Before I was a programmer I worked in the Entertainment Industry.  Before that, I was a programmer.   So the arc of my business career might be viewed as; programmer (medical type stuff), made rubber monsters, programmer again (manufacturing type stuff).  It really was rather odd how experiences in one industry provided useful experience during unusual […]

Back when I first heard the term ‘Mission Statement’ it was described as a “very broad, over all, strategic plan.”  I think programmers first started discussing Mission Statements round about the time Microsoft announced their new MS as “A PC on Every Desktop by 1990″  Not sure about the year, but I remember everyone being […]

More time has passed and there seems to have been another complete replacement of the staff at the local sandwich shop. The staff used to be Hispanic. Now they appear to be from the Indian subcontinent. I suspect that the franchisee/owner, who is from India, was compelled to trim costs by […]

With the Fourth of July approaching patriotic stuff has begun arriving on my front porch, and sometimes in the middle of my garden.  Every year one of the local Real Estate agents pays someone to stick American flags - cheap, plastic, made in China American flags - in the middle of everyone’s lawn throughout my […]

Signs change over time. The nature of a business might change, or maybe not, but the signs always seem to change. Of course we’re talking about a pretty broad time window, but I’ll provide an example.
Last week I’d finished my marketing and was leaving the local Trader Joe’s Market. Now I’ve lived […]

Many, many, years ago no one had Personal Computers. Actually, for a while even those people who had computers at home didn’t have Personal Computers. Before IBM introduced the PC Apple made things that it called Home Computers. I’m sure that IBM spent a fortune in man hours determining that ‘Home Computers’ […]

The typewriter store is gone.
Actually, the typewriter store has been gone for a long time, but one can now truly say that the business that used to be the typewriter store is gone.
Many, many (many) years ago someone asked me to fix their typewriter. They didn’t want me to fix it personally. Just take it […]

Well, much to my surprise, my much-detoured IRS check has finally arrived. Let me recap;
1.) I have lived at the same address for a very long time.
2.) My original IRS refund was decreed ‘Undeliverable’ by the Post Office, and returned to the IRS.
3.) The only way the IRS could think of contacting me to inform me […]

Please refer to Episode I if this topic is new to the reader.
Well, today I received a second letter from the IRS. It came to me at my imaginary home address of 1234 Elm Street, Hollywood, USA. (For an explanation of the imaginary address again please see Episode I.)
This second, computer generated, letter […]

Or perhaps ‘Post Office of the Brain Dead,’ or ‘IRS of the Brain Dead.’ But read on and compose your own appropriate title.
My mailing address is not; 1234 Elm St. Hollywood USA 56789. It’s not, but let’s just pretend that it is.
Yesterday I received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service. The letter […]