One year ago...

Well, more than a year ago, marked the start of the state tournament in Vermont.  Cliche as it is, but it feels very far away.  I miss those guys, I miss the stress, I miss the work I put in.

Now I am engaged to another mistress that demands stress, work, and comraderie of its own type. It's called engineering. I had better get back to her before I fail my exam tonight or tomorrow.

This spot

Is a good one. That is all.


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Location:Northwestern Ave,West Lafayette,United States

Sitting in Stephen's room, again

Sooo, I set up face tracking for warthunder. It's super cool!

Watching house of cards still. Done


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Location:Stephen's room

House of Cards

Is a damn good show. Well, for the most part. It is certainly engrossing. Its negatives tend to be that there are some very predictable story arches and some of the lines are so cliche it hurts.

That aside, it captivates me and is able to hold my attention very well. As I finish season one, I cannot wait to find out the next plot discovery and twist.

Worth the watch, worth the time for sure.


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Between Lectures

A thought or two... It's really warm. I'm hungry. That's all.


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Location:West Lafayette,United States

An exam of doom

Had my ENGR132 exam tonight. Needless to say it was tedious and stupid. God that class is annoying.

Anyway, I managed to finish most of my homework. I plan on waking up early in order to give my idea journal a good polishing up so that I can be on track for more studying and WarThunder tomorrow evening without the stresses of undo amounts of homework.

That's all for now. OH AND MY JOYSTICK ARRIVED. I GOT A BETTER ONE THAN EXPECTED. HOORAY. Sometimes shipping goofs work in my favor, though usually its the other way around.

Night!

What a week I have ahead of me

School is starting to slowing take its toll and right now its reminding me that I have been, quite frankly, ignoring my responsibilities as a student for the past couple of days. Not a good thing to do since I need to study for an exam tomorrow and two even more complicated ones next week. I am trying not to freak out, but its going to happen.

I've been playing a lot of Warthunder lately, I even reinvested in a stick (joystick, flight controller, etc.) so that I can relive the glory days of my youth when I played Combat Flight Simulator 3 and Flight Simulator '98 and 2000.  Those were the days man... that and pod racer.

So I picked up a classy stick to play these games. But really I need to study and sleep. Big day tomorrow!

Miracle and a House of Cards

I watched 'Miracle' (2004) this morning at 5 a.m. and it allowed me to understand my wrestling coach a little bit more.  Not only did I recognize some of the phrases (he would often quote the movie during our post match suicides) but I also recognized the style of coaching.

I also started watching Netflix's 'House of Cards' (2013) and have really enjoyed it so far. Its gritty, dramatic, and somewhat predictable. But it is a very satisfying show to watch. I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Anywho. Bye.

ROTC

Why do I do things that I will probably regret at some level?

I think it is because if I don't do them, I will regret that even more.  Airforce/Navy ROTC is going to be one of those things. I am going to the recruiters next week to talk about joining the ROTC program here at Purdue. Part of me wants to do it so I can be independent. A larger part of me is doing it because I miss the structure wrestling gave me in high school and I think ROTC will provide a similar fix.  Lastly, I really want to fly. I want to fly jets or helicopters and I don't have the money to get jet time. Its just not feasible outside of the military.

I want training for my plans in space. If nothing else, flying is a fantastic thing.  Future self, if you read this... you may, current you is sentimental enough, I hope you aren't disappointed with the choice I made. It's going to be a big one.

Bye. Hope you're well.

BANJO. WHERE ARE YOU?

I'll be departing on an adventure to get my banjo back from the shop later today. It's neck cracked and made me a sad panda.

I don't like being a sad panda.

Here's to a quick (hue) bus ride out to Lafayette!

The Music

I've been listing to music recently. Like, actual music. If you are among the much wider population of the earth that doesn't know me, this is a big deal.  Fortunately, this blog will fill you in.

I haven't listened to music in ages. Absolute ages. I would occasionally put music on but I never really had the patience for it. But this week was the start of a new trend. I updated iTunes and saw that my music collection was lacking. So I booted up the ol' google drive and downloaded all of my songs.  Since then I've just had a constant loop of everything that I own, some five to six thousand songs, playing.

Most of it is bluegrass, blues, or rock. But mixed in are some entertaining songs and some really weird songs. Hilary Duff is even there, thanks to my sister using my old computer back in the day. I skip those songs but don't have the heart to delete them. Mindless pop can be relaxing.

I blame coding for all of this. This workload is starting to get to me, right now it's 1:30 AM and I just finished 2/3's of my ENGR132 homework. I'll throw out a blah and say good night. Well, really I'm going to attempt to finish this homework before I go to work on tomorrow's post which will be scheduled.

