• Garden of the Gods 20
  Posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 in Uncategorized - Comments: (0)
  Garden of the Gods 20Originally uploaded by OlorinpcAwesome pic I got while visiting Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs while visiting the Goodrich office there for work.

Garden of the Gods 20

Originally uploaded by Olorinpc

Awesome pic I got while visiting Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs while visiting the Goodrich office there for work.

• Someone said it is Spring now
  Posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 in Edelet - Comments: (0)
  Well rumor has it that it is Spring now.  As everyone is aware we are certainly getting the water up here - though still have snow slated for the weekend.  Oh well - nature really doesn’t seem to care what our calendar says.It has been a pretty busy last couple of months for me.  I have been digging out literally (snow drifts) and figuratively (workload).

Well rumor has it that it is Spring now.  As everyone is aware we are certainly getting the water up here - though still have snow slated for the weekend.  Oh well - nature really doesn’t seem to care what our calendar says.

It has been a pretty busy last couple of months for me.  I have been digging out literally (snow drifts) and figuratively (workload).  Though there have been some exciting developments along with some sad ones as well.

A couple of weeks ago I went out with my mom to Seattle (well Vashon Island which is in the Puget Sound by Seattle) to say goodbye to my Opa.  (Opa being Grandpa in German.) Our timing was good as he passed away a week later.  It was nice to get out there and spend some time with him and some of our relatives.  I was out there briefly for a work conference 2 years ago, but had only been able to visit for a day.  I did take pictures while I was out there and uploaded them to flickr.

On a more exciting note though, ThatEdeGuy saw the birth of his 2nd child, a little baby girl.  (My wife and I were asked to be Godparents - though it was exciting enough already without that additional part.) I will be posting some of the pictures I uploaded to flickr later. She had a little lung infection that has prevented them from bringing her home, though things have been going very well and sounds promising for getting to come home tomorrow.  (My wife will probably be sneaking to the hospital today to get more time holding her when I am not looking. )

Dart League is just about over for the year.  I am having trouble being sad about that as it has been a longer than normal season and even going every other week seemed like a larger time commitment than I thought it was going to be.  Even so, we finished out a lot better than we thought we were going to.  There were 13 Monday Night teams.  After riding 10-12 all season, we fought our way up to the #7 slot after this past Monday’s performance.  This weekend we have the end-of-season tournaments.  Starts Friday night at 7:30pm, then continues Saturday morning at 11am.

Locks away half of the weekend, but should be a good last hurrah with the team.  (Since we have gotten a whole lot better during the last half of the season, should go pretty well too. Though may get done with that and be needed for the Jamestown Sandbagging effort!)

Last but not least today, while I have been posting here a lot less than I would like, my frequency of updating my Twitter account has stayed pretty high.  So make sure to check it out.

Technorati Tags: Jake Barnard, ThatEdeGuy, Baby, Jamestown, Twitter, Darts, Sandbagging

• Fireschool 2009
  Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Uncategorized - Comments: (2)
  Well things have been a little quiet around here.  Mostly due to just being super busy, so haven’t really been keeping up on the blogging.  This past weekend I was offline the whole weekend, but it was well worth it.We had our annual NDFA State Fireschool in Bismarck, ND.  We had 5 Firefighters from the Jamestown Rural Fire Department attending.  (The Jamestown Fire Department had a few guys in attendance as well.

Well things have been a little quiet around here.  Mostly due to just being super busy, so haven’t really been keeping up on the blogging.  This past weekend I was offline the whole weekend, but it was well worth it.

We had our annual NDFA State Fireschool in Bismarck, ND.  We had 5 Firefighters from the Jamestown Rural Fire Department attending.  (The Jamestown Fire Department had a few guys in attendance as well.) Fireschool is just an awesome time.  You learn a lot, meet ton of other firefighters from around the state, and get to know your guys better.

