Christmas Challenge

I married into a large Italian family. If you learn nothing else about Italians, you learn that they cook enough food to challenge the miracle of the loaves and fishes. As my wife likes to say, there is plenty of food and adding one more person will not make any difference. So, we have invited a couple of people we know, who would otherwise spend Christmas Day alone, to join our extended family for dinner.

So I'm issuing a challenge. My challenge is for you to find someone in your circle of acquaintances who will be alone Christmas Day and invite them to share Christmas dinner with you. It could be someone in the military or a student who can't afford to travel home. It could be a colleague who has no family in the area. It could be someone who is travelling and can't get home for the holidays. Think about who you know that may be alone and invite them.

Counter Top Fail

My wife has been doing a kitchen remodel. We are making the island bigger. The challenge is to finish it in time for Christmas dinner. They were supposed to install the counter top yesterday - a slab that we had hand picked for color.

The language was not fit for children.

Green is the New Color of FAIL

Bluewater Wind, an offshore wind farm project off Delaware announced the other day that they are putting their plans on hold. They cited the following as the reason

In particular, two aspects of the project critical for success have actually gone backwards: the decisions of Congress to eliminate funding for the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program applicable to offshore wind, and the failure to extend the Federal Investment and Production Tax Credits for offshore wind which expire at the end of 2012 and which have rendered the Delaware project both unfinanceable and financially untenable for the present.

So, the project is not economical without government loan guarantees and tax credits.

In other news, we learn that the US Navy is buying jet fuel at $16/gal, four times the usual cost, in order to buy it from bio-fuel supplier Solazyme. Also involved with Solazyme is Dynamic Fuels, which is a joint venture between Tyson Foods and Syntroleum to turn chicken waste into fuel. This jet fuel is part of the Navy's program to develop the "Great Green Fleet", the Navy's plan to deploy a fleet fueled entirely by biofuels by 2016.

Who thinks this stuff up?

Wanna Job? Be an Engineer!

I know that unemployment is through the roof and that economic indicators are bad, but I receive at least one employment solicitation per week. The kicker is that they are all for engineers. In fact, my own employer is busily looking for engineers. I sit and listen to my colleague in the next cubical over talking to potential new hires every day!

I joined LinkedIn primarily to stay in touch with friends who may be assigned to far flung areas of the world. But a lot of recruiters have also joined it and mine it for leads. And since most of those recruiters focus on the technical specialty groups within LinkedIn, when they solicit you for employment, it is for a job that's in your area. And they are all busily searching for engineers and designers. It would appear that as hard as Obama has tried to kill the oil industry, it is alive and well - especially overseas. And especially so for engineers with experience who have shown ability to drive projects to completion.

If companies are competing for engineering talent, they will also be hungry for technicians and designers - jobs that don't require an engineering degree but for which you do need technical and math skills.

My advice to young folks heading to college is to take the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) route.

Colonoscopy Time

It was time for another colonoscopy so I spent 2 days this week in prep and procedure. It's one of the joys of getting up in years. But colon cancer is the third most prevalent cancer and it took a friend of mine - a Marine and Vietnam vet who probably didn't like the thought of probes being inserted into his nether regions. I know it's not pleasant to think about, but the procedure can be a life saver.

The worst part is the prep day. You have to go on a liquid diet and then drink a gallon of a foul tasting fluid which acts to completely (and I mean completely!) clean out your colon. You go in for the procedure the next day. You are under sedation during the whole thing and aren't even aware of it. The doctor will run a scope into your colon, and if he finds any polyps, he will remove them. Polyps can be potential cancer sites.

I happen to have a tendency to grow polyps so the doctor removed about a half dozen and told me to come back in three years. Usually, if you are polyp free, the return frequency is 10 years.

So if you haven't done it, have one done. If not for you, for your family.

Book Review - Shockwave

This is the latest in John Sandford's Virgil Flowers series. Virgil is investigating the bombing of the offices of a big box store magnate. The trail leads to a small town where one of the newest stores is under construction and there is a series of bombings seemingly related to the store. The plot gets complicated when Virgil discovers some local political hanky panky and works a sting against the local politicos along with trying to find the bomber, who is now targeting Virgil.

While a good story, it is not one of the better Flowers novels. But reading Sandford is always good.

And speaking of John Sandford, I'm waiting to see how Mark Harmon does as Lucas Davenport in Certain Prey. Somehow I can't picture him in that role.

Head Count

The Executioner in Saudi Arabia removed the heads of 6 murderers in November. The year to date total for the Kingdom now stands at 58.