Work day number…23 I think. Yes, 23. It has been a long time since I’ve had time to write anything during my internship. I guess that’s a good thing because it means that I am being more productive while at work.
Lately I have been working on a 3-star hotel that will be part of a larger project called Londontown. I’m not 100% sure as to what I can and cannot do in terms of the design. There are still a lot more things I can learn with AutoCAD that can help me work on things a lot faster. But at least I know enough to get by for now.
The good thing about this internship I guess is that I won’t go into the fall semester and not be used to working a lot. This work schedule has been extremely draining. Even though it’s a half day of work on Saturday, it still takes out a lot. I can’t do anything Friday nights and am too tired Saturdays after work. Then I can’t do anything Sunday because the next day is Monday.
It has been raining a lot here lately. It is a constant reminder as to how much I hate umbrellas. I abhor umbrellas. I already hate large crowds of Chinese people. Large crowds of Chinese people with umbrellas are going to drive me insane. I especially despise those who use umbrellas every single day—rain or shine or overcast.
I have been listening to Tristan Prettyman for the past week during my commute. Now I need a new band to listen to. I’ve already gone through Angels and Airwaves, Relient K, Taylor Swift, Greenday, and Snow Patrol. I will try to find a new band to accompany me during my commute back home.
Ah, Rascal Flatts.
I definitely do not want a job where I would have to work Saturdays as well as Monday to Friday full time. It sucks and I never want to do it again. I don’t mind working on Saturdays occasionally for overtime, but when it’s part of your normal schedule, it sucks.
I’m pretty sure the other interns have arrived, but I haven’t really talked to any of them. I see them walking around once in a while, but other than that, no other contact. Maybe they don’t think I’m an intern because I have my own cubicle, mwahaha.
I guess I spoke too soon about having my cubicle. I just got moved to another part of the office—granted it’s still my own cubicle. It’s just more in the corner of the office right next to the printers. Although, I think it’s because the person’s desk space that I’m using now is returning back to the office and was previously out for the past month.
Last week, someone had a pet bunny in the office and it provided quite a lot of entertainment for brief moments throughout the day—particularly when it kept escaping from its cage. It didn’t really run away or anything. It just stayed next to the cage instead of inside the cage.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 16
Day 16 of work has been pretty mundane really—especially considering how it’s a Saturday and I should be slacking off at home like most normal interns. Instead, this is my work schedule, bleh.
Anyhow, I’ve been listening to the Taylor Swift songs on the iPod today and yesterday and I noticed that she has a male singer in the background doing harmonizing and all that. Some of her lyrics are just a bit weird for a guy to sing…anyhow.
Before Taylor Swift, I have been listening to a lot of Snow Patrol the past week or so. They have become the primary band that I listen to while taking the subway to and from work. They are quite interesting to listen to. I should probably find a new band though to listen to on this iPod…Taylor Swift isn’t going to cut it.
Anyhow, I’ve been listening to the Taylor Swift songs on the iPod today and yesterday and I noticed that she has a male singer in the background doing harmonizing and all that. Some of her lyrics are just a bit weird for a guy to sing…anyhow.
Before Taylor Swift, I have been listening to a lot of Snow Patrol the past week or so. They have become the primary band that I listen to while taking the subway to and from work. They are quite interesting to listen to. I should probably find a new band though to listen to on this iPod…Taylor Swift isn’t going to cut it.
Internship Blog: Day 15
Work day 15 now. After a three day holiday break, work resumes and the boredom continues. Actually, it’s not so bad. I at least have things to do every day that is at a manageable pace, but it’s a lot of stop and go action. I’ll be working on something for three hours straight, then I’ll have nothing to do for the next two hours or so—like right now.
I am actually quite hungry right now. It is only 10:30am, but I feel like eating right now. I might make a trip to the convenient store to pick something up to munch on, but I usually save that for the longer afternoon half of the workday. Then again, with nothing else to do except type up a blog post on Microsoft Word, it wouldn’t hurt to make a quick trip next door.
Game 7 of the Lakers-Celtics final is currently underway. Boston is currently leading in the third quarter, but we’ll see how this ends up in the end.
11am…one more hour until lunch break.
So yesterday, I created a spreadsheet documenting my photography expenses and earnings. I have earned back about a third of my expenses—which is pretty good so far. However, I still need a bit over $2000 to break even. Soo, who wants to buy some photos?
And Boston decides to lay an egg to end the game and are now about to lose. Bleh.
Alright, finally time for lunch.
I need some new music on this iPod. They are still primarily my sister’s music since it used to be her iPod. I guess I’ll just give it a clean wipe and load in my own stuff. I could write down the music that I like that’s already on the iPod so that I can re-download it or something. I don’t know if I want to spend so much effort on doing this though, oh well.
So anyone want to buy any photos? I’ll give you good price. Hah. But seriously, anyone?
