Ray Bonneville penned a wonderful song about New Orleans and he performed it live in Folk Alley studios, check it out!
Jul 292009
Jul 282009
Ah, the terrible true tale of a telecommuting techie’s fiscal traumatization at the hands of a dim-witted client. Last week a new small business client bounced their initial check for $1,000, and then followed that up via email saying “…sorry, but we don’t know when we can pay you the total due of $3250″ for the site (they’ve said repeatedly they think it’s great) because their products weren’t selling.
The bounced $1,000 check was the deposit on the project, which I held after beginning work on the project because they told me it might not clear “for a few days.” Well, finally, I did deposit it 9 weeks later, and it did bounce like they said it would.
I spent a few weeks of my life to design and build them a nice-looking, ridiculously easy to use, database-driven interactive web site, and then trained the managers, office staff and sales team in how to do all the site tasks they need, like editing and publishing pages, managing users, etc. But since the site went live nobody in the company or the sales team has even logged in lately, letalone edited or added any content [Hello Success Story, or gosh! a video] or manage a user account.
The site is dead in the water of owner/user non-activity. And now I don’t get paid on time because they can’t sell their product. I wonder if there’s a correlation.
Gee, Mr. Company President who can perfume the pig for hours just like Zig Zeigler but can’t balance the company checkbook, when I write a check for business or pleasure it’s spent money and NEVER spent twice. Accounting 101. Sheesh.
My harshest recourse is to take down the site. Who turns off the power when the bill goes unpaid, right? I could turn up the heat a bit and put up a SUSPENDED for NON-PAYMENT page. I’ve read that other developers have done this with some success, although this technique for collecting a past due invoice tends to destroy what’s left of the developer-client relationship. And there’s always Small Claims.
So there are options, but none of them is as good as simply getting paid for services without a load of crap.
I can’t solve the problem of clients who are broke, untruthful, lazy, too busy or stupid but I’m here for [paying] clients, 24/7.
Jul 222009
Jeff Hickey, a wonderfully humorous and witty man, father and gifted musician, who along with Harvey Reid, founded the Third Hand Capo Co. in 1979, died on June 14, two weeks after a single car accident.
I’d known Jeff since the late 80s, when he was the National Sales Manager for Larrivee’ Guitars. He’d roll through Salt Lake City paying visits to the acoustic music stores in a big RV stuffed with guitars, and he knew how to sell em and play em.
Jeff knew how to have a good time, and I learned a lot from his merry prankster ways. We met up at Telluride Bluegrass Festival several times back in the early 90s. He was the presenter of a sweet Larrivee’ Jumbo I won in a fingerstyle guitar competition at the festival in 1990, and I’d been in touch a few times since. Last time we spoke in 2005 or so he was working on his “debut” recording, Loose Ends.
In Harvey Reid’s words:
“Since he has left behind a family with no income, I would like to lead an effort to encourage all those who loved him or enjoyed his company to express their condolences in a way that is consistent with Jeff’s lifelong love of music and participation in the underground “indie” music economy. Rather than sending something like flowers…
In addition to being an industrious and creative guy and a devoted father, Jeff was also a fine musician. To help his family, we are encouraging people to buy a copy of Jeff’s marvelous and award-winning CD “Loose Ends” while they last. He left behind a couple boxes of them, and buying a CD is a great way to remember this fine man and to help his family in their time of need. The CD’s are real, replicated, full-color, shrink-wrapped CD’s, of just Jeff singing with his guitar. Up-close and personal, and brilliantly done...
For more information about ordering a copy of Loose Ends, visit Jeff’s page.
I ordered mine this morning, and I’m sure it’s wonderful. Jeff was a strong fingerstyle player, he had excellent taste and tone, a good voice, and he always had a ton of tunes at his fingertips.
Ah Jeff, I’ll miss you. But I’m glad you left something of your musical self behind to be savored by the people who knew and admired you.
Loose Ends, indeed. You always had a way with words.
Happy Trails, old pal. Please let us earthlings know about any cool celestial capos you come across.
The signs are up along Highway 90 in Gulfport, Mississippi. Judith was a force to be reckoned with on the coast, in life, and, it’s turning out (pun intended) in the afterlife.
She worked tirelessly to set aside and revegetate key parts of the public beach for nesting pairs of Least Terns. To this day her many birdwatching friends are still fighting to preserve and protect this habitat set aside for Least Tern breeding in 1976, right next to Gulfport-Biloxi’s busiest highway. It’s almost impossible to protect it from complete morons who still ignore the signs and fences and tromp through critical habitat, often in the middle of the night, crushing eggs and disturbing the chicks and their parents. I can remember as a kid the Terns dive bombing anyone who got near their nests, day or night.
My mother’s life story is good reading, and an example for anyone to follow in being a real environmentalist.
Jul 172009
A local couple looks forward to a long weekend attending a music festival 120 miles from their mountaintop home. Man gets up early the day before they plan to depart and drives his econobox diesel import 90 miles closer to the event to set up a tent early (he’s a cautious guy) to reserve a spot in a campground located 30 miles from the festival grounds.
