Finals start

Today is "dead day" - the day when 24 hour quiet hours are instated and enforced pretty much campus wide and most people seem to be staying in their rooms studying anyway. We get today off, then finals start tomorrow. I have a paper to turn in tomorrow, then both math and chem finals on Monday, two days of glorious nothing, then my engineering final on Thursday, then I'm coming home! I've almost made it through my first semester of college. Crazy.
Finals week here is an event - there was a "Kickoff party" yesterday with a zip line, bounce houses, food, and swag. Tonight, the cafeteria is offering a free pancake dinner at 10. Pretty much every coffee shop on campus is offering free coffee. Almost every night this week, the library will have snacks, board games, and everyone's favorite, therapy dogs. On Wednesday next week, there's even free yoga in the bookstore! I don't know if all this stuff is a good thing, because the university cares about our well being, or a bad thing, like they can't have too many people doing crazy things because they are stressed. I think it's the former, but I'm not sure.
This past week, I went to see the a capella groups' fall concert. All four groups were amazing. The best performance by far was Amplified A Capella's rendition of "Royal" by Lorde. Notoriety, the oldest and biggest group, was also pretty good and is apparently going to National competition.
I also got the chance to see the both improv groups at the U of A - the Charles Darwin Experience and Comedy Corner. They both do a lot of the same stuff and are both really good. However, although the Comedy Corner people cuss more during their show, the Darwins are undeniably dirtier. Other than that, Darwin is pretty much Comedy Corner with more marketing and funding and music.
Update on the Doctor Who Musical - I'm in! Even better, I have a named part who was actually in the TV show. I am Sarah Jane Smith, a recurring companion to  the Doctor who first appeared with the Third Doctor then appeared sporadically throughout the rest of the series. I'm really excited about this!
I also have finalized my schedule for next semester. I'm taking Intermediate Spanish Conversation, Calculus 2, Solid State Chemistry, Introductory Mechanics (Physics), Intro to CAD (computer aided design), and doing the Honors Freshman research project for a total of 18 units. I am planning on being busy. Those classes seem like they are going to be a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to them.
I am also really looking forward to seeing a lot of you when I come home for Christmas!

Winter - almost

I've reached over 1500 views!
You can tell it's winter not by the weather or the lights, but by the paper snowflakes scattered around the dorm, everyone's antsyness about finals, and the not-Starbucks coffee shop is selling hot chocolate "complete with candy cane and gender-neutral snow-being shaped marshmallows." I should be studying right now, but I need a bit of a brain break, and hey, I'm practicing my "composition" for Honors Frosh Comp!
Against my better judgement, I auditioned for "Not a Doctor Who Musical!!!" (yes, with three exclamation points). The people running the audition seemed very impressed with my over-dramatic rendition of "Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll, and somewhat pleased with my song. I think I have a good chance of landing Donna or Amy. If nothing else, I' be a pretty good Weeping Angel. I promised myself that I'd get back into musicals/acting when I got into college because I loved doing them so much in middle school, and this was the perfect chance. I'll see if anything comes out of it.
I am done with Chemistry labs... FOREVER! (I'm taking a material science course next semester instead). I think I did pretty well on my lab final, which involved analyzing samples of "blood" for their iron and copper levels. Much easier than it sounds. That was a huge relief.
I only really have finals in three classes, which is nice, although I have a presentation tomorrow in English on my research project from earlier in the year, which shouldn't be too difficult. I'm most worried about my engineering final, though, because unlike most classes, that class seems to be made up of a bunch of unrelated topics that were kind of just thrown at us. I'm not too worried about math or the chem lecture finals.
Apparently Kim Kardashian was on campus this week. Apparently, she went here. Apparently, there was a "crowd" following her, but it was "not as big as was expected." Apparently, not enough people care. I don't.
Mark Zuckerberg visited Stanford this week. Social media exploded. He should have come here. I'm not jealous at all. No, really, I'm not.
I can't wait for winter break when I get to see my family and not worry about schools so much. Still working on getting a ride, but I'll make it out to SoCal somehow. It will be a ton of fun to see all my old friends again and chill.
Happy birthday to my dad! Hope it was a good one.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Before anyone asks, no, I was not at the Oregon game.

It rained almost this whole weekend, stopping, coincidentally, right before the game started. Before that, it was pouring buckets, there were rivers in the streets, and it was cold and beautiful. 

Friday started out the kind of day that was just a little cloudy, almost drizzly. By the time I was done with my first class, the sky was falling. And there I was, chillin' in my shorts and light jacket. That walk across campus was... um... invigorating. 

I helped run design challenges that day for a high school field trip with SWE (yes, there comes a time in every STEM excursion where someone breaks out the marshmallows/gumdrops and spaghetti) , and most of them looked at me like I was insane. Granted, my hair was wet, my skin was red, and my jacket was soaked, but I wasn't the worst off. It was fun.

On Saturday, I went to all the various tailgates and held out in the cold and the rain. I decided I had has enough, and since it was cold and wet and going to be a blowout (Eugene-ish weather, after all) and I hadn't gone to a build day in a week, I would go build with the Rube club during the game. 

I guess it turned out to be a great game and we won and the rain stopped just in time and Ka'deem Carey broke the U of A rushing record. I guess I should stop going to games. 

On the other hand, we rigged a two-switch system that turned itself on and off, which is pretty cool, and made a new sea monster.

Today, Sunday, the Gila soccer team had its first (and unfortunately, last) playoff game. We fought valiantly despite only having 7 players instead of the usual 9 and playing on a field still gushy from the rain and it being really cold. The final score was 7-3, and we held off the other team until they earned a free kick right outside the penalty box about halfway through the first half. So, for being two men down, we did pretty well. 

