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We had a big move at work at the end of December. I moved from the 3rd floor to the 10th floor. Awesomeness since moving to my new office:

- Dry erase board
- Corkboard
- L-desk
- New widescreen monitor
- New chair
- New nameplate
- Hung up posters that had been piling up on my filing cabinets (bigger office, more wall space)
- Better view — I can see the water now!
- Filed all the loose papers that I had lying around on my desk and bookshelf
- Hung announcements on my new bulletin board instead of piling them on the corner of my desk where people only look when they’re being nosy.

So many stories…

Thursday night, I went out to dinner at Mango’s with a bunch of guys who work at a model basin. Food was pretty good and we stuck around for the live band after. Everyone was pretty tired though, so we all decided to head back to our respective hotels when their parking meter was about to run out.

Friday, I got in to the conference pretty early and got a head start talking to the companies. I was sent on a mission by my boss to talk to one company who releases software similar to (but better than!) the one I use for most of my analyses. And as you could see yesterday, I also accomplished my mission to acquire a giant carabiner.

The most important lesson I learned from this trip is that a lot of companies have extra cool freebies that they hide from the masses. I went around and talked to every company, regardless if I had heard of them before or if they had any connection to what my company does. Some of these companies got looked over a lot. I was greeted once with, “You’re the first person to stop here in days!” Two-day conference. Sad. Anyhow, once they got started, some of these guys would talk for 5-10 minutes. And as a reward for being polite and not walking away, I got prizes! Flashlights, mugs, a hat, a pocket calculator/notepad thingy, a flashing lanyard, fancy keychains…

I had allocated time on the last day to make a final lap around the expo to catch the companies that I didn’t get to talk to the first time around instead of going to technical papers because there were a couple timeslots that didn’t interest me. Unfortunately, everyone started taking down their booths around 2, so I didn’t get the last-minute giveaways before they packed up their boxes to leave.

And it’s also a really good thing that I didn’t fill up my suitcase on the way here. I was barely able to fit everything in there to bring home. Don’t worry, it’s all getting home.

Also, something to keep in mind next time: swimming on the last day means packing a wet swimsuit to bring home.
Next: Postcards, dueling pianos, and my day at the beach.
Today’s entry brought to you by free wifi at the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Woo!

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Beachfront Avenue! Well, except I’m not in Miami, so it’s Beach Blvd. That’s the same…

So, on my flight down here, we were getting ready to leave 15 minutes early and had pulled away from the gate. The flight attendants had gone through their spiel about buckling up and whatnot. The pilots tell the flight attendants to be seated for takeoff. Then, one of the flight attendants asks if there are any doctors or nurses on the plane. No one responds, but we’re all sticking our heads up over the seats like prairie dogs. Some guy was having chest pains and the pilot was all like, “If you don’t stop dying, I’m going to turn this plane right back around.” And the guy was all like, “Errrggghhh.” So the pilot turned the plane around and made him leave.

Dropped off the heart attack guy, refueled, and were on our way. After landing, I picked up my stuff, got my rental car+GPS, and went straight over to the Museum of Discovery and Science My Life in Ruins Blur download

for a couple hours. It wasn’t as entertaining as I thought it would be. I think I’m spoiled by the Smithsonian, for sure. But I went to the Science Museum in Boston and that was awesome. It was still geared toward kids, but there were fun things to play with and things to learn. There were a few cool things here, but overall, it wasn’t that exciting. I have some pictures and a couple videos that I’ll post up eventually. They had these huge insects in one wing that I was not prepared to have start moving toward me. Totally freaked me out.

I’m also very disappointed by the lack of postcards around here. I tried to get some at the museum, hotel, and convention center. I think I actually have to go look for a tourist trap and buy some. So much work…

The conference is going well. I haven’t collected much stuff, but I’ve talked with almost half the companies with booths at the expo. I passed on the biggest carabiner I’ve ever seen. I’m kind of regretting it now though. I didn’t know what I’d do with it, so I didn’t take one. But now I want to show people and I don’t have one. So sad. But I’m 2 business cards shy of my requirement for attending. I think I’ll be all set tomorrow, with extra credit.

Ok, brain shutting down for the night. Need sleep to prepare for more human interaction tomorrow.

