Can I Play With Madness?
Now, I realize that I've had a pretty busy life. I've juggled schedules so complex most people would barely last a week in my shoes. I've taken on leadership responsibilities with several organizations at once and been a driving force in all of them. At one point I took 21 credit hours in community college and got straight A's.
However, I must say that without a doubt this has been the BUSIEST time of my entire life. I'm only taking 12 credit hours at the moment, but these are upper level engineering classes, three of which are labs, and I have two jobs, three leadership positions, and I'm the new head of a special project. I don't really have a good way to weave it all together in a story, so I'll just list the major points:
CLASSES: This term I'm taking Solar System Astronomy to finish my Physics minor and start my Astronomy minor. It's great because it's the only class I'm taking that doesn't have a lab. The other classes are all engineering, Aerospace Engineering Measurements, CAD/CAM, and Feedback Control. Measurements is basically a lab based class where we use actual engineering equipment and write reports about it. It's not too challenging, just time consuming. It's the only group based lab, but luckily my lab partner is pretty cool. CAD/CAM is essentially a Lockheed Martin sponsored class because we're using a program called I-DEAS that only Lockheed uses. They could have chosen AutoCAD, Pro-E, or Solidworks, which are more industry standard, but whatever, it's not too bad. The class is based on how to design in computers and the math behind it. I've had the math and theory behind all of this for quite a while now, so it's also merely time consuming.
However, Feedback Control will be the death of my 4.0 GPA. This class basically takes my four greatest engineering weaknesses, Differential Equations (I had an easy teacher and I aced the class, but I don't remember it very well), Principles of Electrical Engineering (I'm not an electrical guy, I'm a aero guy), and Vibrations (technically a prerequisite for the course, but because of a catalog error I didn't have to take it), and programming (despite my ability to operate a computer, I can't program worth a dang). Right now I'm struggling with the homeworks because our teacher, who from what I can guess from his life story on the first day of class, is at least 75 and has lost most of his hearing from flying large aircraft for 30 years. He skims over the book like we're supposed to know it already and I haven't quite learned how to do everything we need to be doing. However, because of the lab, I've heard of people getting 0/100 on tests and still passing, so it's not as hopeless as you'd think.
RESEARCH: Since we moved into the new lab space, things have been pretty slow at work. I'm still waiting on two big tickets orders to come in before we can even start assembling the system. I'm waiting on our pressure transducers and amplifier to take pressure measurements and our mix tank so we can get our gases into the main tank. These were ordered over 6 weeks ago and still haven't come in yet, but Dr. Petersen assures me that nothing is wrong with this time period because they have to be custom made. I think that's a load of scat, but I'm checking up on them. I also designed and had my first custom tool made yesterday. We needed a special wrench so we could tighten down the giant lids of the aluminum tube to seal the O-Rings.
TUTORING: Tutoring has been very well. I'm volunteering for Physics I/II/III tutoring 6 hours per week, and I've been busier in SARC than I ever have been. I've got quite a good group of people that keep coming back, so hopefully within time we'll achieve our goal of 800 non-unique students coming in. I've also been doing a little bit of private tutoring on the side for $15 a pop, so that puts a little more gas in my tank.
AIAA: I have to say both AIAA and SEDS have some pretty ambitious programming this year. The UCF chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has been having meetings weekly since the beginning of the semester, and we've got plans in the works for fundraisers, more Young Eagles (the program where we help the Experimental Aircraft Association with kids and they let us fly up once in a while too, it's really fun), the regional conference in the spring, a HUGE line of guest speakers at meetings, and our brand new Rockets program, which started last night. I volunteered to take on this assignment, but the president specifically created it for me. We're going to start small by building a lot of little rockets and work our way up to bigger and better ones. We got some pretty good ideas last night, which should hopefully be materializing pretty soon. The goal of the group is to be a social, fun, rocket building club. On launch days we plan to have a nice barbecue and invite some other organizations out. Considering I'm in charge of the whole thing, I hope it goes well.
SEDS: The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space is going to have a really big year as well. I didn't know until last week how close we were to launching the Daedalus III rocket. I helped build Daedalus Mk. II to help test payloads, and now that we've switched from solid fuel to a hybrid motor (basically, burning plastic with liquid oxygen shooting out of it) for Daedalus III, we're only about $1000 and a hunk of man hours of putting the thing together short of actually firing into space (63 miles). If we finish it soon, we'll beat Embry Riddle and FIT in the Race to Black competition. I don't know what the prize is, but it's an accomplishment no less. We're also hosting the national conference on our home turf this year, which I'm helping plan. We're having some big name guest speakers (in the aerospace industry, no one really famous, unless Buzz Aldrin makes it out), a sugar propellant workshop, and a trip to the Kennedy Space Center for a cool backstage tour that's not available to the public. That's on Veteran's Day weekend and it's free to all UCF students. We're also starting a rockets program (yep, I'm in two competing rockets programs, go figure) and we're making our own sugar propellant to get more experience before we impress everyone at the conference with our high flyers.
