Friday, June 13, 2008
I'm drivin' heah!
J and I went on a tour of Timken at Clemson's new joint venture, ICAR. First a huge thanks to Ron and Timken for allowing us to come take a look at their operation. There were around 25-30 people who showed up for the tour and were instructed to bring a racecar or unique car if they had one for a group picture. The Focus with her dented hood didn't quite make the cut. A supercharged/turbocharged Honda hatchback, 2 Lotus Elise and a Daytona Coupe were among my favorites who showed up. As the Roush built V8 powered Daytona Coupe left, it scared the crap out of J and I. The straight pipes with side exhausts were LOUD! We were also standing right next to them.
Timken is a "white collar" machining facility as described by our wonderful tour guide whose name I didn't catch. Basically it's a two story building with a plethora of engineers, math aficionados and managers upstairs who sit around and think up new bearing designs. They send those designs downstairs, get a few made and test it to see if they revolutionized bearing design or if the crack monkey is back in action and they should try again. They also have many rooms for testing all the spinning parts of an engine. They might get a design from an automobile manufacturer, or a part, and they will test it for them and send the results back.
Huge pieces of machinery that start with a spool of smooth metal and then form that into a bearing abounded. The engine testing lab was loud. They were testing the bearings around the camshafts as they spin. They use electric motors to turn all these machines instead of gas, but it's still loud. We were not allowed in the metrology lab, where they super accurately measure their parts, but it looked really neat. We walked around and I kept wondering if they hired any chemists or materials scientists. I found him! We walked past one lab which had an instrument which said spectraflame, which I can only assume was an AAS, or atomic absorption spectrometer, where the lone chemist hung out all day surrounded by engineers. I imagine any chemistry related question gets posed to him or her, whether they like it or not. J wondered how many women Timken employs. Very good question.
Then we had a lecture on sound and sound control. It drug on a bit but was also informative. The SCCA, sports car club of america, has set that no racecar can be louder than 103 decibels, but there are a few ways to beat the system, or at least use the system to your advantage.
Since I picked up J from work and she didn't want to follow me home in Tercel, we drove home together and I drove her to work this morning. It was fairly trafficky but not too bad. (I guess congested would be a better word there) There was a Jeep Cherokee left lane hogging because he felt his 72 in a 60 was fast enough to warrant it. The 4 or 5 cars backed up behind him seemed to disagree. Our exit was coming up so I accelerated into the middle lane just as the Lincoln Towncar in the middle lane was moving into the right lane, so I kept my foot in it and planned to accelerate past that car to get to my exit. Whilst this occurred, the Cherokee left lane hog encountered yet another left lane hog who was going even slower than him; a red Civic if you're curious. Cherokee sees the Towncar move over and without signaling, starts to pull into the middle lane; the only problem with that being there is an accelerating black Focus that is already plugging the hole left by the Towncar. A simple honk of my horn avoids the impending accident and I pull into the left hand lane and exit. The Cherokee does the same after I get out of the way and proceeds to get very close to the back of my car. Even when we turn onto the surface street and I slow down to the very slow 35 (especially after hitting 80ish on the freeway) with a gentle cajoling from J, he stays behind me. The speed limit goes back up to 45, still there. I move to the left lane to ready us for our turn and he stays in his lane but doesn't pass. I don't look over as he drives by but he does drive by on his way to work instead of doing something crazy like following me to work for a discussion. The strangest part is that he was a school resource officer with "Police" and lightpod on his Cherokee. When he exited with me I was mildly concerned that he would pull me over but seeing as how we were both in the wrong for speeding and he was clearly slower traffic not staying to the right and changing lanes without signaling, I wasn't too worried. So to that officer, sorry it went down like that and no hard feelings.
If I post this weekend it will entail my trip to Drift Atlanta back in May with some pics that are up on my Flickr account if you want to get a preview and check those out.
Timken is a "white collar" machining facility as described by our wonderful tour guide whose name I didn't catch. Basically it's a two story building with a plethora of engineers, math aficionados and managers upstairs who sit around and think up new bearing designs. They send those designs downstairs, get a few made and test it to see if they revolutionized bearing design or if the crack monkey is back in action and they should try again. They also have many rooms for testing all the spinning parts of an engine. They might get a design from an automobile manufacturer, or a part, and they will test it for them and send the results back.
Huge pieces of machinery that start with a spool of smooth metal and then form that into a bearing abounded. The engine testing lab was loud. They were testing the bearings around the camshafts as they spin. They use electric motors to turn all these machines instead of gas, but it's still loud. We were not allowed in the metrology lab, where they super accurately measure their parts, but it looked really neat. We walked around and I kept wondering if they hired any chemists or materials scientists. I found him! We walked past one lab which had an instrument which said spectraflame, which I can only assume was an AAS, or atomic absorption spectrometer, where the lone chemist hung out all day surrounded by engineers. I imagine any chemistry related question gets posed to him or her, whether they like it or not. J wondered how many women Timken employs. Very good question.
