Undefined

For those of you not on myspace and keeping up with my work difficulties...

As of 1500 MDT May 29, 2008...  I am unemployed again.  The company was having financial difficulties and decided to lay off 70% of the workforce.  If you want more, go check out my myspace blog.

Since today is the day that all the fanboys of LJ are going on strike (no posting/commenting) about the removal of the free account, I felt it was a day that I should return to LJ and post something of interest.

Since it is ALSO Good Friday, I felt my post of interest should be festive!

We are expecting 4-8 inches of snow tonight.  I'm sure that will make the morning commute a pleasure.  If its really bad we probably wont even go down there and we will just work from home.  I planned ahead today and brought home a copy of the pylon design I have been working on just in case I need it here tomorrow.

Pylon designs are getting tricky.  I'm being limited by the engine nacelles and their location.  It's a balance of contradicting requirements.  Somehow, I need to figure out how to make a circle with right angles.  That will be interesting...

I feel like I've been more of a nuisance to people lately.  I don't know what it is...  I've been sorta bored around the house so I keep plopping down in from of the computer and waiting for something to happen.  I chat with the people who start up conversations with me, and usually after a little bit they just disappear or log off.

Do I come off as annoying?  Maybe I just need something to do so I'm not sitting here so much?

John:   HURRY, Hurry, Hurry!  You guys gotta come see this!!!  I got the coolest stress plot in the hub over here!


...

Rich:  John, you need to get out more.



We need help here.

Ugh, my back is killing me.  I think it's because of all the shoveling I've had to do recently, but Jess seems to think it is the bed.  I suppose it could be both.

This morning was nice and clear, the drive to work was stupidly slow.  Took me an hour just to get down there.  Once I got there we had our Monday morning design team meetings to get everyone up to date on what is happening.  In the middle of that the power in that area of the city went out.  So we finished our meeting, didnt need power for that, and went back to our offices.  We actually had SOME power in the building, but only 1 leg was live, so we only had enough lights on in the building to navigate the inner rooms without windows.  Even those lights were flickering.  Everyone in the engineering side was just discussing things since we couldnt work on the computers, I thought it was pretty funny.  We all waited around for a bit, and then the power went totally out.  A little bit later it came back on, and then off again a few minutes after that.  So we all gave up on serious work efforts.  Brian and I went out to the shop and played Ping Pong in the dark.  We determined that we really need a glow-in-the-dark ball for that.  At about 10:30 the power came back on again for a short while, and it started snowing outside pretty hard.  So Brian and I decided to head home for the day.

We were on the road at 11, and stuck in traffic by 11:15.  There was a pile up on I-215 right in the construction zone where someone hit the barrier.  So we waited there for about 45 minutes until traffic cleared up and then continued on our way.  Got home at about 1:15, shoveled the driveway clear and then had my lunch.  After that I headed over to Brian's house and played some Wii Sports with him.  He whooped me in tennis but I got him back in golf.  Then we played Guitar Hero III until our arms nearly fell off.  It was fun.

Then I helped him get set up to get a replacement guitar for Rock Band.  Hopefully mine will be here tomorrow.

Theres more, but I give up.  I am going to take some pain pills for my back and go to bed... owwies. :(

I thought it was supposed to get warmer this week?  Why is it snowing yet AGAIN?

(Just as a side note, it took me nearly an hour to type that line out just because my multitasking skills are shot)

We were supposed to have an eye appointment yesterday, I left work a little early to get up to the doctors office in time.  Well about halfway home Jess calls to tell me that our appointments were canceled.  The eye doctor had gotten hit in the eye somehow on his way back from lunch and he couldn't see us, literally.  I thought it was a joke at first.  But no, our appointments are now scheduled for next week.

I took a few pictures this morning on the way to work.  It was pretty foggy outside and traffic decided to go as slow as possible without actually putting the car in neutral.  The road was quite bumpy too, so the pictures arent so clear.

