As many of you know I passed up on a job that was well…great pay but not very rewarding…bring an Electrical Inspector for a large city is simply something after looking at it…simply did not appeal to me.
However, It would have also caused a problem with my plans for 2008 which included new video series and so on…BUT many of you are not aware of something else I have been doing and if you have kids you may get a kick out of it…
As an educator I spend alot of time teaching adults the electrical code and answering electrical questions around the country for companies like Eaton® and so on as well as many municipal inspectors…BUT what about the kids…
Over the past 6 months I have done a program in local schools teaching kids about electricity, how to be safe and leave things to mom and dad and simply to help them understand this amazing thing we call Electricity…not just why their playstation works when we plug it into the wall…but why it works when we plug it into the wall…
Anyway about 6 months ago I shot a little video myself…it is crappy and short but it was funny to me…since then I along with my wife started shooting a series for kids that goes along with my doing it in schools…and I had a funny moment on one video I felt I would share…Keep in mind in the series I wont be doing the voice…lol…it will be someone behind the scenes working the puppet and voice interacting with me…but this was a funny outtake I did while doing a bathroom break…
Now…dont think I am insane…I share this with you because I think so much of you guys and well I like to keep you all posted about the things I am working on…KIDS are being left out when it comes to learning about this wonderful thing called Electricity…no code…just fun for the kids…
My hope is to bring it to schools all around the country…by first offering them a free version of the video series hopefully in early 2008…depends on the projects…also this was shot with my little pocket camara…so remember it is not anything to represent the final version…just me playing around as I took a break…you can tease me Stephen…I can laugh at myself just as much as anyone else…I am a KID at heart…
Ok…now I am having COLD feet about playing this video for you…lol…yes it is me and a puppet…I can laugh at myself, amuse my child and enjoy life but their is always someone who will be nasty about things…lol…like I really care but…yes, I am having second thoughts about posting this little outtake…
OMG…that video is sad…lol…my goal is to remove it before Stephen see’s it…I can hear him now…hey relax…none of you pay me for my advice so laugh with me…lol…its a series for kids…lol
lol…like i said it was just me playing using a little cheap portable cam…the real series has someone else doing the puppet…cracking on me…making fun of me as I teach kids…and so on…nothing overly technical but they will learn alot and laugh alot…I love the sound of children’s laughter…
1.) we teach the kids about electricity, the basic FUN roots of electricity and how it works and why it works. We also show a presentation of examples at the same time on a big screen…
2.) I teach it and " Sparky " chats with me and the kids…asking me funny questions only KIDS would ask…( I have a person behind a table doing this and working Sparky )…
3.) we teach about hazards around the house and that they can be little " Sparkies" and tell their parents about things they see…and so on…
4.) We make them honary “sparkies” and they are the eyes for parents and they learn about the things around the house…they learn many things about electrical safety as it pertains to cords, plugs and so on…yeah about how it can kill also…setting the foundation of safety so if one childs life is saved from electricution my job has been worth it…
5.) These events will be FREE…I am funding them all…with my own money for the schools and so on…usually while I am doing normal seminars out around the country I will work these in as well…
6.) Its all about the children…just figured you all would get a kick out of seeing things I am trying to do on my own…sad to say I am not good at writing a book…and so on…so this is just another way I can give back to the profession I love…
Those that find it non-interesting…sorry I did not mean to take up your time. I like to let everyone in my extended family know about things I have in the works…and NACHI is my family ( as long as NICK allows me here…
BTW…I have done the program in 3 schools and they LOVED it…asked me back again next year and made statements that they think it should be done in every school…not technical…but enjoyable and the kids do learn alot in fact they probably know more about electricity than their parents at this point…my glorious little sparkies…
I don’t blame you for not taking the muni inspector job. I passed it up twice here, once as a contractor and once as a county employee. I never believed I would have the time to do a decent job. They were walking out the door with 30-40 tickets on a busy day. You can’t do much more than drive by and spit in the parking lot with that many spread across a county.
They had a plumbing inspector who would just drop a yellow card in the box and say “fix that thing you were trying to hide and call me tomorrow”.
I thought things must be better now but I hear they just laid off all the inspectors and the administrators are still carrying a big workload.
I just had to clean up a mess at my wife’s place that the inspector totally missed. He never looked at the trim out on the final. My wife showed up with the key to the locked door just as he was signing it off and he said he didn’t need to see inside. The EC had not installed the required GFCIs in the bathrooms and outside. To make it worse the outdoor icemaker had a broken ground pin on the plug. That was the exact scenario that got the “vending machine” article in the NEC.
They informed me that the inspectors have 15 minutes to inspect the job and that was it. As a consultant I have access to alot of info as well as my own MIND in regards to electrical issues…just dont like the idea of 15 minute inspections on such big issues…just not for me.
Now I do fill in for a small county around here but it is relaxed, I am allowed to do my thing and take my time and get it done…when they need the assistance but the county is a bit away so I dont do it often anymore as they hired a nice young man to handle that now…
Just have so many things I want to do…so little time…for me it is not about the money anymore…its about having fun, changing lives and trying to teach as many people I can while learning stuff myself…that just was not the JOB i wanted…
Boy am I glad that I downloaded this to my hard drive. Now I can Post the “old man” all over the place.
The “old man” is an inside joke on Paul from another site. I think that he said over there that he was still wearing diapers back in “72 but if you look at all that white hair it would make you think that he was also wearing them diapers while he was doing his apprenticeship with Edison. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
lol…OMG…I did not even THINK about if another electrical educator got a hold of this…thank GOD mike loves me anyway otherwise he could make this QUITE embarassing for me.