Recent Posts
- My experience pedicab driving during the Sapphire Now convention at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 5/14-5/16/2012.
- My experience pedicab driving at Tropical Heatwave in Ybor City, FL on 5/12/2012.
- My experience pedicab driving at IEEE, NAMTA, and the Dish Team Summit at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 5/8-5/10/2012.
- Review of New Edition in concert at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, FL on 5/4/2012.
- My experience pedicab driving at Fiesta Medina at Festival Park in Orlando, FL on 5/6/2012.
- Review of Don “D.C.” Curry at the Improv Orlando on 5/3/2012.
- coffee, surviving an irs audit, dangerous cereal, selling on ebay, travel plans, and music.
- My experience pedicab driving during the Europa Get Fit & Sports Expo at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 4/27-4/28/2012.
- My experience pedicab driving during Welcome to Rockville at Metropolitan Park in Jacksonville, FL on 4/29/2012.
- Had a good time at the Caribe Royale today.
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i tried a caramel frappe from burger king and a vanilla iced coffee from mickey d’s for the first time over the last week. i had a coupon for both and got them free. the frappe wasn’t bad but nothing i’d pay for. the iced coffee tasted much better and would’ve been worth the 2 bucks that it normally costs if it didn’t have so much ice in it. next time, if there is a next time (i have another coupon so there should be), i’m gonna tell them to go light with the ice. it was just too much and that’s how they’re making their money from the drink. i’d consider telling them to give it to me with no ice but that defeats the purpose of calling it iced coffee, doesn’t it?
ever been audited by the irs? i have. i got the notice in the mail earlier this year about the new windows and insulation i had done to my house a few years ago. i sent them the documents they asked for via fax and it took them months to make a decision that i owed them money. the amount was ludicrous thanks to the interest and penalties and i wasn’t gonna take that shit sitting on my ass. the real problem comes from them telling me that they didn’t get enough paperwork from me. yet i sent them everything they asked for. a new mailing asked for more info; the info they should’ve requested in the first mailing. it boiled down to me providing proof of home ownership and that the work i had done was eligible for the tax credits.
proof of home ownership was easy enough and back then, companies should have provided a certificate of tax credit eligibility but i didn’t have one from either of the 2 that i did business with. it was a pain in the ass and i got it from one company but not the other. the irs also wanted an itemized invoice separating labor from the cost of goods. that was also a pain but i did get it from both companies. i even had to call the irs to make sure i was sending the right shit and to find out why it takes them so long to make a decision on whether someone owes or not. we’re talking months between mailings. i got the answers i needed but i no longer was able to fax using windows xp (i disconnected my landline). i had to use an online fax service (myfax.com) for free and it worked. it lets you send up to 10 pages while all the others only let you send about 3. the gist is that you gotta let 3 friends know via email about their service so have extra email addresses handy. their service worked for me and they send you email confirmation. the irs also confirmed that they got it so i endorse myfax.com.
months later i got a letter in the mail from the irs saying i don’t owe them jack shit. here’s how you survive an audit. KEEP ALL OF YOUR PAPERWORK! and to be on the safe side, get itemized invoices if you can. make sure everything that requires a signature is signed and dated with legible handwriting. anything that may seem to be irrelevant, keep that shit or ask for it. and do business with strong companies that are gonna be around for the long haul. they say keep your paperwork for at least 3 years? FURK DAT! keep that shit FOREVER! it wasn’t a painful experience at all. waiting months for updates via mail was the pain in the ass part. the irs said email isn’t secure enough yet to do business over. surviving an audit is easy if you’re thorough and a good record-keeper. scan your documents and save them to your computer or the cloud, too. throw NOTHING away!
kellogg’s seriously needs to put warnings on their raisin bran cinnamon almond cereal boxes. why? because that shit will give you the runs more than a 5k marathon. it ain’t the fiber. it ain’t even the whole grains. what is it? it’s the fucking almonds! i tried the cereal for the first time a few weeks back because i like raisin bran but every single time i ate this new flavor, i was pissing out of my asshole. i had to do some research and it turns out that almonds are a natural laxative. kellogg’s, you gotta tell people this shit, man. so if it’s happening to you, now you know why. it ain’t pretty and it don’t feel or smell good. eating smaller quantities ain’t gonna help, either. the solution? just don’t eat that shit, period, if you don’t need or want those types of bowel movements. it tastes good enough but the side effect is just too much. i’ve got half a box left that’s gonna have to get thrown into nature. i’ll let the birds and ants deal with it. i know, i’m contributing to increased plops of birdshit on vehicles but better them than me.
