Because of the...unique... work of my company we're regulated up to the eyeballs. Every time we want to change *anything*, from a thermometer to a keyboard, let alone large plant and equipment, we have to go through a change control process. This mainly involves identifying what's going on, who's doing it, where, when ect. I'm currently going through it trying to get a small, harmless piece of equipment into a lab. Currently, the same person has insisted I make changes to the document that details the whole thing 6 times. The same person has insisted 3 times now that I change parts that he insisted I put in. I now have a broken phone. Cost of the equipment: £2K Cost of the manpower so far to implement the change: £35K
I like that manager's sense of style! Train stories. My only 'good' train story is from the US, I never had a problem in Japan. For the Europeans, the US is big. Spain to Italy is about the same distance as East Texas to Florida. So we really don't do trains out west, except as tourist things, we fly or drive ourselves almost everywhere. On the East Coast, they're a bit more viable, cities are closer together and had train tracks laid back before the cities got huge. Anyway. It's 1996 and I need to get from Pocatello, ID back to Boise. That's only a 250-mile drive in a car, but my car is in the shop in Boise. Taking the bus would take 12 hours, because it stopped in every single small town between Pocatello and Boise. That's not an option, since I need to get to Boise and back for school that next Monday. There's no regular air service that way, or it was like $400 due to low demand, I forget. So flying isn't an option, either. Gotta be train. I show up at the train station at oh-dark-thirty Saturday and get told that the passenger train isn't coming that day. There'd been a freight train accident that was blocking the rails for about 24-36 hours (single track is the norm in most of the US). So I walk my tired feet the 4 miles back to the dorms to call my folks to let them know. 20 hours later, I walk my butt back to the train station so I can catch the train. Train finally arrives at about 2pm on Sunday, it's 3 hours to Boise. Just in time for dinner before I haul ass back to Pocatello (3 hours the other direction). You'd better believe I had some creative language for the trains. Only crappy part of trains in Japan was Crush Hour. Hope you don't have much sense of personal space, because you're going to be touching the people around you. Unless you find a way to avoid 0630-0930 and 1800-2200 for your commute times. Though the evening rush wasn't as bad as the morning. hand him the documents where he told you to change whatever it was. I told my XO that'd I'd put in whatever he wanted me to, as long as he decided on it (after about 5 rounds of change it to read A, I want it changed to read B, I want it changed to read A, I want it changed to read B, etc). My Senior Chief backed me up, though pulled me aside to 'suggest' I phrase things more diplomatically the next time I said that to an officer. But that XO was an asshat, anyway. Got me in trouble with my Senior Chief's wife, when the XO was all stressed out from Senior Chief not making it to work yet, day of the first snowfall. Asked me if I'd called my Senior Chief's wife to ask if he'd left that morning, I told him I wasn't worried about it, I was sure that my Senior Chief was stuck on the wrong side of the bridge, there's always a traffic snarl there the first snowfall. He came back again, about half an hour later, asked me if I'd called. I blew him off, because I'm not going to scare a guy's wife like that. He came back about half an hour later, asked me if I'd called. I blew him off again. Admittedly, it was getting towards 0830, my Senior Chief was an hour late (actually more like 90min, since he usually showed up at 7). But it was the first snow, and people are fucking morons. about 0845, my XO is back, and wouldn't leave until I called my Senior Chief's wife and asked her if he'd left that morning, which damn near put her into a panic attack. About 10 minutes later my Senior Chief walks in, first words out of my mouth was "Call your wife, XO made me scare the shit out of her." I didn't let him leave the office till he called her. Then I ask him about the commute, I was right, he got stuck behind an accident right where I told the XO the first time (where there's only one way to get from his place to base).
Asturias nice fun experiences with trains: From Luarca (coastal happy town) to Oviedo (province's capital). 100km more or less, about an hour by car (or even less, now that there is a great highway by the coast). Train time: 4 hours. And the standard in Spain is double track at least on stations, and passenger trains have priority over cargo ones, so in theory there is no need for big delays... Then, on Madrid (Spain's Capital), for both the trains and the subway. Let's say that there is a ton of escalators on all the stations I use (up and down)... and some of those spend more days "broken" than working. Or that the subway loves to stop for extra time every now and then so you lose the train you had to take to go to work (yeah, I use the subway for half of the distance, and the train for the other half). I always get to work 20 mins earlier if everything foes as it should, just in time if the subway loses 5 minutes in travel. Oh, and let's not talk about the time there was some sort of problem with the track so they told us to pick another train to another station... where we had to wait for the main problem to be solved, anyway, but instead of dispersed over several stations, all in the same one. The first train that went through? left empty because the platform was packed to the brim with people who were waiting for another train...
