Ideas

No victim here, victim of the tax man maybe but not of life. I've done good trading my time for money, not great but we're "comfortable". Tell Warren Buffet Bob said "hey" next time he invites ya over.
 
Sometimes I believe in karma and sometimes I don't.

I don't believe in it because bad things happen to really good people all the time.

But, about 20 yrs ago, I acquired a BMX bike via incidental acquisition and broke my jaw in 2 places on said bike just a few hours later. Karma worked that day.
 
Most people on here have won the passport lottery.

That in addition to the lottery of being born into a 2 parent house hold! That is rare these days.

Honestly, my kids have an amazing advantage just by being born into a house hold where mom and dad are married and love each other (most days any way:lol: ) That is before you get to the advantage of having parents who don't teach them that the system sucks and is rigged against them, but rather that life isn't fair - you can't choose your parents, and unfortunately, you're stuck with us and you're going to have to work very hard to make it in life because other than a loving, supportive house hold, we don't have much to give you.
 
What victim mentality. Life isn't fair. Choose to do something low risk like trade your time for money and get rewarded low.

Life is better than it has ever been in America. It is important to remember that the American dream isn't a promise of anything other than the chance to fail. For every fat cat that makes millions by bringing a great idea to the market place, there are 4 more that went home with a bloody nose.

Life isn't fair. Some people are born to kings and queens. Some are born to poor folks. You can make arguments on how the system is rigged against you or you can go out and change your station in life.

Poor people (Poor = People Overlooking Opportunity Routinely) tend to do poor things like finance cars, TVs, and drink Monster Energy drinks.

I think you will find that most of these people you view as idle actually take risks and bring value to the market place.

I work way harder than I every did in tree work yet I never sweat. Heck, many days I never put on pants.

Risk = reward
Market place determines value

I have to admit, I can't get my hands or head around wealth or what it takes to live, or how one could ever retire. I once heard that if you didn't make $80k, you would struggle and that over $80k, additional money does not bring additional happiness. I cannot correlate money and happiness as I don't like money or things. I do like not worrying. Black ink makes me happy.

There is such an income disparity in our country that I have lost all feeling for income. I once thought $100k was a lot. Now I wonder how a family could make ends meet and save on that. I thought $200K was a lot, only to scale that mountain and bump into folks who routinely bring in over $400k a year. Then I see my neighbor wind up the $2 million Eurostar helicopter he parks on his sport court.

I haven't a clue of the answer but buy into the Mike Rowe philosophy of "chase your heart and dreams is a good motto for your hobby. Chase opportunity is a motto for your career."

For myself, growth has never come from a place of comfort.

Great post, and funny too!
 
Lol, Thanks Levi.

All I know is everyone else's life is quite simple. Mine is confusing, complex, and complicated with lots of moving parts. :lol:#-o:hammer:
 
Hahaha!!! You've got a good attitude and that can do spirit that more should embrace, Nate.

When I consider the quality of my life I usually start with... "Well, I can turn this faucet here and clean water comes out, so.... yeah, the rest is just a bonus!"
 
What you bring home doesn't matter if the quality of your life doesn't matter. That is before you get to the issue of "no money, no honey...." Lol!

Life is a sh*t sandwich. Money is bread. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you taste.
 
Nonsense.

There is probably a base level, varying by location of course, but after that this "quality of life" idea is completely subjective.

Unless of course you believe the advertisers bullshit. Then you probably wont ever be content.

After food, adequate housing, adequate clothing the rest is just "wants" not needs.
 
Nonsense.

There is probably a base level, varying by location of course, but after that this "quality of life" idea is completely subjective.

Unless of course you believe the advertisers bullshit. Then you probably wont ever be content.

After food, adequate housing, adequate clothing the rest is just "wants" not needs.

It is a record when a TH thread doesn't derail by page 2.

Quality of life and happiness are totally subjective. Though it does seem $75-$80k is the point of maximum happiness. http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/09/16/how-much-is-enough-on-average-about-75000-per-year/

I get you about the wants vs needs and agree. I want to not live like or near poor people (aka those who make bad decisions) and I don't want my kids going to any school less than the best I can possibly afford. Those combined with the fact I want to give and donate as much as possible to help where I can give me the push to never be satisfied.

On the note of ideas, I'm sure there is a space with the pyrolysis but the issue is getting the energy/heat for the pyrolysis (not combustion). I deal with some combustion (oxidative) and pyrolysis applications for elemental analysis. They are small lab units handling 100mg or less. With those, we achieve pyrolysis by placing sample into a furnace sans oxygen at about 1200-1400 degrees C.
 
2014 wasnt that long ago. what decision did you make in the last 3 years to lead you to such success? you may have explained it in another thread, but I missed it.
 
I'm in capital equipment sales (analytical solutions ranging from agriculture to petrochem and semiconductor). I quit (was fired) working for one employer and started working for several employers.

Instead of working for one vendor that sells products into an application where they inevitably (my opinion) say, "I don't care if it fits, sell one to everybody", I moved to working for several vendors. My shift was from how can I serve my sales manager to how can I best serve customers. Not an easy shift to make.
 
It's a very cool concept (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta) and is a proven one with technology that actually exists on a commercial scale today. If I'm not mistaken all existing coal fired power plants gasify the coal before burning in the boilers (it's how they use all the energy available in the coal). The process they use to gasify the coal is the same for wood, and the input/output streams can be modified to produce more charcoal, up to 50% (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar). This has the advantage of using already existing power plants to literally clean up what they have released over the years. And if soil amendment isn't the carbon sequestration go to after all, the railroad system is already there to ship the biochar to coal mines where it could be buried (which would be super ironic and give coal towns work again).

If you don't think that's cool, just imagine heating and powering your house on woodchips, instead of splitting, stacking, drying, moving logs to wood stove, and then tending a fire all winter. Woodchips are uniform enough to auger in automatically, and moisture content doesn't negatively hurt a gasifier (to a point). That's what got me researching this a few years ago. Too bad it's one of those projects i haven't gotten around to yet lol.



Interesting post!
 
Simple thought that return arm on the wood splitters, I love it!

Skipped over the derail stuff:/:
 
So Paul...you are considering developing a product that it would appear has many current versions already on the market.

I'm still at a loss to understand the thrust of your concept here.
 
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Burnham, as with every product I have built it comes from the simple reason that I need one. Nobody to my knowledge builds an incinerator that produces biochar as a by product. Shit the air curtain incinerators that are sold currently cost $140K !! and just burn wood. I want to develop an affordable system that others can reproduce that can both benefit them and the envoirment by disposing of copious amounts of wood waste and producing char.

I want an affordable wood splitter that a worker can just load a block of wood into up to the size of say 36" and it will be split with no other input from said worker. Yes there are many wood splitters out there but none that meet my needs or budget.

With regard to the incinerator I have taken possession of a 40 yard roll-off box and a 100 HP fan. I am still trying to come up with a cost effective way to insulate the box that will hold up to the abuse, something like refractory cement.

Anyone??
 
it seems like a good idea might be to build a miniture functional model. that way you can get a good idea of what the variables will be. what works well as an insulator and what doesnt. that way you wont cover a 40 yard roll off with ineffective insulation.

very keen on how this goes.
 
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