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My company started a new policy last year. They’ll pay out for unused vacation days, but you can’t roll any days over to the next year. This year, they’ve changed it again. You can roll two days over, but anything unused is lost. My boss is checking for me to see if they are buying unused leave back, but I heard a rumor that they weren’t.

So, with my 7.6 days of leave left, I’ve decided to take off Fridays through the end of the year. I’ll have to work one Friday when I’m being sent to Florida for a conference. Oh, the sacrifice… And I already have a Friday off for the day after Thanksgiving. That leaves me with a full work-week the week before Christmas, where I’ll have a 5-day weekend using up my 2 floating holidays the days before and after Christmas.

My boss made clear that if we come up on a deadline on one of these dates, I might still have to work, but I could pick another day to take off. He also didn’t specify that the day I pick had to be after

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the deadline. But I suppose I should assume that to be the case. Even so, I think this will be a nice way to get through the rest of the year.

So all you people who take “vacations” or plan “trips”… You probably work 5 days a week or something. Suckers. ;)

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My keyboard at work looked kinda gross. So, I turned it upside down and shook it. I confirmed that it was, in fact, really gross.

Note to self: Shake keyboard over trash can next time.Land of the Lost trailer

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Today was better. Crisis was managed, my lunch didn’t explode, got my library books returned last night, found out that there was traffic on the way home because there was a gunman on the loose (!), and class didn’t put me to sleep. I even went for a run this morning, which put me in a good mood. Oh! And I was offered strawberries and mango today. No scurvy for me!

Came so close to getting a good night’s sleep last night for the first time in weeks. I left my ringer on because I was half-expecting a phone call, which came in around 11ish. So, not too bad, but still woke me up. Then woke up again a couple times during the night from Ian/apartment noises. Then, I woke myself up just before my alarm thinking I heard the front door unlock. It was weird. I must have dreamt it, but it sounded so real. So then I was all worked up when my alarm went off and had to get up.

Work is calming down. Finished the bulk of my part for the proposal we’ve been working on. All that remains is addressing whatever comments we get back on this and then it wraps up and gets sent out next week.

Registered for VT Engage today. Not sure where I’m going to do my service hours, but I’m thinking the library. I’ll have to see what they need though, but maybe I could do like 2 hours a week or something. I can afford that.

Need schedule STOP

I’m speechless. I received this email regarding the engineering society for which I’m on the exec committee:

Do you have an up to date schedule for our Section Meetings?
I realize we have the website, but the panel chairs I am dealing with are not all comfortable with using the website.

Just received an email saying that my laptop shipped today! Should be arriving next week some time.

Received my new copy of MatLab! Version R2007a. Hot.

Spent the evening at Boss’s place with the rest of my department. Burgers on the grill and fresh-baked cookies. Then we moved on to play some Wii games… Ian, NewGirl, and I warned everyone numerous times to tighten the wrist-strap before bowling because no one else had played before. This was followed promptly by SkunkNut hitting Boss’s leg with a Wiimote, throwing the Wiimote, chipping some paint off the ceiling, and just barely missing the TV. Oh, it was priceless.

Two more people had their last day at work yesterday. One submitted his resignation a week before the layoffs. The other one submitted his on Thursday and offered to stay for 2 weeks or just leave on Friday since he was on overhead anyway. So they finished up yesterday.

Down to 47 people in our building, counting the interns.

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Home now. Never fear!

I did, however, forget my keys this morning… and then forgot my cell phone in the car, so i had to dial the front desk to get in. Then I had to explain that I really did live there… I just forgot my keys.

Sigh.

So, since I last updated, I went to use the bathroom before heading out of the office. And when I got back to my office, Boss Jr was back in his office. At 11pm.

Then, I left shortly after that (Boss jr was on the phone with Australia) and saw our COO driving out of the parking garage.

Off to bed now. Have a long day of goodbyes tomorrow.

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Things going on…

Still haven’t gotten together for the 1/2-HOY reunion. It keeps getting pushed off because everyone’s getting old now. Eepie has to take care of a kid, Crit is dying from pneumonia, Yenny is [almost] unemployed, Marc has class on Thursdays, I have class on Wednesdays…

Craziness at work with all kinds of rumors flying around. The situation for which the president of our company explained (during an all-hands meeting) with a thumb down and a “plbthththbth” noise has come to fruition. The next few weeks should be exciting. But, you know, in the bad way.

