Hi all,
I have had a very lazy weekend.... Ive pretty much just slept most of the day, and when I got up, I sat at my computer and giggled at some YouTube videos... That pretty much sums me up. The highlight of course was some creative users who used the XP voice Microsoft Sam, to make strange noises, some made me smirk.
On Friday night I sat and completed Saints Row 2 on Steam, I must say its a pretty short game. Saying that, there are hundreds of side quests with unlockable content. I'l discus this more in another post...
Anyway I did do a few constructive things, I did prepare myself for the flight to MN, for a Service visit for Monday that I will be leaving for in about 4 hours time... (moan)
I got everything I need for this visit, and sent the tool kit and spare parts to the customer earlier, so everything is there for when I arrive. Depending on how much time we have when I land, the customer wants me to visit the factory on sunday as he fears we may run out of time on Monday - so it makes sence to do any diagnostics on the electrical system and functionality tests then, and change the blade shaft on monday.
The problem is the tight schedule, I have from 7AM till 3PM on monday, and i have to change the oil and change a blade shaft complete with its bearings. This can be either an easy or difficult job depending on the condition of the machine; Im going to assume it is going to be poorly looked after, so im expecting rust and many problems. While I will note down these problems, I will prioritize the blade shaft change and get that done. any time left over is a bonus.
I hate airports, I would have liked to drive, even tho it is over 700 miles away, it would have been great to see more of the USA.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
190310 Last week in the USA, then back to sunny England.
Greetings,
I thought I should start my own blog as a way of recording my goings on through out my life, here it is the first blog page.
At this time, (22:09 19th March 2010) I am currently situated in the company apartment in Columbia MD.
Why am I here? You ask...
I am an Engineer by trade, specialising in electronics ,maintenance of industrial machines, and generally helping to solve technical problems for our companies customers. I have been requested to come and cover at the USA branch of the company I work for.
While I'm here as "primarily" an engineer intended to carry out PM (preventative maintenance) services at our clients factories, but I feel as if this is more of a Managers role as we recently laid off one of the Managers out here for reasons I'm not at liberty to discuss on here... For instance; handling calls from clients, updating QuickBooks sales orders, packing and sending out orders, scheduling freight pickups and sending end of day reports to HQ.
Its a good job, Id prefer if our HQ would react faster to customers requests, and get them quotes faster, as it always ends up being me who apologises for the inevitable delays that result, and why should I? I guess because I am either too soft, or I have an understanding to keep that customer informed, and sticking with the order, apologies can go a long way.
But seriously, we need to do something about this, because we have the parts in stock, I know we have, because i went out into the warehouse and physically found it! If only they allowed me to generate quotes... the only part is I'd require accurate pricing information which can only come from HQ.
That's not really a big problem - IF someone updated QuickBooks properly to have the right prices for items, then there would of course be no worry for letting anyone create an offer, provided they know how to do it correctly... Of course this never realistically happens due to their being only myself and a 75 year old accountant lady working in the same building... I cant see her having time to enter the prices into the item list, simply due to her own workload.
Bless her, that woman has to check all the outstanding invoices and make sure everything in in line with the sent out sales orders... She has to do payroll, and do the bank transfers. I would offer to help, but naturally I'm an engineer, not an accountant. Its one area that I was never qualified. Perhaps because my mental arithmetic sucks...
I have always been poor at mathematics, but I did surprise myself and attained an adult numeracy qualification from City & Guilds. I know its not much, but adds to the ever increasing pile of certificates I have at home, growing cobwebs.
Well, that's a glimpse into my world of work for today. Sunday I'm off to a company in Princeton MN to carry out some maintenance work. It should be an easy visit (I pray) as I have the option to work on the Sunday when I arrive... so essentially, i can do all the diagnostics and functional tests on Sunday, go to the hotel, travel to the site early on Monday, and then perform the blade shaft & bearing change and any other heavy work then. I have until 3PM to get my return plane to BWI. I hate the fact i have to get up for about 4AM on Sunday.... (sigh) I'm definitely not paid enough...
I'll try hard to get some pictures of things - but no promises, as I think my camera charger doesn't work out here, due to the inferior electrical system only having 110V, despite me going to the astronomical expense of buying a plug adaptor to convert my superior British plug to American standards. have you seen how rudimentary those things are? Some don't even have a fuse to protect the cord! and some don't even have an earth wire! its really archaic! Its funny, they can travel to the moon, but can't design a safe plug. (No pun intended to our American readers, you guys are great! just the plugs are poo.)
We do have a 220V outlet, but its for the tumble dryer, and I'm not poking screwdrivers, drawing pins, or paper clips in there just for that... I didn't pack my rubber underwear for this occasion.
So yeah, anyway I'm due back to Sun drenched Milton Keynes on the 30th of march. I have some things to do when i get back like buy a tax disk my car, but part of me is thinking to avoid going with that plan, as I'm in the process of waiting till my insurance runs out and getting my no claims discount letter. So i can use it later on. I cant drive it anyway, as the tax expired in January, hopefully DVLA will spare me a few months and accept that I could not SORN my car as I didn't have my car documents to get the document number... Or else i could have done it online!
