Engineer's Graphic

Ask an engineer (specifically one with marginal InDesign/Photoshop skills) to give you a graphic and you are bound to get something like this:

 

Pi Day 2013

A Passionate Review

Today was my annual review at work.  I had to rate myself in a variety of categories with a red, yellow, or green (green being best, red needing improvement).  My boss then fills out the same review of me with the same rating system.  Only in two instances did I give myself a green and he gave me a yellow (solely based on interpretation of roles).  Neither of us had any red (thankfully he had no red).  And in many instances he gave me a green where I gave myself a yellow (I gave myself MANY yellows).

The usual comments were (not verbatim, I wasn't writing this stuff down): "you are too hard on yourself"; "you need to have more confidence in what you do"; "you do a great job but you never see it that way"; "your personality is what makes people want to work with you".

I was also told that because I listen so well, and I pay attention to the things people actually say, all those details most people miss...people want to confide in me, in a good way.  Also, again, not verbatim, I have an outgoing personality [for an engineer] and I don't put my head down and ignore things; this kind of personality is what makes it so easy to work with me.  People enjoy working with me.  (Who knew?)

In addition this year, something new I was told, "don't give up on engineering, you are making a great engineer".  Here is where the passion of this story comes in to play.  I admitted to my boss that I am losing the passion for engineering that I once had.

The reality is that I do love engineering!  There are so many hurdles to being passionate about it though.  I alluded to the fact that while there can be great reward, there is a huge battle to get to that reward.  I do not believe the battle is what makes the reward so worthy.  That's part of it, but not all of it.  These battles along with the long hours, the stress...they are making me lose the passion for engineering that I once had.  If I lose passion for what I do, what is to become of me?  No one ever should do work for which they have no passion.

At this point in the review my voice is cracking and I'm vividly gesturing with my hands.  I'm trying to explain that I hate the battles that are causing me to lose this passion for my job.  We structural engineers tend to walk into every meeting prepared to defend everything we do.  No one seems to care that what we do is so important (it doesn't look a certain way, it doesn't cost a certain amount, etc.).  We have THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ON OUR MIND...life safety.  That is a whole different blog for a different day.  But to my point in this review...hands waving wildly, I admitted that I am losing passion for engineering.  The only thing that ever brings me back is walking into a building that I helped engineer.  Telling a friend or acquaintance that the airport they will travel through has some of my brain's handy work.  Understanding an intricacy in a fine detail.  Explaining to someone how we managed to cantilever 8 stories for 60 feet (an unimaginable feat).  I realize I do have passion, but then I look at my e-mail and see the top five things are demands and challenges and I wonder if what I do is worth the hassle I feel.  Apparently there is value, "I'm making a great engineer".

100,000 Miles

Today near the corner of Spring Avenue and Lebanon Road in Collinsville at approximately 6:30 PM (CST) my car's odometer hit 6 digits.

Purchased in August of 2002, my 2003 Toyota Matrix, affectionately named Jacob, has been on a few adventures.  Though not far, my car has toted me on a few trips; Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and a whole lot of places in between!  It has only managed to stay under the national 12,000 miles per year average by my diligent attention to use of public transportation or car pooling.

So, here it is, officially ten and half years later and my car has hit 100,000 miles.  I think I'll treat him to a new radio!!  (Probably a tune up as well)



In other things, if you have ever wondered what I do all day at my job, I found a video that talks about it (civil and structural engineering).  The downside is that Thornton Tomasetti is all over the place (as it's the engineer's employer).  TT is a great company, and I have nothing against them, but I think there are a lot of great places out there that never get anything close to that kind of recognition and it would be nice to see it.  The other downside is that the guy never talks about all the other things engineers do...the "boring" stuff.  I can't imagine ANYONE would watch the video if he did tell you though.  So here you are...what I do as a structural engineer.

Big Deal?

Anyone who has ever really read anything I have written knows I write for me.  These are my opinions, my memories, my things I want to never forget. One day when my memories start to fade I can come back here and laugh and shake my head; essentially, this blog is my public diary.  You, the reader, just get to sit and hear the story.  Sometimes (in fact most of the time) I verbally share these stories with others.  That's where I am today...I verbally shared my story with someone that now has me in a predicament.  (Predicament isn't even a good word for this, but it's serious.  I want to laugh and make this a joke, but I can't).

