My first experience with blood donation was in high school as a 16 year old when I donated for the Red Cross when they came to my school. I thought it was really cool to be able to donate and save someone’s life and the experience has led me to become a lifetime blood donor however I haven’t done it in a few years. This initial experience allowed me to get familiar with the process and learning not to be afraid of the HUGE ASS needle that they stick in your arm! That’s okay with me since needles, like the cold, never really bothered me anyway! And as sickening as it sounds, I actually like to look at it when they stick me.

I heard about plasma “donation” on the radio when I was a senior in college and they advertised that you could make $300 a month by donating plasma. I’ve read multiple articles about the semantics battle between using the word donation vs. selling and the main argument is that it’s not donating if you’re getting paid for it. At the end of the day, you are giving your plasma to help others survive and live longer therefore call it whatever you want but the end product is still the same. I decided to check it out and it was pretty identical to donating whole blood with the Red Cross except it took longer and you can donate twice in a week while you can only donate whole blood once every 8 weeks. I’ve donated at three plasma centers which include two locations from the same company in Gresham and Hillsboro along with a center from a different company in Portland. Before I started to donate plasma, I wanted to get as much information about the process, what its actually like, what can I expect, how much do I get paid, what are the health effects, etc., as I could. Therefore, the premise of this blog post is to provide my personal experience with the process mixed with what I’ve read over the annals of the internet – I’m going to report on plasma donation through my scope of what I saw and how I saw it.

The first step that needs to be done is to see if there are any plasma donations near where you live – this can be accomplished with a simple Google search for “plasma donation centers”. There are several providers that should have multiple centers where you live and from my experience they don’t vary that much from one to the other. I’ve read that centers are usually located in areas where people need the money like near college campuses and in the low-income parts of town. The centers I’ve participated in definitely fit this stereotype and the donors give off the vibe of being on the lower rung of the socioeconomic ladder. But at the end of the day, we were all donors trying to get a quick buck.

Once you find the center then you will need to go through the initial screening process which will take approximately 2-4 hours.During the process they will do a routine physical, ask you questions about your health, test your blood pressure, and take samples of your blood. It takes this long only the first time, your next visits will usually take 10-20 minutes before you begin your donation process. You can choose to donate after you pass this screening or elect to give a sample of your blood and then donate within the next few days. For the sake of my story, I will assume you just gave the samples and will return for your donation at a later date.

The following paragraphs is what you can expect when you decide to sell/donate your plasma as they are eerily similar at all locations. Once you enter the plasma center, you will go to the designated kiosk area where you sign-in with your thumbprint and answer similar questions that were asked in your initial health screening. If you’ve donated whole blood with the Red Cross before these questions will be very familiar like are you sick today, do you have any new tattoos, have you taken drugs monobobopoopo, coochietera, or tooko, have you ever had HIV, do you live with anyone with Hepatitis, yadda, yadda, yadda. There are approximately 20-30 questions and it’ll take you at least 5 minutes because you cannot move to the next question since they are timed. Here is a picture of the kiosk:After you complete your questionnaire at the kiosk you will sit down in a lobby or wait in line until you’re called by a technician to complete your shortened health screening. Below is a picture of the lobby of the place I used to donate at in Portland. I’ve covered the face of the individuals to protect their privacy.
Depending on how crowded the center is, you could wait anywhere from 2 minutes to an hour. When I donated at the center in Hillsboro it only took 2 minutes because it was new and basically empty around the time I came in (6:00 PM which is their closing time) while at the Gresham center it took closer to an hour because it was packed all the freaking time. The nurse will call you up and take you to a private room/stall where they will begin the blood screening process to make sure you’re healthy enough to donate that day. Here is a photo of what that room looks like, sorry for the potato quality.
You’ll quickly find out that they ask for your full name and last 4 digits of your social security very often. Not sure if this is to verify if you’re the same person (I know, I know…) or to make sure you’re still thinking properly and not high off your ass. You can’t see in the photo above but there is a scale just behind the chair and that is what they’ll have you do first. This is important because there are 3 ranges for the amount of plasma you have to donate correlating to your weight – I weighed around 160 and was in the middle band which required me to donate 880 ML. At some centers you get more/less money (+/- $5-10) depending on your weight and at others its constant no matter what you weigh although you do have to donate more if you weigh more but you get paid the same as that skinny ass person. After they weigh you, then the worst part of the donation happens: the finger prick! They’ll prick you finger to get a blood sample so they test for your iron and protein levels. Other things they’ll check include your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. After you pass all those then you move into the donation zone or as I like to call it “THE MATRIX”.

