Well, it's officially happened. After over 4000 pictures, a couple thousand miles of roads traveled, being dropped (more than a few times) and factory repaired, and being whored out to many many people - my camera has died. For no apparent reason, when turned on - it simply turns itself back off. I think it wants to go into retirement. So lets have a moment of peace for the little camera that could - my Nikon Coolpix 2100.


Of course, this leaves me wanting a newer, better camera. Especially since for her birthday, Mandy's parents sent her a beautiful new Nikon SLR. Nice. I'm very jealous. But I'm thinking of blowing my spending money on a Wii or XBox 360 to help entertain my new Little Brother - so I'll wait for Christmas before thinking about cameras. Until then, I'm absolving myself of any photographic responsibility - you people can take your own pictures!

Sweet. I know I have a lot on my plate right now - but I'm thinking about volunteering or something this election. I feel like the nation had a collective "well duh, we're going to win this year" feeling in 2004; and look where that got us. So, this year I say bah to complacency - it's time for action, damn it.




Also, if you're in the mood for some salacious reading, check out this article on wired news. It reminds me heavily of the MC Lars song: "Internet Relationship". Except in this version, someone gets shot.

As always, the whole Danger Room crew has been posting awesome and weirddefense stories. Love it. Radar array network supported by a hive of UAVs tracking every vehicle on the ground and rewinding the tape to find out where terrorists hide? Genius.

Work has been getting really interesting lately. Interesting and hectic. For those of you interested in where my project is located, check out this neat thing I figured out how to use:


View Larger Map


Also, I got started on my clock project (I hope it turns out this well). Using that scroll saw is both fun and a little frightening. It's very quiet (relative to any other power tool), so I'm not afraid of disturbing the neighbors. But man, watching it tear through plywood just gives me visions of it tearing through my fingers. Some of the mechanical parts are kinda small, so I'm taking my time to cut them slowly and keep the fingers away..... I took a cool picture but my camera suddenly forgot how to talk to my computer. So maybe I'll post that later.

In other news: I just finished reading The Fountainhead. The book as a whole is good (not great), except for the last 5 chapters, which are mind-blowingly good. Aspiring Engineers: if you want a great read, just plow through the last tenth of this (!700 page!) book. It provides a neat summary of her interesting philosophy.

Updates. Wow. A ton has happened in the past month or so since I've successfully landed in KC. I'll just start with some sweet pics:

Firstly, here's Stace & I in scenic Spokane, WA at the Glover Mansion (no, not the Glover pictured...). Notice the bide & groom in the background... almost as happy as the two of us. Sarah did look stunning and we had a great time there!


Next: check out my Dad's new wheels. That's right, Professor Gerondale is now running a course for the University of Houston's College of Optometry where he drives this sweet RV to correctional facilities around the Houston area to let students test their chops. He is officially a full-time employee, and no longer working in the private sector! Go Dad! Ask him about ocular parasites sometime...


I was bored one evening here in KC, so I decided to try my hand at my graduation present: a handmade Stave puzzle. Titled: "School's Out", it took me about 2 hours to finish - it's roughly 6" X 6", beautifully hand painted and hand cut. Notice the gaps in between the pieces, and random color changes.... very tricky and interesting to figure out. Thanks, Mom & Dad:


Friday night I went out with Mandy & Nate to hit Westport - to see the Pitch's Music Extravaganza! We started out by having dinner at this Japanese restaurant - and I got my sashimi fix. Wow - their salmon was out of this world. We started out at this Irish bar, then made our way to the Hurricane. Mandy was DD, so Nate & I traded rounds of Newcastle. Mmm. My two favorite bands of the evening: the Rich Boys and the Republic Tigers. I'll keep my eyes peeled for any upcoming local shows featuring either of the two. I spent Saturday morning nursing a hangover - but wow we had a great time!

I spent last night with from guys guys from work doing a "poker night" event. I actually suck ass at Texas 'Hold'em, but out of 8 players in the tourney, I got third place... which means I didn't get any of my damn money back, but I did knock out two people over the course of the evening - a first for Joey. Gambling is way more fun when you actually win once in a while. Also, I beat Sherm at guitar hero on my first time playing the game. It was fun!

Also: I'm making some progress on one of my long-term goals. I applied to BBBS of KC; the chief caseworker is visiting my apartment next Monday to make sure it's a suitable environment for children. Also: I'm sure many of my friends, family members, and co-workers will be getting phone calls soon to make sure I'm a generally swell guy. Wish me luck! I'm excited to see the sights of KC with a new friend!

