Postpartum thoughts on my project this week

I have begun writing posts without first writing a title. I think that gives me incentive to write what’s on my mind and not box what I’m thinking into a clever title beforehand. Hopefully, anyway.

So today I finished those iFixit signs for the office. That was a major project for me, one that I alluded to in my previous post but didn’t mention by name because I wanted to make it its own post.

Finishing that was a great ego boost. Coworkers commended me for my effort, and that is always a nice feeling. I think the signs add an element of professionalism and elegance to the office that hasn’t been there since the company moved in over a year ago. Granted, I wasn’t there for the majority of that time, but I have heard many accounts of how the paper signs made everyone feel. It was a feeling of “temporariness” and “unprofessionalism,” to put it in two succinct words. Finishing those signs was my meager way of trying to boost the company’s ego. I hope it does.

Plus, I got a chance to play with a CNC machine, which has long been a yearning of mine. In case you’re unfamiliar with CNC, it stands for computer numerical control and is used to control machinery, typically those with axes that build or cut in three dimensions. Now, I am proficient in how to use the laser cutter, and I can make any number of cool things, provided I have the design in a compatible format. It’s really empowering to know how to operate a piece of machinery like that. With this knowledge combined with my previous experiences with Makerbot and other machines that use gcode and other CNC languages, I am sure to go far in this field (at least from a hobbyist/enthusiast standpoint).