Below is what THE MATRIX looks like. I call it this because the first time I walked into the area I was freaking shocked! It looked so surreal. The Gresham center has like 10 rows of beds and it was full of people hooked up to machines that were taking their life force similar to The Matrix before Neo got rescued by Morpheus. I wish I had a photo of the Gresham center as my photos below does not do it justice.
Once you sit on the bed, the technician will ask you if you want the right or left arm. I usually alternate arms but some people use just one arm. My reasoning was that I wanted to let the wound heal and not collapse the vein which was unlikely. You’re allowed to donate twice within a 7-day period. The big, grey machine you see in the photo will take whole blood from your body and then separate it into plasma, which they’ll keep, and return your red blood cells back to you. The entire process takes approximately 45-90 minutes depending on how well hydrated you are. The fastest I’ve done was 41 minutes and the longest was 75 minutes. The IV needle stick starts with them pumping up your arm to see your vein and the best location to stick you! Once they determine your veins are good to go they’ll put iodine on the location and mix it for 30 seconds. Then the FUN BEGINS! They’ll take the needle and stick it in you! I’m a crazy person and I love to look at when they do. Other people look away like a little bitch but hey, I don’t judge. Here is a photo of me with the needle in me arm! The blot of blood is rare and usually no blood escapes from the wound except when they extract the needle.
After you near the end of your donation, they’ll either give you a saline pack through the IV or make you drink a bottle of electrolytes (Powerade or Gatorade) to help you replenish the fluids you’ve just lost. After that you’re all done and you get paid!

Most places will give you a very high dollar amount for the first 4-5 times you donate. IIRC, one place gave me $50 for the first time and $80 for the second time alternating till you gave 5 donations and another place gave me $50 for 4 donations. After that period expires, you’ll get into the regular payment schedule which gives you a small amount for the 1st donation and a larger for your second. For example, the most recent place in Portland was a $25/$45 split while the one in Hillsboro was $20/$40 – it varies from center to center but they’re all around that range. They also have promotions every month like you get a peel card for prizes on your 6th donation of the month or an additional $20 on your 7th and 8th donations.

If you just want to get some beer money, then this is a quick means to get that. You’re also helping others get crucial life saving medicine in the process. My only caveat is that you stop donating if you’re feeling/getting sick because it will prolong the amount of time you’re ill. I had first hand experience with this because I had a cold but kept going on keeping on. It was 3 weeks into my cold and I was very frustrated I didn’t get over it because I rarely got sick and never stayed sick for too long. I decided to stop donating and BOOM, within a few days I was back to normal. Your experience might vary but just giving you my insight. I also felt extremely drained after I donated and wasn’t able to do much – I just went straight to sleep as soon as I got home.

Therefore if you do decide to donate, make sure you know all the health implications and make sure you’re well hydrated the day prior, during, and after you donate. I personally had no qualms or ill effects from donating however there is limited research on the long-term effects for prolonged plasma donation. I’ve stopped donating at the request of my parents and I do miss the income a little bit; you can make more than 3 grand a year! Either way, you only have one body and money can’t buy health so make sure you cross your T’s and dot your I’s before you make the decision to start donating plasma. I hope this helps in your decision to donate and don’t hesitate to contact me through the social media links!

I retook the FE exam in April after I failed it the previous April. I’m very pleased and honored to say that I PASSED!! The feeling of seeing “Congratulations” on the letter was indescribable when you know the amount of effort and sweat you put into passing that test. The worst part was waiting 7 weeks for your results to come back. I don’t know how many times I Googled “minimum passing score for FE exam” and I read the same forum threads over and over again just because I was so anxious. After having failed the first time and passing the second time, I believe I have some helpful insight for people who are looking to take the test. First of all, I commend you for taking this test because it opens opportunities for you down the road that you can’t even think about right now. I decided to take the test because of a situation I learned from one of my coworkers at my internship. My internship was at a government agency and one of the “engineers” there came from the same educational background that I did: graduated from the OSU CEM program. He was telling me how he was stuck at his pay grade and cannot get a raise/promotion because to move to the next level he needs to get his PE and the first step in getting your PE is to pass the FE. He told me that he’s taken the test 5 times and failed every time just because it was too much information and he doesn’t have time to study with a family and bills to pay (he’s 25+ years out of school). This lead me to firmly decide that I’m going to take the FE exam and pass because it stays with you for life! He told me he never expected he would be working for the government, his plan was to work for a contractor his whole life. You never know where your career is going to take you, so plan ahead as much as you can and pick the low hanging fruit!

