Volunteering

Many of you know that I volunteer for the Green Club at my son's elementary school. It's been quite a rewarding experiencing, but I've been experiencing some frustration lately. I'm one of two parents who are quite involved and do a bulk of the work. At the beginning of the year, we asked parents to volunteer to be green club representatives for their child's classroom. Their duties would be minimal such as to make sure the classroom had the appropriate recycle bins. We had a really great response and had 50 parents sign up.

Our club conducts numerous fundraisers and projects throughout the school year. Our next event is participating in the school's "Fall Festival". They have a pumpkin lighting, face painting, and other crap for the kids. I sent a mass e-mail out to everyone asking for volunteers to help out with the Green Club's activities at this event. We need people to sell reusable grocery bags, and we need people to keep an eye on the recycling stations and swap the bags out so they don't overflow. I was hoping we would get a dozen or so volunteers to split up the duties. So far, we've only gotten two responses out of 50.

I'm more peaved that people can't be bothered to respond to the e-mail than anything. It's OK if you can't volunteer because you weren't planning on attending the event anyway. But at least have some courtesy and let me know that. I know everyone can't be as gung-ho as me, but I think people can give up 15 minutes of their time at an event like this so they can sell bags or something.

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Reusable Grocery Bags, Obama, and More

Last night was my first night volunteering at my son's school selling reusable grocery bags. Our green club is selling them as a fundraiser. The school has several Back to School Nights where parents come to school, listen to the principal talk, and also meet their child's teacher for the year. The PTA is there hawking their goods and the school was selling the agendas that each student is required to purchase.

We had our table set up adjacent to the school's table with the agendas. That was a good idea because everyone attending had to stop at the school's table to purchase an agenda. I may seem kind of outspoken/outgoing on my blog, but it real life, I'm kind of on the quiet side. I'm not really much of a salesbunny either. I ended up selling about 20 bags last night (which for the amount of traffic we had isn't all that bad). One thing that worked against us is people started showing up about 15 minutes before the principal spoke. So for the parents, they seemed preoccupied with getting their agenda and getting to their seat in the cafeteria. I think we would sell more bags if we sent out an order form. Maybe we'll do that once we get into the school year a little bit. A number of people complimented the looks of the bag, which made me happy since I designed them. It would be cool if in the next few weeks I see my bags out an about at the grocery store.

During the time while the principal was speaking, things were quiet in the front lobby. The school office staff (who was selling the agendas) were chatting. They mentioned how the phones were ringing off the hooks the past couple days. I asked if it was parents asking what time the Back to School Nights started. Nope. It was people freaking out about Obama's upcoming speach to school kids.

Well, this is what they think is going to happen:

He's going to turn your children into activist haranguers for his policies.

He's turning your precious children into "kiddie human shields."

He's recruiting his own "Hitler youth brigade."

He's turning our children into Community Organizers!

He's trying to subvert the traditions and values that parents hold dear.

He's brainwashing your children into the Cult of Obama.

He's forcing children into compulsory volunteerism.

He's become our Dear Leader, and his presence in school classrooms is unprecedented.

You can disgree with Obama's politics but this is taking things too far. Here's what Obama was planning on talking about. I certainly don't see anything wrong with it. Why didn't these people protest when Reagan and Bush made similar speeches to school kids? I don't remember Democrats freaking out about a Republican president talking to our kids either. This country is fucked in the head!

I learned that the Chesterfield County School District will NOT be showing Obama's speech. For our school district, the speech will take place on the first day of school. The school claims that things are just too crazy on the first day of school to try and organize an event like this. I can certainly appreciate that fact and respect that decision. I also think that their decision was also influenced by all the phone calls the school received.

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Boiler Room Graffiti

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Shit and Piss

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Interesting Things You See Out In The Field

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Wash Your Hands!

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Pardon Our Dust

As you can see, I'm working on a new template for my blog. I'll be working on adding my old links and new some new, cool features over the next several days.

Thanks for your patience!

