They want me to go help out at a career fair at Birmingham university. Do I know where the great hall is? Umm? Lets see now ;-)
It’s the careers fair where I first came across MWH and essentially why I applied to work here. Talk about returning to your roots!
Friday, October 28, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
The Good News about HADES
Having previously taken the mickey out of the Work 'Good News' wall - guess what I'm currently writing. Yes, that's right. A poster for that very same good news wall.
I probably shouldn't have mentioned to a reviewer that the internal software had been really helpful.
I was told yesterday that I was obviously very confident in my work. This was in a meeting of 20ish people - all men, all older than me. I was asked if the flow split would work. My response of "It works." Didn't provoke any more questions or discussion, in fact there was a short pause in the meeting. It would appear that I can blag confidence pretty well.
But it does mean I have no reason not to write this Good news thingy.
Somehow writing Good News about HADES is a little odd though...
(HADES = Hydraulic Analysis and Design Software.)
I probably shouldn't have mentioned to a reviewer that the internal software had been really helpful.
I was told yesterday that I was obviously very confident in my work. This was in a meeting of 20ish people - all men, all older than me. I was asked if the flow split would work. My response of "It works." Didn't provoke any more questions or discussion, in fact there was a short pause in the meeting. It would appear that I can blag confidence pretty well.
But it does mean I have no reason not to write this Good news thingy.
Somehow writing Good News about HADES is a little odd though...
(HADES = Hydraulic Analysis and Design Software.)
Monday, October 24, 2005
Intelligent Design.
Does Nature have an intelligent designer? Well, yes, but….
Are the gaps in evolution? Well, maybe, but…..
Currently in the USA Intelligent Design (ID) is on trial.
Is it science or is it religion?
ID questions natural selection and Darwinism. It suggests that natural selection couldn’t occur in the way that is generally assumed and therefore an intelligent designer must be responsible. That designer isn’t necessarily God, but by definition would have to be a deity or Supreme Being of some sort. Most of the proponents seem to be American fundamentalist Christians. Which shouldn’t get my hackles up immediately. Unfortunately it does. It doesn’t help that George Dubyah supports it… However, lets try to look at this objectively.
There is a universe. Well, lets start small – Earth exists. So far so good. Was it designed or was it not? The arguments for a non-religious start to the earth are well discussed and known; Evolution, asteroids, Bangs, suns etc. Natural selection theory does seem to work. It does seem to fit the way in which we can see the world around us operating.
A religious/Christian perspective can be that God created the earth, the universe, and all in it. There is a God who can influence the fabric of the universe; who can make things happen; who can change the world.
However, I’m fully aware that this is a belief. As much as I know it to be true I can’t persuade that to someone who is not willing to take the leap of faith and accept that there might just be a God. In addition I don’t see that there are any difficulties between the two philosophies. I can be a Christian and believe in evolution/natural selection with some intervention/steering from God at times.
So ID is another way of looking at things. Yes.
Is it Science? No.
Science is something that comes with fact and evidence. That a cynic can look at and understand (I’m not saying that the end result is agreement with the assumptions) but how can something be science when it starts from a basis of a leap of faith? That doesn’t mean that it’s not true and by all means talk about it, discuss it, but not in the same way as science is discussed, and not in science lessons in school.
God is present in all things. God is an intelligent creator. But that doesn’t mean that evolution is not possible. To be Christian does not mean that I do not have common sense. We have free will!
I await the outcome of the trial with interest.
Are the gaps in evolution? Well, maybe, but…..
Currently in the USA Intelligent Design (ID) is on trial.
Is it science or is it religion?
ID questions natural selection and Darwinism. It suggests that natural selection couldn’t occur in the way that is generally assumed and therefore an intelligent designer must be responsible. That designer isn’t necessarily God, but by definition would have to be a deity or Supreme Being of some sort. Most of the proponents seem to be American fundamentalist Christians. Which shouldn’t get my hackles up immediately. Unfortunately it does. It doesn’t help that George Dubyah supports it… However, lets try to look at this objectively.
There is a universe. Well, lets start small – Earth exists. So far so good. Was it designed or was it not? The arguments for a non-religious start to the earth are well discussed and known; Evolution, asteroids, Bangs, suns etc. Natural selection theory does seem to work. It does seem to fit the way in which we can see the world around us operating.
A religious/Christian perspective can be that God created the earth, the universe, and all in it. There is a God who can influence the fabric of the universe; who can make things happen; who can change the world.
However, I’m fully aware that this is a belief. As much as I know it to be true I can’t persuade that to someone who is not willing to take the leap of faith and accept that there might just be a God. In addition I don’t see that there are any difficulties between the two philosophies. I can be a Christian and believe in evolution/natural selection with some intervention/steering from God at times.
