Enjablog

At the airport right now. Overslept this morning, but fortunately, I had to take a cab here, so I got a wakeup call and was able to throw some clothes on and stumble into the car in time to catch my flight. Yay for free wifi!

Will need to go shower in the gym at work, but that’s no big deal. I’d rather catch my flight than be clean. Can’t say that my seatmates will feel the same way. Whatever.

Just got my morning phone call from my coworker on duty. Things are looking good and our calc last night predicted fairly accurately what he measured this morning. So, I’m all set.

Boarding starting!

I was thinking this morning that I could get to go home for a couple days and come back next week when more exciting things were happening, but then I called into a telecon and got more tasking because I was on land/available today.

I’m going to talk to some of the higher ups tomorrow to see where I would be most useful. I was a little whiney about having to stay longer than scheduled, but I’m starting to see it from a different perspective. Mostly because I get to go out on something that I helped design. How cool is that?

I’m doing a lot of good work here and just from the past 48 hours, I’ve surprised even myself with my assertiveness and competence. I want to go home, but I also have an opportunity to play a significant role here, which also advances my career. Leaving in the next few days leaves Boss Jr on board for 5 days straight and no one to stay on land and keep things in order.

I think with two of us here, we’ll make more headway and put pressure on the right people to get work done now, instead of at their molassas pace. And we can trade off going onboard and have a day of rest in between. I don’t think either of us are used to being this sleep-deprived.

I may or may not know something about this. That’s all I will say:

First Littoral Combat Ship gets underway

Still on business trip. Staying indefinitely.

Three words: Lead Naval Architect.

I am such a badass today.

I arrived home last night to find myself locked out of my apartment. This is particularly noteworthy because I live by myself and have 2 deadbolts on my door.

One can only be locked from the outside with a key. The other has a punch code, so I don’t ever need a key.

So.

I typically use the top deadbolt with the punch code. It’s also a standard lock on all the units in my building, so when building maintenance comes around, they can just unlock that bolt.

Except I didn’t request any maintenance.

Apparently there was a water leak somewhere and they were trying to trace the pipes and find out where the leak originated from. This meant that the building engineers had to go check an entire tier of apartments and that was why the mean front desk lady couldn’t call and let me know that there were going to be people in my apartment.

She would have had to make 16 phone calls. 16! She can’t handle that. I work out in the world, so I should know what it’s like. She’s fielding phone calls, signing for packages, answering the door… All from a desk. With a phone! She just can’t be expected to be able to call each person like that.

16.

Really?

She said the engineers were supposed to leave a note, but I looked and there was no note. So she kept trying to blame them. “Oh, well, I will speak with the building manager about that, then. They really should leave a note.” Really? They should leave a note, but you can’t be expected to call me?

Then, she said that it was policy for the engineers to “secure the unit.” They lock all the locks that they have keys for. But when I got home, I first noticed that someone had been there because when I went to unlock the top lock, I turned it and nothing happened. I thought maybe, somehow, I forgot to lock the door on my way out that morning. But then the other deadbolt was locked.

So, if their claim was that it was policy to secure the unit, mine was left unsecured. Then she claimed that if they had locked the top lock and not the bottom, I could complain too. They just can’t be expected to know which locks people use. I should really carry all my keys with me at all times.

Right.

That’s what the evening woman at the desk said. Right before she told me it would cost $60 to have the engineer come back out to get my key out of the master box.

I laughed. Hysterically, and a smidge maniacally.

Then she said the building manager would be back for the board meeting that evening and I could wait for her because she has access too. Like I have a choice?

So, the building manager came in and got my key for me… along with a piece of advice that I should carry my keys with me. I took my keys and walked away.

I just don’t think I should have to carry keys for a lock I don’t use. I also don’t think people should be barging into my home unannounced.

I like my apartment… and it’s not like I could afford to sell my place right now anyway. But I cannot convey how much I hate the people here. Hate.

“Oh, it must be difficult raising a special needs child all on your own…”

“Hm? What do you mean? My child doesn’t have special needs.”

“Oh. Then why can’t you get him to stop disrupting the other 51 people on this bus?!”

To child: “It must be difficult having a French woman for a mother, n’est-ce pas?”

Man, I can’t believe how much blog fodder my office has been supplying me with the past couple weeks!

Today, I went by to help VTGuy use MathCAD. He had never used it before, so wanted some hand-holding. Ok, fine… I said I was taking responsibility for people’s competence around here. He took the initiative to try it, so I will do my part.

He wanted to type in some equations (all numerical calculations, no variables) and have it show units too. So, I showed him how the basic syntax works, how to get the formatting right so fractions line up all pretty, etc. And then he got confused when he entered in N*m and the result came out as J.

“But this is supposed to be an energy.”

Joules are a unit of energy. They’re Newton-meters.

“No they’re not. They’re something with Watts.”