i’m doing good on ebay and making steady sales of my depositfiles gold membership codes. my only problem is that my paypal money gets put on hold for a good 3 weeks before i can get my hands on it because i didn’t have a prior sales history. now that i’m building one up, and if i sell more than just those codes in the future, i hope i ain’t gotta wait that damn long to get my hands on my dough. the selling process is easy enough and a good source of extra income for those that know how to use it. i can see why people do it now but be mindful of the fees. they’ll get ya!
i think i’m pretty booked for travel this year. my extracurricular activities will include football in toronto, canada, a megabus trip to atlanta, and a concert in miami where i’ll be spending some time downtown for the first time. i usually stay at the beach when i go down there. the miami trip recently became better thanks to some news about an event i’m gonna be pedicabbing for that coincides with the concert. making money and having fun, all in one weekend. can’t beat that. i was considering a cruise this summer since they’re still dirt cheap but that’s tentative.
i’ve been downloading a lot of rap music lately; mostly older jams from boogie down productions and ruthless records. if you like east coast then you definitely wanna get nottz’s ‘you need this music’ because you really do. the production values are top notch. every song is on point and that’s rare. the best song is ‘i still love you.’ that beat and chorus are undeniable.
When I arrived on Friday afternoon, there were only a few other drivers already out working in the North Concourse parking lot. I got there right when the convention was supposed to start. The parking lot wasn’t really that full to begin with and never got full. As the day progressed, more and more drivers showed up which diluted things out. There is such a thing as overkill and when there’s too much supply and not enough demand, it makes everything suck for everyone. This first day of the convention wasn’t great at all but I still made enough money so that my time wasn’t wasted. From what attendees were telling me, Saturday was the big day and indeed it was.
 I arrived in the afternoon on Saturday after briefly working at The Great American Pie Festival in Celebration. I made a pit stop at the West Concourse first because I saw a lot of people leaving the Qi Revolution convention because it was lunchtime there. Unfortunately, I got there when almost everyone had already left and was close to Pointe Orlando. No rides for me there and I wasn’t gonna stick around to bring people back. No one bit for a ride when I staged in front of the West for about 5 minutes so I hit up the South to check out the parking lot for the volleyball convention. It was very full but after cruising around for 10 minutes, no one took a ride. So I went to my final destination in the North lot for the Europa convention where I pretty much stayed busy until sundown.
The number one thing a lot of people were saying? “This is a fitness convention. No one’s gonna take a ride.” Well, I can tell everyone whose lips uttered those words that it’s a bunch of bullshit. Even the fit and muscular need to relax their bodies and there was plenty of money to make on Saturday. Overall, it was a damn good day. Whether it was bodybuilders (male and female), martial artists, cheerleaders, Zumba people, bicyclists, you name it, there was a lot going on at this convention and people from all walks took rides here just like they do at any other convention or event. Part of the pitch is to make passengers feel like the ride makes them better than those who choose to walk and it works a lot. There were passengers who got ribbed by their friends and then there were those who were gloating while taking the ride.
It’s a service for those who need it and/or can afford it. Others wanna make fun of you? Fuck ‘em. Let ‘em walk. It happened again where a guy and his kids wanted to ride but his chick didn’t want to. What’d he do? He took the ride with his kids and let her walk and they made fun of her. You wanna front on your peeps like you’re the king or queen of the universe? You can do that, too. I gave some cheerleaders a ride and they were talking shit to other people, like, “Look at us. We’re awesome.” You know how teens talk. I think all of it is funny. Anyone who doesn’t take a ride simply because of how others will perceive them clearly has some personal issues to sort out. Others see the value and fun in it and don’t give a damn about what anyone thinks. Those are my kind of people and it’s my job to convert the self-conscious ones into confident passengers so they’ll take rides in the future. My company ain’t called VIP Pedicab Rides for no reason. I gotta make them feel like one because in the end, it helps them, me, and other drivers. Customer service is important!
