We Don't Walk Slow

About Tom Stortz

Enjoying my last few responsibility free years left.

Who’s the Boss

Today was a different sort of day for me. I got the opportunity to meet with the owners of two reputable companies in the Philadelphia area. I usually keep anything work related out of this blog because I think that a personal blog and a business are two separate entities that shouldn’t be mixed. However I think that some people who read this blog don’t get this opportunity so I’ll share it with you.

The first business owner grew his business into a multi-million dollar company through hard work and knowledge of the industry in just 10 years. He was a smart guy who worked the trade for his entire life and understands the needs of the contractor. People like dealing with him and it was a good example of personalizing the business relationship. For me it was also a business opportunity to try to get our product onto their shelves. Visits like this expand my mind on how to look at certain situations. A great way to grow as a person is to copy someone who you deem successful. The organization of the company was also impressive. Everything was very neat, clean and presented appropriately. He also gave some good tips for advertising on the radio.

The second business we looked at was on a much larger scale. The building of this business was 400,000sq ft and it employed 250 people. The company makes ducts for air circulation out of galvanized sheet The first thing I noticed was that it was union labor and the rules that they operated under. We went right before lunch time and when the bell rang, everyone stopped what they were doing and had lunch. There is a structure to union labor to create a fair and honest way of work (as long as everyone works). This company had equipment everywhere, stacks and stacks of coiled galvanized, people using all sorts of machinery. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. It was a real impressive display of relatively big business. To be in charge of that many people seems so overwhelming that I’m not sure where I’d begin. Being the owner of a company that has expenses like that with payroll, inventory, machinery and the whole nine yards is such a daunting task that I get the feeling that you just grow into it. It was a great experience though.

After seeing that, I related the two companies we saw to our own company and there is a ways to go. To grow a business might sound simple in theory but there is tons of hard work put into making something successful. If it was easy everyone would do it. It’s why most people work for other people. I still think though that you have to see how other people do it before you try to do it yourself. Experience is a huge factor to being successful. Knowing how to make good decisions comes from experience and the better decisions you makes, the better off you’ll be. I thought that some people might be interested in this entry and make it this far. If not, then they will never have read this sentence. But you did.

By Tom Stortz|2011-12-02T18:29:21-05:00December 2nd, 2011|My Brain|2 Comments

7 Seldom Known Driving Techniques

1. Avoid slow left turns on left arrows – There is nothing worse than being at a light that is governed by a left arrow that develops a line behind it. The goal should be to get as many cars through that left light as possible. However, some self centered asshole always finds it in him to make the turn like he’s the only person on the planet thus preventing more people from making the arrow. People should be flooring it through this scenario.

2. Turning on a yellow light – This situation occurs fairly often and I see it done incorrectly time and time again. People make lefts on a green arrow and then the arrow goes away and the opposite side gets their green light. You are sitting there patiently waiting to make a left but there is too much traffic and no opportunity. The light turns yellow and I see people wait and do nothing. On yellow this person should be driving into the middle of traffic and making their left when there are no more cars coming through.

3. Reverse using your side view mirrors – I feel like the normal (and bad) driver doesn’t make good use of their side views. You should be able to reverse in just about any situation using only your mirrors. The sideview mirrors should be the indicator of how close you are to other cars. They tell you when you are going to hit something. I believe I could drive accident free with only my side view mirrors. They show you everything you need to know. There isn’t any hand over the seat full 180 turn for reversing. If you don’t use your side views, you are more likely to get into an accident.

4. Blinking yellows don’t mean stop, they mean caution – When it’s a 4 way intersection and you have blinking yellows, the other side has blinking reds. If you stop on the yellows you are just creating confusion. The goal of driving is to eliminate confusion. Don’t stop and act like a retard. Be ready to brake and slowly proceed through the intersection. I see this in Philly all the time when I light malfunctions and people can’t handle the situation. What do the people with the red light do? It’s a great question. My answer is they have to grow a pair and find the opportune moment.

5. Proper seating and mirrors – I think this is probably one of the main reason people suck at driving. I’ve been in people’s cars and their seats are real low and far back. Their side view points to the ground. You can’t drive properly without being positioned properly. The seat should be so your feet reach the peddles and you can see clearly over the dash. Your side views should be set so the main focus is on the road beside you and you should just be able to see the side of your car. Rear view should be able to see entirely through the back windshield.

