Shameless gloating

Ohio State Buckyes: 14, That School up North: 3

Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!!!!!

Michigan sucks. GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!

You know you're a beer snob if...

You're at the concession stand at the movie theater, and the following scenario unfolds. The bartender?barista? pouring your bottled beer into plastic cups calls over the new employee to show him how to properly pour a brew. (He had just created a foamy, overflowing mess for the people before us. You say a silent prayer of thanks to the beer gods that he didn't get a chance to do that to your beer.) The experienced pourer tells the newbie, "Look. This is how to pour a beer. See? You've got to tip the cup so you don't make all that foam." If your immediate reaction is to roll your eyes, slap your head, and say, "Duh! How can you NOT know how to pour a beer??", you might just be a beer snob. You also might be a beer snob if... when the girl before you orders a Bud Light, you immediately judge her as having no class.

Either way, last night we went to see The Darjeeling Limited. I thought it was quite good. I think seeing it at The Neon made it better than it would have been at some suburban megaplex. I just love the whole experience of seeing movies there. The tickets are a few bucks less than you'd pay elsewhere, the people are intelligent, upstanding adults (employees and patrons alike), and you get that warm, fuzzy feeling of going downtown to support a local establishment. The movie was a bit out there, but I would have expected and accepted nothing less. I think the most intriguing thing to me was seeing India. The culture and landscape is just so dramatically different than what I've experienced in the U.S.

On my days off I like to spend most of my time working.

The past few weeks I've been spending an increased about of time producing 360 virtual tours and working on perfect the art of VR. I'm currently remodeling the 360Dayton website but I just put up the VR's I shot a early this month, it's pretty darn cool if I do say so myself. They came out really nice!

In addition to VR I have two Board's that I'm currently working on. The Walnut Hills Community Association of course... and then my new position with the Dayton Access Television (DaTV) board.

And then there's the garage... electrical is 80% done, I just need to wire the motion light over the driveway and hook up the panel. I plan on finishing the garage this weekend, if I can tear myself away from the television.

P.O.'d at the P.O. (for the millionth time)

We've hardly at all spoken too badly of the P.O. on this blog (not that we've spoken much at all in the first place, but I digress...), even though we've cursed her name too many times to count. Either way, I went down to the 'dungeon' the other day to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer, and I saw puddles of water:


Aggh!! Our biggest nightmare...water where it shouldn't be (on top of the vapor barrier over the crawl space). I initially ignore what later seems to be the obvious from looking at the photo. My first thought is to look up at the water lines that feed the kitchen sink. Are they leaking? They have a few turquoise spots here and there, indicative of pinhole leaks from corrosion. I feel the pipes, get my hands dirty but not wet. This will most likely bite us in the a$$ in the future, but this was not the problem on this day. My eyes next focus on the glorious duct tape joint on the PVC drain line for the washer. I feel the tape, and it is definitely wet. And gooey. (Yuck...must...wash...hands...now). Apparently, duct tape was the best way to attach the furnace's condensate pump drain line to the washer drain pipe. Of course...duct tape...what alternative is there??

Sexy Mama

We finally had enough of the fridge that we inherited with the house. It wasn't necessarily a bad fridge, but we grew tired of its inability to keep a constant temperature (the top shelf would get freezer envy from time to time and decide to freeze everything sitting on it, while the bottom shelf would be warmed up to 45 degrees), and its lack of ice maker was a definite shortcoming. Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I was just too lazy to keep the ice cube trays regularly filled. I'm also looking forward to some energy savings. According to the Energy Guide, our new purchase only costs $56 a year to run. Sweet. Behold our new goddess of all things cold, frozen, and filtered. Now if only she had a beer tap...

Money shot 1:

Money shot #2:

Murphy's Law is Alive and Well

So, what do you get when it hasn't rained in two weeks and you spend the weekend tilling and trenching your back yard?

If you're lucky, you get this:

Which leaves you with this:

And it's still raining. Oh the humanity.

My PS Exam results

I started surveying in late November, 1997 during my Senior year in high school. My first job was with a very small firm in my home town of Lancaster, Ohio doing mostly boundary surveys and mortgage location work as a survey tech... I enjoyed it and it was my boss who pushed me to go to college and try to get dual licensed as both an engineer and surveyor. If I hadn't worked there I doubt I would have gone to college, and I know I wouldn't be where I am today.

The process of getting licensed is a four step process. The first step is getting the education. In Ohio a four year degree is required from an accredited institution, there are only two in Ohio, OSU and Akron. The Geomatics Engineering program at OSU is accredited for both civil engineering and surveying, graduates can be licensed as engineers and surveyors (it's a rigorous and difficult program).

The second step is passing the Surveyor in Training exam (SIT), this exam is taken typically right after you graduate college and (after you pass it) marks the beginning of your professional training. The SIT is an 8 hour exam featuring everything from differential calculus to ethics, accounting to chemistry, and of course a large amount of surveying.

After you pass the SIT, you are required to get 4 years of professional experience working directly under the supervision of a licensed surveyor. This experience is the 3rd part of the PS process and for me, the clock started ticking after I passed the SIT in April, 2003 and began with Woolpert later that month.

I filed the paper work at the end of last year and exactly 4 years (to the day) after taking the SIT exam, I again found myself sitting in Veteran's Memorial on April 20th, 2007. I took the PS exam that day and last Friday I received my results:



So I'm very happy to say that the 10 year journey I started way back in 1997 was completed this week. I now have the PS designation behind my name and I'm thrilled to be free from the stress and anxiety of waiting for the test results.

Woot!