Karl's Thoughts Sometimes Called a Blog
1. the opinions below are the authors
2. they may not necessary be correct
3. and they may be changed without notice
4. in other words this is rambling
Thursday 9 November 2006
This daily blog seems to be monthly. I am in an airport flying from China to Singapore. I went to China to help commission a BTX Plant. The plant started up very good, we had a good team of people. The team is what always make you look good, or not so good. The coaches help, you still have to have the horses.
I have been on many good teams. I have been on three different teams, where the upper management decided the team was not that good and split them up by lack of recognition or pay. The teams members each went on to bigger and better things. In 1994 we had a team at the refinery that I thought was very good,
1. Carlos Laurel
2. Dean Tsai
3. Russ Smith
4. Kevin Hagen
5. Karl Kolmetz
A team that I thought was good was in an Ethylene Plant in 1998.
1. Randy Miller
2. Charles Hebert
3. Ken Kolde
4. Karl Kolmetz
5. Curtis Keller
6. Charlie Demarest
Another team was in Singapore in 2003
1. Norhazry Johari
2. Wai Kiong Ng
3. Ron Lim
4. Karl Kolmetz
Maybe what hurt the team every time was this common weak link.
Tuesday 10 October 2006
I have traveled quite a bit in this window. Flew for the first and last time on the German Airline Luftansia. I was flying to Belarus and Luftansia had good connections. Northwest Airlines which I like has just lowered their baggage limit from two 70 lb bags to two 50 lb bags due to the increased cost of fuel. If you want to have a 70 lb bag there is a USD $25 charge.
Luftansia has a maximum of 44 lbs, no matter how many bags and a USD $26 per pound charge. I got to the KL airport and I had 66 lbs, which is well below the 100 lb limit, but much higher than the 44 lb limit. They wanted USD $ 580 for the extra weight.
What I choose to do was to throw clothes away. You cannot imagine how many clothes I can buy it Asia for USD $500. As I am throwing clothes away they were quite surprised - They questioned - why are you throwing your clothes? I answered do you know how many clothes I can buy for USD $ 500.00? The agent answered - In Malaysian you can buy many name brand clothes for USD $500.
5 Oct 2006
A friend of mine Jerry Farmer treated me to a birthday diner.
Birthday from 2002
Saturday 16 September 2006
I bought America Express Travelers Checks for my trip to Nigeria. I was slightly surprised at the Singapore Airport American Express Booth they charged me 1.5% to buy the checks, but I am going to Nigeria and it might be worth the 1.5%.
I did not need them, and so I return to the Singapore Airport to cash them back to US Dollars. What was very surprising was when I return they charged me 1.5% to sell them back to US Dollars. I always thought you paid a fee when you bought them, but they were like money when you cashed them in. For 3% I would have taken the risk of being robbed.
Another surprising item, is that on line there is no place to send an email to complain American Express - so I need to mention it here.
Monday 14 August 2006
In Lagos, Nigeria at the Airport. Flew from Port Harcourt this morning at at 9 AM, return to Singapore at 4 PM. Two days before we arrived the US issued a travel warning to Nigeria. Three Philippine workers had been kidnapped.
Last night, four more foreign workers were kidnapped about 4 blocks from our hotel. About 10:30 PM there was a big gun fight with about 300 rounds being exchanged over fifteen minutes. There were small arms fire, shotguns, rifles and machine guns. An impressive show of fire power.
The locals said that they were just holding the people for ransom, and they would not be hurt. The first three have been held now for over a week, but no ransom demand.
I am always surprised at what hotels cost in the poorer countries. We stayed in Protea in Port Harcourt. A nice hotel, maybe a four star level. The nightly rate was USD $300.00 and the meals were about USD $ 30 each. I paid a similar rate when I stayed in Mumbai. Amazing when you look at the surrounding areas, where the people might now make in a year, what you have paid for a week to stay in a hotel.
Sunday 06 August 2006
We to the hospital in Singapore to receive the Yellow Fever Vaccine. No real issues.
When I was nineteen I caught a fever and the flu. The flu settled in my chest and made it difficult to breath. I stay at home a few days and then went to doctor. I was working construction and at that time I had full medical insurance. With full medical insurance and you are sick, he checked me into the hospital, I cannot remember the name of the Hospital - it was either Crestview Memorial Hospital, or Okaloosa Memorial Hospital.
