work's been kicking ass. I got the microscope camera to work, today, mostly. Which isn't a big deal, except that coupling a microscope from 1975, and a camera from last month that runs off USB... not as easy as it sounds on a small budget. Anyway. I can take pictures of stuff that's 20 microns wide, now.

(That'd be approaching the "gnat's eyeball" range, I think...)

and I got another machine working today, so we can automate another process. This sounds lame, but since I'm gonna be running the powder-sorting-by-size machine, and _I_ don't wanna trickle in powder one ounce a minute for three hours at a stretch... I like this. plus, the machine makes little sand-dune-looking patterns in the powder as it travels down the feeder, due to the vibration. It really is kinda mesmerizing. Orrrr.... maybe I'm easily amused. Likely that I'm easily amused.

I digress.

anyway. It's almost Friday. Awesome.



Aaaaand... here's a picture of a 45-foot foam lion.

Apparently, according to this article it was a fixture to make a giant bronze lion. heh. Gotta love Vegas. That place is gonna confuse the crap out of archaeologists in 10,000 years.

So. If anyone ever walks up to you and asks,

"Hey, (insert your name here), is Rust-Oleum^tm Gray Primer #7582 flammable?"

You can say "Yes, because jspurlin told me so."

Because, yeah, it is. I just checked. This is actually part of my job function.

And every time I do one of these random little experiments, I always need some little random MacGyver part, and I don't have them. Like, this time it'd have been really useful to have some really thin wire. Which I have two different kinds of at the apartment. Which helps me NONE, here.

(cue "hmf" look here)

And it's always the days that I actually need a knife that I forget my pocketknife. what the crap. I need to buy some cheap ones to keep at work.

And this burnt primer residue smells like a cross between carbonized meat and burnt plastic, which is CONFUSING THE CRAP OUT OF MY NOSE.

yes, I brought the pan of residue back to my office. what?

Everyone doin' good?

This morning's "oh, seriously what the hell" situation: set screws rusted into a piece of stainless. Solution: get an end mill (just like a drill bit, but solid tungsten carbide, and flat on the end; not pointed like a "regular" drill bit) and drill the lil' bastards out.

whee.

Set screws turn into little springs, too, when you drill 'em down the center.

*boing*

so. Yeah. And the other, seriously goopy (coated in hardened asphalt, I shit you not) seals, they've decided to simply bead-blast them and disassemble them. Method of failure, per the last four they've done (at about 15,000 bucks, per repair) is "crap hardened in the part". Worded more eloquently, natch, but that's the jist of it.

---

jnspies and I went to see Fred Claus the other night... good movie.
I went to see The Golden Compass last night with a buddy, and... dude. Worth the price of admission for the ARMORED POLAR BEAR fight. No kidding, first time in quite a while that my jaw dropped at a scene climax. Pretty much awesome.

And all the clockwork steampunk devices... oh, man, I LOVE THAT SHIT. Seriously, the world would be a cooler place if more things were finely-crafted brass mechanisms, instead of lil' microchips. Efficient, nah. Accurate, nah. Pretty and intriguing with a slight dash of mystery? Yep.

I was telling Allen (the buddy I went to the movie with) that, since I have an automatic watch (self-winding, whatever you wanna call it) that when the giant EMPs wreck all the computers, my watch will still work, right... and then we realized that, well, in a nuclear war, you'd pretty much not care what the exact time was. heh.

---

aaaanyway...

what's going on with y'all today?

(and there was more good news yesterday, and I'll know more next Thursday, most likely. THAT, my friends, would be a cool fking Christmas present. Fingers crossed for me, eh?)

and ze geekery continues:

I see an example at work, using "JLA" as placeholder initials, and my brain parses it as "Justice League of America".

---

Watched Stranger Than Fiction last night with Nicole. Damn good movie. I normally hate Will Ferrell movies, since the man is a pretty good actor, and resorts to stupid humor, most of the time.

And Maggie Gyllenhaal, whoop. Emma Thompson always looks... graceful, somehow.

---

I keep getting weird cuts and scratches on my hands. I have no idea how, but they keep showing up. Strange.

---

Anything cool going on with y'all today? I'm... trying to figure out an automated camera setup, and the previous setup results in absolute SHIT for pictures. I think they've not thought this setup all the way through, but it's only just now becoming apparent the degree of "wtf".

