>>110152
>video
Jesus. I don't go to nightclubs and I know that's specifically an exhibition, but if a bartender ever pulled that shit with my order I don't think I'd tip them at all. I just want my fucking drink.

>>110153
Well that level of flair is only ever seen in competitions or specific bars where the flair bartending is part of the party feel or whatever. Id agree with ya, I just enjoy the craft of it.

This place is so motherfucking depressing. These aren't tourists or weekenders having fun. These are addicts. All of them. The looks on some faces, you can just tell they lost their rent money. And I go around comping drinks, keeping them at their machine, providing "service", all to keep them feeding us cash they can't afford to lose. A coworker told me the busiest time is the first of the month, right at midnight when their disbursements drop. I am an anti-social worker. I sell vice and misery.

>MFW I am the moral equivalent of a crack dealer.

>>110163
Better keep looking for other work.

>be at new job
>cutting tool drawers are a mess
>get a bit of time to sort through stuff
>first shelf is cutting taps
>metrique taps mixed in with imperial taps
>STI taps thrown in the mix (just to keep me on my toes, I assume)
>cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, etc
>boxes for the taps are dirty inside of a closed drawer
>brand new taps (never used) are dirty inside of cases that are dirty inside of closed drawer
>HOW
>I'm not even angry I'm just impressed
>two hours later, around 500 taps total from 0-80 to 1"-8 sorted and organized
>find another bin
>75 taps imperial and metrique all under 1/4-20/5mm just in a pile

The ride never ends.

>>110163
>>110164
If he isn't there to do it, someone else will. He isn't forcing alcohol down their throats.

Yes, it's "distasteful" work, it's probably not the kind of work any of us would like to have, and it definitely isn't the right employment for our RM. The question now is what are his options; if he has none then I'd say it's a bad deal but it's a better deal than being homeless.

>>110180
Oh, no. You misunderstand. I'd like to work at your friendly, neighborhood bar or the bar of some local steak house. Hell, even Chilis or Buffalo Wild Wings would be cool. It's this fucking thing I'm railing against. Remember that scene in The Dark Crystal where the skeksis suck out the life essence of some poor creature to rejuvenate themselves? Slots and video poker are like that in super slow motion.

>>110180
I'm not disagreeing, but being a social worker drove him nearly to suicide, it was so depressing. Now he's managed to find a job dealing with people of largely the same quality: self-destructive.

I really hope there are better options open to him.

>>110181
I fucking love The Dark Crystal.

>>110182
>>110181
Indeed, perhaps RM needs a job with healthy social contact even if it isn't super glamorous.

>>110181
>>110182
>>110183
http://www.csc-usa.com/branch-folder/las-vegas/las-vegas-home/
I worked for another branch of this company for a couple of years. It gave me the positive social contact I was missing elsewhere in my life. Good deal of camaraderie with other employees.
The nature of the work means the schedule is irregular, and it might be only a part-time thing even in Las Vegas, but there ya go.
My branch would hire just about anyone who walked through the door. Show up when you say you will, and do what you're asked to do, and you'll be fine.

>>110183
I will start looking for same. And yes, great film. I'd say it's tied with Wizards for greatest non-live action fantasy film.

>>110182
And I feel so fucking stupid for jumping into this without seeing this coming. Unemployment wasn't doing wonders for my depression.

>>110185
>Wizards
Man that movie got me good at the end. Movie was all hippie peace and love, the whole time they're like "guns/technology is bad", good wizard is meeting his evil brother at the end, I'm expecting good wizard to be all "let's just hug it out" or "I got this spell to make you see the joy in life/nature" but FUCK NO HE JUST SHOOTS HIS EVIL BRO DEAD WITH A FUCKING GUN. Stone cold, like five shots COM. Absolutely /k/, holy shit.

What options are you considering? Retail? Are there any jobs or other ways to use your experience as a social worker?

Good luck out there...

>>110186
>ways to use your experience as a social worker
I wanted to suggest being a cop, but then he's dealing with these same fucking people again.

>>110188
I wouldn't wanna be a cop for the same reason the Army doesn't want me. A history of heart problems isn't a good fit for a career known for cutting years off one's life span. Thanks for your suggestions though.