They were giving me antibiotics and the main thing I needed was rest. My father asked how am I doing, I reply I am ok, I just need to rest. About 9 PM, I decide to go to sleep. I cut off the lights in the hospital room and start to sleep. As soon at it gets quite and dark in the room, a cricket begins to chirp, and of course I cannot sleep. I get up to look for the cricket in the room and I cannot find the cricket. As soon as I cut the light on the cricket stops chirping.
I cut off the light and get quite, and as soon as I get still the cricket starts chirping. I call the nurse who is the mother of one of the girls I went to school with, to tell her I cannot sleep because there is a cricket in the room. We both look for the cricket, which neither of us can find it.
I cut off the light again, get quite and the cricket starts chirping. I call the nurse and ask if I can change rooms. She says not really, they do not have any extra rooms. Looking back she may have thought I was sick and just dreaming about the cricket.
By this time it is 11 PM and I have yet to get any rest. I call my father to come pick me up so I can get some rest. He arrives from Milligan where he lives to check me out of the hospital. The nurse realizes at this point she has made a mistake and tell me she can find an extra room. I have already made my father drive at 11 PM to the hospital to pick me up, I am ready to leave to get some rest.
The nurse says I cannot check out of the hospital without with the doctors permission. My father answers with a line that I remember to this day, "Madam, this is not a prison, you can leave whenever you want."
At this point it is 11:30 PM, I am sick, I am tired, and the nurse does not want to let me out of the hospital. I began to get angry. All I want to do is rest somewhere, and I cannot rest in this hospital. I ask her nicely about three times to let me leave. By the fourth time I am no longer asking nicely, I am actually shouting, " I wish to leave this hospital".
The nurse had to spin the incident someway so she would not look bad, so I was branded a bad patient shouting in the hall. Of course that is all the other nurses saw. It can be amazing what different versions of the same story can be.
Be tender with the young,
Patient with the sick,
Respectful of the elderly,
Tolerant of those in error,
At some point in your life, you will have been each of these.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
I may have an opportunity to do some work in Nigeria. So we checked the guidelines and they recommended we get a yellow fever vaccination. We checked where we could get the vaccination in Malaysia. Where we were in Malaysia, it is only available at the government health clinic and on Tuesdays. The name of the government health clinic is, Klink Pesakit Luar, Jalan Mahmoodih, Johor Bahru, Johor.
So Tuesday I go to the government health clinic. I wait in line for two hours, we arrive about 2 PM. The admission cost for a Malaysian is RM 5.00 (USD $2). The cost for a foreigner is RM 40.00 (USD $10). Different from the US where the locals pay and the foreigners are free. Actually this is the correct way, the foreigners should pay more.
After two hours I am able to see a Doctor. She takes my blood pressure and then send me upstairs to take the vaccination. I arrive fill out the forms. I need to pay an additional RM$ 90 (USD $ 20). I need to wait for another 20 minutes because the nurse is on a tea break. After she returns we are now ready for the injection.
She goes behind a screen and calls me for the injection. She already has the syringe prepared. I tell her I need to see her prepare the syringe. She is slightly angry that I do not trust her. She begins to prepare the second syringe.
In her method she uses a stapler, which is not sterile, to open the bottle of vaccination. For some reason I am not happy with her method. I let her know I do not want the second syringe either. At this point she is very angry. Her English is not good enough to understand why I am refusing the vaccination. She call her boss because I have wasted two bottles of the vaccine.
Her boss arrives and has good English. I explained to him that I did not like her method of using the un-sterile stapler to open the vaccine bottle. He explains to her in Malay what I am unhappy about, amazing enough she is still angry that I had wasted two bottles of vaccine.
Because she did not follow procedures, I asked for my money back. Her boss could not approve the refund, so I was then taken to the clinic manager. I met the clinic manager who main task was to make sure I received no refund. The money was not the issue, I was asking for the refund to make sure everyone understood that the procedures were not being followed.
The clinic manager said if I fill out a complaint form and they will investigate. If their investigation finds I am due my money back, I will be refunded. I told him I thought that was a waste of time, and I did not believe that I would every receive any refund. What manager will document that he is doing a bad job? Not any that I know.
Planning to go to Singapore on Saturday to receive my vaccination. I will let you know if they open the vaccine bottle with a stapler.
