defensive driving

Yesterday I had the joy of driving to Hutchinson for a defensive driving course. There were a couple classes here in Wichita but I was off in Salina for a Soils field tester class. Even though none of the contents of the defensive driving class was of use to me, since I actually regularly drive that way, I enjoyed the class. I gets me out of the office and I get a discount on my insurance for taking it. When signing for the class, we were required to give our license number, which I wasn't able to do since I had left my wallet at home. Of all the days to do it. I even decided that morning to not bring my lunch and to get some BBQ at a nearby restaurant. I did bring some fruit so I wasn't starving, but it was the first time I've skipped lunch in a long time and amazingly I didn't suffer any headaches. Which means I can cut back on my daily fruit intake.

The class was taught by a state trooper and he's generally entertaining. He was the same guy I had last time. He showed a lot of funny videos last time but yesterday he went straight by the workbook. He streamlined much of the class for KDOT since many of us have gone through this before. We actually used the first 1 hour of class asking him various questions regarding the legality of certain actions. We took a lot of breaks and still finished 2 hours early. This is my last scheduled class for the year. Now I have a whole month to prep for my project, though honestly I don't know what I need to do to prepare.

asphalt conference

Last week I went to a Asphalt Conference held at KU. It was rather boring. I feel asleep in almost every talk I sat through, and gained very little knowledge. After the introduction, the first talk was given by the Deputy Secretary of Transportation about future funding. It was somewhat depressing. This speech is usually given by the Secretary, but she had other obligations. He mentioned that it's basically the same speech as hers but at half the speed. That's the one thing I really like about the Secretary's speeches was how fast she talked. I didn't even stay for the whole conference. The point of these conferences is to get continuing education credits. They gave us our certificates at the beginning, so the only thing keeping you there was actual interest. I left about 2 hours before the end since I wasn't getting anything out of it, and went back to the hotel to nap, which is what I would have done at the conference anyways. The conference was Thursday afternoon, but there was a social hour at the hotel on Wednesday and Thursday nights so they paid for us to stay both nights. I skipped both nights to hang out with friends in Lawrence

Since it on a Thursday, I decided to take Friday off and spend the whole spend in KC. I basically just hung out with various friends and played Rock Band 2 that weekend. I felt like 2nd vacation.

Tomorrow I have to go to Nuke gauge safety training. We're require to go every two years. I never got a nuke badge from my first training which is used to measure how much radiation you've been exposed to on the job. We use a nuke gauge to determine the density of the dirt and pavements. The training is in Salina, but I'll have to be ready to leave here at 7am even though the class isn't until 9am. It's the 5 of us that was too busy working on the same project to go to an earlier class. I will probably sleep through this one and still ace the test. It's tempting to drive on my own so I won't have to spend 3 hours in a suburban with those guys, but we're supposed to be trying to conserve gas. Well I'm trying to, the project manager almost never shut his truck off.

pavement marking

Today we had a short class teaching us how to use our new pavement marking database. It's a rather easy program. They had everyone class take turns using the program. We broke it a couple times, which is what they asked us to do. The developer was there taking notes.

Last week, Bitter:Sweet, my favorite band at the moment, released their 2nd album and it is fantastic. It's poppier than the first one, but still excellent. I'm a little disappointed that I still have to wait two more weeks to be able to buy the cd. They released it early on itunes, which I refuse to use because of the DRM. The new Ladytron album came today on itunes, and the physical version will also come out on June 3rd. I'm not a fan of this itunes exclusive early releases. I remember last year, Stars released their latest early on emusic, which is a site I support. This year has been great for me musically. 3/6 of my top favorite bands have released new albums. Portishead being the biggest of them all, first in 11 years. Plus bunch of other bands that I just discovered last year, have stuff like CSS and My Brightest Diamond. And there's been talks of the Brazilian Girls and Camera Obscura working on new albums, and if I'm lucky they'll come out this year. So many great bands, and none of them are coming close to Kansas. Though I'm willing to travel to see Bitter:Sweet again, and Portishead too if they do anymore US shows.

