Well I survived jury duty. In the end I was picked as an alternate so I didn't have to deliberate the case. I'll reflect more on it later, but for now I've got a ton of catching up to do.
It has been way cold since I've been on jury duty and we haven't ran the heat in our workshop. It will take a few days for it to thaw out! But we've been debating adding insulation to it so I grabbed some this evening to install tomorrow if I get stuck here in the snow. Looks like I'll be in it the rest of the week
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Jury Duty 2nd Day
Still windy out there. I managed to call on two customers this morning. Everyone is understanding but still business continues to go on with me off the grid.
There is a whiner in every bunch. Someone who wants to stir the drama. We've got one in the bunch. I try to ignore that person, we are here for the duration regardless. Why do people find fuel in bringing out the negative. Still. 1 out of 14 being a whiner isn't bad.
Not a lot different today. Hopefully we will be done tomorrow. I sure hope so because I've hardly slept. I haven't really thought about the case, but just life in general. I don't think anyone brings a child into this world hoping they will become a drug addict, thief, rapist, or even a murderer, but still we have drug addicts, thieves, rapist and murderers. As I look around, everyone is someone's son or daughter. Many of us have children of their own.
How do we keep our children from going down that path? You can't isolate them. Eventually they all must go out into the world. If they don't have any exposure to the dangers of the world, how will they know which choices are right? At the same time if e expose them too much to an environment then do we normalize them to these problems?
Obviously there are no perfect answers. We all do the best that we can. With the exception of a few very disturbed people in the world, I don't think many of us are pruning our children to be the perfect criminal.
There was plenty to do when I got home to keep my mind occupied. A wonderful meal, sit down with the family, work on some bugs in TAS, order some parts, and squeeze a little design time in before I headed to bed
PS, jotted this down last night but was too tired to type.
There is a whiner in every bunch. Someone who wants to stir the drama. We've got one in the bunch. I try to ignore that person, we are here for the duration regardless. Why do people find fuel in bringing out the negative. Still. 1 out of 14 being a whiner isn't bad.
Not a lot different today. Hopefully we will be done tomorrow. I sure hope so because I've hardly slept. I haven't really thought about the case, but just life in general. I don't think anyone brings a child into this world hoping they will become a drug addict, thief, rapist, or even a murderer, but still we have drug addicts, thieves, rapist and murderers. As I look around, everyone is someone's son or daughter. Many of us have children of their own.
How do we keep our children from going down that path? You can't isolate them. Eventually they all must go out into the world. If they don't have any exposure to the dangers of the world, how will they know which choices are right? At the same time if e expose them too much to an environment then do we normalize them to these problems?
Obviously there are no perfect answers. We all do the best that we can. With the exception of a few very disturbed people in the world, I don't think many of us are pruning our children to be the perfect criminal.
There was plenty to do when I got home to keep my mind occupied. A wonderful meal, sit down with the family, work on some bugs in TAS, order some parts, and squeeze a little design time in before I headed to bed
PS, jotted this down last night but was too tired to type.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Jury Duty 1st Day
Today I had to appear for jury duty for the first time ever. Not on my list of ambitions, but eventually most of us have to do it, or maybe I was just not clever enough to get out of it :)
As I walk into the building I see portraits of the president and vice president. I think to myself, how much money do they spend across the United States changing portraits when a new president comes into office? Surely they could put a nice picture of the capital or Washington Monument in place of them and save the taxpayers money.
I approach the elevator and see a few friends. We exchange Hi's then they inform me that only one of the six elevators in the building are working. I don't know whether to applaud the government for cutting cost during these economic times or see it as a clear sign of the governments inability to fix anything.
About 40 of us have been herded into a room awaiting instructions. There are no newspapers, magazines, or other news related items in this room. Only fliers about what the court systems do for us, nice if I were looking for something to put me to sleep. Hardly grand for a guy who has a hard time standing still. If I have to give a few days to the government, I'd rather work on the elevators. I could probably have a couple of them going in this time
I jotted the above down on a scrap piece of paper while I was in the waiting room this morning, then my pen ran out of ink. I couldn't bring any technology with me. No cell phones, PCs, Ipads, Ipods, newspapers, magazines, etc. They have about obsoleted the pen, except when the technology disappears, either by demand of the courts, a disaster, or by our choice. It is so hard to just be still. Even as I sat there alone (I'm not really one to start a conversation), my mind still raced on what I could be doing and needed to get done.
The courts definitely have jury selection down to a science. Of the 40 or so jurors, no one stood out a bit. They all fit the bill of the average American.
As jurors began telling the judge why they couldn't serve, I realized that I'm on call till May, might as well get it over with during the slow times. So I stayed quiet knowing that statistically I was the target juror for either the prosecutor or defense.
