Mom is up for her long break. Visiting with the boys and us for the weekend. Gives us a reason to clean up the house. The boys of course are driving us crazy because Granny is here. They have to be the center of her attention the whole time she is here. As much as moma's boys that they are double it for Granny.
I have not had a good couple of days trying to load Ubuntu. For all you out there that like Linux Why do you have to know special key strokes to get into anything? I was thinking about putting Win 7 on when it comes out next month but decide to try something a little different first with my trusty Xp. I may just do my biannual install of Xp and keep going until I have to change. Beth's (She is Darlin by the way) laptop is on Vista and she has gotten used to it. I can not figure out where anything is on her laptop. I even had to buy a wireless mouse so that I had something to use when I have to do things on it.
More later. Go Cats lets make some gator luggage today.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
First Day of Jury Duty
I had my first day of jury duty and it was just the orientation and swearing in. I could not help but think I was in the minority as a person who was both happy and proud to be there. About 250 of my friends and neighbors were also called for the month of October and not a lot of smiles were to be seen. The judge did a very good job in giving an impassioned speech about this is not just a duty but a right and we should be proud of the service to our community. At the end of the orientation he only had a couple of dozen people lined up trying to get of serving. They gave us the speech about not talking about cases or trying to solve them just to here the facts and decide the case on the merits. I think this will be my biggest problem will serving. I will want to ask questions directly of the people to try to figure out what really happened. There are no capital cases set for next month so that is good.
Just keeping it short this afternoon. No baseball tonight because of more rain in central Kentucky. Mom is coming this weekend and we are working on getting her room, also know as the boys play room, presentable. Hoping everyone has a good weekend.
Just keeping it short this afternoon. No baseball tonight because of more rain in central Kentucky. Mom is coming this weekend and we are working on getting her room, also know as the boys play room, presentable. Hoping everyone has a good weekend.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
CE class today.
I had the in classroom CE insurance class today. I have my Life, Health, and limited lines licenses in the State of Kentucky. These are required by the state and my company to sell credit insurance and mortgage insurance. Every 2 years you have to complete 24 hours of continuing education classes to keep yourself in the good graces of the state. My 2 classes today were on Errors and Omissions and Ethics. Neither class has a lot to do with the insurances I sell or even offer. The instructor was very good and tried very hard to keep everyone interested but 12 hours (6 each course) is just way to long to do this.
The Errors and Omission class reinforced my general belief that insurance is just legalized gambling. The Insurance Companies saw that when they denied coverage under a policy because the agent made a mistake, error, or left out something, omission, the customer or their family could sue both the agent and the insurance company. The insurance companies then came up with a new product to sell to their own agents, E and O coverage, like they were selling to doctors. They are betting on 2 things not to happen while mitigating the risk to the company having to pay out claims. The first bet is that a good agent will not make a mistake in handling a policy that is sold. The second bet is that they can litigate any claim into a settlement for less money than just paying out a large claim. And that in a nut shell is what insurance is. They take all their information and bet bad things are not going to happen while taking your bet that they will. If they think bad things are going to happen then they charge you more to take your bet. Legalized gambling in all its forms can not stand up to the money insurance companies take in betting that nothing will happen.
The ethics class was much more fun but last about 2 hours to long. The instructor led us into a discussion on the difference between legal and ethical instead of the normal follow your company's SOP and legal department's rules speech that comes with most business ethics courses. I enjoyed his discussion about the least respected or trusted occupations in the United States. The least trusted job is the used car sells man. The next is an insurance agent. The idea that both are seen in a bad light because they are seen as liars and crooks. Both trying to sell you something that you know you need but not sure if you are getting a good deal or not. The survey he had read from also had a weird follow up question about insurance agents. People do not trust insurance agents in general but they do trust their insurance agent. I thought about Congress at this point, with the idea that no one likes what Congress as a whole is doing at any time but they like their Congressman. People do not like being sold something but if they have a relationship with you then they will listen to your suggestions about what to do with their lives. He wanted to use this as a reason to get to know your customers so that you can better serve them as well as sell them more insurance.
A follow up to this discussion was about why do people not trust insurance sells people as well as sells people in general. The discussion turned to the idea of commission sales and the mistrust people have when they are faced with a hard sell based on commissions. Most people assume that commission sales will push the sales person to sell the product that gets them the most commission not the best product for the client. I think the idea of making all agents in the insurance business operate under the same regulations across the country and place them on a fixed salary and bonus program like most employees and get rid of commissions. This would help with the public image and also allow them to sell insurance to the needs of the people as they should anyway but do not. Why does insurance have a commission sales payment structure anyway? Its so that insurance companies can limited their employment costs by have sales people who are not W2 employees but contractors who only get paid when they generate more revenues for the companies.
