Roy's Blog
As can be seen in other parts of the web site, I like to write about things I find interesting/important. All of those things that interest me are not all significant enough to warrant a full essay; therefore, I've decided to create a Blog for myself. It will not be like most blogs in that I'm not using any blog software. If you want to comment/argue/disagree with anything in the blog (or anywhere else in my web site) just send me an email rwl@lobenhofer.com and if I deem it appropriate, I will post it. Be aware, I do not believe commercials are appropriate, nor language that isn't PG. (Okay, I'm a prude - but I'm an old prude!) That being said, I'd love to hear your comments especially if you disagree. By understanding why you disagree, perhaps I will see the errors in my thinking.
A word of warning before going on regarding proof reading: if you read any of the following you will soon be asking, “Doesn’t he proof read this stuff?” The answer is yes I do proof read it and that is why there are so many errors. You see when I proof read my own work, I see what I meant not necessarily what shows up. Sometimes when I reread things weeks later, I will catch some of the errors and correct them. Until then, my apologies!
Date Posted:
Sunday, January 21, 2024
General Area:
Business
Title:
Customer
Surveys
Customer surveys make a lot of sense to me. I believe in
the premise it is easier to keep a customer than find a new one. I should add
that it’s easier if you keep the customer happy. What better way to find out
what is making your customer happy or unhappy than by asking? Customer surveys
seem like an ideal way of doing that. I felt so strongly about this that I
convinced some of the foundries I worked with to perform customer surveys and I
prepared, sent and analyzed the returns.
Our results were quite good. Our return rates were better
than normal for such surveys (Yes, if you dig into the web, you can find out
what a good return rate is. At least you could back then.) and I thought they
provided some good insights into what improvement the customers would like to
see. What was a complete disappointment to me was management reactions to the
information. Basically, they acknowledged the findings, but did nothing to
change.
I’ll admit the shortcomings pointed out by the survey
results were what I expected, and it was my hope the results would have spurred
doing something to address them. Unfortunately, the attitude was more along the
line of shrugging the shoulders and saying, “Yea, that’s a problem, but there’s
nothing we can do about it.” Of course, there’s nothing that can be done with
that perspective. I would have hoped at least someone be assigned to investigate
what might be done to address what the customers wanted.
In talking with others, my experience with surveys is not
unusual. It makes the customer feel good you’re asking what they want;
therefore, you don’t really have to do anything about it. My attitude toward
customer surveys now is that unless the survey is preceded by an explanation of
what actions previous surveys have led to, I don’t bother filling them out.
Date Posted:
Thursday, January 18, 2024
General Area:
Immigration
Title:
Whose
Problem Is It
It seems to me our U S government has once again been
negligent in taking care of the problems they have caused.
Living close to Chicago, I’ve certainly heard about the
problems caused by Texas sending immigrants up here by the bus load. My initial
reaction was, “That’s not fair. It’s their problem. The immigrants don’t really
want to come to Chicago.” A few seconds later, I realized it’s not their
problem. The immigrants aren’t fleeing to Texas any more than they are fleeing
to Illinois. They are fleeing to the United States.
This is a national problem not a Texas or Illinois
problem. It seems to this dumb foundryman our national representatives have once
again let us down. Instead of working out something everybody can live with
they’ve done nothing. The migrants keep coming and I’m not sure what’s
happening. Are all of them coming across claiming immunity? Are these people on
the buses and in the camps in Texas entering legally? What is required to enter
legally? The immigrants claim they want to work, but our government can’t issue
work permits fast enough. (I’ll bet the Japanese pitcher everyone is talking
about gets a work permit fast enough.)
Date Posted:
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
General Area:
Education
Title:
Education
I collect quotes I think are significant. Most of the
time they are meant to inspire; however, occasionally, I come across one that
should be true, but I wonder if it is. The latest is the following:
The
value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training
of the mind to think. - Albert Einstein
It’s been a
long, long time since I was in college, but Einstein was in and at colleges
before me. So hopefully, he was talking about what it should be, not what I saw.
My experience was, with some noticeable exceptions, the way to achieve good
grades was to make sure your work reflected the thoughts of the professors.
