Coop LDR Items - the Video

Here is the video that goes with the Coop LDR panel. I shot the clips with iPhone during the event. Most people didn't even know I was shooting video at all. I used some pictures I took to fill in some gaps we had. I used one of the trailer templates in iMovie, and it came together really fast. A friend of mine at work added the voice over part.

This one was really fun to make.

Coop LDR Items - the Panel

Here is the panel from the Coop LDR.

This was a nice negative style shot that worked in nicely with the "Grounded" series format.

Be sure to check out the video that goes with this!

Projects galore

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give some updates on projects in the works:

• Completed a promo video for the President of Electric Systems (unfortunately its for internal use only)
• Working on a promo video for a recent Coop event (I should be able to show this one)
• Working on expanding guitar lesson business (more on this very soon)
• Working on expanding mentoring activities both at work and at UW Madison

Lots of good stuff!

Stay tuned...

Smart phone, your dog, and beyond

So our dog has been having some issues during eating. And by issues I mean what goes in comes right back out. Like immediately back out. My wife and I were concerned about this so we took the dog to the vet. The vet was asking some questions about what happens and my wife was explaining, and out of this discussion came the idea to take a video while feeding the dog so we could capture the event.

We fed the dog that night and everything was fine, but the next morning was different. My wife was taking video with her smart phone the whole time, so the entire event was captured on video. Then she quickly called the vet and took the dog in later that morning. She showed the vet the video and from that he was able to make a more accurate diagnosis of what was going on.

After thinking about this for a while, it seems like a great opportunity. Think about all these situations where you are trying to explain something to someone:

• My car won't start
• My microwave doesn't work
• My computer has an error
• My dog is sick
• My loved one is ill

We have these new tools available to us, and I don't think we realize the potential that they offer. So think about it the next time you are trying to explain something to someone. Maybe it would be easier to show them a video.

The Upward Spiral

There tends to be a lot of focus on the downward spiral.

Gloom and doom feeds on gloom and doom.

Oh no, cascading failures leading us to the bottom.

Bah-humbug.

I would like to promote the Upward Spiral.

Good stuff feeds on good stuff.

Out of good stuff comes great stuff.

Doing something gets you doing something else.

Ideas are created, worked, and from them more new ideas come.

And remember, its the Upward Spiral we want.

20%

So lets say your boss came up to you and said the following:

"Four days out of the week you work on what I tell you to work on.
On the 5th day you can work on whatever you want?"

Do you think this would have an impact on employees?
What would people work on?
Would they know what to do?
What would you work on?
Why aren't you doing this already?
Do you really need the bosses approval?

Think about it.

Waiting

Playing the waiting game is no fun.

Waiting for that email.
Waiting for that phone call.
Waiting for that text.
Just waiting. Waiting.

It makes me tense. Anxious and uptight. Why can't it be done now. Why can't they respond now. What' the deal.

Sometimes you can take control of what you are waiting for. You can just do it. Make it so. Engage. Jump right into the deep water and see what happens.

Sometimes you can't do anything about what you are waiting for. Or can you? Take a step back. Think. Look around. Is there another way in. Am I really waiting, or am I just procrastinating. Blaming my own inability to take action on someone else.

Think about it and figure out what are you really waiting for?

Meeting the resistance

Sometimes people like to get together and meet to discuss the current work. Sometimes this is good and sometimes this is bad. Sometimes its wiser to cancel the meeting and use that time to complete some actual work. This is much better than holding the meeting and saying it will take about an hour to complete this task, and then promise to get it done by the end of the week. Just cancel the meeting and get it done, then recall the meeting and talk about it.

I like to keep floating meetings on my calendar. These are free to move both times and days if need be. If there is no reason to meet today, push it off until next week. If you need another 4 hours to do something, push the meeting out a day.

Obviously this can be abused, but most of us already have too much to do, so why not delay the meeting a tiny bit so that some real work can be done.

