CV Rick

The Breakfast Assembly Line

School's started and my busy season is just getting underway . . . and by busy, I mean twelve hour days and not a day off until it snows in November - with continuing work into December. 

Fast food is bad for us and the kids need to eat before going to school.  Oh, and I need to eat as well.  So I went out and found or invented several breakfast solutions that can be made in advance and frozen.  Microwave these up before school or work and one major issue of the day is solved.

Yogurt Pops.  Mix two cups plain yogurt with one cup 100% fruit juice (we used Mango) and a little less than a cup of cut up fruit (we used banana).  Ladle into dixie cups and put in freezer for 45 minutes (until they are starting to set up) and then insert plastic spoons or Popsicle sticks.  After they are frozen solid, they're delicious and really great on hot days.

Breakfast Burritos.  These are the hands-down favorites in my house.  Scramble a dozen eggs until they are perfectly fluffy.  (I like putting some milk in the scramble because it gives it a smoother texture and better color).  Cook a package of breakfast sausage loosely until browned through.  Now you're ready for the assembly line.  On a flour tortilla spread a spoonful of egg, some sausage, sprinkle cheese, put a bit of salsa to taste, more egg, more cheese, fold it up, wrap in Saran Wrap and put in the freezer.  Repeat until the ingredients are gone.  We make fifteen at a time with those ingredients. 

Breakfast Sammiches.  We made them on both English Muffins and Bagels, so it's your choice.  Fry some eggs, break the yoke early in the frying.  Try to keep the eggs round a small on the griddle or in the pan by controlling the flow with a spatula or folding over when you turn them.  Now the assembly line.  On each sammich put an egg, piece of sliced cheese, and slice of Canadian Bacon (if you want meat on them).  Wrap in Saran, put in freezer.  We made a couple dozen of these.

Now we have breakfasts for a long time and cooking them all at once saves time.

We also made Chicken Nuggets as an after-school snack. 

Chicken Nuggets.  You'll need two bowls (keep them small and keep refilling each so that everything stays more tidy).  In one bowl mix an egg with a dash of water and beat it until it's a smooth color.  In the other bowl mix up corn flakes (see below), a tablespoon of flour, half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, and some grated Parmesan cheese (I used the amount that I could pick up between two fingers and a thumb, so it's not scientifically measured).  The corn flakes - Fill a medium sized ziploc bag with unsweetened corn flakes, seal, then crush them until they are essentially powder. 

For the chicken, you cut up several (we used six, all natural, organic, free range) breasts into one inch cubes.  Then you dip each chunk into the egg, roll it into the corn flake bowl until covered and put it on a pan.  Put the pan in the oven at 375 deg. F. for thirteen or fourteen minutes and remove.  Let cool and then put the nuggets into individual zip-loc bags and freeze.  We kept the pans full and going in and out of the oven for quite a while and got 12 bags of ten nuggets each.  Of course, they're all gone now.  These are better than any fast food nuggets.

Quick, healthy, convenient.  Enjoy.

- rick, efficient.

Science Friday - Conserve some Bathroom Water

The water coming into your toilet is the same water that comes into your sink tap.  It isn't dirty until it flushes through the bowl.  Here's a way to use that water effectively as it fills the tank.

The entire project is outlined with Do-It-Yourself steps in this Instructables Post. 

Forbidden LEGO!! Cool!

I was quite the LEGO junkie as a kid and as an adult I helped build a robot gladiator arena made with LEGO robots and controllers.  I love LEGOs, simple as that.

But now there's a new book out - Forbidden LEGO - that gives plans for all those things you aren't supposed to make with the interlocking bricks.

The Projects possible with this book:  Paper Plane Launcher, Catapult, Ping Pong Cannon, All-Terrain Lego, and High Velocity Automatic Lego Plate Dispenser.  I have to get this book.

Here's a video of the HVALPD:

After the jump there's a video of the catapult.   

