"There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here,"

said the Joker to the Thief. "There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief."

That's how awesome the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 finale was. Jimmy Hendrix by way of Bob Dylan. Unfortunately, the show won't be back until 2008. I love and hate the producers of that show. I know I'll forgive them, eventually. But for now I'm angry and sad and still pumped from the awesomeness.

In other news, I got both of my midterms back on Thursday, and things were just about as I expected. I got a 92 on the Mechanical Design test (I'm fairly sure that was the highest grade, but we're kinda past those announcements at this point in school). I got a 20.5 / 30 on my Viscous midterm. That's a couple of points better than my midterm last semester, and near the top of class performance this time. I need to do at least as well on the final to get an A, which shouldn't be a problem.

I may have an opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. sometime soon. Dr. Vakili asked for anyone interested in both the NASA and politics, and that's me to the letter. There's some kind of annual rally / awareness conference every year, and they like to sponsor a few students. It would involve meeting some congressmen and NASA bigwigs, so that would be cool. More on that as details emerge.

As for the weekend, it went pretty well. Jeff and I grilled some steaks last night, and watched Casino Royale (the new one). We're going to watch the old one soon (we've got it, just no time). I thought the movie was pretty good, I look forward to the next one.

Yesterday I got all my Viscous homework taken care of for the week, so I could focus on my missile more right now. Today I spent the day trying to get my propellant geometry designed (its pretty important). I can get a solution for my 1st stage, but the 2nd stage is proving to be (in polite terms) awful. To make matters worse, our professors have conflicting views on the neccessity of designing said propellant geometry. Dr. Flandro thinks is not worth the time and effort (yay!), but Paul thinks we should do it (boo!). Jeff and I are on the verge of attempting a coup de class. More on that as details emerge.

Now to bed. To bed, I said.

Hardly Working

Its been a while, so I'll just hit the high points.

Jennifer came up to visit the week before Spring Break. We drove down to Chattanooga (nice town) and had a blast at the Tennessee Aquarium. I got to pet a sturgeon, a shark (a little one), and a sting ray (he was stingerless). While we were there, we strolled around the downtown area, found an old merry-go-round and rode it for $1. I had a couple of mid-terms to prepare for; I think I knocked my Mechanical Design test out of the park, and I think I may have gotten picked off at 1st on my Viscous test. Oh well, I get points for the baseball analogies.

The week at home was pretty nice - mostly uneventful, somewhat productive, and pretty relaxing. On Monday Jeff and I met up at CBU to work on some missiles stuff. We put in most of a day, and Dr. Shiue bought us lunch (he IS the Coolest Man on the Planet, afterall). The rest of the week, I mostly relaxed, read a little, and spent time with Jennifer. I did finally get to watch Flyboys (its about the Lafayette Escadrille - look it up). It wasn't quite as good as I had hoped, but still a solid B+. If you liked The Great Raid, you'll enjoy Flyboys. Lunch on Thursday with the family was really nice, and not just because of the Central BBQ. But it was a factor. Mostly though, it was nice to get to visit. Also, Wild Hogs was pretty funny.

Getting back in to the swing of things today was not too fun. I barely got up on the second alarm, and stumbled into Mechanical Design with a minute to spare. Dr. Dekken forgot the tests, so no good news there. Gloyer didn't show up for missiles (family emergency), so that was a nice repreive. And finally, our remote student hasn't taken the Viscous midterm yet, so no bad news there. At least that balanced out.

Now I'm sitting here, and about to give up and call it a night.

And...I'm done.

Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes!

%#@&! Blogger ate my post. This would have been longer, I swear.

Thursday was a long day. It seemed to drag on and on and on. Dr. Dekken shed some light on the homework problems I've been attempting, which was good. In Missiles, Dr. Flandro showed us a one-sixth scale model of the Sergeant rocket motor (it had a role in the Explorer I launch) and showes us his book that's signed by Werner Von Braun. Later, we had a roundtable discussion about our designs, and the Superfriends led the way. Gloyer feels like Jeff's design is a little too similar to my design, but no one cares what he thinks. In Viscous Flow, we finally started talking about Poisseuille (pronounced "pah-swee") Flow, which is essentially fluid flowing in a pipe. This is good because its something realistic, which always helps me learn good.

I was going to work out after class, but I felt exhausted. So I took a two-hour nap instead. After some much needed rest and dinner, I banged out 5 of the 6 homework problems that I needed doing for Vakili. After that, I was out like a light again and slept for 8 hours. Yes, I was THAT tired.

Today I got up and went to the lab to do a little bit of work, just one tray. While I was there, they test fired a rocket about 300 feet away from where I was sitting. This marked the second time in a week that a super cool dangerous machine has been test fired without me being notified. I realize now that I failed to mention in my earlier post that they test fired a turbojet engine in the next building over from me on Wednesday - I thought a plane was about to crash very near by until ran outside and saw the grass LAYING DOWN next to the building. Strange sensation. While I was hard at work (mostly writing up homework and babysitting the machine) Dr. Vakili came by to show some people around. I didn't get a good look at them when the headed into the Spin Lab, but Dr. Vakili gave me a weird look. On their way back out, he introduced Heather & I to them. One gentleman was a co-founder of UTSI, the other was a long-time administrator of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They were a little awe-inspiring. And then Dr. Vakili asked me what I was doing there, it being a Friday and all. Go figure.

I did make it to the gym today, and boy was it a work out. I ran 3.1 miles ( 5 km ) in about 31 minutes, did 15 minutes on the elliptical machine, and did a 10 minute cool-down walk. All in all, I burned about 1,000 calories. Hoo-ah.

Jeff and I did some much needed spring cleaning this afternoon. When there's dust settled on the cleaning supplies, you've got a problem. I'd say the apartment hasn't been this clean since I moved in. Which is sad, albeit true.

During dinner, Jeff and I watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! This movie was awfully hilarious, emphasis on both the awfully and the hilarious. Its kind of weird, so don't expect much high-minded humor or plot development. Actually, its kinda dumb. But in a good way. After dinner, I did a little bit more Viscous work, and did some missile brainstorming with Jeff. Once we were done there, we wrapped up the evening by watching Idiocracy, a very smart little satire about the dumbing-down of society. Its from Mike Judge, the creative mind behind Office Space and King of the Hill. On the whole, it was pretty good if a little scary. The premise, like all movies, was a stretch but it was based on some real trends. See Jeff's blog for more detailed rambling. My thoughts: read a book, paint a picture, and turn the tv off.

Jennifer is coming up to visit tomorrow. I can't wait.

Finally, Blogger is dumb because it ate my post. While I was typing this, I tried to check my email at another gmail address, in another browser. Appparently, Blogger doesn't like this.

%#@&!