Second Fiddle

Well, Reggie officially became second fiddle, I mean car, today when I bought my new car. It pained me to do it, but it seemed like it was time. I do still own Reggie and am now looking for a good home for him, so let me know if you know someone who would want him.


The bigger question now is, what is this new car's name? I think it's a guy car, so leave me a comment with your proposed name. If you think it looks like a girl, submit a girl name, but it better be good if you're attempting to change his gender!


P.S. Yes, I did end up buying a Mazda6 Hatchback/5-Door.

Stumped

Well, I can't say I've felt very creative this past week. I've had a few mediocre blog post ideas, but none of them very stellar. I thought about posting a picture of the bird who flew too close to the ground and died hitting my dining room window. Or, I could talk about work, but how boring is that? I could post a picture of the flower beds I'm working on planting, but they're not very remarkable either, and I've barely just started that project. So, there's not much going on here folks. However, I think there will be more excitement coming in the next week or so. You few readers that I have left will just need to be patient. I have managed to sort through all my China pictures, labeled them, and am working on uploading them to the web for your viewing pleasure. Once again, patience required until I'm done. The new car is more and more imminent, but not here yet either......same with the long weekend. Patience is the word of the day. ;-)

Taste of Spring

Everything is much greener now than when this picture was taken, I'm just a little slow on the post. I can't complain about this backyard view.

Lean On Me

Here are my new digs after I moved everything into the cube but before I had a chance to get it all organized.


Here they are after about 3S's. My (former) cube mate gave me one of her extra monitors, so notice my sweet monitor setup now. Yeah baby! You can also see part of my desk. I always wondered what color it was.














An interesting thing to note is that I no longer have a cube mate. I'm not sure yet if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I also now sit across the aisle from the department secretary and my General Manager. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing either, but I'm pretty sure I'll know a lot more about the department goings on now as I eavesdrop over the cube wall. Does anybody need me to verify any rumors for them?

5S - A LEAN Machine

Due to changes in personnel and a manager's desire for his new hire to be mentored by my (former) cubicle mate, I was asked to change cubicles at work. You faithful readers know from past experience what an organizational wizard I am. But, I guess the managers thought I still had a few things to learn about organizing because they presented this move as an opportunity to 5S my cubicle. 5S is a popular phrase for people who are familiar with LEAN manufacturing. If you don't know what LEAN manufacturing is, then go google it. So anyway, I thought I would show you how successful I was.

Before 5S
Although not all that much different from 18 months ago, this picture was actually taken right before I moved. Pre-LEAN 5S's, and I do sort of resent the implications here:

• Scrounge
• Steal
• Stash
• Scramble
• Search

After 5S
I guess I may have gotten a little bit extreme. The "real" 5S's are:

• Sort (check)
  
• Set In Order (check)
  
• Shine (check)
  
• Standardize (Huh? Not sure this is necessary in a cube...)
  
• Sustain (Yeah.....pretty sure I'm not going to be able to maintain this standard of cleanliness.)
  

Rejected

Some survey person called me this evening, but after finding out how much money I make and my ethnicity, they said they didn't need my opinion after all. Discrimination! I wonder what economic bracket and ethnicity they were really looking for? Based on my address, I can take a pretty good guess.

P.S. Someone e-mailed me this picture today, and I thought it was funny. It's irrelevant if you do since this is my blog. I post what I want. I think it's funny the guy used the word capacitor on his sign. For future reference, do NOT give this guy money! There is no such thing as a flux capacitor.

Bird's Eye View

I realized the other day that within the space of two months, I was in two of the tallest buildings in the world. One was the Jin Mao tower in Shanghai, China, and the other was the good old Sears Tower in Chicago. So here's a little "contrast" of the two buildings and their views.

From my brief research on the internet, it appears as though Shanghai (the urban area) has a population of about 14. 5 million people and is one of the 10 largest cities in the world. Chicago (the urban area) has somewhere between 7 and 9 million people and is somewhere between #25-#30 in world city populations. Enjoy the view....

Shanghai, China







































Chicago, IL, USA

It's All In the Eye of the Beholder....

....Or at least the marketing person. I saw this a long time ago and finally remembered to post it. Sometimes it's a good thing, right? That's how we got post-it notes, which is one of the greatest inventions ever.

Travels of Recent Weeks

Let's see.....in the last couple couple of weeks I went to Mexico, flew in and out of Chicago twice (this included some flight rerouting due to the AA flight cancellations), went to ND/MN, and took a day trip to Chicago with some people from work. That's pretty much what kept me busy and why there was a gap in my blogging that Melanaway scolded me for promptly. ;-) I applaud her for helping me to keep up to my own blogging standards.

My trip to Mexico was a whirlwind one. Although it was 99 degrees there during the day, there was no suntanning involved unless you count the fluorescent one I got in the manufacturing plant. The only interesting picture I took while I was there (that's G rated and/or not company confidential of course) was this one. I didn't know sharks had started to evolve enough that they come on land and disguise themselves as buses, but apparently they have.