Tis been a weird week.
So the basement is sorta on hold for a bit.  After figuring out that the water softener we are looking at is going to run us ~$500+ with all  the extra tools and equipment I will need to install it, we are going to pay off the Lowes credit card from the appliances before our year is up.  I think I'm ready to start removing carpet and drywall from the laundry room.  Big mess, lots of trash.  And there are still tools that I need before I really start moving on this stuff.  Plus a raise, I could use a raise...  that would make buying supplies easier.

We went and looked at furniture at RC Willey yesterday.  We found a sectional couch that we really love for the entertainment room once its finished.  I cant wait to have it all finished and be able to finally sit down and watch the first movie on the big screen.  We also looked at bedroom sets and found a bed frame we both like.  Also, today when we stopped by PetCo for more fish food, we found the new fish tank we want in the basement when its all finished... assuming it will fit.  Adventures in furniture shopping.

Work has been going well.  I think I have finally found my place in the engineering chain.  Last week I was in a meeting with the leaders of the heliplane aerodynamic aspects of design.  I was the only drafter there, being the one responsible for the fairing design and future analysis of the overall heliplane, I feel like I've actually made it to a professional position.

I've had this weird recurring dream over the last week or two.  I keep getting drafted and sent over to Iraq.  From there things turn weird, a couple times I've ended up in the jungle and once I ended up running through my minds idea of what Berlin looked like.  The funny thing is that this doesn't bother me as much as one would think.

So Gene was just over here talking with us about things that are changing again. 

Gene: "Wish in one hand and *LJ-EDIT*  in the other and see which fills up first."
Me: *silence while I try to come up with a witty comeback*
Gene: "Oh that's right you're probably too young to know that saying..."
Me: "Oh I know it, I have a Grandpa..."

Jesse and Gene are picking on Jeff and I for being young this morning.  It's on today, pulling out all the stops on the old guy jokes.

Gah... I'm stuck in a weird position at work. Gene doesn't want to give me the major tasks that he had planned since I will be leaving the drafting team in a couple months, but I cant really help Ben do any of the CFD analysis yet either. Until I make the full transition I can see myself getting stuck with odds and ends. He did tell me to stick with Scott and go through the hub model and make sure everything is copacetic before we propose a new baseline to DARPA. I think he thinks I haven't done that before, gone through and checked each parts weight and count, and forgot about the last time we had to do it. Oh well.

Jess has been really excited the last couple days... I guess she came up with a few good ideas for my birthday present. Now I just have to wait 3 weeks. :P

I signed up for PTO this Friday. I remembered that the registration on the Saturn is up next month, and my license expires on my birthday. So I am going to take Friday and get both of those things done. I want to be sure I have plenty of time, and the rest of my day can be spent in the basement.

Also, I need to ask a favor of anyone that reads this. I am trying to decide what my best photo of last year was, if any of them particularly stand out in your mind let me know. Also, if you want to look at most of them again... here. A majority of them are in the Photography, Purvis Wedding, and Hepler Wedding folders.  I would try to make it easy for you and make this a poll...  but alas I cant even narrow my choices down (and I might be biased)  plus I don't have a Plus or Paid account.

I didn't go downstairs and work like I meant to do.  It's a matter of knowing that once I start, Im not going to want to stop until its done.  And I know I cant do that, but Im going to push myself to get as much done as possible until Im dead tired.  And THEN I still have to clean up my mess.  So I just took a few pictures to show the state of things right now.

New Study, looking SE
New Study, looking NW
Entertainment room, looking S
Entertainment room, looking N
Laundry room to be, looking N

I still have to finish hooking up the last few outlets, the wire is all run Im just waiting to hook the wire in line with the previous outlet.  Cable line still has to be run, but that still requires me to pull down a section of the ceiling.  And the wall sections in the closet need to be put in place again.  Im sure tomorrow will be the day I finish the walls, seems like Sundays are when I have the most motivation to build stuff.  Then I end up dead tired on Monday...  see?  I planned it that way.  :P

Supposedly it will be warming up here soon.  That means a good chance to get the truck ready to go again and try to get it inspected.  The Saturn is all inspected and needs to be registered before March.  My drivers license expires on 2/7 so I will need a new one.  Looks like Im going to be taking some time off to get all that done one of these days.

