A while ago, I was at Disney with Ronny, and went to a club called Mannequins. There was a guy on the dance floor who looked SO much like Sergio it was freaky.
So, the other night I had a dream that I was on vacation with Ronny. We went to some sort of film festival. There were a bunch of events that we went to throught the day. That night there was a documentary about Brokeback Mountain. I'm not sure if it was like a making-of documentary, or a real-life stories of the same theme. Anyway, Ronny suddenly remembered something he left behind in the hotel room and had to go back to the room. I waited around a while, he wasn't coming back. All of a sudden, I bumped into Sergio. Ronny just wasn't coming back, and the movie was about to start. I headed over to my seat, and Sergio came along. We were talking. I started wondering about whether or not I would want to take him back. As the morning broke, I woke up from the dream. The wondering carried over, in that half awake, kind of still dreaming state. I had been doing so well, but now I keep having the recurring thoughts pop back up again.
It's not so much that I -do- want him back, but I have come to accept that I will probably never be fully over him. Which is why even though he wants to be friends, I will never be able to.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Auughhhhh
Another example of why my job sucks… We received a customer complaints that some welded parts we sent them were falling apart. I went into inventory to check our stock, and found parts sitting in the box that had fallen apart. The welds were done so poorly that it basically amounted to burn marks, not welds. Everybody’s first reaction, as usual, was “How could the inspector have let this happen?” Nevermind that someone sat at the welder and made these pieces and put them in the box this way. Let’s just blame the inspector who is supposed to stop by every 40 minutes to see how it’s going. In speaking with production, I am told that these parts are resistance welded, but they should be projection welded. The resistance welding is taking way too much heat to do these parts, and ruining the welder tips. Engineering, however, says NO. The chief engineer claims we’ve Always made them this way, so this way should be fine, it’s simply a problem of poor inspection. (Root cause analysis at its finest!) I am also told that the reason we never did these with projection welds is that the tooling was too expensive for the small order quantities on this part. In other words, the real root cause is (as Always) that the owners are too cheap to provide the proper equipment. As always, I am not going to get away with saying this on our forms, let alone tell a customer. So, fine, I suggest shortening the inspection interval by half. It’s a poor excuse for a fix, but about all I can arrange. I discuss it with the plant manager, he understands, and agrees to it. For some reason I ask him to sign the form to show he agreed.
Now, the paperwork to change the inspection interval routes past the chief engineer. He blows a fuse. This is a Horrible idea, not solving the real problem, how dare I, why didn’t the inspector do a better job, this isn’t an inspection problem, I’m not addressing root cause… (Yes, he really did blame the inspector while saying it’s not an inspection issue.) He refuses to allow the change. I mention that in the arena of root cause, using projection welds was suggested. Again, no way, no need, always did it resistance before and never had a problem… (Production’s take on it is that we’ve always done it that way, and always had a ton of problems with it. But they are used to being forced to struggle through inadequate processes with no support.) He says he is going to talk to customer service, and storms off. Some time later, he comes down to my office and tells me to call a meeting. Not that he can’t do it, or ask his secretary to do it, but whatever.
Meeting starts with the chief engineer reading the ‘inspection interval’ plan off the form with arrogant disdain. The plant manager then says how horrible, how could I do this! I point out he signed off on it, so he mumbles something about not knowing what it meant. Right. The production supervisor again mentions we should projection weld these. The chief engineer says “Yeah, OK, we’ll look into it.” Then he starts complaining again that this addresses production problems, but we still need to address the inadequate inspection. I just want to strangle someone… To make it worse, I then hear that after the meeting the chief engineer questioned why nobody looked into projection welding earlier. More strangling fantasies…
Let’s recap. When I tried to solve the problem, engineering said no. Then when I tried a second-best approach, engineering said no. Then engineering made me call a meeting so they could discuss it, at which they agreed to my first suggestion when someone else brought it up, and expressed horror that I would even suggest the second idea. No matter what I did, I lost.
Now, the paperwork to change the inspection interval routes past the chief engineer. He blows a fuse. This is a Horrible idea, not solving the real problem, how dare I, why didn’t the inspector do a better job, this isn’t an inspection problem, I’m not addressing root cause… (Yes, he really did blame the inspector while saying it’s not an inspection issue.) He refuses to allow the change. I mention that in the arena of root cause, using projection welds was suggested. Again, no way, no need, always did it resistance before and never had a problem… (Production’s take on it is that we’ve always done it that way, and always had a ton of problems with it. But they are used to being forced to struggle through inadequate processes with no support.) He says he is going to talk to customer service, and storms off. Some time later, he comes down to my office and tells me to call a meeting. Not that he can’t do it, or ask his secretary to do it, but whatever.
