The Ottermanempire.com

I have realized that a good exercise for any political philosophy  would be to see  how well it works on the camping scale.  I’ve just been through that this weekend with Creddy.   

Simple Idea.    People say in advance what they are going to do , what they will bring.

We had the Sat AM breakfast which meant that Friday night we’d not have to do anything other than eat.   I wish.  You see just because someone makes an offer to do a meal  you shouldn’t expect them to have the pots, pans and ,er , oh  the  goddamn stove available to do it.   Luckily we brought two, why? let’s just say we have a  pretty good handle on  this kind of thing and spent more money on a stove and gas to accommodate a shortfall that came up earlier. I doubt it will be repeated unless we’re doing all the food / cooking since buying at the last minute is way too costly on a few people. 

Additionally we  ended up doing extra cooking that negated the entire point of organizing it. E.g we rest on the meals we’re not doing, ha!  

Next.

A disappointing  trip to J G guns in Prescott.  We used to love driving up there for food at one of the local eateries, buy ye olde  gun, come back happy.

Over the last year though it ceased being fun and the counter on a Saturday seemed to be more competition than commerce. 

Creddy has a full post over here and while we thought that she was being ignored at the show in Phoenix a year back this one was far more obvious. I can’t think of a single person with a passing interest in guns that  we’ve not told about the store, e.g it being worth the drive, but those days have come to an end.

I don’t know a lot about the older 9mm Smith / Wesson autos  so her asking what differences in the  model numbers they had was perfectly valid since, er that’s their job to know. DA?  DAO?   Mag disconnect?   Sorry but you only get to pull off a “superior”  we know more about guns than you attitude when you back it up with something.Anyway see her post for the rest of this it’s quite annoying.

next Up Wanted! 

Ok I think I really dislike the new way to add images in Wordpress 2.5. Flow is crap and the tweaking still needed a jump to HTML which I should just have bloody done in the first place. Ok onto the news. I spent a lot of time

shopping for a ring for Creddy and have to say that SEO is being done so well by three companies that without some interesting search techniques I would have only been able to shop at three credible sites:)

I am glad I persevered since the winner came from www.furthers.com which suffers from possibly the worst check out system ever the still functions:) . I messed up the price since I thought I could count, oh I can, just a shitty 10 key operator and stiffed them $10 , paid them of course but the carts appearance made me go check out the cert / co etc just to be sure.

On a funny note one of the “hacker safe ” sites, the kind that’s meant to be so rigorously checked to ensure all their shit is above board. E.g they are meant to check the site daily and if it’s not in compliance the logo isn’t displayed. Well one of the sites on my travel had an expired cert on it, over 2 weeks old, and still had that stupid logo. Oh the logo works do a search on the goog for it and you can see real A:B comparisons of more sales because people believe what they see. Kudos for the people that market the variants of these it’s the best idea since bottled water from a city source:D

Anyway tried to buy the ring locally. Fat chance. In the end I got a price from a local store that was way over the net price and had a 4 week waiting period. I’ll pay premium in my hand today.. four weeks is taking the piss though.

Just Metal has a good selection, Edward Mirell I couldn’t get close to finding locally and had the long lead times and  sadly the true tension settings , a la Kretchmer ,  were out of price this time round but also it’s too big to get under a bike glove.  Take time to read about the man it’s a severe annoyance that he died so young.

This site , Titanium Era I really liked, and that seems to have the SEO part nailed, and I’ll be going there soon as I work out what size I am:) . Their timascus rings are awewome and I want a matching knife to go with that:D

While sitting in ER for oh say; six hours I have come up with several ways to improve the process and nearly all of it is to do with data. and one to do with the kind of service that makes me want to put people in ER , sadly they are already there.

In a nutshell.; If you have to have a sign up saying; that your company cares it’s already too late for you.

Erin was carted from the workplace today  after chest pain; with all the accompanying symptoms that suggest something is having a hearty old attack on the main pump. She’s stable and hopefully resting after a long time to get from waiting room to a waiting room to a bed  in the corridor to one in the ward to having the room usurped

Early indications are that nothing immediately serious is present but  we’ll know more in the morning.

Today was my second real day back at work after the new year. It was to last  oh about 2 hours before I had to head out to meet Erin at the ER.  Dobhran had began shaking in distress and was having considerable pain issues while running  a fever.    Looks like he had very early pneumonia and was taking an adverse reaction ,   drugs,  breathing treatment and some antibiotics to take home. He sacked out, letting me get some work done.  

Which is great since I couldn’t get up the “important” story about Facebook taking action against screen scraping and could have spent all day shouting at the screen.  Really  on days like this it’s hard to get the Golgafrincham B Ark out of my head.

