Nachos

Yeah... I'm enjoying a plate of nachos right now.

I feel like I've been living in a secluded world, cut off from all realms of communication as one who had been caged by Arimus, so I'm going to talk. (Up with drama!)

Yadda, yadda. Yadda, yadda. Yadda, yadda? Oh, ho, ho, ho, YADDA! YADDA! There... I told you a joke in Yiddish :-) (You're supposed to laugh here.)

Anyway, as I was getting my nachos tonight, I remembered what I used to do when I was little... Being little is a time of learning. For me, it mainly consisted of trying to find new ways to get away with things. Sometimes, I'd chew on my pillow in an attempt to get it as wet as possible. When Dad would come tell me goodnight, he'd ask me why my pillow was all wet to which I'd dramatically reply that I was so hungry I tried to eat my pillow. I don't think he ever believed me :-)

Anyway... life! Yeah... I guess I'm alive.
I get up. I go to work. I work, I come home, I eat dinner, I fool around, putting time in until bed, and then I go to bed. BTW, I still don't get to bed on time :-)

So... work is my life right now. Let's see here... I went to an electrical safety class last week. I mainly covered the 2009 OSHA safe work practices for electrical-related work. By the way, these safe work practices are federal law now and you can actually be convicted if something happens and it's proved you willfully ignored providing your employees with a safe work environment.

You don't have to watch an "R" rated movie to see gore. I saw more gore at that safety training than I've seen in my life... the worst part is it was real. The worst "torture" you've heard of ain't nothin compared to what happens to people who've experienced arc flash.

Arc flash is caused by shorting out something in an electrical panel. Copper expands 67,000 times it's own size when vaporized... and all you have to do to vaporize it is cause a short inside an electrical panel... Basically, a standard 208V lighting panel can be equivalent to standing on the surface of the sun for a few milliseconds while three sticks of dynamite blow up in your hand, and if you're lucky, you're not electrocuted... I saw a picture of something really weird... The remains of a vaporized electrician... There was like nothing left... I guess the human body really is 98% water.

Oh, and forget macho. The human body, no matter how macho you are, is very fragile. Did you know that your skin cells start to break down after six hours of exposure to 110 degree temperatures? Yeah... you got me. Go work outside in Arizona and you'll suffer skin damage. Oh, and do you know what else? Big guys die from electricution... from less power than it takes to power an LED flashlight.

Even though it was rather gory, it was quite effective and informative. Plus, we did learn how to make an RPG or roadside bomb, so that's always a plus. :-)

Let's see... This week... Oh, there's a new Ben in the office now... and us three Bens all sit next to each other.

I talked my boss into buying me $25,000 of "toys," so that was fun... except for the fact that I now get to learn how to write requisitions :-) (We call our tools, "toys.") Circuit board making stuff, surface mount soldering station, software, etc.

I went to confined space training this week, too... BTW, if someone ever goes unconscious in a confined space, (tank, pit, vault, etc.) DO NOT attempt to rescue them. 60-75% of confined space fatalities are CAUSED BY someone trying to rescue a fallen coworker. If you attempt a rescue, at the very best, you'll be trying to drag a 100lb sack of Jello out of a pit while holding your breath -- you can't do it, and by attempting, you'll most likely kill both you and your coworker... Even if you make it out alive, you'd effectively kill them by not getting help right away, and would you look foward to knocking on the door of your co-worker's family to inform them that they won't be coming home because you weren't doing your job?

Six minutes, that's about all you've got. After that, it's body retrieval, not a rescue. You don't have time to find you can't rescue them and then decide to go for help.

Personally, I'd probably go for help first and then bring a couple SCBAs down with me. If I were fairly certain I wouldn't add to the problem, I'd probably attempt a rescue. I think I'd have a pretty hard time watching someone die and not do anything about it. Then again, if you go unconscious down there, you'll probably be the first one rescued as you'd be on top of the victim... which means you've just killed your coworker... but you'd probably be ok with an SCBA, even if you don't know how to use it. MEH! I hope that's a decision I'm never faced with! Let's hear it for AIR QUALITY METERS! (or a canary :-)

Anyway, I also got hoisted in "fall protection" in the parking lot. Cool. (I got to be a dummy)

Anyway, I'm done grossing you out. I've just seen a whole lot of scary things recently, but I enjoy learning OSHA rules and safe work practices, so it was fun. Most people, myself included, think OSHA is a really dumb thing and a huge impediment to revenue. Turns out, though, that every OSHA rule is the bear minimum after enough fatalities occur. OSHA has some serious teeth, and I think that's probably a good thing. If someone dies because your company ignored safety, your company, unless it's huge, is gone. Seems a little extreme, but no amount of money is going to buy that person back nor comfort the grieving family... It should be employer's priority to keep their employees safe, but as proven in the thousands of work-related deaths per year, it comes down to money. Businesses used to consider deaths just "part of doing business." Back when a fatality would only cost the company $25,000 it was cheaper to willfully put employees into unsafe conditions. Now that a fatality caused by a company's willful neglect of federal OSHA law puts them out of business, people are starting to listen, and safety is becoming the norm rather than the exception. Who knows if it's the right solution to the problem, but at least it's causing businesses to make ethical decisions.

I'm thinking I might volunteer for the upcoming safety officer position in our group. I'll probably regret it as you have to do all your normal work plus ensure everyone's being safe, but I think it would be kind of fun :-) True, everyone will hate you when you tell them things like they have to be in a Category 3 suit (looks like an astronaut suit) to inspect an electrical panel, but most people don't like me anyway, so it wouldn't matter. Ok, ok... I guess everyone at work likes me ok right now... gotta fix that! SAFETY, HERE I COME! :-)