Thoughts & Reflections
Dec 25
Kathy and I left two days before Christmas to visit our daughter Karen in Philadelphia. Since she lives in a studio apartment she arranged with her landlord to let us sleep in his RV which he keeps parked behind her apartment. He left the keys with her, and she went in earlier in the day [...] [...more]
Posted: under Anecdotes.
Tags: Christmas, Philadelphia, travel
Kathy and I left two days before Christmas to visit our daughter Karen in Philadelphia. Since she lives in a studio apartment she arranged with her landlord to let us sleep in his RV which he keeps parked behind her apartment. He left the keys with her, and she went in earlier in the day to turn the heat on low in preparation for our stay. When done she locked it up and went about her daily business.
She works at the Philadelphia airport, and since we were flying from Chicago – O’Hare to PHL she planned to wait there for our arrival after her shift. Since the weather had turned snowy before our scheduled flight it was delayed. The original 4:25pm departure was changed to 4:40pm. Not too bad. Then 6:05pm. Still not bad. Then 7:15pm, then 8:15pm, then back to 7:15pm, then again to 8:15pm. We finally took off about 9:15pm.
Karen also works at McDonald’s and was scheduled to work at 5:00am the next morning, so she called in because she knew she would be getting to bed quite late after an already long day. She didn’t know just how late that would be.
We arrived about midnight Philly time and had to wait till about 12:45am for the luggage. We then began the long trek to her apartment. Since she works at PHL she was parked in the employee lot to which they provide a shuttle. We weren’t aware just how far that was, so we experienced the long shuttle ride she takes every day that she works. From there it is nearly a 45 minute drive under normal conditions. These weren’t normal conditions. The roads were icy and slick. The emergency responders were kept busy with numerous traffic accidents. Some multi-vehicle accidents were causing the shutdown of several sections of major roadways. Although Kathy and I both felt a little uncomfortable about how closely Karen was tailing the vehicles ahead of her, we didn’t want to nag her since we understood she was anxious to get home, well actually more so to get something to eat since neither she nor I had had any sustenance since lunch. She pulled off the main route to head toward a place she knew would be open during the wee hours of the morning.
Then the excitement began. On a curve she hit a patch of black ice. She fought to keep from sliding too close to the parked cars on our right. I was sitting in the back so I was more aware of Kathy’s reaction than of the actual predicament. She was in the front and could see clearly what was about to transpire. I said, “Don’t overcompensate.” She crossed the center line after successfully avoiding the parked cars. But she didn’t relax even though there was no oncoming traffic. Again I said, “Don’t overcompensate.” But she was more concerned about getting back into her lane. Then the back of the car began to swerve outward and the front of the car struck the driver’s side door of a parked car. Karen’s car then spun on around until it came to a stop facing the direction we were heading. I had her pull on over to the curb and call the police.
Of course the police were quite busy and we had to wait a long time. As we sat there waiting several vehicles hit that same patch of ice and lost and thankfully regained control. I wondered whether we were safe sitting there but didn’t say anything to that effect. As the police finally approached they also showed some difficulty maintaining control on the ice patch. They asked very few questions about the details of the accident. However, since the car is still registered in our name they noticed we were from Illinois and commented that we should be used to driving in this type of weather. I replied that we generally get snow rather than ice.
Since the front bumper of the car had previously been damaged by a botched attempt to tow it, and had not yet been repaired, Karen’s car suffered only minimal damage. The lower panel of the driver’s side door suffered obvious cosmetic damage and the car slid sideways till the front tire on the passenger side was pressed against the curb. Thank God no one was injured, and neither car was disabled.
After getting the accident report filed they sent us on our way and Karen wanted me to drive the rest of the way. She gave up on the idea of stopping for something to eat. So the rest of that trip was uneventful. But when we got to the RV we couldn’t get in. We tried unsuccessfully for quite a while to get the door open before giving in to the option of sleeping in the apartment, Kathy and I in Karen’s bed and Karen on the couch. We slept late into the morning, though none of us quite soundly. Then we went out to eat breakfast. Karen decided to go to Denny’s, but when we got there we found a note on the door that their water pipes had frozen and burst, and were therefore closed. We then ventured to IHOP. It was nearly lunchtime by the time we got there.
After eating we went shopping for supplies (hardware, insulation, shelving, etc.) for the apartment. The rest of the day was spent assembling, hanging, winterizing, and generally wearing ourselves out before an early bedtime.
Tracy Henness
Dec 11
[...more]
Posted: under Faith.
Tags: Christmas
Christ was, and still is LOVE
Dec 09
Some who would criticize those of us who continue to wish others at this time of year a “Merry Christmas”. They reason that there are many religions that celebrate something at this time of year, but they don’t want to think of it as a Christian holiday. And so it would not be politically correct [...] [...more]
Posted: under Faith.