I have plans to build a bookshelf in the basement one of these days too.  Right now we have books scattered all about the house because our one dinky bookcase only holds less than half of what we have.  Add that to the list that seems to be growing faster than I can cross things off.

Jess got really excited today about my birthday coming up.  I guess that means Im getting a present? :D  I had to work pretty hard over the last week to think of things that I could use again.  Im just starting to get used to having all the Christmas presents, and now I need to think of MORE stuff???  For a couple days there, a new extension cord was at the top of my list. :P  But I figured out a few more things for family to work with.

I watched a few videos today on the development of the new XBox 360 game Fable 2.  Scheduled to be released in June, the programmers have come up with a few really neat ideas that caught my interest.  It follows the same mechanics as the original Fable, but with some major advances.  Namely, a dog.  The way you interact with the dog in this game is amazing.  It makes me want to go out and get the original Fable so I can get the back story before the next one.

We got snowed in yesterday.  Not literally snowed in, but there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground overnight, and then the snow plows came by in the morning and pushed a bunch right up into our driveway.  It took me quite a while to move all the snow they had pushed in there.  So we just stayed at home and worked there.

And this morning, I got to go up in a SparrowHawk II!   GBA is doing some demo flights for all the employees here, so we all eventually found our way up to the Wood's Cross Airport where the Sparrowhawk II prototype was sitting on the ramp.  I got plenty of pictures when George was going for his ride, but I left the camera on the ground when I went up to ride.  The cockpit isnt very big as it is, and I didnt want to worry about my camera being in the way.  So we got up there, and must say that the flight was much smoother than I thought it would be!  We went zipping down the runway at about 55mph and Terry just let the control stick go, he had been holding it slightly forward, and we just hopped up off the ground.  We went circling around over I-15 for a bit and he showed me how the aircraft can easily be used to track vehicles at interstate speeds, and then we broke off and circled a parking lot to show how agile it is.  There were some people coming out of the hotel that we were circling that saw us and just stopped to watch us play around.  It was a blast.  He would just roll it over about 50° on its side and circled tightly over the parking lot.  I was looking straight out my side window right down at the ground.

Then, he let me fly around for a bit...  I didnt want to do anything too crazy, so I just sort of lazily circled around over the interstate, enjoying the view and watching all the cars and trucks.  Then we came around to the airport again, did a touch and go, and then landed.  It was great.  When we got done Terry asked me if I was ok up there because I was so quiet.  I was just having so much fun that I didnt want to spend my flight talking.  :D

Poor LJ, so neglected.  So a quick run down of things that are up.

Yesterday I got a copy of SolidWorks 2008 installed on my home computer.  This is so I can continue some work at home rather than having to drive all the way down here if I need to put in some overtime.  Im also hoping it will let me work from home on days that the roads are terrible.  Over the weekend we got about 6 inches of snow again if it does that on a weekday i wont be able to make it in to work.  I may be testing that theory tomorrow if the weather reports are correct.

Also yesterday I finished framing in the study downstairs and got the rest of the outlets wired up.  I still have to put the cable jack in but that will require a longer cable line and I need to remove part of the ceiling in the laundry room to run the cable.  Big mess... much fun.  The compound miter saw I got with some of the Lowes gift cards from Christmas is working great!  I will try to remember to post pictures soon.

I get to go up in a SparrowHawk II coming up later this week!  (assuming weather holds out)  The company is doing their annual demo flights for the employees, so sometime soon I should be up there flying around in an aircraft that we designed and built!  Pictures of that will be posted too.

Work the last couple days has been kind of hectic for me.  We upgraded to SolidWorks 2008 while we were all on vacation, so now we have new features and problems to deal with...  just as I was getting used to the old problems!  I'm in deep working on some of the vital drawings for the overall assembly, detailing how things are put together, and the closer I get to being done the more problems I find and bring up.  Im sure Gene is happy that I am finding these things now so we can fix them, but its like every 3 hours Im back over at his desk with a sheet of paper pointing out another problem with the design that hasn't been addressed yet.

