magicaddict: (Default)
[personal profile] magicaddict
...done with this shit.

I am no longer employed by the Nationwide Building Society. This is a truly wonderful feeling. In the words of Sir Stephen Redgrave, if you see me go near one of those again, you have my permission to shoot me.

That is, of course, unless I'm buying one of their products - unfortunately, they remain one of the very best purveyors of financial services in the UK (at least they are when they work). My home insurance is still with them; the credit card's still free to use abroad; the current account, even though it's about to get a shedload worse, will still be cheaper to use than your average bank's version; the savings rates knock nine barrels out of the competition and the mortgages are the most transparently sparkling examples in the country.

It's just such a bloody rat-race to get people to buy them, and no-one cares about anything but the number of times you get a customer to say yes. It cheapens the hell out of what you're selling.
___________

Anyway, that's all over. On Monday, I start with these people.

Oxford Cryosystems have, for the past twenty years or so, been making cryostats to sit on top of x-ray diffractometers. Their products blow inert gas (either nitrogen or helium) over the sample at very low temperatures (down to about minus 245 degrees) to keep it cold, dry and air free.

Shining x-rays at a crystalline sample less than a milimetre in all dimensions in order to see how they diffract, and subsequently doing Complicated Mathematics with the resulting patterns to work out what the molecules look like (with accuracy down to thousandths of an Angstrom in distance and hundredths of a degree in angles between bonds) is a fairly exact science. Obviously if the sample is cold, it will be vibrating less, and the chances of getting a sharp, and easier to calculate, diffraction pattern go up. That's where we come in.

We produce a selection of these freeze rays depending on whether you want to use nitrogen or helium, whether you're doing it to a single crystal or a mass of powdered ones and whether your gas is coming from a dewar of liquid or a ring-main supply. The one I was hired mainly to deal with is this baby.

The Cobra uses a mechanical cooling system (a Gifford-McMahon refridgerator, for those who are interested and technically minded) to chill down nitrogen pumped in from an in-house ring main down to just above the point it liquifies, before pouring it in a constant stream ove the sample. It has a lot of moving parts, and they need regular servicing.

All over the world.

It's a poor month for a service engineer when they don't go abroad at least once on the company's ticket to install, demonstrate or service on of the products. They've had to hire another engineer in because they're shifting about twenty of the Cobras alone a year, and so the number that need to be serviced is steadily rising.

They want me to write technical documentation, become an expert on the machines, and, oh yes, start representing the company pretty much immediately. They're flying me out to Darmstadt the day after Renewal to catch the back end of the European Crystallographic Meeting.

All things considered, I think I could get to like these people.

Date: 2010-08-14 04:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tarvae.livejournal.com
Well done hon and hope it brings you all the work fulfilment you deserve. And a good few trips to interesting places to boot.

Hope to see you around at Renewal
Wend

Date: 2010-08-14 05:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dbexx.livejournal.com
Sweeeet.
I am so delighted for you - I think my face at Renewal said it all.

Date: 2010-08-14 09:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
It was something of a picture. *hugs* Thank you.

Date: 2010-08-14 05:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] midget-gem.livejournal.com
*Squee dance*, I hope it works out to be awesome, I really do :)

Date: 2010-08-14 09:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
It will be. Best part? I'll be getting myself a loyalty card for the airline the company uses, getting air miles, and once in a while, Emma gets to come with me. Free holidays all over the world.

Date: 2010-08-15 09:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] midget-gem.livejournal.com
That's pretty damn cool

and remember if you happen to happen in Stockholm, then you're invited/poked/forced to say hi to us.

Date: 2010-08-14 05:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pureferret.livejournal.com
Congrats Doug! That' great news. Though I was hoping that www.oxcryo.com had something to do with cryogenically freezing oxes....

Party at your house? :D

Date: 2010-08-14 09:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
We could freeze oxes. We have enough liquid nitrogen kicking about that we could have a fair crack at freezing Don King's ego.

Date: 2010-08-14 09:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pureferret.livejournal.com
No one has that much Liquid nitrogen....