>>110186
RIGHT!? That was the exact moment that made a really good film great. It was just so fucking jarring! Seriously, if any of you haven't seen Wizards, DO NOT read that spoiler text. Just go find it and watch it right now.

You got into social work for a reason, right? You want to help people maybe?

I would recommend the assistive technology world, but it's kind of niche. Like extremely niche, especially finding jobs that aren't relating to education, but rather employment. Because fuck working on educational AT, that's a hassle and a half. At least in the employment realm you're dealing with people who are motivated to overcome obstacles, and of course people with recently acquired disabilities like returning vets.

There are occasionally jobs at my company, and with your social work background you could game the interview easily by talking about working with people with intellectual disabilities. But then you'd need to live near DC and it doesn't pay very well to start.

Oh well.

>>110191
I think I could maybe stomach Alexandria. I'd hate to cross the bridge though, man. The wife definitely doesn't want to live in Dixie. West Coast blacks have this impression that the south is all racism, all the time. Intellectually, she knows that can't be the case, but it's a hard impression to shake.

>>110192
> The wife definitely doesn't want to live in Dixie.... impression that the south is all racism, all the time

The urban sprawl surrounding DC liberal/urban as fuck. I would describe the black culture as more "inner city" than "southern". Once you get out of that urban sprawl, yeah, it starts getting racist. I had a white pipeliner guy telling me about his buddy's airplane, "White Lightning", who then told me a story using the kind of language I don't repeat.

I think part of your problem is Vegas itself. It's a town built on gambling and drinking, and preys on addiction. Unless you get into a happy drinking and gambling establishment that deals with tourists, you will be dealing with addicts.

Did you ever look into those job assessment links I posted? >>109114

I'm thinking you should figure out some field you'd be decent at, then find a job to get you the fuck out of NV.

>>110192
And if you just need a job, go work at Home Depot or some shit. With any degree you can be an assistant manager at a retail store. Not that it's a great career, but at least you're only dealing with people trying to return items without a receipt that they stole.

>>110192
I'd like to just throw Floyd County VA out there.

I live here now. Rural, low racism (it exists but it is definitely NOT socially acceptable in theses parts), and cost of living is dirt cheap.

My house is 1560 square feet and my mortgage payment is $560 (including insurance and taxes and such) a month, electric $60, and internet is $80 (for the top of the line package). Work any full time job and you can afford a house here. Food is cheap too as the farms and such are right here.

Work is easy to find. People are super nice around here and if you are willing they will throw jobs at you.

>>110195

That's honestly not a bad idea either, even Target is pretty good to its employees esp if you rise through the ranks, I have a cousin who went from entry level to "store team leader" (store manager) and he makes a pretty decent living.

Yesterday I signed the paperwork to withdraw my pension contributions. Symbolically, it felt like I was turning my back on state service. Going in, I was trepidation. Coming out, I felt nothing but relief. Going forward, whatever job I hold, good or bad, I promise myself that I will never again be a bureaucrat.

Oh, and a suddenly getting $19K is pretty cool too.

Ha, welcome to the working world.

316 is tough as fuck, tool life was OK with this 3/4" diameter YG V7 Inox solid carbide endmill until I tried pushing SFM over 500. At 480 SFM, a new endmill would remove well over 30 cubic inches of 316 before being chowdered up. At 600 SFM, tool life dropped to 4 cubic inches...

By comparison, I've machined 4150 (barrel steel) at easily 900 SFM with tool life exceeding 200 cubic inches. Ran the whole job without even changing the tool, I'm planning on pushing it more next time but for 316 stainless, I'm not sure what to do for increasing material removal rate without busting through these. Maybe staying with the same SFM but increasing chip load per tooth? Current feed is 0.006" per tooth, adjusted for radial chip thinning factor, that's very close to endmill manufacturer spec.

