Careful now, this post is going to be a little bit live journal so the faint of heart should turn back now.  I mean it!

As the title would suggest, I wish I had a studio; “o rly” one might say.  I came to this conclusion after trying to find a place to start brainstorming a competition I came across.  The project, to design a music studio in Haiti, seems like something I would like to be a part of.

But alas, like I said I have a problem.  I have no where to really do anything; my desk, which realistically is the only place to write or draw in loose-leaf paper, houses my computer and mountains of papers that have no rational storage elsewhere.

The only other hard surface in my room is my dresser, which is where my light is.  Not necessarily a problem in itself but once said light is turned on the brightness is overwhelming.  Plus there are other things stored on my dresser as well, which puts the actual surface space down to about zero anyway.

So what am I to do?  Nothing, I suppose.  I can’t really change the fact I don’t have anywhere else to put this stuff (a lot of which isn’t even mine, by the way) nor can I change the fact I can’t just add more surfaces to my room.  It isn’t nearly big enough.  If I had more money, I could add collapsible surfaces, but, alas, I’m a relatively poor college student.

Oh well.  I suppose I’ll simply continue to mope about all the stuff I need.  Its either that or actually getting the things I need – but that’s to hard.

I’m going to try to keep the math simple here so maybe those individuals in Albany who voted this down can get the message.

Of course, I’m sure my position – or even the fact I have a position – on this issue will shock people.  I mean, as I Mormon never having a drink in my life supporting increased liquor sales?  Of course that isn’t normal!  But the issue at hand isn’t necessarily about wine or liquor but rather is about the supermarkets’ proprietor’s freedom to sell what they think their clients want.

I can understand why it failed; the liquor stores will – should the measure pass – face a decrease in sales.  That will, of course, cause the state senators and assemblymen/women problems during their re-election campaign.  Not gunna lie, kind of a bad reason to vote against something that will help consumers and the state coffers, but whatever.

Anyway, moving on; the biggest reason why the liquor store owners (aka The Last Store on Main Street – how subtle) are against this bill is that they will inevitably go completely out of business due to big grocers selling wine at a cheaper price and at greater convenience. Huh.  Run-on sentence aside, there really isn’t that much I can say to defend that statement.

Second, is the concern supermarkets will primarily sell wine grown outside New York.  According to an MPNNow article a review of the wine menu at Wegman’s Next Door Bar and Grill shows less than 5% of the wines available are produced within the State border.  I’m curious how much wine this group thinks New York State makes.  New York doesn’t produce the most wine in the United States.  We don’t even come in second place.  New York holds the high honor of third biggest wine producer. In the United States. Woot?

The shear fact of the matter is the Next Door Bar and Grill holds a spectacular percentage of New York wines.  Of course, it could be higher but when the United States as a country only holds a 3.8% market share on wine exports having a 5% of your menu devoted to local wines isn’t bad at all.  Even if only 3% of the wines available for purchase are made in New York, that is still more than – statistically speaking – should be available based on wine produced.

The last store on main street is also concerned stores will close and jobs will be lost.  No doubt stores will close but as grocery stores add new product they will need to hire new employees trained in wine.  If they don’t, liquor stores which remain open will have an intellect advantage and may even see improved sales as convenience shoppers move into the premium market.

As to the amount of store closings, I can’t say for sure.  Based on the shear amount of liquor stores (I can think of at least 5 right along the Pittsford/Perinton border) the damage will likely be minimal.  Perhaps, should grocers start selling wine, there will only be 3 or 4 in this tiny patch of land; but like I said, I can’t say for sure.

In conclusion, the market for wine is huge in the United States; the average American drinks 7-15 liters per year.  The shear fact of the matter is, grocer can’t devote enough shelf space to truly capture the market.  “Small” stores, with the ability to devote huge amounts of shelf space to wine, will still have a place in the market and still employee knowledgeable staff to help customers.

Today, every popular female on facebook participated in something fantastic.  They cured breast cancer.

