Un gato tambien venia, elegante y plancentero
Has school ever been busy.
The laboratory reports I've had to write this year have been much more intensive than anything I've had to do in my college career, but it only makes sense as I am rapidly approaching the ultimate report: my senior project.
Stress-strain analysis, multiaxial loading, activation energy of creep in isotropic materials. Wind-tunnel velocity profiles describing laminar flow, thermocouples, power cycles implementing regeneration. Application of Butterworth, Chebyshev, and moving-average filters as a means for data-reduction for sampling of dynamic output frequencies. Design for manufacturing, design for cost, quality control measurements, and concurrent engineering.
It's a wonder how human minds conceived any of these things in the first place.
But my concerns with school comprise only 50% of my worries at any given time.
And not all my concerns are things of ill effect. Hell, even school isn't all that bad, it's just challenging is all.
Every Wednesday night I go to a student-club called "Salsa Loca" with Lyn where we get to learn salsa, as well as have a blast trying out our newly learned moves on the dance floor. The Wednesday before Halloween however they are having a costume dance-off! Lyn and I have already chosen our theme, and it's promising to be a fun time. I'm going to bring my camera and get it on video, so expect that in the future.
On another note: god damn is Salsa fun. Well, it's fun with the right person anyways. During the practice session they'll mix up the men and women so that nobody plays favorites, and (from a martial arts perspective as well) practicing with different body structures, weights, and heights is necessary to master fundamentals. Some times I'll get a partner who has never danced and they are more worried about making the wrong step than making the right one. Other times you'll get somebody with just the right touch who can go with the flow. Then there's partners like one I got last night, "Oh yeah, I've been part of a dance troupe from San Francisco (garnering the name carries some kind of weight with it)" or stopping completely and going, "FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT" I mean damn, this is a practice session for a student-run salsa club, you're a long way from the world congress woman.
There's also concerns I've been having for archery, some specifically regarding Steven. As soon as I mentioned I was considering taking up bow-hunting, he jumped on the bandwagon and started touting the phrase "Deer-in-a-year" like it was a campaign slogan. I don't think it's a particularly good idea to set such a goal when we're just starting, for who knows how long it will be before we are capable of such a feat. I've been reading up on bow-hunting on an educational website created by the Department of Fish & Game, and they cannot stress enough the importance of only taking a shot which will kill. The surface-area for a kill-shot on a dear is roughly 10-inches in diameter, and things get trickier when you consider you are trying to place an arrow in that 10-inch space from twenty to thirty yards away. On top of that under real conditions you'll be trying to fix on a target that is moving, obscured, and can hear and smell you. After about 4 months of shooting regularly on weekends, I am just approaching the point where I can place a set of six arrows in a target of that space. However there is room for improvement, as I will not consider hunting such game until I can place every set of arrows within that target every time. Steven however is already trying to convince me that we should be buying practice broad-head arrows. Regardless I still want to start with small-game (pheasant, waterfowl, rabbits, etc) because I'm not even sure myself if I'll care to get up to hunting deer. I'd rather hunt small game first, and feel-out whether hunting is something I'd wish to continue.
My guitar playing on campus has also taken an interesting direction. Various singers, percussionists, and guitarists now all stop by on their trails to and from class, and there are now occasionally jams that we'll break into at the fountain area. People constantly ask if we're a club, or recommend that we start a club. It's an entertaining thought, but I am unsure if I have the capacity to carry something like that just now, and I wouldn't want to start something I couldn't finish. But then again, when will I have such a chance to try?
I'm starting to learn songs by a means of choosing artists that persons have recommended, and then choosing 3 songs apiece. The list so far:
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-Eagles
-Creedence Clearwater
-Deathklok
-Sublime
-Bruno Marz
-Rolling Stones
-The Doors
-Flight of the Conchords
-Jonathan Coulton
-Metallica
-Expendables
-Sugar-land
-Sugar Ray
-The Fray
-Led Zeppelin
-Rascal Flatts
-Dire Straits
-Jerr Nieman
-Jack Johnson
-John Mayer
-Keith Urban
-Lady Antebellem
-Matt Kerny
-Dave Matthews
-Eric Clapton
-Extreme
-Iron & Wine
-Simon & Garfunkel
-Ottis Redding
-Van Morrison
-Jason Mraz
-Etta James
-Johnny Cash
-Elvis
-And more!
I reason that I will go by 5 artists at a time, 3 songs apiece, making for sets of 15 in a given period.
The new computer I've constructed (with the help of Joe!) is also working fantastically. Or as I like to say, "It is so fast it is stupid."
My secondary interest in having a powerful machine is for the awesomeness that is gaming.
My primary interest is to have powerful computing abilities for performing finite-element analysis with engineering software, as it will be necessary when my senior project begins.
Still need to write an email to the department chair about finding the human resources for this...