Then we had a lecture on sound and sound control. It drug on a bit but was also informative. The SCCA, sports car club of america, has set that no racecar can be louder than 103 decibels, but there are a few ways to beat the system, or at least use the system to your advantage.
Since I picked up J from work and she didn't want to follow me home in Tercel, we drove home together and I drove her to work this morning. It was fairly trafficky but not too bad. (I guess congested would be a better word there) There was a Jeep Cherokee left lane hogging because he felt his 72 in a 60 was fast enough to warrant it. The 4 or 5 cars backed up behind him seemed to disagree. Our exit was coming up so I accelerated into the middle lane just as the Lincoln Towncar in the middle lane was moving into the right lane, so I kept my foot in it and planned to accelerate past that car to get to my exit. Whilst this occurred, the Cherokee left lane hog encountered yet another left lane hog who was going even slower than him; a red Civic if you're curious. Cherokee sees the Towncar move over and without signaling, starts to pull into the middle lane; the only problem with that being there is an accelerating black Focus that is already plugging the hole left by the Towncar. A simple honk of my horn avoids the impending accident and I pull into the left hand lane and exit. The Cherokee does the same after I get out of the way and proceeds to get very close to the back of my car. Even when we turn onto the surface street and I slow down to the very slow 35 (especially after hitting 80ish on the freeway) with a gentle cajoling from J, he stays behind me. The speed limit goes back up to 45, still there. I move to the left lane to ready us for our turn and he stays in his lane but doesn't pass. I don't look over as he drives by but he does drive by on his way to work instead of doing something crazy like following me to work for a discussion. The strangest part is that he was a school resource officer with "Police" and lightpod on his Cherokee. When he exited with me I was mildly concerned that he would pull me over but seeing as how we were both in the wrong for speeding and he was clearly slower traffic not staying to the right and changing lanes without signaling, I wasn't too worried. So to that officer, sorry it went down like that and no hard feelings.
If I post this weekend it will entail my trip to Drift Atlanta back in May with some pics that are up on my Flickr account if you want to get a preview and check those out.
Labels: chemistry, driving record, Focus, police, racing, Tercel
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Oooooh new blogger version!
Wow, this is fancy. Look at all the new buttons! I can justify, center or left/right align the column and now I can use bullets. Neato! The new "Image" button seems like too much work though, but for the non-HTMLers, I guess it'll do. I can even change color. I never did learn the html colors. Always seemed like gibberish to me.
Some sad news first. I'm sure you've heard by now but for those that didn't or didn't really know who he was, Joseph Barbera passed away on Monday at the ripe old age of 95 because it was his time to go. He had been animating for 70 years. Me and many others were entertained and educated by his wonderful drawings and his teaming up with William Hanna to form Hanna-Barbera. Their studio made almost every cartoon I watched as a child, the complete list is here but to highlight a few of my favorites:
The Flintstones
The Jetsons
Yogi Bear and Boo Boo
Space Ghost
Wacky Races
Hong Kong Phooey
Tom and Jerry
Scooby Do
Grape Ape
Laff-A-Lympics
Richie Rich
Shirt Tales
The Monchichis (see? they are real)
The Snorks
Pound Puppies
Man, you were prolific Jo. The world and all it's children, young and old, will miss you.
Yes I'm still at work. J and I aren't going anywhere for Christmas but we'll be gone for New Year's.
I have to share this story. So we all know that J is hell on wheels. Who got a speeding ticket doing 92 in a 70? Who got their license suspended? Yeah, that's what I thought. So Speed Demon is coming home, uh, Tuesday and is trying to get into the right hand turn lane. There is an '03 Trailblazer in front of her so she decides to "shoot the gap" as I like to say. She comes to a stop, judges the opening and shoots it. Crunch! Of course Speed Demon is on the cell phone with her mom at the time so she says "Mom, I think I just hit somebody so I have to go." Cool. Score 2 wrecks for J at least indirectly caused by cell phone use. I see the trend. Do you? She turns right and comes to a stop expecting for TB to follow her so they can discuss what just went down. Apparently TB doesn't want to or expects her to drive off because that is what they do. Or maybe they're drunk and don't want to call the cops just yet. So J comes home and tells me about it. "No body damage?" "Nope." "Oh, good."
Cut to a couple hours later, I'm enjoying my dinner in boxer briefs and a shirt when there is a rap rap rapping on the door. Hmmm, do I put on pants? Fine, I won't be that guy. Good thing too cuz it's the man asking if Focus is my car. Yes. Were you driving it this afternoon? Nope but I know who was. Lemme get some shoes on. So I go inside, hide some contraband, get my shoes on and tell J who is in the kitchen that it's the cops and they would like a word. So I go out (Julio runs out too, the little shithead) and we start chatting. The Greenville PD wanted him to come get some info from J. He also starts pointing out damage on the car. Uh, actually that was already there from this incident. So we take a look at the mirror. It's pushed off the car a bit and there is a scrape on it but it's just plastic and the mirror is still intact.
