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Long week - Ebiz #1 update

September 8th, 2008 by Kenric

I apologize for not updating this blog in four days.  It’s probably the longest this blog has gone without a post.  I’ve been working on a few things during the week and they all involve sitting in front of a computer so I get burnt out on sitting in front of a computer and just want to shut it off.

I’m stilling working with my developer from India on my revamping my ebiz#1 site.   There are so many more features than my current site that I feel like my current site was significantly handicapped.

Some of the new features on my site are:

• Integrated paypal checkout
• Integrated google checkout
• Automatic international shipping calculations
• Super improved admin panel (my old one really sucked)
• Coupon codes

One thing that I like about using developers from India is that they always make the changes that you ask.  They don’t ask for change orders when you want new features or keep changing the colors of the banners. 

However, I did ask for a change in my checkout page last night.  This time his response:

jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:18:41 PM): that will be big change
jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:18:50 PM): whole process will effect
jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:19:26 PM): for cost I can do that

BTW, we communicate exclusively through IM.  India is 12 hours ahead of me, so he usually gets to work at 9pm my time.  I send him all my comments and we usually chat until 1am.  Then I go to sleep and when I wake up at 8am I check his responses, review the changes and make comments.  It’s an odd set up but it works.

Anyway, this is the first time he has asked for more money.  In the developer world, I see a big change as many many hours of work.  I had no idea how much he was going to ask to make this “big” change. 

jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:19:50 PM): we can keep as min as $75
Kenric  (9/4/2008 11:20:33 PM): hmmm

I just said I’d think about it and didn’t mention it again.  Then after 8 minutes he said:

jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:28:10 PM): ok
jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:29:40 PM): pay me $50 I will do automic registeration for all orders
Kenric  (9/4/2008 11:30:46 PM): $50 is ok
jxxxxxx (9/4/2008 11:30:52 PM): ok

See this is exactly why you never toss out the first number during negotiations.  In the US, a “big” change in development usually means alot of dollars.  Honestly, I don’t know what number went through my head but it was certainly more than $50.  Sometimes we forget about the economic differences in countries when outsourcing our work.  I think I’m getting something for very cheap and he’s probably getting paid alot for his work.  It’s a win win.

Posted in Ebiz1, Making Money Online | 1 Comment »

The game show problem

August 31st, 2008 by Kenric

While watching the movie “21″ this past weekend the professor character in the movie posed the infamous game show question.

There are 3 doors for a contestant to choose from.  Behind one door is a new car and the other two are goats.  The contestant chooses door #1.  The host, who knows which door the car is behind then opens one of the unchosen to reveal a goat.  The host now asks the contestant if he would like to change doors.  Should the contestant keep door #1 or change doors?

The answer is that the contestant should always change doors.

Posted in General | 6 Comments »

My furniture update

August 26th, 2008 by Kenric

On August 1st, I bought a whole new living room set and got a second set for $1.  I got my furniture delivered on August 8th and have had a little difficulty in selling it.  I had set my prices high and have been slowly lowering it to get interest.

I finally sold the coffee table and the end table last weekend for $325.  So now I have the sofa, ottoman and 1.5 chair left.  I think that the people on craigslist want cheaper used items rather than new items heavily discounted.  I think that I’m going to take the word “NEW” out of my listing if I don’t get more calls.

My goal was to pay $1,400 for a whole living room set when I made this purchase.  I have spent $3,100 and got back $325.  $2,775-$1,400 = $1,375.  It should be noted that I need to add $100 in taxes to calculations, so basically I need to sell my remaining items for about $1,475 to reach my goal.

I think I can get that for the 3 pieces I have left below.

 

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

A Tenant Story

August 25th, 2008 by Kenric

Rewind to October 2007 

I received a called my a lady who wanted to rent the home.  She had a long story about her financial troubles and a car accident and she needed to rent a place right away!  She asked me all sorts of questions about the home, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, location, etc…  I gave her the address and she said she’d drive by and let me know if she was interested.

Two days later, she called again.  However, she proceeded to tell the same story again and ask all the same questions.  I told her that I had spoke to her two days ago.  She said that the car accident is causing a loss of memory.  Again, she said that she’d drive by and call me back.

