Guatemala photos here
Many stories to tell.
The project I was lined up for was more engineering-y than my background and skillset. I worked on it a little, and spent a lot of time making various things. I talked safety, I talked about what tools to buy next, I got the flu, I fixed things, etc. Actually I was sick a lot of the time. Thank the sweet lord for antibiotics.
Climbed the Pacaya volcano in my last week there. Went to Lago Atitlan a couple days. Only a few days in Antigua...it was nice but it gets old quick.
A great experience, all in all. But I am a lot less idealistic about being able to make a career doing that kind of work. Seems like everyone involved is a volunteer, more or less.
The plan was to treat my time in Guatemala as a 'field internship' to earn the last credits of my undergraduate degree. This worked, somehow, and now I'm a few days from graduating with a VCU Bachelor's of Interdisciplinary Studies degree (concentration in Appropriate Technology)
.....and after only 12 years and 27 institutions...... *
So, now what?
The plan is to earn an M.S. in Technology with a concentration in Appropriate Technology from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. This is the only 'AT' graduate program in the country, to my knowledge. Through the Academic Common Market, I am an in-state student, tuition-wise, even though I'm from Virginia. And they have a nice 50s-era Department of Technology building, with what appear to be well-equipped wood and metal shops. They were a big factor, perhaps not surprisingly.
Earlier in the summer, I was working on a really cool prototype of a fuel cell system for a small start-up in Richmond. Great place to work, and I was doing some fun/challenging 3-D solid modeling in AutoCAD Inventor. I was ready to take a more permanent position, defer my grad school admission, and stay on for the fall or longer. They were down, but the money wasn't there to pay me.
So grad school it is. I move to Boone on Saturday.
Eventually I suppose I have to end my career as a professional student. But not yet.
*actually more like 6 years and 5 colleges
Showing posts with label occupation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label occupation. Show all posts
Occupational reconsideration. Or: Shoe shopping
More often than not I find bloggable moments happening in the insomniac quietude of 3am.
--
Here's how it goes.
I get into a thing.
Waiting tables.
Photography.
Building bikes.
I do the thing for a while.
I start to think about what it would be like to do this thing forever.
I try to envision all the good parts, the bad parts, the dull moments in between those parts.
I try it on like I'm trying on a pair of shoes.
I walk around in it for a while.
And then something happens.
The shoes aren't quite right.
The fit isn't there.
The color doesn't work with my wardrobe.
So I take off the shoes, put them back in the box, and look for the next pair.
Right now I'm unlacing a pair that I thought was gonna work.
It's sad.
But I relish the process, as all-consuming and pitfall-fraught as it is.
I get better at it every go-round.
It's harder every time though.
Every time I think: No, I finally got it right this time.
But I'm always wrong about that.
--
I see myself prototyping. It has its own subtle art. It's in demand, it's interdisciplinary, it's challenging, it means using a lot of the stuff I know a little too much about.
Great blurb from Diego Rodriguez about prototyping (more here):
--
Here's how it goes.
I get into a thing.
Waiting tables.
Photography.
Building bikes.
I do the thing for a while.
I start to think about what it would be like to do this thing forever.
I try to envision all the good parts, the bad parts, the dull moments in between those parts.
I try it on like I'm trying on a pair of shoes.
I walk around in it for a while.
And then something happens.
The shoes aren't quite right.
The fit isn't there.
The color doesn't work with my wardrobe.
So I take off the shoes, put them back in the box, and look for the next pair.
Right now I'm unlacing a pair that I thought was gonna work.
It's sad.
But I relish the process, as all-consuming and pitfall-fraught as it is.
I get better at it every go-round.
It's harder every time though.
Every time I think: No, I finally got it right this time.
But I'm always wrong about that.
--
I see myself prototyping. It has its own subtle art. It's in demand, it's interdisciplinary, it's challenging, it means using a lot of the stuff I know a little too much about.
Great blurb from Diego Rodriguez about prototyping (more here):
As you make a prototype, assume you are right and everyone else is wrong.What I've been doing, what I am doing, is prototyping a career for myself. And prototyping is a long, complicated, expensive, failure-ridden process.
When you share your prototype, assume you are wrong and everyone else is right.
