Meow meow

Last friday, when talking to some of the guys at work about the weekend and stuff, I mentioned that I'd been teaching myself to juggle.

One of the other guys had taught himself a similar thing a number of years ago when he was still in uni. Apparently he used to moonlight as a bartender for a few years to supplement the costs of tertiary education. Anyway he was explaining the details of "flair bartending", and how he got into juggling with the intent of adding a bit more style and excitement to his work. The idea being that a better show for clients leads to a slight increase in tips, although he did say in the end that being gifted with looking cute trumped any skills a person could learn, hence some of the female bartenders always earned more tips without throwing bottles and glasses around.

In the process of explaining how he taught himself from a book on juggling, he mentioned about learning to juggle with different and odd shaped objects. I had been using a set of hackysacks, but it got me thinking that as I get better, I need to look progressing to beyond the training set of juggling balls.

On the weekend, I tried 3 kittens, and only dropped them a few times. Fortunately the little guys always land on their feet.

Cookie slime

Yesterday, my wife made some really tasty gluten free choc-chip cookies. But the way she shaped them instantly conjured images from a video game I used to play years ago; Dragon Quest.

Cookie

Slime

Maybe you needed to have spent over a hundred hours playing the game before you see it...

Understanding business helps with understanding car yards

When people find out that I worked as car salesperson, howbeit quite briefly, a good proportion will then pepper me with questions arising from their perceived miserable experience(s) in buying a car from a retailer.

Basically, its business. And if you think about it for a moment in a rational and reasoned way, all business is like that, but we get hung up on cars because they cost significantly more than any sofa or television, and depreciate much quicker as well. Any business that sells a product needs to have a portion added on to the wholesale price to provide a profit. And that profit doesn't just go into the salesperson's pocket, or the boss' pocket. There are a huge amount of costs that have to be covered.

This includes administrative staff, utility fees, advertising costs, GST, rental, insurance, government registration costs, franchise costs, stock overhead costs, interest on inventory outlay, costs relating to lost or damaged items, costs relating to theft or vandalism, insurance claim premiums, and finally a certain amount of the profit has to be set aside to be used for future growth and infrastructure investment. Additionally with vehicles, there is stamp duties, registration fees and mechanical servicing that is factored in as well. So this means that the car you are buying is not actually worth the $30,000 sticker price, because that price has all those elements factored into it. The immediate depreciation your vehicle experiences as soon as it leaves the yard, is primarily due to that, and hence that is why you can't bring the car back the next day and ask to sell it back for $30,000.

Now if you want to sell a vehicle to a caryard, you face getting significantly less than what the market appears to be paying for you car. People always struggle with this. "This same car is going for $15,000 in your yard. Why won't you give me $15,000 to buy mine?"

Well the reasons are, as with any product, the business valuing your car is also allowing for all the costs and overheads mentioned above. They are also factoring other elements as well, such as the possibility that the car might sit there for 6 months and it'll be depreciating the entire time. Also when a person walks into a used car lot, they rarely will pay the sticker price on the car, they will always seek to haggle. And that is factored into the price as well.

Now you'll always get more if you sell your vehicle direct to consumers, as you then remove alot of the costs that are eating into the price you can get. Selling it direct means that there is no middle man profit, no other overheads that a person has to allow for, but it is a hassle as it now means that YOU have to find and deal with customers, and that can be a real pain.

So people still take their cars to the yard, because they know that if they agree on price, the sale will be done right then and there, without an advert dragging on for weeks or months without a buyer.

I want to know if there is a more concise way to teach people how basic commercial transactions work, so that they can be prepared and not be offended when it comes to buying or selling a vehicle from a dealership. Once they understand it, then it becomes simple. It is just business.

Job perks

I mentioned before that I worked as a car salesman. Only lasted 6 months as I just don't have the qualities that make a person successful in that, but I did love quite a few aspects of the job. I loved being around cars all day, and as it was a used vehicle yard, then there was a fairly diverse array makes and models. You start off thinking that you're never going to remember the inventory and features, but it quickly becomes second nature, like knowing what's in the fridge (well, depending on whether you do your own shopping...).

I won't talk about what ruins the sales job, as that is material for a different post, but I did enjoy meeting people. A good percentage of people, I'd guess maybe a third, just hate you on sight because of the job you have and the reputations of car sales people. But the remainder will open up and talk to you about stuff while you're stuck with them during the course of the sales process.