Feeding the resistance

So there was some pretty visible resistance at work today. These included numerous small group discussions at random places in the building. You know what I mean right? Two or three folks in the hallway talking in hushed voices when you pass by. Cubicles with coworkers discussing the latest management screw up. All clear signs of the resistance. It is no wonder that an average person only actually works a few hours out of the day. So much time is spent feeding the resistance movement. These little gatherings get to be common daily activities. You go to work looking forward to them. Sounds strange but its true. A long time ago I was asked to cover a coworkers job while he was on vacation. I did some training with him the week before he was gone and we would be "working" up to eight hours a day completing his tasks. The week he was gone I completed his tasks in less than 2 hours time. The rest of the time was spent feeding the resistance. Think about it. Then stop doing it.

Remember that Chef vs. Cook thing?

So do you? If not, just recall that the chef is constantly creating new things and cook is making the same old stuff by following directions. For part of today I was the chef, and part of the day I was the cook. While I was the chef it was amazing - ideas were flowing, creativity was abound, and time flew right by. When I was the cook, I felt my energy drop and time seemed to grind to a halt. I found myself struggling to make any progress at all. I found myself longing to be the chef again. If you have not experienced a day like this yet, well that could be good or bad. You could be the chef who is doing art all day long, or the cook who is doing work all day long. I guess you have to ask yourself at the end of the day, was I the chef or the cook today?

Browse a good (Face)Book lately?

There was an article published on Fast Company today that discussed a new trend in web browsing. It would seem that young female Facebook users, who can spend as much as 5 hours online each day, spend almost all of that time on Facebook. You probably are not that surprised by that, or maybe you are, but it obviously deserves some thought. Lets look at 2 responses to this statement

1. Oh no, we need to update our websites so they will surf outside of FB.
2. Lets move everything we have to FB!

What do you think most companies will try? Option 1 or option 2? I am thinking most will find themselves leaning towards 2. Will it work? Of course not.

Which option would you "LIKE". Hopefully you said option 2.

So get out there and start posting.

Whats next for Grounded

So I am working on a few new videos/promos for the grounded series. Should be interesting to see how they turn out. I wish I could give more details, but I want to keep it quiet for now. Maybe after I shoot some material I can post some teaser info for everyone to enjoy.

Stay tuned...

Time to retire the resume?

In my opinion, the resume is outdated and needs to be done away with. Unfortunately, its pretty ingrained into our current job system. Its like an angry tick that has embedded itself into ourselves. Lucky for us the Internet will take care of it. What do I mean by that? Well if you start a blog, or a collection of Internet stuff (guitar riffs for instance) that quantify what it is that you do, it becomes your resume. Your collection of work can be accessed by anyone from anywhere. Think about that for a minute. If you take the time to post just one thing a day during a normal work week, you are capable of building quite a large database of stuff that supports who you are and what you do. Compare that to a single sheet of paper that contains silly information like your current address and phone number. I mean, do we really need to know where you live? Is it that critical to your success in the workplace? I think not, and yet there it is on each and every resume that there is. How about we ditch the resume and offer a web site address, or a Twitter account, or a YouTube account name. Lets us what we have available to us, and make a resume a showcase of who we are and what we can do.

So what are you waiting for??

100th YouTube Video

So I posted my 100th YouTube video this morning. Most of the videos are original guitar riffs or songs. Some of them are good, some are bad, and some are whatever. No matter though, the real goal is to create something new everyday, and then give it away. So that is what I do. I pick up the guitar and whatever happens just happens. I don't really think about it too much. Then afterwards I post it to YouTube and Facebook and The GearPage. I am trying to find some other places to post it because I want other song writers or creative guitar folks to see it and enjoy it. I will keep looking for places to post my stuff, or I might just create my own website for posting this stuff. I might also post a few on Ebay for sale and see if anyone buys them. Why not right? I am mean the Weather Channel is always looking for some good music right?

So what next?

