That was the weekend then...

Friday, we had friends come over for Videos and to watch their puppy interact with our dogs.  They lost a dog earlier in the year, but she'd had some temperament issues and hadn't socialized well with other dogs.  They've been bringing Zola around since she was about 16 weeks old and she gets on very well with our 2 year old.  Of course, the issue at hand is that Tara, the 2 year old is a Chocolate Lab and Zola is a Great Dane.  So that at 16 weeks, Zola was a smidge smaller than Tara.  Now she's a LOT bigger.  Still they got on well.  Tyson spent the entire evening trying to dominate (read hump) the puppy, which was rather comical given his slightly gimpy front right leg and the size difference.  Anyway, lots of fun, and we saw Cowboys V. Aliens which was... umm... good fun really and not at all crap.  Honest.

Saturday M suggested that we actually have our Christmas dinner with friends who were coming around because we're at another friends for Christmas and they traditionally do beef not Turkey. So, Turkey it was, and very good too if I do say so myself.  We will be eating turkey for every meal this week though.

Sunday we had to get up and out to have brunch and go to the Panto.  Panto is not a core part of the American Christmas in the way it is in the rest of the other former British colonies.  The break occurred about 40 years too early according to Wikipedia.  It's something of a shame because I think there's an interesting What If around American popular culture if Panto was popular.  Anyway, there's a troupe of amatuers here in Seattle who do an annual Christmas Panto at the Hales Palladium, which is basically a shed at the back of Hales Brewery.  This year they did Peter Pan, which is a tricky one, especially if you're not going to do wire work.  But still, they did a great job, the usual mixture of sexual innuendo and topical jokes (London, home of Big Ben and a stable alternative monetary system...) - the best bit was they let the kids sit at the front of the stage and really get into the audience interaction, which took about 20 minutes but once the kids understood they were allowed to get involved they had a great time.  I think one girl was actually crying when Tinkerbell died...  anyway, lots of fun, and a wide mixture of ages, including visiting grandparents from the UK who'd brought their children and grand-children...

Good fun.  Then home to catch up with Boardwalk Empire and the season finales of Homeland and Dexter.

Homeland?  Must see TV.  Clare Danes and Damien Lewis are already having their names engraved on the Emmy's as you read this.

Christmas Food...

Day 3 of the turkey...  warmed up Turkey Breast, left over veges, gravy and cranberry sauce and some gratin potatoes, which I most definitely should not have made, but OH DEAR GHODS IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD AND SCREW THE CALORIES.

Anyway.  Swimming tomorrow I think.

Company Stuff...

So another year rolls to an end, and it's been pretty weird.  A lot of things have happened this year.  We started with a very low order book but high hopes.  I took a fairly serious decision about the company at Christmas and let everybody know - I wanted to kill the main thing we'd try to sell for a year and focus on something else.

We got the new thing up and running by the summer and I'd managed to get the money together to start paying Nick full time...  Even with that, things were pretty scary over the last 6 months and I've been running on empty money wise, but all the time the order books have been starting to swell.

So.  Where are we?

Well. As of working out the numbers tonight I've about $92,000 in accounts receivable, but about $87,000 in liabilities - and we've enough work in progress to get through to Feb.  Plus we've got some stuff that's likely to close in the first week of the new year, so at the moment, I'm actually looking at having the cash in hand to pay all 3 founder salaries through the first quarter.  Given we've taken no money, and done this organically it's something I'm pretty proud of.

Finally, something quite dramatic might happen early in the new year but I can't say anything about it yet in case we jinx it.

On whinging and hypocrisy...

I was accused of hypocrisy today about a post I made on Livejournal.  It interested me.  Here's the comment, and I think it needs some consideration.

As Chris pointed out I run my own company and have done in the UK and US and youm kw what? In socialist England it's much easier to be a small business owner. The healthcare service being part of general taxation alone makes it easier...

Their reply was:

Subject: Re: Conservative right wing
Then why did you open a business in the US if it's so much easier? People are so hypocritical it cracks me up. Out of one side of your mouth you talk about how mature and educated you are compared to Republicans, and out of the other side of your mouth you stoop to much lower levels. What I love most about American politics is that the people who want the most are willing to do the least for it. All that matters is that you have enough friends to vote away other ppl's private property.

I'll deal with the question, because, I do actually ask myself the same thing most days.  The wife and I discuss it quite a lot.  The facts, such as they are, are this: I was here, we were here for a period of time, how long, we don't know and it was time to start a business.  I could have been anywhere when the decision was taken - where I was living had little to do with it.

The second part falls into a category I would basically describe as... Werh??? ugh? eh??????

Sorry, there's only a certain degree of, well, lack of logic that I can process before the neurons give up.

The amusing thing about the poor logic here is that my position is actually quite a conservative/capitalist position to hold.  I want healthcare paid for out of general taxation because it would make life cheaper and easier for my business.  The US system doesn't work, hasn't work and disproportionately disadvantages me, the small business owner, over larger companies.  It also makes it damn near impossible for older people to set up businesses compared to younger people.  

I happen to think that this is putting the US at a significant disadvantage over other locations where entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s and older can't start a business without having a partner with decent healthcare.  That's taking a lot of people out of the potential pool of talent.

The lack of healthcare is already taken out of my "private property" - the 46 year old with diabetes, hyper tension and clogged arteries who turns up at ER is going to need hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment, verses, say, a few hundred dollars of Lisinopril and statins, especially if they're already in renal failure.  That cost is already taken out of my private property and I begrudge spending LOTS of money on stuff that should have been cheap to fix.

Finally, I keep coming back to that last line about "What I love most about American politics is that the people who want the most are willing to do the least for it. All that matters is that you have enough friends to vote away other ppl's private property."

I work 60-80 hours a week, I travel lots, I am spending my time worrying about the income of 2 other individuals and households.  I have taken no benefits, we have private healthcare we pay a lot for and I'm unlikely to retire in this country.  I'm working my arse off to build a business that employees people (yes, I know, I'm a job creator) and you're worried that I'm after *your* property.  As they say where I come from.  F**k you, you ignorant piece of shit.  Grow up and learn what it means to be an adult and move out of your parent's metaphorical basement, because I don't know who you are, or what you do, but emotionally that's where you still are.

:)