---

I've been trying, for a while, to figure out what I want in a job. This one isn't cutting it. I want something that allows me to use the mechanical aptitude I have, definitely. And the thing I think I dislike about the plant-based maintenance engineering thing (the "keep all the pumps working and upgrade things as we absolutely have to" setup) is that it's always an ongoing project. It's never finished, because shit keeps breaking, and shit keeps needing to be upgraded. The upgrade process is too expensive and time-consuming to allow a blanket "fuck this, we'll fix EVERYTHING right now" deal, like it should be. Many of these plants run on 1940s technology, in a lot of places. And the thought of being able to work at this for fifteen years, doing (effectively) the same thing... that drives me nuts.

I want a job with finite completion points. Like "We've finished this project; Y'all did a badass job. Next!" *close folder, file it* sort of stuff.

This job, it occurred to me, is like digging a hole on the beach, at the waterline. You can dig the hole, but without constant, sometimes frenzied maintenance, it fills right back in. I want a job where the hole stays dug, if you do it right. And I want a job where there is some opportunity to advance, or move around within the company, with relative ease. This job, there are pretty clearly-defined levels, and to move up, you gotta pack up and move, and there aren't but a couple levels to move up TO. I don't want to get pigeonholed into a job that I can settle into and do for the next ten years. I want to be doing... hell, something different and that shows something for the work, sometime in the future.

I'm having issues with blue ink and skin, lately. When I went to the gun show the other day with my dad, the hand stamp they used was two colors-- blue and red. The red came off fine (or it's blended into the redness that is me and I don't notice). The blue... the blue is down in the follicle and now i have two little blue dots that don't wanna wash off. When I have something I want to remind myself, covertly, I usually put a dot of blue ink on my left hand, in the "remember Sammy Jankis" spot, right there next to my thumb. And it's done the same thing, this time. Part of that won't come off. rrrgh. And this irritates me mostly because I keep noticing it. I have my freckles more-or-less memorized, and new dots weird me out a little.

---

Date tonight. I'm excited. She's excited. Good stuff.

And I might be meeting some of Nicole's people on Friday evening. *cue tiny freakout here* Should be fine, really.

---

My transition to a different set of duties at my job has started, and I'm a bit... uneasy. I don't want to drop this guy into the fire, so I have to document everything and get him started well, as best I can. I think this guy will be fine, really, it's just getting to know how to operate with some of the folks out here that's the big issue. I've just about got it figured out, and I've been here better'n a year.

*cracks neck*

And now, the complete inadequacy of my engineering-fluid-mechanics-knowledge rears its ugly head.

Wish me luck.

Also, apparently WD-40 (or, in this case, brake cleaner) will remove polyisobutylene from your hands. (this, of all the things they make here, is one of the safest things to get on you. It's just stickier than anything I've ever seen. (no, seriously)

No, you aren't supposed to clean your hands with WD-40. But I have, a bunch, 'cause it works. It'll take off pine sap, too. (woo, Bonfire knowledge.)

Plans tonight and saturday. Awesome. I'll be in CS (for about ten minutes) on Friday afternoon, going to Stack Site for bonfire. I'mma go pick up some heavy shit, yo. < stack> *hngk* -thud- repeat </stack>

Always lots to do, but I'm just run down enough that it's a touch foggy. No good. I'm gonna try to finish getting better this weekend. I think last night was the first night I haven't gone out to do... something in at least a week, likely more towards two. Worked out a bit, talked on the phone a lot. Yay, low-key night.

Dinner tonight with Adrienne in Conroe. Should be fun. May see if we can't meet someplace closer-- that's a long way for just dinner.

Getting my car worked on tomorrow-- power steering's being wonky. I'll just take a book, I guess. Ought to plug in my ipod and charge it. If they've gotta fk around with the front end, it'll be a while. hmm.

And then dinner and maybe a movie with Katie Saturday afternoon. I wish that would figure out. Might bring that up. (Might not, though) No idea what the plan is for Sunday-- I could go to Bonfire Cut if I felt like it, but two-hundred-plus miles for another tree or two... not really worth it, I think.

I think (if my math is right) that I put nine hundred miles on my car last week. Holy shit. But I can see how that happened. wow.