There were a
few rare exceptions where the professor listened to other ways of doing things
other than theirs. In retrospect, those instructors were also teaching subjects
that can be proved. In my case, it was courses in metallurgical calculations.
The professor and I always seemed to approach it from different directions but
ended up at the same place. I’m forever grateful to that professor always
listening to my logic, acknowledging it was valid, and in a few cases saying my
approach might be better than his.
I cannot
remember that ever happening when the subject could not be proved. I remember
English teachers expounding how great some of the old authors were and not
accepting any thoughts about why they weren’t or why any of the new successful
current authors were also good. My government teacher felt a two-party political
structure was the only way to go and anything else shouldn’t even be hinted at
in any homework or tests if a good grade was wanted. Those are just a couple of
examples. It seemed in most of the classes what was expected was to regurgitate
what the professor thought.
So much of the
time I feel I was taught not how to think but what to think. I believe that is
even worse than spending the time merely learning facts.
Date Posted:
Thursday, December 21, 2023
General Area:
Business
Title:
Customer
Service
Am I the only person that feels customer service goes in
cycles? It seems to me way, way back customer service was good. In recent years,
it seems to be more cyclical. It gets bad because the bosses don’t want to
“waste the money on it.” Then, it gets better because customers stop buying
products because of poor service and the bosses realize the poor service is
really costing them.
It seems to me we, unfortunately, are in the part of the
cycle where the bosses don’t want to be “wasting” money on the service. Part of
the problem is our infatuation with technology. Finding a number to call for
help regarding a problem is frequently difficult. “Chatting” is sometimes easier
for me, anyway. (Accents can cause trouble for a hard of hearing old man like
me.) However, my latest experience with Amazon added further frustration. I
clicked chat and was offered a number of options, none of which dealt with the
problem I was having. There was no “none of the above” to select. After some
searching, I found an option to receive a call about my problem. The call came
very quickly but it wasn’t from a person, it was from another robot giving
alternatives to choose from. Finally, I found the magic combination and talked
to a real person (the accent wasn’t all that bad). He claimed he understood my
frustration and that it would never happen again. I’m sure it won’t unless
elephants fly – oh, wait a minute I just saw a video of elephants being
relocated by helicopter.
I did cancel the order. Maybe we can get back to the good
side of customer service more quickly.
Date Posted:
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
General Area:
Media
Title:
Talking
Heads
I am so tired of talking heads telling me what’s going to
happen and what should happen in their opinion. These talking heads (usually
loudly) proclaim these tidbits as if they are facts instead of opinions.
While it happens in just about every phase of the news,
it seems most prevalent around sports. I’m so fed up with seeing headlines about
what’s going to happen with some new addition to my Cubs or Bears, getting
trapped into reading the article, only to find out it is what someone being paid
to fill inches of space thinks would be nifty. (I wonder whether the authors
think it would be nifty or whether they think suggesting it will generate
readers?)
Some of the news programs are a little better. They will
at least tell you why the talking head should be listened to – he was head of
security for xyz, spent X years in the FBI, etc. Many of the sports talking
heads don’t even give you that. As an example, Stephen A. Smith has been and is
quite an esteemed sports analyst. What is his background? If you look him up on
Wikipedia, you’ll find he played college basketball under an esteemed coach.
Other than that, they talk about his journalism credentials. My research didn’t
show he’d ever managed any team, selected any unknown player who turned out to
be a star, or won a ton of money by correctly selecting winning teams.
Why do we listen to such talking
heads? I guess some people find “the experts” they agree with and like hearing
someone else say what they think. Others may even like the idea of yelling at
the TV/newspaper/internet to tell “the supposed experts” how wrong they are.
Some may be deluded into thinking “the experts” really are experts. Hopefully,
more are becoming aware that “the experts” aren’t experts until they
demonstrate they are
experts!
By the way, which means demonstrating they have expertise
in the area they are claiming to be an expert. Being able to dunk a basketball
does not make the person an expert in coaching a basketball team much less
running a basketball franchise. It doesn’t preclude it, but it doesn’t guarantee
it. I believe Steve Kerr has won NBA championships as a player and coach. Ted
Williams is proclaimed as one of the greatest baseball players ever; however,
the reviews on his ability to manage a baseball team are not so good.
As a foundry consultant, I found the workers on the floor
to be a good source of information and sometimes ideas. Unfortunately,
management frequently didn’t listen to those workers, but I found they knew what
was going on. What they frequently lacked was the big picture. They saw how
certain aspects of the operation would affect their job but did not see how
changes would impact other facets of the operation. They were experts in their
job, but not running a foundry.
I hope more people will look at the talking heads and not
only ask for their credentials but evaluate them considering the situation they
are discussing. I hope people will also take into consideration writing a book
about something doesn’t mean the author or even the material in the book is
accurate. Again, referring to my foundry background, we found on many occasions
what was found to be true for small quantities of iron didn’t always translate
when the iron was measured in tons. Even more so, when discussing people. Many
of the theories expressed by academicians seem to neglect human nature. Just
because someone says it is the way something should be, even if you agree with
it, doesn't mean it is the way things really are!
Date Posted:
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
General Area:
General
Title:
Belief
I like to think of myself as being open minded. My
philosophy is if you want to believe in something that’s your business.
Unfortunately, lately I find myself contradicting my own philosophy.
If you want to believe in Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
or any other religion or lack thereof, it’s fine with me, if you let other
people have the freedom to do the same. Granted, there are the extremists in
almost every one of the religions who feel that everyone must conform to their
way of thinking. I have a problem with that and that may be hypocritical. How
can I say it’s okay to believe what you want, but say it’s not okay for you to
believe everyone should believe what you do? I don’t really think it’s
hypocritical. I think I remember someone saying, “your rights stop at my nose”
and that seems to fit this.
Lately I’ve been finding myself contradicting my
philosophy about belief in an area that isn’t really religion, but, in my mind,
some are beginning to treat it as a religion. It’s called science. People are
saying we should or shouldn’t do things because the “scientists” say so.
I have two major concerns with this. I’ve been an
engineer for some time and found science to be reliable to a point. My initial
concern with blindly accepting what the “scientists” say, is which scientists?
Having dealt with academic scientists, I found it common for them not to agree
with each other. The answer to the question of which to believe then becomes
which version is sold best to media and becomes “what scientists think.” Not a
very satisfying answer for me.
My other concern is science is always evolving. What
scientists believe is true, is only so until it is proven false. According to
what I was taught, at one time scientists thought the world was flat. Newton
proved “what goes up must come down” until we learned how to escape earth’s
gravity. Even more recently, some of the practices believed to prevent the
spread of Covid were later shown not to be effective/needed. That’s not a
criticism of requiring the practices. They were logical to me at the time
because we had to try to stop the spread.
I guess the crux of this is that if you want to believe
in science that’s fine with me; however, I hope you also believe in the dynamic
nature of science.
Date Posted:
Monday, October 16, 2023
General Area:
General
Title:
Judge
Not
I’m afraid my mind has been influenced by that well known
philosophical commentary “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.” In that movie, Dr.
McCoy criticizes the barbaric treatment patients are receiving. Of course, the
treatment the patients were receiving was state of the art for when the movie
was made (1986). Not long after that, I was reading about some of the treatments
psychiatric patients received 100 years ago. We certainly look at the shock
treatments, lobotomies, and other treatments as being barbaric now and, I’m
afraid, the people who performed them as barbarians.
The psychiatrists and other medical professionals we see
in the movies depicting those days are usually shown as evil, twisted, sadists.
I’ll bet that’s not accurate. Do you think all of the people who put all the
work into becoming professional medical people did it to inflict pain and do
nasty things? I don’t. Some of them may have enjoyed the pain they were
inflicting, but most were merely doing what they were taught and believed to be
the best for their patients. Just as we do today.
The social issue failures of the past are even pointed
out more frequently. Slavery, child labor, animal cruelty, religious intolerance
and other issues are brought up frequently to point out how bad those people
were. Were they bad or were they merely conforming to what they were taught and
was normal for the time?
While religious intolerance is still a problem, it is
better than it once was. I can remember my grandmother telling me not to play
with a friend because his Italian sounding name most likely meant he was
Catholic and ‘good protestants don’t associate with Catholics.” The negative
adjectives describing that statement are unending, and like I indicated we’re a
little better now, but am I to label my grandmother a bad person because of her
issuing that warning. She was just parroting what she’d been told. Does that
make her bad? I’m sure some of you readers are saying, “Not bad, but stupid.”
