Friday night – not that jim carey

March 8, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

Pretty quiet day… All work and no play. Most fun was when diane and i met my old work friend jim carey..(not The movie guy… ) .and his two great kids, declan and julia for dinner. Jim and his family are up from florida skiing. We worked together in the early 2000's and hadn't seen one another in a good long while. It was great catching up and reminiscing. We spent part of the evening scheming about how to use dry ice for Julia's 5th grade science fair…. Nice nite…

Too tired and spaced out to write more..

Thursday night – VASE space

March 7, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

Ultra busy day… Come to think of it ultra busy week. I had a nice reprieve tonight when several colleagues from the Vermont Academy of science and engineering (VASE) STEM workgroup met at my house. VASE is a bunch of senior Scientists and engineers here in Vermont that are gathered together to do some good the world. Our stem group is trying to promote the engineering science math and technology careers in the students of Vermont. Last year we started a grants program for area schools. We gave about 12 grants two schools across the state to buy equipment for science technology and math outreach. Tonight we reviewed The results of those Grants and it was really great to see. Schools used our grants to buy optical benches, weather stations, 3-D printers, mathematics programs. We were able to read how those grants were able to enhance the science, technology and math training in schools across the state. Tonight's meeting was about planning the next years grant program. It will be fun to see what we can do this year.

I love the people in case. They've all been fairly successful and they all have a great passion for passing on their love of science and technology. I couldn't ask for a more aligned group of souls.

Nite all, nite sam

-me

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Wednesday night – back to work

March 6, 2013 johncohn 1 Comment

I was at lunch today with a friend when I noticed on the TV that yet another company, this time Best Buy,was canceling its work flexibility rules. last week it was Yahoo. In other words the people who were working at home are being asked to come back to the office to do their jobs. I remember just a couple years ago that flexible work options like working at home were the latest in employee accommodations. The employee gets flexibility with his or her work, gets to spend time at home, and the employer saves on things like heating the office. The idea was to make a more flexible, more global, more relaxed workforce. In fact, in most cases the opposite occurred.

We have lots of people sitting at home staring at the wall during teleconferences walking and caring less and less each day about their mutual tasks. i see it every day… It's not that people don't care, it is that the lack of socialization and the lack of face-to-face interaction Subtly undermine your emotional attachment to your work. Don't get me wrong, I and many of my colleagues love what we do. It's just a lack of flesh and blood interaction takes its toll. There's a great study cited n Jonah Lehrer's book Imagination that correlates the likely importance of a technical paper to the distance between the primary authors. The study shows that collaborators that are in close physical proximity are far far more likely to write an important paper than people collaborating at a distance.

Even before this new back to work craze I found myself missing real interaction. I've been working at home for almost a year now. I go into work perhaps once every two weeks… But I had independently decided to start driving in more and more often. I've been doing that the last couple of weeks and while I do waste time on the drive in and back, If you hallway and her actions that I have now more than make up for lack of access to the fridge. Not only that but I'm less likely to wear the same clothes I ran in for three days running as i sometimes find myself doing here at home.

I wonder if that's too much information… I'm sure my readers will let me know

Night all, night sam
– Me

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Tuesday night – town meeting

March 6, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

The first tuesday of march is sacred here in Vermont. Its the day that most Vermont towns hold their town meetings. Its when most of the town gets together to debate.. And sometimes even agree on the issues facing the town

.Sometimes those are things as concrete as concrete.. Or gravel..

And some times those are things like banning nukes… This year i don't think we had that much esoteric.. But then again, i wasn't listening that closely, i go for the community. There are folks there that i only see at town meeting,, as i looked around today i saw many of the same folks id been seeing on that same day having basically the same conversations for 31 years… Pretty amazing.. No ? Its democracy at its most basic and perfect.