Jack Daniel’s Honey Whiskey
Just had Jack Daniel’s new Honey Whiskey at a Christmas party last night. I’m not really into whiskey in general, but I had to try really hard to limit myself to only two drinks. The honey added a very nice aroma and flavor to normal whiskey drinks.
IT Recruiting Company Reviews
It feels like the economy is turning around – or recruiters are getting desperate. Over the past two years I’ve been getting a lot of hits for jobs that are way out of my skill range, or have two or less keywords on my resume match the job description. It’s obvious that these companies are using the shotgun approach to finding workers in hopes that something will stick.
While I’m not calling any of these companies* scammers, I’d be extremely wary in dealing with them at all. Such an approach to recruiting means that these people are trying to fill a quota and don’t care about either the people they’re recruiting, or the Companies they’re recruiting for.
adroIT Software & Consulting, Inc;
– Contact #1, August 9th, 2011, one keyword match
American Cyber System;
– Contact #1, June 28th, 2011, no keyword matches
– Contact #2, October 12th, 2011, one keyword match
Apex Systems; These people have been on my radar for a while, but have skirted being put on this page for a variety of reasons. I usually get an email from them at least once a month, but here is the problem, they have never contacted me back about any job I tried to apply for that they sent me.
– Contact #xxx, September 01, 2012 – One keyword match – off of former company name!
Atlantic Partners Corporation
– Contact #1, February 1st, 2012 – One Keyword match
Bellsoft Inc;
– Contact #1, August 1, 2011. Job request was not even in my industry!
– Contact #2, September 17th, 2011. Short term contract, 2500 miles away, one keyword match
inSync Staffing;
– Contact #1, October 03, 2012 – One keyword match – MICROSOFT Office! Job was for an architect position.
Mindlance;
– Contact #1, Oct 21, 2011. One keyword match on resume
National Executive Recruiting, “division of a national Medical Diagnostics Company” (their words)
– Contact #1, Jun 12, 2012. No keywords, not at one of my usual emails, position was for Medical Technology Sales. And email started out “Greetings xxx” but not my name.
Paladin Inc;
– Contact #4, Jan 13th, 2012 – Position was minimum wage, entry level copy room. No keyword matches.
– Contact #7, Oct 20th, 2012 – Not in industry. Continue to disregard “unsubscribe” request via link posted in all their emails.
Ramy Infotech; These guys seem to hire Indian recruiters who just spam out jobs to random people. Every email I’ve ever sent them, including ones asking for more information about the position, or the one time I was really interested in the position has been ignored.
– Contact #8, June 28, 2011. One keyword match
– Contact #9, August 31, 2011. Two keyword matches
– Contact #10, October 21, 2011. One keyword match
– Contact #11, October 24, 2011. One keyword match, outside of area
– Contact #12, October 24, 2011. Same as above, even the same recruiter.
*Recruiting Companies; You are on this list because you either;
A.) Declined to mark me in your contact system as unavailable after the third request or do not provide a way to remove myself out of your system
B.) Continue to send Job Descriptions that match two or less keywords out of the 40+ that are on my resume
C.) Are an insurance company recruiting way outside of your industry and using questionable tactics to do so
D.) Repeatedly do not contact me back about jobs that I am interested in, even to say “Thanks! I’ll submit your resume!”
Steak Fingers
Take “finger” sized (or more accurately bite sized) pieces of steak. Tenderize the heck out of them. Dip them in a salt/pepper based batter and deep fry. Totally bad for you but tasty.
It seems that as a kid I ate them all the time, at least I remember seeing them often. But I’ve literally eaten these twice in the past twenty years. Once was about 1999 or so, visiting Union Oregon and a little diner called Gravy Dave’s. Passing through last weekend, they were so busy that I couldn’t afford the delay in my travels so I missed out on seeing if they even still had them.
But on the way back, I accidently found some in Wells, Nevada at the 4 Way Casino and Cafe. It was one of two (non-fast food/C-store junk food) places open. Being chosen as my place of dining was merely happenstance as it was based on it’s relative distance to the road I wished to travel, and the fact that it was not attached to one of the two brothels in town.
Fortunately (or perhaps more unfortunately for my poor non-beef eating wife) recipes, including the purported original version, are on line! The nice thing about this is that they can be prepared and frozen for quick dinners down the road.
So I see a future full of breaded, deep friend steaks!
A solution for Universal Health Care
There is no reason we could not have “Socialized” Health Care (instead of it’s true meaning – Universal Health Care,) have it cheaper, and allow it to serve all people, AND still have the ability to bypass the “Lifetime Cap” that so many people are afraid of. It does mean that all sides would have to make sacrifices though, plus the Insurance and Health Care Industries would have to undergo some major changes.
Step One would be to Nationalize ONE major Insurance Carrier. This company would have a cap of 6.5% profit margin. They would operate independently of the US Government, but would answer to Congress, the Judicial Branch, and it’s investors. The 6.5% Profit margin is below high risk funds, but slightly above most medium risk funds making it a good company for larger funds to invest in. The company would have as it’s mandate to reduce costs as long as it is not at the expense of the care their clients would receive. Their secondary goals would be 99% customer satisfaction, 5% or less waste, 90% Employee Satisfaction, and client processes that are as simple as possible. This means Bonuses, company perks, benefits, etc – you want the place to be a happy place to work which means happy and productive workers who in turn give good service to the clients.
Step Two would be to mandate health care upon everyone. Companies would still contribute to Health Insurance just like they do now, and would need to include part time employees in the plan. I would allow them the ability to only need to pay 75% of the cost of a full time employee for the part timers though so it would still be cost effective to have part time employees in certain situations. Although I would not allow the number of part time employees exceed more then one half of the number of full time employees unless special circumstances warranted it.
