Safe Wee

 

I renewed my radiation worker training at work today, so rest assured the world is that much safer.

Of note: There's a flaw in the training, at least in my way of thinking, and I believe I mentioned it the last time I took it. It's still there. And maybe it's just me. But they shouldn't show one way of doing thing and then go on to introduce new steps in the quiz portion of the training. Maybe they don't regard the quiz as a quiz. I guess the important thing is that the training is done.

Not that I use it all that much; not that I use it at all. But as a technical writer, it does help me get a better feel for what operators are required to do, and any bit of understanding of the process can make for better instructions.

And I find myself feeling old-fashioned. In this web-based training is the ghost of the practical exercise I did for the first time in a real-life mockup with a Navy nuke teaching the course. That was better.

I Miss WordPerfect . . .

So, here's a conundrum maybe someone else in the universe has encountered:

We use Microsoft Word at work for word processing. Nothing unusual there.

Our record documents are Word documents converted to PDF via Adobe. Again, nothing unusual there.

But three times in the last two weeks, we've seen the PDF version of the document mess up something in Word -- and since the PDF is the record version, we have to revise the document so it can be used. Fortunately, two of the three instances I've mentioned got caught at the revision phase, so they haven't gone live yet.

What's odd is that in Word, everything appears hunky-dory. It's only in the rendering that things get messed up. I can't go into the details, but what we see is step numbering and cross references getting messed up.

I've looked on the Internet, of course, for others experiencing the same problem. And as with many things on the Internet, I'm able to find people who are experiencing other Word to PDF problems, but nothing exactly like what we're seeing.

So, anyone within the sound of my voice seeing similar problems? And more importantly, what did you do to fix them?

Done Smithering

The week is over, and I'm done smithering. And by that, I mean I'm done filling in for the boss, who's been on vacation.

It was a good week to smither. A lot of people were leaving early for an extended Fourth of July vacation, which suited me fine.

But, for the first time, I actually accomplished things as the WIPP Review Coordinator. Actually did things, communicating out information with others in the nuclear waste industrial complex so we can all agree to get along and swap waste and keep everyone happy. Late Thursday I was told that I was part of the process that helped the company earn a $250,000 fee for completing work on time. Not that I get any of that money outside of my pay, of course. But it did feel good to be part of the process and hopefully I didn't screw up too much. We'll find out more during the debrief on Monday when the boss is back. But I don't think I committed any major screw-ups.

We did have one thing non-WIPP related turn up that was interesting: Something went wrong when one of our procedures posted to the company website and step numbering was off. What was odd is that on the surface of the Word copy, everything looked fine, but the render to PDF made it blow up. So we had to revise the procedure. Then I was tasked to work on another procedure from the same group, and I'll be darned if I didn't see the same thing happen. Fortunately we're aware of the problem now and can be more vigilant, just like W. A. Thornhump, VIGILANT AGAINST FURTHER ATTACKS.

Suck it Up

I was within just a few clicks this morning of deciding to take the day off work.

Monday was rough, roughened even further by events within the last hour of the day. I went home in a foul mood.

Complained the whole night that I didn't want to go to work in the morning.

So the oldest - who does not have a job himself, being a full-time student - told me I'd have to suck it up and go. So instead of staying home this morning I sucked it up and went to work.

And was pleasantly suprised by how well today went. It wasn't fun by all means, but it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been. Sucking it up - who knew that worked?

I Did This. A Little.

I don't get to talk a lot about the specifics on the work I do, but since the company published this, I guess I can blab a little.

I did indeed help on the paperwork to make this happen. I'm part of a group that writes and edits reports that are used to track waste like this from cradle to grave. It's challenging work, but I certainly enjoy it. Well, parts of it. Some of it bears the ickiness of any job, but you put up with a lot for a paycheck.

The Pink Pages

I'm watching a documentary on the Apollo 13 mission, focusing on the famous accident that nearly brought the mission to an end. There's little narration; they're just following along with the actual radio transmissions between Houston and Odyssey, with text. I'm loving it.

This part, about 45 minutes in, piqued my interest. They mention "Go[ing] to your GNC checklist, the pink pages," for one of their emergency power procedures.

In my early days at the RWMC, I was the writer in charge of the emergency alarm response procedures. When they were revised and placed in the Operations binders, they were indeed printed on pink paper. It's been a good decade since I was in Operations space out there, so I have no idea if that's still the practice there. But it would be interesting to know. Maybe I should put in for a transfer back out there.

"Why Don't You Take A Picture? It'll Last Longer!"