That's all with a solid machine, solid part holding, everything very rigid, excellent chip evacuation.

note
>SFM = surface feet per minute, or (RPM of the tool) x (tool diameter) x (pi/12)
>tool manufacturers provide a "base" SFM for a line of tools and the material to be machined, normally you'll just look up the chart in the tool catalog, use their SFM and solve for RPM. With RPM, you then use chip load per tooth to get your feed
>this chart is basically the one to use for the endmill I have

>>110229
Pic is used endmill, recommendations for better performance in 316 would be welcomed.

> mfw working this week
> in PA
> doing engine colonoscopy and electrical work (light physical activity)
> have to climb over trump's border wall of piping to get to the engine
> 92-97 degrees outside, plenty of humidity
> building with running engine, hotter inside, no air flow
> wearing fire retardant uniform (littler thicker than normal)
> sweat fucking pouring down my legs
> drank probably a gallon of water and gatorade

> talk to my buddy who was in VA
> around 105
> doing heavy work
> started feeling heat stress and had to stop
> he drank around 2 gallons of water

Fun times.

>>110290

Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink!

The geniuses at work decided to have a hardware install room in a large store room where there is no air conditioning.
So you have maybe a dozen setups each containing servers, NASes, UPSes, switches and firewalls running in a barely ventilated space. Last week a battery blew in an APC UPS.

I checked the logging on some machines, they reported air intake temp of up to 60°C (42-45°C is the thermal throttling threshold for most systems). I guess management takes "burn in"-testing quite literally.

Luckily not my problem. I'm responsible for the datacenters, not the remote sites where that hardware is going.

>>110292
Holy shit that's hot. My buddy doing the heavy work was using a laser alignment tool and it's working temp range is 0-60'C. Normally computer shit and electrical shit in general is kept in a climate controlled room... which is a great place for me to drop my table and laptop.

> two years ago today, performance testing on some engines
> hot as balls
> switchgear room is air conditioned
> has a network switch for the plant control network
> can connect to all of the engines at the same time

> grab some tables and chairs
> bring a monitor from home and steal another one
> have my laptop run the programming software, two data collection programs, and the engine display
> run the engines up, down, left, right
> CLUNK!
> oh yeah we're sitting next to the generator breakers
> collect lots of date-r, engineers happy

So I've been thinking about work and where it'll go. I know I'm not terrible at my job and I have experience in a few things like cutting metal and guns. I have some plans that I know work in practice, but getting them to work in theory is harder, and by extension, if I don't know something works in practice, I don't have much of a way to even consider making it work in theory.

Long story short, I've started brushing up on my math. I'm wondering if it's not a crazy idea to save money and go to university for some sort of engineering, possibly mechanical engineering, that would make me useful with material sciences, physics of moving part assemblies, basic thermodynamics, that sort of thing. Maybe working as an engineer could also help me get a career that pays more than the slightly above minimum wage money I make now. I know mech-e is going to be more office-work stuff, more math, I think I'll be okay with that.

I know I'll need to get gud at math, but is there anything else I should try to learn a little before taking the plunge?

>>110327
> mechanical engineering

A good call.

> anything else

Just math.

>>110327
>>110328
So after a few minutes of looking around, mechatronics seems to catch my attention.

This does look up my alley.

>>110330
Hi, recent engineering graduate here (specifically metallurgical/materials engineering); starting my masters degree in the fall. I know I'm not a Mech. Eng. which some may argue limits the validity of my standpoint, but lots of my friends (and even a sibling) are Mech. Eng., and my department works closely with the Mech. department, so I've seen my fair share. I know I'm just a stranger on the internet, but having lurked around these parts for many years, I've developed respect for you.
You don't want to get an engineering degree if you want to work in a job that is based on that degree *and* you still want work with/on machines designing and building things.
Yes, engineers design things, a lot of what we do and what we are taught is based on theory. Yes, we learn practical stuff when we enter the workforce, but the schooling part is 99.9% theory. When it comes time to do the manufacturing and building of the parts, that gets handed off to machinists and technicians to build to our plans.
From what I've seen over the years on this site of your machining shenanigans (which I am slightly envious of at times) and what you've mentioned here recently, pure engineering doesn't strike me as what you want. What you should checkout instead is the path of an engineering technician or an engineering technologist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_technician#Nature_of_work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_technologist#Nature_of_work
I highly recommend reading the "Nature of work" section on both those pages. I'm not saying don't become an engineer; I'm just saying consider related fields that may be more your style.
And maybe I'm a little sad and tired of seeing people I know drop out because they got discouraged by the whole endeavour becasue it wasn't what they thought it would be, and disappear off the face of the earth.
I wish I was posting this on a saturday night, b/c then I wouldn't have work tomorrow and I could drink more. :\

