Ron's Annual Book List

I have once again reached (barely) my goal of reading 50 books during the year. Reading is one of the important lifelong hobbies that I try to instill in my students. By reading 50 books per year, I come close to my goal of reading one hour per day, every day. Here is this year's list:

In order read -

T is for Trespass - Sue Grafton
Your Cabin in the Woods
The Choice - Nicholas Sparks
Without Fail - Lee Child
Tripwire - Lee Child
Freefall - Kyle Mills
Echo Burning - Lee Child
The Enemy - Lee Child
Pursuader - Lee Child
Lady Killer - Lisa Scottoline
Stone Cold - David Baldacci
The Appeal - John Grisham
7th Heaven - James Patterson
One Shot - Lee Child
Hardway - Lee Child
Running Blind - Lee Child
The Shooters - W.E.B. Griffin
Die Trying - Lee Child
Nothing to Lose - Lee Child
Whiskey Island - Emilie Richards
What the Best College Teachers Do - Ken Bain
Parting Glass - Emilie Richards
Killing Floor - Lee Child
Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child
Whole Truth - David Baldacci
Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich
Blight Way - Patrick McManus
Mortal Allies - Haig
Galileo's Daugther - Sobel
Dead Hotshot - Victoria Huston
Sail - James Patterson
Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks
Conspiracy Club - Jonathon Kellerman
Heat Lightening - John Sanford
Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
Moving Waters - Sam Cook
Transcontinental Railroad - Stephen Ambrose
The Other - David Guterson
Phantom Prey - John Sanford
Sunday at Tiffany's - James Patterson
Winter Study - Nevada Barr
Degrees of Separation - Sue Henry
Out of Sight - Elmore Leonard
Pagan Babies - Elmore Leonard
Bandits - Elmore Leonard
That was Then this is Now - S.E. Hinton
Hunted - Elmore Leonard
Marley and Me - John Grogan
South of Shiloh - Chuck Logan
My Sister's Keeper - Jonathon and Faye Kellerman

Top 3:
1. Power of One (hands down no contest - if you haven't read it, do)
2. Marley and Me (I haven't seen the movie, but the book is great)
3. Whiskey Island and The Parting Glass (a good two book series)

As usual, the top 3 are out of my normal genre - mystery. I have read so many mysteries that I cannot remember plotlines from hardly any of them during the year, but I still love to read them.

Best new author (to me) - Lee Child
Best character - Jack Reacher (Lee Child)

Best Bookstore - Powell's in Portland - an absolute must for your bucket list.

Happy New Year's Eve - Angie and I are heading to the North Shore for a snowshoe into a backwoods cabin for an overnight.

Stay safe...and warm.

Merry Christmas

Greetings from Oklahoma City.  In 43 years I have only been out of Minnesota for two Christmases. The first in 1991 was a few months after Ronnie was born and we stayed in Orlando. The second is today.  It is weird to celebrate Christmas and not have the temperature cold with snow on the ground.  Today though, I could careless. Through the miracle of life, I now have a new little grandson. The feeling is mostly overwhelming joy.  When my own kids were born, there was great joy, but it was tempered by even greater feelings of responsibility. With a grandchild it is just pure joy. I hope your Christmas is as great as mine. Merry Christmas.

Welcome Ethan - Our New Grandson

Engineering Students doing Work for the Community

Last Thursday, engineering students took a whole day to build two sculptures out of canned goods. One at Cub Foods in Grand Rapids and the other at the Central Square Mall. The structure at the grocery store is of an upside down Santa caught in a chimney. At the mall is a replica of the ICC Engineering building (Wenger Hall). Students contributed $1000 and Jerry Miner at Cub Foods contributed the rest. The nearly 5000 cans will be donated along with cash to the Second Harvest Food bank.

Tough Times

Engineering is an excellent profession. We have respect, we earn good pay, we do good things for people. I truly believe this and profess this to current and future students every day. In these times though, we get to see the downside of reality. I have recently talked to those who have been unfortunately laid off. The worst was a person I talked to yesterday who signed a contract with a company in August for a job to start now upon his college graduation. A call two weeks ago revoked the job offer. He could have spent these four months job searching, but felt secure in his having already accepted a job. We are all hearing or living stories like these right now. My words of wisdom won't help anybody pay their bills, but what I do have to say is keep faith. You are still in a high demand profession. The new president has an opportunity to pull us out of this rather soon. Let's hope he does. If you need a new job let me know, I get lots of phone calls when people need new and experienced engineers. If you have opportunities in your company, let me know.

