Money grubbin SOB's

Well, McKarate has struck an unexpected blow today. The other night, the kung fu sifu was talking about testing fees. He said, if left to him, he's charge $15 ($10 for the sash, $3 for printer ink and paper to print us up a certificate, and $2 for a frame to put it in). THis, of course, was unexceptable to the money grubbin pricks that own the place. The owners of American Gold Martial Arts , in their neverending quest to make a profit, decided that student must have a kung fu uniform to test, AND pay a testing fe of $50. THe uniform is no problem (this is their way to sell uniforms to all the kids that go their for karate daycare.). But $50 to test. This $50 fee is exactly why I haven't bothred pursuing any TKD rank yet. I have 2 babies that can make better use of $50 , than just lining the pockets of stuffy female owner, and her stuck up asshole "You're not good enough to join MY kendo class" husband. If you can't tell, this really burns my ass. Knowing that the sifu would only charge a modest amount, and they want to rake in the money ...ewww im pissed. ANd what gets me the most is....well, a few things that get me...is that they are making money hand over fist in a disguised daycare center. They run a covert daycare center, disguised as an all day tae kwon do program. This means that they are avoind being licensed. A day care has to have a certain amount of staff members for how many kids they take care of. They are circumnavigating this by calling it a day program. No inspections, no lisences, nuffin. And on top of that, they have the balls to have the dojo run as a non-profit organization. Im sure this helps avoid taxes. These people better hope they don't piss off the wrong person. One call to city hal, and they aren't just out of business....they are off to jail.

So....to calm down a bit.....I purchased a street styles sign, that says "Warning: Snake Crossing". It has about 5 different snakes on it, in color. My plan was to get all the students (adult students) who are taking Kung FU (and testing for their white sash) to sign it. At the end of the test, I was going to present it to him, and say something like "On behalf of all of us, who are privelidged at being the first students that you have ever tested for rank, we are honored by your patience, and would like to present this to you". Now, maybe I'll have to just change it to a Christmas present. Or, if I calm down enough by the testing day, maybe I'll show up , and present it anyways....as a nice jesture. He already knows that Im not going to test, and why. He seems to understand my position. But it really bites. He conducted a mock test tonight, as used my performance as a benchmark to the other student to follow. It's not that I wanted the sash that badly....just bites that now, when we line up in class, Im no longer going to hold the second spot....but I get booted down to the end with the new people (if we get any). This may not be the case, but it might be. Hard to say how sifu will react once people have sashes. Will he allow experience to take precedent? Or will color coordination , for the sake of the owners watching, mean that we all line up according to color? (As it should be, if not for my $50 testing fee complaint). Ok..Im fired up again. Let's move on to other topics..

I bought a laptop, (Ebay: $210), as a back up of vital busniess related programs. 3 singing telegram programs, and one credit card processing program. Also, the web site publishing program for my compaies website (www.amagicmoment.net) . Problem was, it came with Windows NT installed. This confilcted with a few of my programs, so I also installed XP on it. It ran fine for a while, then went to hell in a handbasket. So last night, I reformatted the drive, and installed XP from scratch. Then, had to install all the "gotta haves", like System Suit 5, Search & Destroy Spybot, Winamp, Winzip, etc. Before I knew it, it was 4am!

TRUCK NEWS: I have (on the way) 2 new headlights, a front grill, and a bumper. Only need a passenger side turn signal light housing, and the truck will be street legal. I'll need a new hood, but this can wait till I get some money. (Still gotta pay McKarate tuition, student loan, phone bill, dr visit bill, and a few other things).

I have a 10am Grim reaper telegram to deliver tomorrow, so Im going to end this for now.