What a long, strange trip it is

New Blog

I'm switching to a different blogging service, one that will actually host my pictures. This will make it MUCH easier for me to post.

Link:

http://imperfectsense.spaces.live.com/blog/

Boeing's Everett Factory

Today I took my first tour of the Everett Factory. I was prepared to feel the same sense of awe that I feel whenever the bus tour at Kennedy passes near the VAB. The VAB is 525 feet tall, covers 8 acres, and encloses a total volume of 129,428,000 cubic feet. It has been demonstrated that it can contain it's own weather system, including clouds and rain forming INSIDE the building.

I was not at all prepared for Everett. From the outside, it looks like a fairly innocent large hangar structure. Even as the bus was passing only a hundred feet away, I was not awe struck by it's size. No... that didn't happen until I descended into the maintenance tunnels underneath the floor for the beginning of our tour.

After descending 23 steps from ground level, I found myself in a tunnel large enough to fit most bulldozers, and yet it felt small and cramped. This is because this tunnel stretched unbroken and uninterrupted a full 1/3 of a mile to the other end of the plant. The far end, which was open to sunlight, was quite literally just a small pinprick in the distance. And then I realized... this is the SHORTEST width of the building.

We ascended up a freight elevator that can carry the 40-ton 777 engines, and fit our busload of people with elbow room to spare. Up past 9 feet of concrete that had just been our "ceiling", past the shop floor, past the second floor offices, past the third floor assembly gantry's, past the 4th floor, past the tops of the aircraft being assembled... We went all the way up to the 6th floor, to an observation gantry between the 777 and 787 production lines.

If I were still scared of heights, I would have been terrified at that point. The factory is enormous... We're talking about a building that covers more area than Disneyland AND it's parking lots combined... A single building that could hold something like 70 American football fields, including the end zones. It's roof is 9 stories up, and while that doesn't sound very tall, it emphasizes the volume of this structure... it has 3 times more volume than the VAB.

The observation gantry is well above the height of any of the aircraft or their parts, the only thing above is the crane system and the ventilation that prevents it's own indoor weather from being a problem. Oh, and the completely native pigeons, who live out their whole lives within the factory (but I didn't see any while I was there). From this height, you can almost see for miles. There is very little inside the factory to obstruct your vision, and we could see front to back 1/3 of a mile, and right to left 1/2 of a mile. And everywhere it was 70 ft down. Officially, the largest enclosed space on the planet.

Aside from the sheer awe of the building, I got to see the 787 (still tailess, but looking nearly whole despite it), the Dreamlifter, and about 6 777's in assembly, as well as tons of 767's, 747's, and 777's on the flightline.

The museum itself wasn't terrible, I picked up a few cool and inexpensive gifts. I was very disappointed that I do not get an employee discount there.... that was quite a slap to the face, and has in fact lessened my loyalty to the company, which is a shame.

All in all.... an experience worth repeating, especially once the 787 is closer to completed, or more are rolling out. Oh, that was one interesting thing... In the past, it would take 3-5 months to complete assembly of each airliner, and there would be roughly a month between rollouts. With the 787, they expect to be able to complete assembly in 3-5 DAYS, with a new aircraft rolling out every 3 days. Even at that rate of production, if you were to order one now, you would have to wait until 2013 at the earliest for delivery, since they have already sold over 600 of the type.

Wheeee car adventures!

I love when the van breaks! Well, ok, not really ;)

The newest maintenance nightmare happened Wednesday morning, my brakes started going out (again, this happened before in January). I got it to the shop, and then I got the estimate... $800. Now, in addition to that, there's been one other major problem hanging over my head, which is a rusted freeze plug in the coolant system which could burst any day and bring the van to a screeching halt. That's another $1200 estimated to fix it and all the oil leaks that are going on under the engine. There's also some minor issues of new spark plugs and starter wires that have been soaked in oil.