So you have taken the time to evaluate the fall career fair - now what? Well there are lots of things you and your friends can do to help one another. Here are some examples:

• Share interview experiences with each other - was the experience tense? relaxed? fun? frustrating?
• Talk about the questions that were asked and how they were answered - were there technical questions? behavior questions? what do you think they were trying to learn about you with these questions?
• Think of it as a mock interview only you already know the questions
• You might want write the questions down and formulate some answers for use in the spring career fair - you can use the interview questions to craft your elevator speech for the career fair.
• If a person was lucky enough to do an on site interview talk about that experience - how long did it last? how many people did you talk with? did you get a tour or a free lunch?
• One suggestion is to not worry about if your answer is right or wrong, just answer it truthfully and you will be fine - not all jobs are meant for all people so don't try and give the answer you think they want - recruiters can see through that answer

So the take away is to take time and evaluate that experience. Be aware of what you learned from it, and share that information with others.

Stop back tomorrow for resume tips.

Step one - Look back

So the first step in going forward should involve taking a look back. Think back to your fall career fair experience and answer the following questions:

• What companies did I talk with?
• Did I talk with enough?
• Even the ones I wasn't all that interested in?
• What companies did I hear back from?
• What companies did I not hear back from.
• Was I pleased with the those who called me back?
• What companies offered me an interview?
• Did I take the interview even if I wasn't interested in the company?
• How did the interview go?
• Did I achieve my goal for the career fair?

You want to evaluate your fall career fair performance and get a plan together for the spring effort. Maybe that last question should be your first question for the spring fair. What am I trying to achieve? Am I looking for a summer job? Am I seeking some interview experience? Am I looking for a real job?

Take this time to research the companies that were there. Figure out what they do, and if you want help them do it. All too often students wait until the night before to start doing research and then they end up with a head full of information about so many companies and it gets hard to remember who does what.

It is actually a nice thing to be able to attend multiple career fairs in a single year. You will get more comfortable in selling yourself and what you have to offer, and the recruiters will pick up on this and they will be calling you back. Trust me. I know.

Stop back tomorrow for another tip.

Time is running short

I know its hard to think beyond the next couple of months, but now is the time to consider what you will be doing in early 2011. Those spring career fairs are typically in February, and so you might want to start thinking about a few things. I will do a series of articles this week that will focus on what you should be doing.

Also, have any of you considered getting a mentor while in school? Is there any reason to wait until you start working? I will touch on that as well.

Stay tuned.

Meet the Coop - finished product

Here is the finished product for the Meet The Coop series. It went live on Thursday afternoon. I am already working on the 2nd video in this series, which should be out in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Tools of the trade

I just wanted to mention that the pictures and photo editing for the grounded series were all done with the iPhone4. I use the camera for the pictures (obviously) and the Photoshop app for modifications.

This just goes to show how powerful these devices are. Just wait until all the medical apps start appearing!

Grounded - Extension cord

This shows how the concept can be taken beyond just people and products.

Grounded - the Intro

Here is the slide that will introduce the "Grounded" series.

Grounded

Check out our new marketing idea for our coop students. What do ya think?

Doing more

I just wanted to share three instances of doing more as a coop/intern

1. One small step for man - taking chances. We are having an open house and an opportunity presented itself in the form of a 9 foot man in a space suit costume. We asked for student volunteers to help out, and a few stepped forward to help out. They will get some basic training in the suit and be performing this weekend at the open house. Just think of the unique resume builder this experience is. As a recruiter and frequent resume reviewer, seeing something like this will get my attention and I will be intrigued to speak with you.

2. Learning to fly. A student of mine took the time to get to know a coworker who owns an old open cockpit, radial piston engined airplane. He got to fly with him today. How cool is that. If he wanted to work on the plane with him, I am sure he could, all he has to do is ask. So by taking a chance and getting out of the cube and interacting with his coworkers, my student got to experience something a lot of people never will. So get out there and see whats going on.

3. Seek and you shall find. Another student has been very proactive at finding work. He has been able to work for us continually since his first work session and has landed a spot in our operations training rotation program for new hires. Congrats to him! That work and extra effort has paid off and he will probably have multiple job offers waiting for him when he graduates.

So there are 3 good examples of doing more. What did you do today?

PS - I will be participating in an employer round table event at UW Madison this weekend, so stop by if you can, or check in later for an update on how it went.

Pi Tau Sigma / Are you the Chef or the Cook?

Last night I had the opportunity to speak at a monthly Pi Tau Sigma meeting on the UW Campus. Pi Tau Sigma is the mechanical engineering honor society, and they seem to be an active organization on campus. They talked about their tutoring activities at local schools and participation in other fraternity activities.

My presentation covered the current state of business and how it relates to engineering students and their future job prospects. I included some background on how it has gotten to be this way, and what I think the future engineers need to do to succeed in this new environment. I will try to summarize the topics briefly:

• Factories - Do you view your local McDonalds as a factory? I do.
• Indoctrination - How did it get to be this way? Is the school system actually training us to be factory workers? What do we do when we don't need factory workers anymore?
• Business - Cheaper, faster, better, cheaper. In the new throw away world, what makes you (as an employee) impossible to throw away?
• Do what you do - this is hard to quantify in words, but I will use the Chef/Cook example. Are you the Chef, someone who creates something new using the same ingredients that have always been available to everyone? Or are you the Cook that uses the cookbook to create what is asked of them? Which one is more valuable?
• Leverage social media - There are numerous tools out there that you can use to build an online resume. Starting blogging about your activities. Start taking videos or pictures and posting them. Share what you do with the world, you never know who is paying attention out there. Paper resumes are going to be a thing of the past and your internet content is going to become the new resume.

There were lots of great questions at the end, and the discussions the ensued were fun and engaging. I want to thank Pi Tau Sigma for the opportunity and hope that I can speak again at a meeting in the spring.

Interview Review

So last Thursday I conducted my seven interviews with potential coop students. Overall, I was pleased with the results. I had some non typical responses this time around, which was refreshing. After one recruits at the same location for a period of time, you start to see trends in responses to questions. These trends are a result of the classes the students take and the projects that they work on. I am not sure if it is a fault of the classes or professors, but from year to year the projects do not seem to change. Is this a good thing? I guess it depends on your point of view. Personally, I would rather see something new each year, or at least a rotation through different projects. This would give the students something new to work on, and allow me to hear some different responses.

The info session helped to eliminate a lot of standard questions that I would get in an interview situation, so it was nice to have some new questions to respond to. Some of the good ones included: do I like my job?, can I get a patent for a new technology that I develop?, tell me about the management style?, and what is the social life like? All good questions that made for good discussion with the students. If you are a student doing an interview make sure to ask 2 or 3 questions. It shows that you are interested in the company, and it will spark further conversation. I always feel like an interview can come to an abrupt halt when students do not have questions, so be prepared!

After I came back I sat down with HR and we reviewed my paperwork and I made my recommendations. There will be some offers going out, which is always exciting. I cannot wait to go back next year, as the students continue to impress me.

10%, Big 3, Up In The Air

What a day. I talked with 61 students in about 3.5 hours time. The breakdown was 28 ME students, 15 CSE students, 10 EE students, 7 Tech students, and 1 ChemE. Tomorrow I will interview 6 of the 61. A mere 10%, of which only a few will recieve offers. I wish I could hire all of these students, because a lot of them are really good. I know the good ones will get good jobs and go on to succeed, but sometimes I feel bad for having to pass them up.

There were a lot of great students I talked with today, but one man's situation was different. He was a former Big 3 factory worker who, after losing his job, went back to school. It was great to see him there, and he was excited to be there. That bad side is that you could tell that he the odds were stacked against him. In what way you might ask? While this man does have a lot of manufacturing experience and he would probably be able to contribute greatly to our cause, he is not what we are looking for at this time. Sad but true.

