A baggy old one but still…

And no I did not go back to school to get an engineering degree, perish the thought. It’s just a change in title. I used to be a “business systems analyst”, now I am a “business something (solutions?) engineer”. Big Corp has made another bunch of acquisitions or whatever and decided to change a bunch of job titles. Some people are not all that happy about it but I was all “Yippee! I get to be an engineer!” 🙃 I do have to admit it isn’t as fun as the last time Big Corp made a bunch of acquisitions and EVERYONE got another week of vacation going forward.

My brother was a mechanical engineer. He worked in the auto industry. In a way he was destined to work in the auto industry given that by the time he was three years old he could identify just about whatever car he saw, and no, he couldn’t read yet. He had a good career but in the end I think he was beyond frustrated with the polly-tickle crapola that can come with working for a big corporation. One of the ways he thumbed his nose was to buy Japanese vee-hickles. And yes, somehow he managed to drive them to work. I think. Or maybe he drove Twuk, a rescue vee-hickle made in America.

My brother and I got along pretty well except for the deep seated crapola that can boil over when adult children are visiting together in their childhood home with their parents. And sometimes I was annoyed by his propensity to act like a Big Wheel, throwing money around, etc. But all in all he was a good guy and we won’t go there. After all, he can’t defend himself.

Instead, a lighter story. One weekend we were all at the moomincabin and he and I were having a running “debate” about story problems vs. patterns. He was (rather forcefully) pro story problem, claiming that’s what engineering was all about. I am definitely a patterns person. The NPR Sunday puzzle came on and the theme was spoonerisms. My brother got stuck on one where the clue was something like “Norman Mailer” and “religious carpenter”. I piped up immediately with “Mormon nailer”, which was correct. The Engineer said, “How did you get that so quick?” My reply? Patterns!

I actually think engineering is probably more about patterns than my bro’ thought at the time. I am okay with my title change but I think “analyst” more accurately describes what I do. But I can’t ‘splain that in fewer than about 10,000 words so we’ll leave it for now. Except patterns.

Wasp larva inside acorn plum galls. You wanted to know.

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