Hodge Podge

• Reader's Digest had an article on how to stay middle class.  Idea #1 was to teach our kids more science and tech.  I completely agree.  One statistic:  "job growth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industries over the past decade has been three times faster than growth in other fields, and people in these professions earn 26 percent more than others."  As I've said before, you can say anything with statistics.  In this case I choose to agree considering the profession I'm in.  :-)  If your child has an aptitude for science or math, encourage it, and let them know about the careers that are available in that type of thing.  Even a company like UPS that you might think isn't making a product and is only a providing a service and thus wouldn't need engineers: they still hire engineers to design their logistics systems, design packaging, etc.  If your kids don't want to be in a health care profession, then maybe they could consider a STEM career.  Case in point:  with the reduction in force we experienced last week at work, there were a few lay-offs in the engineering organization, but not as many as in the business part of the organization.
• Yesterday I got a text from an unknown number.  It was a text from a random number I didn't know, and attached was a picture of a girl in her Halloween costume.  Thank goodness she was fully clothed.  Her costume had some sort if mid-evil look to it.  He/she sent a text shortly afterward to clarify that they had a wrong number.
• Dreary November will arrive tomorrow.  It's not my favorite month, but I'm pretty sure I'll survive it with some activities on the weekends.  Work for the next two weeks will definitely keep me occupied during the week.  And then:  December!  I see a warm destination in the crystal ball.  Plus, I kind of like to go to work at the end of December when nobody is there, it's nice and calm, and I can work on the stuff I want to work on or get caught up on those quadrant II activities.
• I feel like I'm getting a cold, so I plan to go to bed early tonight.  The first day of a cold is the worst when your throat is so sore you can hardly swallow.  Maybe if I drink lots of fluids and get lots of sleep it can be averted.
• My massage therapist today was Tina.  She's my current favorite, although sometimes I'm not able to get on her schedule because her hours are limited.  She applies just enough pressure that it hurts, but not so much that I can't stand it.  Plus, she usually finds all the spots that need attention.  And, I'm not usually too sore afterward.  That's a win win win.

All for now folks!  Have a lovely week.

Creepy....

....and I'm not talking about Halloween.  I went to Lowe's today, and my time at the check-out counter started out fine.  The clerk guy was cheerful enough and asked me how I was doing.  I responded that I was doing fine/good/whatever it was I said - the basic pleasantries.  Then the next thing out of his mouth was, "No marriage ring?"  That question threw me off my game a little bit and I may have given him a strange look, I'm not sure.  So I told him that I didn't have a marriage ring.  Then he asks, "So are you engaged?"  By this time I was starting to get creeped out and very wary, so I pretended to be very busy swiping my credit card.  He may have even repeated his question, I'm not sure.  At that point I wasn't giving him any more personal details about my life as visions of him doing a detailed search on my info in the Lowe's system and stalking me danced in my head.

I think he must have partially realized he was totally creeping me out because he tried to explain his behavior by saying that very few single females come through the checkout line at Lowe's.  That's probably true, but still.....don't most places train their clerks on appropriate questions to ask?  Luckily he didn't ask for my phone number or zip code like they sometimes do.  Or, maybe he realized he better not ask in this case.  It wasn't like the guy was young and good looking either.  I would estimate he was somewhere around 50.  Creeper.....

Learnings

Today was one of those days where I didn't get much done that I had planned to do.  I thought I was going to get lots done at work today, but between interruptions and standing outside for more than an hour waiting for the fire at work to be put out, I didn't accomplish too much.  There was a fire in one of the labs, but it must not have been too major.  We didn't see any flames or smell smoke.

Also at work today.....I am still employed.  And, if the media asks, I have "no comment".

For the woikas this evening, I made split pea and ham soup in the crock pot.  I had never made it before, but it turned out fairly decent I thought.  I had three helpings anyway.  They only had one, maybe two helpings plus some peanut butter sandwiches.  So maybe it wasn't as good as I thought?  Or, for some reason it's a treat to eat PB sandwiches when you're in that line of woik.  I don't really know.  I also learned that I picked the right day to cook split pea soup as Thursday is the traditional day to eat that in Sweden.  The only thing I was missing was the Swedish pancakes.

Also interesting to learn today about the difference between these two words:

hypocrisy:   a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.


dissimulate:  to disguise or conceal under a false appearance.

So they are related in that they involve hiding something, but in one case you're hiding a lack, and in another you're hiding something you have.