Shop Skills I Possess
Know-how and good sense are the shibboleths of the shop; they are inadequately conveyed in writing. But here goes.
Notes
- I'm a designer, prototyper, troubleshooter, and problem-solver.
- I love designing and fabricating one-off solutions to complex problems.
- I love teaching to interested students.
- I learn new skills quickly.
- Steel is my favorite material. Aluminum, copper, brass, and hardwoods are nice, too. I know little about plastics and composites.
Introductory Level
Small gas engine maintenance and repair
Automobile maintenance
Oxy-acetylene welding
CNC machining
Some Experience
Stick welding
Advanced machining (e.g. lathe-cut threads, high-precision work)
Sheet metal work (bending brake, shear)
Blacksmithing/forging steel
Epoxies (wood, metal, plastics)
Tube bending, especially thin-wall steel
Fine woodworking
Table saw (wood)
Wood and metal finishing
Lots of Experience
TIG welding
MIG welding
Brazing steel, with brass or silver filler
Copper pipe (cutting, sweating, brazing to steel)
Basic machining (turning and milling)
Drilling and tapping
Horizontal and vertical band saws (wood and metal)
Power sanders, grinders, chop saws, miter saws
Precision layout and measurement to .001 inch or .1 mm
Bicycle maintenance, repair, assembly
Bondo (applying, shaping)
AutoCAD (2D)
AutoCAD Inventor (parametric solid modeling)
Relevant Coursework:
Welding Techniques, Caldwell Community College, Boone, NC
Computer-Aided Drafting II, J. Sargent Reynolds Community College, Richmond, VA
Small Gasoline Engines, J. Sargent Reynolds Community College, Richmond, VA
Machine Shop Practices, John Tyler Community College, Richmond, VA
Machine Blueprint Reading, John Tyler Community College, Richmond, VA
Intro to Digital Drafting, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
Furniture Fundamentals, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
Relevant Work History
Graduate Assistant, Department of Technology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Volunteer, Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Technical Consultant, MARZ Industries, Richmond, VA
Journeyman Framebuilder, Tektonics Design Group, Richmond, VA
Student Shop Foreman, Machine Shop, School of Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
President and Co-Founder, Bike Fabricators at VCU, Richmond, VA
Shop Assistant, CNK Machine Manufacturing, Richmond, VA
Intern, Fabrication and Model Shop units, Office of Exhibits Central, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Lab Technician, Sculpture Department, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
Notes
- I'm a designer, prototyper, troubleshooter, and problem-solver.
- I love designing and fabricating one-off solutions to complex problems.
- I love teaching to interested students.
- I learn new skills quickly.
- Steel is my favorite material. Aluminum, copper, brass, and hardwoods are nice, too. I know little about plastics and composites.
Introductory Level
Small gas engine maintenance and repair
Automobile maintenance
Oxy-acetylene welding
CNC machining
Some Experience
Stick welding
Advanced machining (e.g. lathe-cut threads, high-precision work)
Sheet metal work (bending brake, shear)
Blacksmithing/forging steel
Epoxies (wood, metal, plastics)
Tube bending, especially thin-wall steel
Fine woodworking
Table saw (wood)
Wood and metal finishing
Lots of Experience
TIG welding
MIG welding
Brazing steel, with brass or silver filler
Copper pipe (cutting, sweating, brazing to steel)
Basic machining (turning and milling)
Drilling and tapping
Horizontal and vertical band saws (wood and metal)
Power sanders, grinders, chop saws, miter saws
Precision layout and measurement to .001 inch or .1 mm
Bicycle maintenance, repair, assembly
Bondo (applying, shaping)
AutoCAD (2D)
AutoCAD Inventor (parametric solid modeling)
Relevant Coursework:
Welding Techniques, Caldwell Community College, Boone, NC
Computer-Aided Drafting II, J. Sargent Reynolds Community College, Richmond, VA
Small Gasoline Engines, J. Sargent Reynolds Community College, Richmond, VA
Machine Shop Practices, John Tyler Community College, Richmond, VA
Machine Blueprint Reading, John Tyler Community College, Richmond, VA
Intro to Digital Drafting, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
Furniture Fundamentals, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
Relevant Work History
Graduate Assistant, Department of Technology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Volunteer, Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Technical Consultant, MARZ Industries, Richmond, VA
Journeyman Framebuilder, Tektonics Design Group, Richmond, VA
Student Shop Foreman, Machine Shop, School of Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
President and Co-Founder, Bike Fabricators at VCU, Richmond, VA
Shop Assistant, CNK Machine Manufacturing, Richmond, VA
Intern, Fabrication and Model Shop units, Office of Exhibits Central, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Lab Technician, Sculpture Department, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
Why the Shop
I spend a lot of time in a shop. I consider myself a shop person. But most of the people in my life are not shop people, with only a few exceptions.
