It's Nascar time!

Hey everyone! Well, the Nascar Daytona 500 kicks off in a little bit, I only point that out because my last Blog update was on a big sporting event day. I predicted the Steelers to win and they did, so I'll give you my prediction on the race too. (but you'll have to read the whole post to find it!) Jody is in Daytona and going to the race. I heard from her about 4:30am saying that she was up and getting ready for the race... guess they are beating the traffic!

Today is my 2nd day off since I've been here, although we're not supposed to refer to it as a day off, but an 'on call day'. Because, if there is work that needs to be done, I'll have to go into the office. One of my guys said that on his 'on call' day he'll put a straw in his mouth and sleep under the bridge, in the canal, and breath thru the straw - good luck finding him!

Work isn't slowing down much although we are closing out a bunch of inherited projects that the unit before us had pretty screwed up. So, as long as the new ones that we design are correct, the work will continue to flow smoothly and there wont be many emergency fixes or re-designs that have extremely short deadlines which contribute to really long days in the office.

Our leadership seems to be doing a pretty good job keeping things organized, and ensuring that other sections do their jobs correctly and things get accounted for properly. The flow of work hasn't really ever been 'documented' for us to see, which would help out a lot, but as long as it keeps working, we remain pretty satisfied.

I've been keeping up with the Basketball Buckeyes - and right now, thanks to Minnesota beating the #1 ranked Big Ten team, Iowa - the Buckeyes are in a 4 way tie, in the loss column, for winning the Big Ten. Go Bucks!

Here's a link to a pretty cool little spreadsheet that shows our time here and the progress we've made: http://www.jwallace.netfirms.com/COUNTDOWN.xls

RESPONSE TO COMMENTS from the Blog:
To Jim Lanman - In response to associative hatching vs. non-associative hatching:
In version 2002, the best way to keep associate hatching is to pick 'objects' not points. Meaning, draw P-Lines around the areas you want to hatch, and then choose the p-line as the object you want to hatch instead of picking a point in the area to hatch. If you then move the p-line, the hatching moves with it. I also learned that in version 2005, you can TRIM hatching - pretty cool.

To Jim McKean - In response to your question regarding Ohio University alumni or those with ties to OU: The only person that I've been able to find, who is with us, is Captain Andrew Stone. If you email me directly, I will send you his email address.

To anyone that has questions or concerns and would like response quickly, simply email me from the link on the Blog under My Complete Profile.

Well, now that I've written a novel here and put some of you to sleep while you are at work and obviously not doing any... My pick for the Daytona 500 is: Jeff Gordon (again this year?)

That's it! I'll post again soon!
Everyone take care!
- Jason

Happy SuperBowl Sunday

Hi everyone! I just wanted to post an update because some of the comments are pointing out the fact that I'm a slacker! (Thanks Jody!)

Well, not much changes here, now that we're in country and have a standard routine. But, I did get a pretty awesome picture of a sunset over the lake. This place is actually very nice - at least where Saddam had palaces and mosques and stuff. Lots of marble and fancy construction. Unfortunately, a lot of it has been destroyed or at least damaged from the first gulf war and this one.

I'm doing pretty well. Still working long days and wishing I was back at Nationwide where flex time is something that's encouraged! I'm still making it to the gym at least 5 days a week, not doing much heavy lifting since my shoulder is still messed up. Running a lot and attempting to find that 6-pack that's burried in there somewhere.. :)

This place has quite a bit of rain, at least this time of year. The combination of dirt and sand, and lack of paved roads, makes things a muddy mess! Been wearing rubber overboots to walk everywhere. You look pretty goofy with rubber boots, shorts and a tee-shirt! Looking forward to the not-so-rainy season.

A lot of the guys are staying up all night to watch the Superbowl... it comes on about 2:30am. I think I'll just watch it when it replays tomorrow. Plus we all know who's going to win it - Big Ben and the Steelers!

Well, I'll try to post again soon!
Thanks to everyone for all the support!

A very special thanks to Connie from the Grove City Rotary Club! They were nice enough to buy us a very nice printer and ink for us to be able to do our job more efficently! That was very appreciated!!!