A Week of Fishing

Today is Saturday, and since I have been posting around the end of each week, I figured I might as well throw something out here. Last weekend Liz and I ventured to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. We went last year toward the end of the season and had a wonderful time. It was the first time we had been there in quite a while and it was purely fantastic. Last weekend was opening weekend and again it was good time. We did not get into the spirit of the Renaissance to the same extent we did last year, but I still greatly enjoy a day at the Shire. It has been colder outside the past times that I’ve been there, so going to the Faire reminds me of the Fall. Now I am in the feeling of Fall, and changing leaves, and Halloween, but still a long ways off. Next time I go to the Ren Faire, I will wait until the end of the season, and I think I will enjoy it more.

Anyway, I had an odd thought about the business world this week and felt obliged to share it. You know the phrase: “Catch a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” That is a wise saying, but I believe quite the opposite is true in the business world. Allow me to explain.

I have been well known in my past 2-3 jobs as an Excel wiz. I wear that hat proudly. I greatly enjoy creating models and manipulating data to generate results viable for decision making. When I started my current job, I was introduced as the Excel expert which greatly increased my popularity. The more people I met and was friendly to, the more micro projects I got to help people work through their projects. I really enjoy that aspect of my job and that place in my career. In my past job there was one other guy in the office that was, well, almost as good as me. I moved a bit faster and knew more techniques, but he knew as well as I did how to figure things out. Namely, if he needed to create some sort of macro, you don’t have to write out the code, some one else in the world has probably created a similar macro before. We both knew this well. “I need a macro that will sort and combine 3 sheets of address data, sort by last name, and delete any duplicates.” What do you do? Google Excel + Macro + address sort + delete duplicates. Before you know it, you find somebody out there that posed a similar question, and some Excel / VBA guru that answered their question by posting code. Copy and paste the code into your work book and voila! My favorite website was called CPearson, my coworker at the time often found code on MrExel. Either way, we could generate results quickly.

To get back to my original discussion point. One day at my previous job, I had another coworker ask how I write such elaborate macros. Granted I can write my own macros these days, but none the less, I mentioned the websites that I often find this code and explained my process. The person was grateful, but I somewhat doubt she ever tried it out. None the less, the other Excel guy in the office overheard me sharing trade secrets and later pulled me aside. You can’t be telling people about those sites, if they learn how to do all the technical stuff we do, they won’t need us anymore.” He said this in a joking way, but clearly had some truth in his statement. That was over a year ago and I still think about it now and then. He made a good point, I stay busy at my job helping people with their Excel questions and creating technical models, if I shared my knowledge and people were able to do things on their own, I wouldn’t be as busy. Some may consider this terribly wrong, but in the corporate world, you have to hoard your skills to be known and prove yourself useful.

The wise saying makes sense and holds true for most settings in the world, but in business: “TEACH a man to fish, you’ll have a job for a month. CATCH a man a fish, you’ll have a job for a lifetime.

The Sweet Sounds of Risk Management

I’ve been working at my current job for 5 full months now. I have had a great deal of different experiences and have learned a lot. I am happy to say that I’ve enjoyed my job and the company that I work for. I have also been fairly certain that people around here like me and are happy with the work I’ve done. This was recently confirmed when I was offered a new position. I really didn’t see it coming. I knew our treasurer was looking to hire someone new, but didn’t really find out what position she was hiring for. Then one day, she pulled me into her office, and offered me a new job. Apparently, my boss’s boss thought I could be a good fit for what she is looking for. Though I have no experience in that particular field, I know the company well and have a good understanding of our accounting.

After a little discussion of salary and title, I accepted the offer the next day. I am now the Risk Management Coordinator. What exactly does this mean? I’m not 100% sure. I know I will be doing a lot with our insurance policy and developing a return to work program. I also know I will be reviewing claims against us, and forecasting the amount of money we need to set aside for insurance and claims. It may sound a little dull, but I think it could be fun. My new boss seams great, it is definitely a step up, and I will probably spend more time talking to people instead of plugging away at a computer.

I am excited to learn something new and gain some additional responsibility. The new position is effective immediately, so wish me luck as I dive right in. Given the topic of my new position, I felt obliged to leave the reader with this memorable Seinfeld scene.

