Random Thought Thread

When was the last time you heard a child say "Yes Sir" or "Thank you Ma'am"?

I live about 60 miles outside Vancouver in a smallish town, 140,000 people. Lots of people commute to Vancouver, myself included.

Even here way less kids are holding doors for people than I remember growing up.

Lots of kids still do, my 3 and a half year old son has jobs, loves to help with any kind of work and says thanks all the time, but most of his little friends don't. We still teach him to address adults with respect. He can barely put 8 words together but still says "Thanks Ms Dianne." To our neighbour down the street.

Hmmmmm.
 
the last time I consumed alcohol was February and I've never felt better.

Looking back, although the volume wasn't especially intense, the regularity had everything to do with habit. So, I rehabituated myself simply be removing the alcohol. Shortly after, so did the woman, (who I can't think of any other way to describe, other than in a possessive, who lives in this house of ours with an offspring and a 20 year old China town cat who's short a tail) and she's never felt better either.

With all this newfound time and energy, I've picked up my game. I deal with a lot of people on a daily basis, from all walks of life, and the way that I deal with people is a seriously major determinant in the success of my business. The enthusiasm I have for my business just increased immeasurably, and so are the outcomes I'm looking for. Well, some of those outcomes are measurable, but many are not, especially when it comes to the intangibles hovering around running a business in a small town...

Physically, I've never been stronger. All this energy has me active pretty much for as long as I'm awake which is usually til 11 these days, (used to be, I was out by 9:30). All that activity is increasing my energy. Instead of talking about all these projects I have backed up, I'm actually getting them done. My body doesn't hurt as much, either, and my recovery time is getting back to how it was about ten years ago, (I'm 45ish).

Alcohol is heavily marketed in our society, and I think that says a lot. In some places, there is no alcohol. Say what you will, but I'll bet they get a lot done.
 
Lorien Lorien I didn't drink a drop from the time I was about 26 till 35. I drink on occasion now but people say I look way younger than my age (37).

I normally sleep about 5-6 hours a night, from about 11pm - 5am minus what the kids wake me up. I normally wake up before my alarm clock.

I worked 74 hours last week in the 7 day pay period without considering my 2-3 hour commute. 2 x 17 hour shifts with 2.5 hours sleep between the end of my 17th hour and the start of my next 8.

I've had one day off this month, the 6th.

Got shit to do before I die.
 
I didn't start drinking beer till around my late 20's early 30's. When all my friends were alcoholics their whole lives, I would sit back and watch. Now I look forward to my beer after work on Friday. I love my beer now. I only drink on the weekends, and usually not much, unless we go out somewhere with friends. I look half the age as most people I went to school with. But I usually work out 3-5 days a week. Except for recently, to dam hot here right now. Rains are starting up, so I can start hiking with the dogs in the evenings again! Staying active is key in life I think! Sitting on your ass every day drinking beer leads to obesity and weakness! I hunt, ride horses, and love to hike! And just generally stay active most of the time, but I have a 2 1/2 year old that takes most of my free time, the rest is spent at work.
 
Should I chime about drinking (or there lack of) or the pricing discussion, vis a vis list pricing, second market pricing, suggested but not expected list pricing increases and the dreaded secondary market pricing inflation.

Hmm?! I'll go with pricing issues as we can talk about drinking, over a dink later on :)

I've gone back and looked at Nathan's sales threads over the last 2-3 years just as my CPK collection has been increasing in volume, not looking specifically for their older list prices but to get more familiar with the history of what was not even on my radar back in 2014-2015! During that excavation process, I came to realize that at the very most there may have been a 10% pricing increase by the Carothers, but like I had said even if that much! In some cases maybe $5 or $10 more plus the shipping gone up from the very ridiculously low charge of $5 in the later past as opposed to the currently subsidized rate of $10 at most! Yes, I am quite aware that some makers / dealers / distributors offer "free shipping" but as we all ought to know, there is nothing really for free. Those free shipping rates are all already baked into the list price but free shipping seems to be the norm within the expectations of many in the knife buying community, when it comes to the bigger sellers / outlets.

