Some of it is really bad news...

Don't think Skully's weariness over the state of the doom and gloom means that he is choosing to ignore reality. Far from it. He simply chooses to worry over the important stuff. One took her life and another drank herself to death - real stuff that is devastating lives among his circle of pirate-friends and their friends. To those friends he offers only this. It's all Skully has.

Serious Stuff

Had the good fortune to spend some time with Kelsey Smith's parents tonight. If you don't know about Kelsey Smith, she was abducted outside of a Target store in Overland Park, Kansas and murdered in the summer of 2007. It took 16 seconds from the time of approach to the time of abduction and get-away.

Her family created the Kelsey Smith Foundation (made up at first of "Kelsey's Army" who searched non-stop for the four days she went missing. 16 seconds people!

Here are some simple and basic tips that everyone should think about:

Kelsey's Army Tips

I plan to write more on this over the next few days but here is as good of a place to start as any.

Before you think this is stuff that "never happens in my neighborhood/to people like me", consider that Overland Park, Kansas is an above average income area with parts that are of significant affluence. Kelsey's dad is ex-military and police. In other words, she was TRAINED and in a solid socio-economic area and it still happened.

According to police officers and combat-trained professionals, NEVER, EVER allow yourself to be taken from the point of the attack. Period! "If you leave crime scene #1, you won't leave crime scene #2".

I've trained with guys and gals that train street fighters, police officers and body guards. Their advice is consistent. !) Make noise. 2) Fight back if it's physical (give it away if it's property and 3) BE AGGRESSIVE. The altercation may go bad, but an abduction almost always will. If you get a funny feeling that something "just isn't right", it probably isn't. Call the police - DONT wait. Better to be embarrassed than embraced in eulogy.

More on this later. Kelsey's Army is an incredible organization that reminds us that 4000 people age 17-24 are murdered every year. That means that in the same time it has taken us to lose 5000 soldiers in Iraq, we have lost over 20,000 of our young people. A very sobering (AND FOR SOME ABSOLUTELY AWFUL/WRONG REASON), a very un-reported statistic.

It's Been a Long Winter...

Perfect remedy for "one of those days"... or maybe just a great lifestyle choice. Skully leaves it to you to decide.



Skully would write more but, well, he's calling in gone...

Another Brilliant Idea...

Here's a brilliant concept: Sell an ELECTRIC appliance without the power cord! Seriously, sounds stupid - right? Come on now, what brilliant product manager/marketeer/cost accountant/whatever would actually sell an ELECTRIC appliance without the power cord?

Well, welcome to Skully's home improvement weekend.

1. Installed garbage disposal. Didn't turn on.
2. Went to install trac lighting only to notice it was "exactly the right design" but it wasnt wired to be a trac light.
3. Replaced bathroom water faucet. It leaks... still does.
4. Replaced lightbulb. 100% successful, first time.
5. Drank beer.

I tell you that to tell you this.

Yanked out old garbage disposal (no wonder it sounded like gears grinding - giant pieces of rust inside). Not too bad once you figure that whole "twist thing" out for the removal process.

Put new one in. Replumbed. Leaded. Re-replumbed. Didn't leak (but don't touch anything or look too close).

Hit switch. Nothing. Hit switch harder. Nothing. Hmmm.

Looked under sink. Yep, disposal was hanging there. Should work.

Hit switch. Nothing. Read part of the instructions. Aha! Hit reset button. Hit switch. Nothing.

Dawned on me. Shouldn't there be some electrical connection? After all, I HAD unplugged the old unit. Looked around the garbage disposal. No cord. NO CORD? What the heck?

Read installation instructions. THEY ACTUALLY SELL THESE THINGS WITHOUT CORDS! Thank you Mr. Manufacturer (Insinkerator) for letting me know that I had to remove the power cord from the old unit and then wire up the new one!

Then again, I am a manufacturer so I understand cost-cutting. But come on, how much labor does it take to have some underpaid sweat shop worker wire the thing up in the first place!

Next project? Finish the beer.

It Aint All Bad News...

Skully's getting a little tired of all the doom and gloom from the media. OK, more than a little tired. Sure, the nest egg looks more like a dust bunny than a nest and the egg is about the size of a marble, but kiddies there remains some pretty incredible news out there and the best part is that the good news hasn't changed in 2000 years!

Enough Is Enough

This probably has never happened to you... BUT... the last few days have been the big daddy of all circle jerks. "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right..." Forget it, Skully isn't even going to try to explain.

note: if you haven't tried Jimmy John's sandwiches, you are missing a great treat. Sure, Subway may have Jarod and his weight loss, but JJ has me and they're packing it on!

By the way, TSA did actually respond to my complaint and it was without the fanfare of strangers in dark shades. Now, they didn't actually convey any message, but at least some autobot responded. "Vindication is mine". On the other hand, scared crap less to think about my next time in the airport. Again, one fine reason to own a boat.