Meeting starts with the chief engineer reading the ‘inspection interval’ plan off the form with arrogant disdain. The plant manager then says how horrible, how could I do this! I point out he signed off on it, so he mumbles something about not knowing what it meant. Right. The production supervisor again mentions we should projection weld these. The chief engineer says “Yeah, OK, we’ll look into it.” Then he starts complaining again that this addresses production problems, but we still need to address the inadequate inspection. I just want to strangle someone… To make it worse, I then hear that after the meeting the chief engineer questioned why nobody looked into projection welding earlier. More strangling fantasies…
Let’s recap. When I tried to solve the problem, engineering said no. Then when I tried a second-best approach, engineering said no. Then engineering made me call a meeting so they could discuss it, at which they agreed to my first suggestion when someone else brought it up, and expressed horror that I would even suggest the second idea. No matter what I did, I lost.
Monday, March 13, 2006
WDW
Went to Walt Disney World last week with Ronny, and Brad and Cris. It was a really good trip!! he weather was gorgeous, we went to all the parks, and I feigned the flu to get two of the days as sick time instead of vacation time! Ronny and Cris were really fun to go to WDW with because they were just awe-struck and impressed by everything. We have around 800 pictures total among the group.
We headed out on Thursday. It was a direct flight, so we got to the hotel by about 3:30pm. Decided to spend a little time at Epcot, since we had dinner reservations there. (We signed up for the Disney Dining Plan. It was about $250 each upfront, but our food was then comped. So, rather than have cheeseburgers for dinner, we went all out. We were spending about $40 to $50 per person on dinner each night. Epcot's international showcase is the place to go for dinner. Sit-downs at the Magic Kingdom not so fabulous.) Relaxed for a bit after dinner, then headed to Downtown Disney. Mannequins dance club is gay night on Thursdays, so we checked it out. They have these two dancers up on a high stage dressed in disco-ball suits. Little mirror pieces all over them, head to toe. Well, head to ankle - the hands and feet were not 'sequined' at all. Then the spot lights shone on them. The disco ball 'spray' changed as they moved. It was just SO cool! Mannequins is also the home of the rotating dance floor. As we headed onto the floor, we worked our way into the crowd. Ended up right next to this guy who could very nearly have been my ex, Sergio's twin brother. It was a little distracting. I had to check a couple times just to make sure it wasn't actually him. (Wouldn't THAT have been a coincidence!!)
The only other experience during the trip that doesn't happen to your typical Disney tourist was the Haunted Mansion hard-on... IF you've been on the ride, you remember it's very dark, and you sit in these little egg-shell tilt-a-whirl type cars. In other words, nobody else can see you. So, Ronny and I kept kissing during the ride. I think it was the thrill of making out on a ride like that which made me get a little more excited than your average rider. Can you imagine if we'd been down during Gay Days!
We headed out on Thursday. It was a direct flight, so we got to the hotel by about 3:30pm. Decided to spend a little time at Epcot, since we had dinner reservations there. (We signed up for the Disney Dining Plan. It was about $250 each upfront, but our food was then comped. So, rather than have cheeseburgers for dinner, we went all out. We were spending about $40 to $50 per person on dinner each night. Epcot's international showcase is the place to go for dinner. Sit-downs at the Magic Kingdom not so fabulous.) Relaxed for a bit after dinner, then headed to Downtown Disney. Mannequins dance club is gay night on Thursdays, so we checked it out. They have these two dancers up on a high stage dressed in disco-ball suits. Little mirror pieces all over them, head to toe. Well, head to ankle - the hands and feet were not 'sequined' at all. Then the spot lights shone on them. The disco ball 'spray' changed as they moved. It was just SO cool! Mannequins is also the home of the rotating dance floor. As we headed onto the floor, we worked our way into the crowd. Ended up right next to this guy who could very nearly have been my ex, Sergio's twin brother. It was a little distracting. I had to check a couple times just to make sure it wasn't actually him. (Wouldn't THAT have been a coincidence!!)
The only other experience during the trip that doesn't happen to your typical Disney tourist was the Haunted Mansion hard-on... IF you've been on the ride, you remember it's very dark, and you sit in these little egg-shell tilt-a-whirl type cars. In other words, nobody else can see you. So, Ronny and I kept kissing during the ride. I think it was the thrill of making out on a ride like that which made me get a little more excited than your average rider. Can you imagine if we'd been down during Gay Days!
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