Author: nslyax

nslyaxhttp://www.nicholasyax.com/I am a Ferris State alum currently living in Holland, MI. My blog has been being neglected recently, but I hope to be posting more.
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Snow!

Well, I changed my theme as you have seen I’m sure, and now today is snowed all day. No accumulation except on my windshield, but still snow.

Either tomorrow or Saturday Jenn and I go to her parents for Thanksgiving. We kind of want to go tomorrow and come back early Sunday, but Bill (Jenn’s sister’s boyfriend) has to work Saturday so we can’t have dinner until Sunday afternoon.

On my way back from Meijer, I once again saw the “Bridge May Be SPIcy” sign. I giggle every time I see it. I realized I should take a picture, next time.

So, thats about it. Class and home, class and home this week. Yesterday was 6 months since we moved here.

Update on the weekend Sunday or Monday.

nick

Another ChiChi

We just lost Chichii, I don’t know how or why, but it seems maybe we were not meant to have one. It may be hard to understand, but I really feel a loss. She was in my care, depended on me, and I failed her somehow. Maybe they are just too beautiful a fish to keep in an aquarium.

nick

Hrmmm…

So, Ludington trip was pretty cool. Great Lakes casting is a foundry, so rather foundry like stuff. Making sand molds, filling them with steel, breaking them out, particle blasting, and then shipping. The tour guide kept stopping in front of operations so we could watch them, which would be cool, but he had a habit of stopping in front of crappy operations. Sure, it’s cool to stand and watch molten steel being poured, but we can’t watch that because there is ladles of hot steel all around and we were in the way, so instead we watch some guy filling molds for 10 minutes, not as cool. The machine that breaks apart the molds is fun to watch though.

Whitehall Industries was a bit more fun. They heat a log of Aluminum about 20 ft long and 8″ round to 900˚F, cut off a 4 ft length like it was butter (which aluminum pretty much is at that temp), and ram it through a little tiny die under a few hundred thousand pounds of pressure. That 4 ft of log comes out as a perfectly formed extrusion up to 175 ft long, amazing. They have one extruder that they change the dies out on every so often, and as pieces come out they cut them to length and send them to the various machining and punching operations through the plant. A good part of what they make is rails for sunroofs for pretty near every manufacturer, as well as splines for convertible tops, and some parts to the C5 corvette frame (which is almost all aluminum, unlike the standard corvette which is steel framed, but still fiberglass body, apparently). They said roughly 80% automotive parts. They just expanded, so had some open space, but were already talking about next expansion in a few years, sounds like they are doing rather well.

My Industrial Engineering test came back as a 63, which sucks. I could have done better, a 93 would have been more my style. Not sure what happened, but will need to make sure it doesn’t again.

Jill has become very big, and has spent the last few days chasing Sunny around. I am not sure if I should do something, or what I could do. I feel bad for Sunny, because she was chased by the first Chi Chi so much when we first got her. The problem is Jill is really big, and only going to get bigger. I don’t want to have to get rid of a fish, but I don’t want to loose one either.

Yesterday want well in the machine lab with the seniors. I had to be there at 8, but we were done by noon, so that wasn’t too bad. I was afraid would be there till 4 or 5 or something. They pretty much finished their machining, have to re-run a few parts, then do heat treat next Friday. I don’t know if I will be there for that or not, will talk to partner Monday and make a decision.

I still need to do tags on all the posts, but it is a scary thought, having done categories on all the posts once already. I know it will end up taking a month or so, and obviously don’t look forward to going through over 500 posts again.

I was looking through and found out my longest blog was not 1071 Words and No Point, but Back from Vacation about Jenn and I’s Mackinaw trip. I was surprised to find that out. My longest post are my two process planning assignments from MFG-111 at Delta.

