Hello

Hi y'all. I thought I'd put my two cents in since Rob has been doing all the posting. I am currently working on my Master's Degree in Statistics at BYU. It takes up most... no all... of my time. I would tell you more about it but I'll spare you the boring details. I have been going crazy with all this warm weather. I want to be outside doing something. Hopefully summer will be a nice break. Rob and I want to do a lot of camping and hiking with our dogs. We got them at the end of summer last year so we're excited to use them as an excuse to be outside more. Anyway, I don't have much more to say except thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoy, and if you are an old friend with a blog, let us know, we'd love to see what you're up to.

See ya--

A Whole New Mind

I thought that I would post some random things that I've been up to in short increments in order to increase the number of smaller posts we have as opposed to my more traditional 'once a month gigantic' post. So, the book that Rachel and I just finished reading is 'A Whole New Mind' written by Daniel Pink.

It's an interesting book, written on the premise that, although there still are careers in left-brained disciplines, with the advent of outsourcing and the overall evolution of the global marketplace, a new type of worker will find themselves successful. No longer is just engineering a good product good enough. Instead, products need to be continuously improving, customizable, and relative in order for them to maintain success. It does a good job of opening the right mind of those of us who are left brained (If you're organizationally based, numbers oriented, scientific and/or logical, that's you.....and me). At any rate, here is a link if you'd like to read an excerpt or a professional synopsis as opposed to mine.

http://www.danpink.com/aboutwnm.php
(The photo was also pulled from the same link...)

Overall, I liked it. It is extreme in a few instances and predictions, but the point of the book (I believe) is to pry open the mind of us left brained folk; therefore some extreme language is warranted. I've found it surprisingly applicable in my brief career of real world engineering experience. When I was at ATK, I found myself complaining about the higher ups and certain members of my surrounding cast because they held so fast to the archaic business model of slow and steady wins the race combined with a false belief that the status quo is fine because the numbers say so. What a gross waste of time in meetings, meaningless redundancy and illegitimate time frames existed there in my opinion.

PS.... It's everywhere in the engineering world.
PPS.... I wonder what the statistic is on how much time is wasted in corporate America annually? What does this equates to in dollars?

At any rate, this is surprisingly an easy read, and I did it in a week with my incredibly slow reading ability. He is a very good author in the fact that he writes in a very conversational tone as opposed to a formal tone so it makes for an enjoyable read.

Enjoy!

Understanding Engineers......

I found this amusing... maybe someone else will too!



Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"

The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."

The second engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
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Understanding Engineers - Take Two

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
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Understanding Engineers - Take Three

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularl y slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those blokes? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!"

The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!"

The priest said, "Here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him."

He said, "Hello, George! What's wrong with that group ahead of us?

They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group fell silent for a moment.

The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"
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Understanding Engineers - Take Four

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.
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Understanding Engineers - Take Five

The Graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The Graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"

The Graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"

The Graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"
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Understanding Engineers - Take Six

Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible designers of the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints." Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer.

The nervous system has many thousand s of e lectrical connections." The last one said, "No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"
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Understanding Engineers - Take Seven

Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
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Understanding Engineers - Take Eight

An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back int o a pr incess, I'll stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want."

Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's way cool."