An Experience

30.08.2023

My Term 2 school holidays have come to an end a few months ago. I got 2 weeks off and did 2 days a week ‘work experience’ with ATC Engineers and Project managers in Kingaroy QLD Australia. It was AWESOME!

When I say work experience it is more of a “see what the engineers do and do a few jobs around the office”.

I also intend to do some short videos and/or some posts on what I was taught by the engineers.

An image of the sub-branches of engineering is below. I want to specialize in the Geotechnical and Structural branches.

DAY 1, TUESDAY

The first day I arrived at the office I was introduced to the engineers and administration staff though many of the engineers were away at training.

It is mandatory that a civil engineer in QLD do a certain amount of hours training in a year so they stay up to date with engineering requirements.

I was introduced to the ATC Engineers project filing system and spent most of the day ensuring all the project files had the required documents printed out. The system is year project. E.g. 23200 = 2023 project 200.

At ATC Engineers the office closes at 5pm and opens at 8am though for Day 1 I was only there from 8.30am-3pm. The other days I was there from 8am-5pm.

After lunch I studied the plans for the new year 11 and 12 building at St Johns Kingaroy that is in construction. I did not understand much of the drawings on Day 1 though by Day 4 I understood the plans much more. I also got to write down questions to ask the team the following day.

DAY 2, WEDNESDAY

By now I felt more relax in the office and with the engineers. I spent the day with an engineer called Phil. At 9am I went with him to a site inspection of St Johns’ foundation pad. I was unable to go on the actual site due to the risk associated with it, though I observed from afar.

When we returned Phil continued work on some CAD drawing for a footpath on Tessmans Rd Kingaroy. This was a great experience as I got to understand the obstacles for a footpath and the reasons for certain design features.

Once that was complete he moved onto a risk assessment for the project. A risk assessment outlines the risk and how it can be controlled and make the risk lower, like in school science reports. An image of a risk matrix is below. It is used to determine the risk of an activity.

At ATC Engineers and Project Managers they have a team meeting at 3pm to discuss projects and reflect on the week. There I got to ask my 5 questions about the St Johns year 11-12 build plans. My questions and responses will be in a later post. Julian, an engineer also gave me homework that was to design two bridges, one that failed and one that worked and why.

DAY 3, TUESDAY

Today I was with an engineer called Julian. The one who gave me the bridge building home work. I did some research activities I was tasked with which include concrete repair research and answering questions by searching through the Australian Standards for engineering for the required information.

Through out my time at ATC Engineers Julian showed me many objects and instruments from his ‘museum’. His ‘museum’ was a collect of engineering tools and technologies used in the construction of infrastructure. This was cool as I got to see the object/s physically. His museum had many engineering instruments and construction technologies though they all were quite small in size so they could all fit in a A4 paper box.

Through out today I observed Julian drafting reports for a concrete repair on a dam and calculations for a driveway widening project at a timber mill which was expanding the mill by adding a glue-laminating (glue-lam) factory. Of course there was also smaller things I am not mentioning.

DAY 4, WEDNESDAY

In the morning I observed Julian again, doing a report for Gordon brook dam concrete repair and driveway widths for a timber mill who was adding a glue laminating factory. After lunch I prepared my bridge presentation to present it to the team at the team meeting. As usual the meeting commenced but in addition I got to present my bridge presentation. The ATC team was quit impressed by it.

After the meetings I went to another site visit of St. Johns and I got to walk on site!!!!! This was because it was the end of the day and most high risks weren’t present i.e. heavy machinery.

Thank you for reading,

Archie

Update As of the 01 2023

This is a quick update of what I have done in the past few weeks and a few notices.

All donations I receive will be put towards experiments, education, fulfilling my passions and future goals and costs associated with better quality sharing. Once, more donations began to be received they will also be put towards covering my general living expenses.There will be more posts in the future relating to the experiment ideas, education and passions.

While on finance, I would also like to mention that in a month I will be qualify to become an employee of a business and start to make my own income, which is so exciting. I have been waiting impatiently for this moment for the last few months feeling it is unfair as both my siblings have jobs-NOT TRULY UNFAIR (they had to wait for as long as I did). This is not to say I don’t already have opportunities to be making income from working for my family and friends though my attitude towards this work has been poor.