I was able to attend a number of great classes this year.  (Haven’t had a bad class yet really.) Air Management, in which we really got to know our SCBA’s and exactly how long we could stretch our air supply.  Building Construction/Fire Behavior/Firefighter Safety, learned current trends in construction and how fire acts in a structure.  Primary Search, this was probably my favorite class of the weekend.  (Even though it was Saturday morning and we were having, er well a slow start.) Some classroom time followed by 2 person teams being sent into a smoked up trailer to search.  This was followed by an after action report of what you could have done better, what you did right, etc.  Next I had Fire Streams and Fire Control, which was a more external approach to structure fires.  By looking at the outside what does it tell you about how you should approach the fire, potential of people inside, safety of the firefighters, etc.  The final class I had on Sunday morning was Pump Operations and Maintenance.  Knowing a bit more about how a pumper works inside really helped with understanding how to run one.

So a huge info dump with plenty of experiance and information to bring back to the guys on my own department.  It was my second year attending and can’t wait till next year!

[tags]Fire Dept, Firefighter Training, Fireschool, Jamestown Rural Fire Dept, JRFD, Jamestown ND[tags]

• Train Turntable Video
  Posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 in Uncategorized - Comments: (0)
  Cross Post from Modeltrainrookie.comI have been a little quiet, but have managed to get a little work done. I have now finished wiring everything and gotten the turntable working.I took a short video tonight to show the layout and turntable operation.

Cross Post from Modeltrainrookie.com

I have been a little quiet, but have managed to get a little work done. I have now finished wiring everything and gotten the turntable working.

I took a short video tonight to show the layout and turntable operation.

Technorati Tags: Märklin, Benchwork, Model Trains, Youtube

• Holidays are over but it was fun.
  Posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 in Olo-News - Comments: (0)
  Well over the holiday break is over.  I am now back to work and over my self imposed break from the internet as well.  (The net is fun of course and I love blogging, but the week I was off from my regular job, I also took off from blogging.)  The trip home was busy of course.  4 families in 2 days etc.
• Why we don’t need more stimulus bills
  Posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 in Politics - Comments: (0)
  I read an editorial this morning that really put a number to why I think this whole stimulus concept we are getting from our elected officials is crap… and much worse the whole “New New Deal” thing Obama is pushing.From IBDeditorials.com:When a private employer offers a job and the offer is accepted, the welfare of both the employer and employee is improved.

I read an editorial this morning that really put a number to why I think this whole stimulus concept we are getting from our elected officials is crap… and much worse the whole “New New Deal” thing Obama is pushing.

From IBDeditorials.com:

When a private employer offers a job and the offer is accepted, the welfare of both the employer and employee is improved. The employer has a new worker who will make the company more productive and the worker has a job to meet his needs.

But when a government job is filled, a third party is involved, and the welfare of that party — the taxpayers who pay the public employee’s salary — is harmed and the economy ultimately damaged.

It’s hard to make a reasonable argument that the country needs 22 million public sector employees. With a total population of 304 million, that’s one government worker for every 14 Americans.

The full editorial is really worth the read, but that is the part I wanted to point out.  For every 14 Americans there is 1 government worker.  There are more workers in government than in manufacturing!  So wouldn’t real economic stimulus be in reducing the size of our government?  This would reduce the cost of operating along with freeing up resources that would actually contribute to the economy in general.

Sadly, I see the reverse being far more likely in our new administration.  (Bush really didn’t have any redeeming qualities in the smaller government area either - so certainly not a partisan argument there.)

It has been projected that less than half of the stimulus money Obama is planning on “pumping into the economy” will be spent in the next two years.  So my question is: Then what is the freaking point???  If it is going to be too late to be effective, then is it really needed?  The answer is no, but with a big government “spend our way out of our problems” looming, I am guessing it will happen regardless of whether or not it is a good idea.  (See Rob’s post on the issue.)

The whole point is that the government is increasing its drain on the economy - not stimulating it.  Bailouts, stimulus packages, etc are making an exploding national debt worse.  In this drives inflation and not only will it not really help in the short run, will quite possibly make things much worse in the long run.

Cross-posted at Sayanything.com Reader Blogs.

Technorati Tags: Politics, Bailouts, Stimulus