Ive also heard now that anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months before I get an engineering position.  So I dont know when I will really be making the switch.  One of the other engineers is leaving to go home to Montana and be closer to family at the end of the week, and I overheard Jesse on the phone today talking about what sounded like a job offer.  He's not very subtle, so I'm sure most everyone in the building heard. :P

The basement is moving along smoothly, I spent Sunday afternoon down in the Study working on the electrical and putting up the north wall.  There is at least insulation on the wall and and framing up in place, the east wall needs to be done still and there are plumbing lines on that wall that I have to accommodate for.  But I'm trying to take it slow so I don't end up going over our budget on building materials, so I haven't been down there much.

Warcraft hit an all time low for me this weekend.  We had a guild implosion, which most of us saw coming, but it was still a shock.  We took in too many new people at once and they didn't really have a chance to blend with the guild.  So all the new people that joined, separated after our weekly instance run and started their own new guild.  The fact that they left isnt so bad, it was the way they did it.  I had become friends with most of them, and they basically flipped us all the bird and went off on their own way.  I spent some time trying to work things out with them, but in the end they weren't too happy with the way their departure was being viewed by the rest of us in the guild and decided they didn't need us.  I was pissed, still am on some levels.  I'm considering canceling my WoW account again after this month, maybe let it just go for a while and let things mellow out.  I talked with Jae a little at work today since he is a big MMO player too, and he seems to think my account could go for at least $800 if I wanted to try to sell it.  I might consider it, but there are complications with that too.

The kitchen is now done, at least until we can determine if we will be remodeling the kitchen/garage/dining room in the future.  The countertops are now all painted and sealed.  They look MUCH better, no more pink!

I just finished reading Huey.  Very Good story, I'm curious about how much of it actually happened to David himself.  The last page has a blurb about the authors.  David followed his two brothers to Vietnam because he didn't want to be left behind and started flying helicopters as a Warrant Officer.  He got the nickname Flying Dutchman while he was there, and the book is all about this Warrant Officer John Vanvorden "The Flying Dutchman."

I spoke with David on Monday before we all bugged out of the office for the holidays and asked him if he would possibly sign my copy of the book for me.  He said he would after the beginning of the new year, he wanted some time to think about what he would put in it.  Between him calling personally yesterday to say Merry Christmas and wanting to put some thought into what he wants to say, I am truly touched by how much he cares.  This is a nice little place I've found for working, and I can only hope that Groen Brothers Aviation will one day be as big as Cessna or Boeing.

This morning after Jess headed off to work I used my free time to use the scrap lumber down in the basement, from when I dismantled the storage shelves, to build a larger platform for the laundry room.  Since we have a front loading waster and dryer now it's a pain to bend over and pull the stuff out.  So I put them up on a 16" shelf!  :D  It worked out pretty good other than from the time I measured 5' length and the time I started cutting, I added a foot for no reason.  So I got it in there and laid it down in front of the washer and dryer only to realize it was too long to fit into the little cubby hole.  LOL.  So back out to the garage I went and lopped off a foot and put it back together.  The hard part was getting the washer and dryer lifted up 16" onto the shelf.  But now they're back in place and its much easier to use them!

Later, Jess and my parents and I are going to head out to Lowes to use some of our gift cards I think.  Compound Miter Saw and a shop vac are on the list of things I would like.  Also, some nice black-ish enamel paint for the kitchen counters.  No more pink please.  Maybe, if it warms up later this week and I can get the truck running we will go back and get some insulation and lumber for framing downstairs.

So it begins.

And so begins my week off of work.  It was a very good day today, we got about 3 inches of snow last night so it was quite picturesque.  I got a great new toolbox and spent 2 hours outside in the garage cleaning everything up.  :D  The garage is all nice and organized now with room to walk and everything!  Jess also got me a cool LowePro Camera bag to replace the old one I have been using for this last year.  It's much more comfortable with a wider strap and padding.  Also, Jess got me a lovely copy of The ULTIMATE Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy! :D  As soon as I am done reading Huey I will start on that.  And together Jess and I got about $600 in gift cards for Lowes, sooner or later we will head over there and get a few more tools and the lumber for framing in the study. 

