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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.  🙂

Monday Mondays… Oliver the Engineer, the

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Mondays are just one of those days that you either get right on or just never seem to get back on track until you are about to leave work. The later was true for me. This morning the day was moving quite slowly and not a lot was happening. I had some deadlines to meet. But as always the people that I needed to chat and discuss with about the pending issues was not there. So in order for me to get things done I had to assume some stuff but as always the current case it seems, when I assume it usually is wrong or the point doesn’t get address accordingly.

Today was the day that I had to get to finish the report that I have been working for a couple of weeks now. And this report at first seem like a breeze however about a week into it, I realized that there were a lot of unknowns that I need to I found out. Te most unfortunate thing though, as much as I like to be proactive to making sure things are going smoothly, it seems that the people I’m relying on are not keeping up their end of the bargain, which one makes the work life more difficult and aggravating. And to my my luck proves time and time to not work in my favor. If it doesn’t kill me, it only makes me stronger is what I say always.

But I wonder how many more times I can say that before that wears out?! I’m going to be optimiztic and say that it’s going to take awhile before a hint of that statement comes true. But something is going to have to happen I fear before anything will change. And to that I say KARMA! What comes around goes around.

So back to the report. This report is vital to the project but some people just don’t understand the scoop of which it will take. People just assume that it will happen and get done but no one checks up on the work. I try my best to make sure it is done correctly however I know that lately my work quality has been slipping. I say that because I as much as I lovey job lately it surely has gotten to be more of a chore than interesting. I’m pretty such you have fired that out by now if I have talked to you or you have been reading my post lately. It is just one of those things were the thing that you love can start to wear on you. The sad fact is that it is not the actual work that is killing me it is my coworker lack of communication with one another. Our team or from what I can make it out to be, is not a te at all. We are all like independent states working against and with each other. One person takes care of what they do and other does the same. And as long as they don’t conflict all is good. But once there is a conflict issues arise and tempers fly and it just makes it had.  So given that it doesn’t make for a productive work environment.

Luckily such was not the case for the report that I was working but the problem was that the people that I needed to submit it too for review was not in the office.  🙁  Oh well there is only more days left in the weekend.

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.

 

Monday Monday… Oliver the Engineer, the cook, the photographer, & the writer

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Today is Monday.  Oh joy!  LOL.  After a weekend like I just had, it is hard to come back to work again.  I figure that’s how a lot of people feel about Mondays.

At work today there wasn’t much going on.  Work for the most part was pretty quiet.  Nothing too dramatic happened.  The only event of the day was that I had to attend a meeting.  It was at the meeting that a possible bombshell was reported again.  Now after weeks / months of working on right of way another change maybe in order because of a design change that was not known until today.  When I heard this I was like, holy crap, the shit hit the fan once again.  Oh boy, I wonder who is going to do the fix this time.  I truly hope its not me because this one is not my fault nor is anything else that happen prior.  But boy my boss had a look of what, and confusion once again.  I had to cringe when this was reported because my boss was not prepared for this once again.  Sometimes I just don’t know what he does and what he knows about the project.  After the meeting was over, I headed out for lunch.

Lunch today was cool.  It was nice for once to have lunch by myself.  I had lunch at one of my favorite markets in Kearny Mesa.  This supermarket is called Marukai Market.  I got a Bento box, some Ahi Poke, and Jasmine Green Tea.  And boy it was delicious.

After lunch I returned to work and boy was it another quiet afternoon.  So for the rest of the afternoon I prepared for my meeting tomorrow morning.  And I left on time at 3:30pm.

After work I headed over to my friend’s Lori’s house to pick up some stuff for our PPSDC promotion.  I plan to distribute the promotion material tomorrow at Nelson’s and George’s Camera stores.

And for today’s dinner I kept it simple and made chicken adobo.  Which has become one of  my dinner mainstays.  My chicken adobo recipe is made up of Chicken, Bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar.  And all I do is just let it simmer on low heat. After about 45 minutes it is ready.  Serve it warm and over rice for best results.

Now with dinner over, I put on my photographer hat on and did some work to chip away at my photographer tasklist.  Today’s main task was to finish and upload the HOBY pictures that I took for the California Central chapter.  As I’m writing this the rest of the pictures are still uploading.  I’ve edited roughly 800 pictures for the kids to enjoy and help bring back the memories.  I will need to upload the rest of their package tomorrow and those items are the videos that I took during the seminar.  So hopefully soon all will be uploaded and the kids will be able to enjoy the pictures and relive that weekend.

Lastly, this evening I spent the majority of the evening playing catch on my blog post.  So already today I have already written two other post in addition to this post that you are reading.  So hence why this article is a shorter than most.  Hopefully tomorrow’s post will be longer and more exciting to report.  Because today was very boring and there was nothing on my end to report.