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My recent blog about the tenacity and creativity of a squirrel in our backyard has evidently prompted others to post things about these critters. I have to thank Louise Mormon for posting this on her Facebook page. As she points out, many utility key account representatives kept dead squirrels in the trunk to use when managing customer outage complaints.

Read the Washington Post article regarding squirrels

This reminds me of a true story I was told by a key account rep with a New York State utility who attempted to stop these critters by building a fence around the transformer and then plating it with stainless steel so that the squirrels could not climb the sides. That part of the plan worked well, but as the key account rep was proclaiming success with his client, they all watched a family of squirrels come in via the high side electrical wires.
I can almost imagine the squirrel to squirrel conversation, which probably went a bit like this:

“Boy am I glad those utility dudes built this fine fence to keep snakes and other varmints out of here!”

I was cruising through my Facebook page to see if there was anything interesting and this picture of a squirrel caught my eye. Perhaps you have had the same experiences we have with these incredibly clever creatures.

 
When we first built our house 20 years ago, we thought it would be nice to attract more birds to our back yard with a bird feeder. Since squirrels are so numerous here, we also looked for a bird feeder that was “squirrel proof.” Back then, we couldn’t go online and read what others had experienced here so we used our own intuition.

 
The one we bought had all kinds of features that would ostensibly make it squirrel-proof, but apparently, no one told the squirrels who gleefully scampered up the pole. So, given the pole was metal, I applied to my chemical engineering and scientific background: grease the pole. That would certainly do it.

 
To our delight, we watched two squirrels try to climb the pole and fail for over an hour that day. Then, as we were sitting there on the deck, I noticed one of the squirrels had climbed the nearby tree, walked out on a very thin branch … and was hanging, triangulating directly above the bird feeder.

 
Perhaps also waiting for no breeze to ruin the attempt, the squirrel dropped a full 20 feet from that branch squarely on the top of the feeder … which rocked back and forth for almost a minute. Then, as if the character Rambo from an old Silvester Stallone movie, proceeded to empty the entire feeder onto the ground so that all the family and friends could enjoy the fruit of his labors.

 
So, what should we all learn here beyond the simple fact that there really is no such thing as a squirrel proof feeder? When you really want something, you have to think beyond the obvious and then take some real risks.

 

Squirrels seem especially good at this.

 
Hope your New Year is full of new ideas and the determination to put them into action.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal is a wakeup call to energy companies trying to be relevant to today’s home builders and new home buyers. I eagerly clicked on the link below to see if all the years of energy advice and program designs had left its mark.

Wall Street Journal Real Time Economics Blog

The list of architectural priorities is as follows:

1. Disaster-resistant designs
2. Healthy building materials
3. Smart-home automation
4. Designs catering to an aging population, and finally
5. Energy-efficient design

To make matters worse, the article content on this last one says “Homes that use less electricity and water have become increasingly trendy in recent years and architects expect that to continue, but it is still unclear whether the costs outweigh the benefits. Mr. Suter, the Connecticut architect, said he encourages clients not simply to think of energy efficiency in dollar terms but to think of unforeseen benefits, such as a wood stove that can be used in case of a power outage.”

I remember years ago when utilities focused on the A&E community emphasizing EE and DR agendas. Perhaps this is a reminder that programs like this might be hard to justify in any one year, but the lack of them can certainly place market barriers in place over time.

It seems like we may have to go back to some of the key account type programs in this area as well.

 

Well here we go again … it is that time of the year when many of us become introspective and motivated to do something about how we spend our time and other resources. Perhaps that is good, except of course when we don’t do what we should be doing in all of life … that is keep track of how we are doing in the past so we can be better stewards of what we plan to do in the future.

Lose weight, exercise, and spend more time with family and friends … you know the list that will once again be considered and perhaps even become a statement of intent: our New Year’s Resolution for 2016 in this case.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a news writer (TV Critic Ken Tucker) consider lots of things he was going to watch to be more impactful in 2016. Top of his list was watching more Big Bang Theory. Here is what he said:

I’ll Give The Big Bang Theory Another Shot It’s by far the most popular sitcom in America, measured by ratings, but gosh darn it, I never crack a smile whenever I’ve watched it. I really admire Jim Parsons’ performance; I think he’s a great comic talent, with a sense of timing the equal of such first-rate sitcom stars as — well, as Bob Newhart, and who’s popped up occasionally on Big Bang.

 

Finally, I have a New Year’s Resolution I can and will keep! Maybe this is the real key to success: paint the bull’s eye around the place you land and declare victory. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

It is funny how some words enter the English language. I think you know that Kung Fu is often thought of as a member of the martial arts. Upon closer study, the real meaning means “time spent” and that in turn is why the martial arts it often represents is called that: it takes a lot of time to learn this technique.

So, it is perhaps not a surprise that a firm who wants to market a device that reflects a lot of time and effort might use the phrase Kung Fu to reflect that. Innocent enough. Beware though what happens when you connect this to other thoughts.

Susan and I are remodeling a house and were concerned about putting electrical outlets in our brand new cabinets that would deface the beautiful wood finish. So, quite naturally, I went online to see if I could find a modern outlet design that would be less conspicuous. Here is the link to the Amazon advertisement we noticed offered one.

This design looked very clever and I ordered one. It came today and as I opened the box I became a bit alarmed at what I saw. See the picture to the right. My first reaction was that I had clearly ordered something other than what I thought. No … it was the pop up electric socket device and it was exactly the one pictured on www.amazon.com.

Now when I reread the advertisement, I can hear the foreign voice at work here. Translation is not the same as transcreation. Some things might work perfectly well in Chinese or Japanese, but lose or even gain something in translation.

You might like to know that Esso Oil company changed its name decades ago when they went international because Esso in Japanese meant broken down car. KungFuKing Socket seems to follow the same communication path.

So, be careful as you consider multiple languages on your web presentation or customer communication.