Short Order

I'm keeping it short today.  For reals.  Yesterday I rediscovered the deliciousness that is ham gravy.  It beats chicken/turkey gravy hands down.  It might be a closer race with beef or roast pork gravy, but ham is still the clear winner.

Remember the project that Jeddles did for me a couple years ago?  Well, I finally got around to getting it painted.  When I say that, I mean I faced the facts that I wasn't going to get it painted this summer (again), so it would probably be best if I hired it done.  Which I did.  Like the cleaning people, I'm very happy with my decision.  It wasn't cheap by any means, but my trim, doors, and garden shed are all freshly painted by a true professional that went the extra mile.

Freshly painted, and it only took me two years.

Defiant

I know it's overwhelming when I post all those pictures and long lists, so I'll keep things short today (or at least attempt to).

For the record, I turned on the furnace this week on October 18.  This is better than the previous two years when I turned it on in September, and on par with three years ago.

I got an e-mail at work at the end of the day on Thursday that got me a little bit hot under the collar.  Yes people, it can happen.  It's rare, but it does happen.  It was from a general manager of a different group.  I almost replied that day right before I left, but I remembered the flaming e-mail rule and let it sit overnight hoping that in the light of the morning on Friday it wouldn't seem so bad.  It still ticked me off a little when I read it again on Friday morning, so I replied to it mostly according to how I had originally intended.  I told him that I wasn't finishing my work because I was waiting on another guy to finish his work, which I had been asking for repeatedly.  If they wanted me to circumvent the process, then they needed to talk to my project leader.  I tried to figure out why this particular e-mail rubbed me the wrong way so much.  I think there were several reasons:

• First of all, the guy who sent the e-mail (call him M) was telling me what I should do.  M is not my boss or project leader, and I do not report to him in any way in the reporting structure.  None of my bosses report to him either.  I already have one boss and three project leaders, so I don't need another guy coming around and trying to tell me what to do and set priorities, thank you very much.  It may have been slightly inappropriate for him to e-mail me directly seeing how he's a general manager and I'm a lowly senior engineer.  He probably should have talked to my project leader first.
• Secondly, M was implying that I was purposely creating delays and prolonging a major quality issue.  This is partially true, but only because I'm assigned to another mega project that requires some of my time and is higher priority.  Also, I couldn't finish my work because I have been waiting on another guy (D) to get me some specifications so I can correctly complete my calculations.  I have been repeatedly asking D for these specifications for the last four weeks with little to show for it.  Also, it may or may not be debatable whether this is a major quality issue.  Sometimes people exaggerate - he didn't give me any specific numbers.
• I'm fairly certain that M's e-mail was spawned by a meeting to cover the issue where both M and D were there but I was not because I wasn't invited to the meeting.  I may have been indirectly invited by some forwarded e-mail a week ago when I replied and told them if they wanted me at the meeting that they should send me a meeting invite so the meetings show up on my calendar.  It takes one minute for them to do that, so if they seriously need my input, they can easily add me.  From the tone of the e-mail, it seemed as though D had told M that I was the hold-up and made me the scapegoat when D shares at least partial responsibility for being the hold-up.
• I have received almost no communication from D over the last 3 weeks asking me for anything or asking for status updates, which kind of implied that it wasn't his top priority.  Then suddenly I get an e-mail from M saying it should be my top priority.  I really dislike it when things go from not being an issue to being a major issue with no explanation of why.  I prefer a slower escalation process.  Procrastination or lack of due diligence on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.  Just sayin'. 

I ended up talking to my project leader and we came up with a compromise action plan for this issue.  So all in all it wasn't a huge deal other than I may have made an enemy of a general manager at work by being slightly defiant in an e-mail.  Oh well, I'm not trying to be CEO anyway. I thought I'd let you in on a little excitement at work and how the politics go.  Now you know what my buttons are.  Don't push them!  This was probably compounded by the stress from my other major project that week that may have blown things out of proportion.

Other than that, it was beautiful weather this weekend.  The woikas are coming later this week.  Rock climbing will resume after a three year hiatus.  That's the excitement around here.

