Our RV Adventures

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I spent the morning working on the Knife website until I ran out of things I could do. I finally stalled out with a bunch of questions that I need answers to before I can go any further. But my client is at a knife show this weekend, so he hasn’t been able to answer me.

So I started back on sorting stuff into GO/STAY piles for the storage room, and then sub-sorting the GO stuff into STORE until needed and STORE until next winter. Then the STAY stuff I’m trying to sort into TOOLS, PARTS, RIG PARTS, etc..

All I can say is it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. Well, maybe just off the streets. Seems like I still manage to get in trouble, no matter what.

As far as my Peeves, I’ve got a bunch of them, and seem to be gathering more all the time.

First up is Software/Apps that seem to maintained and updated on the “Peter Principle’. From a book written in the late 60’s, it’s formally written as “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.â€

Putting it in simpler form, a guy does a good job at work, so he gets a promotion. Then if he does a good job in that position, he gets another promotion. But eventually he’s going to be promoted into a job that he’s not very good at. Of course he’s not bad enough at it to be fired, especially since he has all those promotions on his resume. So there he sits until he retires or dies, doing a crummy job.

Now think about it. Doesn’t that explain what’s wrong with pretty much every organization, government or corporate? But it seems to happen with software too.

My first example is an app called ‘Flixster’ A touch of a key would show you all the theaters in your area, the movies they were showing, and the times they were showing at. You could even buy your tickets through the app.

And if you wanted to see a particular movie, another touch of a button and you’d see a list of movies showing and then the nearest theater that was showing it. All there in big bold tabs. But now you have to hunt around trying to decipher tiny little icons, and it now takes several extra steps to buy your tickets.

They’ve basically ‘improved’ until it’s not as useful any more.

And then there’s useless products.

The first one is a car backup camera called Zus. I saw it at Sam’s Club the other day priced at $99.00. It’s big attraction is that it operates through and displays on your cell phone so it doesn’t need a monitor But since it’s short range, it disconnects from your phone as soon as you leave the area of your car.

So when you come back to your car, you have to get out your phone, start the car, connect up with the camera, and then hold it or place it so you can see it while you’re backing out.

And making things worse, according to the reviews, it can take as long as a minute or two for your phone to connect with the camera.

So exactly how is this useful?

The last one I’ve only seen on TV, but it still looks stupid. And it costs a lot of money extra. It’s the LG InstaView Refrigerator.

On the commercial a kid goes up the refrigerator,  knocks twice on the door and the inside lights up, showing the contents through the normally darkened glass. Then the kid opens the door and gets out what he wants.

Now your first thought is that this ‘saves energy’ right?  But not really. Unless you keep the door open long enough for the food inside to actually warm up, it only takes a few cents to cold down the little bit of warmer air that got in. And the kid still had to open the door anyway.

And how much does it cost you to save these few cents? According to online, maybe as much as $1000. The retail on one of these fridges starts at $4299.

Ouch!

I’ll save the rest of my peeves for another blog.

Thought for the Day: 

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After yesterday’s festivities, Jan and I just stayed at the rig today, never even going outside. We had kind of planning to take another load over to the storage room, but it just didn’t happen.

Instead, I spent the day updating my KnivesByLaClaire.com website. My client sent over 26 new knife photos that I have to re-size and process to put up on the site.

One thing different is some of the new handle materials they’re now offering. But some are more distinctive than others.

For example –

Here’s one with a White Epoxy-Filled Banksia Pod Handle.

And here’s one with a White Pine Cone Handle.

And this one with a Buckeye Burl Wood Handle.

And this one with a Spalded Maple Handle.

All very distinctive handles.

But this one, one of their most expensive for obvious reasons, was really kind of disappointing.

This handle is made from Mammoth Tusk. That’s 15,000 year old Mammoth Tusk!

But it’s really not anymore impressive than this one done with English Walnut.

Not much there to have bragging rights on. Who would believe you?

Jan wanted to know if it came with a certificate of authenticity.  But then you’d have to carry it around with you. But I guess you could get it laminated though..

One of our blog readers commented, wanting to know how you train porpoises? Turns out it’s pretty much like training any animal, except easier.  You start with something that the animal already knows how to do, and then try to get them to do it slightly different. Then you reward that behavior. Then it’s more modify and reward.

With porpoises it can be even easier. They love to play and to mimic you. In one case I taught Lori to do a flip in mid-air when she jumped by doing one myself a few times from from the high platform.

It only took three times before she was doing flips in the air, copying me. In fact she was happy to just have me scratch her head as a reward, since she knew she’d get a bunch of fish when we were done. I also taught here to swim on her back with her head out of the water, again by doing the same thing until she started copying me.

And you only have to train one porpoise to do a trick. Then put her through her paces with another porpoise nearby. Thor wasn’t near as directly trainable as Lori, but that’s how I got both of them to jump together, as shown in yesterday’s photo.

Another thing that made Lori easy to train was that she love to play, especially tag. She would come up behind me, poke me with her nose, and then swim away. But she would always swim slow (well, slow for her), staying just inches out of my reach, as I chased her.

Finally she would let me touch her fin, and then give me a head start before she chased me. But even then she would circle around me and dive under me for a while before she would poke me again, and it would start all over.

But I think the most amazing thing she ever did was the time she gave me a fish, rather than the other way around. The pools that Lori and Thor were in were both open to the Indian River with underwater bars and above-water fences keeping them in.

One time an unwary fish came into Lori’s pool and she quickly caught it. I was sitting on the side of her pool, dangling my feet in the water, and  not paying much attention to her. I was mulling over in my mind what I could do to get that beautiful redhead who worked at the Miss Kitty’s Saloon across the street to finally go out with me.

Suddenly Lori poked her head out of the water holding a wiggling fish in her jaws. When I didn’t immediately take it from her, she tossed it up on the bank beside me. Thinking she wanted to play Fetch, another of her favorite games, I threw it further out into the pool. So she took out after it and brought it back, again throwing it up on the bank.

But when I raised my arm to throw it again, she chattered at me, her upset sound. So I put my arm down, and when I did she stopped. I raised my arm again, with more chattering and thrashing around in the water. Finally it dawned on me that she was giving the fish to me as a present because I always gave fish to her.

Lori gave me a present.

Since it was just about closing time, I headed and cleaned the fish and cooked it up on a small charcoal grill I had. Later she was perfectly happy to eat the head and the tail that I threw in to her.

BTW it took me over two weeks and five or six tries to get the redhead to go out with me. Today it would probably be called ‘stalking’.

But lucky for me, I’m persistent.

Thought for the Day: 

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