Step Three would be to put a cap on Doctors earnings, I’d still make it fairly high to make the industry attractive. In return they would be exempt from general malpractice suits, although they would still be liable for gross negligence. I would make it easier for Doctors to consult with each other, including a national database (and forums!) of illnesses and diseases, their symptoms and a step by step regime for each one. Controls would be put in place to allow doctors to step outside of that regime when needed – probably a peer review committee randomly selected of doctors and retired doctors within the local geographic area. Doctors would also need to go through a periodic re-examination. The test would include mental abilities, skills, and face to face behaviors. It would also be partially dependent on their patients treatments, recoveries, and happiness with the doctor in general.
Step Four: Give the FDA more power to analyze and enforce Food and Drug quality controls and tests. They would also have the ability to fast track promising new drugs and greater ability to use human volunteers. The FDA would also have the power to price control drugs, making it cheap enough to be cost effective for general use.
Step Five: Drug and Medical Supply Companies. As above, I’d Nationalize one of each industry. The goals would be the same, with the same profit margins, employee bonuses, etc. Drug Companies would not be allowed to give gifts to doctors and such would be as tightly controlled as campaign donations are for politicians. (Or more so.) Companies would still be allowed to patent and license technologies, plus sell their own house brands of common medications.
Step Six: Consumers/Patients would be able to purchase additional insurance to hedge against costs that went over the lifetime cap – I think most people are saying $3 million lifetime. The exact finances would have to be worked out, but say you want to go to a five million lifetime cap. You’d have to add say $1.5 million to a general fund that is only payable upon your death, or upon your reaching the $3 million dollar cap. Excess monies in the fund at your death would be inherited, taxed at a slightly lower rate (to encourage starting the fund in the first place,) but would only go into your inheritors own fund. Half the interest on the fund would go to the company that administrats these funds and the other half would go back into the fund itself. The companies would only be allowed to reinvest the money in low and medium risk ventures as determined under supervison of the SEC, but would be liable for any decreases of more then 10% over the life of the fund. IE – if a person puts in $1 million dollars over their lifetime, but the funds value decreases to $500,000 the company would be liable for the missing $500,000.
Individual Users would be able to get a .05% tax break per a year that they’re able to see a Doctor for regular check ups. They would also be able to get another .05% tax break once every ten years, providing they either make significant changes to their health (significant weight loss, stop smoking, etc), or maintain within 15% of the recommended standards as approved by a doctor. To qualify for this, they would simply need to have an annual physical/checkup every two years.
There is still a lot more to it, but I believe that this would be an extremely effective system, provide health care for all and answer all the issues people have with Universal Health Care, yet not give up too many individual rights and freedoms.
Hole in the Yard
The City of Beaverton recently started putting in new sewer mains and pipes all the way up to each house in my neighborhood. The contractor for this was Dunn Construction, who have been extremely professional in my opinion during this whole time. They have taken extreme care not to block my driveway unless absolutely necessary, and the foreman has been forward with all my questions.
But they were just not able to take down a tree that was in the way. They at first told me that they would only need to dig a 2 foot by 2 foot hole so no need to do so. I came home to find this:
In case it’s not obvious (and there was more done later,) the 2×2 foot hole turned into a huge trench two to three feet deep, along the length of that house wall, and surrounding three sides of the tree with the roots totally removed. So this tree had literally one root instead of four supporting it. Not too big of a deal, we cut it down the next weekend and ALMOST fell the last piece on to the house. Luckily we were able to pull it the opposite way in the nick of time.
Fast forward a few weeks. Renter upstairs gets evicted for not paying rent. Salvation Army comes along to pick up her washer and dryer on moving day. The washer was never turned on at all. They “turned off” the water, and caused the pipe to break. Apparently it was weak. Several hundred gallons of water later pouring into the kitchen and hallway we manage to get it turned off.
This is residual water leaking FROM all the lights. And yes, there is asbestos in that! The kitchen has been dried out, but all the counters are gone, all the flooring is gone and the walls are ripped away to bare studs.
In the meantime, renter upstairs is not able to leave. So we have no place to live for several days. Enter my mother, who volunteers to let us borrow her motor home. We park it in the front yard near where the new sewer pipe was laid. The passenger side corner is just about touching the stump of that tree. We live in it for about two weeks until the renter is able to move away. Then we move upstairs, but leave the motor home where it was (out of the way.)
I come home in the morning a couple of days ago to this sight.
My first thought was “Oh, flat tire. OK, not a problem I can fix that.” A better LOOK at the flat tire reveals that it’s IN THE FREAKING GROUND up to the hub. That was a bigger problem, especially after I shined a light down to see what was up with it. Second thought was “Oh crap, sinkhole due to a water break from the pipes!” as the hole was about six feet deep from what I could see. Tow Truck was called. City of Beaverton was called, specifically the guy in charge of this water pipe project. He in turn called Dunn Construction and we all sat around and waited for the tow truck guys to get the motor home out of the hole, which they did in about twenty minutes.
We find:
The old Septic tank. Six feet deep and four feet across. It seems when this house was built it was outside of the city limits. In fact the city limits were at the center of the road in FRONT of the house. So the septic tank was put on the property near by. I was led to believe that the septic tank was some where in the backyard. But it seems that it was never actually filled in. About a foot and a half of dirt covered the top, which was rusted through. What’s really funny about this is that Dunn Construction had been running all kinds of nice heavy equipment right across the top of this area for several days with no problem at all, but I guess the weight of the motor home on it for almost a month is what did it in.
But an hour later, a couple loads of gravel, the loan of one of Dunn’s BIG tractors to pact it down.
Problem solved!