Tomorrow is another day...

but I will say what I want to say now. Or then. This is a scheduled post and I don't exactly know how that works. On second thought, I'll skip that nonsense. I am very sleepy. I didn't accomplish much today and tomorrow is a busy day with a quiz and a recitation. Also MATLAB homework and studying engineering. I reinvested my time in my iTunes library, tuning it up and making it look very pretty. Its still a mess. I also updated rainmeter and got a nice new skin set that I like. It is very clean and the clock/music player is cool. Its the edited Muziko and eztech skin. Check it out on deviantart.com. Anywho, that's all for now. Tally ho! I need to do my CS lab too. Crap. And I haven't been climbing in 3 days. Poooooooo :(

A scholarship application Essay

I am interested in Engineering and Astrophysics. This is partly from a love of math and how it relates to the world. This is why I adore calculus; while it is by far the most challenging and engaging class I have taken thus far in my high school career, it is also practical. Studying graphs, integrals and derivatives, the way that distance derives to velocity which derives to acceleration (and so on and so forth), is so... awesome. Calculus proved to so engaging, such a complex but pleasant challenge that many in my class (including myself) tried to convince our teacher to teach calculus III. Unfortunately, this was not possible, but I anxiously await college in order to continue this study of math.

I play the banjo. I know a few people who play the banjo, including Mr. LaPoint our biology teacher, but no other students at this school. Its a plucky instrument which was used in jazz bands to accompany the band (instead of guitar), can be used to play a plethora of genres including funk, jazz, rock, and folk. Despite Steve Martin’s exclamation that the banjo can “never be sad,” I have found that the one can cull almost any emotion from the instrument. I wrestle, run cross country, and play tennis. While cross country was demanding of my body and tennis of my focus, Wrestling was one of the most difficult and important things I have ever done. It taught me how to persevere in the face of adversity.  I went from winning 1 match my sophomore year, the year I joined, to winning 20 and placing fifth at varsity states my senior year.  I was co-captain this year, an honor I hoped for but did not dare to ask about. Despite challenges brought on by injuries, grades, and other unforeseen problems the six wrestlers we brought to states were able to secure ninth out of some twenty or more teams that attended the state tournament in February. I think what I am proud of most is that no one thought that I could wrestle when I started back in my sophomore year, or let alone that I’d be any good.  When faced with adversity now, this is how I see it: conquerable.

This fall I will be studying Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University. I am one of the few students from our school pursuing this field of study. At Purdue, I can count on an education that promotes research and development of new technologies, ideas and sciences, and an environment that encourages business applications of that knowledge. Purdue offers some of the best and fully developed courses in the areas of aeronautical and astronautical engineering.  More than a third of all aeronauts and astronauts went to this prestigious university; including Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, and Gus Grissom. This is a substantial legacy since my dream is to travel into space. To make this dream a reality I plan on attending graduate school, hopefully at the even more prestigious CalTech, where the Jet Propulsion Labs reside. My plan is to obtain a doctorate in astronautical propulsion and design, then seek a job at NASA, Planetary Resources, or Virgin Galactic. I will work hard for this goal, I will obtain the grades and I will be working during school - through co-ops, paid internships, or RAU’s - to gain funds and work experience.

This goal is not insurmountable, I have worked hard in wrestling and succeeded and I can do it again. But a scholarship now could mean the difference between having enough money saved to seek this doctorate or having to work immediately after college, thus delaying my goal. I am getting lazy. But here's another essay I wrote a year ago.

Why did I go to Purdue?

My personal dream is to travel into space. The privatization of space travel is beginning: as soon as resources are discovered that make space travel profitable, space travel will become commonplace.

Privatization of the space industry offers the opportunity to involve more people, and therefore more ideas, in space travel. I first heard about Planetary Resources in Popular Mechanics magazine. They are a company that has set out to mine near-earth asteroids. This idea of developing an off planet economy is so appealing that it caught the attention of Google’s founders, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. They, like me, believe that industrialization of space is the key to human expansion and survival throughout our solar system. Unfortunately, space has become a gimmick, a parlor trick much like the scientific endeavors of early ‘natural philosophers’. Many view space travel as a money and resource sink. I do not.

Planetary Resources’ goal is to start sending probes out in 2013. The real work, designing vehicles to for mining asteroids and returning the resources, will begin right about the time I will be graduating from college. I envision working to design the next generation of industrial spacecraft that may be necessary for this fledgling industry. Companies who aim to further space travel and exploration are looking for young, enthusiastic and intelligent individuals who want to further the development of the space industry. When space travel has an industry to offer, technology and profit will follow. First mining, but what next? Faster than light travel, Mars colonies? Whatever it is, I want to be involved.

Why do I want to attend Purdue?  I am interested in Engineering and Astrophysics. This is partly from a love of math and how it relates to the world.  This is why I adore calculus; while it is by far the most challenging and engaging class I have taken thus far in my high school career, it is also practical.  Studying graphs, integrals and derivatives, the way that distance derives to velocity which derives to acceleration (and so on and so forth), is so... awesome.  Calculus proved to so engaging, such a complex but pleasant challenge that many in my class (including myself) tried to convince our teacher to teach calculus III.  Unfortunately, this was not possible, but I anxiously await college in order to continue this study of math.

