Yay for the spotlight!

So the project myself and another coworker have been working on recently has been getting a ton of visibility in the O&G services sector; to top it off we're being presented with an award at the Offshore Technology Conference next Monday!

I don't usually toot my own horn, but I think this exception is worth it :o)

for more info: http://www.otcnet.org/2008/spotlight/Baker_Oil_Tools.html

'Dilbert's' 9-point financial plan worthy of economics Nobel - MarketWatch

Source

Fortunately for America's 95 million investors, Adams' secret nine-point formula was finally revealed in "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels." Notice its simple brilliance in the exact reproduction of his formula:

1.
Make a will
2.
Pay off your credit cards
3.
Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4.
Fund your 401k to the maximum
5.
Fund your IRA to the maximum
6.
Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7.
Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8.
Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9.
If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio

Adams boldly states that this is "everything you need to know about personal investing." In just 129 words, nine simple points, one page you have the unabridged "Unified Theory of Everything Financial." That's it. Everything!

Writing Tips

Great PDF on writing tips... print it out and keep with you or with your writing supplies
http://mikeshea.net/writing_tips.pdf

Yum.

How to pour the perfect Black and Tan:

1 Guinness Draught can of beer
1 Bass Pale Ale
2 glasses
1 large spoon (the head should be able to fit inside the glass)

Pour the Bass first... you want to fill about half the glass and make it as frothy as possible - I think the head dampens the impact of the Guinness when it's poured.
Then, place the spoon (with the convex side up) in the glass, touching the end of the spoon to the side of the glass.
Pour the Guinness SLOWLY over the top of the spoon - I tilted the spoon so that most of the Guinness rolls down the side of the glass from the spoon head.
Enjoy!

Finally!

I found a way to have your PowerPoint presentation show up on the projector (or 2nd screen/monitor) and be able to see your notes with your screen... much props to Michael Hyatt

Link

That's what she said.

Suja and I just finished watching Disc 4 of Season 3 of The Office

I had a habit (or I guess non-habit) of not getting caught up in any TV shows recently (not since I dug The Simpsons in my early college days)... but I caught a few episodes of The Office - season 2 I think - and really just laughed enough to watch as much as I could... this included catching some on Netflix' 'watch instantly' and then Suja and I got the season discs Netflix'd in... So after hours of laughter, we're all caught up... a definite recommend.

And of course it's so funny because we can relate... we've all got people, or an accumulation of traits of people we know that become Michael, Dwight, et al...

So now that we're all caught up... what's next? Not sure I want to get into Lost, Heroes, or 24 yet...

Empowered...?

So the Texas primary was yesterday, and the wife and I went to the primary and the caucus (dumb "Texas Two-Step"). I placed my vote, felt bad that I didn't know Any of the local candidates or their positions on issues, and then we went out to eat to celebrate our demonstration of civic responsibility.

As far as who I voted for, it really was a tougher decision than I thought it was going to be; once I got back from Denmark I started researching Clinton, Obama, McCain, Huckabee, Paul and Nader... after going through their stances on the different issues, I decided to vote for Obama, but it took more contemplation than I thought it would've... before I thought about it more, I was really energized by Obama's campaign and was relieved to see someone like him move the young electorate so well.

But the more I thought about it, the more I kept feeling that Obama's campaign was more emotive than anything else. He pulls a lot by using the 'outsider/non-Washington' label... and yet I can't help but think he's able to do that purely from a lack of experience in that environment.

So in reviewing candidates, I ran across Russ Feingold, the junior senator from Wisconsin... and I really wish he ran so I'd be really sure where my vote would go. He seems to be the uncompromising idealist that everyone's pining for, including myself, but he's been around since 1992.
When Feingold was running against the Republican incumbent for the in '92, he wrote the following 5 promises on his garage door:

1. I will rely on Wisconsin citizens for most of my contributions.
2. I will live in Middleton, Wisconsin. My children will go to school here and I will spend most of my time here in Wisconsin.
3. I will accept no pay raise during my six-year term in office.
4. I will hold a "Listening Session" in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties each year of my six-year term in office.
5. I will hire the majority of my Senate staff from individuals who are from Wisconsin or have Wisconsin backgrounds

Feingold has continued to have "Listening Sessions" in each county every year since then... there was a story about it on NPR last year I think... what other senator 'gets' it like that?

Feingold's also been working hard for campaign finance reform and a national health care system; especially notable is that he was the ONLY senator to vote against the Patriot Act and also led the fillibuster against the renewal of the act, and voted against the 'compromised' version of it (unlike Obama). Feingold voted against the resolution to go to war with Iraq. He started the movement to censure President Bush. (info from wikipedia)

According to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton has missed 141 votes (29.2%) during the current Congress. Obama has missed 196 votes (40.6%). Feingold? 0... he's missed 10 votes total since he became a senator - 16 years ago
more vote-missers at http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/

EDIT: I should've thought more about this, but I'm sure that the reason these senators missed the number of votes that they did was because they were on the campaign trail... my mistake.

I like both of the Dems candidates, and would be overall happy if either won the general election (I guess I'd be happier with Obama), but I think my heart lies with Feingold. As my coworker Mark put it "seems like he's got an abundance of common sense".

I'm back

Back into the land of Fahrenheit, smog, and 75° winters.

Got back over the weekend and now I’m sitting here at work again, as if nothing ever changed. We were successful running the Level 5 RAM System, including the Dual Seal Module that I fully designed, at the rig. Although it took a 2nd try, this is a worldwide first installation, and I’m pretty happy with the overall results.

More to come...

All-"Dream" Post

If you grew up in Houston during the 1990s, you knew Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon... the Nigerian Nightmare brought us two NBA championships in '94 & '95... Now he gets his shot at the Hall of Fame

Also, the Rockets are planning on making a monument honoring Hakeem out in front of the Toyota Center in April. Interesting that "in keeping with the tenets of his Muslim faith, it won't include a picture or likeness of him."

Long time coming... HOF enshrinement ceremony will be September 4-6 in Springfield, Mass.

Road trip, anyone?

"If" - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!