I was able to watch "Up In The Air" last night. Its a movie about a man who travels around the world firing people. I could almost imagine the former Big 3 guy having to experience this first hand. Scary. There was one good quote in the film, and that was "how much did they pay you to give up your dream". That resonates with me in so many ways, and I hope that the students I spoke with today understand what it means. It all comes down to doing what you do and giving it away for free. If you can do that, you will succeed.

UT Info Session and Resume Review

So at UT (that's the University of Toledo) for an info session, career fair, and interviews over the next few days. Last night I did an info session, which turned into an impromptu resume review session. The info session itself went pretty good. For the first part, I focused on what a coop session is and how it can help you succeed. I had contacted some previous students and gotten their feedback on their coop session and how it had helped them in their career. I shared this feedback with the students and they seemed to appreciate it. One coop was in the audience so I asked him to speak on his experience. I find its best to let the students do the talking, because that's what students will listen too. The 2nd part of the info session focused on our company and what we do. Most students have no idea how many products we create, so its always fun to share that information.

During Q&A at the end one student asked the "What are you looking for?" at a career fair question. I responded by asking the students if anyone would like to put their resume up in front of everyone for me to review. One volunteer stepped, which was great for him, and away we went. I reviewed the resume from top to bottom and it generated a lot of great discussion and questions for the group. I focused on what was being communicated, and if it was being done correctly. I was able to put the students on the spot and really make them think about what their resume was saying. Personally, I think resumes are outdated and make to easy to accept or reject a person. We need to develop a new Internet based system where each student can post their achievements in a visual manner, and create something that gives more insight into the student and their abilities. I felt this resume review session was actually the best part of the entire session, for both me and the students. Next I might just skip the info session and only do resume review sessions.

Career fair is today, so look for feedback on that either later today or tomorrow sometime.

Panel me this?

Besides mock interviews I was also part of an employer panel. The panel, which consisted of 5 recruiters from various industries, answered questions from 50 or 60 students. The students ranged from freshman to PhD students, so the questions were all over the place.

Most students feel nervous about career fairs and want to gather as much information up front so they can as prepared as possible for their 2 minutes with a recruiter. We encouraged the students to be prepared, act professional, come knowing what you want, and to be excited. If a student does some homework on the companies they are most interested in, it really helps. It allows the recruiter to focus on the student rather then giving a speech on what the company does. It also shows the recruiter that the student is genuinely interested in the company and what they have to offer.

We also talked a lot about the objective statement on a resume and a student's opening remarks when they approach a recruiter. Again, tell us who you are, what you are looking for, and most importantly, what you can for us. Being able to answer the question, "Why should I hire you?" quickly and confidently will go along way.

Overall the experience was a great one. I will be doing more info sessions like these in the future so stay tuned for times, dates, and locations!

Are you mocking me?

So yesterday I was in Madison doing mock interviews with undergraduate students. The experience was a good one, for both parties. This was my first time doing mock interviews and so I really did not know what to expect. I approached it like this - I would do what I would normally do during an interview, and then stop and explain why. Then I would ask the student a question, allow them to answer, and the give them feedback on their response. It seemed to work pretty good for all 5 of the students I spoke with. They appreciated the honest feedback and I am sure they will all do fine during their real interviews. Remember practice makes perfect and the more interviews you can do, the better you will get at it.

Coop activities for this month

So I have tentative approval start a coop related blog at work. I am excited about having the opportunity to showcase our great students. It should prove to be an interesting experiment. I hope to carry the blog postings over to a Facebook page so we can the social media experiment up and running too.

I will be doing mock interviews and an industry round table event in Madison next week.

During the last week of this month I will be doing an info session, a career fair, and interviews with students on campus.

Stay tuned for highlights from each event.

Upon further examination

During today's weekly coop meeting we went over a debriefing process I introduced last week. I had learned of this process in a mentoring session and wanted to incorporate it into our coop experience. Basically, the coop and their lead take time after an assigned task has been completed to review what was learned. It seems really simple right? Well, most of the time we are too busy to stop and take a look back at what transpired. We took one coops experience and broke it down in great detail, examining each step and each interaction. In doing so we were able to quantify the technical skills that were obtained and a lot of the intangible skills that were obtained. I am hoping the other students paid attention, and will come with their own stories next week. So I would encourage everyone to take the time to examine the experience they had while completing a task, whether its at work or at home.