Finally: work is really getting interesting! I'm being given a lot of new and challenging opportunities - so I really need to t.c.b. these next few weeks to finish of the first bit, and show them I'm ready for whatever they want to throw my way!

For all the big summer blockbusters coming out - I figure it's high time for a little movie review. Last Saturday I saw Ratatouille in Spokane with Stacey.

Animation: 4 out of 5
Stunning. I was blown out of the water with Cars, which represented a huge leap forward in Pixar's abilities to me. So, to get a full 5 this film would have to push the envelope even further. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Unlike Cars, this movie doesnt' have a lot of opportunities to show off its awesome visual stunnery. However - to the film's credit, the blend of stylism and realism is very well done. Villans look like villans and heroes look like heroes; and the surface shading is great. Don't get me wrong - Disney would be sunk in the animation department were it not for these people. I just feel like the next Pexar film had better make that "jump" again.

Plot: 5 out of 5
Cute. Cute cute cute. Honestly, I wasn't suspecting a love interest in this film; but it turned out to be well-woven into the main plot and tastefully done (unlike other Disney movies where the love interest IS the plot). I'd like to tell you that this film was totally original and so craftily written that you have no idea what lies around the next bend; but the truth is that I was too swept up in enjoying myself to try to think ahead. This movie has all your standard Disney themes: importance of family, respecting your friends, and rising to conquer a great challenge. Thankfully, in this film you don't feel like it's a morality tale; you just kind of realize, five minutes from the end what you've been watching.

Voice Acting: 4 out of 5
Peter O'toole, Jeneane Garofolo, and Patton Oswalt all give honest and stunning performances in this movie. O'toole does such a good job at being a villan that I didn't even recognize his voice until I heard him being kind and gentle in the end. He was so grand and moving I was conjuring up mental images of the Lion in Winter. Garofolo does a great french accent, plus she's both cynical and sensitive enough at the same time for the part. Oswalt's timing is good, it's just no different from his regular voice; just listen to any stand-up special of his and the intonations are the same. It's not bad - I just wasn't surprised.

Humor/Embellishments: 5 out of 5
Let's be honest - the real reason it's a joy to watch modern Pixar films is the fact that an army of writers and animators work really hard for years and years to make the final product. The only possible result after so much effort is a rich and lusutrous setting and ambiance for the film. The use of humor is sometimes subtle and somewhat overt.
EX1: In the middle of a press conference, the lead and his gal exit early :"I'm sorry to be
rude....but we're French".
EX2: After the antagonist finally figures out that rats are running the kitchen, they gag ang hog-tie him. Also they throw him in the meat locker.

So overall, I give it 4.5 out of 5. We both had to leave at least once during the film to use the facilities; but that was from drinking earlier. If I could have held it, I know I would have. It was very pleasant, and I'll be looking for it on DVD when it comes out.

Wow. I've been finding it exceptionally difficult to get motivated about anything lately. I have successfully switched from PM workouts to AM workouts; that's cool because I don't feel pressured to do anything important when I get home from work (even when I actually do..). I've been spending the day with DVDs playing the background while I continue to settle in... handing picture frames and stuff, slowly putting everything away. Man I have way too much crap. I've been making a box of stuff to give to Goodwill, but I'm still having a hard time letting go of all my useless stuff.

The clock project is starting to look more difficult than I thought; I'm going to need a drill press, and a lot of time. A TON of the pieces are uncut, so the most important first step is to make many copies of the plans so that when I screw up the first few times - I still have one or two leftover to get it right. But the instructions are easy to follow, and it looks like about the simplest clock one could have - so I think it'll be a cool project. The apartment is starting to look like home; cross your fingers and I might actually finish tonight.

Work is going better and better; I'm slowly getting a grasp on what the job is all about. This should be a nice easy week. Firstly, I get Wednesday off for Independence Day, and I'll be taking Friday off to get to Spokane on time. Unfortunately - I need to make up the 8 hours this week in 3 days. That means a long haul for the few days I'll be there this week. Good news: I'm finally getting paid at the end of this week. First paycheck, here I come :) Also, Sage Francis is playing Tuesday night in Columbia, MO. It's a ways away - so I may or may not go. We'll see.

