Affairs of a Heathen

This is our last week of production at work until June 1st. We have the Memorial week and July 4th week off for a mandatory shutdown. It is next in the effort to reduce the chance of another layoff. Although I have to burn through my vacation/personal time to avoid unpaid time, it did come at the best time for Jen and I to move. We had originally planned on getting our keys to our new place this Friday and be done by Sunday. Now we have weekend to weekend to move. I’m also taking summer off from classes to focus on some goals at work. I plan on working a split shift to finish up my training for the “machine programmer” position. That’s just one of the few things I need to work on. My cell at work had a value stream meeting this Monday, which is a follow-up of last year’s VSM. The most important thing I learned from the meeting was I’m officially not geared for a 1st shift job.

Something else I’ve been doing is catching up on some reading. Since I started working about 3 years ago I can’t remember that last time I dedicated myself to reading. I’m currently listening to audiobooks at work which seems to be the best way for me to read. Right now I’m in a mood for atheist discussions so currently on my playlist is “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” by Christopher Hitchens and “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris. After listening to the first half of Hitchen’s book, I’m finding myself aligned very close to his views on religion. I’ll probably sit down sometime and follow up on the books.

I finished Spring semester in Biology with an A. I could have done better if I actually studied! I don’t know what that says about the class or me. It was just the “fundamentals” of Biology so I guess it was that easy. Looking back I wish I had taken the “full” Biology. A lot of the topics we covered made me want to learn more about microbiology and possibly evolutionary biology (which is inspired more by the work of Richard Dawkins). I tried to relate what I learned, to arguments from Theists about immaterial concepts like emotions or justice. Something that I still am in awe with is the electric pulses of the nervous system. (Note to self: learn more about the nervous system!) My teacher showed us a CG video of protein synthesis. The process is pretty fucking crazy.