My picture taking ability wasn't much better in MN. I didn't even get a picture of my newly engaged sister and her fiance. How stupid is that? Congratulations to them by the way. This is one of the few good pictures I took. I didn't know you could go down to the local market and pick up cute little kids like that. I bet Jess sand Lana wish they would have known that before they went the traditional route. Or maybe only 3 year olds have access to that special market?


Here's a few pictures from the day trip to Chicago.

John (the guy whose quote I have posted right now) - walking on water. At least he has a good name already for doing that kind of thing.


We visited "the bean" - for fun, or if you're bored, you could count the number of times you can find Mel in this picture. Here's a hint: Mel is wearing a bright yellow coat, she is not wearing a white and red striped shirt.


I've heard a lot about Jim Jardine, but I didn't know Chicago had named a water treatment plant after him....


In case of fire, climb 25 flights of metal stairs down to the ground.


I'm not sure if this was related to the wiring inspection flight cancellations, but it was interesting anyway. This was right before they walked into the NBC studio in Chicago.


It's always helpful when people label stuff for you. Just to be clear we did NOT find the chief corner stone here though.

Earthshaking

Early yesterday morning there was a 5.2 earthquake in southern Illinois. Some of the people at work were awakened by the small tremors from it way up here and actually felt them. Apparently I sleep more soundly than that because I didn't feel anything. However, many of the people I work with live in southern Indiana, so they were only 45 miles from the epicenter and definitely felt it. Part of our conference call with them yesterday was spent looking at the USGS Google Earth plug-in. Luckily no tsunamis resulted here on the lake. Then I would have been in big trouble.

Video of a local Indiana TV station that was on the air when the earthquake happened

Newspaper article

Random Thoughts (Again)

Whew, it's been awhile. Since I last posted I've traveled this country and another country too. I took a few pictures but haven't had time to download them yet. So, until tomorrow when I can do something more substantial, here's few random thoughts from my travels.

1. There are few things that make you feel more alone than to eat at a fancy restaurant alone in a foreign country.
2. There are few things that can warm your heart more than to have your two nieces come running out of the house excited to see you when you come to visit.
3. Arrachera, flaming cheese, and salsa - what could be better?

I know I had some other random (and profound) thoughts, but they escape me now. More later if they come to mind again.....

Paintball Perils

That's gonna leave a mark.....and to think I paid good money to be abused like this.

Some Of My Newest Babies Have Arrived!

It took two years of intense "labor", but they finally came out of the chute. Check out just a couple versions of my newest babies below. Of course, I can't claim all the credit and these pictures don't really do them justice because you can only really get the full effect of my work when the power is on. But you kinda sorta get the idea.



I was in sunny Arkansas last week, and sometimes when I travel for work by myself I figure it might get a little boring in the evenings and stuff, but it's always a pleasant surprise when you meet someone new at meeting or at work and they're so friendly and inviting and hospitable to a lonely traveler. I try to remember how much I appreciate it when people do that and pass on the favor to others, but I'm afraid I fall pretty far short of returning the favor most times.

A Quarter Of A Century

When I checked Jen's blog, I got tagged to do this thing here. I'm pretty sure it was a sneaky way to try to get me to kinda sorta do my 100 things. If you have a blog, your blog has just been tagged. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

Finish the sentence:
1. Maybe I should quit dinking around and go to bed at a decent hour.
2. I love both kinds of music. Country and Western.
3. People would say that I'm special, just like my cousin Ed.
4. I don't understand how people can think it was a good party if they can't remember it.
5. When I wake up in the morning I hit the snooze button several times.
6. I lost my grip on reality a long time ago.
7. Life is full of surprises. Duh.
8. My past is what makes me who I am today.
9. I get annoyed when people call you and then you spend time on the phone listening to them talk to other people in the room with them. Dude, why did you call me in the first place if you weren't going to talk to me?
10. Parties are best when they involve playing Rook or some other game.
11. I wish I were a better conversationalist. And that I were an Oscar Meyer wiener.
12. Dogs bark. They involve maintenance if you own one. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
13. Cats meow. They have pajamas I've heard. They involve maintenance too, but probably not quite as much as a dog. Not that there's anything wrong with that either.
14. Tomorrow I'm going to be in Fort Smith and might be watching a pilot build.
15. I have low tolerance for cell phones with bad reception.
16. I'm totally terrified of getting a mental illness.
17. I wonder why my blog has so many lurkers.
18. Never in my life have I gone skydiving or bungee jumping.
19. High school was a different phase of my life. I learned some good things, but I'm glad I graduated and wasn't stuck there forever.
20. When I'm nervous I get quiet and intense. Sometimes it's hard to tell that from when I'm being my normal self though.
21. One time at a family gathering I put black olives on all my fingers. Actually, more than one time.
22. Take my advice: Don't stick a table knife in an electrical outlet. Don't put a screwdriver in there either.
23. Making my bed only happens when I change the sheets (which is seldom).
24. I'm almost always cold.
25. I'm addicted to fruit juice.
26. I want someone to volunteer to be the next SWE section president so that I won't have to be it again next year.