It looks like it might rain again tomorrow. It's a nice change from the 90 degree+ weather we've been having.

You know how you tell the out-of-staters from the in-staters? When it's raining, the out-of-staters are not in long pants and are smiling. When it's burning hot, the in-staters are wearing jeans and hoodies and complaining.

   

Some Time to Breathe

The semester's gone by so fast. In a few weeks, I'll be taking finals and finish off my first semester of college. It doesn't seem like it's been that long since I got here. I've kept busy, though, and time flies when you're having fun, right?
I had some time this week, so I decided to go explore a little by the fine arts buildings. There's tons of beautiful art and random statues all over. Even the chairs and benches look like more than chairs and benches. As I was walking along, I heard some clanging noises, Apparently, I had walked into a theatrical swordplay class. I stayed and watched for a few minutes, and the people in the class were doing some pretty amazing things.
It's finally starting to get cold enough where jeans and a t-shirt or shorts and hoodies are acceptable and needed. The weather is causing some beautiful sunsets. It's actually supposed to rain a little tomorrow, which I'm really excited about.
This past week, I aced a math test and did okay on my chemistry exam.
The Rube camping trip this past weekend was a ton of fun. We roasted scores of marshmallows, brats, hot dogs, and pine needles (very smoky), played mountaintop charades, and basically hung out and had fun.
I have proof that I can make deliciousness without destroying kitchens or even making too much of a mess. This weekend, the Gila Hall Council hosted a pie making contest, with a few of the Resident Assistants and the Community Director as judges. I made a pretty dang good peanut butter chocolate pie, which had a severe disadvantage because, unbeknownst to me, the CD hates peanut butter. I won for presentation, and all the pies were delicious, so...

The soccer team is going to playoffs, starting this Sunday. That's going to be a ton of fun. I'll post results when we win.
It's almost Thanksgiving, and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. I probably won't post next week because of that. Maybe I'll post something bonus in between.
That's all for now, folks!

Stories Unfolding

I'm actually posting on time this week - woohoo!
For thoughts/notes/rants about my first college homecoming weekend, see previous post.
I am looking for a story to tell - one that's my own, but not about me. I have to write an original fiction piece for English, and that finally gives me the excuse to finish a story. I really like where the one I'm writing is going. It's somewhat scifi, and I'll post it once it's done. I think it will turn out really well. The only problems are that, although I have great setting and decent characters, they have no problems so far. I'll have to be meaner to them.
I'm going camping this weekend with the Rube Goldberg club up by Mt. Lemmon. It's supposed to be cold, but I think it will be a ton of fun. Before that, though I have a chem test that I think I am ready for. I'm tired of staring at Lewis structures, but I can do them quickly and accurately. The camping trip will be a nice brain break.
I'm also hosting another high schooler this Sunday night. The College of Engineering really likes to show off the "E-zone" where I live, and most of the time, I'm happy to oblige. It's usually fun. Also this Sunday, the Hall Council is hosting a pie baking contest. I am participating, making a chocolate peanut butter pie that looks pretty easy (although it doesn't involve any actual baking).
This week has otherwise been pretty quiet - lots of homework, so not much else got done.
By the way, here's a slightly better picture of the Gila soccer team (we beat Theta Tau this Monday - we were so intimidating that they didn't even show up - we're 2-1). I'm #4 in the bottom row:

I am looking forward to being done with all these tests and papers after this week. I'm working on fixing the rest of the pictures. Have a good week, and thanks to all the people who read! Apparently, I have a much wider audience than I thought.

P.S. Solar oven pictures from a few posts down should be fixed and working. Apparently using pictures from URLs don't work from password protected university websites makes it so nobody can see them. Sorry about that.

Thoughts on Homecoming and More

Soooo...
Homecoming was this weekend at my school. It is a huge deal, and is one of the few times the campus would have an average age over 25. Tons of stuff going on, lots of people, a good amount of food (free or otherwise). The best part about the weekend was seeing my parents for the first time in a few months. That was absolutely fantastic and a good cure to any lingering homesickness (which I've pretty much gotten over by this point). Huge thanks to them for coming out.
The week before homecoming, the Mall got taken over by hoards of space-ravenous white tents and tables, as well as their handlers and transportation. Some of the quickest routes to classes were cut off by fences and caution tape.
The Club Olympics also went on the week before - I would walk past the stage in the middle of the mall and see people stuffing their faces with pie or trying to burp the loudest or pulling a tug-of-war rope in an improvised mud patch (it's been too hot to have much real mud). It was interesting seeing one of my friends, who's on Freshman Class Council, spinning around on a bat then trying to go through an obstacle course.
The Friday before the game, the men's basketball team played their opening game against Cal Poly SLO. We won handily, but they had one guy who could land threes like nobody's business, making it a much better game than most people thought it would be. I learned a lot of the cheers and "traditions" (boink boink boink PASS!) and realized the crowd is just as much a part of the game as anyone on the court.
So now we come to Homecoming Day. I was up earlier than I have ever been on a weekend so that I could help finish up the mini-Rube machine the Rube Goldberg Club planned to exhibition later on in the day. (Apparently, I drew a really good Heisenberg [from "Breaking Bad"{no, I have not seen it}] "Wanted" poster). My parents saw the big machine, and seemed pretty impressed. Went shopping, came back, and explored what was being put inside the white tents scattered across the Mall.
A lot of Greek orgs, the alumni association, some clubs and other campus related organizations had tents. I hung out mostly at the College of Engineering tent, where there was tons of free food (and the mini-Rube machine was being shown), though I probably walked the whole mall at least five times (mostly for the free eegees from the Campus Health tent).
Saw the parade - you could tell who actually planned out floats more than a week in advance and who just thought "oh great, Homecoming parade is this week - lets throw some paper mache together and call it a float!" The best float was definitely the Outdoor Adventures club (or something like that) who had a full on Jurassic Park scene with moving parts - very impressive.
The actual football game was pretty exciting. I sat with people from church. The energy in the student section is intense. We lost, but it was a good game.
Overall, Homecoming seems to be more about the alums than the actual students, but I guess that's how it should be. It's about the people who actually go here most of the time, anyway. I wasn't super impressed with the Homecoming activities, but it's got to be a lot more exciting and emotional from the other side. It was a good experience, and I have come away from it very full-filled.