I start to explain energy and how to calculate it (force*distance, a.k.a. N*m), then work and how, yes, you can calculate energy if you have work and a time…

ResumeLiar, who shares an office with VTGuy, decides to jump in too, “Uh, are you sure? I think VTGuy is right.”

Uhm. Yes, I’m sure.

1) I love MathCAD. If MathCAD says so, I’m sure going to believe it over you two nimrods.
2) A Joule is the SI unit of energy. We learned that in 7th grade.
3) I’ve been calculating impact energies with Boss Jr for 3 weeks. I am familiar with units of energy.

Also, who the hell let you people graduate from college? As engineers? Seriously??

But, sure. Let’s make this a “discussion.” Let’s everyone share their feelings and say what they think.

So they both pull up wikipedia to show me how wrong I am. Oh, surprise. I’m right. I’d appreciate the last 10 minutes of my life back now, thanks.

I offer them each a Mr. Yuck sticker for sub-par performance today.

Ooh, such a good mail day today!

I got:
- 2 checks from Fairfax County paying me back for the money they stole
- my official, frameable P.E. certificate
- my new voter registration card, including application to be an Election Official.

Too bad my voter registration card was pre-torn and crudely taped back together. That was a little disappointing. And in order to be an election official, “You must be ‘people oriented.’” Oh well. ;) I would also have to be without phone and internet for the day too. Horrible, right?

I should just volunteer instead. My company is giving everyone the day off on election day to encourage people to vote. I know plenty of my young colleagues are going to waste away their day off, neither voting nor being productive members of society. I really don’t want to be like them…

I went in last Tuesday to get a patch test put on to find out what I was allergic to. Went back in on Friday and the results are in: Thimerosal. (As illustrated by the square reaction in the picture.)

This is often found in vaccines, contact cleaning solution (fortunately, not the one I’ve been using the past few years though), and makeup — specifically, eye makeup and lipstick. I need to start researching makeup before buying it. I only own foundation, 2 types of lipstick, and some eye shadow. But I have had trouble with the lipstick before and just stopped using it (hence the second one that I own). So, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the problem.

Haven’t been able to find anything that I use regularly that specifically calls out this ingredient though. So, I have no idea if this is the cause of my life-long skin irritations. Will have to be more cognizant from now on though.

This has been an insightful week for me. Chad2 (previously NewGuy) and I have bonded over the annoying incompetence of the newbies.

He is sharing an office with our dept intern and I have been working on training up a new hire. I’m also trying to move away from the New Guy/Newer Guy naming convention because I recognize the inherent flaws in the system. (Sorry, NewGirl, you’re getting grandfathered in.) So… I’m still working on a name for this guy. I’m thinking ResumeLiar is too judgmental. Like I said, still working…

ResumeLiar doesn’t seem to understand how to utilize email. He’ll email me asking me to tell him when I’m free. I respond with, “What do you need?” 1) So I can be prepared. 2) So I can allocate a sufficient amount of time for whatever it is he needs to know that I’m free for. His response? Walk over to ask me in person for something to do. Well, if you had told me that in the email, I could’ve spent 5 minutes putting something together for you to do and then talked to you. Instead, you can stand there and wait.

And yes, even though I’m putting these files in the same folder I’ve put everything else for you, I will send you an email with a link to where things are posted. Stop asking me to do the same task over and over. I get it. You’re incapable of figuring out that I’m going to put the stability files in the stability folder. I will send you the link like I have twice a day for the past 3 weeks that you have worked here.

Then there was the task I had him work concurrently with me because there was an issue that was bottlenecking the remainder of the calcs that needed to be run. And he comes in the next day asking if I got it to work. Yes. “Oh, can I see it? I couldn’t get it to work.” Hm. Well, did you try? “Well, they kept failing, so I stopped running cases.” And then what did you do with the other 8 hours of the day? The goal here is to make it not fail. Of course what you started with failed.

So, I’m going to give you my calcs and then expect an independent review back? Right. Why don’t I explain it again in simpler steps and you make an attempt at learning how to do this? I’ll take responsibility for not being a good teacher if you take responsibility for being slow.

Now, to be fair, he has shown signs of being useful. He found a couple errors when he did QA for some of my stuff last week. Slow, but diligent. I don’t think he has a grasp of any of the concepts, but he can push buttons in the right order when given detailed instructions and is reminded to follow ALL steps listed. I can build on that.

Lesson 3: If you lower your standards enough, there is a positive side to everything!

QoTD: “I can explain it again, but I can’t comprehend it for you.”

So, I got an intern put in my office a few weeks ago. He’s working for a different division and I got “asked” by their VP… well, the VP voluntold Boss Jr. Then Boss Jr asked me when I had an office full of people whether that would be ok. So I got bullied into it. He did man up and apologize later for putting me in a bad spot like that, but he got bullied into it too, since the VP and intern were standing outside my office at the time. Unprofessional.