Speaking of long posts, this one is about long enough. I will see you all later I suppose.

nick

It Snowed

Jenn and I went to Applebee’s tonight for dinner. They have a new menu, and to be honest, I was rather disappointed. Gone is my beef stew over mashed potatoes thing, as well as Jenn’s grilled shrimp. As I flipped through the menu, I honestly felt that there was a whole section missing from it. I considered paying for our drinks and going somewhere else, but being the blustery cold evening it was, I didn’t feel like walking back to the vehicle only to drive a block or 2 and need to get out again. It wouldn’t be that bad, but the quality of some of the food we had gotten one of the last times we went there was rather poor, and we already lost Ruby Tuesday’s to a poor menu change (including price hikes beyond what the items are worth). At least we still have Bennigan’s (please don’t let them go to the dark side too).

I had a test yesterday in Industrial Engineering, and after turning it in I realized just how much I had gotten wrong. Will find out just what I did tomorrow morning.

Also tomorrow is the trip to Ludington with the SME group.

In case anyone missed it, it snowed today, and some yesterday. That is the first of the year I believe, around here anyway.

I posted a few new pics on Picassa, you can check them out by clicking Gallery at the top.

OK, suppose that it all.

Nick

Happy Halloween

So, whats new…

Jenn and I ventured to Traverse City on Saturday. We were bored, and we have been meaning to go since we moved, so figured lets go. We ventured to Cadillac first, where we went into Peebles, but found nothing. So, on we went to Traverse City, trying to snap photos on the way. I have nine pics, but because of the dreary day it was, the color is very off of what we saw, particularly of Grand Traverse Bay. Once on Traverse City, we went to the mall, and to the outlet strip mall. We didn’t really need anything though, so we didn’t get anything. Next, we went looking for Boone’s Long Lake Inn. I had called my mom to look up directions, and we followed, but missed that we had to turn from South Long Lake to East Long Lake rd, so went too far down and had to come back. Still, it was rather far out of town. Was it worth it? Yes, for me anyway. The 10 oz New York Strip was well over 10 oz, pushing 14+. Jenn’s shrimp were big, but not worth the price, should have ordered the lobster. Whether we will go back is unknown, it was $60 for the 2 of us, and is out there, but was pretty good. Plus, they had Ayinger October Fest, my new favorite beer.

We had an SME meeting today to discuss our trip to Ludington for plant tours next week. We will leave school at 11, tour Whitehall Industries and Great Lakes Casting, have dinner, then return home around 5 or 6 ish.

Jenn is in Saginaw with her Mom and Aunt Mary right now, shopping and what not. She left this afternoon, will return tomorrow sometime.

I think that’s all.

Till next time…

Happy Halloween!

Nick

Untitled 12

Tuesday after class Jenn and I went to Grand Rapids and got new cell phones. Our contract with Sprint had expired and with AT&T buying Cellular One, they should have the best coverage in the state around Christmas. Plus, rollover is pretty darn cool. Our numbers did not change, and you shouldn’t notice any difference, although I need to dial 989 to call people now. We both got RAZR v3xx, mine grey and hers red. I managed to get mine to mostly sync over USB while Jenn’s is syncing better over bluetooth. I needed a plugin to get it working, though Leopard is supposed to have native support when it comes out tomorrow, but it won’t run on my computer. Oh well.

The tree line is pretty well bare now, and with no leaves you can hear the river now. It’s kind of weird, having not heard it before being a good 100 yards away and the leaves insulating the noise since we moved in. At the same time, it would have been cool to hear while sitting outside over summer, rather than only hearing at night when it’s quiet now, and 20 degrees out.

Speaking of weather, low 28 Sunday night, and the dirty 4 letter S word was mentioned on the news (“I’ll take Swords for $400 Alex”, lol, hah!).

OK, when i start doing that, it means nothing else good.

nick

Five Hundred!!!!!

It would have been cool to name it ! (500 times), but that would be really long and time consuming to count.

So, for the 500th I figures something good was in order. After much thinking, I came up with it, then put it off, then put it off more. But, now, I am here to do it. For the 500th, I will do something that was a fundamental part of the founding of this blog, and it’s first several posts. Sadly, I have not done it in a while, and that needs to be remedied. Yes, I am going to bitch.

