I12, SB30, 2/13/2024

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Cyan's Ebay Store

Cyan Co., Inc.


505 Walnut Street

Weatherford, OK, 73096

Phone: (580) 302 - 6541

Email: cyan@cyanok.com

Website: www.cyanok.com

My New Website

Welcome to my revamped website.  As you can see, I'm changing it over from what it's been for the last 20 years, which was a home for my small electronics company, Cyan Co. Inc.  I'll now be using it as a base for my new endeavor – storytelling.

After college at SWOSU (Southwestern Oklahoma State University), I spent 8 years in aircraft avionics with the US Marines, then 8 more years in industrial electronics with 3M Co., followed by 19 more years with Cyan Co, Inc. in Weatherford, Oklahoma.  During those 19 years at Cyan, I repaired over 8,500 total items (yes, I counted them), on things as small as a hearing aid to as large as a helicopter.  At Cyan, we liked to tell people we'd repair anything with a transistor in it.   And we did.

During that time, we also designed, built and sold, a fair, albeit limited amount of equipment of our own design and manufacture, including some that we sold to 3M, several national labs, the military, and overseas.  And, oh, yeh, we produced a fair amount of software too.  (That would have been in the 80s and 90s.)  I'll bet I was the first, and at the time, maybe the only, independent developer in Oklahoma who sold software products to the entities listed above.  But, unlike Bill Gates, my income was closer to that of, say, Fred Flintstone.

After my life-changing heart operation in 2004, I kept Cyan's name and structure, but receded into being a lone, glorified, part-time consultant, engineer, technician, journeyman – call it what you will – but you could boil these labels down to the one I like best, 'repairman'. 

Mostly, I fixed things such as computers, printers, and industrial manufacturing equipment.  I specialized in pharmacy equipment.  Given that in our area, there are many more large pharmacies than you might think:  on the three huge and one small military bases, the multitude of Indian Health centers, and more than a handful of large/busy commercial pharmacies in western Oklahoma and northern Texas – the likes of which are populated by the massive, expensive robotic script-filling pharmacy equipment of the type we're talking about here,   (Didn't know that, did you?)

Starting in about 2006 to 2021, I worked into nearby parts of Texas and Kansas, rarely into eastern Oklahoma but throughout all of western Oklahoma - think only once or twice did I ever journey east of I35 on work of any kind.

If I were to put a pin in a map of western Oklahoma on every business in which I worked, some of the town names would be obliterated.  I drove almost every road and backroad there is in western Oklahoma, and multiple times.  That kind of work is very unique, very enjoyable and rewarding.  But it is also, more often than not, extremely, punishingly, stressful. 

Both the good and the bad sides of this coin result from some of the same sources.  The good from the nature of the work itself with the end result a reward for a job well done;  and more good springs from finding that about 95% of the people for whom you work are absolutely great.  And, yes, that includes the Texans – in fact, especially the Texans.  (I got to where I really enjoyed going into Texas.) 

The bad side of the coin also sprang partially from the nature of the work.  The need for their business to be immediately up and running seemed to generate an urgent demand which was often shrilly expressed before I'd even had a chance to open my toolbox.

Even under these pressures the vast majority, about 75%, of the business people I worked for, were great.  Of the remainder, about 20% were in the middle.  But there is and always will be, the other 5%, those few men and women who think it their job on earth to man the gates of hell.  Those dastardly few try to make the lives of everyone with whom they come into contact just as miserable as they are.

Yes, those people and companies do exist, in the ratio of about one out of twenty.  So, believe it or not, hear me now and believe me later, the ethical decency of both small and, especially, multi billion-dollar businesses, vary along those same lines – all the way from the great to the morally bankrupt.  (A little side note here: most people seem to have some sort of built-in bias as to whether it's the small or large companies that are more inclined toward the character defects we're talking about here.  You can throw those ideas away – it's about the same.)