If I have one more person lie to me... one more person mislead me... one more person give me just plain stupid information I am going to ... put it in a blog.

On the other hand, just when I think I have a handle on the "enough is enough" I prove myself wrong. Case in point: Check out the video (darn funny). The guy knew when to stop. He knew when "enough was enough" but he couldn't help going a step further. Nor did I when I sent it to Ms. Skully.

Enough may be enough - but it's a lot like "having the right to remain silent"... sometimes (often times, we lack the ability).




Skully, signing off. (Sitting here under the palm tree - even if it is electric and its 100 zillion degrees below zero outside.)

Old and Lost

Fact: Skully is a babyboomer.
Fact: Babyboomers don't understand Gen X.
Fact: Skully is reading a book on Gen X, written by Gen X.
Fact: Skully understands less after reading a portion of the book.
Fact: It will soon be time for Gen X to misunderstand Millennials.

Mutiny! (AKA when idiots negotiate)

Aargh! One a me Maties is threatening mutiny.

Possible Responses to the mutinous threat: (is mutinous a word? ps: it passed spellcheck)

1. Go (deleted) yourself.
2. Throw im in the hold.
3. Gee, we are all sensitive and compassionate beings so I hear where you are coming from.
4. Take anybody with you and I'll bludgeon you all.
5. So sorry that things didn't work out. Let's calmly discuss this over tea and crumpets.
6. Wow, I didn't see that one coming ---(this would be a full on lie and Skully doesn't lie. Sure, he believes in the adage that you shouldn't ruin a good story with facts, but that's different).

Probably a host of other responses could be found including, "What would Jimmy do", but at the end of the day, as Adrian Paul said, "There can be only one" and that one is...

SKULLY - see #1 above.

I'll really miss the Mutineer. Right. For about 30 seconds.

Moral of the story: Ants shouldn't threaten lions.

Hmmm, maybe I should advertise my "negotiation" strategies in all of the airlines magazines... nah, that would never work.

Austin - I love you

Texas, being what it is, has never been a bright spot on Skully's travel calendar... until now. Spent a brief time in Austin last week. Some of the cool highlights:

1. Maid that left a note apologizing for moving my stuff so she could make the bed.
2. Cab driver that THANKED me for the $7 fare (including tip).
3. Wake up call that actually happened!
4. Meetings full of absolutely friendly people.
5. Limo driver that arrived 20 minutes early - just so "You didnt need to worry" AND waited another 15 for me to get ready!
6. They have Jimmy John's delivery.
7. Prospective customer that paid for the dinner.
8. Hotel that made me special order eggs in their free hot breakfast trough program.
   

Austin - I love you, Palm Springs you are OK, Las Vegas (well, you're LV) and Miami - you suck!

Why Boats are Better than Planes

Anybody reading this will agree - The answer is obvious. Boats are better because they are intended to be on the water. If, by some weird happenstance you stumbled upon Skully's musings, just take it as a fact that ALL of Skully's pals agree on this.

But now there is a new reason. Recently made a two week trip through the southern half of the country, from California through Nevada, Texas and on into Sunny (or not so in this case) FLA. Understand, after a couple of weeks of airports, taxis, conferences and meetings, Skully was just beginning to wind down (as much as possible in Miami - there is a good reason Miami is known as the 6th Borough or the Southern Jersey shore) and it was time to take one last direct flight back to the frozen tundra called the Land of Frozen Grey Misery. And that is when the troubles came.

Lady in front of me beeped the metal detector twice - no big deal, no big line. Things are still good at this point. TSA lady asks her to check her pockets and then walk back through. Lady notices that she has a small cell phone in her pocket, pulls it out, slips it into a tub and smiles "Oops, sorry". No big deal.

Another TSA person steps up from behind and yells, Hey lady! Those things are made out of metal or didn't you know that?" Lady calmly stops and says, "My mistake but you don't have to be rude about it". Still no harm. This all happened in seconds.

She marches through the detector and all is well... almost. TSA guy says to me, "That wasn't rude, rude would have been if I told her how stupid she was". Now I have had it! "Hey, look. She made a mistake. On the other hand, YOU are THE MISTAKE!" Fists were clenched but Skully quickly recognized that Barney, even without his bullet, could do some serious damage - most likely in a private room with a full cavity search.

I move on. Counter of 5 TSA people standing around, doing nothing. Finally I interrupted their little pow-wow discussion (probably revolving around who got off last night playing Dungeons and Dragons) and asked for a supervisor. Not available. Manager? Not available. Now, the next part will not be recorded here but suffice it to say that I challenged that the fact that no supervision was available for the people who were supposedly guarding our safety. End result? They no longer offer "comment and complaint" cards (probably cant fund the expense) and I was directed to an official TSA website.

Now, somewhere enshrined a special folder at some deep dark secret governmental agency is my name, address, email, flight info. I have a sneaking suspicion that the TSA folks (after their D&D fest) will be waiting to show Skully some "special" attention on his next flight.

Just one more reason that boats are better than planes.