Saturday, November 18, 2006

Thanks. The way I figure it, even though I've only been in the manufacturing business for only 2 years, this company has potential. And since currently it is losing money I can get discounted shares. To turnaround the company into profitability I plan to reorganize the management and the sales dept which I feel is the main problem.

There are two bread and butter customers that comprises around 80-90% of our revenue and they have been buying from us for 5-6 years. One of the thing is that after analysis of the costing we are underquoting on every product we are selling. So it's not the lack of business, and by raising the price our company can be profitable. Of course the risk is if you raise prices your customer may buy from somewhere else. But in this case, I think it's an undercost issue rather than a competiveness issue. So basically, it's artificial.

Of course, there are other issues in every department which attributes to the inefficiency, but is salvagable as long as we start making a little positive cashflow.

The product itself is common. Transformers has been around since they invented electronics and discovered magnetism. But despite competition, there are still a lot of customers especially in the US where everyone is looking to outsource for lower labor costs. I also feel we can can expand our engineering department to offer developement services instead of just focusing on cheap labor assembly. The main product lines are in transformers, coils, and inductors (ferrite based) and the factory has 8 vertical injector machines, 1 wave solder, varnish oven, and some other capital equipment. There are a total of around 400 employees at the moment.

EDIT: Aron... change my avatar! This one makes me look I have some skin rash or disease.
Congrats, man! Hope that works out for you.

I'm trying to figure out my class schedule for Spring right now, was stuck for a good while on a class day code of "U".. come to find out, I guess they're offering Sunday classes now. Good for me as far as ease of schedule goes, I guess. But it does screw with weekend family trips somewhat. I'm trying to figure out a way to have Sunday-Wednesday classes, leaving Thursday-Saturday open. That would be a good trade off, I think. Trying to figure out if I should try taking 19 credit hours this semester (three online classes for 7 credits), or if that's a little too much, and back that down to 16. I dunno. I guess it just depends on how much busy work is involved.

It just feels nice to be on the home stretch with graduation coming next year.

Wish I could have gotten down to LA this weekend, but with Michelle going down to Teh Virus, it just wasn't meant to be.
Guys, I sent an offer to buy in 25% stake in my uncles company. Wish me luck. I hope you guys can help me out in the future if you know anyone that needs Transformers/Magnetics, and any assembly type product.

-Johnny

Friday, November 17, 2006

A whole LONG shitty week of being on the verge of getting really sick - and right now it's starting to actually feel a little worse. I think I *might* have picked up a lingering of the Hess family virus when I was over there playing Guitar Hero last week, but once I got to work on tuesday I was surrounded by sick-as-all-hell people with their own brands of cold/flu. Add in the fact that I watched the 2 seasons of Carnivale this week (nice show! i like!) and I got little to no sleep etc etc etc. TONIGHT, I plan on taking some "PM" medicine along with my daily Airborne/Emergen-C cocktails and I hope to sleeeeep all thru fucking tomorrow. I fucking detest being sick. :)
The House of Nikisch is being attacked viciously by an intestinal virus of some kind. Michelle was up all last night, and Haylee the two nights prior. Three nights in a row with no sleep is fun! I'm still feeling a little bit puny from my go-around, but I'm well on my way on the road to recovery as I haven't puked for 4 days now. Awesome.

So, now I get to try and keep them seperated for a day or two so we don't keep kicking the virus back and forth.

Re PS3: Can't believe people are willing to pay that kind of jack for a game console. That's absolutely rediculous. If you're willing to pay over $2000 for a game console, just get yourself a top of the line gaming PC platform and hook it into your TV, FFS. Then you can have everything the PC offers plus whatever games the console can handle.

It's enough to make you want to stand in line for a few hours to make a tidy $2,000 per unit profit, isn't it?

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Convention Blog Doldrums

Pretty quiet around here, eh?

Ryan? Art? Anyone there?