Two weeks later she calls again, same conversation and same result.  At this point, I was done with even attempting to rent to her.  She said that she’d call back after she looked at the home.  I wasn’t counting on it.

One week later a nice older couple calls looking for a home for their daughter.  I meet them at the house, they like the house and want to rent it.  The parents will be paying the rent for their daughter and signing the lease.  While signing the lease, they mention that their daughter was in a bad car accident.  I ask them what her name is and of course its the same lady!  I told them that she had called me several times and always forgot she called.

So at this point, I couldn’t exactly back out of the lease and I felt comfortable because the parents were paying for the rent and utilities until she got back on her feet.  So the house was rented to them.  She had 4 kids and 2 dogs.

This Weekend

Because of the memory loss, kids, job, etc… I had been too afraid to visit the home because I didn’t want to know what condition it was in.  She moved out last weekend and I finally went over to look at the home and I am happy to report that she left the home spotless and even rented a carpet cleaner to clean the carpets.  Needless to say, they received 100% of their security deposit back.  Considering that they had 5 kids and 2 dogs, that is quite an accomplishment.

Posted in Real Estate | 2 Comments »

I Have a Pill Popping Vet

August 21st, 2008 by Kenric

I took my dog to the vet last week because he’d look like he had some trouble jumping up.  The vet took some x-rays and we found out that my dog has arthritis.  My dog can walk, jog and run fine.  The only thing he can’t do is stand up.  He’s also got some redness on his belly and is scratching it.

On the phone she was talking to me like this was a fatal disease.  She outlined many options which all included a variety of drugs.  She also mentioned accupuncture or hip replacement surgery if it ever came to that.  Even before I went to the vet on this visit I felt that my vet was one of those doctors that cures everything with pills.  I’ve heard of those types of doctors for dogs and for humans.

She literally prescribed my dog with 4 different pills.  One is just glucosamine chondrotin, one is an antibiotic for his “infection” on his belly, one is for the pain of arthritis and one is for allergies (scratching).   Now, I’m not much of a believer in medicine.  I don’t take any medicine and generally avoid drugs at all costs.  Sometimes I’m torn with giving my dog all these pills.  I don’t know if I should let my belief hinder my dog’s need for drugs.  While I certainly believe that he needs the glucosamine and the antibiotics right now.  I don’t think he needs the pain meds or the allergy pills.  The last thing I want is a dog hopped up on pills all the time.  Remember, the pain pills were prescribed as one a day for the rest of his life.  I’m sure the fact that they are $2.00 a pill makes her prescribe them even more.

The last time I went to a doctor for something she said my eyes were red.  I said that they were always slightly red.  She said it was probably an allergy since it was allergy season.  I told her they didn’t itch or bother me at all.  She said, I can prescribe something for your allergies.

I mean what is better?  Red eyes with no discomfort or white eyes and the side effects of an allergy medicine.  Seriously, is that the solution for everything.  Take a pill?

Posted in Making Money Online | 4 Comments »

Havasu Campground flooding

August 18th, 2008 by Kenric

Last April I went to Havasu Falls for a weekend camping trip.  Heavy rains and a dam break resulted in the flooding of the Havasu campgrounds and the village of Supai.  The article say that people camping woke up at 2am to see the waters near their tent.  Many campers were evacuated by helicopter.

News Article 

Look at the muddy water pouring into the canyon a vast difference from the clear blue water from when I was there.

Posted in Vacations | 4 Comments »

The Olympics

August 18th, 2008 by Kenric

I think we saw two unbelievable events last weekend in the Olympics.  If you didn’t watch last weekend here are the photos that I believe tell the whole story.

Michael Phelp’s win in the 100m butterfly by .01 seconds.  This photo below is from SI.com.  Phelps was behind coming into the last strokes but Cavic glided to the wall and Phelps did a half a stoke and lunged to it.  If you haven’t seen it, try to find the video online.  NBC has been taking them down pretty fast.

The second event was the 100m dash.  Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive.  He just crushed the other runners in the 100m.  About 70m into the race he looked around and saw nobody next to him and let up and still broke the world record easily.  Look at how hard the other runners are running.  Usain was pretty much jogging during the last 30% of the race and was the same speed as the others.

It will be exciting to see how fast he will be in the 200m and the 4×100m relay later on this week.

Posted in General | 4 Comments »