Engineering Academy - A Step Closer

I apologize for the delay in posting. This past Monday I met with a couple people to discuss the engineering academy concept. Both were excited about the idea. Fortunately, both are in a position to make it happen in northeastern Minnesota. Perhaps, as soon as this coming Fall. Lots of things would have to happen for this engineering academy idea to become a reality. I will keep you posted.

Engineering Academy - More to Consider

If this is to work as a prototype, there are some considerations. Here are two -- please feel free to add comments with more.

1. We need the students to be awarded a degree from some real institution.  Thus to run the prototype we will need a partner university willing to support the idea and grant the degree. There are a few that I feel may be interested.

2. We are probably going to need to give potential students some sort of "guarantee" that they will have a job after this experience.  Here is an idea Aaron came up with:  At the beginning before the prototype begins, we get corporate sponsors. Companies who buy into the concept and agree to employ a student during internships and commit to employ the student full time for some period of years after their graduation.  The point of this whole thing is to create a more-ready entry level engineer for industry. We will ask them to come to the table at the beginning to have ownership in the idea and commitment to the product.

Engineering Academy - The Prototype

For the past five years, every time I thought about this idea and worked on it with over 20 colleagues from across the country, we were thinking we needed to start a new college. After all, no college we knew of could ever have the ability to reinvent itself in this format. As we went down that road, we hit the same roadblock every time - it cost a half a billion dollars to start a new college. That is an unbelievable amount of money to try and raise to essentially run an experiment. Granted it is an experiment I feel confident will succeed. There just weren't any avenues we could find to get it started.

Here is the new revelation - try it once. Take 25 students and 2 teachers. Bring in 5-10 experts per year to help lead the students through different learning activities. Evaluate the heck out of the prototype. Have 4 or 5 control groups of students that start at the same time at other institutions from various models (comm college, univ, private, etc.). Give all groups the same assessments at the beginning and at crucial places along the way and ultimately be able to show how effective this mode of education is compared to the traditional. We wouldn't need to build buildings or buy land or take 5 years to get started. We would need to find a temporary home for this small group and acquire the right set of equipment. As I estimate the costs of this prototype, they are around $5 million. This is a very small price to pay for a potentially huge reward.

Here is a quote from the former president of the National Academy of Engineering:

“I think we ought to be seeing a watershed change in engineering education---it is not happening.”…“I’ve tried to indicate to you that I think the practice of engineering is going to change tremendously and that therefore the education of engineers needs to change tremendously. I love this quote: Wayne Gretzky, probably the best hockey player who ever lived, talked about the fact that he didn’t skate to where the puck was, he skated to where the puck would be. I’m afraid that engineering education is skating to where the puck was.”

From “The Urgency of Engineering Education Reform”, Dr. William Wulf, President of the National Academy for Engineering

Ok. So I still need to find $5 million. Well, I actually have a couple of leads. Stay tuned. And please feel free to add comments. Any views from any standpoint help us as we move forward.

Engineering Academy - The Model

The student, upon arriving, works with the faculty to determine their "starting points" along a continuum of mastery in each of the ABET outcomes. For example, if complete mastery of "ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams" is defined through a set of criteria, the faculty and the individual student can assess where the student ranks against the criteria (if a ranking of 10 is perfect for a given skill, perhaps the student is starting at a 3). This way, the student knows where she is starting and what skills she is aiming to attain and can thus monitor that attainment over her education.

Now what does the learning look like?

It is a series of scenarios, cases, and projects. Each of which has components that build the students' mastery of the ABET outcomes. Here is an example of a scenario:

The teacher and the students address the question: "Why did the 35W Bridge Collapse?" In answering this question, the students would:

• completely learn the statics of the structure,
• analyze the original design,
• determine factors affecting deterioration of the bridge parts,
• delve into the economic and ethical factors precluding earlier repair of the bridge,
• compare and contrast opinions on levels of responsibility to be put on the state, the design engineers, the construction company doing the repairs at the time of collapse,
• critique the new design,
• evaluate political factors affecting bridge repair and replacement in MN and the US,
• write position papers, critique each others writing, re-write
• analyze the environmental effects of the collapse and subsequent construction
• and more...

