I Work in an Almost Award Winning Trailer

People often tell me they think I work in some glorious office building, or at least somewhere cool. This is pretty far from the truth. On site I've worked in "Green Acres", the e-Cave, shop floor mezzanines, and now a trailer.

"Green Acres" was the first place I worked on site. It was the green office area, which picked up its folksy nickname because you were deep inside a manufacturing building, bathed in constant fluorescent light, unable to hear anything from the outside. If you came in to work and the sun was shining, your brain expected the sun to be shining when you left. Unless lightning struck the building, we were completely oblivious to outside noise. Just the constant hum of fluorescent lighting.

Later I switched groups and was given the opportunity to work in the e-Cave. Imagine a room with open faced cubicles lining the walls. Seven interns and four salaried workers all crammed into a big open room with some conference room chairs, a projector, and a screen. My fondest memories of working on site were from the e-Cave. Come 11am, the whole crew would rally for lunch. I swear those were the most productive years; my old boss swears they were the least productive years.

This same group got bounced around to various locations, eventually settling down in a shop floor mezzanine. We stayed there for almost 3 years. It wasn't bad, the interns had their own 'row', we spent a lot of time in each others cubes. Pretty standard corporate experience....except the place smelled like feet (ed: as I am writing this my shoes are off and I'm just in socks...no idea why that place smelled like feet, nope).

Not too long ago we got the news that we would be moving to the 14-wide. This 14 trailer wide (yes 14) "modular office space" is actually the bigger of two trailers built on the far side of the site. Our sister trailer is only 13-wide, but it is hard to tell they are short one trailer. Our trailer is complete with a buried septic tank (that has hit the critical level alarm twice), offsite power (we've lost it no less than 3 times), and a gravel parking lot. I will say though that parking is a lot more fun when you can fishtail into a spot.

It is hard not to laugh at where I work. I work for a Fortune 10 company...in a trailer. We do all sorts of crazy nuclear methods...in a trailer. But wait, this isn't just any trailer. This is an Almost Award Winning Trailer. Our 14-wide received honorable mention in the 2007 Modular Building Institute Awards of Distinction for a modular office space of <5,000sqft. I'm sure we were neck-and-neck with the Trenton Police Department, so congratulations to them for their hard work and modular working environment.

Let us remember that in the world of working in a trailer, everybody is a winner!

CNN, Kashiwazaki NPP, and the 2007 Niigata Earthquake

(ed: I normally don't blog about non-technical issues, but this chaps my cheeks to no end)

If you haven't heard yesterday an earthquake happened of the coast off the Niigata prefecture in Japan. It had a magnitude of 6.8 and caused serious problems for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP. A transformer caught fire at unit 3 (there are 7 units) and radioactive liquids spilled into the ocean. This is obviously a serious event and should be treated as such, however, the news coverage was yellow journalism at best. All of the initial reports were sensationalist and biased with little facts (partially due to the tight lipped nature of TEPCO) to support any of their claims.

To see how bad the yellow journalism got just read the following headline blurb:

Radioactive leak, tremors follow Japan quake
A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan today, causing a radioactive leak and fire at one of the world's most powerful nuclear power plants. Eight people were killed and hundreds injured. The plant leaked about 315 gallons of water, according to a Tokyo Electric official.

So, how many casualties were a result of the radioactive leak and fire:

• 8 deaths and hundreds of injuries
• 6 deaths and hundreds of injuries
• 1 death and tens of injuries
• 0 deaths and 0 injuries

If you guessed 0 and 0 you would be right!

But wait...

Didn't the blurb say that eight people died and hundreds were injured by the radioactive leak and fire?! Why yes, yes it did. This is far from ethical, yet CNN went right ahead and posted that online.

Don't believe me? Check out this screenshot of CNN's misrepresentation of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa leak and fire.

Lessons Learned Flying Space Available

Flying space available is great. It is cheap, fun, and can be very flexible. However, when things get busy you can find yourself in trouble. Space available travel is prioritized and if you aren't an employee of an airline, you'll find yourself at the bottom of the pile.

You can mitigate your troubles by always arriving for the earliest flight possible. Quite often people oversleep and miss the early flights. Waking up at 3:30 AM to possibly catch the 5:00 AM flight might sound awful, but it may be the only way to make it to your destination.

If you are not able to make it onto a flight you are listed for, you are automatically rolled over to the next flight. However, twice I have not been rolled over for one reason or another and had to be manually moved. Always double check to make sure you have been added to the next flight.

When you miss a flight, it may seem tempting to use the 1-800 number most airlines have to change to a different option. However, I've found they tend to not get the change made properly. Always use the gate agents to make the change and quite often they will also suggest alternate routes (if only to get you off their back).

If you happen to be woefully unlucky and are bumped from one day to the next save your boarding pass from the day before. You can use that to skip the lines at the ticketing counter and go straight through security. Once you get to the gate double check that you are indeed listed on the flight and get yourself a new flight coupon (or if really lucky a boarding pass).

The last bit of advice is to be as sociable as possible. Hang out with the gate agents, any flight attendants who are stuck, and yuck it up with other space available passengers. I've met so many great people sitting around in airports waiting on flights. Some of these people can even help you out if you're really stuck, so it's worth being polite and friendly. Getting somebody a $3 airport coffee can go a long way towards making it onto a flight.