I recently posted something about an incident in which I was involved (the recipient of what can be called a disrespectful (perhaps sexist) conversation).  This same post was something that I verbally shared with a superior.  That superior took this information to someone who took it to someone else; without my knowing it my story was at the top of the proverbial ladder.   I have no idea where it has gone from there.  On the more local side, I anticipate that I will have to sit with a human resources director of my company and discuss the issue.  That's fine, I want to tell my side of the story.

I want anyone that might read this to realize that I am thankful to work for a company that cares enough to go strides for my well being.  I like to know that they saw a situation that obviously bothered me and they chose to do something about the situation.  They in no way want me to feel uncomfortable.  They in no way want me to feel intimidated.  They only want to provide the best work environment for me.  But, with that said, I feel like a mountain has been made out of a mole hill, and frankly, THAT has me feeling worse than the initial incident that brought about this predicament.  Part of me, the paranoid questioning part, has me wondering if this has become what it is because someone along the chain is afraid of a lawsuit.  Is that why anyone cares?  They are afraid of a lawsuit? (A different blog for a different day).

So the initial incident involved two men.  The first man indicating they stop work while the engineer was present; the second man indicating he had no respect for the engineer, and the first man then pointing out the engineer was female.  You can go read the post for the particulars.

I initially only shared this story with anyone else because of the insecurities of the first guy not wanting to do work with the engineer present (and in general to go along with a whole "things that were disrespectful" dialog that I've never even told you about).  Why was the guy insecure about working while I was there?  Was the work shoddy?  Were they doing something they shouldn't?  Why so worried?  Since I was telling the story, I shared the whole story.

Was I bothered by it?  I guess so, I obviously made a point to share it both verbally and in a blog.

Did I feel offended by it?  Not really, it was part of a larger story of being disrespected.  That larger story had me feeling worse than this smaller story.

Did I feel like it was sexist? I guess it might be, but no, it takes a lot to offend me in those terms.  A lot (I have seen a lot on job sites, I shrug and go on)!  Simply because I believe the first guy was pointing out that I was female to the second guy does not make what he said sexist necessarily.  Perhaps there was a hushed conversation that I didn't hear that I should be offended by but I didn't hear it.  Perhaps I'm used to being assumed as a male so that I think nothing of it (I sometimes don't even correct people anymore).  Perhaps I should be offended, but I'm simply not.  I feel like it was a "foot-in-mouth" situation.  If it were two women having this conversation, I would have felt exactly the same.

What does it all mean now?  I have no idea.  I assume the team will hear a lecture or see a memo about not being disrespectful.  Frankly, an "incident" should not have to happen to remind people of this.  Maybe that is a good thing in general, and hopefully the only thing that really happens.  For me, I feel guilty, probably not the emotion I should have.  I feel guilty because this blew up, I feel guilty for tattling when I didn't mean to do so, I feel guilty that someone who had a foot-in-mouth moment might get in trouble.  I don't feel victimized and maybe I should.  Maybe that's a whole larger problem I'm not seeing.  I don't know what it means.  What I do know is that a small incident that I took in a very joking and trivial manner has become a big and serious issue.

It's Not A Dude

The other day I was at a jobsite where this very short conversation took place and I wanted to make sure I could always come back here and recall it.

I was introduced to a young fellow who was doing some work within a room I had to gather information (pertaining to the work he was doing).  He promptly went to the adjacent room to meet his colleague where he said, "I don't think we should be doing this while the engineer is here".

His colleague said, "Fuck the engineer"!

Young fellow replies, "It's not a dude".

That was the last I heard either of them speak, but I saw them a few times and made sure to smile brightly each time.

American Infrastructure Continued

I recently ranted about the report card that shows American infrastructure as having mostly C's and D's. I commented that bridges of Illinois were noted as having 18% of its bridges structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. I told you not to panic at this. I still believe you should not panic at this.

I wanted to follow that post with more information (or rant even) and follow up with some questions.

