Gather 'round, my minions! This is the Awsome Blog for the Month of October, 2008. In this issue, the first of six new columns is installed, the Snorkel rides again and Mark takes on the role of a New York City undercover cop. But first, a first look at the inside walls to be of Building 8.

Here we see three rows of structural x-bracing made of red, six-inch tube steel. Each pair of X's is 17 feet tall and 50 feet long. All this was added for extra support during an earthquake. These X's will be concealed between layers of drywall, which will be held up by the steel framing studs filling the gaps in the X's. Over the last two and a half months, a crew has been working hard putting these studs up all around the building. The drywall installation phase is still a long ways off, but there are still several other things that need to happen to these walls before they are ready for that. Besides, we will still be moving things around with heavy equipment inside the building for months to come, so having fragile drywall everywhere would only complicate things. By not putting it up until we are absolutely ready for it we are avoiding a large amount of drywall repair that would inevitably be necessary after all the construction workers do their worst to it.

Here is some really big news: Yesterday, Friday, October 31, we installed the first of six new columns that will be supporting the two huge beams that will hold up the ceiling after the four columns nearest the podium are removed. It was quite an ordeal to get it into place, and I played a very significant role in it. If you look between the columns at the top, there is a series of steel plates there holding the two columns together. This gusset consists of two plates of 3/4 inch steel and three plates of 1/2 inch steel. Assembled it looks like a small section of an i-beam with an extra line running horizontally through the middle. My job was to actually put this together. After I fine-tuned the shape of each piece with a grinder, I centered each piece up where it went and had one of the welders tack weld it in place. I have to make something like that for each of the new columns. as of now, I still have three more to make. It should be noted that each of these assemblies is actually heavier than a PlayStation 3. Shocking, isn't it?

Ah, the Snorkel. This is still my favorite out of all the lifts at Building 8. It's very old, but it's 65 foot boom and box rotation capability make it the most ideal lift for working over a large area moving from one tight spot to another. It's actually pretty easy to drive, but most people consider riding in it to be gambling with your life. I guess after running it day in and day out for more than a month last year made me pretty good at it. It's really just a matter of getting your sea legs and learning to be gentle with the controls. Anyway, hanging the steel x-bracing that goes around the newest platform required the use of the Snorkel lift, so here's a picture of me in the Snorkel pulling away after successfully inserting another piece. On the other side of the x is the Skytrak, just released from holding the piece. It is driven by Larry T., of Anaheim, CA. After doing this so much over the last several months, Larry and I have perfected our sign language. Since he can't see exactly where a piece of steel goes, he relies on me for hand signals to direct him into the exact spot. After learning some of the industry standard hand signals, we learned how each other worked and how to read the intentions of the other without killing the engines of our machines and walking over to each other to talk. The real irony is that now that we have gotten good at this, we only have two more months of this work to go. We are hoping to have all the structural steel installed by the end of the year. This photo was supplied by Rick R. of Houston.

Some of you may have heard about the new movie Max Payne that came out earlier this month. In case you didn't know, this movie is based loosely on a video game by the same name and its sequel. The games Max Payne and Max Payne 2: the Fall of Max Payne are pretty old, so it was easy to get them on the cheap, and several of the Building 8 workers began putting a good portion of their free time towards these games with the goal of finishing both before seeing the movie. Due to technical difficulties with Apple Boot Camp, I was unable to get the game installed with enough time left to finish even the first game before seeing the movie, but the plots were different enough for it to not matter. The movie was ok, but there is supposed to be a sequel that will either validate or totally negate the first one. Either way, it isn't really worth seeing by itself. Wait for the sequel and try to see them back to back. The games, on the other hand, were worth every penny we spent. Hours of joy have come from them, especially from Max Payne 2. There are so many opportunities to do silly things that aren't really a part of the game that you could really just play through the same portion of the game dozens of times just to try to kill enemies in the funniest way possible. In Max Payne, you play as New York DEA detective Max Payne who goes undercover to break up a drug ring. However, his only contact in the DEA is killed and the mafia finds out that he's a cop, so he has to shoot his way to the bottom of this conspiracy filled mystery. His only allies in his quest are his guns, his grenades and bullet time. I highly recommend these games to everyone. You are sure to enjoy them.

It's been really slow around Building 8 this month, but preparations are being made for some really newsworthy stuff next month. Among those items are a shift in our schedule that has us starting work at 8:00 (as opposed to 8:30). Lunch break will be shortened from an hour to only 30 minutes, and work will end for the day at 4:30 instead of 5:30. This will be nice in that we get more time after work to goof off, but sucks because now I'll have to get up at 5:30 instead of 6. There was some other stuff planned, but it's so late now I forget what all that was. Be sure to check back next month to find out what I forgot.