Today wasn’t as bad as yesterday.  Let’s start that off.  I actually got stuff done, attended a meeting, submitted a report, and caught with some good friends.  Overall it has been a great day with a side of OMG here we go again.  🙂

The morning started off as it always does.  Normal routine, Starbucks then work.  When I arrived to work everything was just fine and normal.  My coworker doing their normal morning banter.  But I immediately got to work on my report because today was the meeting of our constructability review.  The constructability review is a basically the first time that every department sees how the project is coming along and also to see if the project is “buildable.”  When I say this, it means this is when everyone looks at the plans and see if all steps where considered and if the proposed design can work under real work conditions.  There’s a saying at work that just because it looks good on paper it doesn’t mean it’s going to work.  Basically we have do a double take on our work to make sure that everything works not just from an engineering stand point but also a construction stand point.  Because there really is no use for us to continue working on a project if you can’t build it.  Or the better way to look at it is design it in away that we can avoid problem when  it is in the field.  By doing this alone can save thousand and in some cases millions of dollars of change orders because certain things just can’t be bulit because of certain constraints.

So with my meeting at 10:30pm, I wanted to get my project done early enough.  I knew that during the day they would ask me if it was ready to be reviewed and submitted.  I needed to make sure that it was reviewed accordingly therefore I can have a fresh set of eyes look at a report that to me looks the same after the months that I have worked on it.  Now it was 10:30am and the report was about 75% completed but I had to go and make sure to be present at the meeting so I can hear the comments that the other departments were making and also so I can defend our design.

Engineering is more than just the math part, engineering is also base on teamwork and communication.  Without at least one of these aspects a lot of our project will not get done or design with all interested parties involved.

During the meeting our section of the project came up and surprisingly there wasn’t much comments.  It was interesting that there wasn’t as many comments but at the same time I wouldn’t think there would be because I assumed a lot of the reviewers didn’t have ample time to review the plans because this is a very complicated design.  The only comments that were made for our part of the project were things that we already new and just had to fill in people on the reason why we did certain things.  But overall it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  So I left after my section was completed and when the discussion just changed from OMG really, why are you talking about that now kinda of thing.

Lunch today was one of our normal hunts.  Lefty’s pizza, where I usually get a slice and a side salad.  Always good and fast.

Then after retuning from lunch, I promptly finished and reviewed and project and I got it all submited and approved from my leads so I made it look a little more pretty and then submitted for more review.  It is this review that I am more interested in because it is there signature that we need when come down to crunch time.  But I was just happy to get one of the thorns pulled out and off my butt for a bit.  So I couldn’t ask for more.  Progress comes in small little victories everyday is what I say.

After getting off work, I finished I finally caught up and purchased some supplies that needed to fulfill photography order for the HOBY organization that I photographed a while back for.  After working on this project for the last two months it was nice to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I got most of my stuff from Costco and Staples.  The beauty of the system is that I got everything I need ahead of time but I need a few more things to arrive to me before I can package and mail the products out to the students that were eagerly awaiting for them.  I hope that when they do receive them that they will like them.  So currently I’m working on burning their DVDs for them.  It is this burning process that takes forever to do for them.  Especially when you have to burn 40 or so full DVDs for them with only one DVD burner at your disposal.  So it is just a matter of waiting for the disc to be burned and packaged that takes the longest.  The only thing that I have to do after the burning process is acquire the correct postage for the packages to mail to the kids.  BTW kind of off the record, I guess it will be on the record via this blog. But is it me or is it them, do kids get taught what it means a mailing address consist of, because I got a few forms that simply just had their house number and street but that’s it or other pieces of information where missing from the form.  Luckily enought I had a google maps at my disposal because without it would not be able to find the correct address for these kids’ home.

So while I was burning DVDs and organizing the photos and files, I caught up some friends.  Today my friend Dave got a offer of a lifetime.   He got offered a job with one of the photoshop gurus that we follow and enjoy learning from.  From what started out as a hey would be interested in coming out to San Diego to teach and the hustle that he put in for the last two days, he managed to make a good impression and got offered a position.  This is an opportunity that he shouldn’t pass up for sure.  I’m so happy to hear when friends get offers like this because when my friends are happy, I’m happy, and when we are all happy we make our worlds go round and round.  Plus I know my buddy is also perfectly suited for such a job because he is just that guy that can make things happen and he is very motivated.

Another cool surprise that I got today was to catch up with my good Hollie.  It has been maybe about a week or two since Hollie and I caught up so it was time for us to do some catch up.  Although the circumstance that we are catching up is due to the fact that, thou who shall not be named, kind of gave Hollie a very weird answer to a workshop that we are attending tomorrow.  It was weird because the answer of just show and crash an event doesn’t work especially when you are not technically hosting or in charge of the event.  So after a few text we get talking.  And rumor has it that it might be somewhat overpacked and from the sounds and look of things it just doesn’t seem organized enough.  But Hollie and I have discussed that such things would not happen if Hollie, my friend Jason, and I were there still helping because this is just crazy to host the workshop in our normal meeting place.  In my opinion the place that we meet is already crowded enough plus it is super small.  So i don’t know how a large amount of people are going to fit in the place.  So only time will tell.  Other than that occurrence, Hollie and I caught up and got some discussion / planning done for an upcoming wedding that we are shooting together.  So that was good to do so that way we can have a game so that we can most effectively make sure that the photography is a success.  And other than photography related stuff we caught up on other parts of our lives.

Catching up with friends like Dave and Hollie is freaking super nice to chat up with because these are the friends that I know have my back and they know I have their back when they need it.  It easy to make “friends” but having true friends is hard to come by these days.

Well until next time.  Laters.