Alien Engineering

This really speaks for itself. Since I am surrounded by engineers and have been all my life, this speaks to me in profound ways. It hearkens to my childhood when I was regaled with high intensity plasma barriers, multipart insulation and fluid dynamics. Those were the days!

Fun and Games on the Road

Generally, when I am on the road it's a boring routine. Drive to the airport, park, check in, stand in security line, feel violated if they check my bag, wait in a noisy airport with the press of humanity, fly in a noisy and cramped plane, land and get bag, get rental car, drive to hotel, try to sleep, go to work the next day and work 12-14 hours per day for 2-3 days and do it in reverse order to get home.

While some trips are cool like to Singapore, Monte Carlo, London, Tokyo, New York, Gaithersburg, etc., most are to places like Racine, Manitowoc (Wisconsin), Sidney (Nebraska) and other garden spots. Business travel is not like it used to be and is getting worse. Now that I have reached 1 million miles with Delta, I don't feel the need to get miles as much.

Once in a while, though, we do have some fun. Even in Racine. One of the guys on the implementation team bought what he thought was a dead fox in China. Actually it was a dead fox but made into a stole. He really didn't know what it was until I put it on this week and showed them how the mouth is the catch for the foot so it will stay around your neck.

Everyone was totally grossed out saying they didn't understand how I could do that. It smelled a little musty, but not bad. I could have used it outside, it was VERY cold (snowing) for April 3rd. In any case, we all got a good laugh out of it.

In any case, Mr. Fox from Racine, via China wishes all of you a Happy Easter! He is going after the bunny but the Peeps are safe. They are no good unless they are really stale anyway. Couple of months....

Dad

(Wow, I REALLY need to lose that 30 pounds!!! No Peeps for me)

43 Things

So, today I am in lovely Racine, WI at a customer. They make many consumer products that you may use every day, Pledge, Ziploc, Oust, Suave, etc. Nice people, though it's difficult at times to get them to do what you need so your job can get done. All customers are the same in different ways.

Since this blog is such a vast wasteland, I thought I would at least make the attempt to put another post out here. It's odd, I don't write because I don't think people would be interested. Maybe because I lack the vision to see what is interesting in my life. So, let's find some things.

There is a web site out there called 43Things.com which is somewhat interesting. Basically you list 43 things you would like to do and then I guess you check them off. I didn't spend a lot of time there, but the concept was interesting. So, here is at least a partial list of my 43 things.

Visit Africa
Visit South America
(I need both continents and then I will have 6 out of 7. Antarctica is a longshot)
Take all my grandchildren fishing at least once (preferrably on a nice boat)
Be a cool Grandpa
Take Debi back to Japan so she can see her birthplace and do it before all the Japanese is gone.
Live for 6 months in England doing genealogy
Get a degree in Art/Photography
Get photo/article published by a major magazine
Finally get my websites so they are almost self-sustaining
Lose 30 pounds before I am 60
Lose 30 pounds before I am 59
Lose 30 pounds before I am 58
Lose 30 pounds before I am 57 (you get the idea)
Finally finish my home theater and actually watch a movie in it.
Play Tevye in any production
Do a standup comedy routine in some dive club and get heckled.
Nail the heckler!!!!!
Retire with more than enough money to live comfortably

That's a pretty good start, I guess. Let's see how I do over time. As I accomplish them, I will chronicle them here. Maybe I can even get Mom to participate....