engineering

Oliver the Engineer…Exhibits & PowerPoints

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Have you ever had one of those weeks where you seriously didn’t do anything else instead of sitting in front of the computer looking at the same thing over and over again?  I think it would be safe to assume that everyone has been there one time or another.  This was my week or weeks, 2 weeks to be exact that I sat in front of the computer screens to work on a powerpoint presentation.  Yes I said powerpoint presentation.  And yes, I’ve been working on it for the last two weeks.

Engineering

Example of the kind of work I do.

This journey all started a couple of weeks ago when I was ask to make an exhibit for work. Exhibits are the diagrams, maps, and visuals that I create for my project.  As a civil engineer, I design freeways and sometimes the way we talk a lot of people do not understand so we have to create a visual for it, so we can communicate our sometimes complicated project to the “common person.”  My goal always is produce something that everyone will get once they study it.  However that is not always the case at least in my situation.  So when I was ask to create another “exhibit” I started asking question if I could improve upon the design and look of it.  I should have known that this was a pandora’s box of revisions to come but more on that later.

So I was given the current exhibit and boy was it in rough shape, the colors of pink and blue on an outdated aerial photos and out of date information was not going to fly and on top of that confused everyone.  So being the maker of exhibits, I took upon myself to organized it.  That was my first mistake.

I begin with first asking my boss what he wanted to communicate to with the exhibit.  And the answer in a nutshell was, everything and you only have a day or two to do it.  “HOLY CRAP!  Really?!” I thought to myself.  Okay, I can do it.  Second mistake.  This will end up with a, “WHAT where you thinking?!”

So after a 10 minute conversation of questions, bounced ideas, and repeated statements, I started to make the exhibit.  First step, track down all of the information that I needed.  Easy enough, right?  Not exactly.  So we needed to present information on our proposed Right of Way purchase for my project, I searched and found it and then about an hour later while I started making the adjustments to present, I get word that things are going to change and that they won’t know for about a day or two.  But on top that I still had to go ahead and continue with what I’m doing.  And there is no problem with that except for the fact that the information that was being researched would affect everything that I was working on which would mean that I would have to start all over again.  And then, not to add more things to the already tall order, I get another request to make these exhibits that i’m creating and put them in a powerpoint presentation.  Okay I thought.  Third mistake.

So when i was tasked to do the powerpoint along side the exhibits, I was told that it was in good shape and would take no more than 15 minutes to work on.  And just like the exhibit before, it would require some major revisions.  By they time was I working on the powerpoint it had already gone through 5 people and I would think it would be exactly what my department wanted.  Wrong!  What I was given was a powerpoint created by 5 people.  So everything was different, nothing was cohesive, and things didn’t match.  So what’s a guy to do in this situation.  I think most people would just throw their hands up in the air and just say it couldn’t be done.  But did I do that?!  No, I thought, easy enough.  Forth mistake.

Okay, if you are reading this, I pretty sure you are thinking, dude didn’t you see the red flags from the start?!  The answer was yes.  Yes I did see the red flags however who was going to do it.  I knew that eventually it would come to me and come to me at the last minute.  I just thought at this point, I might was well get a head start on it now that I have the opportunity.  Yet another mistake.

Oliver just doesn’t learn.  And at this point we are just one day one and as I mention this took two weeks to create.  So basically in a nutshell this happen basically almost everyday for the last couple of weeks.  So I’ll spare you the vent, rant, and head shakes and I’ll fast forward you to two days ago.

So after working on this for the last week and some days, I was tired of looking at the same presentation and exhibits.  From the color changes, to can we do this, can we do that, is this possible, how long will that take, to the word ANIMATION, I was about 90% done.  When finally we receive feedback from our headquarters on the presentation.  And boy was it a lot of comments but mainly it was one of those, isn’t this the way we had it before and we are going to do it that way?!  Yup, it sure was.  So what’s a guy to do.  Concede? Nope, start from scratch and declare that you are going to do it your way and just take over it.  And address the comments, all the comments.

And today, I finally got to the 99% I’m proud to say.  I have one more task to complete and i shouldn’t take me more than 30 minutes to complete.  So there is light at the end of the road.  LOL!  Pun was intended there.  Or at least I thought one would be.  So by Monday morning at 9am, everything should be done and completed!  Hopefully!