Not to mention I ought to go to church at some point. I keep making excuses for it-- all my clothes are clean and I'll be here, maybe I'll try to make it this time.

(hmm, Utada Hikaru j-pop on winamp. I have a random-ass collection on this computer.)

Waking up is much easier with the sun coming up at 630-- I think if it was both dark and cold, there's no way I'd make it here on time.

So I use this program at work, right. And, compared with when i wrote this previous entry about it, the program's gotten better. BUT. there are these automated reports, see.

The automated report with a SINGLE VALUE ON IT? Stupid and useless. That is, you run the report, and it could just print you out a sheet that said "THIS VALUE IS 32".

Nope. BAR GRAPH. *boomp* with a "32" on top of the graph that... graphs... one...value. wtf.

good fucking LORD it's cold in this building. My hands are FREEZING. (and that never happens, usually. Being nervous or sick are normally the only reasons.

brrrrr.

(how's your day going?)

sooo... It's thursday. which is nine kinds of awesome. Flying trip to College Station tonight-- Bonfire banquet. whoop. I'm only going to be there a few hours, and then back to Houston. I'll be in College Station again this weekend-- Saturday night at least. Friday night is spoken for, I think. And Sunday afternoon is likely gonna be going to Galveston. *eyeroll* must...define...relationship...

---

um. holycrap, tomorrow is Friday. AWETHOME.

---

Looked at furniture last night... not sure if I'm going to get a leather couch, or not. But they are nice... I'm just not sure I'm not gonna be really hard on a leather couch. I kinda like cloth couches. hmmm. hmmmmm.
And I'm getting a recliner, most likely, and a coffee table and a dining room set. Holy crap. lots of spending all at once.

---

actually been decently productive at work... They're gonna move me to a real office, reasonably soon. with a real window (currently I have a piece of semi-translucent glass) and a door and everything. It'll be in a cleaner building, and closer to the front. So... should I have to run away from oh-no-noxious-gas-fumes, it's closer.

Hoooo man did they have a HUGE release of shit at the plant across the highway the other day... the smoke was visible for like five miles. There are three waste-gas flares (that I saw). normally, the flare should be... a few feet high, each. likely less-than-6. This was, I'd guess, a 25 foot flame. Three of them. They'd just started when I left, and i could still see new smoke twenty minutes later and PURPLE SMOKE. notgood notgood notgood!!!!</Edd>

And people ask why I work here. Lack of other options, at the moment. But if they think I'm staying for years and years, they are incorrect. And that's why i don't live over here. The air quality's not as good in the Galleria as it is at the farm at home. But it's for damn sure better than over here...

My meeting tomorrow, for which I wasn't really very prepared, got moved to Thursday. Which is good, since I would have been prepared, but I'll be much better off having that extra two days.

---

Theory of a Deadman rocks. (well, yeah, literally, they do, but... y' get it.) Makes my day go much better.

---

AggieCon is this weekend. whoop. I get to go hang out and not do anythign for the weekend. I love the MSC. The Memorial Student Center was my second first home my last two senior years. (Yes, "last two". i had three senior years. Woo, victory laps.)

I miss having free time to fuck off with at school. I miss going for random "I'm gonna bust ass around campus" bike rides during the day. I miss running into friends every 50 yards on campus.

That said, I don't miss school, just the people. Tests and papers and all that shit can bite me.

---

hmm. back to work, I suppose.

*whipcrack*

EDIT: and all the people from whom (ooo, grammar) I'm trying to get information (about a pump we're working on) are GONE. EVERY ONE. wtf.

it occurred to me the other day that what I miss about a living space (since I still live in hotels) is a space that is well and truly mine. I want to be able, if i want, to chuck shit into the corners. I want to have stuff hanging on the walls (stuff that's mine). Just because "it travels well" isn't a reason I want to have to buy things. I want to be able to own shit that is too bulky to pack into a suitcase again. I have travel chargers, travel soap, travel contact solution... all that stuff.

Rgh. and they won't tell me, just yet, if I get the job. Three more weeks, most likely. blah.

Looking at maybe getting a loft apartment downtown. Not sure. need to sit down and budget stuff for a bit, and figure out what kind of rent I can swing, realistically. And what figure will allow me to buy a car and have some money to save. And some money to piss into the wind, when I want. I'm also a little curious what my salary will be when I get the permanent position. I have a vague idea... details would be good though.

lots of stuff to do today, at work. makes it go faster, too.

