What do you do in your "Day Job"

[lloyd]

If I may - without intruding too far - offer a personal observation:

 

Everyone I've met in pyrotechnics have had a very broad range of interests, from cooking, to pyrotechny, to mechanics, to medical arts, and so on, etc.

 

The pivotal characteristic for pyrotechnicians seems to be curiosity; curiosity about "nearly anything" that catches their attention -- plus, perhaps, the strength of will to explore those interests, and experiment with them.

 

To that end, I'm something of a "dilettante", but my primary foci for almost the last 55 years have been electronics and pyrotechnics.

The specific interests aren't as important as the 'curiosity quotient'.

My 2-cents.

 

Lloyd

[stix]

Yep, I guess it is curiosity - to a point.

 

Anybody can be curious. It is more than that though. Why is it that some are drawn towards pyrotechnics? (creating it) whereas others may frown upon it's very existence . . . ummm what?

 

[EDIT] btw. I don't think a good cook necessarily makes a good pyrotechnist. - just sayin'.

Edited May 27, 2017 by stix

[OldMarine]

I've noticed an oddly large number of doctors, paramedics and firemen in this hobby. In my mind they would be most likely to be anti-pyro having dealt with the bad aftereffects of things gone wrong.

[lloyd]

Stix,

I think you missed part of my point -- the curiosity is the starting point. The willingness to explore the possibilities is the "other half".

 

Pyrotechnics is - perhaps - one of the most "mysterious" of the arts. A person who's attracted to the art will be attracted to the practice.

 

Sure, there are some who are violently 'anti-pyro'... but anyone who accepts pyro as an art-form, but who's still only non-committal about it, may be attracted to it by it's beauty and mystery.

 

Lloyd

[stix]

That's very Interesting OM. That's the sort of info I was after.

 

Doctors, paramedics, firemen etc. have a certain "responsibility" factor in society, As do ex-Military.

[felixthecat]

i think you have something there marine....27 years of wholetime firefighting here... wish it was 30 so i could GTF with my pension

[nater]

I am a Paramedic by trade and work part time as an EMT/Firefighter as well. I do know a handful of physicians and other people in my industry who enjoy pyrotechnics as well.

 

For me, the curiosity, challenges and the science behind this art is appealing. Pyro allows me to be challenged and creative at the same time.

[rogeryermaw]

There are certainly a few commonalities among practitioners of the art that I've noticed but not all are very flattering...so ima keep it quiet.

[OldMarine]

Hehe! I imagine I fit several of the lesser attributes!

[insutama]

Im a locomotive engineer for CN rail Edited July 3, 2017 by insutama

[stix]

There are certainly a few commonalities among practitioners of the art that I've noticed but not all are very flattering...so ima keep it quiet.

 

Hmmm. Interesting. I think I've read a similar book, or at least perhaps the same page.

[Moneytheman]

Im a pc builder been doing it 3 years

[Baldor]

Now I'm attending customer complaints in an spare parts company for profesional hostelry machines. Though customers a lot of them. 95% of the work is the kind of "yes sir, i'm sorry sir" complaints, but the 5% that requires technical knowledge and some research, the kind where I became a superthecnician and a detective, and must debug the "technicians" mistakes, is what makes the work interesting. In another life, I designed plastic injection molds for the automotive industry. I don't miss the death marches due to impossible lead times.

[rogeryermaw]

in my day job i lose hair, gain weight, transform optimism into pessimism and go home empty handed and with a greater appreciation for the short duration of the human life span.

[Fuzzpluskc]

Maint Director for a hospital in SW Iowa. Moved here from Las Vegas 3 years ago.

 

2 Bachalors degrees in mechanical engineering.

 

Always been interested in pyro. But fireworks laws in southern Nevada are very strict. All of a sudden I'm here and discovered the joy of black power and modern chemistry has me hooked.

[Ubehage]

I'm a hardware and software supporter. Self-taught Windows nerd, and with a certificate that allows me to service Toshiba and Lenovo-products.