Sunday, June 4th, 2006
Of course I am sitting in an airport - I am in Detroit. I am flying from Singapore to Philadelphia. I have a distillation training course for Sunoco Philadelphia Refinery starting Tuesday. I am almost done with the flight - only one hour left. It is about 6 PM Sunday Night, I started at 6 PM Saturday night. Yes I am tired.
One thing I noticed was the subway at the airport. Attached is a picture of the Americans waiting for the subway. They are all standing about 6 feet away from the doors. They will wait until the people inside the subway exit then they will enter. Just for reference at some point in the future I will post a picture of people waiting for the subway in Singapore - there is more than a small difference. In Singapore they will crowd the entrance and fight each other to be the first to enter or exit.
Personal space is very different for different countries. In the US you will try to maintain at least a two foot distance between yourself and the next person in line. In Asia, this personal space will be less than six inches. It takes some time for the Westerners to adjust to the Asian custom.
Saturday June 3, 2006
Saturday I had dinner with a good friend - Tham Chee Mun and family. Here is a picture from their wedding in 2001.
They have a new daughter Patricia. I am blessed to have many good people as my friends in Asia. Tham is one of the best young engineers I know, and when I think of what a wife should be, Choon Ming comes to my mind.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Welcome to my life. I am setting in an airport in India waiting for a plane. It is delayed. I have a midnight flight to Singapore that I hope I will make the connection - we will see.
In April I visited India twice and the USA. We helped commission a BTX Plant in India and taught a distillation class in the USA. Met some good people at each place.
On April 9th, one of my long time friends, Bill Lotz, turned 51. We are about the same age and we met when we were 23 years old. There was a small gathering for him, his mother, step father, wife and I. Attached are a few pictures of the gathering.
Saturday, April 1st 2006
I must not have thoughts very often - there is a big time gap in this blog. I am in India this week starting up a Chemical Plant. India is a very interesting place. People are very friendly and knowledgeable.
One of my surprises was how open the press was. The newspapers are very critical of the government and from the western point of view this is a positive. A challenge is the legal system, in which the press is very open in criticism, but seems to be making very little difference. Until the legal system starts working it will be difficult for the country to move forward.
Here are some pictures of the local area that I am visiting.
Tuesday, 31 January 2006
On the airplane returning from the US to Singapore. Twenty-four hour flight. You are very tired and kind of in a fog when you arrive. I am currently 10 hours into the trip, about two more hours to Tokyo, change planes and then about 6 more hours to Singapore. This trip the plane is not very full and this means you can more to the back of the plane and have extra space. This is very important on a 24 hour trip - just being able to have extra space make the trip easier.
Thursday, 19 January 2006
Waiting in the airport in Manila, Philippines. For the last three years I have spent too much of my time in airports. A large portion of my present job is to travel to chemical plants. Most people think to be able to travel all over the world would be a great job, and for the first year it actually is very neat, and then like anything else it slowly becomes a job.
By necessity, airports have become more safety conscious leading to less passenger comfort. In the airport today, four different times they asked for my passport and boarding pass, twice maybe, but four times?
I fly to Kuala Lumpur and then to Singapore tonight, arrive at 11 pm, get to the hotel by 12 midnight. I fly to Houston Friday morning, it is a 6 am flight. I need to get to the airport by 4:30, this means I leave the hotel at 4 am and they fly 26 hours. Four hours sleep, such is the glamour's life of a traveling engineer, sounds like work to me.
I have started my own business in August. The biggest surprise is the large amount of time the administrative tasks consume. The day to day running of a business - business license, banking, human resources, insurance, computer systems, office, and furniture.
A large part of the challenge is that because I am an American in Asia I am perceived to be rich, which sometimes is not all bad - sometimes this has fringe benefits. But if you wish to check my finances, just as my children they know best.
Therefore, to get the local price takes much longer than if I was a local citizen. For most things you wish to pay the fair local price, not any more, not any less - just the fair price. I have found that for most things, let a local person bargain for me may be the best.
Taxis all over the world are a challenge. The sayings in Rome is that you have not been to Rome, unless you have been taken advantage of by a taxi driver. The best way to deal with the taxis is to learn a small amount of the local language. Two or three words is normally enough, but they need to be more than thank you and hello. As small amount of the local language can lower the price of the taxis 50% or more.