So ID is another way of looking at things. Yes.
Is it Science? No.
Science is something that comes with fact and evidence. That a cynic can look at and understand (I’m not saying that the end result is agreement with the assumptions) but how can something be science when it starts from a basis of a leap of faith? That doesn’t mean that it’s not true and by all means talk about it, discuss it, but not in the same way as science is discussed, and not in science lessons in school.
God is present in all things. God is an intelligent creator. But that doesn’t mean that evolution is not possible. To be Christian does not mean that I do not have common sense. We have free will!
I await the outcome of the trial with interest.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Happy Birthday to me!!
And so I reach 25. As Charlie so nicely pointed out – I’m now halfway to 30. With friends like her... :-$
I’ve upgraded my phone as a birthday present to myself. New toy! Yay! It goes beep any everything!
Google mail is temporarily unavailable. Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.
Wonderful! One of the best error messages I’ve seen in ages.
And that’s including the great one on a work package: "Cannot divide by zero". Really… you can’t?!
Monday, October 17, 2005
What’s going on? I can’t keep up!
I’m really hoping that at some point in the near future the world will slow down for long enough for me to catch up.
Grandad’s funeral went really well. Car no. 2 was the grandchildren and associated cousins etc. By the time we got to the crematorium we were left with an interesting philosophical debate. If we hadn’t nicknamed the car the ‘B’ Ark, would the armrest have fallen off? Thankfully the giggling fit that ensued with the car subsided by the time we got to the crematorium. I suspect the giggling was mainly a way to vent some emotion however whether Gran would have seen it like that is another matter entirely. On the whole I think everything went really well and really smoothly. It was all as Gran wanted it to be. It’s just a shame that I learnt some things about Grandad in Dad’s Eulogy instead of from Grandad himself. I suppose it’s better to know people a little than not at all. It’s hard to visualise the Wilf Wells that I knew building his own house or playing tennis.
And today I’m back in the office trying to work out why on earth I would want an MWH polo shirt – oh wait.. It’s free. I guess it’ll do for the gym. Now when did I last go to the gym…?
We’ve also been asked to contribute Good news to the company to show off what we’re doing well etc. How tempted am I to send in something along the lines of "For God so loved the world…." Well, it is about engineering in a sense…. And it’s definitely good news….
Grandad’s funeral went really well. Car no. 2 was the grandchildren and associated cousins etc. By the time we got to the crematorium we were left with an interesting philosophical debate. If we hadn’t nicknamed the car the ‘B’ Ark, would the armrest have fallen off? Thankfully the giggling fit that ensued with the car subsided by the time we got to the crematorium. I suspect the giggling was mainly a way to vent some emotion however whether Gran would have seen it like that is another matter entirely. On the whole I think everything went really well and really smoothly. It was all as Gran wanted it to be. It’s just a shame that I learnt some things about Grandad in Dad’s Eulogy instead of from Grandad himself. I suppose it’s better to know people a little than not at all. It’s hard to visualise the Wilf Wells that I knew building his own house or playing tennis.
And today I’m back in the office trying to work out why on earth I would want an MWH polo shirt – oh wait.. It’s free. I guess it’ll do for the gym. Now when did I last go to the gym…?
We’ve also been asked to contribute Good news to the company to show off what we’re doing well etc. How tempted am I to send in something along the lines of "For God so loved the world…." Well, it is about engineering in a sense…. And it’s definitely good news….
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Over.
Over
Out
What?
Errr.. red b…
What’s my callsign?
Um..
As a highly professional organisation it’s always reassuring to know that we can grasp new technologies with both hands in order to provide a better service. It would perhaps be nice If we could also grasp slightly older ones.
Last night was Red Cross radio training. We’ve had radios for YEARS. We’re had this set of radios for a fair while too. So it’s perhaps a little embarrassing when you realise that we’re still not entirely sure of the correct protocols. We can use them and get our message across in an emergency with no trouble. Can we all remember to say ‘over’ after a transmission, or tell left from right to pass on directions? Now that’s all a little more complicated. And that flashing red light… what does that mean…. Noone knows. Oh good. Let’s hope it’s not the self destruct.
Apparently for the Wokingham Winter carnival we’re going to use a radio net. This involves adding more people into the loop to ‘help’. The idea is that all communications go through one point where a record is made of the transmissions. All well and good until you consider what kind of situations we tend to need to use the radios for –Emergencies. The last thing you need in an emergency is a very very slow communication path. The whole point of radios is to speed up the process.
I can’t help but think that we’d be better off with a large net to catch the radios with when we inevitably get annoyed and drop them into the nearest water source… Looks likely that we’ll continue to compromise on some of our duties… mobile phones are wonderful things.