There is never a good time to be on jury duty. Especially when you run a small business. Is the phone ringing? Do customers need me? What opportunities are we missing?
The judge asked if any of us had heard about the case on the news and since I haven't hardly watched the news in several years it was hard for me to get out of jury duty. How about that, I finally found a use for the evening news.
I ran to my car during lunch. That's some wind we had today. 25 emails, 6 missed calls, two voicemails. And that's with Amber taking care of the bulk of business matters today. No time to sit down for lunch. Two business opportunities missed. I may have salvaged one during lunch but the other is lost. Just a few hours delay can be the difference between working and being out in the cold.
I can't talk about the case, but I'll keep you posted on my jury duty ventures. According to the courts I will find my experience "both rewarding and fascinating"
We'll see
As I walk into the building I see portraits of the president and vice president. I think to myself, how much money do they spend across the United States changing portraits when a new president comes into office? Surely they could put a nice picture of the capital or Washington Monument in place of them and save the taxpayers money.
I approach the elevator and see a few friends. We exchange Hi's then they inform me that only one of the six elevators in the building are working. I don't know whether to applaud the government for cutting cost during these economic times or see it as a clear sign of the governments inability to fix anything.
About 40 of us have been herded into a room awaiting instructions. There are no newspapers, magazines, or other news related items in this room. Only fliers about what the court systems do for us, nice if I were looking for something to put me to sleep. Hardly grand for a guy who has a hard time standing still. If I have to give a few days to the government, I'd rather work on the elevators. I could probably have a couple of them going in this time
I jotted the above down on a scrap piece of paper while I was in the waiting room this morning, then my pen ran out of ink. I couldn't bring any technology with me. No cell phones, PCs, Ipads, Ipods, newspapers, magazines, etc. They have about obsoleted the pen, except when the technology disappears, either by demand of the courts, a disaster, or by our choice. It is so hard to just be still. Even as I sat there alone (I'm not really one to start a conversation), my mind still raced on what I could be doing and needed to get done.
The courts definitely have jury selection down to a science. Of the 40 or so jurors, no one stood out a bit. They all fit the bill of the average American.
As jurors began telling the judge why they couldn't serve, I realized that I'm on call till May, might as well get it over with during the slow times. So I stayed quiet knowing that statistically I was the target juror for either the prosecutor or defense.
There is never a good time to be on jury duty. Especially when you run a small business. Is the phone ringing? Do customers need me? What opportunities are we missing?
The judge asked if any of us had heard about the case on the news and since I haven't hardly watched the news in several years it was hard for me to get out of jury duty. How about that, I finally found a use for the evening news.
I ran to my car during lunch. That's some wind we had today. 25 emails, 6 missed calls, two voicemails. And that's with Amber taking care of the bulk of business matters today. No time to sit down for lunch. Two business opportunities missed. I may have salvaged one during lunch but the other is lost. Just a few hours delay can be the difference between working and being out in the cold.
I can't talk about the case, but I'll keep you posted on my jury duty ventures. According to the courts I will find my experience "both rewarding and fascinating"
We'll see
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Siemens S7-1200 PLC Training
I recently attended some Siemens S7-1200 PLC training and have to say I am thoroughly impress with the direction Siemens is taking their product. Gone are the days of multiple softwares to configure the PLC, HMI, communications, etc. They haven't just taking the various software packages and crammed them under the same name. They have blended the various softwares so that they truly feel like one. Currently the new software only supports the S7-1200, but support for the S7-300 and S7-400 is coming next year.
Their US support is based in Johnson City, TN and they offer free support from 8-5 Monday through Friday. I haven't used their support yet but others at the training were raving about it.
You can purchase one of our Siemens S7-1200 Trainers at the link below
http://www.theautomationstore.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=140&category_id=60&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2
If you need the software, then we can also include it with our trainers at the following link
http://www.theautomationstore.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=141&category_id=60&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2
Their US support is based in Johnson City, TN and they offer free support from 8-5 Monday through Friday. I haven't used their support yet but others at the training were raving about it.
You can purchase one of our Siemens S7-1200 Trainers at the link below
http://www.theautomationstore.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=140&category_id=60&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2
If you need the software, then we can also include it with our trainers at the following link
http://www.theautomationstore.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=141&category_id=60&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2
Sunday, December 5, 2010
First post
Hi everyone. So I've been putting off and putting off starting a blog for years. What do I write about? Can I think of something to write about every few days? How personal is too personal? How to I keep it from being too stiff. Obviously I want to use this blog so people can get to know me, but I'd like to plug my business from time to time too ;)
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