Keys and Keynotes

By Richard Rowley

Keys and Keynotes is written as if Richard is describing each event as it had affected him while he was working as a CAD draftsman during the day or as an entertainer/musician during the night. His main goal was to write a book about most life experiences such as violence, health problems, and problems experienced on a day-to-day basis to show others how they can channel their anger into writing as an alternative to violence, which can also help relieve their stress. For more information about Richard Rowley, go to www.RichardRowley.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640826878

Richard Rowley

Richard is now retired and living in Auckland, New Zealand. Born to a sheep-farming family in Central Otago, he boarded at Timaru Boys’ High School and then went to university at Dunedin where he read law. After graduating he lived in Oamaru for twenty-three years, then moved to Wellington and subsequently to Auckland and Hamilton. He has been focused on small business but also has had appointments to boards of directors for several companies, including being a director of the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand. He was the first chairman of Radio New Zealand when it was made into an SOE. Later in his career he was managing partner, chairman of partners, executive director, and chief executive, respectively of several different law firm businesses across Australasia. This life of business experience has culminated in a desire to see growth and better management within the business community generally. He tries to help owners of these businesses thrive and understand how they can improve.

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Dedicated to my daughter, Jamie, my fiancée, Anna, and my best friend, Ray Herman.

Acknowledgment

I am very lucky. Throughout my lifetime, I have met some extraordinary people. Many have taken their time to help me by sharing information, providing help if and whenever needed, and also providing encouragement and recommendations about me to others. Many have become treasured lifetime friends.

At one point, I started making a list of all the musicians I had performed with over the years and other people whom I became friends with via my day job, drafting, various clubs, and other activities I attended and found that I’m having much trouble remembering some of the most important people who helped shape my life.

For example, during my eight weeks of military basic training, I became friends with another guy who (during our small time off) taught me many important things on the guitar that I still play today. During the last day of our training, I find that he was a priest and he would be going into the Vietnam War. That was the last time I heard from him. I am struggling with remembering his name, something like Darnel, etc.

If it wasn’t for another friend, Julius Olitto Besalu, I would not have become a musician. When Castro took over, he had to return home to Cuba to help his parents. I haven’t heard from him.

My drafting career was inspired by my uncle Howard Meeker and an accidental career change.

Throughout this book, I criticize engineers, yet there were some who gained my respect and friendship—John McCormick, Ed Alba, Bob Ziegler, Lisa and Richard Harmon, Cory Watson, Dick Johnson, and Charley Boyd. There are many more, but I would like to keep this list short for now as not to bore the reader.

I also want to thank both sides of my family, the Rowleys, and the Mitchells, especially all my cousins. As I said earlier, I am very lucky.

My deepest thanks for helping me get this book completed goes to my fiancée, Anna Vollenweider.

Yes, I am very lucky.

Introduction

I am a professional entertainer/musician and also a CAD draftsman. This is my first book. Creating is what I do best, which is why this book has been structured differently. Instead of chapters or sections, it is arranged by subjects and presented in alphabetical order. With all the interruptions in life, this should make it easier to read.

As you can see from the Contents, this book deals with subjects that so many of us face on a day-to-day basis, such as crime, computer problems, healthcare, recycling, and even anger management.

The main goal of this book is to demonstrate how people can channel their anger into writing as an alternative to violence, or having health problems resulting from their stress.

In many of my performances (gigs) from a stage, I can see the entire room and, much of the time, everything in the room. If not too distracted, I can multitask whenever I want. It’s fun. People are watching me watching them. I read a bunch of books on body language, which adds to my enjoyment.

In addition to this type of fun, I get paid to travel. I’ve played in Alaska, Canada, Mexico, etc., but mostly in Louisiana and my hometown, New Orleans, where we have lots of tourists.

The reason I point all this out is because the majority of subjects in this book come from my real-life experiences, and I thought it was time to share these events and those experiences with the readers of this book.

My plan was to write about something that I saw that was bad and find a way to make it good while interjecting some humor and other surprises. In the end, I have left out a lot of things that I thought would be too vulgar, politically incorrect, and downright offensive to anyone.

What’s left still contains a lot of fun stuff I think most people will enjoy while making my family proud of me.

PS, I wrote the majority of these notes and keynotes before President Trump became elected. My next book should address anything that has or hasn’t been changed.

