Last post in Houston for now. The nice thing about staying in Houston has been just relaxing without much need for a scary agenda. Couple days ago my Dad & I rode the MT Bike trails up at Double Lake. It was much less strenuous then at Memorial Park, but still fun. I got to use Dad's really nice dual-suspension bike, which made riding much easier - but the tiny seat dug into my ABC like nobody's business. Double Lake is in the Sam Houston National Forrest - which is a piney Forrest. As a result - the trials are covered in this half shadow-like patten which makes is really difficult to read the terrain. I fell flat on my face and vaulted the handlebars when my pedal strap caught on a root and the bike stopped instantaneously. Nice.


That night we went over to one of Spencer's friend's house for a party. Texas Hold'um $5 buy-in... I didn't go out first but I also lost by a big margin. Spencer actually won. Bastard. Day after that we got up (late and hungover) and went home for a while. Then we went to borrow some firearms and headed out to the range in Pasadena. Spencer was in rare form:



So we spent a couple hours blowing off some steam. Between the Savage 30-06, a couple AK's, the 44 carbine, and Dad's 22 - my shoulder got a workout. I did O.K. on shooting groups w/ the Savage (1" groups from 30yrds), but the AK is mostly about trying to sustain a good firing pattern as you rip through the 30 rnd magazine...and those suckers are loud (7.62X39.. big bullets make big booms). The gas-blowback makes it really really easy to keep your eye on the target; it's not hard to figure out why those rifles are so popular. Good times. It's hard to describe why it's so satisfying - it just is.

I look so surprised because I'm trying to focus....

Bur right now I'm pumped about New Year's eve with Stacey (Tropical theme?)! A whole week to goof off with her! Yay! Gotta appreciate this time because soon I'll be buried in school projects again - so playing hard now will help me work hard later.

Merry Christmas to all. Just finished doing the dishes from the main feast of the day... so every one's getting ready to spend the rest of the evening doing nothing in particular. The meal was awesome (Roast duck, parsley corn souffle courtesy of yours truly, steamed broccoli, hot rolls.... and lots of wine); everyone was pleased with their presents (I got a year's subscription to Make Magazine and a really cool wine-opener set licensed by Lego...yay!)... holiday success.

I wrote an .m file to occupy some time a few days ago. Basically it compares the vector forces on the earth's surface due to the Earth's gravitation and the Moon's gravitation (and also as a function of the Moon's position). I'm not going to post the code, but I'll post some graphs. Ideally, it makes AVI files but I couldn't get the output function to work on the DACS version of Matlab ... so maybe I'll post those later.

... Look carefully: this is a vector plot!

... finally, the result force (combined Earth & Moon). The vector lengths aren't to scale; the Moon force is actually six orders of magnitude smaller than the Earth force (which makes sense) - so the vectors had to be scaled for dramatic effect on the graph.

Not sure what I'm going to spend my X-Mas check on... yet.

Got my grades this morning - not as good as I'd hoped for. But hey, we're been over this, right? No big deal. I had a nice morning/early afternoon running errands with Mom. Mostly Christmas shopping and picking up items across town. It's really put me in the spirit of things.... and now a shameless re-printing of a hilarious piece written by Lore Sjöberg from wired magazine:

From: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenzer@dickensripoff.com)
To: Robert Cratchit (bobc@dickensripoff.com)
Subject: A Web Christmas Carol

Damn it, Bob, it's Dec. 20 and you still haven't finished your project! When I ask for an anime/machinima version of A Christmas Carol set to an OK Go song, I expect to see it well before Christmas! Your vacation request is denied. The maintenance staff is turning off the heat before they leave, so if you don't want to spend Christmas in a down jacket editing video, you'd better get to work!

