andamu

After a very inauspicious beginning, the day did not turn out too badly.
[ the society ]
Despite the fact that we started half-an-hour late, we got a tremendous amount of work done. Most of the key officers were present, and the entire E-Board were there; all of us seem committed and full of ideas.
On a personal note, most of my suggestions were well received, and seemed to spark fresh perspectives. As expected, raising diversity issues were rather more cautiously received, although a lot of constructive suggestions were made, including undergoing diversity training as a Board so that none of us inadvertently blunder and worsen matters in sincere attempts at outreach and inclusion.
The budget was surprisingly well received, with an appreciation for the reasons changes were made, and only one piece of "lively discussion" ensued toward the end, which we managed to resolve in an adult fashion.
Drawing up the budget and fielding requests for funds will remain tough; where I can see merit I would be inclined to grant reasonable requests for funds, had it not been for my predecessor's eloquent and impassioned exhortations to see the money as something entrusted to the future of the society, raised by extremely hard work by our predecessors for that purpose, and impressing on me that we have a duty to ensure that we have funds to continue operations ahead.
It was heartening to see the sincerity with which everyone tackled the issue of fund raising - without a concerted effort our Scholarship Fund would be in severe trouble, unable to fund a full set in three years.
::
[ grind ]
But back to the start - or almost non-start. Previous trips to that part of town had demonstrated that I could make the twenty-odd mile journey in around half-an-hour; so allowing roughly forty minutes for the journey seemed fair enough. Until of course I hit the summer roadworks.
Crossing the second river, the Interstate was cut down to a crawling single lane, to join another choking single lane spurring off I-84, and forced to an utter standstill by a final reduction to (you guessed it) a single lane where there would normally be four - everyone of which would be well-used. This continued until the exit three miles before mine, when finally the road opened up, too late to do anything about the time.
Sitting on the bridge, with no idea what was going on ahead, but seeing the lanes move by inches per minute, I started getting more and more distressed as my carefully timed scheduled was choked off by traffic jams. Until I finally made peace with the fact that there was nothing that I could do, I was going to be solidly late no matter what I try, and that at this stage there were no alternatives.
::
[ meandering ]
I guess part of the reason I get so tense about punctuality goes back to primary school days. Pappa used to drop me at school, but as school started at 7.40 a.m. and he did not have to be at work (fewer than five minutes drive from there), before 8 a.m. he had no incentive to make it on time for me; in his eyes getting there within the general vicinity of 7.40 was good enough.
Unfortunately the same was not true for the little jobsworths at school. Give 30 7th graders each a title (school prefect) and some authority to ensure the compliance of the student body with the rules, and you will have created at least a handful of tyrannical monsters. It seemed to me that the majority of my school days started with my frantic running, school case bouncing in my hand, the skirt of my uniform jumper flapping around my pumping legs, praying desperately that the shrill bell would still be trilling when I joined my class ranks at Assembly on the Quad.
If it had stopped, I would be pulled out of the ranks, given a stern talking-to for being late (generally in a humiliating fashion) or even, if I was late enough, be made to wait anxiously with other tardy students to see the teacher in charge of these kind of disciplinary matters.
And what could I say when asked why I was late? "My father dropped me off a little late." Which would get the reply that I should ask/tell him to be sure to drop me off sooner. Which at home would result basic incomprehension and head-shaking at the pettiness of little school officials - which was quite correct, but was hardly the kind of response I could carry back to school! And how could I make them understand that I would be ready well in advance, would try to complete little chores my father usually performed to help him get done earlier, would get into the car and wait - and wait and wait - or stand hopping on one leg, school case banging against my leg, begging and whining at my dad to get going.
It is not that he was cruel or uncaring; it was just something he had never experienced, and could not conceive of the anxiety and desperation brought on by a situation outside of my control met by continuous negative reinforcement.
::
[ restaurant ]
We went to India House for dinner, even made reservations! I was starving after the meeting, despite the sandwich lunch. (Nice try at being "gourmet deli" but ended up just being weird and unusual.)
We were surprised by the fact that while they were busy, they were not as absolutely jam-packed with several parties waiting as they had been that Monday evening that SR and RK had just arrived in the States, and TK was about to leave. So the table with the little "Reserved" sign was one of maybe four empty tables, where last time we had to wait more than half an hour to get seated.
The service tonight had also been much improved and the food arrived quite timeously. And it was still excellent, although a little short on salt tonight (easily enough rectifiable). The thalis were very mild, and would be the only real criticism that I would have of the meal. All in all this place serves the nicest North Indian meals I have encountered here; none of the overpowering cloves-cinnamon-bay leaf combination that so dominates the standard Indian-for-Western-palates here in America.
::
[ family ]
Tomorrow we'll lunch with mpo's son & co. I am so looking forward to seeing my granddaughter again. She'll be 2.5 months tomorrow, and I'm still getting a kick out of people's reactions when I mention her. The double-take and drastic reassessment of my age is classic, before I explain that she is actually "step," and that her father is closer to my age!
And of course, she is gorgeous, and has the most wonderful parents in the world (and the universe's sexiest Thathayya (grampa))