The reality is that there really are significant issues with some of our infrastructure (as I mentioned, I have written to state rep's about some of these; or consider the I-35 bridge for example).  I have also noticed that one of the best ways to get something done is to cause mass hysteria about an issue (in this case, by giving C's and D's; this is the equivalent of making an earthquake movie that has all the extremes that ultimately scare everyone).  In fact, there is an older (but not so old) video that aired on CBS News in August that actually highlights a bridge in New York as being structurally deficient. You can see the video here. I imagine if all states could get reporters to highlight extreme cases like this for all sorts of infrastructure issues, they'd be in mass hysteria heaven.  I get it, I really do, but, I don’t necessarily agree with it.  You should not assume that simply because I rant about something, I do not see the value of it. It sounds hypocritical, contradictory, and very fence-sitter-like (which I can be).  Maybe it is all these things, but I have a point here. I understand why there is a report card, I understand the hysteria of why America received C's and D's, I understand the goal; but I still think America deserves something better than C’s and D’s.  Let me get into this…

Going back to the structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges, I cannot comment on what 18% of Illinois bridges actually consists of (for example is that 18 bridges/100 or 1800 bridges/10000), nor can I comment on which bridges are included in that 18% (as in, the bridge you take every day or the bridge no one knows about out by Farmer Joe’s place). I can comment on what structurally deficient and functionally obsolete are, so let me start there and tell you.

Generally speaking, the terms structurally deficient and functionally obsolete are terms created by the federal government in order to assist in determining the needs of repair or replacement.  There is actually an equation used to determine structurally deficiency of bridges.  This equation created by the Federal Highway Administration takes into account a variety of factors.  The basic result is that all load carrying elements are inspected, given a value and input into the equation that gives the bridge an overall score.  Simply because a bridge is deemed “deficient” does not mean it is unsafe, but it does typically mean that it will require significant repairs and maintenance.

A functionally obsolete bridge is one that was designed and built to meet a specific need that is no longer the need of today.  For example, let’s say that the need of the bridge was to carry two lanes of traffic, each lane being 8’ wide.  By today’s standards, lanes must be 12’ wide, and so the bridge could be considered functionally obsolete as you cannot fit (2) 12’ lanes within the current structure.  Simply because a bridge is deemed “functionally obsolete” does not mean it is unsafe, but it does mean that any major improvements would require the bridge to be brought up to today’s codes and standards (not unlike older homes).

Something not listed in the report card (or as far as I could find) is a bridge that is considered “fracture critical”.  This is the kind of bridge that does not have a redundancy with supporting elements.  That is another blog for another time, but again, simply because a bridge is deemed as “fracture critical” does not mean that it is unsafe.

So knowing this information, about how structurally deficient bridges are defined, I'm more concerned how many of those are "extreme" cases which actually result in "unsafe" bridges.  If we were grading on "extreme" cases, would our grade be different?  Again, are we grading on a curve (compare ourselves to other nations)?  To me, all these things matter.  If we don't have the whole story, can we really grade ourselves well?  Is it fair to grade ourselves in such a way that people (who actually pay attention, so, like 2 of us) will worry?  Is this the only way to get attention of politicians?
 
In the end, none of this matters.  I'm whining about a wasteful topic.  It doesn't matter than we grade ourselves.  It doesn't matter than we try to use these grades for good.  There are far more important topics to discuss and resolve (trust me, all of which I have loads of opinions on, maybe blogs for later dates).  I can only say I whine about this because it's a topic near to my heart (and the 2012 report card is coming out now).  I think it's a shame that we work so hard to provide Americans all the best and yet we are so harsh on ourselves.  But, I suppose, there is such a thing as "job security"?

 

(More information here)

Christmastime 2011

While this wasn't Dani's first Christmas, I like to think of it as her first REAL Christmas since she was just over a month old in 2010 and could only see lights. This year, she could play with and enjoy her presents as well as the lights, the tree, the ornaments, and family gatherings. While I haven't written anything over there on the Baby Blog, be sure to pop on over in the near future as I'm sure to include some highlights!

As for my Christmas, aside from the virus my computer got (from a blog they say?), the cold that I got (not terrible though) and the teething Dani is suffering (molars, what a bitch!) it was great.  I got an amazing new sewing machine from Chris and a great sewing basket (that is to be my next project) from my mom.  I got some gift cards, pajamas, a bracelet made by my Uncle Kirk, and of course some delish food and time with friends and family.  Festivities are actually not over yet either.

I should also mention, while this isn't something I got for Christmas, it was something that I received around Christmas, and that was news that I passed my Professional Engineering Licensing Exam, which officially makes me a licensed engineer in the State of Missouri.  We celebrated at work!

