In Last Week's Episode...(Or What I've Been Up To In The Past Few Months)

I once again have very little excuse for not being more active in my blogging. In this case, quite a bit has happened since I last wrote.

As of August 7th, I will no longer be an employee of Cessna Aircraft Company. Due to a federal law, Cessna has to give 60 days notice when laying-off 500 people or more and I was given my notice on June 5th. I am doing my best to not take it personally but this is a bit difficult as I was one of seven in our group of 40 or so that were chosen for this first round to really affect our group. As the company is doing very poorly financially and seems to be in survival mode, I didn't necessarily expect to avoid the lay-offs completely but I had hope. I viewed myself as a valued employee who had made a lot of significant contributions to the project I was working on and seemed to have a good skillset. I didn't consider myself one of the most valued employees but I hoped I was in the top 35% in my group. To find out I was in the bottom 17% is unsettling to say the least.

I don't know why I was specifically laid off. At the group meeting days before the notices went out our boss told us the factors involved in assessing and ranking the individuals in our group, things like attitude, technical skills, professionalism, etc. Noticeably absent from the list were things like salary, years of experience and current project. I honestly can't imagine how I could have ranked so poorly by the official standards that I would end up at the bottom of the list. When I told my co-workers I had been laid off (minutes before walking out the door for the last time), I could tell they were just as surprised as I was. Everybody's best guess is that, despite the official ranking criteria, the reason for me being laid-off has something to do with working half-time and pursuing a Master's. I don't know why developing my technical skills would be perceived as a liability but it may have been.

So what's next for me? Well, I still have two more classes in the fall and a thesis to finish up before I complete my Master's. I had a great idea for a thesis related to my project at work that is probably not an option now; back to square one at this point. After that, its hard to say. I may end up pursuing a PhD at Wichita State or at another institution and depending on how long my thesis takes, that could happen as soon as the spring or fall 2010. Katie and I are still discussing all of this because we'd like to start a family sometime before I would finish my PhD (since that would be in ~2014) but if she's going to be providing the income for us, she can't be a full-time mom as well. There are a number of options, we just need to figure out which one is best or most feasible for us.

In the mean time, I've been plenty busy with around-the-house projects. We might install an attic fan, maybe a skylight, probably replace our front door. (I may have not made it clear above but as of right now, I am still technically a Cessna employee and will be until Aug. 7th. I am still getting paid by them but, again, for reasons I don't understand, they would rather not have me around at work and have asked me not to come back.) I've got plenty of time to think and pray over my future and have also been doing just that.

Wind Power

I've just turned in a paper for one of my classes on wind power and offshore wind farms.  Have a read if you want to see what's kept me busy lately.  I've got a presentation on this on Tuesday.

Spring has arrived

• This week was the first evening we were woken in the middle of the night by our weather radio warning us of a severe thunderstorm in the county somewhere.
• Right now we're sitting through our first tornado warning for the county.  No tornados to report at this time but it is raining quite heavily.  This leads to....
• Its raining and blowing so hard our dogs, normally not ones to mind the water but rather enjoy it, have opted to stay inside, even when given the chance to go out and play.

Welcome to spring in Kansas.

Another Great "This American Life" Story

Well, I haven't got around to my "top ten" list for "This American Life" yet but I've got another clip from one of the shows. I've actually had this sitting around for a while but didn't have a good way to share it until I recently set up my Google site. 

Anyway, if any of you have ever spent any significant amount of time overseas, particularly in a culture where you don't know the language, don't know the customs, don't know the how much you should tip, and don't know how to get a taxi ride back to where you're staying, well, this show is for you.  I heard first before our two weeks in China and after that trip can identify with it even more.

I hope you enjoy it.

(Oh, the full show is here: listen online for free, download the show for a buck (well, actually $0.95 USD).  You'll get tired of hearing me say this but this will surely be one of the best dollars ever spent.

FDIC Ride-Along

In the same spirit as a police officer ride-along, This American Life did a piece recently where one of their contributor's got to sit in on the process of the FDIC shutting down a bank in Vancouver, Washington.  Here's the clip.  The whole hour is good to listen to, though, and I'd recommend that you check it out.  

(In addition to listening to all their old episodes online for free and subscribing to their podcast where you can download the latest show for free, it looks like they've added the option to purchase individual episodes for $1 from their website.  This is a steal!  One hour of fascinating radio to own and cherish forever for less than anything you can buy at Starbucks. I'll have to put together a "best-of" list so that all three of my loyal readers can get the most bang for your bucks.)

What I've been up to

When I was trying to explain to one of my brothers why I haven't posted lately due to end of semester school work, he suggested that I post what I've been working on to my blog.  In that spirit, here is a paper I turned in yesterday that I've been working on for a week or so. I've two tests this week and another project due next Monday. (and another next week and another the week after that, and another test next week...)

I highly suspect that this will be the content on the blog for the next month.  I hope that you like electrical engineering!

And the new motorcycle is...

... as you can see its not a Honda Rebel.  That deal fell through for mysterious reasons that are not clear at all to me.  After not getting back to me in a week and a half (after several calls) I finally managed to get a hold of him and he informed me he had "waited too long" and that he couldn't register the bike to sell it to me.  The motorcycle was no longer for sale.

(Side commentary:  I don't buy his story completely.  I've learned recently that Kansas requires that all vehicles be registered at all times and this guy had left the bike unregistered for over a year.  I believe that there would be some complications in registering it but there is no way that the State provides no means to register a vehicle with a valid title and bill of sale whose registration has lapsed.  Put differently, what is he going do with the bike if he can't register it.  It has no license plate so he can't ride it.  Is he going to sell a wonderfully cared-for bike for scrap metal?  I think there is more going on here than I was told.)

Thus began a month long search for my scooter replacement.  Compared to what most people were asking on Craigslist, most motorcycles weren't even an option for me.  If I was interested in the bike and the price was not too far from what I had, I would email and ask if they were flexible on price.  Some were, some weren't.  Lots of emailing, phone calls, even checking out a few bikes in person.   Katie was highly involved in the approval process as I wanted her to be comfortable with whatever I ended up with. When all was said and done, I ended up purchasing a bike that I found one of the very first weeks I was looking but took nearly four weeks to finally take a look at.  Shown above, the bike is a 1996 Kawasaki KLR250.  Until I get a chance to repaint the body, we call the "Teal-mobile".

I've ridden it to work and school for two days now and I'm very happy with it. It has a few minor things that need to be repaired, the biggest one is a leaky fuel shut-off valve followed by a carburetor rebuild.  Right now, with neither of those fixed, the bike has a tendency to leak fuel while parked (unless I get the valve in just the right spot).  I should pick up the gaskets for the valve on Monday and be able to fix it that evening. Until the carburetor gets rebuilt, though, I'm keeping the gas can in the Buick so that Katie can fill it up and bring me fuel when (not "if") I forget to close the valve when I park.  I just know that's going to happen at some point.

Things I like about the bike: its simple (single cylinder), not expensive, liquid-cooled, doesn't get blown around in the wind near as much as the scooter, it fits my height well, has low mileage, generous suspension for handling the potholes of Wichita and should get good fuel economy (we'll see after a few tanks).  

Things I don't like: its teal and purple and it leaks gas.

That's all for now.