Watched Pirates two weekends ago. Watched Knocked Up last weekend. Careful, the ending is crazy scary. Knocked Up, I mean, not Pirates. This was the first movie I’ve watched with Ian where he actually covered his eyes because it was so scary. Or gross. One of those. Sonny did not scream like a little girl though.

Helped NewGirl move. We swiped a dolly from the office. And half our department was there to help her, including Boss Jr. Only one broken desk and the cactus survived. I’d say it was a success.

Had some good family time this past weekend. Hung out with Sonny and his friends watching Knocked Up and playing Boggle(TM). Then, everyone got together for a Fathers’ Day party. There was cake, but no singing. I missed out on Lenny’s housewarming/Fathers’ Day/100-day baby thing though. I heard there was cake there too.

Got good feedback about the project at work that I’ve been working on. We had our big presentation 3 weeks ago and will have another in 2-3 more weeks.

Saw JL2 a couple weeks ago when I was in his area for a meeting. Met up with him for lunch and gossiped for a while.

There’s going to be a Farewell Ceremony for Sonny’s battalion next week. He was supposed to head out a few weeks ahead of them, but has been able to stick around to wrap up some stuff. So, we’ll all be heading over for the big send-off.

My cousin is getting married this weekend!

International Sub Races are next week in Carderock. I was hoping to sneak over and watch some of it, but I don’t think I’m going to have time. Attending a conference on Monday and Tuesday and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be attending the shmooze-fests in the evening.

Alright, now that I’ve gone through my calendar for the last 3 weeks, I think I’m all caught up. Woo! I’m sad that I’ve forgotten all the QOTD I’ve been collecting though. I need to start writing them down.Hearts in Atlantis full movie

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Last night, one of the managers on our floor left a note for another manager with a talk-bubble coming out of the Angry V-Line face. It was completely relevant to the message he needed to pass along too. *Awesome*.Wah-Wah movie

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Boss taught me about V-Lines a few weeks ago:

1. First you start out with the (cross-section) of the ship’s hull:

2. Then you add the innerbottom (lowermost deck).

3. The V-Lines get added, which show the maximum heel of the ship at maximum draft in a damage situation (read: Whatever is inside the “V” won’t get wet)

4. This means that you can’t place non-watertight penetrations, like some kinds of pipes, passageways, etc., going through watertight bulkheads outside of the “V”. So those things cannot be here:

Or here:

And ever since then, I’ve been teaching everyone else in my department about V-Lines so I can draw this diagram for them. This series of drawings and explanation was actually NewGirl’s handywork after I asked her to draw this up in CAD. We then proceeded to print out a sheet of 20 of these faces and left them around our department.

The best part? We left one on Boss’s monitor and now he wants a T-shirt! He came by the next day, and while he was sitting in my office waiting for me to find/send him some files, he was writing/drawing in his notebook. When I finished, he showed me the mock-up he had drawn of the Angry V-Line Face on a T-shirt. Apparently, he got bored waiting 5 minutes.

Also priceless: Boss Jr asked why there was a V-Line on his desk. Uh, because it’s a face? And it’s funny..? Sigh…

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Got a chance to go to the Naval Academy and be a judge for their senior design projects. It was a fun day and a good learning experience. It was cool to see the projects and interesting that they all chose non-military vessels.

I spoke with one of the profs about the rationale behind choosing small craft, since the VT curriculum always had us designing large ships. He said this gave the students a chance of getting down to the nuts and bolts and actually go around the design spiral multiple times. That you don’t learn that much more from laying out the general arrangements for a carrier vs. a ferry. Some good points.

QOTD: “Are you the only woman?” [checks down the row of 20+ people] “Oh, yeah. You are.”

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My office Christmas party was last night. It was a swanky party. Cocktail hour, followed by steak and chocolate sin cake. Mmm!

My mom was nice enough to fix up the dress that my dad brought back from China for me. I was very Chinese-y. Many compliments on the dress and at the after-party, I showed off my mother’s handiwork. The dress used to have sleeves and the material she used to close off the dress after removing the sleeves, she just picked out. It’s practically a perfect match. Not to mention she took in the dress and had to do it somewhat asymmetrically because there was a zipper on one side. Everyone was very impressed. (Thanks, Mom!)

First time in years that I have been offered cash to take off my clothes. Ahh, my coworkers… What a night.Body Armour video Tell No One dvdrip Deep Rising divx download Big Trouble in Little China movie

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