Lights and tunnel ends...
Aug. 23rd, 2010 11:05![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mapsedgeDay 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:
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.
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.
SeamlyneThe 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 16:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 00:52 (UTC)Seriously though, I can't recall if you had mentioned that your dyeing process has revealed the best purple color. Is this the case? If so, I will place an order. Hmm... Alright, I went out to re-check Seamlyne.com. According to the website, it IS one of the colors available... Alright, I'll admit, it's been a while since I visited the website and seen the updates you have made to it. Expect an order from me sometime very soon.
One of the things I really like on the website, is that you brought back the option for non-footed tights! For a while there, your generic response was, "You have scissors, don't you?" Why, yes I do. But I don't want my tights to start fraying because I couldn't do a hem on them to save my life, let alone to save the life of my tights. (I honestly don't know if they would start fraying/unravelling/etc., but I've feared that they would do so.)... Just as my reasoning for the non-footed preference-- It allows me to adjust my socks within my boots as a completely separate entity, rather than the "sock within the sock" type of situation when wearing socks over tights.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 02:24 (UTC)One of the things I really like on the website, is that you brought back the option for non-footed tights
You can thank Michelle for that one. It's an extra step that I eliminated late in 2006 as we were shutting things down, and it is at her suggestion that I put it back "on the menu", as it were.
Knit fabrics don't fray, as it happens, but they do curl on the edges, which might have been just as uncomfortable.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 03:24 (UTC)Thank you, Michelle! Yay! As I said, it's one of those things that I understand the reason you "cut that option out," (as always, pun intended) but it does make my dressing process a bit easier.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 04:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 15:23 (UTC)Jeezus...you weren't kidding :)
We've ordered one more purple dye, just to see if we like that one better. We're thinking second weekend KCRF, maybe third. Does that work?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 15:47 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 05:54 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 15:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 15:10 (UTC)I hope you hear from/have heard from the guys - they've been desperate for new tights and I've pounded the drum for yours pretty hard! I'll remind them again and again. :)
~Tess
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 15:17 (UTC)Thanks for the boost!