No, I’m sorry.  I’m joking, they didn’t cure cancer.  Instead what they did – and this is not a joke – was post their bra color as their status in an effort to bring awareness to this disease.

Now, I won’t lie, its a noble effort to bring awareness to unknown, debilitating, diseases.  But that being said, breast cancer isn’t unknown.  If anything it is one of the most well known diseases on the face of the planet.

The problem with breast cancer, like with all cancers, is that its cancer.  When you’re diagnosed there are no assurances – even with early detection – you will survive; that’s simply the sad state of cancer research.

I understand that, at this point, I’m going to be ridiculed, harassed, and so forth for this post but I cannot help but feeling as if this act won’t accomplish anything – because it won’t.  All it will do is make you feel as if you’re accomplishing something – in the absolute laziest way possible.

If you’re like me – that is to say you have no medical experience at all – to really help cancer research you should be donating money or what skills you do have to research organizations.  That will go a lot further in really making people’s lives better.

American Cancer Society
Susan G. Komen – For the Cure

It is that time of year again when hopes, dreams, and wish lists become reality – or so we’d wish.  Very often we don’t, but that’s for a different time.

Regardless of any argument anyone may ever make, prioritizing presents, gifts, or anything else over the true reason of Christmas – the birth of Jesus – can never be considered good.  It is this time of year we must move our attention to others rather than ourselves; or in the case of us business owners, our profits.

Nevertheless, the slight commercialization of Christmas can indeed be a good thing.  This is the season when individuals give gifts to make other people happy.  In order to give these presents individuals first must find gainful employment to acquire the resources to either purchase or manufacture the gift.  Typically, this means getting a job, rather than foraging for wood, metal, or other resources.

As this individual is employed he or she will manufacture a product for someone else to purchase, who will also need to be employed, and so on.  This will increase the standard of living for all those involved; the gift recipient, the gift giver, and all of those who are indirectly involved in this process.

Of course, my point is moot as generally people must be employed to, y’know, eat, but just some food for thought.

And here is how it happened:

Around 6:20 She (who I will refer to as “Ana”, the first name on the 2009 hurricane name list) entered queue and proceeded to put her items on the conveyer.

When it was her turn to be rung up, she preemptively apologized for being “my worst nightmare” – which didn’t seem out of the ordinary considering she had a few dozen items, most of which were air fresheners or pet treats.  Considering these items were on clearance and relatively complimentary, that aspect didn’t seem to out of the ordinary either.

Before I was able to start processing her transaction, Ana requested $400 in gift cards, which is a lot, but she said she was doing this as a fund raiser, which seemed to make sense considering gift cards make good raffle prizes.  Once these were put in the register, she immediately put the cards in her purse.

Here’s the scam: It adds $400 to the total, which is important in this situation as you will see later.  Additionally, she may have thought if she was caught and had the transaction canceled (which is what happened) she could quickly exit the store and have the gift cards still work, though they do not.

While I was ringing up her items, Ana was more talkative than the average customer; which isn’t bad.  She asked questions about where I lived, where I was going to school, what major I was in, how busy we were, and how long I have been working at the store.  It was actually sort of nice, considering how long her transaction was.

Here’s the scam: A few things are happening here.

First the small talk forces the brain to focus on the conversation and the guest – rather than the prices of the products being rung up or the $400 worth of gift cards which are no longer in sight.

Second, she’s sizing up her competition: me and store security.  Knowing how long I’ve been working allows her to have a better guess of my ability to catch a coupon scam.  Knowing how busy we are gives her a better guess of whether or not we would just “let it slide.”  The other questions and small talk are simply there to act as filler to hide her hidden motives.

Once all of her items were bagged and in her cart, Ana once again apologized about her transaction and presented a stack of coupons.  I don’t have an exact number of coupons, but there was at least 2 dozen.  Her coupons were a mix of “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” for both the pet treats and air fresheners, which was a really good deal considering how many she had purchased.

She said every single one would work, and sure enough they all did – our registers reject coupons where the required items are not present.  After her coupons had been entered into the register, I turned on the “Help” light at my register to get clarification of the coupon policy.

