Moments of Clarity

holy crap...200 tons 

posted by Doug @ 7:53 AM 0 comments

Utah

Went and looked at a fantastic new neighborhood in South Jordan Utah.
$350k (loaded...base is $300k)for about 4400 sq. ft. www.daybreakutah.com

posted by Doug @ 7:15 AM 0 comments

A typical start up scenario

http://blog.inc.com/archives/2005/04/15/diary_of_a_startup_acquirent.html

God this article says it all. "I have a great idea and customers..but I can't bridge the gap"

posted by Doug @ 10:38 AM 0 comments

Rudeness in CA

I do a fair amount of travel around the US on business and consume products and services in many places each month. Additionally, as a former manager of a Corona coffee shop, I dealt with hundreds of people every day. I can say with certainly that rudeness is an epidemic, but fortunately for the rest of the United States, this outbreak has been contained within the “SoCal Hotzone”.

The rudeness we see in society today is a direct result of:
1. Long commutes to jobs in the OC
2. Mom & Dad both working leaves little time for true relaxation (which generates a “make it up on the weekend” attitude) leaving little or no down time since one must “leave early to beat the Saturday traffic”)
3. Lowered expectations on children and their interactions with adults
4. Parents viewing their relationship with their children as “friendship” rather than one of “leadership, guidance, and principle establishment”.

For perspective, I’m a 33 year old father of a two and half year old boy and a 6 month old girl who will probably be moving from CA in the next 12 months to escape this mess. My wife stays home (only because I bought my house in 1998 when you could still buy in Corona for $150k). I couldn’t afford the property tax on my own house now.

posted by Doug @ 2:16 PM 1 comments

fleeing California

The Southern CA culture in general is one of materialism. It's tough to find a neighbor that doesn't have 2 white suburbans, a boat, and a really nice patio cover. Does everyone here make enough money to buy all of that stuff in addition to the super sized house and payment? I'm thinking that the kids are in day care and mommy works in Orange County too. How else to make the payment on the 2nd loan or the equity line of credit?

We have a massive volume of people commuting on our freeways, each one attempting the "slip in" move between two semi trucks when entering the freeway. That one extra spot seems to be worth risking life and limb every day. Even more telling is that after successfully executing the move, we attempt to block the other "jerk" who's trying the same thing behind us. The 2 hours a day of freeway anger and frustration manifests itself in our manners and patience with those around us and rudeness is net result (Ask my wife).

posted by Doug @ 1:02 PM 0 comments