Sorry, No post today.

I just got back from my Friday night activities, and I am exhausted.  I'll edit this tomorrow to talk about with what I did.  Good Night!

Today twas a terribily terriffic Thursday

Today was awesome. Thats right awesome!  Thursdays are my "relaxation" days, so I got to sleep in until 10.  Then I went shopping and bought Halloween candy, root beer, and some other snacks.  Unfortunately, the University Mall  Kroger doesn't seem to sell dry ice, so I've changed my costume to Doctor Horrible.  If you haven't watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long blog, you should do it now.  I also found out that Kroger sells Nerf guns, so if I ever need to get another one, it shouldn't be too difficult.  After I got back from shopping, I had to go to class.

Later, I came back to my dorm and carved my Halloween pumpkin.  So does any one like pumpkin pie?

I can't have any open flames in the dorm and I didn't want to pay extra money for electric tea-light so I used my bicycle tail light.Now I have a pumpkin with a red, glowing pi symbol!

Later that night I started working on a new cooling system for my laptop.  They've turned on the heat, so my room is actually warmer than it was in the summer. My current cooling system is just two fans which blow air into the laptop.  The temperature of the air in my room is causing my laptop to overheat.  I could turn on my window fan to cool the air in the room, but that would make my room too cold, so I had to figure out something else.  Here it is:

I've put the fans in my window so that they'll blow cool air in.  The fans are attached to a cardboard box which funnels the air into a tube made out of Mountain Dew bottles.  The bottles direct the cool air from outside over the bottom of the computer, where the built-in cooling fans pull it into the computer. So far it cools the computer an extra 10-15 degrees and the fan actually spins slower.

That's all for today.  Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures from the Halloween party and the Nerf War. See you then.

Chocolate Day!

Its going to be a short post today because I've still got some work I need to finish by tonight, but I'll make it up to you tomorrow.  I'm going to be carving my pumpkin, and I'll post pictures once I'm finished!

Today was Chocolate Day at D2.  That means that they offered all sorts of chocolate related food.  There were chocolate waffles, chocolate fondue, chocolate dipped pretzels, chicken with a molé sauce, and even chocolate coffee.  A group from my floor went there for dinner and the place was the fullest I've ever seen it. We had to weight five minutes to get in and then it took another ten minutes to find a table.  Once we had finished eating and gone outside, we found out that they were serving smores out there as well. I didn't get any of those, but I still ate a lot of chocolate!

Well thats going to be all for today... What? I said it was going to be a short post!

Coures Requested!...kind of...

I finished planning all of my courses for next semester and I submitted a course request for them! Unfortunately, I couldn't actually request two of the courses I wanted: Engineering Problem Solving C++ and Introduction to Design and Economics.  These courses are restricted to specific engineering majors, but since I'm only a freshman, I'm still in General Engineering. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but because of Dual Enrollment and AP Classes I took during high school my schedule is a semester ahead of the "normal" schedule.  Instead of these two courses, I requested Elements of Material Engineering and  Intro to Science Fiction.  I hope to declare my major and change those two courses back to   Engineering Problem Solving C++ and Introduction to Design and Economics.

I had Calculus today and I got back the results of my second test.  Since this one test counted as  25% of my final grade, it was a pretty big deal.  I got an 89 on the test, but thats okay because there's an optional ten points extra credit on this test and I got a 96 on my last test plus an additional ten points extra credit.  That means that if I get all ten extra credit points my grade in calculus will be a 102.5!

Lee Hall is having a Halloween party this Friday and I'm dressing up as a mad scientist. I have a lab coat and goggles, and I'm going to get some dry ice to make a "smoking" beaker!  To go with the mad scientist look, I need a crazy super-weapon.  In this case I'm going to arm my pneumatic with tootsie rolls. Deadly but delicious!  I'm also going to be carving a pumpkin as part of a contest sponsored by D2.  I can pick up a pumpkin to carve, and its free as long as I return the pumpkin before Friday! I plan to do something like this:

Haha, pumpkin pi, get it?