The scenario would be their full time study for some length of time (one month? six weeks?) The faculty member would be the guide who set the parameters to ensure students continued to develop their skills and attributes to move towards mastery in several of the ABET criteria through this one scenario. And ultimately to create a set of cases, scenarios, and projects whereby all criteria are appropriately addressed and each student attains high levels of mastery.

So there it is in a nutshell. Eliminate the 45 classes and replace them with a set of scenarios that address ALL of the ABET criteria in an appropriate manner. Students go from passive receivers in boring and tedious lectures to active creators of their knowledge and skills by working in teams to address real engineering problems.

Tomorrow - How can this be done?

P.S. If you are one of the HCC alum, you have got to check this out: http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=16&a=369638

Engineering Academy

If you have had a conversation with me anytime in the past 5 years, it probably touched on the idea of a four year engineering program. On and off for that period of time, on the back burner of my brain I have been struggling with the idea that engineering education could be significantly better.

Here is the problem as I see it, in 2000 ABET identified the outcomes of an engineering education. They call them a-k (see below). The way that every university attempts to meet these outcomes is to have a student take 45 courses taught essentially independently of one another. For the most part these courses are taught in a lecture, homework, exam format. If you look at these outcomes, some are covered very well (a, b, e, and maybe k). But what about c, d, f, g, h, i, and j? Is taking one ethics course enough? How about two writing courses?

I, for one, do not think so. I think all of these outcomes should be addressed in practice over and over again for four years. Some colleagues from across the country and I have developed an alternative model. I will share it with you over the next few days.

Outcome a: "an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering"
Outcome b: "an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data"
Outcome c: "an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability"
Outcome d: "an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams"
Outcome e: "an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems"
Outcome f: "an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility"
Outcome g: "an ability to communicate effectively"
Outcome h: "the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context"
Outcome i: "a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning"
Outcome j: "a knowledge of contemporary issues"
Outcome k: "an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice"

Steffes Heater

You may have heard by now I am trying to do my part on reducing our dependence on oil. Unlike those who buy hybrids I am also looking to do so while saving money for myself (not to offend any of you who own a hybrid).  So with the high propane prices on the horizon I set to look for an alternative heat source for this and future winters.  The candidates were indoor wood, outdoor wood, wood pellets, electric plenum heater, electric storage heater.  The criteria I considered were purchase price, installation cost, and operation costs.  The winner hands-down was the above shown electric storage heater.  Made in Dickinson, ND by the Steffes Corporation, this unit is filled with 500+ pounds of bricks.  At 10:30 PM the off-peak ($.039 /kwh) electricity begins to charge the bricks while heating the house. The power goes off at 7:00 AM and the heater then distributes heat for the whole rest of the day.  Cost with installation was ~$2500. To this point, the heater has taken the full load of keeping our house warm. The propane furnace hasn't been on at all.  Granted, the electricity does come from coal burning when I would much rather have it come from a nuclear plant, but more importantly I am not burning propane and am saving money.  I would recommend this heater to anyone.

Civic Responsibility

Last Thursday I attended the fall gathering of the former HCC and ICC Engineering students who now live and work in northeastern Minnesota. I am the defacto leader of this group. All told 40 of us gathered at Zimmy's in Hibbing for socializing and dinner. I brought along 2 current ICC students, Deven and Amanda. They each spoke to the group to tell them about our current initiatives. We usually ask a guest speaker to enlighten us on some profession related topic. I contacted 4 different people without any luck. So I then invited myself to be the guest speaker. After much hemming and hawing, I agreed:)

The topic was civic responsibility. I started by asking each engineer in attendance to write down on an index card why they entered engineering. There were many repeat answers: for the money, cause I liked math and science, because Ron told me too. I actually predicted these answers before the speech while driving over. But there were 4 people who provided the answer I was looking for - "because I wanted to make a difference".

When you get to my stage in life, by this I mean past half-way in your working career, you begin to ask yourself questions like "am I making a difference?" or "when all is said and done will I be proud of what I have accomplished?". (See previous post about reflecting in solitude in the deer stand.)

As I said at the dinner Thursday night, this is a pretty easy question for me to answer. All I had to do was look around the table and there were many impressive people who, I believe, would tell me I made a difference in their lives. My profession provides this opportunity.

However, my deer stand reflecting, brought me one step further. Do my former students who are now engineers have this same opportunity to make a difference? I believe they do.

