At lunch today, Andrew mention that when he lived in Seattle he was very impressed with the way the government provided online support and information for things like the DMV, the tax office, etc., but how that when he walks into the office or call on the phone to get help, there is either none or it is surly, lazy, and passive/aggressive. With North Carolina, it is just the opposite. Online infrastructure is not so great, but the people at the counter or on the phone are happy, helpful, and kind. Amazing. It is absolutely true and I prefer the latter most of the time.
Category: Work
Stepan stopped by my desk again and told me a little story about his great grandfather, Nikolai, who was originally from the Ukraine. Nikolai was a successful, small family farmer. So successful, it turns out, that In the 1930’s, Stalin’s thugs took the farm and sent the whole family to Siberia. Somehow, Nikolai was able to bribe two guards so the family could escape. They changed their names and lived as illegal aliens in Murmansk. I looked up Murmansk on Google maps. It is in the very Northwest corner of Russia, not too far from the border with Finland. His family probably did not live too far from our relative in Northern Finland during World War II. It is an amazing story. Stepan’s family did not hear about it until Nikolai’s wife told them about it after the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990’s.
He also told me about his wife’s great grandfather who is German/Dutch extraction. During World War II, he got sent to a horrible concentration camp in Kazakhstan where the vast bulk of the prisoners died. He had abandoned his factory in the Ukraine and made his way to the south of Russian when he saw that Stalin and the communists were going to come and take it from him.
Needless to say, Stepan does NOT have too many warm fuzzy feelings about atheism, communism in general, and Joe Stalin in particular.
Kelly and I just had the following instant message exchange. The first link is an article she wrote. The second link is about students who study hard stuff versus students who don’t. After the exchange we discuss why it is OK to finish your career in something other than just STEM stuff.
Here is a great quote from the second article:
…people with an undergraduate STEM major make $500,000 more over their lifetime than non-STEM majors.
Kelly
hey dad check this out
12:48 PM
Kelly
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/9828
and also this : http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/9824
apparently lots of STEM majors leave the STEM work after 10 years in a STEM career
which is sad
me
Very, very cool! No it is not sad! They move up in the world so they are managing STEM people. You need experienced ex-STEM people to manage STEM people and sell STEM created stuff.
Kelly
oh ok
me
Some STEM people move right into the the sales/managment/marketing mode–that is not bad either.
Kelly
wow cool!
me
I am going to be wearing a STEM and a marketing hat.
Kelly
yeah that is super cool
12:51 PM
Stepan, my Russian, chemist friend and I got into one of those discussions common to rooms full of engineers: the relative benefits of the different ways to go into space. He has a very interesting theory. The mundane part is that it is cheaper to send up rockets than maintain a space shuttle fleet. The really good part is that he is against the private sector getting to deeply into making rockets for space travel.
He says, “Can you imagine, the next thing you know, we will have an atomic exchange between IBM and Cisco!”
Day 100 of 1000
Ten percent of our 1000 days is now complete. It is an auspicious day for that reason alone, but also because I turned in my resignation at my current wonderful job so that I could accept another position that will take me out of the world of medical devices and back into the world of industrial automation where I started. I cannot say too much about it yet, but it is a wonderful opportunity that allows me to stay in Raleigh so the kids can attend NCSU, travel around to see customers, and invent some new products that solve hard problems. It is very exciting.
Day 98 of 1000
We were wildly successful using the combined Igor/Eric methods to cook our turkey at Thanksgiving last Thursday. Tom, the CFO at our company said he uses an even better method to cook his turkey. It sounds very good. He says he got his recipe from Southern Living magazine. He applies Crisco to the turkey, then heats the oven to 450 degrees. As soon as the oven is at 450 degrees he puts the turkey in and immediately turns the oven down to 350 degrees. After that, you watch the turkey until it is brown on the breast, then cover it with aluminum foil so it does not burn, then take it out when the meat thermometer in the thigh reaches 80 degrees.
Right when he explained this part of the process, Terrie, the Adminstrative Assistant walks in and says, “Did you know they now make butter flavored Crisco?”
We all agreed that would be a fine adjustment to his recipe. I have decided that is exactly how I am going to do it when Lorena’s brother Jorge and his family visit in late December. I need to have the Igor theory cooked turkey still in my mind when I cook this next turkey so I can have something for comparison.