Here's my WTF, I need to vent off some steam. My ER is at maximum capacity, but since mine is the Highest Complexity Level Hospital in the Country, ambulances keep coming. As Shift Coordinator, I have to recieve all the calls of the Incoming Ambulances. So, when I get a call from another unit about a C5 vertebra fracture, I say bring it. The guy was sent by his own means!!! WALKING!!!! I almost had a fit right there and then. I mean, not all Spinal Column Fractures cause paralysis, but Jeesus H Christ! Primum non nocere!!!
Don't forget about the genius "radial Spain", where the roads and railroads are made to keep Madrid as the center of the world. Wanna go from Barcelona to Valencia in high velocity rail? Sure you can, but you have to go via Madrid! Genius! Let's connect every backwater province capital with Madrid! -But... the most profitable line doesn't even break even Shut up you peasant! I want to be able to go from Madrid to Badajoz real fast! -But... it doesn't even connect us with France! Shouldn't we be fixing our rail width BTW? It's really fucking us over and has been for quite a while Of course not, who do you think we are? Peasants? They will bow and change theirs if we win this stare contest -.... I'm leaving, I'll be in Germany, working for someone that actually values my competence
Jesus! Hell, I blew out L1 when I took the too-fast way down a ladder on the sub, and walked on it for 3 days (no Xray machine onboard). But as soon as the techs at the NTC Clinic in San Diego saw me they about had your reaction. They sent me to Balboa, the huge Naval Hospital in San Diego, my ship's corpsman insisted on driving my himself. He does sit my ass down in a wheelchair as I roll in, but that poor Hispanic doc who saw my Xrays and CT... dude turned white as a ghost and told me to "lay down, don't even fucking breathe hard, until the casting techs get here. Then, and only under their instruction, can you get off that bed!"
About 3% of spinal column damages result in spinal nerve damage, according to the guy who ran a first aid class for me yesterday (we're required to take such a class every few years at work, which is a decent idea IMO). He claimed it to be an observation based on actual medical research (well, since he does run classes at the local medical university - on the matter of first aid / emergency medicine - I hope he knows his stuff...).
Yeah, as an ER Doctor I can vouch for that. The thing is, most Doctors who work at High Complexity Level Hospitals always get to see that 3%, so we get scared witless when any patient is movig around (even 3% are Odds we don't want to wing)
One of the french players at this event in my LGS just complained "british money, it is too heavy" fucking flower, get a grip.
That 3% is usually extremely impaired, functionally. Or in horrible pain. Iirc, proper risk mitigation is a function of 1. Probability of outcome and 2. Severity of outcome. Which is why many US states have tornado sirens, and a whole host of weather radar sub-systems watching for the things, year round. But we don't invest in an asteroid/comet impact monitoring system.
So today i found out that for the fourth time in less than two years we're losing the quality manager where i work (which means my boss). I feel like there's some lessons that my company should be learning but isn't, like we are not the dumping ground for all the paperwork other people don't want to do/ know what to do with and can vaguely twist to be our responsibility. or that the VP of product development (who is one of the co-owners of the company) can't just come around demanding we do something and then magically expect it to be done during the time he allotted regardless of other responsibilities or the time it to prep and run the tests, nope when he asks for it if not sooner if he gets impatient.
I feel for you. One, I did worked in quality management. Two, my current boss has those moments when he expects anything he asked for to be already done - completely disregaring the fact that things do need time to happen.
Thats why you visit France only on tracks, like your grandfather. (bad joke in my area of Germany, near France)
Our REMF, never did an honest day's work in his life, "stand around the fort," Son of Peleus piece of shit boss does This Exact Same Thing. Then tops it with a spritz of moving the goal posts and "I don't care about the codes!" (IBC, NFPA & ADA) The supid is so strong, not only does it hurt, we've all taken to saying " the Farce is strong with that one..."
My neighbour phoned out to Dominos Pizza for his breakfast. He was excited at the prospect of his breakfast pizzas arriving, and could not wait - he told us as much. Our government thinks that banning sugar will save people like him.
My Country's Airport Security took away my brand new tape measurer. I had even added the Logo of my Sand Cats to identify it.
If they are anything like the US' Airport Security, they probably posted a picture of it online to show people how they heroically saved many lives via the confiscation.
