Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mysteries Revealed
I had one of those moments today at work where you realize you've been duped. Maybe not purposefully by everyone, or someone in specific, but a duping has happened. I suppose you could say that something is not what it seemed. Why am I surprised though. At this point in my life, I'm finding that out around every corner. The trickster has been falling down on his job lately as the blindfolds just keep coming off.
Ever since I started working where I work, items have turned up missing, seemingly overnight most of the time. I was told there are operators who steal here and there, or have been prone to stealing in the past. I also found out at some point last year that our employment seems to be a "second chance" employment (meaning there are a lot of operators who once were in jail). All this to say, there's plausible reasoning for suspecting them.
Today however, I found out that Mr. Puerto Rico looks to have been the thief for some of these items. While working around his area when he was on the floor blending, I looked through his toolbox (a three leveled set of metallic drawers, and no I wasn't looking for something to steal) and saw that he had more debur knives than he should need, two boxes of pens and quite a few of what looked to be the missing gauge blocks (there's a story behind each item).
Ok ready... story time...
Debur knives: These are red handled with a curved removable blade at the end, made for the purpose of taking excess metal off the edges of parts. Upon becoming the main CMM Operator on first shift, I decided I wanted things to be more orderly and neat, with things having a proper place. I actually went to the tool crib and got two debur knives, because ours had went missing too many times to count. I put these debur knives in the second drawer, and hoped to see them there on a regular basis. Unfortunately, other people don't see the order you've created, and seem to live to make a mess out of it, and there were plenty of times after this that I saw the debur knives left out on our carts (areas used to stage and clean parts). So naturally I thought the knives were disappearing into the hands of operators because of being in plain view. It turns out this may or may not have ever been the case, as the alternative may or may not be the case.
Two boxes of pens: So the amount doesn't matter, but what does is that pens are always in short supply where I work. People are always asking to borrow pens, and the supply we are shipped seems to run low extremely fast. Well, up til now I blamed you know who, when it may have actually been you know who. (Way to make a long story short eh?)
Missing gauge blocks: Thee blocks have numbers on them representing how thick they are. They're used in calibration of some of our instruments, or in tandem with our instruments to help measure a part. Well, I had used a .150 and a .125 gauge block to set up a part with. These blocks went missing overnight. The next day I resorted to using a .145 and .120 gauge blocks, with .005 shims as substitutions for the missing amount. well, these two go missing (or seems to have in my mind at this moment) soon afterwards. Operators use gauge blocks in helping to calibrate/set up their machines sometimes, so I naturally thought one of them may have taken them... well, I was probably duped on that one too.
A few other things that go on, that seem... just not right to me: Ms. Y is supposed to check the finish on parts after blending gets through with them. She's also supposed to check the rework, then get us to check after her. Two things: A) Mr. Puerto Rico's handwriting tends to be on many of the shop orders I look at, before rechecking the part. He leaves out indications of which areas may be thick, how thick etc. and instead puts generalities like "thick walls, recheck in QC after blend." Wonderful! Now which walls. You see now I have to check them all. Problem is, why am I checking something that he should be checking... answer: because he's rude enough to scare Ms. Y into trying to spread it around in QC, getting Opp. J to check something for a few months, and apparently its my turn now. Problem B) She should check them before getting me to check. Within those words lies a misconception. She thinks those words means that everytime she checks something that's been marked thick, she needs to bring it in for me to recheck. What she's missing is that she needs to get blending to take that thickness off if she knows it's obviously thick. She doesn't need me to see that. I'm there to check after she thinks it's good, so I can find a spot that she may have missed.
Thanks for tuning in to Mystery Theater tonight. I hope I won't have to do this more often. Maybe next time I'll have something positive to talk about, or just something different.
Ever since I started working where I work, items have turned up missing, seemingly overnight most of the time. I was told there are operators who steal here and there, or have been prone to stealing in the past. I also found out at some point last year that our employment seems to be a "second chance" employment (meaning there are a lot of operators who once were in jail). All this to say, there's plausible reasoning for suspecting them.
