Bike

I finally purchased a hybrid bike after months of looking, i was ready to spend 500 buck on a bike.  Then my reality set in, do i really want to spend that much on a bike? Do i need that much of a bike? and so on.  So i researched some more and found a bike that i want with a better price tag to boot.  I ended up getting a 09' Trek 7.2fx blue.  It was all that i really need, and wanted. The 10' model has a better frame and wheels but i don't think that i would know the difference anyways.  I rode it, like 20ft, to the work van.  I can say it was awesome lol. jk. I can't wait to ride it.  For some reason i think that i'm going to put like 1000 miles on this bike fairly quickly.  I have heard of people putting 4-5k miles on a bike a summer, but i think they commute to work with it and so on.  I don't get that choice with my current job.

A sales guy at work must of heard my complaining about the Swiss people and he bought me a case of beer.  Nice, although it is a really dark beer and is like drinking cough syrup.

I have managed to get a math homework exercise done and i am over halfway on another one.  I don't know if I am learning anything, and i hope that the teacher doesn't catch on that i am using a tutor. I don't know if that would be bad though, either.  I have been motoring through my biology class too, and i hope to finish that up soon as well.  But i have to wait at least a month to finish a couple labs, so that will push that to the end as well. I'm kinda starting to freak out about not finishing the math class, or finishing it with a decent grade.  It scares me to think about it sometimes.  yikes.

Hand Holding

Lately at work I have been working with a few people that are not from this country mainly Europe.  I have had to pick them up at their hotel, take them for lunch, bring them back to there hotel, and sometimes i take them out for dinner, rarely.  Not only do i do this for them but i have to translate for them, i don;t speak there language, but i have a knack for transmitting what they want into movements that everyone can understand.  The other frustrating thing is that the machine that the customer has paid 500,000 dollars for isn't finished and untested.  I have been given projects to do, that i am told are easy only to find out that they are not, and require hours and hours of work just to mount, let alone work properly.  All of this is fine and dandy for i have done this in the past, but i remember how much a didn't like doing it in front of the customers.  They are talking about sending me all over the country to work on these machines. I don't want to do this if I am put in this situation with these ass clowns.  They are all good nature'd but do not understand that things need to be assembled and tested as a whole project and then verified in every way possible the everything is correct, then ship the machine.  This way you are confident that the machinery is correct and only if some odd ball thing happens, damaged in shipping ect, you have a ready machine.  A guy already has plenty to do with training and questions that the customer has but to add the fact that the product you sold, and had nothing to do with building, might not even work is only adding problems and blow ups.  It really pops the customers excitement balloons, they feel stupid and really get buyers remorse quickly.

Also i have been asking for training on these machines for years.  It would require me to go overseas for a couple weeks.  They won't let me go, but everyone else that is involved in this company has been there at least once, but they only sell and i have to do the rest.  Fair?

More fun, my dog ate my sony camera, nice.

I sold my GPS unit for more than the one i am replacing it with.  I think it is a good idea, updated software and maps, and i end up with money in the bank?  It is only what i need a gps only but thats is all i need.  There is other MP3 players that play better than a gps would ever be.

Tuesdays

I haven't been on here for a bit.  I have been busy, yeah right.  Well work has been extremely slow this last couple weeks.  I just got a yearly review where i was told that i was great but they aren't giving money to anyone this year, but i deserve one.  OK, so you'll forget how great i am when you have money......i know how that works, i let them know how i felt, although i know it wouldn't get me anywhere.  I mentioned that i would need some sort of carrot to persuade me to want to take on more responsibility.  Its always a tricky slope to bring that up, it can be taken the wrong way very easily. 