Aw, I already finished my box of Strawberry Pocky…and it’s barely 2pm. I think some people are getting ready to leave because of someone’s wedding today? I have no idea who it is, but some other person is trying to find a camera to use, haha.
It is almost 4pm.
I am really tired right now for some reason. I got a decent amount of sleep last night—although it wasn’t very good sleep because it was quite humid and nasty.
I’ve taken drastic measures and I’m now listening to Taylor Swift to stay awake—such cheerful music...hah. Only one more hour of work left.
I am actually quite hungry right now. It is only 10:30am, but I feel like eating right now. I might make a trip to the convenient store to pick something up to munch on, but I usually save that for the longer afternoon half of the workday. Then again, with nothing else to do except type up a blog post on Microsoft Word, it wouldn’t hurt to make a quick trip next door.
Game 7 of the Lakers-Celtics final is currently underway. Boston is currently leading in the third quarter, but we’ll see how this ends up in the end.
11am…one more hour until lunch break.
So yesterday, I created a spreadsheet documenting my photography expenses and earnings. I have earned back about a third of my expenses—which is pretty good so far. However, I still need a bit over $2000 to break even. Soo, who wants to buy some photos?
And Boston decides to lay an egg to end the game and are now about to lose. Bleh.
Alright, finally time for lunch.
I need some new music on this iPod. They are still primarily my sister’s music since it used to be her iPod. I guess I’ll just give it a clean wipe and load in my own stuff. I could write down the music that I like that’s already on the iPod so that I can re-download it or something. I don’t know if I want to spend so much effort on doing this though, oh well.
So anyone want to buy any photos? I’ll give you good price. Hah. But seriously, anyone?
Aw, I already finished my box of Strawberry Pocky…and it’s barely 2pm. I think some people are getting ready to leave because of someone’s wedding today? I have no idea who it is, but some other person is trying to find a camera to use, haha.
It is almost 4pm.
I am really tired right now for some reason. I got a decent amount of sleep last night—although it wasn’t very good sleep because it was quite humid and nasty.
I’ve taken drastic measures and I’m now listening to Taylor Swift to stay awake—such cheerful music...hah. Only one more hour of work left.
Internship Blog: Day 12
Day 12 has been rather gray today. The weather is bleh, and working on a Saturday is always bleh. Getting up at 7am to get to work on a Saturday is uber bleh. However, I’m sure working on Sunday will be even worse.
I haven’t really done anything today. I fixed up a minor detail on AutoCAD that I didn’t get to finish yesterday, but now that that is done, I have nothing left to do. I’m currently typing this and browsing craigslist for camera equipment.
Speaking of camera equipment, I might go check out this one giant camera ‘mall’ after work if the weather holds up. It would be nice to go with my dad though. He’s got a lunch with a friend and said should be available at 3pm. So I guess I could do some preliminary scouting just to scope that place out. But then again, if there’s basketball to be played back at SMIC, I will do that instead. Who knows?
Whoo, what a short day. Work is over.
I haven’t really done anything today. I fixed up a minor detail on AutoCAD that I didn’t get to finish yesterday, but now that that is done, I have nothing left to do. I’m currently typing this and browsing craigslist for camera equipment.
Speaking of camera equipment, I might go check out this one giant camera ‘mall’ after work if the weather holds up. It would be nice to go with my dad though. He’s got a lunch with a friend and said should be available at 3pm. So I guess I could do some preliminary scouting just to scope that place out. But then again, if there’s basketball to be played back at SMIC, I will do that instead. Who knows?
Whoo, what a short day. Work is over.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 11
Today is day 11 of work. Tomorrow will be day 12 and Sunday will be day 13. That’s right, 13 days of work in the first two weeks that I’ve been here—granted I missed a day of work due to being ill. Not looking forward to working on the weekend. However, the bright side is that there will be a break from Monday through Wednesday for Duanwu Jie—a Chinese holiday.
The internet here is so slow that it won’t even upload photos. I took some photos last night before dinner at Lujiazui area. Some of them turned out kind of cool. That whole area now is really neat now and I actually kind of enjoy it. I think the main reason why I like is because that it isn’t such a big hassle to walk around now.
Work lately has been pretty relaxing in terms of work load. It is at a pace that I can handle or slower for the most part this past week. However, somehow I have a feeling that this is kind of more like the ‘calm before the storm’ type of deal. But I guess even this is better than what it was like during school for studio. Over there it was just storm after storm after apocalypse. But it seems to be pretty chill today throughout the firm. I guess this is a good thing.
There is about an hour left until lunch. I wonder where we will go eat this time around. I’m actually not too hungry after eating a small loaf of bread. I was too hungry this morning, so I went and bought the small loaf of bread from the convenient store next door. It wasn’t too bad actually.
I’m really tired today for some reason. I hope they have those large packs of QQ tang back in stock. Those things should help keep me awake for the rest of the working period. Maybe there was something in the bread…hrm…
Whoo, finally successfully uploaded a batch of photos onto Facebook. I will need to wait until I get home to upload those photos of Shanghai onto my webpage though.
