BlahBlahBlog

Headed back from a nice 2 day business trip to Seattle. Didn’t take my regular camera gear as I knew I wouldn’t have time to use it. Next trip up will be early fall and we’ll be making a trip through the Cascades. Real camera equipment will be required for that trip.

I spent 2 days at Boeing Aircraft. Sorry, no cameras allowed. But, my minds eye recorded it all. We had an awesome tour of the assembly floor. Talk about humungous; this one building covers 54 acres’ its over 2.5 miles around it. What did we see?

Up close and personal assembly of 757’s, 67’s, 77’s ,d the brand new Dreamliner 787.
And we’re not talking about off in the distance from a roped off aisle. We were walking under wings, fuselages, landgears, horizontal & vertical stabilizers and avionics bays. We got to walk under, in, and through fixtures as big as warehouses used to fit sections together. We saw machinery used to make wing assemblies that are so big they ride on railroad tracks and the operators ride on them.

We saw the 787’s they are rigging with sensors in preparation for static testing. Even the one that they’ll bend the wings on until they snap. Some engineerd are betting they’ll be able to bring the tips over the top of the plane without breaking. Either way, I’d love to be there for it.

Unfortunately, no pics allowed so all you get are these crummy shots from my cell phone camera of my flight home from San Jose.

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See and download the full gallery on posterous

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August 22nd, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment

Off to visit Boeing in Seattle. Gotta go! More l8r.

AgentZ

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August 20th, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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August 17th, 2008 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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August 17th, 2008 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

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August 17th, 2008 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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August 17th, 2008 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Josh just dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Just testing posting from my posterous account.

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August 15th, 2008 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

July 12th, 2008 | Tags: 3rd, alternative, candidate, Election 2008, party, president, third, viable | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

I’m not very excited about this election cycle just as yet. Its as exciting as the contenders, B-O-R-I-N-G !

I do wish Hillary “The Beast” Clinton would beat Barrack “Sadam” Hussein Obama as I think she would be the easier of the two for McCain to beat.

If (when) Barrack is selected I fear the same kind of turnout we had for OJ’s infamous low speed chase. With the same average intelligence level….

The thought starts making Canada look good.

AgentZ

April 10th, 2008 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Okay, I’m back. Nuff said, won’t go into the reasons for the absence….

Let’s play catchup in no particular order.

Josh, my youngest is home from Omaha, now we just need to get Mel out here.

Joined Flickr- photostream URL is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentz92505/

Created an Official AgentZ Logo Wear website: http://www.agentz.com/LogoWear.html

Took a 10 day (work) vacation to Switzerland and England - images on Flickr

Getting ready for CPOM 2008 in Sacramento - see slideshows of previous years here

Paso Wine fest is coming up and we’re going to Wild Coyote for the Winemakers Dinner and staying in their Bed & Breakfast - bringing the camera, of course

Plan on moving this year to the Paso area, hope to have the house on the market by summer

random thoughts and rants as they come……

April 10th, 2008 | Tags: cpom, festival, flickr, logo, sacramento, wear, wild coyote, wine | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

I could say:

Yeah, I know, it has been a long time since I posted here. I’ve been busy.

No, REALLY!

But then it would be a repeat of of the last post.

So, what have I been up to.

In May Jason and I went back to Sacramento for the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony. Images can be seen here.

We caravaned with the Central Coast agencies out to Harris Ranch on I-5 where we had lunch. After lunch we formed up with all the agencies from Southern California and did a run into Sacramento. That evening a bunch of us went to the Rusty Duck for dinner. I had brought a bottle of wine (The Prisoner- Orin Swift Cellars). We happily paid the cork fee as it was far superior to anything they had on their wine list. After dinner we excused ourselves (we didn’t feel like going out drinking) and we found a park bench to sit on and lit up a nice Romeo & Julietta (Cuban - its only illegal if you get caught).

Next year we are going to the candlelight vigil held the evening before the ceremony. Look for new images in May.

August was family vacation time. This year instead of heading out to Lake Nacimiento we took a road trip. The kids had never been to the giant redwoods in Sequoia or to Yosmite. So we went there and then to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We finished up with a day at Pismo Beach.

September was time for IMTS in Chicago. Chicago is my kind of town. It was a tough yet highly productive show, we sold almost 400 machines. I had shipped a half a case of various wines ahead to the hotel. I had a good time sharing some of my favorite central coast big reds with everyone.

