Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Life Updates

Hi All!

This week has been extremely stressful so I honestly have not been in the office much. My mom fell down the stairs at her work last Wednesday morning and broke both of her ankles so I had been at her home taking care of her until she was admitted to the hospital in Boston last Friday. She has had surgery to repair her left ankle and is doing well considering what happened but she will not be able to bear any weight on her left ankle for 3 months. This has been and certainly will continue to be a learning curve but whatever God brings you to, he brings you through! She has a long road to recovery ahead of her but we're hoping and praying for the best, she will be entering a short-term rehabilitation facility for a week or so before moving back home with my dad and my brother.


In GIS news: I am still working on the Transformer Pad Mount Inspection project, I will be going out with the three person crew and my manager tomorrow to train them on how to use the application and to start collecting data. I'm so glad that we are moving forward with this! I will also be submitting my abstract for the conferences very soon as they are due on Monday, April 3rd...I just need to get the go ahead to move forward with submission.

I am also researching and creating documentation for the new GPS receiver that NAED will be receiving shortly.

There is a lot more going on...including my search for a full-time permanent job position but that is all I will say at the moment! I just wish for luck in my future endeavors whatever they may be! Next week I will be attending the AAG conference at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston with my friend Brittney from BSU who is actually giving a poster presentation at the conference. My blog post next week will focus on the conference! Until then, take care!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Forms Galore

Hello All!

I am back from my honeymoon! We just spent a long weekend down the Cape in Chatham. It was fun! Very quiet since most of the shops down there were closed for the season but we still had a good time! The food at our bed & breakfast was delicious...I highly recommend the Chatham Wine Bar & Restaurant at the Chatham Inn at 359 Main. That is where we stayed and ate! There is also a fun candy shop just down the street, the Candy Manor that makes delicious chocolate covered cranberries!! I could eat them for days (:


Anyways, before I ventured off on my honeymoon I was learning the ProntoForm system that NAED uses for various forms. Once I figured out my way around the site I created test forms that will hopefully get approved to be created for real use.

I'm still working on the Transformer Pad Inspections project, will hopefully be training the linecrew either this week or next week, we're just tying up some loose ends with the project such as getting the Collector application downloaded on the line crew IPads. I will update on more next week.

Enjoy the week!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Wedding, Abstract Writing & More!

Hello Everyone!!

Welcome back from Spring Break!! Today marks 11 days since I married the love of my life! The day was beautiful but freezing cold!! The wind chill made the temperatures feel like they were below zero!! But all went well, everyone had a great time! I've heard so many compliments on the food and the cake, which is great because I didn't get to eat anything except the stuffing!! Now I've just got to go on my honeymoon this weekend and finish my college career on a high note!

I am meeting with the operations manager and the men who will be conducting the transformer pad inspections next week on the 22nd so hopefully we can finish this project completely!! My abstract for both the Bridgewater State University Undergraduate Research Symposium and the NEARC conference are due on the same day, April 3rd. I have been working on my abstract for that which is hard to do since my project isn't finished yet! The critical portions of my research project are done, since the research, development and configuration aspects are done with the project, but the implementation of the application has yet to start so I can't reflect on successes or failures in my abstract. I am assuming that all will go well with the application but you never know if there are any glitches or whatnot! This process has definitely taught me patience. I am one who dedicates my time to one or two tasks and completes them in full before moving on to the next, this process has had me work on numerous tasks while waiting for the inspection process to start with the primary task that I was assigned for this semester. Hopefully this project will be fully completed before I need to present my results at the symposium on April 24th...we shall see!

I have also been spending my time working on a map book that was requested by one of the Engineers here and I have been working with my manager Heather on updating the Fiber Map for another project manager. I still have yet to learn any more about fiber but hopefully will learn that soon too.

For now, please enjoy these pictures from my wedding!

My Wedding Cake! As Dr. James Hayes-Bohanan describes it,
"When a geographer marries"
Myself, my husband Walter, and our good friend Brittney who
is also a graduating senior at BSU majoring in Geography!
 
                                 
Walter and I sharing our first dance to the song
"Rest of My Life" by Bruno Mars
                                  

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

More Adventures with GIS

Hello everyone!!

I can't believe that my wedding is only 3 days away!! I am definitely starting to freak out, I've been engaged for a year and a half now so it's crazy to think how fast the time has passed and now we are here! AHHH!

Anyways, I have been working on other maps and projects for the Electric Department while I wait to train the linemen on how to use the collector application for the pad mount transformer inspections.

One project that I worked on was I had to analyze 5 locations in town where the Electric Department is looking at placing solar farms. I used the spatial analyst extension for ArcGIS Desktop and ran the Area Solar Radiation tool on the DEM for North Attleboro and each desired location. I had done a very similar project for my final project in GEOG 413 last year so I have had experience with using this tool. Since I save all of my notes from my previous classes *in case I ever need to refer to them  again*, I was able to follow my notes from the project I did for class and very easily finish this project for the Electric Department. It is nice to directly apply skills learned in the classroom in the real world!


Another project that I worked on had to deal with the Fiber Cable lines. Now I know almost nothing about Fiber. Going into my internship I knew very little about the electrical system but I am learning more each day! There is one man here who knows everything about fiber, that is his specialty. He will hopefully be sitting down with me sometime soon to teach me about fiber because when I was working on the map for him, much of the information went over my head. I did what I was told and completed it, but what good is a map if only one person can understand it? So I will hopefully be learning about fiber soon.

I shall keep you all updated on GIS and maybe post a wedding picture or two after the big day! Enjoy your upcoming Spring Break, I know I will!