The home stretch was spent learning a software called Vico Office. This software was a huge shocker. It did the work of every other software we learned, but did it faster and most of the time better. In the middle of the week we did a project visit where I was able to do some R&D on a new application for the iPad. I don't want to reveal too much here, but just go google SightSpace. On Friday I was on of the 1 million that ordered the new iPhone 4S. Yes, I was disappointed that the release wasn't a redesigned iPhone 5, but the improvements were significant enough to outweigh the lack of a different form factor.
On that Saturday Cody and I hit the streets of New York. We went to times square, central park, the apple store, and then a bar to watch Clemson beat VT. Then, we went to a japanese for my introduction to sake bombs. This is where I will warn readers not to underestimate sake bombs like I did. We somehow made it back to the bus in time via a New York City crazy taxi ride.
The last week was spent wrapping up everything we had learned. There was an open house that Turner was hosting and all of us at BIM University were able to display our talents. My station featured the iPad and how to use augmented reality on it. Overall I made a lot of good friends within the company that are all over the nation.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Weeks 6 & 7
We started off week 6 getting a real project from National that they had "solicited" from the business units. I chose to do a detention center in Texas. It taught me a lot about understanding the project completely before diving in and starting. We ended up doing a model of existing and new construction, a flythrough, and iPad interaction. It was a great learning experience. On Tuesday of that week we went to New York City again to oversee the World Trade Center construction. We stopped by the site "trailer" that was actually an office space Turner rented for the entirety of the construction. We are doing the transportation hub and coordination on tower 2. Then, we got to go to Tower 7 which had breathtaking views of the incredible construction and memorial sites below. It was one of those moments when you realize the culmination of your efforts in the past have paid off.
That weekend, my parents (from Charlotte), Lindsay (from Atlanta), and I (from New York) went to Chicago for my cousin Elyse's wedding reception. She got married in Las Vegas a few weeks prior and decided to have a reception for family closer to home, unfortunately (I would have loved to go back to Vegas). While I was on the way, mom called to tell me that Aunt Lois was in the hospital with what would become an exploded appendix. I never realized how strong my aunt was, with all the pain she endured, until that weekend. However, the day ended up being really fun and busy for me as I was acting as photographer, part DJ, and Skype expert to bring Aunt Lois in on the wedding. I hope I lived up to Elyse and Todd's expectations :-). Uncle Bob also gave me a book of my specific genealogy that was very interesting and thoughtful which took many years of research. Overall, it was an awesome weekend to see Lindsay, the rents, and extended family (oh yea, I got to see the hospital room I was born in (from outside), so that was cool).
Week 7 at work was dedicated to MEP coordination which isn't too hard, but we took a look into new softwares such as Solibri and Tekla BIM Sight in addition to the industry standard of Navisworks. Early on in the week, one of my superiors asked me to do a tutorial on one of the iPad apps I demonstrated, so that was an ego boost (apparently I'm the iPad expert, which tempts me to go develop some construction apps on my own). Also during the week I heard from Brittany Lusk, an old classmate, who was seeking my professional advice on BIM (if I have any to offer being so new to it, lol) for the competition team she is on this year. It's nice to give back to the program that I got so much out of.
Another delightful weekend was spent with my amazing girlfriend in the ATL. We ran a fun 5K in the dark as part of the firefly run. We dressed in glow sticks and LED lights. Surprisingly, I ran the entire race wit her and we got a time of 32:30, which ends up to be a 10 minute mile. Anyways, off to the last 2 weeks of training, then the true beginning of the tough part of my job.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
That weekend, my parents (from Charlotte), Lindsay (from Atlanta), and I (from New York) went to Chicago for my cousin Elyse's wedding reception. She got married in Las Vegas a few weeks prior and decided to have a reception for family closer to home, unfortunately (I would have loved to go back to Vegas). While I was on the way, mom called to tell me that Aunt Lois was in the hospital with what would become an exploded appendix. I never realized how strong my aunt was, with all the pain she endured, until that weekend. However, the day ended up being really fun and busy for me as I was acting as photographer, part DJ, and Skype expert to bring Aunt Lois in on the wedding. I hope I lived up to Elyse and Todd's expectations :-). Uncle Bob also gave me a book of my specific genealogy that was very interesting and thoughtful which took many years of research. Overall, it was an awesome weekend to see Lindsay, the rents, and extended family (oh yea, I got to see the hospital room I was born in (from outside), so that was cool).
