Life and Relationships in the Spectrum
One of the great things about hypertext is that if one has a long "BS story", it's no longer necessary to use judgement as to whether to publish it -- just put it on a separate page. These are examples of The Bovine Scatology Test in commercial settings.
This is part of another page, describing a "Bovine Scatology (BS) Test". The "Bovine Scatology (BS) Test" page is part of a website titled, Relationships on the Spectrum. "The Spectrum" refers to autistic spectrum conditions including Asperger's Syndrome.
These are example stories describing situations in which the author found the (symbolic) need for chest waders and a large shovel.
(A more accurate definition of a "BS story" is a
story which is embellished so as to include substantial elements of fiction, or
alternatively a false story. These "BS stories" are not that, b
but rather are stories about BS.)
I declined to join a business deal by stating the difficulties in my being able to make the proper judgements because of the nature of the deal. The person proposing the deal correctly responded, "You didn't directly or indirectly answer the question. Are you interested in the project?"
That's true -- I didn't say "no" or "unable" to the deal itself. I only stated the reasons I would be unable to make particular judgements. But the question ("Are you interested") would not have given him a direct answer either because I was "interested"; just not willing.
My answer was something to the effect of my not being willing to join; nevertheless I of course am very much interested in how the project develops.
The proposal letter was also filled with other examples of irrelevancies, such as stating that while a value could not be ascertained for key aspects the business deal, the same would be true of purchase of stock shares. Obviously this was an attempt to confuse the share price fluctuations with the unvalued asset of the business deal. At this point, this could have been one of three things:
- an intentional deception;
- a poor analogy not intended to deceive or a figure of speech ("Well, even stock prices have an element of uncertainty.")
- a misunderstanding of the issue on his part. (lack of fixed value vs. lack of any meaningful value)
I decided that it wasn't important whether there was intent to deceive because I already knew that I was liable to receive unreliable data. So even if the deal sounded good, I could not trust the information. Eventually there would be faulty information but I wouldn't recognize it as such. Therefore I couldn't trust the information or the deal.
Or put another way, I could trust the information... to be faulty.
There's a reason I didn't buy a fix-it-up house. They can be fun, but dealing with contractors generally isn't. Regardless, the kitchen needed hand grenading.
I decided I needed to renovate my kitchen. Typically this involves some or all of cabinets, a countertop, electrical work, plumbing and appliances. Costs are substantial, ranging from a bare-bones $5000 to $30,000. Fortunately I had a confined space and could limit immediate expenditures on appliances and some fixtures. All I had to do was match an antique cabinet with the new items and do it "tastefully". I wanted to see what a specialty cabinet store had to offer.
The sales person explained that there are
- pre-fabricated cabinets;
- semi-custom cabinets; and
- custom cabinets.
So far, so good. The custom cabinet store doesn't carry pre-fabricated cabinets, which is the type of thing available at Home Depot (a large consumer-oriented house construction supply store in North America). The sales person explained that they only carry the semi-custom and custom cabinets. The difference was that these were made to order. Then she explained that they all essentially come in 3 inch (8 cm) size increments, with fillets to make up the difference in room dimensions. About the only thing I could understand as a difference is that custom cabinets were available with doors inset. This sounded a lot more like the item she was described as "semi-custom" was identical to pre-fabricated -- except "semi-custom" cabinets were ordered through their store. The "custom" were really "semi-custom" because they came in a particular size configuration. As I understand "custom", a carpenter makes the cabinets essentially from scratch, with no reason for fillets or the like.
Still okay. I now have more information with which to decide what kind of cabinets I want. There are advantages to both (pre-fab/semi-custom vs. custom), although the salesperson wouldn't talk about them. So far, it seems "pre-fab" is a semi-custom cabinet sold by a competitor or vice-versa. Apparently what they are calling "custom" are semi-custom, since they come in pre-cut sizes.
Next comes the refrigerator. A built-in style refrigerator is often 5 times the cost of a standard unit, in part because of other features. According to the salesperson, the built-in refrigerator must be built in at the time. Since these are manufactured somewhere in Peoria or Wihaukee, that isn't really so, unless you count the wood facia some people choose. But it seems that the cabinet store picks up a substantial kickback on these, or perhaps there's some other reason they want the refrigerator to be purchased substantially simultaneously.
It almost goes without saying. The refrigerator "should" be purchased from a particular vendor.
Actually, it was a productive visit, since I saw how to coordinate cabinets with an old unit, how these are dimensioned, and what to look for at a Hardware R Us store. The only thing I'll be missing will be the designer name. So I got most of the benefits of the high priced cabinet store, without paying for the ill treatment.
The most curious aspect of this visit was when I asked how long it takes. The first answer was that they were booked for 6 months. No problem, since I already have a kitchen, but what I wanted to know was how long would the project itself take.
"About 12 weeks." We install the cabinets and then we measure for the countertop. There are variations in the wall."
"I don't have any full height cabinets now, so the measurements can be made first."
"He still won't do it that way."
Okay, so maybe a remodel with no existing full height cabinets is unusual, but there are certainly installations which don't have any pre-existing cabinets at all. Maybe the cabinets are much more valuable if the customer has to wait for 2 or 3 months to use the kitchen. Don't use the old countertops. Don't use plywood or scrap material during the wait. This is really high end stuff.
I'm not sure how the The Bovine Scatology (BS) Test applies here, but I could have saved money on organic fertilizer here!
The power of Negative Thinking - The visit was productive. Besides finding out about the business practices of at least one upscale kitchen cabinet store, I found out about:
- matching cabinet styles
- dimensioning cabinets
- what to look for at a Hardware R Us store and what to ask a carpenter
- the different types of cabinets.
- "Health at Every Size - Some (perhaps not all) proponents have very broadly extended the concept that it is possible to be healthy at a body weight in excess of that of a long distance runner and still be healthy. The logical extension is that it is possible to be obese and still be healthy. The "Health at Every Size" advocates often re-run the tobacco industry's claims from the 1950's that smoking is a healthy activity.
The "Health at Every Size" movement relies on the "Fat Acceptance Movement", but instead promotes a false obesity-as-healthy argument for the purpose of selling a book, using the "Health at Every Size" slogan.
- This has several fallacies, including:
- An undisclosed comparison between diet for weight loss and "binge dieting". Health at Every Size" advocates describe dieting for weight loss as unhealthy, but are actually describing "binge dieting". (Both are technically "weight loss dieting", but as with most activities, but there is a difference in technique and effect. "Binge dieting" does not result in long term weight loss and is an unhealthy approach to weight loss.)
- The "you don't have any citations memorized" argument, claiming that healthy weight has not been shown to be healthy.
- Examples of metabolical health problems are described as "coincidence".
- False definitions of "healthy", often in anecdotal examples, often describing "healthy" in terms of not having an acute condition or otherwise not being sick. That is of course one meaning to the word "healthy" but is irrelevant to lifestyle issues.
Back to "The Bovine Scatology (BS) Test"Back to Relationships on the Spectrum (includes definition of "The Spectrum")
This site first posted August 8, 2002; rev September 5, 2011 ~~ written in
WordPerfect 5.1 and works best with 
~~ copyright 2002 by Stan P.