Official Solar Oven Throw Down Photos

Every year, all the engineering freshmen at the University of Arizona participate in the Solar Oven Throw down and compete to see who can build the most efficient, most precise, and cheapest oven out of household materials. This oven is made of cardboard, duct tape, Mylar, black paper, painters tape, and aluminum foil. We won second in our class as well as an award for teamwork.
Here's Carry On My Wayward Sun, with the prototype oven Kansas (Temp 208.7 degrees C):

Here's just the oven:

Here's us at the official Solar Oven Throw Down with the completely remade Kansas 2.0 (Temp 201.7 degrees C):

(Yes, there are only three of us. The other guy dropped.)
And here's just the oven, as decorated by Savanna:

There's also a decent picture of me, and official results here.

Almost Crazy

Wow, over 1000 views! Thanks to everyone who's following me (even you, Riley). I honestly really appreciate all the support and everything you people who actually know me who are reading this have given me. And even if you don't, thanks for giving me a numbers boost.

Yesterday was almost pretty crazy. It was Halloween, and I put together a pretty good looking Hermione (from Harry Potter) costume with some help from my friends. After class, I went to Rube officer hours and  helped design a transition step from Stonehenge to Small Bunyan that almost worked. After that, I put on my costume and I let my friend Jacey do my makeup. We almost made the tail end of the Honors College Halloween "party." As college kids do not seem to trick or treat and Jacey, who doesn't usually do the party thing, had been bet that she couldn't get into a frat party, we started looking for one. There were two mistakes made - one, it was only nine o'clock and apparently parties don't start until 11, and two, we brought along Jacey's friend Joe, who is, obviously, a guy. We retreated to the dorm, and I decided I didn't want to go through with going to a party. I almost made it. Another group of my friends had decided to go to another party, though, and their "ratio was off" (put another way, too many guys for not enough girls), so I got dragged along on a trek across campus to a party that wouldn't let the guys in. So, in short, after all that, it was late, I went back to my room, took off everything, ate some candy, and went to bed. No parties, no bars, no mysterious men in pig masks. It was still fun, though.

Earlier in the week, I went to a "networking event" for women in technology related fields. (I didn't stay past the panel presentation because I had class). I met some interesting people from the Math department, Pima IT department, and NetApp. All the panelists (who were from companies like Adobe, Cisco, and CDW) highly recommended a book called "Lean In" (I didn't catch the author). They talked a lot about finding your power, having confidence in yourself, and not obsessing over fitting every bullet on the job description. It was interesting, and the food was good. I'm going to have to find that book now.

The solar oven team also was second highest in my section. That was pretty awesome. Now we just have to write the report. That will be fun.

I'm not sure if you can see this, but this is the Rube Goldberg machine so far. You can totally tell it's a camping scene. https://www.facebook.com/groups/565822086773247/permalink/660217680667020/

Sorry for posting late again. I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween!

Various Results and Some Pictures

Solar Oven Throwdown results are in - we did not win the throwdown on Performance Index or heat, but my group (Carry On My Wayward Sun, with an oven named Kansas) did win the Gore "All-In-The-Same-Boat" award for teamwork and got $50 to spend at No Anchovies, the pizza place on University. We did pretty well, but one group predicted their temperature exactly and won that way. This is our oven pre-throwdown. The people in charge keep saying they'll give us the photos they took at the competition, but haven't said where. Pretty proud of it.

Historic District Haunted Dungeon raised over $300 and more than 300 cans for the community food bank and UA Campus Pantry, with a total of more than 1100 people coming through over three nights. I survived almost getting run over by golf carts, increasingly obscene radio signals (come on, we're college kids), and having almost no voice while being a zombie for all three nights. (Surprisingly, the only radio signals that stayed the same were "rotten guts" - the code for drunk people, and "child's play," which meant a kid was coming through so tone it down. The first got called about twice a night; the latter only once the whole time). Here I am after the second night:

And during break time on the third night with some other people who were working in Yuma (yes, that prop is supposed to be a chainsaw):

I finally have a picture of my intramural volleyball team the Gila Monsters. We had a perfect 0-4 season, but we had a lot of fun. Most of the guys are missing from this picture - we actually had 8 people on the team:

And finally, my intramural soccer team, called Gila, the Gila Ballers, the Gila Monsters, or Red, depending on who you ask, played its first game of the season. Yes, some of the Brazilians from the second floor played, and yes, they are pretty amazing. We beat the ThunderGatos from Arbol dorm 5-4 in overtime. This is most of the team; we had the lights turned out on us, so the quality's not great. We're planning on a better one next week:

More on Thursday.