Let's pass time by laughing at idiots. At least this auction isn't sketchy.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Best part of being a parent: Just about everything. So cool to see the world through your child's eyes as they learn, laugh and enjoy their innocence.

Worst part of being a parent: Being sick, and having to take care of your sick child who lays next to you all night long, barfing on you, your bedding and everything else within firing distance every hour, on the hour, for an entire night of zero sleep.

Man, that's rough on the ole constitution.

---

Enron, you think they might be more offended at being called Nazi bankers, or suffering through scroll back buffers of FUCKERS FUCKERS FUCKER FUCKITY FUCK FUCKEROO!

Hehe..
Screw Time Warner and Tivo

So, the smarties at Time Warner thought it would be a good idea to drastically change their cable lineups and group like channels together, which is supposed to be an improvement over everyone having their favorite channels memorized, and instead we have to realearn all the channels and their locations. F corporate policy makers who need to make up worthless projects to justify their jobs.

Oh, the best part of this crap is that TiVo, has not corrected their lineups, which means, no recording of anything because EVERY SINGLE CHANNEL HAS CHANGED. Apparently some people have been dealing with this for 3 weeks now, and I am pissed and the lineup occured for me today.

Recent events, and the total lack of customer service, has made me re-think my loyalty to TiVo. I am not so sure that I would recommend it over the free DVR service many cable companies offer anymore. So sad that a nice counter-hacker-culture company has blown it so bad.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Musings

Well Elzar, thank for the tourette, twas funny.

On the otherhand, I am starting to worry about viewing the theactionteam from work computers. I think it is only a matter of time before I get strung up for the content contained on the theactionteam site; After all, I do work for the Nazi bankers. Ugggg...

D>M>
The Provost Fucks

Is a rad band I just made up. They toured with Shit Sandwich and Anal Cunt back in '86, I was there, and I was motherfucking, cocksucking punk about it. Shit man, sucking cock was punk as Police Truck fuck in '86.

SHIT SHIT SHIT, mother-ass, shit! I forgot I wanna play Bonaparte at Marengo too! Jesus H. R. R. Martin Christ! How can I forget this one! Fuck!

A few other, that may or may not be worth mentioning for a play are as follows:

- For Sale (will take 15 minutes)
- No Thanks! (will take 10 minutes)
- Ra. MAYBE, but given the option between Ra and ASL...
- Hive? Not against jr0n anyway...
I don't even know what you guys are talking about

Aaron, Jon - you guys still up for a little dinner/drinks with Andrew? Wednesday night, he's heading out here and we'd love to have you guys (with your other halves too if they want of course) out to meet. If you can't that's cool too - I know it's short notice. Anyway, I'll ring later on that too, just wanted to get in touch as soon as I could.

Gen Con - looking forward to it - except for the fact that 'bitch bitch bitch' (if you know what I mean) is going be looking for us there - doh, sorry. It's not my fault - but Enron and Jon, your secret living location is still safe. I think I am going to buy a lot of Privateer press (well, a lot for me...). Sounds like maybe I'll be doing painting as I've realised that Warmachine is really the game for me at the mo. Am really excited at the idea of doing some roleplay - Jon you're my hero for designing a campaign - I can't wait!

It'll be good to see all of you guys. Guitar hero - makes no difference to me - I totally suck at that sort of game and will simply enjoy watching others play, or sleeping.
Then fuck Caylus and its goddamn provost

Fuck it right in the ear. Hey, you don't want to sell it, do you? :) $$cashmoney$$

I'm trying to finish Guitar Hero Uno before I move on to Dos. It is an overwhelming challenge though. The best I can do on Cowboys From Hell and Bark At The Moon are about 55 and 63%, respectively.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Elzar

Don't do it man. We all know what video games do to the cons. Boo-urns. If you do, Dave and I will eat your guitar because we are Gwar. Plus, if I tore your arms and legs off, you would look like a snowman.