 Iz affy  crew ell  this but He’s nae  Scottish, ergo crap an aws fair in love an wahr:)

Ms Erin over at  otterpupdesigns.com knocked this one out.

 Over the last couple of weeks my parents have been in town.  Since I have a massive amount of vacation time , and Erin’s recovering from her bike 2.0 mashup, I took all of it off +1 day to get Erin to an appointment tomorrow morning.   On the whole we had a sedate  type of vacation with much of the usual touristy stuff  bypassed in favour of the practical nature of finding another vehicle, making sure  kids trip to ER was the only one  ( he’s taken a real shine to climbing and falling) and working our way through casual diner attitudes.  I’ve  barely touched computers,  read only a few deserving blogs and kept my email to  under 5 pieces  and don’t feel the worse for it.

Purely anecdotal but since the last visit it seems like wait staff, retail clerks and most service industries we interacted with are staffed by  humorless, cookie cutter clones that seem to have totally bought into their commerce cog role.Anything that’s not in the line of being an expert at detecting false currency  or fake id’s is usually not going to interest them.  Why am I being asked if I could  find everything?

Will someone go get me one? put it on back order and call me when it gets here?  ( I’m old enough to remember that being a possibility @36)  no I didn’t think so. I’d rather we dropped the pretense offer of a service that will never be rendered.

While we’re talking about crappy CS let’s  go a car shopping.

Special shout outs to the car dealers that failed to secure our business.

Bell Road Scion

Aziz you truly suck as a salesman for anybody that gives a rats ass about what their wife thinks.Your insulting manner, refusal to acknowledge what we wanted to buy over what you wanted to sell and general ineptitude with the truth has done your franchise proud.

Bell Road Ford

Josh,  It doesn’t matter that your bosses want you to call up and keep reminding us about their great offers. If you don’t have the car we want , an Escape Hybrid, we’re not going to buy it. Tell those assholes that you’re losing ANY future chance that  we’ll ever buy from their dealership. 

Bill Luke Dodge

Ah Heather  really so SO  very close. We’d agreed on a price after the usual bullshit of having our direct requests ignored in favour of their usual  dog and pony show where they try to sell you  $800 car alarms that costs me $140 online (OEM)it’s plug and play and really easy to install. How hard is it? Patriot, any color, minimal trim and an Auto Tranny? 

I said I would  arrange financing privately and get back with you. Get a call from her before  9am asking were I was at.   Thankfully this convinced me that I didn’t want to deal with ANY  new car dealer and redoubled our efforts to get a second hand one. There’s a second hand Isuzu Rodeo outside.   I own it, no payment , fuck them all.

Walmart:

Bought a fresh turkey, the bag broke on the treadmill covering some produce. Not only did I have to clean it up  but I had to buy the unusable produce.  Supervisor refused to engage Erin on this and wandered off.  Their fucking packaging broke , took out yet to be paid for items which she made us pay for. We’ll see what their reply is on this one.

Finally bought a GPS , Finally bought a seatbelt cutting knife that doesn’t say “weapon” as much as my m16fd does, least that’s what paranoid idiots hear…

We changed the brakes on the Aerio and on the bike. Oh and saw a cop throw a guy to the ground and draw on him for  , what looked like rather non threatening  behavior but hey  you can’t believe your own lying eyes so I’m sure it was entirely reasonable.   Oddly  3 of the party saw this,  my  mother from the UK  totally oblivious   interesting:)

Product: 911 First Response Knife

Widely considered a highly effective emergency tool, this knife features a 1/8″” thick high-carbon stainless steel serrated blade with screwdriver tip, easy-grip handle, solid tungsten carbide striker-punch and spring loaded trigger for high impact. Blade easily cuts thick seat belts. Includes a nylon carrying case with belt loop and clip. Length: 8″” open, 4.5″” closed. One of our most popular items! Designed by Blackie Collins. Made in USA.

Here’s another tale of going beyond the call of duty to elevate a poor customer experience into something gloriously awful.

For those of you keeping track Erin’s recovering from a motorcycle accident which has made it difficult to walk/stand around. In the short term we’re going to get an SUV with auto transmission that she can get in and out off until she’s able to get back on a bike. Friday: We went to Frontline Trucks on Camelback road and saw a suitable vehicle but it’s stuck way in the middle and would require quite a bit of effort to get it out. Erin was already sore and we couldn’t wait for that eventuality. Called them back today to arrange a test drive , set a time.. got there.

By now you know they hadn’t moved the truck, didn’t seem to fussed that they’d wasted our time or start to provide any resolution on perhaps maybe moving the fucking thing. So the impression of a dealer that won’t even move a vehicle to let you test it when it’s in there interest to do so suggests staying far far away.