All in all, repairs to get this thing safe and reliable again would be well beyond my current means. But, family is good, and my parents have loaned me enough to get the major repairs under way. Paying that back will require a second job, but this breakdown underscored the need for that anyway. I want my Mazda3! It doesn't hurt that my recruiter is putting pressure on my manager to expedite my upcoming raise.... ;)

Windows Live Writer Beta

Well, I finally got myself onto the Managed Beta Team at Microsoft. This means that I'll be testing products even further ahead than normal, and that my feedback will actually be looked at by someone ;)

Along with v8.5.0 of Live Messenger and Live Mail Desktop, I've installed Windows Live Writer Beta. This is a desktop program that allows me to write directly to my Blogger (or any other blog). This is my first post with it, but so far I am very impressed. What I'm looking at now isn't a blank white textbox... I see this post as it will appear once published, complete with the theme of my (non-Microsoft) blog. It also highlights spelling and grammar problems just as Word would, and has all the basic editing tools you'd expect. This includes blog-specific tools like inserting hyperlinks, pictures, tables, maps, and tags. Apparently, there are even plugins that can add more functionality.

I believe this means that I might actually start updating this blog again :) I always found it such a pain to have to go to the site, login, click through until I'm able to add a post, then type it in that plain textbox, verify it looks ok, then post it. This is definitly much easier, and I look forward to seeing what plugins become available.

As a quick update on my life, let's see.... Stormy has now caught 4 birds, all of which have been rescued before permanent injury. At work I bypassed an assistant manager position due to too long of a commute, only to find that they will soon have the same position open where I currently work in BLV. No word yet on when a second level RAS position might be open. The apartment is a total mess, but I have declared that since I am car-less (hydraulic leak in the brakes again), and since it's been getting hot up here lately (85 degrees), that this weekend is a cleaning weekend.

That should do it for now, I'll make a more multi-media post later :)

Self Explanatory ;)

Winter 07 - Snowfall Feb 28

Ready for a New Day? Hell yes!

I'll post impressions later, but here are pics:

Microsoft New Day Launch Event

Updates!

Well, with all my computer stuff going on, and working so much, I haven't really had the energy to update this thing until now, so here goes.

Our new manager has been doing really good so far. For the most part we don't even notice he's there, but he's always jumped in and gotten things done whenever we needed something. He's a nice guy, not as "cool" as Kriss, but then he just got here.

I have finally dropped off of my 50 hour per week schedule, which I've been maintaining for almost 4 months straight now. I now work 4 10-hour shifts, Sunday through Wednesday, and have the other 3 days per week off. I *love* this schedule, as a 3-day weekend really makes it possible for me to go out and do stuff. On a normal weekend, on my old schedule, I would spend most of it recovering from work, and then just when I start to think about doing something, it's time to go back to work. Now, with more days off and fewer hours, I can make the most out of every day.

I've been working hard on going to the second level, took the first RAS test and (barely) didn't pass it, but that doesn't really surprise me. Most people are around for 2 years before they even consider second level, I haven't even hit my 6 month mark. I am going to be mentoring one day a week with one of the expert RAS guys named Gary. This will cut into my 3-day weekend, but I am not obligated to go mentor, and I can stay for as few or as many hours as I want. Besides, Gary's a really cool guy, and I'm sure that in addition to learning a lot, I'll be having a lot of fun :)

As far as life outside work, I found a really awesome bike on Craigslist (after doing a LOT of looking). It's a little used, and I only got it at about half price, but it's almost everything I've been looking for. In fact, the only thing on it that I wish it had was an aluminum rather than steel frame. Otherwise, it's perfect. See pics:

From Apartment Pics

I also found an absolutely amazing print of Mt. Rainier that I simply had to have. It looks good in this el-cheapo frame, but it'll look amazing once I get it matted and framed properly. Really, it looks good in these pics, but it looks astounding in real life.

From Apartment Pics

Other photos that I've recently uploaded are pictures of Vista, my first ever legal Operating System purchase, and my new rackmount server circa 1995: