final day

This is me: bored. We're doing Capstone presentations. I get to just sit here.

...or Puff the Magic Dragon

Today is Thursday. This means:

• Community
• 30 Rock
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
• Burn Notice
• The Office
• Bones

It is a horrible night for productivity (which is a lie). I don't usually watch any of these shows on Thursday night. I usually "DVR" them and watch them on Friday and Saturday.

So I just took a three hour break from writing this to finish up some homework. I don't know where it came from, but I suddenly realized what I had to do to finish a project that I've already spent about 7 hours on. Myself and some comrades at school had to do some work with supersonic flow and produce some experimental and theoretical results. Experimental was easy; theoretical wasn't. We couldn't figure out how to get the data we needed from what we had. I realized in about one second tonight what I tried to figure out for two hours yesterday. However, after realizing it, it took me three hours to do it.

Speaking of school projects, here are some images of some of the cooler things I've had to do at school so far this year.

• This is an analysis showing the speed of air coming off of an airfoil (wing). The redder, the faster. You see all the blue? That is where the air pretty much is stopped and just hangs out behind the wing. This is for Mach 8, and and 8 degree angle of attack. That means that it is moving 8x the speed of sound and pointed 8 degrees above the horizon.

• This is what I just did. These are contour lines showing air pressure as it moves across a shock wave. Shock waves happen as supersonic air (Mach > 1) suddenly goes subsonic (Mach <>

• These are little, tiny switches. We made them by depositing various liquids, selectively hardening parts of those liquids and desolving other parts, over and over. Each of the longer switches is about 100 microns long (which is less than 0.005 inches). There really isn't even anything you can give for comparison. Just imagine that if you stacked 200 of these switches from end to end, you'd still be under an inch.

There has also been a lot of code writing, but nobody wants to see that. Nobody wanted to see this either, but this is what you get.

Call of Duty: Black Ops came out last Tuesday. Since getting it, Derek, David and I have wasted quite a bit of time with it. I'm currently enjoying it more than I remember enjoying modern warfare, which is saying a lot. The campaign is confusing, but it is supposed to be. There's a bunch of shadowy crap going on and you're supposed to figure out the over-arching theme. Its fun. Also, it has uncle gazpacho, which is fun.

Flight 25: jfk-...home

So I'm sitting here in JFK, waiting for my last flight. It has been intense this last month, but I'm glad I dropped the $700 and decided to do this. I got to go places and do things that I likely never would have done if I was buying individual tickets. The pass kinda forced us to get creative in our destinations and amusements. I don't know when the last post was, or even what I posted, so here is a synopsis of our weekend travels.
1. Puerto Rico: very physically taxing. It was a really good way to kick off the whole thing. Derek and I rented a car and pretty much just drove it around the island. We spent a lot of time on the beach swimming and peeing into the Caribbean,obtaining coconuts and getting caught in a torrential downpour. It was really fun. We special t the night in the car since we had a way early flight and didn't want to deal with sleeping for like two hours and trying to make it to the plane. Derek slept, but I didn't. It was a little sketched by the thought of being attacked by wild Puerto Ricans in our sleep. We had a total of about 35 hours in the air for 19 hours in Puerto Rico. Worth it though.
2. Orlando: much less taxing than Puerto Rico. We got a Disney hotel so that they would pick us up from the airport and take us back the next day. It was only $70 or so for the whole thing. I got to meet Derek's cousin Jeniece, who basically did everything you could ask for to accommodate us. She got us free park tickets and we went to three of the four parks. Animal kingdom, magic kingdom and Epcot. We really didn't get to do a whole lot at all the parks, but we knew that coming into it. Time constraint were our biggest downfall on all of our trips. Anyway, we also went to downtown Disney before heading back to the hotel and dying.
3. New York: way fun. We went to 30 Rock and we were gonna get some standby tickets to snl, but we never would have gotten in with how high our numbers would have been. We went to the MET, which was amazing and got lunch at a Romanian restaurant. We went up to Yankee stadium but didn't get in. I however could see the huge TV through the columns at the entrance, so I saw a game at Yankee stadium, right? Time square yielded a new Ferris wheel picture and then little Italy. It was a really fun trip, but there was a lot of foot traveling involved.
4: Orlando again: this time we went to a Universal park, which wasn't as good as any of the Disney parks, with the exception of the Harry Potter land. It was incredibly well done, with one of the best conceived theme park attractions I've ever encountered in my life. The food was good at "the three broomsticks" and butterbeer is glorified cream soda. We still spent loads of money on it though. Gotta live it up while you can. Jeniece was again an amazing host to the state of Florida and even put us up at her apartment in addition to being airport transportation. By the time we got back to her apartment, we were ready to die. We crashed for the night and now I'm on my way home and Derek is headed to Boston tomorrow.
I've punched all of this out on my phone so excuse all the grammar errors and typos.

Ginger Ale and Cranberry Juice

Derek and I are sitting in the Long Beach Airport. It is the sixth time I've been in this airport this week.

We just saw some kids doing some lewd things. They need to be punished.

Anyway, so we're in the LGB airport just waiting for our flight home. We have been flying and waiting in airports all day. We left Aguadilla this morning at 4:00 (their time) and we will be getting home around 23:00 (Utah time). So do your own math if you care how much time it was in the air.

We somehow missed the fact that if we had been willing to wait in JFK for another 2 hours, we could have gone directly from New York to SLC instead of coming through Long Beach. We don't know why this happened like it did. I am pretty sure that I just thought that since we had to go through California to get to Puerto Rico, we would have to come back through it to get home. Dumb move. We'd be home about now. Its all good though; we had some awesome mexicano food here since we had a chance to leave the airport.

I am trying to upload a picture from Los Puerto Ricos right now, but my phone is stuck at 47%. I'll post if it eventually succeeds.

Here is a bit of a rundown of all the events of our glorious trip.

