This last week was full of many events. Some were nice and others were just insane...right now I'm experiencing one the really insane events, but I'll get to that in a bit. Lets start with the past week before I go into detail on the title topic.
In talking to friends and others I see that they all have different perspectives on the work load they're facing. While some people do no work (1h a day at the max.) and complain of never having time because of all the things they have to do others seem to take on insane work hours (10hrs a day 6 times a week). I don't know where my last week falls in this spectra, but I felt it was a pretty darn long week. Thanks to an experiment coming to an end and myself getting ready for a trip to Germany I hardly had any time this week. I had to put a crap ton of time into data aqquisition and evaluation and had to stay at work till 6:30pm pretty much every day. Friday I even got into work at 6am. Oh and how could I forget, I had to wake up at 3:30am on Tuesday to get to the airport at 5am - flight to our customer's location and back in the evening. The good part is that the late hours were out of self initiative and not somebody forcing me. The bad side is that I didn't get all the shopping, cleaning, and mental preparation needed for the trip done. And now to the jucy part of this story...
I had to get up at 3am again to get to the airport this morning. Caught my flight to Detroit at 6am and....get this....I have a layover of 8~9hours here. UGH! I killed most of the time but I still have a large amount of time left till I can get on the flight and sleep! Thank god for all the gadgets I have to keep me entertained!
Though all this fun stuff I'm going through I still look forward to getting back home in Germany and spending time with my parents and friends. So to those who like to whine about work hours...there are crazy people like my friend Matt who did a week of bending over for this one company with only eating, sleeping and working being the activities conducted. All your whining does is make you look like a pansy, so think first before you start with your selfpitty -> Not directed to anyone or anybody that reads this blog ;-)
I hope you all have a happy holiday / a Marry Christmas! and a happy New Year!
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Routine days
Thats me playing around with my SLR on the frozen lake!!Its past bedtime and I'm, as usual, wandering the endless cyber landscape we call internet. I have things piled up to the wazoo and all I can do is waste my precious time on my computer. The good thing about that though is that today I'm being a little more productive - I've got a blog update for you!
So how am I doing? I'm doing well and pretty much everything else is going well, too. Work is keeping me busy. I've been spending a lot of time on the IR doing transmittance and ATR scans of various materials. Its fun but for those that have used an IR spec: the time it takes to purge out the system is really annoying. Besides that it looks like I'll be flying off to Chicago next week to visit some peeps. Its just a fly off in the morning and return in the evening type event but I'm looking forward to meeting some new people. It'll be fun! So thats work. Next to my...hmm as much as I hate to put it this way: my love life:
Quite a while ago I was fortunate to be introduced to a wonderful woman named Katie. We've been dating now for about 4 months and it feels like we've been together forever (in a very good way). She's not only beautiful and smart but also is quite athletic and recently I even found a geek side in her - she bought a DS!! We go swimming, biking, and running when we're not out on a date or hanging out at my or her place. It feels right when I'm with her and I couldn't be happier. I'm looking forward to next year which will be full of adventures (biking trips, triathlons, camping trips and much more!).
Speaking of triathlons though I got a little behind with my workout and am currently trying to get back to speed. Seems like a big struggle and its a pain, but I'm optimistic that things will go well and that I'll be in decent shape once the tri season starts.
So thats about it I guess. I'll be flying back home to Germany this Christmas and I'm looking forward to seeing some of my old German friends! I know its going to be a hell of a fun time though too bad its just a week vacation...it sure isn't something you get in large quantities when you're a new worker. I'll have to make the best of it. Oh and another update would be that I'm looking around for a townhouse. I guess its about that time to start looking around for some sound investments. That will be the big thing that will happen next year. I'm excited for this change but at the same time I feel like I'm getting real old. Better start saving up for my retirement! lol
Anyway, I hope all you are doing well and please leave me a comment if you can (I know I need to do that on some of your blog sites!). And to those I owe an email...I'll try to get to it this week/weekend. I haven't forgotten about you but I've been pretty busy...I'll get to it as soon as I can!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Spreading democracy
I work 40~50hrs a week and make money so that I can eat, pay back my debt, and do whatever else I deem important. Our government takes a huge chunk of it away so they can spend it on what they consider important - roads, schools, helping people with problems, etc. I understand the need for taxes and I support it since we all benefit from it. But when this money is spend to build tanks for such stupid use (as in the video below) I feel they're crossing the line. If this is our way of spreading democracy and making our country safer I'm at a loss - how does this help stabilize Iraq and lower the number of terrorists and insurgents?
I doubt that this is what our government wants happening, but since these are our own country men doing this I think our government needs to crack down on mal-doings that may jeopardize all the efforts that have been put into Iraq. Further more the uncultured and arrogant soldiers (the many few of them) need some serious learning on how to behave in certain countries before they enter. They represent the entire country and their actions will help make other respect the US or help breed more hatred. Seriously, this stuff concerns me. And if anybody thinks that this is just one happening then lets think again. I can think of many of such inadequate punishments that have surfaces in the press...please think of whom your voting for and their position toward foreign policy. We live in a global socio economical society in which the lone cowboy attitude will only lead to negative consequences.
