Quote:
Originally Posted by Fulcrum525
Just read the entire thread and it's interesting to see how things have evolved over the past two years. Post #1 was pretty heartbreaking but as time went on it cheered me up a bit to see that things were progressing nicely...reminds me of my own life.
So based on all of this maintenance and construction would you say that parts of the economy have begun to stabilize?
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Right after I hired on at Purdue the economy really went south. From my experience on the local School Board I knew that tax collections would fall soon after the economy tanked, so I spent my first year worrying about cutbacks at PU. The first mission is obviously to educate, so I figured if cuts had to be made they would fall on the academic side last, and physical facilities first, so I sort of held my breath and waited.
There have been a few positions actually cut. Times like this are used to remove unproductive or uncooperative individuals from the roster. The rest of us are sheltered as much as possible. We have not gotten the usual COL raises since I started and the few people who have left or retired on their own are for the most part not being replace. I am just happy to not be gettting cut.
We have received some stimulus money but not as much as I imagined we might. New building projects are thin on the ground but energy saving projects and maintenance projects are populat. One of my collegues is installing electric meters on all buildings on campus, one at a time. This will aid in energy saving because once actual usage can be determined the academic end users can be billed according to actual usage which hopefully will influence operating decisions and save energy.
My dynamometer project is related to development of alternative fuels sources such as saw grass. Fuels will be tested in the same engines under controlled conditions. IE the intake air will come from a dedicated HVAC unit which will provide duplicatable temperature and humidity conditions for the engine to run under so any changes in performance can be attributed to the fuel.
I am flattered that someone would sit and read through the entire thread. Many of the best ideas come from other contributors to it of course.
I am glad it inspired and that truly is the reason I put it up.
I am still pinching my self that at my age I was lucky enough to find this opportunity to do work in my chosen profession doing work that is interesting and challanging among a lot of people that are friendly and (mostly) helpful.
The economy is looking up as I hoped it would and hopefully all of you out there will find opportunities as this old dog did and be able to do things that are interesting, challanging and fun....and pay your bills.
For myself, I tend to be a glass half full guy and have not suffered really through the whole recession directly. True, I sold my old Ferrari but truthfully it turned out to be a great time to sell it and truthfully I have had more fun running autocross in my little 99 Miata than I ever had driving the Ferrari.
Nobody much is impressed with the ownership of a Miata since they are cheap and common, but the fun behind the wheel more than makes up for any bragging rights that come with the Ferrari ownership. I get a lot of compliments on it from women. Men are reluctant to say if they like it since it is viewed by most people as a girlie car.
I never really wanted a Ferrari until this one sort of fell into my lap and I really only bought it because I thought I could make money at owning it so my goals were met. It was fun to have but after the first five years of it being in my garage began to really aggrivate the lovely Mrs W. so I got kudos when I sold it because it paid for my youngest daughters education and knocked off all our credit card debt and some other debt which would not have gotten paid any other way as painlessly. I kept a log of all my work on it and have a slew of pictures which I can look at if I wish.
I had a lot of fun taking it all apart and getting it running and driving. The details of how the engine and the car was built were pretty astonishing. I accumulated a pretty nice little Ferrari related library along the way.
The fellow who bought in in England is rebuilding it mechanically and has the money to do it up right. I hope someday I might be able to go by his house and see it all finished.
As I get new projects of interest at PU I will post up about them.