Thursday, December 5, 2013

Sometimes I throw excerpts of a story I am writing up on a jpeg so I can just see how I want to present the story.    Plus I love complete randomness.  It is kind of like a blogging tourettes, to go along with a little Aspergers that leads to the blogging. 


Monday, December 2, 2013

Well this is an interesting turn for the worse.Not exactly shocking.
The last 3 years have been a blur.    I worked  doing " Field Services". Independent contractor work for  what ended up being several companies.

For occupancy inspections, once a month a large drop of orders populates into a computer program. Depending on your territory, it could be 300...it could be 1000. I had a rural territory, so it was 300. Deadlines vary, but they are usually due in a week. I covered 20-30 counties. You get paid by the job, and if it's late or not done as ordered, you don't get paid or they charge you. Car troubles, illness or the weather are just excuses.  There can also be rush work come in at any moment.  

You could be delivering a letter from a bank,a car lender, doing a drive by inspection, a walk thru on vacant properties. I have also done merchant verifications and mystery shops for various lenders, drive by appraisals,and various quality control inspections for Hud and Fannie Mae REOs to insure they have been cleaned to specifications.

Pictures were required to be taken and uploaded for every job, as well as a laundry list of other tasks, per order. Some jobs just required 1 picture to prove I was there, others require House, street sign, street view, address, all sides of home, all rooms, 2 of all rooms, plus all damages and sign in sheets and signs outside.  I took anywhere from 1-200 pictures per inspection.


What did I get out of this work?   Enough money to survive on while I was doing the work (that's better than I was doing) and enough belief in myself that everything else shouldnt be a problem anymore.   

Keep in mind, Every person I dealt with on this job may have been going through the worst day of their life.   I dressed well, carried a clipboard and was courteous to everyone I met.    Widows that were losing there homes. Unemployed people, some angry-some sad.   Most everyone treated me as well or better than I treated them.
 There's the story of the man that walked a 1/4 of a mile down to the farms gate ,, I told him what I was there for.. and he walked back up to the house and back to the gate with a shovel.  He then informed me that the unlocked gate was locked as he positioned himself so the shovel was on his shoulder --about my head level.  His prison tattoo made him believable , as did the fact that his companion was now in my car with their dogs  while my wife pretended she had cell service.  If she hadn't tried the fake phone call , you all probably would have been spared from these stories.

I said, ok. Gates locked....and drove away quickly.  

What have I got out of this job?   A rash.  I've been in moldy houses (ever see bubbles of mold pulse?)....I've been sent to a house that just wasn't there anymore. (that was odd.).   I was told once by an angry mortgagor that the reason he has nine dogs is because bullets don't go around corners. I have fallen through a deck.     Everyday seemed to have a special little memory. 

Nondescript.

Black Friday Xmas

Christmas time.
Mistletoe, wreaths, and a beautiful decorated tree with a star on top. 
All the festive holiday cheer is in place. Kids opening presents. 
Happy smiling faces. 
Treasured memories of joy for the children. 
-For the parents? Well, - what happens on Black Friday stays on Black Friday.

What the kids don't know is that Momma, and Gramma, and all the Aunts start planning Thanksgiving Black Friday logistics on January 2nd.

The Criteria for a possible site is simple.  The shopping area must have no major crimes during the holidays the previous year ( It is getting harder to find these).  Preferably  a rural area or at least not major metro. It is not that the ladies are afraid of a fight. It is about time management. If you get caught with the shiv fighting over one sale, you get detained and miss the next hot item.

This is about easy pickings for the seasoned Black Friday Opperative. There is no time to be a hero. The best sales are always short stocked.

Five potential sites are picked. Thanksgiving may be at the lake house this year, or at a cousins home in New Hampshire. Thanksgiving Black Friday sales are not allowed at the big stores in neighboring states .

Then they wait, gathering intell on the sales through their network of underground sympathizers.

On July 1, deposits and such are sent to the top 3 prospective hotel locations as needed. The excuses to recoup the deposit are predetermined. No Black Friday Opp would just give money away without a con in place to get it back.

November 1- The intelligence has been gathered, the lists compared. The target determined.  Potential profits and losses evaluated.
The text goes out.
Dinner at 2:30 at Uncle Jimmies.
Staying with Aunt Sara.
Location # 2 is Red Hot.
Repeat. #2 is ON.
This years target sale is Game consoles. Loser is bouncing baby Bubba.
All systems go.
Respond with #BFB on fire to accept your mission.

