The Final Stretch

So I'm simply going to give a rundown of what happened last semester with the classes. If you need to brush up on what the predictions were, you can read about them here. <- You can click on that...

• Capstone: Sucked. My group was pretty horrible. I've learned that MET's for the most part are useless. There is nothing that they can do that a mechanical engineer can't do better, faster, and more efficiently. I thought it was going to be fun, but I was very, very wrong.
• System Dynamics: Wasn't too bad. I understood the material for the most part and did fairly well in the class overall. I didn't necessarily enjoy it, but I had a really good professor.
• Fluid Systems: Great professor, loved the material, got destroyed on the tests. I felt like a hero walking into the exams, and felt like the stupidest peasant walking out of them. I still did alright in the class.
• MEMS: Didn't enjoy the class as much as I thought I was going to. I really had a lot of fun and learned a lot in the weekly labs, but the coursework was less than pleasurable. I threw a hail-mary on the final which worked out and got me a good final grade.

Now for this semester...

• Capstone: Crappy as crap could be. I can't wait for this to be over.
• Geophysics: Supposedly the biggest fluff class you can take as a mech. I'm taking this just to be able to get an A in...
• Heat Transfer: One of the hardest required classes for a mech. I'm not actually too worried about it.
• Gas Turbine and Jet Engine Design: This class has a 99.8% chance of getting dropped. I will keep it as long as I need 12 credits. If I don't, goodbye. I would really enjoy the class and the material, but I am ready to be done and want to wash my hands of this degree.

Christmas was really fun. I got a remote helicopter which as been more fun than ever imagined. Derek and I have played a week's worth of Donkey Kong. I went out shooting with a bunch of friends on my birthday (Mark, Grant, Brent, Derek, Dave) and did basically nothing for New Year's. Oh, and I got a new calling at church. I'm an assistant ward clerk. I deal with money. Simple enough.

Also, I'm buying an annual pass to Disneyland this year.

...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.

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.

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.

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.