Safety First

The CAD guy at work apparently wasn't busy enough last week, so he had time to surf the internet and find this picture. He said it reminded him of me. I take all things he says like that as compliments. ;-) I think the mathematical equation for fun is a good touch. If you need any tips on how to be cool, let me know. I have have lots of them.

Drifting Along With The Tumbling Tumbleweed

A girl at work needed someone to kitty sit for her this week while she was traveling, so I temporarily have a cat (Tumbleweed - Tum/Kitty for short). I've had him for less than 36 hours, and it's already been an interesting time.

Tumbleweed Trap

When I got home this afternoon after leaving him alone for about 6 hours, I couldn't find him anywhere. I was fairly certain I hadn't let him sneak out when I left, but I was starting to question my own sanity. He still hadn't shown his face after I took a nap for an hour or so, so then I had to get really serious about finding him. I eventually found him on top of an air return duct between two floor joists in the basement. I could not figure out how he got up there, and apparently he couldn't figure out how to get down.

Since I rescued him, the only other trouble I've had is that I've had to clean up his puke twice since then. So far the dubious benefit of animal companionship has probably not compensated for this stress in my life. I'm just hoping he survives this week better than the plant that I had for awhile. That would be a total downer to have to tell the girl at work that her cat died while in my custody.

Annual Tax Complaint

I did my taxes today. I think I might have realized this before, but the state I live in really socks the taxes to you. The starting point for calculating my state taxes is the Adjusted Gross Income on my federal tax return. This means that they do not include any federal exemptions you had due to property taxes you paid, interest paid on mortgages, the standard exemption for the number of people you're claiming, and charitable donations if they are not made to certain entities located in this state. In a nutshell, that means they taxed me on a whole lot more income than the federal government did. Whoever wrote the tax code for this state knew what they were doing if they were trying to fill the state's pockets, but it's a raw deal for the taxpayer.

I went back and looked at my old tax records from ND, and from what I could tell their starting point is the Federal Taxable Income, which would be much nicer. Either way they do it, what I don't like is that I still get taxed on the income tax money I pay to the federal government. The states are taxing my taxes.

The software I used also gives a summary of how my federal income tax is spent, and more than 50% of those taxes go towards funding assistance programs like Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Services, etc. Fifty percent! In my opinion, that's excessive.

And This Is Why We Do FMEAs

A couple months ago my hot tub went on the fritz. Of course it did it during the coldest part of January, so I had to drain it because I didn't think I could get it repaired in time to prevent damage from all that water freezing. I suspect what may have happened is that the heater shorted, but I don't have much data to support it.

When I went to check on the hot tub that fateful day, I found that it had blown the breaker. So I reset it and then went back outside to see if I could diagnose the reason for the breaker tripping. I ran all the jets for about 30 seconds with no problems, but when I turned them off I could smell something electrically hot. Then I turned the jets back on and went by the control area to sniff around and determine the root cause. After about 20 seconds, I got a fireworks show and the breaker tripped again. When I opened up the control panel, this is what I saw. There was a reason for such big fireworks!


So the moral of this story is: this is why engineers do Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. What happens if the heater shorts? Will it trip the breaker? Start a fire? Electrocute whoever is sitting in the hot tub at the time? Much as I hate doing them, I will admit that sometimes there is a good reason to do one. I just wish doing them wasn't so painful.

Car Update

I believe I promised a car update long ago, but I just kept forgetting to post one. Yes, I have been seriously thinking about getting a car and have even done a little bit of shopping/test driving/research. So far I've visited the Dodge, Jeep, Mazda, GMC, and Toyota dealers. Plus I've looked at the other manufacturer's offerings on the internet. I still plan to visit the Subaru dealership to make sure they don't have something better to offer. And, I may stop by a Ford dealership if I can find one.

However, I'm about 85% sure that I am going to purchase the Mazda6 5-door model. A 5-door is a fancy name for a car that is a hatchback but doesn't look like a hatchback. It has a bit more zip than my current car, but the gas mileage and bike accommodations are still decent. In fact, I believe the bike accommodations will be excellent.

Now I have to do all the nitty gritty details like decide what color I want, what dealership to buy it at, should I take one off the lot or order it with the exact details I want, should I trade in my old car, keep it, or independently sell it, etc. I have to take care of all those details that are a pain in the neck. So while I'm dilly-dallying around with those and in general procrastinating, does anyone have any comments or questions on my choice? If not, please proceed to the exit and have a nice day. Thank you.

Reverse Survey

I've gotten e-mails before where it's one of those reverse survey things. The normal survey has all these questions that you fill out and forward to your friends like:
Coke or Pepsi?
Do you have any tattoos?
Have you ever shared a needle, even once, with someone from Africa since 1978? Wait no, that's what they ask you when you give blood.

Anyway, in a reverse survey someone answers the questions for you and then sends it back to you. I got some very interesting answers on the last question of the reverse survey, so I figured I would see if anybody else had some good ones.

Here's the question:
If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring?

Here's the answers I've had so far:

• Your bike (from Melanaway)
  
• Your bible (from Avis a.k.a. Kristin)
  
• Canteen/Camelbak of fresh water (from Megs)
  
• Probably some sort of James Bond super tools that only a brain like you would know exists! (from Tammy)
• A game to play (I think Marsha said this, but I couldn't find the e-mail to confirm this)

Therapy

My psychotherapy is still not going so well, so today we'll talk about my massage therapy instead. :-) For reasons I won't get into here, part of my chiropractic treatment in 2008 has involved getting a massage also (yeah, I know, it's a rough treatment). So anyway, at the start of January I had never had a massage before (yes, I am a total freak of nature). In the space of about 6 weeks, I've probably had five, and I kind of got into a routine and went several times on a Thursday at around the same time every time, so I always got the same massage therapist. Let's call her Therapist B. However, last week I ended up having a conflict with going on Thursday, so I had to go today (Monday) instead. I knew there was a different therapist on staff, so it wasn't a surprise that I got the other therapist today (we'll call her Therapist A).

I knew going in that I might be slightly prejudiced against Therapist A because all my preconceived notions of therapists had already been established by Therapist B (and one Chinese massager who didn't speak English but that doesn't count). So, I tried to keep an open mind and not make any snap judgments when I went there today. My experience today wasn't bad, it was just different. And I know sometimes different is good just like when you eat at Arby's, but I'm still conflicted about it.

I will say that Therapist A's "introduction to massage" bedside manner was better, but the thing is she wasn't playing that nice "nature" CD that Therapist B plays. Her technique was different too, and sometimes she seemed almost tentative. Some things I liked, some things I didn't. It seemed like I didn't feel quite as relaxed at the end of the session today as I have in the past. So anyway....when I had to schedule my next appointment, I requested Thursday to get Therapist B again, but I feel sort of bad about it. Maybe I should give Therapist A another chance? Or, since I like Therapist B well enough, should I just stick with her? What do YOU look for in a massage therapist, or what makes a good one?

New Shoes

Like my socks, my shoes become old friends, and I find it difficult to part with a faithful pair. But unfortunately, I wasn't sure my old pair of shoes could handle all the walking anticipated to occur in China, so I broke the "shoe buy" rule and bought a new pair of shoes right before I went to China. I would have bought a new pair in China maybe, but I figured they probably wouldn't have my size - they barely have my size here in the USA! Plus I hate buying cheap shoes. I like to pay more to get a nice pair that will last for years and feel great every time I put them on.

So anyway, I think these shoes were about 3 years old. They've been to Mexico at least once and probably to almost 10 states in the U.S. I think I had to buy new laces once. The inside lining on the heel was pretty much shot, and on one of the shoes you could see my socks through the gaping opening in the heel where the stitching had ripped out. So I guess it was time to get a new pair. I'm not completely enamored of my new pair. They kind of look like I stole them from the bowling alley, and if the snow is too deep it can seep in the breathing holes on the sides. But, I'm pretty sure they'll continue to grow on me and I'll have a hard time giving them up too. The breathing holes should be good for summer. They were the only ones at least marginally acceptable in my favorite brand and size at the only store at the mall that carried my favorite brand. Now I just have to find a black pair to replace the black shoes I own that are just like my old brown ones. The black pair is even older and starting to rip out in the same spot.....

Speaking of shoes, is it strange that I have almost as many pairs of slippers as I have pairs of shoes? OK, that's not quite true, but pretty close. The ratio of shoes that I wear regularly to the ratio of slippers I own is only 2:1. I never really understood why people wore slippers until I bought the place I live in now. When almost all your floors are not carpeted, slippers sure feel good in the winter! I'm not sure why I think anybody cares about any of this, but I like to show how neurotic I am about keeping old comfortable stuff. Speaking of that, I still have some clothes that I had in high school that I like to wear. I'm slowly having to get rid of those too because they're getting threadbare and starting to get holes in them. That's enough rambling. Hasta la pasta amigos.

My 100 Things

I've seen lots of people do this on their blogs, so I thought I would try it. 100 things about me:
1. I have intimacy and internet security fears and issues, so I don't think I can finish this list. Maybe I'll make the list and then someday share it after I've gotten enough therapy to resolve my issues.
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It's Been Forever (Almost)

Wow, I can't believe my last post was on February 3rd and it's already February 19th. I'm slipping here. Although I do have a partial excuse - first I was getting ready to go to China, and then I was in China for vacation. You won't hear about China today as I need to martial all my thoughts and pictures from the trip.

However, it was a pleasant surprise to come back to work today and see that the secret valentine person in the office struck again. Here's what it looked like this year. It was addressed to Mel from Mary (I don't work with anybody named Mary by the way). Last year it was Barbie, this year it's Hello Kitty.

You Saw It Here First

At work a week or so ago, I had a brilliant idea, and you'll hear about this brilliant invention here first. So hands off my patent! :-) The target audience for this invention is the cowboy who wants to be discrete. What is this invention you ask? Why, it's the USB memory stick drive cleverly disguised in a bolo tie. So when you're dressed up at a fancy function, you won't have to endure any ribbing from your buddies for having one of those newfangled gadgets on your person. The "Tie Drive" will come in sizes of 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB for now. Price varies depending on memory size. Payments can be made in 15 easy installments. See our ad in "Rancher" magazine.