Stay tuned for more.

What are we selling here?

So I have been tasking with branding out cooperative education program at work. Well, I volunteered to take on this task. I have been introducing a lot of new methodology, which has been widely accepted, and wanted to take on a greater challenge. What is that challenge? Making sure my company is recognized on campus, and by recognized I mean students only have to say the name of the company or the catch phrase and they all know. And by know, I mean they KNOW.

So the coop experience is based on learning. Learning what? Learning how to do something for real. You can certainly teach someone how to do engineering problems out of text book, but the real world doesn't work out of text books. So that is my focus. The learning experience. I am not going to sell the products we make. I am selling the learning experience we offer.

Stay tuned for more.

JP Livngood Guitar Series - Fall Session

Here is the information on my fall guitar series.

The JP Livngood guitar series fall session is open for enrollment. Students of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to apply.

• The fall session runs from September to December and will focus on blues jamming techniques (solo and in groups) and will offer the following:
• 30 minute lesson each week, focusing on jamming techniques with blues backing tracks
• 1 to 2 hour jam session with student groups every other week
• You will get to record a single track for a fall session CD (each student will contribute one song)
• You get the fall session CD, which includes all the songs from all students, for free
• Perform at a JP Livngood showcase in December
• T shirt with JP Livngood logo and your name printed on the back
• Videos will be taken each session and posted on Facebook and YouTube so you can track your progress and show all your friends

Lesson days are Tuesday evenings, Thursday evenings, and Saturday mornings. So pick the one that works best for you.

Cost is $70 per month (4 months @ $70 = $280). If you pay for the entire session you can save $50 (pay only $230).

When you complete the fall session you will have learned to jam in live sessions, earned a spot on a CD, got a free t-shirt, and performed for all your friends!

Space is limited so contact me today for more details!

Making instant oatmeal with coffee

They often say necessity is the mother of invention, and that could not have been more true at breakfast this morning. We must have been on the tail end of the free breakfast rush because everything was gone. Of course I did not find that out until after I had opened the package of instant oatmeal, poured it into the bowl, and placed it underneath the hot water dispenser. So I kindly asked the girl working the room to fetch some more. She returned and I was pleased. Correction, I was pleased until I took the first spoonful and realized the water was cold. So I pushed the cold oatmeal aside and sat there disgruntled. Funny how expectations can change your mood. Anyways, while sitting there drinking my coffee it struck me that I should just pour the hot coffee into the cold oatmeal to heat it up a bit. So I did. You can imagine an entire table full of "Ewwwww" reactions going on, but whatever. So I dove right in, and you know what, it tasted surprisingly good. So I finished the coffee oatmeal and was pleased with my new invention. So everyone give it a try, and I will get Starbucks on the phone and let them know I have a new breakfast menu item for them.

Bio Dashboard

So turns out I was actually sick these past few days, and that was contributing to my lack of creativity. That got me thinking about biotech again and how it would have been nice to know that I was sick instead of afterwards. I am not sure anyone knows what I mean, but starting Tuesday I just felt off, wasn't too hungry, had a headache, muscle aches, and the like. At that time I thought I was just tired or ready for vacation or whatever. But I actually had a fever and wasn't feeling well at all.

So the point of this was biotech right? This is what I was thinking. If there was device constantly monitoring critical body functions it could have alerted me to the fact that I had a temperature. It could have asked me for some other symptoms, and proposed a diagnosis to me. It could have sent an alert to my doctor, or if I went to a walk in clinic the device could have downloaded the info to them while I was in the waiting room.

I think a lot of people fear this type of technology, but to me it just makes sense. You could have your own dashboard giving you information on critical things each day. It could track your weight, critical health measurements (things like cholesterol or amount of sleep). To me that information would be critical to have to ensure a proactive approach to health. Just my thoughts.