Improving the ground

I just came back from a 3 course from the National Highway Institute about Ground Improvement techniques in Topeka. I was a fairly interesting class, though I will most likely make no use of any of the techniques. The majority of the class were geologists and soil engineers. We were introduced to 10 different methods and most these were developed by the Swedes and Japanese. One of the instructors was Scottish which made his lecture a little bit more interesting. Also in that class I met the cousin of one of my old friends, that I haven't talked to in years. I discovered that he's in Iraq for his third tour.

I had a fairly busy week. Friday night was a friend's birthday and we played Rock Band until we broke the pedal. Saturday was the KU Japanese festival, which I danced at. Sunday was another performance at the KSU international talent show. Since my class was in Topeka, I commuted to Manhattan for dance practice on Monday and Wednesday.

I got home Wednesday night at 11:30pm and I found two of my packages that I've been waiting for. One was from Amazon, more Street Fighter manga, and the first Cow and Boy book. The second was supposed to be my helmet and riding jacket which I ordered 5 weeks ago. I got the jacket, but no helmet. This order has been a pain for a me. First the helmet I originally ordered was out of stock, and they never bother to notify me. I just happened to check my order status and saw a note on my order. So I called them to change the order. Then I waited 3 weeks and called them again wondering about my order. They immediately shipped it after I called them, but it arrived without the helmet. I'm not in terrible need of these items, since I already have helmet and a KDOT jacket that suffices. Now I have a jacket, but old helmet doesn't match. In addition to that, the flasher relay that I ordered two weeks ago for my bike has yet to come in. I was planning on riding my bike up to Manhattan for the KSU Japanese festival, and it looks like I'll have to do it without turn signals. Hopefully the weather will be nice this weekend.

The cake is not a lie

I was slightly worried, because no one on the construction side has a birthday day in March, so my boss wouldn't been making a cake. I had forgotten that she often brings us leftover treats. Today she brought in part of a drum kit made out of cake. She made this for her son, who apparently plays the drums. The snare was solid chocolate cake, bass was angel food cake, tom tom was a checkerboard cake, the cymbal was a giant sugar cookie, and there were pretzel drum sticks. the drums had white frosting and nice icing details. She brought us the cymbal and half the tom-tom.

I had a semi busy week. I finally got some certs, but after weeks of doing nothing I'm slow to get to them. Then I had two days of class which slowed me even more, but gave me an excuse for having gotten anything done. I have websites that I like to read daily and it's difficult for me to work until I read them. After two days of class I have a back log of stuff. I actually did some work today but it feels weird, because I'm still not caught up on my readings. Part of my readings including a daily sudoku and crossword in Wichita paper website, that's surprisingly not blocked. I really need to do more of these, because I'm slow, my mind has become dull. If only I had the drive of when I first started two years ago.

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.

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.

Profilograph

Yesterday I went to very simple class about reading the results of a profilograph. Basically after a major paving job, they run a profilograph over the surface to test the smoothness. It'll probably be a long time before I ever do one of those, since we're focused on repairs instead of new construction. But the class got me out of the office. I rode with the office admin and on the way back I got to hear some office gossip, which I usually never hear. I usually prefer to mind my own business and just listen to my music. I do talk with my coworkers more often now though. They'll all bored, spending their days playing games and watching DVDs.

Recently our Field Engineer Administrator announced that he's leaving us for a job that pays more and doesn't require a 50 mile commute. He is a fellow KSU alum and very easy too get along with. Yesterday, my boss was making a giant KSU banner for him. His position, FEA, is one step above Construction Engineer, EAIII, and requires a PE license. So if my boss wanted to move up she could, and then I can move up to her position. Though I don't want to move just quite yet, I don't want the responsibility of running an office and conducting meetings with people who clearly know more than me. Plus I like my boss and her cooking. Though there is the possibility that they'll keep the position closed until the EAIII from the north shop passes his PE test, so he could take it. I'm not too crazy about moving to that office either. Though it's not like I'd automatically get the position anyways, I still have to compete with the other EAII from the north shop. Ideally I'd like to stay in this office and take over in 6 months or so to get more experience, but that's not going to happen.

