OK, wait a minute.  I have to wonder about that greeting to start off a letter.  I’m sure it comes from the quaint time of “Miss Manners”, and I like to hope that it applies to at least a few people in my social circle.   But to be honest, I have all confidence that many people I know, if presented with an anonymous survey asking “Would you kill the barista in exchange for a free Frappuchino” would tick off the box, then be angry enough that a pop up window didn’t appear with a coupon for a free drink that you’d write to the company to tell them off.  Then go buy a cup of coffee.

But I digress.

Dear Gentle Reader…*ahem*…,

I’m going to put on my grumpy old man cardigan for a bit today.  I was out playing with my oldest, and I had one of those rubber band powered balsa wood planes to share.  I have to say, I’m a bit irritated.   These things have been around for most, if not all, of my 35 years, and I remember enjoying playing with them as a kid.   But I was horribly disappointed opening this thing.

The plane, provided by company Revell, is utter garbage.   Don’t get me wrong, they’ve always been flimsy pieces of junk, but they’re also cheap.  You get what you pay for, basically an afternoon of entertainment but not much else.  These days, though, it seems you’re getting even less than that.  The wings seem thinner than I remember, the “paint job” stamped onto the wings was blotchy in it’s application.

The biggest insult, however, was the rubber band.  I can go two ways here.  On one hand, it was a disappointment in that it was less a rubber band, but more a rubber strand.  ”Rubber band” implies a completed circle, ready to go out of the package.   What I found instead was a long length of rubber band material.   This is where the other mind comes in; you’re getting enough material for 2 of the old size bands.  As an adult, I was able to put a quick knot in it and hook it up, but if I were a 5 year old, opening this staple of childhood for the first time, I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

I suppose it’s good that the price of these is around $2.00 (slightly more for the “wheeled” model), but it seems that this low price comes at a higher price of quality.

OK, rant off.  I’ll try to have a glass related post in a day or so.  Between kids and the day job, my creative soul’s been running on fumes, but I have shows coming up on the 25th and another on the 26th, so I’ll be out in my shop quite a bit in the coming weeks.

Until then, make something pretty, share it with those who matter to you.  And don’t get burnt doing it.

• Bring spring clamps to attach your table cloth to the table legs
• Maybe use bean bags to hold down signs
• Collect underpan..wait, different list

Maybe we’ll just go with “call out sick and have a martini, you’ll enjoy it more”.

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I saw a blond girl today , she was mildly pretty, but pretty like the woman that gets killed in the first 10 minutes of a slasher film pretty.   She liked my rings though.  Not enough to buy one, but at least she found them interesting.  Cue the screechy violins *Eee! Eee! Eee!*

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I’m pretty sure I came in under what my table fee was, but oddly I’m not bitter and angry about it like normal.   The weather was lovely, the event itself was pretty well run, and the music was pretty good.   It was their first year doing it, but if invited, I’d give it a second year.  The one complaint I heard from another attendee, was that the show wasn’t well advertised.  I hadn’t heard anything about it aside from the emails I received as part of the event, so I kind of agree.    It was a fairly low attendance affair.   It’s tough to tell if the admission fee put people off, or if it was a lack of advertising bringing people over.  I get the feeling I wasn’t the only vendor to have a bad sales day.

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There was a young woman, maybe college aged [tougher to tell as I age] having a fantastic time dancing and hula hooping to a couple of the bands.   I’m pretty sure she was a groupie for one of them, Love in Stockholm, and it was a little sad when a guy with at least 15 years on me started dancing with her.  But she was nice about it and had a great time anyway.   I admire that carefree attitude.  That’s why I think she’s still in college, or as I like to call it “pretend adulthood”.    Love in Stockholm was pretty good, by the way.  I almost bought a CD.  Almost.

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The Road Kill Orchestra was absolutely incredible.   I did try to buy a CD, they didn’t have one.  Darn it.

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The Sam Kininger Band was awesome and then some.  Wanted a CD, they had already packed up and fled by the time I got my gear and tent packed in the car and came back in to buy one.  I think I can get one online.

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Note to self, need robot minions to carry my gear on outdoor shows from now on.  300+ pounds of gear, a dolly, gravel, and an incline do not make for a good load out.

