Engineering is

Taken from a fellow blogger. I like the list and think it does a very good job of describing the field. Especially 3, 4, and 7. 7 being the most frustrating/important one

1.) The science of making the most of the resources available.
2.) The science of making the most of the resources available, with time being the scarcest resource. For the more sincere and "start as soon as you're told to" people, this line means slacking off till the deadline is staring you in the face.
3.) Looking like a nerd (if you're lucky, a genius) to the 'non-engineers', when you try to explain in layman's terms, what your work is.
4.) Failing to find layman's terms for your work. I've had this problem quite a few times.
5.) Failing to make people understand that engineering is actually fun.
6.) Working for people who don't ever seem to understand technical aspects of the job, but absolutely believe that their suggestions (is that commands?) be obeyed. This one is a conclusion I've drawn from Dilbert , so you gotta trust Scott Adams on this one. Fortunately, I have worked under an engineer,and his suggestions sure are worth following.
7.) Constantly thinking up better and/or more economical and/or easier and/or faster ways to do everything. And in the process ending up doing more work than the straight forward approach (but it's a one-time investment if you get it right at first shot).
8.) Coming up with a list of laws/ rules/ conclusions about anything and everything. Does this list come under that category?...I wonder.

Just one of those days

when you don't wanna wake up
everything is fucked
everybody sucks

^^ From Mr. Durst's pen to my blog. Not that it's been a terrible day or anything, just one of those days. The good news is that I can definitively pinpoint quite a few things I learned today. Let's go chronologically:

8:37 AM - University of Dayton will come into your apartment when they damn well please. I was awoken at this hour by a middle aged bald guy unlocking and busting through our back door (which, incidentally, opens to my bedroom) to make sure the furnace wasn't going to burn the place down once it went on. I think he was probably the more shocked of the two of us, since three times already this year I have been awoken by the cable/AC/repair guys in the same fashion. Good thing I haven't been sleeping naked any of these times. This time I just said "Cool" and went back to sleep. He can figure out where the fuck the furnace is himself, then he can look at the thermostat and realize we've had the heat on already this year. Pwn'd.

11:30 AM - Fluid Mechanics is probably something that I should learn. Something about, oh I don't know, every field of engineering I'm interested in using it as the basis for pretty much everything. The good news is that I think this is possible.

4:20 PM - Phone interviews are pretty awkward. Given the choice between the two, I would definitely take face-to-face interviews from here on out if possible. I'm glad I got to experience one though, and even more glad that I think it went well. Not that I'm particularly antsy with my current situation, but options are always great to have. Especially if it means going out and seeing something new while I'm basically the most un-tied-down I'll ever be (.....I hope).

8:00 PM - I love decorating for Christmas. Early you say? It's never too early I respond. I'm still in the planning stages this year but I'm thinking a wrapping-paper wallpaper job would be classy. I also need to go get my mini-tree (aptly dubbed by my dad the Charlie Brown Tree) because that's all the apartment will hold. I kicked it off today though with a packet of those scented pine cones; it serves the dual purpose of being festive and getting the bacon smell out of our living room.

1:14 AM - I procrastinate like it's my job, but it's cool because IB English prepped me for this. Also, the keys on my new laptop (the old one died a couple weeks ago) squeak if not pressed perfectly straight down. This could be massively annoying in the coming years. Hopefully it's just a little bit of new car smell.

A few tweets:

1.) I'm starting to realize why saying I am in engineering is usually greeted with an "OOoooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh......." A.k.a the hdub is off the charts.

2.) This Saturday is one of the greatest days of the near, the start of college football season.

3.) I'm finally starting to get excited to see the blue and gold on the field again.

4.) My goal for the year is not to make the games make/break my mood for (and thus quality of) the entire weekend.

Keep livin' the dream everyone. A small wave of schools are still moving in so I want to give a big best of luck to everyone on the new year.

Except for the OSU and USC football teams. You all suck.

Why I love my major 1.0

Intro: This is going to be a running theme. I'll try not to get too nerdy because, let's be honest, I do actually have a rep to try to live up to. I'm not sure where it is going to go, but that's what's fun about life. Onward:

1.0 - Whenever I make fun connections to non-engineering stuff. Well, in the traditional sense of the word. We in the major (like any major) like to think that everything is engineering. People hate us for this.

You know that weirdness about how when you breathe out with your mouth open hot air comes out, but when you breathe out with wittle itty bitty kissy wips, cold air comes out? No, there is not a mini thermostat in there, though that would be friggin awesome. Nor are you cold hearted (well, maybe you are, but cold kissy breathe is not related to the relative warmth of your heart).

This is a phenomenon that is called I-don't-know-what. I'm sure it does have a name, but I don't know it because only the really complicated things get names.

Essentially, this has to do with mass flow (your breath) through a nozzle (your kissy wips) or a diffuser (the "she must be unlisted" type of breathing). Basically, as you lower the exit area for a gas while raising the velocity, through some boring thermodynamic properties that we can ignore, the temperature of said gas will decrease. Sure, in theory it is possible to "she must be unlisted" breathe out hot air, but it would have to be really friggin fast. To the tune of 50 times faster than your kissy-wips breathing. Given the limited capacity of our lungs, it's pretty much impossible. Don't go collapsing anything trying to do this.

This is just something that has always seemed a little curious to me and I never would have thought that I would figure out the why while studying mechanical engineering. Truth is, we are machines ladies and gentlemen.

Now that's some hot breath.