I also have my own pumpkin that I bought, but I'm not sure what I'm going to carve for that one yet.

Thats all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with another exciting episode of My Life!.

I could never get the hang of Mondays...

Whoops, I almost forgot to post.  I was getting ready to go to sleep when I looked at the computer and saw the link to here and realized I had forgotten to post.  Well, at least its earlier than Friday!

Speaking of Friday, I finished making the video from the Nerf War.  I was a zombie for the two humans-versus-zombie games, so the clips are all from the Team Slayer and Capture the Flag games.  Here's the video:

I've been trying to decide what I'm going to be majoring in, but I think I've got it all figured out.  I'm going to do my undergrad in mechanical engineering in four years, and then get a masters degree in aerospace engineering in my fifth year.  This way I'll have the flexibility of a mechanical engineer and the detailed knowledge of an aerospace engineer.  Now that I've got that decide, its time to start requesting courses for next semester, especially since course request ends tomorrow!

Last Thursday I mentioned that I was using my TV as a second computer monitor.  I thought I'd post a picture to show you what it looks like. The desktop background is a panorama that I took on the Mt. Rogers backpacking trip.  Its been stretched over both monitors using a software called Display Fusion.

That's all I have for tonight; I have an early class tomorrow and I've got to get to sleep.  See you tomorrow.

Wow, its late!

 Today was jam packed full of stuff.  First thing this morning was my physics recitation.  Out of the 25 people who are actually in my recitation class, a grand total of four showed up.  Instead of just trying to solve the assigned problems, we got to talk through principles that we didn't fully understand.

After the recitation, I went and got lunch, and came back to my dorm room.  I worked on a model of a project that I want to build. It's similar to this project by a group of students in Japan.  Here's what I have so far:

I got a little caught up in working on the model and when I looked at the time, I only had five minutes before my Physics lecture began.  However, this did teach me a valuable lesson: I can get from my dorm to Hahn Hall in only three minutes!

After the physics lecture, I went over to the Ware Lab to see if I could the Formula Team with putting the engine into their racer.  They hadn't gotten their engine to work yet, so they couldn't put it into the vehicle.  They're going to work on it on Saturday, and they hope to have it ready to drive by Sunday.

From the Ware Lab, I went back to my dorm and worked on my Engineering Cultures course.  This week we read about German engineers during World War II.  I finished up my threaded discussion, and posted it to my classes Scholar page.

I went to Nerf Wars again tonight.  This week I attached a camera to my Nerf gun and took videos during the battle.  I'll be editing the video over the weekend and I'll post it up here as soon as I can.  Tonight I we played humans versus zombies, team slayer, and capture the flag.  My team won capture the flag, but we lost the team slayer match.  After the matches some of the participants played around with the Nerf gun I built.  I followed these instructions to build it.  I used a soda bottle instead of a water bottle, and a snap in tire valve instead of an inflation needle, but other than that its mostly the same.

After the Nerf wars ended at about midnight, we went over to DXspress to get some food.  From there we went over to Newman Hall, where one of the guys from the Nerf wars lives.  The guys I were with are big fans of the "My Little Pony" TV series, and we ended up watching episodes until 3 am.  I didn't really see what the big deal is about the show, but they really seemed to enjoy it.

That's all for tonight, and all for this week.  See you on Monday!

Thursday...um...Thursday!

Today was another great day.  I only have one class, calculus, and thats in the afternoon, so I get to sleep in and relax for most of the day. When I do get up, I use my free time to catch up on homework, do some laundry, and clean up my room a little.  On a related note check this out:

This is a picture of my room that I took about a month ago.  It looks about the same right now, except the TV is on my desk acting as a second monitor. Also, I have a pumpkin on my dresser, but that will be another post...

After Calculus, I went to a meeting for Virginia Tech's Formula Racing Team.  I'm going to visit the Ware Lab Friday evening to help put the engine in the racer and I'm going to the first driving tests on Sunday.

