In a dazzingly display of pure brilliance, pete has all to quickly posted comments to almost every single one of the mount rose pictures that i put up only a day or two ago. The comments show a level of humor, intrigue, and wit that has never before been seen. I am assuming he took the time to form such radiant poetic verse because of his deep lack of understanding of probability and statistics, how to be friends with a girl even after breaking up, and the fact that no, chuck is not looking at you through the phone. I was going to make some comment that tied into one of Sherman's blindingly quick advances in WWII, but i don't have pete here to help me out with the details, so just assume that is would have been insanely witty, funny, and all to accurate. Just in case you don't happen to stroll over and gander at the pictures, or if you already have and don't feel like going back for a second pass, the two best comments were "ROFL LMAO OMGWTF!!!!1" and "And when you let someone of Brit descent lead an expedition, he winds up discovering stuff that's already undergone urban development." See now you have to go look just so you can understand. (i am assuming he is referring to me since i am not sure of chuck's heritage and chuck and i still aren't sure what ROFL LMAO means, but we are assuming that since pete said it has to be of a humor and intelligence level so high that only someone at MIT could even attempt it) I really wish my attempts at mockery and humor were just a little more thought out and funny, wait, maybe i can get chuck or pete to help me.
Well, i knew it would happen some day, but i thought it would be a little further down the road, but chuck beat me in a running race. It seems his whole physical fitness at the academy, and playing a sport every semester, along with the fact that he has been running for the last three days here in Reno all combined at the perfect moment to allow chuck to blow me out of the water this morning at the turkey trot around the sparks marina. I blame it on the cold, the fact that TR thought we were running the wrong race (he thought the 10k people went out first, then the 2 mile people, we lost about 40 seconds because got off the course to wait for the 2 mile runners, only to realize that the people passing us were 2 mile runners and that we had just been really fast, and we had to pass Mr. Linton twice, and he made some snide comment about not paying attention to directions or something, typical) also that i didn't ride my bike to school on Wednesday (the first time this semester, it is because i had drug testing for shooting and it is really really cold at 630 in the morning. The funny part though is that seeing as how i am an old man, all 21 times around the sun and all, i was put into the old man bracket (21-30 i think) and seeing as how there was only one person in my age group ahead of me, i came in second place in my age group and i get a medal. I came in 14th overall, chuck came in 10th, and (i feel really bad, i can't think of TR’s little brothers name right now) came in 11th. TR was hurting quite a bit, so he was a little bit back. I think it was because we stopped and waited, it kind of messed all of us, but Chuck and TR’s brother both recovered really well, I hit that wall out at about 1.5 miles. Chuck actually ran a really great time and I wish I could have kept up, the only problem is he was 4th in his age group (no medal, so sad), so while chuck beat me in one sense, who came away with a medal?
Also, we thought people won pies for the top 5 in their age group, because that is what they did a few years back when TR ran it last, so we waited around, but then that whole reading directions thing came up again, and we finally read the little slip of paper in the bag they gave us and it told us there weren't any pies. So chuck went and bought a pie at Scolari’s to fool his parents into thinking he won one. It was pretty funny until his dad figured it out, or maybe he told him, i can't remember the specifics so well. All in all though, it was a good day. Maybe someday i will be in shape to do the 10k, it was only the slow out of shape people who did it, all the quick people did the 10k as well. Actually Mr. Linton gave us crap about that too. He is a hostile person, or maybe it is just because chuck was there. I just find that winter is too cold for running, about March or so is about the right time to start running. Actually TR might be the new long distance coach at Damonte Ranch High School and I told him I would help him out next season. His brother was the only person on the cross country team last season, so hopefully we can get a few more people.
Last i finally uploaded the mt rose pictures that chuck took from back in the summer when we hiked up rose in the dark. It pains me to admit that we didn't hike from the east side, but it was still a really cool trip.