>>110331
>You don't want to get an engineering degree if you want to work in a job that is based on that degree *and* you still want work with/on machines designing and building things.
One of my main gripes with my current level of jobs is that despite how I sometimes get to make my own parts with nice machines, I have little chance to do so and no money to get my own (remotely) nice machines. I would accept working only in an office if the pay was higher so I could afford my own machines to play with on my own time, even if all the work I did during the 9 to 5 was all on computer/paper/theoretical.

>What you should checkout instead is the path of an engineering technician or an engineering technologist.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_technician#Nature_of_work
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_technologist#Nature_of_work
I'll give those a hard look, but what I'm trying to say right now is that I've had a few days/months of work that was not exactly glamorous so I'm used to the real life thing stinking up dreams. I can take that if I'm compensated enough to make my off-work time fruitful as my proclivities in cutting metal on my own time are not exactly inexpensive.

Plus an office job probably means I can slow the abuse on my back and shit, I'm not even 30 and I feel shit starting to wear out.

Again, this is still in the planning phases. I've allocated about a year just to doing some math after work; if I feel confident about my number-crunching after that and if I'm not sick of theory work by then, it'll be at that point that I'll make the decision to go to University or whatever is required.

>I wish I was posting this on a saturday night, b/c then I wouldn't have work tomorrow and I could drink more. :\
Me too man.

The other decent option if the enginerding doesn't really look promising is that I get a storage unit, cram all my shit in it, and head out somewhere that pays a bit more than the somewhat insulting excuse for remuneration available in this area.

>>110333
If you really want to get a good head start on the math pounding, checkout this guys channel: www.youtube.com/user/patrickJMT
He was probably the main reason I was able to pass the earlier math portions of my degree.
More specifically, look in to his Calculus First/Second/Third Semester playlists, they followed pretty closely to what I encountered over the course of my first two years (names are different though, my "calculus third semester" was called "applied vector calculus", but everywhere is a little different). His videos are pretty top notch stuff as far as I'm concerned.

>>110334
>www.youtube.com/user/patrickJMT
Thanks, I also have the Khan Academy playlists going.

  > was scheduled for job, pushed out two weeks
> chillin' at home
> watch videos of jet engines

I have a sickness.

FF to 7:29 for afterburner action. Watch the exhaust nozzle. At low power it opens to unload the engine. From idle to full power it closes to increase the velocity of the gas and provide thrust. From full "military" power to after burner it opens to allow more flow.

Then at 7:50 watch the variable stators. They close off to reduce airflow (unload the engine) and open to increase to make more hot gas.

>>110346
> chillin' at home
> watch videos of jet engines
>I have a sickness.

I watch machining videos, they're like a comfortable background noise when I'm doing whatever.

I'm not exactly disagreeing with the sickness thing.

After all these years, I finally got my first smartphone, so now I can shitpost from work! Turned in my resignation for Dotty's, and I'm on my second to last shift. Going to work full time for a popular local chain of liquor stores.

>>110430
...where there will also be self-destructive people. lol Hopefully a smaller proportion of them.

>>110430
Go dig ditches or run a jackhammer or something.

Seriously.

It's actually kind of fun and you get a lot of time to think, all the while building up muscle. Practical muscle. Besides, you can look at your ditch that you dug, or pile of broken concrete that you broke up and know you did something today.

It'll tire the fuck out of you but it's a good feeling in the end.

>>110432
So, put in with the Laborer's Union and sit on another wait list for an apprenticeship, or just be a scab?