- - -

From: Jacob Marley (jakethesnake@reallydeadjournal.com)
To: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
Subject: i wear the chains i forged in life

hi ebbie just giving u a heads up some ghosts were asking about u and i gave them ur email hope thats okay lol

being dead sucks :-(
meery christmas :-)

- - -

From: The Ghost of Christmas Carol Spoofs Past (goccsp@temporalghosts.net)
To: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
Subject: Christmas Carol Spoofs Past

Ebenezer! Ebenezer! Do you have any freaking idea how old Dickens' A Christmas Carol is? It was written LAST CENTURY! Wait, no, the century before the last one. TWO CENTURIES AGO! ALMOST! Think about how corny Ewok jokes are. Ewoks have only been around for 20 years or so! Think of how much lamer they'll be in the 22nd century! Seriously, dude, lay off. It's played out.

- - -

From: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
To: The Ghost of Christmas Carol Spoofs Past (goccsp@temporalghosts.net)
Subject: unsubscribe

Please remove me from your mailing list.

- - -

From: The Ghost of Christmas Carol Spoofs Present (goccsp2@temporalghosts.net)
To: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
Subject: Hi!

Hi, Ebenezer! Nice to meet you! Could you please do me a little favor? Go to Amazon's DVD section and enter Christmas Carol. I got 80 results! Wow! That's a lot! Did you know there's a Muppet Christmas Carol AND a Sesame Street Christmas Carol? I thought Sesame Street was Muppets already! And there's one with Bugs Bunny and one with Mickey Mouse and one with All Dogs Go to Heaven.... I guess what I'm trying to say is that people who want to see a spoof of A Christmas Carol already have a lot of choices, so when you think about it, you really don't need to throw another on the pile. See?

XOXO,
Prezzie

- - -

From: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
To: The Ghost of Christmas Carol Spoofs Present (goccsp2@temporalghosts.net)
Subject: reported

I have reported your spamming to your ISP. Do not bother me again.

- - -

From: The Ghost of Christmas Carol Spoofs Future (thescary1@temporalghosts.net)
To: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
Subject: HARROWING VISIONS

EBENEZER! IF YOU DO NOT MEND YOUR WAYS, SEE WHAT WILL BECOME OF A ONCE-BELOVED TALE! THE WEB WILL BECOME CHOKED WITH LAME AMATEUR VERSIONS FEATURING BAD IMITATIONS OF FLAVOR-OF-THE-MONTH CELEBRITIES! THIS WILL TURN PEOPLE OFF OF CHRISTMAS ENTIRELY! BILL O'REILLY WILL GET SO MAD THAT HE'LL SHOOT A FOREIGN DIGNITARY, STARTING A WORLD WAR!

WORST OF ALL, PEOPLE WILL START DOING IRONIC VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL THAT ARE ACTUALLY ABOUT HOW MANY VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL THERE ARE!

- - -

From: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenezer@dickensripoff.com)
To: The Ghost of Christmas Carol Spoofs Future (thescary1@temporalghosts.net)
Subject: NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

You have made me see the error of my ways, O Ghost With a Broken Caps Lock Key! I swear that I will never create another spoof of A Christmas Carol again, and that I will start pointless flame wars with people who do! Thank you for helping me to see the truth!

- - -

From: Ebenezer Scrooge (ebenzer@dickensripoff.com)
To: Robert Cratchit (bobc@dickensripoff.com)
Subject: Cancel the project

I've changed my mind, Bob. Stop all work on "A Web Christmas Carol" immediately. It was a bad idea all along.

Instead, I want you to get right to work on "A Web Twelve Days of Christmas." I expect to see it done by the 25th, so you might want to buy a new down jacket.

- - -

P.S. Blog - Muppet Christmas Carol is awesome. I cry every time they make you think Tiny Tim dies.



Only 5 more shopping days until Christmas! Hope you're almost done.....

Home in Houston. It feels very normal to be here... nothing really all that abnormal or different. My parents are both thrilled to have me here; I think very much I get my way with words from them so it's interesting to speak with them at length.

Yesterday was fun - I landed in Houston around 1 Houston time, and just went home. Spencer took me with him to go pick up Matt on the west side.... and it's always fun to take a ride in the pimpmobile. Dad went with the three of us to a Gun Show out in Pasadena... which is a helluva long way away. Spencer's turned into quite the firearms aficionado - I think he's going to take me trapshooting in a couple days.

So far I'm just happy to chill. I might go see Ardy, or maybe go over to Caryn's place. My Mom wants to take a look at the benefits package information for the companies I'm interviewing with... so it's nice she's looking out for me.

We just got home from a brief trip out in the rain to get a Christmas Tree... tonight it's decorating time. So all's well here. Eating snacks...drinking beer.... I can't wait to get my grades.

More randomosity. Does your computer sit, turned on all day, practically unused? Do you have a permanent internet connection? Do you want to contribute something to the scientific community and feel better about yourself without having to lift a finger? Then have I got something for you...

Some some computer science students at the University of Oxford are interested in random numbers achieved by throwing dice. If all the sides of the die are equal, and if the thing has uniform side lengths, the outcomes will be truly random. But what if those conditions aren't true? They're exploring how changing the side lengths impacts the outcome of the die roll through experiment, mathematical analysis, and "exhaustive computer simulation". But! They're counting on the generosity of people to donate their computer's unused processing time to help calculate. So! Go to the site! Download the program! Run it in the background! My PC cranks out roughly 100,000 simulations per day (which is but a tiny drop in the bucket when compared with the 4.6 billion user-submitted simulation results thus far... I'm only ranked number 105 out of 231 for the number of sims submitted...). So there you go - you, too can help further the knowledge of mankind. They will only be accepting results for another 2 weeks, though - so get on it!



In other news... I've decided to upload John's CFD results for our 315 project to YouTube. They turned out really well. The cool thing is that his code captures both the fluid velocity and the fluid temperature - both of which we were interested in for the project. Check 'em out:

Video One - near the entrance/heater

Video Two - at the exit

What was my contribution to the project? About 500 lines of matlab code to run academic simulations based on "textbook equations". CFD is like a magic genie in a bottle - you just input your system and boundary conditions and it spits out the result. I had to actually write my own simulations...

Anyway my Heat/Mass final was yesterday and that went fine. Not great...but fine. I have my second final on Saturday, so I'll be cramming for the next two days. Hooray. The guys and I are opening presents to each other Friday night... I wonder what I get this year. I'm feeling pretty mellow as of late - I'm ready for vacation, and I'm ready to get my grades.

Allright. This has been an astonishing day - much to report. Just finished the code for my X-mas cards this year:

% XMAS CARD - JOEY GERONDALE
% 12/9/06

% INITIALIZE
clc
clear all
load rand1
num=randn;
format long
width=520*2; %picture size width in pixels
height=339*2; %picture size height in pixels
hblock=12; %desired number of vertical blocks
wblock=18; %desired number of horiz blocks

% CALCULATE
wdr=ceil(width/wblock); %number of horiz pixels per block
hdr=ceil(height/hblock); %number of vert pixels per block

pic=zeros(height,width,3);

for k=1:hblock
for r=1:wblock
tt=clock;
rand('state',floor(tt(6)*1000-50*rand(1)*k-25*rand(1)*r))
if(num(floor(10000*rand(1))))>127.5 % choose red bias
rd_st=(floor(9999*rand(1)));
gr_st=(floor(9999*rand(1)));
bl_st=(floor(9999*rand(1)));
while num(rd_st)<120>255
rd_st=rd_st+1;
end
while num(gr_st)<0>20
gr_st=gr_st+1;
end
while num(bl_st)<0>60
bl_st=bl_st+1;
end
red=num(rd_st)/256;
green=num(gr_st)/256;
blue=num(bl_st)/256;
pic(((k-1)*hdr+1):(k*hdr),((r-1)*wdr+1):(r*wdr),1)=red; %assign red
pic(((k-1)*hdr+1):(k*hdr),((r-1)*wdr+1):(r*wdr),2)=green; %assign green
pic(((k-1)*hdr+1):(k*hdr),((r-1)*wdr+1):(r*wdr),3)=blue; %assign blue
else %choose green bias
rd_st=(floor(9999*rand(1)));
gr_st=(floor(9999*rand(1)));
bl_st=(floor(9999*rand(1)));
while num(rd_st)<0>80
rd_st=rd_st+1;
end
while num(gr_st)<110>190
gr_st=gr_st+1;
end
while num(bl_st)<0>60
bl_st=bl_st+1;
end
red=num(rd_st)/256;
green=num(gr_st)/256;
blue=num(bl_st)/256;
pic(((k-1)*hdr+1):(k*hdr),((r-1)*wdr+1):(r*wdr),1)=red; %assign red
pic(((k-1)*hdr+1):(k*hdr),((r-1)*wdr+1):(r*wdr),2)=green; %assign green
pic(((k-1)*hdr+1):(k*hdr),((r-1)*wdr+1):(r*wdr),3)=blue; %assign blue
end
end
end