Yesterday when we landed, we rented a car. We were expecting some sort of a POS, but we got a Lancer instead. It was actually really nice. It got great gas mileage and had some good acceleration to it as well.

We drove down through the main part of Aguadilla and down by the beach. We stopped in a little sandwich shop and had some lunch. There was a crazy man (Franky) there who tried to rent us a room for the night. We chatted with him for a bit until he left. It was enjoyable and the food was really, really good. I got a Monte Cristo and Derek got a Cubano. We're not entirely sure what is in them, but that is what we ate.

We decided to go check out the mall. Neither of us took any flip-flops, since we were just planning on buying some there. Neither of us bought any. The mall was pretty american, just low-class american. The main store was K Mart. Not even Sh0pKo. They went with K Mart. I suppose it is okay when you are planning on selling more horchata than mountain dew.

We went to the beach next. We had pretty much the entire beach to ourselves. We were gonna try to build a Bear Grylls raft, but got tired of it after we collected all of the wood. We found a bit of rope to use, but then never ended up using it. We occupied our time there trying to get coconuts out of a tree. We tried to throw some boomerang-shaped sticks at them, but they remained unaffected in the tree. We went back into the Caribbean to hang out for a while, and we saw a native headed for the same tree. He had much more success than we did. Needless to say, after he left, we took another shot at the tree. I climbed an adjacent tree and used a long bamboo chute to poke the coconuts enough to cause them to fall. We used a board with a nail in it (which was just laying on our forsaken beach) and punctured the coconuts to drink their precious juices. Having just come from the tree, it was somewhat bitter, but better than the juice that we got on the flight. We had a coconut that had already fallen to the ground, and we punctured that to drink as well. There was a capri sun that somebody had left on the beach which provided the straw for our tropical beverage. Gross, but we just kept thinking, "What would Bear do?" He'd use the straw. We cleaned it out with some ocean water first... After emptying the coconut, we broke it open and ate some of the horrible meat inside. It was a long time on the beach, and we're both sunburned, but it was awesome.

After leaving the beach, we got some street vendor food. Kabobs to be more exact. Derek got chicken, but I was more adventurous and went for pork. Right as we bought them, a torrential downpour started and we made a beeline back to the car. We were still soaked from the 100 yard journey, so we tried to dry off a bit in the car. It was mostly unsuccessful. We got sand everywhere and had to drive around looking for a gas station with a vacuum so we could clean it up a little bit.

We took an hour nap in the car and decided to drive around the island for a bit. We drove for a few hours and it was spectacular. As the windows were down, it sounded like the jungle cruise from Disneyland/world. Driving through the winding roads of Puerto Rico was pretty awesome. It was the best part of the trip. It was somewhat surreal to be in a place that was so drastically different from the mountains that we are accustomed to. We may have driven around 150 miles or more. It was great. We just kept going and going, and were never disappointed.

We eventually just parked the car in a close proximity to the airport and tried to sleep for a few hours. I couldn't. There is something about trying to sleep in a car in the middle of Puerto Rico that prohibited me from relaxing enough to sleep.

We returned the car and went to the airport. I had trouble printing my ticket for my LGB-SLC flight so I called JetBlue to resolve it. There were a bunch of dumb excuses as to why I couldn't do it, so I just took care of it when we went to JFK. We Pictochatted in the airpot and just hung out until we could get on the plane, which was spewing a strange mist in the cabin when we boarded.

The flight up to JFK wasn't bad. The layover wasn't pleasant though. Derek took a nap on the floor and I did some homework. That was pretty much it.

We got into LGB and walked about a mile to get some mexican food. Yup, it was good. We're now just here in the airport waiting for the last flight, which is where we started. So here is a picture:

From Travels

This is just a pic I snapped as we drove down the Puerto Rican cost. There were better pictures, I just didn't take them with my phone. Battery life wasn't great and Derek had 3G versus my edge. He provided maps, so I didn't have much time with a living battery.

Thank You For Using Long Beach Airport

So I'm in Long Beach, and I'm sick of homework. I'm just sitting here, enjoying the ocean and having never been more pleased in a single purchase of a plane ticket. Granted, it was a massive, all encompassing plane ticket, but still... just one... kinda.

Tomorrow Derek and I are going to Puerto Rico. We won't actually be there until Saturday morning, and we'll be leaving at the break of dawn on Sunday morning. I am way excited. I am still debating as to whether or not I am going to be taking much homework with me. I might just take my laptop and call it good. It depends on how much homework I have to get done by Monday. I may be up for a while tonight trying to get everything done that I need to.

So, I am at the airport now. They have free wifi here in Long Beach, so I'm pleased. Everything else was done by phone tethering, which has all but killed my battery. I quit the battery hogging and killed all my apps so that I could use my maps to make it back to the airport. It must have worked because I made it here.

I was going to upload an image from today, but we're in EDGE country here, so here is one from yesterday.

From Travels

It was taco Tuesday, so it was only appropriate.

I'm exhausted.

Chop Chop

As school is now upon us, I feel it obligatory to do a blog post about my classes and predict their outcomes.

Capstone: Today we submitted our bids for which projects we want to work on. Our choices were

1. US Synthetic: Create a machine that reduces die-swapping time from 30 minutes to 2 minutes.
2. Union Pacific: Design a cover for coal cars that can be used when the car is full or empty, as to reduce the amount of coal lost from the car and reduce drag
3. Panasonic: Create a device and automate a system that measures the amount of lubricant on a battery to determine if it needs additional cleansing.

We really think we are going to get our number 1, but who knows. We could get completely shafted and get none of them. Our number 3 is our "lesser of the evils" pick. If we get shafted on our 1 and 2, we want to at least choose how we're gonna get shafted for number 3. Nobody else bid on it, so it is better than getting stuck with one of the really crappy ones.

Outcome: Time consuming, but too early to tell if it is gonna suck.