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I had dropped my prices some for this show.  Partly to try to move some stuff because I like money, partly to try to move some stuff that’s been around too long.  Unfortunately a kid came up (I’m 35, anyone younger is a ‘kid’) and mentioned how he will most seriously be looking me up to buy some pendants because he wants to buy more of my pendants (I had ALL of them priced at 10.00 each) because he makes jewelry and could slap them on a piece of hemp and make some money selling them for $15.00.    That’s lovely, junior, but I typically start my pricing on those at $20.    Don’t get me wrong, I admire his entrepreneurship, but that quite honestly was one of the rudest things someone has said to me at a show in a long time.  Or maybe I just don’t listen to people that well, but still.

Incidentally, my pricing on my marbles was artificially low too.   For small, medium, and large it was $8, $10, $25 respectively.   One guy actually talked me down a dollar on a medium sized marble.  BUT, he had already bought one earlier in the day, I genuinely believed he only had $9 on him rather than was attempting to haggle, and I appreciate anyone that fawns over the product for a good 15 minutes AND actually buys something.

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I was actually nice to someone today.  Another artist, an interesting painter, packed up early because one of his paintings got damaged in the wind, and he was worried they’d go airborne and hurt someone, and he asked to borrow my dolly.   I have one of the nice ones that can work upright or horizontally for more room, and I actually said yes.   I did a good deed, what’s up with that??!?   I think I was just in a genuinely good mood.

The email made it look like I had ordered something and this was a confirmation message.   There were three problems with this, however:

• I didn’t order anything
• I don’t use this email address for shopping
• I know enough to mouse over the links and saw they weren’t going to Target.com

Nice try though, there were even links to other similar items, but again, the links didn’t go to Target.com’s site.

It turns out that may no longer be the official line.  Interesting.      Below is the response from the science division at the ADA.   I’ve redacted the name and contact info of the gentleman who replied.  If he happens through and wants his name included, I’ll be happy to do so.

Dear Mr. Kies:

Thank you for your email.

The ADA makes no recommendation regarding time in the brushing of the teeth. In fact, there are no studies that identify a period of time as indicated for the brushing of teeth.

The ADA recommends that patients direct their efforts at cleaning the surfaces of their tooth.  The ADA brochure “Toothbrushes and Toothpastes” (2001) states: “Concentrate on cleaning all the surfaces of the teeth.”  See also the ADA.org subject page “Cleaning your Teeth and Gums” at www.ada.org/2624.aspx.

When properly used, manual and powered toothbrushes can achieve the same goal – cleaning the surfaces of the teeth.  (And we would also recommend the use of dental floss.)  Please see “A Look At Toothbrushes” athttp://www.ada.org/sections/scienceAndResearch/pdfs/patient_78.pdf.

Periodical literature on the role of tooth brushing in oral hygiene may be found using PubMed, a search tool of the US National Library of Medicine at http://www.PubMed.gov.  Some publications may be accessible in full text (or open access.)

Please let me know if I may be of additional assistance.

Sincerely,

[REMOVED]
Manager, Scientific Information
Council on Scientific Affairs
[REMOVED]

So there you have it.  Just do a good job.

Unlike many of my corporate missives, I didn’t have any particular beef with them, I was just curious about something.   Please to enjoy:

I apologize for kind of a crazy question, but I was wondering something after my last visit.

The rule of thumb is 30 seconds per quadrant.  I’m assuming that number is based on the use of a manual toothbrush to get to a point of “clean as it’s going to get given the equipment in use”.

But I was curious about something.  If this is an acceptable baseline, is the recommended time actually reduced if you’re using a high speed brush such as a Sonicare?  Given you’d be doing an equivalent amount of brushing in far less time, it stands to reason that the “required” brushing time would be significantly lessoned, no?

As such, is there a secondary recommendation for automated toothbrushes vs. the manual type?  I can certainly understand a stance that more might be better particularly with better equipment, but it would seem that at some point there’s a decline in actual efficacy of brushing with the high speed brush.

Thank you!

Tom

So if you made it this far and are curious about the tin cup rambling above, I’m indeed named in a law suit with 29 others vs some confused person in Texas who’s selling cookies from one face, and promoting healthy eating from the other.

If you’re interested in flat out donating to the legal fund established to help us defend ourselves against the vague ranting in the legal link above, you can donate here:

If you’d like to help out, but also get some truly kick ass handmade glass art in the bargain, you can peruse the group’s Etsy store here.

Thanks.

Having gone through this before, I wandered to the basement, unplugged everything, waited 30 seconds or so, then plugged it back in to find that yep, still down.     So I grabbed my cell phone and called Charter (who is in my phone book just for such irritating occasions).