[ work ]
Functioned on auto pilot most of the day. Most things felt as if they were happening to someone else, and I was just the observer. A couple of times I was surprised to find myself speaking up in the meetings I had, as if my conscious self was lagging a few seconds. At one stage my boss was impressing the importance of something on the meeting, and I felt my face move into a smile as I recalled something else, and found him speaking to me, the way you do when you find a seemingly responsive member of the audience.
Actually did get some useful work done, but also banged my head against a brick wall on something. I'll try again tomorrow to find someone who might have a solution for me.
The highlight of the work day was a quick visit by a colleague's wife and their five month old daughter. The sweetie has the most amazing curly light hair and a very definite structure to her face. She is about ten weeks older than our family's little one, so she provides an interesting indication of where we are heading next.
::
[ home ]
I actually left the office today 8.5 hours after arriving. Usually I arrive between 7 and 7.30 a.m. and leave somewhere around 5 p.m. Which is silly, of course, because the reason I go so early is that I can leave earlier.
My precious one was discharged from hospital this morning, and Nini brought him home. Again, while I knew at some rational level that he was fine, I could not relax until I reached home, and saw him, so normal and natural in his usual surroundings, back in his regular flannel pants and comfy shirt.
Spent what was left of the afternoon just being with him, reading companionably, cuddling gingerly.

I am away for three days at a conference, all hush-hush, industry secrets and all that. Luckily it is within driving distance of my town, so I brought my precious one along - the room is free for him but the meal prices constrict my throat.
::
For me, the planning and anticipation frequently are almost more enjoyable than the actual experience. I daydream about the destination of an upcoming trip, about little details, the look and the feel of the place, often informed by books, from fiction through fact and specifically travel guides.
The end result is usually somewhat akin to seeing a screen adaptation of a favorite book: the people look (and act) completely different from one's mental image, the places and buildings seem somehow wrong and the interactions and dynamics have a totally different character.
Just so, actual destinations frequently seem, at most, pale shadows of their imaginged selves.
But stepping out of the car in front of the Lodge at around 9.30 a.m. felt like stepping inta an image of the stereotypical mountain lodge in autumn. The air was crisp, the sky a clear blue, the angle of the sun still sharp, causing dappled shadows on the bright sunny slopes colored in pine green and bright golden flecks, with tufts of woodsmoke spiraling lazily from the chimneys.

Yesterday was a nightmare at work - busy busy busy and hardly anything done at the end. I hate those kind of days, and today promises to have similar results, but mostly because there are meetings on top of meetings - I even have three meetings scheduled at the exact same time! What a mess.
::
At least this weekend saw good progress in the house. The master bedroom required only one coat of paint, and a few faint touch-ups. The family room needs a few minor touch-ups where some of the white color of the spray-on texture that I put over the third coat of paint is coming through.
The master bathroom and closet are done (and almost two-thirds of our clothes have already been transferred to the new house.) Still need to change the shower head (nice one with different spray settings and a separate handheld head) and the toilet seat; the current one is padded, covered in plastic with a country-style check with ducks and fish nets and shotguns on it, split at the seams and smelling horribly.
We sprayed the fireplace surround with "fleckstone" texture in a slate/charcoal grey mixture, and it looks quite amazing. Not like real granite obviously, but a lovely interesting texture.
We've hung some blinds and curtains (lost more to come) and moved all the dry foods and canisters, with the exception of all the spices.
There are times when I wonder what I was thinking when I committed to moving the kitchen and all the closets ourselves, because it is such a lot of work. But then I think of the money we would be saving because the packers and movers charge per hour, and I remember that once the closets and the kitchen stuff are set up, we've basically "moved in. After making the beds and hooking up the computers (and the television for Angel Face) there would be nothing pressing that absolutely had to be unpacked for us to function comfortably for a while.
And so we soldier on, with the occasional complaint and grumble, especially when we break yet another nail!

Aargh!!
Please, won't someone give me just a couple of hours in the day where I can do what I want?
At least there is a long weekend ahead - maybe I can scrape together a few minutes a day over the next four days.

To Engineering Managers everywhere:

Abolish either meetings or deadlines.

Productivity = 1/(Meetings)

I am an enthusiastic supporter of undertakings and ideas involving various societies and groups. In fact, I probably think up a goodly chunk of them.
This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me.