I'm also getting ready for the Space Generation Congress conference in Valencia, Spain, which is coming up in two weeks. I'm VERY excited about this, and I'll make sure to get lots of pictures.
ELEMENTS: Elements is keeping it real once again this year. As Treasurer, I've been trying to get us a bank account that's better than a Ziploc bag full of dues money. It's better than Webmaster, I gotta say. We're kicking off this year with a tailgating party at the UCF/USF game (then again, EVERY organization is tailgating this weekend, I'll be hopping around). We've had two decent meetings so far with a lot of new members (actually, all organizations I've been in have had a big increase in membership, except SPS), but most of our events are during March, which is Hip Hop Month. However, this year, because some sports organization reserved the Ferell Commons auditorium for two full years (those selfish pigs), we had to move our biggest event up to November 17th. Battle of the Elements, which is HUGE every year, is going to be a blast.
SPS: Despite having a weak showing at its first meeting, it looks like there are going to be some interesting events coming up with the Society of Physics Students. It's possible that I'll be able to present my research at an SPS conference, which would be good for getting into Grad school. They're also bringing back the Book of the Month club, only they are keeping in mind that some books take more than a month to read ("Fabric of the Cosmos" was just too long for me, so I didn't participate last year). There's a pizza party tomorrow instead of a meeting, so I will be fed tomorrow night.
That's pretty much the gist of what's going on. There are a lot of other little things (poker nights I seem to be doing pretty well at, church group fun, and I'm thinking about getting back into standup comedy), but those are just regular shenanigens compared to the organized activities. So if anyone wonders why I'm so busy lately, this is why.
I'm also getting ready for the NASA Mars Desert Research Station expedition in December, which should hopefully cement me a place in NASA's computer banks.
UPDATE: I just won $40 in a Texas Hold'em tourney. I believe the Spaniards would call what I was throwing around "avacados." So the next entry will be from the Iberian Peninsula.
However, I must say that without a doubt this has been the BUSIEST time of my entire life. I'm only taking 12 credit hours at the moment, but these are upper level engineering classes, three of which are labs, and I have two jobs, three leadership positions, and I'm the new head of a special project. I don't really have a good way to weave it all together in a story, so I'll just list the major points:
CLASSES: This term I'm taking Solar System Astronomy to finish my Physics minor and start my Astronomy minor. It's great because it's the only class I'm taking that doesn't have a lab. The other classes are all engineering, Aerospace Engineering Measurements, CAD/CAM, and Feedback Control. Measurements is basically a lab based class where we use actual engineering equipment and write reports about it. It's not too challenging, just time consuming. It's the only group based lab, but luckily my lab partner is pretty cool. CAD/CAM is essentially a Lockheed Martin sponsored class because we're using a program called I-DEAS that only Lockheed uses. They could have chosen AutoCAD, Pro-E, or Solidworks, which are more industry standard, but whatever, it's not too bad. The class is based on how to design in computers and the math behind it. I've had the math and theory behind all of this for quite a while now, so it's also merely time consuming.
However, Feedback Control will be the death of my 4.0 GPA. This class basically takes my four greatest engineering weaknesses, Differential Equations (I had an easy teacher and I aced the class, but I don't remember it very well), Principles of Electrical Engineering (I'm not an electrical guy, I'm a aero guy), and Vibrations (technically a prerequisite for the course, but because of a catalog error I didn't have to take it), and programming (despite my ability to operate a computer, I can't program worth a dang). Right now I'm struggling with the homeworks because our teacher, who from what I can guess from his life story on the first day of class, is at least 75 and has lost most of his hearing from flying large aircraft for 30 years. He skims over the book like we're supposed to know it already and I haven't quite learned how to do everything we need to be doing. However, because of the lab, I've heard of people getting 0/100 on tests and still passing, so it's not as hopeless as you'd think.