Tomorrow, we have our annual District Construction and Materials meeting. It'll be the end half of Thursday and beginning half of Friday. I'll be napping in the back. I have yet to make it through a conference or class without falling asleep once, though it not like it's a goal of mine to stay awake either.

catching up

Last week, I finished the last of my training classes in Salina, Aggregate Field Testing. The class was taught by this old 70 year old civil engineer. I feel asleep during most of the lecture parts, which luckily there wasn’t much of. There were a lot of hands on tests that had to practice of the course of 4 days.

When I got back I had a shiny new laptop. It’s a widescreen one with a full number pad on the keyboard. This is definitely good enough to play FFXI, but I don’t have any reason to travel anymore. Maybe if I’m able to go to Japan, I’ll take it with me. 3 others in the office got new laptops too.

Yesterday, my boss put me in charge of doing a 402 (estimates) for a striping job. I went out with another ET and measured the lengths of the lines on a 6 mile stretch. Did the easy stuff in the morning and after lunch we decided to count the skip marks. That was a bad idea, because it was putting us to sleep. Eventually I had to count out loud to keep us both awake. At around 2:30pm, we had to quit because we got a flat tire. We were driving on the shoulders and medians so at some point we drove over a metal spike. Coincidently it was the same tire that I just replaced the day earlier. I was actually the first time I’ve ever changed a tire, and I got to do it twice in two days.

Today I didn’t do anything since the car needs a new tire, and I don’t know what other vehicle is equipped to use the DMI (Digital Measuring Instrument). Plus my boss lent out my truck to be used on another project. I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow. I felt a little bad, not doing anything today when I actually had an assignment to complete.

In my boredom I was looking at the State civil service job openings. I noticed that they opening another EA1 position in Wichita, and the EAIII position which they closed when our engineer arrived. Looks it’s time for a regime change in this office. I should probably move my desk to the other side so my boss will have a spot on this side.

Respecting others

So my Respecting others in the workplaces was yesterday. Luckily there was another today in Hutchinson. I just thought they moved to Hutchinson class to Wichita, but they made an additional class a day earlier. The class was good and he showed a different video from last year. I talked with a instructor a little since it was my 2nd time in a row. It's normally required once every 3 years. He was looking for a minority engineer to help out with a seminar he gives. When he asked our metro engineer, if he knew anyone, he suggested our female engineer. Which is fine by me, I'm not sure I'd want to participate, nor give the typical answers he was expecting. Though it would get me out of the office.

My boss sent out the project staffing for this years projects. I will have a Senior, the Filipino chemical engineer, helping me out. Which is good a thing, I probably get along with him best after the other engineer. Tomorrow is the letting day for my emergency bridge repair project. I'll finally get more information regarding start times. Hopefully it won't interfere with my trip to Japan.

calculations

Another boring day at work. I actually started reading the construction manual. This document has some useful information, unfortunately I don't learn well from books. I have about 1.5 months to prepare for my first project. My boss actually took me off as a helper on another project so I can focus on this. He finally told me to calculate the concrete quantities at the end of the day, so I'll save it for something to do tomorrow after my "Respecting others in the workplace" class. There'll be 3 of us from our office. Myself, the other engineer, and the new technician. The new technician seems to have done more work in his first week, than I did in my first two months. It really feel like I'm the only person in the office not working.

FEMA

Got an email from our KDOT safety officer wanting everyone to complete this FEMA NIMS (National Incident Management System) online course. Had to take two very boring and easy courses. Both were basically introductions to the system. The first course took me about 4 hours, because I kept getting distracted every 10 minutes. The second covered a lot of the same material, and I was able to focus, so it only took me like 1 hour.