A key is an instrument that is used to operate a lock and can be made in various forms, depending on what needs to be opened, be it a metal lock or a mind, etc. This book is written with what I consider to be keynotes of many subjects that should have been exposed to the world many years ago but have been suppressed by this writer in order not to embarrass many people or insult many beliefs.

My keynotes have been arranged by subject in alphabetical order. I have tried to be as gentle as possible within my writing themes, in hopes that I do not hurt or offend anyone, but to enlighten the reader with another possible point of view.

Some of my writings may be vindictive because of the contempt I experienced and tolerated from some individuals who probably still think they are God’s gift to this world. They contribute more to the problems of this world because of their vainness, which pollutes almost everything they do, and they think that it does not matter because they are making more money than many other people.

Hey, this is also my chance to put them in their place!

One other thing, there will be people who will condemn me or this book, and the spotlight should then shine on them.

Someone should then ask each of them, What have they done with their life?

Another problem that has held me back from writing this book is what much of this book is all about, people stealing creativity. Why should I bust my buns to write this book (writing and rewriting, etc.) only to have parts copied and distributed via email attachments, etc. And then there are the other people who may add some free artwork to something, and it will go out as an email attachment, and no credit will be given to the original source unless that person doesn’t even know he or she is being given credit.

I have seen racial jokes written by (no credit given), then they add a celebrity’s name or photo to it as to give it some credibility, such as David Letterman’s Top Ten List, or You Can Tell If You’re a Redneck, etc.

I can’t go after all the people who steal creative intellectual property, so many of these people have their heads up their asses, not even knowing that they are doing this, and the other group seems to think it’s okay, but let someone do the same thing that they are doing, and all hell breaks loose.

How would they feel if they built a house, building, bridge, etc., and somebody else gets paid for it or got the credit for it? How would a doctor or a dentist feel if he or she treated someone and that person did not have to pay for his or her services? You would hear from all these people. Do you know how many years I have devoted to this?

Friends come up to me all the time to show me the new electronic device(s) they have purchased, such as an MP3 music player that holds over a thousand free songs, etc.

I just recently dumped more than 1,000 great creative things (that had no credit attached to it) from my email box to make space for more of these new creative things (that also have no credit attached to it). People strip (delete) this information and pass it around as if they do something great.

All this creative stuff (email attachments) that I had saved for years had been created by somebody. Were they all ashamed to acknowledge that they had created it?

What would happen if I used some of it in this book? I bet people would be coming out of the woodwork wanting credit, money, etc., and yet it’s okay to see their creative stuff being passed around free?

I am also displaying this notice here and there within this book:

© Richard Rowley 2017. All rights reserved.

(This manuscript, in part or whole, may not be copied, distributed, quoted, or used in any manner whatsoever without the author’s permission.)

Accidents and Rules

As a professional entertainer, I sometimes use props to help perform, and many times I must improvise by adjusting to not having what I need and find a way around the problem.

Slide guitar is a great sound but requires holding or wearing a hollow glass sleeve on one finger that’s also touching the strings on the guitar neck while playing.

After losing so many of these things throughout the years, I found that I can get that screaming slide sound by using a glass bottle and that a beer bottle also looks cool.

Normally, I use a Heineken beer because I like the taste of Heineken and it also doesn’t have a paper label, which provides more area of guitar string coverage.

After doing this for more than forty years, I happened to try it, using a very wet beer bottle that had that imprinted product label, but had trouble with this label getting in the way, and also catching on the strings. While trying to adjust the bottle (full of beer), it slipped out of my left hand and hit the floor, causing beer and glass to make a large mess.

I was both surprised and embarrassed, and as I was looking for a place to put my guitar, the lady piano player threw a broom and dust pan in front of me, yelling for me to clean it up. I had no problem with doing that, and while I was in the process of sweeping, she was still waving verbal insults and complaining that there should be rules about having drinks around the musical equipment and that the beer had also wet some of her electrical wires, etc.

Stepping back up to the mic, I tried to apologize again, but she was still ranting, so I packed up my guitar, etc., and left. She was justified to be angry about what had happened, but this has never happened to me before.

I am sure that there will now be drinking rules that all musicians will have to follow whenever they play music with her because of my once-in-my-lifetime accident.

