• Category Archives Life in the USA

  • Fireside chat.

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    I’m going to really struggle getting this one to make sense, so bear with me, and lets see how we go………

    Some time after you start at Opto 22, the opportunity is given for you to have a fireside chat with the founder and owner, Bob.
    It really is a fire side chat too, in Bob’s office is a beautiful gas fire with logs, and the lounge is arranged around said fire.
    Kristie (web / marketing), Surge (new hire in China (in town for three weeks for different things)) and myself were the ‘new’ hires, so the three of us settled down in the couch to hear Bob recount the story that lead up to the founding of Opto 22.

    Now, before I tell you how I felt, for those that don’t know (and thats none of you that I know read this blog), I have been working with Opto 22 gear for 18 years. Thats full time. I have not had a ‘single’ day in the past 18 years where I have not worked with some other automation product that was not some how connected to Opto (so, Nick, does that make sense re Infinity?)…. Its all my kids know. They have grown up in a house that only ever mentioned ‘Opto’ in regard to their fathers work life. Think about that for a second. Before working with Opto gear at the hospital, I worked with different computers for about 6 years. So, 18 years at the hospital sort of over shadowed those 6 years more than 2 to 1. Also, my time at the hospital was a LOT more intense than those 6 years….. So, that’s a little back ground….. Now, hopefully what I am about to say will make a little more sense.
    When I had a factory tour in 2000, it was really neat to see where all the parts I had been using came from. It was like a little bit of the puzzle fell into place. Same sort of effect when I had the full tour when I started. You get to meet all the guys and girls that make, design, and dream up all the gear I had been using for all those years…. That was very cool, but, I did not know it at the time, but there was still a little bit missing…….
    Enter the fireside chat. Bob’s recounting of how it all started was that missing bit. It was the most wonderful hour. It was like finding out where you came from. Like knowing your history for the first time.
    I found it very liberating and calming all at the same time.

    Thanks Bob, and thanks Opto.


    Life in the USA Opto22

  • Shooting up.

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Before we get to the guns, I gota say sorry for being so slack on the blog…. its not like I dont have things to blog about either, I have a heap of things I want to share….. Its just that between still being dead tired when I get home and getting my head around moving, I just have not had time to do much bloging.
    I suspect that things are going to get worse before they get better.
    We start moving in about 5 days, the web site will go down for some time when we do, more on that latter. Anyway, point is, Im sorry, I can only keep trying hard to keep up………

    For some reason last week, I happen to be sitting at my desk 15 minutes after I should have gone home, something which is very rare. On this day, it turned out to be a good thing, a very good thing.
    The phone rang, and it was one of the engineers, turns out that a few of the guys at Opto have a bit of a gun club happening, and once a month or so, they go shooting after work…… The voice wanted to know if I wanted to come along……….
    It was all a bit short notice but after a quick check with Freddy, we went for it… the whole point of being here is to take opportunities like this is it not?
    We piled into a few cars, they agreed to drop me back to the car park when it was all done so I could ride home, and headed off to Riverside where the indoor range was located.
    On the way, it seems to be the norm to stop at In and Out Burgers (one of California’s best burger joints (Freddy quite likes it as well)).
    About an hour after leaving work, we arrived at the range. You show your drivers licence, and your in. Turns out that a few of the engineers are armed to the back teeth, so renting a gun at the range was not an issue. (However, should you want to shoot something you dont own, its not a problem).
    Inside, there are about 12 booths, you are allocated one when you sign in, we took three of them, we set up rifles in two and hand guns in the third……. Yeah, you read me right, hand guns!!!!!!!!
    All up we had a 9mm Glock, Colt 45, 40 cal revolver, Magnum 357, M14, M16, 12 gauge pump action shot gun and a pretty trick .22 cal target rifle………
    Let the shooting begin.
    We all took turns and had plenty of time to shoot quite a few rounds of each gun. All in all we were at the range for about 2 hours.
    It was a pretty neat experience. Starting with the handgun was pretty neat. I have been wanting to shoot one for many many years, and here was a few different ones to ‘try’. What can I say, it was all I hoped for and more.

    ben with a hand gun

    From slapping the magazine in, pulling the slide back, releasing the safety and pulling the trigger, it was all pretty neat. Its a totally different experience than shooting a rifle. The kick is totally different, its all in your wrists, nothing in the arms or shoulders. The sound is different as well.
    Anyway, the M14 and M16 are pretty cool, they have some serious kick and noise!. The pump action shot gun is pretty neat, of course I have shot one of those before, but not a pump action. Its pretty neat to reload it after every shot.

