I have never been to to NASCAR. I have watched it on TV and I have read about it, but I have never had the desire to actually go. This weekend it is taking place at the Las Vegas Speedway, which is only about 20 minutes without traffic from my home. And believe it or not, I am excited about going.
Category Archives: Personal
Personal
Jury Duty
Today is February 23, 2015 and it is now 10:50 AM in the morning. I am in my car now and I am heading to my office from jury duty.
What an experience!
The best part of the whole experience, is that it’s now over at least it’s over for at least 18 months to three years. That’s the period of time that they are a lot for you to get out of the jury pool before they could put you back into the jury pool.
It doesn’t normally rain in Las Vegas, but on the way to jury duty this morning it was raining. And of course seeing it doesn’t rain very much when it does rain, people don’t know how to drive in the rain. So needless to say, it was a total drag driving to the courthouse which is in downtown Las Vegas. When I did arrive at the parking structure, I found it was 3 city blocks away from the courthouse. A nice walk on a cold and rainy day.
When I arrived at the courthouse, I was not surprised that they had security, what I was surprised by is how much security that you have to through before you can enter the building. After taking off, all my outer wear, belt, watch, shoes, and everything in your pockets, you can go through the metal detector.
Then was the journey to the third floor jury room. Another surprise, there must have been over a thousand and change people as when they started to call numbers, they started at 0001 and my number was 0191 and there were still a sea of people still waiting to be called. Let me put it is way, there were not enough chairs to go around and until the first batch of people were called to go to the courtroom, there was not enough chairs for me to sit down. When I finally did get a chair, I ended up sitting next to a guy that had badge number 986.
At around 9:30 AM it was my turn to get called and we were instructed to line up numerically by badge number and report to the 11th floor and line up outside the courtroom 11B. By the way at this time all cell phones and communication to the outside world was shut off.
One thing I will compliment them on is that the Marshals have it down to a science, including injecting a little humor, by asking “By show if hands, who wanted to be here.” They know you don’t want to be there. I cannot imagine anyone with a pulse that would want to be there. I know that I didn’t, although I wanted to do my civic duty, I was torn.
When we walked into the courtroom, the room was already filled with quite a few court officials, the Judge, the court reporter, the defendant and all their lawyers and the plaintiff and her lawyer. What struck me as interesting, is that everyone was standing and remained standing until all 100 of us were seated.
The Judge open the mic and began by introducing himself, that this was a Civil trial between the Plaintiff a worker for the Paris Hotel and defendant The Paris Hotel sense the difference in lawyer count. Then the judge said that this case would take approximately 3 days of jury time and if there was anyone that could not be there for 3 days, they should raise their hands and state the reason why they show be excused. One guy got out because he had a paid airfare ticket (of course he needed to fax a copy of it to the judge as proof) the rest, whatever their stories were, the judge didn’t buy it. Needless to say, I did have my hand raised. When the guy who was called before me, told the judge what I was going to say.
What he told the judge was that he is a small business owner and that being here for 3 days would be an unbearable hardship. The judge was not kind to this guy. He told him flat out that everyone in this room was under hardship to be there and he was ordered to sit down and wait for the lawyers to question him to see if he would be picked for the jury. I was next.
After I announced my name and badge number, I promoted SoundBroker.com and that I too was a small businessman, however (and here is the rub) I went on to say that I sell equipment to a lot of the hotels on strip and I had recently done a job a large job with Bally’s.
The judge was not going to have any of this from me and he said to me just because you did a sale with Bally’s has nothing to do with the Paris Hotel and please sit down and the lawyers will get to you in time. I thought that was it for me when all of sudden the Paris Hotel’s lawyer, stood up and said the following “ Your Honor, The Paris Hotel is owned by Caesar’s Entertainment and they own also own Bally’s”. With that the judge turned to the Plaintiff’s lawyer and asked him if that would be a problem for him.
The Plaintiff’s lawyer rose and said the following “ Your Honor, I appreciate the honesty of the prospective juror and I would prefer not to have him on this jury.”
With that the judge turned to me and said “Your dismissed.”
The Marshall approached me and told me to return down to the 3rd floor jury pool and report to the clerk for reassignment. I left the courtroom without looking back and returned to the 3rd floor and went up to the clerk and told her what had happened expecting to be returned to the jury pool, but there was so many people still sitting in the room, that she asked for my badge, stamped the reverse side and said, “You can go. Thank you for your time today.”
All in all not too bad of an experience, but one that I am not looking forward to repeating.