System Dynamics: Nobody is really sure what this class is actually about. I think we mathematically model physical phenomena so we can work on it.

Outcome: Gonna suck

Applied Fluid Dynamics: I didn't really wanna take this class, but it fit so well in my schedule and I already had the book for it. It is all about fluid flow through turbo-machinery and over airfoils. I'm actually kinda stoked for it.

Outcome: Not gonna suck too bad.

MEMS: Little tiny robots.

Outcome: Awesome.

There you have it. I am doing my best to get ahead with homework, so back to work I go.

5.56 x 45 = .223

Today, Mark and I went up to Cabela's. As we left the store, I seemed to have discovered that there was some cheap ammunition just off to the side. As I contemplated how much I should buy, the voices whispered "If you buy a whole box, it will be easier to carry." to which I responded "You're right!" and I bought 1000 rounds of .223 Remington ammo. Oh, but I do not have a rifle that fires a .223 round. I am planning to sell them on KSL. If that turns out to be unsuccessful, then I will buy one of these. Then I will have a rifle that fires a .223 round.

As of right now, my personal armory is stocking the following:

• 1000+ rounds of 9mm ammo
• 1000 rounds of .233 ammo
• 550 rounds of .22lr ammo
• some 12 gauge shotgun shells

Nope, I don't personally own a shotgun either.

1,000 Taquitos

Minor Differences - The Oatmeal

I have decided that "The Oatmeal" is the "30 Rock" of the internet.

Hoop Jumping

I've been staring down my GRE book for the last few hours. No, I never opened it.

Here is a representation of how I feel:

Just for comparison, Billy Mays never sold anything with less than 2.2 gigamays of enthusiasm.

I take it on August 20th at 9:00.

HTC > Nokia

"Hello Blog, It has been a while."

"Oh, you know, not a whole lot. Just hanging out; living the life. Doing whatever."

"Yeah, I know I really should study more for the GRE. It is just really hard to get motivated to study something that I will never use again in my life. It is like learning to jump through one big, flaming hoop for one big show, then I will never do it again in my life."

So the last publication here was on the day that I broke my phone. It was a horrible day. I subsequently spent two weeks without a quality phone. At least T Mobile had a loaner program and I wasn't completely lost.

So here is the one reason I wish I had an ipad: I am currently about twenty feet away from my computer, yet because of the ipod touch, I can still write this on the computer. Is that worth the $600 for the ipad? Hell no. I am hoping that there is a killer android tablet that comes out before long. Rumors indicate that google is working on one with verizon, which pleases me not. Apple did it right by introducing a wifi version and a 3G version. I am afraid that you won't have a wifi version with this google/verizon pair up. Since I can use my nexus as a wifi hot spot, I have zero need for a data connection beyond wifi. Also, the nexus is basically a tablet computer itself. Maybe I should just invest in a new laptop.

It is Tuesday, which means tacos. I may or may not do an encore of my disappearing lime trick.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Today, we celebrate our independence day.

I just downloaded an app to blog directly from my phone. So far I'm not impressed. Here is a picture of a puppy in a microwave before it has a tinfoil hat.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.3.9

Never go to Micro 39. You will get killed.

I've decided that since there isn't anything to do at 9 am, I am going to write a blog post. I made the mistake of taking quite the nap yesterday after watching Red October. This poor decision caused me to wake up around 9:30 and I was up all night. I had to go meet with one of the all-knowing financial aid councilors at BYU at 8 so instead of getting an hour of sleep and trying to wake up, I just stayed up. It is kinda nice to be up before noon, but there is less to do in the morning than there is to do at night. Oh wait, Deadliest Catch is available online 24/7. I guess there is equally as much to do.

Hillier is going to buy a Glock today. It seems like the best idea we've had in a long time.

For those of you who don't know, it is Flag Day. It is easily celebrated by having your local deacons post flags on everybody's lawn. It might also be celebrated by going to Beto's and wearing shoes. According to the last person to edit the article on Wikipedia, "Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937 Pennsylvania became the first (and only) U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday." However, I believe that if it shows up on a calendar, it counts... which is why I don't celebrate Kwanzaa.

What is the first thing that just came to mind?

If you thought of the children's book "What the Hell is Kwanzaa?" before seeing the image, you win.

mobile post... from home

Alright, we're gonna try something new with this blog post. The entire post in going to be dictated to my phone through voice input. So far it seems to be doing well. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to make any corrections to it as I go. I feel like I should at least correct names so that I can keep track of what I did. So tonight I hung out with Derek at his new place, and later went down to Berlin's for no real reason. (I quit the talk to text on the last sentence. I realized I sounded like an idiot) We all went to Maceys and various folks bought various goods. From there, everybody disbanded and went their separate ways. Rocking night, I know. As I was coming home from Derek's, the motorcycle wouldn't start, so we had to jump it from Derek's car. Right now I'm watching Bond on blue ray. Also, I just ate yogurt with a fork. More in depth story when I'm not writing this on my phone.

Just Loooove Yogurt.

The frivolities of the evening needed adequate recording which didn't include keeping a piece of paper on my (actual) desktop and a text on my (virtual) desktop. Derek and I were looking for something to do this weekend. We came up with a list which included the following:

Build a bad-ass tree house like by Salem or something

Go to the Devil's Anus with a sweet-ass bomb

Weaponize bees

Trick kids...?

Rock Canyon mine

Animal traps (catch a skunk)

Make a silencer (for the skunk)

Make a boat and go down Provo River

Timp Cave

Hamster house

Make a film

Guam

Jamba Juice

Steal the Jamba Juice girl

Ikea Adventure

Pimp my Nerf Gun

Rock Climbing

"Serve" kids at the mall

Melt gold

Dip a hedgehog in blue paint

But it comes with a free frogurt! That's good! The frogurt is also cursed. That's bad! But it comes with a free choice of toppings! That's good!