4610 W Camelback Rd, Glendale, Maricopa, Arizona 85301, United States - Google Maps

Next up:Glendale Pontiac

Salesman told our max price… comes back with a figure nearly double it .. lovely. Just say hey sorry you’re not spending enough ,you’re not providing us a means to rip you on a trade in and with no finance frankly It’s not worth my time talking with you rather than insulting us.

 Fun day,   took the Meanie to work ( that’s a 1600 V twin Kawasaki that’s really not nearly as mean as they make out)   and since it was  one of the  Employee appreciation days  ,  we break around midday to  either go bowling, movie, eat and sometimes two out of the three. Today was bowling and while  the the team I was with had a great first round we dumped the second set.    Usually after these  events people wander home early , or on time if you start at 0700,  so I took a trip to see a BMW F800s that was for sale  and to get a trade in price for one. Walk in the door,  my boss is standing there  with…  the very bike I’d came to see already in the bag so no F800 for me.  I was also looking for trousers since tending to Creddy’s  road rash has made me appreciate non sucky gear even more than previously.

I am  selling the  Meanie,  it’s a great  short distance  bike, you know  cruising 40-50 miles, stop , drink, yap,  repeat   but it’s not me. It’s stable , really stable at speed , sounds amazing and tis so shiny that la gazza ladra is after it. 

 I’m   stuck in two camps  I love speed and I love comfort  and on the whole prefer to leave the chain behind and go  shaft  which most of my bikes have had.   I’ve had a chain  come off and whip round just missing leg and one  come off when cornering on a roundabout and lock the rear wheel  (since I’ve since had a kid the accident didn’t do any perm damage. The 1st   i can attribute to  poor maintenance ( hey I was  12)  the second  was just dumb luck ( bad type)  so here we have the F800 which appears to fulfill my  long distance, speedy and stoppy sensations and not cost an arm and a leg plus they had an offer in OCT for low finance for the very model that they won’t have in for a bit. Still I’ll get to see “my” bike at work 

BMW Motorcycles: Bikes: F 800 S

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Following up from the  Helmet pics    I’ve posted  video of what the bike looks like over on podcast.john-paxton.com .   Erin has  three broken bones in her foot, they’ve  gotten her toe back in place (  yeah that’s with protective gear)  and  she’s  seemingly  well enough to be abused by her superviser..  more on that later.  The police left us with some incomplete notes,  wouldn’t take Erin’s statement and  cited her for a completely  unknowable offense for a guy that didn’t see what happened and it seems that  bikes for this guy = party to ticket .   

Then there’s the lawyers..  oh gawd bring them on.

It hit me that  people bemoan the number of lawyers in existence but rarely the circumstances that spawned them. Given the  fucking la la land that most people drive around in  ( I’m so going to  check to see if that woman’s phone was in use  when she crossed the lane)  plus  the cavalier and offhanded nature that Law Enforcers exhibit  to people in genuine distress it’s not wonder there’s so many. 

 The behaviour is so far from the platitudes that adorn their cars.  Seriously  , just have ” Because ? We can!”   own it, live up to it , sure you’ll be annoying, but  at least you won’t be hypocrits.

I’m just back from the hospital were Erin  is recovering after  loosing an argument with a mini van.

 Apart from  a couple of broken bones in her foot ( they think, nice that guesses from the Dr)  she’s rashed up a bit  and over the next few days more details, pics of the bike ( what’s left of it)  and thoughts about clothing manufacturers   will follow.  I’ll be taking the laptop in for her tomorrow and since I have insurance, impound lots and the like to deal with I’m taking a rare personal day ..

Helmet, came off.  It fit her properly, was tightened in fact the strap is still on it  but still the thing came off. It took damage to both sides, rear and  cracked right through.   Gloves good,  Jacket  total loss since they cut it off her but it really sucked in protection terms  and I’d like to find out if all mesh jackets behave this poorly or just this brand.

There’s a point to  “all gear ,  every trip”  and the chances of taking 3 blows to the head with no helmet and living?  That’s for you think about .

We’ve talked about it,  threatened it  and I’ve been living with the peer embarrassment of assisting many people get their podcasts up and running  yet not having a regular outlet of my own.

The good news is Creddy is now interested in following through with a  2-3 times a week < 20  min show  “Reivers of reality”  which is not a misspelling and a deliberately  arcane choice.   Reivers are  from the area of the Scottish borders from which I originate and are raiders, pirates, rustlers and a few other   less savory behaviors which I assure you we don’t partake in.    Why now?     Basically there’s not enough exposure for our world view. Even in  groups that are meant to  have a reality  based outlook the ability to  go of gods in the  form of the State and the man upstairs seems to be sorely lacking.     Oh and we need friends too as well as stocking up on the enemies list. 