The first tip I can give, and I know it’s cliche, is to STUDY, STUDY, STUDY! My first time taking the test, it was my final year of college and I wanted to have fun and party so that’s what I did and that’s why I failed. I didn’t study at all, not even opening the reference manual until the day of the actual test. Though maybe you’re a genius like some of my friends who say that didn’t study at all and still passed (I can vouch that he didn’t study for it lol). But if you’re like the rest of us then you will need adequate time. I recommend starting at least 3 months out if you have the time and spending 1-2 hours every night. I started legitimately studying at 1.5 months and those last few weeks I skipped a lot of sections. I basically skipped over the electrical section because I didn’t learn this in college and there was no way I was going to learn electrical fundamentals in 4 weeks. The book I studied from is the FE bible created by Micahel Lindeburg. DON’T BUY ANY OTHER BOOK EXCEPT FOR THIS ONE! I also got the NCEES civil engineering and that helped me a little bit but unless you have your company paying for it (I did) then I don’t think it’s worth the cost. Your main focus from this book should be the general math sections in the beginning. You want to be able to get all the easy points and not miss those because points are not weighted, all the hard questions and easy questions are the same points therefore the goal is to not miss any of the easy ones.

One of the best things I got from the Lindeburg book was the practice exam that they provided. I took the exam under “testing conditions”. I woke up at 6:30 AM and then ate breakfast and waited till around 7:30 before I sat down at my desk to take the exam. I used my calculator, a shitty mechanical pencil, the reference manual, and gave myself only 4 hours (you have another 4 years to take the afternoon section). I used all the same techniques as I would during the test. For example, there were 120 questions which meant that I needed to answer 15 questions every half hour and that’s how I kept pace to make sure that I wasn’t getting hung up on a question. Definitely wear a watch because it’s much faster than looking up at the big clock and depending on where you’re sitting, you might not even get to see the clock. I also incorporate the strategy I call “Live by the C, Die by the C”. Which basically means that if I don’t know the answer or can’t narrow down the answers then I’m going to put C and move on. You can do all the statistical analysis you want on putting one letter vs picking random but I just think that picking random you have a possibility of getting 0 of them correct. Putting C for everything you don’t know, you will get at least 1 correct no matter what. Who knows, that 1 point could be the difference between passing and not. The first time I took the test, I did not incorporate this strategy.

Lastly, remember to rest very well the day before the exam. I went into an isolation tank to clear my mind (that’s a whole separate post) and ate a good dinner and went to bed at a very reasonable time. I also took 3 days off from work. One of the most important things is to prepare your body for this test. It’s basically like your final exams but on steroids because it’s a culmination of not just one subject but multiple disciplines.

If you did your due diligence and studied accordingly, you should have no problem with this test. A final tip is to pick a relevant afternoon session and stay away from the Other Disciplines if possible. I was in construction engineering management so I had a few overlapping classes with the civil engineers therefore I took the civil section. My CEM friend took the Others and he said it was basically the morning session but they injected questions with venom and turned it into monsters! I wish the best of luck to you in taking this test and rest assured that it will pay for itself in your life time.

I just passed my LEED AP BD+C exam last week with a score of 184/200 with a 170 being the minimum passing score. Compared to the LEED GA the questions and overall test was very difficult! I had trouble with probably 30% of the questions and there were some where I was at a complete lost where as with the GA I breezed through the questions with ease. I will outline my study habits that I went through for this test and give some tips on what I think really helped me pass the LEED AP BD+C.

