Professor Piccolo

One of the things I do from time to time is teach and I have figured out one of the best ways to do this with an intelligent crewman is simply to let him figure it out himself.

Generally when I do this it seats things in his head better than anything else I can do and it stays with the man.

I work with a lot of numbers and teaching a guy that has basic math skills can generally figure out what has to be done if he sits down and does things on paper Old School style.

It also makes my job a lot easier, too as all my job becomes is a matter of keeping things on track and supplying him with the necessary information.

This isn't a classroom situation. We're talking about on the job as things happen out here.

I have a friend that one time took a guy that didn't even know how to count and turned him into a pretty good hand once by going right down to one of the flat basics of life flat basics. He used the buck. The dollar bill.

His student, like everyone else, has sure figured out how the dollar bill works. It is divided into pennies and dimes, meaning it is set up on a decimal system. I wonder if I'd have thought that quickly and used the dollar as a training aid. It's a pretty good one.

Anyway, as I am writing this I am up early and with short sleep because I have to check up on my recent students. They didn't wake me to do something, they woke me to check their work and it looked good to me.

Most people do not know that oil is traded at 60 degrees farenheit. A barrel of oil is 42 US gallons at 60 degrees. Like just about everything else things expand with heat and contract in the cold and when you are talking about the volumes we deal with here the amount of tank space required to hold, say, 50,000 barrels of oil at 60 degrees can take up 51,500 barrels worth of space if the cargo is running hot enough. The same 50,000 at 60 degrees can also fit into a space that would be 49,000 if the product is cold enough.

We use factor tables to figure this out based on specific API gravity and temperature. It's pretty accurate.

Anyway, I am here trying to make sure the guys have it figured out all right and they do.

When I was teaching the pair of them I suppose I was probably too colorful for the public classroom. I looked at the pair and said, "Hold hands, you lovebirds. I am Piccolo the marriage counselor. You sit there, and you sit over there."

The younger one snickered and the older one blushed a bit. Usually it's the other way around. The younger one generally blushes.

"You're both going to figure this out seperately and then you're going to compare answers. You two are going to check each other."

Then the scribbling began and both of them sat down and started the tedious business of figuring a fairly complex load out. They had to, on paper, show me how they would mix three different oils together to make a final product.

It took a while but they both arrived with the same figures which is somewhat surprising because generally there is a discrepancy here and there due to rounding of decimals.

When I ran the numbers myself to check them they were good to go and right now they are out on deck freezing their asses off loading the compartments.

While I was teaching them how to do this the other day it was mildly surprising how fast they figured things out. I just gave them the basic amounts based on 60 degrees and a formula to work with and explained to them what they were doing and they figured it out pretty quickly on their own.

Generally with good people you have to tell them what they are trying to do and give them the tools to work with and they'll figure things out.

The lazy and stupid won't.

Then again, there are a lot of lazy people out there that will try and play stupid and when you force them you would be surprised to find out how smart they can be.

If the government would stop making things so easy for the lazy and stupid they would generally figure out a way to smarten up and take care of themselves like my guys do.

You reward success, not failure.

My guys are now out on deck being successful. They will be rewarded with a paycheck.

Failures do not get one.

Or didn't until the government stepped in and started rewarding failure which is another story.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html