Today however, I found out that Mr. Puerto Rico looks to have been the thief for some of these items. While working around his area when he was on the floor blending, I looked through his toolbox (a three leveled set of metallic drawers, and no I wasn't looking for something to steal) and saw that he had more debur knives than he should need, two boxes of pens and quite a few of what looked to be the missing gauge blocks (there's a story behind each item).
Ok ready... story time...
Debur knives: These are red handled with a curved removable blade at the end, made for the purpose of taking excess metal off the edges of parts. Upon becoming the main CMM Operator on first shift, I decided I wanted things to be more orderly and neat, with things having a proper place. I actually went to the tool crib and got two debur knives, because ours had went missing too many times to count. I put these debur knives in the second drawer, and hoped to see them there on a regular basis. Unfortunately, other people don't see the order you've created, and seem to live to make a mess out of it, and there were plenty of times after this that I saw the debur knives left out on our carts (areas used to stage and clean parts). So naturally I thought the knives were disappearing into the hands of operators because of being in plain view. It turns out this may or may not have ever been the case, as the alternative may or may not be the case.
Two boxes of pens: So the amount doesn't matter, but what does is that pens are always in short supply where I work. People are always asking to borrow pens, and the supply we are shipped seems to run low extremely fast. Well, up til now I blamed you know who, when it may have actually been you know who. (Way to make a long story short eh?)
Missing gauge blocks: Thee blocks have numbers on them representing how thick they are. They're used in calibration of some of our instruments, or in tandem with our instruments to help measure a part. Well, I had used a .150 and a .125 gauge block to set up a part with. These blocks went missing overnight. The next day I resorted to using a .145 and .120 gauge blocks, with .005 shims as substitutions for the missing amount. well, these two go missing (or seems to have in my mind at this moment) soon afterwards. Operators use gauge blocks in helping to calibrate/set up their machines sometimes, so I naturally thought one of them may have taken them... well, I was probably duped on that one too.
A few other things that go on, that seem... just not right to me: Ms. Y is supposed to check the finish on parts after blending gets through with them. She's also supposed to check the rework, then get us to check after her. Two things: A) Mr. Puerto Rico's handwriting tends to be on many of the shop orders I look at, before rechecking the part. He leaves out indications of which areas may be thick, how thick etc. and instead puts generalities like "thick walls, recheck in QC after blend." Wonderful! Now which walls. You see now I have to check them all. Problem is, why am I checking something that he should be checking... answer: because he's rude enough to scare Ms. Y into trying to spread it around in QC, getting Opp. J to check something for a few months, and apparently its my turn now. Problem B) She should check them before getting me to check. Within those words lies a misconception. She thinks those words means that everytime she checks something that's been marked thick, she needs to bring it in for me to recheck. What she's missing is that she needs to get blending to take that thickness off if she knows it's obviously thick. She doesn't need me to see that. I'm there to check after she thinks it's good, so I can find a spot that she may have missed.
Thanks for tuning in to Mystery Theater tonight. I hope I won't have to do this more often. Maybe next time I'll have something positive to talk about, or just something different.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Password Hack?
I could not get into my google account earlier, and of course my natural reaction is to think someone hacked my account. I'd like to think there's nobody out there that really cares that much, but I get the feeling it doesn't matter who you are to these agents of chaos.
I'm not just spouting out some nonsense with this "agents of chaos" stuff either. I've known people that seem to thrive uncreating (Newspeak word). I used to work with a guy, when I worked campus safety back in college, who would turn the nameplates on classroom doors upside down. I also seem to currently work with a few of them.
There are other agents of chaos in our lives, especially besides people, that excel in creating havoc in how we perceive our world. The Bible actually says, and we seem to forget this all the time, that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities of darkness. Somehow though, it's easier to blame other people for our problems. Easier to see their problems written all over the place. Easier to push our problems to the background in favor of this practice, and choosing any other distraction when the time comes to sit quietly thinking about who we are, and what we need to do for improvement.
There's a couple things that are on my mind tonight. A) We only have today. We cannot bend the future or past to do our bidding. We cannot change either, and therefore are charged with the great responsibility of doing the best we can with our present circumstances. Much of how we enjoy our day, for instance, is tied into how we perceive others, our circumstances, and whether we allow either to control how we react to life. Those two things are something we have little control over. Other people will (count on these words) fail you, and end up saying something that could potentially hurt you in the long term, or simply ruin your day. Also, circumstances are unstable. They have the ability to spin out of control in a matter of seconds and minutes. The sooner we can come to terms with how little we can control the world around us, the sooner we can concentrate on the important thing: How we react to these things, and even before that, how we head off the tailspins within us before they start.
The other thing I've been thinking about is something I wrote at work yesterday:
We care too much, as followers of Christ, about what other people think and care concerning us. There are a few things to think of in this area: A) Unlike Jesus, we can't read people's minds to know what they think of us. Even when He knew, though, did He take offense at what they were thinking concerning Him? Did He get defensive? B) Jesus let people ensnare Him and use false witnesses against Him, but through it all did not take a stand for Himself. Even when Pilot asked Him if He was the Son of God, His only answer was "I am what you say I am." The case I am referring to was a time when He chose to remain silent, accepting the blame for things He didn't do so prophecy could be fulfilled, but the crucifixion wasn't the only time when He chose to live this way. I'm going to investigate this further, but I know there is an important lesson within that we need to learn. Namely: Stop taking offense at things people say to, and about you. Bear your cross, and take your pain to God, and the faithful friends and family who love you. Don't react to what is thrown at you until you've given it thought and prayer. Learn how to let the Holy Spirit be your guide.
Upon reading through those words again, I now remember something Paul said, and would like to paraphrase it a bit: "I take joy in being ridiculed, persecuted, despised, and spat upon for his name's sake."
We are God's children. We're not beaten down, defeated nobody's. We have natural talents, but above all we've been given the ability to love those around us, through whatever they do to us. We need to live every day like it is the only day we've been given.
I know we've all heard it before, but it's something somebody needs to keep reminding us. What say we begin to remind ourselves of these things, and live up to our namesake.
I'm not just spouting out some nonsense with this "agents of chaos" stuff either. I've known people that seem to thrive uncreating (Newspeak word). I used to work with a guy, when I worked campus safety back in college, who would turn the nameplates on classroom doors upside down. I also seem to currently work with a few of them.
There are other agents of chaos in our lives, especially besides people, that excel in creating havoc in how we perceive our world. The Bible actually says, and we seem to forget this all the time, that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities of darkness. Somehow though, it's easier to blame other people for our problems. Easier to see their problems written all over the place. Easier to push our problems to the background in favor of this practice, and choosing any other distraction when the time comes to sit quietly thinking about who we are, and what we need to do for improvement.
There's a couple things that are on my mind tonight. A) We only have today. We cannot bend the future or past to do our bidding. We cannot change either, and therefore are charged with the great responsibility of doing the best we can with our present circumstances. Much of how we enjoy our day, for instance, is tied into how we perceive others, our circumstances, and whether we allow either to control how we react to life. Those two things are something we have little control over. Other people will (count on these words) fail you, and end up saying something that could potentially hurt you in the long term, or simply ruin your day. Also, circumstances are unstable. They have the ability to spin out of control in a matter of seconds and minutes. The sooner we can come to terms with how little we can control the world around us, the sooner we can concentrate on the important thing: How we react to these things, and even before that, how we head off the tailspins within us before they start.
The other thing I've been thinking about is something I wrote at work yesterday:
We care too much, as followers of Christ, about what other people think and care concerning us. There are a few things to think of in this area: A) Unlike Jesus, we can't read people's minds to know what they think of us. Even when He knew, though, did He take offense at what they were thinking concerning Him? Did He get defensive? B) Jesus let people ensnare Him and use false witnesses against Him, but through it all did not take a stand for Himself. Even when Pilot asked Him if He was the Son of God, His only answer was "I am what you say I am." The case I am referring to was a time when He chose to remain silent, accepting the blame for things He didn't do so prophecy could be fulfilled, but the crucifixion wasn't the only time when He chose to live this way. I'm going to investigate this further, but I know there is an important lesson within that we need to learn. Namely: Stop taking offense at things people say to, and about you. Bear your cross, and take your pain to God, and the faithful friends and family who love you. Don't react to what is thrown at you until you've given it thought and prayer. Learn how to let the Holy Spirit be your guide.