RESEARCH: Since we moved into the new lab space, things have been pretty slow at work. I'm still waiting on two big tickets orders to come in before we can even start assembling the system. I'm waiting on our pressure transducers and amplifier to take pressure measurements and our mix tank so we can get our gases into the main tank. These were ordered over 6 weeks ago and still haven't come in yet, but Dr. Petersen assures me that nothing is wrong with this time period because they have to be custom made. I think that's a load of scat, but I'm checking up on them. I also designed and had my first custom tool made yesterday. We needed a special wrench so we could tighten down the giant lids of the aluminum tube to seal the O-Rings.
TUTORING: Tutoring has been very well. I'm volunteering for Physics I/II/III tutoring 6 hours per week, and I've been busier in SARC than I ever have been. I've got quite a good group of people that keep coming back, so hopefully within time we'll achieve our goal of 800 non-unique students coming in. I've also been doing a little bit of private tutoring on the side for $15 a pop, so that puts a little more gas in my tank.
AIAA: I have to say both AIAA and SEDS have some pretty ambitious programming this year. The UCF chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has been having meetings weekly since the beginning of the semester, and we've got plans in the works for fundraisers, more Young Eagles (the program where we help the Experimental Aircraft Association with kids and they let us fly up once in a while too, it's really fun), the regional conference in the spring, a HUGE line of guest speakers at meetings, and our brand new Rockets program, which started last night. I volunteered to take on this assignment, but the president specifically created it for me. We're going to start small by building a lot of little rockets and work our way up to bigger and better ones. We got some pretty good ideas last night, which should hopefully be materializing pretty soon. The goal of the group is to be a social, fun, rocket building club. On launch days we plan to have a nice barbecue and invite some other organizations out. Considering I'm in charge of the whole thing, I hope it goes well.
SEDS: The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space is going to have a really big year as well. I didn't know until last week how close we were to launching the Daedalus III rocket. I helped build Daedalus Mk. II to help test payloads, and now that we've switched from solid fuel to a hybrid motor (basically, burning plastic with liquid oxygen shooting out of it) for Daedalus III, we're only about $1000 and a hunk of man hours of putting the thing together short of actually firing into space (63 miles). If we finish it soon, we'll beat Embry Riddle and FIT in the Race to Black competition. I don't know what the prize is, but it's an accomplishment no less. We're also hosting the national conference on our home turf this year, which I'm helping plan. We're having some big name guest speakers (in the aerospace industry, no one really famous, unless Buzz Aldrin makes it out), a sugar propellant workshop, and a trip to the Kennedy Space Center for a cool backstage tour that's not available to the public. That's on Veteran's Day weekend and it's free to all UCF students. We're also starting a rockets program (yep, I'm in two competing rockets programs, go figure) and we're making our own sugar propellant to get more experience before we impress everyone at the conference with our high flyers.
I'm also getting ready for the Space Generation Congress conference in Valencia, Spain, which is coming up in two weeks. I'm VERY excited about this, and I'll make sure to get lots of pictures.
ELEMENTS: Elements is keeping it real once again this year. As Treasurer, I've been trying to get us a bank account that's better than a Ziploc bag full of dues money. It's better than Webmaster, I gotta say. We're kicking off this year with a tailgating party at the UCF/USF game (then again, EVERY organization is tailgating this weekend, I'll be hopping around). We've had two decent meetings so far with a lot of new members (actually, all organizations I've been in have had a big increase in membership, except SPS), but most of our events are during March, which is Hip Hop Month. However, this year, because some sports organization reserved the Ferell Commons auditorium for two full years (those selfish pigs), we had to move our biggest event up to November 17th. Battle of the Elements, which is HUGE every year, is going to be a blast.
SPS: Despite having a weak showing at its first meeting, it looks like there are going to be some interesting events coming up with the Society of Physics Students. It's possible that I'll be able to present my research at an SPS conference, which would be good for getting into Grad school. They're also bringing back the Book of the Month club, only they are keeping in mind that some books take more than a month to read ("Fabric of the Cosmos" was just too long for me, so I didn't participate last year). There's a pizza party tomorrow instead of a meeting, so I will be fed tomorrow night.
That's pretty much the gist of what's going on. There are a lot of other little things (poker nights I seem to be doing pretty well at, church group fun, and I'm thinking about getting back into standup comedy), but those are just regular shenanigens compared to the organized activities. So if anyone wonders why I'm so busy lately, this is why.
I'm also getting ready for the NASA Mars Desert Research Station expedition in December, which should hopefully cement me a place in NASA's computer banks.
UPDATE: I just won $40 in a Texas Hold'em tourney. I believe the Spaniards would call what I was throwing around "avacados." So the next entry will be from the Iberian Peninsula.
posted by Benacor at 11:48 PM
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