(I love the record crackle added to this song. weird how that gets added back in, in the digital recording era...)

DUDE(s)! I ALMOST FORGOT!!!!

(no really, I have good reason to be that excited)

the goatee is SO back. well, in a few days. But the salesman here is able to pass the respirator-fit-test with his, and so... *boom* I can too. Since that's the criteria... there's no reason they'd make me shave it.

*giddy*

---

EDIT: and my neck's been giving me shit for two days now, and it just loosened and cracked all at once.

ahhh.

(see, all's right with the world again...)

my new watch is six kinds of awesome.

Thanks to Aaron's Watches, I have an automatic, sweep-second-hand-havin' Seiko SKX-023 on my wrist. with a screw-down crown, and the spiffy looks-pretty-much-like-a-Submariner-Rolex rotating bezel on it.
( more about the watch... )

---

um... work again tomorrow. joy.

And hopefully get-togethers, and stuff throughout the week. And I'm going to set all this vacation-since-i'm going-to-California-when-Andy-moves stuff into motion, too. That'll likely be part of the morning, getting all that set up. And there'll be Aggiecon, too. DUDE. I can just leave my car in College Station when we leave from AggieCon. that would work, and then I don't hae to leave it at the airport. Then nobody will steal my stereo--that would be better, too. hmm.

And now, for my next trick, I'm gonna pass out.

*bonk*

you know, the one thing I really notice about Texas Petrochemical (the plant I work at) , as opposed to some others... there isn't anyone here (thus far) who's "uppity" in the least. Everyone has been pretty much readily helpful. Everyone is... down-to-earth, and there seems to not be anyone who just has "shit to prove". The amount of "your shitty product screwed up" things has been pretty minimal, and so...not too bad, overall.

(with the exception of the shit catching on fire, that I'm still not good with, at all, but the people are pretty much cool.)

So if anyone was wondering where the "OKAY. Please to be stopping with the fires and noxious gas releases." point on me was... yesterday passed it. WHAT THE FUCK. KEEP THE FLAMMABLE SHIT IN LINE, GUYS.

OK. better. I'm seriously starting to consider other options. and this was SO not what I wanted to have happen. A couple times, sure. but "everyone" says 'no, no, these are strange. this doesn't happen that often' BUT IT DOES. Three times in 5 months in two different locations? (oh yeah, there's the H₂S exposures, too...)

Nope. Not feeling terribly safe.

*studies for engineering exam*

honestly... I'm the hell out of this deal. Not sure what the timeline is... but eventually.

---

went to hang out with Danny and other people I know in Clear Lake... good stuff. girls who smoke... not attractive. Shame, really.

---

JESUS-H-CHRIST I ran into a weird girl yesterday--at the book store. I figured that was as safe a place as any. (I know, I know, I thought she was cute so she must be an axe murderer, I know.) lessee, highlights:
has a camaro, right? wrecked said camaro, by tearing the side off of it on a traffic-light-circuit-box. was quite drunk. no biggie, right? So she goes to get it fixed, and makes some deal with a guy to fix it, and she'd do some other work. she doesn't do the work, and he puts a mechanic's lien on her car. She FILES BANKRUPTCY (what the hell) for a 2500 dollar car.

then a few weeks ago, someone BACKED OVER HER CAR. Twisted the frame, all that. And then just... left.

Any time someone uses the term "... my soon-to-be-ex-husband..." in a sentence-- That is a deal killer, right there.

this whole story got better and went on for like twenty minutes. you have no idea. It's entertaining to be me. Wackos everywhere. Most of the time, people are secretly batshit crazy. This girl was conspicuously nuts. Pretty, and NUTS.

at the plant I work at, there is this material in some pumps (low tech, low pressure, like water pumps) called packing. it's essentially braided rope, with some special properties or materials. When it wears out, it has to be pulled out of interior grooves inside the pump, and that necessitates a pointy, long object. There is a thing called a "packing puller" that looks like a corkscrew (just like an actual corkscrew--dimensions, etc.) They apparently don't use those here.

There are a bunch of the pullers they use in the room next to mine.

They buy pitchforks and cut off the tines, and use the resulting pointed rods to pull the packing. And I'm thinking the handle gets thrown out. Yeah.