6. Stay in your lane – I know this seems so obvious but people are careless. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to swerve further into my lane to avoid being struck by people crossing over the yellow line on turns. This is easily the best way to lose your life by getting a head on by some numnut straying over his lane. This is important especially on curves where people seem to just be happy by making the turn.

7. Don’t Text and Drive – I’m not telling you what to do but this is the most dangerous thing you can do while driving. It distracts you from driving smartly. Your head is down, your head is up, your head is down, your head is up. A lot can happen when your head is down and things come up on your much faster then you realize. This is how accidents start and most likely whatever text your sending isn’t that important. I’ve been guilty of this in the past and I always know how dangerous it is when I’m doing it. That still doesn’t make it right but you have to at least be aware that it’s probably the most accident prone task you can do on the road.

By Tom Stortz|2011-12-02T00:14:14-05:00December 2nd, 2011|My Life|1 Comment

To Be The Best, Show Your Best

I was listening to Howard Stern the other day and he made a profound point. I still feel that the outside world views Stern as a lewd, crude, dirty shockjock and he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. The segment involved Howard telling his two joke guys that the material they had wasn’t funny. Howard was explaining to them this certain bit wasn’t good enough for radio and it didn’t represent their abilities. It would tarnish their reputation. He gave an example of a professional photographer who only shows his best work. He might take 100 pictures but they all aren’t going to be presented, he might choose one out of the bunch. Giving your work your best thought and ability is how you produce good content. The difficult question to answer is, how can you tell if your work is that good if you don’t present it? Take these post, I don’t know if I what I write is any good. I have to continue honing my skills until I actually come up with a formula for success. Stern’s life is a great story in that he spent years upon of hard work to get where he is. He says he was awful in the beginning of his career and with effort and his talent for creating content, he rose to the top. His hard work shows to, he gives the most entertaining interviews. These aren’t predetermined, stage interviews where both parties know what they are going to say. He has learned how to make interviewing interesting. His advice should not be taken lightly.

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-29T13:50:14-04:00November 30th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

Fantastic Burlington Coat Factory Commercial

After reading about Burlington Coat Factory in Wikipedia, they are actually way bigger than I thought they were. With over 450 stores and 2.8 billion in revenue a year, maybe they should be able to figure out put this commercial I’m referencing on Youtube. Anyway, they have a commercial where a woman comes in and says “look at my new designer dress, it cost $280 (who says that entering a room anyway?)” Her co-worker replies that she can get a similar suit, a new dress, this outfit or this jacket to hit the slopes with for the same price.” I think a commercial like this clicks with a lot of people who are making purchasing decisions for families who are short on income. Plus people have to break down the value to them, a $280 suit would probably be more comfortable and last longer compared to the 4 different styles which give you more of a variety but aren’t as nice. I also want to mention that Burlington Coat Factory had a lawsuit against them for using real animal fur and calling it “faux fur” in products. I assume that real animal fur costs less than this “faux fur” and no one can tell the difference? So that aside, I still think that the commercial does exactly what good advertising does, it opens your mind to an option. Good commercials tell you do something. I know giving props to Burlington Coat Factory is really obscure.

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-29T13:54:59-04:00November 30th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

What would I save in a fire?

Laura gave me this idea and I gave it some thought. Just to present the scenario clearly, you wake up and there’s a fire in your room and you can only escape carrying one item, what would it be? My first thought was to eliminate everything materialistic. Books, clothes and basically anything that can be replaced by buying it. So then I thought, what can’t be replaced? People for one but I don’t really have anyone I’m responsible for so that’s out. When I was home for Thanksgiving we were looking through pictures of our youth and those are pretty much irreplaceable if it gets burned. You can’t recapture time. People in today’s age have such an advantage at safe keeping pictures digitally compared to physically. Fortunately I don’t have any physical pictures so nothing to worry about there. Back in college I used to burn porn onto a CD that would be valuable but with spankwire and tube8, there isn’t a need for that anymore. Then I thought if there was anything I was emotionally attached to like a lucky hat or favorite article of clothing and I couldn’t think of anything either because I don’t really believe in that sort of thing. Then it struck me, Gusto’s external hard drive with hundreds of gigs of music. Now of course if I know Gusto I can always get him to replace it but I would devastated if I had to listen to music like normal people. Every album by almost every artist and this turns into an unbelievable collection. I think it’s by far and away the most valuable item I have because of the time put into accumulating it. I feel like I might be missing something really major with this question but after this initial thought, that’s what I’ve come up with.

