Messages

406

Random / Re: Education

« on: March 25, 2015, 10:45:39 AM »

Great responses throughout. I'm going to ramble.

Timely thread in that my wife came home last night and told me that she is going back to school to get her administrative credentials. She and her Superintendent called a admin program director and got her verbally approved to start in August (Gonzaga Univ). I imagine she is a shoe-in for this in that she presented some program she pioneered in her school to Gonzaga Ed dept last spring.

The thing is, my wife is an ultra-talented manager, public speaker, and motivator of people. I had to act excited for her, but in reality I was thinking she could probably earn way more salary than she would as a principal in a few years working in some private company. If I had a position of need I would hire her in a second. I have no doubts that whatever school she is in she will make a big difference. That is just my personal opinions on business and talent, but she does not think the same way. Which is probably good.

The writing is on the wall that she will end up running the standardized testing program for the district as well as the alternative school next year while she gets credentialed. Which is great, but she will not want that position for long. It sounds terrible.

She tells me that the rank and file teachers who she is peers with now, will immediately begin to treat her differently when she begins the admin studies. Which is just human nature in a boss/employee relationship. Which is what brings me back to the education system that this thread started.

The current American school system creates a divide between administration and teachers that does not serve their students. The union exacerbates the division between the two groups and it pervades a lot of staff mindset down to a personal level. Take for an example if a principal wants to have a hard conversation with any teacher, the teacher only has to say "I want my union rep here for this" and the meeting stops to get the union rep. Unions are geared to create a lack of trust between the two parties, where the students would be much better served by a healthier relationship.

I don't mean a relationship in a friendship sense, but I mean a relationship of mutual respect for the other person's position. The administrator needs to be more of an authority figure with global goals. The administrator should feel like they can walk into a teacher's space, ask for and be given an answer without fear of having to bring in a 3rd party. Whereas the teacher should feel that they can speak to their performance of the job and not fear reprimand or firing. If the teacher is doing a bad job, they should fear reprimand and firing.

tl:dr - SUP Leave rambles, marginally on topic.

407

Gear Talk / Re: SUP Rack for Garage

« on: March 24, 2015, 02:05:51 PM »

The iron pipe and floor flange system is about the easiest. Requires almost no mechanical ability. I have a pull up bar I built using that system. Just get a couple floor flanges, screw them to a 2X6 at whatever spacing you want, then screw that 2X6 to with a pair of long wood screws at each stud you hit.

I am pretty pathetic, I have a 1800 sf shop, and 0sf of empty wall space. Sometimes I wonder how I got so much "stuff".

408

Sessions / Re: Disturbed sesh at La Jolla Shores ....

« on: March 23, 2015, 04:15:00 PM »

You are probably remembering their comments mush longer than they do. 
you could also say hi back, like "There's my favorite longboarder".

More like "There's my favorite parking lot guy!"

409

Sessions / Re: Disturbed sesh at La Jolla Shores ....

« on: March 20, 2015, 03:40:13 PM »

Next time just say "Bitch don't kill my vibe" .

I am always amazed that someone is willing to wreck someone else's stoke to make themselves feel smug for a few seconds. A person taking the 2 seconds to be an asshole can make someone else feel like crap for hours. For what?

There is a lesson I always tell my kids. I tell them the most powerful person in the room is the one who has been kind to the most people in it.  I learned it by watching my wife.

410

Random / Re: Education

« on: March 20, 2015, 10:11:56 AM »

Great thread. I have so much to say on this. There is going to be a good number of rambling posts on this thread, I look forward to it.

My wife is an elementary school counselor in one of the poorer districts here in SW Washington. Her primary function is dealing with the kids who are problems in the classroom. She is busy all the time.

95% of the time these kids come from a place that most of us would not understand and would hate to see. Kids who share a bedroom with 4 other siblings, listening to their parents snort, smoke or inject their kids' food money away. My wife's school gives free lunches and breakfasts to every student and some of these students only get these two meals a day. These kids are in classrooms with my kids, and their behaviors make it very difficult for many other kids to learn.

From my narrow perspective, I really see the quality of public education is largely based on the downward spiral of the family unit due to generational drug/spouse/alcohol/child abuse. When I hear the stories of how these poor kids live, I want to get outright violent and I am not a violent person. This is obviously more prevalent in lower income districts and so the economy factors in as well.

