The above is why I keep all emails, and print them out & stick them in the clients files ----But, Mrs. Snodgrass...on September 10th ar 10:45 o Monday, you said here "I'm not going to buy a UPS at this time". Do you remember that conversation, my dear??? 8>)


Yep, buyers can be.....liars.

The word "Hispanic" did not exist prior to the Nixon administration...It is an artificial identity created for political and economic reasons.

Ralphie May has a great bit on "Hispanic". I've only heard it once in XM and haven't found it again, but I had to pull over as he did this bit basically explaining that to "white people" we think Hispanic and Mexican are the same thing.

True. Good point hence the term: "Spics". Kind of like the "N" word if you are from Mexico.

Bottom line is- He won.

He "acted" upset, now you give him a "brother-in-law" deal that you shouldn't have to!!
Especially moving his old crap that you know will not last long before "issues" will come up---Have you EVER HEARD THIS? - "It never did that in the OLD house".
We try to NEVER re-use old gear, we explain why it will cost more than using new gear.

Charge your "Normal" rate, or let him use the "cheap" guy.

If it's time and material type of thing, and you have the luxury of testing before disconnecting, you can bring any flaws to his attention before you do anything.

Takes away the flypaper syndrome nicely....

Flypaper syndrome... NICE.


While Nixon may have seemed to come from the 1500s, he didn't. The word has been around since the late 1500s. [Researched by me, a long-time dictionary reader.]


From Merriam-Webster, which I believe means that this definition reveals the scholarly American attitude about the word (which itself means it could be PC BS:

The proliferation of the word "Hispanic" occurred, as I remember it, during the Reagan administration. That, and calling ketchup a vegetable, were two ridiculous gaffes made by that administration. Oh, yeah: and Iran-Contra.


My ex is Cuban and revealed that Cubans look down on Mexicans; Mexicans call blacks "negritos," which has the tang you think it might have, and this is present day, not 1950s. (Though if you watch any Mexican TV you will see they are still strongly rooted in the 1950s.)


Sigh. It's so easy to look this stuff up, but the major exercise going on here is jumping. To conclusions.
Merriam Webster again:

OK, fair enough...I shouldn't have used the word "existed." The word "Hispanic" did not enter official use for the purposes of identifying and classifying US citizens (and a voting block) until the 1970 Census during Nixon's tenure.

The pervasion of "Hispanic" and other Balkanizing Labels has increased since then because both political parties seek to leverage the dynamic of a purposefully stratified populous for political gain and State expansion.

Brazil is Portuguese ;)

Check the pedigree of the free dictionary. I will bet that it is not rigorously scholarly; it's like widipedia in that way.


Part of the reason I quoted Merriam-Webster is that the free dictionary was ignorant in not knowing "hispanic" also applies to the Portuguese. Merriam related the term to the entire Iberian peninsula, not just people of the nation of Spain.

The fact that Basques, who come roughly from the Iberian peninsula, are not referred to as hispanic is that their language is of a completely different origin than both Spanish and Portuguese.

Now that I've slammed wikipedia: If you look up the term there, you find that hispanic is generally not used for Portuguese, and in fact refers to Latinos is the Western Hemisphere!

Basically, then, the information on the terms is confusing and there's probably no reason for arguing about what it "means" in some academic vacuum.

I had a client two or three years ago that stopped paying due to running out of money. Their brother in law was the GC and drained their budget and used horrible construction crews, the jobsite was always filthy, and the town fined them for keeping the yard a job site dumping ground.
I prewired for everything, they signed off on the scope of work and I thought the job would succeed.
I ran the wires, terminated, added speakers, dressed in the head end low voltage can.
At the end of that phase was a $200-400 balance, suddenly they stopped answering the phones, emails, and literally hiding behind doors when I would stop by. I wrote off the job and figured that was the end of it when the Verizon guy called asking how to hook up the phone system to a data block- I told him I was waiting on payment and they agreed to pay before anything else was finished. He angrily hung up on me and that was the end of it. Incidentally I pinched a nerve in my neck on this job, didn't use a ladder to pull myself up into the attic.
Fast forward to Thursday and the customer calls saying their is a lean on the house and they are stuck. She said they wanted music through out the house and demanded I come out to finish the job.
I politely stated there is a balance for the previous work, and that I had no commitment from them as far as equipment.
She asked what her options were, I said she could go and purchase a few Sonos Amps and hire an A/V company to install them. I stated I wasn't interested in working for them as I don't have time for new work and that didn't know if they would pay if I performed anything else.
Being from Nepal, the conversation went quick on her end and by the end if the call she imagined a scenario that I will be there Monday with everything I need to set up a system for them.
I said to have a nice weekend and I wouldn't be in touch.

Am I crazy?

Why would you give her any other options other than "Pay your damn bill"

If she pays, then you have a choice to proceed or fire her.

I want nothing to do with them- the small amount of money they owe is a downpayment on listening to my gut and looking at warning signs. I've listened to my intuition since then and turned down some jobs and walked away from others, I haven't had a situation like this since.

If your "gut" doesn't kick in when you deal with people like that, two scenarios, you never make any real money, or you go broke.

I can tell if I want to work with someone in ten minutes or less, or if they take a phone call from their spouse during the meeting. If a guy trashes his wife in front of me, how do you think he is going to treat me down the road.

If your gut(conscience) is speaking, you had better listen.

Every time that I have lowered my standards for someone, I get screwed.

Stick to your guns, listen to your gut, go forth and treat your good customers great, and the others.....C YA.

my nickle, RR

My best client's quote:

Business goes where it is wanted, and stays where it is appreciated.