Homelessness. There are individuals within the statistics.

Each day most of us are subjected to news.  News on the radio, television, newspapers, on the Internet.

The news supplies statistics.  Fires in Colorado which have consumed tens of thousands of acres.  Unless your house or a house belonging to somebody important to you was lost in one of those acres that burned we tend to turn a blind eye to the news.

How many people were killed or injured in Afghanistan this week?  Unless one of them was somebody you loved you probably did not have your life changed much if at all.

How many people lost their homes to foreclosure?  I am sure you understand my point.

When the word Homeless is heard by many individuals their thought process may create mental images of people who are mentally ill, who may be  alcoholics, people who have substance abuse problems or are just people that do not want to work and expect a handout.

There is much more to this story.  Click "read more" below for the more complete story.

Label failure a success! The homeless of Los Angeles

Los Angeles is the city with the distinction of having the highest homeless population in the nation.  

Recently there was a story in the Los Angeles Times.  I first heard about the story last week as a group of us were driving to a birthday dinner party.  I did not know the details of the story but I went off on a bit of a rant as soon as I heard the title and the basics of the story from a passenger in the car.

Housing project for hard-core homeless pays off

A study of homeless adults housed by L.A. County's Project 50 suggests providing permanent housing to vulnerable populations saves local governments money.


There is more to this story.  Click on "read more" below for the more complete picture.

Help the Homeless of Los Angeles on June 14, 2012

Los Angeles - Homeless capitol of our nation.

Click on the link below to learn more or purchase a ticket for this event.
I hope to see some of my friends there.

Many of you folks know that I spend time on the streets of Los Angeles, the homeless capitol of our nation, doing what I can to help the homeless.

Union Rescue Mission, the largest mission in the United States, is putting on their annual Heroes for Hope lunch event in Los Angeles on June 14th.  If you are in the area and wish to attend it would be great to see you there.

For the more complete story click on "read more".

Improvement in the U.S. Economy?

Improvement?  I does not seem to be the case.

The last 420+ days of our economy using a diverse model rather than a focus on Wall Street
rather than where our government wishes us to turn our vision.
Click on this chart if you wish a larger version.

My point here is not to make a political statement.  I feel our government, collectively, are a bunch of incompetent fools.  Some of my other thoughts and observations can be seen here:

http://la-economy.blogspot.com/search/label/economy

During the election debates the economy was improving.  Perhaps it was the attention on the antics of the candidates in the media.  Perhaps it was that the Republican party and Tea Party folks were too busy to stop the wheels of government dead in it's track on each and every issue.   Perhaps it was manipulation by the people in office with big business to make things look better and reduce on of the glaring arguments of the opposition.  Perhaps it was dumb luck and chance.

Click on "read more" for the more complete story.

UPS - not the tightest ship in the shipping business

Drivers instructions were quite clear yet still ignored

Drivers release location was stated by driver as "FRONT DOOR" which was untrue.

It seems that UPS cannot follow simple instructions.   

My package was delivered and left next to my driveway. 

Nowhere near the front door.  Not behind the short wall at the front in the shade. 

The package was left in direct view of the street traffic or anybody walking on the sidewalk.  Kids walking to and from school.

A few weeks ago another package a few blocks away was marked as delivered according to the UPS tracking status.  The package was not received.  The package was reported as not delivered to the sender who sent out a replacement item.  A week later the lost package showed up after the replacement package had arrived.  It would be interesting to know how the driver reported the package as being delivered.

I am not sure what the deal here is with UPS but I am not happy with the driver in my area today ( 5/8/12 ).  

I am not happy with your declining level of service.

June update:  I had another shipment from the same sender and had the same instructions to UPS.  This time UPS did follow the delivery instructions.  I will report future anomalies if there are more of them in this post.

Very bad customer service - Ammoman

Ammoman - the deeper you investigate the more you are surprised that these folks are in business.

The range where I shoot does not allow shooting stuff like this after a serious
accident caused by this ammunition.

It all started when I considered ordering one of their products.

Click on "read more" below for the complete story.

I just uploaded some new random cell phone photos

The most current shots are at the start of this slideshow.  

If you have nothing at all to do you can keep watching the show for almost 10,000 photos.  New shots will be added automatically to this post.

One of the many shots in this collection

Amazing Auto Body Repair

A few days ago my car was parked.  It was damaged by another vehicle who was parked behind my car.  The owner of the car who caused the accident was very nice and put me in contact with Jesse Anguiano at
http://ultimatefinishesmobileautobody.com/

Jesse and his crew arrived at my house at 11am.  They were done in less than 30 minutes.  My cell camera does not do justice to their work which is superb.

Very cool folks.  Terrific work. If you are in the So Cal area these folks should be your first call for any body repair requirement.

Before

After (in less than 30 minutes)

Thanks again to Ultimate Finishes Mobile Auto Body.  You can also find them on facebook at

www.facebook.com/pages/Ultimate-Finishes-Mobile-Auto-Body/158125687608086

A bit of amp blueprinting from the past

I was going through some records on some customers amps from the past.  I came across one blueprinting session that was a little different than most as these were preamps which contained eight tubes.  There were also multiple units that were very different as the model had changed in revision levels over it's production life. 

I thought that going over some of the data would shed a little light on some of the process of blueprinting and some of the ways that tubes are very inconsistent.

Bogner Fish Preamp - 8 12AX7 tubes.

Click on "read more" for the complete story.

3-13-12 - A day at 65 Amps

It has been a while since I wandered around the shop over at www.65amps.com and took some snapshots. 

Today seemed like as good of a day as any. Activity is on the increase with the Producer, the Empire and the Ventura amps in production added to the continued requests for amps like Lil' Elvis, Tupelo and Soho. 

These shots are raw format. There is no cropping here. No photoshop, color enhancement or alteration of any sort. I just walked around the shop and took about 110 snapshots in less than 15 minutes. If you have issues with my composition that is part of my snapshot style. If I wanted terrific shots I would call in one of my great photographer friends :)

If you look around the shop you will find Lil' Elvis hiding all over the place.