(no subject)
I haven't posted in a while, and since I've apparently wrecked my sleep schedule for the evening by taking a nap this afternoon that went on too long, I might as well use a little bit of time to update those watching this space on what I have going on over the last couple months.
My relocation to Philadelphia has been a series of ups and downs. For review; I came out here to work for an Italian helicopter company. I've made a few friends outside of work, and received a few big favors from Magess's family (if you know her you know her), like having a place to store my motorcycle while I figured things out and help working on my car. I first lived in an apartment set up by the company I work for in a rather boring part of northern Philly and then via a coworker I found a house in Fishtown with a new roommate already there. Fishtown is close to downtown and I-95, making it easier than a lot of the city to get in and out, and the commute is usually 30 minutes or less each way. There are a few easily walked destinations in the area that I like, like a bar that's not too bad (quite nice actually although it can get somewhat crowded on the weekends, but they have an excellent kitchen so that helps balance my opinion of the place) and places to eat and such.
I ended up putting my motorcycle into a storage unit about a mile and a half from where I live, it was the closest thing I could find. I also needed some space for some furniture that doesn't fit in the apartment.
My job isn't what I expected. Briefly, I thought I would work as a support engineer to a final area in the factory, helping technicians work out problems on completed aircraft. Instead I'm doing configuration management, at least that's the title; I work between our office and the design office in Italy in the hopes of resolving old action items and coordinating changes in engineering between the two locations. The company is Italian and it's a very different culture at work. People are very dramatic, or at least can be, and there's a lot of odd issues to deal with. Such as; I cannot always contact Italian engineers directly, they expect people here to work through an Italian person like a supervisor. If I email someone about something they're doing I can't expect them to reply at all without basically making someone in my office translate the email and use their title to prove it's worth replying to. There are other issues but this is indicative of the situation.
I've actually had a very hard time establishing my role there at work. By role I mean, what I'm responsible for and what I'm not. There's been two meeting, one of which was at times tense and was close to becoming a shouting match, plus an email that set off the more negative meeting. Some see me as a guy trying to turn away tasks, I'm trying to establish the idea that I can't do anything and everything imaginable, and as a configuration manager with people to task with certain things I shouldn't have to. None of it is even a very big deal really, but what was going on was I had my actual supervisor and the supervisor over the avionics group saying I wasn't to do one major task & facet of what my office does, and then a couple other people that thought I should. It's been tough.
Fortunately, and this might seem odd after the above, I like a lot of the people I work with, like 75% of them. It's not a very big office, maybe 25 people in it, and I like all but three of them and another three or four basically don't speak so I couldn't care either way. But this is still a pretty high percentage I think, higher than I'm used to for sure, so there's still a bonus there.
But I still want out of the job. I'm looking for a "real" engineering position again, closer to what I did at Cessna, and I'm seeing some glimmers of opportunity here and there. It's nice to be bringing home a real paycheck instead of waiting to apply for unemployment again or waiting for my Cessna paychecks to stop coming in like what was going on before this gig started. I think something will come up eventually so I'm in okay spirits overall about work, just wishing this gig had been more what it should have been. Apparently when they hired me, and I had a few weeks to (not) pack and arrive, the manager of the engineering department had thought up three different jobs for me including managing a small team (it would have been one or two people under me) to update the avionics on one of the helicopters built here. Then he realized that our work couldn't be easily incorporated per FAA rules without some company restructuring that had yet to take place. This sort of thing may still happen but I can't just hold my breath. We'll see.
Home: I live with a roommate who's drinking problem wasn't readily apparent when I first moved in. He's a college student, somewhat non-traditional like I was actually, he's in his later 20's and going to school at Drexel Univ. He's not a mean drunk or whatever, he's just... at home drinking a lot when he has the time. Multiple DUI infractions, multiple Minor in Possession charges as well, to the point that when he applied to go into the Marines a long time ago (this is per a story he told me when he was drinking...) he lied about the number of times he had been charged and they actually turned him away because of all of this. Of course he's indignant and acts like they let worse people in but that's obviously a defense statement and he's got demons to deal with.