Alright, these are the cool stories that have happened as of late:

I went climbing 4-ish times last week. It was pretty spectacular.nthrope last one was even a multi-pitch climb where I had to belay Jon and Dave from the top. Way different. Way fun. One of the other times held a great story which will be told in conversation form...

(Jon climbing, me belaying, Dave wandering)
"HEY GUYS! THERE'S POT OVER HERE!!" - Dave
"Really? Like, just growing?" -Jon
"No, in Dixie cups. Five of them." -Dave
"You sure? Bring one over. I want to see if it is" -Brian
*walk, walk, walk*
"Yup, that's pot." -Brian
"What should we do with it?" -Jon
Then all sorts of ideas evolved, none of which I shall post here. The final idea was great. Lets leave it at that.

We had a poker game on Friday night. Me, Derek, Jon, Mike, Maile, TJ, Kelli, and TJ's baby. Yeah, they brought the baby. Further, TJ brought World of Warcraft and "ran a bot" during the entire poker game. It wasn't that he was running the bot, but more of the fact that he was doing all Kelli's work (betting, blinds, shuffling, dealing...) since she had the baby, and that he was actually playing WoW more than letting it just run. Way frustrating. Also, the game was 8.5 hours long. We finished at 5:30 in the morning. I won, and it became worth it. Derek would have won if he had waited for Mike and I to call his "all in" bet before showing us that he had four of a kind...

Froyo (AKA Android 2.2) "came out" yesterday. This means that somebody found where Google was harboring it on their site, gave the world access to it, and now we don't have to wait for the OTA update. Now it can act as wifi hotspot, tethered modem, supports flash (except hulu [bastards...]) and all sorts of other bells and whistles. It is really sleek now. It runs faster and is just continuing its overall awesomeness. Last night I started downloading stuff over its wifi-ness and it got about 1.8 gigs in 3 hours. Not great, but gets the job done. What do you expect from a phone anyway?

My sleep schedule is broken. I was up until about 6 this morning, then got up at 9. I slept until 3 yesterday afternoon after going to sleep again at about 6 am. I got up at around 10 the day before (which was early), after going to bed at 4 the night before. To recap...

If I was going to bed at 10 every night, and waking up at 6 every morning, these are the time zones I lived in:

Thursday night: went to sleep in Vanuatu

Friday morning: woke up in Samoa

Friday night: went to sleep in Japan

Saturday morning: woke up in the Philippines

Saturday night: went to sleep in Japan (again)

Sunday morning: woke up in Hawaii

None of this accounts for daylight savings time. I just counted timezones. It seems like I've been spending a lot of time in the pacific.

Bombachus

• 
  
  
• There's an XKCD about the shifting timezones thing (which is where the idea originated) but I can't seem to find it.

Space shuttle, this is flight safety. Please keep your hand and arms inside the vehicle and remain seated while in motion. You are clear for launch.

Disney World (like Mars) is amazing. The time that we were there was more than adequate, but it ensured that we got everything done that we wanted to. I'm going to go ahead and break it down park by park. As I type this, I am uploading some images from the Cylon which I may or may not post here. So here it goes...

Magic Kingdom: It seemed much smaller than Disneyland, but that was fine because there were three more parks to compensate for the size. Personally, I liked the fact that Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain were right next to each other. It made fast-passing easy and gave variety without having to walk great distances between them. Splash had a slightly different layout and characters in different places. It was still Splash Mountain, but gave a different feel. Also, you sit side by side (like Space Mountain at Disneyland). Still good though. Thunder Mountain was different, yet the same. Still lots of red rock and goats and possums. If you try real hard, you can great out and hit the possum as you go under it. Space Mountain is a roller-coaster in the dark. However, there are two tracks (like the matterhorn [which smells like ice, wind, and freedom]) and you ride single file (like Splash Mountain at Disneyland). Pirates omitted some of the parts that are included in Disneyland, but the queue was a lot better.

Epcot: Mission Space generates 2 g's (not the famed 4 g's once rumored) and is pretty awesome with almost no wait every time. Test track had a great idea in putting up a single rider line. We waited about 10-15 minutes each time and it was pretty fun too. Maelstrom was the best. It was a Viking adventure. All of the countries were pretty cool too and laid out well.

Hollywood Studios: House (Tower of Terror) was cool. It was slightly different than the Disneyland version. We were tossing crap up in the air and watching it float before the free-fall stopped. The Aerosmith coaster was another coaster in the dark. Fun, but nothing special. Star Tours was fun too. It had a giant AT-AT outside. That was the biggest difference.

Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest was awesome. The animatronic yeti wasn't working, which was disappointing as hell. Other than that, it was awesome. Kali River Rapids wasn't working when we had the chance to ride it, and at other times there was a 100 minute wait. Kilimanjaro Safari was pretty cool. A glorified zoo, but pretty cool nonetheless. Overall, the park was pretty cool. I thought it was the best put-together of all the parks. Everything just flowed really well and transitioned from attraction to attraction.

The worst part was that I got sick on the about the third day. Burning the candle at both ends didn't help either. Getting up early and staying up late aggravated the condition. Now I'm doing all I can to recover. I'm feeling much better now, but it was hell the last two days.

Now, Iron Man 2 was good, but it left me unfulfilled. I can't really describe what was missing, but there was something that was just lacking. It also suffers from Pirates of the Caribbean syndrom. Allow me to elaborate...

In Pirates 1, there is one "fantastic" element: the curse. Everything else is plausible. Pirates 2 introduces more fantasy (All of the Davy Jones stuff), and the third is out of control.

Iron Man 1 had the palladium, the metal that fictionally served as a fuel for the chest piece. Everything else (even the suit) is plausible (albeit expensive). Iron Man 2 introduces more fantasy. At risk of spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it, I will refrain from delving into any details.

So, yup.

The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Done with finals. Yesterday night actually, but then I went and helped Derek write a paper about college health issues. It wasn't that bad. Now he owes me one. When I need a favor, I'll buy the tacos and slurpees.

