Project: "Light tabling"

Today was shown how to use the light table to go over plans. You take the previous submitted drawing and its drawn on page comments and lay it behind the new submitted drawing on top of the light table. The table allows you to read the comments from the lower page and see if the requested changes were made and then further compare undocumented changes etc. You highlight the changes and then pass the drawing on the be checked that it's up to code/specs.

Event: Holiday

On Monday, May 29th, 2006, the Johnson County Wastewater offices will be closed due to the Memorial Day Holiday

Field Work: GPS benchmark comparison

This afternoon, Jim and I took the GPS unit out again to test it against some known benchmarks. Using several surveying monuments and section corners, we put our GPS unit and error correcting to the test. Most of our test points came from here:

Map on official JoCo AIMS mapping page

Event: Surprise Graduation Cake!

Well, I came back from lunch today and was called to see Carolyn and Jim. Come to find out it was for a suprise party for me for my high school graduation! Thanks a bunch guys!

(click any of the images to make them bigger)

Card:

Field Work: GPS testing at Sunset

In conjunction with yesterday's meeting, I took our GPS reciever out around the building plotting the nearby manholes to see if we were getting the same good data we got yesterday in Belton. One thing we changed was instead of post processing with 1 base stations data, we set up a 'triangle' of base stations around our area so that we can get even better honed in data.

Event: Receipt of new proximity card

They are finally getting the Sunset security card system setup and today I recieved my new badge card. Starting Thursday, the badge will be required for anyone trying to get in the wastewater office. Just like it was at Southcreek it is a RFID badge, though this one is much thinner (like a credit card) compared to the old blue tags we used to have.

Meeting: GPS Training/Refresher

Meeting in Belton with Jim Bills and Kevin Figge at Seiler Instrument to go over the new Trimble Xh (we used to have an Xt) we have at JCW. Took it outside and tested it compared to their known GPS benchmark. We got within 1/2 foot I believe, which is better than needed accuracy for us to mark manholes.

Event: Graduation time

Today/yesterday marked the last day(s) of my K-12 schooling career. This sunday is graduation so I will be coming in late Monday due to the late nature of the districts "project graduation" program ending at 4am Monday morning/Sunday night. Next week I will resume wokring "mostly full time" at JCW throughout the summer, starting with going to Belton with Jim Bills to get a little more training on our new GPS unit from the Trimble representitive.
In other news, student Kyle Purdon will be joining us at JCW as the new student intern, working closely with the Engineering department. Kyle is currently finishing up his junior year at Olathe Northwest High School and is a part of the Aerospace Engineering department. Kyle's exact starting day here at JCW is currently unknown.

Event: Return from Hiatus

Back from my trip with the battlebots group to Miami (http://www.ravenengineering.net/bbot/miami/), I am starting back on the ongoing scanning project. A few changes have been made to the scanning and documenting process. Adobe Acrobat was chosen over the previously used FlipAlbum brand software, because Acrobat allowed the user to do text searches of the file (after processing with character recognition) and had files that were only 40% of the size of the previous FlipAlbum files. Hopefully this change will result in using up less discs and making the set easier to use/browse through.
The process has begun to select a new intern to work here at JCW, current plans involve having the student work from summer to end of school year. Without dropping any names, there are a few candidates still being looked over and soon those still in the running will recieve an inviation to come do an interview heere at the office.