Panhandling

There are a lot more panhandlers out this year than I can remember seeing from previous years.  To me that's a sign that the wealth isn't Trickling Down.  Panhandling is hard as well . . . I don't handle rejection very easily and that's why I'm not a good salesman, but if I panhandled I'd have to deal with rejection from almost everyone I saw.  But as it is a form of occupation and as it's very competitive the more clever, the more sincere, the less obstructive tend to get the most cash.

I suggest panhandlers learn some tricks that will get them a bigger slice of the ever decreasing handout pie.

I saw a panhandler carrying around this sign once: 

I gave him money . . . in fact I was driving my truck at the time and I went around the block to give him three bucks.

Honesty is a good policy:

The Competition

This week one of my competitors stopped at a house I was working on.  He was visibly upset when he got out of his unmarked white van. 

"This is my customer, man," he said as he walked up to my truck where I was putting tools back in the toolbox.

"Yeah?  You must be Greg.  I'm Rick," I offered my hand.  He shook it hesitantly.  "I got her on a referral from her sister," I continued.

"I've been doing this house for five years," he said.  "I've watched you and I don't get it.  I'm better than you and that other guy who works with you."

"That's my brother.  My baby brother actually."  His eyebrows raised.  My brother is considerably bigger than I am, with shoulders too wide for some doorways.  "I think you mean you're faster than I am, Greg.  Faster than almost anyone I've seen.  Hell, I've watched you move a ladder and climb it faster than I can position one.  I'll grant you that you're one fast dude.  Better?  No.  I've taken too many customers away from you for that to be true."  We're in a very competitive field with dozens of others, ranging from single fly-by-night guys to whole departments of large corporations, working in our small city.  To carve out a good client base is a tough proposition.

"You think you're better?"

I nodded.  Then without going into all the details in this post, I explained the things we do for our customers that differs from his service.  I also explained the special care we take for our customer's possessions and homes while we work. 

"You can't make any money that way, it takes too much time.  I can do two jobs in the time it takes you to do one, even with your employee - err, brother."

"How much time and money do you spend on advertising, Greg?"  He paused and looked confused.  "I don't spend any because my schedule's full."

Greg walked back to his van shaking his head.  His former customer has already scheduled to have us come back next Spring.

- rick, busy and apparently naive.

Top 5 Ways to Build a Wonderful Life

From Pick the Brain comes a list of ways to build a wonderful life.  I agree with them all.  I'm reprinting the list and highlights here . . . for the whole thing, go to the link.

1. Live Below Your Means

"Careful spending will bring you greater leisure and enjoyment in the long run."

2. Put Your Money to Work

"Wise investing is the surest path to financial independence and it’s something everyone can work on."

3. Educate Yourself

"To be happy we need continuous growth. The best way to grow is life long education. . . . Education builds over time. It might feel like the bits of wisdom you acquire don’t mean much, but over the years they add up to form a wiser, kinder, more interesting person."

4. Develop Lasting Personal Relationships

"Without the people you care about you’ll probably be miserable, no matter how successful you become."

5. Work Towards a Dream You’re Passionate About

"I start to feel like a victim trapped by my own life. The best way to reverse this is working towards a goal . . . As Lao Tzu said, even a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."

Bonus: 6. Stay in Shape

"You only get one body. Once it’s been ruined there isn’t much you can do about it. Exercise to keep the rust off. Avoid excessive consumption of damaging substances and unhealthy foods. It may feel like terrible self denial at the time but enjoying good health in your later years is worth the sacrifice."

Originality

As a follow-up to the idea I started yesterday, let's talk about originality. 

When I say that you have to live your own dream, your own unique vision, what I mean is that you have to do it with originality.  You have to make your own mark.  For me, I started a business that thousands of other people are doing, so it's not original in that respect.  But my approach, my advertising, my systems, and my methods are all original.  I've brought my own personality to the job and that makes an enormous difference.

Sister Mary Lisa wants to be a fine artist which is an admirable goal.  I'm not a judge of what is fine art, but I am an observer as to what has worked for others. 

I know a man who decided he wanted to be a photographer.  He bought some equipment and then convinced Drag Queens to pose for him.  He's done dozens of photo shoots of Drag Queens from around the world posing in unique ways.  He's had a gallery show in New York and is working on a coffee table sized book of the best from his portfolio.  He might not be the best photographer in the world, and he might not have the best equipment, but he has a unique vision and he's done it his own way.