For anyone who has ever lived in Big Rapids, a fundamental flaw in the area is the radio stations. Somehow, they all suck. Not like “ehh, there are 20 stations and I only like 1 a lot, but there are 5 I will listen too” like, no, no this is “there are 10, and I will listen to 2 sometimes, but end up flipping more than listening to any of them”. I hadn’t really noticed for 5 months because I had no radio in the neon, but it is now a major pain in the ass. Yes, I have a 6 disc cd changer, but I don’t want to listen to one artist for 12 straight songs, and I don’t want to burn 20 discs. I should be able to listen to decent radio. And, worse, Ferris has a radio station that I really like, but it isn’t actually a radio station, it is on a TV channel and online only, not over actual radio. WTF?

Of the stations that there are, the vast majority are country. There are also 2 top 40 and 2 oldies (I think). The top 40 stations literally only play 40 songs, if that. Maybe they are each top 20 stations and thought it would work out, I don’t know. The oldies stations had a chance, as I will listen to some oldies, but they just rather suck. Maybe I grew out of it, maybe Oldies 96 was just a better oldies station.

Either way, I wanted to bitch about that.

Also to bitch about, is the people who go 35 down Perry, which is a 55. Why did they even make it a 55? The right lane everyone goes 35, the left there are people going anywhere from 45 to 60. Yes, I am more pissed at the people that go 35 than the road engineers, but maybe it would be better if it was a 45? I doubt it will change though, and until it does, I am going to be cussing at people going 35 up the hill because their K-car can’t make it.

What else can I bitch about? If I can bitch for 9000 words or so, I can get the 150,000 word in the 500th post. That would take forever and be boring as hell though, for you to read and me to write.

OK, enough bitching I guess.

Jenn and I went to Mt. Pleasant yesterday and got ChiChii (notice 2 i’s at end, indicating 2, hahahahahahahah). She is really tiny compared to other fish, but getting along fine. I think is just right size of too small for others to worry about, but too big to be food. We also ate at the Italian Oven, which Jenn had never had and I haven’t had since they were on Euclid about 10 years ago. Thank got they don’t use the noodle straws anymore. They were kind of cool, but tasted funny.

I think that is all.

501, later this week.

nick

Weekend Alone

Well, not Alone, but without Jenn. She left for Arizona Thursday to see her friend Gwen in Phoenix, and returned on yesterday (Monday).

I went to the Job Fair at Ferris Thursday, which she was still around for, then class, which was uneventful. Friday morning I had class and he snuck the lab in too, so no lab later in the day. That left me a few more hours of free time so I left for bay City around 12.

I took all side roads and even managed to become lost north of Midland. Somehow, it is very easy to take side roads through Mecosta and Isabella County, but once you get to Coleman it all gets screwed up. I have always hated Midland’s roads anyway. Anyhow, I finally crossed into Bay County, and got all excited, and then realized I had never heard of the road I was on, so went south a mile to see what one was next. I ended up at the corner of Garfield and Beaver, and finally remembered how US-10 turns south after the mall, and that since I had been north of 10, I would obviously be very north in Bay County.

Anyway, I finally made my way home, and visited with my Mom for a while. Next, I showed my car off to my Dad, then Todd. Back to home then, pick up Chris and my Mom, and we went to RiverRock for dinner. Once done there, I tried to set up something with everyone from the library but all had plans for Saturday, so I talked with Brandon for a while and then drove around for a bit. I ran to Meijer in Essexville and realized I had not been there since May 17th, almost 5 months before. It was a little weird, familiar but very different. As I drove around a little more, it really hit me that I don’t live in Bay City anymore, and as familiar as it all was, it had become a foreign place.

Saturday morning, I went to the Bay City Mall, and then to Rudy J’s with my Mom. Just before, I had helped her unload a shelf from her truck so my hands were rather dirty from it, so went to wash my hands. This, oddly, is important, because it is the first time I had ever been in Rudy J’s restroom. OK, not that important, but surprising I had been there so many times and never “gone”. Anyway, after that Tim came over to visit, then I went back to my Dad’s to see my Grandma, then headed home.

