First World Problems

[StevieP]

There are many little things that niggle and annoy us in day to day life that really shouldn't bother us as much as they do compared to lots of other heinous conditions around the world. So has anything happened to you today or recently that you perhaps made more of a fuss of than you should have?

For me this was this morning... I was woken up at 3:30am by the beeping from the smoke alarm downstairs with it's low battery warning. Why o why do these things always happen in the middle of the night and not during the day, right when I am actually having one of the better night's sleeps I have had in a while? So there I am after working out where the sound was coming from on a step ladder trying to take down the smoke alarm, which even after disconnecting and replacing the backup battery was STILL BEEPING. So I took the replacement battery out and left it until the morning where I could read the instructions to see what I was doing wrong (turns out I had to press the test button after changing the battery). Ugh... good job it's a lazy Sunday and not a work day today!

[lance_s]

There are many little things that niggle and annoy us in day to day life that really shouldn't bother us as much as they do compared to lots of other heinous conditions around the world. So has anything happened to you today or recently that you perhaps made more of a fuss of than you should have?

For me this was this morning... I was woken up at 3:30am by the beeping from the smoke alarm downstairs with it's low battery warning. Why o why do these things always happen in the middle of the night and not during the day, right when I am actually having one of the better night's sleeps I have had in a while? So there I am after working out where the sound was coming from on a step ladder trying to take down the smoke alarm, which even after disconnecting and replacing the backup battery was STILL BEEPING. So I took the replacement battery out and left it until the morning where I could read the instructions to see what I was doing wrong (turns out I had to press the test button after changing the battery). Ugh... good job it's a lazy Sunday and not a work day today!

I have long held the belief that if everyone is a first world country was required during their 16th year to spend 6 months living rough in a third world country, the world as a whole would be better off.

[WalterB]

Years ago, young men were pretty much required to join the military, with exceptions. Joining the military would not only teach you a career, it would teach you a little courtesy and respect for your elders. Today's youth gets none of that. So, because of a lack of parenting at home, they grow up to be uneducated little smart-asses with no respect for authority and no understanding that listening to those who have gone before you to learn a little about how life works will lead you to great things.

Yes, I know there are a million different issues and situations, so I can only speak from my experience. But joining the military not only gave me an education as a radio electronics technician (R.F. Tech,) it led me to the greatest job I could have ever had.

My respect for authority and my listening to those who went before me were learned from my parents. And I wouldn't trade them OR that for anything on the planet.

I only have a high school education. But that and what I learned at home are what led me to this.

I have bored some of you to tears before about my job as the "Telecommunications Engineer" (fancy name for radio, lol) on the Magellan project. And I with only a high school education. I started out on the project as the lead technician ('leed', not 'led,' lol.) I questioned their decision to make me an "Engineer," but they said that the job I had was a Engineering position and I was doing it well. So I took the designation. (more money, lol.)

If you haven't seen this before, the Magellan Mission to Venus was just that. Venus is covered by thick clouds, so we can't view it by telescope. Magellan was a radar mission. The radar was able to look through the clouds and return data that resulted in the photos below. We built the spacecraft in Denver, then shipped it to Cape Canaveral to be loaded into the Shuttle Atlantis. I was one of two radio technicians responsible for integrating the radio subsystem into the spacecraft. Two techs and two engineers. Near launch, they came to me and asked me if I would stay on for the flight to Venus. The two engineers didn't want to stay. The other tech campaigned heavily for the job, but nobody wanted him, lol He was pretty obnoxious. Plus, if I may say so, I was just better at my job than him.

The pictures below are of me at my desk as we neared Venus Orbit Insertion (VOI.) In the second, some of the others came over to listen and watch as we neared the planet. The trip took 18 months. Once the retro rocket fired to slow Magellan down and let it be captured by Venus' gravity, we would endure 6 minutes of radio silence, while the the spacecraft went behind the planet. I don't remember the specifics, but, if the signal came back at some other time (3 minutes? 10 minutes?) that would indicate that the insertion had been unsuccessful and Magellan was headed for deep space and loss of mission.

So everyone's eyes were on the radio signal. The signal was received by one of 3 deep space antennas around Earth. So I was explaining what we expected. All three local network TV stations sent crews out to interview people and witness the event. As we approached Venus, we lost the radio signal, as expected. Chatter was ongoing, but the room gradually got noticeably quieter. At about 5 to 5-1/2 minutes the room got deathly quiet. We had a landline that connected us to JPL. Suddenly, the speaker crackled..

From the Goldstone Deep Space antenna site we heard "MOC (Mission Operations Control), AOS (acquisition of signal) at 12:03:06." Six seconds late. It took about 2 seconds for the message to sink in. Then the room erupted. The Bronco's winning the Super Bowl was never like this. We had traveled 1-1/2 times around the sun, and had arrived 6 seconds late. That was a unbelievable accomplishment for Navigation and, really, everyone on the project.

