Byran and people, test results, and this weekend

I bless you, Randy, for jogging my memory tonight.

I can handle non-extreme isolation. House-sitting by myself doesn’t bother my sense of sociability in the least. Sitting in an office seeing only truck drivers for a summer doesn’t make me want talk anyone’s head off.

However, when I am around people, I need to connect with them. It’s an empty feeling not to, and a warm one when it happens. For instance, let’s take my SPC class. Often in classes you quickly find a place that you always sit, but in this one, I’ve been bouncing around in different places. But I’ve sort of settled on a general area, and it’s led me to sit by this guy several times. He’s the quiet sort, his expression and demeanor not one that would invite an initial conversation. However, as usual, appearances were deceiving. I’d never talked to him before today, but today I did, and we got to talking a little bit. It feels very good.

Let’s review my forecasted test scores. Facilities (IE 368): 94. Production Planning and Control (IE 367): 88.

In 368 I didn’t do quite as well as I thought, though when you take into consideration the class statistics on this particular test, I am quite happy and thankful. I got a 90.5. The class didn’t do very well overall, with an average of 76 or so. High score was 91, so I was very pleased. I figured I would miss a T/F, and get a few points off here and there on the quantitative portion. I ended up missing two T/F, one other qualitative question, and 3 points on the last quantitative question.

In 367 I did better than I figured, with a 91. This usually happens when I leave a test and find out that I missed something for sure. I extrapolate and imagine the worst.

In a manufacturing setting, inventory is a very negative concept, so you obviously want to minimize this. On one of the questions, we were given a Master Production Schedule. This MPS gives the expected demand of a certain product over the next number of weeks. We were given additional information and were supposed to use three methods developed in class to determine how and when to order this product most cost-effectively. For instance, the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) method allows you to order the amount that will be the most economical, balancing the cost of the order and the cost of the product. But this may result in inventory. The Production Order Quantity (POQ) method allows you to calculate the most…forget this, it’s too hard to explain. Suffice it to say I messed it up and I was afraid it would bite me hard. But it didn’t, he only took off 3 points for the conceptual error itself, and didn’t carry it through.

The weekend. In short. It humors me, the strict protocol involved in church business meetings. I made report not knowing about what I was reporting. Also made report where I did know what I was reporting. Missionary reported as trying not to get too involved in mechanic business so he could do church-work. Me wonders why this attitude not adopted by more people state-side. Be encouraging. Grandpa reports that when he decided it was time to marry, he had problems. The girls he liked didn’t like him, and the ones that liked him he didn’t like. Finally found my Grandma. Ducks win Civil War. Quack, quack. CROSS singing He Is Able touched me. Made me long for something I hadn’t felt for awhile.