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	<title>Ben's Weblog &#187; Big News</title>
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	<description>I hate Illinois Nazis...</description>
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		<title>New job&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2007/06/182/</link>
		<comments>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2007/06/182/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:29:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Big News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2007/06/182/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, now I can let the cat out of the bag. Effective in a couple of weeks, I&#8217;ll have a new job at Kraft &#8211; I&#8217;ll be working as a Program Leader in our &#8220;Lean Manufacturing&#8221; group. In plain English, my job will be work with our production sites to improve the efficiency of their [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, now I can let the cat out of the bag.  Effective in a couple of weeks, I&#8217;ll have a new job at Kraft &#8211; I&#8217;ll be working as a Program Leader in our &#8220;Lean Manufacturing&#8221; group.  In plain English, my job will be work with our production sites to improve the efficiency of their people and equipment, using a lot of different best practices from multiple manufacturing industries (most of the ideas come from Toyota, but we&#8217;ll shamelessly adapt good ideas from anyone). </p>
<p>I&#8217;m looking forward to this change &#8211; it&#8217;s a big step up in responsibility, the work is the kind of thing I already enjoy doing, and I&#8217;ll get to travel to a lot of places (in theory, anywhere in the world that Kraft has a plant).  I&#8217;ve been looking around for a new position over the past few months as my <a href="http://www.tassimo.com">Tassimo</a> work has been wrapping up, and this job just seemed like a great thing to do.  Now I&#8217;ll be in a job that has basically nothing to do with my degree&#8230;but it&#8217;s not like milk and petrochemicals had a lot of overlap anyhow.</p>
<p>As a random aside, all of a sudden, it seems like a huge chunk of my high school graduating class has been linking up over on Facebook.  I was originally thinking that I&#8217;d blow off the 10-year reunion, but now I want to catch up with everyone from EHS&#8230;</p>
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		<title>Another new kitten&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/06/148/</link>
		<comments>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/06/148/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jun 2005 02:54:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Big News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The usual stuff...]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/06/148/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After a couple of years, we decided to add another kitten to the house. Pictures of Molly can be found over in the photo galleries.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>After a couple of years, we decided to add another kitten to the house.  </p>
<p>Pictures of Molly can be found over in the <a href="/gallery2">photo galleries</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Sorry&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2004/11/128/</link>
		<comments>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2004/11/128/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2004 01:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Big News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The House]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The usual stuff...]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2004/11/128/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yes, I know, it&#8217;s been a while since I posted here. It&#8217;s been a combination of things: I had some problems with WordPress (the software that runs this blog) that kept me from logging in to make new posts. That&#8217;s all fixed now, though. Work&#8217;s been pretty busy as of late. We&#8217;ve been getting a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yes, I know, it&#8217;s been a while since I posted here.  It&#8217;s been a combination of things:</p>
<ul>
<li>I had some problems with WordPress (the software that runs this blog) that kept me from logging in to make new posts.  That&#8217;s all fixed now, though.</li>
<li>Work&#8217;s been pretty busy as of late.</li>
<li>We&#8217;ve been getting a lot done around the house.  We just painted the master bedroom this week.</li>
<li>Marcie and I got married!  See the pictures over at <a href="/gallery2/">my photo gallery</a>.  Credit for these photos goes to several of our wedding guests, most particularly Marcie&#8217;s aunt Julie.  If you&#8217;ve got some, send me an e-mail at ben (at) ben-johnson.org and I&#8217;ll put them up!</li>
<li>Planning the honeymoon.  We&#8217;ll be in Australia for 2 weeks.  Lots of pictures to come after that!</li>
</ul>
<p>So, that&#8217;s what&#8217;s been new lately.  Once we&#8217;re back from the honeymoon I&#8217;ll start posting a little more&#8230;really, I promise!</p>
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		<title>Wedding web page</title>
		<link>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2004/01/86/</link>