However, I'm not trying to fix him, I'd like to move out. Que the above issues with work and leaving seems pretty alright, but moving to another house in the city when I'm trying to find a different job, which might pull me out of whatever new place I find for a new career in a new town... things are tricky. He's hard to deal with too; we steal wireless internet access from a neighbor because he doesn't want to possibly get stuck with an increased cable bill (he's also a TV addict, which is a riot from my POV) even though I've told him I will pay 100% of the increase in costs. He'd rather skate by. Same with the electric bills, they were going to someone else that had previously lived here, and his whole idea was that they'd just keep going somewhere else until we did something so the best thing to do in his mind was to Do Nothing. We're now getting electric bills and somehow they're not asking for any back billing. Pretty much stupid on all fronts and I feel like I can't steer the situation at all.
Dating: I've been using OKCupid.com to meet girls and it's been hit or miss, mostly miss. A few dates were generally lame and not worth discussing. One was really great and we agreed on a second meetup... and she canceled the afternoon of. Her excuse amounted to "I have a headache and crappy attitude after a bad day at work" which, okay, valid to a point. I thought I salvaged that with a suggestion to meet up the following weekend (this was on a Tuesday) and she agreed, we chat a bit through the week and I figure things are solid, and she stands me up on the Saturday. Awesome. Since then I've met a girl that's nice, not exactly my type, but we had a decent first date and will probably see each other again sometime.
I've been lucky to have a few good people here that have been supportive and kind from the beginning. Balatro brought me with to his family's Thanksgiving and that was very nice, people were friendly and inviting, and I did meet a cousin of his who I found quite interesting but she's not really local and just in for the family event so that was somewhat unfortunate. Ah well, such is life...
So, where does that leave me, probably time for a recap; things are stable for the time being but I'm trying to up heave my life again. Having a roommate saves money but costs sanity. Italians at work live up to their stereotypes and don't get me started on Albanians (good lord) but most people are generally cool to be around (not Albanians). I miss a lot of aspects of life in Wichita and a few key people (more than I want to admit or talk about here) but with a bit of luck I'll have some of these things sorted out in the near future. Until then...
My relocation to Philadelphia has been a series of ups and downs. For review; I came out here to work for an Italian helicopter company. I've made a few friends outside of work, and received a few big favors from Magess's family (if you know her you know her), like having a place to store my motorcycle while I figured things out and help working on my car. I first lived in an apartment set up by the company I work for in a rather boring part of northern Philly and then via a coworker I found a house in Fishtown with a new roommate already there. Fishtown is close to downtown and I-95, making it easier than a lot of the city to get in and out, and the commute is usually 30 minutes or less each way. There are a few easily walked destinations in the area that I like, like a bar that's not too bad (quite nice actually although it can get somewhat crowded on the weekends, but they have an excellent kitchen so that helps balance my opinion of the place) and places to eat and such.
I ended up putting my motorcycle into a storage unit about a mile and a half from where I live, it was the closest thing I could find. I also needed some space for some furniture that doesn't fit in the apartment.
My job isn't what I expected. Briefly, I thought I would work as a support engineer to a final area in the factory, helping technicians work out problems on completed aircraft. Instead I'm doing configuration management, at least that's the title; I work between our office and the design office in Italy in the hopes of resolving old action items and coordinating changes in engineering between the two locations. The company is Italian and it's a very different culture at work. People are very dramatic, or at least can be, and there's a lot of odd issues to deal with. Such as; I cannot always contact Italian engineers directly, they expect people here to work through an Italian person like a supervisor. If I email someone about something they're doing I can't expect them to reply at all without basically making someone in my office translate the email and use their title to prove it's worth replying to. There are other issues but this is indicative of the situation.
I've actually had a very hard time establishing my role there at work. By role I mean, what I'm responsible for and what I'm not. There's been two meeting, one of which was at times tense and was close to becoming a shouting match, plus an email that set off the more negative meeting. Some see me as a guy trying to turn away tasks, I'm trying to establish the idea that I can't do anything and everything imaginable, and as a configuration manager with people to task with certain things I shouldn't have to. None of it is even a very big deal really, but what was going on was I had my actual supervisor and the supervisor over the avionics group saying I wasn't to do one major task & facet of what my office does, and then a couple other people that thought I should. It's been tough.
