The construction engineer and the specialist are away at some concrete conference that I wasn't even invited to. She left one of the seniors in charge which is fine by me. That just means I won't have to answer any questions on the phone. During this time of freedom, not that it would matter if they were still, I've been playing some Sim City 4, trying my hand at city planning, mainly for the transportation planning aspect. I went broke the first time because I was busy building and neglected the budget side. It took a while and lot of proper cost cutting and allowing the dumping of toxic waste, but I was able to get a positive cash flow after going into debt the 2nd time.
Aside from playing games, I've been watching more shows besides my usual Avatar over lunch. I started watching Flight of the Conchords. It's a great show about a New Zealand comedy-folk duo, playing characters of themselves, trying to make in New York. I especially enjoy the songs. I might look into finding their albums, but I doubt it'll be as funny out of context of the show.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Superpave
I had a fairly good time in Manhattan. I got to go to 4 yosakoi practices and even got to perform. Pity messed up on the first dance. On Tuesday there was the engineering career held in the same building as my class. I saw several friends representing their companies and as applicants. We had a nice long break in the class that I was able to wander around for an hour talking to people.
The Superpave class itself wasn't too bad. It was half lab work, half lecture. We never stayed the whole time, usually left 2-3 hours early, and they even gave us lunch 2 of the days. Being half lab work really helped tie-in all the stuff we covered in lecture. That's part of the reason I was able to get through my civil engineering classes in college, because so many had labs. Another bonus from the lab, was that we got a black apron, which I'll probably never use for work. Actually most of the stuff I learned in class I won't use, but I need to be certified to enter asphalt information into our database. Pity this class's certification is once every 5 years. I don't get many opportunities to come up on the state's dime. There's this and the annual KSU transportation conference, which should be in a couple of months. I should look into that and make sure I'm registered to attend. I missed last year's because I had a class in Salina.
The Superpave class itself wasn't too bad. It was half lab work, half lecture. We never stayed the whole time, usually left 2-3 hours early, and they even gave us lunch 2 of the days. Being half lab work really helped tie-in all the stuff we covered in lecture. That's part of the reason I was able to get through my civil engineering classes in college, because so many had labs. Another bonus from the lab, was that we got a black apron, which I'll probably never use for work. Actually most of the stuff I learned in class I won't use, but I need to be certified to enter asphalt information into our database. Pity this class's certification is once every 5 years. I don't get many opportunities to come up on the state's dime. There's this and the annual KSU transportation conference, which should be in a couple of months. I should look into that and make sure I'm registered to attend. I missed last year's because I had a class in Salina.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Manhattan
Every other Friday, I come in 30 minutes early so I can leave early, so I can make it to Manhattan by 7pm for yosakoi practice. Though today I forgot to come in early, I'm still going to leave though since I got some extra time from the Monday field trip. I'll be in Manhattan for the next week, taking a 4-day Superpave training course. It's taught by the only CE dept teacher I never had. I'm sure it'll be boring and simple, since techs have to be able to pass it. Though I've heard its one of the harder courses. I look forward to my week up there, though I don't look forward to living off fast food for the week. I'll be staying at the hotel across the street from the Union, so I won't have to worry about the parking nightmare.
Yesterday, I went to a couple beauty supply stores to find some special dreadlock shampoo, no place had what I was looking for. The Nubian Beauty Store, which was run by asians, had a conditioner, but the not the matching shampoo. I ended up picking up a "dry" shampoo. It sucks, I'm not supposed to wash my hair for a week to give the dreads time to lock up. My head itches.
Yesterday, I went to a couple beauty supply stores to find some special dreadlock shampoo, no place had what I was looking for. The Nubian Beauty Store, which was run by asians, had a conditioner, but the not the matching shampoo. I ended up picking up a "dry" shampoo. It sucks, I'm not supposed to wash my hair for a week to give the dreads time to lock up. My head itches.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
New Hair
Today feels like Monday to me. I took yesterday off, and went on a field trip on Monday. I decided to get dreadlocks, which was a 3 hour ordeal, so I decided to take the whole day off. I also went and got fitted for contacts. So came in today looking fairly different, and one of my coworkers felt the need to reintroduce himself to me. He did this to me once before after I came back from rotation and had shaved my head and goatee.
Several employees took a trip to Tulsa, Ok to tour the lab facilities of a major asphalt producer, Sem Materials. They provided two charter buses for a Wichita and Topeka group. I slept for about 2 hours each way. It was a nice tour, it would have been a little more interesting if I worked with asphalt testing, but it was basically a day off. They had a beautiful facility, it's almost tempting to start looking for a job in the private sector. After the tours, they gave us lunch, then some VPs came, gave a presentation basically kissing our collective asses. I guess that's business though. We're one of their biggest customers, and we're usually the first to try out their new and unproven designs.
Last week, he had our annual District Construction and Materials meeting. It wasn't too bad, and our office surprisingly won the District Safety Award. They got their picture in the monthly newsletter, but I missed out since I left quickly. At that meeting, our Metro Engineer asked if I was interested taking over the Hutchinson construction office, since the engineer that they were grooming for the position just quit at the end of last year. It'd be a promotion and a nice pay raise, but I'd have a lot more responsibility that I don't think I'm ready for. Plus I don't want to move or commute to Hutch. I told him no thanks, and he easily gave up.
Several employees took a trip to Tulsa, Ok to tour the lab facilities of a major asphalt producer, Sem Materials. They provided two charter buses for a Wichita and Topeka group. I slept for about 2 hours each way. It was a nice tour, it would have been a little more interesting if I worked with asphalt testing, but it was basically a day off. They had a beautiful facility, it's almost tempting to start looking for a job in the private sector. After the tours, they gave us lunch, then some VPs came, gave a presentation basically kissing our collective asses. I guess that's business though. We're one of their biggest customers, and we're usually the first to try out their new and unproven designs.
Last week, he had our annual District Construction and Materials meeting. It wasn't too bad, and our office surprisingly won the District Safety Award. They got their picture in the monthly newsletter, but I missed out since I left quickly. At that meeting, our Metro Engineer asked if I was interested taking over the Hutchinson construction office, since the engineer that they were grooming for the position just quit at the end of last year. It'd be a promotion and a nice pay raise, but I'd have a lot more responsibility that I don't think I'm ready for. Plus I don't want to move or commute to Hutch. I told him no thanks, and he easily gave up.
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