From the Formula meeting, I went next door to the "End of CEED Mentoring Social".  That was fun, and I got free sandwiches and wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. There was music, board games, and a raffle drawing.  I didn't win anything, but I still had a lot of fun.

On my way back to my dorm, I stopped off at Deet's Place and bought a brownie sundae.  I wanted to get a sundae with cookie dough ice cream, crumbled Oreo, Reese's Pieces, and whipped cream.  They were out of whipped cream so instead I had to get a sundae with cookie dough ice cream, crumbled Oreo, Reese's Pieces, and more ice cream.

After I finished my ice cream, I went down the hall to play Duck Hunt on the NES with one of my neighbors.  Thats all I have for today....hey, I finished a post before midnight! Yay!

What the Wednesday!

Yesterday I said that I hoped today would be more exciting.  Well it was!  Today's weather was no where near as nice as the weather yesterday.  Yesterday was warm and sunny, but today was overcast, cold, and rainy.  However, the all of the fun stuff I got to do today made up for the worse weather.

This afternoon, I had my Physics Lab, which is always fun.  Today we were studying collisions, which means running carts into each other and measuring forces and velocity.

Later, I went to the Engineering Majors Fair.  That was fun too.  Not only did I get to talk to Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers, I also got to look at student projects that I could join.  Some of the projects I'm interested in are the Human Powered Submarine, the Eco-Car Challenge, the Formula Racer, and the Mini Baja Racing Team. All of these are Senior Design Projects, but freshmen can volunteer to work on the teams.  I hope to join and work with one of these teams.  Of course, no engineering event would be complete without food, so I also got free pizza and soda. Yay!

This is a picture of Skidmark, Virginia Tech's Mini Baja Racer from last year

After the fair, I came back to my dorm and worked on my physics homework with someone from my class. While we were working on the homework, one of my friends came in with five leftover pizzas and he gave me one.  Yay, more free food!

Tuesday...thats pretty much it

Well today was Tuesday.  Thats about all I have to say.  I woke up, went to class, ate lunch, took a test, and then got dinner.  I came back to my room, did some homework, and watched an episode of Numb3rs. And now I'm writing this.

You may have noticed that the description says "Updated Monday through Friday", but the posts actually run from Tuesday to Saturday.  Thats because I wanted to describe my Monday through Friday, but by the time I get around to actually writing a post its usually past midnight.

Even if the day was rather dull, it was beautiful.  The weather in Blacksburg is fantastic.  The temperatures are cool at night and warm during the day, the leaves on trees are changing color, and the sunsets over the mountains are amazing.  On a semi-related note, I saw this picture on Facebook today and I thought I'd share it with you.  That is what our trees actually look like: maroon and orange all the way!

Thats all I have for today, but I'm hoping tomorrow will be much more exciting...in a good way of course. See you then.

Just Another Manic Monday

My first class of day was physics which started out great.  We're studying conservation of momentum and to demonstrate the concept our professor got out this contraption.

Its a "rocket cart"! The student squeezes the handle, compressed air shoots out of the tank, and the equal and opposite reaction causes the cart to move backwards...if the student doesn't have their foot on the wheel.  We actually had to run the experiment twice because the cart didn't move the first time.

My next class was Vector Geometry and we learned about lines and planes.  We covered equations,  distances from a plane, and determining whether two lines are parallel, intersecting, or skew.  Tomorrow I have my recitation and on Friday I'll have my unit  quiz.

Later I had my World Regions lecture along with about another 2000 people.  Although the class is called World Regions, we'll only start talking about regions next week.  During all of our previous lectures we've talked about current events, types of governments, and supranationalist organizations like the United Nations and NATO.

After World Regions, I went to DXpress for dinner because its the only place open when my lecture ends at 9:45.  DXpress is almost always open.  In fact, its only closed for five hours, from 2 am to 7 am.  After getting dinner, I went next door to Deets Place and got an awesome brownie sundae.

After dinner I went back to Lee.  The elevators in Lee are sometimes temperamental, and today was one of those days:   I got in and pressed the button for the sixth floor...

