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| Hi. I'm Keith Melchiors. Have a look around. What's New: 09Jun2009
Wow, long time, no see. Or at least - no update... For those not aware of my upcoming summer shenanigans, I'll be giving a presentation at this year's Academic Harry Potter Symposium. Yes, that's right - I'm going to a Harry Potter conference. As a lecturer. Let's hear it for flexing the nerd muscles!
A little info for the curious....
The conference main page: http://www.hp2009.org/
List of presenters: http://www.hp2009.org/?q=node/91 (Check out the first item on the list...)
Schedule of events: http://www.hp2009.org/?q=node/56
12Aug2008 19Jul2008 Thought I'd show you this 2nd interesting letter. I suppose that means that I'm considered a "most competitive applicant"?... 23Jun2008 I'm back! After a long stint with no updates to the website, it's time to get the ball rolling again. My site statistics indicate that the New Zealand Maps page is BY FAR the most popular page on my site. Seems that everyone is as curious about New Zealand as I was a few years ago. I'll try to make that page a little more user friendly in the coming week. [Of note - I added the 2005 NZ Photojournal as PDF format, so you no longer have to deal with multiple-volume zip files.] What interesting has happened lately? On the work front, I'm back at Fluor, plugging away in the Chemical Technology Center as a Process Engineer. I got lucky and was one of a few that got to work on a pre-feasibility study for a massive olefins & derivaties complex with a fantastic lead engineer, and there's a high likelihood that I'll get to do more similar work with the same lead. So that's fun. In other career news... I applied for the FBI Special Agent position a couple months ago to see what would happen [knowing, of course, that nothing would come of it]. As it turns out, they ended up inviting me to take the Phase I examination. I decided to take the series of tests, knowing that it would probably be the only chance I'd ever get [and also knowing, of course, that nothing would come it]. I mean, c'mon - who wouldn't want to take the tests, just for the experience? So, I underwent the examination about a month ago, and here are the results: 1st intersting letter. Hmm, who'd have thunk it? That's all I care to say on that subject for now. I'll try to add some Australia pictures soon, and hopefully I'll get around to captioning that last batch of NZ pictures. As always, if you see something you like (or don't like), drop me a line via the contact page. 15Dec2007 Well, here's some news to those who don't already know - Jess and I are back in the US. I've started back at Fluor, but in a different department, and we'll spend Xmas in Seattle again this year with my fam. New Zealand was awesome, no doubt about it, but we couldn't justify raising kids so far away from family, so... here we are, back in good 'ole SC. I'll write more later, but until then, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and stay warm (or cool, for you Kiwis)! 31Oct2007 New pics up in the NZ photos section: Bill Richardson's Truck Museum and Te Anau. Stewart Island pics to be posted soon... 07Sep2007 (Right-click the link, then select "Save As" and put it somewhere convenient, such as the desktop.) 02Sep2007 After quite a while of life-as-usual, Jess and I finally struck out into the NZ mountain country. Check out our Queenstown pics in the pics section. 29May2007 Just a quick update... work is going well. Got to 'Visio-up' a SCADA network block diagram today, which was highly educational. Tomorrow, I wake up at 5am to make the 1hr drive to Lumsden by 7am, from where I'll embark on a drive around the region with the head of the Council's maintenance contractor. Lots of new pics in the pics section, here's a teaser:  14May2007 Tomorrow is my first day of work at the SDC. Since one of the requirements of the job is to sit in on town council meetings throughout the region, I'm required to have a valid driver's license. I'm legally allowed to drive on my US license for up to one year after my arrival in January, but the time has finally come to get a NZ license... After brushing up on the NZ Road Code at the library, I headed to the AA office (equivalent to AAA in the US, but also handles licensing and car registration) to sit the exam at lunch today. 35 questions, a few forms, and one digital photo later, I'm a fully licensed NZ driver. Now the question is: do I get my own company car? I'll find out in an hour when the SDC HR rep drops off my employment agreement to look over before tomorrow morning. In less than 24 hours, I'll be a productive member of the NZ economy. Huzah! 