Thinking back to when my daughter was very young, she dropped her glass of milk and was terrified from her mother screaming at her about this, so I did my best to explain that accidents can happen and helped her clean up the mess.

Perhaps my daughter should never be allowed to carry a glass of milk ever again!

This also reminds me of witnessing a waitress losing control of her food tray and having its contents decorate a floor. Perhaps she should never, ever wait on a table again, or even try carrying any type of food tray?

Accomplishing Things

I thrive on accomplishing things no matter how small or large, and sometimes I get sidetracked because I find that more things are getting done by this change of direction. It’s like don’t stop now, things are finally happening! This is my biggest reason I don’t object to being sidetracked.

I also do understand that I should put all my eggs in one basket and watch that nobody knocks it over. I have attempted this too many times, only to find that the eggs were not fertile in the first place or find that other things that are completely out of my control have taken control (hurricanes, the actions or nonactions of other people, etc.).

It seems like almost any project I undertake, I will reach a point that requires other talent, information, or expertise that I lack, so my only course of action is to pursue whatever it takes.

I start spending whatever money I think I can afford to buy, rent, or hire whatever is needed, only to find the part does not fit or no one makes it anymore or there is a problem finding someone to do the job in a timely manner.

How other people handle these problems is beyond me. I always ask for advice, and once I’m in line with following their advice, everything comes to a screeching halt. I then go back to this advice source and get the Sorry, I now do not know scenario, which ends up being Wish I could help you.

This leaves me with another unfinished project and less money in the bank.

If this were truly their own problem or project, would the same thing happen to them? And if so, what would they really do at this point in time, give up? Move on to something else?

Notice that this how-to book has become a Help! book. I’m all open for ideas and suggestions.

That concludes my problem—now back to my suggestions. :)

Account Numbers

As of August 25, 2010, population clocks: US 300,006,956 with people, and the world has 6,874,078,491. That is ten digits for the entire world. Just to let you know, these are ballpark numbers. Different sources provide different numbers.

Why is it that many of my account number digits exceed not only our country but also the population of the entire world? I understand their concept of dividing things into territories, branches, districts, departments, etc., but wouldn’t it be easier to do the same thing with less numbers?

In other words, my present sixteen-digit account number(s) could be condensed to less than six digits. My Social Security number has only nine. This less amount of typing, checking, and organizing should save many companies money in the long run.

Here is what I am referring to:

There are only fifty states in the United States.

The US state of Louisiana is divided into sixty-four parishes.

The original city of New Orleans was composed of what are now the first through ninth wards.

New Orleans population, according to the Census Bureau, immediately before Katrina was 454,863. Now they claim it is 336,644. Each of the nine wards would only be a portion of that.

In other words, all these numbers stated above reflect the total number of people—men, women, boys, girls, retired, disabled, unemployed, etc. So why are so many numbers needed for my simple accounts? My daughter does not pay any bills.

When I write an account number in the space provided on the bottom left side of my personal check, I find that I’m running out of space on the right side, which requires my signature.

Now then, who designs all these forms, whereas a very long space is provided for stupid information, and the important information gets screwed up because people can’t read the cramped-up answers people are providing because of the way these forms have been designed.

Action Reporter

Have you ever watched TV news programs that brag about their action reporter (team, etc.), and they claim that they can and will help you fight injustice problems that you can’t go up against and win by yourself, such as getting the city government to get its Road Maintenance Department to fix a pothole or have an unscrupulous business closed by the authorities for ripping customers off? What they don’t tell you is that they only go after companies that do not advertise on their network. So if you are having problems with a company, such as a car dealer, etc., and you see their car ads on that same TV station, you may be wasting your time trying to get the TV news (action reporter) show to help you.

Need some other example? Purchase a service plan from almost any auto dealership that does a lot of advertising and learn to leave your vehicle with them all day just to get a ten-minute oil change, and find that they see nothing wrong with that. Do you?

Most TV news programs have their own action teams, and you may also discover that you are wasting your time trying to get another TV station Action Reporter, etc., to help you because this same automobile company also advertises on their TV station and may possibly also advertise in your local newspaper.

This will leave you with fewer options, but there are some things that you can do, such as contacting the state attorney general’s office and other consumer groups and also use the many internet blogs to stage your complaint.

