school, life

the picture above is the building where my dorm was more than two decades ago. it was a boarding school about 400 km from my home. I was in early teenage when I was sent there. the journey to the school was an epic one. we left home in the midnight at reached there early in the morning and didn't sleep. I was not only accompanied by my parent and siblings but also my grandparent. it was just an alien place for me: I've never been outside 200 km radius from my home.

I visited the school last two weeks with my kids. not much is changing. in fact the outside condition of the buildings were about the same when I left them: faded and not conducive. I suspect they lack of maintenance. I mean they do repaint the buildings but not as frequent. there are several new blocks but the I also noticed that the fence are very nice. I wonder why the fence, not the buildings.

I believe since it is a school, they government should make the school 'alive'. the kids who live there will spend five years living in such environment. during my last year at the school I was lucky to have a 'live' experience on what is democracy. the school was chosen as a polling station. I managed to see how people working day and night to put on their campaign banners. I also witnessed how the people taking turn to cast their vote. I slept less during the period.

so give the kids some 'life' to live in.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

work II, 'I, Robot' by Isaac Asimov

today I went to an industry park to seek for a job opportunity. and guess what, I saw there were several others patrolling the place looking for a job. so much for the government announcement few days ago that job openings are larger in number than job seekers.

looking at those factories I remember about two decades ago I had a conversation with an old man in a train. it was a journey to the capital city where I did my undergraduate. the old man told me about his observation on the factories' workers. "the way the factories work produce a 'robot' workers", he said. "this is because with all the system in place, human being are no longer required to think but just follow". of course he referred  the 'workers' in his point is at the production level.

later I developed an interest in reading. one of the author who I like is Isaac Asimov. 'I, Robot' is one of his books. inside the book, one can find the famous 'three laws of robotics'. the laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

today I wonder whether that old man read the book and made the observation. I can see now the resemblance of the ideas he uttered to me and the writings by Isaac Asimov. perhaps the old man that I had the chance to converse to was not an ordinary 'old man'. it is only at this age I started to realised certain things that I've already faced in the past.


I hope that I can also can have that kind of power and accuracy of observation.


GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.2 kg

work

the picture above is very refreshing, isn't it?

story I
about 12 years ago, I was a junior electrical engineer. despite that, I was ordered to handle a procurement of 'furniture' at the tune of millions dollar. so being junior, I took the responsibility. with me to finish off the job was a clerk. and only him. I worked very hard. one day before I was forced to send the document to the headquarter, I worked very late. about at 5 a.m. the next morning I was already at the office. finally it was noon and I started my car and drove for a 200 km journey to the HQ. but less than 50 km, I got very tired and my hands were shocking. it was impossible for me to drive. I went back to my office, called HQ and continued to work. I drove to HQ that evening.

story II
six years I was again experience the same thing. this time it was a technical tender but still not in my field. and I'm still alone doing the job because my assistants weren't familiar with the scope. two days before I was supposed to send the tender document to finance department, I was told to prepare several copies. I believe the number was around 20. to save budget, I was told to go to HQ and get the documents printed. upon reached there I was told that their printers were out of toners. to procure the toners, a procurement officer must do that and that officer was on leave. what a mess. so I went back to my office and was told to get a printer to print it. I sent the document on the same evening. early in the next morning I went to the printer but the documents weren't ready. the very same morning I need to send my wife for a job interview but I need to wait for the documents. I finally got my documents later that day and sent them to the finance department at the HQ. my wife missed the interview.

story III
I was transferred to the HQ 8 years ago. within few months there was a big project scheduled to be handed over to us. one day we had a site meeting with all the technical consultants i.e. architect and engineers. I had a bad day that day and I refused to shake hand with any of them. I told them that I want the buildings to be perfect in safety, security and basic needs in addition to what ever the contract wants. and I got my lesson. few weeks after that, I went to the site just to found that buildings' fire panels were 'switch on' yet.

story IV
no job.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.3 kg

engineer, 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman

as a member of an engineer society, I receives a magazine on monthly basis. recently, there was an article by the title of 'trends in professional engineering practice'. inside the article, one of the interviewee said "we must be willing to admit that the profession is not where it should be ...". I believe one of the reasons of this admission is told earlier in the article by the same person "the problem arises when the original engineer chooses to sacrifice his professional integrity for the sake of job and the money that comes with it".

I've been in such a moment when, 3 or 4 years ago, my professionalism is at stake. at that time I declined to oversee a job which was 'wrongly' designed by party beyond my organisation. please be careful that the word 'wrongly' doesn't only mean 'wrong design' but also some other administrative meanings. I did complain but in returned I was labelled as 'negative person'. it was a complete surprised considering the person I that I complaint to was also a professional engineer. the irony was that the same person was the one who strongly urged me to go for professional title.