So why, oh why did I let myself get talked into accepting the nomination as Treasurer for one of these societies? And for one that requires a stern tightening of the belt to boot!

A serious briefing by my predecessor impressed on me the solemn duty that we as a section had to the Society of Women Engineers as a whole, the members who preceded us and whose labors harvested us the funds we do have today, the members who will follow us and who deserve to inherit a healthy section, and our current members and focus areas.

Much of our efforts are currently targeted at Professional Development and networking for women engineers, whether currently employed or re-entering the workforce, and at Career Guidance and outreach for girls of all ages, acting as mentors and role models to promote careers in Math, the Sciences and Engineering. An additional focus this year is on fundraising for our sadly depleted scholarship fund. Already we have had to cut it down from three scholarships to one, and many young women who need assistance will go without.

We have a vibrant board this year, brimming with enthusiasm and ideas for events to fulfill our mission, and while inside I am jumping up and down with excitement, I have to turn on the brakes, sound caution, be the responsible one, the one who always have to say "No!"

Whose idea was it to appoint me Scrooge anyway?

I googled "blue Monday." It came up with only the song, so I guess that it isn't a commonly used phrase in English.
When I grew up, Mondays were liked as little as in the rest of the world, and usually an "It's Monday!" would suffice as a general explanation for something going wrong.
Exceptionally bad days were labelled "blue Mondays." I guess the color refers to the blues or perhaps to the blue soap that was used to do the laundry. Monday there as here was traditionally laundry day.
::
Today was such a blue Monday. Well yes, I know it is Tuesday, but believe me, it was Monday!
#1: Today we started back at work. The entire lab closed down for a week over the holiday period, and it included an extra day on Monday for January 1 that fell on a Saturday this year. Now that is not as nice as it sounds: we get the 25th, 26th and 1st as company-sponsored holidays, and then we are compelled to take 3 more days of paid leave from our alotment (or unpaid leave, which would cut into your paycheck right over the holidays.) We don't have the option to work instead, but we are not given the three days for free either. (No doubt you can tell I'm a bit blue.)
#2: Halfway to work this morning I realized that I had left my ID at home. It has the standard ID picture and my name, but also incorporates an electronic keycard to access our highly secure labs. This meant that I had to stop at the front office first to sign in and get a temporary card. At least I had my driver's license with me as proof of identity.
#3: This is the biggy: when I got back to the car to drive all around to the far end of the campus where my building is located, it wouldn't start. Now on Saturday at the grocery store it had done the same (and yes, my lights were off) after less than an hour away. After a mad scramble (and about 90 minutes) we finally found a way to jump start it (it had been parked nose in in a packed parking lot), but once we reached home, the same happened again.
Since I had had the foresight to reverse in, we could easily enough access the battery this time to jump start it with the other vehicle, and so mpo took it onto the highway for a solid hour's run to try and charge the battery.
It seemed to work too. On Monday we decided to take it in for repair, but it started by itself, and later in the day a second errand saw no problems either, so we thought that it would be fine.
This morning it started as well - a little complainingly, but it is after all an old vehicle, and it was rather chilly. And then less than ten minutes in the parking lot in front of the lobby, and it expired.
::
Nini and mpo came to jump start it, and mpo took it in, where they replaced the battery and charged us a fortune. Let's hope that that does the trick now.
::
For those travelogue enthusiasts, I have reorganized some categories. I kept a running account of our short trip to the Bay area in California in September this year, accessible here.
As usual, it is in reverse chronological order, so start reading from the bottom.

Forgetfulness is starting to become a problem for me. A while ago I completely forgot a meeting with my boss. Until the minute the hour we had blocked out for it was past. Rather embarrassing, but thankfully not too much harm done.
There are a myriad of other examples, but a recurring theme is forgetting the board meetings of the Society. The meetings are held in the evenings after work, and I do in fact remember on the day. But the meeting location is 30 miles from work, which means I have to leave straight after work. And it also means that I haven't made adequate arrangements with my family, and I don't have all my documents with me, and I am just mentally unprepared. (And typically, like today, it was a day where I looked at my hair and wondered whether I should wash or whether it would be OK, and end up making the wrong decision.)
Aah well, table full of successful, highly educated and over-achieving women, here I come, with a few scraped-together papers, ratty hair, standard nothing-formal-happening-today in the jeans-or-sweatpant standard work environment of an R&D lab, all frazzled up from a 30 mile drive in metro traffic. Take me or leave me.
::
My motherboard is dying. First the soundcard went, midway through last week. Then the mouse port went a few days later. It is as if the board is rebelling against my impending desertion.
A while ago my boss notified me that I was next in line for a computer upgrade. After all, I still had the same old slow, inherited PC I got when I started here. When I do some serious data crunching I grind my teeth in accompaniment.
So I spent a little time picking out my ideal setup (within budget constraints), debated trade-offs between features, and loaded it as much as I could while leaving room for future expansion. And finally this beauty is only days away from delivery. Should be here on Wednesday in fact.
Which means that it is not worth the hassle transferring my entire setup to another PC in the interim so that I can have a mouse or other pointing device - not just for the sake of a few days.
So for the last few days I have been checking how good my memory for keyboard shortcuts is. I use them extensively even when I have a working mouse. And I've figured out that something called "Mouse Keys" exist, a setting within Windows that allows the numeric keypad to control the mouse cursor. With a few annoying side effects. And it is clumsy, and either too slow or too fast. And did I mention cumbersome?
I've come to realize that some websites are really poorly designed too: Click on the left bar for link #1, then click on the right bar of the new page for link #2, then click right at the bottom of the next page for link #3 before you get where you need to be.
At least I could do most of the things that I need to do, albeit slowly and with much frustration. But some things just won't work, and so there's a side stack of work piling up, waiting for full operation to be restored.
::
Guess I should quit belly-aching and get on the road - you never can tell with the traffic how long it will take.