Everyone liked my car, particularly the color. I am amazed I was as lost as I was in Midland. I mean, I didn’t know where I was exactly for alot of the trip, but I think in Midland was about the most lost I have ever been, and I have never been real lost before. I am going to blame Midland and the Sun, for not shining that day. I went to Weidman for some traveling supplies (Jerky, Vernors, and a honey bun) because the sign gave me a choice of M-20 or Weidman, and I didn’t want to take 20.

So, Sunday I sat around mostly, did a little homework, and made some pretty good chilli.

Monday, Jenn returned after both of my classes.

Today (Yesterday now) I had class, we made stew, and visited the new pet store on Michigan. They have a Jack Dempsey Cichlid about 12″ long, 6″ tall, and 2″ wide. Is scary that our little Jill will get that big in a few years. Heck, in the last month we have had her she has gone from about 2″ to 3″.

So, I think that is all for post number 499.

See you next time.

nick

Columbus Day

Today we celebrate Christopher Columbus “discovering” a continent that he thought was Asia, and that Norwegians had been visiting for 500 years or so. We celebrate the man that caused the deaths of millions of native americans, and “proved” the world was round, as the greeks had known 2500 years earlier.

OK, yes, he did one thing that others had not: He pushed others to follow his route and go see the “New World” as well. Still, he thought it was “the Indies” that he found, not until Amerigo Vespucci did they realize this was a new continent. Luckily, they named it after Amerigo’s first name. Otherwise we could be in Columbia, or Vespuccia, or Chrisophia?

nick

New Car!!!

I bought a new car yesterday. You should be able to look at it for a while here. The neon was being a real pain in the ass.

Tomorrow I need to run to campus safety to transfer my parking permit, go to class, go get new insurance, check the proof of my student business card, sit for a while, then back to class. Yes, I said student business cards. A. They’re cool, B. Student Employment sold me on them.

Tuesday, I get to pick up my final cards, pick up my suit, and class of course.

Wednesday will be standard class only, so far.

Thursday Jenn leaves for Arizona to see Gwen. Her flight leaves at 5:40ish. Also, is Ferris’s career fair. With any luck I might find my summer internship there.

Friday I have class.

At some point, either Friday or Saturday, I might head to Bay City. There was mention that my Dad would come over to Baldwin for salmon fishing, in which case I would stick around here and go fishing with him. Otherwise though, i will be in Bay City at some point.

Jenn will be back on Tuesday, at 5:40ish PM also.

OK, more on the car. Friday, while being sick, I ran out for some Hawaiian Punch (2 gallons, which are now gone) when the brake rotor decided to lock up. For whatever reason, it decided to lock up worse than normal and I had to pull over and sit and wait for it to cool down. After alot of shit, I was really pissed off, and decided I would have a new car the next day. Saturday morning, we went to the dealership, asked if they had found a car for me yet (after 1 month of having them look) and when they said no, I asked what kind of deal they could make me on something on the lot in leu. I had liked the green-grey / titanium green colored four door for about a month, and after driving it around I decided it was the one. I brought the neon there, and they decided $500 was the best they could offer. Seeing as how I bought in 16 months ago and only paid $1000, a $500 decrease was not really that bad. I hadn’t even put 5000 miles on it yet, it was at 166011 when I signed it over, and had bout with 161300 something. Still, there was a crapload wrong, and $500 was reasonable.

So, I applied for a loan, got one, and we got all the paperwork signed. We got home about 4 after stopping for dinner, and I ended up sleeping for several hours because I was still pretty sick.

Since I just transfered my old insurance from the neon, I don’t have collision on it until tomorrow afternoon. Because of that, I haven’t actually driven it since I got it home. I would obviously be really pissed if something happened.

What else…

So, the car itself, for when the dealership pulls it from Auto Trader…
2005 Ford Focus SE, 23,000 miles, 6 disk MP3 CD changer, 16″ aluminum wheels, rear spoiler, heated seats and lumbar, working air conditioning, working brakes, working suspension, working transmission, working radio, steering wheel mounted stereo controls, working fog lights, and factory warranty until March 31. I actually bought the extended warranty until 2010, since it was only about $10 more per month. That will last until about the time I have graduated, have a decent job, and am looking for a new car by then.

OK, that’s enough.

Till next time…

nick