| Copied from Weather dot com:
http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/98126?phenomena=WS&significance=A&areaid=WAZ508&office=KSEW&etn=0010
See where I've bolded...
... WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM PST WEDNESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING FOR SOUTHERN ZONES IN WESTERN WASHINGTON... ALTHOUGH EVERYWHERE IN WESTERN WASHINGTON WILL GET SOME SNOW... SOME AREAS MAY NOT GET HEAVY SNOW... OR IF THEY DO... IT WILL BEGIN A LITTLE LATER. FOR THESE AREAS... WHICH INCLUDE THE SEATTLE/BREMERTON AREA... TACOMA AND VICINITY... THE SOUTHWEST INTERIOR... THE LOWER CHEHALIS VALLEY... THE HOOD CANAL AREA... AND THE CENTRAL COAST... A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT.
FORECASTS CALL FOR UP TO 2 INCHES OF SNOW IN THESE AREAS ON WEDNESDAY... AND ANOTHER INCH OR TWO COULD FALL WEDNESDAY NIGHT. THERE IS UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF SNOW THAT COULD FALL OVER THESE AREAS BUT THE WATCH COULD BE CHANGED TO A WARNING LATER.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... MONITOR WEATHER FORECASTS AND ROAD CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. STAY INDOORS IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. TRAVEL IS LIKELY TO BE ADVERSELY IMPACTED WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY AND POSSIBLY LONGER.
For 2 fricking inches of snow.... yeeeeeeesh!!! | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | Current Music: | Dexy Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen | | Subject: | Hmmm | | Time: | 10:52 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/loxocosmic/lumplings/exhausted.gif) tired |
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| Random note from last week...
Was telling Farnell, one of our new rotation folks (who's been in FT slightly longer than me but is new to our group), about the joys of working with the Factory. Specifically, about what a pain in the butt it was trying to find the right, complete list of functional tests being done in the Factory. Which only took, oh, about a month, after sorting through 4 different, conflicting lists.
Larissa, our newest new hire (new to Boeing, been in the industry a few years), was listening in. When I finished, she just went "Wow, you really went the extra mile there."
And I was a bit non-plussed and didn't know what to say then, so I just said thanks. And it's bothered me a bit over the weekend.
To me, it wasn't any kind of extra effort - it was simply the effort that needed to be made to get an answer (and preferrably, the right answer).
I guess it's just kinda funny how an offhand comment by someone who barely knows you (yet) can reveal so much about yourself. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Dashboard Confessional - The Secret's In The Telling | | Subject: | So very strange | | Time: | 07:47 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/loxocosmic/lumplings/cheerful.gif) okay |
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| Funny story here.
Over the weekend, I put a few items in my trashcan to be collected this week (tomorrow). One of them was a straw broom, that in my opinion, had been used up in my 3 years here in Seattle. So it's been sitting there in the trashcan since approximately Saturday. Today I come home and notice it's gone. Ewwwww.
Not a whole lot going on otherwise. Just trying to stay afloat at work. And oh yeah, girls who like and/or played ice hockey are just cool ;) Tum te tum tum... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Mundy - To You I Bestow | | Subject: | Note to Self: | | Time: | 11:14 pm | | Current Mood: | tired |
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| Don't seek and get permission from the boss to give a class to teach your fellow focals some of what you know about a bunch of processes that they haven't been involved with or told much about and are thus griping about - with said class to occur at/in place of the normal weekly meeting for the focals. At 0900h the next morning.
Especially don't head out with: "I'll pull something together for tomorrow morning."
Definitely don't close out another task you were working on first, mixed with a bit of a bullshit session in between, and finish that at 1730h.
Time started: 1730h. Time completed: 1945h. Time left work: 2000h (had to/wanted to get an email out on another crisis that'd popped up).
Who.
Da.
Man.
Yeah, that's right - you.
