Angel Song - photo collage by Cricket Diane C Phillips

Angel Song - photo collage by Cricket Diane C Phillips - 2008

America doesn’t have a plan that will work - Cricket Diane C Phillips - 2008

What I’ve noticed about the United States lately -
Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips
09-09-08
Georgia Cricket

There isn’t a plan. That is a problem. It doesn’t matter if the Republicans get the job or the Democrats, there isn’t a real, workable comprehensive plan to solve the problems that are pressing. What we do have, is a lot of bickering, grand-standing and glad-handing to special interests, whether the teachers’ union or the oil companies.

Unfortunately, where there is a great amount of “what is broken” information now - but the actual plans being offered to solve these problems and issues are either already in use, already tried or already failing to do the job. These methods offered by specialists and experts, politicians and pundits, government officials and business leaders are all elements of plans that have created the problems thus far.

This means at a very basic level, we don’t have a plan that will work. None of them do and if there were any opportunity to create one that will work, it won’t be approached as a process because those in a position to do so are going to rely on things that already don’t work, but are known. These are the solutions being offered now by both sides.

Notes About Creating A Business In America - 2008 - Cricket Diane C Phillips

Here I am with a product that I’ve created. Its in a tangible form. It was listed on Ebay this last week and barely seen by anyone. This could be in stores. It would bring a smile to the face of customers and may keep them from being robbed at some point.

If nothing else, it could make money for me and for the stores selling it. This is the right timing for this product and it is distinctive - it has personality and character. It could easily be offered for the right price with a small profit. There are a number of retail store categories that could appropriately carry it.

So, now what?

To Publishers - blocked

To Trade Mart Stores - blocked

To Angel Investors - blocked

Directly To Market - blocked

To Retail Store Buyers - blocked

To Sell Rights To Someone Else To Use - blocked

To Promote It - Not blocked, but how?

To Sell Online - Online Availability - Not blocked by Fact, but Unseen for the multitude of info there

So, therefore - what possibilities truly exist whether I have a unique, sales-worthy product or not?

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 09-03-08

“If I had known that the only contribution allowable to me because I am a woman would be to clean the floors under the feet of my family and wash their clothes - I wouldn’t have bothered to learn calculus or business or physics.

If I’d known there will never be any money from any business I might create, would I have ever tried to create anything or worked so hard to learn how to make it work as a business? Probably not.

But, isn’t the truth of it that my efforts have proven it doesn’t work for me? Apparently the access available and the things I’ve studied from books for accessing the marketplace with products are blocked to me. That means that no matter what I write, it won’t ever be published in a book. I can create products distinguished and unique every day of my life and never see them making a profit for me. And, until I die in poverty, I will have lived in poverty each and every one of the days in my life.

Now, why didn’t they just tell me it would be that way when I was going to school? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to say to me that I would never have the opportunities available to men including value as anything besides the person to clean up after everyone?

Why didn’t the teachers and clergy and others just tell me that the world doesn’t need anything created by a woman and won’t pay anything for it if it is created by a woman? And, that I would have to work many times harder to make many times less for anything I might do because as a woman, society considers that to be okay?

Certainly not everything I create is ‘good enough’ to make it in the marketplace. But, some of it is and there is no reasonable access to bring it to the marketplace to find out if it would do well or not. That means, the truth about America is not that it is a land of opportunity but rather that it is not, except to those already positioned and in the right ‘class’ to accomplish it.

I am horrified to think about the forty some odd years wasted in the pursuit of this, the learning and re-learning after brain injury, the obscenely abusive relationships I’ve survived and all along there was no real chance of anything I’ve worked to do or to create actually making a living for me.

What kind of America is that? And, why couldn’t the teachers and society during my lifetime have simply told me it was like this? Why was I taught that every individual is valuable and has the opportunity to bring good things to the world, to make a living from their talents, to make a contribution to the world? Since apparently the considered basis for determining what are delusions of grandeur are those very things - why would anyone have taught me that bunch of shit?”

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 09-03-08

Shade Tree Wisdom of Politics - Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips - 2008

The Shade Tree Wisdom of Politics -
by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 2008

* A good politician is somebody that can make you believe what you didn’t wanna hear in the first place.

* The best place to stay in politics is out of it but the next best place is out of the firing zone.

* A difference of opinion is like that old pair of boots you use to put the manure out in the garden. No point ruining your good ones just to have ‘em stink from stepping in it.

* There may be tons of good ideas in politics but leave it to the politicians to only get the worst ones done, if any at all.

* The treasury is a place where politicians use the “can’t eat just one” rule. In Latin, that’s “eat-amus maximus.”

* Its not a disorder to be a politician but you can’t tell that by listening to them.

* How could you trust the judgment of a politician? It’s a contradiction of terms.

* If you can see the difference between the candidates offered by both parties - you have been listening to them too long.

* Is it possible to tell the difference between a donkey’s ass, an elephant’s ass, as horse’s ass and a jackass? Have you been up in Congress lately?

* A bad marriage is like getting a bad politician but easier to get shed of.

* When two politicians are in the same room, they will always have three ideas between them - none of which will do what they say they will do.

* In order to have politics, it takes a special meeting of several ingredients including the ability to be disagreeable without letting on that you think the other person’s an ass.

* Politicians without money are like you and me - not in politics.

* It takes more than most people would give to be a politician and more than most people would steal to stay one.

* Political compromise is a fancy way of saying that nobody gets what they want but they’re going to spend more than enough money for everybody to have had what they wanted.

* Good in terms of politics is a matter of reference. It depends on who is talking and whether they’re in earshot of anybody.

Shade Tree Wisdom 2 - Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips - 2008

Shade Tree Wisdom 2 - 2008 -
2008 Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips

* if you watch the news, you’re just asking to be bothered by something you cain’t do nothin’ about.

* you can’t trust any military that’s got toys - sooner or later, they’ll find a place to use them.

* a duck pond is pretty for the women relations to look at but don’t never tell ‘em where you go duck huntin’ for Christmas dinner.

* good curtains are somethin’ that covers the windows so you can see the ballgame without a glare on the screen.

* never share a remote control with a woman - any woman, even your mama - they’s some things that just ain’t right.

* if you know anybody that knows how to make music - don’t invite ‘em over to your mama’s house unless you like the music they play ‘cause she’ll have you sitting there to listen to it for hours.

* never let on that you don’t know how to do something and don’t never ask anybody how to do anything ‘cause sooner or later, everybody in town’ll know it.

* don’t ever loan a gun to anybody ‘cause they’ll shoot something you wouldn’t.

* an old tire makes a good swing but its not the kind your mama meant when she said to put a swing up.

* anything that’s sitting long enough to get stuck to the ground and get water standing in it makes a good planter.

* if the kitchen table was meant to get cleaned off - stuff wouldn’t get put there.

* any woman that don’t know motor oil goes under the kitchen sink don’t need to be a married woman.

Written by Cricket Diane C Phillips, 08-10-08, USA

Shade Tree Wisdom - Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips - 2008

Shade Tree Wisdom -
2008 Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips
08-10-08

* can’t spend what you don’t have.

* there are easier ways to start a car besides moonshine but not near as tolerable to driver and car.

* if you can’t have fried chicken for Sunday dinner - you need another job or get to church when they’re eatin’.

* an atv is just a tractor without legs on it - can’t cut nothing with it.

* if you have an aunt you don’t like - she will be the first one over when you’re dead or sick or dying.

* keep your peace of mind - don’t marry a woman your mama don’t like - you’ll wish you got chickens instead.

* know what’s better than buying a new truck? Buying somethin’ to go on it.

* if you got 30 friends - you got a party; with eight friends - you got a baseball team; with two friends - you got an argument, sooner or later.

* when you can’t buy what you want - you need to go sell some firewood or if it aint winter time, want somethin’ else they’ll trade moonshine for.

* after a car don’t run no more, set it over in the weeds and after a couple weeks invite your city friends over - they’ll wanna buy it and haul it out for you - (won’t have to mow that area for weeks.)

* good entertainment requires anything larger than you are - that’s why monster trucks are fun to watch and golf isn’t.

* never bet on a car you ain’t driving.

* if a deer jumps up on your hood - tell everybody you bagged it lest its out of season - in that case, best put it back where you found it.

* any good car you won’t get in a divorce.

* anybody who cain’t fix a tire - don’t need to be driving.