Chrysalis in a comment below paints a pretty bleak picture of an engineer's job today.
While everything he says is true, it is not entirely complete. There are still parts of the job that excite as much as other parts bore. And after all, he is a manager, and I am just an "individual contributor," which distinction affects the constitution of our daily tasks.

So exactly what does an R&D (Research and Development) Engineer do all day is the question that is uppermost in everyone's minds. (Yes, I have now become a mind-reader as well.)
So, just for you, I have created the following extract from one part of my job.

Workflow:

1. We design experiments.
2. We create software and hardware to conduct the experiments.
3. We tweak the experiments. When we are satisfied that they do what we intended,
4. We create software to capture the data.
5. And more software to automate the loading of data to a database.
6. Then we create queries to extract the data in meaningful ways.
7. Next we write software to analyse the data from every side.
8. Finally we create the powerpoint presentations to show the managers what we had been doing, to
9. Win approval for the next level of experiments - at which time
10. We start all over again.

Well, you did ask. Or sort-of-asked at least.

Dear Miss Manners,

The office space in the lab is laid out like city blocks, narrow streets across which the cubes face one another, and broad avenues crossing them for through traffic.

These eight or twelve feet wide corridors are well lit and unobstructed, allowing you to see all the way down to their ends. They seldom give rise to that classic issue: the doorway or aisle tango. You know, where both polite people step aside in the same direction, then try to solve the issue by simultaneously stepping to the other direction, continuing back and forth for a while until someone finally stands still.

No, these problems are much more awkward. Let's say you are halfway down the corridor when your manager's manager rounds the corner and enters the corridor. You are too far away to greet them. You have nodded your head and the smile that was natural a moment ago now feels plastered artificially on your face.

Do you make eye contact? For the entire walk? That would turn it into a scene from a B-grade movie, one that you're not quite sure whether it is soppily romantic, or melodramatically violent. But turning your eyes away is not really an option either, because you are surrounded by the outer walls of cubicles, nothing there that could ostensibly hold your interest. Just this excuciatingly awkward dilemma; no wonder people fix their gazes on the lights indicating the progress of the elevator like deer caught in the headlights.

Dilemma number two concerns someone with whom you have occasional interactions, and have become friendly nodding acquaintances, exchanging trivialities if you both happen to waiting in a queue.

Walking down the broad corridor, faintly aware that there are other people walking a few steps behind you, this nodding acquaintance is approaching from the opposite end. The persons lifts their hand, waves, and says "Hi!"

a) You lift your hand and wave, only to see their eyes refocussing on you with surprise, as you hear a voice behind you pipe up, "Hi."

b) First you look around to see who is behind you and how they are responding to the greeting before waving back in the classic "Are you talking to me?"

c)You don't do anything, and it turns out they were greeting you and now they feel snubbed and a whole lot of effort will have to go into smoothing out the relationship.

I am a little excited. The marked states above are all the states that I have visited. I have my own rules about what counts as a visit: flying over a state or changing planes do not count. On the other hand some of those states have been mainly driven through on road trips. At least we spent several hours in each case looking at the stuff on either side of the interstate.

Now, you might have noticed that I did not get to the old South, nor to New England. Hopefully I will be able to remedy that at some stage. But the most glaring point on the map is that single white (OK, pale grey) state encircled by a sea of red: Yes, Colorado is the only state west of the Mississippi that I have not visited yet.

And, as you might have guessed by now, I am on my way there. I have a conference in Denver starting on Wednesday. And while travel for me is not all about "been there, done that," this will bring some sense of completion.
::
By the way, you can get your own personalized map here