I know I make it sound like college is all fun and no work, but the truth is that I work hard. I study a lot. I spend way too much time on lab reports. I assume that most of you would bet bored to death of this blog if I wrote about studying and homework, and I'd rather write about the random fun and funny stuff that happens because I spend the rest of the day contemplating the grand mysteries of the universe that I'm trying to stuff into my brain. So yes, I do work. I do a lot of work. However, sometimes, the work becomes repetitive, tedious, and occasionally boring, and I don't wish to submit you, my dear readers, to the same torment I (mostly) willingly put myself through.
This semester is the one with the duller, theory-filled classes that are prerequisites to the fun classes I can start taking next semester. It's not that the classes I'm taking aren't interesting, because they are, but I'm kinda done with endless analysis of stress-strain curves and triple integrals and assorted matrices just to explain why something breaks when you pull on it. I do have a lab (albeit on Friday night) where I actually get to break stuff, which makes it all a little bit better.
Right now, midterm season has begun, which means late nights shivering by the harsh glow of an LCD screen locked away in a deep dark cave, never to be seen again by man or beast. Or maybe just never be seen by any of the people I call friends or acquaintances. On top of that, I'm getting into the whole job search thing early this year (and the huge school-wide career fair is this Tuesday) so I'm also trying to figure out what I actually want to do with my life, or at least next summer. Bechtel was a great experience, but I want to try something different before I decide to stick with construction. So there's resumes to tailor and cover letters to write too.
Unusual fun stuff that happened this week:
ESPN College Game Day came to campus. I slept in.
I finally got to Pima Air and Space Museum because I have a friend who works there. That was pretty damn cool. They have a full 787 out in the yard, and a shard of moon rock inside one of the hangars.
I played some pretty intense Foosball with my Religious Ed kids - and got handily beat.
I got a new favorite class at the rec - Body Combat. However, I made the mistake of going on a two-ish mile run before a class that was advertised as intense cardio, and wound up really dehydrated. Oops.
And that's really about it.
Check next week sometime between Thursday and Sunday (but not on Friday) for the next thrilling installment of my life and times.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Getting Shot
Yesterday, I was taking a break from studying, sitting and reading a book at my semi-secret spot near the infamous acid green turtle pond, and some guy comes up to me.
"Hey," he says, "I'm Mike. I'm teaching a journalism class, and I was wondering if you'd let me shoot you." I gave him a look. "I mean, I'm trying to teach my students about different video strategies. Do you mind if I take some video?"
I said okay, and I kept reading my book, as per instruction, while Mike monkeyed around with his video phone. I can only imagine how I looked. My short hair was sticking straight up - I had gelled it earlier, but had been playing with it, so I now looked like a poorly drawn manga character. I was wearing an ironic t-shirt and messed-up Bermuda shorts, and was slightly slouched over my latest used-bookstore pop-psych acquisition. My bare feet were crossed in front of me on the bench, scarlet nail polish chipped and sweaty band-aids falling off. My beat-up pseudo-Vans were on the bench beside me, socks haphazardly tucked inside. I can only imagine I looked like the most awful wanna-be hipster in existence.
Mike started taking video, moving from right in front of me, to behind me, to practically in a tree, to the side, and then took some artsy shots with my shoes in the foreground, and then some looking over my shoulder. I was trying really hard not to giggle, so my face probably looked kinda funny too. He filmed for about 10 minutes, said thank you, then walked away. I can finally say that I have been filmed by a professional, and I'll get my 15 minutes of journalistic fame.
(Side note - the book was Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. The ideas are interesting, but it's somewhat disjointed.)
Other than that exciting adventure, there's not much to report. Midterms are coming up faster than I would like. I'm learning a lot about things that I've never thought about before, like why metals break at 45-degree angles, how to solder, and why plastics in airplane structure are not the best idea. The percentage of females in my classes has dropped from around 20% to around 15%, which was to be expected since the biomedical engineers now have a separate track.
As for this year's Rube Goldberg machine, we're opening and closing an umbrella in a Blazing Saddles-esqe Old West Saloon. We have floors and a wall, and the first step is going to be putting a cowboy hat on a peg in the wall. It's all so exciting. I'm looking forward to see how the rest of it turns out.
I'm doing okay. I'm not dead yet, and the chances of survival look good. I'll keep you posted.
"Hey," he says, "I'm Mike. I'm teaching a journalism class, and I was wondering if you'd let me shoot you." I gave him a look. "I mean, I'm trying to teach my students about different video strategies. Do you mind if I take some video?"