Illinois: Part 2

As mentioned in the previous post, I was in Chicago on Friday evening.  Late that evening after the fancy dining and candidate calibration, thus began the start of my weekend.  I drove north a bit to Jen-E's apartment, where I stayed for the night, and then we were headed southwest to hike at Starved Rock State Park.  It's a memorable rocky portion of land in the plains with sandstone canyons.  There was a fairly large group of us, and after hiking we had a picnic Saturday night.  That night Jack-E-L-O-K, Ramblin Becks, and I stayed in a hotel, went to Sunday meeting, and did some hiking again that afternoon.  Sound good, right?  That's the bare facts and mechanics.  Here are the memorable, colorful parts of the weekend.

1. Thank goodness for friends who are on the ball and generous.  We were supposed to bring something to contribute to the picnic Saturday evening.  I didn't really have much since I was in Chicago for work for the two days beforehand, but Jen-E let me partially claim her homemade brownies and cookies.  I did help her frost a couple cookies after all.
2. Awesome scenery.
3. Awesome friends.
4. I finally met the infamous AndyNips that I had heard about from Ananias' Ecuador stories.
5. Jack-E literally gave me her two cents' worth.
6. Homemade granola bars and cookies from Uncle Ducky.
7. I felt like my mom as I hiked along the path on Sunday.  I started doing some simultaneous arm exercises while walking.  I don't know why, but for some reason that reminds me of my mom.  I'm not sure if I've seen her do that exactly or if it reminds me of the Jane Fonda cassette tape she used to exercise to.  Anyway, the thought of it made me laugh for some reason.
8. Meeting new people too:  Kim, Karmen, the Bungee Cord family, and some others.  They weren't new as in just out of the womb, but they were new to me.
9. Making Uncle Becks laugh for about a minute straight.  I pulled out the old "your mom" line at the perfect time.  Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever used that line before, but in this case it seemed appropriate because it was so ridiculous.  And it was appropriate as evidenced by the huge laugh it got.
10. Being the "young" people at the morning meeting at Seneca.  We had some very nice fellowship that morning.
11. The continuing formation of plans to go on a mini tropical vacation before the year ends.
12. We found one teeny tiny trickling waterfall, but we have high hopes that there might be some great waterfalls to see in the spring.

I think that about covers it except for finishing up with some great pictures.

Part of the hiking group.  We were what you might call the "energetic" hikers.

Uncle Becks pointing out "her mom".

The sign said no scrambling on the rocks, but they didn't say anything about the fallen tree trunks.

Sunday afternoon hikers.

Not at meeting.  Ramblin' Becks using her yoga skilz to become one with nature.

Recruiting in Chi-Town

So.....you want to hear about the end of last week.  If you don't, then just skip this post and the next one too.  I was selected to be one of the lucky ones to screen resumes at the Society of Women Engineers National Conference career fair for the company I work for.  The conference this year was in Chicago.  Overall, it was a good time spending time with other female engineer co-workers and our brothers from the National Society of Black Engineers.  Here's the list of excitement.

Getting geared up and calibrated to screen resumes.

1. Tra-Kac got me started playing "Words With Friends" on my phone.  I'm not addicted, but I do enjoy playing the game a few times throughout the day.  I can stop any time I want to, I just choose not to.  Really.  Tra-Kac beat me one game already.  I think she just wanted another sucker to beat.  Interestingly enough, she's also the one who factored largely into convincing me to join Facebook.  I guess she knows how to push my peer pressure buttons.
2. My company doesn't usually require anybody to share hotel rooms, but in this case Tra-Kac and I shared a hotel room.  The main reason was so that no one had to stay in a different hotel from the rest of the group.  Plus, this way we saved the company a couple hundred bucks.  We probably spent a total of eleven hours in the room with 7 or 8 of them sleeping, so it wasn't a huge deal.
3. The Apple 4S was coming out on Friday, so we walked past the line of people outside the Apple store waiting overnight in the elements for there chance at the 4S.  Certifiable, I say.  That means I'm not an early adopter I guess.
4. A fancy dinner at the World Of "Insert My Company Name Here".  The facility is mostly used to wine and dine trade partners and train sales people, so I had never been there before.  But, we had the rare opportunity to non-alcoholic-drink and dine our chosen career fair interviewees at the WoW.
5. One of my co-workers introduced me to a super awesome idea that her third grader is doing right now.  I'm really excited about implementing something similar.  I'm inclined not to tell you what it is so it can be a surprise, but I'm so pumped about this great idea that I think I will give you a clue:  Flat Stanley.  Watch for him (or a her) in the future - that's all I'm saying.
6. Sweet gifts from career fair booths including sunscreen, a collapsible water bottle, and a pink panther doll.

