Day 3

Day 3 – First Day at TVRH

Today was our first day at the Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital. It was really different than what I expected. The word hospital caused me to imagine a giant building that was a couple stories and had doctors running around frantically. Instead, the building was relatively small with many rooms on just the one level and had a very calm environment. There was a central area where all the vet technicians worked and there were surgical rooms and check-up rooms for clients.

Today, Adrienne and I were lucky enough to sit in on an abdominal mass surgery. We watched as the dog was put under anesthesia and entered the surgical procedure. There were two vet technicians helping and one veterinary surgeon. There were many layers that were placed over the dog until only the part that was being dissected could be seen. As a courtesy to the 4 people viewing the surgery, the surgeon allowed us to take a close look at the internal organs of the dog and pointed out the different ones. He pulled out each organ carefully making me wonder firstly how he would get them all back in properly and also how the dog was still living while the surgeon was pulling all of her organs out. In order to remove the abdominal mass, the surgeon cut a portion of the dog’s intestine and then stapled and soldered the two pieces of the intestine together so there were no holes. He then placed all the organs back into the dog and sewed the wound back up and the dog was returned to her crate. It was so interesting to be able to watch this surgery take place, for I always believed that I would pass out at the sight of organs or blood during any surgery. It made me even more interested in veterinary practices than I ever was before.

Today was sad as it was my last day at liles. However, I did get to do my favorite task yet, which was swatches. I was given a list sent to the store from the fabric companies noting which fabrics were out of stock or sold out. I then got to flip through hundreds of fabrics and find the notes fabric to either cut it out of it’s sold out or write it’s delivery date if it’s just out of stock. Although this might not be appealing to most I really enjoyed flipping through the hundreds (most likely over 1000) different fabrics that the store offered for custom suits. It was really cool to see all the possibilities one can have in a suit. The rest of my day was spent talking to staff or customers. My favorite moment was when I was chatting with a custom only to realize he lived I the same town I do (Pittsboro is not very big and is an hour from liles). On top of that he knew many people I knew from my home town, it was very cool to make a connection with someone like that. I learned such an immense amount at liles and it was a truly special experience so many many thanks to Mrs. Werner for making that connection. I learned many things these past few days that I’m sure will be really valuable in the future.

Day 3

Alright so today I finally finished up the first banner project. Overall I made 18 banners! The next project I have is similar, but they’re actually going to be printed. Anyway today I also worked more on the dragon boat festival tshirt. I was able to successfully scan my drawing to the mac and then work on it in the program: Illustrator. Here is what I have so far:

The black is the scanned drawing, and the red lines are the online tool I’m using to trace it digitally. It’s not done being traced digitally yet because the process is very long and hard. There’s no stylus, and in order to perfectly use the pen tool to cover the drawing, I have to zoom in very close. Each piece takes a lot of work and matching lines naturally is also difficult. I’m still excited though because once the trace is complete I can change the brush stroke to look more artistic instead of solid and boring.

Moving on, after eating lunch, two girls who work at Alpha took me on a field trip to see some of their work up close. At Best Buy I saw their graphics as part of a display for Lenovo:

And also at Costco:

All of the designs on the tables, cardboard, that glowing sign in Best Buy, literally anything with design on it is the work of the two girls who work at Alpha. It was really cool to see because I had never really thought of where it came from or how it was made.

Day 3: Trouble in Paradise

Today, I went with Dr. Logel at the Cary location for Raleigh Orthopedics. We had quite the case come in today. There was this patient who was on a trip to celebrate his new job that he was supposed to start on Monday. While on his trip, he slipped on a rock and fell. He went to a Caribbean hospital where instead of trying to correct his now dislocated ankle, they simply put a cast on it and gave him the okay to fly. There are two problems with this: 1. the cast restricts the ankle’s ability to swell, thus resulting in blistering and 2. flying can make the dislocation worse due to the air pressure. Both of these things occurred. When this patient came in to see Dr. Logel, his x-rays not only showed an acute dislocation of the ankle where the talus moved backwards in relation to the tibia, but the talus bone had many fragments broken off that shifted and turned. Due to these extensive injuries, he also tore many ligaments. An injury of this gravity would generally require surgery within 48 hours; however, when Dr. Logel saw the patient, it had been 5 days since the injury. We’ve got a major problem now. So, Dr. Logel scheduled him for immediate surgery tomorrow at noon which I have the pleasure of watching. During this surgery, Dr. Logel is during a complete ankle reconstruction. I am looking forward to it and will give an update tomorrow!!

Day 3- Web Development

I spent today with Alanna Howard, a website designer in the web development department of SAS. Alanna had only worked at SAS for about 4 years and, being a younger employee, she was able to give me a fresh perspective on what it’s like being a website designer in today’s tech savvy world. I would say today was my best food and drink day thus far. Alanna and I went on multiple tea, coffee and hot chocolate runs, one of those being to a Starbucks located in a nearby building. Alanna showed me the cornucopia of snacks in the office breakroom, and I spent large part of my day snacking on peanut M&M’s and graham crackers. However, the icing on the cake was lunch. Alanna had told me stories about the cafeteria’s famous sushi and when lunch time arrived I was able to try it for myself. It lived up to all my expectations and more. Alanna and I also able to have a great conversation with her mentor over our delicious lunch. One of the many other activities I did today with Alanna was testing out a training series she had created for AEM, the software used by SAS employees to create their websites. I went through the approximately hour long course, searching for glitches or issues in programming. It was nice to know that I was contributing to and assisting in Alanna’s work. Unfortunately, I did not do so well on the test at the end of the training module, but we were able to forgive and forget. I had a great time today in the Web Development department. Alanna did a great job showing me all the different roles employees play in the creation of websites along with shattering my preconceptions of what it meant to be in web development.

