Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Business Partnership and Money.

Here is a suggestion for those of you looking to get into business. Have at least one partner who is an accountant. Give him a small, fixed income, with some incentives if you do well at sales. Most importantly, when that partner provides you with advice, take it.

Those of you who follow this blog on a regular basis are aware of the various quasi-legal entrepreneurial ventures I'm involved with. This particular one is legit, legal, and done jointly with two other guys. One of whom is in charge of acquiring the legal (I feel that this can't be emphasized enough, it's such a pleasant change) proprietary ingredients, the other in charge of selling and packaging, while I run accounting, manufacturing and overall business goals. The guy who is selling, styles himself a marketing genius. Unfortunately, he isn't, and lacks all business sense. Scenes between us are like something out of the movie Blow.

Here is how I planned the night to go: L arrives with blend takes his cut and leaves, I manufacture and take my cut and leave, then N packages and sells at a price based on excel tables I've drawn up for him. Easy? Simple? I thought so.

However, here is how N planned the night, and how it went. L and I arrive, make a few dozen units. Then invite over a guy who he had presold several hundred dollars worth of units to. Units sold at a steep discount, at a price N pulled out of thin air, without consulting me. Following the kids arrival we'd hang out, talk and chat for two hours, then finish the kids preorder. Boot him out and then split the money from the sale on a percentage base between us.

Thing was, as I would have been able to tell him if he had asked, the discount he offered was so steep - that if we used N's percentage idea, it didn't leave enough to go around and cover L's costs (he had invested the most). The Flat rate I had worked out guaranteed L his investment back, and mine, but didn't leave N much at all (since his discount didn't let him profit after our cut). This led to long, drawn out, civil but heated debate about how the money was to be split.

I fail to see what is so complicated about making sure you sell your product at a price that clears your costs. The buyer would have been willing to lay down an extra 20% (the non-retard-discount price), which would have been the difference between N being happy, and him being pissed. Ultimately, since he hadn't actually invested anything except time, L and I convinced him to go with my flat rate, and hopefully he learned a valuable lesson about selling at prices you simply made up. Dumbass.

Don't ever accept a percentage on sale if you aren't the one selling, you might end up with this guy.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Switching over the lease.

I'm about to have the lease changed over to my name. My roommate will be heading out after graduation at the end of December. This puts some strain on my projected budget, since I have to find a new roommate to share the burden of rent with by the start of the spring. Thankfully, due to my Fraternity, I've already got a pool of twelve guys who are interested and bidding for the spot. Can we say Greek life hath its privileges?


Greek life has gotten such a negative rap, and I am consistently amazed by the irreverence and spite directed towards members of Fraternities and Sororities.  Usually I think its directed from a place of jealousy, and occasionally has legitimate concerns (if coming from parents and not students). The labels of "buying" your friends, the constant assumption of alcoholic and drug abuse (which I feel is just a part of college life), and the overhanging stereotypes of elitist phaggots banging sheep pervades lots of internet forums.

First, every Greek organization is different. Then, the chapters that make up the organization are as diverse as the campuses they represent. Of course some chapters are a bunch of tools, and some do participate in barbaric hazing. Others are strictly business, groups of tightly bonded professionals advancing themselves and the community with well organized events that raise thousands. Most fall in between.

The crazy parties we're known for are a fact. A fact of college. And I would say we do it right - with no incidents of alcohol poisoning, no brothers getting arrested, a terrific risk team that keeps the crowd safe... these are the things you should be looking for as an indication of a chapter's positive influence.

Its the non-fraternity house parties thrown by people who don't have decades of experience crafting safe, fun, and wild parties that get in trouble and create problems. That and stupid freshmen who don't follow the advice we provide them.

Monday, September 27, 2010

ITT: We're College Freshmen from 2010.

BRB Getting thrown in jail for public urination after a party.
Seriously, this kid texted me at 2 a.m. asking me to bail him out. He was drunk and walking from a party to another, and decided it would be a great idea to relieve himself ON CAMPUS. A cop rolled by, and that was that.




BRB Spilling guts to police about drugs that had already been consumed.
Three guys were out at the local lake, after hours, smoking a joint. Having finished, one went off into the bushes to water them, while the others remained at the car. Campus Police rolled up and separated the two remaining. The first freshman denied their accusations about the weed, and asked to see evidence. The cops left him alone and went to the other one, who broke down and admitted that they had all been smoking.
I'm all for being polite to police officers... but that doesn't mean you admit to a crime without asking for evidence.

BRB Getting knocked up the first week of school.
Self explanatory. It happens EVERY year. I turned the same girl and her friend down for a threesome the first party I met her at. When freshman girls are offering those sorts of sexual trysts to upperclassmen the first party they meet, invariably the girl is just one of those.




BRB Thinking they can outsmoke/outdrink the fraternities.
So many freshmen walk into college with a chip on their shoulder. They want to look like bigdogs, and they look down on the upperclassmen. Especially since most of us don't party on the regular basis we used to (its why we are still here). At some point they come over for a small, private event, and nine-hours later pass out from shell-shock. I don't like to boast about my drinking/smoking, but now and again it feels good to put these kids in their place.