Gotta be fast, I'm exhausted. I had a really awesome Sunday today. Had a good walk on the treadmill; I made progress on my work benefits information (it should be easy to finish tomorrow); I went grocery shopping; pressed a shirt; and I watched the Great Muppet Caper while I made/ate a sweet breakfast of eggs and pancakes. Finally, I decided to nuke Windows off the face of my hard-drive - and I'm officially using Linux. I tried the dual installation, but it was acting unfriendly, so by making Linux the only available OS I'm forcing myself to get it right. Work is going really well so far; my coworkers are all very relaxed and friendly. I'm working in my mentor's group, so I should get a lot of help on all this work I don't know how to do. Fortunately, the volume of information to learn is so "insurmountable" (according to a 8 year mech engr veteran...) to nobody really "knows" what they're doing. It looks like self-help and learning whenever possible are going to be cornerstones of my work there. For the mean time, I'm working on pollution-removing equipment, so that's cool. Anyway, I'm beat and I need to get up early for work. More updates later.

Coolest ties *ever*? I think so. Tie shopping is about to become a very tangible reality... maybe a graduation present from me to me? Maybe. Anyway, looks like a cool product.


One more thing. Remember my previous post about "Urgent Tactical Strike", where the military wants to be able to hit any target anywhere on the earth within 20 minutes with "smart bomb" precision? Well it looks like they're one step closer now; the experimental scramjet engine for the X-51 successfully fired on the ground, and it achieved a steady-state cooling temperature (which is important because at that speed it should be melting itself to pieces). This is important because this option, unlike putting conventional heads on current SLBMs, doesn't scare every other nuclear power on the planet so much. I don't quite understand why; this thing should be able to carry nuclear weapons just as easily as a ballistic missile. Oh well.

Other things on my *long term* to do list:

i) Working out a lot/dieting. This is the most I've ever weighed; I think school-stress almost killed me. I need to get back on the cholesterol-lowering-train. Bigtime.

ii) Fixing my bike. It needs a lot of work. It's a nice bike, but riding it in snow and rain for a few years kinda junked a lotta parts (gears, chain, suspension). I flew over a curb doing about 30 and I need new wheels since mine are now bent outta whack. But my favorite is this one: on two separate occasions, I've crashed the bike and flown over the handlebars so that the bike landed upside down, cracking the gear-shift knobs: so I need a whole new shift set (up till now they've been blobs of epoxy and metal - Jethro, anyone?). But the straw that broke the camel's back is a tiny pin within the rear axle that broke inexplicably while I was riding normally; so now you can't even walk the thing because the wheel is locked up. Long story short - the bike's getting a complete overhaul, and it's gunna do a body good to do the work myself.

*insert joke about $110K mechanical engineering degree and bicycle repair*

iii) Also, turning into a Linux God. Well, maybe just a Linux ninja. We'll see how far I get. What's for sure is that I'm sick and tired of Windows security flaws. I don't use my machine for gaming much; I just want to websurf, write computer codes/do nerd stuff, use office software, and edit the pictures I take with my digital camera (which is done with mozilla, scilab, OpenOffice, and GIMP, respectively, in Linux... for FREE!); and I don't want to feel like my computer has technological VD when I'm done. Is that so much to ask for from a $400 piece of software, Bill Gates? I guess so. Linux just seems like a great option; it's incomparably stable and secure, completely customizable (by definition), there's limitless technical support (via online forums, and an army of nerds just waiting to insult your h4cking skylz), and say goodbye to software piracy (the GNU license actually grants you permissions to edit and redistribute any piece of software as you see fit). Plus, Macs are too trendy for me (sorry Stacey and Mandy - I just feel that way). Wish me luck. Seems like quite an adventure.

"Tux", beloved Linux mascot.

iv) Volunteering at Big Brothers Big Sisters. Tom Shaw, you are a badass - what a great idea! I'm terrible with kids, and I've been given a lot of very important advantages in life. Actually, almost every important advantage in life; it's hard to be oppressed when you're a young white upper-middle-class male. Anyway, seems like "killing two birds with one stone" to me; there are a ton of worse ways to spend a few hours a week. Hopefully I can pick it up soon after I get to KC.

P.S. - Yes, blog, I realize that these three things are all waaayyy bigger than the other stuff I mentioned before. So these are all going to be much larger commitments. Feel free to chime in with support on any of the above...You have to realize I'm at a cross-roads in life and I'm thinking about long-term stuff again.