So we went to go eat Yong He Da Wang, which I haven’t been to since I first left Shanghai back in 2005. Speaking of which, last night I went out to go eat with Lee and we realized that it has been 5 years since we last saw each other. Five years!! Crazy.
Whoo, Celtics evened the series at two games apiece—sweet. World Cup starts tomorrow! I’m actually sort of excited for it.
Argh, the work computer keeps on freezing!!! It has frozen four times now in the past 2 hours and it getting kind of annoying. I have about 2 more hours of work left.
The internet here is so slow that it won’t even upload photos. I took some photos last night before dinner at Lujiazui area. Some of them turned out kind of cool. That whole area now is really neat now and I actually kind of enjoy it. I think the main reason why I like is because that it isn’t such a big hassle to walk around now.
Work lately has been pretty relaxing in terms of work load. It is at a pace that I can handle or slower for the most part this past week. However, somehow I have a feeling that this is kind of more like the ‘calm before the storm’ type of deal. But I guess even this is better than what it was like during school for studio. Over there it was just storm after storm after apocalypse. But it seems to be pretty chill today throughout the firm. I guess this is a good thing.
There is about an hour left until lunch. I wonder where we will go eat this time around. I’m actually not too hungry after eating a small loaf of bread. I was too hungry this morning, so I went and bought the small loaf of bread from the convenient store next door. It wasn’t too bad actually.
I’m really tired today for some reason. I hope they have those large packs of QQ tang back in stock. Those things should help keep me awake for the rest of the working period. Maybe there was something in the bread…hrm…
Whoo, finally successfully uploaded a batch of photos onto Facebook. I will need to wait until I get home to upload those photos of Shanghai onto my webpage though.
So we went to go eat Yong He Da Wang, which I haven’t been to since I first left Shanghai back in 2005. Speaking of which, last night I went out to go eat with Lee and we realized that it has been 5 years since we last saw each other. Five years!! Crazy.
Whoo, Celtics evened the series at two games apiece—sweet. World Cup starts tomorrow! I’m actually sort of excited for it.
Argh, the work computer keeps on freezing!!! It has frozen four times now in the past 2 hours and it getting kind of annoying. I have about 2 more hours of work left.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 9
Today is day nine of my internship. I was sick yesterday (day eight) with some kind of cold or something. It might be something worse, but who knows. But anyhow, today was a rather productive day from the get-go, thus why I am typing this up at the last 15 minutes of work.
I have been tasked with making some minor site layout modifications for this one large project that this firm is working on. It only requires some basic AutoCAD knowledge, which is as much as I have up to this point, so it’s doable work.
I am still not feeling 100% from the sickness, but managed to make it through an entire workday. I have been fighting off a pretty bad headache for the majority of the day due to the intense cigarette smoke inhalation inside this building. The air circulation today was especially bad for some reason so it is both very humid and filled with the stench of cigarettes. Nonetheless, I managed to actually learn quite a lot about this project that I’m working on.
I can’t do much from home because I only have the student edition of AutoCAD on my computer, so I’ll have to be able to finish all of this while at work. However, I can still practice at home and work on some modifications if I need to and then redo the process a lot faster when I come into work the next day.
As expected, this post will be decently short since it is already almost time for me to leave work and embark on my hour ride home. Work every day like this is quite draining. At least I did manage to fully charge my iPod for the subway ride back. Hopefully I will be feeling much better tomorrow. I’ll definitely need to start bringing some Ibuprofen to work—blasted cigarette smokers.
I have been tasked with making some minor site layout modifications for this one large project that this firm is working on. It only requires some basic AutoCAD knowledge, which is as much as I have up to this point, so it’s doable work.
I am still not feeling 100% from the sickness, but managed to make it through an entire workday. I have been fighting off a pretty bad headache for the majority of the day due to the intense cigarette smoke inhalation inside this building. The air circulation today was especially bad for some reason so it is both very humid and filled with the stench of cigarettes. Nonetheless, I managed to actually learn quite a lot about this project that I’m working on.
I can’t do much from home because I only have the student edition of AutoCAD on my computer, so I’ll have to be able to finish all of this while at work. However, I can still practice at home and work on some modifications if I need to and then redo the process a lot faster when I come into work the next day.
As expected, this post will be decently short since it is already almost time for me to leave work and embark on my hour ride home. Work every day like this is quite draining. At least I did manage to fully charge my iPod for the subway ride back. Hopefully I will be feeling much better tomorrow. I’ll definitely need to start bringing some Ibuprofen to work—blasted cigarette smokers.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 7
Seventh day of my internship here and being a Monday, nobody’s really doing too much work. I am back to doing nothing at the moment and am actually watching box scores of Game 2 of the Lakers – Celtics series. Although I would have preferred different teams in the Finals, I am not surprised as to how the playoffs have turned out. I wanted Phoenix and Orlando, but alas, they were the ones that didn’t make it. Anyhow, the lesser of two evils pick for me would be for the Celtics to win (although now that I want them to win, the Lakers will win). Ray Allen, Rasheed Wallace, and Nate Robinson are all players that I wouldn’t mind winning the championship. The game right now is pretty crazy—Ray Allen has 27 points and the second quarter just ended.
The internet here has definitely been more stable as of late, but it’s still extremely slow. At least it’s not constantly disconnecting.
My breakfast today consists of an iced latte, Gatorade, and strawberry Pocky. Healthy, I know.
I am a little bit sick, though I think it’s mainly from working too much and not enough sleep and riding the subway for two hours a day. It has improved though when I woke up this morning, which is a good sign. I got lots of sleep and ate some vitamins. What a waste of a one-day weekend.
Yeah, this Monday seems to mirror last week’s Monday. Maybe I should be more proactive?
So from Thursday until Saturday, my schedule went like this: Woke up at 7am, left the house at 7:45am, sat on the subway until 8:50am, ate some food until 9am, left work at 6pm, arrived home at 7pm, ate some dinner until 8pm, worked on project until 7am on Friday, left the house at 7:45am, sat on the subway until 8:50am, ate some food until 9am, left work at 7pm, met up with some other GaTech interns in Shanghai until about 10pm, got home around 10:30pm, worked on project until 8:30am on Saturday, left home at 8:45am, sat on subway until 9:40am, left work at 3pm, arrived home at 4pm, ate some food and went to sleep at 7pm.
My nose is itchy, and it is annoying.
But yeah, working on an actual assignment was an experience. What I did was actually going to be used and not just for educational purposes. It was pretty stressful because if I screwed up, something else down the line get screwed up and a whole lot of things are affected. However, back at school if I screwed up, only I’m screwed. Both are extremely stressful, but work stress seems to have a heavier load.
Argh, itchy nose, itchy nose, itchy nose!!!
Yeah, I feel pretty miserable today physically with the semi-sore throat, stuffed and itchy nose, and general fatigue. Just the usual plain nastiness feeling when a person is borderline fighting off some kind of cold or something. [Whoo, Celtics won! Go Ray Allen]
Man, it’s not even lunchtime and I’ve already almost typed up an entire page in Microsoft Word (Calibri, size 11 font, single spaced). I wonder where we will go eat this time. There are so many places to eat here that I haven’t been to the same place twice yet…crazy. I probably won’t be eating too much today though because of the way I feel. Lunch is in about 10 minutes, so whoo.
[Intermission]
Mm, we had some Korean food—12RMB (~$1.70 USD) for a giant bowl of rice mixed with other things that I don’t really know what it is called. But I am full from it. The average price of a full meal around here ranges anywhere from 10-25RMB (~$1.50 – $3.50 USD), which is pretty decently priced. So far after seven days, I’ve eaten at seven different places for lunch. Not too shabby.
One of the workers sitting next to me is napping. I feel like napping too. I feel a headache coming on, which isn’t good. Usually it’s because I’m dehydrated, but I’ve drank plenty of fluids today, so not sure what it is exactly. Still, I’ll probably head down and get another bottle of Gatorade or something. Maybe even some Ultima, but I haven’t been seeing Ultima around lately, kind of sad. Actually, I’m feeling extremely fatigued right now. Man, eating lunch today was quite an effort apparently.
There’s so little for me to do today that I’m typing a lot here. Speak of the devil. Now I have something to do. Fortunately, it’s not as time consuming and stressful as making a 3D model. I only have to design a cover page for one of their concept presentation booklet thing.
Well, that assignment didn’t take long. Wasn’t that great of a cover, but I guess it worked. I think my greatest accomplishment though would be reading and typing in Chinese and getting most of the characters right. I only asked for help on a couple of words, whoohoo!
I just came back from buying another bottle of Gatorade and some grape flavored QQ tang (candy). I miss eating QQ tang, so I decided to buy some. Nomnomnom. I just don’t know how they can make this gummy candy this good…there’s got to be some kind of addictive drugs in there or something that nobody knows about.
Almost 5pm here and people’s production levels have begun to decrease. Hopefully I won’t have anything else left to do for the rest of today because I really am not feeling that well. I’m still waiting for one of the guys to check the cover page thing out that I designed to see if it’s okay. I’m not exactly sure where he is though.
I am looking forward to getting off work for the day, but I am not looking forward to the subway ride back home, bleh.
I just noticed, my nose isn’t as itchy anymore! Huzzah! My throat isn’t any better though, but at least it’s not any worse—which means that it is still better than yesterday.
Man, headache is definitely not any worse. Sometimes it will even be a pretty sharp pain, bleh. I dislike headaches a lot. I also dislike the people who smoke inside of this building a lot.
The internet here has definitely been more stable as of late, but it’s still extremely slow. At least it’s not constantly disconnecting.
