keeping safe distance but courting disaster » cfm http://thejeromer.net/blog a sporadic self-chronicle since 2001 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:10:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 splashing around in the muck and the mire http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/18/splashing-around-in-the-muck-and-the-mire/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/18/splashing-around-in-the-muck-and-the-mire/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:19:59 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1874

It’s not exactly the beach…

splashing around in the muck and the mire

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/18/splashing-around-in-the-muck-and-the-mire/feed/ 0 the wal-mart thief http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/11/the-wal-mart-thief/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/11/the-wal-mart-thief/#comments Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:35:34 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1861 I was working in the fumehood this evening and some guy walked through, looking lost. This isn’t uncommon: We often have people walking around the lab that I don’t recognize. There are visitor badges, but the only person I’ve ever seen wear one was me, when I first toured the lab during my interview. When this guy in his early 20’s went past, I silently cursed that I’ll never know when we have a security problem because I don’t know the difference between an industrial saboteur and a personal friend of the owner.

When this kid came back through a minute later, a little more hurriedly, I stopped what I was doing to follow him. Good call, as it turns out he had just stolen a 20″ LCD from Wal-Mart behind us and hopped our barbed-wire fence, hoping to make a quick escape through our lab. Fortunately, our lab setup is a maze and he couldn’t figure out how to reach the front of the building.

Backtracking, he decided to hop a couple more barbed-wire fences in the rear of the building to reach a side alley. By the time he got himself and the LCD box stuck between the two fences, he had me and two other guys from the lab waiting behind him and a gang of Wal-Mart brutes waiting on the other side of the fence in front of him.

Giving up, he was taken into custody by the Wal-Mart “loss prevention” team, who explained things to our frenzied night manager, currently on the phone to the police.

Afterward, the night manager yelled at a couple of us for not accosting the fellow, to which we replied that there are often people walking around, that we don’t recognize, who don’t have badges. If we harassed every one of them, we’d be pissing off a lot of people, most of whom end up being personal “friends” of the company’s owner.

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/11/the-wal-mart-thief/feed/ 0 safety first http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/09/safety-first/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/09/safety-first/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:11:19 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1850

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/06/09/safety-first/feed/ 0 business efficiency http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/04/22/business-efficiency/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/04/22/business-efficiency/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:27:25 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1685 Working an evening shift tonight and the owner of the company came by and pulled all but three of us to go to a city council meeting and argue his side of something. I guess a company wants to develop some waterfront land that’s adjacent to land my boss recently bought. It was promised as only being 30-60 minutes away from work but three of us had to stay behind to keep things running. Everyone else went on the owner’s personal field trip, which they were paid for, which ended up lasting three and a half hours.

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/04/22/business-efficiency/feed/ 0 5% friday http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/02/08/5-friday/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/02/08/5-friday/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:56:15 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1101

For the past three weeks, my sort-of-boss (I have something like 4 or 5 different bosses, each a different level of “superior” to me) has advised me not to work too hard on Fridays and then made mention of this “5% Friday.” Presumably the 5% would be the effort put in on a Friday. At first I laughed politely at the joke but as it has been mentioned every Friday since I started, and by multiple people, I’m starting to wonder if perhaps it’s an actual thing people are adhering to. I should look into this more.

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/02/08/5-friday/feed/ 0 a thing to do all day to earn money http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/02/04/a-thing-to-do-all-day-to-earn-money/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/02/04/a-thing-to-do-all-day-to-earn-money/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:58:25 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1093 Job update for those wondering: It’s going well. It keeps me busy. It’s nothing that requires my brain but it does use the lab-specific skills I picked up in my labs at school, and I did enjoy those activities in school. So as a thing to do all day to earn money, it’s easy and something I kind of enjoy.

But as I said, it doesn’t use my mind, doesn’t pay anything great and isn’t something I’d want to do long-term.

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/02/04/a-thing-to-do-all-day-to-earn-money/feed/ 0 hence C.F. http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/25/hence-cf/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/25/hence-cf/#comments Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:50:47 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1027 Things I learned this week… 1. CF Mineral Research: Owned by Chuck Fipke – the Canadian who discovered diamonds in the North-West Territories. 2. His divorce settlement was the largest in Canada because they were married before his diamond discoveries made him a multimillionaire. Haven’t met the man yet, though I hear he comes in somewhat regularly (once every couple weeks?).

Much different from working at the last small business I did where the owner was there every day, slowly sinking the company. Well, it was largely our quickly increasing Canadian dollar, but all the same…

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/25/hence-cf/feed/ 0 the cold-drawing behavior of acetone http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/21/the-cold-drawing-behavior-of-acetone/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/21/the-cold-drawing-behavior-of-acetone/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:03:49 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1023 My first day as their new Lab Assistant was today and it went well. They’re starting me out working in the fume hoods, using a separatory funnel to do a liquid separation (some portions of the sample sink while others float). Lots of cleaning things with acetone = numb hands.

]]> http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/21/the-cold-drawing-behavior-of-acetone/feed/ 0 interview for a non-position http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/11/interview-for-a-non-position/ http://thejeromer.net/blog/2008/01/11/interview-for-a-non-position/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2008 22:05:45 +0000 Romer http://thejeromer.net/blog/?p=1013 Today I had an interview for a company that analyzes mineral samples for mining companies: Breaking the rock sample down and looking for diamond indicators, also sometimes gold and other precious metals.

They gave me an in-depth tour during which I tried to convince them I wasn’t overqualified and would be fine starting at the bottom to display my abilities. They seemed excited to hire me for their fumehood area… but then explained that they don’t currently have any positions available, yet will contact me by the end of next week. So, um… we’ll see.

I know, theirs is the worst web site ever. Clearly they’re not trying to market themselves.

Also, they misspelled characterization.

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