    M14 I think

    Im told that I can buy a gun now that I am here. I just need to show my drivers licence, wait 10 days, and its all mine to take home.
    Dont panic, as much as I enjoyed the experience, Im not in a hurry to buy one……. Well, not a real one anyway……. A few days latter I bought a $20 plastic BB pistol…….. Terry and I are enjoying taking turns shooting at a gel covered target (the plastic BB’s stick and slowly slide down into the collection tray at the bottom)….. I’ve got a hankering to get the upgraded version, its CO2 powered (same little gas cartridges as used in the ‘soda stream’). Its that or the electric one (they are a lot more accurate because the barrel does not move), Im taken with the accuracy of hand guns……
    Anyway, I dont think I will be making a regular event of it (I can only afford to shoot the 22’s), but every few months I might hang back at work and go for a little stress release by blowing a few holes in some cardboard.

    (For what its worth, my favorite gun was the 9mm Glock with a .22 barrel on it).


    Life in the USA

  • Thanksgiving take two was a double boom.

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Sorry this is a little late, we have been the usual busy, so busy infact that I have a few blogable events backing up……. Anyway, back to Sundays Thanksgiving……..

    Thursdays Thanksgiving was a little of our side and some of Karries side of the family, it was a nice mix. Because we were all in town, Steve and Karrie arranged to have pretty much all of the other side of the family over (and some hanger ons that were very welcome).
    We went up Saturday for church, just as we pulled into the car park, Terry announced he was feeling car sick. Zero point one of a second later, vomit filled the back of the car……. well, ok, perhaps not filled, but it sure sounded and smelt like it!
    We never made it to church. We headed straight to Steve and Karries and started to clean up. We listened to Brians sermon via the computer link.
    Saturday night was a nice relax night. We watched the USC Trojan’s dominate the game, tried some Moonshine (that was disappointingly good) and generally sat around and caught up.
    Sunday morning, the guys took Jo to the airport and talked about life the universe and everything on the way back.

    Sunday lunchtimish, we were sitting out the back when there were suddenly two very loud bangs. Not like a gun bang, not like a car prang bang, a real percussion bang, two of them, very close together. They were so strong the windows rattled and I felt them very clearly on my skin.
    At the time I wondered if it was the shuttle, but it was only latter that it was confirmed, we had indeed felt the famous double sonic boom as the shuttle reentered the atmosphere. It landed at Edwards airforce base in CA.
    It was pretty cool.

    Sunday afternoon the rest of the mob arrived and we had a lot of fun goofing off in the back yard. A few of us hit the deck (kids toys with wheels and old guys that should know better), but nothing was broken.
    A super meal, and a nice drive home.
    Not one, but two Thanksgivings. Thanks again to all that made it happen.
    Photos of the take two version are in this album here. They start with Scott on on board holding the football.


    Life in the USA

  • 120 miles for half a dozen corners…. sounds good to me!

    Posted on by beno Comment

    We got Terry his gun parts, totally underwhelmed with the whole ‘Black Friday’ sales thing. There are about 10 things on sale in the whole shop, we went to two different shops and it was the same deal in both. Mind you, there were zillions of people and they had shopping carts piled high of things that were not on sale, so, once again, I am left baffled by this country and its citizens.

    As threatened, Amy and I went for a ride.
    As usual, she requested corners.
    As usual, I suggested Palomar.
    As usual, she said no. (Her reason was that she had done that one already).

    We ended up going the 60 miles (96km) to Palm Springs.
    At the end of the desert run, there are some absolutely gorgeous corners as you descend into the valley floor where Palm Springs gulps water and pretends to be livable.
    The run out is not so bad, had totally forgotten that you spend a lot of it on a plateau, as a result, its not exactly warm. To say we froze our butts off, is a major under-statement.
    Anyway, other than heaps of traffic, the run out was fine. As you get near the decent, the view perks up remarkably. I need to take some video of the ride, or photos from the bike, there are very few places to stop safely and take photos.
    Its a like a moon scape, there is almost nothing growing, there are huge rocky mountains as far as the eye can see. In the distance there was a huge mountain that had a cap of snow, below the peak was the cloud line, it was one of those WOW moments.
    The bike, as usual, was super smooth. Both Amy and I commented on how quite and smooth it was at different times. I have no idea what a ‘magic carpet ride’ would be like, but I suspect that the bike is a pretty close first.
    The trance was pumping out the speakers, Amy and I really like listening to it that way. We have the intercom on, and the CD playing out the speakers. Amy tells me that she gets a nice thump thump in the arms and back from the beat from the rear speakers. (Speaking of speakers, Opto are going to give every one a $100 gift voucher. I am going to get one for Wal Mart (its there or Cost Co) and buy the speakers I have been eyeing off for a while. They are Pioneers, should be a really good upgrade from the standard Honda ones. Im pretty excited about it as I was not expecting it, and it means I dont have to spend any of the money I have been saving for the lights. I am really looking forward to getting a garage, and over a few nights swaping out the speakers).
    Its really hard to describe how nice it is to be floating along, trance music blaring, chatting to your daughter while passing through some of the most amazing senary you have ever seen…… Pitty we were both shivering from the cold…… Like Amy said, we had a great ride and learn’t something (I already knew, but had dismissed).