By Tom Stortz|2011-11-30T14:44:28-05:00November 30th, 2011|My Life|1 Comment

Running in the Cold

Aside from that one freak snow storm on Halloween, we’ve had pretty warm weather in Philly so far heading into December. I’m noticing that starting to change a little bit and I suspect freezing weather is soon to follow. When I drive up Kelly each morning I see people all bundled up running in the cold and I wonder “why on earth would you do this?” There are a number of reasons why I wouldn’t put myself through this:
1. The cold in general is uncomfortable.
2. Your hands and toes start to freeze.
3. You don’t sweat properly.
4. More clothing leads to slower times.
5. It doesn’t feel like you’re getting a work out

I suppose people feel like a champ after completing a run in the cold and having that sensation of running in brisk weather but I just prefer perfection conditions. Now maybe I’m biased because I can’t feel my left foot in the ice cold but you won’t find me running in any weather under 50. Technically I shouldn’t be writing this post because it will lead to more people running indoors but I really would appreciate any comments on why you run outside in cold weather if you don’t have to.

By Tom Stortz|2013-03-15T03:40:09-04:00November 30th, 2011|Running|2 Comments

Why I Still Love Brandi Passante

With previous posts displaying her hotness here, I’m going into one more explanation. This isn’t really her best picture but it explains why I like her look. First off she has a full rack which I like. The chest then accentuates her flat stomach. That look of big boobs and flat stomach is a great combination. The skirt kind of makes me things she’s hiding something under there but for the sake of argument we’ll say she’s not. That hair color is my absolute favorite. I like the blonde look and the brown highlights give her some authenticity that she’s not a bimbo. The hot sunglasses complete the look. Plus she knows she’s hot which makes her even more attractive. Here’s one more picture that should display her stripping past and why she looks as good as she does.

The tattoos on her feet scream stripper. That dress is knockout though. Nice hips, tight stomach, nice tits, hourglass figure, hot ass female. Stripper or not, she’s made a name for herself and I’d hit it any day of the week.

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-28T15:21:41-04:00November 29th, 2011|Tv|9 Comments

Eat the Apple?

I don’t own an Iphone. An Iphone to me would be like trading in my soul to the devil. It’s not the phone itself, it’s the culture that surrounds Apple. People who have Iphones can’t live without their Iphone. They’ve fallen into this pit of despair that tells them that they need constant entertainment that is their Iproduct. Feeling bored? Here’s a trillion games that will waste your time. Need a friend? Here’s some crazy robotic bitch Siri that can answer all your questions. They’ll make you connected and once you buy an Iproduct they have you buy the balls. You NEED their software. They offer the shittiest media player on Earth in Itunes. Ladies and gentleman do not become a slave to purchasing mp3’s from Itunes, go to youtube-to-mp3 and get your music for free and please use Media Monkey to play music and don’t make the most powerful company in the world stronger. I feel like I’m becoming an old fogie because I’m hating on these supposedly awesome products but I just don’t understand why I constantly have to be entertained by an electronic device.

This isn’t to say that I don’t have a smart phone. I use the DroidX and I’ve had it for over a year and I’m thrilled with it. It makes clear calls, the camera is great, I get all my email to my phone and I can surf the web and send text messages effectively. That’s it. It’s all I need. I have fantasy football apps and Shazam as well but I only need the one on Sundays and the other when I’m stumped on a song. I think I have a problem transitioning from this desktop computer but the Ishit doesn’t have word processing so what good is it. I need a keyboard and when I’m at the computer I can search and basically let Google bring me anything I need. This is where I’m comfortable browsing because I’m efficient. Everything takes longer to do on a smaller device so people are always staring at their screens, head down.

