| Hagerson Forge is no more |
[Jan. 12th, 2012|07:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  depressed | ] |
On Jan 7th, my beloved husband, Scott Jaqua, known in the SCA as Don Njall Olaf Hagerson, suffered a catastrophic heart attack & died in my arms on our living room floor. He did not go gently into that good night.To my sorrow, I will never again hear his booming voice or laugh at one of his jokes, nor feel his lips or his arms around me.
Do me a favor- if ever you feel poorly, do not hesitate to see a doctor. Do not tell your spouse that "I'll be fine". GO TO A DOCTOR, ER, WHATEVER, GO!
For that matter, go to your love, put your arms around them & tell them how much you love them every day. There may not be another day to do so. I will never be able to do so again.
In sorrow,
Sandra Jaqua
THL Allesaundra de Crosthwaite |
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| On teaching and the state of our public schools. |
[Dec. 7th, 2011|07:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  aggravated | ] |
This last three semesters I have worked as a substitute teacher. This Semester is the busiest I have ever been. I think I may have worked every day of education except for ten or so. I have worked every grade, K through 12. I am a second career educator with over thirty years in business consulting and management. So please take all this baggage into account as you read what I am about to write.
Many people have commented on the declining state of our public education. Many have blamed the teachers. This is particularly true of some of our more rabid conservative public figures. I believe this attack of spreading distrust of teachers is due in no small part to corporate America's attacks on Unions. For some of the strongest public employee unions are teachers unions. But it is also a case of playing the blame game. Because, politicians don't want to blame their own failed education policies.
It is far too easy to point to the number of in-class hours a teacher works and say they are overpaid. When in truth, most teachers are not even making a lower middle class wage. Many teachers families are poor enough that their own kids qualify for a reduced price, or free school lunch. This does not include the cost of supplies that teachers pay for out of their own pockets. Then there is the out of class time a teacher uses to grade papers and prepare lessons. Teachers take home their work, every day.
I have worked with these people for a year and half now. Teachers are not the problem. So perhaps we need to look at other causes.
While working at the local schools I have noticed a few things. What I notice more then anything is shortages. Teachers are buying supplies out of their own money, because the school doesn't have them! When you go to work at your office, do you bring your own paper? Do yo print your own forms? Do you use a company pen or pencil? Or how about all those post-it notes in the supply closet? Would you work for firm that made you supply the stationary and office materials you need to do a basic office job?
When I was school age, I recall schools having more supplies. Today there are not enough text books to go around the room in some cases. And in many cases there are not enough text books for kids to take home and study. The high school science labs have next to no equipment. And we wonder why science test scores are falling. In one lab I was in, the gas lines for the burners and water for the sinks didn't work. We spend money on football teams but not science labs.
In one brand new school I work in, there are no supplies. And yet there is yet another new school under construction. I'm not saying we don't need the school rooms. Or, that we do not have over crowding at other local area schools. Yes we need the new construction. But what good is a new school if we can't afford to supply it?
Our schools need help. Our teachers need our support. We need people in power to take a long view and not go for a quick fix. I know long range plans are not sexy. They will not get you re-elected. We need to get creative in financing our schools. We have to find the money somewhere.
If you don't' agree with me, that is your right. However, I would first challenge you to walk a mile in my shoes. In these economic times, many folks are not planning of long trips during vacation time. So instead, before you speak out against our schools or our teachers, take some of that wasted vacation time and spend a few days volunteering at your local school. See first hand how hard our teacher work. See the empty supply cabinets. see first hand what is really going on. Then make an informed decision.
The current state of affairs almost makes me want to run for office. But I don't belong to the right church or good old boys club to make it on the local school board. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Nov. 2nd, 2011|05:49 pm] |
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It appears I have been more then a little busy and more then a little depressed. About job and education prospects. Reason # 27 that you should hire Scott B. Jaqua for your firm. Inventory control: I know what LIFO and FIFO means and how to run an inventory system using either method. |
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| Why try? |
[Nov. 1st, 2011|11:59 pm] |
If you are over 50 and looking for work. Give up now. You will be unemployed or under employed for the rest of your life. Congress will take away everything you saved for in a program you have put into your entire working life. It will be one dead end, minimum wage, part time job after another for the rest of your days.
