engineers – A Wandering Eyre

August 27, 2015

Creative License

My engineering husband questioned me about the liberties I take with Greek Mythology in my Turning Creek series. I told him it was creative license. He did not approve. The problem with engineers is that they want, nay need, things to fit into formulas. If you can turn the plot points into a color coded graph, even better.

His main complaint was that Thomas, the orphan Iris takes in after Lightning in the Dark, has the ability of speed and delivers messages. The Greek myth that these two traits fit best is Hermes.

Hermes was a god of Olympus, son of Zeus and Maia (one of the many women who fell for Zeus). Hermes was the herald and servant of Zeus.

In the world I created for Turning Creek, there are no Remnants of gods (that we know of). The gods, who reigned on Mount Olympus, required adoration and were accustomed to a certain level of power. They did not adjust to life in the mortal world after the Fall of Olympus and they faded from existence. In the world I have created, Thomas could not be the Remnant of Hermes because Hermes faded long ago, thus I borrowed Achilles for Thomas.

Achilles was a famous warrior in the Trojan War. I did a Mythology Mondays profile of Achilles with more detail. In the original myth, he was slain with an arrow to his heel.

I gave Thomas speed because it was a convenient power for him to have and assist Iris. I gave him Achilles’ weakness because I wanted him to have one.

Creative License. I wield it.

One of the fabulous things about mythology, and Greek mythology in particular, is that every tale has multiple versions. Thanks to the warring nature of the Greeks, Romans, and their many neighbors, Greek myths were adopted and adapted by different peoples and regions. Even the ancients had their own version of creative license.

If, like my husband, my liberties with the original myths make you roll your eyes and wonder if I did any research at all, I assure you, I did research. Sometimes, I apply creative license to whatever facts I find.

March 31, 2014March 31, 2014

Oops! I Married an Engineer

In Houston, I live in close proximity to NASA and the oil and gas industry. Almost everyone I know is either an engineer, married to one, or has a close family member working in one of these two powerhouse industries. Mr. Rochester is an Aerospace Engineer, literally a rocket scientist. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Engineers are wired differently than the rest of us lesser mortals. Over the years, and many conversations with others who live with an engineer, I have come to realize there are certain things almost all engineers do which drive the rest of the world crazy.

This is why I have decided I should start a support group called Oops! I Married an Engineer. You are eligible for this new group if you have ever caught your significant other exhibiting one of the following characteristics:

An explanation, story, or anecdote which would take a normal person 3 minutes to deliver, takes an engineer 30 minutes. This is because the explanation often involves background, charts, graphs, and visual aides. (see below)
While telling a story, the engineer produces within seconds color pie charts, line graphs, and to scale mock-ups of the situation using materials they find on hand, including but not limited to sugar packets, silverware, paperclips, rubber bands, and innocent bystanders.
When planning a party, the engineer is useless in terms of food preparation and decor, but they will draw you a to scale schematic of where the table, chairs, food, and people should go given your current space dimensions. (Mr. R actually did this for our rehearsal dinner)
When asked to communicate anything requiring more than a simple sentence, engineers write entire computer codes or formulas with which to properly convey their idea. (Mr. R has also done this for me)
When assembling anything, from dinner to a complicated cabinet from Ikea, they require detailed step by step instructions. Failing to produce a recipe for a meal, even if the meal if as simple as spaghetti, results in the engineer’s head exploding. If an engineer catches you pouring a dab of this or a pinch of that into a pot, they are immobilized by shock that a civilized person can actually cook in that fashion.
All the clocks in the engineer’s house are set to within seconds of official NIST time.
When told that their spouse wants to join the Oops! I Married an Engineer support group, their response is, “Why? Because it’s so hard to live with someone who is always right?”

Just nod, say, “Yes, of course,” and come have a chat with us. We understand here at Oops! I Married and Engineer that you have attached yourself to a person who is more comfortable with formulas than people and drives you crazy. Relax. Prop your feet up. I promise there will be no charts, graphs, or math during the meetings.

September 17, 2012September 13, 2012

Going from Talking Head to Mob Rule, Engineering Edition

Readers, you know I love engineers. I married one, so I know how they love equations, following directions, taking things apart, and the process of things. It makes me completely batty, but I get it. I have now spent almost half my life working around the idiosyncratic ways of Mr. Rochester.

I received an email from a lovely gentleman engineer who will be chairing an engineering conference next year. He wants to shake things up a bit and add some unconference elements to his gathering. He told me they used to do what they called rap sessions, it sounded like birds of a feather to me, but the sessions have evolved into a panel of experts, which he wants to move away from. He also said there was a lot of time where people were just sitting around.

My first thought was, “Bless their hearts. They mean well.” (I am a southern girl, in case any of you have forgotten.) I wrote him a long email, with some decent advice I thought others might find helpful.

If you are facing an especially rigid group that you would like to shake up, here are some ideas from the email I sent:

For groups that have an especially hard time with change or unscheduled elements, planning an unconference type event works best at the beginning of the conference. You can use the session, whatever it is, as a type of ice breaker to get people interacting and engaging before the more structured sessions. If you give people an opportunity to start talking early, chances are high they will keep doing so.

A Birds of a Feather discussion to kick off the conference might be good for your situation. If you want the rap sessions to go back to their roots, small table discussions not led by experts, either be very clear that the format is going retro or rename the session. The problem is getting people to break out of their mold. Clear directions up front will help.

You can also use lightening talks, if the experts still want to have their say. Each talking head gets 5-10 minutes MAX to talk, say 6 speakers in a row. Then the participants break up into small discussion groups of no more than 8 (a round table) and discuss some of the ideas. People can be free to leave groups and join new discussions as they please. This might be a little chaotic, so you might need to add in some structure.

You could also do an AMA (Ask me Anything) like on Reddit. The experts would be there, not to give a talk, but to just answer questions from the audience. There are a lot of techie and nontechie ways to td that, but again, it would give the experts their time while allowing the audience to run the show.

In terms of people sitting around at the tables doing nothing: Is there a way to spark conversation while they are there? Consider labeling the tables with topics and allow people to sit at table that interest them allowing the conversation occur organically.

Don’t be afraid to step out of the accepted way of doing things and do something adventurous!

–Jane, an adventurer