Be careful, I wonder what we will be considered stupid,
barbaric, or worse for saying or doing. Will we in the future learn to fully
communicate with animals and get to hear their versions of the way they have
been and are currently being treated? Will we find some breakthrough proving how
we are concentrating our energies on what will be deemed trivial matters in the
future? Or maybe, Dr. McCoy was right and we’ll find out we are still using
barbaric treatments of our ill.
Date Posted:
Friday, September 29, 2023
General Area:
Salaries
Title:
Something
to think about
With the automotive strike going on, there has been a lot
of conversation about the CEO of GM making $29 million a year. That's an
astounding number! On my way to showing myself what an astounding number it is,
I came across something that bothers me a little.
When
I was gainfully employed in manufacturing, we talked about how much more a
supervisor should make than his subordinates. (In my line of work and era, it
was all guys) The consensus was the supervisor should make about 10% more to
make the extra responsibility worthwhile and to “ensure” the respect of the
subordinates (like that worked). From the google machine, I learned the average
wage for a UAW worker was $28 per hour. Assuming 40 hours per week and 52 weeks
per year, that’s a little more than $58,000 annually.
When I took the GM’s CEO’s salary and reduced it by 10%
sequentially, I had to do it 59 times before I got to a salary under $58,000. If
I did it the other way and added 10% to the $58,000 sequentially, it would take
65 times to get above the CEO’s salary.
Depending on how we do the numbers, if each level
receives 10% more that means there should be about 60 levels in the GM salary
structure. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find how many levels there are in the GM
salary structure.
By the way, the 10% increment was a number we kicked
around as being “right”. I don’t think that number was real. I know way back
when, there were times when the hourly employee made more than their supervisor
because of time and half for overtime, etc. If we cut the 10% in half, it means
there should be about 120 levels between the CEO and the average worker. (That
should not be a surprise, take half steps and you need twice as many to get
there.)
While 60 levels between the CEO
seems like a lot, GM is a big company. 120 levels gets a little harder to
swallow.
Date
Posted: Wednesday, September 27, 2023
General Area:
Politics
Title:
Another
shutdown
It seems we’re facing another government shutdown. Once
again, our extremely intelligent(?) congress seems to be taken by surprise of
the upcoming deadline and crisis.
If I was running a department or operation and knew a
problem was coming up and didn’t do something about it as soon as possible, I
would have been fired.
Maybe, it’s something we should all think about.
Date Posted:
Saturday, September 23, 2023
General Area:
Football
Title:
Grateful
With the upcoming game with the Chiefs, the pundits are
once again pointing out that the Bears passed on Mahomes. We selected Trubisky
before Mahomes in that draft. Bears fans have bemoaned the choice for a few
years now.
I wonder if the shoe isn’t on the wrong foot. Maybe it’s
Mahomes who should be grateful!
Date
Posted: September
21 , 2023
General Area:
Immigration
Title:
Who
should I be mad at?
I noticed a headline on MSN about a 3-year-old dying
while crossing the Rio Grande. Of course, as frequently happens to me, after
doing what I intended, when I went back to read the article, I couldn’t find it.
I wonder who the author wanted me to be mad at.
I’m sure the author of the article wanted me to be mad at
someone. It may have been the author thought the parent(s) were terrible putting
their child in such a situation. I can see that. Would a “good” parent endanger
their child that way?
On the other hand, the author may have wanted me to be
mad at the government for having laws preventing the family escaping the
conditions they were fleeing. I could see that too. How many years have we been
struggling with the immigration issue? It seems to me it has been a problem for
decades and our government doesn’t seem to be any closer to resolving it.
It seems rare to me when an article comes down on both
sides; therefore, I’m pretty sure the author had a slant. Since I can’t find the
article again, I’ll just have to be mad at both – and maybe that’s the way it
should be.
Date Posted:
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
General Area:
General
Title:
What
are you worrying about?
I find we common people in the U.S. rather humorous when
I’m not frustrated with us.