But if you're curious at all about how the devilish parts of our modern society are manifested in this world, the best is yet to come.  That's because you'll have me right here to tell you all about it.  And I will.

You see, I feel like it would be remiss of me not to let you in on the good ways of the great people in our area.  Likewise, I'll share with you on the flip side of the coin, the bad companies and their low-down deeds.  I've had them do it to me, and I've seen it done to others;  I'll be more than happy to share with you some of those experiences in my future storytelling.

Getting Started

So this will be the new home of Wendell's storyboard.  As of now, the storyboard is directly below this page; but I might move it in the future.  Most of the stories will be short — one, two, or several pages.  Then I'll be adding more and more stories as we go along.

In case you're wondering,  "Are all of your stories going to be about your last decade of work?"  The answer is "Gosh, no."  Why would it be?  I've had a long, eventful life, and there's lots of stuff I want to write about.

Or, if you've peeked ahead, down to the storyboard, you may be wondering,  "Are all of your stories going to be about your childhood?"  Again, the answer is "No."  It just seemed to me to make sense to start where and when I myself started.  So that's what I did.  And, I have an obligation to the Moores.

In the near future, I'll add a few pages below the storyboard with general headings such as "Why I'm Writing Stories",  "Things I'll be Writing About" (which is just about everything), and so on.  But for now, I'm anxious to get this storytelling show on the road;  I'm going to try to start adding stories at an accelerating pace.  However, I do have a few more housekeeping type chores to do in order to make all this work – such as the mailing list(s) — because, of course, there's no reason to write stories if no one reads them.

Today is November 10, 2023, the 248th birthday of my US Marine Corp.  I've been real slow in my writing the last two or three years, but I'm [again] setting a goal of finishing the Dwight Moore story near the beginning of next year, and then at least 5 to 15, or more stories by the end of 2024. 

A forewarning – there'll be many new stories with surprisingly different tones, slants, and topics.  But for now, let's just leave some of those future stories with the preemptive titles of "Who Knows What?"

Also, many of you, probably even most, are not going to like much of what I have to say — but isn't that the point?  Wouldn't it be boring if we all agreed, all the time?  If that were the case, we wouldn't need our great first amendment, would we?  Besides, I think I have a reasonably thick skin.  What's more, keep in mind that people my age are growing very old now, and before you know it, we're all going to die.

Using the Storyboard

As you can see below, I've designed the storyboard to be very simple. The top two rows are the title and header bars.  All the other rows show stories that were written by me (green), or someone else (yellow).

To go see a story, click your mouse on its title link, (which is blue and underlined) in the 'A' column on the far left side of the board.

[It seems to work best if you give the title one quick click and then just wait – the story should show on your screen in a few seconds.]

Note:  The 'A' column lists the stories in the random order in which they were written.  We're going to keep them in that order, so that the numbers along the left will be our reference to the story itself — e.g., "Trek Across Moore" will always be story number 3.

Stories in red are stories 'not quite ready'.  At any given time, there may or not be any of these red stories showing on the board. Theses red stories are a little awkward:  Soon, I'm going to set them so that they return you to the storyboard.   But right now, I think they just generate an error (so then you'll have to go back).

And, please be aware of the vertical slider on the right side, and the horizontal slider on the bottom.  Use them, along with your mouse and keyboard arrows to move around the screens.   If you have any problems, please give me a call.

Please, if you see anything in a story (or anywhere else on my website) that is blue, or brightly colored, or underlined, or all the above – e.g., the storyboard titles, be suspicious that it is a link, and click it.   It's likely to be an article, photo, youtube video, or a related news story.   If in doubt, "Click It" (you wouldn't want to miss it).

Little Russian Girl Sings Beatle's Darling

Once a video starts, you'll have to read what it's telling you, things like 'skip ad', etc.   Also, please note that for most videos, you have to click on a "Skip Ads" banner to start the video.   After the video plays, use the "X" in the upper right corner of the screen to return to the Storyboard.