Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Snow, New Job, and Korea

I got off work last night and was welcomed by a low grade blizzard. I was caught wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, and it was pretty cold while I scraped 2 inches of snow off my car and then waited for the heater to kick in. Cameron complained all morning that he wanted to go out and play in it, even though it was freezing outside at 7:30 am. Addie has been sick for about a week, she missed wearing her costume to school on Halloween, and the first major snowfall of the year. She is not doing a good job being sick, she's always running around the house, making her asthma worse. I don't know if anyone has seen the halloween picture this year. Jenn went all out on the costumes. If anyone asks, I was an occupied bed for halloween.

I will be starting a new job shortly, at US Synthetic in Orem. They compress stuff into diamond crystals, and then bond those crystals with drill bits and such. I'll be learning a lot more about industrial electricity, and making diamonds sounds like a much cooler job than making flash memory. My current employer decided to promote the worst and most hated technician supervisors to engineering positions within the department. Now they're complaining that no one gets along with them or respects what they are trying to do. We were recently told at a team member meeting by upper management that the company was seriously considering whether or not they should even be in business anymore given the current economic environment. So, crappy work environment working for morally bankrupt people + low pay + possible layoff in 1 year = Chase finds a better job. I'm really looking forward to expanding my job skills. There's not really that many things to do on semiconductor tools anymore besides swapping out stuff that doesn't work for stuff that does.

One last newsflash. I am being flown to Korea next week to play some video game golf. I will be playing against 11 other people for a chance at $5,000 , $3,000 , or $1,000. The airfare and accomodations are paid for. It should be pretty fun. I hadn't originally qualified to go, but was given a chance to go after those who did were unable to get passports in time.

So, you can see we've got quite a bit going on. I'm sure I'll have something to post about once I get home.

6 comments:

Ceri said...

Will you make more at this new job? That's so cool that you get to go to Korea after all. How long will you be gone? How is Jenn handling it? Hopefully you will be put in a better pool than last time so you'll have a better chance of winning. Good luck, I hope you win and congrats!

Wag-a-Muffin said...

Congratulations on your new job! (I know you hated your old one. And may I say, and I hope you aren't too terribly offended, that I hope you will be in a better mood now.) What are your hours? And good luck in Korea. (If Jenn and the kids want to come here while you're there we'll be thrilled to have them.) I know it's a near zero chance, just want to let you know the invitation is always open.

Chase said...

Yeah, I'll be making more at the new job. I quit today, my manager tried to get me to stay by telling me it was possible I could be raised up within the calendar year, and that if only I could forget how badly I was screwed I could probably have a bright future with them. Little does he know that my lifelong dream isn't to make 25 bucks an hour at a wafer fab. I'm making slightly more at the new job than my raise would have gotten me to at the old one. I feel that the ceiling is much higher now than it was before, which makes me happy.

The new job is at US Synthetic in Orem. I will be working M-F from 3pm to 11:30pm. It might be late to some, but that's just about when Jenn and I go to bed anyways. Jenn and I can alternate sleeping in, and I'll have weekends completely off. I also won't have to slog through church half dead anymore, which I am really excited about. This new job is going to teach me some more mainstream technical skills, which will either make me very valuable to them, or to another company. Most of the higher paying electrical tech jobs require a lot of the skills that I'll be learning at the new job, my old job really only prepared me to go work in another wafer fab. I'm grateful that my new employer was willing to take a chance on me based solely on my interview, and not really much on my work experience. I also hope to be in a better mood. I know I've been in a sour one lately.

Wag-a-Muffin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wag-a-Muffin said...

I deleted my comment because I asked a question already answered.
(Geez, I should really learn to read.)

Jenn said...

Barbara, thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not drive 9 hrs. by myself with 4 crazy kids. Also, Addie missed an entire week of school, and she really cannot afford to miss any more. If Chase wins the $5,000. maybe we can make a trip at Christmas.