I graduate in a year. I'm pretty excited for that. Don't know where I'll be when I do graduate, but at this point, I don't care.

I've already lined up what classes I'm going to take this fall, so here are some plans of what I might try to get done in the next year.

• Take the GRE. I need a rockin' score on this to get into a good grad school. Speaking of which...
• Get into grad school. The more I think about it, the more I think I am going to just transition into grad school when I'm done with my undergrad. Although I don't know what my focus will be...
• Figure out what I'm going to study in grad school. Right now, I think I am headed down the MEMS path. I haven't actually taken the MEMS class, but from what I've read, it sounds way awesome.
• Find a position as a research assistant. I don't actually have to be doing any research. I just want the position in use for a padded resume... when I'm trying to get into grad school.

I think I might go biking. The trails are likely going to be craptacular, but I really want to go anyway.

Show Me Your Moves!

I have come to the realization that blog posts are replacing facebook updates as I catalogue my life. Here is how it goes up to now:

Took two finals today. Thermo and Aircraft. I did well with one, I got routed by the other. Although thermo wasn't exactly my intended course of study, I have come to realize that I am naturally pretty good with it. I got an A- in my first thermo class (last spring) and I will likely get an A- in this one too. Aircraft... I will likely get a B- or so, which isn't bad considering that the teacher was a fool who never taught us anything useful in the class. Everything I learned, I gleaned from arduous hours of homework as I battled to comprehend what the hell was going on.

I finish the semester's battle on Tuesday.

Right now, I am waiting for David to finish his business so that we can go to Walmart. He has to buy some shirts for Disney World and doesn't want to spend a load on DC/name-brand crap. My favorite shirts are the few that I have with no logos/icons/anything on them. I'm no slave to society. Speaking of which...

Oh, the cylon is great. I'm pretty sure that Zeus descended from Mount Olympus, created LeBron James, programmed and compiled Pandora, and promptly went back. I stream Pandora roughly 6 hours a day, which over a month comes to 180 or so hours. Recently, more attention has been paid to rating (thumbs up or thumbs down) the music that it selects for me. Like SkyNet, it is slowly learning who I am and what I approve of. Every time I add a new artist to my current "Radio Station," I have to make sure that it doesn't pollute my ears with garbage, but it has been doing really well lately. There is usually only one or so "Who do you think you are?" moments per hour.

Alright, so we went to Walmart and then to Hillier's. We had another "Finals Olympics" event. Hillier and I purchased some herring filets and sardines. The event was simply to eat them. Everybody who did won a gold medal. I won; Hillier won; Dave gets an honorable mention.

Current medal count

1. Brian: 3 Golds
2. Hillier: 2 Golds, 1 Bronze
3. Isaac: 1 Silver
4. Forbes: 1 Plastic Case with Poo inside

Bombachus

• 

In Soviet Russia, block knocks you.

It has become somewhat of a ritual to do a blog post when I'm pulling all-nighters. Pofta buna.

Here are the benefits of all-nighters:

• More time than chumps who sleep
• Texting people in the middle of the night
• Lucidity

"Brian, what do you mean by that last one?"

Well, let me explain. Most 'normal' brains apparently start to shut down on a lack of sleep. People begin to lose a comprehension of reality and can't think straight. My (and I believe Dave's) brain works exactly opposite. As time goes on without sleep, it starts tapping the 92% that isn't normally used and things become a lot easier to understand. I can spend a week on a topic and not really understand it *cough* shear flow *cough* but as soon as I'm working on it around 3:00am, it all becomes super easy. For example:

"But Brian, that's wrong..."

Yeah, but but now I know exactly WHERE it went wrong.

Anyway, I've got my two hardest finals on Friday (4-16-10), but I think that if I completely disregard my others until Saturday, I'll be fine.

According to Pandora, today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to me.

Bombachus

• Structurally unsound


• Harward and I once came up with The George Lucas Microsoft Paperclip. He would pop up during the Star Wars movies and explain why he ruined all the things he did. E.g. Greedo shooting first. This reminded me of it.

Cobras in My Veins...

Derek has gone the entire month of March without updating his blog. I'm going to post for him...

Hi, my name is Derek. I'm a wiener because I don't update my blog.

Last month, I just worked a bunch and was sick. There wasn't anything too awesome to report. I went to a few concerts, but didn't think that it was worth talking about. There was this one time I went to see Ace and then called Brian to tell him about it. Brian was getting a Cherry Coke at the time. I explained that I didn't stay for the whole thing. I just went to see Ace and then left.

Last month, I played a lot of Altered Beast. Andrew and I beat it. The bear ability is arguably the worst upgrade in the entire game. The dragon is the best. Also, the unicorns just look gay.

Also, without fail, the first thing I will say to you when you call me is "Just a sec." Without fail, this is what I will always say. If I call you, it will be different, but if you call me, that is what I will say.

I wish I was as cool as Brian. Maybe one day...

Fine Leather Jackets:

• Mars Spirit decides not to phone home... just like ET!!! Get it?
• This seems very characteristic of something I would post on my blog


• 

Not Angstd

Traducere

Azi, o sa scriu pe romaneste. Fac asta numai sa vad cate greseli face google in traducerea lui. Da, google este un baiat. Banuiesc ca sunt multi care nu vor intelege de ce tocmai am declarate google sa fie un baiat. Sa zicem ca este "pierdut in traducere."

Stau la scoala, ca deobice la ora asta. Ar trebui sa fac tema, dar nu mai vreau. Dupa programa termodinamicii, trebuie sa fac un journal ce comprinde citituirle mele zilnice, care are valoarea de 2/11 de nota mea finala. Nu l-am prea facut semestrul acesta... pana acum. Trebuie sa fac cam zece din acestea ca sa primesc o nota aceptabila. Mai am timp sa le creez, dar nu vrea sa ma aflu intr-o situatie groaznic la ultimele saptamani ai semestrului cu un journal necompleta.

Okay, asta e tare distractiva (sarcasmul ne exista in romania), dar trebuie sa ma intorc la tema, ca s-o termin.

Ciao.

Today, I write on Romanian. They do this just to see how many mistakes made in the google translation. Yes, Google is a boy. I guess there are many who will not understand why I declared Google to be a boy. Say it is "lost in translation."

Stay in school as usual at this hour. Should do the theme, but no longer want. After-thermodynamics, one has to do what comprinde reading my daily journal, which has a value of 2 / 11 of my final grade. I did not do half of it too ... until now. I have to do about ten of them to receive a note accept the. I have time to create them, but does not want to I'm in a terrible situation in the last weeks of the semester with a blank journal.

Okay, this is very funny (sarcasm does not exist in Romania), but must get back to the topic, as it done.

Ciao.

Wow, way to drop the ball there Google.

Nexus Post

Right now I'm laying on my floor waiting for it to become 2:30 so that dwill and I can go get fish tacos from Rubio's for half price. Also, I've come to realize that I can't "compose" posts from my phone. I have to HTML edit them in. Dumb. I wonder if I can upload pictures...
Okay, I cant embed from my phone, but here...


If it worked, its Mark tickling a bear up by the jazz game.

Hash

I'm currently studying for a thermo test, but I need a mental break. I've decided to relate the best story I heard last week.

My mom went to pick up Olivia (who just turned 2 in January) early one day last week. As she was bringing her back to Orem, my mom asked her if she was hungry and what Liv wanted. She replied "french fries," to which my mom said "They don't make french fries this early, but we can get you something just like french fries." The plan was to get hashbrowns, and Dave even decided to sell the fact that they're round french fries. So they get them, and Dave says, "Look, they're round french fries," and Olivia replies, "No, these hashbrowns."

Clever girl.

Coryphaena hippurus

So this morning as I was walking to class, I was listening to Pandora with Anberlin Radio running. This has been the favorite station since I got the cylon. Anyway, Beck came on. It was the first time I've listened to Beck since he went on tour with Bender.

Once upon a time, I was ambitious. I used to come to school at 7:30 so that I could work on homework and get reading done for my classes. this was short lived this semester. It started up last semester when I had a 5 hour block of classes every day, and had no time during the day to work on homework. I used 3 hours in the morning to do what I needed. Now I have a 3 hour break between classes Aircraft and Thermo which I use for that homework. So I've been sleeping for an extra hour. (Cool story Hansel.) Anyway, so now when I come at 8:20, I have to park in Azerbaijan, which is located by the Bean Museum. I went in the Bean Museum a few days ago, and there was a fish on the wall which was labled Dolphin (Mahi Mahi). Since then, four people have brought up the topic of Mahi Mahi. In each conversation, I said something to the effect of "You know that Mahi Mahi is a dolphin, right?" and everytime, they tried to call BS. Well, thanks to Wikipedia, I proved them wrong. I never said that Mahi Mahi is the dolphin you think it is, just that it is a dolphin. There you go.

Speaking of which, there are free fish tacos today at Rubio's for BYU students. That's right UV(SC)U students. How's your basketball team faring in the NCAA tournament? Oh, that's right... no tacos for you.

I had a stupid meeting for capstone yesterday. Capstone is a class where some company hires BYU to make some B-project for them. It was useless... except for the pizza at the end. See, I've been worried about capstone since I first heard about it. I've asked pretty much everybody I've run into about it, so I already knew pretty much everything about it. We did get pizza. It made the trip to BYU on a Thursday worth the effort. Then I did homework for the rest of the day, and made something awesome for my car. Chinese parts are crap, until you de-crap them.

Here is how Fall 2010 is looking for school:

• Capstone 1: Start up your project and realize you're not much of an actual engineer.
• Heat Transfer: Self-explanitory. I've been told this is the worst class in the BYU undergrad experience. Stoked...
• 335: I've never been too sure what the actual name of this class is. All I know is that it isn't fun, it adds onto 301 and 363, and that I didn't want to take it from The Blotter this semester, so I put it off until then.
• MEMS. Little tiny machines. If you're interested, here is a link. If you want to know what a meme is, here is a different link.

Here is how Winter 2011 looks:

• Capstone 2: Finish your project and hopefully be an actual engineer.
• Another class, which I have to take to qualify for a grant by credit hours.

There is a Switchfoot song called Meant to Live which says,

"we were meant to live for so much more, we lost ourselves, somewhere in Versailles..."

I'm not sure what it actually says, but this is what I want to believe.

Our teacher let us out of Aircraft early today. I think he wanted us to think he was being nice, but I think he had somewhere to be. He also canceled homework over the weekend. I think he was actually being nice there. Apropo de aircraft homework, I spent 30 minutes or so calculating the area of some "weird-ass crap" (<- technical term). Later, I found out he posted the area to said "weird-ass crap" on blackboard. Meh... Time for famed segment of:

What's on Brian's Clipboard?

1. Work problem 10.1 in your text. Treat the handle as a cylinder of length 10 in and diameter
1.25 in (don’t treat it as a truncated cone). This will mean that you won’t get the same answer
as the back of the book, but it will make the problem a lot easier.
2. Using the method of virtual work, add the capability to calculate input torque to your four-bar
program. Plot the input torque required to drive the four-link mechanism from problem 1 in
homework 8 for the first ten seconds of mechanism motion. This mechanism has dimensions
r1 = 15 cm, r2 = 5 cm, r3 = 12 cm, and r4 = 10 cm. The mechanism starts from rest at
an input angle of q2 = 0°, and it has a constant input angular acceleration of 1 rad/s2. In
addition, a constant output force of 1 N acts in the positive y-direction at the coupler point
(with a3 = 4 cm and b3 = ��5 cm). (Note that this output force pulls up on the mechanism
at the coupler point.) Also, m2 = 0:2 kg, m3 = 1:0 kg, m4 = 0:4 kg, I2g = 4:8 10��5 kg m2,
I3g = 1:5 10��3 kg m2, I4g = 3:5 10��4 kg m2, rg2 = 2:5 cm, rg3 = 7 cm, rg4 = 5 cm,
d2 = 0°, d3 = ��30°, and d4 = 0°. Note that I have posted a program performing acceleration
analysis of a four-bar if you would like to use it as a starting point.

Okay, so I copy homework posted on blackboard into a Google doc so that I don't have to access blackboard all the time to see what it was. This is Kinematics for next week. We were promised it would take a long time. Looks like it.

Okay, I've wasted adequate time today. Time to get to work.

Spring-Broken

It has been a long semester. I went ahead and counted up the amount of classes that I have left. I've got 15 hours of each class left (after today) until the end of the semester. It seems like it isn't that much, but it is. That is still 5 weeks. Then finals. Let's not forget those now. I don't have any tests this week, so I've just be chugging out homework. I decided that the best way to see how much I like a class is by how far ahead I can get in the homework on a week that I don't have a test. For example:

• Fluids: 1 assignment due per week (next Tuesday) > Haven't touched it
• Aircraft: assignments due every MWF > Haven't even started Friday's
• Thermo: assignments due every MWF > Done Friday's, next Monday's and next Wednesday's
• Kinematics: 1 assignment per week (this Friday) > Did it yesterday.

So, take a guess which one I enjoy the most. Yup, Thermo.

There have been other events that occurred this week. This really isn't the appropriate setting to address it, so I'll leave it be for now.

I was going to go to Vegas this weekend, but I'm not anymore. I was excited to go and call it a mini-spring-break. By which I mean a weekend in Vegas. A spring-break by definition must include a day where a person would normally be in school. I would love to see some reasoning why BYU doesn't get a spring-break. These are the reasons I know of:

1. BYU gets out a week earlier than others (I would rather have a week off during the semester and get out a week later)
   
2. BYU doesn't want its students going to Cancun to have rampant beach-sex
3. BYU believes itself to be of a higher standard than other institutions, with quality students who don't need a spring-break.
4. BYU believes that some sort of break doesn't rejuvenate students during the depressing winter months, but instead causes you to fall out of rhythm, inflicting a downward spiral that will inevitably cause lower scores on tests and finals.

Good news everyone! I've developed a program that will force you to hear my voice as you read this in your head!

Here is a current list that I've been working on in Google Docs while I've been in the computer lab:

Obnoxious Things About the CADEM Lab

• When people forget that they're LITERALLY surrounded by engineers, and try to sound smarter than they are.
• Crappy 3G coverage.
• Sometimes people you know trying to come up and carry on a conversation with you while you're obviously trying to work.
• Anytime you have any sort of a problem with your account (printing, connecting, etc.), the CADEM administrators reply with "huh... that's weird..." and can't fix it.
• People who think it is okay to bring little kids in who are loud and run around.
• The "One Man Army"s walking down the narrow aisles, hitting everybody with their backpacks.
• When some guy comes and decides to sit right next to you when there are dozens of open seats that have nobody immediately next to them.

I've got class in about 30 minutes, so I've got that long to fill. I refuse to do more homework, because I know that I won't be able to finish a single problem before Thermo. I won't start something that I can't finish. I mean, I will start an assignment that I can't immediately finish, but I won't start a problem if I can't finish it. I have tried this in the past, and I just get confused as to what I was doing, and I have to start over anyway.

Fact: Man can live by starbursts alone.

I want to go here...
...again. Really bad.

I've recently joined the ranks of the many who have seen Avatar. I also joined the ranks of the few who thought it wasn't that great. Up next: Hurt Locker. Let's see if it deserved to beat out the Bear Jew.

I've polished off two episodes of BSG while sitting here today at school. I didn't intently watch them; just listened to them and glanced over when something interesting was happening. Good times.

And finally, a segment not yet forgotten...

What's on Brian's Clipboard?!?!

4
r2 2×cos( 3 - 2) 2
2
+ ×sin( 3 - 2)


× r3 4
2
+ × ×sin( 4 - 3) - 2×Vs× 3
r3 + r4×cos( 3 - 4)

Take it for what it's worth. I need to go to class.

Thanks Olaf

As I was talking to Derek, we discussed my new favorite weaponry.
is equipped with a fore grip and a red dot sight. Also
Ranger (Images wouldn't load.... maybe BYU blocks Akimbo Douches), which is Akimbo-ed and FMJ's. I had a ~3-1 K/D ratio last night with it (25 K). I'm sick of the P90, so I'm changing.

Say No to Gradians

I thought of something really funny, but then forgot what it was by the time I got here.

I'm supposed to be working on my aircraft homework, but frankly, I hate it. The teacher is one of the worst that I have ever had. He doesn't really teach us much of anything. He just talks at us and continually says "you know this from a previous class" when in reality, we don't. So when we ask him to go over things, he just glazes them.

I'm going to start a new segment on here, which I will likely do just once and forget about it. It is called...

What's on Brian's clipboard?!?!

It is pretty simple. Basically, I just give you a good ol' command-v and whatever the last thing I copied gets posted here! Awesome, huh? And I promise that whatever it is, I'll post it and leave it. It may be passwords or whatever (which I will promptly change), but even so, I will post it (so you'd know the old password, but not the new one... got it?). Anyway, I honestly don't know what I'm going to be posting, since I can't remember the last thing I copied. So for today, you get...

°

After I did, it, I was all, "what the poo? Nothing pasted..." But then, I realized it did. It's a degree symbol!! Isn't that awesome!! I was writing up a technical report, and I needed it to explain some things. Now, you're asking yourself "Hmmm... I wonder what temperatures he was talking about..." Come on now, you weren't thinking that at all! You know we mostly work with the Kelvin scale in temperatures, which aren't degrees at all, but just units of Kelvin. That's right 0° C = 273.3 K. Not degrees Kelvin, just Kelvin. That's your science lesson for the day. Anyway, I was working with angles. That is what the symbol was doing. At this point, you're all "Brian, don't you use radians to be more specific?" to which I would reply "You just shut the hell up. I hate radians."

Last night, Emily and I played a game called "Where in Disneyland is x, where x is equal to some small detailed picture of an object in a ride or wherever." I won. Yup. Speaking of which, here is picture of Derek and me on Splash Mou'uhn. We're right by the Raccoon and his jug of porn.

Xdest = T0Sgen = T0(se - si + qout/Tb,out...

Well, I'm sitting at school, with not much to do again. I've done all my homework that is due through Monday. I don't really know what to do with myself, so I'm sitting in the computer lab, writing a blog post.

Why is it so easy to get behind when it is so hard to get ahead?

Here is a picture of Liv when she discovered that there was no Big Mac in a box clearly labeled to contain one.

I've got a load of tests this upcoming week. I've started studying for my Aircraft one, where I'm unequivocally screwed. The beginning of the semester was all differentials and crap, and I'm "not good" at those. So, I guess I'll have to get good at them between now and next Friday. Also, a kinematics test which involves a bunch of computer programming. Not excited for either. Also, a lab next week in Fluids that won't be fun. Also, another Thermo lab and a Thermo test the following Monday. Also, school isn't as fun as I was hoping this semester.

There is a robocop sitting to my left. I took a picture and was going to upload it, but then decided that I'd best not upload a picture of a guy as he is sitting adjacent to me. I've sent it to Picasa (since I'm breaching my Flickr limit) so that I can upload it next time... if I remember. I likely won't.

In my efforts to absorb as much data as possible through the cylon, I've found a 2 hour long youtube video of Majora's Mask. Oh, I don't watch it. I just let it run all day yesterday as I had my phone plugged in. Since 2/10/10, I've used 305 MB. Not too bad. I kinda want to see the data bill for last month, but I can't find it online yet.

I'm gonna try to be productive for a few minutes. We'll see how it goes.

Nothing to do at School

So, I've run out of homework to do. I don't have enough stuff with me to get my Monday Fluids done; I don't have my Aircraft syllabus with me, so I don't even know what the assignment for Monday is. I've done my Thermo assignment for Monday, and the Kinematics assignment for next Friday hasn't been posted yet. I don't have any tests or quizzes next week that I need to really study for, so I'm at a loss. I still have two hours between me and my next class, so I've plugged in the cylon and I'm just listening to Pandora.

tan(previous paragraph):
Pandora is great. First off, it is free. You can stream loads and loads of music and not pay for it. I've got an "Anberlin Radio" that I've had running for about the last week and a half non-stop. Secondly, it lets you just suck 3g data like mad, which is beneficial if you're trying to consume as much as possible since you pay 30 bucks a month for a new data communication plan.

Since I've been coding a lot of stuff this semester, I've been wanting to make some sort of an ascii signature image that I can embed in the code of each assignment. Any suggestions, right now, the winner (in my mind) is Boba Fett. I haven't started working on it yet, and I don't think I can make it huge. I know that there are all sorts of ascii image converters on the internet, but I'm going to make it myself.

I went down to Hillier's last night to kick it with him an Isaac. I haven't seen either of them for about a week and change. We went to Walmart and I purchased some cookies and later realized I should have purchased Cheez-its. The cookies got old after about 5. Cheez-its never get old.

Every time my phone starts to run out of energy, it gives me a little status report of how the batter was used. So it turns out that more than 50% of it is getting sucked up by the screen, which makes sense. Today I was going to try to keep the screen off as long as possible to see if it lasts longer, but decided that I was just going to hook it into the USB on the computer here to feed it instead. Back up to 100% now, so I should be able to consume more data today.

Slight entertainment for the day comes via Tom. This video was taken last May when we went to Disneyland. Tom was in the bathroom and somebody got the ingenious idea to take a picture of Greg's bare ass with Tom's phone and make it his background. The deed was committed, and here is a video of the result. As with the previous post, I don't know if the embedded video will work, so here is a link.

Cylon

I was going to do the new post from the new phone, but decided that it would be too much work. Last Tuesday, I got a Nexus One, which is glorious beyond comprehension. Here is a video uploaded from it.

Gotta get back to homework... kinda...

*Edit: If you can't click on the video, try this link

Pies y Piernas...

Bienvenidos al a clase de espanol!

So my phone has been out of commission for the past 3 days. I don't know if people are talking to me!!! Here is what has been going down since I wrote last, which wasn't too long ago.

• School

And just to show Derek who is boss...

What what? That's right, came through on the promise! It might not be youtube, but who cares. Still a link to a vid.

I had a test in thermo today and got killed. It wasn't at all what I was prepared for. I learned how to do a bunch of cookie-cutter problems, and none of them were on the test. It was pretty dumb. Hoping for partial credit.

There should be a huge update tomorrow. Maybe. Maybe not. As for now, I'm going to try to get some homework done.

Sick for 2 Days Now...

Alright, again, it has been about a month since anything has been published here. And the only reason I am writing anything now is because I have a load of homework to do and frankly, I don't want to do it. So here is a rundown of life since I last posted:

Finals were actually merciful. I got two solid A's last semester and an A-. I'm pretty pleased with that. Working your ass off DOES pay off occasionally...

Christmas was spectacular. I got a PS3, which consumed my life for the following week. Dave and I played Modern Warfare until our eyeballs bled, but it was amazing.

My birthday wasn't bad either. This is the first year that I actually gave a frak that it was my birthday. Madre got me a sweet new keyboard (even if the USB ports aren't powered), Derek had the most pimp game ever. And I got myself a gun.

I'm working on getting some links up to YouTube for some movies, and they will be in the next post. I have to get to work now.