Halloween Time

         Sorry this is late. I was planning on waiting until after class to give the results of the Solar Oven Throw down, but I won't hear them until Tuesday. Then I planned to sit down and write after the Rube meeting, but then something freaky happened.
         Every year, the Yuma dorm puts on a haunted dungeon in its basement benefiting a local food bank. Since this was the 20th year that this has happened, this year the dungeon spans three dorms, starting in Gila, crossing the back of Maricopa, and ending up back in the basement of Yuma. I was walking back home to Gila from my club meeting, when my friend Ricky came up to me and said, "Hey, I'm going to help out with the Haunted Dungeon. You want to come?"
        I decided I would, thinking we would help with the outside setup or the food or something. By the time we got outside to help, everything was pretty much all set up. One of the people in charge sent us to the back of Yuma for makeup, because apparently, they needed more zombies, so I became a "Back Alley Basic Zombie". We spent the rest of the night chasing the golf carts between Gila and Yuma, shuffling, groaning, eating the golf cart drivers, the works. I looked pretty scary. It was so much fun. Apparently, the dungeon scared the director of Residence Life so bad that she spent a good while with her hands over her face saying, "Oh my God." I personally didn't see that, but I know we did scare one guy enough to make him skip the whole second part of the dungeon, and some people cried, and almost everyone screamed.
        So that was how I spent my Thursday night, and I'll probably do it again tonight.  And that's why I didn't get to a computer last night to write.

In other news...
Our solar oven did very well, getting up to 201.7 degrees Celsius. It was later in the day, and cooler, and our oven was slightly smaller, which led to our prototype actually being hotter than our actual oven. We did pretty well, again being the oven with the highest temperature in our class. Our performance index, which measures how well we predicted our temperature, was about twenty. The performance index is used to judge the contest. My team also applied for the All-in-the-Same-Boat award for teamwork, and we had two pretty good interviews with the Gore representatives who were sponsoring the event. I'm pretty hopeful we'll get some kind of award.
I am co-captaining an intramural soccer team for my dorm. That should be a lot of fun.
Midterms are over!!! Overall, I'm pleased about how I did, although I could have done better in Chemistry. Although I beat the class average by a lot, the teacher doesn't curve, so I'm stuck.
I've figured out that age/grade in school and desk size are inversely proportional and the materials needed to take a test are directly proportional to grade, which is very annoying when trying to take a test that needs pencils, erasers, a periodic table, a formula sheet, and a graphing calculator. 
I'm going to be Hermione for Halloween - one of my friends with a car offered to drive me to buy a cloak and to lend me a wand.
The roommate switch is working out so far. Although I have slightly less space, I like the room better overall.
That's all for this week - I'll try to be better about posting for next week.

I Have Moved Rooms!

This past weekend, I switched rooms with one of the girls across the hall. All parties involved were completely in agreement. There was no major problem, but it works out easier for the four of us involved this way.
SOOOOO, now instead of being in room 303, I am in room 305.
The actual moving process was pretty easy. My old roommate and the girl I switched with had their parents over for Parent's Weekend, and some of the guys from down the hall helped move the big stuff - the fridges and printers. I was moved in in about 1.5 hrs. I still get the top bunk (yay!), but I have slightly less closet space. I am now rooming with Carly from Hawaii, and it's worked out well for the first two days, and I think it will continue to be fine. I no longer have to worry about walking in on my roommate Skyping with her boyfriend at midnight, and she no longer has to deal with that either.
Barring major problems, I'll probably stay in that room for the rest of the year. We're already planning a long-term extreme battleship game and other things. It's going to work out better for all involved.

Midterm season

In other news:
It's midterm season. My last one is on Friday when I have my Chemistry midterm, but I am done with my Engineering, math, and Chem lab midterms. I also have a revised English paper due Monday. I think I have done pretty good on all of them, though I'm a little nervous to see the results.
The Engineering 102 Solar Oven Throwdown is next Tuesday. This is when all the freshman engineers compete against each other to determine who can get the highest temperature in their solar ovens at the lowest cost. My group's prototype was the hottest in our class, but we have to make a new one by Tuesday. It is supposed to be a lot of fun, and we get awesome t-shirts (which I am actually wearing right now).

I saw my first scary movie all the way through last week (Dead Silence) and ended up staying up way too late watching Doctor Who with its cheesy monsters to get the image of the lady turned into a ventriloquist dummy out of my head. Also, I never realized how big a part the music plays in movies until I watched this one. I'm not sure  I'll show up again for Scary Movie Friday (unless there's free food again)
Lat weekend I hosted two girls for Suite with SWE, which was a lot of fun. All the girls in my dorm who were hosting got together and made makeshift pizookies (cookies and ice cream) and watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was cute. I ended up taking one to my chem lecture on Monday. I felt a bit inadequate, though, because one of the girls I was hosting was already presenting university level research and the other was taking more dual enrollment classes than high school classes.
Honors freshman have a common reading book that everyone is supposed to read over the summer. This year, it was Planetwalker, by John Francis, PhD. Dr. Francis spent 22 years of his life not riding motorized vehicles and 17 years not speaking, during which he received his BS, Masters, and Doctorate degrees. The idea is really interesting, but the book was kinda monotonous (I mean, there are only so many permutations of "I walked, and I met people who were confused, and I didn't talk").  Anyways, he's coming to campus this weekend, and a bunch of people from the Honors college get to meet him. I submitted a poem about space shuttles on "What Makes a Difference," and was a category winner. So, free lunch on Friday!
I am on a soccer team for my dorm for intramural season B. I may or may not be captaining it. I'm really looking forward to that.
The Rube Goldberg machine is really coming together. It now involves a step where a UFO abducts a hamster.
I'm hoping I can get pictures at the Throwdown. Anyway, that's all for this week! Be awesome.

Recent Gastronomical Adventures

• Chicken and waffles: I had it for the first time. It's such a big thing in southern California, but I don't get the point. Yes, it's good, but not to die for like some people think.
• Spam Musubi: A sort of "sushi for the poor man"made of seaweed, rice and spam. My friend from Hawaii brought her musubi maker. I learned how to fry spam in teriyaki sauce. They were delicious.
• The Arizona Room: I found the spaghetti on campus! And some shrimp! This is an all you can eat place at the university. It's kinda expensive, but I was full for the next day and a half. When I went, they were serving southern food, so I had gumbo and jambalaya and some really good lime cheesecake stuff.
•  Apple Pie milkshakes: very good, but I still like the Oreo ones better.
• Something unexpected: It was lunch rush at Cactus grill, and somehow, I ended up in line behind one of my professors. We started talking about word puzzles, and then he paid for my meal. That was pretty awesome, and out of the blue.  