(clarified, now. 'twas apparently not too clear what I meant, a bit ago.)

I love that. The "yeah, sure... that'll probably work" theory of engineering.

---

And yesterday one of the other (white) engineers said "I been knowin' _____(insert name of guy) since..." and my brain lost it, in the Poolhall Junkies segue. Almost busted out laughing for no apparent-to-him reason. Reason is this quote from Poolhall Junkies.

heh.

work: pff. lots to do that should have been done a while back, and otherwise I can handle this. I can handle that too, it's just going to take some time and grunt work. I have work monday(the plant I'm at has the day off, but the office is working, so I'm going there), and basically just catching up on all this grunt work paperwork mentioned earlier. Thursday and Friday are gonna be sales meetings. but no work, really. And they're having drinks Friday night. eh. I'm gonna be on my way to CS friday night. Drinking with large numbers of people from work isn't my deal, anyway.

school: (wahahaha! NOTHING. I graduated. Kinda nice, this 'being an adult' thing. man, that feels good to say.)

personal: Adrienne actually showed up for dinner last night. And, well... this is weird. I'm all about us being just friends. It seems that my gut instinct has finally caught on to the fact that... jeesh, this girl is more trouble than it's worth. I was kinda surprised at that realization. 'bout time, though. And so it was good to go out to dinner, and all, but I'm not gonna ask her out. Which is something I'm glad to get decided. blah.

free time: Going to CS this weekend... that will be good. Party, whoop. um... yeah.

</update>

*posting spree*
Got one of those joke email forwards, and, well, these made me laugh more than i should have.

Q: Why don't blind people like to skydive?
A: It scares the dog. (yes yes, politically incorrect, i'm sorry in retrospect, all that jazz)

Q: What do you call a defective boomerang?
A: A stick.

Q: Where Do You Find a Dog With No Legs?
A: Right Where You Left Him.

---

Work's actually... chugging along. I had something to do -- that "so the last guy screwed this up, and if you could fix it that would be great" sort of things. So i'm driving to Webster in a bit, from East Houston. woo.

Going to dinner with Adrienne tomorrow (yes I'm aware of what the date tomorrow is, and yes i know where McDonald's is if she bails on me) and maybe coffee later in the week.

Wasn't I going to stop trying to date this girl?

woops.

And maybe other stuff later in the week with other friends.


I like this "living in Houston" thing.

yeah, so I have no hair on my face now. much less weird to shave my lip than my chin, it's just... gone now.

And i'm still gonna check at some point and see if they'll let me have a goatee. It'll be back with a vengeance if I get to have hair on my chin.

otherwise... I haven't looked like this since about...1997? yeah. holy shit.

EDIT: and i just figured out that I can blow air into my eyes, now. when you push out your lower lip and blow up over your top lip-- Yeah. used to get deflected by the hair on my lip. now-- *foosh* right at my eye. weird. I do that, subconsciously, and the puff of air in my eye just weirded me out. hmm.

And it is really freaking cold in this office.

---

perhaps I won't die, at this job. I just had to call a bunch of people and figure out what the deal was with this one certain seal, and well, I think I pulled it off. whoop. go me.

('course, that still means the other people at my job screwed up, but I got this info they needed, here at the plant.) woo.

I think the thing I hate so much abotu this job is that there is NO GETTING AWAY from work. we were at the bar downstairs in the casino, and I just wanted to have a beer and watch some TV, and they stat TALKING ABOUT WORK.

I can't wait to be in College Station tomorrow. hopefully by about 8pm. wait for me, eh?

huge parts of my job tasks are done with the "well, shit, we aren't sure how to do that either. see what you can figure out" mantra. hmm.

I am doing, if i may say so myself, a bang-up job at work this week. Especially today. Since we've actually started doing the hands-on part of the job, I'm able to recognize, now, on my own, what the piping plans are (the way the pumps and piping are connected--short explanation) and that's a good bit of the data that we are collecting. And I catch the other two guys making misidentifications of pump piping. Which makes me feel good, because the ones that I catch, I'm sure about. yay, feeling like I know my information. I make mistakes, too, but being able to recognize the setups and know why I have a different (and correct, most times) opinion on that... that's nice.