That being said, most of the teachers do their very best under these circumstances. Unfortunately, there are 10 or 15% teachers in each of the schools who are spawned out, ineffective, and do not inspire kids to learn. These folks are protected by the union, and the union raises holy hell when qualifications based hiring/firing practices are brought up. This is my only gripe. I am around a lot of teachers and there are some who should have retired years ago who are still there doing amazing things with these kids. There are some who are just punching the clock and the kids in these classes are not getting a good education. In my business if you are ineffective, you are let go without thinking. To let a teacher go due to being ineffective is not possible. Meanwhile there are fresh-faced enthusiastic new teachers wanting those positions back in their home districts, really wanting to make a difference. That always pisses me off, to hear about real-talent wanting into a district but not being able to find a spot for them while some clock-puncher, who doesn't like their spouse just keeps working to stay out of the house.

The administrators are all about data i.e. standardized test scores and attendance. This is the funding vessel for these schools. That is not to say that the folks don't care about kids because they do, they absolutely do, but it is only human nature to care about yourself first. That starts with your job security. It is an extremely complex issue and I have considered putting our kids in private schools many times.

We never will do that. Our kids excel and have plenty of friends. I make it a point that they learn to be kind to the kids who have it rough and to take an interest in them.

411

SUP General / Re: Do Sharks Attack Us?

« on: March 17, 2015, 12:48:56 PM »

I fish a lot and sometimes I get asked: Why does the steelhead bite that (bait, fly, whatever) and the standard answer is: "because they don't have hands".

You have to figure sharks is going to shark. Call it an "attack" or "exploratory bite" or whatever they are animals reacting to their world the way they want.

Is knowing why they do it going to keep you out of the water? If so it is better to not know.

412

Random / Re: Top 5 vids ever posted to the 'Zone --

« on: March 17, 2015, 12:43:04 PM »

So many good ones.

My favorite is a non-SUP vid.

This video does two things. Takes me back to my youth (watched this on VHS) and pumps me up to go surf. The little section on the no-paddle take offs is great.

"Wingnuts Art of Longboarding"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tCjXUfqRcV8

413

SUP General / Re: Do Sharks Attack Us?

« on: March 16, 2015, 02:51:44 PM »

Great thread. I just read the whole thing and enjoyed it.

As a resident of the PacNW I only worry about bigfoots when I am walking out of the woods an hour after dark with a dead flashlight, and I only worry about sharks when I fall off my board in cloudy water with a lot of seals around.

Statistically my chance of being attacked by either is the same.

However, my chance of getting fat, sick and old is a lot higher if I quit my ocean activities. That danger is real.

I just watched Blackfish and those trainers got chomped and ate by Orcas (actually more than sharks have bit SUPs) so they attack us too.

414

SUP General / Re: Good Idea.

« on: March 12, 2015, 04:55:46 PM »

Fun stuff. Quite a few longboard shapes in there and some good riding.

Not a SUP but I just picked up a 10' Ukulele Drifter not 45 minutes ago. I am stoked on some noseriding this summer.

415

Random / Re: Dealing w/ ppl who don't *#@! PAY --

« on: March 10, 2015, 04:51:38 PM »

Family has to be worse.

I have a funny story from a bro-in-law deal. I was at the bar one night with a buddy and he is lamenting the story of selling a commuter car to his brother in(out) law on payments. It was the usual sob story, my buddy's wife simply threatens to hold out sex and he sells the car to his brother in law for $200/month payments forever. Bro in law makes exactly 1.5 payments over 6 months.

Buddy puts a key on the bar and says: "Lets go get it back". He had the forethought to keep a copy of the key knowing what would happen. So I was a repo man for a night. We found the 1989 Ford Festiva at a house party not far away and I jumped in and drove it to the nearest gas station since it was on E. We parked it behind my buddies' shop and put a tarp over it, and had no longer gotten in the door when his wife's cell phone rings and bro-in-law is calling to say the car was stolen.

To sum it up, bro-in-law made one more payment and got his car back within a day, and totaled it no more than 2 weeks later. My buddy is still happily married though.

416

Random / Re: Dealing w/ ppl who don't *#@! PAY --

« on: March 10, 2015, 10:56:34 AM »

WW also hits on a key point. Client research. When a potential customer calls, it only takes a few minutes to Google and Facebook stalk them. Even better if you know someone who has worked with them in the past. A phone call to an old friend can save you a lot of headache.

I have a client now that I am very leery of. Guy seems great, and is very successful in his line of business, but he bought a property that had engineering almost completed for it. He hired my firm to complete the engineering, saying he didn't like the other engineer's attitude. My radar is wiggling a bit.

I sent him an invoice for the preliminary work so I will get to test them out before I go much further. This is another good technique if you are not working from retainers. Send an early progress invoice before you start the larger portions work, note the timeliness of the payment as well as what types of questions you were asked about the invoice. I find that clients who ask good questions, respectfully, are generally going to be better payers.