My study regiment didn’t really start until 3 days before the test; the test was on Monday and started to fully commit to studying on Friday. Turner had a study session two months ahead of my test date and that really helped because it got me thinking and most importantly, started. Our company had a copy of the LEED AP BD+C reference manual so I spent Friday and Saturday reading the entire book from beginning to end except for the appendices. I HIGHLY recommend doing this because this is what LEED is all about; you need to know the requirements for each credit to be able to help the client and owner in deciding which paths to pursue. I also had access to study materials at greenexamprep.com and this was probably what allowed me to pass the test. The website had close to 500 practice questions and this helped prep me for the exam. I spent Sunday taking the specialized practice exams in Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Earth & Atmosphere  etc. and on Monday I took 2 practice exams consisting of 100 random questions to prepare me for the actual test. When I say that I didn’t do anything all weekend but study, I’m not lying. I literally sat at my desk all day and studied from the time I woke up to the bedtime but most importantly, I got a good night rest each time and that truly makes a big difference. So here are a few tips for you to pass the exam:

Read the ENTIRE reference manual. Yes, I know it’s 600+ pages but if you are truly committed to passing this test, then you will have to read the ENTIRE manual and highlight and/or take notes as you move along. You want to focus on the requirements and implementation sections to truly understand what you need to accomplish to achieve the credit. This will help you create your foundation and with it you will be able to answer 95% of the questions. I would also stress to try and read it over a couple of days because it is extremely exhausting to look at that whole book for one entire day. I split the categories over 3-days and that seemed to work because it was still fresh in my mind over that period but wasn’t too draining.

Take as many practice questions/exams as you can. This strategy helped me out tremendously for the LEED GA so I did the same thing for the LEED AP. There are a few free sites on the internet that will provide you with a free 100 question practice exam but if you have the money then I would recommend signing up for a subscription at greenexamprep.com. Some of the questions that they had on their practice tests was verbatim of what was on my actual test and the format/questions are eerily similar. You CANNOT pass the LEED AP without practicing on questions and sample exams because this will familiarize you with the rigor of the questions and what pieces of information you will need to know to answer the questions correctly. I also found it very beneficial to take a full 100-question practice exam in similar exam conditions i.e 2-hour limit, no book, head phones on, etc. As the old saying goes: practice, practice, PRACTICE! And yes, we talking about practice. (Ref. Allen Iverson)

 Do a “Brain Dump” before the exam. The exam center will give you a 10-minute period to take an optional tutorial on how to use the computer system. TAKE IT! The tutorial will teach you the layout of the exam screen, how to mark questions, the calculator, and how to navigate between questions; the important part of this tutorial is the 8-9 minutes you’ll have after the tutorial. I took this time to do a “brain dump” which was basically writing frantically all the information I had in my head down on paper to help me during the test. You will be provided with 2 sheets of paper and it’s very useful to fill as much as you possibly can. What information should you write? Anything that you might have trouble with or anything that pops into your head. For me, it was some of the tables correlating % and points like the renewable energy thresholds. I also wrote down some requirements that I got confused about like percent needed for open space and restoring habitat. The most important thing about the brain dump is that it gives you a kick start to your exam and really ramps up your brain to get ready for the test.

Take my advice above and you should be fine for the test! Don’t take it lightly because it is a difficult test and you should give it the time that it requires. The scoring must be weighted some how because even though I ended up with a 92% overall, the highest percentage I got in any category was 88% and even a 50% in one category. I really thought I was not going to pass the test because I guessed on a lot of questions but it’s one of those tests where you can study for weeks/months but there will still be questions that will trip you up. We’ve had 4 people in our office take the test and all 4 have passed, including myself. Prepare well and you should have no trouble passing with flying colors on your first attempt.

I think that those who laugh together will work well together and since I’ve been here at Turner, I’ve had many laughs with my fellow coworkers. This has created a relationship between us that allows us to have a sense of humor at work and gives us the ability to joke around with one another. It’s also important to know your audience and where the line is at all times so you don’t cross it. I would like to give an example of a recent laugh that we had that involved bringing sweets into the office.

Every Friday at Intel, there is an employee that brings doughnuts for the team and this is all expensable through Turner so you don’t have to pay out-of-pocket. The person who is suppose to do it every week is working nights so he won’t be able to do it, so he sent out an email asking for others to help. Here is the following email that he sent:

All,

The time has come to decide who will acquire the single largest responsibility for the Turner Intel Team: Doughnut Duty. Unfortunately I am working nights this week, Calvin has Friday off, and Tyson has Jury Duty. Therefore, the torch must be passed on. Somebody will have a chance to show their greatness, their leadership, their courage, and most importantly – their dedication to Building the Future. The question is – who is ready to step up to the plate!?

It’s a task that nobody wants to bear on their shoulders but someone has to do it, so I decided it was my time. So I made this meme and then I hit “reply all”.