...and both the up and down lights turned on...and the elevator just sat there with the doors open.  I guess the elevator was just undecided.

Friday- Nerf Wars

I've been talking about serious stuff all week so I thought I'd tell you about something fun I do every week: Nerf Wars.  Every Friday in Lee Hall, a bunch of students, many of whom are in Galileo, get together and play with Nerf guns.  Some of the games we play include humans versus zombies, capture the flag, and king of the hill.  Nerf wars are a lot of fun and a great way to let go of stress after a week of school.

The Nerf group is not officially recognized by the university, but it has existed for three years and the group owns a large collection of guns, darts, and other accessories. Although you can borrow guns from the group, many students have their own, which they modify to shoot faster or be more powerful. I've modified my own gun to shoot farther.

My gun is a Nerf Barricade, which uses two counter rotating flywheels to shoot darts out of the front of the gun. I've taken out the three AA batteries that used to be in there, and replaced them with a single nine volt battery.  This makes the gun lighter and doubles the voltage, making the flywheels spin twice as fast and shoot almost twice the distance.  My next plan is to modify my gun to hold clips like this project here.  This would let my gun hold up to 35 rounds at one and to reload those clips quickly.

I've had fun blogging my first week and I'll see you next week.

Thursday - Co-ops and Internships

I just finished writing a cover letter for a co-op position in GE Aviation at GE's University Development Center in Houghton, Michigain.  If I do get this job, I'll probably spend at least a year working GE's Aviation Division. If I don't get this job, I'm going to try  to get a different one, still in the Aerospace engineering field.

Virginia Tech engineering, and the Galileo program especially, strongly encourages participation in co-ops and internships.  Through Galileo assignments, I've gone to a career fair with over 250 companies, written resumes, and practiced interview skills. Hopefully all of this will help me get an co-op or internship that will give me valuable experience and ultimately help me get a job when I get out of college.

 Virginia Tech encourages co-ops and internships because they believe gaining mere academic knowledge is not a complete education. They believe that a full education has to include practical knowledge and experience as well.

Wednesday-Ut Prosim

The Virginia Tech motto is Ut Prosim.  It is Latin for "That I May Serve".  Members of the Virginia Tech community take this very seriously and students are strongly encouraged to take part in community service activities in and around Blacksburg.  The spirit of Ut Prosim is perhaps greatest demonstrated through "The Big Event".

The Big Event is a student-run community service effort that is the 2nd largest event of its kind in the nation. Every spring, thousands of Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff  complete hundreds of community service projects throughout Blacksburg, Christiansburg and the New River Valley.  Last year The Big Event attracted 6,731 volunteers who completed 950 projects.

Virginia Tech students are always encouraged to participate in community service activities, and Virginia Tech provides a wide variety of projects for many different areas of interest.  For example, I have participated in post-football game trail cleanup, which allows me to do something I enjoy, hiking, while performing community service.  I also had the opportunity to travel to Coalwood, West Virginia to volunteer at the October Sky Festival.  While I was volunteering I met NASA astronauts as well as Homer Hickam, which was a great experience for someone interested in aerospace engineering.

I brought up Ut Prosim because I participated in another community service activity today, the Lee Hall blood drive.  I gave my pint of blood, drank my orange juice, and ate my free cookies along with many other Lee Hall residents.  And now I leave you with this: a beautiful picture...of my arm.

Tuesday-Galileo Day

Today I had my large Galileo Seminar, so I thought I'd tell you about the Galileo Program.  The Galileo Engineering Learning Community for Men is a program for freshman in the College of Engineering which emphasizes exploring engineering, making lasting friendships, and achieving academic success.  Members of Galileo take a year long course which includes topics like professional development, academic success strategies, diversity, and personal development.  However, the major attraction of the Galileo program is the living arrangements.

All Galileo students live on the sixth and seventh floors of Lee Hall.  This creates a great community atmosphere in the dorm.  My neighbors are engineers, the people down the hall are engineers, and the people upstairs are engineers.  Everyone is very friendly and many of us have the same interests.  I would highly recommend the Galileo program to any incoming freshmen who are in the College of Engineering.

