KRUG

i’ve already given the background on how i got my job so in this post i’ll tell you a little bit about what i do.

an overview of the business is that we build models, miniature scale and full scale trainers, and conceptualize designs.  everything is done in house pretty much.  we have a machine shop with every piece of metal cutting machinery known to man.  in what we call the “high bay” there is a welding section with more gas cylinders than i have had time to count, a sealed and vented paintbooth, a woodworking section for building our own custom shipping crates, and room to build massive, full scale models and trainers.  right now there is an f-22 sitting in there which is being built as a fuel system trainer for the air force.  i work in the low bay (a.k.a. model shop) which is where we do all of our miniature modeling.  i work in there with 3 other guys: fred, john, and mark. we have access to every shape and size of acrylic made, a laser cutting machine, a 3-d printer (not kidding…it prints in plastic), and an assortment of pre-purchased stairs, fences, mall paneling and the like.

we get jobs by bidding on them.  for instance, an oil company may want to propose a new oil rig to be built and they want a detailed scaled model to increase hype or something.  we will bid based on man hours that it takes to finish the job including design, build, and finishing.  so we may allocate 100 hours to build this project.  the less time they give us, the less detail that goes into the model and the less it costs the client.

i went in on monday and basically got shown around the shop again.  i met the guys in the model shop that i would be working with and got shown to my desk.  it was covered with junk (including two microwaves that don’t work) and dust.  anybody who knows me knows that i cannot do any kind of work in a cluttered or dirty setting. so i was in the middle of cleaning it when the vice president of the company walks up to me and starts telling me about the two laser cutting machines that the company owns and how one of them is not working.  he continued by saying that he believes it is the tube that is messed up and has found one on ebay that he thinks may work.  to confirm this, he wants me to take apart this machine and compare the tube in hand to the one on ebay.  this caused me to spend 4 hours taking apart a high powered laser.  muchos fun indeed. 

it turns out that they didn’t match and the machine is actually just an outdated piece of junk now.  after lunch, i put it back together and then bugged the guys to let me put some stuff together.  i did get to glue one item together but the hard work had already been done which is actually building the pieces.  i also got a crash course in autocad from fred.

fred is the oldest of the three guys in the model shop.  i think he is the quietest and easiest to upset.  he pretty much is the only one who runs autocad and the laser machine because he has been doing it the longest and is pretty quick at it.

on tuesday i actually started learning how they do things as far as building is concerned.  i kind of latched onto john that morning.  he has been doing scale modeling for about 20 years and he is incredible.  i’ve seen his portfolio.  unreal.  he told me that he sees me as his retirement.  so he pretty much let me follow him around the entire day and watch how he did his work, what decisions he was faced with, and why he went with whatever course of action he chose.

on wednesday is when i actually started working on things.  i was given a small pulley system to build with the help of john.  we pretty much spent all day wednesday building these things.  i didn’t do a whole lot of the work myself but i did get my hands into it some.  i wound up lasercutting some things myself by designing the pieces in autocad and melting plastic a few times (i was told when i started on monday that if i’m not messing things up, then i’m not working.  they expect me to make mistakes in other words).  but i got the hang of it and turned out some pretty nice pieces.

on thursday, i was given another pulley system and told to build it.  so i spent thursday and friday designing and building it.  it took me two days when really, john could have finished it in about 4-6 hours.  but the exciting thing is that i designed, manufactured, and built the entire thing myself.  i did get his input and approval at certain steps but he never touched the thing except to examine it.

and that’s pretty much my job.  i actually laughed out loud on tuesday when i was glueing something together because i couldn’t believe i was getting paid to do something i would do for free at home at 3 in the morning when i should be sleeping.

i really believe that this is my career choice.  i have retirement plans, insurance, paid holidays, and room to grow in salary.  apparently there is way more money to be made in this field than i thought when i was looking into it.  john didn’t tell me how much he makes but he made sure i knew he does very well.  there is also job security because there aren’t that many young people looking to join this field.  but on top of all of that, it is fun for me.  i get excited about the idea of designing and building miniatures and then being able to learn anything else at the shop that i want.

this is absolutely a dream come true for me.  i couldn’t be happier right now.

i went in for an interview this past wednesday. i sat down and talked to greg (not sure of his position but apparently he does some hiring and his opinion is a heavy one) and then he walked me around the shop.

i have no doubts that this job was created with me in mind. i would thrive in an environment like that. it turns out that they do all kinds of stuff including, but not limited to, welding, wood working, auto body painting, metal machining, sculpting, programming, 3-D computer design, modeling, engineering, and laser cutting. the best part is, i could learn to do all of those things if i wanted to!

