(Un)Comfortable

As I was listening to the radio today in my car (while driving), I heard an advertisement for a local gynecological practice. They were listing some of the "features" of the practice being indirect incandescent lighting and private changing rooms. You know.....I REALLY don't think it's the fluorescent lights and public changing rooms that make going to the gynecologist uncomfortable.

Ananias: Believe it or not, the quote I currently have posted was found in one of the textbooks from my recent training on statistical process control / six sigma. I'm telling you, there are little gems everywhere.

Coming up next....a hot tub update (maybe for reals this time).

More Of The Wild Life

Check out the pictures below of the praying mantis I saw this weekend. You would think you would find it in meeting, but we actually found it out in the grass. I went to a "Women In The Outdoors" event this past weekend, which is where I saw this fine specimen. Despite its title, I spent a surprising amount of time indoors at the WITO event, and due to one of the sessions being full, I didn't even get to practice my archery. :-( Oh well, the best part was still hanging out with some friends. Wait, no.....I take that back. The best part is that I am now a member of the National Wild Turkey Federation as part of my admission fee.



Coming up next - a hot tub update.

Serious Stuff

Usually I try to keep my blog kind of light-hearted and amusing, but today I think it's worth mentioning a couple blogs that often inspire me because of the example that shows through them. The two blogs are Jen's and the Snellings'. These blogs are inspirational to me because they share some personal spiritual insights and struggles. And sometimes, it's good to have a reminder of how good our lives are AND a reminder to be thankful that they are so good. And, a reminder that there are many people who have all kinds of struggles you may or may not know of or see that could use your prayers.

Count your blessings! And like a quote on one of those blogs says, "The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem." ~ Theodore Rubin

Sometimes I wish my blog could be more serious like those bloggers, but it's just not "me", so I guess I will continue to carry on in my blog "place" of being an amusing diversion for 1 minute every couple of days.

Closing

You know that last part of a formal letter right before your signature? The complimentary closing is what I believe it's called. I haven't decided yet if the onset of e-mail and instant messaging has made that part of a letter easier or more difficult to compose. In school, I was always a fan of using "sincerely". I can't remember very many of the other ones - maybe "respectfully", "yours truly", or if you were feeling really gruff "signed". At work it's always interesting to see what people have as their e-mail signature. I often use "Thanks" (sometimes inappropriately) or don't even use anything other than my name. I see some "Regards", "Thank you in advance" when someone is asking you to do something, "Kind Regards" which gives me a warm fuzzy, and one of the supplier reps always goes with "Cheers". On e-mail "sincerely" seems too formal even though it is probably what I would like to use in a lot of cases.

And then of course, there's the agonizing over more personal letters'/e-mails' complimentary closings. I've noticed many in the younger generation might use a little heart symbol or emoticon instead of the word love or something like that. Sincerely is definitely too formal in these cases I think. I find it hard to sign an e-mail with "love" if I don't feel that way about a person, but what else are you supposed to put there if you like the person but just aren't sure you should put them in the "love" category? "Best"? "Fondly"? "Affectionately"? "With respect"? "Like"? "Cordially" (like the cherries)? What I usually do is settle for some goofy informal one like "See ya", "Later", etc. I'm considering switching to "Holla' back" or maybe "Cheerio". Or, maybe I should go for a foreign touch and use one of those words everybody kinda sorta knows what it means but not exactly like "Ciao", "Saludos", or "Sayonara". Any suggestions/comments? Am I overthinking this? Should I just get over my stunted emotional growth and sign "love"? Maybe the point of the complimentary closing is to use it to show your individualism? Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that the quandary increases when someone e-mails you and signs it "love", but you're not sure you want to return the e-mail with the same closing.

Surrogate

This week we learned in training that time does not change anything. Now your first inclination is to argue this and say that time changes everything. But let's examine this idea more closely. The premise is that time does not change anything - it's just a surrogate for events, etc. that change everything. Assuming this is true, this explains why alcoholics and the grieving process have steps and that there is no set time when you can say, "Just wait 1 year, and you'll be over him/her or cured of your alcoholism". What really has to happen is for the person to go through each of those steps/events and get their thoughts in order as they go through each step. This also explains why some people never quit grieving. Because they never go from step to step, they get stuck at some step and never move forward no matter how much time passes. Maybe eventually they move on to a next step, but it's usually because some other event helps them move on, not just because of the magic of time.

Thus, we have disproved the old adage that "Time heals all wounds". We can now say "Time is a surrogate for events that heal all wounds." It has quite the ring, doesn't it? Or maybe we should just say "Events heal all wounds." This is further evidence of kool-aid consumption.... It also goes to show that you shouldn't force a blog entry. The day after I posted the previous post, this great and much better idea came to me. Unfortunately, this proof wasn't in correct "proof" format. My high school geometry teacher would be aghast at my poor form. So would my mother.