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Random Thoughts and Observations

Wow! Ever since Boo Jr and my wife for sick last November, it's been a non-stop stress-fest. Things have only gotten busier for me at work after the layoffs in December. I haven't really had much free time to put any thoughts together to post on my blog. What thoughts I do have I typically share on the Yada Forum. So here are some quick, random thoughts and observations:

1. There are a lot more people with vanity tags in Virginia compared to other places. A large majority of them are religious in nature. I've seen "BOW2GZS", "HEVN4ME", "PRZB2JC". It's like a little game figuring some of them out. It also helps you identify cars that you see every day on the way to/from work. I'm not a very religious person, and I understand religion is very important to some people, but putting a religious message on your license plate seems a bit much.
2. One positive thing that's been going on is the experience I've been having volunteering at my son's elementary school. It's been a good diversion from all the crap that's been going on in the world. This will be the second year that I'll participate in the annual Career Day. I plan on giving the same presentation that I did last year. We play Jeopardy! at the end of my presentation with real game show equipment buzzers. The kids love it. I got some really great thank you letters from last year. I happened to check my flash drive recently and noticed that the power point presentation was deleted. I'll have to look more closely before I go recreating it again.
3. I also volunteer for my son's green club. There's another parent volunteer that is very knowledgable about sustainable design and green issues. She's very enthusiastic like me in coming up with activities for the kids to learn about protecting our environment as well as working directly with the school. One of more ambitious plans is to do an energy audit of the school and propose some energy conservation measures. One of the teacher volunteers had stated they're worried if they'll have enough paper to make it through the year because of all the budget cuts. We pointed out that there are a lot of pretty easy things the school could do to reduce energy consumption and reduce the amount of waste generated. It's been hard getting buy-in from the teachers because they tend to get scared off by our ambitious plans. For example, the school is about 20 years old and still uses T12 fluorescent light bulbs. If they invest a little money and install ballast adapters so they can use T8 light bulbs, they'd see a really quick return on investment. I also started a blog for the Green Club. I've received a lot of praise from the teachers on it, but it's been hard getting the word out and getting people to participate in discussions on the blog. The battery recycling program that I started in the fall has been a huge success though. Baby steps.
4. Boo Jr had a writing assignment about what he wanted to be when he grows up. He said he wanted to be a cook because he likes food. He talked about some of the foods he likes and then concluded with, "I'm going to be balled (bald)". Kids say the dardest things.
5. Things have been really busy at work lately. I've got three main projects going on. One is a jail study for a 2,000 bed prison renovation/addition. The report is the first step in getting state funding for construction. The report has a hard and fixed deadline because the funding is actually becomes part of the state budget that is passed in the spring. Doing the report doesn't guarantee that the project will be approved by the state or that my company will do the design, but the projects are usually approved and doing the report increases our chances of getting the design. My second job is a renovation project for a local university. We're converting an old, unused dormatory into a tech center. They'll teach tv and radio production and will have real, working tv and radio studios. The data center for the entire campus will also be housed in the building. The project is going for LEED - Silver. I plan on specifying these really cool induction boxes with non-condensing cooling coils. They're super-energy efficient. I always enjoy designing systems I haven't used before. The project is going to be really challenging because it's a renovation. The last job is one of the biggest jobs I've ever done - a brand new 800 bed prison. It will be one of only a handful LEED registered prisons in the country. The due date for this project is only a couple months away, so it's really been crunch time lately. It's been challenging balancing these three jobs along with my CA duties for the half dozen or so other jobs that are currently under construction.
6. I've been paying close attention to the stimulus package trying to make its way through Congress. I'm excited about the potential of it designating funding for renovating our schools and government office building, improving building efficiency, and creating green jobs. I hope that the states get a lot of funding from the federal government as well. That's the problem my company has been facing. We are fortunate to have a decent backlog of work, but the government is postponing us working on these projects because of the financial crisis. If we're not working on designing buildings then we don't have money coming in. Our State of the Firm will be this Friday, and I'm sure our president will have a lot to say on that topic.
7. Boo Jr continues to heal well from his head injury. He's been upset that we've pulled him out of recess and PE for the week. We don't want to risk him bonking his head and opening up his stitches. He also had a small concussion, so getting bonked in the head is the last thing we need. He has a follow up appointment with the doctor on Friday to check out his stitches.
8. Boo Jr and I do the grocery shopping every Sunday. I'm very proud of my son for his good manners as he'll say, "excuse me" when he needs to get by someone. Most everyone looks pleasantly surprised and smiles when they see a kid with good manners. But this one lady gave him the nastiest look last week. I wanted to ask her who pissed in her corn flakes that morning.