I completed an Australian White Card Course on the 10/01/2023 with Blue Dog Training down at Brisbane Queensland. Great experience as I learned cool things and about many important subjects. Good education. Though it was awesome and I passed, there was a lot of hand holding and you were provided answers for every question except for 10 or so questions. This made it easy to pass and made it more like a listening test. For this reason,the test for the card felt a bit pointless apart from keeping the audiences attention as we all wanted to pass.

I got an auto darkening welding helmet from Sydney Tools for a 59% discount. I also went to Total Tools in Brisbane and stocked up on a few tools. They were to contribute to my shared welding kit (shared by me and my brother) and to a wood works tool box gifted to me by Eloisa (AKA; my mum).

These tools include;

An engineers file – finest I could find

A four way 10 amp power board

Four carpenter pencils

A carpenter pencil sharpener

A sliding bevel

A magnetic welding clamp- adjustable angle

A wooden mallet

These purchases have, for now, depleted my savings greatly. But it’s time to save again.

I also went to the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. They were really cool though there was little animal and insect life along with mainly introduced plant species.

Thanks for Spending the Time to Read This Post,

Archie

Notes When Doing A Design

In my recent blog ‘My New Vision for the Future’ I said that I want to design buildings. I have been sketching up different building ideas for some time though I haven’t had the time to draw up the plans properly and do research relating the idea. Once I have the time and desire to sketch up my ideas I will use this list to check if my designs are any good. Below the text is the list of things to keep in mind when you are doing a design.

Thanks to the many God’s Way Member Meetings, that I had the privilege to attend, about designing the Auditorium at the God’s Way Function Center (Scroll down to the sub-heading “Function Center Build”) I have been able to construct a list of things to keep in mind for when you design a building. I have added other ideas of my own to the list.

QUESTIONS PART 1:

Is it functional? (Very important)
Is it economical? (Very important)
Does it have beauty? (Less important)
What is the structures purpose?
Where will it be built?
What have you allowed the structure to be used for? (E.g. needs to be used for more than just a house)
Who can use it? (Can some one in a wheel chair live/work in the structure)
Where can it be built? (Can it be built on land with both a slope and no slope)
What is the structures environmental impact? (Where do the materials come from? How are the materials created?)
What damage will be cause in our world by building this structure?
What is the ideas merit?
Can the structure be replaced and/or customized?

QUESTIONS PART 2:

What do others want?
Can it be replaced and/or customized?
What do others want?
Would it work for others with their passions and desires?
What is their age? (How does this limit them)
What do I NEED?
What do I WANT?
What will enhance my life?
How do I protect my necessities? (Food, Water, Shelter, Clean Oxygen)
How does each design decision affect the over all structure/design?
What are the effects of each design decision?

NOTES:

Try to base everything in the structure off a central place/center piece in your design
Remember that there are always trade-offs in buildings

REFLECTION:

Why did I think this way?
- What emotions affect my thinking and ideas?

NOTE: Most of these ideas come from Jesus.

My New Vision For The Future

Hi all, I am back with another post. Once more I have changed what I want to do when I am older. I want
to be a carpenter, an architect and a structural and civil engineer. I want to also qualify in all the areas
Corny qualifies for, like said on a Divine Truth’s post (Scroll down to the sub-heading “Cornelius”). I want
to be qualified as a carpenter and builder but I don’t intend to do it day in and day out. I want to focus on
planning buildings, being an architect and an engineer once I am qualified.

My vision for the future is to go to university/tafe so I can get the necessary degrees/qualifications for my careers then do work as a carpenter, an architect and an engineer so I get experience. After I am experienced in my chosen
careers I want to go traveling around the world for a few years. When I return I would like to continue to
volunteer for God’s Way Ltd. I want to become a member of God’s Way Ltd and aim to set up a God’s
Way Function Center in Africa or South America. I want to work on constructing, planning and designing
buildings for the God’s Way Function Centers. I would like to manage a team of construction workers who
would work on God’s Way’s building projects and other community building projects in either Australia,
Africa or South America (doesn’t really matter where but I think this area would be a good place to help). I would love the team of construction workers to be qualified in all different areas so that if we wanted to our team has the experience and knowledge to build, design and plan a whole house or complex by our selves. I would like there to be a God’s Way Function center already constructed to act as a “home base” but if that hasn’t happened I would like to help build one.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & NOTES
Thanks so much towards Jesus and Mary who with out this vision would never of began.
This is my vision and dream for my future. No Idea or event is set in stone yet. I aspire to do these things in the
future.
NOTE: There is other information about the God’s Way Function Center in the link (Scroll down to the sub-heading
called “Function Center Build”).