Spencer and I got home 2 days ago from our road trip! We drove about 4600 miles total in 8 days. Our major landmarks included:

i) wind farms of west Texas
ii) the grave of Billy the Kid
iii) Red Rocks of NM
iv) 4 Corners
v) Rocky Mountains of Colorado
vi) Mt. Rushmore
vii) Budweiser Factory
viii) Pike's Peak
iix) Great Sand Dunes National Park

And I got a ton of pictures; but I think I'll drop a few in just for good measure:

somewhere in west Texas.

4 corners monument.

"Avalanche" Campsite in CO.

where are we?

Yup. We had a great time, and we didn't kill each other by the week's end! The remainder of my vacation's going to be much rougher: moving to KC. My parents are really serious about my getting everything of mine out of the house tout de suite. Thankfully, Spencer's coming with me to move my stuff in. So I guess I'll post another update later.

I'm not ashamed to admit my mind's been wandering lately on what I'm going to do with my free time. On the trip, I finished reading an introduction book to the Linux OS, so I'm planning on switching my computer soon. I'm really dissatisfied with the level of security Windows has, and I'm certainly not paying for Vista anytime soon. Other than that, there are a ton of crafty projects I've got lined up:

i) building the clock kit that Stacey got me.
ii) Make: Ornithopter project
iii) Make: Digital Dice
iv) Make: $5 Cracker box amp

So yeah, wish me luck getting motivated, and wish me luck getting all moved in.

New MC Lars podcast. Ok, actually it's really old I just didn't see it because I was so busy at the end of school this semester.



So here's the medium new-one...it's more boring. I need some fresh material: you're killing me, Lars.



Ok and there's one more, but I'll warn you it's just as sucky as the second one. Here's the REAL new podcast:



Chillin' with Spencer is going really well. I can't wait to post some pictures... of stuff we haven't done yet. Tomorrow's the big productivity day - still a lot of things on my "to do" list have to get done. Not the least of which is taking my uber-crappy couch to Goodwill so it can give a disease to someone.

Graduation went fine. I got a ton of really nice cards; I owe a lot of people very in-depth thank yous.

Quick note on recent happenings:

1) Senior Design is done. We all get A's, I'm sure. Prof. Harwood and the class were very pleased.

2) Automatic Controls Project Done. We got 2nd place in the competition and an automatic 10 points added onto our final grade in the course.

3) Machine Design Project Done. Wes did most of the work - so he deserves most of the credit; but I contributed to the CAD work...woo. Wes does awesome work so that's A country.

4) Professor Cipra crashed the Solo-CruizR project over the weekend. Hilarious. I love hearing them yell "brake! brake! brake!" at the end. Too bad their nice toy got smashed :(

5) My girlfriend loves me. For all the "oohing and aahing" I do on the subject of horology - she buys me what? A CLOCK KIT! Awesome. It will be a thing of beauty for years to come.... after I built it, that is. Side note: I think I'm going to need to buy some tools to make it, which is, of course, a double-bonus.

6) Only 2 exams stand between me, and my $100,000 plus piece of paper. All I have to do is cram like a madman for 5 days and I'm gold.... if only I had some motivation. Man, I've really pissed today away. I better get to it :(

Testing this weekend on the turbine was awesome! I'm frankly a little scared of the thing. Hopefully, these 2 videos will help convince you....

In this first one, we're powering a small air compressor with the generator output. You can really hear the thing spool up as the wind picks up speed. We're pumped.




The next video shows the rotor accelerating from zero to full speed in a heartbeat. Then, when we start to get a little worried, we "put on the brakes" and watch how it slows down!! The propeller has amazing dynamic response, those carbon fiber blades are super lightweight. I'm going to send those nice people at Hydrogen Appliances a very polite note for helping get me an "A". :)



Otherwise, this is a really busy time. Exam Wednesday. Bummer. Hopefully more pics and stuff soon. Finale of "I Love New York" tonight... I'm not sure how I feel. It's been a wild and trashy ride, VH1.

Today was a beautiful day. Absolutely perfect.... for some WIND TURBINE TESTING! The Weather Channel said by 1PM the winds would be a steady 20 MPH, which is pretty darn fast (according to my earlier research, that's about DOUBLE average wind speed). We had a group meeting at 11AM (so the winds were still a tad less than 15 or so) and went out to Ross Ade parking lot to see how fast she spins w/o a gearbox at ground level.