Why the long story? I only had a high school education. But the Air Force put me in position to have this job in the first place. The Air Force and my mom and dad. I'm not saying that "my way" would work for everyone. I realize that there are so many different issues and situations out there. But if you look forward, if you find something you like and work at it, if you pay attention and do good work? You will find your place and you will go far.

And, as Paul Harvey would say, do you want to know "the rest of the story?" I can directly trace getting this job to a DUI I got in California. My marriage was failing and I went out drinking one night and got busted. I was given 6 months to complete an alcohol class (8 weeks, an hour a week.) I didn't do it. So near the end, I was supposed to travel with my then current project to the East Coast. I asked the judge to give me 6 months. His reply was, "Tell your employer I can give you a job making license plates. Request denied." I thought that was pretty stupid, but, it was what it was. So I had to tell my employer that I couldn't go. Not a good career move.

Two or three months later I got a call from a job search company wanting to know if I was interested in working in Denver. Yes, I was interested. So the Denver company flew me to Denver, interviewed me, and hired me. That lead to the Magellan Project, which you now know, became my "fantasy job," I even got my name in a book, lol.

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This is a picture of Magellan in the RAL lab (Reverberant Acoustics Lab.) This is where they vibrate and shake the spacecraft to simulate launch conditions. Yes, it is a posed picture. But it's an actual picture of the spacecraft in the lab. I'm the one climbing the ladder on the right. No, I wasn't really climbing. They just had me stand there for the picture, lol.

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This is Magellan in the cargo bay of Shuttle Atlantis, high above the Earth.

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This is just moments after Magellan was released from the cargo bay.

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This is an artists conception of how Magellan would look at Venus.

Magellan at Venus.jpg (47.1 KiB) Viewed 133 times

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These are two of thousands of pictures resulting from the mission.

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Got my name in a book.

If you've made it this far, thank you. If you gave up early? That's ok, too

[greggl]

I think that is pretty damn cool Walt

[WalterB]

Thanks, Gregg. Like I said, I was just very lucky to get there in the first place, but pretty dang proud of being a part of it.
But I like to tell the story to anyone feeling down, just to remind them that, even in the worst of times, there are better times ahead. I know you sometimes have to work at it. But, if you do, chances are, you will come out better that you were when you went in.

[Davest]

I been around long enough to have read this story before but please, Walt, don't EVER stop telling it. It is so freaking cool! Thanks again, this always makes me smile. What an accomplishment to have been part of this.

[StevieP]

It's an amazing story Walt. Never stop sharing it!

[lance_s]

Interesting life Walt. I'd picked up bits of it from things you'd written in various posts, but never the whole story.

[WalterB]

Thank you, guys. I very much appreciate your thoughts and support.

[lance_s]

Thank you, guys. I very much appreciate your thoughts and support.

"I started out on the project as the lead technician ('leed', not 'led,' lol.)" - Did you realize that your story also explains why the band is named Led Zeppelin and not Lead Zeppelin. Started with the expression "go over like a lead balloon".

[WalterB]

I figured it was just another play on words, as numerous people like to do,

[stickyvicky]

Amazing posts on this thread! Thank you!

PS my smoke detectors low battery warning always go off at 4 am! It has scared the $$&# Out of us so many times in the middle of the night!

[greggl]

The "experts" say you should change the batteries in the smoke detector when you change your clocks during daylight savings time, that way they dont die on you. Even after reading that and saying to myself thats a good idea do I do that? Of course not. I dont even think about the batteries until they go off when dying. Guess thats why Im not an expert.

[lance_s]

The "experts" say you should change the batteries in the smoke detector when you change your clocks during daylight savings time, that way they dont die on you. Even after reading that and saying to myself thats a good idea do I do that? Of course not. I dont even think about the batteries until they go off when dying. Guess thats why Im not an expert.

Don't new smoke detectors come with 10 year batteries?

[stickyvicky]

If they don't, they should!

[greggl]

Mine just use 9 volt batteries

[ErikB]

The "experts" say you should change the batteries in the smoke detector when you change your clocks during daylight savings time, that way they dont die on you. Even after reading that and saying to myself thats a good idea do I do that? Of course not. I dont even think about the batteries until they go off when dying. Guess thats why Im not an expert.

Don't new smoke detectors come with 10 year batteries?

I had a good stare at my smoke detector, and after a while the green test light flashed. I remember when I installed it that it didn't flash as often as the one it was replacing. I either have a miracle battery, or I put in a 10-year detector and forgot about it. When I find my shooting earmuffs, I will give the test button a press.

[ErikB]

1. A couple of weeks ago, one of my (somewhat important) thumb drives needed a length repair session, which I thought was odd. I was too tired to think of finding room on another drive to back it up. The next morning it didn't work. Grrrr.

2. Bought a bunch of new thumb drives and a replacement USB hub. One of the ports on the USB hub is probably bad, as the computer will not boot from it. The rest of the ports seem fine. One of the new drives has a loose case, so attempts to plug it into the hub result in it just retracting into its case instead. Grrrrr.

