Ha ha! Why do I do these again? >_>;

Annnnnyway... If you're TRULY interested in what I've been busy with, you're in for QUITE the read... But it's MY journal, so fuck y'all that don't feel like readin it. XD Seriously... HARD... <_____<

WELL! Since the beginning of April, I've (in no particular order, but pretty much chronologically):
-Heard from MIC Group that I got the internship I wanted!
-Finished my classes
-Taken my Finals
-Gotten my grades for the semester. A A B C, same as the Fall. XP
-Started working at MIC Group
-Neither confirmed nor denied my involvement in the creation of Metal Gear... >_>;
-NOT taking pictures...
-Helpin my dad build a fence
-Gotten TWO new video cards, linked them together, creating the ultimate gaming rig!
-Been watching my checking account GROW instead of SHRINK (for a college student? MADNESS!!!)

Ok, there's the cliff notes. If'n ya read those, you've escaped the fucking... But I'll still think lesser of you as a person if you don't read on... >|

NOW, for the details on my job, and whether or not my job contributes to the manufacturing and assembly of *gasp* Metal Gear!
MIC Group was formally Magnetic Instruments Corporation (MIC, get it?). It has always been a specialty manufacturing plant, and when I say 'specialty,' I mean 'Oil and Gas Industry.' Why is that important, you ask? Well, O&G (Oil and Gas) have ALWAYS been trying to find different, better, cheaper, more efficient, and environmentally-friendly ways of gettin black gold. Used to be that they could only drill straight down. That's good if we lived in Mario World and everything was 2D (hint: we DONT, so they weren't getting everything they could). NOW, they're starting verticle, but end up drilling SIDEWAYS. Not KINDA sideways, I mean, imagine a stretched-out roller-coaster. YEAH. I didn't know how, but now, I do... |3 Can't say how, though... I really do think Halliburton would hire ninjas to kill me...if they're not already watching me now... >> <<;

Now for WHAT they make, as specific as I can get... Titanium and Inconel are common around the shop...as is Stellite. Regular steel is scarce... If anything, it's a crazy-ass stainless steel even *I* never heard of... Anyway, this stuff is worth more than a CAR when it enters the shop as plain bar from the foundry. The engineers at FMC, Schlumberger, Halliburton, MiSwaco, et. al. design things with CRAZY tolorances and INSANE finishes... When you have a number like: .0036 / .0037 on a drawing, you know it's srs bsns. Especially when you consider that the average human hair is TEN TIMES the size of the tolerance... (Hair = .001 which is WAY greater than .0001 = tolerance) NASA doesn't use tolerances that high as regularly as these guys do...

It's uncanny how GOOD these machinists are! These guys do everything right, above and beyond what a normal machinist would do, not because they have to, but because they genuinely want to make the part right and to-print. And none of them know what the part does. That's not part of the job. For all they know, they could be making bombs for some sort of...oh, I dunno...Bi-Pedal Tank...armed with nuclear weapons of some sort...



In all seriousness, I know a guy who has enough bomb parts to make to last till October... o_o

Anyway, If y'all take ONE thing away from this, have it be this: BUY AMERICAN. If you're at Wal-Mart, and you see two same things, but one costs more, check to see if it's made in the USA... That's prolly why. When you buy American, you provide a meal, house, and college for the kids of a hard-working American. Just cause you're in college doesn't mean you're better or smarter than these people. I've met some of the best men and women a person could ever meet. Do your part and give 'em a hand, would you?