He says that leaving the scene of an accident (which the other guy did too) is a felony and he could take J to jail. "Could" being the key word. But since it's small time and the G'ville officer doesn't want to go that route, he just gets her insurance info and DL number and strongly suggests that J go inside and give him a call. All he needs her to do is sign an accident report.
Once we get a nice new car, J might actually have to not hit things. And I'm supposed to be the bad driver.
Also in the news, teens getting high on "legal" drugs from CNN.com. Oh no! Alert the pharmaceutical industry, we need better safeguards! What? They don't give a shit? It just means more money in their pockets? Why don't the pharmacists do something about it? Yeah, bartenders are liable for getting people drunk, so why aren't pharmacists liable for getting people high? It most certainly is not the Beer producer or Drug producers fault.
And of course:
Crack use is down, which is always a good thing. We all know that Crack is whack.
Today's sarcasm has been brought to you by the letter "S".
Some sad news first. I'm sure you've heard by now but for those that didn't or didn't really know who he was, Joseph Barbera passed away on Monday at the ripe old age of 95 because it was his time to go. He had been animating for 70 years. Me and many others were entertained and educated by his wonderful drawings and his teaming up with William Hanna to form Hanna-Barbera. Their studio made almost every cartoon I watched as a child, the complete list is here but to highlight a few of my favorites:
- 50's, 60's and 70's (all watched by me via re-runs, mostly on the USA channel)
The Flintstones
The Jetsons
Yogi Bear and Boo Boo
Space Ghost
Wacky Races
Hong Kong Phooey
Tom and Jerry
Scooby Do
Grape Ape
Laff-A-Lympics
- 80's
Richie Rich
Shirt Tales
The Monchichis (see? they are real)
The Snorks
Pound Puppies
- 90's
Man, you were prolific Jo. The world and all it's children, young and old, will miss you.
Yes I'm still at work. J and I aren't going anywhere for Christmas but we'll be gone for New Year's.
I have to share this story. So we all know that J is hell on wheels. Who got a speeding ticket doing 92 in a 70? Who got their license suspended? Yeah, that's what I thought. So Speed Demon is coming home, uh, Tuesday and is trying to get into the right hand turn lane. There is an '03 Trailblazer in front of her so she decides to "shoot the gap" as I like to say. She comes to a stop, judges the opening and shoots it. Crunch! Of course Speed Demon is on the cell phone with her mom at the time so she says "Mom, I think I just hit somebody so I have to go." Cool. Score 2 wrecks for J at least indirectly caused by cell phone use. I see the trend. Do you? She turns right and comes to a stop expecting for TB to follow her so they can discuss what just went down. Apparently TB doesn't want to or expects her to drive off because that is what they do. Or maybe they're drunk and don't want to call the cops just yet. So J comes home and tells me about it. "No body damage?" "Nope." "Oh, good."
Cut to a couple hours later, I'm enjoying my dinner in boxer briefs and a shirt when there is a rap rap rapping on the door. Hmmm, do I put on pants? Fine, I won't be that guy. Good thing too cuz it's the man asking if Focus is my car. Yes. Were you driving it this afternoon? Nope but I know who was. Lemme get some shoes on. So I go inside, hide some contraband, get my shoes on and tell J who is in the kitchen that it's the cops and they would like a word. So I go out (Julio runs out too, the little shithead) and we start chatting. The Greenville PD wanted him to come get some info from J. He also starts pointing out damage on the car. Uh, actually that was already there from this incident. So we take a look at the mirror. It's pushed off the car a bit and there is a scrape on it but it's just plastic and the mirror is still intact.
He says that leaving the scene of an accident (which the other guy did too) is a felony and he could take J to jail. "Could" being the key word. But since it's small time and the G'ville officer doesn't want to go that route, he just gets her insurance info and DL number and strongly suggests that J go inside and give him a call. All he needs her to do is sign an accident report.
Once we get a nice new car, J might actually have to not hit things. And I'm supposed to be the bad driver.
Also in the news, teens getting high on "legal" drugs from CNN.com. Oh no! Alert the pharmaceutical industry, we need better safeguards! What? They don't give a shit? It just means more money in their pockets? Why don't the pharmacists do something about it? Yeah, bartenders are liable for getting people drunk, so why aren't pharmacists liable for getting people high? It most certainly is not the Beer producer or Drug producers fault.
And of course:
By far the most popular illegal drug continues to be marijuana.
For the fifth year in a row, the percentage of 10th- and 12th-grade students using marijuana declined, but there was no corresponding decline in the percentage of eighth-graders who experimented with pot.
What is this the 70's? Where is the DEA? Don't these kids know that the government says that the evil marijuana kills thousands of people a year? Why isn't there some sort of "War on Drugs"? It surely would be effective and not at all a waste of taxpayer's money.Crack use is down, which is always a good thing. We all know that Crack is whack.
Today's sarcasm has been brought to you by the letter "S".
Labels: driving record
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