Then the battle begins.....

If the kids only knew the sacrifices that were made to get them that special family Christmas.

--Mark Burkenbine


Sunday, December 1, 2013

When writing your web site description, be accurate so you reap the benefits of SEO.

Crap.

All Things Burkenbine, alias Blackie South Eleventh.

The startling story of a man making a lack of direction his niche. Songs with no music( aren't those poems?). Fictional stories with no follow up posted. No follow ups to anything. . Social media posting of his favorite sandwich and snacks. Autobiographical stories and life updates. Drawings from out of the blue. Partial business plans. I think a few of these are meant to be radio shows.Masquerading as variety, All Things Burkenbine and Blackie South Eleventh are purposely meant to bring new meaning to the adult contemporay/ alternative/ Miscellaneous uncategorized category.

All Things Burkenbine.

Conform to know one. Figure out how to be good at what you do.

Make  the unmarketable successful.

Enjoy your job search!








Conflicted

It's funny how the images of life present themselves over and over in our minds.
Flashes. Hints. Sometimes like we are the dream at that very moment.
You ever have that really deep, really long hybernation sleep? The kind of sleep that you woke up refreshed, ready, and different.
Things looked, smelled...different.
I was sick every time.Various pains and sickness.  Pneumonia had me out for days of delirium.

Many countries and religions have the folk tales of the lazy man that went to the forest, mountain or cave to dodge work or war.
Rip had a good time, playing 9 pin with the dark clad ghosts, drank their rum...and woke up 20 years later to find his wife dead and the town ravaged by war, and only his daughter remembering him.
Is that how it  is really remembered?

A hundred years ago, scholars found writings of a man named Jesus. They were buried in the sands of the old world. The writings were from a thousand years ago, not two thousand.
He wrote of life and this planet as your heaven, and your hell.
You make it what you will.

They say, down at the crossroads, one can make the deal of a lifetime....another old saying is "there is a sucker born every minute."

Maybe...There are no deals one needs help with. Maybe,  It is just a matter of seeing things the way, well, the way they can be seen by someone who sees.

Someone who knows.

TIme. Space. Fate. Religions. Science. History. Truth. Myth. Legend. Oracle.

The truth is in the stories. In the minds eye.

Vision.

A life is what you make it.

We are Gods.... We were planted here to grow. Earth is a petri dish. We weren't originally planted here to be cattle. We were put here to be Gods. We are the aliens.

We can create anything we put our minds to....and yet most won't.

Ever notice how some  are just a little over skilled to be "normal humans"?  A little extra going on.
You know the ones I mean.
Life seems easy. Like they can see the path.  SEE IT, not just have faith it is there. They just step to the side of the oncoming  trouble and pick up again.  Some obviously have enormous capacity.

Hitler...how did he do so much?  I know it was all damage...but how did he pull it off? How did one little man get the entire worlds attention ?

Kahn? Genghis Kahn.He conquered a continent on horseback. He raped thousands of women. A large part of Asia is now a direct descendant to one man.

All that glitters...
Gods. Demi Gods. Aliens. Humans...all the same. Heaven. Hell. Dopplegangers. Black Holes.

We are some kind of clone.

Men defined what god is. Men wrote bibles to keep other "men" in place.







We seem to be in a day and age where everything is segmented. Controlled. Designed to be marketed and tracked .
Targeted straight to the exact tastes of the consumer demographic to increase sales and maximize the buying experience. Supposedly.

Music. Cars. Books. News. TV and Radio stations. Food.  Absolutely everything is designed to be perfect and minimize business and consumer risk.

What has really happened is everyone is trained to only like what they already know they like.

No risks. Not a hell of a lot of new experiences.

Many "risks" are now marketed and as safe as possible. Low risk, low experience factor.

There is probably even a beginning cliff diving course now.

Whatever happened to doing something out of the blue?  Shutting off your phone  is now considered going rogue. What happened to going through the world searching for what you liked and didn't like? I thought that experience is what made life worth living.

Failing/ losing is what makes winning/ living worth it.  Really living is the win.


What the hell happened to whimsy?

It's all around us.

 Jules Verne.  Nailed it.