The game filter didn't originally catch my main site for FFXI information ffxiclopedia.org, but it finally got blocked today. I was actually reading something on the site, then I click on linked and got the dreaded messaged. Normally when you get that message you're supposed to email your boss to explain your actions. Since I wasn't supposed to be at the site in the first place, I'll just hope I don't get flagged.

We apparently have a new employee. I know we had several people leave, but I don't remember a position ever being opened up. I check the State employment site regularly out of boredom and to find a job for my friend. This new guy seems late 20's, early 30's. I noticed the skoal in his back pocket, so I'm expecting him to be like the average KDOT employee. I wonder if he'll become the new concrete batch guy, since that's reserved for the bottom of the totem pole. The last three employees that left, that didn't retire, were the current batch guys. They just spent the past two weeks our new one, so I wonder if they'll go through the trouble again.

hurray

Yatta! I finally got my keys back. It almost caused me a problem after my class on Tuesday, because I'm supposed to put my state truck back in a fenced yard. For some reason the gate was closed, but the lock wasn't latched so I was able to return my truck. The asphalt class wasn't too bad, learned quite a bit and was able to relate almost all of it to my past experiences. I was the first person to finish test, but I didn't get 100% like usual. Felt a little stupid because of the questions I missed. Though a couple of them I just didn't feel like looking up the answers, it was open book. That's a lazy attitude and I shouldn't be way when dealing with specs. Currently I'm answering the phones, and immediately I get 4 calls. I hate answering the phones, because most of the people are gone, and I'm not really capable of answering their questions.

Field Trip

We had a field trip a cement manufacturer in Humbolt, KS yesterday. It wasn't too bad of a trip. It's a little over a 2 hour drive, and I slept for 3/4 of it. Half of the plant was shut down for maintenance since we are having a surprisingly cold winter this year. The plant actually runs 24/7, 365. In case you didn't know, cement is what's combined with water, sand, and gravel to make concrete. Sadly I lost my keys there, and didn't notice until I was back in Wichita. I had to get a spare from my dad. I called our tour guide today, and luckily were able to find the keys. They were exactly where I thought they would be. They fell out of my pocket while sitting the van. I had a brochure rolled up in my pocket, which gave it a tunnel to slip out of. The other half of the office is going on a tour next week, so Ms. Engineer will pick them up for me.

Tomorrow is the concrete field tester course, three days of boring classwork. Hopefully we have good teacher. The teachers I've had so far have been good. I've actually tested concrete before, and I really don't like it. Dries my hands out terribly. Oh well, it gets me out of the office, and I get per diem.

Defensive Driving

I went to a Defensive driving course today. It lasted from 8:30am to 2:00pm, with several breaks including one for lunch. It was surprisingly entertaining, not necessarily informant, since I already knew most of this. The trooper showed us several videos of crashes, plus some random videos just for fun, including the Trunk Monkey and the Ford Sportka commercials. Another nice thing about going to this class is that once I get my completion certificate, I am entitled to an insurance discount. The class was very relaxed, almost too relaxed, some of the guys in the back were constantly cracking jokes. Then one really rude old man sitting behind actually called someone on his cellphone and proceeded to talk to them at his seat. Is he just that oblivious to others, or does he think because he's so old, that people will excuse him and won't say anything. Of course no one said anything and the trooper continued with the class like nothing is happening.

Since this was a district wide class, I got see several people that I worked with over the summer, including the Area Engineer. I told him about how slow it is, and he suggested that I try to get into the district materials lab and watch some testing. I ask my boss about it, and he said he'll try.

After the class, my boss sent me to main office to get my keys to the office. Apparently the lady that issues the key sent an email to my boss saying that I should pick up my keys next Tuesday. So I kinda inconvenienced her, especially since they are in the middle of remodeling her office area.