% OUTPUT

imwrite(pic,'xmascrd30.jpeg','jpeg')

So I just finished running the thing 30 times (so you can all get a unique card, of course) and I'm off to Wal-mart to print them off. This isn't extremely interesting or complex (it's a variation on an idea from an earlier post) - but I want to thank Alex for helping me figure out the flaws in my logic. Now it works!

Peace.

OK. I've already spent all day on the computer so I'll make this fast. The submarine competition was pretty freakin' sweet. The subs had a couple of mission statements:
1) Have ability to drive forward/back/side to side on surface
2) Have ability to dive underwater... and have same control
3) Pick up 3 lb metal cube "payload" from bottom of pool and retrieve it

Here's a brief description of the 4 teams and their performance:
A) Seawolves

You can see the highly segmented design. Extremely complex - they used a pair of counter-rotating propellers to cancel out the roll torque. This team's design has two ballast tanks which can be pressurized with water or depressurized with reserve air. Basically it performs like it looks it will: it had great speed but didn't turn worth a crap. The also employed a really interesting payload recovery mechanism.

B) 20,000 M.E.'s Under the Sea

Performed essentially like a boat on the surface. The ballast tanks are either completely full or completely empty - so it either really floats or REALLY sinks. Overall the best driving performance, but it didn't have any of the cool features the other ones did.

C) Submarine 9

Interesting design: the ballast tank is a concentric cylinder around the sealed inner compartment which contains the important stuff: radios/motors/ballast pumps. Unfortunately - it entered the water only once for about 10 seconds. Long enough to flood the main component tank and short out the radios. Nice. They also didn't employ the trailing antennae method the other teams did - so they couldn't get any signal below about 4 ft. of water depth.

D) Sharkmouth (I don't know the real team name - but it's obvious why I call it that)


I think this team had the coolest design. Essentially symmetric front-to-rear, this model has naturally neutral buoyancy - so what drives it up and down are the twin vertical ducted fans in the nose and tail. It also has the propulsion motors on extended booms, so it really turns on a dime. Their payload retrieval mechanism is just a giant hook. After the payload is grabbed - they can blow reserve ballast in the nose & tail cones to offset the new weight addition and rise to the surface. Initially it had the best performance by far, but it turns out that having the propulsion so far out made it really unstable, so it was difficult to control. Overall, though - this design was best at all the control aspects: going/stopping, turning, and rising/falling in the water.

What about the payload? Well all the teams eventually had technical difficulties so they quit before getting that far - but it was still about an hour and a half of presentations/competition.

My senior design will be way cooler than this stuff..... but in general I'm pretty impressed with their efforts.

A brief retrospective. All this stuff happened prior to my last blog entry, I just didn't have time to throw it in there. It's a lazy Saturday - I should be studying for Heat/Mass, but instead I'm blowing off steam on the internet....