I often think about how to relate to non-shop people about the shop. "Why do you spend so much damn time down there?", they ask. "You always come home filthy." "What's so exciting about screw threading of all things?" "What's the point of endlessly tinkering?"
It's especially difficult to discuss, perhaps, because the shop is not generally a place I go to accomplish a specific thing. I might go there to work on one problem but end up working on the shop itself. Sometimes the tool I need is broken, so I spend an afternoon making a new one, or fixing the old one. The work is often non-linear; I work on what needs to be worked on.
Not many places are ambiguous in this way. A kitchen is for cooking; a classroom is for learning; a theater is for seeing shows. A shop can be for doing anything, and its purpose can change momentarily. A shop is for working on things, but that includes the shop itself and everything in it.
Working in a shop can have a wonderfully self-reflexive feeling, of constantly re-examining the tools, the process, the shop--even the people in the shop, including yourself.
A shop is a place where all variables are in flux. A mill, for example, is so versatile that it could be used to produce a copy of itself*. When you're standing in front of a mill, the question is not "What is possible?" but now "What do I want to do?".
In the shop, the only limitation is you. It's up to you to decide what deserves your time and effort. It's a nice metaphor for growing up.
But why machine tools and screw threads and such? What dispassionate things to study and to have strong opinions about.
There's a feeling I get after I've been using a lathe for a while. I don't mean any lathe, I mean one specific lathe, because each one is a little different. When I first start using it, I take my time flipping every lever, making sure I don't make some catastrophic mistake. But over time the lathe and I come to an understanding. I learn her idiosyncrasies, and she lets me know when I'm pushing her too far. After a few weeks, I'm flipping levers left and right. I know every control without taking an eye off the workpiece. I like to use the words sensual and intimate in describing this feeling. It's a little like raising a dog.
My old machining teacher liked to refer to using a machine tool like driving a car, e.g. "How do I drive this daggone mill?". For my part I think of it more like flying an airplane. It's more complicated than driving a car, but the possibilities are greater. Pilots are an elite, sometimes cocky bunch, much like machinists. Among those in the know, what they do inspires awe.
Machine tools are anything but cold. It honors me to include myself in a tradition that bears the mark of so many great people, including a few of my ancestors. It brings me closer to a history I don't fully understand yet. It gives me something in common with everyone who's ever made something well.
It's by learning to apply tools well that we have advanced our human condition. Our survival depends on knowing how to manipulate our world with tools, and on continuing to pass on that knowledge.
And by the way:
Besides being essential to everything we do, screw threads are, in one sense, a culmination of all human experiences. Their development is the result of many tiny decisions made by many people over many centuries. The most recent decisions were based on older decisions, which were based on yet older ones. That legacy goes back to the earliest humans. And without exaggerating, it can be said that screw threading standards have made fortunes and lost them.
In fact, every modern tool is a permutation of some simple, primitive tool. It was when we first started using these simple tools that we became technological--that we began a period of ever-increasing improvement upon what came before.
*This is theoretically true, but it's not something that happens often. It would require almost fantastical quantities of metal and time. Some of the tools used to make machine tools are friggin' huge.
I often think about how to relate to non-shop people about the shop. "Why do you spend so much damn time down there?", they ask. "You always come home filthy." "What's so exciting about screw threading of all things?" "What's the point of endlessly tinkering?"
It's especially difficult to discuss, perhaps, because the shop is not generally a place I go to accomplish a specific thing. I might go there to work on one problem but end up working on the shop itself. Sometimes the tool I need is broken, so I spend an afternoon making a new one, or fixing the old one. The work is often non-linear; I work on what needs to be worked on.