11May207 "I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it." Change of plans, folks. After a term at SIT, I've decided it's not worth continuing. The last three months have been very educational from many perspectives, but it's time to move on. I'm not getting what I expected, and more importantly - what I need - out of the audio/music programs, so it's back to engineering for me. This will allow music to stay a passion instead of being reduced to a chore. Anywho... Just this morning, I accepted a job with the SDC (Southland District Council) as project engineer for the asset management group. I'll deal primarily with the government's side of EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) efforts for water and waste systems. For once in my life, my job will directly impact the lives of the entire community surrounding me. I think that's pretty darn cool. It's also the most convenient location I've ever lucked into... Check out this photo from the NZ 2007 pics section:  The red brick/forest green office buildings just above dead center are the SDC's main offices, and this picture was taken from my apartment. Consequently, I can walk from my apartment building to my place of work in less time that it used to take me to walk from my parked car to the Fluor main building. HA. How's that for a commute? I'll be issued my laptop next week and gain access to the SDC auto fleet for any business travel around the country. Mm mm, fun. In other news, Jess is still happy in her program, and recently received a 100% on a technical field report. Her teacher told her, "You're not going to learn anything from me..." Well, it may not be Harvard, but at least she's still having fun. 26Apr2007 What? 26Apr2007? Why no updates in over a month???... [Shrug] School, folks... school. Jess and I have been chipping away at our academic duties, and things are going well enough. Jess got a 97% on her first paper in Environmental Management, and I got the first-ever-recorded 100% on the 1st term exam in Popular Music History. So... yeah, things are going fine. Just this afternoon, I did a drumming exam that allows me to skip the 1st year of drumming classes. As of next week, I'll be joining the 2nd-year music classes. That should be fun. In other news... Jess's sister (Sarah) and her friend (Lindsay) visited for a few days on their way around New Zealand. I'll soon be posting a few pictures of our adventures. That's all for now... 23Mar2007 My fondness for Mexican food has inspired some salse recipe development in the last couple months. Check out the final(ish) recipe in my Live-n-Learn section: Keith's Salsa Recipe. 10Mar2007 No interesting pics to show you... No fascinating stories. No news. Just class, work, and livin' life. Jess spent the day writing a paper on global warming, and I spent some time in the recording studio fiddling with ProTools and recording music. Hopefully more pictures soon... 01Mar2007 Alleluia, Alleluia - the house is sold. Thanks to the diligence of our realtor and crew, and especially some generous help from a friend, we finally closed on the sale of our house back in the States. The initial closing was scheduled for December 8th, 2006. So... that's almost 3 months of shenanigans. Now that it's all behind us, we've eliminated all debts and obligations. What a great feeling - we're free, free at last. Endless gratitude goes to Sonja, a former boss and mentor that acted as our power of attorney. Smile for the camera... Sonja and me at our company's 2006 X-mas party, and the cute tudor house we finally unloaded. 24Feb2007 I have acquired a Greenville-based phone number for all you folks back in the US. You can call the 864 number just like any domestic phone number, and it will ring through to my computer anywhere in the world. If I'm not online, just leave a voicemail. For privacy reasons, I am not going to publish the number here, so please send me an email (from the Contact Us page) if you'd like the number. 19Feb2007 Today was the first day of class for Jess and me. It was somewhat chaotic... I think the rainy weather threw a wrench into the morning's planned outdoor festivities. Oh well... no real school happened anyway, it was mostly just orientation. We'll see how it all settles out through the week. At the end of the day, we took a nice long walk around the centre of town that brought us by Queen's Park. Near the historic water tower at Queens Dr and Gala St, we could hear the sound of bagpipes drifting eastward. On our westward stroll along the grassy southern edge of Queens Park, we passed by a solo piper who was playing in a small stand of very old trees. It's no coincidence that people describe the sound of bagpipes on the wind as 'haunting,' because it really was. There was a great expanse of grass between us and the piper, and as we strolled by listening to ancient Scottish melodies, I had the feeling that William Wallace's ghost was going to rise from the ground (two-handed broad sword in hand) and demand freedom of me. I noted the time, and will make it a point to wander by Queen's Park around 7:45pm more often. | |
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