Summer work

Now that school is out, im back into the full swing of things with work. This is the 5th summer that i have been working for Big Red Asphalt.

I do the maintenance part of it, so i actually don't lay asphalt.I found this pic on google, but this is pretty much what i've been doing. The red kettle is the same one that we use.

We've been doing a lot of work for the church. Crack sealing is putting a rubberized black tar in the cracks in pavement. This extends life life of pavement by a lot.

Cracks happen when freezing temperatures occur. Water gets into the asphalt and when it freezes it expands. Another type of sealing that i do a lot of in the summer is seal coating. Seal coat also extends the life of asphalt by sealing the entire surface to prevent cracks from ever starting.

Seal coat is a black liquid material that contains some lime and sand in it. When it dries out it solidifies. In the little pic you can see it being sprayed on. Normally the first coat is put on by spreading it by hand using 4 and 5 foot squeeges, then the second coat is sprayed. That's what i do most of during the summer. Big Red has one of the best seal coat set ups in the U.S. Most of our trucks were built by my boss. All i know is that all the other seal coat companies envy us and our trucks. This is work that needs to be done, so it keeps the company busy, and it is very profitable.

Being the begining of the season i'm feeling pretty sore right now. The good part about the job is that it puts me into really good shape, and keeps me really tan.

Here are a couple of pics that i took last summer with my phone camera. Pictured is my friend Javier. We were doing a job at Berylium plant in Delta last summer and had to wear their outfits.

The worst part about the job is the cleaning. In order to do the seal coating the lot has to be extremely clean so that the seal coat can bond to the surface, and not the dirt. We have these blowers that blow dirt around. Last summer Javier and i got pretty dang dirty one morning after cleaning a lot in Salt Lake. It really makes you appreciate a nice hot shower at the end of the day.

Javi is a cool guy. He'll be working with me again this summer. I also work with some other cool guys and friends from school. I helped a lot of them to get a job working with me.

It is a lot of work, but it teaches you to work hard. After every summer i am also filled with tons of determination to return to school and get my school work done, so that i don't have to do this for the rest of my life. The best part of it is the pay. So far, i have averaged a dollar raise every year that i have worked. Lets just say that in 6 months i made more than most of my friends made in 12 months.

Workin on the Rodeo

This weekend I had to get my Isuzu Rodeo ready to pass another year of Saftey and Emissions tests. I'm amazed that my rodeo is still kickin. It's a 92', so it's now 16 years old. It's weird to think that at one time that it was kinda new and pimping.

(This pic is old, but the only one i have of my rodeo)

So my buddy Kurt helped me to change the sparkplugs and the wires. That was interesting, because we found out that whoever changed the spark plugs last (a lube shop in Provo) put in the wrong size spark plugs. After pulling out the plugs, we discovered that the arched tips of two of the plugs were broken off. It's amazing that the vehicle was still running smooth.

So the nex day i was making sure everything was looking good on the Rodeo before i brought it in for the tests, and as i was adjusting the side mirror on the passenger side, i accidently broke the mirror in half! I wasn't too happy with that. Can't pass the safety without the mirror. The glass shop wanted $30 dollars for a new one. I headed over to checker auto and found a reflective material that can be hand cut to the size you need by using scizzors. So i figured why not... besidees, it was only $11 bucks. Well i cut it out and put it in, and took it back over to the shop and sure enough it passed the saftey test. I don't think the lady got a really good look at it, but she was surprised that i had gotten it replaced so fast. Looking at the mirror from a distance looks real, but it really is a piece of crap. I can't see a thing with it.

Well overall, my mission was accomplished. I got the rodeo to pass another years worth of inspections. Lets see what will happen next year.

Utah Weather

The weather here in Provo has become more consistent with the actions of a roller coaster. Up and Down. Yesterday I was out basking in the sunlight, and the 75 degree weather (24 C). Now today other than the wind, it is snowing! Well luckily it isn't cold enough for the snow to stick to the ground, but still... Well those of you from Utah will all know that this is nothing new. The weather in Utah is usually like this every year.

With school coming to an end soon, I will be starting work again. Soon as the sun comes back to play with us, I will be heading back to work doing the usual road construction maintanence by resurfacing parking lots.

I'm going to be working this summer with my good friend Javier M.

from Spain, and my buddy from school Luke. This summer will be exciting and adventurous, and full of sunshine and Tanness. I can't wait.

My short movie is up!

It's up! For all of you who want to check out my new short film, scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see the youtube link for it.  Hope you dig it.

Movie edit done

Lately i have been spending about 5 hours a day working on editing my different video projects for school.

My latest project is my final movie for my digital cinema class. I finshed my first edit today and posted it onto my facebook. It's just under 5 minutes long, but it is just the first edit, so there are a few tweaks that it will go through one more time before the final project is finished. So those of you who read this who also have me as a buddy on facebook can go check it out. If not, Maybe i'll be nice enough to upload it to you tube tomorrow so i can post it to my blog. So keep your eyes open for that.

(The picture posted above is my character in my movie.)

Stamp prices on the rise

On May 12, 2008, the United States Postal Service will be raising the price of first-class stamps 1 cent bring the cost to 42 cents.

The price hike comes only eight months after the last price hike. Skeptics say that the recent rise in stamps is due to the rising costs of gasoline. Prices of all US mail will be affected by the price change. Gus Pacchiega, a UVSC Postal Service worker said,

“All costs will change. International stamps will also be going up by 4 cents.”

With consumers already struggling to find ways to keep up with current economic demands, assurance can be made that the USPS is doing something to accommodate for price changes.

In April 2007, the USPS developed a Stamp called the “forever stamp” to ease the transition for consumers during upcoming price changes. Forever stamps can be bought at any USPS location and only cost 41 cents. Eric Shocker, a part-time USPS worker at UVSC said,

“No matter what the stamp price is, the “forever stamp” can be continued to be used just like the name suggests. Forever.”

The Postal Service has sold 5 billion Forever Stamps since the launch last April and plans to have an additional 5 billion in stock to meet the expected demand before the May price change.

Still with billions of these stamps sold, there are many who have not been informed of the “forever stamp.“ Chelsea Richins, a UVSC student said,

“I’m upset that prices are going up again. I just bought a book of stamps that my husband and I use to pay our bills and come May I’m going to have to make another trip to the Post Office to buy one-cent stamps. I wish I would have known about forever stamps before I bought these ones.”

Shocker mentioned that the Postal Service will still accept under-postage stamps for a month after the price increase, which will give lee-way to those who are unaware of the price increase.

The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.
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My week

I couldn't think of much to write about this week, so i thought that i would talk about some of the activities that i did.
This has been a busy week full of plenty of time spent at school. I have been working on a remote control airplane documentary for my video format journalism class. I have posted at the bottom of my blog the youtube version of my video. I have spent about 10 hours more or less editing it, and my teacher wants me to continue editing it until it is about 5 minutes long. So i will continue playing with it some more.
I have also been spending a lot of time editing my final project for my digital cinema class. This video isn't suppose to be any longer than 5 minutes. It will be an interesting film to see once im finished.
I play the main character, who is a student janitor at uvsc. One day while washing windows at school he sees the woman of his dreams walk by. I end up running into her a couple of times on campus. My character's friend, a magician tries to help me get the girl, but only keeps screwing me up. Will i end up with the girl? You'll have to see the final video when i post it up on my blog in about another week.
Other than that, i went to Goshen Elementary school on wednesday to be a judge at an educational fair. My brother and I were in charge of judging the math projects of students from 4th to 6th grade. It was a cool little experience to talk with the kids, and we each got a free silver dollar out of it for our services.