My irritation fairly quickly turned to anger when I found that now instead of some meat bag having you unplug everything and such only to then look it up and see that “oh, there’s a tree down 1 street over on a line”, they now have one of those voice driven automatic attendants doing it.

I. Hate. Those.

I played along at first, until the boiler kicked in and the computer couldn’t understand me saying “Continue” in response to “Do you see your status light on the front of the modem?”   I hadn’t had my coffee yet, by the way.

So I yelled Continue several times, and as my anger turned to rage I then followed with “I HATE YOU!”  and “I’M GOING TO HAVE MEL GIBSON CALL YOU!!!!”.   Yes, I was that angry.

At this point I’m breathing like the Incredible Hulk on a PCP and steroid binge, but I didn’t hang up.  I had already yelled ‘Agent’ enough times into the phone for it to put me in a hold with the other steaming masses.

While I waited, I hooked up the modem and router again and it connected.  But I didn’t hang up yet.   No, my friends, I went back upstairs and put together coffee while I waited for a person to pick up.

“Thank you for calling Charter, my name is ____.  How may I help you?”

If you’re a real person, you can say ‘Continue’ or ‘Go’.

*silence*

If you’re a real person, you can say ‘Continue’ or ‘Go’.

“Umm…yeah, I am.”

I’m sorry, I didn’t understand your response, you can say ‘Continue’ or ‘Go’.   YEAH, WE DON’T LIKE IT EITHER! *click*

Yep, gonna be a good day.

Also, like many, I listen to my ipod while I’m working. So I’m fairly well isolated out in my little shop. Tonight, I left the light in the backyard off so it wouldn’t attract so many bugs to the back door; it’ll turn on when I approach the porch. Unfortunately this means a fairly dark walk to the house, where even with a flashlight it’s dark, and I run the risk of looking like a prowler.

In my own little world, I wandered back from the shop tonight with my flashlight, scanning here and there for skunks and what not. Nothing.

I went inside and closed the place down. It was quiet except for the ceiling fans which I turned off. I found the dining room light on which I thought I had switched off, but it’s possible I didn’t.

I turned off the lights and wandered upstairs and into the bedroom, I could hear the TV on in my room from the stairs. My wife was asleep, but she had turned on an extra fan so she had also turned up the TV. Off went the set, leaving only the slightly at odds sound of two fans buzzing at slightly different pitches, and then I heard a bump. Or did I?

Being the daddy, it’s my job to investigate and to make sure that everything’s ok in the kid’s room, so I go out into the hallway and my youngest comes silently, but determinedly tromping out of his room and into the light of the night light beaming from the bathroom into the hallway, thumb firmly planted in his mouth. He makes a beeline to me, arms opening wide, so I scoop him close, hug him tight and he falls back to sleep on my shoulder.

Carefully tucked into bed, a kiss upon his head, daddy has once again slain whatever demon lurked in the darkness and all was right in his world.

Around here, sometimes we really do have bumps in the night.

Having said that, however, I get a bit sick of the same old songs being trotted out every year for the Independence Day fireworks.   It’s a bit like at Christmas you can only listen to grandma being run over by the damn reindeer so many times before you seriously get a craving for venison.

So I pose to you a question.  Of the two below, which is your least favorite July 4th anthem?

Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”:

or

Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America”?

I’m a bit sick of both really, but at least I like some of Neil’s other work.

I just want to throw it out there, but given banks don’t want to lend these days anyway, are cutting your credit card access levels messing up your credit, and given the shear number of people with bad credit scores overall…..
Is it really that big of a deal anymore?
I’m not going to say it’s a good thing to have a bad credit score or that it should be something to strive to.   Nor should anyone intentionally be fiscally irresponsible.
But is a poor credit score still the intimidating threat it used to be?
Banks, car dealerships, even the credit card companies themselves are adjusting to the new normal, the lower bar.
So while yes, it might make your life a little harder, you’re certainly not the social pariah you once were if your number’s less than stellar.

For a while there, they even had free online streaming.  But then they stopped that.  However, if you were paid through x time span, you still got the free streaming.

Evidently that ended with my renewal this past April.

Given I paid a couple hundred dollars for my 2 year subscription, I was less than thrilled to find this out, particularly since there was no notice, and I rarely use the online streaming.  Oh, and the plan I’m listed as having is the “SIRIUS EVERYTHING” plan.

So I emailed via their page, and heard nothing.

Today I called and found out what happened, so I said, fine..they want to pull back services, I’ll cut my subscription.  And I switched to a 1 year plan instead of 2.

The sad thing, they didn’t even try to stop me.