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Teaching

I have always enjoyed teaching. I have done some more "formal" teaching like conducting some lunch-and-learns at work. I've done lessons on propane systems, smoke control systems, and fire dampers. They required hours of research, Power Point presentations, and a lot of preperation. I used to get really nervous speaking in front of a group of people, but that has diminished over time.

The type of teaching I enjoy most is when it's one-on-one. I've done quite a bit of this at work in an informal capacity. New employees, fresh and green out of college, typically don't know any HVAC design. I didn't either. We know AutoCAD and basically learn everything else via "on the job training". Some places just throw you in the water and you better learn how to swim quickly. I've been fortunate to have had some great mentors and teachers throughout my career. Now, I'm in a position to return the favor. I especially like bringing a new engineer out into the field and show him around a job that's under construction. I point out the different design features; why we do this and that; point out where the evil contractor is trying to cut corners; and even pointing out mistakes that I made during the design and showing what the results of that mistake are in the field.

My love for teaching has grown some more. This time it's helping my son do his homework. Boo Jr had "homework" in Kindergarten, but it never really required much thought on his part. It was coloring or some similar artsy-craftsy type task. But now that he's in First Grade, now they're really getting down to business. Some recent homework that I really enjoyed doing with him was Geography. We learned about North, South, East, and West. We also learned about globes, maps, and legends. Last night, we learned how to read a map with a grid on it. "What do you see in square B6?" Teaching and doing homework with Boo Jr can certainly be frustrating at times. It's hard to overcome "I don't know" when you know that he just doesn't want to do his homework and would rather watch tv or play. Sometimes it's hard to stay positive and encouraging too if I've had a long day at work. But the reward is when you see the lightbulb turn on over Boo Jr's head and you see that he "gets it". That's the greatest feeling in the world. And being a parent has been the greatest job in the world too.

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Happy Halloween!

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Bugs!

Here are some critters I ran into during this morning's site visit.

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Out in the Field

I'll be out in the field all day today to visit my own "prison improvement" project. I will also swing by my courthouse renovation/addition, and my academic building that are also under construction. Gotta keep an eye on those sneaky evil contractors!

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Who Let the Dogs Out? (Drama at the Bus Stop)

UPDATE: Here's some additional information and added developments.

• The dog is leashed and well behaved. It isn't running around, barking, or otherwise bothering the kid.
• Yesterday, the dog mother's visiting mother came to the bus stop as well and brought her dog. The little kid freaked out so much that he tried to run into the street. He tripped, fell, and skinned his knee.
• My wife has called the transportation office and the school. Both of them listened to her concern but said that they could not do anything in this situation. It's a public place and the dog is on a leash.
• The kid's father thanked my wife for "sticking up for them".
• Dog mother used to walk to the other bus stop (last year) as it is equidistant from their house.

Some drama has developed at my son's bus stop during this first week of school. There are a few new kids at the bus stop this year. One little boy is just starting Kindergarten this year. My wife has spoken a little bit with the kid's mother during this time. My wife learned that the kid is really excited about school and especially about riding the bus. She also got the impression that the mother is a real nervous nelly about her kid attending school.

So the problem is with one of the other mothers. She frequently brings their dog to the bus stop. The dog is very well behaved and friendly. However, the little Kindergartener is deathly afraid of dogs. That fact was obvious to my wife even without the mother saying so. The kid is visably afraid of the dog.

After a couple days (when I wife picked up on this), she recommeded to the mother that she tell the dog mother not to bring their dog to the bus stop. It seems that the new mother is too timid and doesn't want to cause any trouble. Meanwhile, the kid is hiding behind his mother and trying to hold back his tears. Later in the week, the dog mother tried to introduce her dog to the kid, and the kid was really afraid. The dog mother joked that "the kid needs to get used to dogs".

Whether you think that's true or not, I believe it's not dog mother's place to force her dog on someone's kid. What's going to end up happening is the mother will end up driving the kid to school and take away that fun experience of riding the bus from her kid.

Question to the panel: Do you think my wife should say something to the dog mother?