In any case, the first day, the kid tried to make smalltalk with me, but I was genuinely busy. He asked me some questions about myself and I specifically did not reciprocate those questions. I had already gotten enough background info on him from around the office the day before he started — school, year, major, etc.. But I figured I should be polite though and keep up facades. And then he chattered on for an hour and a half.

Shut. Up.

He got named CC (Chatty Cathy). But I have once again found an application for psychology to help interact with the humans. I acknowledge that I can only control my own actions, but what the advice columnists don’t tell you?

Lesson 2: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Ok, that was kind of directed at Boss Jr from yesterday) So, if you change your actions in the right way, the result can be a favorable reaction from the person being trained with whom you are interacting.

I noticed that once I allowed CC a conversational opening, he would yammer on for an hour or longer, regardless of whether I was facing him, paying attention, or showing any sign that I could hear him at all. The solution was clearly for me to change my own actions and not allow that opening. A week into training and we no longer speak. There is an occasional cordial morning greeting, and he turns around and stares every time someone comes into the office to discuss something with me, but there is no interacting. And he no longer tries to join in conversations, just stares.

Definitely a successful training exercise.

Granted, now that he’s “comfortable” around the office… he feels free to spend his day playing games that involve him mashing the keys on his keyboard, calling his gf who works downstairs to ask insightful questions like, “Are you online?” and perusing for swimsuits for his gf. The worst part about that? His gf: not hot. Those bikinis would not have been flattering on her at all.

QoTD: “It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.”

I’ve been working on a project the past few weeks which basically just fills in the gaps when I have breaks from the main project I’m working on. While working this, I spend about a quarter of my time doing calculations to determine the energy exerted in a collision, half of it correcting Boss Jr’s calcs because he has this compulsion where he has to do a calc every time I do one, and the last quarter trying to explain why his numbers are just made up and trying to convince him to stop.

The most recent revision he sent me had velocity subtracted from a mass. I thought this was wrong because of the dimensional analysis and what with it not making any sense. But Ian helped me understand:

Lesson 1: As velocity approaches c, mass trends toward infinity. So you add velocity to a mass, not subtract.

Other notable quotes from today’s interactions:
“I think we agree. Do you agree?” Um, no.
“Ok, so ignore the calcs for now. Do you agree with the concepts?” Do I agree with conservation of energy? Yes. Conservation of momentum? Yes. Shall we get back to the part where the calcs show no understanding of these concepts?
“Thanks, this was really helpful for me… *pause* You think this was a waste of time, don’t you?” Well, yes. But I recognize that professional courtesy dictates that I not answer that honestly. So, um, no… I’m glad you understand now.

He was so proud of himself too. He had printed out this explanation and told me how he found it on Wikipedia. Because, you know, some dude was up late one night, worked out a proof for conservation of energy, and decided he would post it to Wikipedia posthaste!

QoTD: “It would help if I were better at Physics, wouldn’t it?”

It’s here! It’s here!!

Unfortunately, they forgot to include the stamp pad I ordered, so you can’t actually see something stamped, but I’ve been embossing things like silly. It’s so fun. And I can’t imagine it getting old. This is one of those times in life when you achieve a goal and it’s just as awesome as you thought it would be. And I am so much more excited about stamping things now than I was about the officialness of becoming a PE. So awesome.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Ian and I spent the day over at Anna’s sister’s place with her, Sonny, and Anna watching an X-Files marathon. Lots of fun and it’s always entertaining to hang out with Aurora (Anna’s giant dog). Watching these old episodes really made it clear the running theme they had with Ben Franklin. I can’t believe I missed it the first time around. But, then again, I was 12 when these episodes originally aired and had to wait a whole week between episodes.

I’ve had eczema as long as I can remember. And every doctor I’ve been to has told me that people “just grow out of it” and that it’ll go away eventually. That hasn’t been the case for me. The last time I brought it up with my doctor, I asked her how old people usually were when they just magically grew out of it (minus the sarcasm) and she told me around their late teens, but it varies by person.

Um, I’m not a teenager.

This isn’t one of those things that I’ll probably grow out of when I hit puberty because, you know, that already happened.

So, Ian finally convinced me to go see a dermatologist about it. I’ve been to dermatologists before and they usually prescribe a steroid cream and it helps briefly and then it ends up being too harsh on my skin. And it’s all back to the same old thing.

But.

I went to see this dermatologist a few weeks ago and got put on some new stuff (steroid cream, of course) and within a day, my arms and legs stopped itching. Followed by decreased scratching and my skin actually getting a chance to heal!

And today, I noticed that I have hair sprouting on the inner part of my elbows. Is this normal? I assume it is because I have hair on other parts of my arms. But I’ve never had hair on that part of my arms before. Wacky.