While unaware of every little little detail and intricacies which go into pricing a CPK, on the macro level some factors such as design / patent costs, cost of material, cost of labor, cost of manufacturing, cost of tangible and intangible overheads are comprehensively standard. While I totally agree that the current CPK production line can easily absorb a 10%-15% price increasing across the board and still offer tremendous value for the products, the powers-that-be may not agree with me and this kind of mindset at all. IMHO, the current supply / demand curve has heavily turned the tide to the favor of the speculators but a significant price bump even if based on the current secondary market prices will be nothing more than speculatory move and any future pricing adjustment ought to be based on the comparable competition pricing plus the anticipated future output. I still advocate the CPK business model of smaller batches and faster limited production runs albeit at slightly higher prices (well justified by the high quality and the diverse design of their products) as opposed to the kind of business models which are based on more expansive concurrent models, much larger batches at lower list prices wrapped within under-capitalization with the perils of over promising and underachieving.

TL; DR version: if one cranks up the prices close to the secondary market speculatory prices, the one will most likely imperil the business model! Also to the kiddos, drinking is only good in moderation :)
 
Lorien said:
I'll never watch another movie starring Tom Cruise in my life. I hope they find him a bride from somewhere remote, and have him move there so we can forget he exists
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you have never seen the Outsiders? images.jpg that is truly where my love for knives began
 
There seems to be a fair amount of sour grapes around here. :p

My suggestion is that you don't buy a knife if you think the price is too high.


You could spend your money on something useful like a $450 flashlight. ;)


DSC1343-_Edit_1024x1024.jpg
 
Don't do it, it's a trap! ;)

IMG_20170718_124909.jpg

~Chip
 
JustinFournier said:
When was the last time you heard a child say "Yes Sir" or "Thank you Ma'am"?

I live about 60 miles outside Vancouver in a smallish town, 140,000 people. Lots of people commute to Vancouver, myself included.

Even here way less kids are holding doors for people than I remember growing up.

Lots of kids still do, my 3 and a half year old son has jobs, loves to help with any kind of work and says thanks all the time, but most of his little friends don't. We still teach him to address adults with respect. He can barely put 8 words together but still says "Thanks Ms Dianne." To our neighbour down the street.

Hmmmmm.
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From their very early days we had instilled good mannerisms in ours. To this date, my adult Sons / Daughter ask starting with "please" when thy come over to my House and wish to visit the refrigerator for instance. Despite having many stylistic differences with my Ex in most facets of life, her "Englishness" was very much appreciated when it came to upkeeping the Kids' discipline and good manners.
 
I can absolutely see and appreciate when and where a well constructed albeit pricey flashlight can and will pay major dividends. Some LEOs swear by the advantages and the merits of such things but I have never been a LEO. However when I used to inspect automobiles running in several hundred K$ in value to over a Mill$ at times, a $400 flashlight would pale in value as compared to the things I could and would miss with the inferior stuff I used to use, because the technology was not as advanced as it is nowadays.
 
JustinFournier said:
When was the last time you heard a child say "Yes Sir" or "Thank you Ma'am"?

I live about 60 miles outside Vancouver in a smallish town, 140,000 people. Lots of people commute to Vancouver, myself included.

Even here way less kids are holding doors for people than I remember growing up.

Hmmmmm.
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This is very true. And troubling.
 
JustinFournier said:
I EDC a McGizmo that cost me more than $450. I use it every bit as much as my knife.
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If that's your thing, more power to you. Everyone has to set their own value on objects. I use Surefire lights. I have some that are 10 years old and still work perfectly. I also have some cheap Chinese lights that also work well, but I probably wouldn't trust them in a pinch.

About 15 years ago, some guys in the gun shop were talking about binoculars. Some thought that the Bushnells that come in blister pack were just fine. Another guy went out to his truck and brought in his Leica Ultravids. His comment was that he couldn't afford a Rolls Royce, but he could afford the Rolls Royce of binoculars.

I used to kid some of the people that I worked with about their Rolex watches and how they sent them in for service and paid $$$. My $23 Timex keeps better time. As I said before, everyone has their own values.
 
Was at Blade in June and my 8-year old and I were about to go through a door about the same time as an older couple (not really older but older than me). I had him stop so we could hold the door for them, Jerry Fisk and his wife thanked us and mentioned you don't see kids doing that much anymore.
I believe it made a good impression on my boy and taught him the value of respect.:thumbsup:
 
Funny, everyone down here holds the door open for each other no worries. At least for me anyway. I must be extremely good looking or we just have cooler folks here :p
 
ExtraBaconPlease said:
Funny, everyone down here holds the door open for each other no worries. At least for me anyway. I must be extremely good looking or we just have cooler folks here :p
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That's cheating because in the Southern hemisphere doors close on their own so if you don't hold it, it'll hit you in the arse. Furthermore as everything else is upside down there, being good looking over there may be considered otherwise North of the Equator.

#imjustsaying :p
 
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