* oil pressure is a relative thing. The more relatives you got - the greater the pressure to put cod liver oil in your life.

* good birds are the ones that don’t eat the corn put out in the garden. I don’t know of any good birds and they isn’t enough meat on ‘em to make it worth shooting ‘em.

* four pints of sand to the gallon makes good drainage in a garden and four bottles of beer to the hour while fixin’ the garden makes the plants grow better unless your wife or mama sees how you’re gardening.

* any toy that makes a hobby - makes a good decoration for the garden; any tool that rusts makes a good decoration for the garden; anybody that annoys you regularly could make a good decoration for the garden - but don’t do it - there are laws against that near everywhere.

* don’t give a lot of attention to what all them laws are - they change ‘em ever week and some of ‘em don’t count no ways.

* if you don’t like what a store’s sellin’ - don’t go there; if you don’t like the preacher, go for your mama but don’t give ‘em no money; if you don’t like the neighbors - get ‘em a job up in the city.

* anything hasn’t got four wheels on it, ought not be on the road anyways.

* its common sense to know that if the roof needed fixin’, the attic needed cleaning or the tree branches up there needed cutting - there’d a been a storm come take the roof off, where it’d a have to have got done.

* anybody that don’t agree with you - is wrong, just plain - and there ain’t no helping some people so why waste any time on it. You won’t ever like everybody no ways.

* and if they don’t know no better than to like you - they’s no sense setting it straight - just borry their tools and go on.

* never put up a swimming pool in your backyard unless you like children a whole lot ‘cause every relation with any children are gonna come over an’ visit.

* don’t never tell your mama what you don’t like about her no matter what she’s told her church friends about you.

* any woman that don’t have a husband already best be left alone ‘cause your mama won’t like her either and they’s probably good reason nobody’s done snatched her up and married her up to now. (If you don’t believe it - ask your mama and she’ll explain it to you.)

* married women that are willing are probably as dangerous as your mama says they are.

* a good woman’s like a good shoe - bound to be wore out ‘bout the time its comfortable.

Written by Cricket Diane C Phillips, 08-10-08, USA

Got No Money Guide to Business - Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips

The Got No Money Guide To Business -
2008 Cricket Diane C Phillips
08-08-08 (from 2007, 2008)

When cow shit is out in a field and you have to go with a shovel and get it up so the cows can be comfortable - it is cow shit.

If you put that same cow shit in a bag and put the word “fertilizer” on it - then it isn’t cow shit anymore and people pay good money to get it.

That is marketing.

*** *** *** *** ***

* Have you got you an old photo album? Now there’s your packaging all right. Clear part gets cut off and it’ll wrap anything like it came from the drug store . . .

* Now then, you’re gonna need what’s called a business plan - that’s where you tell ‘em on paper what you’re about to do before you’ve done it -

Kinda like a fishing story in reverse.

* And don’t show it to your mama. That is a mistake cause she’ll say you’re a moron. And if she don’t say it outright - you’ll still know it by the time she’s done explaining it to you - ‘bout you and business.

* Don’t think you gotta have one of them fancy ten dollar pens to do business - that’s why God made them pencils with an eraser . . .

* Those erasers are about the best way to back out of an idea whose time hasn’t come.

* I have a lot those - I’ve done gone through three of them twelve packs of erasers this week. Of course - you might not need ‘em.

* I read in a book that businesses don’t break even for two or three years. That didn’t mean nothin’ till I started spending my money to do business.

* That means for three years, I’m gonna be spending out before taking in’ll overtake it. That’s like having a teenager living at home.

* First they wanna have a three hundred dollar bike and then they run into the neighbor down the street, and you’re paying for everybody’s teeth to get fixed.

* Business seems to be that way too - if you don’t advertise then don’t nobody know you’re in business or that what you got they can’t live without.

* If you do advertise - you won’t see any but the tail end of your money on its way out for three - maybe four years.

* And, that’s when it’ll stand still long enough to know you’ve made some money before it goes out to keep going.

* That’s called, “breaking even.” (I guess after that, it might pile up enough to fill up the fridge with something better than air ice.)

* And, after that its what them bankers call profit. Don’t get too excited about that . . .

* If it’s a nickel over the dollar you spent to get it done in business - well, howdy - that’s profit.

