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on schedule

Whenever I write about work, I consider it a risky entry.

The best thing about where I work is the people. The people are, by and large, great. I consider myself extremely lucky to work with my co-workers (with one or two exceptions). The problem is management. What's interesting is that the managers as people are not usually bad. If I was to work on a project with most of the managers, I'm sure I would enjoy it. It's when they get together and start managing that the problems sometimes occur. Many of the problems occur due to lack of communication. Or communication in front of audiences that results in posturing. The latter is particularly annoying.

The other thing I have noticed is that people are rewarded for "helping out" with unscheduled work rather than completing their scheduled work on time. Even if the unscheduled work is higher priority, this seems like a bad system. In my humble opinion, the expectation should be that all scheduled work be performed on time. That should be the highest priority.

I hear a lot about how on some programs in aerospace, everything happens on time. What are these programs? Not I*SS. Not the Boe*ing 7*87. I'd love to have a list of all the major aerospace projects completed in the last 20 years and the projected completion date after conceptual design review and actual completion date.

Meeting schedule isn't impossible. Oil companies, to pick a much maligned group, apparently do it all the time. Examples of fixing oil lines under terrible conditions (not quite as bad as outer space) are cited often in schedule books. Highway projects often go off on time. Why? Because if you tell people the road will be open and it's not, there'd be public outrage.

9:09 a.m. - Aug. 27, 2008

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moutain walks

This weekend, we had our third multi-day hikeathon of the year. It was great, though we only hiked 14 miles over the two days in the end. We headed for Mt. Rain*ier Nat*ional Park, without a campsite reservation, naturally. There are nearly 200 walk-in campgrounds in the park, so we were hoping to get lucky, and despite all the "camp*ground full" signs, we found a nice cam*psite.

I invested in a 4 person tent about a year ago, having just about had with sleeping 2 plus a dog to my backpacking tent. (Two people - tight but OK, two people plus a very large and bossy dog, not so good.)

In any event, we did the classic Sky*line trail the first day, and headed up a little ways towards Ca*mp Mu*ir until we hit snow at about 7500 feet. It was one of those amazing days, and the mountain was out in full force. I've never been that close to a large mountain on a clear day.

The second day, we headed for the Northeast corner of the park, and hiked again to about 7500 feet, one First and Second Bur*roughs Mountains. This day was misty and foggy and turned to rain about halfway through, but the views in the morning were again beautiful. I think it was actually more scenic than the Para*dise area. It also seemed like a great place for a backpack - not too much elevation gain, spectacular views. What more could one ask for? (Dogs allowed, perhaps.)

The weeks are sometimes rocky. I always feel redeemed after a weekend of getting close to nature.

8:31 a.m. - Aug. 25, 2008