That’s a better education than most!
Not minimizing your frustration, just relating.
These things happen IRL all the time. Criteria, materials, dimensions changes, time-line changes, shipping requirements–literally every element of a job or the job in its entirety can change at the drop of a hat.
Still needs done though!
Well did you learn something in those 20 hours?
The greatest skill you’ll get out of university is learning how to learn / teach yourself.
You’ll some day realize you’re making a big deal out of something that isn’t a big deal. If you get the question wrong because you can’t figure it out, then you’ll find out the solution after it’s been graded. Not a big deal.
Skyzyks and vision are right on this one. This is par for the course in the real world. I’m in charge of the last major part of projects before they’re shipped to a different division. That means I’m responsible for eating all the lost time and late dates of the 10 different functions before me. Already had 30 hours of work in this week by the time I shut down yesterday.
Gonna go a little philosophical here and let you in on a secret about university that no one will admit. You’re not only there to get an education, you’re there to learn to deal with and adapt to bullshit. That was probably the most useful part of my education, despite going to a good engineering school. It’s there to galvanize you against the stuff that pops up in the real world and it’s completely worth it to learn to embrace the suck, just like we embrace the suck with lifting.
I was on a crew to build the refrigeration system in a Costco that started 3 months late due to the location being a superfund site. But still maintained the grand opening date. It was insane. We had guys pulling 24 hr. shifts, delerious with exhaustion-falling off of ladders and getting hit by trucks and stuff. I got my ankle broken when a guy in a fork lift rammed a big floor unit into me because the drawing changed and we needed to move them and he hadn’t slept in a few days. Then a drill bit through the leg because dude read revision 2 of like 4 and was drilling in the wrong location.
Got it done though!
Then fired. Because the work was done, so go home.
@SkyzykS @vision1 @garagerocker13
Thanks so much for the support. I get that I’m essentially complaining about nothing. It’s just been so stressful and painful.
I’ve found that I have quite a low threshold for handling pressure, which is something I need to work on
I’m probably going to take the day off today just because “I can” even though I feel pretty great physically
That’s actually the best time. 
Enjoy!
WTF?! Aren’t there occupational safety laws?
Not with that much money on the line. Our part of the contract carried a 50k per day penalty for missing completion date deadlines. Work had to be (this far) by (this date) or the company got spanked right where it hurts.
The wallet.
I am going to echo the others here. This sounds pretty typical for higher education and/or the corporate world.
I have also found that even though universities say 3-4 hours or work/credit hour per week, for advanced topics (like mathematics and sciences) I found the actual number was closer to 5-6 hours per week, so 20 hours on two problem sets sounds about right.
You hit the nail on the head. Also remember that typically professors at high end university’s are much more focused on their research than on their students. I would say that 50% of my engineering professors didn’t give a rat’s ass if I learned any material in their class or not.
Greed trumps all.
I had a report-out with the CEO and VP of quality of a fortune 500 company at the end of my first co-op term. They asked me what I liked/didn’t like and I said “I wish there was more actual engineering - like designing things”. The VP of quality came right back and said “you solved problems, didn’t you? You’ll realize that, yes, coursework is important in engineering, but the intangibles of problem solving are way more important. They will apply to any job you’ll ever do, as well as to your home life.” That’s always stuck with me.
Also, @anna_5588, we’re not telling you that you’re complaining/stressing about nothing. We’re pointing out that you can use the bullshit to learn to adapt better - which seems to be a weak spot for you personally. Owning the current situation will help you in all aspects. You’re a plan-for-everything person, which is good, but I think that’s causing some of your food issues here. If you work to become an adapt-to-everything person, you’ll be able to let go of a lot of your fear of the future. When you know you can rock any situation you find yourself in, there’s not a whole lot to be afraid of.
That is along the line of “You don’t need to know all subject matter, you just need to know where to find it.”.
We had a problem with the keel plates at one place I worked. They were being welded using waaaay too much heat, and getting a massive warp right at the joint, which made the next step in production much more difficult and costly. I pointed this out to the division sup. and he didn’t even know which way was up on it.
So I brought him my actual text book from school with the causes of warp bookmarked, and the heat input formula highlighted.
Then we worked backwards through the process and found that the meters on the sub-arc system were not just out of calibration, but had never been. We got the electrical engineers in on it at that point and it was fixed within a day.
That knocked an hour off of the manufacturing process, and in doing so saved the company a whole butt load of $$/hour/year.
Prior to that it was “Sure, that’s a problem. But how do you fix it?”. I still don’t know that formula. But I do know that it’s on page 462!
No workout today- going to kill it tomorrow
I think a lot of the change in my physique is due to water retention from stress.
My hands are puffy and when I press my skin, it takes a a bit for the fingermark to go away, even on my stomach. Digestion is also way off. Everything bloats me and appetites is gone. blocked up as before too
To be clear, I probably did put on fat, but not 3lbs
The problem is that I don’t know how to destress:
Again, you need to see a professional for this. They’ll work with you on how to unpack all your stressors, deal with them, and move on with your life. Spinning your wheels and hem-hawing is only making you suffer longer.
As everyone has said you really do need professional help on all of this but just an observation that I’m sure won’t help but I’ll offer it anyway:
It’s good that you recognise stress is causing issues, but you need to recognise that you are causing stress by obsessively looking for things that may or may not be there. I can honestly say that I have no idea if/when I’m bloated or holding water weight, and I’m on TRT with no AI (and frequently eat awfully) so presumably at some point in the last 3 years I’ve been retaining water, but I can say that it has zero impact on me, because I’m not looking for it.
Look hard enough for something you’ll find it, which why you post photos which you are saying show bloating/weight gain etc, but I can almost guarantee if I went to the beginning of this journal and put the latest photo next to the first one, the difference would be intangible to almost everyone but you.
I know that stating this probably won’t change anything, but hopefully seeing the absurdity of a sub 100lb person obsessively weighing, taking photos, looking for water retention, bloating etc might give you pause. You would experience a significant difference in stress levels of you could stop or reduce measuring yourself and looking for problems.
All of what you are describing aligns fairly well with what would happen to the human body as they increase their caloric intake when they’ve been persistently starving themselves either through calorie restriction and/or excessive exercise if the book I’m reading on eating disorders can at all be considered an authority. I don’t have it with me, as I’m at the office, so I cannot talk much about the mechanism behind it (not that the text goes into that in any detail either). But, maybe knowing this is to be expected might give you some comfort. Hopefully.
The human body is supposed to retain some water in a healthy state. No one is “competition” or “instagram selfie” lean all the time. Whatever the above is, isn’t actually a measure of anything.
See a professional. None of this makes sense to anyone thinking rationally. It makes sense to you because your brain is lying to you, aggressively.
@garagerocker13 @cyclonengineer @alex_uk @Voxel
Good points. I’ve given up. I’m just going to eat what I’m eating, not weigh myself or look in the mirror, train hard and see what happens. Hopefully things will balance themselves out eventually
Week 16: day4
50burpees+50rows/arm-25lbs+200 alternating lunges
10x(15pushups+15 air squats)- EMOM
, push-ups and air squats a lot easier than expected, getting better at push-upsI hope you actually mean this and eat enough, rather than use this as an excuse to just under-eat. Still, seek actual help as soon as you can.