Three years ago I bought a book entitle 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman. the author himself is an engineer. for me it was a heavy book, quite difficult to comprehend. in one of the chapters, the author noted that "it should be apparent that engineering's Golden Age ended abruptly about 1950, and that the profession, for all its continuing technical achievements, finds itself at the present time in a Dark Age of the spirit". so it was 1950... if the scenario was globally true, than in my country the engineering society has never been in a Golden Age!

in my country there was a joke: "here, a finished building collapsed, building during construction collapsed and even (old) building which is in the process of demolition collapsed". the joke burst when an old building under demolition collapsed, allegedly because of human mistake, and killed few persons.

I want to close this writing with a speech in 1902 by president of American Society of Civil Engineers.

"and in the future, even more that in the present, will the secrets of power be in his keeping, and more and more will he be a leader and benefactor of men. that his place in the esteem of his fellows and of the world will keep pace with growing capacity and widening achievement is as certain as that effect will follow cause"

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.14 kg

giving back to the society, 'Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You From Success' by Farrah Gray

the picture above is a bridge to a ferry berth. it has been there longer than I've been living in this world. I guess that the people who involved in completing this work, if they still alive, will smile of their accomplishment. millions of commoner have used this bridge and they are still using it.

once I worked with a local electricity company. we engaged a Japanese giant company to make a repair on a damaged submarine cable (electricity cable laid undersea) not far from the bridge. after weeks of tracking the cable route, we managed to hauled it up on a barge. we cut the cable and we could see on its inner paper layer, the manufacturing year of the cable. out of a sudden, one elder Japanese worker, who oversaw the barge coordination, smiling. as he cannot speak English, one of his fellow asked why he smiled. then explained that he involved in laying the cable more than 40 years ago. that was a smile of accomplishment.

in 'Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You From Success', the author, Farrah Gray, writes about obstacles and ways to get around them. one of the lies, is the 'Worked Hard Lie'. under the chapter, he tells about seeking for job that we would like to do. there three questions:
1. what comes easy to you but harder to others?
2. what would you do non stop even if you never got paid for it?
3. how can you be on service & give back to others?

note point number 3. I talked about that in several interviews. but they kept on telling me that that was an idealistic kind of words yet unrealistic. it is also just another bombastic words to catch people mind.

is commoner like me cannot have that kind of idealism? go figure.

CARBON FOOTPRINT: 0.117 kg

carbon footprint, PAS2050 standard on greenhouse gas

above is a picture of a caterpillar with camouflage. it looks like a leaf and I almost hit it while I'm scaling the railing. frankly, I've never seen such beautiful caterpillar after decades wandering on earth. however my kids have the opportunity to experience the beauty of nature.

then I remember that I have a copy of PAS2050 - 'specification for the assessment of the life cycle green house gas emissions of goods and services' and its guide notes. so starting today I'll put the carbon footprint calculation on every blog. from the guide I found that for every kWhr used in our house, we actually contribute equivalent to about 0.5 kg carbon dioxide to atmosphere. in PAS2050, they are talking about certain period. but for my purpose, I'll just calculate the carbon footprint that I left into the atmosphere during the period of writing the blog.

I calculate that for half an hour writing the blog, with the ceiling fan is on, the emission will be 0.14 kg or 140 gram. that's more than what Honda Insight contribution of 101 gram per km. even Peugeot 308 is lesser at 123 gram per km.

I plead to all of us to save our world. reduce our carbon footprint. because no matter how much our money or how powerful we are, if it comes to the devastation of nature we are all commoner. I wrote that in my blog about the earth quake in Japan. help us to help us.

CARBON FOOTPRINT: 0.14 kg of greenhouse gas has been released to the atmosphere

technology

above is the picture of one of the many communication towers in my country. this one is more than 500 feet high, towering a small capital city of one of the states. the tower has two elevators that will bring us to an observation deck. it is said that this tower is 19th highest telecommunication tower on earth. statistic.

with such achievement as the background, I had my mobile phone blocked 4 times: twice on 6 April last week and twice today. the culprit: I paid my bill through an agent counter. the agent made a mistake on the account number. it's funny to note that the agent is actually an outlet of the parent company of my mobile service provider. but I understand that they are separate entity.

what made me 'more' felt as a commoner was that I need to keep on calling several times to have my story heard by the 'customer' service personnel. the 'story' was also recorded 'for our improvement process', or so their answering machine claim. finally my wife, whose name is used as the registered owner of the number, asked the money whereabout. and as what we were expected, the money is now in the mobile provider company's pocket but they need a long time to do the correction MANUALLY! so much of their self claim "Customers are always on top of our priority list". to rub salt to the wound, they need to do it MANUALLY. remember the tower in the picture? it is owned by the parent company of the mobile service provider. what a joke. don't get me wrong. I'm not live in a troubled country such as Libya or Yemen. I'm a citizen of a country which GDP (nominal) is at the top 40 (statistic for 2010, IMF).


so what ever the numbers on the economic scales (GDP, per capita, what ever), once you are a commoner, you are doomed to be a commoner to the bunch of people who claim "customers are always on top of our PRIORITY list". good heaven.