3. Last Thursday we were going to have a thunderstorm. Having lost both a computer and a cable modem to a single thunderstorm in the past, I now disconnect everything when a thunderstorm is predicted. My power strips have protection, but apparently that decays over time and I hadn't noticed that the "protected" light wasn't on anymore on my main power strip. Anyway, Friday I plugged everything back in but had no internet. My cable modem had decided to die anyway. The first-world complaining starts with the replacement process. I go off to Walmart, and the kid with the key to the modem case is the type of person who wears their mask over their mouth only, with their nose sticking out. I hear him sniffle which makes it sound like he's congested. Great. He can't answer any of my questions about the modems, so I make a selection (the correct one, it turns out). I get home and call the ISP to get the new modem activated. The "technician" says "Oh! I've done that one before! I can help you!", which does not fill me with confidence. I think I had to read him the serial number 4 times, and the MAC address at least 3 times. With the MAC address, when he read it back, he kept putting an "8" into the number. There is no 8 anywhere in the MAC address for this modem. There is a 3, however, and he kept reading the 8 before reading the 3. So, I speculate he botched the 3, rewrote it, then kept reading the botched 3 as an 8 before reading the corrected 3. Whatever. It turns out that he kept getting confused because the software was taking him to a screen he hadn't seen before and the information was erased when he went back to the screen he was familiar with. That unfamiliar screen was the one telling him that the modem was already registered to another customer. That's when he asked me if the modem was reconditioned. I speculated that someone probably just bought it, realized that it didn't do something that they wanted, then returned it to Wal-Mart. He said that he would have to call the other customer to be able to transfer the modem to my account, and it was kinda late. He also stated that the sales department would be able to do it without having to call the other customer, but that they were closed. He suggested that I call back Saturday and ask to be transferred to the sales department. I called back Saturday, explained the situation to the technician, and she took care of it without having to contact the sales department. I only had to read the serial number once, and I didn't have to read the MAC address again because she got it from the other account and then transferred everything over. Grrrr. Side fact: the Firefox that ships with the version of the OS I am using is so old that the default home page on Firefox's website doesn't exist anymore.

[ErikB]

1. A couple of weeks ago, one of my (somewhat important) thumb drives needed a length repair session, which I thought was odd. I was too tired to think of finding room on another drive to back it up. The next morning it didn't work. Grrrr.

2. Bought a bunch of new thumb drives and a replacement USB hub. One of the ports on the USB hub is probably bad, as the computer will not boot from it. The rest of the ports seem fine. One of the new drives has a loose case, so attempts to plug it into the hub result in it just retracting into its case instead. Grrrrr.

3. Last Thursday we were going to have a thunderstorm. Having lost both a computer and a cable modem to a single thunderstorm in the past, I now disconnect everything when a thunderstorm is predicted. My power strips have protection, but apparently that decays over time and I hadn't noticed that the "protected" light wasn't on anymore on my main power strip. Anyway, Friday I plugged everything back in but had no internet. My cable modem had decided to die anyway. The first-world complaining starts with the replacement process. I go off to Walmart, and the kid with the key to the modem case is the type of person who wears their mask over their mouth only, with their nose sticking out. I hear him sniffle which makes it sound like he's congested. Great. He can't answer any of my questions about the modems, so I make a selection (the correct one, it turns out). I get home and call the ISP to get the new modem activated. The "technician" says "Oh! I've done that one before! I can help you!", which does not fill me with confidence. I think I had to read him the serial number 4 times, and the MAC address at least 3 times. With the MAC address, when he read it back, he kept putting an "8" into the number. There is no 8 anywhere in the MAC address for this modem. There is a 3, however, and he kept reading the 8 before reading the 3. So, I speculate he botched the 3, rewrote it, then kept reading the botched 3 as an 8 before reading the corrected 3. Whatever. It turns out that he kept getting confused because the software was taking him to a screen he hadn't seen before and the information was erased when he went back to the screen he was familiar with. That unfamiliar screen was the one telling him that the modem was already registered to another customer. That's when he asked me if the modem was reconditioned. I speculated that someone probably just bought it, realized that it didn't do something that they wanted, then returned it to Wal-Mart. He said that he would have to call the other customer to be able to transfer the modem to my account, and it was kinda late. He also stated that the sales department would be able to do it without having to call the other customer, but that they were closed. He suggested that I call back Saturday and ask to be transferred to the sales department. I called back Saturday, explained the situation to the technician, and she took care of it without having to contact the sales department. I only had to read the serial number once, and I didn't have to read the MAC address again because she got it from the other account and then transferred everything over. Grrrr. Side fact: the Firefox that ships with the version of the OS I am using is so old that the default home page on Firefox's website doesn't exist anymore.

I found a picture to go with my thoughts when dealing with the first "technician" from my ISP:

[stickyvicky]

A member made me aware of this new paint! How fascinating! I wish this was available now as my AC bill is astronomical! Plus it helps with global warming! Can you believe it?!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovati ... 180977560/