What?  I thought we were in Chicago, not California or Oregon.

This is how cool engineers are.

We're also cool enough for Tony the Tiger.  I had my picture taken with the Pink Panther, but I still need to get that picture from my co-worker who took the picture, so this will have to be enough for now.

View from the top of the WoW.

Some of my work on display at the WoW.

Quick Blip

I'm back and have lots to tell you, but I don't have all my posts from the last week or so all put together, so you'll just have to wait.  Maybe I'll get at least one done tomorrow.  Let me tell you that some very nice scenery may be involved.  Some nice people may be partially involved too.  For now enjoy the scenery change across the top.

Pitter Patter

Whew!  That was a close one.  I almost felt like I was trapped into changing my blog template to one of those dynamic views.  I previewed them, but none of them really popped out at me.  Most of them felt too cluttered and busy.  I had trouble concentrating with so much fancy stuff going on, so for now I'll stay with my "classic" simple look.  Maybe eventually I'll move on to something new.

There has been official confirmation of "re-orgs" in some departments at work, which is a convenient way to do a round of layoffs at the same time.  So far the company doesn't seem to be feeling that "recovery" we're supposedly having.  Sales are down below 2008 levels, and raw material prices are almost as high as they were before the economy took a header (and they were really high then).  That's not a good combination, folks.  As far as I've heard so far it won't affect my department too much. Even if it did, it doesn't help to worry about it since I don't have any control over that anyway.  I figure if I get laid off I'll take that ripe opportunity to move further west.

The moon has been full the last couple days.  Actually it's now a waning gibbous at 99%, but it's close to full.  This morning on the way to work the full moon was hanging low in the sky, and then tonight on the way home from BS it was already pretty high up there in the sky in all its glory.  Keep your silver bullets close at hand!

Last Wednesday Steve Jobs had just died, and this Wednesday I see on Facebook that a special lady from back home in ND went on to her eternal rest.  It's interesting to think of the contrast in those two lives.  Our study was I Corinthians 15 tonight, which contains two of my favorite verses and seems fitting:  "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

On that thought, have a good rest of the week!

Kayaking with J-E-L-O-K and UBSSPHCD

I'm sure you're on pins and needles wondering what I did this weekend.  Unless you're on facebook.  Or were one of the people who came to visit me.  Or talked to me on the phone over the last week.  Anyway, for my special readers who did none of these things, I will give you some exclusive photo views of the weekend and the succinct summary.  Essentially what happened was a weekend of awesomeness that involved two friends coming to visit and go kayaking.  The summary is as follows:

1. Kayaking on two rivers and on the "big lake" all within four miles of home in the space of four hours.
2. Hanging out with Jack-E-Lots-O-Knots and Uncle Ducky - always a good time.
3. The weather was beautiful with totally clear skies, temperatures in the 80's, and very little wind.  We may have forgotten the sunscreen and gotten a *tad* bit of sunburn.
4. Some mean games of foosball, Mastermind, and Rage were played.
5. Beautiful weather.  Uncle Ducky didn't even make me turn on the heat, and she didn't have to endure 63 degrees in the house either.
6. Supper on the bluff (Mongolian BBQ) and a walk along the beaches near downtown.  Plus some jamming to the Beach Boys tunes that were being played there.
7. I'm told I cook a mean breakfast.
8. Seeing Jack-E-L-O-K and UD sitting in their kayaks on the grassy hill paddling on dry land.  That was some visual humor that I wish I had my camera on me at the time to get a picture of.
9. Sunday lunch with some of the folks from SMM on a porch in the sun with hamburgers and hot dogs from the grill.  Did I mention the weather was beautiful and the fellowship was good too?
10. The leaves are turning their majestic fall colors.  Meeting Man made a comment on the drive to SMM that I thought was good.  He said that trees in fall are like people near the end of life - they're often more beautiful than at any other time because what is inside is starting to show on the outside.

That's about it except for the pictures.  Unless.....did I forget to mention how awesome the weather was this past weekend?

Uncle Ducky excited to be launching in a kayak for the first time.

MelBMarvis and Uncle Ducky in my favorite spot on that river.

Jack-E-Lots-O-Knots about to go out and tackle the big lake.

Catch-Up

A couple things I forgot before.....