>>110433
How's your Spanish? Pic related. Joking

> be Avgas
> work for turbine company
> turbine company also does generators and motors
> wants to train up some people to work on 15,000 volt shit
> sends me and some guys to medium voltage training
> crazy ass instructor
> dude literally helped write the national electrical code
> quoting paragraphs and numbers
> no powerpoint presentation, just the electrical code
> has class read sections aloud, like elementary school
> starts a sentence then stops mid way, "and what?" to try to get us to finish his sentences
> asks questions about material before teaching it
> starts video, pauses it to talk about random shit, restarts, pauses...
> 5 minute video takes 30
> pisses away 1st day talking about writing training procedures
> 2nd day watch gory videos of electrical burns and arc flash
> teaches during lunch time and runs late each day
> 3rd day, actual practical exercises on dead equipment
> Task: Make a "480v" box electrically safe
> Procedure: press stop button, open disconnect, check with meter (2 minutes)
> Safe Procedure: create risk assessment, pre-job briefing, PPE inspection, put up barricades, follow make safe procedure (4.5 hours for the first group)
> we were the second pair to do the task and it took us 2 hours through lunch
> start talking through safety brief, instructor interrupts, "What about barricades? Are you going to put up barricades?" literally just explained how we are going to put up barricades
> inspect PPE, every step, no shortcuts for the class
> get on arc rated clothes, balaclava, hard hat, face shield, gloves, ear plugs
> coworker reads me the step by step instructions

> instructions written by a moron

> 1. Disconnect source of power
> but before you do that... do this

> 2. Check with meter for dead
> but before and after you do that, check the meter on a live source

> much much later
> 8 hours into an 8 hour day
> ok now we're going to learn about medium voltage stuff
> watch some videos and learn about the 40 cal bomb suit
> put on bomb suit
> use non-contact meter to check for voltage
> use fiberglass pole with hook to pickup clamps and hang on bus bars
> super thick gloves on suit, hands and forearms burning
> install clamps, remove clamps
> 12 hours into 8 hour day
> done, get signed off by safety guy, adios mother fucker

Fuck.

> be Avgas
> also used to do webpage design
> webpage customer tracks me down for some work while I'm in town for training
> gives me some vague designs
> have to remember how to HTML and CSS
> CSS3 has dramatically changed
> everything is "Responsive Web Design" now
> I work on it a bit, he wants to meet up to watch me code
> no problem, that's what we used to do
> customer captivated by me writing HTML and CSS in notepad++
> doing tweaks and trying things on the fly
> customer actually picked up the general idea and made edits to the previously done pages (cool!)
> really enjoy webpage and software design

If I got fired from the turbine company I'd just go back to doing webpage shit. Having job skills pays. (Literally and figuratively.)

>>110441
>wants to train up some people to work on 15,000 volt shit
Lord saved me from going above 1000 volts and I feel pretty happy with that.

>dude literally helped write the national electrical code
>quoting paragraphs and numbers
>no powerpoint presentation, just the electrical code
Praise those people, they are your last hope in our last days.

For you bureaucrats out there, I recommend you watch an old 1952 Japanese film I recently saw called Ikiru (To Live), directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat and his final quest for meaning. The screenplay was partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for thirty years where he sees constant bureaucratic inaction. In one case, a group of parents are seemingly endlessly referred to one department after another when they want a cesspool cleared out and replaced by a playground. After learning he has stomach cancer and less than a year to live, Watanabe attempts to come to terms with his impending death. He tries to find escape in the pleasures of Tokyo's nightlife, guided by an eccentric novelist whom he just met, but that produced no deeper happiness and was not the solution. Later, a former female coworker in the bureau said she quit and found happiness in her new job making toys, which makes her feel like she is playing with all the children of Japan and that he should find a purpose in his own life. Inspired by her, Watanabe realizes that it is not too late for him to do something significant and he wants to make something, but is unsure what he can do within the city bureaucracy until he remembers the lobbying for a playground. He surprises everyone by returning to work after a long absence, and begins pushing for a playground despite concerns he is intruding on the jurisdiction of other departments. Watanabe dies, and at his wake, his former co-workers gather, after the opening of the playground, and try to figure out what caused such a dramatic change in his behavior. His transformation from listless bureaucrat to passionate advocate puzzles them. The bureaucrats vow to live their lives with the same dedication and passion as he did. But back at work, they lack the courage of their newfound conviction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiru
https://www.criterion.com/films/353-ikiru