It does not matter if you can bring a project to completion. It does not matter that you can make technology sit up and beg. It does not matter how much experience you have. Who cares if you have people skills. No manager wants to hire someone that may know more about business then they do. If you are not young and/or sexy, forget it.
You can't go back to school. Because you can't afford it. No one can today. You need to be able to work 30 years or more to pay back student loans. As one writer said it's like having a mortgage with getting a house out of the deal.
I will need a miracle to get out from under this black cloud. I thought maybe I had one lined up. Everything looked hopeful for an amazing scholarship. But they didn't even have the decency after putting me through hoop after hoop to tell me I didn't get it. My wife had to go looking on-line for the results. I guess I should be happy over being a finalist. But I sure am not feeling it. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 25th, 2011|06:22 pm] |
Reason number 26 in my series of reasons that I should work for you.
To say I am handy is perhaps one of the understatements of the year. If I can not fix it, then it most likely requires special tools and can not be fixed in-house. Be it a computer, copier, printer, phone system or any sort of mechanical machine, I can fix it and probably have at some point. This goes back to my post about being flexible and never saying "that isn't my job". |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 23rd, 2011|11:14 am] |
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Reason number 25 in my 100 reasons to Hire Scott Jaqua in 100 work days (this was a working weekend after all) Sales Support; I can provide the technical support your sales people need to make the big sale. I excel at software demonstrations tailored to your clients industry. At One point I was named salesman of the year, because on a particularly long sales cycle, for a very large sale, I was there while salesman came a went.
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 19th, 2011|05:30 pm] |
Reason Number 24 in my 100 reasons to hire me.
I'm flexible, you will never hear me say, "that isn't my job". In this new economy, you want people that will step up and be flexible enough to get the job done. No matter what that job happens to be at the moment. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 18th, 2011|04:33 pm] |
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Reason 23 in 100 reasons to hire Scott Jaqua in 100 Work days. Inventory control; I know that the ABC analysis is run every 28 days, not monthly. And I know to adjust when we are lying to the computer about what the transaction date is. |
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| Free App Friday for Friday October 15th, 2011 |
[Oct. 15th, 2011|01:59 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I looks like I am day late. But with today's Free App Friday selection, I may avoid being a dollar short.
We all know that gas prices figure highly in any drive. Be it the daily commute or a long trip. And many of use have gone on line to find the cheapest gas or even report cheap gas found locally. But it is not so easy to do away from your computer on the small screen of your smart phone. Until, that is, you load Gas Buddy.
The Gas Buddy Mobile App runs on Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile phones. It is part of the same Gas Buddy system you can find on line at http://www.gasbuddy.com The application is available from Gas Buddy's web site, the Droid Marketplace or the iPhone App store.
The mobile application uses the GPS sensors in your phone to map out your location and find the reported gas prices closest to you. You can also report gas prices using the application. There are contests held for those that update prices. And rather then just post the lowest low grade gas price, you can select low grade, mid grand, premium and diesel fuel prices before you search.
The application can present the found gas prices as a millage sorted list, or in a map based format. This works for both your local commute or for long road trips. You can search gas prices ahead of you on the road and know that you are not going to have buyers regret two off ramps down the highway.
So this is one phone app that is better then free. It will save you money
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 14th, 2011|07:49 pm] |
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Reason 22 in my 100 reason series My Voice; I have the voice to get your message across. The voice of authority, the voice of reason, the voice of command. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 13th, 2011|05:07 pm] |
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Ok, it appears I missed a day in my 100 reasons to hire me in 100 work days. Let's just say I had an interesting few days of school :) So here is reason Number 21 to hire Scott B. Jaqua. I'm an artist. As an artist, I can help you sell your company image. I have the creative thought process, that allows me to solve a number of problems. And as both a left and brain brain thinker, I can bring both creativity and logic to the table. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 11th, 2011|06:34 pm] |
Number 20 in my series of 100 reason to hire Scott B. Jaqua in 100 work days. Project Management: Leadership. A good project manager, or any manager for that matter, is a good leader. I lead from the front and I lead by example. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 10th, 2011|11:37 pm] |
Number 19 in my 100 reasons to hire me in 100 work days.