This year for Jason’s birthday we (Jason, Stacey, Sally, Julie, and me) attended the Harvest Wine Festival BBQ and Pow-Wow at Manucci Winery. Gianni set-up the barrel room with dining tables and fed us a delightful tri-tip dinner. He paired the dinner with his awesome 2004 Syrah “Red Cloud”. Gianni invited a couple of members of the Chumash indian tribe from Santa Barbara to the Pow-Wow. Lew Silva played flute for us before and during dinner and after dinner we moved to the courtyard and sat around the firepit as Alan Spirit Hawks Salazar told us coyote stories. A fun time was had by all and we’re looking forward to next year already.

November is just around the corner. Sally is meeting me in Omaha to visit with Josh on my way back from New York. Thanksgiving is not far away (back to Jason and Staceys for dinner) and it feels like the end of the year will be upon us.

I’ll try to write again after Omaha. Off to pick up Mom for dinner out!

October 29th, 2006 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Yeah, I know, it has been a long time since I posted here. I’ve been busy.

No, REALLY!

One of the things I’ve accomplished so far is getting an online store started. Now you can buy prints of my photos, mugs, boxes, coasters, etc.

Check it out at:
Images by Jean-Pierre LeClair

April 24th, 2006 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

OK a quickie….

Just got back from 2 weeks of traveling halfway around the world. If you travel by air you know about the stupid little things they have by the gate for checking the size of a carry-on.

Here’s a clue folks, if you can’t lift the freakin’ bag over your head to stow it, check it. Don’t expect the entire world to stop to heft your crap into the overhead.

Chances are if the airlines lose your bag for a night there will be a Wal-Mart near where you’re going.

October 18th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Okay, it only felt like a near death experience. I was in Phoenix last week and was served a bowl of food poisoning at a Cr****r Ba**el. They had cleverly disguised it as a bowl of chicken (yeah Melissa, CHICKEN) tortilla soup.

I took off after lunch for a drive and picture taking in the Tonto (as in Lone Ranger) National Forest only to have a most pleasant afternoon interrupted by waves of nausea washing over me. The drive was over as I hastily retreated to my hotel room where minutes later the bathroom was attacked by explosive *********** and projectile *********.

At least I got some decent pictures. You can see them here Click on the TONTO link.

September 6th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

The California State Sheriffs’ Association did a feature article in the 3rd quarter issue of their magazine on the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony. They selected images that I shot to accompany the article written by Art Brandwood. Here’s the cover, six additional images were used inside to accompany the article and in the index. The slideshow I put together can be seen here.

July 15th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

“If the first grape you eat is bitter then you will not bother eating grapes again.
If the first grape you eat is a sweet one then you will be willing to eat a lot of bitter grapes in search of another sweet one “

July 8th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

The past month has been really hectic. I’ve been on the road for the last 4 weeks without much of a break.

It actually started right around the time of my last entry when I attended the California Peace Officers’ Memorial with Jason. The following weekend we (Jason and me) did an American Cancer Society Relay for Life in San Jose. It seems to have been non-stop since then.

This weekend I took some time to slow down and enjoy some of the finer things in life. Sally and I went to Paso to visit with the kids and G-kids.

While in town me and Jason and Stacey went up to a local vineyard to pick up my wine club order while Sally stayed with the kids back at the house.

I had been introduced to the “Wild Coyote” merlot while at McClintocks in town and had looked them up on-line. (Manucci Vineyards) I’ve developed an affinity for central coast wines and wasn’t prepared for what we found.

Let me say right from the start, I’d never done a wine tasting before. During the week leading up to the trip I had spoken with Katie, Diane and Gianni and they were friendly and helpful. When we arrived we parked between the teepee and the tasting room.

Diane immediately made us feel like we were old friends. After the tasting we selected a few bottles and adjorned to the courtyard to enjoy the view, and oh, what a view. Manucci Vineyards is nestled in the hills northwest of Paso Robles. The adobe style tasting room (and soon to be bed and breakfast) are set up above the vineyards overlooking the rolling hills. Well see for yourself, this is me, Stacey and Jason with one of our adopted bottles. A yound lady from Woodland Hills volunteered to take the picture for us so we could all be in it. Later her and her friend from San Fransisco shared some of their cheeses they had brought along (it was a great idea and we’ll do the same next time). Oh yeah, the picture.