Battlestations sounds pretty cool. But if it looks stupid, jr0n will beat you. Well that is what he told me this weekend. I would really like to bust out some ASL and Twilight. Also looking forward to some RPG action in the form of Vault of the Iron Stains. Sweet. And as always, looking for some good old Warmachine. Looks like both jr0n and I are in for some Dave Defeat jack on jack off combat fuck.

Camturducken: A boneless chicken stuffed in a boneless duck stuffed in a boneless turkey which is in turned stuffed in a camals ass. Dee-lish.

D>M>
GAYlus

Meh. I'm kinda tired of that game. It takes way too long for what it is. And on the upside, many on the Geek have likened it to Puerto Rico, so there you go. I will bring it, but I'm not really feelin' the Caylus love.

Battlestations boasts a 4 hour, single night, timeframe. However, I am certain there will be some rules looking up/crucifying Eric because he messed up a rule, throughout the session. I concur, it does look like a lot of fun.
AwYeah GenCon

Fired up! Yeehaw! Hey Aeryk, do you still like Caylus? I'd like to get in a game of that if possible. Agreed on Battlestations. It looks like a LOT of fun. The only downside is that I think it takes like eight hours to play, doesn't it?

I vote against Guitar Hero II, but I'm just being a selfish bastard since my only gaming time will be Friday night, Saturday, and the dregs of Sunday. You, Enron and Dave will have the most time to fill up....

I'm basically just hoping to role-play and get in a Warmachine game against li'l David. If I do those two things I'll be satisfied with this con.
GenCon: T-Minus 3...

- jr0n, I am in for some Vault of Iron Maidens! Huzzar!

- I am reading the rules for Battlestations, the board/rpg game where you play crew on a spaceship that have to go on missions that range from ship to ship combat, to boarding actions, to derelict space ship exploration, and more! Looks fun, if you can get beyond the pseudo-Indy feel of the components and art. I think there is a good game that we will all enjoy there.

- My games that I want to play is narrowing before the con, as I always over estimate the time we will have to play, I am aiming low, and hoping to hit high! The list:

- ASL
- Battlestations
- Tichu
- Command and Colors: ANcients
- Twilight Struggle
- Vault of the Iron Maidens
- WoW Card Game w/ Denis

- Rudy is totally my practice partner/Guitar Hero Muse. After I cranked the shit out of those three ridiculous songs, the "hidden song" of the set was YYZ by Rush, which was kind of a joke. Then the next batch, including Freebird, were fairly easy. So, maybe they reversed the last two batches of songs. Dunno. Time for expert!

- The duel guitar mode is AWESOME!

- Shall I ruin GenCon and bring it along?
I just invented a new drink tonight. You take half a cup of lukewarm instant-coffee, two Equals, and fill the rest of the mug with lukewarm/half-flat Diet Shasta. Yeah, very yummy. At first I'd take a sip of the coffee, then chase it with the diet shasta, and WOW - it tasted like a Coke float! Doesn't quite taste like a Coke float when you actually pour the shasta in the mug, but you get the general idear.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Rad name for it! Can't wait to check it out - I'm definately in! Have you been writing stories n stuff also lately?

Many hours of crazy two-player Guitar Hero 2 action on the Hess household today. Was very fun. And I think I might be Eric's GH Muse, cuz with my encouragement, he was able to friggin BEAT 3 uber hard songs that had been messing him up. When I left his house my back and arms were all sore - good workout Guitar Hero!
Four Hours of Thrilling Adventure! maybe

I think I've mentioned this before, but it's official. I've written the adventure I want to run at GenCon and even given it a snazzy title: "Vault of the Iron God."

So, if you guys will play it, I'll run it!

This is a pretty archetypal fantasy dungeon crawl. I'll be using the Savage Worlds system. There's a "Test Drive" version of the rules right here. (Just click on "Test Drive Rules 4.0." It gives a good overview of the system and character creation. We can officially make characters at the con. We'll pretty much need all the classics: a fighty type, a magic type, a sneaky type, and possibly a Spell Filcher.