I know a woman from New Zealand who makes sculptures from bending copper and aluminum wire into a shape that resembles the outlines of whatever idea she has in her head. She adds color and some inner structure.  She's the only one I know of who uses that unique method of sculpture – oh, I've seen wireframes before but this has a very unique feel.

If you don't follow your own unique vision, but instead imitate others you aren't going to excel in your field.  You might be the best watercolor painter in the world, but if you paint impressionist flowers and fields, you're going to be “in the style of Van Gogh.”  If you paint in oil on canvas and your subject matter is cabins in the snowy mountains or barns in the Midwest, you might make a modest living selling prints in mall poster shops.  But that's not your own dream, it was somebody else's first.

Rick Gives Career Advice

Today I had an hour between jobs, so I went to a coffee shop and caught up on my book reviewing. 

I've noticed, since I do regular work at six coffee shops, that this is the preferred locations for one-on-one sales pitches, and that most of those sales pitches involve trying to convince people to live someone else's sanitized dream. 

Two women sat at the table next to me and I was able to clearly hear their conversation.  The seller had a laptop computer open and was going through a power point presentation with a familiar pattern.  First a discussion of very wealthy people - Donald Trump, Richard Branson, etc.  Second a discussion of what it is about them that makes them suited to wealth.  Third a comparison of the qualities that would allow woman number two (buyer) to become that wealthy.  Fourth a list of all the fabulous opportunity Seller has had since becoming a wealth magnet. And fifth and finally a description of exactly what buyer needs to do to become as fabulously wealthy as Donald Trump. 

I wanted to get up, go over to buyer, and tell her she's being scammed.  I didn't - it's not polite to interfere with someone's pyramid scheme. 

Don't get me wrong.  I don't have the magic answer to the wealth question either.  But I do know a few things.  The first thing I know is that you can't be successful following someone else's dream.  You can't do someone else's plan and gain fabulous wealth because the fabulous wealth is already sucked out of that dream. 

You have to do things with your own direction, your own spin, your own unique vision.  You have to do it your way.

When I started my little business, I could've purchased a franchise.  I could've paid for a prepackaged marketing plan.  I could've bought sales leads by the thousands.  I could've bought a whole program on how to do it. 

Instead, I figured out what I wanted to do and then came up with a good method to do it.  I was listening to a radio show about a related type of business - not a how to show, but just an interview with someone who was doing something cool - and I thought to myself, "you know Self, living someone else's dream isn't working for you."

The Hipster PDA

A couple years ago, I saw this great idea on the web.  It's called the Hipster PDA and it fit my lifestyle just fine.  It consists of a stack of 3x5 cards held together with a binder clip and it fits perfectly in the back pocket of my jeans. 

I've been through several different electronic PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) models over the years and they're awkward, break easily, run out of batteries, etc.  Nothing's worse than talking to a client while trying to take notes and navigating from screen to screen at the same time.  "Umm, just a moment I have to write this in a different section, and what was your phone number again?  Yes, I got it.  Just a moment, I have to get to my to-do list." 

The Hipster PDA is so much better.  In my stack of cards I keep several colored ones to mark sections.  I've printed all the Bid Forms for my business on 3x5 blanks so I can just use them right out of my fancy PDA - I even stamped my logo and info on the reverse side making them perfect to hand to a client. 

I also write down story ideas, notes, inspiration, etc.  It's perfect to jot notes about schedule changes or contact info. 

For a pen I use another perfect device.  The Fischer Space Pen.  It's a bullet and fits right into my pocket.  No sharp points and I've never had one break in my pocket.  It's the perfect size when closed, and the lid fits on reverse to make it a full-sized pen. 

I've since thrown away all my electronic scheduling gadgets and I've never been so well organized as I am now with my Hipster PDA. 

Here are some links for pre-made accessory sheets, ready to print right out and include in your own PDA.

GTD (Getting Things Done)
Personal Finance

- rick on efficiency