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My Annual Review - Areas of Improvement

In my first post, I tooted my own horn and talked about how awesome an engineer I am. Here are the areas of improvement that we identified. What's great about our performance reviews is that it's a conversation between the employee and his/her supervisors. I identified and shared some of my own weaknesses. It wasn't just my boss telling me, "Boo, you need to get your ass in gear." Not only do we identify our weaknesses, we come up with a plan on how to fix and improve upon those weaknesses.

One area that I need to improve in are control diagrams and sequences of operation. They are the detailed instructions that are programmed into the equipments' control panels. For example, if the temperature in a space is too hot/cold then these valves open/close, these dampers open/close, these fans turn on/off, etc. A lot of the controls that we do are tailored for each individual project and are not simply boiler plate instructions. I rely on SL and VP to help me do those. I have improved compared to last year, but I still need to continue to improve in that area. Improving with this controls and sequences just comes with time and experience.

In a similar vane, sometimes I get a little too wrapped up in the details of my project, start wandering off into the weeds a bit, and start to lose site of the big picture. Having well detailed and organized drawings are great, and I need to maintain that level of detail in my drawings and specs, but I need to keep my "eyes on the prize". Here's an example of what I mean. I might spend a lot of time figuring out the most efficient ductwork layout or call out all the various options and accessories I want to see specified on a piece of equipment, but if you asked me at that point how I planned on a certain system being operated, sometimes I can't give you a really complete answer. I guess it would be like writing a novel without figuring out what the story is going to be about. One thing that I started doing over the past year that should help in this area is writing a systems narrative. It explains in plain English how the systems operate and the many design assumptions I made. I originally started this to help me out managing my projects that were in construction. Sometimes it's well over a year between the time I design a project and when a question might come up in the field. By having this narrative handy, it helps me to remember "what the hell I was thinking" when the Contractor calls me up and asks "Why did you design this this way? Wouldn't it be better if you did it this way instead?"

The last area of improvement that we talked about was my ability to delegate. I like things done my way. That way I know it's done right. I am a very efficient worker (despite all the time I spend on Yada) and typically produce more work than my fellow coworkers. But with the size and quantity of projects that I am responsible for, I sometimes have our junior engineers helping me out. Because I am so wrapped up in the details (see above), I don't give as much thought as I should as to how to divide up the work. Only one person can work on a drawing at a time, so I can't layout ductwork if a coworker is drawing something else on that same drawing. The tasks that I assign don't have enough thought or logic behind them in regards to time management and overall project efficiency. Let's face it. It takes time to plan and that takes time away from me being "productive". But if I want to "move up the ladder" and take on more responsibilities, I need to do a better job in delegating my work. I see two keys in achieving this. First would be train the junior engineer I work with in "The Bunny Method". Every engineer likes things done a certain way. When the drawings are done, it should look like they were done by one person and not like a troop of monkeys. If the junior engineer understand how I like things done, it will minimize the amount of rework. The second, most important, and also most difficult thing is to teacher the junior engineers to take ownership of their work. Taking ownership is easier if you have a lot of time and effort invested in a project. The design phase for the projects I work on sometime last more than a year. These same projects may take well over a year to build as well. It's hard for anyone to take ownership of their work and give 100% all the time if they're only doing bits and pieces and helping out here and there. I need to teach them to see the forest for the trees as well.

In my final post, I will talk about my future career goals at Forest Animals A/E.

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My Annual Review - Performance Appraisal

As I mentioned over on the Yada forum, I recently had my annual review at work. At the review, we talk about my performance of the past year and about short and long term career development goals.

There were three other people at my review - one Principal In Charge (PIC), the vice president of engineering (VP), and the studio leader for the mechanical department (SL). Even though VP is the person I generally consider to be my "boss", SL was the one that led the review.

As most of you know, I'm a mechanical engineer for an architectural/engineering firm. I design HVAC systems for buildings. Not only design these systems, I create the drawings and write the specifications that the Contractor uses to build said systems. I can have the best design in the world, but it doesn't mean "squat" if the drawings and specs are lacking.