I spent the summer of my college junior year doing an internship for Sears Holdings Corporation as a college field intern for my local Sears store; it was located at the Clackamas Town Center Mall. The internship consisted of shadowing current assistant store managers with the hope that I will join their ranks when I graduated from college. My duties included approving price changes, handling customer issues, overseeing employee evaluations, support the assistant store managers, operations manager, and store manager, and anything else that the company needed. It was my first internship and it was a great experience that I will never forget because not only did I learn how to treat and handle customers, the internship provided me with the knowledge of what it’s like to work in an office environment. I learned what’s it like to work with coworkers who have different views; I also met good and bad coworkers and learned many things about the working world and life from them. There were a few exchanges that I had during the internship which stuck in my mind and made me think about how I should go about my career and life in general.

I had worked at Sears before but only as a seasonal sales associate during high school and my main job duties were just handling customer inquiries, working the cash register, and restocking merchandise. Therefore I remembered a little bit of how the register worked but I was still a novice at it so when I was asked to help with some “cash wraps” (the hub where the cash registers are located) because there was a long line of customers. I felt a little overwhelmed because I didn’t know how to look up prices if it didn’t show up or how to handle returns properly. So a customer line was starting to form behind my register so I asked a older fellow associate if she could help me and she responded “You’re young, you can figure it out yourself.” And I was shocked at her response because I thought she would help me. I later told a coworker about the incident and she told me that the person I asked for help doesn’t really like new employees and that was probably the reason for her rudeness. I was also wearing a blue lanyard which meant I’m a sales associate when managers wear red lanyards but I wasn’t given a red one because they had ran out. So a few days passed and that same sales associate came over to me and said she was sorry and that she didn’t know I was a manager. I wasn’t sure if I heard her correctly but then she followed up with some more apologies and asked if I needed help with anything… It definitely sheds a new light on how I viewed employees and how they treat each other and their supervisors. I was still very young at that time and I was surprised when she treated me completely different when she found out that I was a manager and not a regular sales associate. This taught me to treat all your employees the same no matter their position because you never know what they will achieve later in life or maybe that they already have that position but you just don’t know it.

One day I was eating lunch when a fellow coworker sits next to me and we start chatting it up. He sold shoes in the footwear department and has been working with Sears for several years now. He talked about his future plans and how he wanted to study architecture and also landscaping so that he could design every aspect of the building. I questioned him if that was a good idea since it might be easier to subcontract out one or the other and just focus on one field. His response was that he already had his mind set and believes this will help him become a better designer by learning every aspect. He then proceeded to ask me what kind of car I drive and I told him an old Toyota Camry. He said “Why is that I am only a few years older than you yet I drive a BMW and you don’t?” I was like WTF? Where did that come from but my response was “I don’t know man, I guess you got more style than me.” Lame response I know but I wasn’t going to say anything else because 1. I was a manager and 2. I really didn’t give a shit. At that point in my life, I had gained enough confidence in myself to know that I don’t need material possessions to validate anything in my life. I also knew I had a bright future ahead of me and if I wanted a BMW in the future, I don’t think I would have any problem affording one. As I look back on that conversation now, I have much more knowledge and I know the true cost of luxury cars. There are many people who buy them but they can’t actually “afford” them without sacrificing some part of their financial freedom. I’ve also read “The Millionaires Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko and learned the fact that the majority of millionaires spend around $32,000 for their cars because they don’t make good investment sense. I remembered my parent’s asking me what my dream car would be and I said a Honda S2000 and they asked me why I didn’t pick some grander car like a Ferrari. I responded that I really don’t need an expensive car to show people that I’m rich. All I want is the ability to be confident in myself so that I don’t need to rely on other people’s perception of me.

I really enjoyed my internship at Sears and especially the other managers I shadowed. The operations manager was my favorite and we got along very well; I would love to work with him in the future because we would joke around and gel very nicely. He also took me under his wing and showed me the ropes which I really appreciated. That was my first experience being a manager and it showed me what kind of people skills you needed to be a great one. It also required a lot of emotional intelligence and the ability to separate emotions from business. I hope that someday I can become a manager where others will respect me and be able to tell me what the candidly think so that we can make the business grow together.