My breakfast today consists of an iced latte, Gatorade, and strawberry Pocky. Healthy, I know.
I am a little bit sick, though I think it’s mainly from working too much and not enough sleep and riding the subway for two hours a day. It has improved though when I woke up this morning, which is a good sign. I got lots of sleep and ate some vitamins. What a waste of a one-day weekend.
Yeah, this Monday seems to mirror last week’s Monday. Maybe I should be more proactive?
So from Thursday until Saturday, my schedule went like this: Woke up at 7am, left the house at 7:45am, sat on the subway until 8:50am, ate some food until 9am, left work at 6pm, arrived home at 7pm, ate some dinner until 8pm, worked on project until 7am on Friday, left the house at 7:45am, sat on the subway until 8:50am, ate some food until 9am, left work at 7pm, met up with some other GaTech interns in Shanghai until about 10pm, got home around 10:30pm, worked on project until 8:30am on Saturday, left home at 8:45am, sat on subway until 9:40am, left work at 3pm, arrived home at 4pm, ate some food and went to sleep at 7pm.
My nose is itchy, and it is annoying.
But yeah, working on an actual assignment was an experience. What I did was actually going to be used and not just for educational purposes. It was pretty stressful because if I screwed up, something else down the line get screwed up and a whole lot of things are affected. However, back at school if I screwed up, only I’m screwed. Both are extremely stressful, but work stress seems to have a heavier load.
Argh, itchy nose, itchy nose, itchy nose!!!
Yeah, I feel pretty miserable today physically with the semi-sore throat, stuffed and itchy nose, and general fatigue. Just the usual plain nastiness feeling when a person is borderline fighting off some kind of cold or something. [Whoo, Celtics won! Go Ray Allen]
Man, it’s not even lunchtime and I’ve already almost typed up an entire page in Microsoft Word (Calibri, size 11 font, single spaced). I wonder where we will go eat this time. There are so many places to eat here that I haven’t been to the same place twice yet…crazy. I probably won’t be eating too much today though because of the way I feel. Lunch is in about 10 minutes, so whoo.
[Intermission]
Mm, we had some Korean food—12RMB (~$1.70 USD) for a giant bowl of rice mixed with other things that I don’t really know what it is called. But I am full from it. The average price of a full meal around here ranges anywhere from 10-25RMB (~$1.50 – $3.50 USD), which is pretty decently priced. So far after seven days, I’ve eaten at seven different places for lunch. Not too shabby.
One of the workers sitting next to me is napping. I feel like napping too. I feel a headache coming on, which isn’t good. Usually it’s because I’m dehydrated, but I’ve drank plenty of fluids today, so not sure what it is exactly. Still, I’ll probably head down and get another bottle of Gatorade or something. Maybe even some Ultima, but I haven’t been seeing Ultima around lately, kind of sad. Actually, I’m feeling extremely fatigued right now. Man, eating lunch today was quite an effort apparently.
There’s so little for me to do today that I’m typing a lot here. Speak of the devil. Now I have something to do. Fortunately, it’s not as time consuming and stressful as making a 3D model. I only have to design a cover page for one of their concept presentation booklet thing.
Well, that assignment didn’t take long. Wasn’t that great of a cover, but I guess it worked. I think my greatest accomplishment though would be reading and typing in Chinese and getting most of the characters right. I only asked for help on a couple of words, whoohoo!
I just came back from buying another bottle of Gatorade and some grape flavored QQ tang (candy). I miss eating QQ tang, so I decided to buy some. Nomnomnom. I just don’t know how they can make this gummy candy this good…there’s got to be some kind of addictive drugs in there or something that nobody knows about.
Almost 5pm here and people’s production levels have begun to decrease. Hopefully I won’t have anything else left to do for the rest of today because I really am not feeling that well. I’m still waiting for one of the guys to check the cover page thing out that I designed to see if it’s okay. I’m not exactly sure where he is though.
I am looking forward to getting off work for the day, but I am not looking forward to the subway ride back home, bleh.
I just noticed, my nose isn’t as itchy anymore! Huzzah! My throat isn’t any better though, but at least it’s not any worse—which means that it is still better than yesterday.
Man, headache is definitely not any worse. Sometimes it will even be a pretty sharp pain, bleh. I dislike headaches a lot. I also dislike the people who smoke inside of this building a lot.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 4
Day four of work has started out with a..well, nothing really. It’s a pretty normal day so far—everyone is working on stuff and I’m still trying to figure out AutoCAD. I think I’ve gotten the hang of it and it is now just a matter of becoming faster and figuring out all the shortcut keys. There’s also a good amount of muscle memory as well. I am also still finding out about easier ways to create things.
Almost lunch time. I really didn’t have much time to type anything today. I’ve been reviewing the proposal booklet of one of the larger projects for this firm. There is a Bible study soon here—though I think it’s during lunch. I hope food will be provided…or at least a chance to get some food. Or maybe it will be after lunch, who knows.