For some of us this opportunity is directly through our work. In other cases, we can use our abilities outside of work to make a difference. Things like serving on city commissions or church construction committees or any of many different places where people with our backgrounds in problem solving can be used. In fact we can also make a difference in places where our being an engineer has nothing to do with the contribution.

About five years ago I added up the number of volunteer hours I had spent coaching in Hill City. The number was over 500. I know that the number now is at least double that. Can coaching make a difference? You bet it can. In fact it led at least 12 of the people I coached straight to ICC and into careers in engineering.

TBL: The ultimate message at our dinner and in this posting is this: "We have a responsibility to our profession, our communities, and our own children to dedicate our time and talents to helping others."

Hunting Recap

Geez. Looks like it has been awhile since I posted? Well...deer season ended about 3 hours ago. I spent as many daylight hours as possible in the woods and took my annual vacation from teaching to do so. Ronnie and I had a blast. We did not shoot the elusive big buck. In fact we only shot one deer the whole time. But we were in the woods... mostly in solitude reflecting on life. And we were together spending time at nights and lots of driving to and from hunting camp. I would not trade one minute of it. Ronnie had knee surgery just five days before opener, yet still saw to it to spend all this time with his old man. His bag for the year was 5. He got two in the early season, two with his bow, and one during rifle season. For a lifetime score his has now pulled to within 3 of me. I lead 18-15. A lead that I am sure will soon be relinquished.

Goin' Huntin'

It is my absolute favorite time of year. Minnesota rifle deer season. In the next 10 days I will spend the lion's share of daylight hours in pursuit of the whitetail deer. While the destination might be a trophy buck, the journey is time spent communing with mother nature in a pure way. The sounds and smells of the late fall woods and the time spent with my son and father make this a journey I would never miss.

If you are going out, stay safe and good luck. If you are not, you are missing out.

Election Night

VOTER TURNOUT:

I've never seen anything like this in my life. This is my seventh presidential election. Most of those were characterized by voter apathy with low voter turnout. Today is just the opposite. People are engaged. Many who have never voted before, voted today. There is energy in the air. I see it in my students, I see it in the polling place. As we ate at Applebees tonight, 9 out of 10 people who walked in the door, had I voted stickers on. It is cool.

RACE:

Though I don't think of myself as old, I guess as an about to be grandpa maybe I am. I grew up in a time when my parents and grandparents were outwardly racist. I've seen racism both blatant and subtle at work throughout most of my life. Now we are on the verge of having a black president. Heck I'll call it right now - at this moment Obama leads 102 to 34 - Obama will win.  This is amazing. I couldn't be prouder to call myself an American. Sure racism is still out there, but more than 50% of Americans are looking past race to elect a black man to our highest office.

TRANSFORMATIONAL FIGURE:

Last week, Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama saying "I think he is a transformational figure".  

As a child, my grandmother talked about JFK as if he walked on water. Kennedy was a transformational president. In my life, the closest we have come is Reagan. I voted for him. He instilled in me a great level of patriotism which led to my joining the military.

I agree with Colin Powell and I have great hope that this president will transform our country in ways that we cannot yet mention - "Change We Can Believe In".

TBL:

I hope you voted. Of the seven elections I've voted in, my candidate was unsuccessful 3 times. Life goes on whether our candidate wins or not. But by voting, we are making our effort to have our voice heard.

P.S. JP - The other night I drove past Khan's Mongolian Barbeque in Park Rapids and thought about the time we ate there - that must be over 10 years ago already!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! This is a great holiday. You get to put your hands in gooey pumpkins and generally just fool around. In the above picture 4 out of the 5 of us are wearing our pregnancy costumes. Can you guess who is really pregnant? Coming from the right -- not me, not Ronnie, NOT Ronnie's Katy, NOT Liz, yup - you guessed it - my Katie. She is 7+ months pregnant. I will be a grandpa before New Years. We are all very excited.

In other pics, you see me with my new pumpkin carving tool, Waldo and Wenda, and Katy's jack-o-lantern (she won our contest).

Hope you had a great Halloween!

The End

22 + years ago I made a call to a recruiter about a navy program I had heard about. How different would my life have been if I had not? I guess I'll never know. I am absolutely from the bottom of my soul glad that I did go down this path. The benefits and opportunities were amazing. But they don't, in any way compare, to the way my life has changed because of the people I met. I believe we are molded by a compilation of the influences made by the people in our lives. I have the US Navy to thank for these servicemen and servicewomen being a part of my life: Dennis R, Joel T, Frank M, Marguerite R, John B, Ken W, Doug A, Jon B, Paul S, Calvin C, Liz W, John F, Mike C, Tom R, Angie U (may have met her without the recruiter...since we were married before the call, but she was an excellent servicemember colleague), The NRC Duluth Chief's Mess, John H, Maggie Y, Donna H, Larry T, Pat T, Cheryl K, Dave R, Shannon R, Donnie G, Matt H, Bob O, Larry K, Ladonna V, and most importantly - Mike, Ida, and Barry my three greatest friends in the Navy. This is a small and incomplete list. The names mean nothing to anyone reading this, but are a huge part of who I am.

I leave today with no regrets. None for joining, none for staying, and none for leaving. I am closing a chapter in my life and starting a new one.

TBL: The most important thing we get from our professions isn't the money, its not the pride, its the opportunity to be shaped by good people.

One Last Shave

I guess it is in my nature. If somebody tells me to do something, that in and of itself, is enough of a reason for me to NOT want to do it. Ask me to do something, no problem. Tell me to do it, go fly a kite. (Hmmm... I wonder where my daughter gets this trait). By being in the military it is REQUIRED that you be shaved in uniform. In fact, the military REQUIRES lots of things. It is a surprise I ever joined an institution that requires compliance. Well, I did and I got through it. But now it is over. This morning I was "forced" to shave for the last time...a nice feeling.

Fighting through the Apathy

Have you ever been in the last few weeks or last few days of a job? It is kind of hard. Not the emotions of leaving those are different. Rather what I am talking about is the stuff that used to matter and really doesn't any more. I'm sitting here today getting all of my ducks in a row and the other folks are dealing with the normal navy beauracracy. It's hard not to say out loud "I don't give a shit about that paper work or that requirement" or blah blah blah. But I'm not saying it. I 'm doing what is asked of me, getting my work done, and spending my spare moments reflecting on a great 22 year experience.

TBL: Fight through the apathy and don't do anything stupid that might burn some bridges.

The Best Meal I had in my Navy Career

In August of 1995 I spent 10 days in Guam working at the naval shipyard on my engineering duty qualification. First of all, let me tell you Guam in August is freaking hot!! Secondly, the power distribution system in Guam is bad. So every night when people get home from work and the air conditioning demand is at its highest, different parts of the island experience black outs. Most nights I would go to the Denny's in my hotel which had its own generator and eat. On Friday night I decided to go to the Navy Officer's Club for dinner. When I arrived, the power was off, but candles lit the way around back. The dinner fare was mongolian barbeque. Inside the club, under candlelight, was the buffet of uncooked meat and vegetables. I loaded my plate and brought outdoors to the chef who cooked it over charcoal with only the light of the coals.

Seating was outside and only a small candle lit each table. I was on the edge of a mountain in Guam looking out over the ocean at a moon that reflected off of the water and on to the city below. The meal was excellent, the ambiance was unparalleled.

TBL - Just a reflection on a snapshot from a career.

P.S. The weather in San Diego is fabulous. Sunny and 75.

The Last Journey

I don't expect that most people who read this blog think about retirement much. I sure don't, just today I realized that I am in my 17th year of community college teaching and If I retire at 60, I have 17 more. So I guess I'm half way. That is still a long time off.

However, today I have embarked on what will be my last journey in the Navy Reserve. I'm flying to San Diego for a 4 day weekend with my navy unit. The purpose being to turn over the reins and finish up a little paperwork. As of November 30th I will be transferred out of the active reserve, in other words, I'm retiring.

I've been in the military for almost 22 years. I've seen the world and I've had a lifetime of "life's lessons" compacted into 5 years of active duty and one weekend per month/ 2 weeks in the summer for the last 17. It has been a blast and I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

I'm leaving on my own accord. I could stick around for another 6 years before they kick me out. But the time is right. My family is ready. I have my son at home for a few more years and a grandson just two months out on the horizon. Plus a wife who is ready to reclaim her husband. I've missed more than half of our 24 anniversaries.

Nonetheless, it is a bit strange to say the word retirement. To pack my bags for one last trip...