A lot of people have asked me how this changes things for me.  For starters, it's a huge relief, one thing marked off my list, one less test I have to take (yes, I still have more testing for some specific other states), and a bit of an accomplishment for myself as I get to add the letters PE to the end of my name and remove the EIT.  In terms of work, it may mean little for now as I don't have any Missouri projects that I can sign and seal drawings for at this time.  Perhaps in the future I will add some states or projects for which I am responsible and then I will sign and seal drawings.  Pay doesn't really change for me, nor do my tasks, but they could potentially for the future.  One thing though that has changed, I personally can be sued.  Before I was working directly for a PE, who was the responsible party, now I am.  That's not so great, but oh well, with all good things there are some bad things.

Now, onto other things, like sewing...here are a few pictures of things I've made recently, new gifts, and planned projects...

Insulated Horseshoe Tote with magnetic closure given as a gift

Insulated Lunch Tote with button closure made with scrap materials

My new Bernina sewing machine!

Plans for my sewing basket - making inserts

NaBloPoMo Day 24 Post 23 - Engineering

Engineering at it's finest!



The arches will eventually measure more than 1,000 feet across. At the moment, the structure looks like a traditional suspension bridge. But once the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side will be removed. Extra vertical columns will then be installed on the arches to carry the road.
The bridge has become known as the Hoover Dam bypass, although it is officially called the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, after a former governor of Nevada and an American Football player from Arizona who joined the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan.
Work on the bridge started in 2005 and should finish next year. An estimated 17,000 cars and trucks will cross it every day.

The dam was started in 1931 and used enough concrete to build a road from New York to San Francisco . The stretch of water it created, Lake Mead , is 110 miles long and took six years to fill. The original road was opened at the same time as the famous dam in 1936. More photos below .

An extra note: The top of the white band of rock in Lake Mead is the old waterline prior to the drought and development in the Las Vegas area. It is over 100 feet above the current water level.






Word...
Viagrate: to imbue with lasting vigor.


[I have no idea who to thank for this, Crystal sent it to me at work, from before her, I have no idea, but thanks!]

NaBloPoMo Day 20 Post 18 - Run Away With Me, Please

Really though, read the title, I really want to run away, encourage young people to avoid engineering [at least this field of it] and be a sheep herder or a librarian, or maybe a little [or lot] of each.....

Who's in?????????

_____________________________________________
PS: conversation of the day so far...

Me: So, want to run away with me today...away from the hell that is engineering??? Huh huh huh???

Cohort in Crime Christine: Yes please!!! Anytime . . . anywhere . . . I’m always up for running away.

Me: I want to march over to some universities today and smash kids hopes and dreams of becoming engineers! Crush them!!! Mwahhahaha!! After that we can go wherever!! [Please note the enthusiasm by numbers of exclamation points]

CiCC: Ahh, so it’s EVIL Stephy today . . . love it!

NaBloPoMo Day 19 Post 16 - The Extent of My Design Abilities

I was asked to make a poster for the structures group. I was given 10 photos to use. The rest was up to me to make up. This is the extent of my design abilities...sad to say, but at least I got to mark a task off my list!

[click here for large version]

I'm an engineer, not a graphic designer, what more could you expect??

Word...
Kentucky doorbell: To drive up to someone's house or apartment and proceed to honk the horn until they come out rather than exiting the vehicle and going to the door.

P.S. I was asked what the small structure in front of (and inside the circle) was (shown in construction)... after some research I found out that it is a cistern for collecting rainwater. It was designed by another company.

NaBloPoMo Day Nine Post Seven - Oops!

Okay, so by the title I would hope you could infer that I missed two posts. I would hope more so that you are one of my two readers that pay attention often enough to simply know that I missed two posts.

Anyway, I'm way off the course of topic which is "how and why I would miss blogging"! I would like to blame work, since it is after all overwhelming me these days! I cannot though. As you may know, I was off to Berkley, California for a couple of days for a volunteer meeting for SEI (Structural Engineering Institute) that I am involved in since I am the local St. Louis Chair. It's not grand. You could even go so far to say I am Chair only because I lost the election. To be true though, I enjoy it some times as I altruistically love structural engineering. Sorry, off track, I won't dwell there but will get back to my point. I returned on Saturday, my first missed blog day/post. I would have sent a short blog from my phone, but was traveling non-stop in such a manner that my phone was on airplane mode most of the day. When I did get back to St. Louis, it was late, and so I only got a chance to do anything besides move at around 10pm; at which time I crashed into bed holding on snugly to my dogs that I missed dearly. It didn't occur to me until later in the day Sunday that I'd missed a day. I had sort of made a silent vow to blog Sunday with an extra to make up for my mistake. Well, you see how that went!

