Civil Engineer

The most common image that comes to mind when thinking of an engineer, is a huge bridge. Civil engineering was the first type of engineer, dating back to medieval times. The first civil engineers designed castle walls, the basic pulley and gear systems, created weapons such as catapults and designed castle moats. As time moved on, civil engineers became responsible for creating ships, rifles and just about every structure on the planet, even the pyramids in ancient Egypt. Civil engineers are the people that deal with structures, environmental hazards, and basic machines in the everyday world. Not only do these engineers create the biggest structures, they also take the most responsibility of almost every other job on the planet. When an engineer signs a contract, he or she is taking full responsibility of that project until up to 5 years after the project is destroyed. This means that if that $10 million bridge collapsed, not only are you to blame for anyone injured or killed, but it's your job to take care of the mess. Also, after those 5 years, you can be sent to prison for criminal negligence. Being an engineer of this scale is no walk in the park.

Computer Engineer

Can you imagine a life without computers? We rely on computers in almost every aspect of our lives. From our alarms in the morning, the traffic lights on our way to work or school, our home security systems and the calculator you use to do your taxes are all run by computers. Since computers are essential to our lifestyles, having computer engineers around is very important. Engineers simply design a product or process, then make it work. Computer engineers simply design computer programs or hardware, then make it work. Computer engineering is also one of the fastest growing industries in the world, meaning computer engineers are not finding it a hard time looking for a job. Being an engineer, especially a computer engineer, is a lot of hard work. To just get into a computer engineering program you'll need high grades, a lot of money, and willing to work your arse off for 4-5 years in university. To be an engineer, your expected to have mid-high 80's in school, and have exceptional math and science skills. The average tuition for an engineer is about $10,000, but your schooling is not finished after university. In order to get a pENG, the official engineering degree, you are looking at another 2 years in the engineering workplace gaining real experience. This may seem intimidating, but some of the world's most successful people were computer engineers, and Bill Gates was actually one of the first computer engineers in the world.

Chemical Engineer

Wikipedia's definition of chemical engineering is "the branch of engineering that deals with the application of physical science and life sciences with mathematics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms." Now, most of you are probably saying, "Whoa, slow down, branch of engineering that what??". In laymen's terms, this means that chemical engineers try to make better materials and techniques that are cheaper, safer, more environmentally friendly and last longer. For example, it would have been a chemical engineer that decided what materials the clothes on your back should be made out of, considering all of the above aspects. A chemical engineer would have also determined what ingredients should be in that can of Diet Coke to make it healthier, preserve longer and taste better. Chemical Engineers have a very broad job criteria simply because everything, everywhere is involved with chemistry. This one of the positives or "pluses" to being a chemical engineer, along with a high salary and having a respected career. Speaking of salary, all engineers make around the same amount of money, which is about an average of $78,000 USD before taxes. Chemical engineering is a very general type of engineer, next I will talk about a branch of engineering that has totally changed just about every aspect of the world as we know it.

Career Opportunities

There are a lot of career opportunities associated with my passion. Everything in our world is made in some way or another and there has to be someone to do it. Since i enjoy making and assembling things, careers such as an engineer, technician or architect come to mind when I consider future career opportunities. For a long time, I've wanted to be an engineer, but this is a very general term. There are chemical, industrial, material, mechanical, civil and other types of engineers. An engineer can also work at an engineering firm, start their own business, work for a manufacturing company, or join the army. With all these possible occupations, I need to know what branch of engineer to be, since they are all very different. Over the next few blog posts, I will go into further detail about each different type of engineer, the skills required and what they entail doing.

Tropes and Schemes in Advertising

This billboard company's ad shows an example of a metonymy. A metonymy is when an associated word is replaced for one that is meant. in the case of this ad, the word "sign' is replaced with a different meaning. It is a common phrase to ask "God, give me a sign!" and this ad mocks this phrase with the response, "Well, you did ask for a sign". This is a metonymy because when someone asks God for a sign, they are not intending to get a billboard or an actual sign.

This Weight Watchers ad is a hyperbole. In the ad, the very large door that is labeled "entrance" is exaggerated to show that really large people are able to enter. The very thin door labeled "exit" is exaggerated to show that after following through with the program, you will leave this much skinnier. Of course, a weight-loss program does not occur inside a room, and probably does not even require entering any type of door.

This advertisement for Lego is an example of a hyperbole. This ad is showing that with a little imagination, a few Lego blocks can be seen as anything, such as an airplane or a dinosaur. This is exaggerated however, in the fact that the Lego blocks do not depict what the shadow will look like.

This advertisement for Heinz ketchup is an example of a trope. The trope used in this ad is an hyperbole. An hyperbole is basically an exaggeration, and the eggs and bacon are being exaggerated for being plain and boring. This ad is saying that without Heinz ketchup, your eggs will taste like ketchup. This ad also shows an example of a metaphor. The ad is comparing eggs and bacon to cardboard, Heinz did this intentionally to say that your eggs will taste like cardboard without their ketchup.

All Passions Have a Past

Of all the things I enjoy doing, my favorite hobby is to create things. When I was a little kid, I would spend countless hours playing with little lego blocks creating all of the weird ideas popping into my head. Even though the sets came with instructions for pre-designed creations, I would leave them in the box and start to build wherever my imagination took me.
As I got older, my grandfather would take me into his woodshop and show me how all of his big machines worked. The same machines that buildt my parent's coffeetable and shelves in my room drived me to sneak into the woodshop without supervision and accidently cut my finger or hand. It was around this time that I knew I wanted to become an engineer when i was older.
In the 10th grade, I took a manufacturing class. This ended up being my favourite part of the day. I learned many things that I found really interesting in this class. From being a small kid who only saw brilliance in his colourful building blocks, to implementing various aspects of design into a 6" by 6" piece of aluminum steel. I have grown a lot, both physically and mentally. I only hope to keep doing so.

Why I Blog?

My passions are very important to me. In my opinion, a person's passions reflect on a deep level of personality and character. To me, creating something from scratch, turning something plain into something magnificiant, or adding my own personal touch to a project is a true reflection of myself. I guess you can it my "gift" to build things. Whenever I build something, it is always unique and special from anything else I previously made, yet at the same time, keeps my signature style or build. I'm at my best or in my "zone" when I am building something and all my concentration is on that project. I love to creativily create things, and that is my passion.