Here’s some takeaways from this:

  1. Always look at the POSITIVE side of a situation.
  2. Be prepared to tackle any task necessary.
  3. Sometimes you just have to let things go and let lessons be learned.  Keep quiet.
  4. Small victories over time will lead to a BIG VICTORY!
  5. When you find the thing that you LOVE to do, everything and I mean EVERYTHING is worth it.  So find what it is you love do and work will not seem like work.  🙂

Oh man, what was that? Seriously! Oliver the Engineer

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Okay so I thought yesterday’s rant was bad.  Today just seemed to be one of those serioulsy?!  You want me to do what?!  Why didn’t you say that earlier or when we were at the meeting?

So remember that report I was talking about yesterday.  Well it was concerning that report.  Apparently I was doing it wrong and I wasn’t told about it until I submitted it for the 3rd time for review.  It is stuff like this that makes me go, really?  So who’s checking your work?  And were is the communication in all this chaos.  I don’t mind chaos of sorts but the fact that we don’t communicate at least in my work environment is what drive me super nutty.   I’ve studied engineering for 5 years and I interned during that whole time.  And the biggest thing that was emphasis above all else was that it is about teamwork and communication.  With at least one of those things I think a lot of the chasing around details and the; “I don’t knows,” would go away.

But no improvements thus far have been made.  I’ve even tried to even help kick start such things but to no avail.  I have tried countless time during the pass few months to help it seem to fall on deaf ears.  But I guess karma will come back.  But I just hope that it doesn’t affect me.

Quite a bombshell or not really, was told today at a meeting.  It was just one of those things that remind that the current project I’m on is going so fast that a lot of things are not being looked at but when it does get looked at, there are more problems that arise that because of the time schedule needs attention because it effects other things.  So today’s bombshell was that there are some issues that are affecting the project that would require more changes to the Right of Way.  And Right of Way is one of those sensitive issues because the issues that are causing the problems are the first set of things that need to get built before the actual freeway gets built.  And as always the management is brought aware of these issues but because they don’t know what is going on, the subject is above their heads which leads them to harsh decisions that they don’t fully understand how it effects everything.  The problem that arise from the bombshell was that it would require some right of way changes because there was some water flows that was not considered because of other “priority” issues that we have now found out isn’t as a “priority” as it should be.  So we are stuck with a huge issue at hand that needs to be address accordingly and in a relatively timely manner because we are supposed to complete the design of the project by the end of the month.  And it seems from the plans that we have we are more at 40% than anything.  Currently there seems to be a relauntance from the people in charge of seeing what actually needs to get done.  It seems to me that they are afraid to face the fact that there needs to be a lot done but instead of showing what needs to get done, they want to hide it.  I don’t fully understand how the politics work around my workplace.  However from all of the readings and people I’ve met, it is better to admit fault and failure than to hide it.  If I was them I would show them what needs to be done ASAP and put up an accountability poster.  So that way everyone knows what needs to be done and how much time we need to get it all done.

Man oh man, this post seems to be another rant about work.  I guess it is just one of those weeks, were ranting is needed.  Sorry to you my reader for being to negative at least for the past few post.  I hope that things do turn around for the better but I will let you guys know.  So in the meantime take it easy.  🙂

Half Days are good until… Oliver the Engineer, the Cook, the Photographer

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Today was a half day, which in itself is a good thing.  I actually got a crap ton of work completed and in only the mere 4 hours that I was putting your tax dollars at work.  I guess maybe it was the motivation that I would get to have a more time off than usual that was helping make the day for me.  So I work diligently for the 4 hours.  I made a to-do list to visually see what I need to get done and I tried to put a deadline on it but knowing that it would change but I resisted.  Although now thinking about it I should have at least put a date on it for my personal deadline verses my boss’ deadline.  I guess I’ll have to do that on Monday.

