SteveWords

Sunday, May 13, 2007

One Thing Wrong With Our Schools…

My wife and I were talking the other day about the tests that they give to elementary school kids. Apparently the tests are designed more to confuse the kids, not give an indication of what they have learned. The test also wants the kid to figure out something that wasn’t necessarily explained in the instructions given with the test. The ambiguity of the test confuses the kids and the teachers too.

If we are going to have an education system that excels worldwide we need to test the students on the subject at hand at an appropriate level. Basically our scores are low because our tests are screwed up. If we would stop playing head games with the tests, and really test on the knowledge the student has gained our kids would have a fighting chance out in the big world. We could be proud of our next generation!

Comments?

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Building Fences

There are lots of stories about fences in history. Some fences keep out the bad guys, some keep in the bad guys. Some fences keep the nosey neighbors in line. I wanted a fence that was a little different than the ordinary fence. I wanted a fence that could be opened and closed anywhere along its length. A little bit more creative fence to make it more useful to me.

To do this project I called American Fence Co. in Prescott Valley, AZ. The estimator came by to see what I wanted to build. I told him my vision of the perfect fence for me. He freaked! Apparently my kind of fence was outside of his comfort zone! He only builds only one kind of fence. The permanant kind. Fences that don’t move, or that don’t work with the owner. There was no creativity in his soul.

There is something very interesting in this story. When you are in business, there will occasionally come by something that is a little out of the ordinary. In my business I see different things every day. Change happens almost momentarily. In order to survive in a business, you must embrace new ideas and try them out to see if they will work. There is never harm in trying something new. New ideas are what make us advance as a society. Could building a new type of fence harm society? I think not!

I am highly disapointed with American Fence Company, because they have no vision and no creativity. Because of my experiance with their estimator, I would not recommend them to build your fence. Look for somebody with vision and you will get a better fence. Leave your comments below and I will answer them!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Chicago at Timmy’s Toy

Well-Mary and I went to see Chicago at Timmy’s Toy (The new name for for Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott Valley) tonight. A very interesting and LOUD experiance! Chicago as a band is still very good. The sound guy, to put it sucinctly-sucked! The first several songs that they played were practically unrecognisable as to what they were because they were so loud that the sound system was in total distortion mode most of the time! He had lots of watts and used them all-all the time! There were a few songs in the middle that he came down slightly on and they became slightly easier to hear, but by and large the concert was a great dissapointment to me. In the beginning I wasn’t sure that the band on stage was really Chicago. They sounded a little like them, they were introduced as the real Chicago, but you couldn’t prove it by me. Even now they could be easily a fake. The sound was that bad!

Maybe I am too much of a critic. I have been in the sound and video business for almost 40 years. I know what I like and what I don’t like. I have been to many shows that were really messed up by a bad sound guy. I good example was a Beach Boys concert that I went to a few years ago. The same thing happened. It messed up the whole show for me, because it was just loud, not good. Having new, really good sound equipment doesn’t nessessarily make for good sound. The key is the guy who runs it. He will make or break the show.

The other side of this is shown by a show that I went to quite a few years ago at the Mile High Middle School. It was called Prescott Junior High then. There was this band that came in with this really raggetty sound system. The speakers were patched up and re-glued. The boxes were scuffed up. The microphones were an eclectic collection. You would think that these guys would sound bad. I was surprised when they started playing. They sounded really good! The sound was clear and you could hear all the instruments really well!

This proves to me that maybe the big boys should be a little more careful when they hire a sound guy. They need to remember that a good sound guy makes the show wonderful. A bad sound guy makes the show stink and gives the band a bad rep. Something to think about!

What’s your take on this? Were you there at the Chicago concert in Prescott Valley? Please leave your comments here or send me an e-mail at steve@angelfireaz.net . I would love to hear from you!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Get out of real estate now!

Several months ago my wife and I were on one of our walks and we happened on a duplex for sale. I grabbed one of the info sheets on the pole outside and began reading. Shock hit! This very average building was for sale for $350,000.00! It was built about 1 year before for something like $180,000.00. I decided to run the numbers on this property. The payments on a standard 30 year loan were about twice what it rented for! There was no way that you could double the rent and still find tenants willing to pay that much. There was no way to get a profit out of this property as an investment. I tried everything that I could think of to find a way to make out on this property. This is-to me-a sign that real estate has finally hit the wacko level in our area.

Now the news is saying that house sales are down. I wonder why?