Additional preperation for my new fledgling business requires that I get a seperate phone number from home number.  This will allow me to 'shut off' the number at night and sent it straight to a voicemail or answering machine.  By getting a dedicated phone number, I will be able to print business cards and letterhead.  Further, it doesn't make sense to set up a business account at the bank until I have a dedicated phone number.  So off I go - to set up a new number.

I start with research.  What number do I want.  My wife makes a suggestion of the last 4 digits spelling 'draw'.  I think thats a great idea so I start looking around.  Online, through myriad of searches, I find that there are no results anywhere to be found for the phone number that I want.  Similar numbers in my area all return results of owners and data.  But not the number I want.  Then I call the number and get the recorded message of:

"This number is not currently in service."

Ok - all looks well - so the next step is to get the service.  I call Qwest, the major provider in my area.  I request new service and go through the process.  The customer service agent explains my options and pricing.  I explain the number that I want.  He says 'no problem'.  He goes through the order process and gives me my order number and confirmation.  I provide an email address for confirmation also.

The next day I check my email and find that he had setup the wrong phone number.  --  back to the phones to Qwest again to cancel that order and get the number I wanted and originally requested.  The new agent tells me that number is 'not available'.  I ask why and they tell me its 'not available'.  Ugh.

So I spend 3 hours on the phone, trying to get supervisors that know what is going on.  In the end, they tell me that Qwest does not own the number I requested and they think AT&T might own it.

Now, here I sit, using my lunch hour to sit on hold with agents who barely speak english.  I've lost count of the number of times I have had to have them repeat things because it is impossible to understand them.  Each agent says (I think they say...) "you need to use a new number, you can't use the same number'.  No, I say, I don't 'NEED' to do anything you say, and ask for a supervisor.  2 minutes and someone (I can't tell who and a name was not provided), says (I think), 'you need to take a new number'.  UGH!!!

Off this person ssends me to a NEW department AGAIN, and lo and behold - wrong number - 'call cannot be completed as dialed.'  Morons.

Fortunately, I dug a number out of him so I get back on the phone - again.  Oh - but what do you know - the same message 'your call cannot be completed as dialed.'  Morons.

What do I have to do?  If I was a big company, Qwest would have jumped at the chance to serve me.  They would have done whatever needed to get me the number of my choosing. 

So I'll get back on with AT&T, try and find someone who speaks plain english and try again.  Why don't I just get a regualr phone number?  Because this is the number I want.  I'll have this number possibly until the day I retire so why can't I just start with it in the first place.

 

Morons.

Many, many years ago, I dreamed of starting and running my own business.  Not long after returning home from our year in California, I returned to school in Rexburg Idaho to get my drafting degree.  I focused on residential drafting and design.  Some of my early years work can be found at http://www.sirduncan.com/sd/resume and clicking on 'Arch 280 Portfolio'.  I never was much good for hand rendering, but the line drawings were enjoyable.

But hand drafting was not going to be my thing, I was a computer drafter.  I studied Architectural Desktop and Revit.  I studied estimating and some management.  But through it all, and I spoke often of this with my wife, I always planned on starting and running my own business.  Through the past few years, I started my website; http://www.jdarchdesigns.com, and have offered my services to family and friends.  However, I believed I was still easily a full year out from truly getting moving on this.  I was wrong.

A few weeks ago, I met a man from Hamilton MT (where we are now living) who is a succesful general contractor in this area.  After talking sometime, he made it clear that he would be willing to invest in me and my new company.  The past few weeks have been slightly hectic as things have literally fallen into place around me.  Everything I always imagined would happen is now happening and it is slightly mind numbing to believe.

So now, here we are the middle of May, 2007, and I have clients starting to come together.  I'm not quitting my day job, so to speak, yet, but it is quickly looming and I believe that it could easily be within the next few months that I 'break out'.

Through my investor, I now have my plotter (HP 800ps 42"), the software (ArchiCAD 11), and as soon as I quit my day job, I'll be getting my Laptop (Dell M90).  Alltogther, the opportunity is coming at me fast and I'm grabbing it as quickly as I can.

Come back and read more of my new business adventure as it continues to unfold.

Gasoline is simply NOT an optional consumable.  The quantity of gas used can be adjusted, but I can't stop driving to work.  I can't stop driving to the store to bring home $100 dollars worth of groceries.  Chocolate milk is optional.  Brand new clothes are optional.  PDA's and cell phones and tomatoes and steak and all of these things are optional.  Gas is not for the majority of people.

I don't believe gas companies care whether I take a vacation in my car or not or if I drive 2 blocks to get a burger.  They sit in their offices and look at the reports that say the average american travels 16 miles to commute to work.  Add up the millions of people who MUST work and therefore MUST drive those 16 miles each day, and the gas companies salivate.  Its the required mileage that we must make that makes the gas companies money.

The real problem is there is no control on gas prices.  If Maverick is charging to much - where do you go?  another gas station that is charging too much?  They inch it up and inch it up.  Think back 10 years and what was the average gas price increase?  2 cents?  maybe 3?  Now its jumping by 10's up and 2-3's down.  The ONLY reason that gas isn't $35/gallon is because the public would be at outrage if they suddenly jumped the price.  Riots would ensue - governments would step in and finally put some heavy regulation on gas prices.  Heaven forbid the gas companies allowing that so they continue to inch it up.  Nothing but public outrage can stop them.  But just like the frog sitting in cool - then warm - then hot water - the public just accepts it.  If the gas companies 'boiled' the water and threw us in - no way would we take it.