I said okay, and I kept reading my book, as per instruction, while Mike monkeyed around with his video phone. I can only imagine how I looked. My short hair was sticking straight up - I had gelled it earlier, but had been playing with it, so I now looked like a poorly drawn manga character. I was wearing an ironic t-shirt and messed-up Bermuda shorts, and was slightly slouched over my latest used-bookstore pop-psych acquisition. My bare feet were crossed in front of me on the bench, scarlet nail polish chipped and sweaty band-aids falling off. My beat-up pseudo-Vans were on the bench beside me, socks haphazardly tucked inside. I can only imagine I looked like the most awful wanna-be hipster in existence.
Mike started taking video, moving from right in front of me, to behind me, to practically in a tree, to the side, and then took some artsy shots with my shoes in the foreground, and then some looking over my shoulder. I was trying really hard not to giggle, so my face probably looked kinda funny too. He filmed for about 10 minutes, said thank you, then walked away. I can finally say that I have been filmed by a professional, and I'll get my 15 minutes of journalistic fame.
(Side note - the book was Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. The ideas are interesting, but it's somewhat disjointed.)
Other than that exciting adventure, there's not much to report. Midterms are coming up faster than I would like. I'm learning a lot about things that I've never thought about before, like why metals break at 45-degree angles, how to solder, and why plastics in airplane structure are not the best idea. The percentage of females in my classes has dropped from around 20% to around 15%, which was to be expected since the biomedical engineers now have a separate track.
As for this year's Rube Goldberg machine, we're opening and closing an umbrella in a Blazing Saddles-esqe Old West Saloon. We have floors and a wall, and the first step is going to be putting a cowboy hat on a peg in the wall. It's all so exciting. I'm looking forward to see how the rest of it turns out.
I'm doing okay. I'm not dead yet, and the chances of survival look good. I'll keep you posted.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Singing in the Rain
This is me not coming home from a football game (we won, if you were curious).This is me, homework-less for the long weekend and looking forward to maybe, just maybe, getting out a little. This is me not getting drenched in the torrential downpour of Tucson monsoon rains that seem to start up every time I step outside, and in turn, not getting sick. This is me, a few hours after I had to go outside, swinging my umbrella and failing to tap dance in the puddles in my thick flip flops, gaining some strange looks from passers-by, and inexplicably getting my shorts wet.
What did I learn from this strange adventure today? I learned that the best way to get attention while walking from the library is to unabashedly loudly sing Gene Kelley's greatest hits while making a mess and not wearing a red shirt on game day. Guilty. Not sorry.
Classes, overall, are going quite well. We're still in the review phase, though if I have to hear about how to add vectors one more time, I might just leave. I have a class in which my high school statistics are finally relevant, which is good because the professor doesn't speak English well. I made the egregious error of signing up for a Friday night lab, so I still have that to look forward to. We're doing something with soda cans.
Most of the stuff I've been learning this year, both in and out of the classroom, is the effect of stress on bodies. I've been trying to get out and exercise - run when the sky isn't falling, do yoga at the Rec, and stuff like that. I feel nowhere near as good as I did over the summer. but college food will do that to a person.
I am juggling a lot, but after the first week, it doesn't seem like this semester is going to be the hell I was promised that it would be. I'm actually looking forward to going to my 8 AMs. I will survive, and come out with a greater knowledge of materials, math, and fluids.
What did I learn from this strange adventure today? I learned that the best way to get attention while walking from the library is to unabashedly loudly sing Gene Kelley's greatest hits while making a mess and not wearing a red shirt on game day. Guilty. Not sorry.
Classes, overall, are going quite well. We're still in the review phase, though if I have to hear about how to add vectors one more time, I might just leave. I have a class in which my high school statistics are finally relevant, which is good because the professor doesn't speak English well. I made the egregious error of signing up for a Friday night lab, so I still have that to look forward to. We're doing something with soda cans.
Most of the stuff I've been learning this year, both in and out of the classroom, is the effect of stress on bodies. I've been trying to get out and exercise - run when the sky isn't falling, do yoga at the Rec, and stuff like that. I feel nowhere near as good as I did over the summer. but college food will do that to a person.
I am juggling a lot, but after the first week, it doesn't seem like this semester is going to be the hell I was promised that it would be. I'm actually looking forward to going to my 8 AMs. I will survive, and come out with a greater knowledge of materials, math, and fluids.
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