Not many places are ambiguous in this way. A kitchen is for cooking; a classroom is for learning; a theater is for seeing shows. A shop can be for doing anything, and its purpose can change momentarily. A shop is for working on things, but that includes the shop itself and everything in it.
Working in a shop can have a wonderfully self-reflexive feeling, of constantly re-examining the tools, the process, the shop--even the people in the shop, including yourself.
A shop is a place where all variables are in flux. A mill, for example, is so versatile that it could be used to produce a copy of itself*. When you're standing in front of a mill, the question is not "What is possible?" but now "What do I want to do?".
In the shop, the only limitation is you. It's up to you to decide what deserves your time and effort. It's a nice metaphor for growing up.
But why machine tools and screw threads and such? What dispassionate things to study and to have strong opinions about.
There's a feeling I get after I've been using a lathe for a while. I don't mean any lathe, I mean one specific lathe, because each one is a little different. When I first start using it, I take my time flipping every lever, making sure I don't make some catastrophic mistake. But over time the lathe and I come to an understanding. I learn her idiosyncrasies, and she lets me know when I'm pushing her too far. After a few weeks, I'm flipping levers left and right. I know every control without taking an eye off the workpiece. I like to use the words sensual and intimate in describing this feeling. It's a little like raising a dog.
My old machining teacher liked to refer to using a machine tool like driving a car, e.g. "How do I drive this daggone mill?". For my part I think of it more like flying an airplane. It's more complicated than driving a car, but the possibilities are greater. Pilots are an elite, sometimes cocky bunch, much like machinists. Among those in the know, what they do inspires awe.
Machine tools are anything but cold. It honors me to include myself in a tradition that bears the mark of so many great people, including a few of my ancestors. It brings me closer to a history I don't fully understand yet. It gives me something in common with everyone who's ever made something well.
It's by learning to apply tools well that we have advanced our human condition. Our survival depends on knowing how to manipulate our world with tools, and on continuing to pass on that knowledge.
And by the way:
Besides being essential to everything we do, screw threads are, in one sense, a culmination of all human experiences. Their development is the result of many tiny decisions made by many people over many centuries. The most recent decisions were based on older decisions, which were based on yet older ones. That legacy goes back to the earliest humans. And without exaggerating, it can be said that screw threading standards have made fortunes and lost them.
In fact, every modern tool is a permutation of some simple, primitive tool. It was when we first started using these simple tools that we became technological--that we began a period of ever-increasing improvement upon what came before.
*This is theoretically true, but it's not something that happens often. It would require almost fantastical quantities of metal and time. Some of the tools used to make machine tools are friggin' huge.
Rethinking Occupational Taxonomies
Back when I wanted to be an aerospace engineer, I did some research and came away with the following understanding of how things worked:
1. Scientists do the theoretical stuff.
2. Engineers design stuff, solve problems, and apply the scientists' theory.
3. Technicians install/build/make what the engineers designed.
A semester of engineering school made it abundantly clear I was not destined to be an engineer. So I've been trying to decide ever since...Where do I fit in this hierarchy?
Now I have realized some key truths:
1. Engineers, bless their hearts, often lack on-the-shop-floor experience, which can cause problems in the design process.
2. There are actually more than three positions in that 1-2-3 hierarchy.
3. Especially under sub-optimal conditions, the lines between Engineer and Technician are often blurred.
4. People who are good at their thing often have a lot of knowledge that overlaps with the areas around them--e.g. good engineers know a lot about technicians' jobs.
1. Scientists do the theoretical stuff.
2. Engineers design stuff, solve problems, and apply the scientists' theory.
3. Technicians install/build/make what the engineers designed.
A semester of engineering school made it abundantly clear I was not destined to be an engineer. So I've been trying to decide ever since...Where do I fit in this hierarchy?
Now I have realized some key truths:
1. Engineers, bless their hearts, often lack on-the-shop-floor experience, which can cause problems in the design process.
2. There are actually more than three positions in that 1-2-3 hierarchy.
3. Especially under sub-optimal conditions, the lines between Engineer and Technician are often blurred.
4. People who are good at their thing often have a lot of knowledge that overlaps with the areas around them--e.g. good engineers know a lot about technicians' jobs.
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