Taking a Moment to Enjoy the Season

Yesterday, Mike Johnson, the ICC Provost, and I left work at 3:00 PM to go kayaking on a remote lake in northern Minnesota. One of the best aspects of our part of the world is the four destinct seasons. Unfortunately, we often take them for granted and just go on with our busy lives. Over the past few years I have tried to take an afternoon each season to spend with a friend in the quiet outdoors. Yesterday was perfect. The weather was cool and dry. We went to a lake up highway 38 and paddled the shoreline for two hours. We saw many deer, visited about each others' lives and soaked in the autumn season. After sunset we loaded up our kayaks and stopped off for a burger and a beer. All in all a great afternoon/evening.

TBL: Don't let life pass you by. Schedule, weeks in advance if you have to, an afternoon in the great outdoors.

Hunting with My Boy

I have always looked forward to fall break, however for the last 3-4 years it is more than ever. There are many pleasures in life, but one of my greatest is spending time in the woods with my son. This fall we have been out hunting or prepping to hunt over a dozen times and there will be two dozen more. There are so many aspects to it. One is that as hunters we are equals. The days of my teaching him sportsmanship and gamesmanship are over. Now we team together to make strategic decisions. We both unselfishly want the other to succeed in the hunt and we share equally in the work that comes after a successful hunt. A lot of people don't understand hunting and I respect that. At first glance taking guns afield to kill animals can seem barbarian at best. But, hunting is so much more than that and it is hard to put to words. But the bottom line is hunting for me is a chance to spend high quality, uninterupted time, in nature's greatest setting with a most special person.

Coasting

Do you ever wonder why a new car is listed with estimated gas mileage as 32 hwy and 27 city? Isn't that backwards? Don't higher speeds mean more drag? Even at a factor of speed squared! Well, with not much thought it becomes obvious that lower in town mileage is due to stop and go. Think about the billions of gallons of gasoline each day that are converted into heat in a brake system. What a waste. The better hybrids take advantage of this potential for energy savings by having an independent generator on each wheel to use electric back torque to stop the car and then provide the generated electricity to the battery.

So my conclusion, is that one way to save fuel is to brake less. Ronnie and I have been doing this a lot in the truck we share. Coasting basically means letting off on the gas much sooner than normal before a stop or a turn. I was able, on my motorcycle to take my mileage from 50 mpg to 69 mpg just through coasting.

TBL - Give it a try.

Oil Use

Q. Why did gas prices drop? A. Easy, the demand for oil dropped.

Q. Why did the demand for oil drop? A. Easy, we started using less.

In my case I sold a car, spent most of my summer driving a motorcycle, and in our family we are always looking for ways to drive fewer miles. This year I installed two new electric heaters to heat my house. I will use one thousand fewer gallons of propane this winter.

I think we are all trying to reduce our oil use. I'm always looking for new ideas.

What did I do last summer?

I have had a few inquiries about what I was up to all summer (other than not blogging). Well I had two pretty eventful trips. First, for my last Navy trip before retiring, Angie and I drove to the Navy Reserve centers in ND, MN, NE, OK, WY, ID, OR, WA, and MT. 19 days, 6000+ miles. Then one day after returning I flew to Alaska with my Dad, son, brother, and nephew. We caught lots of salmon and saw some up close grizzlies. If you want to see some neat pictures from these trips, check out:

http://aulseth.blogspot.com

P.S. I identified my two long forgotten items to get done this week. Did you?

The 1/x % rule

Lately I have been in meetings with, let's say 10 people. Some people tend to really dominate conversations beyond how much they should. I have a rule - If I am one of the ten people then I consider that I should be talking about 10% of the time. Of course this can vary depending on my role, but it is a really good rule of thumb that we should all consider.

Have a good weekend! I'm heading to Goodland to hunt deer on Tommy Cowboys land. Thanks Tommy!

Procrastination Part 2

Ok, I really do have a post about procrastination. Yesterday in my Intro to Engr class of 25 first year students, I asked students to write on an index card the one good habit they would like to form or the one bad habit they would like to break. Fully 90%, without any prompting or leading discussion, wrote down they would like to break their bad habit of procrastination. An hour later while teaching professional development to 2nd year students, I posed the same question. The result was similar with more than 70% listing procrastination.

Well. I see where they are coming from. Procrastination is ever present in our lives. It isn't anything we graduate from or ever grow out of. I think we only learn to manage it. Obviously those of us who graduated from college managed procrastination to the point that it didn't keep us from doing what was necessary to succeed.