I have many thoughts on my job, one day i may hate it and the next i find it interesting and enjoyable.  So as I work on my homework for school, i wonder if i will be able to quit my job and go on to pursue a degree of some sort in mechanical or electrical engineering.  I'm not in a position now that i would like to stay in, but i have laid the ground work for a possibly better position in the company in a few years, do i just give that up.  For the most part, i believe that i am just a number, a minion in their empire.  Heck, the owner doesn't even know my name half the time, hey Aaron or Jason.  My name isn't Jason, you ass!  I want to correct him but he doesn't stop to talk, just as he passes by in the hallway.  I guess what keeps me there is the fact that i have learned so much about the industry that i am, so quickly that i know that i have only touched to tip of the iceburg.  And that i can learn about different things that i haven't thought about.  But its not like they let me choose what i will get to work with, and there is no training what so ever, if you saw a machine once you are now the expert.  They actually think its funny or "that's how it was when i was out in the field."  But its not right, but no one wants to make it better, just a endless circle of crap.

i got a talking too for having a misc charge of $0.99 on my cell phone, she wanted an explaination right now.  i wanted to just give her the phone and say i no longer need it, and if they want me to have it, then dont let me have any extra crap so i can't "rack" up the bill.

So when I quit I will have to start over with some other company making sheet metal brackets, having some uneducated moron tell me that my bracket isn't made right, although i didn't make it and the print is correct.  I can only imagine the stress i would be under, a new world i would be in, will i like it even.  All these thoughts have made it hard to do all my homework that i need to do.  I haven't touched my math or bio books for 1.5 weeks.  I don't have time to slack off.  and this only adds to the stress, now i hear a clock ticking....tick...tick.

It has been snowing pretty good up here lately.  I got stuck in my driveway a couple times, and rachel got stuck this morning.  I got stuck at work in front of everyone, on a slight incline, nice tires company x! Safety is our priority, yeah right.

Sunday Nights

It is once again a sunday night, i should be in bed resting up for another work week, argh. No thanks, if i stay up then my weekend is a little longer, right? Rachel and I were able to finish living room painting this weekend, although it took all of our time. I can honestly say that i think it looks good, and it is only the start of this "home project".

Rachel and I have been watching home makeover and other home shows, many of which are not my thing. I did get something out of most of the shows though, that i can get a decent looking house without spending a ton of money, i think this is good thing. I have had dreams of totally redoing my home and making it some sort of mansion or something, but in reality I am comfortable with the way it is now. I don't want or need a bigger house. I would like to finish it off a little better and make it more useable but that will take some time and a little work. I would like to finish the garage and wire it up sometime soon, this would probably be the most expensive endeavor of the project.

I know that i will get my house were i want it and end up selling it to someone for not as much money as went into it but thats ok. I think that i will use this house, kind of like a practice home, to see what i like and what i can do to make it better, and hopefully i will have my methods perfected before a invest into another home with some land or whatever i like at that time. You have to start somewhere. I was reminded this weekend that i payed too much for my house and that I had to pay the full price while others get a great deal and government subs. That is all fine and dandy but i believe that i am in a better situation than most people, I am in a house that i can afford, not to big, not to small, in a nice neighborhood, convenient location to all that i need. It may not be as close to people i like or family, but far enough away that i can have my space. I guess what I'm getting at is that i am happy where i am today and that I am comfortable with my surroundings. That is half the battle of life, being satisfied.

I finished the book i was reading, the home energy handbook, revised 2009. It was the first book that i have read on the subject. I really enjoyed reading it. It has put my mind into motion about some projects around home that i would like to try putting together. Most to do with hot water heating with wood and solar power. Possibly reducing NG bill. And like i have mentioned before, possibly starting a small solar power setup to ease into generating electricity. I have to look into it more and find some cheaper solutions to get started. I think that i will be a little embarrassed to climb onto my roof and start playing with this. I'm sure it will be noticed by the locals. I think we have a rep. for being a little weird. But thats better than being normal. We'll see how that goes. Any of this i will wait till at least the spring, which will give me enough time to figure things out more. Plus i should really study math than i have been, but what i have been doing is a improvement from what i was doing before. I have to have fun too, right? Well its time to sleep i think....

In The Mail

I finally finished my math homework, and i finally got it in the mail, so hopefully i did much better than i have been doing. I would like to get at least a C in this class. Right now it looks more like a D. So, to help me with that i searched the web for some tutor help. There was several tutor sites that would let me try it out free. Some sites i spent more time arguing with the tutor about what i was looking for and trying to get them to use the same formula's that were given for me to use. But for the most part I was able to get a person that really knows math, basically over analyzes the problem. I really like the help that i got and was considering joining one of these sites to help me out. I want to do well and learn this Calc so i can be a decent engineer. Well most of these sites charge by the minute........like .50 a minute! I did some research and found that my local library has a subscription to one of these sites and all i need to do is enter my library card number and i get in free! I was happy to hear this. Instead of getting stuck on a problem, I can quickly ask someone, within a few minutes, i get walked thru the exact problem that i am doing. And that really helps out, plus i get to make sure that i get all the answers right so i can get a better score on my homework, hopefully getting me a C or better in the class.

