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HAL Moves From BlackBerry to Apple

Feb 7th, 2012
by Dan.
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Monday AppleInsider reported on last Thursday’s internal letter From the President of my employer, Halliburton Company. We are moving from BlackBerry phones to Apple devices.

Apple may be a hardware business, but in my opinion this is a purely software issue. BlackBerry developers are in a bit of a mess. Current phones are running a Java-based operating system that is on its last legs. The new BlackBerry 10 QNX-based operating system is coming late, and more importantly, it will not support applications written for the current BlackBerry operating system. Who would want to contribute resources to developing programs that will go away in a year or so?  Not Big Red, apparently. I understand the move.

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Happy New Year!

Jan 3rd, 2012
by Dan.
2 comments

2011 was a pretty cool year. If I recall correctly, I was in Houston; Alice, TX; and Calgary. Houston is great; it’s my home away from home, and the church knows my name there. Calgary was definitely the most fun and unique, despite spending most of it in negative degrees Celsius. :) Unlike some past years, I got to spend a lot of time at home as well, and that was good.

So far this year the company looks to send me back to Alberta. Halliburton has camps in Medicine Hat, Red Deer, and Grande Prairie. Grande Prairie is out there; we may wander over into British Columbia.

Last year I dropped 40 lbs. through a food diary and 45 mins. of exercise a day; I won’t be dropping another 40 this year. It sounds kind of cool to say I dropped almost three stones. I switched from the Lose It! app on iOS to LiveStrong on the BlackBerry, primarily because the kids now monopolize the iPods.

The podcast has been doing well. After our second pass through the Popular Commentary of Dr. Paul E. Kretzmann, I’m thinking about discussing the background of the hymns we sing: the scripture they reference and the conditions they were written in. Wouldn’t it be sweet if I could get an interview with the likes of LSB composers Pr. Stephen P. Starke or Stephen R. Johnson?

We made two hymn videos. I wish I could have synchronized the video of me singing with the audio a bit better on “What Child is This,” but CyberLink’s PowerDirector was very erratic with that. Video shooting and editing is a process where experience is a slow and demanding teacher, and I would really like to work with someone more experienced on any future projects.

I am quite excited that we are getting new accompaniment from Sam Mussman of Champaign, IL, and the notorious organist of Higher Things, Chris Loemker. Sam will kick off the new year of Time Out on Thursday with CL taking the next three. Jake Weber should also be with us in February. Our frequent guest vocalist Anna Baseley will be more involved when I work out the schedule for the next three months. We are still looking for more; we have no max on our guest list.

The house is now pretty much gluten-free. The market is starting to produce better gluten-free substitutes for normal bread goods, and while they continue to be more expensive, the prices are coming down. Udi’s loaves regularly can be found for under $5. Celebrate Local at the Easton Towne Center has had some good GF cookies that would be hard to discern from typical.

Wishing you and yours a prosperous 2012; keep working hard and forgiving others, as in Christ you are forgiven. Peace.

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When Do You Train?

May 31st, 2011
by Dan.
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I’ve been a trainer in corporate workflow software for 13 of my nearly 15 years at Halliburton. It’s been tough and rewarding, but I thank God that He has placed me in my position.

My customers, people who use the software that the IT department writes, face an interesting dilemma when it comes to learning the latest and greatest. Sometimes trial-and-error by people familiar with the current version is unacceptable when learning the new version. Trainers must be employed, but the dilemma is when?

Markets have cycles of good and bad times, therefore businesses have cycles of good and bad times. John Maynard Keynes knew this and even tried to stop it, but all that did was push debt on to future generations. Our company has good times, generally right after the price of oil and gas come up, and poor times, such as when oil was $9/bbl in 1999. The size of our company expands and contracts with the amount of work that people want to do at a certain oil price.

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A Foreigner’s Vocation

Oct 18th, 2010
by Dan.
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Egypt by most accounts is fairly Western for a country with a Muslim population upwards of 90%. The men in our office, though native, wear button-down shirts, slacks, dark socks, and shoes. Most women in our office wear head scarves coordinated with the rest of their outfits and clearly show their faces; some wear no scarves at all.

Several men have zebibahs: calloused, dark regions on their foreheads that come from pressing the head hard to the ground during prayers. Classes break at about noon and three for prayers, done somewhere outside the classroom.

The people I teach — all men so far, but we will teach a woman or two in the next couple of days — have all been very professional. Other than prayer times, religion hasn’t been brought up. There has been no jokes made at the expense of anyone in the room, and it has been friendly enough that we can joke about traffic and the vendors around the pyramids.

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Egyptian Intermission

Oct 12th, 2010
by Dan.
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Thus far I’ve survived nine days in Egypt on business for HAL. It has been an interesting trip so far, and I look forward to catching a fracturing job in the desert in the near future. That should make for some pictures.

The first thing a new visitor notices coming out of the airport is the traffic. The government could probably save a good deal of money and not paint the dashed lines on its highways, since it seems none of the citizens actually use them. Horns are less of an indicator that you’re terrible at driving and more of an indicator that, “Hey I’m coming up on your blind spot, FYI.”

The highways are in dire need of what civil engineers call “controlled access.” People gather along the sides of the highways to wait for buses and vans. They can dart out and cross the highway if they think they have half a shot of making it. Sometimes a highway median consists of eroding and noncontiguous concrete barriers. Traffic signals can be found in downtown Cairo, but I never saw one functioning. There are no stop signs.

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Ohio Legislature Considers More Discrimination Legislation

Sep 12th, 2009
by Dan.
2 comments

The Newark Advocate reports that since Democrats have taken over the Ohio House, gay rights legislation has been moving forward. There seems to be the exemption for “religious organizations,” but the debates over conscience clauses for abortion show that that’s a very tight window.

I oppose any and all “anti-discrimination” legislation on freedom grounds. If a boss wants to be stupid and not pick the best person for the job, that’s his or her own fault.

A relative of mine works for a company that just released several women and no men in one firing. Sexual discrimination?

Considering that these women tend to be waning in their child-bearing years, the risk of paying for maternity leave is dwarfed by the regular revenue these collection agents were pulling in. Bad publicity alone would be another major hit. There is significant disincentive to discriminate before any courts are involved.

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