I apologize, It's been a while.

Hi All,

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything here. Things are going well.
I have been through pretty much all midterms (awaiting the results of the last 2, but they should be decent). Next tests come during dead week (the week before finals, and the week after Thanksgiving).

Concrete Canoe is in full swing (We are placing the canoe next weekend and have put in many hours at this point.). I had to go through tool training yesterday to be able to use the structures lab/machine shop. I was talking with a guy who knew a bit of German, about experiences in Germany, during lunch. Immediately after we went to the machine shop training, where we found this sign on a lathe:

(Click Picture to Enlarge)

(Sorry for picture being slightly blurry)

Nobody could figure out why we were laughing, and we refused to explain. It is now a decent inside joke. Essentially (I'm paraphrasing and summarizing for those who don't know German), it says keep your hands in your pockets, and don't touch the machine unless you are a total idiot, because it can tend to spark etc. (It was funny, not because of what the message was, but because it was in German, and the language they used within German.)

Also this week, I ate lunch with a Mechanical Engineering graduate student who happened to be from Quito. It made for an interesting conversation on Wednesday.

Let's see... what else is going on... *thinks to self for minute*.... Oh yeah... I have a view again. The leaves finally fell off the trees outside my window, and University Village is completely covered with Christmas Lights, it's really nice looking out the window.

In other news. It's COLD!!!!!

REALLY looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Funny German warning signs & Thanksgiving Pies,

-Stephen

Happy Birthday Oma!

Happy Birthday Oma! I hope your day went well.

In other news, my Environmental Midterm went well today,

Good Midterms and Birthdays,

-Stephen

Nice Day Today

Hi All,

Fun day. I was surveying on the roof of my Civil Engineering building, and saw some incredible views.

Classes are going well, and I'm enjoying the new Civ E classes.

Also in the news, It hasn't rained whenever I'm outside, *Knocks on Wood* :) and my whiteboard eraser guys seems to be on hiatus *Knocks on Wood again*.

Anyways, heres some of what I saw off the roof today. One time only pics, since I don't think I'm going to get to go back on the roof of More hall again, since it was a special occasion.

Fun Classes/Labs, and a possible concrete canoe experience in the coming week or so (still looking into it).

-Stephen

P.S. Happy Birthday Aunt Carol. (Yes I know I'm a day early. :) Hope you have a fun day tomorrow.)

Heres the pics from the roof:

Husky Stadium

Lake Washington

Med Center (foreground) Space Needle (distance)
I actually used the Space needle in some of my calculations for the lab.

It seems my whiteboard eraser guy is back...

Hi All,

Ok so all of last year we had a guy who erased our whiteboard all last year and was really annoying.
He's back.
I'm tempted to try using a sharpie, since I know how to get it off a regular whiteboard.
That said, this whiteboard can be difficult to fully erase sometimes and I am hesitant to put ink on it that might not come off.

I am also considering writing it in election ink. That ink is water soluble and will come off the whiteboard, but not his/her hand (at least for 2 weeks until new skin grows), effectively catching him "black handed". Election ink is used in many countries to mark the fact that voted and prevent fraud.
The difficulty would be getting my hands on some. The other answer might be to attempt to find some silver nitrate and dilute it to ~18%, and mix it with water soluble ink, but that is likely difficult to do without staining my own hands.

Throw me ideas in what you think would be an interesting solution.

Other ideas I've thought of include: Singing Birthday Cards (seems overpriced for the effectiveness), pen cameras (WAAAAY too expensive but guaranteed to work).

If I could find out who was erasing the whiteboard, I could mess with him for the rest of the year... Oh such sweet satisfaction.

In other news, Quizbowl is back in full swing, HFS is refusing to fix my internet for some reason, and the weather sucks.

Rain and A Revenge Driven Nerd (thats me),

-Stephen

Back in 403.

Hi All,
I said I would try to keep this updated. So here's post one.
I'm back in 403 McCarty and it looks exactly the same as last year.
Oh and the internet of course isn't working on half the room. (This is the same thing I filed a work order to get fixed last year... they fixed it... now its broken again... Karma sucks.)

Class doesn't start for a week, so in the meantime its get settled in and do Quizbowl.

Same Room & Crappy Internet Connection,

-Stephen

I survived!

Hi All,
This was quite possibly the best finals week I have had in a long time. Feels good to be done.
With that... this blog is officially closed for the summer.
Have a good summer and Excellent Finals,
~Stephen

Happy Birthday Aunt Janet!

Happy Birthday Aunt Janet,
I hope your day is going well.

In other news, nature has been throwing pretty much everything but snow our way today. But somehow, I managed not to get rained on. :D

Weather and Birthdays,
~Stephen

Finally Broke Through.

Hi All,
It's been a fun weekend.
Yesterday consisted of Quizbowl and a free 3D IMAX ticket to see Ironman 3. (Which I highly recommend, they did a good job with it.) And today I received a test score from a week ago. Finally broke through, 97% on this one, 20 points above avg. Oh and the weather is fantastic. It's really hard to complain about anything substantial right now.
So... uhh... Yeah. I guess thats it for now.

Movies and Smiles,
-Stephen

Here's wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday!

Hi All,
Happy Birthday Dad! (and thanks for the Streusel and quite possibly the best study break in a long time).

To everyone else, Here's whats going on.

Yup. That pretty much sums it up. The weather is sweet. [This is our famous Rainier Vista, with trees finally blooming now (this was taken this afternoon), and the mountain is visible if you look closely)

Also, in other news, I'm surviving a brutal week, I got 1 quiz and 1 exam down and one to go on Friday. (But then I get to come home =D).