So the 12 o’clock hour was coming up and what do you know my boss comes to my cubicle to ask me once again for an exhibit that he intends to send out in about 1 hour.  And of course there are some changes that need to get done and assumes it will only take 10 minutes to change however I know its going to take about 30 minutes to change.  So I knew in the back of my head today that it wasn’t going to go as smoothly.  And this just proves it yet again.  So I spent 45 minutes fixing the map and of course I send it to my boss who doesn’t check it for about 1 hour and then just when I’m about to leave mentions that more corrections are needed.  Oh really?!  Seriously?!  I think I should have just said “NO,” but I’m still working on that.  I know I would never ask someone to do something for me at the last minute unless it was the FINAL resort that I had to do but I will under no circumstances do that to anyone.  So I hurried turned on my computer and fix the map and then sent it off.

Now with the rest of the after ahead of me, I sat in my car for a couple of minutes thinking what I could do.  And I couldn’t think of a thing to do.  Grrr.  Now that I have all this time I couldn’t think of anything fun to do.  So I headed home and through out the drive home I keep thinking of what to do.  And by the time I got home, still nothing.  I knew that I was at least hungry but I didn’t want to eat alone so I tried to call up some friends but they were all at work.  Go figure, right?  So I search the refrigde for what I could eat.  Luckily there were some cucumber and olives to eat up as snacks but those didn’t fill me up.  But in the moment I decided that I wanted to cook.  And I figure I should cook something that takes some time.  So I decided beef stew would be a good choice; I haven’t cooked it in awhile and I knew it would take some time.

Off to the internet I go.  Since it has been awhile that I’ve cooked it, I had to make sure what I needed to cook it.  So I spent about 5 minutes to search for the “perfect” recipe.  But as it turns out there isn’t any perfect recipe.  I finally decided on a recipe that was simple and would have a lot of flavor.  With the recipe in hand I head over to my local Vons.  While in Vons, being hungry (which I don’t recommend), I bought more than I intended.  I’m just happy to report that it was a lot of vegetables and fruits.  So I headed off home to begin cooking the stew.  And much to my surprise I didn’t take me too long to prepare and cook.  In about 15 minutes everything was stewing together.  And I finished cooking it off and put the stovetop on low and let it cook for about 2 hours.  It turned out marvelous, a little bland but still flavorful.  Add salt and pepper for tastes ( just saying ).

While the stew was cooking I decided to get working on some pictures that I have been putting off for quite a bit.  I worked on them for about an hour.  One of the cool things that I am lucky enough or crazy to do is that I never delete any images that I take.  I do that because I always on a look out for the situation that a photo doesn’t look right at the moment but when I learn a new skill, I get that lightbulb moment.  And that’s when I realize that I could “salvage” a picture that just didn’t look right.  So that’s what I did for the hour of time that I worked on pictures.  I like to think that sometimes the solution is present but when it is ready it will show itself.  So I have a few hard-drives just full of pictures.  🙂

After dinner and working a few more pictures.  I was a bit hungry for dessert so I called up a few friends.  I ended up going to get some gelato with my friend Dave.  We chatted about photo projects and did a recap on the shoot that we did on Sunday.  So for a Friday it was pretty good.

But getting back to the title of the post.  Half Days are good until…you don’t know what you are going to do with your half day.  But as it turns out I did a lot but I just didn’t do what I thought was exciting.  I guess that’s why writing and looking back on the day helps.

 

Just Another Day…Oliver the Engineer, Oliver the Foodie

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Today was seriously an uneventful day.  Once again, the rush and push of getting stuff done ASAP was gone.  One of my coworkers came back to the office today which makes our group almost complete again.  There really wasn’t much to report on the work side of things today which if you have been following my recent post you know that there’s been a lot going on lately.  So I guess in one regard this is a good post / update about work.  And the top it off, tomorrow is Friday so the work week is over.  Bravo for that!  🙂

On the bright side of the day today.  I did get to be my foodie self today.  After about nearly a week and a half I got to have a burger from my favorite food truck; MIHO GASTROTRUCK.  I’ve been enjoy MIHO’s food for awhile.  And everytime I get a chance I seek them out.  MIHO makes awesome food but on top of that, they are the coolest gang of people around.  Juan, Kevin, Matt, Christina, and the rest of the crew, MIHO are as passionate and genuine as they come.  I’ve had a great time getting to meet them by showing up where they serve their food.

Today’s lunch was great because they brought back their classic burger which has been off of the menu for awhile.  Oh because the one thing I didn’t tell you about MIHO is that they get most if not all of their ingredients from local sources in and around San Diego.  With that their menu changes weekly and seasonally which I enjoy because you get to taste the season.

