Long time no update.
Looks like I'll be doing thanksgiving at my sister's in LA. Looks like I'll be trying to hit Boston in the X-mass to New Years stretch.
I'm still trying to settle in the area, and find local connections and stuff. A few weeks ago I went to a local gaming con. Played a few board game type things, including a bit of HeroQuest, and a little table topping. There was someone running a larp track, but I was either unable to make time slots, or games were canceled and replaced by babysitting the simplified larp, so I skipped.
The company I'm working at is neat, and insanely agile. If I want something done, I do it, or find someone else who can, and it gets done. The only paperwork I do is writing POs, and checking ticky-boxes that said the stuff I ordered showed up, and should be paid for. The past few weeks, I've been in a bit of a wait state, my stuff is designed or laid out, and stuff was ordered, but finally things are starting to show up, and other people's things are starting to come together enough for me to do stuff on top of it.
Speaking of stuff on top of it, today I entrusted my life and safety to my fellow engineers. How many people can say that? We were attaching a machine element to another element by connecting a rail to bearing cars that get bolted onto a surface. So we had the element with the rails rigged and hanging from a crane, over the other part, that was held up by some temporary structure, and then on the bottom of the stack, I was on my back on some plywood, sticking bolts up from the bottom to connect it all together while people on top kept things in alignment. For those of you who are not mechanical engineers working on machine tools, rails and bearing car alignment is really really important. We (me helping a co-worker) were measuring deviations in the 1/10,000 of an inch, and worrying about each one (how many we can deal with, not do we have any at all).
Later on, we get to attach both of these bits to another rail, 30 feet up in the air, and then I get to do more stuff up there after that all goes together. To work here, you need to be either a monkey or a goat. Guess which one I am...
I'm still trying to settle in the area, and find local connections and stuff. A few weeks ago I went to a local gaming con. Played a few board game type things, including a bit of HeroQuest, and a little table topping. There was someone running a larp track, but I was either unable to make time slots, or games were canceled and replaced by babysitting the simplified larp, so I skipped.
The company I'm working at is neat, and insanely agile. If I want something done, I do it, or find someone else who can, and it gets done. The only paperwork I do is writing POs, and checking ticky-boxes that said the stuff I ordered showed up, and should be paid for. The past few weeks, I've been in a bit of a wait state, my stuff is designed or laid out, and stuff was ordered, but finally things are starting to show up, and other people's things are starting to come together enough for me to do stuff on top of it.
Speaking of stuff on top of it, today I entrusted my life and safety to my fellow engineers. How many people can say that? We were attaching a machine element to another element by connecting a rail to bearing cars that get bolted onto a surface. So we had the element with the rails rigged and hanging from a crane, over the other part, that was held up by some temporary structure, and then on the bottom of the stack, I was on my back on some plywood, sticking bolts up from the bottom to connect it all together while people on top kept things in alignment. For those of you who are not mechanical engineers working on machine tools, rails and bearing car alignment is really really important. We (me helping a co-worker) were measuring deviations in the 1/10,000 of an inch, and worrying about each one (how many we can deal with, not do we have any at all).
Later on, we get to attach both of these bits to another rail, 30 feet up in the air, and then I get to do more stuff up there after that all goes together. To work here, you need to be either a monkey or a goat. Guess which one I am...