I like where I work

I hear from a lot of my peers that they don't like their engineering jobs.  The hours are long, there is little reward for doing a good job, their co-workers and bosses are cutthroat, etc.  Everyday I go to work I feel lucky.  Lucky because first of all I have a job, but also because I work at such an awesome place.  I work someplace that values their employees, makes them feel special, and does a good job of balancing the negative reviews with positive ones.

Today I received an email from one of the directors of another group at work responding to an email I'd sent.  It read:

You rock.  Good thinking!  Thanks!

Little things like that completely brighten my day.

Poor Plants

I have several houseplants at work.  Most made their way there when I moved apartments this past fall and realized that I don't have the amount of light necessary to keep houseplants thriving.  A few other plants made the trek when my cat showed an increased fondness for knocking the plants off the windowsill and dumping dirt (and plant remains) everywhere.

Most of my work plants are doing quite well.  They're no longer full of brown/yellow spots, one is flowering, and all are much happier in their new home.

Except one.

It's dead!

This one was the victim of Improper Glassware Cleaning.  The fear of every person who works in a research facility.  Improper Glassware Cleaning occurs when people don't wash their beakers as well as they should.  Residual chemicals lurk inside the glassware, waiting to contaminate your next sample or *gasp* kill the plant you were nursing back to health.

You think ivy grows like a weed, that it's hard to kill, that it's hard to stop from climbing all over your garage.  I'm here to tell you that's a lie.  A misconception!  All you need is some improperly cleaned glassware and you too will have dead plants on your hands.

RIP ivy.

PS.  It's probably best to keep a dedicated watering can for any plants you keep at work rather than relying on containers already in close proximity to the plants.  Just in case. 

Everyone Wants Something

Last week The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) hosted a web forum titled Emerging Technologies in Water Treatment.  Since water treatment is sort of my thing I attended this forum with several of my coworkers.  If I had to sum up the forum in one word I would call it disappointing.

With a title of emerging technologies one would expect the talk to be about, well, emerging technologies.  It was not.  There was a speaker from Dow, one from a professor at UConn, and one from GE.  The presentations from Dow and GE were focused on the water crisis while the presentation from a professor at UConn (Jeffrey McCutcheon) was actually focused on new technologies.  Here are my take-aways from the event:

• Water is a growing concern - Dow
• Water is a valuable resource - GE
• I must try to fit buzzwords like "expand the core," "market sector," "value chain," and "open innovation" into meetings with supervisors
• Some people don't have access to clean water - GE
• It takes a lot of talent to talk endlessly for a MS PowerPoint slide with little content
• There is going to be a shortage of water - Dow
• It can take a lot of energy to desalinate water - UConn Professor
• Maybe I should switch my career to marketing

Companies want to know what their competitors are working on but don't want to share what they're doing.  Professors will share everything if they think it will help them get more research money.  I should get into marketing.

Things I Should be Doing Instead...

Instead of biking/shopping/browsing facebook/redecorating my apartment/going to festivals/watching movies I should be studying for the qualifying exam in September.  So I can graduate faster.

Studying for the exam is pretty much the last thing I want to do this summer but every semester I'm in school is another half-year of lost earnings potential.

Unfortunately repeating that to myself simply isn't working as a motivator.  I need something more.  Something concrete that I can hang on my wall so I look at it everyday and remember my goal.  I just need to figure out what that something should be...

On Desserts

Kopp's Cookies N' Cream

The boyfriend and I are on new diets where we eat little to no dairy.  This makes me sad for two reasons.  One, I like cheese.  Two, I love custard.  Here in Wisconsin there seems to be a never-ending supply of places where one can eat custard.  I had never had custard growing up on the other side of the St. Croix/Mississippi River but was quickly initiated once I started college.  Sure there is Culver's but it's Culver's - come on.

Custard stands like Kopp's, Leon's, and Oscar's are delicious and feature typical flavors plus flavors of the day.  The nice thing about my custard haunts, as my boyfriend so kindly phrased it, is that sometimes their flavors suck  And when the flavor of the day is something you don't like then you don't go there!

Ice cream stores (like Cold Stone) don't seem to have a flavor of the day.  I could get Germanchökolätekäke every day of the week if I so desired.


Flavors of the day however, build anticipation.  Like the very anticipation I've feel all week waiting for this cookies 'n cream custard from Kopps.  Yum!

My New Friend

That space heater that I bought for my office arrived today.  I had worn a sweater to work today and wasn't that cold but I gleefully marched my new purchase back to my cubicle and plugged it in to test it out.  Such joy!  Such pleasure!  My cube was instantly filled with warmth and I found myself happily plugging away at some data for the rest of the afternoon.  You don't notice how much being even slightly uncomfortable slows you down till the problem is removed.

This space heater is pretty awesome but I wish I'd believed the Amazon reviews when customers said it was loud.  I haven't tried listening for my heater from the cubicles near mine but when the heater is running on low I can't hear my co-workers conversations.  Now that I think about it, that might actually be a plus!

Frigid North

Today I broke down and bought a space heater for my cubicle at work.  I even paid extra to get it by tomorrow (Tuesday).  I'm hoping the space heater will make me more comfortable which will increase my productivity.  Sounds good, yes?