Realm of the Imponderable

RDOC #97

Another week of school. Nothing much really happens when you're in the rat race..
I have about a week and a half to finish up the prototype with my group for ME350. And, it looks like we may actually be putting in all the bells and whistles in the mechanism after all. Oh? I didn't mention what it was?
It's a machine that automatically squirts a nice zigzag line of ketchup (Or mustard or chilli cheese whatever) along the length of a hot dog. We started having second thoughts about the zigzag part but it looks like there's inspiration to try and find a way to get that feature in after all.
I finally got around to making a short video clip of a devilstick routine. You can get it here
It's a little big but I personally think it's worth the trouble. (A little shameless self advertising, if I dare say so myself. But, at the risk of sounding like a girl with the perfect 36-24-36 figure, "if you got it you might as well flaunt it")

Leaving for Chicago tomorrow. It's Thanksgiving and the whole yadayada are busy going all over the place trying to get stuff done and going home for the once in a year Turkey treat. Domestic flights and highways are going to be badly crowded, I'm guessing.

K... I'm going to sign off now. I have a 4 hour drive tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it.

RDOC #96

hrm. yet another lapse in writing. These past few weeks have been busy, as usual. No Ring of Steel gigs, just usual practive, juggling and homework. Lots of homework. And watching some Anime. Eugene finaly convinced me to watch one called Evangelion, which starts out pretty trashy but gets better as you go along. Apparently it makes you think a bit too later on cos' it has a few parallels to the bible. But I have to agree, the Japanese do know how to make good cartoons that don't necessarily appeal only to small children.

2 weeks ago was tech day. It's essentially a College of Engineering open house where we invite high school students to come and see the place so that they can decide better if they really want to come here. I was a student group leader and brought around a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds around campus, expounding upon them the various interesting, entertaining, outrageous and of course, mostly true stories about life in Michigan. During the course of the day the student groups also go on department tours and that day we went through the Mechanical and Civil engineering departments. As always, every tech day presents something new, even to thr group leaders. I actually went into the structures lab (AKA the Earthquake Lab) that day. No, they didn't turn on the vibrators and whatnot but it felt like walking around a construction site.

I've come out with a couple of new stunts with the devilstick. Right now I'm at the point where I have so many in my repertoire that I sometimes miss a couple of them if I do a routine that goes through all of them. Maybe I should start a list and put it on a webpage or something.