Somewhere around 3.5%.

A number of issues come up when dealing with vendors from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. The biggest one is the time difference. On the East Coast, I'm never working at the same time as my colleagues in Asia, so when I make a request for a quote at 8AM on a Tuesday, the fastest I can expect an answer is 8AM on Wednesday.

My customers are maintenance and repair techs dealing with million dollar assembly lines that have broken down because of a little $300 part from Asia that no one in the USA seems to have in stock. Jobs are on the line and bosses from several vertical levels are breathing down their neck, and my day is spent telling them over and over again that I won't even know relevant details about their part until some time the next day.

Then there's arriving at work the next morning and seeing that I still don't have an answer from Asia. Sometimes the overseas vendors don't answer at all and don't give a reason for it; other times they ask inane follow-up questions: What is the application of the part? Who is the end user? You said you wanted a circuit board, do you want the control board (which you've asked for the last 27 times running) or the display board (which you've never asked for)? And another entire day is wasted.

After seeing this in my emails, I know that my day will involve fielding calls from increasingly higher-ranked bosses from the customer asking why I don't have their answer yet. "Because doing business with Japan sucks a lot of the time," is not an acceptable reply, although it is an accurate one.

It helps to be precise with your English when dealing with overseas vendors. It's often the equivalent of dealing with a genie for wishes--if you're not very specific about what you need, you're going to regret it. On their end, I think a lot of the misunderstanding revolves around able to postpone doing work on a request for another day. Perhaps I'm not being empathetic enough, but years of experience have led me to this conclusion.

Don't worry, Trump will ensure that you won't be able to use vendors from Asia soon.

Without getting too much into politarding…


The company has been hit with several attempts to impose the 25% tariff from China, even though the items in question have come from Taiwan, on which there are no tariffs currently.

The issue, I think, is that Taiwan is the Republic of China and China is the People's Republic of China, and the customs personnel can't be arsed to tell the difference.

The idea of imposing tariffs on spare parts for manufacturing equipment needed in the US to manufacture goods for machinery currently down and not making US goods is crazy.

In my business we buy pipe from China that is machined in the US by an external supplier of ours. When they imposed tariffs on the pipe what we did was start buying the finished product from China which didn’t have a tariff on the finished product. The tariff literally had the opposite result of what was intended.

Tariffs don’t work.

Now here's a job that might be worth looking into.

Agreed. A lot of US manufacturing relies on China for machinery, spare parts and raw materials, and you're not going to see US firms suddenly spring up to provide these items given that the tariffs will be taken off by the next administration.

So far every day this week has started with a picture in my head of a cinematic establishing title showing the day, similar to this...



Not too much longer: this morning I will have to pick a $2200 piece of equipment off of a second floor landing with the fork truck. I have somewhere around 3-4 total hours of experience on a fork truck, and this item is in a tricky spot. It's also a pretty rare piece of equipment, so if I smash it up the customer will have to wait 2 more months for the factory in Taiwan to make another.

Time to fiverr a fork lift driver bro

how did it work out?

Actual footage.

looks like he really forked it up.

On the ground in one piece. Now I just have to load it on the Fedex truck when they show up. That should be the easy part.

Did you do it yourself or did you end up delegating?

At the office this week is just myself, a 20-year-old woman and an 80 year-old woman, and I have the most fork truck hours out of the three of us, so I did it.

Fedex never showed up, though
so now I have to navigate their find-a-human voice mail puzzle to chase after them to do their overdue pickup.

I was looking for funny Friday memes and I found this one: it's curiously apropos, even though it doesn't say Friday anywhere on it.



It hasn't been a bad week at the office. I told the old bosses that I would cover for them for two weeks a year if they wanted, instead of just one. It's a decent deal, after all, being flown first class, seeing friends and family for a week, and picking up a guaranteed paycheck.

But it's not home. Las Vegas is my home, and I'm looking forward to heading back there and getting back on the tables.

Has anyone ever asked you if you "count cards" when you're playing poker?

Sj, have you checked out or played any poker at the new Encore Boston while you're there?

Yes, I think because I used to be a blackjack player, and old friends and family remember that. What I find is that a lot of people think we poker players play against the house, so I get a lot of people wondering why the casino allows me to continue to play and doesn't kick me out.

I haven't been there yet. The Springfield MGM is a lot closer, and Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are also closer than the Encore.

[QUOTE=suitedjustice;55389602]I was looking for funny Friday memes and I found this one: it's curiously apropos, even though it doesn't say Friday anywhere on it.



hmmm you have no idea how curiously apropos this is for me. ive truly enjoyed your stories, your writing, your blog. you certainly paint pictures with your words. thank you thank you.

im coming to vegas next week, for ten days. i want to do the suited justice inspired tour. what are the best poker room promos going now, in your opinion ?

Thanks Gambelina! I'll take a look at Bravo when I get back and we'll find something good.

I see. Thought you were closer to Boston. My mistake.
Was just curious about your impression. No matter.

No worries, Nepeeme2008. To be honest, now that I've spent a year inside various casinos, it's become difficult to get excited about seeing a new one. I would only stop in at the Encore if I had other business in Boston: a Red Sox game or a concert or something along those lines.

I hear that it's nice, though.

OMW back to Las Vegas. I was one of a half dozen travel drunks to crash the bar at Bradley Airport in CT as soon as the doors opened at 9AM.



Traveltini is the name of the place. 5/5 martinis. Martinis have great alcohol/volume ratio for when you're flying and would like a buzz but want to avoid the need to pee a lot in the next few hours. I like my martinis with vodka, and a little dirty. Don't @ me, purists.

I'll take a gin martini. No vermouth. No olives. No ice. No bitters. Thanks.