First off, I spent the better part of a month working on a birthday present for Spencer (but it wasn't posted here... in case he reads....). I got the idea from a makezine project: hovercraft!!! So I decided it would be awesome to improve on the original design by using the parts from the RC car we shredded (and decided not to use) for the ME 444 project. I had a couple DC motors and the RC circuit/controller sitting around. I spent some time in the electronics shop figuring out what input/output voltages the circuit was using (so I could replace the supplied battery pack with a smaller, lighter version) and I got to work. Here's the alpha model:


And the motor did spin up just fine!! But the circuit only delivers about 1.3 V to the motor, so it's a little bit slower. Result: it doesn't lift off the ground :( bummer. But, it has to lift the weight of the circuit and the balsa housing, so I decided to make a lighter beta model:


Which also didn't have enough thrust to lift off....but it was closer. This one also delivers the full 2.3 V from the 2 AA battery pack to the motor (so it spins a LOT faster than the alpha), and it ONLY delivers thrust in the vertical direction (as you can see from the ducting). So that was kind of depressing that a soon-to-graduate ME can't make a damn hovercraft fly, but in hindsight it was because of over-engineering (too much mass from glue, other parts...) that did it. But I did put in cool features like: they use the same battery pack, and they both have on/off switches soldered in, so I'm pleased with the effort. They look cool and he was glad to get them, so it's not all bad.

My job interview in Kohler was pretty sweet. They have a very professional staff there - I met with engineering managers twice my age - basically the people I would be working for. They were all very positive, and open to the way I presented myself. They do some really interesting stuff there. Big opportunities for innovation and exploration there. The whole town is pretty cool - it's very 1920's industrial besides basically being a resort (Mr. Kohler has more money than Donald Trump!!):


Because it's in rural Wisconsin AND on the lake, there's a ton of recreational stuff I could do. If I lived there: I'd buy a sailboat, go hunting every winter, and take up golf (Mr. Kohler has two PGA quality courses in the town that any Kohler employee can play for $24). And also - probably not a big shot at getting continuing education... I'm trying to convince Stace we could live on the north side of Milwaukee so she can go to UWM or Marquette (I want my masters, too!!). Maybe we could live near the city when we're young, then move out to the country later... I dunno. Anyway you cut it - it looks like a cool place to live.

The Whirlpool interview went pretty well, too. First off - the rental car people upgraded me for free...so I was riding in style to St. Jo (about half an hour N.E. from Gary, IN):


Yeah. I know, right? Definitely the most expensive car I've ever driven. The headquarters is pretty serious business, too:


But St. Jo is known for its beaches, and I'd want to live in town there if I got the job. It's very quaint:

Honestly, I don't have the slightest idea what I'd be doing if I worked for Whirlpool. They didn't spend any time talking about the opportunities there - they spent all their time finding out about me. I was mostly interviewed by 20-somethings... there's nothing wrong with that, but I don't really feel like I got to see a complete picture of what they have to offer.

My B&M interview was also really interesting. They are involved in some reeaallly cool stuff. I feel like I could be a really well-respected professional if I work there (they basically require you to get your P.E. within 3 years...so I meant that literally). The work would be really technical and yet always varying. My presentation went well (it's a consulting company - so they want to see if you can handle yourself in front of a crowd), and each of the division managers was extremely polite and direct with me. I also brought my Delta design notebook, so hopefully that gave them a glimpse of the my problem solving style. I wish I had some pictures of the place, it's in a huge industrial complex - sitting on top of an underground parking facility which requires RFID tags to enter. There's security everywhere. They're pretty tip-top. BUT! I was there during a huge ice-storm. It took about an hour and a half just to drive me from the Airport to the hotel - and the guys there still took me out to dinner. I got snowed in the second day - so I missed Friday classes (which was a blessing in disguise due to all the stuff I had due that day). But - all in all I'm very satisfied with the result. I got to hang out with Nate & Mandy for two nights in a row. We all get along pretty well, and I have a feeling we'd be spending a lot of time together if I worked in KC. Mandy & Nate both really like their jobs a lot (which is especially good news coming from Nate since he WORKS for B&M), and they really like the city a lot. There's a shocking amount of diversity there - which is good. It's the "city of fountains" - second only to Rome for the number of fountains in the city. Wow. It's got great schools, nice neighborhoods, and super shopping (c'mon , Stace!!).