 

I usually sit in the same chair in the work conference room during staff meetings. Up until today, it had this tag on the bottom of it, and I'd reach under there to feel for the chair adjustments. Today, I ripped it off.

I got a real *bad* temper.

"You Screwed Up, Huh?"

Moral: Pay attention to proper page numbering.

Situation: Monday afternoon, a document I thought was finally done was rejected at the last moment because the cover page was numbered as Page One, when it's not supposed to have any number at all.

Ordinarily an easy fix, but Page 2 has pen-and-ink signatures on it that no one wanted to re-do to fix the page numbers electronically.

So luckily we can do pen-and-ink changes of a minor nature, which helped get the document approved and to bed today.

Still:

I'm glad it's all resolved, though there are a few people who will probably look at me cross-eyed for the next little while.

Can? Kicked Down the Road until Jan. 31

 

So I know this is a bucket that gets kicked, but you get the point.

Government re-opened as of last night, at least until the end of January, so it doesn't look like furloughs for us. As I'm a fan of many nasty habits like regular meals and making those mortgage payments, this is good news, though it was fun to think about for awhile until reality set in that it would likely mean using up all of my vacation time for the forseeable future to keep the lights on.

"Can I Come Too?"

 

Aside from the poor laid-off co-worker, looking back at this time I consider them the halcyon days in my current job.

I'd built up enough experience and credibility among management both there and in town to be trusted as the sole tech writer, taking the Accelerated Retrieval Project through, I believe, four more ARP iterations. Three of them, as I recall, totally on my own.

Were the documents perfect? No. They're not perfect now. But they were good enough to get the job done, and that was a good feeling.

Some days were hectic, with document changes needed almost immediately, often within hours, sometimes before the end of the day.

I didn't complain. I just did the work because I enjoyed my co-workers, the relative freedom from oversight, and the general feeling that what I was doing was making a contribution to a big project.

Those feelings have faded over time.

I'm trying to learn new things.

But the trust has eroded a bit. As has the git'r done attitude.

In fact, I await castigation on Monday for a job poorly done in which I was poorly trained and not given much time to practice. Not that the latter two will matter all that much.

I have co-workers from the better days who have moved on, who have retired. Whenever I interact with them, this is what I feel:

That's at least ten years down the road, depending on the economy and so many other factors it makes my lips numb just thinking about it.

A friend says he can work at any job for about ten years, but after that it gets harder. I've been at this job for in the neighborhood of 16 years. The "getting harder" part is here in spades.

I Pass the Test

So I had hoped when I got back to work this morning that I'd discover we had another week's worth of training to do, because that made last week a lot of fun.

Alas, the training is indeed over, but I still had the test to face.

It's been a long time since I've taken an academic test -- likely more than 15 years. So I was nervous.

Contrary to what I usually do, I did exactly what the trainer recommended: Reviewing the course objectives from the past week of training. Usually, I just wing it, but I was nervous enough I figured I'd better study a bit.

It paid off. We're supposed to get at least n 80% to pass the course and get Procedure Professionals of America certification, and I nailed it with a 97%. Behold:

It'll be a few more days before it's official, but I'm glad to have the test over with. Particularly since I mentioned PPA certification on a resume I handed out over the weekend.

It'll be exciting to be officially "humbled and thrilled" on LinkedIn, where I assume I should also brag about this feat.

My Facebook friends, of course, celebrated with me in their inimitable fashion.

Back to the Cubicles, A Week Later

So here I am at the tail end of the first week back to the cubicles.

I'm a lot more tired than when I worked from home. I'm up earlier. I can't set an alarm and sleep for my half hour lunch if I need to. And that drive home -- even though it's only about 23 minutes on a good day, a far cry from the hour and a half bus ride I could be doing if I were back out in the desert -- is tiring.

But if a meeting is called, I'm there. Don't have to drive in. We had a morale lunch today. Had I been working from home, I would have preserved my morale by *not* going in for lunch. So maybe it's a good thing? The potato salad was good.

Next week more of the same, of course, but tied in with four half-days of training to become certified with the Procedure Professionals Association in technical writing. I don't really know what that'll do for me that a masters degree in technical communication won't do, but I'll never say no to education.

Their logo may need a little work. They seem anxious to sell the training, but not necessarily explain its benefits. I guess there's this, but we're already doing what they outline here. I'll go into it with an open mind, however. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all those cliches.

But I will be able to summon the vast power of certification.

Back to the Cubicles . . .

I've got my bag packed for work like some idiot schoolboy.