We are about to have another one of those debt ceiling
things that has the potential to shut down the country and do nasty things to
our IRAs. The city of Chicago announced the projected budget was only ¾ billion
dollars short of being balanced much of it because of the immigration issue.
Chicago has had 418 homicides this year so far (but it’s down from last year).
I get most of my news and commentary from the internet.
With all this stuff going on, I’d expect there would be all sorts of cries for
our elected officials to be doing something about these significant issues. What
do I find instead? Paragraph after paragraph about what’s wrong with the Bears.
Line after line explaining why Ross shouldn’t be the manager of the Cubs as they
fall. Of course, if you do a little digging, you can find reviews of movies,
plays, and restaurants.
I guess our priorities are different than I’d like them
to be.
Date Posted:
Saturday, September 16, 2023
General Area:
Religion
Title:
Heaven
or Hell
Some time ago I was doing some reflecting on heaven, and
I realized what others describe as heaven doesn’t sound like heaven to me.
Streets of gold, no worries, no challenges sound great initially, but for how
long? I realized I enjoy when things are running smoothly, but I’m happiest when
I’ve solved a problem. If there weren’t problems to solve, I think I’d get bored
and become apathetic. That doesn't sound like heaven to me.
Obviously, my heaven needs some problems to solve. To
make matters more frustrating, the bigger the problem I solve, the happier I am.
Therefore, I need big problems in my heaven.
Wait a minute! I face big problems now and occasionally
solve one. Am I in heaven now?
On the other hand, hell has been described by some as a
place where you would constantly regret your past actions or inactions. I would
add to that hell would be a place where I’d recognize problems and not feel
powerful enough to do anything about them.
Again, that sounds like how I feel now. Am I in hell now?
Date Posted:
Monday, May 29, 2023
General Area:
General
Title:
Racism?
Pam and I went to the play titled "Beyond the Porch" at Northlight recently. As
usual, we enjoyed the performance. Their plays are typically well produced and
acted. This one met those standards, and as many others have done, got me
thinking.
It was an original said to be about racism and “down
home”/hootenanny music. The young adult heroine was estranged from her
grandparents. She was an Asian-American. Her mother was from rural North
Carolina and her father was of Korean ancestry. They had moved back to North
Carolina when the heroine was a very young girl. Obviously, there were not many
Asian-American in the rural area. According to my interpretation of what I saw
in the play, there were not any overt acts of racism with the girl or her father
until one day at a picnic. The kids were playing a game of tag. The heroine
while small was fast and agile and on three occasions tagged the local kid jock.
He was not used to be beaten by anyone his age much less a small girl and yelled
a racial curse at her.
Was that racism, or was it merely a brat being a brat? I
think it was a brat being brat. If she wasn’t of Asian ancestry, he would have
yelled at her for being a girl, for being small, or some other aspect of her
personage. Let’s face it, her race was an obvious characteristic for the bully
to blame. Being a girl or small were not as unique characteristics as her
ancestry. I’m not saying the bully was right in doing what he did, but I’m not
sure it was racism.
What transpired after that was, according to the play,
what led to the estrangement. The heroine was upset at the comment and came
running to her grandparents for support. While the grandparents consoled the
heroine, they did not reprimand the brat for his racial comments. (I don’t
remember whether it was said in the play or my attempt to justify the
grandparents’ actions, but I believe the bully was the child of an area leader.)
The heroine’s mother became incensed that her parents didn’t protect her
daughter from the racial insult. (Why didn’t the mother react if it was so
important?) The heroine’s mother then immediately moved her family away from
North Carolina.
I understand there is racism. I
don’t understand why there is racism, or what it causes racists to do what they
do, but I do think some of what is called racism are jerks (cleaned up to stay P
G) being jerks.
Date Posted:
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
General Area:
General
Title:
We Need Some Good Parents
We are again entering a cycle congress battling over
raising the debt limit. There’s some good news here in Illinois, it appears our
credit rating has improved, but we’re still deep in debt. We are listening to
the pros and cons of college debt relief. Then there are the constant ads for
debt consolidation, lower interest credit cards, and bankruptcy. It seems being
deeply in debt is the norm.