Just got done watching Randy Paushc’s last lecture on Youtube and it has to be one of the best videos I’ve watched on Youtube with Lily’s Disneyland Surprise and Ronaldinho’s Golden Touch. It was truly inspiring to hear his life lessons and how he still conducts himself even when he only has a few months left to live. The video is embedded with so many gems that the only way to truly explain it would just be to watch it. The two things I took away from it most was the story he gave about when his coach was riding him extra hard during a practice. One of the coaches said that “When you’re screwing up and nobody saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up”. He also talked about brick walls are there to see how much you want something. It’s also used to separate you and everybody else; from the ones who are willing to do whatever it takes and the people who will give up easily. I’m very glad that I was referred to this video and that I took the time to watch it. I actually planned it into my calendar and the lessons are something I will keep in mind when I go on in my life. Thank you very much Randy.

Here is a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

I just recently purchased a 2012 Motobecane Fantom CX from bikesdirect.com for $580 and had it delivered on Friday 8/17/12. They told me that it would come 90% assembled and the rest was up to me. Let me tell you, it wasn’t 90% assembled!! It was more like 75-80% because it took me almost an hour to put the thing together and their manual was very general (which they warned me about). It also was difficult because I’ve ridden bikes before but I’m a novice when it actually comes to the components and maintenance of a bicycle. Therefore the assembly process was a difficult one but I got all the parts to go together and the bike ended up being functional.

After I assembled the bike to the best of my abilities, I went to the Bike Gallery on Division street to buy a new bracket for my Kryptonite lock and a few other items like lights, and a cargo rack. The ride took me close to an hour and I didn’t feel anything wrong with the bike except for I haven’t ridden  for that long for some time and my butt felt sore to the point I was walking bow legged into the store. Along with buying the items, I was also planning on asking them to take a look at my bike to see if I installed it correctly and if all the bolts were tightened correctly. He took one look at the bike and asked me if the bike was assembled recently and I tentatively gave him a yes. He then proceeded to bombard me with all the mistakes I had and blamed the online shops for telling their customers that they would be able to assembly the bike when they probably don’t have the proper tools because they cost hundreds of dollars each. So after convincing me that I am a complete noob and if I ride the bike home then there is a good chance that I could cause permanent damage to the bike, I left the bike with him to properly assemble for $85 + $$ for misc. parts he will have to add.

The lesson I learned: Always refer to an expert when it comes to anything that requires complex assembly.

Here is a picture of my bike, I named it Naz’gul.

Tomorrow we have a meeting where meeting is mandatory and it has caused people at Intel to start throwing suspicions everywhere and I have gotten a little whirled up into their speculations. The rumor mills are spitting out that we got a new project, we didn’t get our new contract signed, there will be restructuring, and there might a massive lay-off. Apparently there is usually a description that accompanies these meetings but this time, there isn’t any and that has lead to the staff questioning the true intent of the meeting. I’m not sure if this mild chaos was planned or if there was no way around it because the manager needed to keep the information confidential until he has permission to release it. Either way we will all know at 3:00 PM tomorrow about what our future at Intel will entail.

I’m not panicking too much because it’s all speculation at this point, but I always fear the “first in, first out” rule. I know that Turner hires people for a career and they won’t let anybody go without doing their best to find them some work. This is why I have faith in them and the reason they have lasted over a century in a very competitive business; you must be able to adapt to your surrounding environments and if the information is bad news, then I’m sure we can adapt.

And if the worst case scenario happens and I’m laid off, then I will promptly start trying to find a job somewhere else in the construction industry. It’s definitely a scenario that I don’t want to pane out, but the world is not about survival of the fittest but survival of the ones who are most adaptive to change. I can’t doing anything now except wait for 3:00 PM Thursday when I know what will happen.

Last Wednesday I finally got to play some organized softball which I’ve always wanted to do in college but never got the opportunity because I didn’t know anybody who wanted to play. Unfortunately, I haven’t played softball since PE class in middle school and it gave me an experience I won’t soon forget. The team I played on was with my fellow Turner coworkers and they play in a “beer” league where alcohol is consumed throughout the softball match; I only drank one can but others were pounding them down like old college days! I guess it’s hard to find players so we teamed up with another company titled Glumac which I think is an engineering firm. We played two games starting at 6 PM all the way to 9 PM with the first game being decided by time and the second one being played till 7 innings.

When I got to the field, it was a busy day apparently because we had 23 players which is huge compared to the other team which probably had around 12 people so we could basically field two teams. This made it a little difficult to get some reps but I got to play multiple times in the field and also batted three times. When I was on the field, I mostly played center field because I found out that the more experience players play in the infield similar to soccer. I was waiting for a ball to be hit towards me so that I could make a diving catch but I never got my opportunity. I’m also pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to make the catch because the other guys were belting those balls pretty hard and on top of that, the softball’s name is misnomer! It’s hard as hell! I ended up not making and catches but I did get to throw the ball once and that was the highlight of my outfield experience. When I got to bat was my favorite part, as it probably is for most people because there is nothing more fun than hitting a ball.

