Better today.

Got down to making some design things in Autodesk Inventor… I’ve pretty much had it with the 2-D CAD… it was OK back in the day, but the ‘improvements’ that have been made to the program since the early 0’s have me scratching my head… so heck with it.  Long as I can read the old drawings, I suppose that I’ll be OK.

But, it is nice to be working for a company where metric units of measure are the company standard.  No attempt to make it easy for the vendors that don’t like metric measurements by putting dual dimensions on the drawings (Metric and Non-Metric for every dimension) , fuckum, as they say on my planet.  Conform, or enter a ‘No Bid’!  Bwa-hahahaha…  There’s lots of hungry shoppes out there in these Hopey-Changey times…

I received the last of my initial safety training today… boy, these guys are careful about everything!  When they say Zero Accidents they mean it!  5mph in the parking lots… no walking outside the crosswalks, outside the building AND in the plant!  Locks… bagels…  No, the bagels were at another plant.  Oy!  And if you screw up the tiniest little bit, WHAM~!  You get the black spot!  Yarrr…..

But all in all, it is a really neat organization.  Hope that they decide to hire me full time, it will be a blast!

Week 2 starts today…

Getting ready to begin my second week at Lite Steel.  Hopefully this week will be more productive for me.  More later….

Windows Live Messenger upgrade that didn’t happen

Tried to upgrade to a higher level of IM so I could again share files with VW….

De-loaded the program… twice… and loaded the ‘latest’ program again, twice… and still have the 2009 version.  Still can’t exchange files.  Screwum… I’ll leave it be until The Bill tells me that I have to do so….

“Oh, Great And Evil Bill…. I will obey…..”

 

Now… on to things that I could have been accomplishing all day….

Week One is behind me… Now, it’s time to brew!

The Star City Brewer’s Guild is having one of the semi-annual “Learn To Home Brew” days today, Saturday, at Lamplighter Mall at our friends and fellow member’s business, ‘Blue Ridge Hydroponics and Home Brew Supplies’.  I’m probably going to go and help set up and maybe take a sixer of my IPA to pour samples from.  Its going to be cold today… 40’s… and there are going to be three brewing demos going on all day… lots of water spew’n out upon the pavement to freeze in the 20’s tonite… the weather might keep people at bay.  We’ll see.

The event used to be called ‘Teach a friend to Home Brew’ but the High Council of Home Brewers (…or whatever the heck it is) suggested that the name be changed to “Learn To Home Brew”… which I changed to sound more colloquial to “Learn A Friend To Home Brew”.  It is the way of my people, you see… It is catching on….

Now, to tell the High Command that I’ll be out & about today….

Stopped by the C on Willie-D today after work….

… to take El Jefe’s book back to him that I didn’t have an opportunity to read.  (“Venus on a Half Shell” by fictional author Kilgore Trout, a recurring character in Kurt Vonnegut’s books.  Actually written by Philip José Farmer)  I didn’t take the time to read it due to studying and trying to make a meager living…. and the reading time is now at a standstill while the new job is being assimilated.

Saw Bessie, and another guy from another store, and the guy that is replacing me.  And of course, El Jefe hisself.  All were merry as could be at the C on Willie-D.

As it should be.

Curiouser

Things are getting.

Day One…

I arrived at the new job site before 8:00 and had to wait in the lobby for a while until my primary supervisor noticed me on a walk thru.  Boy was he surprised… he thought that I was going to start next Monday, and he had just come in from a 2 week vacation to the Monday Firedrills du Jour.  He & I collected my computer and monitor and took them to a cube in the next room and I connected things as best I could… an adapter for the monitor was missing.  Once that was found, he said that the box didn’t have the software that I need to do the jobs hadn’t been loaded yet.  And sooo……

Another contractor was called in to load the software.  While he was doing that, I was taken out to the factory floor… after being supplied with safety goggles, helmet, etc. (including a loaner pair of steel toed boots) and shown some of the issues that I’ll need to address.  Then I was deposited back in the engineering department to wait for the computer action to be completed.  I used the time to sketch up some ideas and look thru my Machinery’s Handbook for a special Metric thread.. which doesn’t exist. Looks like the machinery out on the floor uses a non standard thread on the ends of the shafts.

0nce the computer was up and running I began to make some models of the ideas regarding the threaded thingy.  This is gonna be interesting, finding someone that will make the threaded fasteners.  O-Ell.  Life’s a Cabaret, ole chum.  More later… at least I get to come back tomorrow…..