Advertising

The New Orleans Hornets Basketball team has a new marketing and advertising campaign called Are You In?

The ads feature our mayor, governor, and many musician celebrities all saying they need everyone to come to the Hornets basketball games because this helps our city.

I don’t think this helps the city that much, and if anything, it hurts many people like myself, because when I’m trying to make a living performing music on a Friday night, nobody’s there to listen because they are all at a Hornets game.

I just heard on the TV news that tonight (Friday) has a sold-out crowd for the game, and if I am working tonight, I’ll be trying to make eighty to one hundred while the Hornets’ owner, etc., rack in thousands.

My compliments to the ad people for a job well done.

I am willing to bet these musicians in these ads are also complaining that they don’t have enough music jobs due to the economy.

Also, during this time (2011), the Catholics Come Home ads are also doing the trick for the Catholic churches, another advertising job well done.

Advice to Follow

There are so many different studies indicating that we should all change our lifestyles in order to improve our health, happiness, and wealth, so why is it that nobody seems to follow any of these suggestions?

Many studies have shown that we should exercise (exercise more), eat less meat, eat more fruit and vegetables, and nap during the day.

Do the people who have made these studies and their conclusions now do any of these things to create improvements in their own lives?

Like the rest of us, most employers have knowledge and access to the results of these tests and should welcome these ideas so that their employees will live longer and healthier and be happier.

It seems like many employers do what they can to prevent their workers from following these studies’ outcome guidelines. In most cases, even if a workload slows down and their employees have little or nothing to do, many employers would frown upon the idea of their employees taking off just to go to a gym.

During a typical workweek lunchtime, there seems to be few restaurants, cafés, etc., that serve a lunch that may contain more vegetables and fruit than meat, and what most places call a salad consists of some lettuce and tomatoes. Maybe this salad may contain some small pieces of carrots, etc., which may also be served with a salad dressing. Reading many salad-dressing labels, I find many of these salad dressings seem to be full of salt.

At many major fast-food drive-through outlets, their milk shakes may contain more salt than their french fries. Salt is widely used as a preservative, but even when used in the vacuum packaging, such as canned goods and other container innovations, many of these packaged food products are overloaded with salt. When our bodies consume salt in certain quantities, we may have problems such as high blood pressure, etc.

There are also many tests results that indicate that having sex at least twice a week is good for our bodies, yet with the other test results about AIDS and other venereal diseases, it’s hard to see how a single person can stay healthy. This may also apply to a lot of married people who, for whatever reason, haven’t recently, been doing it.

Are cold showers better for us?

After Katrina

Returning from our safety retreat from Katrina, I saw New Orleans as a place that now had a chance to start over, like the Japanese did, after we destroyed some of their major cities.

Before the storm there was much talk about New Orleans needing a new airport, even building one out in the lake because of the shortage of available land near our existing airport. Now we have the entire area called the Lower Ninth Ward destroyed and adjacent to that is Saint Bernard. This massive area is also a hop, skip, and jump from our Central Business District (CBD). Nope, it didn’t happen.

Before the storm there was also a problem with not having enough jobs for our teenage population and related crime problems.

My first thought was that they should get the vocational schools up and running first, which could also turn out many skilled construction workers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, sheet rock and flooring installers, etc., everything we would need to rebuild.

Nope, it didn’t happen.

Most work was performed by both out of town companies and illegal immigrants who now hang around Home Depot, etc., because the work had diminished and our money that paid all these workers also left our city. And now property taxes have been raised.

Starting over could also change the way we do many things. Engineering should have improved—nope.

Now we have more political and engineering stupidity, such as million dollars spent to design and build safehouses that can withstand hurricane forces, etc., for people to stay during a storm in case they are needed for something. Like what? To push a button and turn a pump on or off, etc.?

We now have technology wherein engineers can monitor the whole city and turn on and off anything that’s needed from their cell phone from any location in the world.

The biggest problems we had during and after the storm were our communications, because the cell phone towers needed electricity and the engineers who designed the backup power locations for them had no idea that they could ever be flooded causing them not to work.

Other stupidity about a hundred year flood now has contractors getting rich by shoring raising homes because of this possibility.

My mother, who is now in her late ’80s, wanted to be safe and have her home raised but I just can’t envision her walking up and down twenty feet of stairs every day in order to go in and out of her home.

Agreement

You might not agree with everything I have presented in this book. Great! This means that you (if you have bought this book) have received something for your money.

Many people pay to go see a sad movie or they may like to hear a sad song, while others may be opposite.

I do know of many people who wake up grouchy almost every morning and carry that anger with them all day. They will make remarks like, I’m in a bad mood! My thoughts: go back home and leave us happy people the hell alone.

I asked a friend of mine one day, Did you wake up grouchy this morning?

She said, No, I let him sleep late.

Let’s say you recognize yourself in my writing, and didn’t think that what I wrote about you was very flattering. What am I to write about, the door? If you recognize yourself and think others will recognize you it’s because this may have actually happened. If my writings portray an image of you, what you look like to me and what everyone else thinks is their business. They don’t have to agree with you or me.

Perhaps you were insulted and some of your feathers were ruffled. Sorry, as Abraham Lincoln once said, You may please some people all the time, but you can’t please everyone all the time.

Many times you can see mad people. It may be their body language, especially those wishing to start a fight with someone. Excuse me! There are similar idiots running loose in the world, please go find your own kind to engage. Thank you.

So what’s the problem? If I really got to you, but if I really struck a nerve, I may have hit on the right spot that I was searching for, and perhaps I am doing the right thing after all. I also find that when some people get caught doing something wrong, they cop an attitude to either hide their fault or try to justify what they were doing that was wrong. They try to make someone or the world, (including themselves), believe something different. Some people find it hard to admit that they are, or have been, wrong.

One time I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.

If you are in complete agreement with everything written in this book, you just may need some other kind of help, and I just may see you in the lobby of my doctor’s office.

I am also hoping that by stirring some people up, this may increase my book sales.

America’s Money Problems

According to an online article in the Wall Street Journal, 4/28/2010, entitled Bernanke Urges Cut in Deficit, two former Congressional Budget Office directors said that the biggest threats were ballooning healthcare costs, interest on money borrowed from abroad, Social Security, and taxes. It also goes on to say that Mr. Bernanke stated that the US would ultimately have to decide between raising taxes, cutting Social Security or Medicare, or spending less on everything from education to defense.

I haven’t read or have heard of anybody trying to find ways of saving money or paying off existing debts, especially on money borrowed from abroad, only "popping us Americans with higher taxes or cutting services that we have already paid for such as Social Security and Medicare.

We could be making money from taxing (those that are now illegal) drugs instead of paying people to help raise the price of drugs (by keeping them illegal). This is simple Economics 101!

We could be saving money at all levels of government, narcs, judges who are paid to reside over these cases, jail and prison accommodations for these criminals. We are also paying for the defense attorneys, the list goes on. Are we winning this drug war? NO! We have not even made a dent. We are beating a dead horse!

We should end this prohibition and get the money value of drugs down so that the incentive is not there for our youth. Their thinking: Get a job flipping burgers at minimum wage or taking a chance and make big bucks. Most drug dealers are in their teens and early adult years, and there is no sign that we are winning this war on drugs.

This money incentive has grown over the years in which these young dealers now have turf wars and many die because of this.

My point is, that is only one way of saving and generating money at the same time.

After some serious health problems some years back, I found myself out of work and in a growing financial nightmare.

In addition to cutting back on spending, I started saving and focused on paying off all the easy accounts (small ones), and this gave me more money collectively to pay off one large account at a time while making minimum payments on the others.

This did it. I am happy to say that I am out of debt.

Am I a Racist?

I play electric guitar and electric bass professionally and when I am home, you would only hear my acoustic guitar when I am writing or practicing a new song or if I have a few guests. Perhaps once a year someone will come over and want to jam using an electric, and I keep it as short as possible, especially if they are playing too loud.

Other than that, I don’t want to hear any loud music whatsoever. I don’t want to hear people yelling at each other, and I also hate the sound of a basketball hitting a concrete surface.

I grew up in a mixed neighborhood, and tolerated my noisy neighbors, and made friends with the ones who were not noisy. I don’t think that I selected them based on sound, but now as I look back, it sure seems that way.

I’m trying to view this relationship with quiet people vs. noisy people. It seems like the noisy ones stood out in the crowd. They were noticed more and had different problems than the rest of the people living in that area.

They often