None the less, the bloggity guilt has overwhelmed me...and as such I will spend an enormous amount of time today catching up! Now is the time to either really try to focus with me, or to simply scroll to the bottom for your words!

-Thursday mom had surgery. She is doing well, but in a lot of pain. Thanks for all the well wishes!

-Thursday I flew out to Oakland, took the BART to the North Berkley station where I waited for a hotel shuttle to pick me up. Turns out two of the other meeting attendees were also waiting, so I got a head start meeting people!

-Friday I went to my meeting that went well. We then took off for a boat ride around the bay to look at the old, new, and still under construction Bay Bridge. I encourage you to go check out baybridgeinfo.org. We had a great guide and an all around great trip on the bay (despite my innate fear of water, I enjoyed myself). See pictures below.

-Upon returning to the hotel (that sits in a marina) I discovered that I didn't need to go to any meetings that evening, but only to a dinner that was several hours away. I decided to take that time to go for a jog in a nearby park, Cesar Chavez Park (see below for location and pictures). While jogging I literally had to stop to catch my breath from the over powering view. At the North end of the park as one turns the corner from the East, you can see out over the bay to the mountains, to Yogi Bear Island (see a map for real Island name), to the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, and even to San Fransisco. Breath.Taking!

- I flew home on Saturday leaving some meetings early. Saturday was the 7th, my anniversary. Considering how this year has gone, it's a small miracle we've even made it to three years. I choose not to air laundry on my blog, not the place nor the time. But, it should be noted that we did have a third anniversary and I did make it home for part of it!

- Sunday was a gorgeous day that started by taking the dogs to meet Amanda and Lou in a dog park in Edwardsville. They were worn out pretty quick, thankfully! From there we took the pooches home to then headed over to Kitchen Conservatory where I bought a knife as a gift, but the best part was that it was made in Germany (not China). I also bought some Vanilla Extract Paste.

-I made a small donation here...

Donate Here!

Words...
disco nap: Sleeping when you have something going later on that you need to get ready for.
Kraft singles: Dollar bills. Derived from another slang term that refers to money as "cheese".
audible: To make an unexpected, last-minute decision. This definition is derived from its meaning in football.

Quotes, Stories, and Other Things

Some quotes and stories, perhaps for your amusement!

• "Well, if you take that away, it's gone"-nameless engineer
  [Really?]

• Person 1: "...decontam?"
  Person 2: "Deacon Dam? What's this?"
  Person 1: "No no, DEE-CON-TAM..."
  Person 1: "Hmm, Deacon Dam, I don't know where this is."

• One fine summer day, Eva and I ate lunch at a place called Johnny Rocket's [or something of the sort], where they have really cool jukeboxes sitting on every table. Place a nickel in and choose a lovely 50's-60's genre tune with lunch!
  
  As it always goes with the two of us together, a small child was drawn to our power. [It happens often that children are drawn to staring at us, creeping over seats or under tables to look closer, have a chat, or even steal some food. We've grown accustomed to this behavior, so this incident here was no big deal]. A small boy, maybe 3-4 years old decided he wanted to play music. Of all the tables in the diner, empty or not, the boy chose to venture towards us with his nickel. He braced himself against our table doing a slight heaving motion to reach the box. He was literally hovering over our food and drinks struggling with all his might to get to play a song. His mother finally notices and gathers him up with much effort. He was determined to play a song, and not on any jukebox, our jukebox! I do not recall if he ever got to play a tune!

• Eva and I were eating dinner at a lovely place called Noodles & Co. one fine afternoon before catching the English Beat show. As we are minding our own business having a conversation Eva notices a small child creeping ever closer to us. We both began doing the side glances by the time he was sitting next to us staring. I turned to say hello to find the boy, Damien, very chatty. It didn't take any time to jump onto the "oddity" boat by asking me, "why is your head so small?", to which I could only laugh and cry a little!

