I don't know how interesting today will be, but I'm goiong to try to do a "day in the life" entry about my day today. I realize nobody will grok (HA!) what I'm talking about regarding my job, but a work day will be much more interesting than "I sat & watched tv for hours..."
Woke up this morning to a cold house again. Threw on some sweats & made a pot of coffee, then got online to check email. Nothing much of interest, other than a couple of "profile hits" on one of my anonymous dating profiles, neither of which were worth the time it took to check them out. Got dressed & headed out the door. Wasn't until I got to the car that I realized I'd forgotten my damn phone (again - left it home yesterday!) so I had to go back & get it. Stopped at McD0nald's to grab my usual breakfast to take to work ( can't wait until I have a freakin' kitchen again). Parking lot at work was full again this morning, but I lucked out & found a spot in the front lot, so I didn't have to walk all the way from the back lot. (It's not that far, it just annoys me!)
Got in to work, logged onto my computer & went to check the status of a fixture repair I'd requested on Tuesday. Shims were made, but they haven't been drilled or attached yet, so I'm going to have to wait until 2nd shift gets in for the tool guy to complete it. That means one more day that I've had to put off this project - for some unknown reason, the designers decided (back in Feb. 2009!) to change the height of the mounting posts on one of our cooling bottles, but failed to let me know. I went to run a PPAP layout we need to submit to our customer for a material change we're doing, and found that the part wasn't sitting level, and the machine couldn't find the features it was supposed to be measuring! It's really irritating when I expect a project to take me no more than a couple hours, but it runs into 2-3 days because nobody knows how to communicate in this company!
Anyway, I came back to my comp. & fired up my media player ( I just can't work in silence, so I play music every day) and ate my breakfast. Today felt a little mellow, so I picked an appropriate playlist (quite the range of artists in this one - Devo, Evanescence, Hootie & the Blowfish, Leonard Cohen, Ozzy, Puddle of Mudd, Motorhead, The Ramones, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Smithereens, Seal, The Cure...too many more to list!) and logged on to my other machine to check the status of the calibration system. Sent out the calibration list for the Test Engineering department, as they take care of their own stuff, then printed off a complete list for myself. Only 1.5 pages, so it's manageable. Went to grab my highlighter to start organizing my calibration tasks for the day & realized it's missing (again!). Man, I wish these idiots would stop taking my shit! Had to walk all the way up to the front of the plant to find another one...
Just before I left my desk to find a highlighter, I got an email about authorizing a purchase order for a repair on one of our 5000# deck scales. Turns out, it was charged to the wrong order number, so I had to track down the original information, then call the servicing company to verify the purpose of the invoice. After talking with the AP gal I found out that there was a mixup between two similarly priced invoices, so I had to make a few phone calls to figure out what was what. Sent an email back to accounts payable to approve one invoice & hold the other until Monday, when I should be getting a call to clarify the other. After verifying that the repair work had been completed, I had to send an email arranging to have steel guards placed around the new scale location to prevent further damage, as the production crew (forklift drivers) have damaged this scale four times in the last 3 months. Sometimes, I think people in this company just enjoy throwing money away! *shakes head*
...As I was returning to my desk after talking with the AP gal, I got a phone call from the independent contractor I last talked to about installing a furnace for me. I'd already decided I was going to have him do the work, but I hadn't called him back to let him know yet, as I wanted to wait until I'd actually received the units from the online store. Apparently, my procrastination is starting to be of benefit to me - it got me the price I wanted on the old motorcycle I sold earlier, and it got me a discount on his quoted price! he called to tell me he really was interested in doing the work for me, and that his son had recently lost his job, so he'd be willing to knock a $200 off his quote if I'd be ok with his son running some of the duct work (he said he'd still be responsible for all of the electric/natural gas hookups and charging up the a/c unit, etc.). I told him I that would be fine, and that I'd call him when the equipment came in. He was happy to hear that! So as it turns out, by buying the units myself, I'm going to be saving an extra $2000 beyond the lowest quote I'd received. After adding in the online discount "coupon" I found, and with his $200 off, I'll be getting this whole thing done for less than $5000! (Next lowest quote was $7200+.) That's got me excited, because I have the cash to pay that off now, and still can get all of my appliances within the next couplefew weeks too!
So anwyay, next on the list - scanning durometer certifications to attach to the calibration forms in the tracking software, then creating new calibration stickers for the gauges. Finished going through my due gauges list and counted 29 gauges I need to have done this month, twelve of which are either overdue, or due by tomorrow! Guess what I'll be doing for the next few days!? lol
Got a call from one of the test engineers, asking if I'd found out whether we can charge our time to an internal customer, as the testing department always cahrges our Mexico affiliate for any testing they do for them. I hadn't had a chance to talk with my boss about it, so I had to walk back to the front offices to see if I could locate him. Unfortunately, it was lunchtime, and *everyone* was gone. Told the engineer that he could either just skip our part of the costing, or wait until I could locate my boss. He said he could wait a bit, so after I get back from break, I've got to track him down & see what we can figure out for this. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to get to those calibrations I need to get done! Ok, lunch time!
...