You get enough analysts out there telling us all the reasons for the price increases and the public just accepts it.  Katrina - oil lines - war - whatever.  But in reality - the gas prices are climbing because gas companies don't feel that 30 billion dollars in pure profit is enough in a measly 90 day period.  And since nothing is stopping them (including the public), they'll continue to increase it until they are making that same 30 billion in 30 days - then 30 hours, then 30 minutes etc... and the Americans who say 'inflation' - or 'katrina' - or regurgitate the same nonsense spat out by the analysts getting paid by the gas companies, (ie "Germany pays $5.00+ per gallon") are getting hosed all around.

 

ugh

What about it?  What about war?  This morning I read an extraordinary article:

http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=3042293&GT1=9212

There are so many people who are so vocal about the war.  So many people are against the war.  So many people are for the war.  So many people want to share with the world their own personal views on the war in Iraq.  I guess, in a way, this article is just that - a personal opinion of the war.  And yet, it is oh so different.

The citizens of the United States, as a general whole, are concerned for the safety and well being of our soldiers serving in Iraw.  As well they should be.  As am I.  I would also guess that most soliders would rather not be in Iraq, or in any war.  They would rather be at home.  But they are not, nor can they be right now, so they mostly go about their 'jobs' and protect and serve.

But this article was so different.  This article, entitled 'I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War' 'A soldier's lament' shares a much different point of view.  I found the reading captivating.  I was unable to stop reading until I reached the end.  How many people in the US consider this part of the war?  How many people, especially those fighting to bring the soldiers home, consider this soldiers account?  Surely not I.

The article was enlightening and, after you read the article, I welcome your thoughts and comments regarding the same.

This post is related to:

http://lifestyle.msn.com/familyandparenting/raisingkids/articleab.aspx?cp-documentid=2525480>1=8990

I believe that the fall of the family is due to the lack of true parenting. I believe that kids are more disrespective and more unruly than ever before because parents are not willing (or able) to discipline and repremand like they should/could.

The article linked to above is talking about spanking in particular. Yes, I spank my children when they are being bad. The article, and apparently the members of the AAP, use the words 'spank' and 'hit' interchangeably. I think this is wrong. I believe that children, for the most part, know the difference between 'hitting' and 'spanking'. According to http://www.synonym.com/synonym/spank, 'hit' is NOT a synonym of 'spank'. But the AAP seems to consider them the same so that they can say that parents who 'spank' their children are actually 'hitting' their children, which would be grounds for child removal. But this is clearly not the case. AAP, lets try and use the words properly so as not to soley make a point.

I was raised with many brothers and sisters. My parents spanked on a regular basis based on what we, as children, had done wrong. I never once felt that my parents we 'hitting' me - far less 'abusing' me. I felt that I had done something wrong and part of the punishment was a spanking. We were spanked with hands and paddle boards. I don't believe my parents ever used a belt on the children, for sure never on me.

Spanking is punishment for doing something wrong. Parents who teach their children that spanking is a punishment, can know that the children know the same. However, the point of this article is the fall of the family, but more importantly, the fall of the world. There is an interesting conundrum/catch 22 in the works today.

There are two reasons for this rapidly growing problem.

#1 - Parents today want to be 'friends' with their children.
Parents today are not accepting or will not accept the responsibilties of parenthood. If a human being is old enough to father/mother a child (if we remove the 'mature enough' for now), then they had better well be ready to be the parent. So many parents today are so worried about hurting feelings, or making their chidren not like them that they refuse to parent, discipline or repremand. There are far less spankings today, far less 'groundings', far less child responsibilty.
The result of this change, the lack of parenting, is that the children being raised now do not respect their parents, others' parents or their 'elders' in general. This is extremely damaging to the fabric of society because as this younger generation grows older and begins entering the workforce, they will have no respect for tenure, no respect for bosses. These children will be generally unable to hold jobs, do regular work, and as a result, other people will be forced to sustain them. This is unfair to the other people required to hold them up, but more importantly, it is unfair to the children being raised because, unlike todays generation who have only themselves to blame, this new generation will be able to blame their 'lacking in parenting' parents. They will have no recourse besides a complete change in lifestyle and learning of a very difficult new 'trick', which is respect.

#2 - Parents are UNABLE to reprimand their children, unable to spank.
What is becoming more and more common is social services stepping in and stopping the parenting. Child Protective Services (CPS) has so much power now that they can walk into ANY home at ANY time, take the children away and put the parent(s) in jail for child abuse or neglect or whatever they want. What does this teach this new, growing generation? That if THEY do something wrong, they can avoid being punished (spanking or timeouts) by threatening to contact CPS or tell friends (who will tell their parents who all seem to believe that that particular parent is abusive so better call CPS)

Now let me make something very clear. I know that many, many children have been pulled out of bad situations due to the efforts of CPA. But I believe that in an effort to save every single child, the CPA, and government in general, have gone too far in taking children out of the home. Because of the efforts of CPA and perhaps 'too nosy' neighbors, parents are no longer free to spank their children to discipline them.

The world is going to hell in a handbasket and there are a lot of reasons. However, I believe that a lack of true and effective parenting is a large contributor to the effort.