I know it's a still photo - so it's hard to see how fast it's spinning. But trust me, it's fast:
A) Look at Kevin's face (the guy in blue) - he's scared shitless he's going to get a mouthful of propeller.
B) I tried to take Quicktime videos of it in action, but the blade was spinning so fast that the video frames were aliasing. Which, I guess is also partly due to the fact that my poor little Nikon is a few years old...
C) The DMM Wes (guy in black) used to measure the generator output said 11-12 volts, which (from experimental data on the generator) means it was spinning 300 to 400 RPM. Wow.

We were all anxious to let it go full speed, but right now the only thing holding the propeller blades on is an auto hose clamp...not exactly a bulletproof temporary solution (in fact, Kevin made an AMAZING catch when the thing flew off and almost hit the ground. whew.). So, I guess we'll have to wait until more of the superstructure is finished in the machine shop for more complete testing.

Anyway, that was cool. That's all, I guess. Just wanted to share. The cookout last night was a success, I have a ton of tasty leftover food, and plenty of cold beer for later. No complaints, here.

The worms are out. At least they were yesterday. That's how you know it's been raining like hell, when the worms come out that is. When it really rains, the ground gets so saturated with water that those poor little air-breathers from below, the lowly earthworms, come up for some air. I walked to class on Friday 'cuz it was supposed to rain even more (and when you ride your bike in the rain - you get even wetter than if you'd walked w/o an umbrella), and the whole way all I could see was the huge outpouring of earthworms into the gutters. It was erie, really.

(from right in front of my house!)

Otherwise, Friday was a pretty good day. I aced my Naval History Exam, which included bonus points for knowledge about Chuck "Carlos Ray" Norris. woot. I spent about 5 hours in the machine shop working on parts for the Wind Turbine. It's been a while since I've spent such time on my feet, so it was a real bummer that I had to walk home in addition, so I was prettymuch only in the mood to sit since I was on my feet for about 7 hours total. I think I'll take some pictures today during the group meeting to show the progress, they'll probably think I'm crazy - but whatever.

I have a huge to-do list. I always do. If I were a smart bear, I'd spend all day tomorrow getting some of it done.... we'll see how that works out. Hopefully we'll be cooking out w/ James and the gang tonight. The grill has been getting a workout lately, and that excites me!

P.P.S. MC Lars is awesome. These are highly amusing:





yeah! He's right in the midwest touring right now (he'll be in chicago this weekend), but I don't have time to go...too bad. He does a lot of this stuff on his own, so I'm not at all surprised he's already cooking up some new material. Sweetness.

Minor cool stuff to show off.

For the Wind Turbine project, we need to design it such that it will actually operate, right? It needs to be designed around a windspeed which is reasonable for the area it's going to be operated. If we pick a design speed which is too high, then the ambient wind won't be enough to actually turn the generator over - and the whole thing will be useless. On the other hand, if we design it for a wind speed which is too low, then a huge amount of available energy will go untapped and we'll probably lose the competition. Long story short - we need to know what kind of wind we can expect in the WL area.

So I contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), a subdivision of the NOAA, for some data. Apparently, at every operating airport in the United States, they take hourly weather data measurements which are stored. This is AWESOME because the intramural playing fields, which is where the turbine competition will be held, is less than 1/10th of a mile from the Purdue Airport. So, I got hourly measurements on windspeed and direction at the site for the past 30 years. Pretty cool, huh? Well, it turns out that's way too large a data file for EXCEL or MATLAB to handle all at once, so I chopped it down and only looked at the past 6 years (January 2000 to December 2005 still represents about 65000 data points). Naturally, I wrote a code that does some statistics and makes some sweet graphs which reveal the results:

1) Polar Plot. This shows data for one year, windspeed and direction. It's a little difficult to read because there are many data points on top of each other so you don't really know the frequency that one windspeed may occur in one direction.


2) Statistics Plot. This shows the average (mean) windspeed and standard deviation of the windspeed value as a function of direction. Now you can start to see that there are definitely some directions where wind is more likely to come from.

3) Mass Data Summary. This one is really cool. This surface plot shows the information that was used to calculate the numbers in the statistics. This is raw data and it's awesome:


Keep in mind this is especially cool because of how accurate this information is for our group. These graphs are based on public information and basic statistic analysis, but the code to make this stuff took a while to get right. Basically, I'm guessing the other team doesn't have this. So, if you know anybody in the other group, don't tell them about this, k? I'm just really pleased with how clear the trends came out and wanted to show off......

After an inspiring post from Bre Pettis, I decided to write my own rasterbator program in Matlab a few months ago. I'm sure after reading that first sentence, you're going to be angry and clueless about what I just said, so I'll wait for you to click on those links and then come back. Go on, I'll be waiting.....

