With a name like "Marquardt" I picked up a nickname pretty quick. Growing up it was usually just "Marq", but that's weird because it has a "q" without being followed by a "u". "Mark" often worked, but not once I stated college. All My colege friends decided I needed a much more unusual nickname. Rubik's cube were popular at the time and I always had one.
"Cube" became so standard, I've even had payroll checks made out to "Cube". The teller at the bank knew me and cashed it, but told me the people I worked for were idiots (they were). I had a background check for a job and I wasn't sure if I needed to put it down as an alias, so I did. It's a good thing, too! Because they did ask me about at!
I've done lots of things: raised lovebirds, stained glass, woodworking, sensors, Home Assistant, 3D printing, vinyl cutting.
Oh yes. I was a Regional Director for the African Lovebird Society for a while and even won the Lovebird division at a couple of National Caged Bird Shows.
Pretty much. It's a big deal in the bird world. People come from all over the world to compete.
The closest thing to the agility training is the singing
canaries, they compete in trios.
I never owned any, but one time I had driven to a
show in Santa Clara, CA and someone I knew that had
flown there bought some. I agreed to drive them back
across the country and got to board them for a couple of
weeks until we could meet up and return them.
Yes. Eventually, I got the hang of breaking the glass the
way I wanted it to break. The soldering took a lot of
practice.
Once my daughter was on the way, it didn't seem like a
hobby with broken glass and lead was a good idea, so I
stopped. I still have a lot of the materials and tools,
though. Maybe I'll get back to it someday.
Most anything 80's. I lean towards rock and hair metal, anything
with shred guitar. I think the whole grunge thing started the
downfal of pop/rock music, but it could have been the digitizing
of the media as a whole.
But that's just my main preferrence, I like anything
"interesting". I know that's really vague, but I like a lot of
different kinds of music. Usually something instrumental when I'm
working, that could be electronica, classical, or trance. But I
find there's good music in every genre, if you give it a chance.
Good cover songs can be really interesting, too. The Jonny Cash
cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" brings a whole new insight to the
original song.
The public library in Clarksville, TN had a great music section. I
used to go in and pick 6-7 random CDs with the rules:
I had to return them all two weeks later anyway. Except for the White Stripes White Blood Cells, I considered it a public service when I finally ripped a copy so I could return that one for good. I discovered a lot of great music that way.
I've always been athletic enough to be decent at most sports, but
not skilled enough to be great at any. Except maybe tennis, I used
to be really good at tennis! I played football in high school, but
there were only about 100 students total in my high school, so
everyone played football or we didn't have a team.
Football: We lived in Tennessee the year the
Titans went to the Super Bowl, so we were big fans at the time. We
even has PSL (Permanant Season Tickets) for a while. When we moved
to Florida, the Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in a heated
battle for 31st/32nd place (out of 32 teams). It just wasn't worth
the effort to follow them anymore.
Baseball: My Dad used to take my little brother
and I to Cincinatti Reds games when we were kids. When we moved to
Tenneessee, we went to a couple of Nashville Sounds games but it
wasn't the same anymore. I still root for the Reds, but I don't
really follow them anymore.
Basketball: I guess I've never lived anywhere
near a really good basketball team, so I never got into it. I do
like watching highlights! Especially Steph Curry, Lamelo Ball,
Luka Doncic, and the hot shot point guards. I guess I could start
watching the Grizzlies, they're a TN team and they've got Ja
Morant. It just seeems like there's always something else to do.
One thing I never understood about basketball is how they
ever miss a free throw. It's the same distance every
time, from the same spot every time. You have as much time as you
need to line up your shot and you don't have to worry about anyone
trying to block it. And it's proven the "Granny Shot" is
significantly more accurate, but they don't use it because it's
not "cool" enough.
Yes, I've done lots of different things. I've worked in factories, gas stations, pizza delivery, framing carpentry, I bartended for over 10 years.
I started out barbacking, which is basically just washing
glasses, cleaning, and restocking the bar. I did that for a
few months, then I got promoted to bartender. I worked at a
couple of high-energy dance clubs, hotel bars, Ruby Tuesdays,
even a biker bar for a while. I really enjoyed it.
I got to meet a lot of interesting people and I learned a lot
about human nature.
My wife and I met bartending, too! So, huge plus there!
I was a press operator at the tile factory, one morning the
Press Manager came and explained we were going into layoffs,
so he had me reassigned to the prill prep department. Sure
enough, the next day They shut down the press shift I was
working.
Fast forward a few months running the spray dryer, and the
Press Manager came and told me to shut down all my equipment,
close out my paperwork, and come find him. They were opening
back up the press shift and wanted me to come back.
I was glad to be back on the press, but I was also
really impressed that he had remembered me and thought of me
when they needed to fill the position. It was a great
experience and I really appreciated it.
This has to be at Bosch. I was operating CNC lathes to mill
brake rotors. One day when I came in, one of the lines had
been down all 2nd shift because a datum ring was out of spec.
The datum ring was a raised section of the top hat, and it's a
compound cut, so there's no one adjustment that will always
fix it. I started looking at it, but my manaager wanted to
know why I thought I could fix it when no one all 2nd shift
could fix it. I explained spatial relationships, and someone
named "Cube", so she let me try it. I ran a first
part to watch the tool path. I made an adjustment and the
second run was in the right direction. I made another
adjustment and my third run was almost there. I made a final
adjustment, but with 3 scrap parts, she wouldn't let me run it
again. We left the line down for another entire shift.
First shift came in and the first thing they did was run a
part and gauge it. Then they asked why the line was down. I
explained the whole fiasco, but the first part they ran was
fine, so they started running the line like nothing had
happened.
We lost an entire shift of production because of a manager
that didn't have the confidence in her employees to let them
try to fix a problem. It was really frustrating, but I guess
we all got overtime working then next weekend.
I've done lots of things I enjoyed, and all of them have ups
and downs. Probably one of the best jobs I had was working at
a full service gas station. I got to know a lot of the regular
customers and a lot of them were handicapped or had a baby in
the car, so I got to help them out a lot.
You're outside 90% of the time, so when the weather's good, it
was realy nice. It only took one person to run the station,
and it's really pretty easy, so I got to listen to music,
enjoy the weather, and chat with customers.
When it's raining, snowing, or cold, everyone would stop by to
get like $2-3 in gas 'till they could get to a cheaper
station, so it could be really miserable. But overall, I
really enjoyed the freedom, the people, and the weather.
Or maybe pizza delivery! Pizza delivery was a lot of fun. You basically get paid to drive around and listen to music. If you're doing your job right, you hardly spend any time in the actual store.
That has to be cutting tobacco.
I was in Tenneessee in High School and summers I worked
cutting tobacco. It was really hard work, it was dirty, and it
was all manual labor. The tobacco sap gets all over your
clothes, and all the dirt sticks to it. You finish up every
day tired and dirty.
The bright side, of course, is that it paid really well, and
you're in really good shape by the end of the summer.