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SAAS Stuff

Tuesday was SAAS Graduation. The last one I’ll go to for now. There are two reasons this will be my last one. First, I don’t know anyone else graduating. This was the last class that I shared a link to. Second, I have this “thing” left over from high school. I don’t know why, but I do. The easiest way to explain it is to just say that I have some desire to rehash my high school life. I feel like I missed out on a lot of things and I left to early (which I didn’t. I did my four years and I was out just like that).

If you’ve ever read “Just a Geek”, by Wil Wheaton, he talks about this ghost called “Prove to Everyone that Quitting Star Trek Wasn’t a Mistake” which he shortens to “Prove to Everyone”.
From www.oreillynet.com:

Always close, but never quite getting that one acting job that would revitalize his career, he struggled to come to terms with what it means to be famous, or, ironically, famous for having been famous.

P.S. If Rob Phillips ever reads this, I’ll never hear the end of it…one might call it an inside joke from Canyon Lands.

I digress.

I was able to see Gillian Derkee, Mira Courage, Adrian Harris (who is freaking huge by the way! 6′ 5″ eghad!). Mission Accomplished. Done and Done.

Thursday was the SAAS Alumni at the BluWater Bistro on Lake Union. Good times for sure. Alec Turnbull, Daniel Bushyhead, Morgan Harris, Devin Fitzpatrick, Celeste Jalbert, Nora Johnson, Peter Markle, and myself represented ’04 (I don’t think I missed anyone from our class). I tried to get Jeff Hanway to come, but he’s insistent on waiting five years, which means two more years before he’ll come. A handful of teachers came: Bill, Canuche, Melinda, and Fred to name a few that I can remember without thinking too hard at two in the morning.

Spring 2007 Grades

Circuits: C
MEL Lab: A
Mechanics of Materials: C
Thermodynamic: C
Differential Equations: B
Probabilities and Statistics: B
Introduction to Space Exploration: A

GPA for this Semester: 2.629
Cumulative GPA: 2.564

Couple of notes, 1.98% off from a B in circuits. I email my professor, here’s his response:

I looked over your grade again just to make sure that I had it correct. Everything looks right, and there is no mechanism for raising your grade. I do appreciate your effort in the class and your desire to keep pushing. That will take your farther than a higher grade in this one class in any case.

He’s actually a really good guy.

Done for the Now

I’m all done with school for now. Last final was this afternoon.

I’ll finish up packing and start heading home.

The current plan is to leave Friday morning: Grand Junction, Orange, San Francisco, Tahoe, Seattle.

Study Abroad: The Process Begins

I’ve been entertaining the idea of studying abroad for a couple months ago. And while the decision to actually study abroad is no where close to being made, I am starting down the path. I sent an email to the Office of International Programs (OIP) and they had me come in when I had a chance (which I did today).

There, I was able to gain a some critical information. First, a list of schools that have reciprocating agreements with the Colorado School of Mines. Basically, this is the list that I will be picking a school from. Second, the deadline for applications: Mid-November 2007 for a Spring 2008 session. And finally, how I go about picking classes from the school and how I get them approved for transfer to CSM.

At this point, I’m leaning heavily towards the United Kingdom. Mostly because they speak English there and when it comes to foreign languages, I suck (at least I did in high school. Who knows, maybe I’m better now).

There are four Universities in the UK:

  • University of Sheffield
  • University of Surrey
  • University of Leeds
  • University of Wales, Swansea

I spent a bit of time looking at Surrey and Leeds. Leeds has the leading Electrical program in the UK. This is good. This is very good. Surrey has some space-related courses that I could take though. It’s also closer to London (which may or may not be a good, I haven’t decided yet).

I’m also somewhat considering Australia, Japan, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Turkey.

Much research is ahead and any comments or suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated, even if you’ve never traveled abroad.

For those that have traveled abroad, I might be seeking your counsel in the coming months.

Done

Done with classes. Five finals left. Two on Saturday, two on Monday, one on Wednesday. Then really done.