Celebrating Going on 17 Years
I read somewhere that most people on their deathbed, talk about what they could have done or should have done with their lives. I also heard that no one says, I wish I put in more time at the office.
We all make choices and then we have to live with the outcome of those choices. In my opinion, the main goal of life is enjoy yourself whenever possible. Having said that, I will say, it is better to be happy doing nothing than to be unhappy and do everything.
I have some friends that are fortunate from the stand point that the work-a-day world that most of the rest of us live in that forces us to make work choices so that we can be in the place to make the rest of the choices that you make every day without having to work. For example, one of my hobbies is taking naps. That is a hobby that that I cannot accomplish while I am at work. However, my friends that are not at work, find plenty of time to practice their hobbies and are quite proficient at taking naps.
I once heard the theory of life life described as the Law of Substitution. Simply stated, it does not matter how much time or money you have, you cannot do everything at the same time. You cannot take a walk in the forrest and search for metals at the beach, you cannot make love and play tennis, you cannot eat and scuba dive, you cannot type and drive a car. I think you get the idea. Likewise no matter how much money you have you cannot buy everything that is available to buy, so you have to make choices. Hopefully the choices you make will be the right choices and the ones that will reward you the way you want to be rewarded.
I feel extremely fortunate that my work life provides me most of the pleasures I desire, and it gives me the free time to do most of what I want to do and most importantly satisfies my need to strive for a worthwhile goal and assisting good people which in turn makes me a living from doing my job. In short, I really enjoy what I do so much so, that it is almost like not working. The only reason it must be called work is that I need to continue doing my job during the times I would prefer to be sleeping (and as of this writing, I have not been able to sleep on the job).
It is with humble heart that I wish to thank each and everyone of the people that allowed me to assist them which in turn has allowed me the chance to live a most enjoyable life.
Here is to the next 17 years,
All my best,
Jan Landy,
CEO and Founder of soundbroker@gmail.com
Money can’t buy you happiness, but it makes misery much more tolerable.
I remember David Lee Roth plagiarizing Errol Flynn by saying in an interview, “People who say money can’t buy you love, just don’t know where to shop”. Personally, I think that just sounds funny but it is not true. Sure money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure is better to be unhappy with money than unhappy and broke. I know I have been on both sides of that fence and make no mistake that I am much happier now that I have money, then when I was broke. I even wrote a song about it called “Broke as a bloke can be”. Maybe one day I will play it for you.
To clarify, I am not equating being in love to happiness, but if you are in love it can make you happy and true happiness, one can say only can come from within, thus money cannot buy you love, money can only temporarily rent it.
I have never really had a problem with money, my problems always stemmed from the lack of money or having too little money. Having too little money as I remember it, makes you become a juggler. And although juggling is the secret of life, I don’t like jugglers. I didn’t always feel that way, but somewhere in my past, I was in a talent contest at the Mayflower Theater in Santa Monica, CA and I came in second to a juggler and ever since then, I am just not a fan.
So now I am 62 years old and have been working for myself for the last 16 years and I have made a good living but not a Bill Gates type of living, I have enough F-U money, but not enough retirement money. I own a house, an office building, a couple of cars, a Rolex, a bicycle and iPhone.
All in all one would say, I live a comfortable life, with all the creature comforts that money can buy. You would think that I have nothing to complain about and you should be right, but I can find plenty to complain about. And that is the challenge. With the amount of success in my life, I should not have one thing to complain about, except taxes and corrupt politicians. It is hard to believe that I still find things to complain about. Does that make me a bad person? I think not.
I have been dwelling on this the last few days, because I have been depressed. Not the type of depression that will cause me to drive to the Grand Canyon and take a leap of faith over the edge, or overdose on Twinkies and run nude on highway flailing my body parts and giving a policeman cause to shoot me, but a depression that made me think just how lucky I am and that I have a lot of nerve to be depressed. Maybe it is good to be depressed every once in a while. Maybe by being temporarily depressed, I can appreciate how good it feels to not be depressed and to be happy for who I am and what I bring to the party of life.
Those that know me, know that my favorite expression (and the one I want to be remembered for) is “You Make It Happen!”. I like the way it sounds. It just flows off the tongue. It probably should be “I Make It Happen,” but when you say it to someone, you sound too conceded. But when you repeat and say” You make it happen” then it sounds great. Either way, we make happen together. And to know that I am associated with a great phrase like that and having a lot of money in the bank, gives me reason to live.