Ho-Hum

Not too much has been happening here. It rained all day every day Friday through Sunday, and I heard we got more than 9 inches of rain total. So here's a picture of one of the routes to get to my house. Luckily the other route is still open. There really isn't all that much going on here except learning more about Components Of Variation (COV). And, the flag football and racquetball seasons are starting. This post is lame, but I felt like I had to post something just to meet the deadline.

You Can't Spell Geek Without a Double E

Everybody get out your handkerchief now to wipe your tears of sympathy. I will tell you the tale of this past week. The above picture shows the nicest minimum security prison my company has to offer, and this is where I spent four and a half days slaving this past week working for 12-14 hours per day (likely all during the nicest days in September). It's the company's version of six sigma training, but it felt more like brainwashing, and this was only the first week of four total weeks. They had some special kool-aid we had to drink and stuff too..... (kidding!). And I know you'll feel really sympathetic when I tell you the facility has a professional chef who cooks world-class food for all the three meals we ate every day not counting morning and afternoon snack. The rumor is most people average gaining five pounds a week every week of training. :-)

Getting back to this brainwashing, er, I mean training, we learned some really cool concepts about statistics and control charts and measurement system evaluations. Let's just say we were becoming further nerdified, and I'm afraid this blog will become even more off the wall and engineering focused, which may turn away all you readers. I'm trying to resist the kool-aid, but I will likely eventually succomb. I already have some better ideas of how to analyze and re-chart my exercise tracking. Stay tuned for more and more extreme geekiness.

P.S. Raccoons aren't the sharpest tacks in the box either. Last week I caught a 'coon in my groundhog trap without any bait in it. Total count so far: 2 oppossums, 1 raccoon, 0 groundhogs

Engineering Stuff

Occasionally people e-mail me engineering related links. So I thought I would share a few today for your daily dose of humor.

Have a cat? Thinking about getting one? Here's some useful info. Linda, this is what I call having too much time on your hands. Speaking of getting pets, why does everybody in my life suddenly seem to think I need one?

What Aretha Franklin would do if she took calculus.

There's no accounting for taste.

Sometimes I think about quitting blogging because my life has come down to this.

And finally, I found this one on my own......this is eerily close to my life in corporate America. Especially the engineer's thoughts when asked if there is ANY way this could be done without the new tool. Oh yeah, and we don't get to laugh and scorn the boss as much as they did when they were told the schedule was moved way up.

Learn Something New Every Day

New knowledge for the day:
Opossums really aren't the brightest bulbs in the box. I accidentally left my groundhog trap set without any bait recently, and when I went over by it today there was an opossum trapped in there (again!). I should have euthanized him just for being stupid.

I think the picture below could inspire some kind of poem about the majestic waving arms or something. I'll leave it to some poetic person who knows how to write poems about more than tick paths.


Picture by Mel once again taken from a vehicle moving at a speed exceeding 60 mph.

NickersSay

As I was driving today and enjoying one of my favorite driving snacks (an original Snickers (registered trademark of Mars, Inc.)), I got to wondering about the fancy pattern on the top of the candy bar. How does it get there? Is it a natural byproduct of the candy bar process, or do they put that pattern there on purpose? Does a Milky Way (also a registered trademark) have the same pattern, a different pattern, or no pattern at all?

So, I did some brief internet surfing, and have not really found a good answer. I even checked the official FAQ website for the candy bar and the "how stuff is made" website, but no dice. Along the way I did learn how nougat is made, that *nickers is the #1 selling candy bar in the U.S., and what an enrober (in chocolate terms) is. So anyway, here's my wild theories on this. These are THEORIES, and my apologies to Nancy for having no data whatsoever to back them up.

• When they first started making the candy bar in 1930 (the 1930 part is fact), it's possible the fancy pattern was some kind of by-product of the process that they couldn't figure out how to get rid of, so they left it that way.
• Soon, the squiggly pattern became part of the trademark "look and feel" of the candy bar.
• Therefore, even though the candy bar process may have changed since then, and the new machines don't have the original fault, the new machines now have to be designed special to put those wavy lines in.
• Due to the very limited information on the internet of the exact process of making this candy bar, maybe how they get those lines in there is a trade secret....
• My alternate theory is that the wavy lines mask the uneven chocolate coating that results from the bumpy peanuts just underneath the coating.
  

Interestingly enough, the new *nickers Charged has a different pattern on its top. And it's been awhile since I've had a *ilky Way. I think maybe it has more of a peak in the center as its pattern instead of the squiggly lines. Can anybody confirm? If you know the "real" story, I would be interested to learn it. If they quit putting those lines on the top, would it be the same anymore, or would it taste different in your mind? Another interesting item of note is that if you bought your *nickers bar in the U.S, it was made in Chicago, IL or Waco, TX. At least that's one thing not made in China.