Well, it was during lunch and food was provided, so whoo. It lasted until about half an hour after lunch break, so wasn’t too bad.
I don’t really have anything to do right now. I am currently trying to draw a plan/section/elevation of the Enterprise from Star Trek. Only about two more hours left until I can leave anyway.
Oh, nevermind. I actually have an assignment! I have to complete a Sketchup model of a building that they need to present this Saturday..whoo boy. If only they decided to give me this assignment at the beginning of the day rather than at the end of it.
Almost lunch time. I really didn’t have much time to type anything today. I’ve been reviewing the proposal booklet of one of the larger projects for this firm. There is a Bible study soon here—though I think it’s during lunch. I hope food will be provided…or at least a chance to get some food. Or maybe it will be after lunch, who knows.
Well, it was during lunch and food was provided, so whoo. It lasted until about half an hour after lunch break, so wasn’t too bad.
I don’t really have anything to do right now. I am currently trying to draw a plan/section/elevation of the Enterprise from Star Trek. Only about two more hours left until I can leave anyway.
Oh, nevermind. I actually have an assignment! I have to complete a Sketchup model of a building that they need to present this Saturday..whoo boy. If only they decided to give me this assignment at the beginning of the day rather than at the end of it.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 3
It is now the beginning of day three at the internship. People are slowly filing and getting started. Those that have already arrived are currently doing the morning exercises. Not everyone knows really what to do for those because there are so many different variations, but they all get the general gist of it.
I’m starting to pick up quite a few shortcut keys in AutoCAD that will be useful for me in the future.
I’m already doing a lot more now today than I have the past two days. It is now almost my lunch break. I wonder what I will be eating with my coworkers today. There are so many places to eat around here that I could eat something different every day for maybe 2-3 weeks.
One thing I did forget to bring was my iPod. I could use my iPod right about now and for the commute back home.
Well, just got back from lunch with a group of people—funny people. Lots of gossip during the conversation and some were quite funny, especially since I don’t really know anyone here. Such as one of the guys overhearing how one person was 17 weeks pregnant. Then they spent the next five minutes deducing what happened 17 weeks ago. But due to me not knowing anyone here, some gossip wasn’t as funny.
Sad, my mouse finally just died. Oh well, luckily I have some batteries in my backpack that were backup batteries for my camera equipment. Speaking of which, I should probably go around the city photographing stuff this weekend. Maybe come in for work for the half day on Saturday and then spend the rest of the Saturday photographing. I should find out whether or not the half day is the first or second half of the day.
Now I am kind of irritated. I just found something that would have saved me a lot of time on AutoCAD when drawing walls. Argh, oh well. Now I know.
The boss guy isn’t here today again nor is the architect who is in charge of me for some reason. Oh well. At least there are other people who check up on me to see if I need any help with stuff (the people I ate with today).
I know one thing is for sure, AutoCAD will definitely improve my left hand only typing skills. Or I guess I could work on my left handed mouse use…nah, too complicated that way. I’m already half-way decent at typing with my left hand only anyway. In fact, I think I will only type with my left hand from now on.
Okay, maybe not. I think I will get carpel tunnel if I draft like some of these people do after only one day. The AC has been blowing all day and it got really cold. As soon as I rolled my sleeves down though, the AC was turned off and I had to roll my sleeves back up. I guess I’m at a delicate temperature equilibrium.
Only a few more hours until people start to head home. I’ve gotten a good amount done I guess. As a practice round, I’d say that I am finished with this plan. I can’t read the key because it’s in Chinese, so not a lot of this makes sense, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s a building of some sort. There is still two more hours until I can head home.
I’ve consumed a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of nasty ice coffee, five sticks of gum, and the Chinese food we had for lunch thus far. I have made three trips to use the toilet. I finished the harder half of the AutoCAD practice plan, and I made one gum wrapper crane. I’d say today was a productive day.
There is still about an hour and 20 minutes left. I have made another trip to the restroom already. I don’t really like going to the restroom here. They are on the third floor of this place and that’s where all the smokers are. Well, at least all the smokers are on the 2.5 floor, so I guess the third floor will smell pretty bad anyway.
Hrm, I’m overhearing that in a couple of days, the internet will get better. Who knows really, but I sure hope so. I also hope that the guy who’s supposed to get my laptop connected to their network system will show up some day so that I can use the internet on this laptop instead of using their computer. The person who sits at the desk I’m using returns to work next week and I will most likely be relocated elsewhere, so it would be ideal to have my laptop to be able to get on their network.
As I was walking from the metro station to the workplace today, I saw a shirt that read, “What would Nature do?” Well, it’s pretty obvious as to what Nature would do when we don’t take care of it.
There is a phone ringing and the person is not at his/her desk…the ringing is kind of annoying. Now someone’s cellphone is ringing and that person isn’t at her desk to pick it up. It is a really loud ringtone and also getting kind of annoying.