Out.
Out
What?
Errr.. red b…
What’s my callsign?
Um..
As a highly professional organisation it’s always reassuring to know that we can grasp new technologies with both hands in order to provide a better service. It would perhaps be nice If we could also grasp slightly older ones.
Last night was Red Cross radio training. We’ve had radios for YEARS. We’re had this set of radios for a fair while too. So it’s perhaps a little embarrassing when you realise that we’re still not entirely sure of the correct protocols. We can use them and get our message across in an emergency with no trouble. Can we all remember to say ‘over’ after a transmission, or tell left from right to pass on directions? Now that’s all a little more complicated. And that flashing red light… what does that mean…. Noone knows. Oh good. Let’s hope it’s not the self destruct.
Apparently for the Wokingham Winter carnival we’re going to use a radio net. This involves adding more people into the loop to ‘help’. The idea is that all communications go through one point where a record is made of the transmissions. All well and good until you consider what kind of situations we tend to need to use the radios for –Emergencies. The last thing you need in an emergency is a very very slow communication path. The whole point of radios is to speed up the process.
I can’t help but think that we’d be better off with a large net to catch the radios with when we inevitably get annoyed and drop them into the nearest water source… Looks likely that we’ll continue to compromise on some of our duties… mobile phones are wonderful things.
Out.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Uh huh.
Mary: Where’s the drawing register?Stefan is the lead engineer on my project. As you can see we work together pretty well. We're both off our trolleys...
Stefan: On the computer. You’ll find it, it’s a small computer.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
RIP Wilfred Wells
Pray, verb: to ask that the laws of the universe be temporarily annulled for a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.
-Ambrose Bierce
Grandad is at Peace now. The above definition sent round by Cath yesterday kind of sums up what we've seen happening in that hospital.
Monday, October 03, 2005
ummmm
What do you call a small spoon that is used to make coffee? It’s surely not a teaspoon is it? Is there a separate object for a coffee spoon? Does such a thing exist? And if not, why not?
What am I meant to be feeling?
Happy or sad?
Enthusiastic or depressed?
Optimistic or scared?
This has been a weekend of extremes and I’m not sure how to react.
We took the youth of Earley away for the weekend. The youth weekend aspect was pretty good. Lots of learning points as you’d expect but I think all the kids got something out of it. It was great to see the little ‘uns asking questions about prayer and love (even if they did have their heads on the table at that point due to lack of sleep. I don’t know – no stamina – the leaders were in a far worse state on the whole. I’ve never seen so many green people…
Was fun though, and the kids really seemed to have fun. We talked about God. We made T-shirts. We played wide games. We made a spoof video of Harry Potter. We didn’t sleep. We checked lots of bumped heads for concussion. (When we say ‘don’t run’ we really mean it).
I really recommend working with kids. It’s great to see them learning and discovering new stuff and you really learn from what they’ve got to say as well.
On the negative side my Grandfather had a major stroke on Saturday. All family are on high alert and as many prayers as we can find are required. Mostly for the rest of the family. Grandad isn’t expected to recover. And it really doesn’t help your sleeping patterns.
So on one hand I’m hyped from a youth weekend, if not a tad exhausted. On the other I’m trying to work out how I’m meant to feel about the health of my grandfather as we wait for him to let go.
As ever. It’s all or nothing, and all at the same time.
Enthusiastic or depressed?
Optimistic or scared?
This has been a weekend of extremes and I’m not sure how to react.
We took the youth of Earley away for the weekend. The youth weekend aspect was pretty good. Lots of learning points as you’d expect but I think all the kids got something out of it. It was great to see the little ‘uns asking questions about prayer and love (even if they did have their heads on the table at that point due to lack of sleep. I don’t know – no stamina – the leaders were in a far worse state on the whole. I’ve never seen so many green people…
Was fun though, and the kids really seemed to have fun. We talked about God. We made T-shirts. We played wide games. We made a spoof video of Harry Potter. We didn’t sleep. We checked lots of bumped heads for concussion. (When we say ‘don’t run’ we really mean it).
I really recommend working with kids. It’s great to see them learning and discovering new stuff and you really learn from what they’ve got to say as well.
On the negative side my Grandfather had a major stroke on Saturday. All family are on high alert and as many prayers as we can find are required. Mostly for the rest of the family. Grandad isn’t expected to recover. And it really doesn’t help your sleeping patterns.
So on one hand I’m hyped from a youth weekend, if not a tad exhausted. On the other I’m trying to work out how I’m meant to feel about the health of my grandfather as we wait for him to let go.
As ever. It’s all or nothing, and all at the same time.
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