Later that afternoon we had the opportunity to sit for a while and chat with Gianni and Katie Manucci, the proprietors.

Anyone that does a tasting tour in the central coast and misses this one is really missing out. If you decide to stop in tell Diane Jean-Pierre says hello and be certain to try the Rez’ e- rek’ shen!

June 19th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

I was able to attend the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony in Sacramento with my son on Friday (May 6th). Thousands of peace officers converged on Sacramento to honor those officers killed in the line of duty during 2004.

Some pictures I shot are available in a slideshow I put together here.

May 9th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Does anybody really play Texas Hold’em online?

I have to ask because there is a whole bunch of people from who knows where (they don’t have the huevos to post their real name or e-mail) that seem to spend all day posting comments on this blog.

And I can’t be the only one. I don’t believe that people that read blogs are any more inclined to play Texas Hold’em than I am.

Who sold these morons on the concept of blog spamming to advertise their online casinos? Is this part of the crowd that answers the spam mail that says, ” Work from home. Get paid for surfing the internet!”

Yeah surf the web, spam blogs with casino (and the occassional phentemine) posts.

You know it a bunch of different people because I’ve got the comments set to moderate and none of them ever appear on the site. If it was the same moron you’d think they’d get smart and move on. But, maybe the morons paying them don’t care because its a scam and they never pay the poor suckers.

Would explain the high turn over rate…..

January 13th, 2005 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

I must have been a very good boy this year. Santa brought me some new technology to play with. An EPSON RX600 photo printer/scanner.

It is way cool. Not only does it do 6 color photo printing but it also does film and slide scanning.

I have boxes of slides and negatives from my time up in the Pacific Northwest. I was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island and spent a lot of time wandering about with my cameras.

When I first got stationed there all I had was a Instamatic 126. Great for snapshots but left a lot to be desired. My first New Years resolution while there was to quit smoking. 2 months later for my birthday I bought my first 35mm with the money I had saved. It was a little Yashica 35mm automatic. It was a heck of a step up from my 126 but still left a lot to be desired.

However, it did pay for itself. I was able to capture some great shots and folks started buying prints. I even had some displayed in local establishments. This funded my next purchase.

A buddy was getting ready to go out on a westpac cruise. He figured while he was in Japan that he’d pick up a new camera so he sold me his old outfit. A CANON Ftb. Came complete with an automatic flash, lens doubler, a 70-210mm zoom, and some filters. This really opened up my photo opportunities.

As I wade through my negatives and slides and start scanning and playing with them I’ll be posting them to my photo site (Digital Images by JPL).

Here is one of my favorites that I played with in Picture Publisher. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

December 28th, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Man, am I ever glad Christmas is finally here.

Since IMTS in September it feels like I’ve been doing nothing but traveling. Chicago, Phoenix, Wisconsin, New York.

We left Chicago in 1986 to come back to California. I was sure glad to see the end of those mid-west winters. Suddenly, a guy quits and they split up his territory. Why do I get the prize states of Wisconsin, Minnesota (I think its indian for frozen and desolate), North and South Dakota? In the winter? We’ve hired a new manager for the territory but it will be a while before he’s up to speed. I’m hoping that all they do in the great white north for the winter is avoid freezing to death. If they want to buy something, hopefully, it will be around July.

I’m going to try to stay out here in California until the rest of the world thaws out. But, the rest of the country thinks we have it made here. Tomorrow is Christmas and while it may not be white it will be cold. The high temp for Christmas is only going to be about 70 degrees.

That means I may have to open the doors while cooking dinner and I’ll actually have to chill the wine instead of serving it at room temperature. The hardships we endure……

December 24th, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Okay, let’s get this out of the way upfront, it is Merry CHRISTmas. There I said it. I getting pretty tired of “Happy Holidays” as a cop out to be politically correct.

Whenever a clerk, a waitperson, a flight attendant would say Happy Holidays I would ask which one they meant. Usually it was met with a stammer, a hesitation, and a “Uh, Uh whichever you want”! What if I want groundhogs day?

What do I want this year? I want CHRISTMAS back!

I have yet to meet anyone that has been offended when I smile and wish them a Merry Christmas. Sooo, I need to know who these pansies are that wet their pants when Christmas is mentioned. I mean, who are the pansies besides the ACLU.