Testing the AEM training software

Fabulous lunch courtesy of the SAS cafeteria

Alanna’s office white board, detailing today’s work

Day 3

Today, instead of shadowing Mr. Linton, I worked at my own desk with a very nice Mac computer! Right away I felt like an employees at Linton Architects working on projects for different clients, which I was! I was assigned a job creating a sketch up of a home for a current client. At first, I was very scared and intimidated that I wouldn’t do a good job, especially since it’s been one year of not using sketchup and I was surrounded by amazing architects. Although it was very intimidating, with the help of one of the newer employees, she helped me through the process and made me feel very comfortable. She didn’t mind all the questions I was asking and was very active. I spent the whole day creating a home with the variety of different tools in sketch up; I created the rooms in a home and the basic outline. At times it was a little frustrating because the home had to have every single detail. After a couple hours of working in sketch up, I was able to finish a huge majority of the house. I was surprised that I was doing a real architecture project for a real client. It was really fun and I really learned a lot about the process of creating a new home. Continue reading Day 3

Day 3- Oops

The beginning of today made me feel just a bit nervous. First, I was running late this morning and, as I sprinted up the front steps of the pharmaceutical science building, I nearly physically ran into the man I am shadowing this week. After profuse apologies, I also learned that he lives on the western side of Cary, which was quite a surprise. Second, Dr. Rob decided to leave me to my own devices, alone, for approximately an hour, in order to perform another protein quantification assay on my own. With scant knowledge from observing Porsha yesterday, anyone could see why I was a bit anxious. I had to mix the reagent, as well as the buffer solution, from memory, which actually did turn out well.

After diluting all 18 wells in a way that I thought was correct, I left the tray in the incubator for thirty minutes, and then for the scary part- took it to be read.

The assays are read by a rather noisy, somewhat aged machine in the biotech lab next door that requires a considerable amount of data entry before actually turning the machine on. It was the moment of truth- had I done this even remotely correct? Turns out, the answer was mostly no. After the first three wells on each row, my numbers started to get a little… off. Considerably off, if I don’t want to sugar coat it. I had help getting the machine to start from Dr. Rob’s assistant researcher named PJ, who proceeded to laugh a bit and tell me that it took her a few times to get her numbers right too, which did make me feel a little more sure.

The results of my less-than-successful protein quantification assay.

After that, Dr. Rob had me attend a quick biosafety class, where I learned about the various biohazard levels employed in biology labs, and also a few mildly frightening stories from NCCU’s safety manager. He talked about how in labs past, he would receive after-hours calls from mildly frantic firefighters attending to a researcher who had stayed a little too long and stuck himself with a needle used to administer a blood- borne pathogen, and how in order to just work in a level 2 laboratory (out of 4, with each level drastically increasing in risk), he needed to be administered reams of vaccinations. Thankfully I don’t want to work anywhere in disease research!

Day 3

Today I met with an engineer at Forthright named Bryan to check in on the progress I’ve made in my research and give me some guidance by helping with focusing the research and organizing it all. He helped me break the project down into multiple chunks and identify core questions that needed to be answered for each portion of the research. These sections were patents on related technology, studies done by specific professors, market research, and how effective an existing product would work with the one I’m researching about. Bryan also showed me a picture that outlined the product development process and where this work belonged on it. I saw how many steps go into creating a new product and the phases that I’m doing now – the feasibility part of phase 1 and concept development from phase 2. This work has taught me the emphasis that engineers put on learning about a product that they might put more work into. When you think of something you would want to invent, often the first thoughts are: has anyone else done it, what is already out there that’s like it, what’s the state of the art, and has anyone done any studies on the topic that would help me gain information and reach my own conclusions. Being a company that needs to be sure about these things, that initial learning and discovery process is extremely critical to the success of both the product and the company in the long run.

Day 3

Day 3 was very eventful for the promo team and me. We coordinated many activities (as usual), but my favorite by far was the mini Wool E. Bulls. We recruited 4 kids around 6 years old to dress up in Wool E. Bull costumes and run around with the real mascot on the field between two of the innings. I got to help them get dressed and then keep them occupied underneath the stadium while we waited for the inning to finish up. Not only were they adorable in their costumes, they were the sweetest kids and although it wasn’t easy getting them dressed and entertained while the rest of the team coordinated other activities, I had a great time. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a picture because I usually don’t have my phone on me while I’m working, but imagine 4 tiny children running around in little Bull mascot costumes…it was adorable. Another event I loved helping coordinate was the knockerballs. We recruited 4 men to get into giant inflatable rubber balls and then run around and fall into eachother infront of the whole stadium. While it sounds a bit chaotic, the goal was for them to race around cones but run into eachother for the amusement of the stadium and fun of the game. While I didn’t enjoy carrying the gigantic and heavy knockerballs all the way from the offices underneath the stadium up to an area to the side, I enjoyed, as did the crowd, watching the players run into eachother at full speed and then bounce straight backwards, unharmed of course. I once again enjoyed working with the team and I’m looking forward to tomorrow!

Day 3 – Competition

Competition among small businesses run high, especially when they are right next door to each other. Halie’s Boutique is to the right of Magnolia’s, selling similar items. Magnolia’s sells more clothing, attracting more people, so Halie’s has to fight to keep customers interested as they walk down the sidewalk to stop in more than one boutique of similar nature. Today I learned that the display window as well as signage is a main tactic Halie’s uses to lure in customers. I redesigned the sign to give outside of the store a new look. I never realized there were so many companies that sell the same products, and the competition that lies behind the many stores that we carelessly wander into and don’t think a second about where we purchase our goods from.