Uber v Lyft and ACLU

 It is seldom that I have addressed politics in the blog, but perhaps it is time to vent some issues here off and on.

Trump as tapped the Strategic and Policy Forum by picking up two of executives in the tech industry with the addition of Uber Technologies’ Travis Kalanick and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.

I can't say that I am excited that Travis Kalanick has chosen to work with Trump.  Nor, Elon Musk for that matter.  As an Uber Driver this rubs me wrong that they would work under the umbrella of this man.  It concerns me, but will monitoring their input closely.

Lyft on the other side of this has thrown big money toward the ACLU to work on cases that concern the people from the black listed countries.   I support their efforts and look forward to focusing my own personal business of driving to Lyft pickups and will be leaving Uber as the lesser of the two app's at this point.  I hope to see riders do the same and support Lyft by adding is as one of the apps they most use for rides.

I do hope that Ubers Executive does not fail by falling under the spell of the Human Rights violator that stole the election by the outdated Electoral College.  It should always be the popular vote and they Electoral College needs to go away.

Completed works in the last 30 days

 The 4x4 completed bard picture is done.  Going forward with a unique idea of framing it and will present the entire work in a blog post down the road.  I've made comment before that taking photo's of these do them no justice.  I really feel that way with this one.

Below is another completed work that I sketched out years ago and finally decided it was time to finish it up and get it out.  The Kalispell Grand Hotel in Montana.  I have done similar ones to this before.

Jesse had suggest I do some covered bridges. This is a small 4x6 that is stained in natural color and the bridge is in the drift wood stain that I recently acquired.

 Started the ground work on a very large and very heavy piece of Red Oak.  It measures 38" by 15".  My original desire was to make a table top out of it, but that ended up presenting a lot of challenges.  Then it came to be to make a wall mounted piece out of it.  The natural crescent moon shape is going to be part of the Native American theme of this when finished.  I will be walking through that process as I go so that followers can observe the amount of work that goes into doing a piece of this art.

Right now I have sanded down the rough cut to the wood and drummeled away much of the dead end of the plank to make it easier to work with and prevent loss of the piece over time.

Mavin Makers

Yesterday, finished cutting board that I had started for classes at Kevin Makers.   Small, but brought out new thoughts and skills needed to get some new things done.  

 Finished work light and it isn't good.   Not bad, not good.   Once I have completed it, I will put in a photo of it. 

Was hoping my pens for burning set would have arrived but they didn't.  PTL Enterprises has been very slow to fill my pen order and respond to my emails (not at all). I love the equipment, but taking care of my needs is poor.  Still haven't even seen the deduction from my account that he has filled my order placed last Friday.  As of yesterday, I can't get a response by phone, either.

Hoping through Mavin Makers to become involved in a local gallery for show and sales of some of my works.

Uber/Lyft driving has not been there again with business and about every 5th rider want to become one.  I was encouraging them to start.  Now, I am less and less being so, as my recruitment may work against me.  Took Friday and today (Saturday) to focus on wood projects and rearrange things in house so I can stay functional at production with wood work and still make steps toward preparation for a move come May.

Etsy, Lyft (v) Uber, etc

The area seems saturated with Uber drivers.   Too many part-time drivers to be productive as a a full-time driver.   Not unless I wanna work 15 hour days 7 days a week.   Lyft has become number one for me.   More business with it and complaints.  

Brings me to riders feeling the same.   I get more positive feedback about Lyft.   Game plans change daily out here.

Etsy is getting some hits, but I think I must go back in and re-evaluate my key words soon.  

Two very unsuccessful days...is our market saturated with too many Ubers?

The last two days have been most discouraging and seeing the number of Uber placards in windows, I wonder if your market in Savannah is just saturated with drivers. To some extent I feel like the part-time drivers may be killing the full-time driver business.  I'm going to be keeping an eye on this, by the same token I am going to really zero in on the Lyft market where most of my business today and yesterday came from.  This might be a better market right now.