And I collected a bunch of data by myself earlier, for the first time. I've been working alongside one of the other guys until now. And I can do this alone, now, if need be.

just wanted to throw all that out there.

Oh yeah.... AND IT'S FRIDAY.

might be going to Houston sometime tomorrow. not sure, but likely so.

Whoop! just talked to my supervisor, and it sounds like they're doing everything they can to keep us from having to live in a trailer when we go to Lake Charles in a few days for work. We are going to be going to Lake Charles, but at least it's gonna not require me living in a trailer. We'll just have to drive 30 miles to work every morning. hmm. better, though.

And apparently there's #6 fuel oil leaking into the coast near Lake Charles, too.

I'm going home this weekend. That will be good. I want to be around people again. This "being around friends/family once every two weeks" bit... not working too well. But it's worse on the other guy I work with--he has a girlfriend who's a long way off.

---

I'm tired of taking apart seals, somewhat. It's about all we've done at work for... pff, the last week or so. Solid.

I'll regret saying that, y'all just watch, as soon as we're in the plant, since it'll be HOT in there. Regardless of the season.

hm.

Not much else going on, honestly. I need a new phone soon, I think. Mine just randomly shuts off, sometimes.

Ok, back to work. I'm so excited to go print drawings I can hardly stand it.

My job gave everyone at the training a pocket protector. with tools--a screwdriver (no shit) and a little ruler, and a pen.

*headdesk*

Oh my god, that's so geeky. I can try to run, apparently, but I can't hide.

In chicago, still. It's chilly, and dark. It started getting dark at 4:15 today. what. the. fuck. Stupid winter.

random things from tonight:

talked to a friend for like, holy shit, two hours. It's been a long times since I've done that. Pretty cool, that.

my boss used the phrase "we'd talk about that now but I'm shitfaced", twice in conversation with two people from the training we're in Chicgo for, who are staying at our hotel. And I was... surprised. And he was, indeed, shitfaced.

I don't want to get up in 6 and a half hours. but i'm apparently going to.

And i forgot to say... i rebuilt my first mechanical seal (what i do at work), and it passed the pressure test. It's a keeper, yay. And so I'm... how you say, "not totally stupid" at my job. yay.

*confetti*

Boudin for breakfast. *munch munch* Crazy Cajuns.

(it's good, though.)

See, when you get to use different kinds of tools on a regular basis, the use for things that seemed useless becomes apparent. nutdrivers, for example, are really useful for disassembling things with lots of hex-head screws. You can use a wrench, but, well, nutdrivers are faster. For a long time, nutdrivers seemed to be useless, to me, in comparison with a socket wrench.

but now I see it. heh.

---

And disassembling these things still seems kinda like getting to play with japanese Puzzle boxes and get paid. (so i do this and this and this and it comes apart? neat. *confetti*)

So, apparently when I was five years old, I was practicing for work in the real world. What did I do today? I took screws and snaprings and O-rings out of parts.

Just like when I was five. Except I make money to do it now. wahaha!

Well, that, and the volume of parts I've handled today was probably... *counts on fingers* 200 or $300,000
worth of parts. Yeah, they cost that much. I was surprised, too.

I got sunburned yesterday. dammit. I hate getting sunburned. I have sunscreen today, though, and they got us a sun awning. And my shoulders and neck are stiff. I actually kind of like that. We unboxed and tagged something like two pallets yesterday (which is something like 50) of these seals that were in the hurricane--the flood caused by it, actually. And today we should finish up with the ones they gave us to do, for now.

So I'm a big fan of the vinyl gloves and the nitrile(chemical resistant plastic film) apron. No telling what all is in that water. EW. And I wore a plain white shirt all day with jeans, instead of the polo shirt I was going to wear. woo. Moldy water and dried scum are no fun. and this stuff is predominately stainless steel. I have no idea how bad the rust/oxidation would be if it were all regular mild steel. This stuff is all brand new; the warehouse of new parts flooded. Eek. nothing like rebuilding brand-new, never-installed stuff. Stupid hurricane.

I have expense reports to do today. but then i get money back. yaay.

eh. back to it, i guess.

So... in Baton Rouge, until October the 14th. I think. Still in the trailer, though i managed to put dibs on the better bed, this time. no more cramming myself into a cubbyhole bunkbed-of-sorts.

hmm. Not much else going on, apparently we're going to Roadhouse for dinner, me and Jerry (the other survey-team guy). Sounds like a plan.