Thanks for Reading and I hope to expand this vision one day but also complete it, yet who knows how long this idea will last, may change yet again,

Archie

The Paper Clip Experiment

Materials:

-Paper or tissue.

-Cup.

-Needle

-Paper clip.

-Water.

Method:

The needle or the paper clip must be dry.

1.Fill the cup up with water

2.Cut a small square piece of paper or tissue (With the tissue you need to separate the layers before you cut)

3.Put the needle on the square of tissue or paper. You need to center the needle in the square.

4.Lift up the needle on the paper. Make shore there is a flat valley where the needle or paper clip is.

5.Lower down the paper or tissue with the needle or paper clip on it. Make shore the flat valley is on the water first.

6.Once the tissue or paper starts to sink and the needle or paper clip is sitting on the water push down the rest of the paper or tissue.

How it works:

The needle or the paper clip sits on the water not floats. This is possible even though the metal is heavier. The surface tension allows this to happen because ,the surface tension is strong enough to let these objects sit on the surface.

You need to disturb the surface as little as possible. This is so you don’t break the surface tension. This is also why you need to lower the tissue evenly and close to the surface.

By Archie Hitchins

Thank You

Thank you for the donations that I have received this term. I very much appreciated this slow and steady donations.

My Obsession Begins

A year and a bit ago at the beginning of 2019 I was reading a Horrible History’s book (Stink’n Incas). Within a week I was taken by my first obsession. The next year I saw how gruesome and gory they were ( thanks to some insights from mum (Elo) and sister (Izzy) and I moved over to Quechua (the modern Incan language). Now I am obsessed with South America (language, culture, environment and life in South America).

The Goal for the Obsession

My goal is to earn enough money to fund a trip around South America and after settle into a place than live there for who knows how long. I plan to leave around 20 .While being there make up a South American Travel Guide for kids.

How it begun

**Updated Feb 13, 2021

Me and my siblings were in my mum’s office when she was talking to us about our feelings that we should get money and we should not have to work for it.

This is a snippet of what I remember Eloisa (mum) saying, “You could set up a blog and share yourself with the world. It is loving to be yourself and share yourself with others. You could share all kinds of things, like your soul passions and desires, the experiments and experiences you have in your daily life and your experiences of what is happening in our family. As a result of sharing yourself, which is in harmony with God’s Laws, you may find that people would like to donate to you. It is possible that you may be able to get an income from your blog in five or more years, if you have a loving intention”.

So I happily asked Eloisa to “help me set up a blog (do it for me was my definishen of help at the time)”. My motivation was to gain money out of my blog. This is what I was thinking, “Heee hee hee I will get a lot of money from this and I won’t have to work” (said in the manner of a little evil genius). I kept this top secret at the time as I didn’t want to reveal my motivation.

I was being told by people that I might get money just for being a cute small child and posting videos on YouTube. Now I don’t think I am that cute, so my desire to get easy money for being cute has been obliviated.

When I first began my blog and YouTube channel Eloisa got everything working for me, she did the filming for my YouTube account, showed me how to do everything (witch at the time I didn’t care about nor did I truly learn what skills she was teaching me, even though Eloisa was trying to educate me).

Soon after these events, I stopped writing my blog as I felt dependent on mum and I felt I couldn’t do it without her. As time passed I felt it was too hard to get easy money from my blog.

Now my desire has changed and I want to get educated on how to film for my YouTube channel and how to use both my blog and YouTube channel so I can do it my own without anyone else’s help. I was never truly educated when I first started because my desire was to get easy money and have everything done for me by mum or others.

I now write on my blog because I want to share my self with others and the world. I now have a desire to share my self no matter if mum helps me or not , and I still would share my self if I get money or not.

Eventually I want to go to South America, and make a Kids Travel Guide for South America. While in South America I want to share my experiences on my blog.

( This text has had a lot of feedback from Eloisa and the quote (by mum) has been re written with input by Eloisa)

By Archie Hitchins

Edited and Improved by Eloisa Lytton-Hitchins

Eloisa’s Bog Eloisalh.com

What Do You Call A Best Friend

Many people call a best friend, some one who only says what they want to hear. Others make friends as they are loyal while some have friends that will not challenge thier personal beliefs and options.

But I call a best friend some one who is the best of friends, so they love me, care for me and even if I am unkind they raise the issue and still love me. My best friend’s are Jesus and Mary.