Choice Mindsets

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”).

22 Jun Dreams Really Do Come True

Matt Hoying:
“He even doodles roundabouts.”

The “he” in question is transportation engineer Dane Sommer, and, yep, while learning about Traffic Control Measures, he doodled roundabouts. Like, for fun. And let’s be realistic—if Dane is doodling roundabouts, he probably dreams about them, too. The sign of a true engineer.

What else are Choice One’s engineers dreaming and doodling about? Traffic celebrity Craig Eley surely dreams nightly about flipping the “on” switch to activate a brand new traffic signal. We know they’re all dreaming about doughnuts. (Same shape as roundabouts: not a coincidence.) And, heck, Brian Schmidt can’t even get to sleep because he’s too excited to “Schmidty all over” a set of sanitary sewer plans he’s reviewing.

So if we assume Dane does, in fact, dream lovingly of roundabouts (and really, what self-respecting transportation engineer doesn’t?), what might his nightmares be? Long traffic queues at busy intersections? Malfunctioning vehicle detection? NO ROUNDABOUTS?! Let’s hope not. Not only would that be terrifying, we also need Dane to get plenty of rest. That way he stays attentive in seminars.

08 Jun Expansion Team

Matt Hoying:
“I don’t know what the big deal is. Choice One brought MLS to the Cincinnati area way before FC Cincinnati did.”

When Major League Soccer recently announced that a it was accepting FC Cincinnati as a new MLS expansion team, we were pretty confused as to why there was so much excitement. Choice One brought MLS to the Cincy area over a year ago. Major League Soccer… Michael Lewis Seeger… same thing, right?

Our use of initials in our day-to-day work is nothing new in our company or even our industry. But because we’re Choice One, it’s probably no surprise that we would associate certain strings of letters with certain people here at Choice One. For instance, engineer Casey Reichert (CCR) is now synonymous with Creedence Clearwater Revival. And how could we forget that Wes Goubeaux (WDG) is a Worthless Dumb Guy?

We guess that now Michael will be the equivalent of Major League Soccer for the rest of his engineering days. Makes sense though–we’re preeeeeetty sure his arrival as a project manager in Loveland trumped the fanfare generated by some measly major professional sports organization. It’s only fitting: Major League Soccer encompasses amazing feats of athleticism and a worldwide audience of passionate fans. Juuuuuust like Michael does.

25 May Royal Colors

Jeff Stewart, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Park District:
“The Queen most certainly owes Choice One royalties.”

If you got up early last Saturday to watch the Royal Wedding coverage at 4:30am (which is still probably later than Jeff Puthoff got up), you may have noticed, Like Jeff Stewart did, that a certain high-ranking wedding guest “borrowed” Choice One’s color scheme on an international stage. Talk about a royal scandal!

Although we lack scandals at Choice One, we do have some royalty. Kaye Borchers has been referred to as the “Survey Princess.” Michael Seeger was once the Shelby County Fair King. Brittany Clinehens was the Anna Homecoming Festival’s Queen. And, how could we forget that Matt Hoying is a royal pain in the…neck?

We can’t blame the Queen of England for choosing such a stylish color combination—we’re rather partial to it, of course. Perhaps we can even take a page from Her Majesty’s book and add a few more jewels and feathers to Choice One’s wardrobe (or at least encourage Michael and Brittany to wear their crowns on a daily basis). If nothing else, bling like Queen E.’s could cover up the place where Jeff’s sorely missed pockets used to be.