Attended my safety training with Maven Makers (Makerspace) last night.  It was good to get down and dirty with some real equipment for woodworking.  I may not use the space as much as most, but it will be important for being able to take larger works in and get them fine tuned to bring them home for artwork to begin.

Love My Driving Job

I love this driving job nearly everyday.    Yesterday was a great example of one drive after another of great experiences one after another.  Either entertaining or great networking with people.   People from all over the world all week long.   Can't say I have enjoyed an income source as much next to my Pyrography.    So many stories yesterday were great.

Yesterday

Had a pick up where guy texted me to say I was picking up his sister at address given.    Pulled right up front of address.   A disheveled women came out.   Her big hair going all which way, a beaten t-shirt, and shorts much too tight and too short for a woman her size.   She shot me a dirty look and went back in after throwing out the garbage bags she carried.  

I sat for a bit and a girl came scurrying across the yard from behind the house.   Her bright blue streaked hair and backpack attempting to keep up with her run.  She jumps in kind of ducks down.   I soon learned she over slept and missed the bus.   Her mother never realized it.   She called her brother to get Uber.   She ran out back door when mother took out trash.  

Ah, to be young and in highschool.   Brother was a good dude to call her a ride.

Etsy is completed and up.

So, yesterday started out slow and ended slow.  No driving, but putting together the Etsy site has taken some time.  Today I will continue work on it and attempt to get a bunch more posted, then tomorrow will be back to driving.

Esty listing

Set up Esty page today.   Plan to get some listings on there by the end of the today.

I'd like to take a moment and do a walk-through of a really large project I recently did.

I started out with a large 26" x 34" nice piece of Ash plywood.

I used a image projector in a dark room to project the image I wanted onto the board and rough outlined it in pencil.  Then I sat down with the burner and did the outline of the image.

Then I took and began to widen the border and begin filling it in.

 From there I just followed what would be the contour of the horse and rider to give the image some flow.

Because the board was not wide enough, I added a baseboard molding that looked like rope to make it the width I needed.

 From there I attached it to the gun rack to give the rack a cool looking backdrop instead of the open back that the rack had before.

 The project actually took sometime to complete, but it turned out pretty well.  Gave me some great idea's and a beginning to doing larger pieces.

2017 Driving

I drove New Years Eve Day from 4am to 7:30ish.  Yesterday and the day before were good days for business.  Long days, but worth it.  Don't deal with the night time surge for drunks.  Just don't have it in me to jeopardize my vehicle.  Back out this morning at about 5:30 am to cash in on the aftermath and get people back to where they belong.

A lot of "I'm not sure where I am, who I went home with or I really never should have drank that last drink".   The "I don't know where I am for sure, GPS says I am here, but I know where I need to be", folks were thick this morning.  

No longer do we refer to the walk of shame, it is now the Uber of Shame.  Pretty funny stuff.  Yesterday morning started off with observing a guy passed out with his foot on the brake at the local McDonalds.  It wasn't even open yet and the staff could not wake him.  Finally a big cook came out and shook the car hard.  The cook saw me sitting in the lot across the way and through up his hands in dismay.  I pulled over there.  The guy came too, drove the next window after he was told they were closed.  Stopped, foot on brake and passed out again.  He came too and drove off for the main road.  He had no business driving, I followed him to the next stop light where he came to rest at a concrete divider separating the go straight lane from the right turn lane.  Passed out yet again with foot on brake.  I called 911.   Cop must have been really close cause he pulled up in short order.  Before it was done there were like 5 local cops and a State Trooper.  Dude went to jail.

A couple of rides later was to the county jail to pick up a guy that had been arrested for DUI.  He told me that he usually uses Uber/Lyft, but he picked up a girl and wanted to impress her and drive her to his house.  Instead, he got stopped, arrested and the girl had to call an Uber to pick her up to take her home.  Guys said he didn't know her name, but was pretty sure she threw away his number and he won't be seeing her again.

This morning was a lot of delivering former drunks to their cars.  That peaked and I called it an early Sunday.

2017 is now here and it is time to start working on getting my paperwork in order for Tax Season.  UGH!