Tags: Christmas
Some who would criticize those of us who continue to wish others at this time of year a “Merry Christmas”. They reason that there are many religions that celebrate something at this time of year, but they don’t want to think of it as a Christian holiday. And so it would not be politically correct to wish someone a “Merry Christmas” if they don’t believe Jesus is the Christ.
But we recognize that the very reason the holiday celebrated on December 25th exists is in commemoration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, born to Mary, conceived while she was espoused to Joseph, of the lineage of David. When Joseph found out the Mary was pregnant, he decided to break off the engagement privately rather than make a public example of her. But an angel from God appeared to Joseph in a dream to instruct him to take her as his wife, “because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus (from the Hebrew meaning “Salvation of God”), because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21 NIV)
That is what we celebrate. He will save His people from their sins!!! If we don’t wish the people who cling to other religions a “Merry Christmas”, then we in a sense show that we do not care whether He saves them. But we do care. We do not wish anyone a “Merry Christmas” to criticize their faith of lack of faith, but to share the hope of the salvation Jesus was born to promise all God’s people.
Merry CHRISTmas to all without exception.
Tracy Henness
Nov 17
At the heart of the capitalistic system is personal integrity. Webster defines integrity as, adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. Moral and ethical principles deal with right and wrong in an absolute sense. Lying is always wrong, stealing is always wrong, cheating is always wrong. Truth is always right, keeping what [...] [...more]
Posted: under Business, Economy.
At the heart of the capitalistic system is personal integrity. Webster defines integrity as, adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. Moral and ethical principles deal with right and wrong in an absolute sense. Lying is always wrong, stealing is always wrong, cheating is always wrong. Truth is always right, keeping what is yours is always right and honesty is always right. We know this is correct because if we are on the receiving end of a lie, theft or cheating we demand justice or a righting of the wrong. Companies don’t lie, steal or cheat, individuals do. When we speak of companies, we are not talking about impersonal entities, rather of people just like us, with hopes, dreams and goals. They want to have enough to provide for their aspirations and the well being of society. As long as these persons (the company) are meeting the customer’s expectations by profitably providing a quality service or product at a price that the market will bear, everyone benefits. The customer is happy because his requirements are met, the producer is happy because he made a profit and can meet his obligations, the government should be happy because by taxation they can continue to serve the people by securing our safety and enforcing the contracts so essential to a free market.
When a person working for a company lacks integrity, whether an executive or machine operator, everyone suffers because profits suffer. If the executive is calloused to the interests of his investors, customers, employees and community, because of hubris (selfishness), the self regulating aspect of capitalism will begin. Customers will complain and look for competing products or services, competitors will gain market share, profits will decline, investors divest, employees find more fulfilling employment and ultimately the company will either find a new executive with personal integrity to change the corporate culture or close. If the machine operator lacks personal integrity and works as little as possible, he reduces the productivity of the plant, increasing the cost of goods sold and reducing profitability. When this cycle is repeated many times in a plant, the company loses its competitive edge and ultimately closes.
The problem comes when government (also made up of individuals) uses its power to regulate a self regulating economic system (capitalism). These regulations cause innumerable unintended consequences. Regulations that dictate product specifications such as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards on automobiles has brought the industry to it knees. Instead of the market regulating what models are produced, bureaucrats set standards based upon some fictitious depletion of oil supply, make believe environmental concerns or liberal ideology. In order to meet the standards, car makers resort to smaller, less powerful, less profitable cars. This leads to loss of market share and ultimately fewer car companies.
Profits are the fuel of our lives and economy. Without profits there are no paychecks issued, no groceries purchased, no retirement savings, no funds for government to do anything, etc. As long as there are honest individuals, the capitalistic free enterprise system will flourish and meet the demands of the market.
Dave Coke
Nov 07
Our great nation was founded upon the principles of liberty, personal integrity and trust in God which are necessary foundations for capitalism. Capitalism is the economic engine which drives the abundance that we enjoy. Capitalism provides the incentive for men and women to get up, go to work and do a good job without force [...] [...more]
Posted: under Economy.
Our great nation was founded upon the principles of liberty, personal integrity and trust in God which are necessary foundations for capitalism. Capitalism is the economic engine which drives the abundance that we enjoy. Capitalism provides the incentive for men and women to get up, go to work and do a good job without force or coercion. One of the most important aspects of capitalism is free markets and dynamic or intelligent purchasing. We have seen a great example of this in the last year in the price of fuel. The market brought about a swift and large price increase due to world wide demand for fuel. Two things occurred 1) suppliers increased production to take advantage of the higher price paid to them. and 2) the habits of individuals in our country changed in regard to day to day and discretionary travel. This trend was repeated in every country of the world. The resulting change in the supply/demand equation brought the price down as swiftly as it went up. What a wonderful self regulating system.