Personal debt is one thing. Contrary to some’s thoughts,
the kids aren’t responsible for the debts of the parents. So, in theory, if you
rack up all sorts of debt before you kick off, it’s not your kids’ problem. (Of
course, there is the guilt you may be laying on them for not taking care of you
while you’re waiting to kick off.)
Governmental debt is a different story, in a way.
Obviously, if we kick-the-bucket before the debt is paid, we won’t have to pay
it off; however, our kids (and theirs) will. We are leaving our progeny with
massive debt.
I don’t think we should leave our kids and theirs with
massive debt. So, what’s the solution. I think it’s fairly simple. There is a
phrase that I was taught by my mother that I heard a lot. We need to learn again
– we can’t afford that!
It may be simple, but it isn’t
necessarily easy. I’m a good person. I’ve worked hard. I deserve
it, even if I can’t
afford it.
But I think of what my mother dealt with and if anyone deserved
it, she did. She
knew what we couldn’t afford, and I think she raised her sons to be just as
smart.
Public debt is an even more complicated issue. The people
who decide what we can and can’t afford must be elected. What complicates
everything is it’s hard to get elected by promising to cut programs or say we
can’t afford things the electorate wants or what campaign contributors want. I’m
not optimistic about finding the answer to solving the problem. How do we get
the electorate to vote for people who have the courage to say, “we can’t afford
that?”
Ideas PLEASE!!
Date Posted:
Friday, February 3, 2023
General Area:
Reading
Title:
Series – Good or Bad?
When I find an author I like, I generally read everything
the author has written. It’s now to the point that if I’m looking for a new
author, before starting the first book I’ll research what the author has done
previously. If I find the author has older books, I’ll start with the oldest.
I noticed something in the author
I’ve been currently reading and in reflection, I’ve seen it with other authors.
I’ve currently been reading Micah Hackler’s Sheriff Lansing series. I really
enjoyed the first, second and third in the series; however, I found the fourth
not to be as good. I’ve seen this happen before. It’s almost like the authors
think they developed a system to keep their readers happy and about the third or
fourth in a series they pay attention to the system and forgo their own
creativity.
The good news is that after a downer in a series, the
author frequently comes back with their normal good works.
So where does that leave me? I’ll take a break from
Sheriff Lansing to return to an old favorite. Paty Jager has written book 10 of
her Gabriel Hawke series and I’ll hopefully rejoin old friends in the characters
in that book. After that, I’ll most likely go back to Sheriff Lansing and see if
Mr. Hackler gets back to writing what I like.
Date Posted:
Saturday, January 14, 2023
General Area:
Media
Title:
Where was the media?
In case you’re reading this when it’s no longer news
George Santos was elected to the U S congress after fabricating his past. He
lied about where he went to school, where he worked, and awards he received
among other things. The thing about this that bothers me is that it all came out
after the election. That’s not what I would have expected in this day.
If this had been when I graduated from high school, it
may have been more understandable. It was hard to get information back then.
Verification took time. Telephone calls had to be made, and they were expensive.
Places needed to be visited and people needed to be talked to. Now, much of this
can be taken care of while sitting in your easy chair watching TV with a laptop
in your lap. But, that didn’t happen.
According to the Republicans the media is always after
their blood. If the way the media treated Santos is an example, the Republicans
should come up with another line.
On the other hand. If media contends they are the
watchdog for America’s society, they better start showing it and not after the
fact.
Date Posted:
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
General Area:
Sports
Title:
Chicago Bears
The Bear’s season is over. A new GM and head coach, and
gobs of new players led to one of the worst seasons we fans have had to endure.
I must admit the watching wasn’t as painful as their record would indicate.
Watching the progress of Justin Fields made it more interesting.
That being said, the Bear’s did win the first pick in the
draft, and there’s a lot of talk about how wonderful that is. I urge caution in
the euphoria. It is one pick, and the team needs a lot of help. I can’t remember
seeing the Bears with a worse defense. Fields was sacked more than most other
quarterbacks and his receivers were underwhelming. Is one pick going to solve
all those problems? I don’t think so.
In addition to the number of areas that need help, there
is also the fact that the current regime does not have a track record. If the
Bears are going to be really good next year, it appears to me all their moves
will have to be near perfect. That doesn’t appear logical to me.
But, miracles do happen! The Cubs did finally win a World
Series. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!