We'll see how the focals like it tomorrow.
| | comments: Leave a comment |
| So surprising news today - the ankle was OK to play football on!!! I played mostly defense plus a few series on offense at the end of the game - got a TD, otherwise didn't really have much effect.
I can't even put into words just how good it made me feel to be able to get back out there again. Especially when the weather was relatively nice (sunny, cool but not cold). I just wanted to jump up and down for joy at being able to do something again after the past few weeks. Being limited to just walking around (and even that causes you some pain) was a big downer. Ankle definitely felt funny a few times when i landed, but nothing serious. Iced it down and popped some Tylenol when i got back.
And random book-quote time:
"Girls, he reflected, were much odder than dragons. Probably another race entirely." - Robert Heinlein, Between Planets
And yeah, there's someone who always comes to mind when I hear this song. I still find this album to be a good energizer though. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| ... Just kinda in a trough right now. Lotsa shit going on, a bit burned out from work (the continuous high level of effort from last June through February [+ the drama from January] has caught up with me I think), not really caring about much of anything, definitely in need of a vacation (and the current planned one w/my dad looks likely to fall through due to his work).
Dah well, at least I've got another vacation planned for Philly shortly thereafter, and this time I've laid in time to just hang loose and chill in the city.
Right now I'm bothered by a sprained ankle that just won't go away. It hurt bad enough (after I tried to play football on it after only 1 week...) that I went to the doctor, who said it was just a sprain and to stay off it for awhile. Unfortunately doesn't really seem to be getting any better. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Hmm, seems like we're all going through our memory boxes lately...
Last weekend I went drifting back in time through my email archives, mostly my college ones. It was funny to see some names I hadn't seen in quite some time. People who were once big or small players in the story of my life. Some who'd been friends from the beginning of college, others whom I met once and tried to get to know better. To see some messages that were small and uneventful; others that were large or small and caused quite the drama.
It's funny that the 2 people who had the biggest impact on my college life, Suzen & Cari - I have about zero emails from them from that time. The reason for that is that I was too busy talking to both of them in person and on the phone and on IM to write emails.
I spent today being lazy - played PC, watched most of the Pistons game on TV, and then spent most of the early evening prepping my stir fry (it's amazing how long it takes me to make stir fry by myself - 2 hrs-ish). Came upstairs around 9, got iTunes going again to listen to some music while I finished reading a book on the futon. After listening to Cruxshadows Ethernaut again (positively hooked on that album), whimsy took me to the Goo Goo Dolls Dizzy Up the Girl.
Listening to Slide always takes me back to the Fall of 1999, which of course means Suzen & Cari. All 3 of us went to see the Goo Goo Dolls play in concert at Penn State (played the BJC as I recall). This was still early in my knowing both Suzen and Cari. I'd known Suzen for 2-ish months at that point, and we were well past becoming fast friends. I'd known Cari about the same time - things with us were still in the early getting to know stage, and hadn't hardened into what became the permanent almost-land.
I remember that concert, it was so much fun. Loud, as of course concerts are. Great energy in the crowd. Singing along at the top of my lungs, with Suzen singing her heart out next to me. Feeling so alive with Cari in my arms, singing the lyrics to Slide into her ear. What a pleasant armful she always was.
...
Oh may
Put your arms around me
What you feel is what you are
And what you are is beautiful
Oh May
Do you wanna get married or run away
...
| | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Barenaked Ladies - Call and Answer | | Subject: | Nope, not dead . . . | | Time: | 08:58 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/loxocosmic/lumplings/blah.gif) blank |
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| . . . it just feels like it sometimes.
Been a rough coupla weeks to start the new year. Stress at work has been super high (along with the hours I've been working), we'll see if the recently announced (second) slide to the schedule and my workgroup's shuffling of responsibilities/priorities has any effect on that.
