Neglect of a Blog - Enjoying Licking County Holidays

I've been enjoying Licking County over the Christmas and New Years' holidays.

 The Licking County Courthouse gets lit up for Christmas every year.  This year's seems better than ever.

3D Printers Coming to Licking County

Today, I got to meet the inventor and entrepreneur behind IC3D, a Central Ohio manufacturer of 3D printers and filament for 3D printers.  Michael Cao, CEO/Founder, has a great story to go with his cutting edge technology too.

A Columbus Dispatch article late Summer sparked an idea how Licking County can more boldly go into the 3D printing world as a way to inspire the next generation of people who make things.

The Port Authority is pairing up a trio of 3D printers with partners with the goal of sparking a greater interest in STEM-focused manufacturing careers.  C-TEC is our place to train the next generation and add in the technical skills.  Our science museum, The Works, provides the venue to reach families and local industry.  A 3D printer made in Ohio by a Central Ohio inventor provides the inspiration.

Turns out, Cao has the same goals.  Look for him to visit Licking County soon to meet with more industry, community leaders, and students.  Inspiring.

A Licking County Edge: Women in STEM Careers

My 10-year-old daughter inspires to a STEM career.  She's been predicting weather for years and pursuing a meteorology career as much as a fifth grader can.  How many girls her age can boast their own backyard weather station? 

I know she's the exception, not the rule, though, in getting girls to think about STEM fields as a lifetime profession.

A recent New York Times article cited the reasons why women are disproportionately represented in STEM careers in this country.  The point is that a chunk of the workforce competitiveness of our nation is lost to not seeing more girls enter STEM fields.

Agree with the full article or not, it's clear a community that does more to encourage girls to pursue STEM curriculum and STEM careers is going to more often fulfill the STEM workforce needs of its businesses than one that doesn't.

For this, I believe, Licking County has an edge. We can build on it too.

Asked to name prominent women in our small community who are role models in engineering, I quickly came up with an impressive list of eight just off the top of my head.

Woman engineers head up three local plants.  Women lead engineering-oriented STEM facilities at many local facilities too.

That's not to mention women involved in key engineering roles as well as other STEM fields that would make excellent role models.

We just have to spotlight women as role models for our daughters and grow our STEM skilled workforce better than the competition.  The Works is already working on it!

An Amazing Show of Pragmatism

I steer clear of the partisan side of politics in this blog, but I couldn't not share this.

PolicyMic, a website I can't recall anything about before, posted some images of the Obamas, Clintons, and Bushes mixing it up on Air Force One and in South Africa as part of the recent Nelson Mandela ceremony.

This is a must-see collage of pragmatism on display. 

These people spent millions fighting each other and still do look for reasons to deliver political knocks, but they can laugh together and sit near each other.  PolicyMic's conclusion might alarm a few people, but it might also be right.  It concluded, "Conservative and liberal politicians spend more time together, and have more in common with one another, than we’d like to believe."

See "8 Photos You Didn't See From Obama's Trip to South Africa."

A Speech Made Known By One Word Change

What if FDR had said, ". . . A date that will live in world history. . ." instead of ending with the word "infamy?" One word made it more memorable for all of us.

The word was added in an edit. See the National Archives copy of the first draft.

Tempered Manufacturing News

Before I could blog about the good news that 27,000 new manufacturing jobs had been created in the U.S. for November 2013, I got tempered news from "my" economist.

Alan Beaulieu factually reports that the real number is 3,000 manufacturing jobs lost.  See "A Balanced Look at the Manufacturing Employment Numbers" for the explanation.

It's not all bad though.  He does continue to validate that there are good things to expect in manufacturing.  His post says, "Manufacturing is making a comeback, and the prospects for more re-shoring are good (we will cover those in another blog)."

But then he did reiterate his and his twin brother Brian's prediction that there will be a slight downturn in 2014.

Christmas Countdown: Family Christmas Tree Wrap-Up

My family Christmas tree isn't going to win any beauty contest.  Admittedly, it's a hodge podge.  And we love it!

 
I have ornaments, both hand-made and store bought, adorning the tree.  Some of them my kids made.  Some, I made as a kid.

Every ornament has a story.  Every thing around the tree does too.

My parents got a nativity scene in 1965 as a wedding gift.  I ended up with it in 2000 and have put it on display every year since.  This is it's 49th Christmas.

The hand-crafted pink pigs got added to the scene in it's 46th year.

This light-up and working scene of the ice rink at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan relives a memory from the season in 2000 when the Platt family visited and my daughter, Natasha, skated out on the ice.

This wraps up a week of family Christmas tree stories.  Enjoy.  And Merry Christmas!

Christmas Countdown: More Family Ornaments

My family Christmas tree isn't going to win any beauty contest.  Admittedly, it's a hodge podge.  And we love it!

 
I have ornaments, both hand-made and store bought, adorning the tree.  Some of them my kids made.  Some, I made as a kid.

Every ornament has a story.  Here's the story on a few more family ornaments.

This one my mom bought me to remind me of a memory.  She went with me to the fireworks on the Mall in D.C. in 1987 when I was a Congressional intern.  This one has lights and sounds of fireworks, though the bulb plug-in doesn't fit the modern lights I have now.

While we are on D.C.. . .

My mom made this one.  Brynley put it at the heart of the tree.  Yes, it's a heart.

This one was made by the glass artists at our local science and art museum, The Works.

There's some sort of game associated with this pickle.  I've forgotten the rules though.

Christmas Countdown: Ornaments of My Kids

My family Christmas tree isn't going to win any beauty contest.  Admittedly, it's a hodge podge.  And we love it!

 
I have ornaments, both hand-made and store bought, adorning the tree.  Some of them my kids made.  Some, I made as a kid.

Every ornament has a story.  Here's the story on some of the ornaments that are associated with my kids.

Their grandma gave the kids ornaments of themselves.  They decided to keep them together on the tree.

Here's some more.  These were from the triplets' first Christmas.

Like I said.

 

Natasha got this one from her first Ohio Christmas in 1999.  She used to be a prolific figure skater.

Brooks plays guitar.  I think this one actually plays music too.

Christmas Countdown: Ornaments of Our Teams

My family Christmas tree isn't going to win any beauty contest.  Admittedly, it's a hodge podge.  And we love it!

 
I have ornaments, both hand-made and store bought, adorning the tree.  Some of them my kids made.  Some, I made as a kid.

Every ornament has a story.  Here's the story on some of the ornaments in the collection that are about schools and teams our family supports.

Though no longer politically correct, no one has confiscated my very dignified ornament honoring my college's team name when I attended.

My daughter has one for her alma mater too.  It hasn't gotten broken, yet.

My high school.  That's Canton Central Catholic.

Did I mention Miami?

There are more than a few Steelers' ornaments on the tree, including this officially-sanctioned candy cane.

Because 3D Day Sounded Wrong

Say it out loud--3D Day.  It sounds too much like that day on the beach at Normandy in June 1944 instead of a day to promote 3D printing.

Instead, the wise people at GE designated December 3 (today if you are reading this on December 3, 2013) as D3 3D Printing Day to give it a different thought.  They have a video and a website set up to promote 3D printing to a wider audience.

I'm glad they are doing this.

Yes, you can buy a 3D printer at Radio Shack and get one on eBay too.  Yes, they are becoming more and more common.  Yet, very few people can say they've actually seen one at work. 

When we get 3D printing to the masses, that's when this game really changes.  So, for my part, here's the video and the link:

 

3dprintmygift.tumblr.com/

Christmas Countdown: Ornaments of the 70's

My family Christmas tree isn't going to win any beauty contest.  Admittedly, it's a hodge podge.  And we love it!

I have ornaments, both hand-made and store bought, adorning the tree.  Some of them my kids made.  Some, I made as a kid.

Every ornament has a story.  Here's the story on some of the ornaments from the 1970's.

These might have been older than the '70's, but I remember them from the 1970's as they hung from my Grandparent's tree.

Yep, I used to go by Ricky.  I painted this ornament when I was 11 years old.

1977 must have been the year for ornaments.

The '70's had this faux stained glass hobby thing going on which was metal frames you filled with plastic beads and melted in the oven to make them.  Apparently, they last too.

I'm not sure this wasn't more an 1980's fad.  The material was dough.  It hardened and one painted it.  I'm surprised it lasted all these years.