I have not yet taken physics in high school. I have only tasted it, through studying thermodynamics in chemistry and the motion of objects through calculus, physics represents to me the ultimate combination of understanding principles and providing practical applications. A friend partially explained the principles of mirrors to me when I was studying for the SAT Physics test.   I could never have imagined all of the aspects of mirrors.  The differences between a real and non-real image, what changes whether they are inverted or not: these were concepts I had never even considered when I looked at my reflection in a mirror. While my knowledge of physics is burgeoning, I look forward to the chance and challenge of combining my curiosities and interests in these fields in the coming semester of high school and in college.

At Purdue, I can count on an education that promotes research and development of new technologies, ideas and sciences, and an environment that encourages business applications of that knowledge.   Purdue offers some of the best and fully developed courses in the areas of aeronautical and astronautical engineering.  I know that if I attend Purdue University, I can achieve my dreams.

This essay got me into Purdue. That and really hard work in high school. Well, not really. But its an example of what works.

Thank's Ms. Carter

I blame Ms. Carter for my love of math. In Calculus BC I learned to be enthusiastic about everything, even Lagrange Form of Error. Because of calculus, school was no longer a dreaded and boring obligation. School, and especially math class, became for me an unpredictable adventure that made the entire school day brighter.

The adventure began in the first weeks of class when someone mentioned Harry Potter at my table. Before anyone knew it, we had devolved into the sanctioned singing of “Harry Potter Puppet Pals and the Mysterious Ticking Noise.” Silly, yes, but from that day I knew the class was going to be different from others I’d taken.

That silliness was Ms. Carter’s fault; it allowed her to sneak in chain rule or L’Hospital’s or some other methods of calculus, as well as the myriad of ways to do the day’s equation or rule. She layered it in, like medicine for a dog encased in meat or peanut butter: we’d discuss the latest happenings in math club, school, or district politics. We’d predict the weather or watch the latest promotional video that I had been consigned to make for our math club. It felt like a group discussion with math at its heart.

Yet that did not stop her from taking pleasure in burdening us with work that was often extremely tedious, just to see if we would complain. She taught us dedication to a subject: even when I was sick, I would often come into school for just that block because that was far better than being left behind, not that you ever wanted to miss a class anyway.

Ms. Carter is culpable for allowing me to learn far more than I ever anticipated. I learned chain rule, derivatives and Taylor’s rule. More importantly, I learned to bring out my hidden self that I tucked away behind walls of insecurity. I rarely talked to anyone but my closest friends about the video games I enjoyed, the instruments I played, the books I read, or the movies I made. However, Ms. Carter showed me how silly it is to worry about public opinion. She had no problem being just as dorky as us. Ms. Carter does not just help bring out the best in people; through her example I learned to bring down the walls that I had been hiding behind and just be myself.

And so my world changed. I can discuss my ideas, my dreams and my hobbies openly with others, a task that would have made me blush and mumble at the start of junior year. I propose new ideas and take risks. I have discovered a love for math, the arts and more, all thanks to Ms. Carter. When I go to college I look forward to being able to blame my future teachers for fostering my passions and encouraging me to express them.
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This was my essay I used to apply for college. Hope you enjoyed it!

Si.

The title of my story would be one word. Something simple, yet intriguing. Hopefully not something creepy like 'Dracula.' I think I'd aim for something like C.S. Lewis' Perelandra, the title of the second novel in his space trilogy. Named for the planet in which a fight against a dark, new world order takes place. Yet, now that I think about it, my life hasn't exactly been a fight against evil at every turn. The story of my life is hard to sum in a single word. But I think I'd choose the first two letters of my first name and simply call it 'Si.' Period is included. My life has been adventurous, yes, and it has been hit with tragedy, but I would not call my life story a tragedy or a series of unfortunate events. Rather, my life is simply a tale of my growth, as a person and as a ponderer, with setbacks along the way. There are things that make myself unique, such as the instruments I play and how I play them, the thoughts that occasionally skip the filter in my head and rumble and jump off the tips of my teeth. But there are other things that I do not know yet, as I write my story. I don't know if I will die next week, I don't know if I will live to see the end of the universe. I don't know if I will fall in love or die a hermit. Though being a hermit may be cool for a few months. That is why the story my life is only titled with two letters. It is incomplete, and to know the rest would be a spoiler that I could not share.

Old Essays

I am going to post some old and 'new' essays that I've written because its getting hard to keep up with writing on this blog regularly. Homework is starting to pile up, so yea.

Astronomy is so f***ing metal

I just saw something that said that. I thought it was funny.

I am about to hit the sack after a wonderful weekend spent largely relaxing and/or playing Hearthstone. Its addicting and easier to get into (I think) than MTG. MTG is Magic the Gathering.  I should really get back into that game, but I don't really have the time or the interest or the money. It is very expensive.

Ah well. Just a quickie before I hit the sack. Happy February. Also the Bronco's pulled a Spaulding (my old High School). Way to go.