And I've been typing too long: it's a beautiful day outside, and I've just got to get out!
The laboratory reports I've had to write this year have been much more intensive than anything I've had to do in my college career, but it only makes sense as I am rapidly approaching the ultimate report: my senior project.
Stress-strain analysis, multiaxial loading, activation energy of creep in isotropic materials. Wind-tunnel velocity profiles describing laminar flow, thermocouples, power cycles implementing regeneration. Application of Butterworth, Chebyshev, and moving-average filters as a means for data-reduction for sampling of dynamic output frequencies. Design for manufacturing, design for cost, quality control measurements, and concurrent engineering.
It's a wonder how human minds conceived any of these things in the first place.
But my concerns with school comprise only 50% of my worries at any given time.
And not all my concerns are things of ill effect. Hell, even school isn't all that bad, it's just challenging is all.
Every Wednesday night I go to a student-club called "Salsa Loca" with Lyn where we get to learn salsa, as well as have a blast trying out our newly learned moves on the dance floor. The Wednesday before Halloween however they are having a costume dance-off! Lyn and I have already chosen our theme, and it's promising to be a fun time. I'm going to bring my camera and get it on video, so expect that in the future.
On another note: god damn is Salsa fun. Well, it's fun with the right person anyways. During the practice session they'll mix up the men and women so that nobody plays favorites, and (from a martial arts perspective as well) practicing with different body structures, weights, and heights is necessary to master fundamentals. Some times I'll get a partner who has never danced and they are more worried about making the wrong step than making the right one. Other times you'll get somebody with just the right touch who can go with the flow. Then there's partners like one I got last night, "Oh yeah, I've been part of a dance troupe from San Francisco (garnering the name carries some kind of weight with it)" or stopping completely and going, "FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT" I mean damn, this is a practice session for a student-run salsa club, you're a long way from the world congress woman.
There's also concerns I've been having for archery, some specifically regarding Steven. As soon as I mentioned I was considering taking up bow-hunting, he jumped on the bandwagon and started touting the phrase "Deer-in-a-year" like it was a campaign slogan. I don't think it's a particularly good idea to set such a goal when we're just starting, for who knows how long it will be before we are capable of such a feat. I've been reading up on bow-hunting on an educational website created by the Department of Fish & Game, and they cannot stress enough the importance of only taking a shot which will kill. The surface-area for a kill-shot on a dear is roughly 10-inches in diameter, and things get trickier when you consider you are trying to place an arrow in that 10-inch space from twenty to thirty yards away. On top of that under real conditions you'll be trying to fix on a target that is moving, obscured, and can hear and smell you. After about 4 months of shooting regularly on weekends, I am just approaching the point where I can place a set of six arrows in a target of that space. However there is room for improvement, as I will not consider hunting such game until I can place every set of arrows within that target every time. Steven however is already trying to convince me that we should be buying practice broad-head arrows. Regardless I still want to start with small-game (pheasant, waterfowl, rabbits, etc) because I'm not even sure myself if I'll care to get up to hunting deer. I'd rather hunt small game first, and feel-out whether hunting is something I'd wish to continue.
My guitar playing on campus has also taken an interesting direction. Various singers, percussionists, and guitarists now all stop by on their trails to and from class, and there are now occasionally jams that we'll break into at the fountain area. People constantly ask if we're a club, or recommend that we start a club. It's an entertaining thought, but I am unsure if I have the capacity to carry something like that just now, and I wouldn't want to start something I couldn't finish. But then again, when will I have such a chance to try?
I'm starting to learn songs by a means of choosing artists that persons have recommended, and then choosing 3 songs apiece. The list so far:
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-Eagles
-Creedence Clearwater
-Deathklok
-Sublime
-Bruno Marz
-Rolling Stones
-The Doors
-Flight of the Conchords
-Jonathan Coulton
-Metallica
-Expendables
-Sugar-land
-Sugar Ray
-The Fray
-Led Zeppelin
-Rascal Flatts
-Dire Straits
-Jerr Nieman
-Jack Johnson
-John Mayer
-Keith Urban
-Lady Antebellem
-Matt Kerny
-Dave Matthews
-Eric Clapton
-Extreme
-Iron & Wine
-Simon & Garfunkel
-Ottis Redding
-Van Morrison
-Jason Mraz
-Etta James
-Johnny Cash
-Elvis
-And more!
I reason that I will go by 5 artists at a time, 3 songs apiece, making for sets of 15 in a given period.
The new computer I've constructed (with the help of Joe!) is also working fantastically. Or as I like to say, "It is so fast it is stupid."
My secondary interest in having a powerful machine is for the awesomeness that is gaming.
My primary interest is to have powerful computing abilities for performing finite-element analysis with engineering software, as it will be necessary when my senior project begins.
Still need to write an email to the department chair about finding the human resources for this...
And I've been typing too long: it's a beautiful day outside, and I've just got to get out!