>>110443
Actually remembered another event.
>couple of month ago
>factory subdivision where I'm working (being engineer and such)
>decides to take people to some sort of instruction lecture, it happens from time to time anyway
>needless to say, our place is in a little disarray after recent changes in structure
>somebody tells us this afternoon we need to go somewhere to listen to some lecture for about 1-2 hours
>okay, there's the time, there's the place
>the "lecture hall" is actually a pretty old room with podium, tables and chairs and such
>old USSR posters everywhere, big map of the country, slogans and a so on
>yeah it seems like this place has been a lecture hall since the beginning
>there are some other people waiting too
>lecturer says "are you sure you people are hero for this exact lecture?"
>"yeah pretty sure, we don't really know any other place other then this, why would we go there in any case"
>lecture starts, and it is a very boring one, as every single one of them are
>30 minutes in I'm sleeping already (this is a habit I couldn't rid of since university)
>somebody made another call since some of the bosses checked their timetable
>ok people, false alarm
>this is a wrong lecture, and in a wrong time, see you back later anyway
>everybody goes back to work
>and nothing of value was lost

Looks like I finally got a job.

Software engineer position at a company with a pretty crappy score on their Glassdoor page, which could decide to move me anywhere around the country after I complete training, assuming they have a project for me right away. And if they don't, I'd be "benched," i.e. getting paid to do nothing, until they do. Sounds great, right? Except for I'd need to gain experience doing real things to move on to another company later. Reviewers basically said it was an okay-to-good place to start your career, but that "raises" just kept up with inflation.

If nothing else, way to make money while I go through the months-long process to get a security clearance for the job that I want more.

Anybody around Cincinnati want a roommate for an indeterminate amount of time? Don't think signing a lease would make a whole hell of a lot of sense.

Halfway into my first shift. I'm in a little liquor store on the strip. Chill boss. Coworkers seem cool. Best of all, my schedule is stable. A mindless little job to do while I think good and hard about some shut.

>>110563
>shut
Ducking phone

> playing Elite Dangerous
> reactor undersized for ship
> prioritize systems so that when weapons deploy, non-essentials are cut

> go to customer site to assist with load shed testing
> turbine undersized for facility
> prioritize systems so that when utility (grid) breaker trips, non-essentials are cut

It's actually a pretty cool system the site engineers came up with. The facility is connected to the grid, like usual, but also has the turbine for about 40% of the load then some Detroit Diesel recip generators for another 40% of the load. When the grid breaker trips, the load shed system activates and trips the breakers to stuff in the facility, in order of priority. This should bring the load down to a manageable level for the turbine and allow time for the recip generators to start. As the recips come online, they start closing breakers back in and powering up the facility.

We put in a secondary system to try to keep the turbine online. If the turbine sees 125% load or a temperature too high, it trips the building breaker, but still powers itself and stays running.

> working on VFD controlled 4000 hp motor hooked to centrifugal pump
>>110441
> not doing any medium voltage stuff, just getting it running
> first run
> pump immediately shuts down on high discharge pressure
> come back next day when there's more room to pump

> second run
> motor starts and ramps up to minimum speed of 50%
> pretty close to max discharge pressure
> speed signal all fucked up
> 50, 0, 50, 0, 50, 0, 50, 0...
> figure out the software was fucked up, reading the speed signal then instead of copying it somewhere, it was copying the somewhere (0) over it
> fix speed signal
> 20 seconds later, unit starts to accelerate
> wtf, I didn't change the set point
> hit normal stop button
> unit keeps accelerating
> high discharge pressure shutdown registers
> unit keeps accelerating
> over max pressure
> mash emergency stop button
> unit shuts down

> investigate software
> after the 20 second timer it changes the minimum speed from 50% to 70%
> way too high for current conditions

> go to reset the variable frequency drive after the e-stop
> it's just chillin, no e-stop
> wtf
> figure out the e-stop board malfunctioned
> it just normal stopped like everything was cool
> we tested it probably 10 times prior and it worked fine

Holy shit, glad it shut down.