On a positive note, I got new tenants into my Philly house, who seem to be working out well to date. Got the before and after (repairs) pictures from Chris on Fri - wow. Not as bad as I was fearing (Remember, I've spent plenty of time cleaning a fraternity house), but still fairly disgusting.
Why I love my dad, reason # 63,294 - with me being super stressed out, he quotes me Rudyard Kipling's "If" (explanation: Kipling is one of my favorite poets, and If one of my favorite poems):
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
| | comments: Leave a comment |
| Evaluation of My Goals for 2007 (status in italics)
2007 Goals
1) Survive 787 flight test program without losing my body or my mind. 787 FT program hasn't really kicked off yet, so - incomplete.
2) Finish grad school this year. Because it's time to be done - hard to believe I started in Fall 2003. Not quite yet - ran into curriculum issues - took a class that was beyond me and then ran out of classes to take - need to work on school #3.
3) Take advantage of the amount of OT that's available, and put more of it into savings. Gonna claim this one as a victory - 16% OT for the year, much of which went into savings for the first 6 months of 2007; after that spent most of it on the Philly house (mortgage + repairs).
4) Keep going to the gym on a regular basis - preferrably 3x/wk. And fix your form on bench press. Partial victory. Was better about going, then got caught up in too much work. Still haven't fixed my form either.
5) Hook up with someone. Because it's fun (Duh). Full-on hookup no; make out yes.
6) Finish the Federalist Papers and maybe that book of Churchill's best speeches - because you're at least fairly well along in them. And yeah, I know, you're sick of reading from work and from school, but buckle down son. Haven't finished these books, but have read a bunch of others.
7) Keep in better touch with all those friends on the East Coast that mean the world to you. Because otherwise you'll lose them too. Still losing this battle.
8) Yeah, probably about time to get a doctor set up here as well. Call that orthodontist too! Haven't done.
9) Underground tour - ya gotta take it. Haven't done. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson | | Subject: | Reflections on 2007 | | Time: | 11:39 pm | | Current Mood: | blank |
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| Between the plane ride back to Seattle and the bus ride downtown last night, had plenty of time for some reflection on 2007.
I'd have to say it was a year where everything was just a little bit off - and I mean that both professionally and personally.
From a work perspective, of course we're not yet flying, and were expecting to fly by the end of this past August. Obviously that hasn't happened, and a lot of our self-imposed deadlines for my group's deliverables to meet that original schedule haven't been met either.
Personally, well, i think my archives speak well enough to the misses with Rebecca, Sarah, and Lindsay.
The buying a house-process went fairly well (although I went on a heck of a lot of tours before i found what i wanted).
Of course, I decided I had to have a big-screen TV right before i moved, which combined with the cost of professional movers, meant that I was a little low on funds when my renters in Philly decided not to pay rent.
The whole business with the renters didn't go well at all; at least they're out now and I can rent it to someone else now that it's been fixed up.
Don't get me wrong, 2007 wasn't a bad year, just one that had potential to be more. I have a great job that I truly enjoy (perhaps a bit too much, judging from my OT rates), work with people I truly cherish, and have a great group of friends.
Here's hoping 2008 bridges the gaps that 2007 couldn't quite cross! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Talking with my dad yesterday, and chatting a bit about the recently released NIE that says our intelligence agencies now believe that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons efforts in 2003 (which is a 180 deg turn from what was believed even as recently as August).
I was commenting on some concerns that I've seen raised in various commentary about this report.
My dad: Have you ever thought about working for the CIA? You're really good at reading quickly and comprehending and tying threads together.
Me: . . .
Me: Why would I want to do that? I'm doing what I love. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Random observation from Thanksgiving:
Turkey deep-frying outside, 5 guys standing around watching it. Total time cooking: around 45 min. Interval between someone saying something - 4-5 min. And it was fine. This is the #2 reason (after the ability to pee while standing) that being a guy is the best thing in the world - if you don't feel like saying anything, you don't have to - and it's OK!