Week 7 at work was dedicated to MEP coordination which isn't too hard, but we took a look into new softwares such as Solibri and Tekla BIM Sight in addition to the industry standard of Navisworks. Early on in the week, one of my superiors asked me to do a tutorial on one of the iPad apps I demonstrated, so that was an ego boost (apparently I'm the iPad expert, which tempts me to go develop some construction apps on my own). Also during the week I heard from Brittany Lusk, an old classmate, who was seeking my professional advice on BIM (if I have any to offer being so new to it, lol) for the competition team she is on this year. It's nice to give back to the program that I got so much out of.
Another delightful weekend was spent with my amazing girlfriend in the ATL. We ran a fun 5K in the dark as part of the firefly run. We dressed in glow sticks and LED lights. Surprisingly, I ran the entire race wit her and we got a time of 32:30, which ends up to be a 10 minute mile. Anyways, off to the last 2 weeks of training, then the true beginning of the tough part of my job.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Wherever I may be
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Weeks 4 & 5
So here I am, up in the air again.......watching Up In the Air, ironic huh? I've seen this so many times, but I think the reason I love it so much is that I really relate to Ryan Bingham, Clooney's character, minus the whole commitment issues. Anyways, you didn't browse here to analyze my brain, you came to see what I'm up to, so let's get to it.
The past two weeks have been so much more stable than the first two. No switching hotels, no hurricanes or earthquakes, just pure bliss at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton, lol. With that, this post will highlight more about what I'm up to at work.
Week 3 was our introduction to a software that I've never touched before. It's called Synchro and is used to show an owner a 3D model tied to a schedule which explains how the building will be constructed. There is another tool to do this called Navisworks, but I found Synchro to be easier to use.
The next weekend we went to Philly on Saturday for a getaway from the hotel. Trip highlights include a cheesesteak (witout) at the Original Home of the cheesesteak, a trip back in time through Independence Hall, and dinner at the oldest family owned Italian Restaurant in America. Sunday was spent tracking my fantasy football teams through their first regular season games. I lost in both leagues, yea it sucks but whatever I'm used to it.
During week 4 we learned another new software called Solibri that's used to take pieces from a model and use them to do a quantity takeoff for estimating. It was a fairly good tool that helped speed up processes, but it wasn't perfect.
Now I'm on the way back from a sweet weekend with my beloved where we visited Clemson for an amazing win over Auburn. Until next time.....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The past two weeks have been so much more stable than the first two. No switching hotels, no hurricanes or earthquakes, just pure bliss at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton, lol. With that, this post will highlight more about what I'm up to at work.
Week 3 was our introduction to a software that I've never touched before. It's called Synchro and is used to show an owner a 3D model tied to a schedule which explains how the building will be constructed. There is another tool to do this called Navisworks, but I found Synchro to be easier to use.
The next weekend we went to Philly on Saturday for a getaway from the hotel. Trip highlights include a cheesesteak (witout) at the Original Home of the cheesesteak, a trip back in time through Independence Hall, and dinner at the oldest family owned Italian Restaurant in America. Sunday was spent tracking my fantasy football teams through their first regular season games. I lost in both leagues, yea it sucks but whatever I'm used to it.
During week 4 we learned another new software called Solibri that's used to take pieces from a model and use them to do a quantity takeoff for estimating. It was a fairly good tool that helped speed up processes, but it wasn't perfect.
Now I'm on the way back from a sweet weekend with my beloved where we visited Clemson for an amazing win over Auburn. Until next time.....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, September 5, 2011
Weeks 2 & 3
It's been such a crazy awesome past two weeks, and I wish I would have blogged earlier, but settling in has been hard (I'll explain).
Sunday, Aug 21st
When I got off the plane, I received a warm greeting from the driver, unusual for the Northern city atmosphere. He was a great guy and gave me a lot of insight on the area and on what he knew about Turner people (he drives around many of us due to our contract with their car service). After settling down in the hotel with the 3 bag fulls of things I had, I could not stand to spend my first night just sulking in my hotel room, so I sent an email to everyone and invited them to hang out and get to know each other (this might be my ex-RA instinct, but w/e). A few came, but I didn't meet all 25 until the next day.