Oh, the architect who’s in charge of me has finally arrived! There is only about 40 minutes left of work though, and it seems like he just came back from some kind of trip? So I’m assuming he won’t have anything for me to do until tomorrow.
I’m starting to pick up quite a few shortcut keys in AutoCAD that will be useful for me in the future.
I’m already doing a lot more now today than I have the past two days. It is now almost my lunch break. I wonder what I will be eating with my coworkers today. There are so many places to eat around here that I could eat something different every day for maybe 2-3 weeks.
One thing I did forget to bring was my iPod. I could use my iPod right about now and for the commute back home.
Well, just got back from lunch with a group of people—funny people. Lots of gossip during the conversation and some were quite funny, especially since I don’t really know anyone here. Such as one of the guys overhearing how one person was 17 weeks pregnant. Then they spent the next five minutes deducing what happened 17 weeks ago. But due to me not knowing anyone here, some gossip wasn’t as funny.
Sad, my mouse finally just died. Oh well, luckily I have some batteries in my backpack that were backup batteries for my camera equipment. Speaking of which, I should probably go around the city photographing stuff this weekend. Maybe come in for work for the half day on Saturday and then spend the rest of the Saturday photographing. I should find out whether or not the half day is the first or second half of the day.
Now I am kind of irritated. I just found something that would have saved me a lot of time on AutoCAD when drawing walls. Argh, oh well. Now I know.
The boss guy isn’t here today again nor is the architect who is in charge of me for some reason. Oh well. At least there are other people who check up on me to see if I need any help with stuff (the people I ate with today).
I know one thing is for sure, AutoCAD will definitely improve my left hand only typing skills. Or I guess I could work on my left handed mouse use…nah, too complicated that way. I’m already half-way decent at typing with my left hand only anyway. In fact, I think I will only type with my left hand from now on.
Okay, maybe not. I think I will get carpel tunnel if I draft like some of these people do after only one day. The AC has been blowing all day and it got really cold. As soon as I rolled my sleeves down though, the AC was turned off and I had to roll my sleeves back up. I guess I’m at a delicate temperature equilibrium.
Only a few more hours until people start to head home. I’ve gotten a good amount done I guess. As a practice round, I’d say that I am finished with this plan. I can’t read the key because it’s in Chinese, so not a lot of this makes sense, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s a building of some sort. There is still two more hours until I can head home.
I’ve consumed a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of nasty ice coffee, five sticks of gum, and the Chinese food we had for lunch thus far. I have made three trips to use the toilet. I finished the harder half of the AutoCAD practice plan, and I made one gum wrapper crane. I’d say today was a productive day.
There is still about an hour and 20 minutes left. I have made another trip to the restroom already. I don’t really like going to the restroom here. They are on the third floor of this place and that’s where all the smokers are. Well, at least all the smokers are on the 2.5 floor, so I guess the third floor will smell pretty bad anyway.
Hrm, I’m overhearing that in a couple of days, the internet will get better. Who knows really, but I sure hope so. I also hope that the guy who’s supposed to get my laptop connected to their network system will show up some day so that I can use the internet on this laptop instead of using their computer. The person who sits at the desk I’m using returns to work next week and I will most likely be relocated elsewhere, so it would be ideal to have my laptop to be able to get on their network.
As I was walking from the metro station to the workplace today, I saw a shirt that read, “What would Nature do?” Well, it’s pretty obvious as to what Nature would do when we don’t take care of it.
There is a phone ringing and the person is not at his/her desk…the ringing is kind of annoying. Now someone’s cellphone is ringing and that person isn’t at her desk to pick it up. It is a really loud ringtone and also getting kind of annoying.
Oh, the architect who’s in charge of me has finally arrived! There is only about 40 minutes left of work though, and it seems like he just came back from some kind of trip? So I’m assuming he won’t have anything for me to do until tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Internship Blog: Day 2
It is now day two of this internship. I am currently sitting at my internship with nothing to do. The people who are in charge of my during this internship (at least for the time being) are not here, so I figured I might as well be typing some kind of document to make it seem like I am doing some work. Actually, I will not be typing right now because it is lunch break and I’m not supposed to be looking like I am working on something.
[Intermission]
And now I am back and shall resume pretending to do work. I am actually trying to do work—but the lack of stable internet connection has been preventing me from effectively working. My job right now is to teach myself AutoCAD. One of my co-workers here was kind enough to give me a plan of a building for me to copy into AutoCAD. I have actually been working on this for the past couple of hours and I’ve gotten a good chunk out of the way. I don’t really have any idea as to what I’m doing except drawing straight lines and what not, but I guess it seems to look alright. I probably could have done it the same way as to how I would draft by hand, but I didn’t really do that. I did use construction lines though, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. The people here expect me to pick up AutoCAD in a couple of weeks—I plan on figuring this program out by the end of this week. I am confident that I won’t be able to work as fast as the people who work here, but hopefully I’ll be able to know what I’m doing.