		<comments>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2004/01/86/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Jan 2004 22:08:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Big News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2004/01/86/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Marcie and I now have a wedding web page. Go check it out at www.benandmarcie.org!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Marcie and I now have a wedding web page.  Go check it out at <a href="http://www.benandmarcie.org">www.benandmarcie.org</a>!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>We&#8217;re engaged!</title>
		<link>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2003/12/80/</link>
		<comments>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2003/12/80/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2003 23:32:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Big News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2003/12/80/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I popped the big question to Marcie on Saturday while I was down in Memphis&#8230; My master plan: A rather nice room at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis Decorate the room with candles, roses, rose petals&#8230;the whole nine yards Take a knee and ask the big question&#8230;and she said yes! Here&#8217;s a couple shots [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I popped the big question to Marcie on Saturday while I was down in Memphis&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ben-johnson.org/DSCN1553-SMALL.jpg"><img src="http://www.ben-johnson.org/DSCN1553-SMALL.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="265" alt="Ring picture #1" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ben-johnson.org/DSCN1554-small.jpg"><img src="http://www.ben-johnson.org/DSCN1554-small.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="639" alt="Ring picture #2" /></a></p>
<p><span id="more-80"></span></p>
<p>My master plan:</p>
<ul>
<li>A rather nice room at the <a href="http://www.peabodyhotel.com">Peabody Hotel</a> in downtown Memphis</li>
<li>Decorate the room with candles, roses, rose petals&#8230;the whole nine yards</li>
<li>Take a knee and ask the big question&#8230;and she said yes! <img src='http://ben-johnson.org/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
</ul>
<p>Here&#8217;s a couple shots of Marcie and I at the Peabody:<br />
<a href="/blog-images/CIMG0153_th.jpg"><img src="/blog-images/CIMG0153_th.jpg" border="0" height="400" width="300" alt="Us at the fountain" /></a></p>
<p><a href="/blog-images/CIMG0154_th.jpg"><img src="/blog-images/CIMG0154_th.jpg" border="0" height="400" width="300" alt="Marcie at the fountain" /></a></p>
<p>Marcie is wonderful&#8230;not only did she say yes  <img src='http://ben-johnson.org/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  , she even got me a little something I wanted &#8211; a pair of <a href="http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&#038;subTopicID=26&#038;productID=0020080600">Sennheiser HD-600 headphones</a>.  It&#8217;s a completely frivolous thing to want, I know&#8230;but she got them for me. </p>
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		<title>Who is this Ben Johnson character, anyhow?</title>
		<link>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2003/05/81/</link>
		<comments>http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2003/05/81/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 31 May 2003 23:52:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Big News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2003/05/81/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, you stumbled across this site from Google, clicking on my signature on a forum somewhere, or something like that. Maybe you&#8217;re wondering to yourself, &#8220;Who is this Ben Johnson guy?&#8221; Well, your question is about to be answered&#8230; I&#8217;m a guy in my mid-20s who&#8217;s currently living in the northwest Chicago suburbs. Why am [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, you stumbled across this site from Google, clicking on my signature on a forum somewhere, or something like that.  Maybe you&#8217;re wondering to yourself, &#8220;Who is this Ben Johnson guy?&#8221;  Well, your question is about to be answered&#8230;</p>
<p>I&#8217;m a guy in my mid-20s who&#8217;s currently living in the northwest Chicago suburbs.  Why am I here?  I work for <a href="http://www.kraftfoods.com">Kraft Foods</a> doing research and development work on cream cheese.  Basically, I work on developing new cream cheese-based products and improving the existing Philly cream cheese line.  Originally, I&#8217;m a native of downstate Illinois, more specifically the metro St. Louis area.  I&#8217;ve also lived in upstate New York for a brief period in 2003-2004.</p>
<p>Some other useful tidbits to know about me:</p>
<ul>
<li>I <em>am not</em> related to the <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0109318.html">notorious Canadian sprinter</a> or the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424565/">Western actor</a></li>
<li>I went to the <a href="http://www.uiuc.edu">University of Illinois</a> and got a BS in Chemical Engineering</li>
<li>Other stuff I enjoy&#8230;computers (hence a website like this), listening to music, and all manner of gadgets (as Marcie will attest to)</li>
</ul>
<p><em>last updated 2004-08-25</em></p>
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