Choice Mindsets

14 Sep No Talkie Before Coffee

Nick Selhorst:
“First thing in the morning I only moo at people. I’m incapable of forming words at the start of the day.”

Not all of us can be morning people. Especially not engineer Nick Selhorst. And especially, ESPECIALLY not before his first cup of coffee.

Shall we observe other first-thing-in-the-morning habits of Choice Oners? Jeff Puthoff unlocks the doors at 4:59 am. Holly Fannon opens the blinds. Brian Barhorst turns on the ambient office music (1980s hairband rock, as of this writing). Brian Goubeaux tries to fit his lunch into the refrigerator. And Kecia Flaute does anything but moo—as our resident morning person, she greets everyone with an awfully cheerful “Good morning!” BEFORE she even has caffeine!

Don’t panic, with a little coffee and “friendly” prodding, Nick wakes up, forms real words, and gets his work day started. Add a few red Starbursts and perhaps a free doughnut, and you might even get a legitimate “good morning” from him. And if you still get a “moo,” at least be glad Nick’s awake enough to have made it out of his bathrobe.

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31 Aug Choosey Choice Oners Choose Green

Inquiring Mindsets want to know:
“How do you decide which of your green Choice One shirts to wear each day?”

	Nick Selhorst, Project Manager “The one with the least amount of random pen marks on it and least amount of coffee stains.” Have you not been using your Sippy-saurus Rex, Nick?
	Kyle Siegrist, Designer “I simply think, ‘Which one is Matt going to wear?’ and choose any other shirt.” Understandable. You don’t want to look like a nerd.
	Troy Niese, Project Engineer “All but two things in my closet are Choice One green, so I just reach in there while half asleep and pull whichever one comes out first. One of these days I might show up wearing a Detroit Lions jersey, and you’ll know that I was really tired while getting dressed.” And, Troy, you’ll owe us all lunch for not wearing green.
	Kecia Flaute, Graphic Designer “Will the office be cold or REALLY cold?” Mike G. asks himself the same thing every morning, Kecia.

17 Aug Power Up

Wes Wolters:
“Schmidty had a case of the Mondays and needed some caffeine.”

Hmmm, looks like it wasn’t a case of the Mondays that Schmidty had, but rather a case of the Mt. Dews*. Understandable—some days you just need a boost. And, apparently, some days you need a few cases of boosts.

We get why Schmidty is looking for a little extra energy. In addition to designing bridges, Brian “Schmidty” Schmidt manages utility projects like storm, water, and sanitary replacements. So without getting TOO graphic, spending his day watching a video and looking for problem areas inside of a sanitary sewer might make him, well, pooped.

Schmidty, we hope the case of Mt. Dew helped (not to mention that backup 12-pack of Big Red). We won’t judge your caffeine consumption as long as you continue to buy doughnuts for us (unlike He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named) and take us with you to Burger King. P.S., Orange Fanta is caffeine free—you don’t need to waste your time drinking that 12-pack next time.

*Is it a coincidence that Mt. Dew’s color scheme includes Choice One green? We think not.

03 Aug Aim High

Brittany Clinehens:
“We have two VERY happy, NEW Professional Engineers! They obviously did better on the exam than on this high five.”

Earlier this summer, Choice One’s Tyler Thobe and Luke Hemmelgarn passed their P.E. exams and became full-fledged, stamp-carrying, plan-signing Professional Engineers. While they obviously rocked the exam, they clearly fumbled on the celebratory high-five.

Now that Tyler and Luke have joined the ranks of P.E.s at Choice One, they get to enjoy what others at Choice One consider the best parts of being a P.E., such as…

• The joy of signing their names really fast and sloppy. (Ok, so maybe nothing’s changed there.)
• Friends thinking they have become Physical Education teachers, and therefore getting to debate the competitive nature of dodgeball, kickball, and teenage body odor.
• A legit reason to practice jumping high fives.

Welcome to the P.E. club, Tyler and Luke. May your pens always be blue (with pockets to put them in), may your calculator’s battery never die, and may you have better high-five aim in the future!

20 Jul Fair Game

Jeff Puthoff
“Do they really need to play their video games on the 80” TV?”

What kind of video game is Craig Eley hogging our 80” display for? Frogger? SimCity? Nope, it’s Synchro, the software our traffic engineers use to analyze, optimize, and simulate traffic.

If we were playing actual video games at Choice One, what might they be? Turns out we already experience a few quite frequently. Most of us here play a challenging game of refrigerator Tetris when trying to find room for our lunches. Jeff Puthoff wins the racing game Pole Position every morning since he arrives first by at least 5:00am. If Megan’s around, looking for a hug, you know it’s time to boot up Space Invaders. And we do have the Super Thobe Brothers (albeit Mitch and Tyler instead of Mario and Luigi). We don’t know about the “super” part, but they’re brothers, so it fits the theme.

While Synchro isn’t technically a video game, rest assured, our traffic engineers get just as giddy over traffic simulations as if they were playing a video game. With that in mind, we’ll let Craig have his time on the 80” screen. Plus we know the real reason he’s using the 80” screen: he’s getting a little older and can’t see anything smaller!

06 Jul All American

Kyle Siegrist:
“I think Choice One needs a nice red, white, and blue shirt (with a little bit of green in there somewhere of course)!”

When asked what they enjoy most about the Independence Day, Choice Oners had a few answers you might expect. Most of us enjoy fireworks and had fun with sparklers as kids. Several of us enjoy camping or grilling out accompanied by a few cold beverages. Kyle clearly loves all the red, white, and blue. And ever the jokester, Matt said that his favorite part of Independence Day is “when the crazy crop-duster pilot saves the world.”

Choice One has formerly considered your request, Kyle, and despite our boundless patriotism, the answer is no. Frankly, we’re a little offended you didn’t ask for a green or purple cast to go with your awesome eagle shirt. We certainly love red, white, and blue, but we’re kind of hooked on this green thing we have going on (and not just a “little bit”).