I had a lot of first time passengers and people who had bad experiences with bad pedicab drivers in the past. Those are the ones whose asses you gotta kiss. All it takes is one idiot and one accident to screw it up for everybody. That’s something I’ve come to understand over the past several months. There was no drama that I saw from anyone for the entire event and that’s a good thing. When I went inside to take some pics of the exhibition floor, there wasn’t much to take pics of. It wasn’t that big. It was mostly areas setup for competitions. The physiques on some (definitely not all) of the chicks was incredible. I ain’t talkin’ about the Savage She-Hulks. I’m talking about the Sensational She-Hulks. I like my women fit and proportionate and this was the place to be if you like ‘em like I do; all in one place. Gotta love it. For you ladies reading this wondering what the guys looked like, you’re on your own with that because, you know, I ain’t gay and don’t check out guys. Sorry (not really).
Towards the end of the convention, things did slow down. On Friday night, it was a horrible exit. There wasn’t a ride to be had for over an hour. Not that people weren’t coming out, they just weren’t taking rides. The exit on Saturday night turned out better because there were fewer drivers but it had to slow down at some point. When it did, I was the last man standing. Everyone else had left to work I-Drive or went home. There were too many cars in the parking lot for me to do the same so I stayed behind and that was a good call on my part. I worked both sides, North and South, catching the exit for Europa and the volleyball tourney. If it wasn’t a ride to their car, it was a ride to a hotel. I cleaned house out there because there was no competition and the tips were great.
When there are too many pedicabs, the value of the ride decreases. Unkempt, inexperienced drivers aside, when people see a line of them with no one taking rides, herd mentality has a tendency to take over and if no one else is riding, neither will they. And tips can be affected as well. When there are less pedicabs and someone needs a ride, the value increases because of the short supply. Sometimes people do bid on a ride if there’s not enough of us to go around. When there are too many pedicabs, just like a taxi, the driver will likely have to take what they can get if it’s slow. The number one thing is to get the person on the pedicab. Once you’ve got ‘em, in many cases and depending on the event or convention, you’ve gotta add value to get that bigger tip if you know how to do it. In a lesser number of cases, people already know what they’re gonna give and sometimes it can be a small tip, an acceptable tip, or a giant tip that boosts you up. We like those big ones the best.
In my case, since I was the only driver out there at the end for a good 2 hours and there were still plenty of people leaving the convention center, I had no reason to leave the property other than hotel drop-offs and when I did those, I saw no other drivers in the convention center area and I ain’t complaining at all. Everything dried up around 9:30pm. I was gonna work I-Drive that night but I had made enough money to call it a night. I saw a lot of drivers cruising around and staging at Pointe Orlando and only two that I saw had rides. That’s a little too early to be hanging around there. People are still going, not leaving, which happens later in the night. That’s one reason I banked in the convention center area; people weren’t staged where they needed to be. Good for me.
Friday and Saturday night on I-Drive is very lucrative if the weather is right and there’s a convention in town. I had other plans though. The last thing I wanna do is overwork on one day and wear myself out to the point that I’m not physically able to work when the money is there to make on other days. Unlike most of the other drivers, I don’t just work in Orlando. I’m statewide and expanding my company. There’s always work available and money to make. You just gotta know where it’s at and how to make it. That requires long-term planning. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the Europa convention, being that it’s the kind of convention that it is, but it turned out excellent. Looking forward to next year. Qigong and volleyball? If nothing else was going on, the Qigong thing could have been halfway decent for no more than a couple of drivers. The volleyball tourney wasn’t good until the exit and that makes sense. The players are all energetic at the beginning but worn down at the end after all that ball-spiking. They’re more prone to want a ride, like people who competed at events during Europa, and they took some. One more thing: volleyball moms are VERY good tippers!
 The good thing about this event was there was practically no experienced competition to deal with. This was very lucrative and my only regret is that I didn’t arrive earlier. This was already on my calendar to work. I’ve never worked an event at Metro Park before but I have worked some music festivals in the past. I assumed that arriving too early wouldn’t yield much in the way of money so I decided to leave later and get there at a time when I thought people would be leaving so I could get rides from that. Finding parking was a little difficult because everywhere close to the park and stadium had a tow sign. I wasn’t about to pay to park or park too far away so I scoped out the neighborhood nearby and found a good spot on a residential street very close to the park.