I will do some searching and see if I can find some companies that are looking into doing this or are already doing this and post what I find.

Calm after the storm

Last week was a great week for creativity. I came up with some great guitar riffs (all of which are posted on FB) and attended an three day event at work where I was able to showcase my coop program new ideas and best practices. Right now though, I feel the lull. The calm after the storm of creativity. This happens every once and a while. My brain needs a break. I can tell I am forcing things on guitar, trying to jam in certain chords, rather then feeling it and not really thinking about it. I think its important to recognize the lull, acknowledge it, and just wait it out. You can try and force some creativity, but forcing that never works. You can always tell its not authentic. The looseness of authenticity is missing. It feels contrived and thought out, which is not what I want. So it might be a while before a new riff is posted, and that is OK. Perhaps I will switch over to blogging this week, who knows. Either way I will enjoy the calm after the storm, because I know the next wave might be better then the last.

Perhaps I should name these creative storms. They can be Hurricanes. That gives me an idea...

The results so far...

So taking a look back at my short time on Facebook and Blog I have found the following:

Facebook - 22 videos
Blog - 8 posts

Interesting. When I started out I didn't expected the Blog to surpass the Facebook content, but the results speak for themselves and that is fine with me. When I get my new smartphone I expect my blog entries to increase. I will be able to capture ideas as when and where ever they occur. Thats the trouble with ideas, they come and go like the wind, so I am looking forward to having the tools to capture them immediately and act on them later.

I hope everyone likes the guitar stuff. I know I do. It makes me wonder why I didn't start doing this sooner. It seems like everytime I pick the guitar up I play something new, and I like being able to capture that idea as soon as it happens, without much thought, with mistakes, whatever. Its new. It hasn't really been thought about too much, and thats good.

I will check the stats in a few weeks again to see how its goin.

Safety Dance

For those keeping track, there have been 2 driver deaths and 1 spectator death at NHRA events this year. The most recent death happened last Sunday. By mid week the NHRA technical committee had made an announcement concerning safety items on the car. That statement is shown below:

GLENDORA, Calif. -- As part of its continuing efforts to enhance safety, NHRA announced today that rear carbon fiber brake rotors and pads will be mandatory for Top Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, Top Alcohol Dragsters and Top Alcohol Funny Cars effective July 21, 2010, and front carbon fiber brakes will be mandatory for Funny Cars and Top Alcohol Funny Cars by August 11, 2010. The vast majority of vehicles in these classes already use this equipment.

As an additional safety enhancement, NHRA is also working with manufacturers on a secondary tethering device for parachutes in the Top Fuel, Funny Car, Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes. This is in addition to an enhanced specification for parachute mounting for the same four classes that was introduced earlier this year.

A radio frequency-activated shutoff device, which shuts off the fuel supply, cuts ignition and deploys the parachutes if the driver has not done so after passing the finish line, will be mandatory beginning in 2011 for the Top Alcohol classes. This device has been mandatory in Top Fuel and Funny Car since earlier this year. Top Alcohol drivers may install the receiving device on their vehicles and use it immediately at all of the national events remaining on the 2010 schedule.

NHRA's investigations continue into the tragedies that have struck the sport this year and NHRA and the entire racing community again extend deepest condolences to the families of those involved. NHRA continues to actively address safety issues and work to enhance safety in the sport.

All of today's announcements follow a series of safety enhancements for Top Fuel, Funny Car, Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car implemented this year. These include a burst-panel activated safety shutoff system, which releases parachutes automatically when the manifold burst panel breaks; the use of a cable around the main element of the rear wing to automatically deploy the chutes if the wing breaks; improved oil catch can systems; use of the Eject helmet removal system; and fireproof tubing around brake lines.

Personally I think they are going about this from the wrong way. How many of the items above address the integrity of the cockpit? None that I can see. It makes more sense to emphasize survivability of the cockpit in a worst case scenario. If it can survive that it can survive anything. Sure it will cost more, but when you compare it to the cost of a human life I think its a pretty simple decision.