The work schedule here is pretty long—M-F from 9am-6pm as well as a half day of work on Saturdays, which totals to 50 hours a week. On top of this, there is my two hour commute per day for another 16 hours a week. I am hoping that I won’t be exhausted too much by the end of my internship.
The work environment here is definitely much different than the ones in America. Architecture firms here are a lot cleaner and more organized than the ones in America—but I feel like there are a lot more free-flowing ideas in American firms. By cleaner, I mean that there isn’t paper scattered everywhere around the entire firm and there really isn’t a “studio” vibe anymore. I hate how there are some people here who smoke as they work. Fortunately, there aren’t any of those people on the floor I work, but I can still smell the smoke. There is also a clear hierarchal system in place at this firm while it is less so at American firms. However, there are also some similarities. Trace paper aplenty! The work environment is fairly lax and people are conversing back and forth both about work and about other things. People joke around a lot. And there are also a good chunk of people who listen to music as they work.
It is now 5pm—one more hour until I can head back home. I actually arrive home later than my mom does and around the same time as my dad. Yesterday, he just happened to get off of work by the time I arrived at the metro stop so he picked me up. Hopefully it’ll be the same case this time, but I kind of doubt it. At least it’s nice that we can leave the house at the same time so he can drop me off at the metro station.
One of the guys here started talking to me because he wanted to speak in English. He attended Pratt for his masters and hasn’t really had a huge chance of speaking English since he came to work in Shanghai. He’s also the one who gave me the AutoCAD template for me to work on. He said that I seemed a bit nervous—which I guess could be an accurate description. I have no idea what I’m doing really and I’m out in the real world instead of a classroom. He also seems to understand why I don’t know AutoCAD after my first year of architecture. There are lots of nice people on this floor of AutoCAD draftsmen.
My wireless mouse is dying on me. It is still working fine, but it is now blinking red instead of green. I think I am done working on AutoCAD for the day. I have lost focus anyway because of a headache from the smoke. I think I am also done typing here too. There is only about half an hour left before I can leave anyway. I really need to work on my Chinese.
[Intermission]
And now I am back and shall resume pretending to do work. I am actually trying to do work—but the lack of stable internet connection has been preventing me from effectively working. My job right now is to teach myself AutoCAD. One of my co-workers here was kind enough to give me a plan of a building for me to copy into AutoCAD. I have actually been working on this for the past couple of hours and I’ve gotten a good chunk out of the way. I don’t really have any idea as to what I’m doing except drawing straight lines and what not, but I guess it seems to look alright. I probably could have done it the same way as to how I would draft by hand, but I didn’t really do that. I did use construction lines though, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. The people here expect me to pick up AutoCAD in a couple of weeks—I plan on figuring this program out by the end of this week. I am confident that I won’t be able to work as fast as the people who work here, but hopefully I’ll be able to know what I’m doing.
The work schedule here is pretty long—M-F from 9am-6pm as well as a half day of work on Saturdays, which totals to 50 hours a week. On top of this, there is my two hour commute per day for another 16 hours a week. I am hoping that I won’t be exhausted too much by the end of my internship.
The work environment here is definitely much different than the ones in America. Architecture firms here are a lot cleaner and more organized than the ones in America—but I feel like there are a lot more free-flowing ideas in American firms. By cleaner, I mean that there isn’t paper scattered everywhere around the entire firm and there really isn’t a “studio” vibe anymore. I hate how there are some people here who smoke as they work. Fortunately, there aren’t any of those people on the floor I work, but I can still smell the smoke. There is also a clear hierarchal system in place at this firm while it is less so at American firms. However, there are also some similarities. Trace paper aplenty! The work environment is fairly lax and people are conversing back and forth both about work and about other things. People joke around a lot. And there are also a good chunk of people who listen to music as they work.
It is now 5pm—one more hour until I can head back home. I actually arrive home later than my mom does and around the same time as my dad. Yesterday, he just happened to get off of work by the time I arrived at the metro stop so he picked me up. Hopefully it’ll be the same case this time, but I kind of doubt it. At least it’s nice that we can leave the house at the same time so he can drop me off at the metro station.
One of the guys here started talking to me because he wanted to speak in English. He attended Pratt for his masters and hasn’t really had a huge chance of speaking English since he came to work in Shanghai. He’s also the one who gave me the AutoCAD template for me to work on. He said that I seemed a bit nervous—which I guess could be an accurate description. I have no idea what I’m doing really and I’m out in the real world instead of a classroom. He also seems to understand why I don’t know AutoCAD after my first year of architecture. There are lots of nice people on this floor of AutoCAD draftsmen.
My wireless mouse is dying on me. It is still working fine, but it is now blinking red instead of green. I think I am done working on AutoCAD for the day. I have lost focus anyway because of a headache from the smoke. I think I am also done typing here too. There is only about half an hour left before I can leave anyway. I really need to work on my Chinese.
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