I'll have to try and find some stuff to do for the weekend. hmm. Any ideas, from those of you familiar with Baton Rouge?

today was really cool, actually. I've gotten to, in the lat few days:

bead-blast parts

tap holes in multiple-thousand-dollar parts

clean teflon parts

remove graphite gasketing material (*scrape scrape*)

reassemble some elastomer-bellows seals (like the ones there)

(this space intentionally left blank)

press-fit tungsten carbide inserts (into 7000-dollar-ish parts like these (here

troubleshoot an "inherently safe" PDA (that means 'the 4000 dollar pda won't blow you up in a petrochem plant', for short)

barhop in downtown Mobile, Alabama. It's actually kinda cool-- same sort of architecture as New Orleans--same time period and all. Neat.

see the USS Alabama (from a distance...</midler>) at about an 8-degree list, thanks to Katrina--photos forthcoming...

traveled under I-10 in a tunnel two lanes wide, through Mobile Bay. tiled-wall tunnels are... interesting.

and spend enough time around Alabama people to start dropping R's.

And today, no shit, the sales engineer I ate dinner with (We went to a place with outrageous seafood-- stuffed flounder--awesome) got cheese-covered grits with dinner. DINNER. wtf. (oh wait, I really am in the South. duh. )

Everyone i've worked with here has been nothing short of badass. Just sayin'.

And I'm coming home to Temple tomorrow. I'll likely try to make it to CS on the 14th (maybe the 31st-ish--yay halloween), one of the next times I come in to Texas. Baton Rouge, for two weeks, is next-- the 3rd-14th of October. Iiiiiinnnnn.....a trailer. Again. stupid hurricane.

aahh well. Catch y'all later.

Tonight, I went drinking with some guys from the "survey team" (my job segment) in Mobile, Alabama. woo.

had a Juengling Light Lager (good, kinda light, smooth, good, overall. kinda like Lone Star, actually), and a Jim's Cannon Red Jacket (amber, bitter, tasted kinda like an india Pale Ale, actually) And two Newcastle Brown Ales. And something has tripped allergies, since I'm sneezing. wtf.

And Adrienne called.-- talked to her for like, three minutes. I wish I could have talked to her some more, that would be nice to to hear from someone totally unrelated to work.

arg. off to sleep off these allergies.

Downotwn Mobile is neat... narrow streets, balconies-- it's a lot like New Orleans in terms of design. Neat architecture and the old houses on the way down there are cool.

Yeah. Night, y'all. Oh yeah-- I get to go home this weekend too... synchronizing the off weekends, so... yay. it'll be nice to not be here, this weekend. Baton Rouge, for the 12 days starting the third, though.

I just spent an hour, seriously, driving around downtown (pff) Mobile, Alabama.

There are a couple cute women here but I swear to God, Texas has a damn good lock on it. (Nebraska's got some good ones too. wahah!) I went to try to find that's a lie, I went driving to clear my head. I swear, this no car thing... got to go. I need that and music. an hour of that, I feel better. Ahhh. Anyway... I did sorta go to find flip-flops. stupid stores. People in the South wear flip-flops until... November, at least. I wore mine on NEW YEAR'S DAY this year. why are they out of them in mid September? stupid wal-mart.

hmm. yeah. And I managed to find a Barnes and Noble, and a Books-a-Million. I might just figure out what to do in this town, yet.

hmm. Not much else big going on. I should get some sleep. today was one of those "okay, seriously, my brain is full" days, at 4:45. And they were still talking. Today I found out, in addition to a zillion other things, that a "Type 23 seal is just like a water pump in a car. pump, radiator, same exhaust side as a automotive water pump." (approximately).

see? hard to internalize. but it was really nice to have the hands-on stuff to do. I like having my hands dirty in a project. "this goes here" sort of work is awesome.

Soooo.... flying to Alabama in the morning. figured out what all i'm going to take, now all i have to do is make it all fit in bags in the morning. rgh. tired, too.

Bringing a camera with me, so... perhaps i'll have photos of the trip. Assuming we get to see anythign cool, that is. Otherwise, I'll be back on the 7th of October. They're getting me a computer at some point, and i might (maybe) have internet sporadically in between.