GEORGE: Alright. Listen, I gotta get some reading done. You mind if I do this here? I can't concentrate in my apartment.

JERRY: (checking out George's textbook) Risk management?

GEORGE: Yeah. Steinbrenner wants everyone in the front office to give a lecture in their area of business expertise.

JERRY: Well what makes them think you're a risk management expert?

GEORGE: I guess it's on my resume.

…………… Later in the episode.

GEORGE: I take an eye test; I flunk it, the next thing you know I am swinging to the sweet sounds of risk management.

In Waiting

I am writing this in an airport waiting for a flight to Nashville Tennessee. I figured this would be a good way to kill time until it was time to get seated. My flight today is on Southwest airlines. Now I haven’t flown many airlines in my time, but I think Southwest is alright. There is no assigned seating, you just get a boarding position based on when you arrived at the airport. I think this is a good system. If you are picky about having a window or aisle seat, you just have to get to the airport early. If you arrive late, you are assured to land yourself a middle seat between two people, but at least you get to choose the people to sit between. Last time I flew I was one of the late comers and had to sit in the middle, but I was lucky to find a seat between two relatively skinny individuals. The thing I find funny is the people that fly together, but still refuse to sit in a middle seat. I don’t blame them, but recently I sat myself down between a father and son. Neither of them wanted to have a middle seat, so they foolishly hoped no one would sit between them. I plunked myself down, and forced them to have very little conversation. Silly people. I get to board in the middle of the pack today; perhaps I’ll score a non middle seat.

The post was made in two sections 4 days apart. On that flight, I did not end up in a middle seat, but found an aisle seat along with 2 other people in my row. It was still cramped. I think they need to make these seats a little wider. I’m not huge by any means and my shoulders travel past both sides of the seats. Anyway, I am making the 2nd part of this post on the plane on my way back from Nashville. Normally my computer would be in the overhead bin, but I scored a window seat with no middle person, so I have my bag sitting on the middle seat. Though it makes me a little queasy, I love to look out the window of a plane and see all of the clouds beneath us. As a side note, I really like that this airline still serves peanuts on its flight.

There is surely a lot I could talk about in the post with all the work I’ve been doing lately and what not, but that would take up too much of this post and no one cares all that much. I’ll get to the goods… Liz and I found out we are having a boy!!! I am so excited! There was a good part of me that was hoping to have a boy. I also really want a girl some day, but hooray for the boy and the teaching him sports, and taking him on adventures, and all of that great father / son stuff. I can’t wait!! While I was in Tennessee Liz told me I should look for something to buy him. I got so excited about that idea. When I got there, I kept an eye out, but I was working 10 hour days and had 2 hour fancy dinners to attend that cut into any time to go shopping, plus I didn’t have my own car. When we were in the airport before coming home, I did take some time to look around the gift shops. I found some things, but they were really weird, or obscenely overpriced. There actually was a baby store, but they didn’t have any Nashville clothing, just animals and inappropriate sayings like “milkaholics anonymous” or “I love boobies”. I would never buy anything like that. I found some cute onesies that said “future country music star” and “little buckaroo” I liked those a lot, especially the buckaroo, but they were $30. I wouldn’t even spend that much for a sweatshirt for myself, let alone a small piece of fabric for the baby. Am I silly for thinking that is too much to spend on a baby outfit? I don’t know. Unfortunately, I am coming home empty handed.

I believe we are beginning our decent into Baltimore, so I am going to sign off. Thanks for reading.

Slight Change

As much as I log on here to make new posts, I never really get around to reading my old posts. It is interesting to go back and see what I wrote about. Today I happen to read the “about me” section and realized that it was very out of date. I outright said in the about me section that I dislike my job, and that is no longer the case. Alas, it has been updated and I fell much better about it.

Since I happen to have a camera with me at work, I thought it would be a good time to update the picture of my cubical. You can see that my new work space is a bit better than that old work space. One of the panels in my cube is a window which is really nice. I don’t feel as closed in, and when the people across the hall have their office doors open, I can see outside. The only awkward part about the window is that the fax machine is on the other side. Whenever someone goes to send a fax, they stand square in front of me and try to avoid making eye contact. Most of the time it is pretty funny.

