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My new life...

little ol' e

Jus' a hobby guy
I'm working in AI today...,

Checking out, how many green toothpicks I will need to build our new retirement home, wild turkey moonshine hut with a twin Cessna hanger with a nice smooth landing strip near a bug infested pond someplace:p
 

Matt-Aburg

Ultra Member
I'm working in AI today...,

Checking out, how many green toothpicks I will need to build our new retirement home, wild turkey moonshine hut with a twin Cessna hanger with a nice smooth landing strip near a bug infested pond someplace:p
Is AI - artificial intelligence? or a ypo for Alabama? Or are you just smoking too much wacky tobacky?
 

little ol' e

Jus' a hobby guy
Is AI - artificial intelligence? or a ypo for Alabama? Or are you just smoking too much wacky tobacky?

LOL,
YPO requires you to work with a minimum of 16 members haha, I don't get along with that many individuals in 1 room for any length of time....

What's wacky tobacky?
Will that stuff fit into a twin juicy jay, blueberry-cotton candy paper rocket ?
 

little ol' e

Jus' a hobby guy
I thought you were retired?

Well.... Our 2 daughters are doing quite well in nursing and are pretty much self-sufficient these days.
However, 2 of our 3 boys need a good kick in the arse most dayzzzz. ( could be caused by turdopes wacky tobacky on a "BUDGET" )
If I kick em' too hard... then I have to get my welding helmet on before the warden comes at me with the big wooden spoon hangin off the wall....

If I could fit us all in the " New Tesla modular home" I wouldn't be working with AI today,,, testing how many green toothpick's I would need to withstand having drones land on the roof of our new retirement shack haha..
 
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phaxtris

(Ryan)
Premium Member
Premium Member
I'm working in AI today...,

Checking out, how many green toothpicks I will need to build our new retirement home, wild turkey moonshine hut with a twin Cessna hanger with a nice smooth landing strip near a bug infested pond someplace:p

There is a place that came up recently with a hanger and a paved runway in I think it was central Alberta....couple million if I recall

 

DPittman

Ultra Member
Premium Member
There is a place that came up recently with a hanger and a paved runway in I think it was central Alberta....couple million if I recall

Wow. When I see that I can't imagine that anyone could "work" hard enough to be able to afford such a place.....I immediately think unscrupulous business/gross over charging or crime.
Yes I know there might be luck or inheritance involved also. It's just the sour grapes/envy that is dictating my negative comments.:rolleyes:
 

PaulL

Technologist at Large
Premium Member
When I see that I can't imagine that anyone could "work" hard enough to be able to afford such a place
Yeah. The gross over-charging and crime are the tech industry and the oil industry, respectively.
I work in the tech field - that's not too outlandish for folks who have been working in tech since the mid-90's and expect another 10 years worth. The economics of tech work are really screwed up.
If Alberta didn't have winters, I'd be into something like this - the hangar seems like a real win, though paying the surcharge for the air strip seems a bit much ;-)
[Edit:]
It's also telling that the house is being treated as a tear-down in the sale materials.
 

slow-poke

Ultra Member
My friend had something similar near Orillia, ON. He had two planes. No criminal or unscrupulous business practice, we started in his basement and it took about 20 years to start raking in the profit. He would fly from his home to his cottage while watching the weekend road warriors trying to navigate the "parking lot" like highways heading North out of Toronto towards cottage country. Thinking about some of our sales guys, they were a bit shady, I remember a really big party we got invited to in California once but I diverge. It had the coolest home garage I have ever seen.
 
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little ol' e

Jus' a hobby guy
Wow. When I see that I can't imagine that anyone could "work" hard enough to be able to afford such a place.....I immediately think unscrupulous business/gross over charging or crime.
Yes I know there might be luck or inheritance involved also. It's just the sour grapes/envy that is dictating my negative comments.:rolleyes:

Life is too short to think and feel that way, Really!

I would give you an example but I lost the pics... I posted 1 of them back when on this site thou.

We use to stamp lighting fixture bases over the years... The problem was... When housing starts are down, as they are and have been since November of last year.
You had many stamping dies taking up space in a shop, both hand transfer and mechanical, then add maintenance to that. Quick shim and sharpens all the way down to making up new gutting sections- heat treat, wire edm etc.

Add to the fact if your 600T press was booked and needed to pull a job out of an 800-1000T press to knock em' out when needed, you were often upside down on some runs.... So you had to get it back out at the other end.

Since taking a look at the process several years ago now, several of us decided to try laser cutting them, then CNC machine tapping the 6-32 holes, then of course onto forming in a small 80T press with a robotic arms for transfers.

