I would like to thank...

[mmrmnhrm]

The following 24 senators who think their 2004 massive unfunded expansion of Medicare is fine, but unemployment benefits are going to be the death of this country:

Alexander (R-TN)

Bennett (R-UT)

Bond (R-MO)

Brownback (R-KS)

Bunning (R-KY)

Chambliss (R-GA)

Cochran (R-MS)

Collins (R-ME)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Crapo (R-ID)

Enzi (R-WY)

Grassley (R-IA)

Hatch (R-UT)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Kyl (R-AZ)

Lugar (R-IN)

McConnell (R-KY)

Nelson (D-NE)

Roberts (R-KS)

Sessions (R-AL)

Shelby (R-AL)

Snowe (R-ME)

Voinovich (R-OH)

 

Because of them, it's 4:30 in the morning, and I have a headache the likes of which I haven't felt since the day before I was laid off exactly 50 weeks ago today. The fact that 23 of the 24 are Republicans is not lost on me, either.

[Trouble Maker]

What type of engineering, what's your background?

 

I have lots of connections around town. I can check around and see what's out there.

[SLOWLX]

They don't care. It's not there familys how's people laid off supposed to get money now fuck them all

[HotCarl]

Sorry to hear it man. I heard about it on the radio and thought "so of all things THIS is what their choosing to cut back on? and now of all times?"

[mmrmnhrm]

What type of engineering, what's your background?

 

I have lots of connections around town. I can check around and see what's out there.

 

My degree is electrical, though at this point, I think of myself as sort of a MacGyver in the making... my first job out of college was with Grumman, chasing down electrically compatible replacements/upgrades for obsolete chips. If it weren't for 9/11, I'd probably still be there. Second job was with a tiny shop in Cleveland doing PLC programming, variable speed drives (programming and repair), power quality, a little networking, and basically anything the owner suddenly thought up and came running down the hall yelling, "Tom! Chris! Think we can do this??" I absolutely loved it there, and even though the pay wasn't great, I learned more about real-world engineering with them than all four years of undergrad. Most recent was with Liebert, sort of a pre-sales "Here's what you need," post sales "No, sir, you can't plug your microwave into a 250VA unit," job. Eli knows what I'm talking about, as that's where we met.

 

I'd say the biggest thing getting in my way is that until a month ago when my parents' neighbor was cleaning out his office to make space for new hobbies, I never had a chance to learn AutoCAD (he's a civil engineer who just retired, and came across the install disks). Strange, yes, but when I was going through OU, AutoCAD didn't have any of the electrical crap it has now, so the admin didn't think it worth teaching. Grumman had their own drafting department, the electricians at Phillips (the Cleveland shop, not the big Dutch company) were happy just to have us whip up something fast on MS Paint, and Liebert again had its own drafting group. Second stumbling block is that I'd really like to get back to Cleveland (the girl and the family are both there), though staying in Columbus is alright, and failing that, a 3-4 hour drive around Cleveland. So while I sometimes see things posted in Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, they're all well outside my search area.