Besides SL, I'm the other senior mechanical engineer in the Studio. You can assign me a project, and it will be done correctly, and it will be done on time. My forte is the thoroughness and the level of detail of my drawings. Even the Evil Contractor once wrote a letter to my company president saying how great my drawings were. My projects tend to have few RFIs and even fewer PCOs. And when I do screw up (because NO ONE's drawings are EVER perfect), it's usually an "omission" and not an "error". An example of an omission would be forgetting to show a fire damper in a fire barrier. The Owner would have had to pay for that fire damper anyway. He's just having to pay a premium for it because the Evil Contractor charges a lot for my mistakes. An example of an error (and I've made a few in my career) would be specifying the wrong voltage for a piece of equipment. So the equipment has to be sent back to the factory (pay a restocking fee), order the correct equipment (at a higher price), and the project ends up getting delayed.

My other strength is my organizational skills. I pioneered and developed a "paperless project binder" that is now the SOP for the company. Because I keep everything so organized, I am better able to respond to issues when they arise. You would never know I was so organized if you looked at my desk most times.

I didn't do any jail feasibility studies over the past year, but technical writing is also a strength of mine. My writing skills are also apparent in the e-mails and MOCs that I write. That was one of the things that the PIC mentioned during my review.

SL said that my performance improved slightly compared to last year. That's a nice achievement since I consistently perform at such a high level of work. That's one neat thing I've noticed over the years. I am continuously learning and improving. Over the years, I've developed a "system" for keeping my projects organized, and it has served me very well.

Because it was well apparent that I do such a good job, the majority of the time was spent discussing my future career goals. I'll talk about how that went down in a future post.

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Yada Fridge Contest - Winner!

Beulah is the winner!!!

1. COW, because everyone knows countertops are unheard of in Canada

2. BOOKWORM cuz of the age of the fridge - said she had an oldie

3. FOSTERDAD, lots of kid & animal pics

4. BOOKWORM – because I don’t know that she ISN’T a grandmother & this could be her kitchen fridge

5. FOSTERDAD again as he has multiple fridges & this looks like a basement model

6. FOSTERDAD Looks like more kid pics on there, also lots of toys in the pic

7. SAHM – baby pics and a BIG fridge for kids

8. FREQ – even though she said she wasn’t sending it – this one baffled me

9. BOO he already showed his goods earlier on his blog

10. ST GABE I think her kitchen is yellow

11. BEULAH – because of the kitty towels..haha I have an 8% advantage for having participated!

12. GWEN – those little stickers look like granddaughter material


MDM - 2nd Place

1. Cowtown

2.SAHM

3. MDM- ( easy one)

4. Beulah

5. FosterDad

6. Gwen

7. Bookworm

8. FosterDad

9. BadRabbit ( too easy)

10. St. Gabriel

11. JQP

12. ZZ

Bookworm - 3rd Place

#1 Buelah

#2 Foster Dad

#3 Mdm

#4 Bookworm

#5 Mazz

#6 Sahm

#7 Stockboy

#8 Foster Dad

#9 Boo

#10 Gabe

#11 Cow

#12 ZZ

Saint Gabriel - 4th Place

1. cow - the give away was that when I opened the picture it said cow jpeg at the bottom!! Also the banjo magnet . I wonder why it's being remodeled?

2. JQP - Eckerd magnet.

3. FD's - just because of all the stuff on it....but I'm probably wrong....has a Dinosaur menu too.

4. Playersmom - the card reads to the "best mom and grandma"....she is both, has young children and young grandchildren.

5. Beulah's basement fridge.

6. MDM's or gwen's if she decided to post a pic.

7. Doobie's because of all the cute baby pics and I know they just had another grandchild....but then again so did playersmom.

8. Bookworm or could be the same answer as #6! Argh!

9. Yours

10. Mine

11. Beulah's....unfair advantage....I've been in her home!

12. ZZ's....just looks like her.

FosterDad - Last Place

1 cow

2 Me

3 St. Gabe

4 Freq

5 Me

6 Gwen

7 Me

8 SAHM

9 Bunny

10 MDM

11 MDM

12 MDM

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Funny Picture

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My Naked Refrigerator

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Yada Fridge Contest - Answers

1. Cow

2. FosterDad

3. MDM

4. Bookworm

5. FosterDad

6. Anon E. Moose

7. FosterDad

8. Gwen

9. BadRabbit

10. Saint G

11. Beulah

12. ZZ

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Refrigerators

I think what you have on your refrigerator says a lot about a person. What do you think my refrigerator says about me?

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