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!