On this day...

an anniversary, of sorts

so anyway, twenty-one years ago today (tonight, actually, as I started on the afternoon shift) I began my "career" in The Stoopid Business™.

Over the past twenty-one years, I've had the following job titles:

Machine Operator
Quality Auditor
Service Accounts Supervisor
Cost Estimator
Applications Engineer
(unemployed)
Cost Estimator
Project Engineer
Senior Product Engineer
(unemployed)
Project Engineer
Senior Cost Estimator
(unemployed)
Contract Cost Estimator
Total Quality and Cost Management Technologist
(unemployed)
Contract Pricing Analyst
Financial Analyst
(unemployed)
Cost Estimator.

The current job is the best of the bunch, despite the fact that I'm working for 80% of market value.  These days, you don't jeopardize the job you have for one that might pay you more.  The astute reader will note the five periods of unemployment.  It's the norm for The Stoopid Business™ these days.

I mowed a lot of lawns and did a lot of house painting during those times of (professional) unemployment.

more soon

Travelling Tales

Greetings from Walker, Michigan...

so anyway, tonight finds me holed up in a hotel room with a couple of hand guns, a bottle of Val-U-Rite Vodka, and an internet connection, so all is well and right in my world.  I laced up my steel-toed boots at 0547 this morning; I just sat down thirty minutes ago (Business Travel!  It's just like being on Vacation!).  I actually did manage some "me" time in the interim, so it's not like I've been slavin' away for the past sixteen hours.

There were some highlights: as I was merging on to WB I-96 from NB US-23 this morning, a short caravan passed me:  (turn your sound off, 'cause the audio is nothing but road noise)
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Tales from the road

Travelling, I am....

so anyway, tonight The Stoopid Business™ has parked me in Midland, Ontario for a visit to the tool shop tomorrow morning, then another arduous six+ hour drive back to Detroit (Rock City).

We had a fine dinner at Kelsey's (think of a Canadian variant of Chili's / Applebee's / Fridays); and now I'm back in the room with marginal internet service and NO ALCOHOL, thanks to the goofy way Canadians sell beer.  Government run beer stores that close at 8:00 PM.  That shouldn't happen in a civilized nation.

more soon

A Grim Milestone

or, an achievement to be celebrated....

so anyway, today marks my Twentieth Anniversary of working in The Stoopid Business™  (The automotive industry, for the uninitiated.)

Oh, the stories I could tell...if I had more time.  Soon

I should have knowd...

...actually, I almost saw it coming

so anyway, for the second time since The Won took office, I am unemployed.  I am pissed off beyond belief.

Back in May 2009, I was laid off prior to my (then) employer filing for bankruptcy.  That employer had to file for bankruptcy directly because of the Administration's bail out of General Motors and Chrysler, which protected the UAW and absolutely screwed the suppliers.

Fast forward to the present, and I find myself working for a major supplier to Government Motors.  Not only are they a big supplier to GM, but they are heavily involved with (...wait for it...) the Chevy Volt.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the plant where they make the Volt parts.  In an eight hundred thousand square foot facility, there were maybe thirty people on the production floor.  It was as quiet as a funeral home, whereas it should have been deafeningly loud.  I walked through the shipping dock side of the building, past racks and racks and racks of parts, ready to go but the customer isn't building, so the customer isn't buying.

When I got home that evening, I started updating my resumé and dusting off the rolodex.  Today, they announced the dreaded "corporate re-structuring" and several of us were re-structured out of a job.

more soon

You've already proven that you can make them blow up

why not figuring out how to make them not explode...

so anyway, unless you live in the metro Detroit (Rock City) area, you probably will not be seeing this story on the evening "news":

Battery explosion blows out lab windows at building in General Motors Tech Center in Warren

Government Motors released this statement:

"An incident occurred about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday inside a test chamber at the General Motors Alternative Energy Center during extreme testing of an experimental battery. Chemical gases from the battery cells were released and ignited in the enclosed chamber. The battery itself was intact. The battery tested and the incident have no connection with the Chevrolet Volt or any other GM production vehicle...."

Except that it was connected to the Volt.  The battery in question was a prototype made by A123 Systems.  Guess what other coal-powered plug-n-wait vehicle they make the battery for?   Go ahead, think about it, I'll wait.

more soon


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