The bag contains the essentials: My ID card and lanyard, a collection of sticky notes with semi-important information on them, two cans of Diet Pepsi, a few reuseable plastic cups for said Pepsi, some file folders I swiped from work when work from home started 5 1/2 years ago, a few pens, the picture of Dad and his 1948 Ford that I had in my cubicle out at RMWC, and a ceramic container that my brother bought for me at a thrift store becaus he thought it looked like me. And he's not wrong:

What I really want to do is go in my first day wearing my pajamas, but I don't think they'd let me get away with that, and I really need this job, so jeans and some kind of shirt will be the order of the day.

I may bring more tchotchkes out there, as I don't want my cubicle to be completely sterile. Maybe some books to put on the shelves and such. Or a LEGO set or two. We'll see about those. I'd bring my plastic rat, but he's now living inside the wall where the house water shutoff valve is, and I'm pretty sure he likes it there.

The whole thing is giving off this kind of vibe:

It Was Nice While it Lasted, Work from Home

When work ended Thursday, I shut off my work computer.

It's been a while since it's been shut off. I do restart it regularly so it can install updates, but it's rarely completely shut down.

I had to, though. Work from home ended this week.

Today, I hauled all my stuff to my new cubicle.

This is the only stuff I can show you; two monitors and a box of paper for the recycling bins (I used to be able to haul it to a local recycing dropoff, but the big recycling outfit in town shut it down*, so I've just been storing it, like urine on Apollo 13).

I just dropped stuff off at the cubicle; I didn't stay to set things up. I'm not getting paid for this trip, so I wanted to make it as quick as possible. Shouldn't take too long to set up on Monday.

That leaves my home work space looking empty and dusty:

I think what irritates me the most about this is the work I've put in this spring and summer on a wired home network -- I had to have a wired connection for the work computer; no wifi for it -- is kind of moot. I'm still going to finish it because by golly I spent a lot of time running cat6 cable so I'm not going to waste the effort. Besides, I like the faser speed I get on my own computer having a wired connection.

One bright spot: I've converted the work space into an actual space for my own work, plus one of the many "to be read" book piles and my Atari.

I'd still rather be working from home, but c'est la vie.

They suggested by omission that I could leave the dual monitors and the laptop dock at home for . . . I don't know what, because they really killed hybrid work but pulled the plug on full-time work from home to make those losing the hybrid option feel less bad about the situation. I figured, though, since I have my own storage problems with my own personal extra monitors and other electronics, I was not going to offer free storage for company equipment despite the vaguely-dangled carrot of occasional home use. It wasn't said explicitly, so I'm not expecting it.

One thing is true: I worked many days from home when I wasn't necessarily feeling well, but could continue working as long as I had quick and private access to a bathroom. Now that I have to drive across town -- still better than catching the bus out to the desert, mind you -- if I happen to wake up sick, I will be taking more sick days. One of the intangible benefits companies get from work from home employees that you just don't hear about.

*They also shut down their own shop, saying they're building new digs and have been really catty about where it is and when it's going to open. I suspect they hope to increase their curbside recycling customer base through devious means. Not going to work on me.

Templates . . .

I spent a good portion of my day making a document worse because the template's set up that way.

I've also - slowly - been developing a template for another type of document. I'm purposely leaving it as open on headings and format as possible, so we don't end up in a situation like the one I find myself in now.

Templates are good. They help us to remember to include what needs to be there. But while some documents are template-friendly in their rigidity, others not so much. We need more guidelines than rules.

And while the template I'm working with isn't as sinister as the Black Pearl, it's still going to be a jolly time this Monday explaining to my customer why things have changed so. Which means in making the change I have to be very, very precise. Which is going to take time. Which will upset the customer. But my job often entails listing to the one who makes the scariest threat on a given day, so that's the way things go.

I still very much like this job, enough I've encouraged Michelle to apply for a similar position that just opened up. It's amazing what we'll put up with to keep a roof over our heads. I hope she gets the job. Then we can commiserate more over things like templates.

If We Can't Have It, No One Can Have It

On the heels of this, another bombshell. As of July 31, teleworking at the IEC will be no more.

I've always known full-time telework was a privilege, not a guarantee. But when Trump called for federal workers to get back to the office earlier this year, I figured our time was numbered, though we work for a contractor, not the feds themselves.

Last week, the company announced that hybrid teleworking situations would end this summer, meaning those who worked sometimes at home and sometimes in the office were to return to the office. Those who were on full-time telework wouldn't be affected by the policy.

But in a staff meeting today we were told full-time telework would end. I understand it's because those who were on the hybrid telework situation felt targeted and that it was "unfair" for their opportunity to end while others would be able to continue.