The Iphone turns people into walking zombies. The picture above illustrates the two sides (even though I’m positive people out there are addicted to Droids the same way). The guy has his android in his pocket and the other two are looking at their phones. I’m sure they have a truelife titled “I’m addicted to my IPhone.” People in line are constantly distracted while they review their latest quest on their phone. It’s not going away either. Probably just going to get more popular. The worst part is that I really don’t have concrete evidence with what people even do on there which requires so much attention. Maybe I’m missing out on a revolution and I’m just really out of the loop. The craziest thing about this is that people out there are going to take this as a personal attack that I criticize the all-powerful Apple. Remember this is just a blog and entries that take a position are infinitely better.

By Tom Stortz|2011-11-28T22:36:06-05:00November 28th, 2011|My Brain|2 Comments

KidHitCatHit

By Tom Stortz|2016-11-03T15:17:03-04:00November 28th, 2011|Videos|1 Comment

There is No I in Team

In direct response to Sam’s Post, I decided to have a little fun writing this one. After reading his post I initially thought I was being insulted. I thought this because the post he was referencing was actually terrible and took me all of 5 minutes that I shat out at work just because I didn’t want people to think I don’t update my blog frequently. I have a few thoughts though on his comments that I’m happy to share with my plethora of readers (writing is difficult because people who know me would know I’m using the word plethora sarcastically but that cannot be known unless I italicized it (which doesn’t make sense for sarcastic writing) and then you would probably just be more confused)(but probably less confused though if I eliminated these double brackets).

I’ll agree that usually something has to happen to be able to maintain a blog. You constantly have to be thinking about things during your day that could make for entertaining fodder. So I don’t really feel the word inspired is as proper as the willingness to keep a blog. His last line of “Something tells me that he as well as I realize that a couple hundred people viewing your blog in a day, while harder than you would think (and more than I can muster), is nothing earth shattering” I also don’t really agree with. We can’t explain why Google sends people to our blog. Why my website comes up higher in the search engines now then previous on certain keywords is all part of their algorithm. My personal opinion is that the more times certain keywords appear in posts, the higher they rank you. This all ties in with Google+ and Facebook and all other relevant content. So to get to this point (where some keywords actually hit) has taking years of work and although Earth shattering might not be right, it is still somewhat of achievement because I assure you most people would have given up a long time ago. If you told someone to spend hours and hours for 2 years of their life and get 0 out of it, I’m fairly certain there wouldn’t be many takers. So my point is that eventually we might see the fruits of our labor.

My final thought on Sam’s post is that I agree 100% with initial success leads to motivation. Success of any sorts makes you want to improve. The blogs are improving and I’m sure if people were willing to give feedback, they’d say the same. Noticing how Sam is hyperlinking some keywords is bright because that strengthens the pages. Our themes are better and without ads the sites look clean. This post and the simple interaction between two websites makes people more aware of the two sites which is helpful. If we could only find more sites to link to and us to them, we’d be in business but our readers offer no help. I don’t even care anymore though because if we don’t get any help we just do it ourselves. Sam and I spent some time together over this break and I give him major credit in many regards. Not his ping pong prowess (except against the Shee) or his BBall skills but most importantly that we can get along and have a family friendship. I can’t really see us ever getting into major disagreements and we genuinely like each other (only speaking for myself here). It’s nice dealing with someone who I don’t have to worry about pissing off with any small bs. It’s easy to work together with someone like that and who knows where these stupid websites may go. I honestly wonder how many people sit there and read this entire post. Sure 300 people may visit my blog on a day to day but how many people read this and actually care? A handful is my guess. How to turn it into relevant, high end content that people want to read is the next step. I go through phases of disgust with this project but quitting and leaving baby bro hanging is something I’m not willing to do.

PS – Sam you owe me 35 dollars for the hosting of Bansheeman7. It’s a shame you didn’t pick a better domain name than that. Not that rnningfool is any gem but at least I think it might fit my personality whereas I didn’t know when you became practicing the rituals of a banshee. And a mann. With 2 m’s no less.

By Tom Stortz|2011-11-28T19:01:01-05:00November 28th, 2011|My Life|5 Comments