I have a mild case of poison ivy this week because of some work I did on Saturday cleaning the brush away from my tool shed.  Mostly it's on my wrists where my gloves and sweatshirt left a small gap occasionally.  Thank goodness it hasn't developed into a terrible case of it so far.  The painters knew what they were doing when they asked me to clear the way around the shed instead of them doing it.

Money has been flying out of my wallet this week.  I also purchased new tires.  They were expensive little buggers.  I'm amazed at how differently my car drives with the new tires.  I only got the 30,000 mile tires, which was probably a mistake.  We'll see.

In my research at work today (for a work project), I learned that some snakes and crocodiles can see/feel infrared and hunt based on that.  I guess that makes sense seeing how they're cold blooded. 

Later gators and crocs.

Lots 'O Stuff

So there's lots of stuff going on, and I had so many things to say that I've already forgotten some of them.  Let's start with a big one.  My house is really *tinging* today.  I had a cleaning service come today, and I don't think I'll mourn the price I paid for that.  The inside of my refrigerator sparkles, the magazines on the back of the toilet are fanned out in a fancy way, the towels hanging on the rod have hospital corners, and my bed is made (which hasn't happened since the last time I changed my sheets - we won't discuss how long ago that was).  I always do two side-by-side stacks on the back of the toilet and would never even dream of fanning them out the way they did.  The only things not so neat are my computer desk, which is piled with papers, and the "mail corner" on one end of my counter.  I still have some work to do to choose a final, more regular cleaning service, but I'm happy with this one-time cleaning so far and feel inspired to continue with outsourcing this domestic work to help improve the economy.

Steve Jobs (former CEO of Apple) died.  Gin posted a link on facebook that I think deserves a repost.  You can read the article because it's nice enough, but I would recommend viewing the embedded video of Jobs' speech at Stanford.  I found it very interesting.  After listening to him tell his story, I'd have to say that he was a true entrepreneur and inventor.  And really, I would say I'm not.  I'm more of an engineer type than an entrepreneur.  I find it amazing how many companies he started.  Why would you want to deal with that much paperwork and advertising and trying to find customers?  It must be because that's your passion.  I do agree with a couple of his statements from his video that you need to do what you love, and death is the agent of change in life.  I also find it interesting that he dropped out of college but still went to classes to learn about whatever he felt like learning.

Being somewhat ambivalent about Apple, I never learned about Jobs' past history, so it was interesting to me.  I have mixed feelings about Apple.  I know they have some really nice programs and Microsoft totally stole a bunch of ideas from them when they made Windows '95.  I fondly remember playing Oregon Trail on the Vigs' Apple computer when we would go there to visit.  We didn't have a computer at the time, and later when we did they were always PCs.  Now it frustrates me to use a Mac computer just because it's unfamiliar and there's a learning curve.  Plus, the CAD programs and other software I use at work probably aren't really made for Macs.

In honor of Steve Jobs I guess we could have a tutorial on Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) vs Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC).  Or, we could discuss Von Neumann vs. Harvard architectures.  I can't remember enough about those things off the top of my head to discuss intelligently, so we'll save that for another day after I refresh myself.


I'm enjoying the really clear days and nights we've had here recently.  You can see the moon really well when there aren't so many clouds.  Plus, the weather is supposed to warm up even more.  How nice is that?  I better head for bed.  There's a 7:30 AM meeting tomorrow at work.

Stuff and Things Update

We had strong winds here from Thursday evening through Saturday morning.  When I woke up Friday morning, this is what I saw in my neighbor's yard (see below).  It fell towards my house, but luckily missed it.  I didn't have any damage - just a lot of branches and leaves on my lawn.

On Saturday I was doing yard work and cutting back a bunch of overgrown growth.  See the picture below of one of the bushes I was working on cutting back.  I have not idea what it is.  Do you?  I would say it was at least 8 feet tall and working on getting taller.  Some of my research on the internet suggests it may be red currant, but I'm not totally convinced since the pictures on the internet showed the red berries in more of a grape bunch formation, and these ones don't quite have that shape.  But, the leaves are kind of shaped right.

Today was the annual UM-potluck-croquet day.  I tried making chicken and rice in the crock pot for it, and it turned out well if I do say so myself.  This was only the second time I've made chicken and rice, and the first time I had made it in the crock pot.

It's 63 degrees in the house right now, but I'm not turning on the furnace yet.  I suppose I will be considerate to my weekend company and turn it on before Friday if it's still chilly.  The good news is it's supposed to be back in the 70's later this week.