I'll be living in a Winnebago, since there's no actual housing available. Stupid hurricane. This means:

I graduated college after three years in a piece-of-shit-but-kinda-fun house, to

TRAVEL TO ALABAMA ON MY FIRST JOB AND LIVE IN A TRAILER. WTF (, mate?). Aw, hell, redneck by proxy. (in addition to the other redneck stuff, but, yeah.)

Anyway, updates'll come as i get the ability to make them. And a bunch of you fuckers should expect phone calls. yeah. or you can call me, too. in the evenings, though.

i have, i think, a phone interview on Wednesday with a very intelligent professional engineer for a possible job as an engineer. but, see, apparently he's gonna quiz me on my knowledge of engineering. aaaaaaaaaaah!

holy shit, 4 years of stuff up for grabs in a phone interview. eek.

Glad i had a warning, of some type. and if anyone needs me, I'll be studying until Wednesday.

you know, for all that i run in to, seriously, two friends from high school every day... this place feels strange right now. I like where I was in College Station, the "calling people damn near any time, unless it was maybe 3AM" thing. Because i miss you people in College Station. like NOW. Yes, already.

And I want this decision on this stupid job already. And i want to know where I'm going to live, again. Whether it's going to be Houston proper, or Clear Lake, or temple, or wherever. Because I want some of that again. I need my friends. And someone to talk to on the phone now and again would be nice.

dammit, why can't y'all teleport yet?

So apparently all is not lost on the job front. I received an email from the HR department today (in response to the one i sent the engineer i interviewed with). And it sounds like she's going to hire one person (hopefully me).I was under the impression they were gonna hire two people, but i was also under the impression she wasn't leaving.

So i should hear in about ten days or so. Cross your fingers for me, eh?

well... been a few days. Okay... ( i just typed "OJ," no kidding. woops. super-slasher vibes, bad)

I had an interview on Friday with Oceaneering and I think it went very well., the woman i interviewed with asked about, literally, every line on my resume. Lasted about 45 minutes, including the tour of the buliding. Haven't heard back yet; I'll be really very surprised it i don't get the job.

---

Saturday, I had the best steak I think i've ever had. Definitely in the top three. my dad and I went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, in Houston. Awesome steak, awesome service, and the two Glenfiddich scothes apiece didn't hurt either. I've never been to a restaurant where i felt more relaxed when i left than when i entered. I did there. very nice. Went to the Houston Gun Show before that on Saturday. Neat stuff. more relaxed than last year.

---

Moving back to Temple, soon. (the between time from the end of my time in CS to the time in Houston...) should be all right, if i could bring myself to finish packing all the College Station stuff I have remaining... it will be nice to have a few days at home.

Went to the Dixie Chicken the last couple days. played a lot of dominoes. good stuff. drank a lot of Shiner, and I think I'm going to try to go on the trip that a bunch of us are trying to go to Dublin, Ireland (there's one in Texas, not that one) for new year's. That would be about nine kinds of awesome.

Ok... not much else... but there's the last couple of days.

swear to god, the frat boy in the Dixie Chicken in the salmon-stripe buttondown with camouflage shorts on... didn't realize how much i wanted to beat his ass for that.

---

And i graduated Friday morning, too.

---

And i have a real interview in Clear Lake on Friday the 20th, for a job i think i have a damn good chance of getting, since this is like the third stage of interview-type-stuff. Which would rule. a lot.

so... the job thing continues.

i have:

job interview in the morning, at 8:30, with Precision Engineering Services.

I made it to a second round interview with HydroChem.

I really hope that Oceaneering calls soon... that's the place I'd prefer to work.

I have an interview with Adhesive Services Company on Thursday morning.

holy shit, lots to do. Night, y'all.

so i have an interview on the 31st, for a job in (i think) east Houston. I say 'i think' since it may well be a job in which i get rotated around a bunch of places, or it may well be in some other state. i'm not sure. we shall see. I'd really rather be in Texas. Houston, specifically, since, well, about everyone i know is there... but at this point i'm not sure i cna afford to be too picky.

holy crap, i may actually end up a productive member of society in a couple months. wo... graduate and actually have a job, what a concept. I still have a chance with Oceaneering, possibly, as well...

wow... i have stuff i need to do tomorrow. night, yo.




(and white cheddar cheez-its are addictive. *munch munch*)