I understand your business needs and your clients business needs.I have consulted all types of business and learned what makes them successful. So if it is not for profit, or distribution, service or manufacturing, I have worked in you and your clients industry. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 5th, 2011|12:00 pm] |
100 reasons to hire me in 100 work days will be taking a break. I will be traveling until Sunday and will return to this topic on Monday.
Now off to go pack. |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 4th, 2011|01:50 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
Reason Number 18 of my 100 reason to hire me in 100 work days. I am the king of presentations. Want to run a business/sales/educational seminar? I am the speaker you want. I am experienced in working with and without presentation software. I have experience as a television documentary expert. I have a powerful voice and rarely if ever, trip over words. I am comfortable in front of a microphone, camera or large crowds. I can present your firm's image in a very personal way. |
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| Free App Friday for Friday October 3rd, 2011 |
[Oct. 3rd, 2011|11:44 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
Ok, I know it's not Friday, I'm running a little behind. This coming Friday will be late as well, as I am traveling. Unless of course I'm inspired and post early (yeah, right!)
Today's free app is a tool and is available from the Android Market Place. The iPhone may have a similar app, but I am unaware of it.
Today's Free app is WiFi Analyzer. Now if you have a WiFi enabled device you most likely have some indicator of the signal strength. Much like the bars we all know and love for cell phone coverage. However WiFi Analyzer does more. In one graphical display it shows the available networks, the channel they are on and the signal strength. Change the view and you get a very sensitive signal meter for the selected network.
The settings menu allows you to turn on WiFi automatically, change the sample rate and show the securities. That makes this tool good for home or work. You can make sure your network is not overlapping channels with another nearby network. At a glance you can check security. With a shortest sample size you can move around looking for dead spots or hot spots.
If you want to diagnose WiFi issues this may be the tool for you. It is a very full featured. It is supported by ads, but they display at the bottom of the screen and are easy to ignore. All in all this is an excellent value for the money you did not spend.
Scott B. Jaqua |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Oct. 3rd, 2011|11:25 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cold | ] |
Reason Number 17, in 100 reason to Hire me in 100 days Support Agreements; Vendor support agreements are important to most businesses. Some portion of your business infrastructural is most likely outsourced. Because very few businesses can do it all in-house. I have managed support agreements from both side of the negotiating table. Both as the client and the outside vendor. |
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| So you say you want a Seax? |
[Oct. 2nd, 2011|12:28 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
Ok, folks for those that know me, this may come as a surprise, but for the last eleven years I have been really good. When folks come up to me at a show and ask for a Seax, I have not handed them a dagger, or a pen knife, or a folding knife. For you see, I could have and been absolutely correct. Seax, is the Old Norse word for knife. It's not a specific type of knife. But, rather the generic term for knife.
Now I have been tweaking the Custom Knife Maker Guild for years about Drop-Point Hunters. For you see the Viking invented that blade profile, not Bob Loveless. It was just another Seax, another knife shape.
More specific terms include Scramaseax and Langseax. The term Scramaseax, means food knife. It was a utensil, a tool, not a weapon. The weaponized knife is the Langseax. The term Langseax of course translates to Long Knife. That sounds like an old Wild Wild West episode, The Night of The Long Knives. The Langseax was a short sword length single edge weapon with an elongated Scramaseax profile. The handle was also the same basic form to the Scramaseax, rather then the shape of more well known type X Norse and Norman sword hilt.
So the next time you would like to ask a knife maker for a reproduction Migration Era blade, now you know some of the correct names.
Scott B, Jaqua
www.hagersonforge.com |
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Sep. 30th, 2011|05:30 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | quixotic | ] |
Reason Number 16 in my continuing series of, 100 Reasons to Hire me in 100 Work Days. Safety; Health and Safety is a big deal in all businesses. More so in manufacturing and distribution. But, all business deals with safety, It impacts ethics issues, legal issues and productivity. I have over twenty years experience as a safety officer for two major non-profit organizations. I inspected equipment, provided training and maintained crowd control.
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| 100 Reasons to Hire Me in 100 work days |
[Sep. 29th, 2011|04:13 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
Number 15 of 100 reasons to hire me.
Inventory Control: Bar Code and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) are the technologies you need to KNOW what is in your warehouse and on your shop floor. I have designed systems, implemented systems and trained users in the use of these systems to get a handle on quantity and location validation. I can use your system to it's highest potential or create a system if you do not already have one.
Scott B. Jaqua |
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