Date: 2010-08-14 05:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] weightofeons.livejournal.com
Sounds really cool.

Date: 2010-08-14 09:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
Puns? Really?

That kind of thinking leaves me cold...

Date: 2010-08-14 10:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pureferret.livejournal.com
Hush! The both of you.


Just chill out.

Date: 2010-08-14 10:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
Ice suppose you think that's funny.

Date: 2010-08-14 10:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pureferret.livejournal.com
Freeze right there, I know your game...

Date: 2010-08-14 11:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valient-starr.livejournal.com
"Go cryo emo kid."

Ah, icy what you did there...

Date: 2010-08-15 10:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
'Snow problem, it's a classic...

Date: 2010-08-15 11:16 am (UTC)
xanthipe: (Default)
From: [personal profile] xanthipe
These jokes are making me thaw.

Date: 2010-08-17 09:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
I've got ice cream for that.

Date: 2010-08-14 05:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lilacivy.livejournal.com
Yay! But you do know Steve Redgrave actually did get back in a boat and go on to win more olympic medals after he said that right? So he might not be the best guy to try and emulate... (I have his autobiography, it's a really good read. If you like rowing anyway!)

Date: 2010-08-14 07:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] same-difference.livejournal.com
Clearly he needed people with better aim

Date: 2010-08-14 09:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
Very much so - I watched him do it. As they started the final in 2000, I remember thinking "there's no bloody way they're going to keep that rate up all the way through it". I think Matthew Pinsent led them off at about 70 strokes a minute.

It was ironic - I imagine I may well be back in there (Cirencester has a tiny branch) to discuss life cover or income protection. If I take it out, I'll probably do their monthly target in one appointment.

Date: 2010-08-14 07:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] same-difference.livejournal.com
Congrats again, sounds like a fascinating job.

Date: 2010-08-14 09:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
It does - and moreover, I'm not sure I can do it yet. It's been a while since I've gone into something knowing I'll have to think about it.

Date: 2010-08-14 07:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tillyenna.livejournal.com
HUZZAH and much congratualtions! and w00p for it not meaning you have to miss renewal!

Date: 2010-08-14 09:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
I was considering it, given how Teutonia's gone to shit and we're jumping ship, but I need to drive Emma home, so I can't leave before Tuesday morning. There will be sleeping on the plane.

Date: 2010-08-16 11:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cp-evilref.livejournal.com
Which faction are you jumping to? Or, in otherwords, where will you likely be to find you for the specific bit of night-time stabbing people I want done?

Date: 2010-08-17 09:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicaddict.livejournal.com
We're off to the Mercs, and (unless someone takes the opportunity to slot the factionless drow) I should be fairly visible and entirely yours to command out the front of the camp for most of the time. Alternatively, if you want to send me a rough time by email, should I come and find you? Or are there a few too many factors to consider for that?

Date: 2010-08-17 09:53 am (UTC)
xanthipe: (Default)
From: [personal profile] xanthipe
Doug gets all the fun...

Date: 2010-08-17 10:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] helbling.livejournal.com
Bah, you body checked Lord Hart!

Date: 2010-08-17 10:41 am (UTC)
xanthipe: (Default)
From: [personal profile] xanthipe
*grins* Yeah, fair point. But he enjoyed it.

Date: 2010-08-14 11:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valient-starr.livejournal.com
Yeah. Congrats :). The night field party thing was fun. I couldn't help but feel that we are all in the middle of nowhere, near a University on a Friday the 13th.

I was wondering when Jason Voorhees was coming ^_^.

Date: 2010-08-15 09:04 am (UTC)
xanthipe: (Default)
From: [personal profile] xanthipe
Huzzah. :)

I should really have kept the Thermodynamics notes for you, shouldn't I? Bother.

Date: 2010-08-15 01:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lucy-k-p.livejournal.com
Sounds fascinating. Lucky you and congratulations.

Date: 2010-08-17 08:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-werefrog.livejournal.com
Good job, Doug, in both meanings of the phrase!

And enjoy Darmstadt - I've been there, and it's a lovely city.
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