I started riding around 3:30pm. Learning how parking works for Metro Park events was my first order of business. There was the lot next to the WJCT building and then there was Everbank Field parking. I opted for the stadium and that was a good move since parking was further away and people would be more inclined to take rides and that’s exactly what they did. Man, I gotta admit, the tips were excellent and rides were very steady for a good hour and a half. I had a very high average but then the lull came like it usually does for any event or convention. The difference with this one is that it was a very long lull with practically no one coming or going. Yet there were many thousands of people there.
That’s why I say I wish I would’ve arrived sooner; to catch that rush. I can imagine that shit was great because of how far away the parking already was for people who got there when the doors opened. Now I know better. The main problem here was logistics. I already knew from research that VIP tickets were sold out. Turns out the whole event sold out and there were rumors of it being oversold. That resulted in a very long line forming at the general admission and VIP lines. That resulted in frustration for guests. Some were very vocal about it. Others just left the line and the event altogether despite having paid for their ticket already. It was a bad situation. The park was filled to capacity and the promoters likely thought people would come and go but people came and stayed.
One guest said if he paid as much as they were charging, he’d stay for the whole festival, too. That attitude was probably shared amongst many people. Slowly but surely the line disappeared and, as you can figure out, they let people in as people left. Imagine getting there, thinking you’re gonna walk right in but instead you gotta wait for hours in a line in the heat and sun with no drinking water options available. I would’ve been furious. And if you could hear the band you wanted to see but couldn’t actually see them performing, man, I know a lot of those people had to be super-pissed. I could overhear a lot of them and trust me, they weren’t happy. Hopefully there’s a lesson learned for next year: bigger venue, don’t sell as many tickets, or raise the ticket price. Pepsi Plaza and the stadium were right there. Maybe they could consider those options if the rent is cheap enough.
For a good 2 or 3 hours, there were little to no rides to be had. There was also a baseball game going on at the baseball grounds but I didn’t get any rides out of it. Think of a song. Any song. A song you haven’t heard in decades. An artist that you haven’t seen or heard from in just about as long. You used to love them but you’ve grown up and they haven’t done anything big for a while. Who comes to mind? How about “Weird Al” Yankovic? That’s what I thought. It ain’t him, is it? That damn stadium was playing “Eat it” about as loud and clear as can be. I don’t know if it was halftime or what but instant memories came to mind when I heard that shit. With all the kids there, they may be doing him a favor by introducing him to a new audience. Oh yeah, the song is still as ridiculous as the day it came out. Gotta love the 80’s.
The sounds from the ballgame and festival didn’t drown each other out at all. I missed the full entrance but at least caught the tail end of it. The lull consisted of me mostly chatting with a local driver. It was just me and him out there for the majority of the time until a few other drivers showed up at the exit. We talked about pedicabbing as expected and the differences between doing it in Jacksonville versus other cities. Basically, and I’ve heard this from other people, the Jacksonville economy sucks. If not for sports and special events, it’d be a nothing happening city. And because nothing usually happens there, pedicabs are unregulated. I already knew that but he confirmed it for me.
I mentioned there being no experienced competition for this event from other drivers. Other than the one guy, the rest of them have some learning to do. The tactics of the local drivers is vastly different than in Orlando, that’s for damn sure. Most, if not all, of their techniques would never fly and they wouldn’t make much money in my city. Even if they had all their papers in order, other things would prevent them from being successful here. I’m glad it was just them there. At the exit of the event, about 5 more drivers showed up. I got to see how they, and not other drivers from other cities, operate and it’s like night and day. If that’s how things are there, and I’m not gonna get into the details, then more power to them. That’s more money in my pocket.
Speaking of the exit, it was based upon the 3 main acts. After Evanescence finished performing, that’s when people started leaving in higher numbers and that line started dwindling down. That also means the lull was over and rides picked back up and stayed steady. Staging is important in pedicabbing. You gotta know where to be and how to be there. They changed the exit location four different times and us and the taxi drivers had to keep changing where we staged to get rides. It ain’t like the event staff told us what they were doing. We had to keep our eyes open and communicate. Shinedown hit the stage next and Korn was last. I’d say Evanescence did the best job although I like Korn’s songs better.