* I can just see it five years from now, showing off to my mama who said I never done nothing right in business.

* And I’ll say, “I got the dollar I spent back and a nickel besides. That there’s profit . . .”

* and she’ll say, did you get back the twenty thousand dollars you spent to get that dollar and your nickel that you’re so proud of?

* “Oh yeah, we need to frame that nickel, honey. We want to make sure everybody sees that at Christmas when they come over.”

* In fact, my mama will say she’ll just give me a nickel in the first place and save the family from the embarrassment . . . And I can just give her the twenty thousand dollars.

* Do not take your mama into business with you. This is for your own good. You do not want to know why.

* But you know I’m gonna tell you . . .

* Your mama or your daddy or any other relation, you pick ‘em, didn’t do business this way when they was coming up.

* This is a statement of fact, there is no way round it so when they tell you all about this there are three things you don’t say:

1. Did ya’ll use cellphones back then? What was your bill like?

2. You mean you talked to people in person? Why didn’t you just send ‘em an email?

3. You don’t know what you’re talking about . . .

* If you can resist saying anything along those lines, you might hear something worthwhile like an idea they used that worked.

* Otherwise, you’ll be hearing all the reasons you’re a moron that won’t ever make a nickel in business.

* Trust me on this, you don’t need to know why I know it.

* There are many good ways to use business concepts in practice. Believe me - you and I don’t know them according to anybody that knows us.

* If you don’t believe me, ask my mama.

* She will tell you, we are all morons that don’t know what we’re doing and then she’ll tell us why she knows that’s the truth . . .

* And, she don’t lie, according to her.

* My mama and others like her who’ve been doing business before and know what they’re doing - aren’t lying - we may be idiots.

* We might have to adjust for that. I know, I do.

* I’ve never felt stupider than a shoe till the other day when I asked the post office lady if US stamps came in other denominations.

* (after I already bought a pack of first class stamps,) and her expression said it all.

* How did I not know that? I was standing real proud using the word denomination instead of saying, “do you got any 84 cent stamps?”

* And there I was feeling stupider than a shoe.

* When was the last time I mailed something? Probably 1980, ‘cause they used to want string tied around packages and now the post office makes you cut it off, if you put it on there in the first place.

* And don’t ask your mama, your daddy or any of your relations, ‘cause the last time they mailed anything probably pre-dated that.

* Which is why I put string around the box in the first place after carefully wrapping with craft paper. Which, by the way, is brown and ugly and scratchy when you carry it - and completely unnecessary.

* And the post office guy will look at you and go - “what did you do all this for?” while he cuts the string off of it.

* I didn’t tell Dad they don’t do it that way anymore - let him live in a world where the post office can be relied upon to always be the same.

* Another modern concept of business is having a website and a web presence.

* Don’t tell your friends, your family and especially, your children that you are building a website. Save yourself the discomfort.

* Either they won’t see why it helps any or they will make it obvious they knew more about it at eight years old than you ever will.

* There’s no use explaining it. People that build websites are somebody else - not you, not me and not anybody they’ve ever known.

* How to do business with a website is a real trick question, too.

* It costs a small fortune to do one right and nearly anything else won’t work unless its so much stupider than any of us that we’d never even think of it.

* Try selling potato chips that look like Jesus - that works. Anything else - forget it.

Written by Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 2008, 2007, USA
Cricket House Studios, 08-08-08

A thought from last year - on fixin stuff - Cricket Diane C sparky Phillips - 2008

How To Fix Yer Own Durn Car & Other Thangs Tools R Good Fer -
Cricket Diane C “Sparky” Phillips, 2007, 2008

1.  If you cain’t git to it - bang it with a hammer.

2.  If it still rolls - it ain’t broke.

3.  Concrete blocks are your friend. If it needs a lift - it needs a concrete block. This ain’t hard to figure out.

4.  Don’t put the concrete blocks on a hill unless you wanna learn to do body work.

5.  If you forgot and put them blocks on a hill - Bondo is your friend. (At least till you gotta sand it.)

6.  When somebody tells you where you can git it fixed real reasonable - say, yeah, you can and keep on working on it yerself. Borrow their tools while they’re there being so helpful.

7.  When you git to the part you don’t know - check to see if anybody’s looking . . .