In conclusion - yes, I am eating. 

Life is Good

I promised to post any pictures I could scavenge, so - here is the blue team from last Saturday's night-time almost campus-wide capture the flag game with the Newman Center,and the subsequent celebration. Of course, we won. I'm the only one who's wearing a color you can actually see at night - bright yellow. (Sorry, I know it's not a great one).

In other news, my volleyball team made it to playoffs! The bad news is, we lost our first playoff game, and we are new out of playoffs, Yes, we kept our perfect record of 0-4. I signed up for soccer for next season; maybe we'll do better. It was a lot of fun though, totally worth it. 

Right now, I'm taking a break from writing my second major English paper. My English teacher, who I really like, based on my first paper, suggested I do my second on role playing games (i.e. Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Pathfinder, Call of  Cthulu, etc.), so I'm researching a really fascinating character named James Ebert whose suicide was attributed to D&D, which led to a lot of social and religious backlash against gaming, but also great sales. Although the end is sad, it's a great story, with lots of "pleasurable complications," as my teacher says.

In chemistry this week we did a lab on artificial coloring in foods (some Skittles candies bravely gave their lives for science). There's something strangely fulfilling about finding that I would have to consume over 35000 liters of Red #40 in order to even knock myself out. No one is getting poisoned by those dyes. 

The Rube Goldberg machine has a solid four steps on it (which involve lots of animals "eating" each other) and working, and plans are in the works for creepy eyes peering out of the darkness, Slenderman, Bigfoot, UFOs, a teenage campsite, and an ant rave. (This is all for a camping theme).

I'm hosting a high school girl over the weekend for Suite with SWE (Society of Women Engineers), which should be fun.

I've made it halfway through one semester! I've almost made it!

Explanations

I guess I should probably rephrase my previous post - it's probably easier to understand paragraphs than a badly reworded song.
I ended up going to English class yesterday with nos hoes on because my flip flop blew out and I tripped while sprint walking to class. I got there just before the bell, so I was OK. I just have this nice scrape on my left knee.
The laundry machine ate one of my socks last week. I don't know where it went.
The biggest project in my Engineering 102 class is to build a solar oven as cheaply as possible that can bake a biscuit. This Tuesday, we tested our prototypes, but with eggs instead of biscuits (cheaper and less messy). My group (proudly named Carry On My Wayward Sun, with an oven named Kansas) achieved an internal temperature of 208.7 degrees Celsius (407.66 degrees Fahrenheit) which was the best in our class. We had the only egg that was thoroughly hard boiled, maybe even overdone, other than our teacher's, who brought a commercial solar oven. The oven is a duct-taped configuration of cardboard, newspaper, and aluminum foil, and again, I'll post pictures as soon as the teacher and/or my group mates send them to me.
Calculus at the U of A works a little strangely - the first three weeks are a separate class that is an intensive review of precalculus, then a test is taken, then you move into either Calc 1 or precalculus depending on how well you did. My teacher for the first class was fine, except she had a bad tendency of saying "and-so-um" every other sentence. I am now in the calculus class, and the teacher for this class has a super thick southern accent, which is kinda distracting and sometimes hard to understand. I'm still doing fine, though. Good news is, I have a 4.0 GPA with the 1 credit from the first class.
There was a Big Bang theory watching party in the game room of my dorm, and there was food. I missed most of the first episode, but it was a lot of fun. I still would rather have more science jokes, but the show is still pretty funny.
There is one guy in my dorm who is a professional DJ. It gets really loud at about 1 o'clock Saturday nights when I'm trying to sleep, but I've learned to live with it.
On Tuesday, there was a big Jeopardy style showdown between the wings in my dorm. I was elected team captain of my wing, 3W. We were ahead until the final jeopardy, where we bet all our points. We lost them all. It was still fun, though, and the winners were 3E, the guys from the other end of our floor.
Another interesting thing - there was a sleepover last Saturday at the house of some of the girls from the Newman Center. I never knew there were so many Catholic pick-up lines (Hey, did you forget your rosary? You can use my fingers instead).
I am doing fine. Again, I'll post pictures when I can find them.

U of A-vi lle

Blew out my flip-flop,
Stepped on some hot rocks.
walked bare foot all the way down the mall.
Thought about class then,
If I could pass, then
If was I late cuz of a trip and fall.

Workin' the day away at the U of A
Searchin' for my - lost pair of socks
Some people say that it's the laundry to blame...
But I know
It's my own damn fault.

Some cardboard and duct tape
Made so no air can escape
Can hard boil an egg real well, sometimes.
The temperature I see
208 degrees C
Our solar oven worked and won, that time.

Studyin' the day away at the U of A
Searchin' for my - lost calculus smarts
Some people say that it's the teacher to blame,
And I know
Her accent makes it hard.

Nibblin' on nachos
Watchin' the new show
Big Bang Theory party in my dorm
Community's great here,
Many stay up too late here,
But I don't wanna change that stuff anymore.

Playin' away the day at the U of A
Searchin' for my - lost Jeopardy points
Some people say it was the other team to blame,
But I know
It was everyone fault.

P.S. Shout out to my mom, whose birthday is this weekend. Also, thanks to Aunt Judy who sent cookies.
PPS. I would love to post more photos, but my only working camera is an iPad, and it's tough to transfer photos. I will post any photos of me that I can mooch off Facebook or email. Have a great week!