Chuck got into town on friday, so saturday morning we immediatly went and got some sushi, so that we got the trip off to a good start for him. We have hung out a bit since then, never enough really but i feel that i should make at least an effort to study for my vibrations test that is on wednesday. But chuck and i called pete on saturday night and we were having a good time. Pete told me some great control systems jokes that nobody else has gotten yet, which isn't a bad thing, maybe it is actually a good thing, i don't think i could wish control systems on somebody else. At one point during the night though, chuck and i were sitting at his dining room table switching off talking to pete, and chuck was talking at this particular moment. On the table is the group photo of chuck, pete, ham and i at graduation. Chuck procedes to make some comment about how "i am looking at you right now pete" For a second there was silence on pete's end, then slowly, with an air of disbelief, pete responded, "Through the phone?" Yeah, we had a good laugh.
Well, i started another round of tests last weekend, but these are more spread out than last time, so hopefully they will go okay. Western traditions and controls last week, vibrations next week, and we have to build our dynamic vibration absorber for our building model still, but that shouldn't be too bad. I will try to get some pictures up of the design, or maybe a movie showing the testing. School is going, i like that i can see the end of the semester already.
On something completely unrelated, well two things actually. Everybody should check out jamie's blog because she has a really funny explanation of procrastination that really made sense to me, but maybe i am just weird, either way, check it out. Also, at work we listen to www.woxy.com, they are an independent radio station out of cinncinati, and they normally play pretty good music with quite a bit of variety. They are the radio station that dustin hoffman is talking about in rainman, when he says "W...O...X...Y...Bam the future of rock and roll." But the last three callers that have requested songs had all been from new jersey, and i thought that was kind of weird. But after the third one the Dj explained that it really pisses him off when people send in a request but they don't say where they are from, so as punishment he just says they are from new jersey. Hopefully petar appreciates the DJ's gesture.
Well, i am now 4 times less full of wisdom than i was yesterday morning, seeing as how i got my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday afternoon (after control systems of course). Everybody was telling me all these horror stories and i was pretty scared, but i slept about an hour at mary's house afterwords, and then i felt great, except my whole lower jaw is completely numb and i can't eat or drink anything without getting a good percentage on my shirt, but that is okay, and i have only taken one of the vicandins, it just doesn't hurt and i don't see the point, maybe later today. I think they should call them stupid teeth or something, but i don't think the dentist was listening when i said it, or maybe i didn't say it, i'm not sure, i don't remember too much from that time.
Well, i finally get a little bit of time to relax, it has been a really last few weeks. I took the GRE and did okay, not good enough for caltech or mit or anything (my vocab was pretty week), but i should be able to go just about anywhere else i figure. I really enjoy taking tests like that, and all though it is pretty conceded to say it, or something, i was pretty bummed i missed some of the math problems, they aren't that hard, and i really needed to offset my bad vocab score. I also took the FE exam to see if i can become an engineer in the state of nevada. The test wasn't hard but it wasted a whole saturday. I now have my next set of midterms starting on wednesday next week, so it should be a good time until thanksgiving starts. Also we had a match at the Air Force Academy. We didn't beat them by as much as we should have, but we did okay. Ryan did awesome and set a new Air Force Range record with a 399 in air. Also he shot an 1180 at our match in reno a couple of weeks ago, so his hot at the olympics is looking better than ever.
If anybody has any thoughts on what i should do next year please let me know. I am thinking that i kind of want to go into unmanned aerial vehicles, i think that i would enjoy that and it is a new field that is opening up, but if there are any better ideas let me know. I sent a think into nasa but i don't think i have much chance there, since in the application they asked what nasa programs, scholarhsips, and what not i have worked on, and since i had to say no to all of them, there goes that. I sent a thing requesting information to the university of colorado, boulder but they nevery sent me anything back, so i guess that is a sign. The place i work now will pay for grad school at unr, but i don't really want to go to unr, so that is my fallback i guess. I am looking at the university of maryland beecause they have the unmanned aerial vehicle program stuff going on, but i don't know about living back east, i might go crazy. And i don't really want to leave mary. So if anybody has some ideas, don't hesitate.