So expect a few shaky weeks until we get used to this …

One of the amusing things about Americans

is their belief that geography is a strong point of theirs as long as you’re restricted to world superpowers of which they consider the number to be one.  And guess who is considered to be a superpower?  Last week Erin, myself and a group of motorcyclists took a drive up to Baghdad , the one in Arizona, in a bid to better understand how our motorcycles perform while obeying all posted speed limits.

This being my first time out on the cruiser outside of the city or the freeway system and it was quite interesting to have more than one corner going in one direction slowly.  It is also interesting to see how much one forgets over a decade  and what used to be a no brainer, e.g  act don’t think  is now sadly being retarded by ego trying to keep itself in one collected place…  Oddly that the nearer death we are the more we think there’s to lose and thus try to avoid it further..  Ok the fat ass, I mean Meanstreak really does brake , steer and pull out of hilly twisty corners way better than something that size should be able to, it’s not the most comfy thing to date but we did about 300 miles that day and woke up without new aches the day after but I am getting ahead of ourselves  here.

There really is a café in Baghdad.

Talk about your captive audiences.  One of the things that Erin and myself have often talked about is running a small café  e.g  a breakfast and lunch establishment in a small remote town and then coming up with a rather interesting menu that would not be expected in such a location.  The miners café in Baghdad does not require much through a review  other than to say that the food did not make us sick.  And it’s amazing what you can buy at Sam’s Club when you have a catering business. In other words, this was the kind of meal being phoned in by people who would probably rather be doing things other than serving meals.  Yet, looking around the town I was puzzled by what that could possibly be. Seriously, and proving that many true word is spoken in jest.  The best part about Baghdad is the road in which by happy coincidence is also the road out.

All in all it was fun riding with the group for the first time and we will do it again if we can trick someone into looking after our wonderful child

Today the meanie, myself and  Erin ( you didn’t think I called her the former did you?) took the bike’s out for bagels and brooming down to South Mountain to navigate some single lane roads with delightful drop offs.  The  fat ass ( the bike, not me ) acquitted itself well and the  speedo seems to be stuck at 80 for some reason.    I still am not sure if this is the bike for me.  I have this  love hate relationship with it that’s  partly based on how happy the bike’s appearance makes others feel. Seriously there’s something weird about the image that the Meanie projects versus it’s capabilities of my other bike,an SV65O which can rape it’s ass in everything apart from shit eating grin factor, that non riders get.  

Dobhie is so cute that he’s bordering on illegal.

It’s my birthday, no don’t worry  few others cared either, and we had a nice lunch thanks to Erin’s parents at Pappadeaux’s  where I can  get my boudin on , a rare event in Cajun eateries in Phoenix which are rare in themselves , and to be fair most are crap.   Food and service was as usual slower than advertised but generally excellent.    And then  settle down to have a  nice game of C and C 3. Kane better win this time:)

Good evening

Several years ago I tried a program called Dragon naturally speaking it frustrated the hell out of me.  That was back in version 4 now we are off to 9.5 and so far I can see major improvement has been noticed even when using a cheap microphone that came free with a package. So I will know launch boldly into our Saturday’s tasks.

Morning was breakfast breakfast was good.  Started off the day with the car not starting.  The battery was flatter than an uncorrected teenage pop singer.  At least I got a  jump this morning.[ We headed out for the mountain town of Prescott where the temperatures are rumored in fact, and indeed were to  be found at are at least 10 deg  cooler than a furnace we left called Phoenix. Prescott was running a crafts fair essentially turning over the center of their town in an attempt become Sedona light. Naturally no trip to Prescott would be complete without a visit to JG  guns, sadly all of the other people in attendance had the same idea and trying to even get a look at the cases was rather difficult, frustrating and not helped by the presence of our child who is yet to appreciate the joy of firearms.

While wandering around the streets of this fair we were assailed accosted even, by people with free pizza samples. Good samples we found ourselves 10 minutes later at the restaurant giving away those free samples and apart from myself trying to decorate the place with my soda was a really good meal.

The whole purpose of this enterprise originally it was to take Dobhran somewhere cooler so that he could play outside, maybe even see a lake or at the very least give the cats a break in their very exciting life of dodging his projectiles, ministrations and general feline unfriendly behavior.  He slept.  Yep 80 plus miles out of the way and he slept. The rest of the day was spent going to a dealer for products ( Buell)  that they didn’t actually stock yet had considerable amount of signage and advertising to the contrary. Apparently they don’t sell much of these items which may possibly have something to do with the fact that they couldn’t even pull one out off their asses should somebody turn up with the appropriate funding to do so.

On the whole I didn’t need to correct many of the general words when writing this post by the salad is yet and still fairly on trying;)