Most of the time, though, I spend on coding and testing: I have a great interest in using stuff "the wrong way", to see if the designers had idiots like me in mind when they were making it.

[RiderX]

i am a welder, machinist, and mechanic by trade , and also grew up in my family owned race car shop , i do believe i learned more at the shop then school

as of right now i work on a farm ( ill be moving onto a machine/fab shop come this fall though ), i do all sorts of stuff there from all the welding and repairs to working the fields

 

also a tech nut as i have my own large for being a personal bitcoin mining operation

my specialty is reverse enginering computer software, penetration testing , and breaking software on purpose

Edited July 24, 2017 by RiderX

[sora]

I'm into scientific coding, I have a degree in Chemistry too. Not that the training in chemistry got me to pyro, it was the other way round :-)

[dynomike1]

I have two businesses one is where i sell Produce and the other is blasting which is primarily Beaver Dams. I spent 28yrs. in the National Guard with three weeks in Martinique, three weeks in the Mojave Desert in a tent, three weeks at Camp Ripley, Mi in a tent -30 to -90 Deg F. I shot competition Rifle, Pistol and Machine gun for Tn. for 10 years and taught the sniper course at Quantico. I am also certified as a Master engraver. I also work for a chemical and fertilizer company which is Crop Production Service. I also drive a semi truck hauling grain in the fall. I am not going into the rest of my qualifications. I have worked in Agriculture all my life. I have always loved Fireworks since i was a kid. What got me started four years ago was three things that happened at one time. First a friend of mine called me to see if i could help him get some 1.3 because he forgot and let his lic. run out. Second i was on Graybeard out doors (there cannon forum) looking for some elec. igniters and Harry Gilliam chimed in and said i make my own, go to Skyliter.com Three a friend of mine had three semi trailer loads of racks, so i started researching building my own after i visited Skylighters web site. For four months i sat in a truck at the grainery and in the field on APC reading. Then one day i was looking for some Paulownia charcoal and i got an email from Algenco which had lived down here while in the Navy but had moved to Ky. which we became friends as per phone conversations and he helped me a lot with building Fireworks. I mainly build shells for myself for the fourth. I started building plastic shells and i still do. So here i am.

Edited August 8, 2017 by dynomike1

[lloyd]

Mike... -90F in Michigan? Really? When?

 

According to the NWS, the high/low (ever) for Michigan were:

 

• Hottest temperature ever recorded: 112 F, Mio, northern Michigan, 7/13/1936

• Coldest temperature ever recorded: -51 F, Vanderbilt, northern Michigan, 2/9/1994

 

Lloyd

Edited August 8, 2017 by lloyd

[OldMarine]

Man, if I listed every job I've done it'd need it's own thread and people would be so sick of me they'd boycott the site.

[starxplor]

I suspect it was originally listed as -30-90, and looked confusing, so 'to' was added without removing the '-'... at least, that is my benefit of the doubt idea.

 

Also, 112 degF for the high? that seems a bit low for some of the summers I have lived through. Long live the UP summers though.

[nater]

112 would feel pretty hot with the humid Summers around the Great Lakes. Here in Indiana we don't get very many days where the actual temperature is in the high 90s or 100s. The humidity can sure make you miserable though.

[Richtee]

Mike... -90F in Michigan? Really? When?

 

According to the NWS, the high/low (ever) for Michigan were:

 

• Hottest temperature ever recorded: 112 F, Mio, northern Michigan, 7/13/1936

• Coldest temperature ever recorded: -51 F, Vanderbilt, northern Michigan, 2/9/1994

 

Lloyd

 

Lived here all my life. It’s FELT that way..but...

Edited August 15, 2017 by Richtee

[OldMarine]

I've been on the lake shore up there in winter and found I could warm my hands on both a witch's tit in a brass bra and a well digger's butt but I don't think it was Antarctic cold.