update from the road

[Zagatto]

We had a great day in Manhattan yesterday and even got to meet with Rei briefly. With luck I'll be able to work in a breakfast with him before we leave town for Pittsburgh tomorrow.

Here's a pic of Rei and I together in Grand Central Station.

[Batz Kage]

We had a great day in Manhattan yesterday and even got to meet with Rei briefly. With luck I'll be able to work in a breakfast with him before we leave town for Pittsburgh tomorrow.

Here's a pic of Rei and I together in Grand Central Station.

Good to hear you're having a good time old man (& I mean the old man part in a loving fatherly way >.> <.<.. I think it would have been less creepy as an insult).

[Elcoholic]

Cool, I still plan on going to New York someday.

So, your having a mini vacation or something? Or is there a purpose to going to New York. It a pretty long drive isn't it?

[Zagatto]

I'm half way through my vacation now.
Thanksgiving has always been a pretty major holiday for my family so Reb and I had planned on taking the whole week off. Of course, I'm unemployed again so vacation really doesn't mean that much to me other than we're spending money that we can't easily replace for the time being.
We started out last Friday driving to Stamford, CT which is just outside New York City. Saturday we had fun going into the city and exploring all day and I also got to meet Rei for the first time face to face. Monday we had breakfast with Rei before driving to Pittsburgh, PA where I am right now.

In about one hour I'll be back on the road again driving from Pittsburgh to East Lansing, MI where I'll be staying with my family for a few days and visiting with old friends. I don't expect to be home till Saturday or Sunday this coming weekend so I'm leaving moderation duties in the hands of all the other fine moderators we have here.

You can read details about my trip in my Live Journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/zagatto/ if you want to see pictures and stuff.

[Elcoholic]

You have a very pretty daughter there Zag. I love the pic. where's she's climbing skyscrapers.

Have fun.

[Strong Bad 2000]

Unemployed again? :eek:

What happened to the last job? I thought your former employer couldn't afford to lose you even after telling him "**** you!" Did I miss something?

[Rei1781]

Nah, Zag isn't a bum he has a job..The same job he told the employer to f--k off..

[Puppet Master]

Unemployed again? :eek:

What happened to the last job? I thought your former employer couldn't afford to lose you even after telling him "**** you!" Did I miss something?

That's still great I wish I could have told my past employers that...

[Zagatto]

I guess I should clarify.
I did tell my boss to F-off and then two days later I was back on the job because there really isn't anyone else in the province with nuclear qualifications available to replace me on short notice.
Now that things have slowed down around the office I was one of the first to be laid off until such time as things get busy around the office. This is expected to be some time in February or possibly as late as March.

For once in my life I kind of enjoy being laid off because this means I'm not on standbye and I'll actually be making more on unemployment than I would be making with the base salary my job paid me to sit home waiting for work to show up. I plan on taking the next two months to do some serious job hunting and I've already lined up a few photo jobs to keep the bank account topped up as well.
If I find a new job before the end of February then there's a good chance I'll be happier there than I have been with my current employer. If I don't find anything else worth my time then I have a job that will start up again before all my money runs out.

I just have to eat more ramen noodle than usual for the next two months and not buy fun things that I can't afford.

[Elcoholic]

Sweet man. Sitting home with money comming in.

But what exactly are your nuclear qualifications if I may ask, sounds like a complecated job? You doing rocket science or something?

[Zagatto]

My qualifications were being able to drill and tap a hole in steel and passing the security clearance to work in a nuclear facility (most intense screening I've ever been through... half of the guys hired don't get in the door).

When I'm on the job I freeze heavy water in the pipe to create a plug that holds back all the stored heavy water behind it so they can repair pipes, insert sensors or do other maintenance on the pipes. I use liquid nitrogen to freeze and maintain the frozen ice in the pipe.

I also have been trained to seal in other industrial environments. I can seal hydrochloric acid leaks and high pressure steam leaks (imagine 1200 psi at 600 degrees farenheit) without needing to shut down the line.

The company that I work(ed) for is the only company that does this from where I live in Ontario all the way out to the east coast. It's pretty cool work when I'm working but I have the burden of needing to be ready to leave with only two hours notice and being away from home for up to a month and a half with no firm return dates.

[YamiFan]

Zagatto, that sounds complicated. Not that I'm interested but only curious... what course did you take to get all that knowledge and how many years to get the degree? Or do you just learn as you work?

[Zagatto]

For education I have a degree in photography and certificates in electronics and computers. I have absolutely no practical experience for the job that I was just laid off from. All they really seemed to care about was whether or not I would pass the security clearance and that I would be available to work the crazy hours.

The company I work for is the only one I know of that teaches courses in industrial leak repair. We charge $10k for a 1 week course on how to do what I do. I was taught on the job for no charge. The biggest challenges are all safety related and knowing what sort of sealant to use for a particular job. The materials that are capable of sealing an acid leak most likely wont repair a steam leak. It's actually cool work to do and the biggest challenge is not being able to plan for anything because the work is all emergency based work. This time of year is very slow for us because a lot of plants actually shut down their lines to do repairs themselves. We're mostly called in when it would be too expensive to shut down a process to repair it.

[Vicious]

And here I thought that you worked for a photography company this entire time.

[Zagatto]

I've been doing the industrial thing since March... before that was the photography thing...

I just got home to find a job offer from another photography type place for the next month... things just keep rolling for me.