And we're back! So it turned out great. It's a really simple code (although mine is a little inflexible, it works.... so whatever), so fellow matlab users, feel free to rasterbate your way into the history books:

% Joey Gerondale 1/22/07 Photo Splitter a.k.a. RASTERBATOR!
% The purpose of this simple program is to take a
% large JPEG file, split it into 16 equal sized
% pieces, and output those files as JPEGs.

% INITIALIZE

clc
clear all
IM=imread('your_pic.jpg','jpg');
[H W Z]=size(IM);
h=floor(H/4);
w=floor(W/4);

% COMPUTE

for k=1:4; %hblock
for r=1:4; %wblock
v(:,:,1)=IM(((k-1)*h+1):(k*h),((r-1)*w+1):(r*w),1); %assign red
v(:,:,2)=IM(((k-1)*h+1):(k*h),((r-1)*w+1):(r*w),2); %assign green
v(:,:,3)=IM(((k-1)*h+1):(k*h),((r-1)*w+1):(r*w),3); %assign blue
eval(['pic_out_' int2str(k) int2str(r) '=v;']);
end
end

% OUTPUT

imwrite(pic_out_11,'pic_out_11.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_12,'pic_out_12.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_13,'pic_out_13.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_14,'pic_out_14.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_21,'pic_out_21.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_22,'pic_out_22.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_23,'pic_out_23.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_24,'pic_out_24.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_31,'pic_out_31.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_32,'pic_out_32.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_33,'pic_out_33.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_34,'pic_out_34.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_41,'pic_out_41.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_42,'pic_out_42.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_43,'pic_out_43.jpeg','jpeg');
imwrite(pic_out_44,'pic_out_44.jpeg','jpeg');

I tried it out on this picture of a fish:



And (after I glued the 16 pieces back into one single picture) it turned out like this:

So, it works. In the very short-term, I think I have convinced Mike to scan his hairy ass...then we can use this to make an enormous-hairy-ass-poster and hang it somewhere on campus. A bit juvenile, I know, but I'm tempted nonetheless.

School is still stressful. This is a time of flux - I'll explain more later.

Stressed Out. Bigtime. This week is supposed to be CDR, or "Complete Design Review" for Senior Design. I'm still behind on the turbine blade analysis. A couple of days ago, I thought I'd found the solution, but I was wrong. The damn thing is just so hard to de-bug. The solutions to the equations are so damn non-linear, it's impossible to reason your way out of it. Check this out:






And you might say "yeah, I guess that looks right", but damn! The solver function just seems to converge on two COMPLETELY SEPARATE SOLUTIONS for most of the regime we're interested in. It's so frustrating. I'm really happy I've been getting some help from Wes on the project - he's been very patient and helpful, plus he's a good matlab coder.

The only good thing I have going for me in Senior Design right now is that we've basically already decided on what to do about the turbine design. Some hippies already make some really cheap, really perfect blades for a turbine just like our application. Plus it comes with a pre-manufactured central hub. Perfect. The only thing is that the blade pitch angle isn't adjustable, but I would assume it's already nearly prefect... so that's ok.

I'm really falling behind in my other classes because of this. I barely finished the 452 project on time (I turned it in 10 minutes before it was due, and I definitely am NOT going to get a 100 on it...), plus frankly I'm clueless on the lecture material for 475. I go to class EVERY time and I just feel like he gets up there and gives his lecture in sanskrit. I have HW and a Prelab due on Tuesday I haven't even started yet. Yay.

I'm really stoked for spring break because of how crazy this semester is. The time is REALLY flying by. It's 2 weeks until spring break, and then the semester ends just 6 weeks after that. Gah. Madness. I really need to call up some of the apartment complexes recommended so I can make some appointments to check it out. I'm not worried.

I've also really been enjoying my subscription to Make Magazine. There are some really cool projects in there. I only wish I had more time to tinker and fool around. Ah well, I guess that will just have to wait until after graduation.

Long term goals for after graduation:
i) stop slowly killing myself with food.
ii) get a workshop/workroom full of cool tools.
iii) use it/them.
iv) join Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
v) learn more about electronics.

SNOW DAY! I was in a computer lab at 11:30 this morning when the official email was sent out:

"NEWS RELEASE

February 13, 2007
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University has declared a 24-hour snow recess
beginning at noon Tuesday (Feb. 13) and ending at noon Wednesday (Feb. 14).
All classes are canceled for the remainder of Tuesday and for the morning
on Wednesday. Most employees have been requested to leave the university..."

