Blowing the Dust Off

It's been a while since I wrote here, and lots of things have transpired since my last post. I have a new job, and things are moving quite nicely. I can't talk too much about it, but can say that I now work in the aerospace industry for a DOD sub-contractor. It is a nice change from the manufacturing field I was in. And no, I am not designing equipment that destroys life, I'm designing equipment to save them, active protection systems.

So gone are the days of sheet metal models in SolidWorks, now I'm just modeling simple prismatic parts. Part counts are about the same, around 1,000 components. This sort of surprises me, as when I interviewed I thought for sure the part counts were going to be much lower. Besides, how many components does it take to make a solid propellant rocket?

I've been doing a lot of painting lately, maybe I need to get some images posted for the ones I like. If you look to the right you'll see the slide show of my Picasa Albumns, the paintings should scroll through. You'll probably see a lot more camping photos though, which aren't bad to look at either.

SolidWorks Haikus

Being in the manufacturing and engineering field, there are certain tools I use on a dailey basis. One of these tools I have used for the past 10yrs is SolidWorks. It is a 3D solid modeling program. Over the years it has grown more functional and feature rich. A downside to this it that is has also bloated in size and requires far more computer resources that it once did. This is to be expected.

All that aside, it is a great program and it has inspired me to write a few haikus.


Old files from the past
SolidWorks pushes forward
New does not save old

Poor display of lines
Flow forth from Autumn drivers
Update and rejoice

AutoDesk gray skies
Parametric is the way
SolidWorks sunshine

The Pear Tree

Or Lessons of Life.

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen. The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.

Don't judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.