Here's the inspiration of this invention.....

















Here's how discrete you could be....you can't even see that there's a flash drive here....












If this is successful, I'm thinking the next step would be to figure out how to incorporate a memory stick into the traditional business necktie.

You Know You're At An Engineering Conference When...

... you overhear a conversation at the breakfast table next to you, and they're discussing the failure mode of their rental car's CD player (they were from Detroit, the "Motor City" - you gotta cut them a little slack). Apparently they had some trouble with the CD player not ejecting the CD (and maybe not playing it either - I didn't catch it all). The first theory was that it was a bad solder joint, so the failure was related to temperature. Other possible factors put forth were play time elapsed, outside temperature, speed of the car, etc. (I also mentally added faulty wire harness and vibration) They even considered doing a "Design Of Experiment" on the CD player on their way home. That, ladies and gentlemen, is why engineers are so cool and why everyone wants to be one. ;-) Well, at a minimum, they at least want to claim (or is that deny?) they know one or are related to one. :-)

Speaking of wanting to be an engineer, I learned this weekend that if, starting now, no engineers retired, no engineers went into management (currently about 25% do), and American colleges kept graduating engineering students at the current graduation rate (that rate has been decreasing by the way), there would still be an engineer shortage in the future in the U.S.! The unemployment rate for engineers is less than 1.7% (basically 0) in the U.S. Now that's good news for engineers but bad news for business. Also, for the first time ever, in 2007 Japan allowed engineer immigrants into their country to work. The average age of an engineer in the U.S. is mid-to-late 40's. That means there is a huge brain trust that will be retiring soon. These are just some random facts I thought were interesting and that highlight the fact that watching the world's economy in the next few years should be interesting. If you like math and science, consider being an engineer!

Tailor Made

I'm planning to go to China in a couple weeks, and I'll have the opportunity for a tailor/seamstress there to make me some clothes. I've been told it's good to have a picture of what you want or to even take your favorite shirt, skirt, etc. along so that they can copy it in a bunch of different fabrics. Any suggestions? Leave a link in the comments to a picture, e-mail me, or just give me some suggestions if you want. Later gators.

Stale

My blog was getting a bit stale, so I figured I would post stale news to go along with it. Here is the promised summary of my Christmas vacation activities.

You already heard the new glasses part of the story....so we'll skip to when I arrived in Minnesota. We (everybody in my family except Anna) stayed at a hotel in the bustling metropolis of Otter Tail. The hotel has a small water park that we used a little bit. Then I went to Fergus for a few days. I spent one afternoon at the towering Andes (Hills) snowboarding. Then I headed to my parents' house for a few days. I saw a bunch of relatives (I won't name them all because I'll miss some and then be in trouble). Mom and I made lefse one day - like the famous soup, it was Mmmmm Mmmm Good. I went back to Fergus for New Years (thanks for being the host DanDan - way to keep the laces out), and I headed home.

Mostly I just enjoyed seeing friends and family, and I even met a few new people. I ordered some appliances for my aunt. I watched my cousin work on renovating his bathroom. I bugged my sister. Oh yeah, and one afternoon I met Melanaway at the mall, and after that I went car shopping with Mom and Dad. I will do the car update in a different post because I can't give away all my secrets at once. Needless to say, it was terribly exciting. So exciting, in fact, that I barely took any pictures on my trip. Here's a sampling of what I saw:

Two little monkeys on their new bunk bed - next comes jumping, falling off, and breaking their heads? Hopefully not for these cute monkeys. I couldn't believe a 1.5 year old could make it up and down basically without help, but somehow she managed to.








My brother, the horse.















A little cutthroat ping-pong.

This picture just cracks me up. That's all I can say.

Stuff and Things

I'm working on revamping my sidebar, so I'm saving this list for posterity and then removing it from the sidebar. The list is of charities that solicited my money via snail mail during 2007. This does not include telemarketing or e-mail solicitations. The biggest offenders were ones that I have donated to in the past. But, there are a few I've never donated to that are pretty sure if they send me a few more envelopes I'll finally give in. Dream on. Why do they send so much junk in their letters too? They should spend my hard-earned-and-then-donated money on the cause, not sending so much junk mail with little trinkets.