Hell. Yes. So I got a ride home from Kevin back up the hill.... where he got stuck. As he slowed down to drop me off, his front-wheel-drive Jetta got in too deep and he couldn't move - so I spent the next half out helping him back to the road (Go Lola Go!). I feel REALLY guilty for taking up so much of his time - but I'm also a little proud that the car did so well. But, seriously - it's pretty snowy out.

Ok maybe it doesn't LOOK like "the Day After Tomorrow", but the snow is obviously deep enough to drift so that cars get stuck and school is canceled (first time in 10 years?).

The snow day is a blessing. I have a TON to do right now. The first ME452 project is due on Monday - and I haven't really started. It's pretty in-depth. People tell me that compared to project 2, the first one is a breeze - so hopefully it won't be that bad. I need to call home to talk to my family. I need to call Spencer back to talk about my graduation trip plans (he's been calling for over a week... I feel terrible). I need to go to the bank to make a deposit for Stacey (after the roads clear). I need to do my taxes. Ok maybe all that won't happen today - but you get the idea. Maybe I should start by making a run to Ace Hardware for a snow shovel to clear the drive so that the guys can get out later this week.

On Friday, my Senior Design group gave the first major presentation of the semester: Preliminary Design Review (or PDR). Basically, we had to do every major piece of engineering analysis for every subsystem in the entire thing in a week - and prove that our design is feasible (ok, so not only will it work... how well do you expect it to work?). The portable Wind Turbine is proving to be a very interesting challenge. We have specialists for everything: a structures specialist, a gearbox specialist, an electronics/generator specialist, and an aerodynamics specialist (yours truly). Beyond the tit-for-tat question and answer during the thing, it went very well. So far it looks like it's really going to work! My idea for a cost-effective propeller is to use the main-rotor blades from RC helicopters. I'm not going to lie - last week was very stressful for me. I was on campus for 12+ hours a day starting on Saturday of last week - which culminated in a all-nighter Thursday night to be ready. Whew. We've still got a long way to go - but I'm confident in the group. Check out my initial rotor design:


Not perfect or elegant - but it's an interesting first idea. We've got about 3 weeks to make the final design (and I mean FINAL). I've been reading a lot about Wind Turbines, meeting with professors & grad students to point me in the right direction... you get the idea. Working hard. But I'm really proud of my group's effort - none of them had to pull an all-nighter to get their work done, and it was probably a lot less intensive than the stuff I'm doing. So I'm very happy and lucky to be working with them.

The first weekend of school I exclaimed: " I have SOOOOO much freee tiiime.... what am I going to do??? ". Yeah. It's changed since then. So that Friday night I started up one of my old hobbies - building model airplanes. I picked up a balsa Guillows model from Hobby Lobby for $10 - a Piper Super Cub. I spent the whole first weekend working on it and made a ton of progress - but since then it's been sitting on my living room table taking up space. Until today - when I put the finishing touches on it. Of course, it's way too cold & windy to go fly it now - but hell I can at least hang it up in my room for a while. Check it out:



Ok. That's long enough. Sorry it's been so long without an update. Spring break is just a few weeks away and I haven't worked on my plan for that at all. Right now I think I'll be going to K.C. with Stacey to figure out living arrangements and stuff. Also we plan visiting Mandy & Nate. Fun. Apparently, James & Jenni might be driving down on their own. Cool. Well - wish me luck! Tons to do!

Talk about eating your words - quote my facebook page: "I have a feeling I'll be really busy in a week". Yeah. I Am. I got home today after being on campus for 14 hours straight today - and I have a lot of work yet to do tonight. So this is not a happy-happy-joy-joy posting. Long story short: while all my activities are really interesting and on-track - I am up to my neck in stuff to do. Memo to self: stop volunteering for things.

However, in bizzaro world, where people still do things for fun - there's going to be a giant banana orbiting Texas. Check out these official photo-shopped pics:


Basically, they're going to put a realistic, banana shaped blimp nearly 1000 ft in length 20 miles over Texas. It has internal gyroscopic stabilization to keep it oriented horizontally (which is apparently aided by the boomerang-like wobbling), and some type of navigation to keep it over Texas (GPS?). So far as I can tell - they're serious. They have a considerable number of very smart people working on this. Apparently, the Canadian "artists" think this is a funny way of simultaneously insulting and exalting the beautiful absurdity that is Texas.


