Thinking of Greatness

I often wonder about some of the great structures of the past and how they were built.  I wonder about stone castles, the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and many other wondrous structures.  Some of these structures would be a great undertaking in our day and age so how great was it to those builders who didn't have the capabilities that we have.  I sometimes think that with our modern abilities of mass production and the uniform ease that concrete, along with other things, has provided us we have forgotten some of the basics of creating structures that was used on some of these wonders of the world.

Now I don't think that we will ever get back to creating structures that way because it would be to slow, cost way too much money, and we create much stronger and safer structures now.  I just think that we do not create buildings like the Colosseum any more.  Now we do create amazing structures like the Millau Bridge in France which almost seems to be flying. 

As I am getting close to graduating I have been thinking about what I am going to do with my life and where I want to work and what I would like to do.  I have always grown up thinking that I would just work for Interstate Rock designing roads, but lately I have come to realize that I want to do something great. Now some may say that I am being prideful in a way to want to design/build something wondrous but I don't think that I am because I don't want to do it so that I can say look what I did.  I want to do it because I have read a lot of books that have inspired my mind and have caused me to wonder if I could do something great and I believe that I could and would like to try.

I have decided that I want to go to grad school and have picked 4 schools to apply to and I am thinking of going to structural engineering.  The schools that I have picked are: Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, Utah State University, and University of Washington.  My top choice is Mines and the UW with CSU followed by USU.  Right now I am trying to finish all of my applications and get my letters of recommendation. I also am studying for the FE exam that I have to take on Saturday. I am really nervous for this test because I have to pass to graduate.  I also will be taking the GRE next month which will cause some stress as well.

Maybe someday I will design something great like: 

O&M Manuals

So for the last few weeks at work I have been working on creating the Operation and Maintenance Manuals for one of our jobs.  It has been quite the experience for me.  I will have to create manuals for 11 sections. I have been working one Section I which ended up being two 2" binders.  After I finished the manual I had to make 4 copies.  It was one of the most tedious jobs that I have had to do.  I really wish that there was a better way to make copies than just using a copy machine.  I have spent a few days just making copies and putting them into binders.

Bid Day

So earlier this week we had a really big bid day.  We had two bids due and I was helping with the one for the high school.  It was lots of work and I worked 'til 9:30pm the night before and then went back to work at 6:00am so that I could get everything done that I needed to do.  Also all morning I was doing whatever I need to help with to finish everything up.  In the office everyone was running around like we were an anthill that had be kicked.  It was probably the first time that I had really been involved in the bidding process on a big job.  It was an eye opener to a different type of engineering that I knew existed but had never really seen.  It was a lot of work but kind of exciting.

New Direction

So I have decided to write about my daily experiences with school and work.  I am in my last semester of college and only have three classes that I am taking.  I am taking Manufacturing and Nutrition at SUU three days a week and then I am taking Programming at Dixie State on Thursday night.  I am working really hard to pass all of these classes.

I am also working full-time for Interstate Rock in there engineering department.  This week we are really busy with bids.  We have four jobs bid on Tuesday so it is really crazy at work.  I am helping with take-offs and anything else that needs to be done right now.  Normally I am doing AsBuild drawing and keeping track of extra items on our SR-9 roadway job.

All of this is really keeping me busy and I do not have lots of free time.  But I hopefully will be able to write and share my life challenges and victories.