i would be hired for my skills in modeling, computer software, and math long with my creativity and affinity for learning and trying new things but if i were interested, which i definitely am, i could be trained to do any or all of the above jobs mentioned. on top of it, they would pay me to train and after learning the skill and becoming good enough at it to be used for projects in that area, i would be deemed more valuable and therefor, get a raise.

so all in all, i will be in a dynamic environment, learning all kinds of new ways to express myself and getting paid to do all of it.

as you can see i am excited and i haven’t even been hired yet. the good news is that they seemed excited about me as well. greg kept telling me that he always looks for young, aggressive guys to hire. i am young and i was aggressive enough to seek him out for a week solid and push myself into an interview. he also mentioned that he has a hard time finding people who are analytical and creative at the same time and know how to balance the two out. yeah i know, that’s me!

i really feel confident that i’m going to have a position there in the near future. i was told that i will know by the 5th of october. i don’t think that not getting the job right now will set me back at all though. the only thing it will do is give me time to learn some things they could use. i live with people who have a wealth of knowledge about carpentry, welding, CAD software and so on.

the greatest thing about all of this is that i am getting to pursue a dream of mine. it’s not a feeling i get very often. in fact, i have belittled myself for not having any real goals or dreams. college for me has just been 5 years of drifting with no real purpose or final place in mind. i have always had ideas of where i thought i might end up but nothing that really got my blood boiling. i enjoy math and am good at it but i think i have found my true passion.

we’ll see how it all turns out. i’ve got an entire life to live and i am in no hurry to finish it up. this may not be my final position in life but i’m sure going to test the door and see where it takes me.

by the way, if you’re at all curious as to what this company does, check out their site. they have tons of pictures in the galaxy. almost too many but it gives a good idea of some of the things they’ve done in the past. there is also a pretty decent video that summarizes the company that you can download and view.

on a complete side note,…I LOVE MOZILLA FIREFOX (or foxfire as debye so lovingly calls it)!! this last paragraph is being written after my computer crashed (grumbling at windows). there was no way i was going to retype everything previous to this even though i really wanted to say it all. anybody who has used firefox and had it suddenly die knows that is has a “restore session” option when you start it back up. yeah, it saved the entire UNSAVED blog even after a complete system reboot. kudos to mitchell baker, brenden eich and the rest of the mozilla team!

it was amazing. i had way more fun than i thought i would.

we left sunday night and drove the 19 hours to charlotte. the rest of monday was spent crashed out trying to catch up on sleep. tuesday we got up and went to carrowinds which is a small amusement park out there. it was the middle of the work week so there was almost nobody there. we wound up getting bored by the time we left after having ridden every ride several times.

wednesday we went shopping for a few hours and i did good! not for myself but for the females i was with at the time. i was picking stuff out and it was looking amazing. anyone who really knows me knows that clothes are not my passion. but i had a blast picking out stuff for them and it was even more rewarding when they loved the things i picked.

we went to the first church service that night and got there a little later than we wanted so we had to sit in the nosebleeds. there were 17,000 people there this year so the place was packed out.

thursday consisted of classes and then service that night and the same for friday. in one of the friday day sessions i got to meet the voice of dora the explorer! it was cool beyond all belief. the stadium was rocking!

friday night after church we started the trip home and made it back saturday evening.

the highlights of the trip were really the people i was with. i made some really good friends and had an amazing time with the group. somehow, i wound up being the center of the 33 people and my company was always in demand. most of my time was spent with nathan and andra and i don’t see that stopping now that we’re back. we had such a great time that i think we’ll wind up spending a lot of time together still.

my BEST friend IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AND ALL OF THE UNIVERSES COMBINED INCLUDING ANY AND ALL PARALLEL UNIVERSES IN EXISTENCE came out to see me this past weekend. it was as good as i had hoped it would be and much shorter than i ever thought it would be. except for the time she spent asleep, we used every possible moment to hang out and catch up on each other’s lives. and really, a lot has changed in each of our worlds which is a good thing.

so i took her around the city a little bit and together we decided that the west side of houston is much prettier than the east side where i live. we wound up driving 45 minutes to the other side on saturday to get thai food from a restaurant with good reviews. it was good but i’m not sure what we got was worth the hour and a half drive time. and believe it or not, she didn’t even come close to falling asleep on the mini road trip!

we also ate dinner friday night with my best friends out here…the newlyweds. and i took her to church with me on sunday and then had to take her to that dreaded place after lunch.

all in all it was an amazing weekend. way too short but much needed as well. i really have missed her and while that hasn’t changed, i feel some better after having gotten a riss fix and restocked on hugs.

and that’s really the jist of it. i have been trying to get into the swing of things over here. some issues i’m dealing with are getting my car registered before it expires in a couple of weeks, paying the rest i owe on a tux for a wedding, and living out of boxes.