One of the times that a junior sales person gets stuck with the customer is during trade-in evaluations. The vehicle valuation is done by either the yard manager, a specialised value (if the yard is big enough to have one), or else just by a senior sales person. You'd expect that, because you need a person who knows what to look for, and has an idea intuitively of what the vehicle is actually worth.

Now customers aren't wanted to be present during their vehicle evaluation for the main reason that most customers will either get upset or defensive while their car is being inspected. The customer is re-engaged when it comes to negotiations of vehicle worth during the purchase period, so while the evaluation is happening, the sales person usually has to sit with the customer to talk to them and keep them from getting bored or frustrated.

This is where my post comes in; one day a lady came in to look to see what the trade-in of her Suzuki Sierra would be. She wasn't looking to buy anything, as she already was sourcing a vehicle from somewhere else, or was just looking to offload a vehicle that she wasn't using anymore. That meant that while the evaluation was being done, there was nothing I could distract her with. She wasn't wanting to look at cars in the yard, and it was hot out anyway, so I was left to keep her occupied until the manager came back.

But here she told me a fascinating story that led to her being there. Originally, back in 1999, she lived with her partner up in a small town on the western coast of Australia, and they made a living doing odd jobs and occasional tour guide work. An American pro-basketball player named Brian Williams, who'd just retired from the Pistons, stopped at the town while sailing around the world, and in the course of meeting each other at the local yacht club, Brian Williams invited this lady and her partner to join him on his boat as staff. So for something like 2 years they sailed the world with Brian Williams.

There weren't many people on the boat besides them, the skipper, Brian and his girlfriend. Occasionally other members of Brian's family would join them, particularly Brian's older brother, but over the months that Brian's brother was on board, this lady told me they could see various tensions between the two, so finally early in 2002, she and her partner decided to part ways and thank Brian for adventure when they docked in Hawaii. After that, they flew back to Australia, but a couple of months later they were contacted by the FBI who were investigating Brian's disappearance. Apparently the brother had sailed the boat back in Tahiti alone and there was no sign of Brian, his girlfriend or the skipper. The FBI reported that the suspected murder occurred only a couple of weeks after they had parted company with Brian, and if they had still been onboard, they would have been victims as well.

Talk about a good call in knowing when to take your leave.

In terms of offer that we made on her car, it wasn't a great offer (which is what you'd expect when selling anything to a reseller, as opposed direct to a customer). So she took her leave of that as well.

I'd say this lady had a pretty good sense of intuition, as she's dodged a couple of bad situations there.

"It's all when, and not if"

In countries where scooters and motorbikes aren't the only affordable option for people to get motorised transport, then this disapproving sentiment is something which every motorcycle rider would have heard several times. And it isn't so much a case of that people in cars drive better, but they are just better protected, and there are certain stability benefits that come from having 4 wheels instead of 2.

Take for example the whole burnout thing; if you do that in a rear-wheel drive car, then you'll annoy everyone in earshot and look like a monkey. If you're foolish or inexperienced, then generally your risk is the possibility of hopping a curb and collecting a power pole. But do that on a motorcycle, then your risks multiply due to the mechanical dynamics and your vulnerability. YouTube is awash with videos of motorcyclists engaged in stunts gone bad, but the injury they risk is more than just their pride.

The one above at least has the good news that she healed up pretty well, but there was alot of pain and tears in the process.

One of the debates that springs up here is about the lane splitting that motorcycles can do in heavy traffic. The vitriol from car drivers is driven primarily from envy, but the law looks down on it as it is dangerous due to drivers not expecting to watch for a bike when changing lanes in congested traffic. When I rode a bike, I pretty much avoided lane splitting due to that risk, and ironically my only accident was due to me sitting behind a SUV, when every other rider was splitting lanes. The SUV pulled an emergency stop and I hadn't allowed enough room for a sluggish morning reaction time. Face meet fender.

I haven't been back to motorcycles since, mainly as other people in my life require me to be more conservative with my transport, but I'd go back in a heartbeat if that wasn't the case.

There's something addictive about riding a motorcycle, and maybe it's being that close to the edge during the trip.

First impressions really matter

You know, if you're going to screw up a first impression, it is probably best to make a mess of it with people who you'll never see again.

A long time ago I decided to try my hand as a car salesperson. Now that in itself is material for many other posts, including the things that led up to the hare-brained decision of trying that career.