BRB causing drama.
Girl dated a guy until her other boyfriend, that the guy didn't know about, got out of prison. 
Calling a sorority fat and ugly, in their earshot.
Going to the ER after trying to beat up at a roommate for taking one mountain dew to many. 
Pouring lysol on roommates bed because it smells.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Broke College Student Diet

As you should all be aware from my situation, I don't really have much discretionary money. However, I like to look healthy and be extremely active and physically fit. This requires quality food... something that doesn't jive with the normal dollar menu diet of my peers. So here is a list of the foods I buy at the grocery store, and a general overview of what I eat everyday. I should note that I don't have any food allergies, or things would be a lot harder. Props to those who live with lactose intolerance and nut allergies.

Per Week:
Milk, several gallons. 
Whey powder, a tub or two.
Peanut Butter, a big jar.
Triscuit Crackers (cracked pepper and olive oil).  <- These are awesome.
Tuna and frozen chicken.
Vitamins.
Cheap Juice.

Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs.

-------------------------------
 I usually consume three protein shakes, four eggs, 12 crackers (for fiber) w/ Peanut butter, the vitamins and a cup or two of juice a day. And that is around what I eat everyday, with some tuna and chicken on workout days.  I try and save up $10 dollars each week and spend five or more hours at the local golden corral pigging out on salads, greens, and other foodstuffs I don't normally eat.

If I had the money, there would be more variety. But I don't. And I've consistently been able to clean bulk using those foods each semester. This summer I climbed back from a post surgery weight of 155lbs @ 12% Bf, to 168lbs @ 11.4... and I've seen similar results each time I go on it. Right now I'm approaching 175, and am looking to be 180 by November with 11-13% Bf. 

Since you asked...

Since I've been getting this question from my female friends, and since I would consider myself a doctor in broscience, I'm going to go ahead and throw up a weight/high chart for women. Bear in mind, bodyfat + height/weight + lifts/condition should all be taken into account when determining whether or not you are healthy.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

That Party Last Night...

It is the expert opinion of a friend that Asher Roth was a leading cause of the freshman dropout rate a few semesters back. Banal lyrics, and a carefree, unrealistic look at college life. I consider myself to have a very high standard in musical tastes - from Frank Zappa to A Tribe Called Quest - and Asher Roth normally would have no business in my vocabulary. However, some nights just require the title's tagline. 'Cause yeah, its 4:30AM, but the party don't stop. I've returned to my New Castle binges.

The key, as with everything is moderation. Early in the semester its easy to get away with week-long all night drinking binges. Everyone has money, and all the fraternities (including mine) are trying to grab freshmen interest with house-hopping keggers that span six or seven hours. At my local college, in the first week of this semester, on one street within a block of campus there were two keggers and three parties. Freshmen were called up and marched out in droves, and at two am that street was covered with groups of threes and fours staggering back to the dorms.

It's nights like those, and this one, that imbibe (no pun intended) me with a feeling that yeah - college life is certainly more than the parties - but that parties are more unique to the college environment than any academic bullshit the administration would try and sell.  You can get nearly the education yourself, or at tech (which I'm technically [pun intended this time] enrolled in this semester)... but the sub-culture of Animal House-Esque exploits are something that define the college experience for anyone who seeks it out.

Of course, if you continue the intensity of the first few weeks, you will soon join the other 36% of the freshman class that drops in their first year.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Back to Basics.

No, I don't own the Fundraising For Dummies book. But I feel its about time I give an update on the progress I've been making in my own efforts at personal monetary gain.
I'll admit I've gotten pretty distracted at times, thanks primarily to redheads, and in some cases alcohol

Right now I'm making forays into the world of herbal cigarette blends. Those who read this blog already know that I'm a Merchant of Death when it comes to smoking, and are also aware that I may or may not have dabbled in entheogens. Well, imagine smoking a cigarette that contains a proprietary (legal!) herbal blend that gets you stoned. Prototypes are in the works.

Unfortunately for me, any profit from such is at least a few weeks off, but I will keep y'all updated. In the interim, of the forty-five job applications I've submitted, the closest I've come to a real job was a non-interview where the manager told me that while there were no position to fill, he'd contact me in the event of any vacancies. After three days of phone tag, and showing up in person only to find he's busy in a meeting.

Persistence is a virtue right?

Halo Reach, Buy It.

Four good friends, four controllers, one big television - and hours of alien carnage the likes of which haven't impressed me since the original Doom series.  Halo Reach's campaign is a candle beside the nuclear blast that is Firefight. Endless waves of alien bastards for your killing pleasure, with progressively harder waves and hundreds of user-defined variables, offer a sandbox of violence.


Halo ODST pioneered Halo's vision of a Firefight mode (something as old as gaming, despite what bungie would have us believe.), and Halo Reach gets it right. With specialized "loadouts", you can fight against the tide with SPARTAN's equipped with jet packs, special bubble shields that never run out, temporary but unlimited invulnerability, and other gear that offers an expansive experience that hasn't been matched in recent console first person shooters.

My one complaint (and its not really a complaint), is that after getting spoiled by ODST, I constantly find myself missing the seemingly endless barrage of grenades that I used to be able to through. New weapons, including a covenant multiple-grenade/missile launcher, and standard grenade-gun, make up for any decrease in 'nade power. If you haven't bought this game for yourself, click the amazon link above and do so now. One of the few modern video games I can get behind 100%.