Lynn Electric

Top picture is Chuck standing in front of his office at Lynn Electric (LE) located in Lawrence, Kansas. Second picture is Chuck seated at his desk at Lynn Electric. Bottom picture is a picture of one of Chuck's current projects.

LE does primarily commercial work with some residential. Chuck's official title is "Project Manager". At any given time he is overseeing from 12-18 new light commercial or residential projects such as the huge 10,000-square foot house pictured above and all commercial/service calls received on already existing buidings. He really loves his job. But why wouldn't he! Just for a moment lets compare Chuck's job to my government job:

Chuck is provided with a 2006 F-150 crew cab truck for which the company even pays for his gas and tolls back and forth to work. I pay for and drive my own vehicle. Chuck parks right outside his office door. I have to pay to park in a parking garage about 1/4 of a mile away from my office and then walk in through rain and blizzards. Chuck's boss or vendors buy his lunch everyday. I usually brown bag it. Chuck gets gifts from vendors such as tickets to sporting events. Governmental ethics dictate I be fired should I accept anything free. Chuck is provided with a state-of-the-art blackberry/phone. The cord on the phone in my office is so short I can't even reach papers across my desk. Chuck has a company credit card with a huge limit. They lock up the extra pens in a cabinet where I work. I think you get the picture.....

My friend Marshall at work e-mailed me this test.

At the end of this message, you are asked a question. Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it. Just say the first thing that pops into your mind. This is a fun "test"... AND kind of spooky at the same time! Give it atry, then e-mail it around (including back to me) and you'll see how many people you know fall into the same percentage as you. Be sure to put in the subject line if you are among the 98% or the 2%. You'll understand what that means after you finish taking the "test." Now - just follow the instructions as quickly as possible. Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the previous one.. You do not ever need to write or remember the answers, just do it using your mind. You'll be surprised. Start:

How much is: 15 + 6

3 + 56


89 + 2


12 + 53



75 + 26


25 + 52


63 + 32


I know! Calculations are hard work, but it's! nearly over.. Come on, one more! ...


123 + 5

QUICK! THINK ABOUT A COLOR AND A TOOL!

Scroll further to the bottom.... just a bit more... You just thought about a red hammer , didn't you? If this is not your answer, you are among 2% of people who have adifferent,if not abnormal, mind.

Yes, I was in the 98% who thought "red hammer" and so was Chuck. My sister Angela thought "blue hammer" so she was almost there. Anyway, my investigative mind required I check out the test and here's basically what I have come up with. The math is just to distract you and the test has absoulely nothing to do with whether you have a normal or abnormal mind but rather is more about linguistics. In our mind, many of us use just one item to represent a large group of items. For anyone who's interested I believe it's called prototype theory. So apparently most of us use a hammer to represent tools at large and most use red to represent the word color at large. Interestingly, using red to represent all colors crosses most cultural boundaries. And even more interesting, I now call all squirrels, "Zippies".

Finally, my friend Mary e-mailed me a link to this website: www.globalrichlist.com. Check it out to see how rich you are compared to everyone else in the world.

As always, Chuck and I can be e-mailed at chogan2@cox.net. To view my blog archive, click on the chuckandnatalie's blog notation at the bottom of all the posts.