Although I have been married and engaged and have had numerous love affairs, I never had any children. Unfortunately, that is a regret that I have. A selfish person might comment “but look at all the fun that you were able to buy yourself not having to give any money to your child’s college fund or for that matter doctor bills, birthday presents and the lot”. It is true that I have traveled the world and have enjoyed the company of strangers everywhere I have been. I might not have been able to do that if I had a wife and children.
Now I think that the time has come for me to settle down and find a woman that I can love and be loved by. A woman that will take care of me and one that I can take care of. One that finds me funny and lovable and one that I find that funny and lovable. I think that is a positive and rather than look at it as if I where alone, I look at it as I if am between marriages.
I have always chosen to look at life from the perspective that the glass is half full and that lemon is best when it is lemonade. That “No” is a term of endearment and love. I’ll explain. The first word we learned as baby from our mothers is the word “No”. We are taught that word only because our mothers care about and love us. They do not want us to hurt ourselves. Okay it is a stretch, but it is true. Delusional, but true.
I have heard the word “No” my whole life and I am sure that I will continue hearing it until I can’t hear any longer especially considering the fact that I am single and dating again in my sixties and want to be in a relation with a younger woman that has a teenage or younger child. I know what some of you must be thinking. I know that it will take a special woman to find me attractive and lovable. I know that it will have to be a woman that believes that age is only mind over matter and if she doesn’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
I am a lucky man and that although I have felt depressed the for the last week, I am confident that it will be short lived because I have a positive outlook on life. I know that I make it happen. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for.
I wish you all the best and hope that your life is filled with as many things to be thankful for as mine, and if you find yourself depressed, remember the good things that have come your way and that nobody cares that you are depressed.
Please Donate to the Jan Landy 2025 (or sooner) Retirement Fund
June 2012 is now in the past! July is the present and will be for another 31 days. Just think that there is only a few more days and we Americans will be celebrating our Independence Day on July 4th.
I have been thinking about the 4th of July and what Independence Day means to me. Having traveled as much as I do, I have noticed that wherever I go, the United States is still the place where almost everybody that doesn’t live in the United States wants to live. How their vision of what it is to live in the US is based on television shows and photos from the news. True our standard of living is higher than most, but not everybody living in the United States is living the “American Dream”.
I guess before you can determine if you are living the “American Dream” you must define what the “American Dream” is. Is it the same for everyone? Is there a standard definition?
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia defines it as: The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States; a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work.
The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims “all men are created equal” and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Lets go with that definition, not only because I believe that it is well stated and correct, but it transcends me to exactly where I want it to take me and that is my life and my pursuit of happiness.
Sure I work hard! Sure I put in the time! Long hours and hard work, I say, “Bring it on”. I don’t think there is a soul that knows me that would not agree that I am one honest hard working individual. It is built into my DNA and belief system that lives by the fun is in the journey towards accomplishing worthwhile goals.
I also believe that I have achieved by all standards of the definition that I have obtained the dream “prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work,” but to quote Oliver, “Can I have another”?
What I mean by that is, sure I own modest house, a Mercedes, and a Rolex, but, and here is the big question, “Do I have enough to retire and not worry if I will have enough to make it to my end days in the lifestyle I am accustomed to?”. My answer is always the same: “Only if I want to live in a third world country and live to 70”. Not the answer I want to hear.
It is with that thought in mind that I have come up with the ultimate retirement strategy all based on a 1967 Beatles’ song: “With a Little Help from My Friends” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, released on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album sung by Ringo Starr. And may introduce to you the one and only Jan Landy 2025 (or sooner) Retirement Fund.
My plan is simple, if there are enough people out there that I have provided with service or advice without reward, or anyone that has nothing better to do with a dollar or more, now would be a good time to repay the favor and go to The Jan Landy 2025 (or sooner) Retirement Fund https://www.soundbroker.com/retire.bv and assist me to obtain a better life style in retirement. I thank you, and the people in that third world nation (who will be happy that I am not living there) thank you.
Traveling Again
Today, I will be traveling on a plane again. Seems I am spending quite a bit of time in them these days.
I could not have planned a better time to have visited NY. The weather was a great surprise on how warm and dry it was. No snow or rain. Amazingly good weather and totally contrary to the normal NY winter weather. I wish I could take credit for it.
I had one of the best times and accomplished a ton, from business meetings, visits with friends and family and seeing the sites, eating great food, and not to mention getting to see the number one play on broadway. Thank you New York the place I was born. I understand what it means “You can take the boy out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the boy”. I will take my NY accent with me proudly.