That conjures up a rousing mental symphonic performance of Also sprach Zarathustra. Nice. Well, back to the real world. Enjoy your sleep, everyone - tonight I shall have none.

Everything's off to a great start! I'm setting myself up for a ton of responsibility this semester, but so far I'm still really optimistic about it.

The "Hand's On" course I teach is going really well. I think we have a bang-up group of instructors, and we've had a good chance to get the weekly lab projects into a fun-size. I'm the webmaster for the WebCT site, so I'm enjoying myself by making it look nice and keeping it up to date. I hope the students appreciate it.

My senior design is also going really well. I'm very familiar with three of the other members - we're in PMEA together. The other two I know from having them in my classes constantly. I think it looks like an interesting and hard-working group. In addition, I got elected to be "Project Engineer" or P.E. for the entire class; basically I'm going to be running the class meetings in about a week. It's going to be a huge time-sink, but I have a ton of help to back me up. Also, it should help give my group some clout with resources. Yay.

Automatic Control Systems is turning out to be a very strange walk on the wild side. Check one-two.


I'm getting a tour of the Caterpillar plant over in Lafayette lined up for next week. Exciting! I really slacked off hardcore last semester, so I'm making a real effort to get some of those tours done SOON! I have some paperwork yet to do this afternoon, but hopefully everything will go off without a hitch.

My New Year's Resolution to finish off all the alcohol in the house is going awesomely. Monday night I made myself a ghetto Long-Island with:

Gin
Whiskey (cheap)
Tequila
Triple Sec
Rum (cheap)
Dr. Thunder.

and it was amazing. I think I'll do it again tonight.

Also, I had a few minutes to work out the kinks in my matlab code simulating Earth's gravity. Check it out here or below:



Ok that's jank because I don't know how to edit html - but it works. Whatever.

I'm psyched about two TV shows that just premiered this Monday that are competing for the same air-time. New Season of FutureWeapons (scary cool) and I love New York (terrifyingly entertaining. Trashy and low brow as can be. I dig it). Monday nights at 9PM EST are going to be Joey relax time.

I finally have some work to do! Projects and Hw and Labs! Oh My! This weekend will be a welcome break, and I'm going to have earned it by then. P.S. I'm calling B&M tomorrow to accept the job offer. I'm really happy with my choice! Yay!

Aaaaalll alone. I'm back in the WL just a tad early for the spring semester so I can readjust to my surroundings here. Doin' laundry, running errands, cleaning this and that - you know the drill. I called back to Delta & Kohler earlier this week - I'm really disappointed that I haven't had any response from them yet. As it stands, though - Stacey and I had a long discussion and I'm starting to lean towards the job in KC regardless. Forget for a moment that it's warmer there :), the city has a much lower cost of living, better opportunities for continuing education (Master's Degree, here I come...), and it's a place we could settle into for a long while (instead of WI, where the plan would be to live near the city when we're young and then move out to the country when we're older). So yeah. I haven't completely made up my mind yet - which is why I keep calling these people to hear a response (even a NO would be better than nothing...); but I'm supposed to respond to my standing offer by the 15th of this month. *sigh*

So my New Year's Eve was fun. Kel & Erin were gracious hosts as always. They served a stunning prime rib (served with horseradish sauce), blanched asparagus, and twice baked potatoes. Yum and Yummer. Wish I had a picture, but we were all starving so we ate it up! Anyway - I think everyone had just the right amount of good time if you know what I mean. The evening had a tropical theme; Erin decorated the appt in flowers and posters and such and we drank Mai Tai's. The morning after we nursed our hangovers with cinnamon rolls, mozzi sticks (a tradition!), and playful mocking of the commentary to the tournament of roses parade (have you actually ever LISTENED to what those morons say??). After a quick stop to see Rob and Amy on the north side, Stace & I started our drive south.

Huntsville was very relaxing. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened - we cooked dinner together, watched some movies (The Good Shepard is soooo confusing!), went for a drive, went to the Art Museum, et cetera. Recharge the 'ole batteries. I do feel really rested.

I had kind of a boring day of travel back. I spent most of my time reading this month's Pop Mechanics (wow, a new and exciting way to use nuclear weapons!) and the Sky Mall catalogue. I want to do a subsequent entry on how lame some of the products are... we'll see if time permits. Peace all. No, wait! Check out this sweet Trident II ICBM made by Lockheed Martin in the late 80's !!