Before it was my turn to bat, a coworker asked me when was the last time that I hit a ball and I told him 7th grade then he grinned at me. Luckily, your own team pitches to you rather than the other team so this was a relief for me and also you get 5 tries and that is it; there are no strikeouts so you can attempt to swing at anything. I had confidence in myself because the ball was huge and I was pretty athletic so this was going to be easy in my opinion. The first pitch that I got was thrown at my feet and my friend told me he was just playing with me, which didn’t help me at all cause I needed all the practice I could get! The second pitch came in and looked perfect so I used all my strength and swung at it envisioning a home run and listening for the huge thunder that was going to come. But all I heard was a swoosh and myself spinning around in a circle. Then came the comments about my golf swing and the wind they felt. The third and fourth pitches ended up in the same order and this lead my teammates and opponents to cheer for me. I’ve never been on this side of the cheering before and it was very humbling. Hearing people say “You can do it! Keep your eye on the ball” made me feel athletically inadequate but also motivated me to not let them down. It did help me that I had my coworkers and other people rooting for me that I didn’t want to fail them on my last pitch. So I locked my eyes really hard and focused on the ball and was able to make contact! Although it ended up being a fly ball everybody cheered because I was able to make contact and I’m glad I was able to experience what it was like to being cheered on when you’re struggling. On my third at-bat in the 2nd game, I was able to contribute to my team. I was less nervous on the 3rd time and was able to hit an RBI and then I ran the field over two hits and was able to run home. Our team ended up winning by one point and I like to think that it was due to my RBI 🙂

I really enjoyed playing softball because all my coworkers were very supportive and it was a fun atmosphere. I would definitely try and make all the games over the season just to become better friends with my coworkers and also work on my hitting! We also have this golf event coming up in September and I think I would need to practice before that occurs as well. I’m still in my honeymoon phase with my job but everything has been going fantastic and I’m learning so much both in my work and out of work.

Sand in the City is an event held at Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon that is sponsored by Mr. Yoshida and supports Impact NW which is an organization that provides support and aid to Northwest children. The event consists of hundreds of cubic yards of sand being dumped into Pioneer Square and then teams create sculptures around a central theme. There are a couple categories like competitors choice, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st, and the people’s choice award. The event was held on Friday July 20th this year and had 12 different teams competing; I was on the Turner/AMAA team and the central theme was “No place like home” and our take on it was “Our home in 2030”. Basically, we wanted people to be able to see our home in 2030 because we are currently over-loading the earth and we need to be more environmentally conscious if we want to thrive in a livable world in 2030. Therefore we used the theme of the Lorax to display and encourage that image because he is a stalwart for sustainability and the environment. It was my first time being involved in the event in any form and I had a complete blast!

The event started at 8:00 AM but I wasn’t able to make it till 9:00 because I had a superintendent’s breakfast at 6:00 AM followed by some safety training but I didn’t miss much. It was a lot more work than I expected! When I got there the forms were already nailed and placed so all we had to do was put the sand in the forms and start tamping and compacting. The only materials that were allowed was sand and water and only hand tools were allowed. I spent the majority of the time shoveling sand from the large community sand pile into our own pile so that we can start filling the forms. The more experienced team members handled the mixing of water and sand along with compacting the sand. Our total structure was designed to be 9 feet tall but that prove to be too tall so we scaled it down a bit to around 7 feet tall. The tall structure was the Once-ler’s house and took 4 forms and a crap load of sand and man power. We had around 23 people with around 12 people not coming until we were doing pulling the forms because they were the architects and were in charge of drawing out the details. Below are pictures of what our project looks like during and after construction.

All work at to be completed at 4:00 PM because they judges make you step away from your work and if you continue then you will be disqualified. We finished right up to the last second and so did every other team. The judges then walk around to decide the winner and announce an hour later. We ended up placing 3rd place which sucks because we won it last year and I believe our sculpture was outstanding but then again, I am biased. But we still have hope in the people’s choice which will end on Sunday at 1 PM. I will be there for that to see if we won or not and also that is the same day they demolish all of the sand sculptures so it should be fun to watch. I also got to get a picture with Mr. Yoshida who is the main proponent of the event.