There are still some brave souls about that actually have the gumption to say “Merry Christmas”. My reaction is always to give them a big smile, sincerely thank them, and then wish them a most joyous Christmas in return.

Positive reinforcement! Make people feel good about saying Merry Christmas and maybe they’ll say it more often.

Maybe, if we all refuse to bow before the politically correct wishing each other a Merry Christmas will return to being the norm.

December 23rd, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Just about finished up building my bowling alley. O.K. its not full sized (not even scale) but it works.

My sister-in-law’s pastor asked if I could build one for them (I’ve done several woodworking projects for the church previously) and of course I couldn’t say no. Its for the Harvest Festival the church puts on as an alternative to Halloween.

They said they had a play bowling set they could borrow but I figured what happens when that set isn’t available anymore. I bought a set to include with the alley.

The alley is 8 feet long and the lane is 22 inches wide. I built it out of shop grade 3/4 inch Birch plywood. Even has gutters. No, I didn’t build an automatic pin setter, a ball return or scoring system.

All thats left to do is to add some pin spots and a few targets (the little arrows for aiming) to add some realism to it.
10-30-04 Its Done!

October 26th, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Is this a great town or what. I love Chicago. One of the few metropolises in the U.S. where it is safe to walk the street at night. This year we were put up at the Westin on Delaware & Michigan. What a great location, close to restaurants, Rush Street, and Navy Pier. Hope they pick the same location for 2006.

Too bad I only get to visit every other year for IMTS.

This year the weather held until after I left town. Only was windy one day and we braved it that night to sit out, share a bottle of wine (Kendal Jackson Vinters Reserve Merlot 2001) and a lovely Bella Costa Vintage Reserve cigar.

Went down to Navy Pier Saturday night for the fireworks. My hat is off to the city. Their twice weekly display rivals anything I’ve seen done for 4th of July celebrations. It was simply awesome. Afterwards we had dinner at the Be-Bop Cafe. Great ribs and a fantastic live band.

Sunday afternoon we spent some time down at Millenium Park (part of Grant Park). The cloud sculpture is cool.

Inside makes you dizzy just looking at it:

and

The also have these towers made of glass block. There is a reflection pool that kids play in all day long between the two towers. Here’s a picture of one of them:

From inside each tower they project a video onto the towers face. This is one of the many images that appears.

The gardens are also very nice. The contrast to the high rises across the street is cool. Here are some flowers from the gardens. The city can be seen in the background.

My buddy Maximillan was with me at the park. He is our Swiss Applications Engineer. Besides being very knowledgeable he is blast to hang around with.

Another team member was Jorg Schulz. Also from Switzerland. He was over to help out with our new control system on the Kel-Varia we had at the show.

Oh yeah, the show. That’s what we were all in town for. The International Manufacturing Technology Show 2004.

We had a great team. Here some of us, the rest had already departed back to Switzerland.

Back row (l-r) Paul Bailey, National Sales Manager - Jeff Hilliard, Technical Sales Manager, East - Bill Cram, Technical Sales Manager, Mid-West - Rudi Studer, Service Engineer, HTT Products - Max Graf, Senior Applications Engineer, Hardinge Grinding - Gary Sporli, Sales Manager, Kellenberger
Front row (l-r) Arnold Geyer, Sales Co-Ordinator, Kellenebrger - Pete LeClair (me), Technical Sales Manager, West - Jorg Schulz, Engineer - Software/Technology, Kellenberger

Whats Next? More travel. Phoenix this week, then maybe Colorado, Washington, Texas and then to Switzerland the first couple of weeks of November.

Stay Tuned…..

September 26th, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

I’m going cold turkey on Monday. I have an early flight so don’t know if I’ll have a chance to use before I go to Chicago. The flight will be easy, its later in the day and evening for the next week and a half that will be difficult. I’ll be hanging with a bunch of guys from work so I figure if I keep active in the evenings it will keep me distracted so I don’t notice the pain…..

Maybe I should be looking at this as an opportunity to ween myself of this dependency I seem to have developed. I think its a psychological dependency; there aren’t any physical withdrawal symptoms……

I sent my old laptop back to NY. It was a hand-me-down when I got it years ago. In its day it was speedy. A 200MHz MMX processor with a huge 3G harddrive. It functioned, barely. I new it was time to give it up when it took so long to boot and load a PowerPoint presentation that I never got a chance to show it to the customer.