It doesn't compare to what Jeebs got today though, he got engaged.  WOOT!!!  Congrats go out to him and Summer his wonderful fiancee.  We need to get together sometime soon and celebrate.

David Groen just called me at home a little bit ago also and wished everyone here a Merry Christmas.  I was quite surprised that he called, also impressed that he would take the time out of his holiday to call everyone.

I'm resolved to not being able to accomplish anything today.  Since I walked in the door things haven't been going well.  Literally, as I am walking through the door the alarm on the Saturn starts going off.  The remote doesn't have more than a 10 foot range, so I don't know how it got set off.  So I go back out to the car and I'm hitting the button to shut it up...  nothing.  The doors wouldn't unlock, the alarm wouldn't stop...  I had to use the key to unlock the door and get in and start the car before it would shut off.

So I get into the building and start up Solidworks to start my work the blade again, and the work I had done yesterday is all borked up.  I had to undo about half of what I did and redo it before I could continue.  And since that time, I haven't gotten anything else accomplished because the other parts I need won't load up properly on my computer.  Everyone else's computer they work fine, except mine.

I just want to go home and play WoW now, this stupid computer has killed my spirit today. 

So I ended up taking apart the water heater on Friday evening.  When we got home the water pressure had dropped to a trickle, which would have made for very uncomfortable showers in the morning.  So I started with the two galvanized steel pipes on top of the water heater.  Turned off the water and drained part of the tank enough so I wouldnt get soaked.  Finally was able to loosen up the pipes and at least get the hot water line off.  There was so much mineral build up on the inside that I could barely see through the 6" section of pipe, and I had to really work to get a small screwdriver through it.  So I did what any good engineer would do, rather than going out and buying a new section of pipe I just sat there with a hammer and my screwdriver and shipped away at the minerals until the pipe was cleaned out.  Granted there is still quite the mineral coating on the walls, but there is MUCH more room for the water to flow.  I knocked a few pieces of minerals down into the tank when I was trying to clean it, so I will eventually have to drain the tank and clean those out.  But probably next summer when hot water will be much less in demand.

I guess as a technical note, the problem that I originally thought was a pressure loss in the water was really a flow restriction that resulted in a pressure drop.

I had a talk with Jaap (lead engineer) here in his office last Friday.  He wanted to discuss with me the stuff I would like to be working on when I get bumped to engineering.  It was mostly to let me know that he has it planned for February or March, because all the engineers end up doing the same thing, everything.  But at least now I know that early next year I will be on the engineering side of things, and hopefully get a pay raise!  Gene was not too happy to be losing another drafter.  I let him know this morning in the design meeting, and as soon as I told him his foot started tapping really fast.  Typically there are 2-3 drafters per engineer in this type of situation.  We have 21 engineers to 8 drafters right now...  soon to be 22-6.  So thats quite the work load on the drafters when the engineers all start asking for things at the same time.  I can see that I will likely end up being a midway "Draftineer" for the first little bit until things even out again.

I need caffeine.

So the hot water pressure in our house is still low.  Lame.  I will be doing a little work on it tomorrow to see if I can figure out what is up.  I plan on flushing the tank out and seeing if perhaps the dip tubes are corroding or the anode it gone.  If that comes up with nothing I guess I start removing plumbing from the tank and seeing if there are any clogs.  The plumbing in the house is copper so I shouldnt have any problems with that, but right on top of the heater there are 2 galvanized pipes that I am assuming are the heat traps.  Im hoping that they arent the problem.

the other major problem is that I need to clean up the bedroom down there that the stuff is in.  We put all our storage boxes down there because it was out of the way, well now I dont want them all getting wet.   Talk about a stupid place to put a bedroom.  :P  Im not too fond of plumbing anyways, top that off with me not having all the tools I could possibly, and as a result, WILL need.