• "..For the rest of us who generally live vicariously through the interactions of our 72 dpi avatars..." -@FrankieP

• "Gramma was hot....but that baby...uh, well not so much" -Amanda

• ...the past few years I had to tone down because of sexual harassment issues, but I used to be the kind of guy that would flirt with every female I worked with except for one. One day she called me on it and said that she'd use the excuse 'not my type' except usually 'not my type' means I think the husband looks like the kind of guy that would shoot a naked guy in the back if he saw him running away..." -anon

• "Yesterday we were talking about MPR calculations for a person taking a drug therapy. Basically its to measure a person’s adherence to their medication. Well the calculation is a rolling calc and is constantly moving.
  
  So we were talking about the Depression Medication Adherence and how the calculation is always moving. So Bobby is trying to explain how “the window for it is always moving”; Pete looks at me and says “that’s so they can’t jump out of it!”...-anon
  

• In reference to my loading diagram plans..."your work is pretty, but it tells me absolutely nothing" -Jim [thanks buddy, gave me a good laugh]

• A doodle...

--------
word...
Dirty Third: A synonym for the Dirty South; derived from the terms "Dirty South" and "Third Coast".

Still Alive ... My Dreams Encourage Otherwise

I had a [sadly] pleasant dream about the suicide rates of engineers and exam takers. I also have a vicious canker sore. I think these are both signs of severe stress. [Those are among other stressors I shall fail to mention here.] The good news though, is that with this level of stress, mosquitoes will leave my ass alone.

Now, on the note of asses I would like to mention to you that my language is part of me; as are my topics. I realize these may be inappropriate at times. If you find this to be the case, don't read anything I write. Simple answer! If you think your mom doesn't want you reading it, then you are probably too young to be on the computer.

Despite what you may believe, I am in a decent mood today, music is helping [as we speak, a little Sunday Girl by Blondie]. I think I'll recap how my week has been going thus far though...

...Monday, a day of meetings and an impromptu conference call...

Webex...woo...	Excitement!

...that led to the following...

Reminder Doodle	Random Phone Doodle
What??

-------
Yesterday I sat in meetings from noon until when I left and didn't get to pee at all, mind you this was after drinking loads of tea all morning! It produced the following kind of doodle...

------
So now here we are on Wednesday and my brain is sucked dry so I wear the funkiest thing I can find, completely by accident...


-----
It's okay though. I've made it through some very rough days lately. Lots of crying, lots of anger, lots of stress. If I can get through this alive, I'm sure I'll have plenty more stories to tell.

I plan on blogging later to include some quotes of late; perhaps a story about me, eva, and odd children.

Please comment and leave me a link of some good comic, some interesting story, or even a video (music or show).

Thanks!

Word...
peace easy: A lovely combination of "peace out" and "take it easy" for those too lazy or too busy to say both. Double the meaning, half the time.

My Lesson For Today

Just a quick thingy to make you think...and set you on the right path!

If you are doing anything with stainless steel there are two things to remember:

1. "Stainless" steel varies in degree of mixed metals, therefore, "stainless" ability varies, which brings us to this..."stainless steel is not always "stainless".

2. When doing any work with stainless stuff, don't forget that you also need to specify the use of stainless connections! Most failures occur at connections, and so by not using a semi-protected stainless connector, you're just letting yourself down.

Sorry, I'm a detail oriented kind of gal; I kind of have to be to do what I do!


Word...
fashion victim: A perfectly manicured, groomed, waxed, and buffed person who wears designer logo clothing but has no real taste or style; wears every faddish trend that comes out.

Maker, Day 2

Dear Maker,

Hi, it's me again. Are you mad at me? I kind of feel like you are mad at me. It's okay if you are, I just want to know. Some of us are, well you know, not omniscient!



The thing is, I need to mentally prepare myself for things like your anger or your punishments. I've heard the stories of said anger. I had sort of hoped the Apocalypse would come yesterday. In fact, I am sure there were a few of us waiting, but I don't belong to that cult so I don't really know (I didn't like their choice of shoes). I sort of have my own cult, I'm the only member (I don't have creepy enough eyes to get followers). Anyway, off topic as usual! Back to my lack of Apocalypse, it's okay, I get it, there were some others asking for a non-Apocalyptic day. We just can't please everyone can we? [me now winking at God with mouth half opened as any proper wink should be performed]

I should also take this opportunity to say that there are people here (I'm sure you know, being omniscient and all) that are improperly using what you gave them (i.e., brains, or wait, did you forget some people when handing out brains?). I find it really annoying. For example, Winkers. These are wrong, I disapprove. What can you about this?