Anyways, I have to get back to studying, but I figured I should at least leave something here to pay mother nature for all this gorgeous weather (which I can't enjoy enough since I'm studying... but that's besides the point.)

Sunny Weather and Benny Goodman (Best music I could find to study with right now),
-Stephen

It's that time of the year again...

Hi all,
Sorry once again for the exceedingly long break in between posts, it has been insanity here. I'm pulling long days every single day of the week and trying to figure out how to survive it all. First midterms are next week for me so I've been busy studying (on top of homework).

Lets see, other happenings, helped staff a high school quiz bowl tournament yesterday. Yeah thats pretty much it besides studying. Oh, and its raining... again...
Rain and Studying,
-Stephen

1 Final Down.

Hi All,

I am officially done with Amath, leaving myself pretty much solely with Dynamics left to work on. (Well, I have Music 120 left, but that needs next to no time at all compared with the other classes).
I think I did pretty well (a couple points above average).

Also, I had a really satisfying moment afterwards. There is this guy who sits in the front of the room every day for Amath. Essentially he has this notion that he is always right, and challenges the answers of absolutely everybody. I was talking with a friend of mine after the exam, when he goes and try's to prove my answer wrong, for one of the problems. He goes on for about 2-3 minutes, when the professor chimes in with what we should have had. Long story short, I was right and he was left there standing looking like an idiot. So satisfying.

Anyways, I got 6 days until my last final and then I get to enjoy Spring break for a while.

More studying and immense satisfaction,
-Stephen

P.S. Ok so the font was better, but I heard the yellow on black wasn't great, so I switched it to a Dark Purple on Light Gray. Again, tell me what you think. I'm trying to make this as easy to read as possible.

Almost there...

Hi all,

It's been one crazy dead week here. (It hasn't been acting so dead, the name dead week essentially means classes are winding down, new material is done and everyone is studying for finals). But... yeah... um that hasn't exactly happened here. Instead I've been insanely busy learning three weeks of dynamics material in the last week of class and I get to take a test on it next week (Finals week) worth 40% of my grade. *Insert Insanely Sarcastic Smile Here* Real Fun.

But I'm surviving, and the week has lived up to its name somewhat, it certainly has been a week of lasts. Last AMATH 301 Lecture was yesterday, last Dynamics recitation (smaller class section) was Tuesday, today was my last quiz for Music 120 (Piece of cake, literally tested on ability to recognize Jimi Hendrix's Music from the Beatles... suffice to say, I wish I could have sat and listened to the music on that quiz throughout that entire section...).

First Final (AMATH) is tomorrow, Then I have Wednesday (Music 120) and Thursday (Dynamics) Finals next week. (Still not remotely ready for next Thursday's.), but hey I still have a week to study, and when I'm done with that, I'm home for spring break.

My sincere apologies for not posting here more often this quarter, its been a little zany around here.

Finals and Jimi Hendrix Riffs, 

-Stephen

P.S. Tell me what you think of the new font. Clearer? Tell me if I should change it again. Name of it is "Kaffesatz".

Wow its been a while hasn't it?

Hi All,
Sorry for first post in a while. Been kinda busy.
Things are going pretty well. I have 3 crazy weeks then I'm on spring break.
The end of this week
Midterm Week.
Dead Week (With Final on Friday)
& Finals Week.

I can't wait to see everyone.
Rain and Studying,
-Stephen

Thats better.

Hi All,
Survived a brutal quiz this morning. Finished my insane amounts of MATLAB homework, got a ton done, then went to a piano concert (Christopher O'Riley playing Liszt) this evening. Yeah, that pretty much fixes it.
Piano Concerts, and end to insanity,
-Stephen

There ain't no rest for the weary...

Hi All,
It's like professors are trying to kill us right now.
Today, after surviving Friday's insane Dynamics midterm, I took yet another midterm (Today's was Music 120... ridiculously easy). The interesting thing is: Normally when I take a midterm, it tends to take precedent over everything else in a day. Today, not so much... by this evening, I've almost completely forgotten I took a midterm this morning. The reason? 10 hours of insane MATLAB assignment, and the knowledge that there is a quiz tomorrow in Amath (my MATLAB class). He also happened to mentioned that it was supposed to be incredibly difficult...
However, it can't be worse than what my roommate is dealing with right now. He is on this group project designed for 3 people to work 10 hours a day on... but he only has 2 people in his group. It's safe to say he hasn't slept much.

Professors, if you happen to read this... stop beating us over the head with a sledgehammer and let us get back to work. Thanks.

Tests and Excessive workloads,
-Stephen

You know you live in McCarty when...

2 Fire alarms in 3 days. Getting a little ridiculous.

I'd rather be golfing,
-Stephen

Welcome back to winter quarter-Can every morning start this great?

Yeah, its safe to say I'll wake up early for this...

I heard a Beethoven concert in my MUSIC 120 class this morning by Robin McCabe (head of the piano faculty here) and Maria Larinoff (former concertmaster for the Seattle Symphony).

Also, its sunny for the first time in (aww heck I have no clue how long).

Interesting tidbit about my Winter quarter: I have next to no required homework. I have 5 assignments TOTAL for AMATH301 (Its a class where we learn how to use Matlab [a math programing language] to solve systems of matrix operations, and differential equations), and no required homework for ME230 (Dynamics, a brutally hard study of motion... has no required homework just "suggested problems"... Now you can probably guess that I've done double the suggested problems already... and am already studying like its finals week... There ain't no rest for the weary.)

But, overall this should be a fun quarter.

Thats all for now,
Beethoven & Snow (Please??? Just enough to last a while (w/o rain???))
-Stephen