Choice Mindsets

Recognize the instrument in the photo above? Neither did our newest AutoCAD technician and 2022 high school graduate Aiden Helman. It’s a design relic from the 1990s, long before Aiden was born: an AutoCAD SummaSketch III Digitizing Graphical Drawing Board (you can learn the history/see one in action in this video).

Now that the technical details of this Mindset are out of the way, we can get to the point: that only Brian “Barney” Barhorst had and used this device. Other Choice One designers of the 1990s, including Goub, were not “allowed” to get one. It’s kind of like how Matt Hoying is never “allowed” to get a perfect score for his opinions, or how Dane isn’t “allowed” to answer the phone anymore.

Despite never seeing a Summasketch, Aiden was able to quickly guess what the contraption was, and appreciated learning the history of his craft. Don’t worry Aiden, despite Goub’s disappointment towards never getting a Summasketch, Choice One has improved over the years, and we’ll be sure to provide you with the best tools for design efficiency. Before long, you’ll be designing circles around those old geezers Barney and Goub, no SummaSketch required!

No, the server isn’t down, nor is the electric out (it’s clearly plenty bright in the photo thanks to all of our new lighting). It’s just Dane, trying to make a complicated putt from one end of the office to the other during another Choice One sports-related challenge.

We promise we don’t play games all day. Our engineering gets done first, but our random games do serve a purpose. If not for Choice One games, how would we know who the coolest person at Choice One is? Or who the best pop-a-shot player is? Or which person loves roundabouts the most? Indeed, these are the activities that get us moving, laughing, and maybe, just maybe provide the material needed to give each other a hard time.

It was sports lover Kyle Siegrist who won the putt-putt challenge that sent Dane under a desk. Dane, you certainly win a few points for putting style, at least. Next time, just raise that desk up to get a better angle on your shot. Perhaps Kyle will share his winning ways by showing you how to raise a desk to standing height.

Are you sitting down? If not, you might want to. Right now, before you read this next sentence. Jeff Kunk bought doughnuts. We know, we’re starting to look for signs of the apocalypse too (it did just snow a couple of inches this late April week in west-central Ohio, so…).

The occasion? Jeff won a Master’s Golf Tournament pool we had running at our offices. (You’ve heard us lament about the woes of winning things around here.) Jeff could have snuck away with his winnings, but instead, after 27 years of avoidance, he ponied up and treated both Loveland and Sidney to some freshly made pastry treats.

You’re probably wondering if these Mindsets will cease now that our overly-redundant story thread has been resolved. Fear not—we have something new to tease Jeff about for the next 27 years: he only bought two dozen doughnuts for 40 people in the Sidney office, so a good 15 didn’t get a doughnut. Keep trying, Jeff—we’ll cut you some slack someday.