So…. Now, a week and a half without a laptop. Bummer, the spam will build up! I’ll miss all those plugs for Cialis and Viagra, penis enlargement and notices of “Oversized Cargo” about to ship. NOT

Got a new DELL D600 on the way. Would have been nice to have for this trip so I could bring some movies to watch. Hopefully, I’ll be busy enough in the evenings not to even notice.

Maybe, I’ll just use O.P.’s for the time being to get my fix…….

I’ll let you know how IMTS 2004 goes… From here or there……

September 3rd, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Doesn’t this picture just say it all!

Here’s Jason puffing on a Tamboril. I also brought some Cohiba’s ( a Red Dot and some Jibaritos), a CAO, a couple of Red Heads, and a couple of Bela Costa Vintage Reserves. We saved the cigars for around the campfire at night. Whilst we were puffing the kids were making s’mores.

This is our second year out with the kids. This year Sally’s brother Dennis came along and Jason joined us for the week also.

We all just hung out and played in the lake. Wednesday afternoon we headed over to the Midstate Fair in Paso Robles. Loaded the kids up on “Fair Food” (caramel apples, corn dogs, cotton candy, funnel cakes, you know, the basic food groups) and rides. Bought a pound of cotton candy to take back to camp.

Thursday we reserved a “deluxe” Pontoon boat for the day. Got up early and made breakfast and then broke camp. Loaded up the van and trailer (Sally thinks we look like the Beverly Hillbillies) and headed down to the marina to pick up our boat.

Had a blast tooling around the lake. Went back into the narrows and let the kids swim. At the end of the day we let of them take a turn at the helm. Yes, even the “mad boater” of Lake Nacimiento…..

A slide show of other vacation pics can be found here.

We’re already making plans for next year……

August 9th, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Alone at last, just me and Sally (O.K. and the dog Sunny).

The little guy moved out. O.K. so he’s not so little, but he’s our baby, even at 22. Moved across town.

O.K. sorta moved across town. How much stuff can you fit in a Hyundai. But it is official. He took his computer, then came back yesterday for his 5.1 surround sound. We outfitted him with a futon so we could keep his bed in the new “spare” room.

Even though there is still some of his stuff in the room, Sally is already moving in. Marking her turf. New bedspread, sheets, pillowcase. Paint and carpet is next…. New window dressing can’t be far behind. Ah, the fun stuff. NOT ! ! ! ! !

July 23rd, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Jason & Stacey came down for a visit with the g-kids, Kylie and Hayden..

They were taking the kids to the San Diego zoo and we are a convenient waypoint. They brought Micah (Meka, Meeka, sp?) their dog. Our dog Sunny is a tad bit territorial. Didn’t like another bitch on her turf at all.

Ever try to do a long distance business call with two dogs fighting in the background? Not very professional!

My niece (Nicole) and her kids (Lauren and Brandon) came over as did my S-I-L Kim with Kimmy.

I grilled some dogs (hotdogs you animal lovers, just hotdogs) and burgers. After it cooled down we sat out in the evening air. Jason and I enjoyed a COHIBA Jibarito cigar. We all visited and caught up while the kids explored the grounds with flashlights.

Took them all out to breakfast this morning, sent them on there way with a full stomach.

We have Micah staying with us until tomorrow. I now know how it must feel most of the time in the middle east. There is very tense peace in the house, currently.

No telling when all hell could break loose though……

July 21st, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment

Read where Linda Ronstadt was booted from the Alladin casino in Las Vegas. She apparently decided to dedicate Desperado (the song) to Michael Moore. Called him a patriot and and recommended people see his movie. It upset a large portion of the audience.

Unfortunately, they didn’t act very mature, at least some of them didn’t. My hat is off to those who simply went to the box office and asked for their money back. Shame on those who threw drinks and tore down posters. Kudos to management for having Ms. Ronstadt escorted off the premises.

Killed me watching the news.

Do you ever find yourself yelling at the morons the news reporters find to interview? Actually, I think they find quite a few intelligent ones and simply edit them out. Instead we find the touters of “free speech”.

’scuse me, this has nothing to do with free speech. Unless your job is to editorialize you have no business ’spressing your views on company time. Ms. Ronstadt was a paid performer, not a spokeshole for Michael Moore.

For goodness sake, we already know where her politics lie, she dated Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown.

July 20th, 2004 | Category: BlahBlahBlog | Leave a comment