Monday, Aug 22nd
Nothing too exciting happened since it was the first day. We went over basic BIM processes to get everyone on the same page. The most exciting part of the day was getting our work computers. They are top of the line Dell M6600's with 16GB of RAM and awesome graphics cards.
Tuesday, Aug 23rd
Day 2 of training started off bright and early with a trip to the corporate office in New York City. We met Jim Barrett who is the National BIM/VDC manager (aka my official boss for these 8 weeks) and someone I've read about prior to starting. After an office tour and meeting 2 Executive Vice Presidents (EVPs, aka a step down from CEO) we retreated to the basement training room. While we were there, I felt my chair slightly rocking side to side like someone was putting their foot on my chair, but when I looked back no one was touching my chair. I thought I might have been going crazy, but my fears were relieved (somewhat) to learn that it was a tremor from a 4-5 something magnitude earthquake in Washington DC about 300 miles away. Later, we went to PJs for dinner with some of the people we met and by the end of the day it had felt like I had been there 2 WEEKS not 2 days!
Wednesday, Aug 24th
Wednesday started with a not so delightful fire drill at 6:30am that ruined the fact that we were allowed to sleep in an extra 30 minutes. Oh well. When we got back to the hotel we were shocked to see Peter Davoren, the CEO, waiting on us. After introductions, he invited us to a breakfast they were having the next morning to top off a road show they were doing across the country. That night I was at the hotel bar with some of the guys and I saw one of the EVPs, so i flagged him down and invited him to have a drink with us. This led to not only great conversation, but to other people to come with him. In particular there were a lot of tech people due to the fact that they were working on a project, which I can't disclose here, that involves heavy technology. Out of this crowd was Micky Doner, the CIO. Now, for an employee such as myself working in a department full of technology, this was like a field day and I was given so much insight into the company's perspective on the future.
Thursday, Aug 25th
While sleeping, I was rudely awoken by another fire drill at 2:40am. I figured that if the Lord wanted me to go, I'd go, so I went back to sleep. I lived. The breakfast with all the EVPs, and CEO was amazing. I realize that I'll probably never get that opportunity again until much later in my career.
Friday, Aug 26th
The end of the workweek brought hype about Hurricane Irene. I was booked to fly home to Charlotte for my fantasy football draft, but decided getting back into Newark right after the hurricane would be nuts.
Saturday, Aug 27th
As the storm moved closer I was restricted to my room preparing my auction draft plan, since I had procrastinated on it as usual. My plan was to conserve money and not waste it on top 5 players like I did with WR Andre Johnson last year.
Sunday, Aug 28th
In the morning I woke up and was worried that we didn't have power. I shut off all my electronics to conserve battery life for my draft. I ended up using my work laptop to keep track of picks, iPad to see the screen, and phone to call in. I was able to make it through the entire draft and ended up with a well balanced team. Right after the draft we were ordered to change hotels to another Hilton close by that had power. My company is amazing and took care of everything. Packing up my stuff in an hour was difficult though.
Monday, Aug 29th
Nothing too big happened, but we did fall behind in training due to all the set backs in week 1. We did presentations on our first assignment which was to take a stadium from google sketch up's library and construct it in a new city.
Tuesday, Aug 30th - Thursday, Sept 1st
This week was spent learning more modeling software and working day and night on the weekly project to make sure it was good. We presented and I ended up doing really well and catching on to the software.
Friday, Sept 2nd - Monday, Sept 5th
Off to ATL I went to see Lindsay for a long Labor Day weekend. We went to a program on Friday, watched the Tigers win on Saturday, went to church, the vortex, IKEA, and Hibachi on Sunday, and bowling on Monday.
RECAP
The past 2 weeks have been awesome, and visiting Lindsay was a much needed slow down to the fast paced training. God has blessed me so much and I can't wait to see where my life goes from here. I will try and do more pictures next post, and hopefully I can finally settle down in the hotel
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, Aug 21st
When I got off the plane, I received a warm greeting from the driver, unusual for the Northern city atmosphere. He was a great guy and gave me a lot of insight on the area and on what he knew about Turner people (he drives around many of us due to our contract with their car service). After settling down in the hotel with the 3 bag fulls of things I had, I could not stand to spend my first night just sulking in my hotel room, so I sent an email to everyone and invited them to hang out and get to know each other (this might be my ex-RA instinct, but w/e). A few came, but I didn't meet all 25 until the next day.