I doubt that this is what our government wants happening, but since these are our own country men doing this I think our government needs to crack down on mal-doings that may jeopardize all the efforts that have been put into Iraq. Further more the uncultured and arrogant soldiers (the many few of them) need some serious learning on how to behave in certain countries before they enter. They represent the entire country and their actions will help make other respect the US or help breed more hatred. Seriously, this stuff concerns me. And if anybody thinks that this is just one happening then lets think again. I can think of many of such inadequate punishments that have surfaces in the press...please think of whom your voting for and their position toward foreign policy. We live in a global socio economical society in which the lone cowboy attitude will only lead to negative consequences.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
This article is way funny...don't read if you're a mac fanboy
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35620
Monday, November 06, 2006
Long email
As many of you may know I***c is currently doing a great job teaching the helpless Japanese to speak and write English....I used to live there and I know that they need all the help they can get so I'm glad that he is doing what he's doing! Anyways, I owed him an email on finding a job with a chemistry degree. I hadn't gotten to that email for the longest time cause I knew that he was going to be in Japan for another year and also cause I knew that it was going to be a long email. Anyhow he asked me again so I finally sat down and got to it. Since it was a long email and it has some good ideas to it I posted it here for everyone to see. I hope you enjoy it...
So here is that email I was planning on writing like two months ago. You want to know more on what sort of job opportunities you have, right? I don't want to say that I'm the expert in it but I think that I should be able to give you some hints.
First off, what options do you have? From my perspective I see you as a good science oriented guy that not only has great interpersonal skills but also knows about the different ways of living depending on culture. And you were in Japan for a long ass time...can you speak Japanese? That language skill may help land you a job before some other person if you ever get into that situation. In anycase, I think that you were in a pretty similar situation as I was a year ago.
So here are the options as I see them:
1) You could go find a full-time job at some larger or whatever size company. If you're looking for a job the full time job is going to be your ultimate goal for the next couple of years. Most likely you won't be able to land a job right away, since the competition is real big (many experienced people need to look for entry jobs cause they can't get the higher jobs). Most places require you to have some experience and other places want to see degrees (PhD and Masters). But what it comes down to is that you need to be lucky in order to get a full-time job and you have to send out a lot of applications. Your best bet is to do this as soon as possible, as often as possible, to as many places as possible, and most likely you'll also have to do this while you're working at some shit job.
Job options I would say would be in research, quality, and technical services...and if you want to push it you can maybe get a sales, marketing, or business job with the science background, but I think your chances without real work experience is close to 0. So if I were you I would go to many different company websites and start applying to every research, quality control, and tech services job you can find. Quality is, I guess, a job where you make sure that the quality of the product is according to what the customer wants - i.e. you talk to customers and do stuff with the product development group. Quality could also be on the production line in which you'd be preforming certain tests on the product to make sure the product and intermediate products are ok. Tech services is what I'm doing. Its similar to quality but is more oriented towards helping the customer use the product the company produces. This stuff is really fun cause you get to travel (depending on what type of customers you have), eat well while traveling, and have fun trying to fix stuff or help make things work better. Then research and product development is where you do exactly what the title says. Try looking at www.mmm.com, www.medronic.com. www.ecolabs.com and other big companies for jobs...donno in what field you want to go though...
2) Since it takes a hell of a long time to find a full time job you'll have to go look for something temporary. This really isn't the stellar awesome job that everybody wants, but trust me...getting a temp job ain't gonna hurt you. Instead of fooling around doing nothing all day you get to work, make money, get to know people, and the best - during all that time look for a better job! Temp jobs can come in different types so I'd just go talk to some temp agencies. I worked for Pace Analytical and Aerotek Scientific. They make money off of your pay check for finding you a job so getting a job will be a lot easier than finding a full time position...but they also take 50% or so of the money away. So as the name says its a temp job. Other agencies would be Kelly Scientific (sp?) and Vault. Now I'm sure there are many others around the twin cities and elsewhere in the US, but thats all I know of.
3) Go to school, get a PhD and be a hero. This route will take a long time, be a lot of work without much money ....true, you'll end up with good money, but not good as some managers will make...and they're always going to be above you (in therms of job position...if you want to rise up high the best is to get some scientific background and then a MBA...oh, and be a good diligent worker...that one is always the best). If you really want a PhD or a masters title though I would suggest trying to get a job at a big company like 3M, Medtronics, Boston Scientific, Eli Lily....many of those companies will support your interest in further education by helping you out with tuition. So basically you work full time, be a part-time student - you get the money and 401k of a full-time worker, health insurance, dental and vision, get the education (which obviously will take a lot longer), the vacation time increases faster (because that stuff is based on how long you work for the company), and you have a job during and after that education. Pretty good deal if you ask me.
4) Go get a law degree
5) Do some volunteering work
6) Many other options that I can't think of....
So here is that email I was planning on writing like two months ago. You want to know more on what sort of job opportunities you have, right? I don't want to say that I'm the expert in it but I think that I should be able to give you some hints.