i don’t actually live in my room yet. i am going to be staying with my sister and brother-in-law for a while and they have a room all set up that am going to use. but it’s not quite ready yet. see, they are adding on to their house and as part of that addition, a new master suite is being created. the room i am going to be occupying is the current master bedroom. as of now, they have just moved into the new master suite so the old master bedroom is vacant. but they would like to redo the ceiling, move a door, and lay down new carpet before i move into it. unfortunately, because of scheduling, that probably won’t happen for another week or so. in the meantime, all of my stuff is still in the trailer we moved it over in and it is making living very difficult. i’m just glad i didn’t pack my computer!

in other news, i put my laptop case on ebay a couple of weeks ago to see if i could make a profit on it. nobody bought it for the price i was willing to accept. i was a little disappointed but not much. i painted it for me and i am happy with it. if it had sold, i would have done it all again with new parts and a new design. it would have been fun but not that big a deal. i still have a bucnh of ideas i would like to try but not enough money to buy laptop cases to do them with.

i already have tutoring jobs out here. i was here for three days when i already had one client lined up. on sunday, i was talking to the family at church and another mother overheard us discussing math tutoring and she decided she wanted her daughter to tutor over the summer as well. so i already have two clients for the summer which will be nice to supplement my income with.

also, this past weekend, the chorale from christian life college in stockton california came through houston on tour. my aunt and uncle are the deans of music there and were on the trip with their group. i went to a barbecue on friday and saw some old friends and got lost in beautiful eyes again (the same thing happened to me this time last year). then on sunday i went to a local church to hear them sing. those eyes were there again and true to form, my mouth and brain cut all lines of communication between each other and my heart seemed to forget what to do with the red stuff running through it and kept spazzing out.

on top of all of that, my mom was in town to see her kids (my sister and i) and her sister (the aformentioned aunt). so i got to spend a belated mother’s day with her.

all in all, things are going well despite not having enough money.

and i miss my best friend more than i ever thougth i would. i was expecting the heavy heart and the teary eyes but the gut wrenching pain of knowing she’s not around was a shock for me. in a way, i don’t want it to go away. having the pain there reminds me just how much she means to me.

i put my laptop together on thursday. i think it looks amazing. it is a high gloss black so the paint is going to show all finger prints and oil smudges from my hands but that’s ok. i plan on carrying a soft, buffing cloth in my bag to wipe those off. the best part is that now i have a unique piece of machinery. no one else’s is like mine! i will be posting some high quality before and after pics later on flickr and i’ll let you know when i do.

in other news, i went to my second LAN party this saturday and, once again, had a great time. it’s amazing to me how much fun it is sitting in a room for 8 hours in front of my computer playing online games with a bunch of friends. so much fun that i missed half of the NASCAR race to stay and game some more. i am glad that i went home to watch the finish though because jeff gordon had a historical race today. it was his first win ever at phoenix, the first time anybody has ever won from the pole at that track, and his 76th career win which ties him with the late dale earnhardt. plus it gives him an extra 10 points in the chase and a solid lead in the standings. if only the braves had won today…

i am moving to houston in may.  not sure of the exact date yet but i think i’m going to shoot for the 13th.

it’s been a long time coming really.  anybody who knows me well knows that i’ve mentioned it off and on over the past 2 years but i just never did feel a release to make the move.  but now i do.  it’s going to be a very bittersweet occasion because while i am looking forward to being with family and old friends, i’m going to be leaving behind the most special person in my life.

i don’t really have a lot to say on the matter except that it’s happening.

the first one is my new niece!!!  her name is emily kathleen elder and she was born on january 11th.

i made the trip out to houston for the coming of my sister’s newest baby this past weekend.  it was really a very well planned event.  her due date was the 11th and all of the important family was going to be there that weekend.  because of the grandparents being there, my sister wanted to have the baby dedication on that sunday.  so they planned it the previous week so that if she didn’t have the baby naturally by wednesday, she would be induced at 5AM on thursday.  this would give her a little bit of time to recover and be able to have the baby in church on sunday.

so it went as scheduled.  my dad and i got there friday evening after taking care of the second big thing (to be covered later in this post).  we pretty much went straight to the hospital where my sister and emily were.  she is so beautiful.  i wish i had some pictures to post here but there are none yet to post.  i don’t have a digital camera myself and kim and kurtiss haven’t put anything up on snapfish yet.  but i digress.

i got to hold her for a little bit at the hospital and she was sweet as could be.  i think i heard her cry twice the entire time i was there.  and she has the biggest eyes!  those are going to break some hearts later in life.

the dedication was held on sunday morning by rich glass and his dad.  it was meaningful and the things that were said carried a lot of weight.  i know it meant a lot for my sister to have her parents there during the ceremony.  immediately after church i flew home.  but home was about to change for me.