Homesickness

I really felt kind of homesick for the first time today. Why? Cactus Grill, the upstairs cafeteria, had salmon as a special. I realized that it's been a while since I've had seafood, period, especially my dad's awesome grilled fish and stuff. I got an email from my sister. She is awesome, and is probably going to be reading this, so I won't embarrass her, but I miss her too. My English teacher suggested role playing games (e.g. Dungeons and Dragons) as a possible research topic, which reminded me of my friends in the Nerd Herd at my high school, and of my brother, who I know doesn't actually play them (or didn't) but is still part of that great geeky subset of society, which also makes him awesome. The sand courts are rough and you can feel concrete underneath, unlike that great soft beach sand around where I live. It's really hard to run anywhere barefoot and end up with your feet intact. And my mom's birthday is coming up. It has all hit me all at once. I ought to call home more often.
I've been doing pretty good,  though - It's been a month.
I'll take a line from the Beatles - I'll get by with a little help from my friends.

A day in the life

I've hit the big 500 views!
Sorry for not posting earlier, but today was a busy day. Thursdays were supposed to be my easy day, but instead, they are turning out to be one of my busier days (not that every day isn't busy). So today, I had class at 9 AM (inconvenient because my roommate doesn't have class until eleven and other wise I could have slept in until noon and it's halfway across campus), and afterwards, went to the library and read the first section of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, (for English class) which is actually really interesting. I also did some other homework while in the library. Got lunch, went to my Engineering class (we're starting the infamous solar oven project), and went back to the dorm and hung with friends. There was a Society of Women Engineers social, followed closely by a Rube Goldberg club meeting and then my volleyball team's game (we lost. Again.). After, the team celebrated by going to the Cellar, a restaurant known because it's open late and had really good milkshakes. And so, here I am, back in front of a computer, feeling the effects of a large, but delicious  infamous Cellar Shake. Definitely not an everyday thing.  
It's been a good week.
This past weekend was the Freshman Retreat, coincidentally themed AmazinGrace (pun on the hymn and the TV show). That was a ton of fun, and I got what I needed out of it. I also got about twenty new friend requests on my Facebook account by the time I got back. My small group is already planning dinner sometime in the near future.
I experienced my first major career fair this past Tuesday, not just the little one where there were just the on-campus jobs. It was big, and crowded, and loud, but Raytheon and Boeing, despite having said that freshman interns are highly unlikely, both have my resume, thin as it is. I didn't have enough time to try to get to Intel or Exxon, but I'm glad I survived. I also talked to some of the smaller companies, but they either said they weren't hiring engineers and/or that they didn't want freshman interns at all. That was definitely an experience.
In other news, I got an A on my first chemistry midterm (phew), and my English teacher said she liked my first major composition (fingers crossed!). The first step of the Rube Goldberg machine is together for real and actually works!
Next week, I'm looking forward to testing the solar oven prototypes we put together, working on the RG machine, actually starting a job, and the last volleyball game before playoffs.
Be amazing!

Fire Drills

So in total, I think I've experienced three fire "drills" while on campus.
The first was during UA Clicks, the mandatory freshman event where we learn about academic integrity and what kinds of technology and websites are used regularly at the U of A. That made a boring and mostly unnecessary event slightly more exciting but a lot longer. However, it kept me from doing my duties as a HI team member. It was a story to tell, I guess, because the fire trucks came and everything, but nothing really happened.
The second time, we were playing volleyball outside of the Arizona Sonora dorms. The AZSO fire alarms went off, and those things are really loud. It didn't seem like there was that much of a rush to get out of the building; apparently, that happens in that building all the time (I guess it's one of the "party dorms"). It was over pretty quickly.
The third time was today. My friend Carly from across the hall (who hails form Waimea on the big island of Hawaii) and I were swapping stories about stupid tourists and kind of getting our chem homework done when this earsplitting high pitched beep suddenly went off and lights started flashing. I pulled up my laptop and backpack and followed everyone else. We jumped at the chance to use the "forbidden door" in the game room, only allowed to be opened in a fire situation. About half the dorm was gathered outside on the other side of the street. Apparently this was just a drill, but I wouldn't have been surprised if any of the people in my dorm were playing with matches or soldering irons or something like that.
So that was an experience. I'm glad it didn't happen at five in the morning.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Union...

So yesterday I was walking along, minding my own business, ecstatic I had got out of math class a little early, and that I had time for lunch before my next class. As I was walking, I saw that he was carrying a sign that said, "Women belong in the Kitchen" in big block letters. He was yelling really loudly and making a general nuisance of himself. I also noticed his shirt had Bible verses on it and looked like the end-of-the-world-repent-ers I had seen at the beach sometimes. It was kind of weird, and the first time that I personally had witnessed something like that on campus. I heard a rumor that there was a psych grad student who was dong research by gauging people's reactions to protesters and was protesting something different every Wednesday, so I'm not quite sure if the guy was for real or was just trolling. (The really scary thing was, I heard some guys walking behind me agreeing with the guy with the sign).
 To counter-balance that, I walked into the bookstore later that day to get some gloves for my chem lab. While I was in there, I heard this low thrumming noise. I walked downstairs, and, lo and behold, it was some visiting Buddhist monks doing some kind of sand-mandala ritual. It was kind of out of the blue - they were doing this ancient ritual right next to the section of the bookstore where they sell computers and apple stuff. It was very beautiful, and surprising to find.
  In other news, I survived my first major test and have an A in the precalculus section of Calc 1 (whew). My sand volleyball team plays its first game tonight against our Resident Assistant's team, which should be a blast. I'm going on the Freshman retreat through the Newman Center this weekend. Also last Saturday, I went to my first build day for Rube Goldberg club. The theme of the machine is camping, and the end goal is to zip a zipper. I figured out how to put pictures into this, so, this is me helping to prototype a step with, yes, tinker toys, duct tape, and train tracks.(If you can't tell, it's supposed to be a snake going down a tree:-)) 

Quick note on sororities - probably not. It turns out that a good chunk of them are on probation, and after moving in a lot of the girls who were rushing into Coronado, a lot of them are not really the kind of people I want to spend a lot of time with. (I mean, two full boxes of costumes? and Two hours before the intro to do make-up? I don't think so). I'm sure there are some great people in them, it's just not my thing. I'm meeting plenty of fantastic people elsewhere, and I'll do my philanthropy through Society of Women Engineers or Engineers without Borders or Circle K. Maybe an honors or professional fraternity later, but probably not this year, if ever.

