Was up in Irvine for 3 days of depositions with my boss, his wife, and one of our lawyers. By the end of day two it was obvious our case was hopeless. We were sitting outside having dinner and next thing I know I'm lifting up my head having absolutely no idea where I was, who I was with, why I was there, etc. It took the others a few ticks to realize something serious was going down.

They settled me down while I kept asking a million questions. Took about 15 minutes before I was totally back. I don't know what might of happened if I'd been alone.

My neighbor and PC doc explained that the stress took over the animal portion of my brain and caused the logical part to crash - remember the dreaded Windows blue screen of death? Kinda like that.

Fuck that sounds scary.

Man, **** mega-corporations. Nothing about them leads to anything good.

"We committ to placing at least $5 in purchase orders with you annually in return for Exclusive Distribution."

This one sentence, if it have been included in our contract with the China factory back in 1998, would have been the difference between me having to take another 30% pay cut vs. a 7.5% share of a possible $20 million dollar settlement.

(We placed over $50 million in POs over the course of 17 years but because we didn't stipulate an expectation up front it's, by law, meaningless.)

I guess we can hope that the companies that screwed you paid more in lawyer fees than they got from being dicks.

No doubt.

Both the China and US company hired HUGE firms with hundreds of lawyers worldwide while we worked with 2 local guys.

I mean, we did get out-lawyered obviously, which sucks, but their bills are going to be ginormous.

So what's next in your life?

Consolidated a bunch of debt into a refi - reduced our monthy payment but extended our mortage out another 8 years. Keep skimming our retirement savings to make ends meet (We're both turning 57 this year so it's getting pretty damn close.)

Learning to live with Wall-Mart brand foods (UGH :finger: so much of their **** sucks ass) and cutting everything else to the bone.

I have a healthy 401K that I can cash out at a huge tax loss if the **** hits the fan. And if I do have a heart attack and croak, Linda's going to be fine for the rest of her life because of life insurance.

Other than that? Drinks are on me!

Did you say that you still keep your current job,
but at a reduced salary? ...and, if so, is the handwriting
on the wall that it may be time to move on to something else?

I'm guessing you had an ECG on your heart? Sounds like what I had a few years ago mate.

Hope you're ok Chula.