I don’t have to explain what most of the guests looked and dressed like. I don’t have to talk about any of their habits either. I didn’t see any drama other than a guy getting stopped in the parking lot by a cop. There was a smart-mouth girl who didn’t wanna move for my pedicab. You really gotta wonder how ugly girls develop any sense of entitlement. When you look like a reject print from the Ralph Bakshi collection, something went haywire somewhere. Where’s it come from? Hot girls I can understand. Ugly ones, it makes no sense. I should’ve ran the bitch over. With some pain and a broken foot, that’d teach her dumb ass to move!
When Korn was done, the exit was a mass exodus. There were the pedicabs and merchandise sellers jockeying for position. Everyone should’ve ate good that night. When I returned from a drop-off at a downtown hotel, they were just closing the gate. Just before that, a drunk guest on his phone couldn’t stay away from my pedicab. I left the general area briefly and then he went away. Every time I came back, he came back. That went on about 4 times and it was pissing me off because he was possibly costing me rides from the few people that were still coming out. He was harassing chicks and blocking me from pitching. Finally, his peeps showed up and he left. By that time though, they shut it all down and that was that. Show’s over. No more rides. Or so I thought.
Going back to my car, I got one more ride. This time, it was a guy trying to find his drunk friends who didn’t seem to have any idea where they were. Hearing the phone convo was pretty funny. Did he find them? Nope, but he tipped me good and that’s all I care about. His situation is one I’ll never have to deal with because I don’t associate with alcoholics. On an earlier occasion, I saw a couple leaving the event. A chick was helping her boyfriend walk because he was completely slogged out. When it gets to that point, it ain’t the guy who’s the problem anymore. It’s her for putting up with that shit. As long as people enable his behavior (and helping can be a form of enabling), he ain’t changing. Same thing with guys who have drunk girlfriends. Once you’ve witnessed bad behavior from someone, especially more than once, and you stay in that relationship after attempts at communication have failed, you, not the other person, are the cause of your unhappiness. I don’t sympathize with her or anyone in her position. And always remember, these are the people you’re sharing the road with. Don’t get mad when a drunk driver affects your life directly if you’re part of the problem.
I got what I needed from the event: experience driving at this particular show and for shows at Metro Park in general. Now I know how things go down there as far as parking and entrances and exits. There’s no vantage point of the stage from outside the park or at the nearby marina where I dropped some people off. There may have been some people who hung out outside of the park just to hear the music but I can’t say I saw any specifically. I didn’t see any tailgaters either. I brought my own food as always and for water, I had to go to a bar near the arena where they graciously hooked me up with some ice cold water. Other than that, it would’ve been a long ride downtown, likely to the Hyatt where my last drop-off was, to get some water. I’m sure the event was quite successful for the promoters and the city but they gotta work on getting back good with all the guests that they pissed off. From a pedicab standpoint, even after expenses like gas, I came out very green for the time that I was there. My time definitely wasn’t wasted and I’m looking forward to working the event next year and future events at Metro Park. If you know how to make money, even in a seemingly always down local economy like Jacksonville, then you can make it.
 I was extended an invite to crash on someone’s couch after the event but I declined. I wasn’t in the mood to return any favors that may have popped up. I was in the mood to drive back home like I usually do for single-day events out of town. One of my passengers gave me a cold Mountain Dew that jacked me up for the end of the show when I was still feeling the rush. I thought I could make it home but I got off at a highway exit and crashed at a closed gas station which was the only source of light. The area I was in was pitch dark on all sides, no people around or cars passing by, surrounded by forest, and there was an abandoned hotel next to the gas station. I heard and then saw a milk crate moving on the ground (there was no wind blowing) but didn’t see what was making it move even though the gas station was lit. I ain’t like curious ass white people in horror movies. I’m black. When something’s wrong, we dip! Given the circumstances, I got the fuck out of there with the quickness! I went back onto I-4 and pulled off on the side of the highway to finish my sleep; as noisy and uncomfortable as it was. I’d much rather that than deal with Motel Hell.
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