I haven't heard from anyone yet!! Including Delta!! I can't believe this. I went to the Cactus on Thursday night with Bryan and Sarah, which was awesome. Sarah wants nobody to offer me a job so I get stuck in Indy with her and B-spice. That wouldn't be all bad. I could get an M.S. at IUPUI in nightschool, hang out with Kel & Erin &amp;amp; Jay & Gretch & Chris & Brooke & obviously Sarah & Bryan.... so there's a lot going on there. I just don't feel like Indy is where I belong for the rest of my life. I dunno. I feel like I want some options.

So as far as things are going around here - I think Christmas is in the air. Stacey sent a care package to the guys and I (which was precious) - like we need more candy and cookies and cake, hah. But it was really sweet. The stockings are hung on the mantle, and I think we're all looking forward to a little vacation. This semester absolutely FLEW BY, but, as I said in an earlier posting I feel like it was a really good time. Craig & I had a really nice chat, and we're both in a really well adjusted, happy place. I'm very optimistic about the next couple of weeks, and also about the spring semester. I'll throw it out there right now - I'm going to try to convince my senior design group to make a steam engine. Think about it - that would be ASTONISHING! And in sort of the school-spirit with the whole boilermaker thing. Anyway, seasons greetings everyone.


Several teams of senior design this semester made a RC submarines. They're having a competition at the Aquatic center in 2 hours.... I really want to go. Seeya.

My poor blog. I've neglected you, again. I can make excuses all day long...but I 'll just tell you life has been busier than ever. Good news, though - everything is starting to come together.

First, I finally finished my off-campus interviews. I'm really lucky I got a chance to travel to the different locations and see what the companies have to offer. I haven't heard back from anyone yet (including Delta), but hopefully the offers/rejections will be rolling in within a week or two.

In school-related news - my semester long projects have been wrapping up with some pretty nice results. The project on the natural convection chimney produced excellent results - I'm not bragging but I think we had the best project of our lab section. John did some sweet animations with his CFD code - but you can't post those in blogger so you'll just have to take my word for it. Here's our results (including experimental data, CFD results, and THREE different analyses I performed... I'm not going into how much time I spent getting the equations right for that). Just the fact that five different data sets all have more or less the same magnitude result for velocity is AMAZING!


Also - not an hour ago we finished testing of the prototype toy for ME 444. I don't think I ever really explained the idea, but it's supposed to be a toy plane that hangs from the ceiling and has enough power to pull itself in circles around the room. WELL IT REALLY FLIES IN CIRCLES!! Wow. Jubilation. We actually had a group bet on weather the thing would work or not - so someones buying me a couple of drinks on Thursday when we open Jake's immediately after class:



So - It's not perfect, but it does what it's supposed to do and that's great! I have my final Women's Studies paper due Friday morning (which I haven't started yet) - so I need to work on that. After that, it's just finals week. My schedule is actually quite nice. One Wednesday, one Saturday. Plenty of time to study. I'll be really mad at myself if I don't excel on both.

The best way to summarize my end-of-semester attitude is this: I feel like I've put in a LOT of work, and I've really enjoyed the work and gotten a lot out of it. My grades won't be anything amazing, but I've decided that my personal satisfaction should be independent of how well my report card is. I feel like I've worked hard enough for straight A's, but I'm not going to be the least bit disappointed when the results are less than that.

On a more personal note - I'm more than excited about the holiday vacation coming up. This is probably due in part to the majority of my X-mas shopping already being DONE! We're actually staying in Houston this year (instead of driving to the G-parent's house), plus I'm flying home. So, my vacation will include a lot more enjoyment and a lot less sitting in the car. And like last year, I'll be flying back to Indy early so I can spend New Year's with Stacey! But 2 days isn't nearly long enough...and I have another week of vacation after that.... so I'm going to ride down to Huntsville with her and spend another couple of days before I have to be back at school.

So... I just have another week and 3 days here in the WL before it's over for this semester - and on with THE LAST SEMESTER. Wow. It's been five years and I feel like everything is right.

Peace.