Week of November 26

TWO WEEKS OF CLASSES LEFT (in case you weren't keeping track...)

General News

I moved "news" items to the Blog section of my web page.  Check it out.  And not because I wrote the entries there, but because it summarizes the news that impacts your chosen industry.  Besides, you'll sound smart when you're talking to a construction executive and you can say "wow, the housing market is starting get turn for the better, but the industrial/commercial market needs to get better before i'm done worrying."  Or something like that.  Anyway, get informed.

CM News and Events

Fall Student Welcome:  On Monday, November 26 (tomorrow night), the Fall Student Welcome will be held at the Firehouse Restaurant (1112 2nd Street) from 5:30 to 8:00.  In return for wearing nicer clothes than you normally do, you will get the opportunity to mingle with the construction industry's big ballers and have free food (and possibly free drink, but bring your wallets just in case).  The University's President and Provost will be there, so act accordingly.  Besides, it's Monday, so drinking too much will be a sign of much bigger problems.  Just sayin'...

WCIECA Scholarship: There is a $1,000 scholarship available through the Western Chapter of the International Erosion Control Association.  If interested, contact Cyndi Brinkhurst at (530) 272-2407 or westernchapter@gmail.com.  This scholarship will likely not draw a lot of interest, so those that put some effort into applying for it will likely have a good chance.  I'm not sure about the deadline for this, but I bet Cyndi does, so e-mail her.

Job Leads

DeSilva Gates:  DGC is looking for PE's and Estimators. Contact Pete Davos at 925.829.9220 or pdavos@desilvagates.com.  They do heavy-civil/earthmoving, in case you were wondering.

College of Engineering Job Seeker Website:  If you haven't already checked this out, you can search through all the jobs that Cici Mattuzi (the College of Engineering's Career Coordinator) posts quickly here.  I did a quick search and found that Sprig Electric in San Jose (which is run by a really good group of people) and McClone Construction are hiring.  I'm sure there's more than that.  Check it out:  http://career.ecs.csus.edu/jetx4/

What's Going On In Classes

CM 10:  Sorry, another week without a guest lecturer, so you get me (#winning).  I'll come up with something to dazzle you with.  ***Reminder:  you should be working on your reflection paper, which is the last assignment for the class.

CM 121:  This week we start the McKinley Park Tennis Courts lab.  You will have the next two weeks to work on it, but that doesn't mean you should slack off this week and make the work up next week.  You will need all of the next two lab periods to get ready for BID DAY!  You may work in teams of up to three (3) people.  I recommend building a team with smart people, but that's just my $0.02.

Also this week, we're having Exam #2.  We'll have a short lecture on Tuesday and an even shorter exam review.  The exam will be on Thursday.  I have actually already written it.  Yeah, while you were stuffing your face with turkey, I was writing an exam.  Awesome.  I also graded some labs, but I want to finish all of them before returning grades to the entire class (I'm hoping to have most of Goodyear graded this week).  The comments you will receive will be limited due to time.  But if you want more detailed feedback, ask me during lab and I'll go through your labs with you.  That's a part of my stellar customer service program.

CM 126:  Busy week ahead.  On Monday, we have two toolbox meetings (John Vogt on steel erection fall protection and Matt Obregon on helicopter safety) and Sean Davis and Tom Salazar will be giving their presentation on PlanGrid.  Also, I will be revealing the winners of the 2012 CM 126 Hand Turkey Drawing Competition.  My kids selected the winners and graded your quizzes.  And apparently I'm raising really mean kids.  

We will also go over some of the recent homework assignments (remember those?).  We can go over them because I ACTUALLY GOT AROUND TO GRADING THEM!  Instead of watching "Elf" for the 10,000 time, I graded homework on Friday.  Not that I don't like "Elf", I just felt liked I owed it to you.  The grades are posted, but I have a feedback sheet for each of you that I might try to e-mail tomorrow morning.

On Wednesday, we have two toolboxes (Anna Wilks TBD and Bijan Yavari on CPR) and two presentations (Trace McCown and Denny Wilson on Paving Operations and Rich Orlando and Forest "Fire" Podva on tilt-up construction). We will also have at least one more assignment, so that will be assigned.  It involves earthmoving