Why is it that Civic drivers are almost always the worst drivers on the road (Oregon Belle - you're the exception)? I pointed it out to Leah & Austin on the drive down, and damned if 3 Civic drivers didn't prove my point.
Why is it always my notes/emails/requests for help that go right up the food chain and right back down, resulting in yet more meetings? I need to get on less critical projects (ed: Fat chance, you'd be bored within a month, like your last job).
I had a coupla other randomings, but can't remember them now. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I know where I want/need to get to . . . I just don't know how to get there.
So as always, I'll make it up as I go along. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Mae's heard this one already, but it's too funny not to share (funny ironic, not really funny ha-ha) . . . a story of Halloween fun and drunkenness and followups:
The girl who makes a 5 min production out the fact that she gave you her # and therefore you must call her b/c she's tired of giving out her # and not getting called?
Turns out she has a boyfriend!
And it would appear my greatly reduced bar tabs were not due to my charm and ruggish good looks, but instead to the fact that my hostesses were wasted. Who'd have thunk?
My takeaway: If the girl looks like she's too hot to be single - she probably is.
Or as my friend Austin added: Or there's a reason she's single.
Which spawned the following with my friend Janice via email:
Janice: Awww Ryan. Tell me she wasn't a redhead.
Ryan: Hahahahahaha - oh Janice you just made my day. No, she was a brunette. But she was bi-polar, so this time I actually went for an honest-to-goodness crazy girl :)
Janice: Bi-polar ! What are u doing?! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Caught a bit of "Down to You" w/Freddie Prinze Jr and Julia Styles on MTV this morn (i know!)
I liked this dialogue:
Freddie: So what are your vices?
Julia: You.
Awkwardness...
Amen. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Alana Davis - 32 Flavors | | Subject: | Weekend in Review | | Time: | 09:14 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/loxocosmic/lumplings/happy.gif) happy |
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| - Get up at 3:30 AM to catch 6:30 AM flight to Philly? - Check
- Sleep on plane? - Check
- McDonalds at B terminal at Midway? - Check
- Driving Industrial Highway? - Check
- Anvil Ale at Iron Hill? - Check
- 25 cent wings? - No longer 25 cents, but still got em.
- Take over the back room & play pool? - No pool tables anymore, but still took over the back.
- Random conversations catching up with friends? - Check, and priceless.
- Halo w/Allan til 2 AM? - Definite Check.
- Small East Coast Diner for breakfast: Cheap, greasy, and good? - Check.
- Still know every turn and billboard between Philly and State College? - Pretty much.
- College Ave? - Still the same!!
- Wander campus? - Check! Still as pretty as ever!
- Get caught in a (real) rainstorm in nothing more than a windbreaker? - Check
- Catch up with Momma Doreenie? - Check
- Catch up with Aero Profs - Negative, had all gone home for the weekend.
- Dinner in State College - So hard to choose, ended going with that old staple: the Corner Room.
- Cafe 210? - OF COURSE!!!
- Teas at Cafe? - Only since I promised Suz
- Cafe Fries? - Of course, what else would you get when you're drunk?
- Random shots/drinks b/c someone in your group suggests it? - Of course, this is State College. Jaeger bombs it was.
- Spend all night at Cafe or hit up another bar? - I was convinced to go to Players. It was dead.
- Jimmy Johns as drunk food savior? - I got through maybe 2 bites of my Club Lulu before I puked...Negative.
- Puke brains out from what you drank? - Le'ts just say the final score was Jaeger bombs 1; Ryan 0.
- So what was the damage? Something on the order of 3-4 Jaeger bombs, 1 Long Island Iced Tea (Cafe specialty), 4-6 Yuenglings.
- Breakfast the next moring? - Irving's Bagels
- Eat it under the Elms? - Of course?
- Talk back to the Squirrels there? - Of course, told them to F off, they weren't getting my bagel.
- Get laughed at by someone catching you talking to the squirrels? - Yup.
