Back to the Future - on a global mission

Well, here I go again. A week or so ago, I found myself watching Bloomberg television and they had chosen to broadcast a Presidential news conference. Former President Bill Clinton was speaking, quite authoritatively, on a number of various topics. It seems current President Barack Obama had given Mr. Clinton the chance to explain some of his latest passions.

I laughed as I realized I was also back working for my former employer which I began working for when Mr. Clinton was the sitting president (1999). It was surely a trip back to the past in more than one way.

A friend or two had given me a heads up about a project they were working on where my background could be of help. It seems a customer from 2006-2007 was expanding a plant I worked on back then. The plant is built in a very harsh environment and has lots of special design features to make the power equipment last longer.

I accepted their offer of employment and I began work in December. I was doing some initial research just to get an idea of the latest information about the project. Wikipedia had a great article about the region and the project itself. In fact, I found this great video that features the project.

The news show "60 Minutes" features the Shaybah project as part of a story on the Saudi Arabian effort to increase oil production. More than just critical to Saudi Arabia maintaining their standard of living, the effort to keep producing oil in harsher areas like Shaybah takes on a more epic light when the man being interviewed, Mr. Ali Al-Naimi, mentioned the real struggle to keep hostile regimes from increasing oil prices at will. By expanding the plant, oil prices can be reduced or maintained, and oil prices and profits are prevented from unduly enriching these regimes.

It sounds like a mission from a movie or a great book when I think about it that way. I am ready for the next adventure. I can't wait to get back.... to the future.

September update

I have been more guarded this past season about what I share on the internet and this blog. In light of some privacy changes on facebook and it's explosive growth, I have made some adjustments to my social media information. It basically boils down to keeping my kids pictures and their information to a minimum. I think that says it all.

Cox Computing is still a website and still a blog (hey! you're reading it! Thank you!), but to be blunt, we aren't really doing active work for customers at present and that is generally by design. I stay very busy as the stay-at-home dad these days and with my wife working full-time, we have blessings and food aplenty. That is to say, my income is an option and my service to my wife and my kids is a higher priority to me and our family than any incremental income I could stir up.

That said, I am pursuing some career and business education in the forms of reading excellent books, listening to business podcasts and audiobooks, and scanning relevant business and technology magazines. I AM available to help you if you can have patience with my schedule. I am bidding on some Elance projects currently that involve Excel VBA programming, and I would consider helping you or your company if you needed me.

I am still trying to regain a sense of purpose and focus about my vision and cause and how to turn that into a service or set of products that can help others. Basically, I am still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. That, after 19 years as a engineering worker, and I do believe I can change my identity and still make a great difference in this world. So, please stay tuned. I hope to give more updates to those of you who are interested, and I hope to start getting more definition to new direction soon. One of those directions may just to be work a holiday job, if I could find one!

God bless you for reading and have a terrific day!

Why I don't like 5K races anymore

I have ran more than a few 5K races. But I don't run them anymore. Here are some reasons why I do not.

No childcare. I have two pre-school kids and to go do a race, I have to leave the kids with my wife. This is a raw deal for her. Why can't 5K races have childcare?

Crowd not handled. There are too many people at so many races now and it just isn't handled well. 5,000 people show up. The course can carry 5-10 people running elbow to elbow. That means a line 1000 to 500 feet long. In reality, it means that you end up going a much slower speed at the beginning because so many people are getting synchronized. Why can't they start the race in phases? With electronics this would be easy.

Not free. Lots of activities are free these days, supported by ads or vendors. I really do not feel the need to pay $10-$25 to go run a race on a course that is crowded with tons of people that I can probably run any other time of the year for free. Yes, they might even make more money if they got away from the runner fees. More people might come out, and more vendors might advertise or sell right there. Heck, I'd pay some money to let my kids do something fun.

Not enough recognition and social elements. I will never win the entire race. And most of the time, they don't even give awards at the race. They let you leave and then you see where you placed the next day. Let's face it. This STINKS. Any other sport, you know who won by the end of the match.

Firehose of competition, when I want niche. Finally, I would like to know my competition and be able to pick what "race" to enter. If I want to race against 40-50 year old males, I should be able to and know if I won by the end of the race. Like at the finish line. Further, there should be other awards for "achievements" like distance milestones, or running the fastest for engineering majors or Team Coco, or whatever.

Until 5K races get some more interesting elements, I think I will just keep exercising on the elliptical and waiting for the day that the races catch up to my dreams.