The world market for CRTs has been diminishing for the last 15 years. That change resulted in the closing of monochrome CRT manufacturers around the world. These closings are the necessary result of progress in technology and markets. No one came to the officers of these companies and demanded they close. The incentive for continuing operation - making a profit became smaller and smaller. Responsible management found more profitable products to produce with the same facilities and resources. Clinton displays hopes to benefit from these closings by continuing the manufacturing of high quality monochrome CRTs for its customers. As long as there is a demand for CRT based monitors, and we can obtain reasonably priced raw materials and keep our manufacturing costs low, there will be reason for us to manufacture.
The recent attack upon capitalism by the left in our country is astounding. History has proved that socialism (government control of the means of production by regulation and taxation) does not produce prosperity and wealth like capitalism.
Dave Coke
Nov 04
I just came from the polling place. I’ve voted for many years and I’ve never seen the polls so busy. I generally stop in to vote on my way to work and usually I’m one of the first 10 voters of the day at that location. Today I got there, a local Lutheran church, and [...] [...more]
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Tags: church, polls
I just came from the polling place. I’ve voted for many years and I’ve never seen the polls so busy. I generally stop in to vote on my way to work and usually I’m one of the first 10 voters of the day at that location. Today I got there, a local Lutheran church, and people were lined up outside waiting to get in. It was hard finding a parking space. Vehicles were parked on the lawn. One lady even pulled right up to the entrance steps to park. Obviously, this election was important to a lot more people than any other in my voting history.
Now, I’m not a political analyst, but there has been a lot of talk about how everyone’s vote counts, about how historic this election will be with the outcome being either the first black president or the first female vice president, and about how close the pre-election polls have been or not been (depending on your source). I’ve heard many people say they don’t like either of the major political candidates, some will vote for the lesser of two evils, some will vote for someone who doesn’t stand a chance in protest. Whatever each one standing in line used as their motivation for being there, one thing was certain, they would have just driven past this church after seeing such a line if they didn’t care about the outcome.
But what really bothered me is that I don’t see the church parking lot, and not just this church, full beyond capacity for a Sunday morning service, or even for Christmas and Easter. Sure, people will go to a church recognizing that this is a one time chance at affecting the very near future of this great country. They don’t similarly recognize that they need to go there to affect their own future and that of their families and friends and the world in which we live. Maybe there will be other chances for that, but they neglect their own immediate need for change.
Both of the major candidates ran on a platform of change, but the occupant of the White House cannot make as significant a change in America as the Son of God can when He occupies the hearts and homes of all Americans. Not every polling place is a church, but a significant number of them are. We pray that people will realize that they need to go there more often and for more reasons than to vote.
At the end of the day today there will not be newscasts about how many churches collapsed because certain people walked through the doors. That’s one less excuse for people to use for not going to church.
Tracy Henness
Oct 29
Yesterday I was working with our Customer Service Rep, Carla, on a new enhancement to our system when I noticed that her optical mouse was behaving rather erratically. She said it has been doing that a lot lately, so I began investigating the problem. I checked to connection at the back of the [...] [...more]
Posted: under Anecdotes.
Tags: chaos, mouse pad, optical mouse
Yesterday I was working with our Customer Service Rep, Carla, on a new enhancement to our system when I noticed that her optical mouse was behaving rather erratically. She said it has been doing that a lot lately, so I began investigating the problem. I checked to connection at the back of the computer and it was securely plugged in. I wiggled the cord while holding the mouse still, but it made no erratic movements. It draws its power from the connection to the computer so it was not a weak battery issue.
Further manipulation of the mouse led me to notice that the problem seemed to occur when moving over certain areas on the mouse pad. I pulled the mouse pad out from under the mouse and used just the bare desk. The mouse behaved. I put the mouse back on the desk and moved the mouse across it and it still behaved. Then I noticed that I put the mouse pad in an orderly position, that is, the edge lined up parallel with the edge of the desk. But before I took it off the desk it was skewed about 20 degrees. So I put it back to a similar position, and the mouse became erratic again. I realigned the pad and the mouse behaved, skewed the pad and the problem came back.
I examined the graphic design on the pad (I had been ignoring it all along). The top two thirds contained a world atlas and the bottom had the company logo, name, and contact information of the vendor that sent the mouse pad as a promotional gift. The atlas image had the longitude and latitude grid. When the optical mouse crossed over the grid crossings it became confused by what appeared to be a sudden change in direction. So the orderly pattern on the skewed mouse pad created the disorderly response. Carla noted that the problem started after she got the new mouse pad. She has switched back to the old one.
Note to the vendor: Thanks anyway. We won’t hold it against you. It works just fine with mechanical mice. You had no way of knowing. Besides, we got a chuckle out of it.
Interestingly, the original optical mice required mouse pads with a grid pattern in order to work. Now it seems we should avoid grid patterns with modern optical mice.