Which I think these days people don’t comprehend that as much, especially the younger crowds.  The reason I say that is because growing up I would hear stories told from my parents about how they would only have apples around Christmas time because that was the only time they were available in the Philippines.  And when I think about it today, it hits you that apples and other items are available all year round.  Having it available all year round, I think doesn’t allow you to appreciate the food as much.  So that’s why I appreciate the seasonally available food so much more.

But getting back to MIHO, there food is seriously always delicious and fresh.  Give them a follow on twitter at @mihogastrotruck or see what their weekly menu is and what are up to by visiting their website; http://www.mihogastrotruck.com.  Give them a try and you’ll understand why I always go to them when I’m looking for delicious lunches.

Today also was just a relatively quiet day because I didn’t have to cook dinner this evening.  The reason for this was that I prepared and cooked a lot of food yesterday which meant that we had leftover for dinner tonight.  And since I don’t eat as much as I use too it was enough for my parents and I.  And since I didn’t cook today, I finished dinner relatively early.   And with that I was able to hang out and catch up with my good buddy David.

David is one of my good friends that I hang out with on a normal basis.  We both just get along very well.  He’s one of the friends that I have that I can just bounce ideas off and get some honest feedback.  But also he is a friend that I learn things from as well.  We actually have a conversation, well that depends on what you mean by conversation.  Conversation in terms of talking, yes we do that but if you mean conversation as in talking and see each other’s faces, that would be a negative.  All I mean by that is that we equally both enjoy our iPhones, especially when it comes to pictures.  We chat but we chat with another looking at our phones.  LOL.  But still it’s one of those things that we don’t do often but here and there we catch ourselves doing it but our conversations do continue despite the fact.  I forgot to mention David is also a photographer.  He absolutely takes great photos and I dig he’s style.  Check out some of he’s work here: David J Crewe Photography.

Another cool thing about David / Dave is that we enjoy discovering new places around town and enjoy a good meal like myself.  So this evening I took him to one of my favorite places in the Uptown Area of San Diego, called Barrio Star.

I discovered Barrio Star, serendipitously one evening after a photowalk with some friend at Balboa Park.  My buddies Greg, Ellen, and Hollie, where originally planning to eat at a pizza place following the photowalk but we found out that it was close for the evening so we had to look for a place and Barrio Star was that place.

Barrio Star is a great place with a great environment that serves what I like to call refined clean Mexican fusion food.  What I mean by that is that the food they serve here is refreshing and just right portions.  But there dishes are too die for.  I highly recommend and love their Brazil Bowl with Carnitias.  It is absolutely delicious and refreshing.  And it would be safe to say that Dave would agree with me that this place is a must try and experience.

And lastly to close off the evening we grab some gelato from another of my favorite places, named Gelato Vero Cafe.  Gelato Vero Cafe is located in the Mission Hill portion of San Diego off Washington Street and Interstate 5.  It’s a small cafe that has ample sitting for small gatherings or a good place to hang out with a friend or two.  If you need more room or can’t find room within the cafe or outside sitting area, head upstairs for more room.  Gelato Vero is a great place to have some good old gelato and chat with a friend and even do some people watching.  With that that closes another day for the books.  I hope you enjoyed.  🙂

A Quiet Day but Productive Day…Oliver the Engineer, the Cook, the Photographer

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Today was another somewhat interesting day at work.  Interesting, in terms that it seem that all the huff and puff of getting things done ASAP was immediately wiped cleaned from everyone’s radar.  Seriously it was strangely weird for it to happen but I would be lying to say that it hasn’t happen before.  This is one of the things about work that I’m seriously confused about. And to add insult it makes me frustrated and makes me feel that i’m not productive.  The confusing thing is that one day certain things are a huge issue and then the next its not and then in that same day another issue is priority.  Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up and give up on this project.  But then I tell myself that I’m not one to quit and that if it hasn’t killed me yet, it will only make me stronger.  I wonder if this is flawed thinking?

Is it flawed?  I really do like my job but this project is seriously “work.”  But it is work that just doesn’t seem productive and leading to anywhere.  Writing this is seriously just making me a bit frustrated to think that I just wasted a lot of time doing nothing.  So at this point time will only tell what will happen or at least I will report what happens.