Got back from lunch & found my boss (eventually) - at first he was against the idea of us even doing the measurements for Mexico, but after some discussion, I convinced him we could do it if we outsourced it. The test engineer I need to speak with is still in a meeting, so I haven't been able to finalize this yet. Shit. I just remembered that, on top of the gauges I need to calibrate, I have 10-15 other parts I have to measure, none of which has a program written for it. I just checked the schedule, and they're all due today. Oh. Joy.
Just spent 30 minutes having a technical discussion about a new software package my coworker is trying to have "commisioned", the issues the "selling" company is having with the data output and the methodology of same. It was actually pretty interesting - typical data inversion for a "white-light" scanned part (which is essentially, stereo photogrammetry) takes the deviation vector of the scanned points from the nominal CAD model, inverts the vector, and applies a -1 distance to it, thus reversing the location of the point in order to cut windage into the new tooling to correct for part warp of the plastic part. This new software is taking the opposite approach, by warping the 3D CAD space in order to force the CAD model to fit the scan data. This ensures that if there's a lack of data in the scanned piece, the software can still extrapolate where the inverted points should be, giving us a full windage model. We joked about how large the black hole needed to be to account for the necessary warpage of "space-time" to make the CAD fit the part, how many "solar masses" needed to be located around it, etc... It was pretty funny! (Ok, funny if you're a science-y dork like me!) I joked about how we would send the reports out with a statement that in order to understand them, they would need to be explained by Stephen Hawking, or Michio Kaku! Yeah, I know... I'll shut up now. :-P
Just had a couple of people from one of our German sites stop in to the lab for a quick overview - it's funny... Every time I meet a german, I'm reminded how much I want to go there again! Wish I could go now. Dream on, sucker!!
Not much else happened at work tonight; just got home, turned on the tv & started up my computer. (NCIS marathon - YaY!! See, this is why I never get anything done...) Also turned on the heater in the bathroom, cuz I feel like taking a bath, since I finally have a tub in which I fit comfortably! I got another notice from that dating site, but so far, nobody's really blown me away, so... meh. I need to find out what's going on tonight, see if there are any shows anywhere. Gonna make some coffee, check the rest of my websites, and get cleaned up to go out. I'm hoping three things - 1) that I find something fun to do tonight, 2) that I get a chance or two to flirt a bit, 3) I remember enough of tonight to update what went on, when I get home.
Oh! And I found an article about Dr Conan T. Barbarian, B.A.(Cimmeria) Ph.D. (UCD). F.T.C.D.! Some prankster posted this profile on the College website - it's been taken down since, but the link I gave is a cached version. Go ahead, read through it, it's freakin' great!
Finished checking all my websites, and since the bathroom hadn't warmed up enough yet, I decided to play a little guitar.
Set list: Lonely People/America, Sister Golden Hair/America, Something to Say/Toad the Wet Sprocket, All Things in Time/Toad the Wet Sprocket, Daisy Jane/America, In the Heart of the Night/Poco, I Will Possess Your Heart/ Death Cab for Cutie, Nights are Forever/England Dan & John Ford Coley, Kobayashi Maru/"JarofPorter", (Walk)/"JarofPorter".
(The "Walk" title is tentative - I can't decide what I want to call it yet. I've still got a few more verses to hammer out, but I've got most of the melody done, and the basic chord structure is set. I can't wait to get more of it done! At very least, I want to get it to a point where I can do "Maru" and "Walking" as a solo guitar/singing thing.)
�Ok, let me see if I can remember what I did last night when I went out. I tried something new with my hair & wore a shirt that I really dig, but have never had the nerve to wear out before. I�m a t-shirt kind of guy normally, so this was out of character for me. I actually felt pretty good about it, though! (Took some cell phone pics � will try to post one or two in a bit.)
Went to one of my regular palces on the south side first (had a rum & diet) to try to loosen up a bit, as I was feeling a bit self-conscious. Headed down to the �wings� place up the road to check out the scene (had a beer). Not much going on, so I took off. Stopped at a Mexican place up the road from there (had a rum & diet) & talked to a couple people shooting pool. Again, not much going on, so I took off. Stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall downtown (had a short beer) & ran into a buddy & his wife, so I shot the shit with them for a bit. Left there & went to the oldest bar in town (literally!). It�s the bar I go to for most of the band shows I see. Ran into a few people I knew (including one really cute girl!) and hung out there for a while (had a couple beers). The girl is the singer in a local band, and not only is she really attractive, she�s got an amazing voice & stage presence, and she�s a really sweet girl as well. I ended up talking/flirting with her most of the time I was there. I�ve no idea if she�s single, or even interested, but hopefully, I�ll run into her again soon! Left there & stopped off at one last bar for a short beer, but there wasn�t really anything going on, so I came home.
Overall, a pretty decent night, and only a minor hangover this morning! Lol I really wish I could be more outgoing without drinking, because I really don�t care for it that much (not to mention that it�s unhealthy, and it really holds me back from getting in shape), but sitting home alone all the time isn�t good for my health either. I�m thinking that in a month or so, I�ll be able to start trying some new things to try to socialize away from bars. I�ll likely still go to shows because I really dig seeing bands live, but I�m tired of that being the only social outlet I have.
I�ll be amazed if anyone actually makes it through this entire entry � I went back through it, and it�s got to be the most dull bit of crap I�ve ever read. Still, it was an interesting experiment! Sorry if I bored you all to death! lol
3:49 p.m. - 2011-09-17
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