Have a great week! I'll post again soon. And a great quote I learned - "Be yourself, because everyone else is already taken," Oscar Wilde.

Some things I've had to get used to...

• Community bathrooms (It's actually not as bad as I thought it would be - only 7.5 girls/shower)
• Stairs - for a "flat" campus, they're everywhere
• Having homework due on the weekend
• Music playing pretty much all the time
• The occasional breakup in the hallway
• Having my space invaded at football games
• Doing my own laundry (again, not as bad as I thought it would be)
• Lots of sandwiches and pizza for dinner (it's what clubs, etc. get for food)
• Periodic free eegees (again, what clubs, etc. get [if you don't know what an eegee is, they are delicious])
• An English class where we're allowed- no, encouraged - to criticize the authors of the books we read
• Flyering people everywhere
• Saying where a class is by cross streets, building, and number
• Living with a roommate (but that's not too bad either)
• Tours going through the library when I'm trying to study
• Not having access to a car 
• PBJ for breakfast (quick, easy, filling, portable :-))(yes, I know, it's not ideal, but I haven't missed class or been late once [yet])

Getting into the Swing of Things

Time goes on. I have successfully survived my first three weeks of college!
Some new things this week -
Last Saturday all the people in the Engineering Zone dorms went over to the ROTC challenge course to do some team building activities. That was a lot of fun. One of the most memorable was an obstacle they called the "Electric Fence" - basically. a log about 5 feet off the ground with another log passing on the ground underneath. We had to get everyone over the raised log without touching the ground or the log. It's a lot harder than it sounds.
I went to my first college party Saturday night. It was one of my friend's birthday and so another friend put on a party to celebrate. What happened? We played board games, ate chicken, pizza, cake, and ice cream, talked and laughed, and played a really intense game of "Never have I ever." There was no beer, everyone was nice, and the scariest thing about it was that it was in Babcock, the dorm just off campus that used to be a motel and now looks kinda sketchy.
I am now on a coed intramural volleyball team from my dorm. We're the Gila Monsters (cuz we're from Gila dorm) and we got to the point at our first practice on Sunday where we could serve over the net at least 80% of the time. The experience level of the team members ranges from none at all to a serving specialist who played club for 5 years. He promised to teach us all how to serve overhand. Our fist game is next week.
Every Wednesday, in the Cellar restaurant in the bottom of the Student union, one of the improv comedy clubs performs. I went with some friends for the first time this week (and also tried the famous Cellar milkshakes - pretty good, but really expensive). Personally, I thought their improv was much better than their skits.
Moving on this week - I have training for my job at UA Presents this Friday, as well as my first major test (Math 122A Final). U of A football takes on UTSA in football. Look for me in the sea of red, if the game makes it to TV. (Funny thing - there's a football guy in my English class. Apparently, they travel for home games too. They stay at a really nice hotel the day before, and bus in to their own stadium. Hmmm...) Saturday will also be my first build day for the Rube Goldberg club, which should be a lot of fun.
Comments are now live, please use them. I want to hear from you, too. Thanks for all the support; it's great to know that more than German or Russian searchbots are reading my site. Have a great week.  

A Few Random Notes

On the name of the blog...
Dragon scales are considered magical items in many mythologies. They are usually given as a gift or to repay a debt that the dragon has to another creature. Scales are, depending on what you're reading, able to bestow strength and bravery to the holder, or able to let the owner see the future, or they just make a great trophy. In any case, they are generally very beautiful, very strong, and highly reflective. I hope this blog is at least the last one. (That, and any other names I could think of without misspelling anything were already taken.)
On my roommate...
Her name is Justine, and she's from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a dancer, as evidenced by the crate of various shoes under the bed, and she also sings. She's got every song from Pitch Perfect memorized. She's nice, and we get along fine. We're not actually in the room together too much except for when we're sleeping. She has a boyfriend who is still in NM. She likes purple and blue. She is going for a degree in mechanical engineering as of right now, although she says that may change. We're not best friends or anything like that, but we get along.
On my first college football game last Friday...
I've recently learned that you're doing it wrong at a college football game if you - 
-Sit down at any point other than a few minutes at halftime
-wear any color other than red
-can hear the band over the cheers
-don't heckle the other team
-don't heckle the ref
-don't heckle the rival school's team even though they aren't there
-know where the other team's band is situated.
-dress normally
-have some feeling in your hands, arms, feet, and legs afterwards
-still have a voice afterwards
And also, the correct question is not "Is anyone sitting there?" It's "Can we squeeze a few more people in to stand there?" (from facebook)
One other thing...
I've recently enabled my posts to be commented on by anyone. (I think). If it worked, please keep comments civil, clean, relevant, and PLEASE NO SPAM!
Thanks, and have a great week.