But since it was a quiet day in the office, this gave me an opportunity to do some thinking and some time to go over the work that I just submitted.  So I did that like a good school kid and work diligently at the assignment.  The funny thing is that I found a lot of mistakes that I know that I will have fix and correct soon.  But at least this time around I have a game plan.  I just hope this game plan isn’t interrupted with another “priority” side project.  And it is just this kind of talk that I seriously want to have a cubicle that I can close and work on my portion of the project.

Now with my current coworkers out of the office, that gave me another opportunity to hang out with my work family.  My work family has been an integral part of my work ethic at Caltrans.  These are the people that gave me an opportunity and believed in me to be the best that I can be at my job.  So to hang out with them, we went to one of our normal lunch time hangout places, Ichiban in Pacific Beach, CA.

At Ichiban, we always get the lunch special bento box and a side of sushi that we all share.  It is a nice bonding time.  We catch up on what’s going, talk about what happening around work, and as of lately has been my venting session about my current work place.  I appreciate my former co-workers giving me an opportunity to do some venting.  And then they also give me some feedback on what I should do and just give me support.  In addition my former supervisor gets to hear what’s going on in my group and gain some insight into what’s going on.  So today’s vent session basically just confirmed my suspicions that some people are setting up some other people to ultimately fail which for the life of me I just don’t understand.  I thought, that we are all on the same team but I guess with today’s revelation we are not.  Is it everyman for himself?  I don’t know but it sure seems like that.  Like a said before only time will tell.  But i’m going to try my hardest to not be sucked into this void of a hole.  This session was a good one to have because it has been awhile that we had a talk like this in a few weeks.

After lunch, we head back to the “dungeon” as I like to call it.  I only call my floor the dungeon, everywhere else around the complex is pretty much happyland to me.  The rest of the afternoon at work went by uneventful.  Which is a good thing because it allowed me to leave work on schedule.  So ask you can see it was a relatively quiet day.

With work out of the way, I went about my normal routine which usually calls for checking in with my parents to see what they would like to eat for dinner.  I’ve been cooking for my parents for close to 2 years now.  Wow!  Seriously 2 years, I just realized that.  All I can say is damn.  In those 2 years, I have learned to be confident as a cook.  My cooking aspirations will have to wait for another post.  Let just say for the mean time that I’ve seriously had fears of not learning how to cook.  I seriously doubt that I would like eating out everyday and relying on someone to cook for me.  So 2 years ago I made a promise to myself to 1) learn how to cook my mom’s food, 2) learn how to cook so that I can do it my way and experiment, and 3) to show people that I can do and that guys can seriously cook ( we don’t just grill, ladies ).

For today’s dinner, I was ask to make Sinigang.  Sinigang is a Filipino dish / stew, that is made of pork ribs or any other meat, Chinese eggplant, green beans, onions, tomatoes, and some tamarindo seasoning.  The pork ribs are chopped and boiled and the tomatoes, as well as the tamarindo seasoning mixed together, and cooked until the meat is tender.  Usually I have my meats cut at the market. I tell the butcher what I’m using it for and they cut it accordingly.  Although if I went to a non-Asian supermarket I don’t think the butcher would know what I’m asking him / her to do.  And when I want the meat to tenderize it faster, I use a pressure cooker, to help.  I do have to say that the pressure cooker freaks me out.  I always imagine a huge explosion happening when I use it.  So use caution when operating a pressure cooker.  In the meantime while the meat is cooking, I prep the other ingredients.  The prep usually just means to clean and chop up the eggplant, green beans, and onions into quarters.  And then after about 15 to 20 minutes all of the ingredients are added in the same cooker and then I let it cook for another 10 minutes until the eggplant and green beans are tender enough to eat.  And then you take the soup and have some rice and enjoy.  In a future post I will post a step by step recipe so you can create this delicious dish.

And lastly to finish off the evening I finally finished up my photo edits for my recent trip to the World Domination Summit.  I went through the images and create a gallery to tell the story of that amazing weekend.  This was the same weekend that inspired me to start this blog.  So instead of telling you what that weekend was like, I’ll let you see the pictures for yourself.  Check out it out here: World Domination Summit 2012.  Enjoy!