Before the shutdowns started three years ago, my wife watched COVID march towards our shores while our nation reacted in slow motion. Coincidentally, my in-law’s tenants gave up their lease, so I moved into the vacant house.

I spent a few months as a bachelor, waiting for America to shut down and then finishing an intensive period of budgeting site visits before reuniting with my family.

Having a spare house to exile oneself was the height of privilege, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Even though my boss took a relaxed approach to the insanity (he started Doordashing to break up the monotony), he went out of his way to ask how I was doing. He checked in to ask how I was doing with the self imposed separation from my family.

That meant the world to me, he understood our concerns and treated it with respect. I vividly remember walking in my hallway looking at the setting sunlight through the blinds while telling him that it wasn’t easy.

It’s amazing how a short sincere conversation left such a lasting impression.

As OPM’s we have a similar opportunity with our project teams. Of course, this is not a cheap tactic for building rapport. People are much too sharp for that. A long term relationship takes investment. Sometimes a relationship is just a transaction. That’s ok, as long as they execute on their deliverables.

But if as someone who cares deeply about your work, you’ll connect with certain individuals along the way. When you do, take that risk. Ask that question. Develop that relationship. Don’t waste a precious opportunity to be meet another person in our one wild and precious life.

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Some Links

This documentary of the making of Wootz Damascus Steel is worth all fifty minutes. It’s a great study in metallurgy, starting with iron ore and ending with a piece of polished steel.

Klangphonics is a live techno trio with a fun retro vibe. I really enjoyed their shorts with unique instruments, such as a vacuum and spray bottle.

Erik Young wrote a powerful essay “I Have Long Walked By Your Side” from his experience as a chaplain about living with the knowledge of death. It will be our reality and we live better if we hold it close as a companion.

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While searching for a photo, I came across this photo of this beauty on a biplane. Wikipedia fills in the blanks: “Hélène Dutrieu (10 July 1877 – 26 June 1961), was a Belgian cycling world champion, stunt cyclist, stunt motorcyclist, automobile racer, stunt driver, pioneer pilot, wartime ambulance driver, and director of a military hospital.“

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Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA

When I joined the Division, I was assigned an office that was so large that I brought in a spare table from home for extra desk surface. It was a great setup for reviewing the three university projects that I was managing.

Then the pandemic hit. I grabbed a laptop and went home.

I quickly learned to mark up PDFs in Bluebeam. It turned out to be easier than paper. Review on screen, make notes as I go, and email the the PDF back to the architect. No more long write-ups for comment letters!

A couple of years later, I discovered the Markup List feature. Now the computer will automatically compile a letter from my markups!

The default setting creates a new PDF file, but “append and hyperlink to current pdf” will add the comment summary as new pages to the back of the PDF.

I request written responses from my architect, so appending the summary gives them an option to respond in the body of the PDF or on the centralized list. I’ve tried moving the summary to the front of the PDF, but it messes with the hyperlinks, so I just leave them in the back.

I use a yellow pen to highlight things as I go, marking what’s been reviewed. My actual comments have a red outline. Before processing the summary, I filter comments by color, hiding the yellow items.

Architectural Drawing sets often have custom names for the pages, which leads to odd results when sorting by Page (General sheets end up after Electrical!) The fix is is to sort comments by Color. The markups will follow the order they appear in the PDF file.

Bluebeam is a powerful program. But like the rest of tech world, the next evolution is to collaborate on shared markups in the cloud. I’ve talked to architects about their experiments in this direction and I hope to explore it with the next round of projects.

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Some Links

This has been a technical OPM letter, so here are three fun newsletters that publish on daily schedule.

Weirdo Poetry is a daily haiku webcomic. That alone would be a fun pairing, but Jason McBride also adds a short contemplative letter to each post. It’s a rich three course meal to start the day.

The Heron Dance Art Journal pairs a watercolor with inspirational quotes from luminaries through the ages. Follow the link embedded in the newsletter to find extended notes and additional quotes. The art is always ethereal, an aptly named pause for beauty.

Erica Drayton publishes a story with exactly 100-words) in her 100 Words Daily. These drabbles are always delightful and often a touch horrifying.

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Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA