RyanHarne.com

The Engineering Expo was this week. That wonderful time of the fall semester when companies, big and small, send recruiters to beg on bended knee to get cheap student labor. The wealthier companies have the advantage, not only of name, but of toys to show off. GM sends their Hummers, including a hydrogen-fueled version this year, which I’m sure borders on garnering the title of The Most Inefficient Vehicle Ever since our current methods of extracting hydrogen from water or air are so expensive and mediocre that, adding to the immense weight of the Hummer itself, must equal a mighty mass of shame. That was bordering on ranting, but I’ll move on in concession.

It was interesting to talk to a diverse group of companies. One particular small company I spoke with, four of them representing, left me wondering, “so… who’s getting the work done back at your place?” The MathWorks was very fun. Hailing from Natick, MA, these two guys (both graduates of VT) certainly had job excitement that made me jealous. I guess, in summary, I’m trying to find something that is more “people focused” rather than “engineering focused”. Engineering is good but… not the full slice of pie.

And speaking of pie. While I’m thinking of pie. I was accepted into the Industrial Design minor program, which is very fun.

The best part of the Expo, the best part ever, were the huddles of people who quickly trafficked through Bollo’s Tuesday morning prior to the events getting under way. I had returned from my workout, showered, and made the trip downtown to get homework done en masse when the host of people wearing company logo threads began to move in and out of the spider-web door. Some of the representatives opted for closer coffeeshops, say Au Bon Pain, or decided to walk another block for their yuppie, world-destroying Starbucks, but there were quite a few in Bollo’s.

Of the many that I overheard, my favorite order of the morning was… “a medium mocha, with four shots”. See, at Bollo’s, a medium is 12 ounces; at Starbucks they are 16. One shot [of espresso] is one ounce of high-density coffee (a.k.a. “espresso”) that is typically brewed considerably darker than normal coffee. The result is that one ounce of espresso is equivalent to about one cup of coffee, in terms of caffeine strength. Thus, as Felicia repeated, “So, you want a 12 ounce mocha with four shots?” making sure the guy understood a medium is not as obese as at S-bucks; the guy replied, after a slight pause, “yes”.

That guy must have an iron stomach. Or a few, precious brain cells that need serious morning jolts to get moving. My hat goes off to him, but hopefully not in honor of the dead. Jeeeesshh, four shots of espresso. ‘twould make me sweat.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 at 10:41 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.