Tracy Henness
Oct 20
Saturday I was involved in a discussion with a couple of friends from church regarding the price of gas. In recent weeks it has fallen significantly. I mentioned that the day before I bought E85 fuel at $1.899 per gallon. So the question was asked as to whether I actually save money [...] [...more]
Posted: under Going Green.
Tags: E85, fuel
Saturday I was involved in a discussion with a couple of friends from church regarding the price of gas. In recent weeks it has fallen significantly. I mentioned that the day before I bought E85 fuel at $1.899 per gallon. So the question was asked as to whether I actually save money using E85. One of the considerations was the cost of vehicles that can use E85. In my case I didn’t take into consideration whether or not the car was Flex-Fuel when I bought it. It was a used car that met our needs and we were able to negotiate it into our price range. We later found out it was Flex-Fuel, so for us the cost of the car was irrelevent.
So the major issue in terms of economy is the decreased milage we get with E85. On regular unleaded gasoline we get about 28mpg. With E85 we get about 24mpg. On the day I spent $1.899 regular unleaded was $2.859. Let’s do the math to find out cost per mile. 2.859/28=$0.102 and 1.899/24=$0.079 so I save about 20% on the cost of fuel when I use E85 (your milage my vary).
There are other issues to consider. It is not very often the the difference in the 2 fuels will be about 30% as it was on this day. If the price difference is significantly less it may be no cost benefit. The price varies with the availability of the raw produce whether it be corn, sorghum, switchgrass, or whatever the crop of choice is. But I would rather be supporting our US farm economy than to be sending our nation’s wealth (as it is) to nations that have little or no respect for America.
Some will argue that by using our corn for fuel we take food out of the mouths of starving children because we won’t have the surplus. But by making corn and other crops more of a commodity, fewer of our nation’s farmers will be going bankrupt. Bankrupt and former farmers produce fewer crops, thus causing the surplus to dwindle. Save the farmers, save the children of the world. Balance is the key.
God bless the farmers. God bless the scientists and engineers that can develop alternate fuel technologies. God bless the USA.
Tracy Henness
Oct 17
I attend the Linux User’s Group which meets once a month. Once the meeting got started this month we went around the room telling how the current economy is affecting our employment status. That is, “Do you still have a job?”; “If so, is your employer hiring?”; “Are you looking for a different job?”; etc. [...] [...more]
Posted: under Economy.
Tags: Economy, niche market
I attend the Linux User’s Group which meets once a month. Once the meeting got started this month we went around the room telling how the current economy is affecting our employment status. That is, “Do you still have a job?”; “If so, is your employer hiring?”; “Are you looking for a different job?”; etc. Although I could not offer any positions, I was glad to report that our company’s business health is currently on the upswing, while many of the others are being adversely affected by this current economy.
Even though it seems that every time I mention that our main product is monochrome CRTs someone at least implies that that has to be a dying niche, there is still a need. Clinton Displays is committed to fulfilling that need as long as we can maintain a profit margin that allows us to stay in business.
Of course, we have to stay alert to any possibility of new products or processes that can help us maintain a reasonable profit margin even long after the niche market for CRTs has ceased.
We welcome suggestions not only from within the company, but from our customers, from people that just stumble across our site looking for something that may or may not be related to what we do, or even from our competitors that might be struggling to justify continuing to manufacture similar product.
Tracy Henness
Oct 06
You may have noticed that we recently redesigned our logo. This was done for several reasons.
First, Clinton Displays CRT Division transitioned its ownership to Video Display Corporation. Although we retain the Clinton name, which has been synonymous with high quality monochrome CRTs for many years, it became necessary to disolve the identification with our former [...] [...more]
Posted: under Business.
Tags: ideas, logo
You may have noticed that we recently redesigned our logo. This was done for several reasons.
First, Clinton Displays CRT Division transitioned its ownership to Video Display Corporation. Although we retain the Clinton name, which has been synonymous with high quality monochrome CRTs for many years, it became necessary to disolve the identification with our former parent company.
Secondly, the concept of changing logos was a step toward encouraging our employees and management to look beyond our past successes toward our future potential. To achieve this we held a contest among our staff and their families and friends to submit ideas for the new design. We thank all those who submitted ideas and concepts even though no one submission became the final new logo. Rather, several of the submissions were combined into the finished design. Some of the original submissions are invisible in the new logo, but each had an influence in the outcome. So it is with our future. Not every idea that is suggested to us, whether by staff, management, family, friends, customers, or any other visionary, becomes a finished product. But those ideas, when pooled together, rearranged, looked at from different angles, can inspire new technologies, innovations, and products. They can open for us new niches, and make us the best at anything we set out to do.
Thirdly, we want our customers to look at us in a whole new way. Yes, we still make the best monochrome CRTs, and intend to do so for a long time. Allow us to help you make your products better.