In addition to the Galileo program, Virginia Tech also offers the Hypatia Women's Engineering Community, which is the same thing as Galileo except it is for women.

Monday...World Regions Night!

Every Monday night at Virginia Tech is World Regions night and since my World Regions class is made up of about 3000 people, its a pretty big deal. All of the sudden at 7:00 pm 3000 people walk across the drill field to Burruss Hall and then at 9:45 3000 people walk back across the drill field to their dorms. If you don't believe me, here's a picture of my class:

If there is one class you have to take at Virginia Tech, its World Regions. World Regions is a fun class, and Professor Boyer is an amazing teacher. World Regions is an "experimental class" so we're always trying out new things like movie nights, international events, social networking, and on-line forum discussions.

Backpacking Trip Part 2

I'm back from my backpacking trip exhausted, but satisfied.  Instead of telling you all about it, I've mad a sideshow of photos that I took along the trail.  Each photo has a caption describing what is]t is.  If it doesn't have a caption, its just something that I thought looked neat. Just click play to get started!




After we finished our hike, we went to Cracker Barrel to get some "real" food and then headed back to Virginia Tech. Once we got back, we totaled up our mileage, and it turned out that we had hiked 30 miles, instead of the 21 miles that we had planned.

For my panoramas, I use a software called Microsoft Image Composite Editor. Its free to download for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. All you do is drag select pictures to stitch, and the software does the rest. It will even create panoramas from video clips!

Backpacking Trip Part 1

Today I went shopping; I bought oatmeal, crackers tuna, ravioli, propane, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  Wait...propane? Yep, I'm leaving tomorrow for a three day backpacking trip with the Outdoor Club of Virginia Tech in Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area.   We will be hiking on the AT from Scales to Creek Junction, covering about 21 miles total.  Along the way we should see some awesome fall colors. I won't be posting tomorrow because I'll be on the trip, but I'll post a special update on Sunday with pictures.

First off, here's my backpack.  It's packed with all my gear except a propane fuel tank and my water filter. Another hiker in the group will carry those to help split the weight.  Speaking of weight, I'm not exactly sure how heavy my pack is, but its nowhere close to the heaviest one I've carried.

This is my first backpacking trip since I've arrived at Virginia Tech, and I've discovered I forgot to bring a few things with me.  First, I only have one water bottle with me, and instead of being a lightweight Nalgene, its made of metal! Instead of having to carry that, I loaded up on six bottles of Virginia Tech's finest Hokie Water from Owen's Food Court.  The cashier must have thought that I was nuts for buying six bottles of water at once.

I also forgot to bring a headlamp, one of the things that I think is a must-have for camping trips.  However I managed to come up with my own DIY solution.  Meet the Bike-light:

 It's a lightweight headlamp made from an old bicycle inner tube, the headlight from my bike, and, of course, duct tape.  It may not look like much but it should work well for this weekend.

Well, thats all I've got. I'll see you on Sunday; dirty, smelly, and with lots of pictures!

Bad Luck Bike Lock

Tonight I went to see the movie Sin Nombre for World Regions credit. Its about a Mexican gang member who meets a Honduran teenager, and her father and uncle who are illegally immigrating to the United States.  I thought that the movie was a very realistic, but very violent as well.

After leaving the movie I went to get my bike.  When I got there, I grabbed my lock to put in the combination and it came away in my hand, so I guess I forgot to lock it. I'm glad that my bike was still there! I rode to DXpress to get dinner, but when I went to lock up my bike I saw this:

The pin that slides inside the lock had snapped off, and I hadn't noticed it when I picked up my lock. I couldn't actually lock up my bike so I used the cable  to tie it to the rack instead and hurried inside to quickly grab some food.  After getting a pizza I rode back to my dorm and rolled my bike right into the elevator.  Right now my bike is sitting in my room in front of my closet.

I've borrowed a lock from someone down the hall who had an extra, and I'm going to try to get a new one tomorrow when I go out to buy food for my backpacking trip.