CSI: Tempe, and Alec The Welding Wonder

This weekend it was amazingly difficult to stay focused and motivated to get work done. Maybe it was the goregous weather, maybe it was the fact that I have things to do that don't really have defined dates or times, who knows. I went over to Molly's house to work on our human factors project on generation attitudes towards automatic and manual systems. It took us three hours to put togather fifteen pages of material we'd already researched. We knew what we had to do, but it was a severe effort to make my mouth say the words I needed to say, and like thinking through a brick wall. I gave up and took a nap when I got home. Later Sunday evening, I went to Jen's condo and I worked there on my computer while Jen did her marker renderings for her project.

About midnight, Jen's car alarm went off. She was parked right in front of her condo, so we ran outside. Her passenger side window was completely shattered in. A neighbor who had been smoking on the patio came over. He said he saw two guys walk over and then he heard the alarm go off. The two men jumped in a car "which was pretty much identical to hers" and took off. The only thing that had been taken was a CD folder clipped to the visor, and the cds were mostly burned.

Jen called the police and they sent two cars out. The talked to Jen and the neighbor, and dusted her car for fingerprints. The only ones they could find were Jen's on the back trunk. The cop was really surprised by how clean it was. Apparently the dodge stratuses are the hot car to steal. My minivan, parked right across the street, was apparently cool enought to bother. The police told her to get a club for her car. Its good advice, as she always parks on the street. I spent a good half an hour cleaning the granulated safety glass out of the front seat. Anyway, she drove her car over to my apartment and we covered with a car cover. In the morning I drove her back to her car. The repair people are coming today to fix the car at her place, so that's pretty good.

Today, I got a quick introduction to MIG welding. MIG stands for metal inert gas. Basically it provides a copper wire as the diode, and it blows inert gasses to protect the weld from oxygen. The shop guy demonstrated, and we took turns making welds. We were given a full safety briefing and we all got welding masks. My first weld was too far away and too fast. You have to get 1/32" close to the surface for an ideal weld. To maintain this kind of distance, you have to use one hand as a support, resting on the surface. We used thick leather gloves. My second weld was much better, working closer to the surface. What's really interesting is that you really weld by sound. By listening to the sound of the weld, you know how close you are to the surface. What you want is a nice buzz. Anyway, that was a little scary at first, but fun. I need to go down and practice some more before I start making models out of metal.