    So, the corners. Yes, it was worth the run out. We slipped past the last car, and let the bike have its head. Oh wow. Its like its on rails. Cranked over, but still doing about 60mph (95kph) it just floats around the huge sweepers that take you down to the desert floor. They almost go around 360 degrees, so you get time to really feel and enjoy the corner. A very short straight, and you are into the opposite sweeper. There are tight ‘S’s between rock cutouts and fish hook turns that have you down a gear. Its about 7 miles of face splitting smiles.
    Amy really loves the corners, shes hooting and laughing as we flip from corner to corner. She knows to sit still, so you can dial the bike in and not have it do anything unexpected as the weight on the back does not wiggle around. Its a pleasure thats hard to compare with anything else.

    We got to the bottom. Stopped and stretched our legs for a bit, tried to get warm, gave up, got back on the bike and did it all again.

    120 miles, (193km’s), every one of them a joy. I really do need to get out on the bike more often (I have ‘missed’ three months of after work rides (AWR), and it shows, I need to set myself the clear goal of going once a month no matter HOW I feel (cause no matter how I feel, I can be sure that it will be a lot better when I get off the bike after a few hours)).

    Thanks for saying ‘No’ to Palomar Amy. It was a fantastic ride. Thanks for sharing with me and the still as yet un-named bike.


    Goldwing Life in the USA

  • Thanksgiving.

    Posted on by beno Comment

    I totally agree with my boss, Thanksgiving is a pretty cool thing, and its one of the best holidays on the American calendar. Why? “Because there is no religion involved, no gifts, its just about food, drink, family and football”. While I only watched a little of the football, it was a great afternoon in all other respects.

    We drove up to Steve and Karries yesterday afternoon after a relaxing morning (well, semi relaxing, there are a bunch of things for us to do before we move!). We got there to find they were having a bit of a turkey cook-off. We had baked turkey, grilled turkey and deep fried turkey….. After seeing all those birds, Amy has decided to rename Thanksgiving to be ‘Turkey Holocaust’……… It was great to see my uncle and aunt from Texas there, and also my cousin Jo from Connecticut (NY). Before long, many from Karries family also arrived, it was nice to meet them after hearing a little of them over the past few months.
    It was a beautiful meal, my back was giving me curry for the past few days (have been sleeping rather than treadmilling) and it was not happy about the drive up, so it took the shine off the evening a bit for me. We came back through heavy traffic about 9:30pm last night.
    We are heading back up on Saturday for take two on Sunday, this time with the other side of the family, its not often we are all in town, so we need to make the most of it…… wonder if we will have BBQ turkey this time????
    I have been noticing that a few people have been circulating lists of things they are thankful about, I was going to do said same, but now that I come to actually do it, my list seems a little odd ball, so I will spare you some of the weird things I am thankful for.

    Hope to start packing up the technical side of things today. I also hope to get a ride in, but the weather looks very unfriendly. I was thinking of riding up to Palomar, but when I checked this morning, it was 4.3 Deg C up there, and I just dont have the gear for that!
    For retailers and shopper alike, today is called ‘Black Friday’, there are massive price cuts and huge crowds at most stores. They opened at 5am this morning, which is very rare for shops (usually they open late (~10am) and close late (~10pm, yes, thats right, we get late night shopping every night in America), I don’t want to go anywhere near a shop today, but Terry needs some parts for one of his foam dart guns, so we may have to brave the mobs and see what we can find.

    The voip phone is broken. I have no idea whats wrong with it, but I get no LED when the phone is off hook. This has thrown me for a bit of a spin, I have no idea how I am going to fix or replace the VOIP interface if thats whats faulty…… Anyway, dont bother calling me, and sorry I cant call you!

    Photos (by Planet Amy) of the afternoon can be found here.
    I have a video of the lowering of the bird into the boiling oil on Freddys camera which is sitting on the bench at Steves, so you will have to wait for the video……..

    I totally agree with my boss, what a kewl holiday.

    (Next year, I want to try and stick with plan A which was to drive up to Brian Head Utah and look at some stars from 9000 feet (bet its not a new moon weekend next year!))


    Life in the USA