When we took the samples to several machine shops at the time, we didn't get 1 bite, even thou we sent out many RFQ's. Really thou, who would want to make fixtures up to just put TWO 6-32 holes in a ceiling plate? Ya know.

Plus, the fact... who would stand in front of a CNC machine all day humping ceiling fixture parts at the time, ya know.
Well,,, I did, never complained about it when I lost employees that just got bored and left etc. I just did it!!!
Now it runs completely on its own...

We can choose to be happy, either way!
Just my .02
 
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Mcgyver

Ultra Member
I immediately think unscrupulous business/gross over charging or crime.

Like Matsuura? The other day someone told they are $500/h for service now. Good grief, great reason to step down to a Haas lol.

I've spend a lot of time in careers that put me working directly with extremely high net worth individuals, many billionaires. Maybe I just dealt with the good ones, but all were first class; nothing unsavory there. Their word that they'd pay the fee meant more than the contract. For the most part you don't get rich as an island, you need lots and lots of people behind you, supporting you, thinking your worth following. From employees to customers to investors to adivors and vendors....that is just hard to do if you're a sleazy law breaking unsavory type stealing and screwing people. (some of the kids, not so much so lol....but they're not making it, just spending it) And so far as I saw, they all obey the law and pay frightful amounts of tax....they have too much to lose to do otherwise.
 

phaxtris

(Ryan)
Premium Member
Premium Member
I've ran into several owners of multi million dollar houses while installing steel....some of them like to show up when there is big stuff, like a crane on site, or hoisting in a 20,000$ fireplace (yes really, 20k, and he was the coolest owner I've ever met)

Most of them are pretty cool people actually...not unsavoury, pro athletes, doctors, dentists, or buisness people who just got into something at the right time (esp here in Alberta)

But maybe only the cool/nice ones like to come out to site, so that might be a little biased

I could see an athlete buying that place I listed, close to Calgary, an airstrip to fly your private plane home every once and a while
 

TorontoBuilder

Ultra Member
Like Matsuura? The other day someone told they are $500/h for service now. Good grief, great reason to step down to a Haas lol.

I've spend a lot of time in careers that put me working directly with extremely high net worth individuals, many billionaires. Maybe I just dealt with the good ones, but all were first class; nothing unsavory there. Their word that they'd pay the fee meant more than the contract. For the most part you don't get rich as an island, you need lots and lots of people behind you, supporting you, thinking your worth following. From employees to customers to investors to adivors and vendors....that is just hard to do if you're a sleazy law breaking unsavory type stealing and screwing people. (some of the kids, not so much so lol....but they're not making it, just spending it) And so far as I saw, they all obey the law and pay frightful amounts of tax....they have too much to lose to do otherwise.

I have worked for many many wealthy people.

Being people, they came is good and bad, but mostly the wealthy ones worked hard, and had a certain drive that most people lack.

My grandfather grew up dirt poor in the depression, but got lucky when a gentleman gifted a brand new car and gave him a job as a junior executive at an industrial start up in Detroit in the 1930s . He ended up being the one of the star rising of the company, industrial wore cloth, and helped the company to grew to crucial support to the war effort during WW2. He was rewarded appropriately and went on to start his own very successful company after the war,

An acquaintance of mine is brilliant mathematically, mechanically and artistically. At the nascent of e-commerce industry he invented picking and packing technology for automated order fulfilment that was bought out by a current e-commerce giant. He became independently wealthy, bought a historical building to house a large art studio and his passion project of a karate dojo. His financial comfort allowed him to pursue his art where he also found great success... some people have that intangible thing that drives them to succeed in any field.

Those without it need to resort to shadiness to succeed, and in the end most seem to get caught.
 

PaulL

Technologist at Large
Premium Member
need to resort to shadiness to succeed
Every once in a while I run the numbers on doing crime for a living instead honest work. It only ever seems to pay on the very short term. As soon as your timeframe shifts to years there are way more effective ways of making a buck.
You still need a dose of luck, but also you make your own luck - luck, after all, is when opportunity meets preparedness.
 

TorontoBuilder

Ultra Member
Every once in a while I run the numbers on doing crime for a living instead honest work. It only ever seems to pay on the very short term. As soon as your timeframe shifts to years there are way more effective ways of making a buck.
You still need a dose of luck, but also you make your own luck - luck, after all, is when opportunity meets preparedness.
not only are there better ways to make money than crime (with the possible exclusion of white collar crimes) you tend to have a much shorter life expectancy when you choose criminal career
 
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