Hopefully there is a better system in future... I guess as usual I'll have to pay some kind of fine... Always happens when you least expect it, and the vultures have no sympathy, they just care for hard, emotionless cash, no matter how illegally or how much suffering was caused to get it.
Luckily my money was attained by legal means, as unlike some particular people i know, I actually go to work to earn a living, not get it fed to me because I'm some kind of "immigrant"... Burden on the honest British Taxpayer i say, but I wont rant about that, this isn't the time or place for that behaviour, but they know who they are...
Feel free to comment, Il be posting more of my activities later.
I thought I should start my own blog as a way of recording my goings on through out my life, here it is the first blog page.
At this time, (22:09 19th March 2010) I am currently situated in the company apartment in Columbia MD.
Why am I here? You ask...
I am an Engineer by trade, specialising in electronics ,maintenance of industrial machines, and generally helping to solve technical problems for our companies customers. I have been requested to come and cover at the USA branch of the company I work for.
While I'm here as "primarily" an engineer intended to carry out PM (preventative maintenance) services at our clients factories, but I feel as if this is more of a Managers role as we recently laid off one of the Managers out here for reasons I'm not at liberty to discuss on here... For instance; handling calls from clients, updating QuickBooks sales orders, packing and sending out orders, scheduling freight pickups and sending end of day reports to HQ.
Its a good job, Id prefer if our HQ would react faster to customers requests, and get them quotes faster, as it always ends up being me who apologises for the inevitable delays that result, and why should I? I guess because I am either too soft, or I have an understanding to keep that customer informed, and sticking with the order, apologies can go a long way.
But seriously, we need to do something about this, because we have the parts in stock, I know we have, because i went out into the warehouse and physically found it! If only they allowed me to generate quotes... the only part is I'd require accurate pricing information which can only come from HQ.
That's not really a big problem - IF someone updated QuickBooks properly to have the right prices for items, then there would of course be no worry for letting anyone create an offer, provided they know how to do it correctly... Of course this never realistically happens due to their being only myself and a 75 year old accountant lady working in the same building... I cant see her having time to enter the prices into the item list, simply due to her own workload.
Bless her, that woman has to check all the outstanding invoices and make sure everything in in line with the sent out sales orders... She has to do payroll, and do the bank transfers. I would offer to help, but naturally I'm an engineer, not an accountant. Its one area that I was never qualified. Perhaps because my mental arithmetic sucks...
I have always been poor at mathematics, but I did surprise myself and attained an adult numeracy qualification from City & Guilds. I know its not much, but adds to the ever increasing pile of certificates I have at home, growing cobwebs.
Well, that's a glimpse into my world of work for today. Sunday I'm off to a company in Princeton MN to carry out some maintenance work. It should be an easy visit (I pray) as I have the option to work on the Sunday when I arrive... so essentially, i can do all the diagnostics and functional tests on Sunday, go to the hotel, travel to the site early on Monday, and then perform the blade shaft & bearing change and any other heavy work then. I have until 3PM to get my return plane to BWI. I hate the fact i have to get up for about 4AM on Sunday.... (sigh) I'm definitely not paid enough...
I'll try hard to get some pictures of things - but no promises, as I think my camera charger doesn't work out here, due to the inferior electrical system only having 110V, despite me going to the astronomical expense of buying a plug adaptor to convert my superior British plug to American standards. have you seen how rudimentary those things are? Some don't even have a fuse to protect the cord! and some don't even have an earth wire! its really archaic! Its funny, they can travel to the moon, but can't design a safe plug. (No pun intended to our American readers, you guys are great! just the plugs are poo.)
We do have a 220V outlet, but its for the tumble dryer, and I'm not poking screwdrivers, drawing pins, or paper clips in there just for that... I didn't pack my rubber underwear for this occasion.
So yeah, anyway I'm due back to Sun drenched Milton Keynes on the 30th of march. I have some things to do when i get back like buy a tax disk my car, but part of me is thinking to avoid going with that plan, as I'm in the process of waiting till my insurance runs out and getting my no claims discount letter. So i can use it later on. I cant drive it anyway, as the tax expired in January, hopefully DVLA will spare me a few months and accept that I could not SORN my car as I didn't have my car documents to get the document number... Or else i could have done it online!
Hopefully there is a better system in future... I guess as usual I'll have to pay some kind of fine... Always happens when you least expect it, and the vultures have no sympathy, they just care for hard, emotionless cash, no matter how illegally or how much suffering was caused to get it.
Luckily my money was attained by legal means, as unlike some particular people i know, I actually go to work to earn a living, not get it fed to me because I'm some kind of "immigrant"... Burden on the honest British Taxpayer i say, but I wont rant about that, this isn't the time or place for that behaviour, but they know who they are...
Feel free to comment, Il be posting more of my activities later.
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