Val, the acting front end manager at the time, verified the policy but with one caveat: the air freshener coupons were for singles, rather than two packs.

Though, technically, Ana could use all of her coupons since she was purchasing the required products, the shear number of coupons concerned Val to the point where she called for Craig, the store manager, to the register to make sure everything was ok.

At this point, Ana stated she “was in a hurry and [she] didn’t have time for this”, requested her coupons and left the store taking only her coupons.

Here’s the scam: Remember the gift cards which “added to the total” and the that the items where on clearance? Each coupon was subtracting close to $10 from the total – when they should have subtracting around $1.50.  This resulted in the bill being $16.52 – when at the very least it should have been $400.  Had Ana not had those gift cards, I would have owed her money – increasing the chances I would have known something was wrong.  Since I forgot about the gift cards – due to the small talk – the result seemed normal.

Now, in a typical scam operation the guest would simply return the products for cash or store credit, since the registers do not factor in coupons during returns.  However, there is something rather odd about this instance: most “buy X get X free” coupons require me to enter the amount of the coupon into the register and may even require a manager to sign off on the coupon.  This time, these coupons subtracted an incorrect amount automatically.  I have to believe that Ana somehow knew this would happen, because scamming $1.50 clearance items simply does not pay off well.  It is, therefore, my opinion this was an inside job as only someone who works with the company would know about this coupon error.

For those who are worried about this post helping “the bad guys”, I wrote this on the basis that full disclosure can result in fewer successful scam payoffs in the future.  Understandably, this post may help the amateur scammers, but this information is already out there and well known to professionals.  But the information here can help “the good guys” close security holes and prevent scams.

Update
I was informed that coupons can have a value of up to $10.00 embedded in the bar code.  It is very possible these coupons were “pre-programmed” or even altered to talk off the specific amount.

No, it has nothing to do with Maddow’s et al “tea bagging” joke.

I definitely didn’t skip because I somehow support the ridiculous tax and spend plan of Obama – or worse – the don’t tax and but spend plans of the previous administrations.

What I noticed, as the Tea Party movement grew, is that rather than protesting taxes, economic fascism (supply/demand manipulation through regulation), and an unstable currency the Tea Party Protesters only seemed to be concerned about Obama.  Just Obama.

A contact from Austria asked the question: would the protesters care if it was McCain & Palin on the spending spree?  Would Maddow still be piddling adult humor at her viewers? Both; the protesters wouldn’t care but Maddow, being the pillar of morals she is, would still be treating her viewers like hormone-enraged middle schoolers.

It seems to me that most of everyone who attended these rallies where spurred on by the talking heads at Fox screaming “Socialism!” when the tax dollars went from funding wars over seas to “saving jobs” in the U.S. itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support public funds going into private bank accounts.  Nor do I support fighting a war on emotions in countries on the other side of a globe.  In both of those situations, I am a debt slave; a slave to China or the IMF or whomever my “representatives” are willing to sell me to.

To me, that’s not the worst part.  What is really frightening – and truly saddening – is that the generations of Americans after me share the same fate.  My kids and their kids – whom have yet to even know life and the ideas of freedom – will be born into slavery.

So, to align these two tangents: I skipped the Tea Parties because those organizing the events missed the point.  If we’re in a war in Iraq or bailing out GM it doesn’t much make a difference: we’re still selling ourselves into bondage and worse: we’re selling our children into slavery without giving them a fair chance.

We must fix the real issues; end the Federal Reserve system, stop printing money, and, most importantly, stop whining about who’s in the White House when the person we want in would do the same thing!

Recently, a comment was made on my blog that placing partial blame on unions for the automotive sector’s collapse.  Eto, you couldn’t be further from the truth!  By agreeing to poorly contrived contracts the United Automotive Workers union not only priced themselves out of the market, but agreed to huge fiscal overheads placed on labor.

In a perfect world, unions are a good thing; that is a group of workers willing to actively strike and protest the unfair treatment they sustain on the workplace.  These utopian unions would be a simple association of workers working towards goals of honest compensation and reasonable working conditions.

Somehow, these unions became more than this association of workers and blossomed into a full-blown criminal business.  Workers represented by the unions pay a price for the “privilege.”  Union dues are far from cheep; my mother, represented by a teachers union, has dues equal too federal taxes.

If these union costs went to pay for the benefits gained through union actions, it would be understandable – even a bargain!  But instead these dues pay the salaries of the union leaders; that’s reasonable until you learn how much they make.

Example: John Sweeny, a union leader, earns upwards of $200,000 per year – fourteen times the amount an minimum wage worker earns or seven times the average salary in the United States.  For those who don’t know: John Sweeny is the President of the AFL-CIO, the largest union federation in the US.  You read that correctly, he doesn’t represent a single worker yet still takes home seven times the amount the average American earns.

In His book, “Give Me a Break” John Stossel published an interview he had with Mr. Sweeny.  One of the subjects Stossel questioned Sweeny about was his wage and the very clear disparity between him and the average worker.

Interestingly, while the federal minimum wage has only been raised about $4 in the past thirty years, Sweeny has never refused a pay increase.  Even when workers’, who earn far less, pay his ever-increasing salary he maintains he isn’t greedy.  As Stossel would say: “give me a break.”

I suppose since my original argument was against the UAW, I should justify my remarks.  Tough Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW president, earns less than Mr. Sweeny, his salary is still in the triple digits.  Gettelfinger’s yearly paycheck: $145,000 – three times the amount his workers represent.

I also have a theory as to why the UAW opposed the automotive bailout.  Their common reason is they don’t want to see their workers lose pay; which really is a fair demand.  What the UAW may not mention is the average worker would only lose $5/hour – which makes their salary equal to what Honda, Toyota, and Nissan employees earn.  It is my opinion, that the UAW opposed the bailout not to protect its workers, but to protect its bank account.

Union dues at the UAW are equal to 2 hours per month – this is about $52/month.  Under the first bailout proposal, the UAW would lose $10/month, or $120/year.  Spread that figure across the total UAW membership of 600,000 and suddenly the union loses $72,000,000 every year.  Factoring what Mr. Sweeny said about greed and suddenly things become clearer.

I hope now, Eto, that you understand that unions today are far from what they were in the past.  Instead of protecting their represented workers, they’re very much in it for the money.  So I guess, knowing that, wouldn’t supporting the unions, and their greedy habits of stealing from workers, be class war far?

Today around 6:00pm a water main broke at Target T-1156 in the electronics department (which is by far the best place for this to happen).  The overhead main was shut off manually after thoroughly dousing the radios, land line phones, and a good portion of the video game areas.

Unfortunately, I did not have my phone/camera at the time so I have no pictures.

As an architecture student, I look at this as an opportunity to design stores and other buildings better to avoid mechanical failure and product loss.

It would appear, judging by the number of roof-insulating panels on the floor, that the main either exploded dislodging the panels or the main was on the outside of the insulation.  Quite frankly, neither make sense because the panels I (thought I) saw go on the outside of the building.  If I had more information about the nature of the building I could actually theorize what went wrong; but since I don’t, I’ll just leave it as a “water main break.”

Moving on, how could this situation: a water main break above products, be avoided?  The obvious thing is to not put piping over mission-critical areas, instead put these pipes over storage and employee only sections.  In this case, if a water main break where to occur, customers would still be able to make purchases without being affected.  This would protect floor merchandise (where a majority of products are actually stored) from damage but would still leave backrooms and employee areas at risk.

Instead, here is what I propose: use under-slab piping for all water pipes.  This would protect merchandise and all backroom areas from potential damage.  Additionally, to save cost, I would only use two pipes for all water actions; 1 cold water main and 1 return.  In the places where hot water is required (washrooms, food areas, etc) I would use a tankless water heater.  You would only need two or three and developers would save thousands of dollars in pipe installations.

If a buried water main were to break, it would cost a lot more to repair.  However, the repair costs would likely be less than the damage to products which would be ruined.