Entering the Lists…

It’s Thanksgiving break! And we all know that “break” is actually code for “time to catch up on things/do things that you’ve been putting off until ‘break’”.

First on the list is, of course, to make a list. (While being distracted by a Champions League game. Even though I don’t really like Barca, but they are being fouled like crazy.)

The List:

• Find a thesis topic (yeah, that will be easy)
• Do Orbitals homework (this will probably take, oh, most of break. I am not kidding.)
• Do Rocket Prop homework
• Study for Orbitals test
• Write up Jet Prop homework
• Do Math homework
• Clean … everything. Normalized against my roommate, I think my Entropy powers are on the order of +2. Or +3. When I walk into a room, things just seem to accelerate toward chaos. So room, bathroom, kitchen – and now common room. Bah.
• Give my car its long-overdue monthly check. And find an old towel to keep in it, because it’s so humid here that fogging glass is a real problem.
• Groceries may have to happen at some point
• Email/message people. The whole “grad school” thing where you eat, sleep, and do homework tends to cut you off from the outside world.

 

October Sky

I’m alive! Barely, but alive, I promise. And I posted before LesleyT, so I win at life, despite still being traumatized by yesterday’s Orbit Mechanics test.

My life in a sentence: Work work sleep eat work work class class eat work work work work frisbee shower eat work work want to go to bed but just remembered that I had some other work work. Yeah.

Some cool things that managed to happen:

 

Quotes from the Dark Side (aka Grad School)

My math prof on algorithms: “… switch off the thinking part of your brain … [because] … you see an algorithm – you start thinking about it – [and] you become emotionally involved.” (He emphasized the part in italics.)

Professor: “How is your semester going?”
Me: “It’s going all right – I’m looking for a research advisor.”
Professor: “What are you interested in?”
Me: *goes into semi-exhaustive detail*
Professor: “Aggghhhh funding!”
Me: “But I don’t have to be paid this year because I have a TAship.”
Professor: *fails to take the hint* “Ah … well … good luck!”

Me: “So … I’m looking for a thesis topic and advisor.”
Professors: “It’s okay, you have a TAship this year – you don’t have to worry.”
Grad Students: “Get one ASAP or you’ll be here forever!!!!!! Like me!”

Girl walking past me talking on phone: “I’m a science major in an engineering class for engineers, and I don’t know how to do the first problem set even though it’s been explained to me three times, and I WANT TO SHOOT MYSELF.” (Sheesh, chill out. It’s only the second week of class.)

Me: “In my rocket propulsion class, the grad students get to earn their keep by coordinating the rocket launch project.”
Peter: “How is that punishment?”
Me: *smirks slightly* “Exactly.”

 

I give you …

Purdue University, presented by TxDOT, OkDOT, Hank the cowdog, MoDOT, Bass Pro Shops, LBJ’s Andrew Jackson Expansion Memorial (aka the Gateway Arch), IlDOT, construction, Neil Armstrong, Home Depot, tornados, and the letter R (reserved).

Some pictures:

Springfield, MO: Bass Pro Shops - the largest one in the world and the only game in town

St. Louis Science Center: I want one of these in my room. Talk about an aid to procrastination!

 

Far from the Madding Crowd?

This is one of those “here’s what I’m doing” posts. Here goes:

I finished my summer internship at Vestas and said goodbye to basically everybody in Houston I know. At least, I tried. Which, come to think of it, was a heck of a lot of people and inspired all sorts of emotions that I really don’t want to analyse right now because I want to be braindead and withdrawn for a few days, I think. I don’t want to think about that either. It wasn’t really goodbye forever, but if and when I do go back it won’t be the same. But I am extremely grateful for the amazing friendships that I have in Houston and at Rice, and really hope I won’t lose touch.

 

The Tour de France Post

I’m really not a fan of France, even though I took three – maybe four? – years of French, but there are exceptions to everything. In this case, the exceptions are: the Revolutionary War (although that was mainly because they hated the British), cheese, chocolate, guttural rs, and the Tour. As in, le Tour de France.

Instead of raving obsessively about it, I’ll just mention that I’d really like to see Garmin’s Tyler Farrar (the 25-year-0ld Washington sprinter) take a stage and stick it to Mark Cavendish. Of course, now that they’ve started on the mountains, all the sprinters will be hanging on for dear life, so we won’t see much out of them, but later on there might be a few chances. I really think Farrar can do it (oh, and become the first American in twenty years to take a sprint finish). It’s comforting to know I’m not the only one out there who considers this a possibility; see this article. However, Dean is also his teammate – he wouldn’t be much use if he didn’t believe it.

Also – Astana what? We all know it’s Team Livestrong using Kazakh money. I would really like to see Levi Leipheimer in the yellow, though, just because he kind of gets lost in all the attention surrounding Armstrong and Contador and whatever drama they’ve got themselves into. And can Armstrong please stop advertising anything and everything to with cycling? Please?

Some good/entertaining links for following this year’s Tour:

 

Car Fail

Epic fail. I got a used car checked out by a mechanic and subsequently decided not to make an offer on it. Julia and I decided on the ride back that the massive inadequacies of the car were slightly hilarious. For your pleasure and amusement:

Page One

Page Two

 

Back When I Was a Freshman

Dear Rice,

Now that I finally possess the right to designate myself a “concerned alumna”, I would like to address the topic of tradition. More specifically, I would like to comment upon a certain practice, pleading for a return to the values, customs, and doctrines that characterize our community and our university.

My most treasured memory of Orientation Week (familiar to Rice students as “O-Week”), (besides, of course, playing Sardines in Sewall Hall, ubangeeing co-advisors at other colleges, screaming at other colleges at the top of my lungs, losing my voice, and [of course] Austin Bratton) is engaging in the time-gilded ritual of hedge-jumping. After a thorough primer by our illustrious fellow, who was determined to see us initiated as quickly as possible into the ranks of Real Rice Students, my entire O-Week group lined up for our first attempts. I am proud to note that I rapidly mastered the correct technique: the gently curving approach run, the headfirst launch with the quarter-twist over the hedge itself, and the assertive shoulder landing and roll on the soft lawn. The fact that I emerged with the cuts and scars of warfare upon my arms is further evidence of my dedication and complete hardcoreness.

 

In Brief

Just a quickie update: I’ve been slowly unpacking and adjusting to ‘real life’ – the one where you cook your own food – again; I started my summer internship on Monday with Vestas. More on that later, or just ask me.

The pool here at the apartments is really short. Yeah, that was random. My shoulders don’t like me right now because I went and swam fly after work.

Oh, and I graduated on Saturday. Woot! It was really hot and humid. I will have pics up on Facebook at some point, as well as send some round to the relatives (like the official full regalia ones). In fact, if you want to be included on that picture-attachment email, please comment here or drop me a line. It is really weird saying I am a graduate, or having people at work refer to me as a Master’s student – kind of like having a birthday and having to remember your new age, or having a new address. But more significant, I suppose.

“No man drowns if he perseveres in praying to God, and can swim.” – Russian proverb

 

A Definition of Engineering

In two days, I will finally have the right to place “B.S Mechanical Engineering” after my name. (I won’t be holding a diploma with that title for several more weeks, however – the cardboard tubes they’ll give us during Commencement will have a noticeable lack of diploma.) Over the past four years, my concept of engineering has definitely changed.

I think my original idea of what an engineer did and was developed from my parents (engineers who built cool stuff), from popular media like Star Trek, Stargate, and Jules Vernes’ works (engineers who saved the ship/team/world from imminent destruction), and from my fascination with 18th and 19th century inventors (engineers who were engineers before there were engineers). I thought it was awesome, and so I wanted – you might say was conditioned – to become an engineer. After all, who wouldn’t want to invent (current technical term: “design”) really cool, innovative stuff that would save the world, and possibly end up on a space shuttle in the process? And best of all, engineering and science were quantifiable; they could be described in numbers and figures, and everything could be predicted or simulated.

Wrong.