My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on August 9, 2018

Unions have slowly been losing their grip on "laws" in each state over the years as workers want to be able to choose whether or not they want to belong to a union (and pay the dues). Several states have passed "right-to-work" laws giving those workers that freedom … but others have not adopted "independent choice."

In elections on Tuesday, voters in Missouri push back against "right-to-work" in their state.

Unions notch win in deep-red Missouri with rejection of right-to-work law

Tuesday’s referendum in the state gave voters the chance to strike down a law the state Legislature passed last year that would prohibit employees from being forced to join a union or to otherwise pay "fair share" fees to a given workplace’s union. Rules like this are commonly referred to as "right-to-work" laws, and by prohibiting requirements for employees to join a union or pay fees to a union negotiating on their behalf, they are generally understood to weaken labor organizations in places where they are enacted.

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Personally I understand the value unions once played in our country and establishing them gave some power to workers who were often taken advantage of when it came to abusive management. Most of the old is in the past and companies nowadays wanting to retain good workers must offer competitive compensation and benefits that align with their peers.

I’d prefer individuals have the option to be part of a union or not. If employers get too haughty, unions will grow again and workers will want to join. Unfortunately now unions have become just a political arm and lobbyist (and waste dues) … we should not be forcing individuals to participate and pay dues.

Category: Business, News, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: labor, law, missouri, Politics, right to work, states, unions, voting, workers

Posted By RichC on August 8, 2018

With a niece a new dentist and both a late father-in-law and brother-in-law who were dentists, the #70 Mike Rowe "The Way I Heard It Podcast" was interesting – You Might Feel A Little Pinch.

I’m thankful for modern dentistry … although may look at my dentist with a little more scrutiny.

Check out mikeroweWorks or his SKILLSUSA Foundation while you are listening.
 

Category: Audio, Health, History | No Comments »
Tags: dadh, dentist, History, keira, mark howard, medicine, mike rowe, mp3, podcast

Posted By RichC on August 7, 2018

I just love good ideas. Here is one that I grabbed off of an ad on my iPhone that uses the car door pillar “loop” to hold a machined aluminum hook attached to a step. The simple step is used to reach items strapped to a roof rack or car top carrier. It would be really handy for taller SUVs or CUVs.

Brilliant … now to figure out how to make it or better yet, where to buy it.

Category: Archive, Automotive, Ideas, Misc | No Comments »
Tags: aluminum, innovation, step

Posted By RichC on August 6, 2018

I was reminded in a tweet last week (below) of an inspirational book and story I read as a young boy growing up in Ohio. The book and story was that of the transatlantic voyage of Tinkerbelle (book of the same name) was made by Robert Manry back in 1965.  He was a copywriter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio and added to the interest for a semi-landlocked boy interested in seafaring adventures.

In part, Manry’s voyage (and that of Robin Lee Graham’s on Dove and others) spurred on my sailing interest. I nagged and  encouraged my parents to buy our first sailboat (the “Fiberpile” — satirical nicknamed by a sailing friend) which gave me enough sailing exposure to “get my feet wet,” although growing up and boating on Lake Erie didn’t hurt. Great memories … although I’m spending too much time remembering life and looking back and not enough looking forward to my next 30 or so years!

Tinkerbelle in the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum. April 2018

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Category: Books, Memories, Sailing, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: book, cleveland, crawford museum, dove, fiberpile, inspiration, ohio, plain dealer, robert manry, sailboat, tinkerbelle, transatlantic, tweet, twitter, voyage

Posted By RichC on August 5, 2018

This content is restricted.

Category: Personal, Photos, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, annalyn, family, plumbing, potty, toilet, training

Posted By RichC on August 4, 2018

This was posted back in 2016 and thought it was great advice for all of us to read again … whether working in the media, in our personal day-to-day interactions or posting on social networks.

My daughter starts middle school tomorrow. We’ve decorated her locker, bought new uniforms, even surprised her with a new backpack. But tonight just before bed, we did another pre-middle school task that is far more important than the others. I gave her a tube of toothpaste and asked her to squirt it out onto a plate. When she finished, I calmly asked her to put all the toothpaste back in the tube. She began exclaiming things like “But I can’t!” and “It won’t be like it was before!” I quietly waited for her to finish and then said the following:

“You will remember this plate of toothpaste for the rest of your life. Your words have the power of life or death. As you go into middle school, you are about to see just how much weight your words carry. You are going to have the opportunity to use your words to hurt, demean, slander and wound others. You are also going to have the opportunity to use your words to heal, encourage, inspire and love others. You will occasionally make the wrong choice; I can think of three times this week I have used my own words carelessly and caused harm. Just like this toothpaste, once the words leave your mouth, you can’t take them back. Use your words carefully. When others are misusing their words, guard your words. Make the choice every morning that life-giving words will come out of your mouth. Decide tonight that you are going to be a life-giver in middle school. Be known for your gentleness and compassion. Use your life to give life to a world that so desperately needs it. You will never, ever regret choosing kindness.”