- Did you care? - Nope!
- Drive to Pittsburgh go allright? - Yep, aside from going past the exit for the airport at first.
- How was the wedding? - Good, beautiful day for a wedding.
- Reception? - Plenty of Yuengling there; didn't really know anyone else there so just got to know the folks at my table.
- Glad you went back? - Oh hell yes. PA just feels right; it's home. Doesn't matter how long i've been away. Hell, it even smells right.
- Bring back any food from PA? - Yeah, 2 bags of Wawa coffee and 8 boxes of Grilled Stickies from the Diner to distribute to my friends :) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| We had 2 newcomers at the Penn State game on Saturday.
Female of course, and charmingly so (sidenote: still one of my favorite lines in a book, and no one would guess where it came from :) )
Turned out they were up for the weekend from Portland, OR.
They were recent grads - Emily was Winter 2006 if I recall correctly, Katie was Spring 2007. Both from the DC suburbs; Poli-Sci/PR and Architectural Engineering respectively.
Wonderfully sarcastic and well-informed about football (and asking smart football questions that none of us die-hard football fans knew the answer to).
Katie was moving back East shortly; Emily had been working in PR for the Portland professional lacrosse team but had been laid off.
For 2+ hrs I was reminded of how wonderfully fun Penn State girls could be. They're simply the best. And I miss being around them.
It was a shame the conversation had to end. And if I wasn't such a dumbass I probably would've asked for Emily's #.
But I didn't, and the moment was passed. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | A New Found Glory - Truth of My Youth | | Subject: | For Jim | | Time: | 10:54 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/loxocosmic/lumplings/sad.gif) sad |
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| Last Monday night one of my mentors from Boeing Rotorcraft in Philadelphia, Jim Gibbons, passed away after battling an apparent brain aneurysm for a month. Thanks to former colleagues still in Philly, I'd known he'd been sick. He'd been getting better, but about 2 weeks ago he had relapsed and I had a foreboding feeling that things weren't good. Jim left behind a wife and 3 teenaged sons.
Jim was one of the first people I met a Boeing as an intern (actually, i think he was the person who picked me up from HR the first day, since i had absolutely no idea where i was going).
Funny story - every intern had a "mentor" assigned. I sat in the 3-10 building with the Comanche guys, and was technically assigned to them. For the first 2-3 weeks though, I was out and about on various projects (mostly Chinook-related) with Shaw, who is Philly's accident investigator. So I pretty much considered Shaw my mentor. After that I settled down and almost exclusively worked on Comanche stuff (aside from about a week or 2 long span where i supported Triple Lab testing for V-22 [plotting and printing stripcharts - mindnumbing doesn't begin to discover it.]) Every week there would be a different lunch & learn/tour for the interns (and their mentors) in various departments of the site. And every week Jim would show up as my mentor - I was always mentally like "who is this guy? i never see him during the week and i'm not even sure i remember his name!"
When I came back to Boeing after graduation (as an intern at first), I was assigned to V-22 at first (and picked V-22 when I went full-time a few months later). I had a desk in our bullpen area, with Jim on my left and Dave Tepper (who passed away from cancer a year or two ago) on my right. At the time, there was a wholesale reconfiguration of the buildings going on as the whole "focused factory" concept was brought online (this means that to the maximum possible extent, the engineers are located in the factory so support can quickly be provided as needed). Our little group ended up being moved to 2 offices isolated from everyone else in the main hallways. 4 of us were placed in an old HR suite - 2 in the outer office and Jim and I shared the inner office. The isolation sucked, but it was so much fun to be 22 yrs old and being able to say "Step into my office" :) That and we had a HUUUGE whiteboard we could write all over; plus lots of walls we could hang things on.
You get to know someone pretty well when you share an office with them. Fortunately for me, Jim was a great guy.
It's late here and I'm tired, so more stories of Jim tomorrow or Thurs. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
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