Me and Rachel have been painting the inside of my house. We started last weekend and have really had a tough start with a red wall. We were told be a helpful guy at Home Depot that what we were told previously was wrong, nice. But anyway he described every problem that we were having without me bringing it up. He got us squared away and my, our painting experience has gone much better, I can actually say that i think i know what i am doing. We still have to conquer the red wall but that should be the last animal and if it doesn't turn out, we'll buy some pictures lol, cover that baby up.

My younger brother (Matt's) friend Josh had his baby boy on thurday or friday. They named him something Mathew something. Josh's mom said it was because the child reminded them of Matt and that it was calm and confident or something like that. I am really honored that they named their child after my deceased younger brother, but i doubt it was because of what he looked like, or his demeanor. It was more of respect, and hope that their kid will grow up to be at least a little like Matt was. That in reality, its what I can only hope for. It's not that Matt was some sort of godly figure or anything, but like I am, usually, when you spoke with him or were around him it was the same guy, he couldn't hide who he was, never tried to be fake, or impress someone. He was just himself, and had tons of friends who liked him for that. His view on life was somewhat humble i would say, he didn't want to complain about anything, because complaining doesn't fix anything. He hated drama and anyone that brought it. He just wanted to have fun with friends and family. And along with fun was work, no matter how much fun he had he always did what ever work was needed to be done. I have learned plenty from him and it seems that others have too, that is something that i hope i will do to people if/when its my time to pass.

24hr math problem

I spent the last 24 hrs working on a single math problem. It has come to a point that i was going to either conquer this animal or die trying, i was up till 1 am last night and as soon as i got home i was working on it. After some help from a tutor i found that i was just missing a small step. Unfortunately since I'm in calculus 2 there is some what limited resources for my course. I know that there is plenty of information on the internet, but when it comes to a specific problem I'm hosed. I can't just ask anyone, it has to be a Math type person, and worst of all, they have to remember and remember clearly enough to be able explain it to me so that i can understand.

It's below zero now....but my house is nice and warm, due to my hard work yesterday splitting wood. I have put off using a pile of wood that I was given when i bought my house, 4 years ago. What a bum, right? Well, i payed the price, i carried 2/3 of the pile through the snow and split it, and then carried it into the basement. All with constant harassment from my dog Duke. He must of thought i was too slow or something, little bastard.

I have plans to expand my cheapness next year and engineering some sort of water heating element that would run thru my wood stove also, possibly saving me some money in the winter at least. I wouldn't have a use for gas that much, other than the emergency backup for water and home heating. But i'll still get billed for the $15 minum, nice.

I have been looking at some sort of power generating device weather it be a solar panel, or windmill, hydo ect. Only solar panels would be practicle for my home at the moment. I would have to start small. I was thinking for making a dedicated circuit just for my outside lights and the garage opener. I would actually leave the lights on when it got dark, with some timer to shut off at a decent time. I think that would be an easy start point.
I talked with co-worker about windmills today, he explained his ideas, and i gave my input. Nice to talk some one that gets excited about this stuff, and for the same reasons. Not so much for the environment but for independence, not having to rely on someone else for anything or at least, less stuff (taxes, rate hikes, and general people).

Well that is all that was on my mind tonight.

The Begining

I have started this blog with the suggestion of my girlfriend Rachel. I also picked the name of the blog because of the way she describes the way i get when i am interested or determined do/fix something. I go into a different mode, oblivious to time or my surroundings. I am full blast one thing at a time. I tend to research things till I can't see straight and then if i let my guard down I purchase some tool/cool item. Then when Rachel asks what I did, I get a smirk and confess my sins, lol. I'm sure you'll get a better idea of who i am with more blog posts.