I know this was a different blog tonight but I needed to unwind after 12 hours of this dribble today.
The Errors and Omission class reinforced my general belief that insurance is just legalized gambling. The Insurance Companies saw that when they denied coverage under a policy because the agent made a mistake, error, or left out something, omission, the customer or their family could sue both the agent and the insurance company. The insurance companies then came up with a new product to sell to their own agents, E and O coverage, like they were selling to doctors. They are betting on 2 things not to happen while mitigating the risk to the company having to pay out claims. The first bet is that a good agent will not make a mistake in handling a policy that is sold. The second bet is that they can litigate any claim into a settlement for less money than just paying out a large claim. And that in a nut shell is what insurance is. They take all their information and bet bad things are not going to happen while taking your bet that they will. If they think bad things are going to happen then they charge you more to take your bet. Legalized gambling in all its forms can not stand up to the money insurance companies take in betting that nothing will happen.
The ethics class was much more fun but last about 2 hours to long. The instructor led us into a discussion on the difference between legal and ethical instead of the normal follow your company's SOP and legal department's rules speech that comes with most business ethics courses. I enjoyed his discussion about the least respected or trusted occupations in the United States. The least trusted job is the used car sells man. The next is an insurance agent. The idea that both are seen in a bad light because they are seen as liars and crooks. Both trying to sell you something that you know you need but not sure if you are getting a good deal or not. The survey he had read from also had a weird follow up question about insurance agents. People do not trust insurance agents in general but they do trust their insurance agent. I thought about Congress at this point, with the idea that no one likes what Congress as a whole is doing at any time but they like their Congressman. People do not like being sold something but if they have a relationship with you then they will listen to your suggestions about what to do with their lives. He wanted to use this as a reason to get to know your customers so that you can better serve them as well as sell them more insurance.
A follow up to this discussion was about why do people not trust insurance sells people as well as sells people in general. The discussion turned to the idea of commission sales and the mistrust people have when they are faced with a hard sell based on commissions. Most people assume that commission sales will push the sales person to sell the product that gets them the most commission not the best product for the client. I think the idea of making all agents in the insurance business operate under the same regulations across the country and place them on a fixed salary and bonus program like most employees and get rid of commissions. This would help with the public image and also allow them to sell insurance to the needs of the people as they should anyway but do not. Why does insurance have a commission sales payment structure anyway? Its so that insurance companies can limited their employment costs by have sales people who are not W2 employees but contractors who only get paid when they generate more revenues for the companies.
I know this was a different blog tonight but I needed to unwind after 12 hours of this dribble today.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday Thoughts
Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend. Ours was just Ok. E had his baseball game but Gman's was canceled because of the UK-UofL football game. E again was very clingy with Beth and I in the dug out. He does better when we are just watching. Man he has my attitude when he gets mad.
Gman enjoyed Boy Scouts Friday night. He got his uniform and likes the neckercheff. I am glad he is enjoying these activities but I think they are getting way out of hand. Baseball, RA, Boys Scouts and the band at Boys and Girls club is starting. An event for every night of the week. No wonder he just wants to veg on the weekends.
Speaking of the band. We got my old trombone out of Granddads attic when we were last home. I can't remember what I did with the mouth piece but it is missing. It has a couple of small dents and needs a little polishing. I hope it will be alright for Gman to use. I do not think we started band at school until 6th grade. Jackie Wayland came in and we did recorders first. Instruments came at the end before we started Junior High. I hope he has more talent than I did. I know he has more rhythm.
I have been summoned for Jury Duty starting Thursday. I am hoping for something interesting. The last time I was called it was for traffic court in Ohio. No trails just sitting around all morning until they got finished pleading out all the cases. The 2 major things we as plain citizens get to do is vote and serve on juries. I hope everyone gets the chance to do both.
Short and sweet have a great week.
Gman enjoyed Boy Scouts Friday night. He got his uniform and likes the neckercheff. I am glad he is enjoying these activities but I think they are getting way out of hand. Baseball, RA, Boys Scouts and the band at Boys and Girls club is starting. An event for every night of the week. No wonder he just wants to veg on the weekends.
Speaking of the band. We got my old trombone out of Granddads attic when we were last home. I can't remember what I did with the mouth piece but it is missing. It has a couple of small dents and needs a little polishing. I hope it will be alright for Gman to use. I do not think we started band at school until 6th grade. Jackie Wayland came in and we did recorders first. Instruments came at the end before we started Junior High. I hope he has more talent than I did. I know he has more rhythm.
I have been summoned for Jury Duty starting Thursday. I am hoping for something interesting. The last time I was called it was for traffic court in Ohio. No trails just sitting around all morning until they got finished pleading out all the cases. The 2 major things we as plain citizens get to do is vote and serve on juries. I hope everyone gets the chance to do both.
Short and sweet have a great week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)