Category: Advice, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: advice, school, toothpaste, words

Posted By RichC on August 3, 2018

After impressing almost all analysis with their quarterly report, stock buyers continued to buy $AAPL stock on Thursday making Apple the most valuable company. I watched the coverage on and off all afternoon on Fox Business and the party atmosphere and giddy excitement reminded me of the same dot.com partying in the late 1990s. Oh to have kept my shares in this company the many times I’ve owned it  … instead I have a bunch of practically worthless Apple stuff! 

The company’s market cap rose above $1 Trillion in value proving they are doing enough things right to have people want to own $AAPL stock and closed at $207.39, up $5.89 or 3%.

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Category: Apple, Business, Financial, Technology | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on August 2, 2018

Perhaps it is a sign of the times, but with all the political hate and violence over someone expressing their first amendment point of view, I had to second guess myself in wanting to add my NRA renewal stickers to my cars. In the end, I added them to the old Mercedes and BMW X5 35d, but avoided making Brenda a potential target since she has to park her car in a retail parking lot. It is too bad we even have to give our freedom of expression a second thought … especially for something as basic at support for the 2nd Amendment. Very sad.

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, Mercedes, Personal, Photos, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: 1st amendment, 2nd amendment, 300d, BMW, firearms, membership, mercedes, NRA, Politics, rights, stickers, support, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on August 2, 2018

I have, and do, support a few crowd funded projects — I’ve placied preorders taking on risk and see it as taking a small scale venture capital risk (without much reward). A couple bigger investments have been Elio and MagFast. The latter posts weekly, and relatively personal updates via YouTube video, on how the process is going> Since I supported the previous ThingCharger and saw their first company struggle with growing pains and eventual failure, I feel that I’m part of the family business.

Seymour Segnet shared a little bit of his history (including the failure) and an updated "best guess" timeline for their newest Magfast Charging system project. This is something I wish Elio Motors would be better at doing (below is his long winded, but worthwhile for me since I’ve been onboard since 2013, presentation as to the past and current timeline.)

Category: Automotive, Business, Cellphone, Computer, Innovation, Technology, Video | No Comments »
Tags: capital, crowdfunding, elio, funding, magfast, motors, segnet, seymour, thingcharger, update, venture, youtube

Posted By RichC on August 1, 2018

Brenda and I had a good time talking to our millennial son Taylor and his girlfriend Megan last weekend. In contrast to our usually politically deteriorating topics of conversation (like his dad, Taylor loves to debate), it was a very enjoyable time. He picked up some shrimp and brought over the ingredients to make us dinner which was probably the best tasting meal I’ve had all year — what a great cook (and it was pretty much ALL Taylor!)

Most of our conversation was around house-hunting as he has been looking at interesting properties and pondering buying his first house. I’m hoping he doesn’t feel forced into buying “just anything” since besides the unrealistic pressure of age and doing what peers are doing,  he is feeling as if the prices and bidding battles on listed properties  makes  houses more attractive than they are — the “if someone else wants it, I better bid on it too” competition. I know he wants to buy and own a house in the high taxed and higher price urban Cincinnati area, but since he is “the county planner” for Clermont County just east of Cincinnati, I think his smartest move would be to use that knowledge to make a smart buy where he knows all the players. We discussed his desire to get into property development and conversation with a respected older (70 year old) developer about how he started in the business and what his advice might be. Very smart.

The fun conversation ended with Taylor telling me that he things he may have found a fun “side hustle.” I’ve bugged him about doing something that makes money in his free time rather than spending it or sitting around playing video games. He was excited to share giving the new Bird scooter business a try — very exciting and at least fun. Who knows, might even generated some spending money?

Bird electric scooters ruffle city officials’ feathers with surprise launch

With no advance notice, flocks of Bird electric scooters appeared on Cincinnati sidewalks Thursday morning, according to The Enquirer.

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Category: Personal, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: bird, cincinnati, cooking, family, homes, houses, megan, property, real estate, scooter, side-hustle, taylor