Keeping busy

   My summer is still going well in Minneapolis.

   Last Thursday I had a “poster session” at 3M. It is like a career fair but rather than companies setting up a booth, all of the interns at 3M do instead. Each intern makes a poster about what they’ve been working on throughout the summer. Hiring managers from all of the different sections of 3M are given a list of the interns that will be at the poster session. The list they are given says what school we go to, what our major is, and when we will be graduating. This gives the recruiters a chance to decide in advance who they want to talk to about a possible full-time position at 3M.

   My poster showed the library security gate that I’ve been working on. I wasn’t sure if any recruiters would seek me out or not. I had three people specifically looking to talk to me, so I’d say that the poster session went well. I would post an image of my poster, but I’m not allowed to show non-3M employees.  It was a good-lookin’ poster though, I promise J

   Devin visited me last weekend and it was definitely the most fun I’ve had all summer. We went to a “VIP” movie theater that had a restaurant and bar to order from while watching the movie. We saw Wolverine. We went to Valleyfair on Saturday and hung out with Devin’s friends, Jake and Jayne, (who I can probably consider my friends, too) on Saturday night. On Sunday we finally went to Isle’s Bun and Coffee for breakfast. I mentioned that café in an earlier post… the one with the cinnamon rolls that are served with a whole bucket of frosting. It was delicious (and it was a good day to eat there because Mom and I “started our diet on Monday”…. I feel like we always start a diet on Mondays… every Monday). After breakfast, Devin and I went to the Como Zoo. It is a free zoo that recently got a gorilla exhibit. That was fun. I wish the weekend could have lasted a lot longer.

   My friend, Amy, is visiting me in Minneapolis tonight. She is interested in an industrial design internship at 3M as well, so I am going to bring her to work with me tomorrow and show her around. That will be fun.

   I am coming home this weekend to help at Art in the Park. I had fun when I was in charge of it two summers ago, and I look forward to being a part of it again this summer. I have every weekend booked until the end of my internship.

This weekend: Art in the Park

Next weekend: Jake and Jayne’s wedding in Minneapolis (Devin is a groomsman in it)

The following weekend: Done at 3M for the summer. I get to come home and go to the O.A.R. concert that night.

Then I get to move to Maine!

I don’t have any pictures to show, sorry.

Practicing at work

                I am so glad I have a short week this week. Tomorrow is like Friday! But then I get to have another Friday two days later! I missed being home during 4^th of July last summer, so I am anxious to be around all of the drunken idiots again. Seriously.

 I’ve been coming to work early this week and I LOVE it. I get to work with the lights turned off so that I can see my computer screen easily without the glare from overhead lights…. Actually, the lights aren’t an issue when my screen is tilted upright. But I can lay it down flat and digitally sketch right on it.. so having the lights off helps a lot.

Here is that sketch if you’re interested… Practicing sketching is valuable and considered “working,” and we can sketch whatever we want to improve our skills. This is what they get when they give me that freedom J

 

I am also supposed to be practicing surface modeling on SolidWorks. I designed a fishing lure a couple years ago and made it out of solid bodies (which is a stupid idea, but I was inexperienced), so now I am practicing making them with surface modeling. Keeping up, Grandma? Some of that stuff probably doesn’t make any sense. Anyway, I lost that original lure when my computer crashed last summer, but I’m sure I’d laugh at it if I saw it today. The lure I made a couple years ago took me, probably, 3 hours. These two guys (three pictures, but two of them are the same with different colors) took me about a half hour. So I am getting better and quicker!

I really enjoy fishing, so it is difficult for me to admit that I don’t know what colors to make the lures! I could easily copy exactly some of the patterns that I see on similar lures, but that is cheating. So I made up my own colorful pattern. If I actually did some research I’m sure I’d be able to make a more educated decision on color and pattern. But it doesn’t really matter right now.  

Yeah, I do have actual 3M projects I am working on, too. But I am limited to what I can show. I can say it is going well though!

Also, I've started noticing how many optional meetings there are here and it is starting to get funny.. and ridiculous. I get invited to attend the most random things. Today I was invited to go to an "Asphalt Roofing Seminar." So if I think I will someday need to know how to re-roof my house, I can learn how to do it in an hour-long meeting next Thursday. No, I'm not going to go, but I still think it is funny that I have the option. The description starts like this: "For many homeowners, replacing a roofing system can be a very stressful project.  Maybe you have your own roofing horror story or a friend or family member has shared theirs? During this presentation, guest speaker Addison Kaasa from Wright-At-Home Services, Inc. will be addressing all of your roof related concerns and equipping you with all of the necessary information to make informed decisions."

I'll be home tomorrow! Tell Sammi I'm coming.