90 miles later, the man returns home, having laid the groundwork for a wonderful American-style weekend.
Early the next morning the man gets up and drives 40 miles round trip to drop off their dog to a dogsitter. (Me.) Man then returns home, hooks up pickup truck to his 5th wheel RV and along with spousal unit drives 75 miles up and over a mountain pass back to the aforementioned campground. Sets up RV camp, eats dinner. Probably asleep before sunset.
Friday morning they get in their pickup truck and drive 30 miles to the festival. Drink beer, eat food, listen to music. All well and good. Then its 30 more miles back to camp.
Saturday morning they again drive 30 miles to the festival. Drink beer, eat food, listen to music. All well and good. Then its 30 more miles back to camp.
Sunday morning they drive 30 miles to the festival. Drink beer, eat food, listen to music. All well and good. By afternoon they’ve had enough of the sun, food and music, then its 30 more miles back to camp. The man and woman pack up and head home, 75 miles away.
Once back home, man drops off spousal unit and RV, jumps back into the econobox and drives 40 miles round trip to retrieve his dog.
He was dog tired too.
Isn’t freedom wonderful?
180
40
90
180
90
40
___
720 miles
But is this kind of excess an anomaly for the couple in their quest for mobility? Uh, nope. The man has driven more than once from Montana to the east coast to bring cases of wine to his old friends.
Jul 142009
I see from my site log that a person online from Wasilla visited after clicking a Google search link to an earlier post about SarahPAC one week after Obama took office. Golly. I hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings, especially Sarah’s, with what I said.
I hope you, Sarah, can keep up with everything we in the chattering class have to say. I’m sure it gets old, huh? Has anyone (possibly even a cursed “liberal”) ever offered criticism you felt was valid and it made you somehow stronger?
That WaPo letter you wrote today expressing your concern about Obama’s Cap and Trade actions was brave, but predictable, Republican stuff. Feel better now? How about that blowback that says you don’t know what you’re talking about?
I agree with Andrew Sullivan. You don’t seem to understand cap and trade or acknowledge even one of the imperatives of having one in the first place.
Yes we need to drill responsibly, yes we need lower taxes. But America needs to innovate to survive the effects of stagnation and debt. We need to start making much more than oil when it comes to energy. You don’t seem to understand that as well.
We can’t drill our way out of this hole. We can’t tax our way out either. So don’t get your knickers in a knot about Obama and his plans to pick your pocket. Or waste time trying to cut us chattering nabobs down to size with your seething pen. Ain’t gunna happen, sweetie. We are all in this together, even if we’re worlds apart. Some of us are actually focused on solutions to what ails us. And some aren’t. They’re too busy pointing fingers.
Let’s chat about that, shall we?
| VISITOR ANALYSIS | |
| Referring Link | http://www.google.com/search?q=jay toups&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a |
| Host Name | rdbk-14558.mtaonline.net |
| IP Address | 72.35.116.44 |
| Country | United States |
| Region | Alaska |
| City | Wasilla |
| ISP | Mta Solutions |
| Returning Visits | 1 |
| Visit Length | 5 mins 14 secs |
| VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS | |
| Browser | Firefox 3.0.1 |
| Operating System | |
| Resolution | Unknown |
| Javascript | Enabled |
Navigation Path
| Date | Time | WebPage |
| 14th July 2009 | 03:55:10 | www.google.com/search?q=jay toups&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a www.jaytoups.com/ |
| 14th July 2009 | 04:00:24 | www.google.com/search?q=jay toups&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a www.jaytoups.com/ |
Jul 112009
It’s finally what passes for summer in Montana (It’s 76 F today!) and the Nez Perce Road is full of butterflies. Here they’re lining up on a tire rut that seems to have particularly tasty minerals. Click the pic for a close up. There’s more to the picture than meets the eye, so click!
Jul 062009
Young buck grazing the clover growing along with the daisies and other perennials that abound this time of year. He was quite tame; I was able to approach within 15 feet, talking to him and moving slowly. After taking a few shots with my camera and verbally warning him to “get lost” (he just kept eating…) I turned around and went back into the house for my slingshot and zinged a pebble at him to scare him off. Don’t want him to get too friendly or he’ll wind up in somebody’s freezer sooner rather than later.
Jul 052009
The son of a friend and neighbor passed away yesterday from MRSA. Jesse Dylan Baird, a.k.a. Diggs Dynamite, died in a Los Angeles hospital after struggling with this deadly superbug for a couple of weeks. A lifelong musician, singer, songwriter, drummer and guitarist, Jesse was working on a new CD project. I worked with him on a few technical issues related to the project briefly last summer when he was visiting his parents here in Darby.
Here’s a sample of Jesse’s music. It was fascinating to hear some of his brand of rough and tumble music, almost like he was from another planet where being “larger than life” was a matter of survival. Jesse was a hip guy who lived large and will be missed by a lot of people, me included.