• Admiral Nimitz Foundation (2X)
• AdoptaPlatoon (2X)
• American Breast Cancer Foundation (7X)
• American Cancer Society (2X)
• American Heart Association
• American Institute for Cancer Research (8X)
• Amvets National Service Foundation (6X)
• Coalition to Salute America's Heroes
• Easter Seals (11X)
• Feed The Children
• Food for the Poor, Inc (2X) (They asked for money and my prayers the first time. The second time they asked for money and sent a rosary. Really weird and obnoxious.)
• Fraternal Order of Police
• Gettysburg Foundation
• Korean War Veterans National Museum & Library (2X)
• March of Dimes (7X)
• National Cancer Research Center (2X)
• National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (9X)
• National Republican Congressional Committee
• National Vietnam Veterans Committee (2X)
• Non Commissioned Officers Association/National Defense Foundation
• Paralyzed Veterans of America (11X)
• Saint Matthew's Churches Prayer By Letters (they didn't necessarily want money, but they were still obnoxious)
• Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank (2X)
• Special Olympics (7X)
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (14X)
• The Make-A-Wish Foundation (2X)
• The Salvation Army (2X)
• The Smile Train (3X)
• United States Olympic Committee
• Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (13X)
• Wounded Warriors Project (2X)

And, a comment on the voting for the tracking of my exercise this year. Too bad for half of you, I do plan to track it again this year, but as a concession to you I will put it further down on the sidebar. Those interested can still scroll down to view the progress. I have decided to do the old days of exercise tracking thing again and may add a minutes tracking on top of that. If you've got the data, flaunt it, right? The exact goal is still TBD. For more details, see the exercise accountant update when I finally get it updated.

On another note, the primary voting here is eminent, and I sure am getting tons of phone calls from all the political people urging me to vote, especially for certain candidates. I heard an interesting theory today on voting in the primaries. If you're fairly confident the candidate you like in your party will win, then go and vote for the candidate in the other party that you want him/her to run against (preferrably the "weaker" one). :-)

They Arrived

On Friday, they arrived! Who/what are they? "They" are my new glasses. It's highly irregular for me to get two new pairs in two years, but that's what you can do when you're independently wealthy (or your insurance pays for part of them). So anyway, these glasses have a bit of a story attached.

Before I hit the road on my Christmas vacation journey, I had good intentions to get the eye exam that my insurance covers most of, but as usual I procrastinated and didn't get it done. So, I set out on my journey and happened to stay at my cousin's house in Wisconsin. The story is a bit longer if I tell the whole thing, but I'll cut to the chase and say that I got a VIP eye exam at 10:00 PM that night at the Verona Vision Center with the qualified Tami Hunt, O.D. examining. I picked out my new glasses after my eyes were dilated and things were a bit blurry, but I was told they make me look more sophisticated than my old ones (by the doctor selling me the glasses). Judge for yourself.

New Glasses (Yes, I'm very excited about them.)


New Glasses with the clip-on sunglasses (and me putting on my gangsta face)


Old Glasses (for your reference in determining level of improvement)

Note: Although this is A red sweater, it is not THE red sweater.

You're it

Well, Ms. Jen tagged me the other day to do a book thing/meme.

The rules: List five books that you have read in 2007 that you love. These do not have to be books that came out in 2007, but books that you (re)discovered/(re)read in 2007 that have become or are important to you. Link back to the person who tagged you. Tag five others.

First, I struggled with even thinking of five books I read in 2007. Then I realized it was a piece of cake:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
   
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
   

There! That was easy! I read the whole 7-book series in the space of a couple months this fall - I hadn't read any of them previously. Plus I could list two "bonus" books. :-)

Okay, okay, I know that was a total cop-out. Fine....I'll do this for real.... Here are 5 (plus a few more) I could think of. I'm not sure they all became important to me, but I did read them.

1. The whole 7-book Harry Potter series - I found these books very fascinating. The imagination it took to put that all together must be incredible. I also found it interesting how love was the common thread throughout the whole series even though the book was about witches.
2. Hollywood Tough - A Shane Scully novel by Stephen J. Cannell. Not his best Shane Scully novel, but it was still an enjoyable read.
3. The Devil's Workshop and King Con - both also by Stephen J. Cannell, but with different main characters. I learned some interesting stuff about being a hobo and riding trains and about being a con artist.
4. Plum Island and Spencerville - both by Nelson Demille. I'm not positive, but I think I read both of these in 2007. I don't really keep a list of all the books I've read. The years start to run together after awhile. I usually enjoy Nelson Demille's books. Plum Island was excellent I thought. Spencerville not as much. It was fascinating in a morbid kind of way.
5. The Holy Bible - I must admit I stole this idea from Jen, but I can honestly say that I re-read parts of it this year, enjoyed it, and it is important to me.
6. The First Horseman - by John Case, it's a fictional book about using cholera as a biological weapon. He also wrote The Genesis Code, which I found interesting too (but I didn't read it this year).
   

Yeah....I am definitely not much of a non-fiction person. I don't feel like tagging 5 others, but if you're a blogger and want to do this, go ahead and run with it.

This is totally off the topic, but this global warming stuff is fun. It's the middle of winter and we had 60 degrees (F) outside this afternoon with thunderstorms and a few potential tornadoes tonight. Is it too far east for a chinook to have made it here?

Coming in future posts: a summary of my Xmas/New Years vacation, an update on the car search, a new glasses picture, and maybe some boring stuff about my life. You wouldn't want to miss that, would you?

