Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Tale of the destroyer

Remember the 1984 film "Conan the Destroyer"?

Photobucket

The one where he goes around destroying big things and human lives? Well, I'm more or less the same...although with significantly less muscle fibers, non-Austrian accent, and destroying smaller things minus the human lives.

To date, everything I've touched (aided by my senior) will go under...you name it I’ve destroyed it.

Band saw machine: used wrong speed setting

Automated polishing/buffing machine: used wrong buff

Water-cooling cutter: Filter got jammed with residues, resulting in water overflowing from the bottom, which in turn results in that machine being put through overhaul...

Micro Vickers indenter: Supporting rod got dislocated, inaccurate indentations

Deep drawing machine: Speed dial got jammed temporarily, and on a different occasion, the punch was operated too fast and it hit the upper dais, deforming both the punch and the dais. Repair cost 130000yen.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that each of those cases was "my fault". And the term "destroy" was a little bit exaggerated…the term "temporarily disabling" might sound better.

Well, when each of those "calamities" happened, I'm told that it wasn't really my fault and that I just had rotten luck of it breaking down with me at helm. BUT, they go on saying that they have never seen it break down in their many years of working with that particular machine...then finishing their sentence by once again saying "It is not your fault".

Gawd damn Japanese ambiguity...

Well, I'm not saying that it's my fault(If I've learned, but forgotten or just plain careless, then only it's my fault). But can't they just say what they really want to say? What the hell do they mean by bad luck? All engineers know luck have no effect on machines!!
Machines are dumb assembled parts, they only do as they are told and break down only when some machine part's lifetime is up, or by the misuse of its handler.

Bad luck my ass...

But, at least they have the guts to tell me what was it that caused that particular mishap and "How I can prevent it in the future".

So anyway, life goes on at TOPY...

And as far as the learning process goes, I've still got a few more machines to destroy...

PS:
While typing this, keyboard suddenly loses function, not responding to anything. Had to unplug and re-plug the cable...thank god it worked. Would have been soooo awkward for me to ask for a new keyboard.

And I guess it is also worth mentioning the one thing I didn't touch that broke down.
The automatic sliding door at my hostel....it stopped being automatic 3 days after I moved in.

Maybe I do have bad luck after all...