Fortunately, and this might seem odd after the above, I like a lot of the people I work with, like 75% of them. It's not a very big office, maybe 25 people in it, and I like all but three of them and another three or four basically don't speak so I couldn't care either way. But this is still a pretty high percentage I think, higher than I'm used to for sure, so there's still a bonus there.
But I still want out of the job. I'm looking for a "real" engineering position again, closer to what I did at Cessna, and I'm seeing some glimmers of opportunity here and there. It's nice to be bringing home a real paycheck instead of waiting to apply for unemployment again or waiting for my Cessna paychecks to stop coming in like what was going on before this gig started. I think something will come up eventually so I'm in okay spirits overall about work, just wishing this gig had been more what it should have been. Apparently when they hired me, and I had a few weeks to (not) pack and arrive, the manager of the engineering department had thought up three different jobs for me including managing a small team (it would have been one or two people under me) to update the avionics on one of the helicopters built here. Then he realized that our work couldn't be easily incorporated per FAA rules without some company restructuring that had yet to take place. This sort of thing may still happen but I can't just hold my breath. We'll see.
Home: I live with a roommate who's drinking problem wasn't readily apparent when I first moved in. He's a college student, somewhat non-traditional like I was actually, he's in his later 20's and going to school at Drexel Univ. He's not a mean drunk or whatever, he's just... at home drinking a lot when he has the time. Multiple DUI infractions, multiple Minor in Possession charges as well, to the point that when he applied to go into the Marines a long time ago (this is per a story he told me when he was drinking...) he lied about the number of times he had been charged and they actually turned him away because of all of this. Of course he's indignant and acts like they let worse people in but that's obviously a defense statement and he's got demons to deal with.
However, I'm not trying to fix him, I'd like to move out. Que the above issues with work and leaving seems pretty alright, but moving to another house in the city when I'm trying to find a different job, which might pull me out of whatever new place I find for a new career in a new town... things are tricky. He's hard to deal with too; we steal wireless internet access from a neighbor because he doesn't want to possibly get stuck with an increased cable bill (he's also a TV addict, which is a riot from my POV) even though I've told him I will pay 100% of the increase in costs. He'd rather skate by. Same with the electric bills, they were going to someone else that had previously lived here, and his whole idea was that they'd just keep going somewhere else until we did something so the best thing to do in his mind was to Do Nothing. We're now getting electric bills and somehow they're not asking for any back billing. Pretty much stupid on all fronts and I feel like I can't steer the situation at all.
Dating: I've been using OKCupid.com to meet girls and it's been hit or miss, mostly miss. A few dates were generally lame and not worth discussing. One was really great and we agreed on a second meetup... and she canceled the afternoon of. Her excuse amounted to "I have a headache and crappy attitude after a bad day at work" which, okay, valid to a point. I thought I salvaged that with a suggestion to meet up the following weekend (this was on a Tuesday) and she agreed, we chat a bit through the week and I figure things are solid, and she stands me up on the Saturday. Awesome. Since then I've met a girl that's nice, not exactly my type, but we had a decent first date and will probably see each other again sometime.
I've been lucky to have a few good people here that have been supportive and kind from the beginning. Balatro brought me with to his family's Thanksgiving and that was very nice, people were friendly and inviting, and I did meet a cousin of his who I found quite interesting but she's not really local and just in for the family event so that was somewhat unfortunate. Ah well, such is life...
So, where does that leave me, probably time for a recap; things are stable for the time being but I'm trying to up heave my life again. Having a roommate saves money but costs sanity. Italians at work live up to their stereotypes and don't get me started on Albanians (good lord) but most people are generally cool to be around (not Albanians). I miss a lot of aspects of life in Wichita and a few key people (more than I want to admit or talk about here) but with a bit of luck I'll have some of these things sorted out in the near future. Until then...