Summary and Resolutions

It's hard to believe 2007 has come and gone. For posterity, here's the exercise summary for the year:

.............................................
Goal: Exercise 3/5 of the days in the year (219 of 365). To count as a day of exercise, I must exercise at least 30 minutes that day at medium-to-strenuous levels.
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Days of exercise in 2007: 197 of 365
...........................................
January: 11 of 31
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February: 12 of 28
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March: 18 of 31
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April: 16 of 30
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May: 20 of 31
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June: 18 of 30
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July: 19 of 31
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August: 14 of 31
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September: 17 of 30
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October: 20 of 31
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November: 18 of 30
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December: 14 of 31
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For us visual learners (and nerds who can't resist plotting a good set of data):



For my insurance today, I took the annual health summary and found that my healthiness number had improved from 73 to 83, and I think part of that was due to my increased exercise level. Having a healthier number doesn't get me anything except personal satisfaction and maybe a longer life.

I was slightly disappointed that I didn't meet my goal for 2007. Though it wasn't the primary goal, I also thought that with this increased exercise level I might possibly lose a couple pounds, but it turns out I weighed exactly the same in January 2007 and January 2008 (+/- 1 pound). And, I pretty much stayed that same weight all of 2007.

Now comes the hard part. How should I track my exercise this year? By minutes per day, per week, per month? Counting minutes is fraught with peril because how do you determine whether you count stretching and cool-down time? Should I not track my exercise at all? Should I up the ante and set a loftier goal even though I didn't meet my 2007 goal? Cast your vote on the right sidebar please. And leave a comment corresponding to your vote on this post if you wish! :-)

Security Measures

When you're an adult, security measures mean you lock your door, go through airport security, and make sure your toaster is unplugged. When you're a one or three year old, security measures means you have your special blanket, stuffed animal, and pacifier/thumb collected so that you can go to sleep.

Spreading Germs

On my short drive to work yesterday, I was idly wondering why colds are more prevalent in winter than in summer. I've heard all the theories about close proximity, etc., and then I happened to get a link to this site in my e-mail inbox. It doesn't really explain why colds happen more in the winter, but it does address the flu season. Happy reading. Hopefully the shelf life of this article isn't too short and you can actually access the article.

I'm Back

Hello, my finely feathered faithful readers. I'm back. I suppose most of you probably didn't know I was gone. I got back today from a quick trip to Mexico for work (3rd time this year - that's a record for me). It was one of those deals where I asked a question last Thursday in a meeting about something I saw in an e-mail, and next thing I knew the project leader was strongly recommending I be in Mexico for the meetings I had innocently inquired about. After the request for travel approval went way up the chain because of international travel budget restrictions, by the time I got the final approval on Monday morning, I had an hour and a half to book my travel arrangements and pack, and then I was headed to the airport. That way the company could make sure they spent the maximum amount on a plane ticket. :-) This is why anybody who works in corporate America likes the Dilbert comic strip.

That's it about it. I wasn't there long enough to make a big long list of stuff like I have in the past. I didn't even take any pictures. But I do recommend ordering the "arrachera" if you're ever in Monterrey. It is muy excelente. As usual, so was the salsa. Peace out, amigos.

Name That Place

As I was reading through a magazine the other day, I came across this familiar sight. Do I have anybody who can name this place? Here's two hints:

1. The conference mentioned at the beginning of the article was written about in the Winter 2007 issue of a magazine.
2. If you've traveled somewhere with me in the last five years, your odds of recognizing this place increase.

For those of you who don't have the advantage of #2, you could always try googling it. Speaking of that, you know your company name or product has arrived when:

1. The name of your company becomes a verb (for example, "google" it).
2. An engineer/scientist names an electrical waveform after your product (the "Hershey Kiss" waveform).

Did I already talk about this once? It seems familiar, but I think I might have started forming the above thoughts a long time ago and then I never verbalized them in a post. I must be getting old if I can't remember something like that, and I'm too lazy to go back and check, so just deal with it if it's a repeat.

"Sage" Advice For Thanksgiving

This weekend I was reminded of a quote I saw at an exercise club a few years back. It said, "Remember, holidays are people events, not food events." While I did enjoy the people, I also totally ate way too much. I've never eaten so many times in my life and so much food when I didn't feel hungry. But it just tasted so good! I didn't take any pictures either, so you're stuck with using your imagination to see all the fun times I had.

While driving to Thanksgiving dinner, I had a great idea. I think people should start making Thanksgiving songs. That way we wouldn't have to start listening to Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving. How in the world am I supposed to get into the Thanksgiving mood when all I hear on the drive to dinner are Christmas songs? Does anybody have a Thanksgiving song to start off with next year?

A Must-Have For Everyone, Even If You Don't Have A Hitch

Why wouldn't you buy one of these? And while you're at it, take two, they're small. Which one is your favorite? I think my favorite is the surrendering deer.

View the Hitch Critters

Eso Si Que Es

After wearing these last week, I decided that it was probably time to dispose of this faithful pair, much as I would have loved to keep them. Unfortunately, they did not get the opportunity to be worn for the last time in Europe and then discarded in a European wastebasket. Not all sock dreams get to be fulfilled.

