Tag: LinkedIn

Exactly Who Are You Dealing With Anyway?

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

I received a message from LinkedIn this morning. They have requested I add “skills” to my profile. They even gave me some suggestions. More specifically they suggested I add the skills of “Psychology”, “Africa” and “Silicon” . They even gave me the opportunity to see an expanded list of skills I could add to my profile! So I begin to think…

I use psychology every day while raising three kids, two “tweens” and one kid without a fancy label – and that one is particularly fond of Weird Al. For those reasons alone I must dabble a bit in behaviorism. I minored in psychology in college. I know about Jung and Freud, and spent portions of my college career with an “unconscious mind”. I learned about abnormal psychology and I have seen Young Frankenstein MANY times.

In other words, I am seriously considering adding “psychology” to my skills profile.

And coincidentally just yesterday I looked at a map of the world, found Africa, and then zeroed in on Zambia. Can you find Zambia? (If you can you should add “Africa” to your skills). I know it is a continent and shaped like a horses head and is home to some of the most fascinating animals on earth. And it has a large island off its coast called Madagascar – again I have seen all the Madagascar movies made by DreamWorks. Add “Africa” to my skills? I think so.

And then there is “Silicon” which I don’t know much about, but I looked it up on wikipedia and now I feel much more informed and skilled in reference to it. It might be a stretch but I think it could be added to my skills on LinkedIn. And in looking over the long list of things they said I could add I am also considering “Festivals” (I have been to many), “Estate Planning” (I have a will) and “Debugging” (I worked a summer temp job for an exterminator years ago).

Here’s the point, so many times it is difficult to know who you are dealing with, what skills they actually have and what their experience may be. If you think the above illustrations are a stretch, I would typically mumble something about how big of a world it is and that people are generally crazy – don’t put it past ’em.

Fortunately, at EXAIR, we have vehicles to prove who you are dealing with. A phone call, e-mail or chat will get you the expertise you are looking for from a staff of experienced Application Engineers with varied backgrounds and insights. You can also see more of our personalities on Twitter and Facebook. And then we round it out with this blog so you can be confident you know more about the people you are dealing with. (You may now consider one of them to be mildly crazy, but hey – I’m just trying to fit in).

If you need assistance with saving your compressed air and keeping it safe, let us know.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Tupperware In The Woods

Published on by Russ Bowman1 Comment

I use multi-million dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods. What’s your hobby?

OK; I stole that from a t-shirt, but in case you didn’t already know, the hobby in question is geocaching. And I geocache. Last night, in fact, I introduced my Webelos Den (Cub Scouts entering the 4th Grade this year) to the activity.  I put some Boy Scout patches in Zip-Lock bags (Regina won’t let me use the “good Tupperware”), and hid them in the woods & field across the street from my house, creating Waypoints with my Garmin E-Trex Venture HC at each location for them to follow. All in all, we trekked about 150 yards to find the three patches.

I have found my share of “Tupperware in the woods,” though – my trusty E-Trex is near the top of my camping trip checklist. But it’s not just for camping – there are plenty of ‘caches to be found in all levels of civilization. I’ve found them in industrial parks, and on city streets – whoever came up with the “lamp post geocache” was a mad genius. Wherever a ‘cache is hidden, it’s intriguing to see what’s enclosed. Usually you’ll find an arrangement of trinkets and a small notebook to record your visit.

For a few months now, I’ve been diving deeper into the Twitterverse – searching out items of interest from those I’m interested in enough to follow, and re-tweeting them to those who have been gracious enough to follow me. I even manage the occasional original post. Along the way, I’ve become an active participant in “Follow Friday” – look for the #FF in your Tweet stream. It’s a great way to expand your network – and your influence – by tapping into the networks of those already in your Circle of Tweeps.

Turns out, #ff was just the first of a few recently launched methods to help us all grow our social networking prowess and influence. Back in February, #FBLT (Facebook Liking Tuesday) was introduced – by one of our #ff mainstays, by the way – and all of our “likes” are growing weekly. Newer still is LinkedIN Connect Thursday, or #LICT. Check it out tomorrow.

I’m going camping again this weekend, and much to my best friend Andrew’s chagrin, I’m bringing my E-Trex (he’s an unrepentant muggle.) Along our hike, I’ll make brief stops, as the satellites guide me, to marvel at the trinkets (maybe I’ll even take or leave one) and write a brief note in the obligatory notebook.  I sure hope the last person left the pencil behind.

However your interests are fueled, I hope you never stop looking for the next one…whether it’s found in a cleverly placed piece of Tupperware in the woods, or in a less-than-140-character posting of a fellow Tweep, or (I’m going old-school here) a conversation with a new acquaintance at a real live face to face social function.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
39.275761, -84.349582

Pampering Celebrities

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Every once in a while we get an “off the wall” application. I was contacted by a club house attendant from a very exclusive golf course. One of his duties was to clean their patrons’ golf shoes after they came off the course.

While their clientele patronized the amenities of the club house, he would clean the mud from their shoes using water. As one would expect, this made the shoe leather damp. When the golfers returned to finish the back nine, they complained about the wet shoes.

He was desparate for an alternative to water cleaning and asked me if I had an air blow off solution for him. I suggested the EXAIR Model HP1230 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun.

He ordered one out and tested it in the maintenance shop where they had compressed air. The two inch wide nozzle on this gun made quick work of removing mud from the cleats and sides of the shoes. Then with a few swipes from a dry rag, the original shine was restored.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com

I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles

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I was listening to some ancient music from the post war era…no not the Gulf  War but WWII.  A song came on titled “I am Forever Blowing Bubbles“. Things were a bit more simplistic back in  the 40’s and it was reflected in their music.

Sometimes simple is better as in the case of an engineering firm that I worked with recently. They were prepared to design a complicated system to remove bubbles in an adhesive being applied to a substrate.

When the adhesive is prepared and filled into the dispensing equipment, it is full of bubbles. These are transfered through the application process and get trapped when the laminating film is applied. Installing a Model 110018, 18″ Super Air Knife across the applied glue, they were able to burst the glue bubbles as well as distribute the glue more evenly across the surface.

Within less than 30 minutes they had the air knife installed, problem fixed, and a very happy customer. To state in the simplistic 40’s humor, everybody lived happily ever after.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com