First off, what options do you have? From my perspective I see you as a good science oriented guy that not only has great interpersonal skills but also knows about the different ways of living depending on culture. And you were in Japan for a long ass time...can you speak Japanese? That language skill may help land you a job before some other person if you ever get into that situation. In anycase, I think that you were in a pretty similar situation as I was a year ago.
So here are the options as I see them:
1) You could go find a full-time job at some larger or whatever size company. If you're looking for a job the full time job is going to be your ultimate goal for the next couple of years. Most likely you won't be able to land a job right away, since the competition is real big (many experienced people need to look for entry jobs cause they can't get the higher jobs). Most places require you to have some experience and other places want to see degrees (PhD and Masters). But what it comes down to is that you need to be lucky in order to get a full-time job and you have to send out a lot of applications. Your best bet is to do this as soon as possible, as often as possible, to as many places as possible, and most likely you'll also have to do this while you're working at some shit job.
Job options I would say would be in research, quality, and technical services...and if you want to push it you can maybe get a sales, marketing, or business job with the science background, but I think your chances without real work experience is close to 0. So if I were you I would go to many different company websites and start applying to every research, quality control, and tech services job you can find. Quality is, I guess, a job where you make sure that the quality of the product is according to what the customer wants - i.e. you talk to customers and do stuff with the product development group. Quality could also be on the production line in which you'd be preforming certain tests on the product to make sure the product and intermediate products are ok. Tech services is what I'm doing. Its similar to quality but is more oriented towards helping the customer use the product the company produces. This stuff is really fun cause you get to travel (depending on what type of customers you have), eat well while traveling, and have fun trying to fix stuff or help make things work better. Then research and product development is where you do exactly what the title says. Try looking at www.mmm.com, www.medronic.com. www.ecolabs.com and other big companies for jobs...donno in what field you want to go though...
2) Since it takes a hell of a long time to find a full time job you'll have to go look for something temporary. This really isn't the stellar awesome job that everybody wants, but trust me...getting a temp job ain't gonna hurt you. Instead of fooling around doing nothing all day you get to work, make money, get to know people, and the best - during all that time look for a better job! Temp jobs can come in different types so I'd just go talk to some temp agencies. I worked for Pace Analytical and Aerotek Scientific. They make money off of your pay check for finding you a job so getting a job will be a lot easier than finding a full time position...but they also take 50% or so of the money away. So as the name says its a temp job. Other agencies would be Kelly Scientific (sp?) and Vault. Now I'm sure there are many others around the twin cities and elsewhere in the US, but thats all I know of.
3) Go to school, get a PhD and be a hero. This route will take a long time, be a lot of work without much money ....true, you'll end up with good money, but not good as some managers will make...and they're always going to be above you (in therms of job position...if you want to rise up high the best is to get some scientific background and then a MBA...oh, and be a good diligent worker...that one is always the best). If you really want a PhD or a masters title though I would suggest trying to get a job at a big company like 3M, Medtronics, Boston Scientific, Eli Lily....many of those companies will support your interest in further education by helping you out with tuition. So basically you work full time, be a part-time student - you get the money and 401k of a full-time worker, health insurance, dental and vision, get the education (which obviously will take a lot longer), the vacation time increases faster (because that stuff is based on how long you work for the company), and you have a job during and after that education. Pretty good deal if you ask me.
4) Go get a law degree
5) Do some volunteering work
6) Many other options that I can't think of....
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Oh snap!
I liked the video Brent posted, so much that I chose to post one that I saw a couple of days ago myself.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Monday, October 16, 2006
...muahahaha
KT got a webcam!! W00t for video chatting...and spoiling the bad news with good news!! :-D
Bad new is good news?
Well, as it seems some people like other people's bad news. Maybe its because it makes em feel better or maybe it makes em happy to pity others. Well, whatever the reason may be today is almost like a birthday.
I got up at 6am this morning, spent 700 bucks on a plane ticket and have no money for food, had a hell of a shitty day, and had to stay till 7pm at work (I started at 8:30am). Cool how I got it all in one sentence huh? Here is an addition to it: Looks like my fun clan is falling apart - only two out of 9 people showed up - and that included me.
I got up at 6am this morning, spent 700 bucks on a plane ticket and have no money for food, had a hell of a shitty day, and had to stay till 7pm at work (I started at 8:30am). Cool how I got it all in one sentence huh? Here is an addition to it: Looks like my fun clan is falling apart - only two out of 9 people showed up - and that included me.
Marry Christmas to you who likes to hear my bad news!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Midterm?? What?
Yeah, I have a midterm tomorrow. I'm taking a first responder class and now I ended up with this...a midterm. I should be studying but I had to take a cs break and since I was at it I had to add another couple of minutes of surfin'! And it was worth every minute!!
Here is what I found: first images of people using the wii console. I may have thought of getting the ps3 but that idea is all gone now. I want a wii again!! Check it out! Weeeeeee!!!1!!one!! http://wii.com/jp/wii-experience/
Here is what I found: first images of people using the wii console. I may have thought of getting the ps3 but that idea is all gone now. I want a wii again!! Check it out! Weeeeeee!!!1!!one!! http://wii.com/jp/wii-experience/
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