Drowning

Don't you just hate it when the mice who live near your hot tub ignore all the "Swim At Your Own Risk" and "No Lifeguard On Duty" signs and go swimming in your hot tub anyway? Then you have to scoop their bodies out when you find them a couple days later and fully drain the tub. Blech.

On a different note, a couple weeks ago a technician in the lab retired. That's not very remarkable in itself, but what was remarkable was that he filled out all the paperwork with HR and all that, but his boss didn't know until 4:00 PM on the day before he retired that he was retiring. Now that's what I call a lack of effective communication. The technician was a bit of an odd duck to start with, but I that still takes the cake on retirement stories so far. Ironically, his name is Norm.

Reminder

At the end of the day today I was feeling a bit down as the day didn't go all that well. But, when I checked another blog I regularly visit, I was reminded that I forgot to think of three things I'm thankful for today. I've noticed that's much harder to do on a not-so-good day. So here goes. I'm thankful...

1. ....for sleep at night, which helps me to recover from the previous day and to have a fresh perspective in the morning.
2. ....for the e-mail of appreciation and thanks that I received from a co-worker today.
3. ....I have not caught the illness/cold that a lot of people around here have right now (knock on particle board).
4. ....for a friend online to IM.
   

See? That wasn't so hard after all. I even had one left over. Thanks Jen for the reminder. Now I'm going to go do #1 so I can continue with #3. Farm out, right arm, gravy, all that stuff.

For one brief moment today....

I was scheduled to go to Korea for an "emergency" work situation next week. But alas, they decided I needed to stay home and continue my work here while they sent someone else to deal with the situation. Lucky me I'll probably get to be on a conference call with Korea in the middle of the night instead. Oh well maybe next time. There's always Mexico in the January/February time frame.

Foxy

Here's a few pictures from the last week. I've seen the fox in the picture below three times in a week's span. This is the best picture I managed to get of him.



Tonight Reggie almost ran over a baby raccoon. Raccoons, foxes, opossums; the wildlife has really been out in force this fall.

Even More Ridiculous

I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday, and they already had some Christmas stuff set up outside. On November 3rd! The poor pumpkins weren't even cold in their graves yet, and the turkeys haven't even approached the grave. The candy hadn't even fully settled in the kids' stomachs! I would advise selling any stock you have in Wal-Mart because I think their health insurance is going to increase sharply after all their employees go stark raving mad from listening to Christmas music for two months straight. I kid you not - they already had the Christmas music going over the PA system. Too far, Wal-Mart. Too far.

Hannah Montana

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I finally heard about a Hannah Montana concert on the radio enough times that I had to go and look up what exactly the rage was all about. I also heard some mom on the radio a few weeks ago saying that she had bid more than $1200 on e-bay for a pair of tickets to a Hannah Montana concert so that she could take her daughter to it. At that time, the bidding wasn't closed yet either. Can you believe that? That's totally out of control.

Warning! Boring Math Explanation! Do Not Read if Allergic to Math!

I had a request to explain a couple of the previous engineering jokes. The two jokes with the punch lines were based off a mathematics/physics concept call a cross product. To explain a cross product, you have to start with a vector. A vector ALWAYS has a magnitude (scalar value) and a direction. A cross product is the multiplication of two vectors, and the result of the cross product is another vector that tells you how close to being perpendicular the two vectors are. The direction of the resultant vector is always perpendicular to both of the vectors that were multiplied. Thus, three dimensional space is required to do this operation.

If you cross vector A with vector B, the resultant magnitude is A*B*sin(angle between A and B), and the direction is determined using the right hand rule. Put your right hand fingers in the direction of A, fold your fingers toward B, and where your thumb is pointing is the resulting direction. When A and B are perpendicular (90 degrees between them), the sine of 90 degrees is 1, so the resulting magnitude is A*B. If the two vectors are parallel, the sine of 0 degrees or 180 degrees is 0, and the cross product is the vector 0.

One of the most common uses of the cross product is to determine torque. Usually you have a distance vector determined by the length of your wrench that points parallel to your wrench. Then you exert a force on your wrench perpendicular to the wrench, which when you take the cross product of these two vectors causes a torque in a direction perpendicular to the force and the distance. This is also why a longer wrench creates more torque - because the magnitude of the torque (cross product) is determined by the force*distance. The other common use of the cross product is to determine how much force a magnetic field will exert on an electronic charge.

So, the reason the joke is funny when it asks what you get when you cross a grape with an elephant is because the answer takes the cross product of the vector grape with the vector elephant. Statistics show 99% of the population considers these kinds of jokes to be lame. And, in order to take a cross product, both things must be vectors (no scalars allowed!).

Did you make it through all of that? How much drool is on your keyboard? Any vacant eyes yet? Was that so exciting that now everybody wants to be an engineer? Was the explanation so skilled that I should become a math or physics teacher? Probably not since it's hard to cram a whole semester of physics into a two paragraph explanation. ;-) But, it was fun for me to take a trip down college class lane. Next week: The joys of taking a dot product using vectors.