I earned my Iron Ring

[stecykmi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_ring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ritual_of_the_Calling_of_an_Engineer


Yesterday I participated in a ritual for Canadian engineers that obligates me to perform my duties responsibly. To constantly remind me of my commitment, I was given an Iron Ring which I now wear on the pinky of my working hand. The idea was when an engineer went to sign off drawings, the ring would be the first thing to hit the paper, reminding them that lives are potentially at risk if he's made an error.

The ceremony was written by British author and poet Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book (the basis for the Disney animation), Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, etc.) at the request of prominent Canadian engineer (and professor at University of Toronto, my alma mater), H E T Haultain. I haven't actually graduated yet, but to myself and for a lot of my classmates, this was at least as important as graduation. We had a great celebration yesterday and many beers were consumed, in the proud engineering tradition of beer swilling machismo.

[jimmybjj]

Awesome, congrats!!!

[jtn191]

that's awesome! we're lucky to have ya around, eh?

[pietro_moog]

the whole iron ring thing is nice. congrats for your achievement.
isn't that ring too tight for your finger? it looks like a pain to fit in

[pickdropper]

Congratulations, it's all downhill from here.   

[shawnee]

Awesome! Congrats and thanks for your technical help around here.

[oldhousescott]

Congratulations!

[JakeFuzz]

Congrats Misha! I read a long time ago that the original rings were made out of a collapsed bridge truss. I attended one of these ceremonies a while ago, very cool!

Edit: Haha read your wikipedia links, the bridge story is actually a common misunderstanding. Interesting!

[Haberdasher]

congrats!

[cjkbug]

what a cool tradition!

[jkokura]

Misha! Congrats my friend. I have several ring wearing friends. Great stuff man, congrats on finishing your degree.

Jacob

[stecykmi]

the whole iron ring thing is nice. congrats for your achievement.
isn't that ring too tight for your finger? it looks like a pain to fit in

Thanks. I choose a size that's somewhat small because I don't plan on taking it off very often. Plus my finger was a little swollen by that point because you can use the ring as a bottle opener as a neat party trick. I did it three times by that point so my finger was starting to feel it.

I appreciate the congratulations guys. Going back to school for engineering was the best decision I ever made so it's exciting to see it coming to an end.

[sgmezei]

Right on Misha. All the best in your new career coming up!

[Ettore_M]

Congratulations, Misha! Really nice tradition, and very cool reminder! 

[gtr2]

Congratulations!




Josh