I realize that there are more important things happening in the world for which I should focus, but my altruism just isn't here today; and you know I'm altruistic about doing the right things! Please forgive me.

Anyway, I have to get back to working on the most impossible building. [me now having tears welling up in eyes while my chest tightens]

Skeptically Your Apostate,
Me


Word...
Hasselhoffing: The act of changing a colleague's desktop wallpaper to display the manly physique of David Hasselhoff. [Ed. Note: I expect someone I know to do this to someone they work with (pics required) for my amusement. I kind of think Ray would be a fun target, but that's just because he can take a joke]

Mike M. (ahem) "Hearts" Monitors

Few of you may know the daily tribulations of an engineer. It’s boring! So boring, the only thing perhaps worse to hear about is data entry. At least we get to think once in a while! But really, I’m straying off course like a Catholic priest! What I’m getting at, is that most days, I would like to bang my head against a wall only long enough to allow time for someone to come shoot me. Today, there is a lot of head banging going on! [You could insert here…Quiet Riot’s Bang Your Head and throw some goat baby!]

There are days that I can be cheered up by a number of small things. Sometimes it’s exercise; randomly it’s chocolate; most days it’s music. Yesterday, I chose to write about sheep. Upon reading comments (thanks to all of you that chimed in), it occurred to me that there's one person that could really get me laughing. We used to work together at a different "head banging" company. This person is a crazy fellow, Mike M., that is special in ways no one else comes close! Example: he likes to hump things "Beavis style". But really, don't we all occasionally like a good hump? Maybe we're talking about a camel's back, the middle of the week, or a good shag; in any case, the hump is good! Mike M. though, he's real special like! He makes dirty thoughts blush!

Don't get me wrong, he's good people! He does good things like Locks of Love, super fun things with his kids, and has even done his share with Doberman rescues!

Before Locks of Love - hippie!	After Locks of Love - ship shape

So about now you are thinking, "cut to the chase jerkwad". Okay, here it is, the point to this rambling, the cutting of the chase, the..okay, I'll stop!

Mike M. sent me a video that had me laughing tears! So now, I present to you,

Mike M. Hearts Monitors!

...a short film by Mike Marfell and produced by Sprocket...

Preface...a long time ago, on a hunk of land approximate to where the Mississippi River meets some other big rivers...a group of friends worked at a company. One of those friends chose to wimp out to the land of humidity, old people, and mouse ears (also known as Florida). Suspecting that his dear friends missed him insanely, Mr. Florida called to ask if his friends had turned his former office into a "shrine". The sad friends, Sprocket and Mike M., had already turned their sorrows to some Crack-House blend coffee; adding to this mixture was a newly owned Sprocket camera; and of course the now brilliant idea of a "shrine". You see, one thing led to another in the "shrine"...and well, eh, just watch!

More KAUST Pictures

Well, it's time again that I get really excited about showing you a project I worked on ... and yes, once again, it is KAUST! See previous blogs about this!

Click here for the link ...awesome stuff!!

Thanks for looking, and please know, I just make the buildings stand up, the architects are really the people to thank for this. I give them their due appreciation (take it while you can get it)!

Fallen in Shanghai

If you saw this building, that had "fallen over"...perhaps you've wondered why. Most of you are clever enough to know it had to do with the foundation, but for a more precise answer, here you are...





[For those of you that speak English...
(1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than what the pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction.]

City Garden, Where They Grow . . . Odd Things?

Today for lunch Crystal, Christine, and I went to City Garden to check out the coolness. It is very true that engineers think in terms of practicality and function rather than appearance and oddness. I am one of those engineers. However, before an engineer, I am a devout oddity. I appreciate art. I appreciate the rare. I really appreciate this park. It is both functional, unique, and exactly what we needed in St. Louis! Yea for a new place to eat lunch and people watch!!

Wind Sculpture, Two Different Angles
Weird Animal Carrying A Geometric Shape
Sexy Lady Walking [Just for you Amanda]
My Favorite Sculptures [Maybe Anywhere]
Steel Sculptures
Bunnies
Me And The Odd Thing!