Lights and tunnel ends...

Day Job

The project from Hell, referenced here and here, may finally be coming to a close. Printing is being handled beautifully by editing PDFs, and there is by my estimation one calculation left that isn't quite working.

It's a mortgage calculation with six or so variables, and no matter how I run it - with degrees of precision on each variable from zero to fourteen decimal places - I can't make the final number match the example and the discrepancy is far outside the allowable margin for error.

I've turned the problem over to my technical contact in Nebraska and moved on to other things. Thank God.

Seamlyne

The tights business is proceeding well, though the ren fest portion is very sluggish. There is a segment of our customer base that was eagerly awaiting our reopening, and now that we have that segment has been largely silent. I think that as a group they got on the website, saw the prices, and collectively retreated, gasping in horror.

Our prices are what they are, and no, we don't offer discounts. We can't afford to: dyeing is an expensive process. My local competition has the market spoiled for tights at or below $20 and the phrase, "You get what you pay for" has little meaning. Penny-wise and pound-foolish is my favorite aphorism there. 

As another illustration to my point, I present to you the Sam Vimes Theory of Socio-economic Unfairness, paraphrased for illustrative use:

Rich people were rich, he reasoned, because they spent less money than other people.

Take tights, for example. A really good pair of tights cost thirty-five dollars. But an affordable pair of tights, which were sort of OK for a few weeks but which twisted about the leg and wore out in a very uncomfortable place after just a few wearings, cost about twelve dollars. Those were the kind of tights they always bought, and wore until the crotch split open and their feet lost feeling because the cheap and badly assembled fabric bound about their legs like a frustrated boa constrictor.

But the thing was that good tights lasted for several seasons. A man who could afford thirty-five dollars had a pair of tights that'd still be comfortable in two years time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap tights would have spent a hundred dollars on tights in the same time and would still look wrinkled and uncomfortable.

Pounding the drum from the back of a tall bandwagon: just one more service we offer.

At the risk of sounding disingenuous, though most of our business is built on the ren fest market we're hoping to attract business from circuses and theatre companies. Looking to broaden the horizons, so to speak, and, to be perfectly frank, I imagine we'll hear fewer complaints about the prices.

General Update

Went swimming with the kids at the YMCA yesterday. Jami is fearless in the water, and does as much as we'll let him. He still has to wear a float belt in the water, and eventually we'll let him take it off. Learn to swim, first, kid!

Katie took her first jump off the diving board without a float belt. She can swim, but wasn't confident in the deep end - by the time we left, she was jumping off the board, nose held firmly between thumb and forefinger, without a belt. I'm really proud of her.

Though it's early yet, I find myself look for autumnal colors on the hillsides as I drive home. The Seamlyne logo above is our autumn logo, and I'm looking forward to plugging it into the website.

I'm ready.

Lights and tunnel ends...

Day Job

The project from Hell, referenced here and here, may finally be coming to a close. Printing is being handled beautifully by editing PDFs, and there is by my estimation one calculation left that isn't quite working.

It's a mortgage calculation with six or so variables, and no matter how I run it - with degrees of precision on each variable from zero to fourteen decimal places - I can't make the final number match the example and the discrepancy is far outside the allowable margin for error.

I've turned the problem over to my technical contact in Nebraska and moved on to other things. Thank God.

Seamlyne

The tights business is proceeding well, though the ren fest portion is very sluggish. There is a segment of our customer base that was eagerly awaiting our reopening, and now that we have that segment has been largely silent. I think that as a group they got on the website, saw the prices, and collectively retreated, gasping in horror.

Our prices are what they are, and no, we don't offer discounts. We can't afford to: dyeing is an expensive process. My local competition has the market spoiled for tights at or below $20 and the phrase, "You get what you pay for" has little meaning. Penny-wise and pound-foolish is my favorite aphorism there. 

As another illustration to my point, I present to you the Sam Vimes Theory of Socio-economic Unfairness, paraphrased for illustrative use:

Rich people were rich, he reasoned, because they spent less money than other people.

Take tights, for example. A really good pair of tights cost thirty-five dollars. But an affordable pair of tights, which were sort of OK for a few weeks but which twisted about the leg and wore out in a very uncomfortable place after just a few wearings, cost about twelve dollars. Those were the kind of tights they always bought, and wore until the crotch split open and their feet lost feeling because the cheap and badly assembled fabric bound about their legs like a frustrated boa constrictor.

But the thing was that good tights lasted for several seasons. A man who could afford thirty-five dollars had a pair of tights that'd still be comfortable in two years time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap tights would have spent a hundred dollars on tights in the same time and would still look wrinkled and uncomfortable.

Pounding the drum from the back of a tall bandwagon: just one more service we offer.

At the risk of sounding disingenuous, though most of our business is built on the ren fest market we're hoping to attract business from circuses and theatre companies. Looking to broaden the horizons, so to speak, and, to be perfectly frank, I imagine we'll hear fewer complaints about the prices.

General Update

Went swimming with the kids at the YMCA yesterday. Jami is fearless in the water, and does as much as we'll let him. He still has to wear a float belt in the water, and eventually we'll let him take it off. Learn to swim, first, kid!

Katie took her first jump off the diving board without a float belt. She can swim, but wasn't confident in the deep end - by the time we left, she was jumping off the board, nose held firmly between thumb and forefinger, without a belt. I'm really proud of her.

Though it's early yet, I find myself look for autumnal colors on the hillsides as I drive home. The Seamlyne logo above is our autumn logo, and I'm looking forward to plugging it into the website.

I'm ready.

Jami-isms

We were at the YMCA. Fresh from the pool, Jami and I in the men's locker room toweling off and getting ready to leave.

Buck naked, Jami walks to the full length mirror on the wall at the end of our row. He stands before it, hands on his hips like a pale and rather short He-Man.  He holds this pose, studying his reflection for a few moments.

"Hmm," he chirps in his small, five year old voice. "I do look good with a penis."

Jami-isms

We were at the YMCA. Fresh from the pool, Jami and I in the men's locker room toweling off and getting ready to leave.

Buck naked, Jami walks to the full length mirror on the wall at the end of our row. He stands before it, hands on his hips like a pale and rather short He-Man.  He holds this pose, studying his reflection for a few moments.

"Hmm," he chirps in his small, five year old voice. "I do look good with a penis."