Trying Out Some New Things

I'm doing some things with Photoshop to try and 'snazz' things up around this blog. For example, I'd like to use the following image as the title area of our blog:


I've got to try to figure out if there's a way to upload it into the template, or if we need to make the switch to BetaBlogger, which is an updated/fancier version of Blogger. I know there's a good chance we could do stuff like that there. I'm experimenting with another blog, just to see if it'll be useful to switch.

So, I haven't written much about what's been happening around here, so here goes.

The week after Curt left, there was an electrical fire at the karate studio. A waitress at Twin Palms (the restaurant next door) was on her break and noticed an orange glow that WASN'T coming from her cigarette, and called the fire department after trying to break through the window with a fire extinguisher to put it out herself. The fire was WAY too hot, there was no one in the building and the FD was just up the street, so heroics weren't necessary. They put the fire out fast, but the damage was done.

The next day, the walls were yellow with the poisons of the smoke and the saturated matts had already been torn out by the clean up crew. The air smelt the way your t-shirt does after grilling 300 hamburgers on a hot afternoon. Things were pretty bad. I didn't have my camera there the first day (wish I had), so there's no super cool photo of the TV all the way across the room melted into a pile of gurgling black plastic or of the painting of the belt ranks dangling from the rafters like a flag back from the war. Nuts. I did get a few good pictures, though.

The way the building is built is as follows: Our half, the karate half, is seperated from a bookstore/theatre area by the restrooms that we share and one security door that divides the two businesses. The fire was contained to just the training area, but it did wipe out the electricity to the entire building. The bookstore people decided to stay closed until everything is put back together. We thought maybe we'd get a week off or something while the insurance adjusters did their thing and the city planners tried to get their asses together and cover up their grand canyon-esque fuck up.

Nope.

In the ways of Tiffani's Restaurant or some other great/tragic circus, "The show must go on!"

The show went on, alright. It went on, right at the starting line of 'The Heat Wave from Hell'.
We've been teaching kids/teens/adults karate for 8 weeks now in that crappy little bookstore area on a filthy rug with no electricity in at least four weeks of 100+ heat (record breaking heat, mind you, like that makes it any better...), with only our senses of humor to keep us going. Why only our senses of humor? Because Larry hasn't even thought to go out and buy us a case of bottled water, a bag of ice or some lighter work out clothes. We're fortunate to have such generous and observant students and parents around; they've been bringing us goodies and ice cold drinks in lieu of the boss. Having no electricity sucks, but being impossibly busy AND having no electricity sucks even more. Quite the mess.

To add kindling to the fire, I gave Larry my 4 weeks notice July 15th, letting him know that I'd be down to part time come Aug 15th, teaching only 2 nights a weeks, from 5:30 ~ 8 or 8:30 because of my new daytime 9 to 5 gig. He seemed to support my decision, and trusted that I'd take care of my students.

Then, on August 1st, Billy gave Larry his 4 weeks notice.

Suddenly, he's in a bind. That, according to my calculations, is about 60 students (at about $1000 tuition a year) who need to be moved around to be taught by Juan or Alex, who are already stacked to the ceiling with lessons. So Larry found himself in, what the people in the jarred goods business call, a "pickle". He approached me and asked what it would take for me to stay.

I had pretty much already made up my mind as far as leaving. It's no secret that I wasn't really happy there. It was less about the actual teaching and more about the attitude/lackadaisical manor with which Larry ran his business. He kept piling up the students on us, started charging more and more for those lessons, but not offering a penny more to us for our efforts, all the while his actual "karate" presence was becoming like an oasis in a desert...nowhere to be found.

So, what would it take from Larry for me to stay?

-$70,000 a year on a weekly salary.
-2 weeks paid holidays.
-Full medical insurance.
-Bonus at the end of the year if sales of dvds and crap were up.
-Raises for all the guys, as well as 50/50 medical benefits for them.
-Commissions for all of us when we sold dvd packages, sparring gear, uniforms, re-enrollments, introductory programs, etc...

That's what I asked for.

He came back with this, which is pretty much the reason why I'm working at Picard Mortgage now:
-$32,000 a year.
-2 weeks paid holidays.
-No medical.
-Vagueries about a bonus.
-Kaiboshed the medical for the other guys, and I'm not even sure he heard me ask for more money for the other guys.
-Sort of glossed over the commissions with some non-sensible jibberish about overhead and "they raised the rent".

Forget about it! Cyenara! Au revoir! Chow!

So that's been my summer so far. Last night, when I went in to teach, Larry was actually teaching (gasp) an intro. It was kind of funny. I guess I was a little disappointed, though not surprised, by his lack of vision. I didn't think I was asking for too much, considering I'd be managing the school, the schedule, equipment ordering and working there full time instead of my previous part time. I believed, considering my schedule was already full with 50 some odd students strong, that I'd be able to teach closer to 100 students on my schedule alone, not to mention sell product like a madman and motivate the other guys to sell too, with incentives of course.

I guess he knows better. It's too bad knowing better doesn't include treating your employees with the respect and care they deserve. (zing!)

Things are going good right now. I'm just settling into my new job, and so far it's been nice. The mortgage industry is kind of a crazy place, but I kind of like it. I'll keep you guys posted.

Peace!
Jon