so the second big thing.  i moved into clayton place this past week.  the actual moving was done the day after i got back from houston but the fiasco started the previous week.  my dad and i have been talking about me moving out of my previous residence for a couple of months now and when i went out to washington for christmas, we started discussing it a little more heavily.  to the point that i started paying application fees and sending paperwork to clayton place.

when i got back to georgia from seattle, i had to go to clayton place and sign all of the paperwork.  which i did.  the problem arose when i wanted to change my mind and not move there.

i went to the appointment as planned and mia took me on a tour of the room i had reserved.  it was thick with smoke and there were bacardi rum bottles everywhere.  without exageration, i think there were about 80-90 in the kitchen alone.  i was in complete shock.  but since my dad had already paid the $250 for registration, i felt like i was stuck with it.  so i went and signed the contract.

then i got to thinking about just how bad it was going to be.  to shorten the story a bit, my dad flew in the next day on his way to houston for the baby thing, and we went to clayton place and got them to let me stay in another room.  the one i ended up in is bigger than the first and my room mates are a lot like me: kinda quiet and reserved.

i have been there for about 3 days now and i am liking it well enough.  i haven’t gotten everything moved over quite yet.  i still am having food issues and i have to finish packing up some stuff at the old house and clean it.  but i am moved for the most part.  i don’t like being this far away from my best friend but i do like the location as far as work and school are concerned.

which is big thing number three.  school.  this semester is my push at a good one.  i plan to go to every single class and do every single assignment..on time.  and so far i am succeeding.  i am ahead in my work, i feel together in class, and i am enjoying the environment much more.  i think the change in mindset at the beginning of the semester is what is facilitating the transformation.  i have a strong will and i just needed to focus it in the right direction.  i am sure that this is going to be a pivotal point in my life when i get old and look back.  this will be the time that i turned my life around from always being the guy who as tons of potential but never applies himself to the guy that always gets the job done…above and beyond that which is required.

i’m excited! 

i went to washington state for christmas.  more accurately, i went to olympia to visit my parents and grandparents.  getting out there was a mess.  i was flying standby which can sometimes be an adventure.  the flight that i picked to fly out on looked great until i actually got to the airport.  the problem was that there was a massive storm in denver and it had completely shut down the airport there.  this backed up air traffic all over the country.  i had planned on flying out on thursday morning and didn’t actually get out there until sunday night.

once i got there though i had a great time.  i seemed to get the role of mr. computer fix it man while i was there.  not that i minded because i actually enjoyed it.  i had to get the church computer working for dual screens with an extended desktop so that it would display powerpoints and stuff, i helped my dad get my mom’s computer to stop shutting off from overheating, and i was given editing control of the church website.

i also sat in front of the fire for hours.  after everyone went to bed i would go get a book and sit in front of the fire and read until there was no more wood in the house.  a couple of times i actually went outside barefoot in the rain and dark to grab a single log so i could finish the book i was reading.

i think the best part was the three solid meals a day that i got while i was there.  i generally don’t eat a whole lot right now (a fact i didn’t agree with until this past week).  it’s not because i feel like i’m fat or anything of the sort, i just usually don’t get around to eating meals.  if i’m busy and hungry, i’ll find something small and quick to quell the hunger pains but not enough to actually feed myself.  while i was in washington though i ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as snacks in between.  i actually gained four pounds.  lol  don’t worry though.  it will all go away for the previously mentioned reasons.

so i am home now and waiting for school to start up again.  i am looking forward to a fresh semester. 

i went to ibc this past weekend.  i went up there mainly to get away from here.  i wanted to visit my old pastor and see some friends from houston that go to the school that i haven’t seen in a while.

it was an awesome trip.  i got there friday morning and went to a couple of the classes: science in the bible and salvation.  i really enjoyed the first one because it was right up my alley.  then i had lunch (it was chicken finger friday) and went back to the waldron’s house for a nap.  later that evening i joined the school for their annual  christmas banquet and had a great time eating the absolute best green beans ever. after that was over, about 11 of us made it over to the henderson’s house and played games and drank coffee until around 1 30.

saturday i slept in pretty late and then ran some errands with the waldrons.  we met up with chris and leah in the evening and went duck pin bowling.  it is called that because the pins are shorter and fatter and look like ducks sitting at the end of the lane.

sunday was church and it was awesome.  they are in the middle of a building project and sunday night they raised $100,000 just from the congregation towards the goal.  i was stunned at how much they were able to give.  it was amazing.

monday i made it home and i was glad to be home.  it wasn’t really a restful trip but that is ok.  i had a great time and i met some really cool people that i am going to do my best to stay in touch with lol.