Tales of low level management and a frustrated engineer

 "I haven't decided if I want to be a brain surgeon or a short order fry cook." I use to hear this growing up from my grandparents, it was from the show The Beverly Hillbillies, but it was accurate to my teenage years. I learned and played the Trombone, loved the Trombone, kept playing it in college for any group that thought I was good enough to join. I also loved engineering.  There was something about taking the abstract concepts of science and math and finding practical application.  I loved solving problems too. By the time I was in high school and people start asking what I wanted to do with my life, I very seriously said I wasn't sure if I want to be a Professional Engineer or a Jazz Trombonist.  I did both for as long as I could but only one of those was a tried and true career path.  It didn't stop me from minoring in jazz arrangement.  I even wrote a disco song for jazz ensemble that I called "We're Fabulous".  When your in the your late te...

 You know what's great about this series?  Two teams from two cities in an area the coastal folks call "the rust belt" but should be better known as the Great Lakes Watershed. Detroit has been through some really tough times in the last 30 years, you'll have that when all of your economic base leaves for cheaper labor markets. Cleveland has been through some really tough times in the last 30 years, you'll have that when your economic base pollutes the land and waterways so badly the river catches on fire regularly. These are major American cities, both of them degraded by decades of corporations chasing cheap labor,  lacks environmental protections, pre-1970s, that left a scarred landscape that 50 years of the clean water, clear air, RCRA, and Superfund sites has only recently started to show real improvement.  And lets not forget the trade deals that hollowed out Detroit and Cleveland for imports from China and Mexico. Detroit and Cleveland... I think you mean th...

 It boggles the mind how the US presidential race could be this close.  We know what the choices are and it couldn't be more obvious what the "best choice" is. I am definately not saying that I think Kamala Harris the right choice, but given the choices she is the best option. Donald Trump had 4 years to show us what he was about and what he could do and the answers were painful.   He alienated us around the world, with this international antics.  It was the pathetic display of an entitled rich kid that got where he was on a combination of luck, cheating, and his privaleged  upbringing.  Go back and think about it.  He pushed other world leaders out of his way to ensure he got a prominent spot in a group photo.  There was that weird photo of him and a bunch of Saudis touching that glowing ball, what ever was happening there.  He insulted Angela Merkel.  He threatened to pull out of NATO.  He tried to blackmail the very leader o...