And now what did you do TODAY?

[n_maher]

Nope, not a chance.

This, if ever there was a career student it's crappy.

[Salt Peanuts]

Drove home from the in-laws in time to get some grocery shopping down and trick-or-treaters. Thus far, we've had one visit from four kids.

Edited November 6, 2011 by Salt Peanuts

[aardvark baguette]

several riveting hours of sitemap creation and web file obfuscation

[jvlgato]

Funny, but I feel the same way. I still want to know the results, however.

Me, too.

Wmcmanus, that's really tough. So sorry about your friend.

I deal with mood disorders every day at work. But I still hear about so and so down the street who is depressed, and didn't know. I can't read minds, and if someone chooses to hide something, it's pretty tough to know. We in the field often talk about how difficult it is to even predict which of our patients we are seeing who might suicide. Most of us have had a suicide of a patient that really surprised us. More often you can have a feel for it, certain patients just really worry you. But not always. Some you worry, but you still can't stop them. Sometimes, people feel at peace because they've finally made a decision to do it. It's just really really tough.

Oh, and I've not heard of helium, either. That's pretty weird.

Again, sorry ... I hope you can remember him for all the great

qualities you mentioned!

[Torpedo]

Helium isn't poisonous, but if you breath just it, you die suffocated I guess. There's a mixture of Helium and oxygen which is used in medicine to alleviate respiratory symptoms. On critical conditions it allows for easier ventilation while you try to make an emergency tracheotomy. The UCI in our hospital uses it in such circumstances, which gives some extra time. If he was asthmatic or had another lung condition, maybe he used this Heliox to ease his breath, and then would explain their finding helium in his body.

Edited November 7, 2011 by Torpedo

[skullguise]

Some closure I guess, Wayne, but never what you want to hear. Interesting but so sad all at once.....

We had our delayed trick-or-treating last night, had a smaller amount of kids this year than many others. In order to get rid of the candy, there were 3 guys at the end of the night that split a bucketful of goodies; they were in hog heaven...... My son, for the first time, didn't want to trick-or-treat, even though one of his best buddies came to our neighborhood this year.

Yesterday was also his last soccer game of the season, another win, and we found out today his team was the winner of his league (they officially had one loss, but it was due to paperwork issues, and they had to forfeit; they played the game anyway and won 4-1, but the records won't show that). Coach had the team over tonight for a celebration, nice time for the kids.

Got a bunch of work stuff and prep for Andrew's Bar-Mitzvah done this weekend, too.

EDIT: and just watched the Patriots fuck up another game....eerily similar to the Super Bowl they lost to the Giants.....decided not to get any hopes up any more with them....

Edited November 7, 2011 by skullguise

[shellylh]

I think I decided to call up Todd tomorrow morning and order the Apex Peak/Volcano and wait on the Metric Halo ULN-2 (so that Jim has the opportunity to sell me his later, really cheap of course ).

I have a bunch of 6sn7 tubes left over from the SP Extreme so I think I am going to pass on getting the upgrade tubes (Shuguang Treasure CV181-Z and Sophia 6SN7) unless someone tells me that they are worth getting - I can always get them later. By the way, Todd offers a $20 power cords option. I am not sure if I have another Iron Lung Jellyfish power cord. Is Todd's cord reasonable?

By the way Mike, I am really jealous of your day. I wish I had time to go for a run or swim or workout at the gym.

Edited November 7, 2011 by shellylh

[Dreadhead]

Spent the day babysitting Ben while my wife visited her mom in the ICU at hospital here in San Diego. I love him but he's been driving me insane since 1pm (so 5+ hours of fidgeting/crying and throwing up) and I can't even foist him off on my wife who has more important things to worry about when she gets home.

Edited November 7, 2011 by Dreadhead

[Fitz]

Huzzah for more research. Looks like I can swap in the more reliable fuel injection setup from the later year Maximas that have the same engine (injectors, fuel rails, wiring harness, and lower intake manifold), and with any luck the injectors in one I pull from the junkyard will still work fine making the whole project waaaaaaay cheaper. Pull-A-Part only charges $0.89 for a 30-day warranty on each fuel injector too, so if any are DOA I can still go get different ones.

Came up empty at the local junkyard as they'd all already been picked clean of what I need, but found a nice motor with the parts I need at one further away. Except that one allen bolt wouldn't come free and stripped out. Spent a while on it with no luck, but might get a chance to go back tomorrow and try some other approaches.

[grawk]

Always have a good set of screw backers

[Fitz]

I've had mixed results with those. My first attempt will be to cut a groove in it so I can use a massive flat blade bit in a thing I don't know what it's called but it's like a screwdriver you hit with a hammer while lightly twisting and gives lots of torque without any stripping or cam out.

[crappyjones123]

Meanies

I just like being in school and learning stuff. There is also that nagging fear that I don't know enough about a certain field to be able to do the job well enough.

[RudeWolf]

You should be worried when you feel that you know everything. That's when the most troubles happen.

[jvlgato]

CJ, prove them wrong, bro'! I'll bet they'd be happy to eat their words, if you can prove them wrong.

[swt61]

I've had mixed results with those. My first attempt will be to cut a groove in it so I can use a massive flat blade bit in a thing I don't know what it's called but it's like a screwdriver you hit with a hammer while lightly twisting and gives lots of torque without any stripping or cam out.

It's called an impact screwdriver, and this has worked best for me over the years as well. The tapping breaks the threads free from corrosion, dirt etc...Though I still like to use a good penetrating oil along with this method.

I generally use my angle grinder with a metal cutting disc to make the groove for the flat head driver.

[Dreadhead]

Meanies

I just like being in school and learning stuff. There is also that nagging fear that I don't know enough about a certain field to be able to do the job well enough.

If you think that school really prepares you for doing a job well enough rather than gives you the foundation to do said work you have unrealistic expectations (with the caveat that some schools do actually achieve this in very narrow fields or trade schools). Not trying to be mean just realistic.

You should be worried when you feel that you know everything. That's when the most troubles happen.

So very very true.

[crappyjones123]

its not so much that school prepares me to do a job well. perhaps i misspoke. i just dont see how even with a phd in building financial models i could trust myself with coming up with or testing an investment model for 500 bucks of my own money let alone millions of someone elses. the fact that i absolutely hated that crap is a whole different story but i find the sheer amount of knowledge even in a very very narrow field quite overwhelming. i dont have many other examples to give but my fathers. watching him work is an absolute treat. He is pushing past 55 but when he gets a call about something gone wrong in some random oil tanker he knows exactly what part the engineer is talking about, what current substitutes are available, what would be economically feasible to get across the world overnight, how best to approach the repairs and who to contact for said repairs. this came after sailing on oil tankers for 20+ years. he was once challenged by a younger engineer to recite from memory the pathway for the coolant from the bilge pump to the main boiler. he did so. correctly. i have seen him be calm and collected and be able to think while the ship we were on was on a collision course with another. its a long shadow to have to grow up under.

[tyrion]

Your father knows all that from work experience, not school.

[Aimless1]

CJ, your father earned that knowledge by 20+ years of hands on experience. I've been in my career (insurance) for 40 years. I would like to think that I'm as well rounded in my area of expertise as your father is at this Time, baptism by fire, application of knowledge, and failure all contribute to the final outcome.

[Dreadhead]

One of my favorites about school vs practical experience:

A newly graduated engineer starts up at a small naval architecture firm and the owner/founder says to him upon his arrival: "The shop is looking a bit messy please sweep the floor, the broom is over there." the guy replies indignantly: "What? I'm an engineer with a degree from (Insert school here, in the story it was Univ of New South Whales in Aus)". To which the owner replies: "Oh, so I need to show you how to use the broom...."

[crappyjones123]

i entirely agree with you all in that he got to where he is mostly due to experience.

i was just trying to pussy foot around admitting that i am deeply scared of failure in real life and well failures in the school world dont really mean much in the grand scheme of things whereas failures in the real world amount to far more.

[grawk]

any successful person has failed more times than he or she can count

[Dreadhead]

Dan speaks the truth (mostly anyway, odds are some people are just plain lucky) anyway I would add that in every profession there is a long period where any cock up isn't going to be a big deal. Well if your management/supervisor/mentor is doing their job right anyway.

[jvlgato]

Absolutely. I have plenty of failures. I don't feel like posting them here in a public forum, but absolutely it's true. PM me if you want to know the ugly details. Any sense of competency now definitely comes from years and years and years and years of real life experience, and being willing to learn from my mistakes.

School set a good foundation, and gives me credibility, but that's about it. At some point, you have to just do it. I remember my first few years as a real attending doc, having to tell myself that if I just made one minor mistake per day and didn't potentially really harm anyone, that it would be a successful day. It's scary, but there's no other way to move on and live your life!

[morphsci]

You are getting some spot-on advice Crappy. The only thing I will add is that from my perspective what you should really learn from school is how to learn.