Week two

These past few weeks, I have been welcomed to exhaustion by the college president, the college of engineering, my dorm, the catholic church, the football team, the rec center, the associated student body, the residence hall association, and some random religious groups I probably will never see again unless they have free pizza outside my dorm again.
This past week was all about getting involved before school becomes overwhelming. Last Friday, I got involved with ZonaZoo, the extremely crazy, extremely tiring, but extremely fun student section at the football game. The game was a blowout, but I finally figured out why people were crossing their arms and making threes with their hands (it's an intimidating symbol thing on the other team's third downs and also makes "WC", for wildcats). I am also now a member of the Gila hall council, which should be fun. I have found my inroad to OSIRIS-REx, the NASA funded asteroid exploring mission in SEDS, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. That seems like an awesome group of people who are all very passionate about space. My name is also down for the Rube Goldberg Club, the Quidditch team, Society of Women Engineers, the Baja Club, and the Fun Club, although I have not gone to any of their meetings yet.
I also am on the dorm's intramural sand volleyball team, the Gila Monsters, because no other girls play soccer or flag football :(. (not that I could compete with the Brazilians on the second floor when it comes to soccer, anyway). It still should be fun.
Last thing to report: I successfully interviewed for a position as an usher for UAPresents, the fine arts showcase on campus. I'm pretty excited about that. It's not a huge time commitment, but it's a little bit of extra money and I might get to see Lang-Lang or Jungle Jack Hanna or the local symphony orchestra.
I'm doing okay in my classes. Most of the stuff is still pretty easy, and I blew through the Excel training in ENGR 102. I'm keeping up with my homework, but definitely staying busy, so I'm sorry if I haven't been able to answer all your phone calls.  
Have a great week. I'll keep posting when I can.
What does a dyslexic Santa say? 
Hydroxide, hydroxide, hydroxide!
(OH, OH, OH)

First Day

I've finally finished moving people in. I've met my roommate. I have explored campus and beyond. Today, though, was the real start of college. Today was the first day of class. Already, I have survived an hour apiece of English, Math, and an Honors colloquium with chemistry coming up soon.  So far, I have not yet been in a class with more than 40 people, which is nice.
Looking at schedules, it looks like I'll be busy, but I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work out. The weather continues to be hot and muggy, but everything inside is air conditioned and really nice.
I keep noticing these little lizards that dart out from under the rocks whenever someone walks by. They are kinda funny because they don't seem to know where they are going or how they are going to escape. I always see them in the mornings and in the afternoons. I guess there is some lesson to be learned here, but I'm not sure what it is.
My biggest surprise so far is how easy is is to get free food. More often than not, if I wander around a little, I'll find someone hosting an outdoor pizza party or ice cream social. There's a ton of free stuff out there, especially since it's the first week of school. The scary thing is that people are so easily drawn to any event that offers free stuff.
I'm off to class; I'll try to post a little bit more regularly in the future.   

Ten Things I have learned in the First week of College unrelated to school

1. Random art is everywhere. Statues pop out of nowhere. Mosaic cover sides of buildings. Glass bits are inlaid into some of the side walks. It's pretty amazing.
2. All dryers are not created equal. The first floor dryer insists on running for twice the time as the second floor dryer, which is pretty annoying. On the other hand, having a website that tracks whether or not your laundry is done is pretty nice.
3. Pool is not as hard as it looks. My dorm is right across from the rec room, and I spent some time out of class when I didn't have homework learning how to play.
4. People with fliers can be very persistent. Every day on the mall, new people are waiting to assault unsuspecting students with information they didn't ask for and don't need.
5. It's not hard to get involved. There was a huge club fair earlier this week. Also, the Community Director at my dorm wants everyone in on the Hall Council. The Newman Center (Catholic Church) also has a lot going on.
6. My hall is very spirited. As a welcome activity, the CDs in the Historic District put on a competition style event called the Historic Games. Gila won all but two events and had the largest and loudest showing by far.
7. The weird people are the most fun. They are the ones who put themselves out there, do fun things, and make the world a better place.
8. My wardrobe is gradually turning red. I have been getting a lot of shirts from lots of groups, from Campus Health to ZonaZoo, and the red shirts are starting to outnumber the blue ones.
9. There are still cliques in college. People, even in the Ezone, tend to congregate. I think it's like that where ever, though, and probably will be that way until the end of time.
10.  People can be nice if you let them. Most people are are good people, and will help out and do good things if asked. That's one of the best things here that I have seen.

On a side note, I've decided to post on Thursdays and on other important dates. U of A vs. NAU this FRIDAY!

First Few Days

I have recently started college. It also recently hit me that this is a major milestone in my life because apparently, this is when I figure out who I am and what the heck I want to do with my life. SO overall, I'm pretty excited.

Moving in was actually really quiet and relatively easy - the only problem was that my dorm does not have an elevator, so everything got carried up the stairs, which really wasn't that bad since there's only three stories. 

After a few days, I finally have my part of the room in some sort of order. My roommate comes on Friday.  

I moved in a few days early because I am part of HI (Hall Involvement) team, which helps other people move in and host the Residence Hall Association Block Party. It's been great - I get some free food, I know some people in my dorm, and I can find my way to most of the dorms and the student union without getting lost. 

Today was the first day people actually started moving in en mass - sorority rush started today and so does Bear Down Camp. I helped out in Coronado, one of the bigger dorms. We helped move in about 400 people, mostly sorority girls, who had tons of stuff. It was really hectic because there were only three elevators, everyone came at the same time, and it was hot. We were done by about 1PM, though, so it wasn't that bad.

Tomorrow and until everyone else starts moving in, I get to do some "leadership training." I'm looking forward to school actually starting  on August 26th! 

Let's get started!

Hello and welcome to Dragon Scales, the only active blog dedicated to recording the life and times of... ME! Since a lot of my family members have asked for it, I decided I would start before I leave from one of the most beautiful oceanfronts in the world to where there is all beach and no ocean. You're all welcome to come along on my journey of self discovery. Thanks for stopping by.