In this post I am including a special picture for Keith. He had requested some time ago to see and updated picture of my cubical to check out the basketball hoop that we had one at Dave and Busters. The picture that I put up does not show the hoop, and I couldn’t find another angle that captured the essence of my cubical and included the hoop. Therefore, here is a picture of the basketball hoop. It is located on the right side of my cube, around the wall in the other picture I put up.

A Step Back in Time

The last week or so I have had the privilege of doing some inventory counting at one of our companies cylinder plants. I have to say that this was an experience that I will not soon forget. Walking into this plant was like walking to a factory you would picture from 40 years ago. Most of the people working there were either young guys working for the summer, or people that appear to have spent most of their lives at this plant. They are covered in sweat and dirt and are all working very hard.

Aside from the building being beat up and unfixed in 50+ years, the oddest thing I found at the plat was that almost every employee smoked. At this day in age I was very surprised. I feel like it was the 50’s or 60’s and they hadn’t yet heard that smoking was bad for you. Then again, most of them probably didn’t care because they were destroying their body in the work they are doing anyway. It is more likely that they will die from the smoke coming from the forge, or bits of steel filling their lungs than cigarette smoke anyway.

The plant has apparently got really bad in the past few years. While pushing cylinders through the process, they just started stacking up the ones that failed for some reason or another. Instead of scrapping them or reworking them, they just found an empty piece of real estate to stack them up. Our count of inventory that has just been sitting around outside for 3+ years totaled over 29,000 cylinders! Ridiculous.

Aside from the feeling of the plant taking me into yesteryear, I learned some very interesting history about our company. I knew some of our plants had been around for a number of years, but I thought that our company name was introduced at the end of last year. I was way off! Our name was formed in the early 1900’s when 2 companies that were building rail cars and other metal items combined. It was at that time that the plant I visited moved to Harrisburg. The routes of our company actually trace all the way back to 1742 when I guy bought some land and built a forge to produce wagon wheels. How sweet is that!? The company I worked for has been forging steel for over 260 years. They produced bomb casings during the world wars, and even made cannon balls for the Revolutionary War. SWEET!

Here are some pictures of the cylinder counting. And for a bit of history, the GM of the plant found this old newspaper from the 2nd WW. The top headline is "... to celebrate 200 years of progress." Check out that sub-headline. Very non-politically correct.

To New Readers of My Blog

It has come to my attention that some members in my family and possibly other friends have stumbled across my web log. In fact, I believe some of them who may not know as much about web journals have expressed concern that my personal notes are being leaked to the public. I assure all of you new readers that this is not the case. I created this page for anyone in the world who may take interest in my life to learn about me and what is going on. There is nothing in all of the 35+ posts that I wish to keep a secret simply because all things shared are the truth, and I choose what content to make public and what to keep to myself.

If you are new to this page, then I gladly welcome you. Feel free to read through all of the past posts. You may find things in there of interest, or it may be boring. There are times of humor and times of sadness. You may even find some things that are surprising or even offensive. I hope that is not the case, but I stand by what I have written in the past. If in fact the posts give you thoughts or emotions you wish to express, feel free to leave comments. Take a tour around and enjoy yourself. Just remember, most of the writing has purely been “Nonsense From a Bored Man.”

I’m in the Juice Isle

Yes, I am in the juice isle that others know as work. Everyone else is off having fun. I can see they all have party hats on. This week has been rough to work because the week of the 4th of July everybody in Liz’s family takes off to spend together eating delicious food and playing games.

Liz and I spent last weekend with her family as everybody came in and was getting their wonderful week started. There was a great time to be had, and it was painful to leave. It was even more painful to come to work knowing that most of Liz’s extended family was having a great time, and knowing that this coming weekend I get to go up to Camp for a weekend of golf crazed fun with my family. There is so much going on… how could I possibly work?

I've been doing my best to be productive, but it has been a rough week. I would love nothing more than to blow off the afternoon and be home, or have some fun, but oh... responsibility. Good thing this is a 4 day week. I'm gearing myself up to get out of here this afternoon and drive up for a weekend of great fun and excitement.

I wish everybody a great 4th of July weekend! Wish me luck in golfing this weekend and not blowing myself up in our annual fireworks display.