Anyway, any city will find itself with a large array of caryards and combined with a reasonably high churn in staff, means that there are plenty of openings for someone new to enter into the industry. In my case, I had quite a few applications out there, and eager to get to my first interview, I was up early and all set to go. Caryards open at 8am, though not because of the eagerness of customers, but due to the various activities that go with getting ready for the day. It also tends to mean that yard managers like to get interviews done early in the morning before sales opportunities begin to take precedence.

I worked my way through traffic to get to the yard in time for the interview. Checked my documents, proof of sales license, tie and business shirt, then strolled in to the showroom to find the manager who I'd be meeting.

The bright administration girl greeted me, then was a little stumped when I told her about my pending interview.

I repeated the name of the manager I was supposed to be meeting, and just as she asked me to wait so she could run around to ask if a manager of that name was there, that was when I realised I'd made an embarrassing mistake.

I was at the wrong caryard.

In my process of getting ready for the interview and making sure I was on time, I hadn't double checked the specific yard that I was heading out to.

Of course, by this time, there was beginning to be a small gathering of sales people, admin staff and their existing managers as they all tried to work out what was going on and who I was. Red faced and apologetic, I excused myself to make a phone call to the correct yard and explain to the interviewing manager why I wasn't there. He had a good sense of humour, had a laugh, and gave me another shot at the interview the next day.

In terms of the people at the first car yard? Well they did have my application on file for a job opening that they had as well, but seeing as I'd made a monkey of myself there, it was no surprise that they never called me in for a real interview. I think my unexpected audition had told them everything they needed.

Capital Punishment

I'm slowly learning to force myself to proofread posts prior to posting them. My first draft on this topic was less informed than this one, as I hadn't actually read much on the internet in terms of what arguments are commonly presented against Capital Punishment. Hopefully this time around I come across as more thoughtful.

First up, I should set the tone; I am for Capital Punishment, but I wanted to know more about why people oppose it as I'm open to hearing more and I'm not against being educated. Now I thought a good reasoned website would be Amnesty International. They're a huge human rights campaigner and they've been around for quite some time. So I had high expectations from them, you can read their posts http://www.amnesty.org.au/adp.

Reading through through some of the arguments in Amnesty International and other sites such as www.antideathpenalty.org, I think that quite a number of the arguments are flawed. Here are a couple of reasons why:

1. In most cases, victim impact is hardly touched. I can kind of understand why, as it is such a complex and difficult topic to handle. But there is no denying that violent crime, and this is not just limited to homicide, has huge immeasurable impacts that last a lifetime to the victim and the victim's family.
2. Often people compare USA against other western countries that don't have the death penalty and use that as their sole comparison of homicide statistics and death penalty. Now that is just gross simplification. These sorts of comparisons are way too complex to present in such a simple fashion, and in particular to handle so glibly by using a single country (USA) as a reference point. By Amnesty International's own webpages (http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries) about 20% of the countries in the world actively support and practice the death penalty. About another 20% support it by law, but aren't actively practising it. So shouldn't there be more detailed comparisons against are broader range of countried? And shouldn't those comparisons account for education levels, economic conditions, availability of guns, and other indicators that could be considered to have bearing on violent crime?
3. Kind of related to the point above, but a lot of sites use the Canada crime statistics to support abolishing the death penalty. Their argument is that since 1975, homicide has dropped 40%, and the death penalty was abolished in 1976. The problems with this argument are again that they are ignoring all other factors, but secondly, the USA has also seen a drop in homicide rates over the same period. Not as great, but a drop nonetheless. An interesting book that touches on this issue is Freakonomics written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, where one of the things he looks at is the recorded drop in homicide and general crime over this period, and his reasons why. Part of the difference is that he provides numbers and facts to support his theories, which I find more persuasive than organisations which just present a correlation without justifying why they have linked a cause and analysis.
4. A number of webpages use the argument that "several countries have already abolished it" as a supporting argument against capital punishment, but that is like saying "majority of people are trending to obesity" so that makes it suitable to shift the ideal weight in health guidelines. It is illogical to purely use majority or trend as a justification to the morality or effectiveness of an activity.
5. The argument of false convictions pertaining to those sentenced with Capital Punishment is not so much an argument against the punishment itself, but highlighting a need to change workings of the justice system itself, including the qualifications of government appointed defence attorneys.

I'm not saying that I think capital punishment is a magic pill to resolve violent crime, and it isn't because people can't be rehabilitated. But I also think that punishment does need to suit the crime committed. It might be easy to react against my opinion and say I'm a crazy right-wing extremist, but this is a serious real-life issue and have you ever logically considered about how explain your own viewpoint?