It came down to a group of adults complaining that if they couldn't have it, nobody should have it.

And again, I get it -- work from home was never a long-term guarantee. But still, why mess up something for someone else just because your situation has changed? That seems pretty juvenile to me.

No matter. At least where I'm assigned I won't have to go back out to the site, but will work in town. And it means I'll get my second desk back in the study. It kind of removes part of the need for the home network I was putting together, and I may still do that, particularly since I've already bought the tools and other materials I need to put it together.

The Rickover Effect

Earlier this year, I helped write a document that would be used in the dismantling of the submarine and aircraft carrier nuclear propulsion prototypes at the Idaho National Laboratory.

At about the same time, I happened across a copy of Theodore Rockwell's "The Rickover Effect" at a local thrift store, Despite the $5 price -- pretty high for this thrift store -- I bought it without question. I just started reading it a week or so ago, and so far, I've enjoyed it.

Rickover, for good and bad, was a singular force in the US Navy, working against a lot of inertia and resistance in the Navy and in the US Atomic Energy Commission to get work started in earnest on nuclear-powered submarines. He may also be one of the founding fathers of the military-industrial complex and all that entails. Pretty interesting stuff in this book.

One of the reasons Navy nuclear propulsion succeeded is that Rickover insisted that the prototypes be built not to fit a warehouse, but to fit submarine conditions, so the prototpyes were built inside ship hulls that were in turn surrounded by water, making full-scale environmental mockups. Similar attempts for nuclear propulsion for jets failed in part because they were built for warehouses, and then had to be heavily modified to even begin squeezing into an airplane.

I haven't gotten to the point the project hits Idaho, but it's impressive to see how focused Rickover was on getting the project going despite a lot of obstacles in the way.

He was also a serious control freak, wanting even to see drafts of papers that had barely come out of an engineer's head. I'm not sure I could handle that kind of supervision.

One Week to Curtailment

This has the potential to be a long week.

Week before curtailment -- the traditional Idaho National Laboratory mandatory work break between Christmas and New Years -- is bound to be slow. We might have a little paperwork cleanup to perform, but there's going to be a lot of general cleanup going on this week as any starts to new projects will be put on hold and current projects will gradually begin to be understaffed as people take off early for the holidays.

My plan is this: I'll work this week, and the following Monday. That Monday will be extremely dead. Then the Thursday after New Years.

Plans for the holiday include making progress on a few home projects, including the basement bathroom, finishing the hole around the water shutoff valve, and some work on our home network, including (I hope) the installation of additional lines tied to the router with an ethernet switch.

That's going to mean tile on the floor in the bathroom, poking some holes in the walls for ethernet cable, and hopefully getting everything tied together before I have to be back to work in January.

Voici, les Tomates

I have had an interesting week.

Got handed two rather complicated and convoluted document revision jobs at work.

Spent a lot more time than I wanted grading papers after the day job and am still behind in my teaching work.

I'll spend this evening helping to paint an enormous pile of pumpkins for a city pumpkin display that has to be ready on Saturday and has a good chance of being snowed on.

But I do have some itty-bitty tomatoes growing in my window well, so that kind of takes the curse off it.

Emergency! Or Police Squad! Take Your Pick.

Today at work I was handed two "rush-emergency" document revisions that they want finished by the end of the week.

My boss said she couldn't tell if I was OK with the second assignment -- as my response to her request to do the work was just an emailed "OK."

I should have displayed more gusto, I guess, but I assured her I was certainly okay with the work and got it out for review pretty quickly.

That helped me recall the latter third of my career supporting the Accelerated Retrieval Project at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. Back then we were siloed as writers, supporting individual projects. When I started there I was on a team of five writers. We got the RWMC through several startups of different waste management facilities, each time creating and revising about a hundred documents each time. The last third of my time at the RWMC I was the sole writer, and saw two iterations through without outside help.

I mean, it was stressful times, but I had a lot of support and we got through it, to the point now that work is done and the facilities are being dismantled and the procedures inactivated. So to be handed two emergency procedures in the same day wasn't all that bad, though it's been awhile.

Not trying to brag here, it's just how things were. I was the writer, we had to get things done, and by golly we got them done as a team. Same game today. Some days it felt more like Police Squad! than Emergency! and in a way I miss those days. I worked with a lot of good people. The people I work with now I don't get to know as well, partially because we're not siloed anymore and support all sorts of projects, but mostly because I work from home. The isolation is a bit odd, but the benefits of work from home still outweigh the disadvantages.