Monday, Aug 22nd
Nothing too exciting happened since it was the first day. We went over basic BIM processes to get everyone on the same page. The most exciting part of the day was getting our work computers. They are top of the line Dell M6600's with 16GB of RAM and awesome graphics cards.
Tuesday, Aug 23rd
Day 2 of training started off bright and early with a trip to the corporate office in New York City. We met Jim Barrett who is the National BIM/VDC manager (aka my official boss for these 8 weeks) and someone I've read about prior to starting. After an office tour and meeting 2 Executive Vice Presidents (EVPs, aka a step down from CEO) we retreated to the basement training room. While we were there, I felt my chair slightly rocking side to side like someone was putting their foot on my chair, but when I looked back no one was touching my chair. I thought I might have been going crazy, but my fears were relieved (somewhat) to learn that it was a tremor from a 4-5 something magnitude earthquake in Washington DC about 300 miles away. Later, we went to PJs for dinner with some of the people we met and by the end of the day it had felt like I had been there 2 WEEKS not 2 days!
Wednesday, Aug 24th
Wednesday started with a not so delightful fire drill at 6:30am that ruined the fact that we were allowed to sleep in an extra 30 minutes. Oh well. When we got back to the hotel we were shocked to see Peter Davoren, the CEO, waiting on us. After introductions, he invited us to a breakfast they were having the next morning to top off a road show they were doing across the country. That night I was at the hotel bar with some of the guys and I saw one of the EVPs, so i flagged him down and invited him to have a drink with us. This led to not only great conversation, but to other people to come with him. In particular there were a lot of tech people due to the fact that they were working on a project, which I can't disclose here, that involves heavy technology. Out of this crowd was Micky Doner, the CIO. Now, for an employee such as myself working in a department full of technology, this was like a field day and I was given so much insight into the company's perspective on the future.
Thursday, Aug 25th
While sleeping, I was rudely awoken by another fire drill at 2:40am. I figured that if the Lord wanted me to go, I'd go, so I went back to sleep. I lived. The breakfast with all the EVPs, and CEO was amazing. I realize that I'll probably never get that opportunity again until much later in my career.
Friday, Aug 26th
The end of the workweek brought hype about Hurricane Irene. I was booked to fly home to Charlotte for my fantasy football draft, but decided getting back into Newark right after the hurricane would be nuts.
Saturday, Aug 27th
As the storm moved closer I was restricted to my room preparing my auction draft plan, since I had procrastinated on it as usual. My plan was to conserve money and not waste it on top 5 players like I did with WR Andre Johnson last year.
Sunday, Aug 28th
In the morning I woke up and was worried that we didn't have power. I shut off all my electronics to conserve battery life for my draft. I ended up using my work laptop to keep track of picks, iPad to see the screen, and phone to call in. I was able to make it through the entire draft and ended up with a well balanced team. Right after the draft we were ordered to change hotels to another Hilton close by that had power. My company is amazing and took care of everything. Packing up my stuff in an hour was difficult though.
Monday, Aug 29th
Nothing too big happened, but we did fall behind in training due to all the set backs in week 1. We did presentations on our first assignment which was to take a stadium from google sketch up's library and construct it in a new city.
Tuesday, Aug 30th - Thursday, Sept 1st
This week was spent learning more modeling software and working day and night on the weekly project to make sure it was good. We presented and I ended up doing really well and catching on to the software.
Friday, Sept 2nd - Monday, Sept 5th
Off to ATL I went to see Lindsay for a long Labor Day weekend. We went to a program on Friday, watched the Tigers win on Saturday, went to church, the vortex, IKEA, and Hibachi on Sunday, and bowling on Monday.
RECAP
The past 2 weeks have been awesome, and visiting Lindsay was a much needed slow down to the fast paced training. God has blessed me so much and I can't wait to see where my life goes from here. I will try and do more pictures next post, and hopefully I can finally settle down in the hotel
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Upper NJ
Sunday, August 21, 2011
i (Oh my gosh) S, & A Spit Shine
So I'm in the air and I noticed the guy beside me and the guy behind me both are enjoying iPads. Add that to the ones the two forty year old women I was talking to in the terminal AND mine, you get five (at least) on this flight alone (plus there are only 40 or so passengers on this flight). This news doesn't surprise me too much since Apple knocked out HP's touchpad and Charlotte ranks 11th among iPad use. Nevertheless, it's just a testament to the ever changing world of portable technology. Grab hold and let's see where it takes us.