Waiting

I came up with some dressing room design ideas while waiting for Kim on Friday night. I decided my goal was to give people an entirely new dressing room experience (both those in the room and those waiting outside) and sell that experience, instead of the clothes.

First off, the design off the dressing rooms itself should create excitement. For example, instead of just dropping the unwanted clothes in the room there would be a machine that would consume them in an inventive way. My first thought was using the old banking air tube system to suck them out of the room. Or something crazier. Something no one would believe.

The experience for those waiting should also be changed. The lounge area should be just that. A lounge area. Have 15 flatscreens playing movies, TV, news, whatever. Make it so the people waiting don't feel like they are waiting.

Lastly the men's dressing room should include a hang out. Like the last room on the left leads into a small lounge area, complete with drinks and pool tables and the like. There would be TVs there and one would be showing all the suckers in the ladies room waiting area, who were not aware of the secret hang out.

Again, the store should be selling the wiating experience and not the clothes themselves. Think about it. If someone told you about this cool waiting area, wouldn't you want to check it out for yourself?

Art all around

So I have often heard that artists create with the media that is available to them. So I wonder what Da Vinci would be doing on his blog, website, or twitter account. Think of all the ideas that he could capture immediately. I know most of us have experienced the loss of a great idea. I know I have, whether it was a guitar riff or an idea for an iPhone app, it was there and then 5 minutes later it was gone. The tools of today allow us to capture and share ideas so much faster then ever before, and the viral capability spreads these ideas at even faster speeds. Anyways, think about it - how many websites do you really love. Would you call those art? Do you classify art as a painting on the wall, a great song, a great poem? I think "art" has been expanded in realms that most people don't notice. Think about it. There is art all around.

Give it away

So I was wondering what would happen if BP decided to give away free gas to the coastal areas that have been affected by the oil spill. Sure it would "hurt" them financially in the short run, but in the long run it could pay off big time.

She had song

Tuesday night lessons are typically nothing special, but tonight was different. Tonight my student taught me a lesson. Tonight I witnessed raw emotion in the form of song. Tonight I saw true feelings being expressed. True anger. True frustration. Questions of why. My student was playing a one chord song and expressing frustration about a friendship gone wrong. She smiled, only slightly embarrassed, after the finishing the first first. I encouraged her to continue, to sing louder, to sing with the emotion she felt. And you know what? She did.

I know that true artists can transform feelings into tangible form. Forms like sculpture, art, spoken word, written word, and song. The expressive feeling can be felt while in the presence of such art. It is real. When it is authentic, we know it. It powerful. Its moving. Its inspiring. It makes us want to do more. I want to do more.

For what its worth my student is in grade school and arrived with a guitar that was out of tune and missing one string. Sometimes I think we get caught up in the production of things. We say its not good enough so I can't do it. Its night fast enough. It doesn't sound good. Its whatever. These are all just excuses. This grade schooler had no excuses, she had song.

So let it be written

I should have called this thing "So let it be written" as a tribute to Metallica, but I spaced that. I guess I got caught up in the moment. It is amazing how many tools are available online to this kind of stuff. In the past couple of weeks I have actively contributed to Facebook, YouTube, and created this Blog. The intent is to get the stuff I do out and available to everyone. So my goal is to post everyday about something, post a guitar riff everyday, post an idea everyday, just post something I am passionate about at least once a day.

The next great leap will involve a smart phone, and I am actually excited about that. I will be able to post my ideas as they come to me. I cannot tell you how many times an idea has come into my head only to be washed away by some distraction. For example, creating an iPhone app to pay for parking ramp bills, or even parking meters. How cool would that be, you park at the meter, use your phone to log into the meter, and go. Then when you get back you just pay what you owe right there. If there is some parking time limitation, then your phone could notify you when your time is almost up, and even better the cop writing the ticket could send you a notification as they are doing it. How fun would that be?

And so it begins...

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