But it is there in our lives. If I asked you to name the one thing that you need to get done that you have been putting off, wouldn't there be something? Changing the oil or getting new tires or going to the dentist or calling your grandma or ... There is something or more than one thing sitting out there that we know we need to do. Yet we keep putting it off and the more we put it off, the harder it is to approach.

The perfect example is this blog. May 18th is surely a while ago. I never intended to quit posting for several months, but the more time that went by the harder it was to motivate myself to do.

I think you get the picture.

TBL - here is a management technique. Each Sunday night, ask yourself "what is the one thing I need to do that I have been putting off?" Then commit to doing it on Monday or at least to get the ball rolling.

P.S. I had lunch with my friend Mark yesterday. He is the one who got me to come back to posting. Thank you Mark.

Procrastination

First of all, welcome back! Yeah. I know May 18th was a long time ago. Oh well, the bottom line is being published today.

Secondly, above, are the three ICC Viking Engineers.  Brittney, Erin, and Misty are an important part of the varsity volleyball team while at the same time excelling in our engineering program.  

Well, I better get to the title of this blog... Procrastination. No wait. I'll do it tomorrow.

Photo for the Day

I live in a family of photographers. Angie is well regarded by all and typically takes 20,000 photos per year. Ronnie is the two time defending photo contest winner in his school. He is prepping for the upcoming 3rd annual photo contest and took this shot today.

Graduation

Ah, it is that time of year - the ICC Engineering students graudated tonight. At graduation, engineering student Mike Locke was named ICC Student of the Year. 42 engineers graduated. Following graduation, we held our annual engineering banquet. Three area high school teachers were named to the ICC Engineering High School Teacher Hall of Fame - Amy Hendrickson from ERATS, Dan Bredemus from Grand Rapids, and Mike McNulty from Mesabi East. Most of our grads are headed to UND with a large portion of them going into ME. This class has been especially fun to teach. They are really nice people who are headed for success.

Commissioning

I.... do solemly swear to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same...

Second Lieutenant Colin Engebretsen, Unites States Air Force, took his oath of office amid his family and ROTC classmates this past weekend. I had the honor of swearing him in.

Colin is a mechanical engineer who will work as a "Developmental Engineer" for the Air Force. We are all proud of him.

Ring Ceremony

This past weekend I went to UND for the annual "ring ceremony". Each year I try to get to the ceremony, if at all possible, to see ICC graduates reach their educational goal. It is a great event in which we get a chance to reflect on the power and responsibility of our profession.

This year 6 ICC grads and Colin, my son-in-law. Earned their rings.

I am an Engineer, in my profession I take deep pride. To it I owe solemn obligations.
Since the Stone Age, human progress has been spurred by the engineering genius. Engineers have made usable Nature’s vast resources of material and energy for Humanity's benefit. Engineers have vitalized and turned to practical use the principles of science and the means of technology. Were it not for this heritage of accumulated experience, my efforts would be feeble.

As an Engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth’s precious wealth.

As an Engineer I shall participate in none but honest enterprises. When needed, my skill and knowledge shall be given without reservation for the public good. In the performance of duty and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give the utmost.

P^3

P^3 – Pedal, Paddle, and Portage. This past Tuesday, after our students completed their 7 hour comprehensive exam (our own version of the FE exam), we held our second annual P^3 competition. 28 students started out at Bart’s house and pedaled the 6.7 miles to Glen’s house, where, under Gordy’s supervision, they entered the river with canoes. I patrolled the river while students raced downstream to Beer’s landing. The portage from the landing back to Bart’s was 3/8 of a mile. Jon and John won the competition and all teams came in under 2 hours. After the race, we gathered at Bart’s for a cook out, some Bocce, and even some of the ICC-famous “post-ball”. This is a great way to wind down the year.

Bart and the "shotgun" start.

"Wear your life jackets!"

My power boat.

Jon and John in the lead.
Time to portage.

Finish line.
"Can you believe those mean guys took our swings?"

Super Alumni.


Postball

Back in the Cockpit

Angie and I love to kayak. During the summer months we get out at least once a week. This past Saturday we joined our friend Dennis who was visiting from Washington state and a few other members of the Itasca Kayak Club for a couple of hours of fast and high water.

Eagle's Nest

Here is a neat Eagle's nest we saw from the river while kayaking the Mississippi.

Student Photos Part 4

Student Photos Part 3