Hai!

Please ignore my last post as I was slightly bitchy at that particular moment apparently.  I’m not sure why all that pent up resentment came out all at once.  It didn’t even take much time to write it either.  I wrote it right before I went to meet Steve from our Detroit office for dinner and a couple of beers at the Grohe.  We went back to my place after and had another couple more beers.  He left around one–ish.  I suppose I should mention that Tuesday I was in my team meeting and saw Steve walking in the hall looking at the office placards on the walls.  I assumed he was looking for me, so I knocked on the window to get his attention.  Seeing him was totally unexpected.  I talked with him a bit and offered to show him around and gave him the digits.  Anyway, Steve was to be in town till today, Saturday.

Tuesday night I cleaned my apartment and went to bed early.  As written above, Wednesday night after work I went to the Grohe. During the day on Thursday, I was asked to give another presentation for the Japanese on the following Thursday.  I agreed since my boss is on vacation for the next two weeks.  Thursday night I went to bed at eight-thirty as I was still recovering from the night before.

Friday morning my boss mentioned that the project management manager had spoken with him about the next presentation.  I was looking through our quality system on the intranet and only was able to find my boss is the owner of our mechanical design process, but there was no content.  Nothing.  I basically have to outline our design process as I see it, hopefully correctly according to our non-existent design manual.  We do have a “design manual” but it is more of a Logo placement on the machine guide.  I am not sure how we were able to get through our ISO quality audits without it.  What I have planned to do is to re-iterate the process from the Detroit office, because in theory it is the same.  There are small nuances that are different, but it is close enough.  I should ask if there are any presentations that I can borrow from Detroit.  I should have asked on Friday.

Heike was at work on Friday again.  It is always nice to see her.  We had our usual Friday morning runde, this time scrutinizing a brief report that the Japanese had written.  The report was almost all negative.  The Japanese spent four days testing the product that I am currently re-designing.  The report was extremely biased toward their superior design that our machine was compared to.  They performed their standard EPA runoff and quality checks, which included more than the results that he covered in his report.  He even wrote statements like, “Cause: lack of understanding of EPA standard”.  Basically saying we are idiots.  This arrogance is sickening.

The EPA standard for vehicle emissions testing and measurement is written such that it is open to interpretation.  For example, it has a statement regarding the roller surface roughness that goes something like this: The roller surface shall have a roughness that simulates clean, dry pavement.  This doesn’t help a bit to define what the surface texture should be in absolute terms like micrometers.  This lack of definition has inspired everyone to decide for themselves what simulates clean dry pavement.  Apparently the Japanese chose the correct roller surface and we are idiots.  My point is, the Japanese are really starting to get under my skin.  They want to meet in Japan in early November to discuss the testing results, and I assume what they expect to be done in the future.  Or maybe even say that our group is through and better luck next time.  I don’t know.  I hope I don’t have to go to Japan.  Their culture makes me sick.  All that blind deference and patriarchal bullshit.  They must view it as honorable to act like assholes.  I guess it’s no different than the Muslim countries, relative to the patriarchal aspect.  It makes me glad that western society has moved past that set of sorry ideals.  Women in Japan are allowed to be educated at least, but are expected after getting a job to marry a co-worker and quickly become pregnant and then become a housewife.  I’m not even sure where I was going with all this…

I really need to plan better and stop being so lazy.  Time management was never one of my strong points.  I think I could accomplish more if had better time management skills.  I am always trying to accomplish too much with too little time.  Like today for example; I called Linda at eleven in the morning after loafing around for an hour and a half to tell her what time I would be there.  I had a list of errands a mile long to run before going to Linda’s.  Here’s the breakdown:

Shower + shave
Walk two blocks to get car sharing car
Drive car back to apartment and park it
Drive work rental back to work
Ride bike to building 83
Retrieve notes I wrote for Mechanical Design Process Presentation
Ride bike back to apartment
Drive to Mari & Christi’s to feed and play with cats, Lolo and Morri
Drive to antique store to get repaired door for buffet
Drive to Walmart and shop
Drive home to put away groceries and apply makeup
Drive to N.I., an hour late
Eat cake that Linda made with Petra and Hazel, lots of chit-chat
Walked to NI Zentrum to get cognac for Helmi’s B-day and mini pie tins
Ordered pizza for dinner, more chit-chat
Drive back to DA to feed and play with cats
Drive car sharing car back to parking spot
Walk two blocks to apartment
Collapse on the couch

I am looking forward to being off for the holidays in about six weeks.  I plan to take at least three weeks off, four if I am lucky.  I cannot wait to not have to deal with work for little while.  I will be traveling quite a bit and visiting with family and friends.  I was actually contemplating legally changing my name in December, but I should probably wait a little bit longer, maybe around Easter 2006 would be better.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  More on this subject tomorrow perhaps.  Cheers!