417

Random / Re: Dealing w/ ppl who don't *#@! PAY --

« on: March 10, 2015, 09:06:13 AM »

Really great stuff coming out of this thread.

I happen to be a partner in a small Civil/Structural Engineering firm, and recently by some strange happenstances find myself as the General Manager/Owner of a small Land Surveying company.

I have been running the Engineering biz for about 12 years now and over the time have had to deal with a few people who didn't pay. My partner sounds a bit like PonoBill, he is a great technician and creative engineer. He knows something about everything, and everything about some things. But when we are trying to collect bad debts he is the last straw because he takes it very personally and goes nuclear within the first 15 seconds of a conversation. I have a much better track record on getting paid than he does. I just patiently let them know I won't go away, and offer a couple of solutions. Credit card and payment plan. I listen carefully if they are not paying because they didn't like the work, but honestly I can only remember that happening once or twice. "We just wanted you to stamp a letter that said our 30' high vertical cut was okay."

The biggest lump being a $180k fee for a group developing a subdivision. We had worked with them for years and made a lot of money with these guys, but their empire crumpled and blew away in about 3 months, taking us down with them. Somehow we survived it, but it jump-started our recession lay-offs. We tried every trick in the book to get something back right up to jumping over someone's desk with a #7 rebar, but you can't squeeze blood from a rock.

TallDude's point about reading people is a good one. I like to judge their response to my initial budget. I prefer them to wince and swallow hard. To me that means they are going to pay. When they say "Just charge me whatever it takes" that means they intend to pay . . . eventually. Which could be a long time.

The Survey business is much more commodity like. I take a retainer and then charge the clients to pick up the documents before we record. This doesn't work for municipalities or government agencies, but they always pay. This is a simple yet effective technique that is fool proof. My office manager calls is also very firm and nice. She is also very good looking and we get many clients who can't wait to come pay.

Also, is anyone looking for a survey job in WA? I have an immediate opening with ownership potential!

418

SUP General / Re: When did you start surfing?

« on: March 10, 2015, 08:30:57 AM »

Multiple one-off trips throughout my youth. I have always enjoyed anything to do with the ocean/water. Me and a group of friends would rent boards a few times a summer out here at Westport, WA. No one except me really loved it.

Then in my early 20's I got really into skimboarding shorebreak waves after a trip to Maui (Big Beach) and did that a few years. I found a secret spot here in WA where we could catch waist high runners right off dry sand, but it blew out after 3 years never to return. Followed that with a period of windsurfing after one of my buds got a lesson in the Gorge. So that was about 26 to 30 years old. Throughout this whole period I kept up with one-off rental surf days. Everywhere from Cocoa Beach Fl, Southern Cal, Maui, and here in WA. 1 to 3 times a year. Then about 5 years ago I rented a SUP for a couple weeks in Maui and went nutty for that.

Right now I have a SUP and mini-mal which cover all of my surfing needs. I enjoy both immensely.

I am looking for a traditional longboard to buy right now.

My biggest issue is time. My kids are young and in every sport there is, so I am coaching every weekend, running two businesses and my wife keeps us socially occupied so there is very little time for me to get to the beach. I fully believe that my best surfing will be when I retire, because I just cant string together enough water time right now.

419

Technique / Re: Flat water practice for the surf?

« on: March 09, 2015, 01:32:21 PM »

That's a pretty good video and a great way to not only work on your board balance, but really embarrass yourself.

It is a lot more fun when you can do it in a shallow spot with a sandy bottom. It takes a lot less energy to get on the board in knee deep water. I also like to practice my running jump-ons in that environment.

It is definitely something to do in warm weather and water. I would never go get my wetsuit on to do that.

420

Gear Talk / Car/truck Roof Rack

« on: March 05, 2015, 01:52:21 PM »

I am having to add a rack on the roof of my Tundra pickup. I don't necessarily want to add a bed rack because I have a Diamond Back HD tonneau cover on the bed. It is not compatible with an over-bed rack.

So I am going to install one on the roof.

My #1 priority is it cannot whistle in the wind. #2 is that it holds surfboards. #3 is that it doesn't cost so much I can't buy another surfboard for this summer.

I am considering the Thule and Yakima (square and round) roof systems that just attach to the roof by the door.

Is there a better system? Should I look at the more streamlined bars instead of the round and square ones?

Seems like the round and square bars can be used for more options. I don't plan on buying any of the special attachments for holding a surfboard, I will just add pads and tie them down.