In other news, I got my first official shoe shining at the airport today. He did a good job, and it was only $5. I gave him a $5 tip because I thought it would be more anyways and he looked sad when I walked up. Being dressed up while traveling is fun.....come to think of it, dressing up is fun period. Maybe it's my expensive taste that leads me to feel this way, or it could be the fact that in Scouts we travelled in our uniforms.
See you on the other side
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
In other news, I got my first official shoe shining at the airport today. He did a good job, and it was only $5. I gave him a $5 tip because I thought it would be more anyways and he looked sad when I walked up. Being dressed up while traveling is fun.....come to think of it, dressing up is fun period. Maybe it's my expensive taste that leads me to feel this way, or it could be the fact that in Scouts we travelled in our uniforms.
See you on the other side
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Up In the Air
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Week 1 Summarized
So my first week went well. Monday and Tuesday were full of training and orientation, and the rest of the week was more or less spent working with sketchup to model an interiors job we recently broke ground on. They want to use the model for sequencing and coordination which is difficult because we only have PDF drawings to go off of and the architect didn't dimension enough things to accurately model. Anyways, I got my feet wet and rust off before 8 weeks of intense BIM training.
The people in the office are cool, it's a world of difference compared to the field trailer that I experienced last year. They may give me some flak for being overdressed (more on that in a later post), but everything is going well so far.
Tomorrow I head to Woodcliff Lake, NJ for training and I couldn't be more excited. There will be 20 other college recruits that will be similar to me, so I can't wait to meet them. Anyways, I have to go finish packing (2 checked bags and 2 carry ons). The last time I packed like this I was going to Australia!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The people in the office are cool, it's a world of difference compared to the field trailer that I experienced last year. They may give me some flak for being overdressed (more on that in a later post), but everything is going well so far.
Tomorrow I head to Woodcliff Lake, NJ for training and I couldn't be more excited. There will be 20 other college recruits that will be similar to me, so I can't wait to meet them. Anyways, I have to go finish packing (2 checked bags and 2 carry ons). The last time I packed like this I was going to Australia!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Home
Monday, August 15, 2011
The First Day of the Rest of My Life
I feel like I've had this experience many times before. You know the one, the night before, and morning of, the first day of classes (regardless of the education level). Going stir crazy in your bed TRYING to fall asleep because you know you need to be well rested, but you just came off a long summer break where waking up late was the norm. Then, after some decent sleep, you almost spring up out of bed, of course before the alarm goes off (in this case 1 hour before), because you are mentally anxious to start. Maybe this is the last time I will get to have this experience?
For those of you that do not know me, my name is Ryan Pastor and I graduated in May from Clemson with a degree in Construction Management. The new job? Dare I say it......my dream job, to start of working for the nation's leading commercial contractor in the highly technical and technology heavy realm of BIM. So why am I blogging? What could compel me to do such a thing that I've only attempted one other time? 3 reasons: to document an important and life changing time in my life, to keep my family and friends updated, and to share my experience with those that are younger than me to give them lessons learned.
A lot of memories over my past 22 years. Countless people that have been put into my life to help me get to this very moment, parents, girlfriend, teachers. And with Jesus by my side, nothing is going to stand in my way. So here I go, the first day of the rest of my life begins......now.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
For those of you that do not know me, my name is Ryan Pastor and I graduated in May from Clemson with a degree in Construction Management. The new job? Dare I say it......my dream job, to start of working for the nation's leading commercial contractor in the highly technical and technology heavy realm of BIM. So why am I blogging? What could compel me to do such a thing that I've only attempted one other time? 3 reasons: to document an important and life changing time in my life, to keep my family and friends updated, and to share my experience with those that are younger than me to give them lessons learned.
A lot of memories over my past 22 years. Countless people that have been put into my life to help me get to this very moment, parents, girlfriend, teachers. And with Jesus by my side, nothing is going to stand in my way. So here I go, the first day of the rest of my life begins......now.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Home
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