoughts for this evening.  We’ll pick this up later.

Working Late

~ K ~ Leave a comment

It’s about 1:40 am and I’m whipping out some work.  My desk is overflowing with projects that rob me of my time.  I just finished up some small photography jobs but I still have some bookkeeping to do.  I had a bookkeeper but she quit on me and dropped me like a hot rock.  So currently, I wearing that hat for a while.  I believe I’ve found a new person to do the data entry part of the bookkeeping and I’ll be free again.

I wouldn’t mind if I could get rid of the deposit job as well and the bill paying.  However, in this economy it is hard not to worry about cash flow and making sure the bills are all paid.  Granted, I’m sure someone would pay my bills on time.  My major concern is that I have the funds to actually pay my bills.  During my busy fall and spring photography seasons, I don’t worry about the money coming in.  It’s during the summer I am a bit stress.  I don’t have a lot of photography jobs that pay quickly; most of the summer projects are family portraits and the sales cycle (and payday) is a longer process.

That cuts into the old cashflow!

Well, I’m headed off to bed.  I’m off to West Seattle this morning, up to Ballard, and over to Green Lake before I head back to Burien and then finally Kent.  No rest for the wicked…

Go Google Yourself and Aikido

~ K ~ Leave a comment

I always Google myself because I love being number one! Let’s face the facts, my name is unique and so it very easy to be number one. That itself is a problem because I do have a hard last name (hard to spell, not hard to remember…just think of “hell” where you don’t want to go and “regal” and you got it). If you don’t remember exactly how to spell it or what profession I’m in (I’m in so many, it’s hard to keep track).

I’m a photographer…a real estate investor…now a writer… blogger.

A new hobby I’ve taken up is aikido. It is a non aggressive martial art so it suits me just fine. I’m not an aggressive person and subscribe to the the school of thought of staying out of harm’s way. A very good book called “the Gift of Fear”