Upon reading through those words again, I now remember something Paul said, and would like to paraphrase it a bit: "I take joy in being ridiculed, persecuted, despised, and spat upon for his name's sake."
We are God's children. We're not beaten down, defeated nobody's. We have natural talents, but above all we've been given the ability to love those around us, through whatever they do to us. We need to live every day like it is the only day we've been given.
I know we've all heard it before, but it's something somebody needs to keep reminding us. What say we begin to remind ourselves of these things, and live up to our namesake.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Where's My Stapler
*Begin Transmission*
I was one of those naive people who think they're going to be getting a job in what they majored in; which is why they make you choose one to begin with. Instead of working with words, for a whole year and a half now I've been doing anything but. Only recently have I begun to feel the void, and thus my cry of help.
I work as a CMM Operator. I have a feeling most people have never heard of that, so I suppose I'll dish out a quick explanation (its funny how I've felt like writing this all day until now... me and blogs have never had long term relationships). The term basically refers to a Coordinate Measuring Machine, and the ones I run are used to measure airplane parts, which are either made of titanium or aluminum. Our measurement system is English, and just about everything measured is below an inch... within thousandths to hundred thousandths of an inch. Yeah... that means we have to be very specific, and thus the need for machines that measure specificity s like that. Ok, explanation tiring. Even proper sentence structure tiring.
I suppose that's something I should mention. Yes, I am/was an English major. No, that doesn't mean I feel I have to adhere to the practices therein. I will be writing fragments, and will probably not follow coherent streams of thought sometimes, but it'll be Ok. Try to withstand the corrective urges that seem to exist in our "educated society." So let's begin, shall we?
Rounds of golf played this year to date: 0
Rounds of golf played last year: 0
The year before: probably 5 or more
I was a Caddie then. Can say that was fun, but not very profitable in the short amount of time I dabbled. Am having fun now butchering sentences.
Number of times the F word was used at work today: surprisingly none that I can... oh wait... let's allow for: at least once
Number of times the F word is usually used at work: too numerous to count, but gotta remember to bring one of those clickers to work one day to find out.
Quotes of the Day:
Me: "If I were Rich, I'd play a lot of golf too." Story behind this particular quote of the day: Opp. J mentioned to me that Rich (our plant manager) plays a lot of golf. I thought it'd be funny to bring up earlier quote. He didn't get the word play.
I gotta say that something I noticed early upon being hired was that most of the people at my job act like a bunch of overgrown children. Case or cases in point:
Mr. Puerto Rico likes to whistle. The problem is he whistles the same tunes over and over, day after day. Opp. J doesn't particularly enjoy whistling, and in fact hates the practice. Opp. J enjoys silence. Something he won't ever get unless they fire Mr. Puerto Rico (probably one of the guys who's been here the longest). Mr. Puerto Rico knowingly whistles things like the "nana nana boo boo" tune because of Opp. J's hatred of the abominable practice. (Btw, I also enjoy whistling while I work, but at least try to keep the tunes varied. A fact that still cannot be appreciated by Opp. J).
Mr. W is the CMM Programmer of our bunch. He's been looking for another job (as has probably %70 of the Quality department) since being hired. He knows he's better than his pay (I suppose we all do) and continues fishing for a company to take him on at his high level. Mr. W enjoys talking about working out with "Pharmaceutical Research" (him and Opp. J get on this topic at some point every day), planning camping trips, and cheating on his wife with a woman from our other warehouse. This man seems to think he's untouchable. When I first started working here, I thought of him as a grown up bully, because he seemed to lack the sensitivities we have taken for granted from people. He even told me he had to take sensitivity training at one of his previous jobs, a fact that is not surprising to people that have known him for just a few minutes. This guy has called me fat, and compared me with his teenage kid. He gets angry too easy, and I'm sure he'll get fired before he can quit.
There are plenty more such issues that I'll probably bring up in later issues, ready to change the subject now though.