Red Light Photos

The concert at EDay’s provided some great lighting (I’ve been reading Strobist lately, a blog about off camera flash lighting), but I had some issues when the red lights came on.

DSC_9256

The red light tended to really wash out the image, almost light a bright white light. I did some research and I guess that the CCD sensor is particularly sensitive to red light. There is supposed to be a “built-in, low-pass, long-wavelength cutoff filter in front of the sensor” (Source), but it doesn’t appear to work very well. Not that I’m complaining, it’s just something interesting I’m noting.

Exams Results

Thursday concluded the final round of exams before finals. Here are the grades I know thusly:

  • Mechanics of Materials: 73
  • Thermodynamics: 102/150 (68%)
  • Circuits: 81

I have yet to hear back from Differential Equations and Probabilities & Statistics. These latest scores do give me a much needed confidence boost going into finals.

More Days Off Next Year

This comes as welcome news for everyone at Mines, I’m sure. Starting next school year, we will receive an extra three days of break spread throughout the year; all without pushing back the end of school.

How? As I understand it, we’re only required to be in class xxx amounts of days a year. As it currently stands, we’re above that number, so we can take the extra days off without any ill effects.

So, what days do we get off?

  • A Tuesday has been added to extend Fall Break. Fall Break will now encompass Saturday through Tuesday, Oct. 13-16, with classes resuming on Wednesday.
  • The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, has been designated a non-class day. Thanksgiving Break is Nov. 22-25.
  • The Monday in February that aligns with Presidents’ Day, Feb. 18, is also now a non-class day.

Source: Campus email

Three Weeks Left

Two weeks left of regular classes. Three weeks if you count finals. I have 7 exams (including 5 finals) in the next three weeks, two of which are tomorrow. To say that I’m a little stressy would be an understatement.

An Engineers View on a Shooting at an Engineering School

I mostly have jumbled thoughts on this that I can’t quite put together in a completely coherent post. Each paragraph is more or less a separate thought and don’t necessarily tie together completely.

The first I heard about the shooting at Virgina Tech was a message left on my phone from Dad. I have a cousin, Drew, once removed (my dad’s cousin’s son, so whatever that makes it) at VTech who is only a year older than me. So in many ways, this hit kind of close to home since we’re related. Drew’s dorm is in West Ambler Johnston Hall, which is where the initial shooting took place. Thankfully Drew is safe.

I’m worried. School shootings have been contained to middle schools and high schools. Raging testosterone, bullying, and teenage rebellion probably played a significant factor in shootings thus far (I’m not an expert, but it seems plausible to me). This is how I was able to rationalize my safety. However, when shootings occur at a college, everything changes. The testosterone has settled, bullying is no longer prevalent (at least from my experiences), and there really isn’t anything to rebel against. People band together to get through life, not shoot it up. Thus, in a sense, this shooting really was random. And, as with all random things, there is no way to predict when it might occur next.

Now the flood gates have opened and the possibility of a copy cat shooting have dramatically increased. I worry that something like this, something like Virgina Tech could happen here. Thirty-three dead students at Mines would be over 1% of our undergraduate population. I think that Mines may be even more at risk then VTech was. We have a very rigorous program, very stressful if not managed properly. There’s a very unnatural ratio of male to female (78% male here), thus plenty of testosterone. It really would take just one bad relationship breakup to send some guy on shooting spree.

I think dying at school is the worst way to die and sickens me the most. Imagine spending so much time and putting so much energy into school, all to have life taken away from you just when the end is in sight? I remember an accident a few years ago in Seattle. A car full of high school seniors were driving to their graduation when they crashed and died. I remember thinking how awful that was. College would be even worse because you’ve spent that much more time working towards something that in the end, ultimately doesn’t mean anything.

I wish I could close my eyes and all this would go away. It’s been all over the news, NPR, and the Internet. The only way I’ve been able to get away from it all is by turning away, which seems like the wrong thing to do.

Image: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/the_myspace_com.html