Engineering Humor

10-12-06 Update: Sticking with the engineering theme (i love graphs) I wanted to post this figure. Notice yesterday was the highest traffic day on this site by 50%. I am not sure why... does The Bachelor commentary draw a bigger audience? I dont know, but thought it was postworthy.
It does appear that most of my readers check in while at work but not from home on the weekends...

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I think that most people don't think of me when they picture a typical engineer. They are probably correct in their assumption, however, the people that I work with are probably exactly like what they are thinking. The reason that I bring this up is because of what happened today at work.

I was in the restroom when two other coworkers entered. They actually were probably in there first, i cant remember. They conducted your typical mens bathroom chat. It is not unlike the typical conversation that occurs the night before Thanksgiving during your first year of college. You went to college and are home for the holiday weekend, so you hang out with all of your high school friends. Most likely you will encounter someone who you werent that close with during high school. The conversation goes something like this:

Hows college?
Good, what about you?
Pretty good.
Whats your major?
[major 1], whats yours?
[major 2]
cool

The mens bathroom conversation that i am speaking of is between two people who know each other but not very well. They dont talk to each other, only when in a confined space where they feel obligated [i realize this only really leaves the elevator and the bathroom.] Anyways its just small talk and nothing important. But back to today... I hear the normal talk and because we are in the transportation industy the conversation leads to the Washington Metro [the subway]. It is owned and operated (i think) by WMATA. One guy tells the other guy a story about his meeting with them today and how it was unproductive and stuff. This reminds the other guy of something he learned when he worked with WMATA a bunch of years back. Anyways, he recalls a story where on his first day someone told him what WMATA stands for. After some more analysis and hypothesizing, I hear the punchline. It means we meet and talk a lot. good one.

I'm sorry, but i didnt think words like and and a got recognition in acronyms. And I am also pretty sure that a lot is two words. Its arguable that it could have been called WMATAL or MWTL or something. I am not hating on the joke, but i didnt enjoy it nearly as much as those guys. [thinking further, maybe i am the real engineer since instead of just laughing i analyzed it and am still writing/thinking about it...]

the other thing happened only minutes later. it is not as strange as this, but exemplifies the environment in which i work. I am washing my hands, and a third guy makes the courtesy small talk with me. I respectfully engage in weak conversation while accelerating my hand washing and drying process. Anyways, eventually he asks how i have been and I reply 'pretty busy'. in our work terms that means we have a bunch of projects to work on, as compared to being pretty slow when you dont have much work to do or projects to bill your time to. anyways, after saying that i think i might have even thrown in a 'which is better than being bored' or some other equally meaningless phrase. in any case, he responds 'oh, back on the crack pipe.' he might have said 'oh, yeah not back on the crack pipe.' i couldnt even tell is he was asking or telling me. i also have no idea what it meant. i absolutely can't think of a situation where what he said makes any sense. and he chuckled as i walked out the door.

and he is one of the more normal people at work, or so i thought. there are a few people who would say this to me and i would not think anything of it. but not this guy. i have no idea what he was talking about. there is a chance i couldnt hear him since he was facing the urinal, while my urinal was flushing and the sink was running. i dont know. it doesnt really matter anyways, i could tell from his demeanor that he wasnt mad at me or anything.

i just thought those 3 minutes in the restroom painted a fairly accurate portrait of what it is like to work at an engineering firm.