Oh yeah, talk about a weird moment. Have you ever had your boss just burst through the door, walk quickly over to your desk, and look over what you're currently doing? That happened to me today, and it was one of the weirdest experiences I've had with him. I'm just sitting there typing into my "reporting status" document, when I hear the door open, footsteps, and he's there. Right beside me looking at my document. No "hey John, whatcha doing?" or anything. Just there. He then turned and started walking away, at which point I ask "Like what you see?" of which he responds with what sounded like "yeah."
*End Transmission*
I was one of those naive people who think they're going to be getting a job in what they majored in; which is why they make you choose one to begin with. Instead of working with words, for a whole year and a half now I've been doing anything but. Only recently have I begun to feel the void, and thus my cry of help.
I work as a CMM Operator. I have a feeling most people have never heard of that, so I suppose I'll dish out a quick explanation (its funny how I've felt like writing this all day until now... me and blogs have never had long term relationships). The term basically refers to a Coordinate Measuring Machine, and the ones I run are used to measure airplane parts, which are either made of titanium or aluminum. Our measurement system is English, and just about everything measured is below an inch... within thousandths to hundred thousandths of an inch. Yeah... that means we have to be very specific, and thus the need for machines that measure specificity s like that. Ok, explanation tiring. Even proper sentence structure tiring.
I suppose that's something I should mention. Yes, I am/was an English major. No, that doesn't mean I feel I have to adhere to the practices therein. I will be writing fragments, and will probably not follow coherent streams of thought sometimes, but it'll be Ok. Try to withstand the corrective urges that seem to exist in our "educated society." So let's begin, shall we?
Rounds of golf played this year to date: 0
Rounds of golf played last year: 0
The year before: probably 5 or more
I was a Caddie then. Can say that was fun, but not very profitable in the short amount of time I dabbled. Am having fun now butchering sentences.
Number of times the F word was used at work today: surprisingly none that I can... oh wait... let's allow for: at least once
Number of times the F word is usually used at work: too numerous to count, but gotta remember to bring one of those clickers to work one day to find out.
Quotes of the Day:
Me: "If I were Rich, I'd play a lot of golf too." Story behind this particular quote of the day: Opp. J mentioned to me that Rich (our plant manager) plays a lot of golf. I thought it'd be funny to bring up earlier quote. He didn't get the word play.
I gotta say that something I noticed early upon being hired was that most of the people at my job act like a bunch of overgrown children. Case or cases in point:
Mr. Puerto Rico likes to whistle. The problem is he whistles the same tunes over and over, day after day. Opp. J doesn't particularly enjoy whistling, and in fact hates the practice. Opp. J enjoys silence. Something he won't ever get unless they fire Mr. Puerto Rico (probably one of the guys who's been here the longest). Mr. Puerto Rico knowingly whistles things like the "nana nana boo boo" tune because of Opp. J's hatred of the abominable practice. (Btw, I also enjoy whistling while I work, but at least try to keep the tunes varied. A fact that still cannot be appreciated by Opp. J).
Mr. W is the CMM Programmer of our bunch. He's been looking for another job (as has probably %70 of the Quality department) since being hired. He knows he's better than his pay (I suppose we all do) and continues fishing for a company to take him on at his high level. Mr. W enjoys talking about working out with "Pharmaceutical Research" (him and Opp. J get on this topic at some point every day), planning camping trips, and cheating on his wife with a woman from our other warehouse. This man seems to think he's untouchable. When I first started working here, I thought of him as a grown up bully, because he seemed to lack the sensitivities we have taken for granted from people. He even told me he had to take sensitivity training at one of his previous jobs, a fact that is not surprising to people that have known him for just a few minutes. This guy has called me fat, and compared me with his teenage kid. He gets angry too easy, and I'm sure he'll get fired before he can quit.
There are plenty more such issues that I'll probably bring up in later issues, ready to change the subject now though.
Oh yeah, talk about a weird moment. Have you ever had your boss just burst through the door, walk quickly over to your desk, and look over what you're currently doing? That happened to me today, and it was one of the weirdest experiences I've had with him. I'm just sitting there typing into my "reporting status" document, when I hear the door open, footsteps, and he's there. Right beside me looking at my document. No "hey John, whatcha doing?" or anything. Just there. He then turned and started walking away, at which point I ask "Like what you see?" of which he responds with what sounded like "yeah."
*End Transmission*
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