sickness, thoughts, classes

Howdy there.

Well, to cut to the chase, I am now sick with bronchitis. That is a bummer. On the upshot, it does give me a lot of time to think, which is unussual these days. So how can I update you on my current status? My room is now surrounding my bed, (about 20" on all sides) now that I've gotten all the electronics/computers from NASA to continue my thesis research, my laptop has no more (storage) room, so I'm considering re-formatting and starting over (Windows 7, hopefully), and my schedule goes from booked to rediculous. All in all, I think I'm doing well. I just need to keep my head up for about 4 more weeks to get through.

Every semester, I am struck by the psychology of classwork and finishing projects. Every semester I am very excited to sign up for x number of new classes (cool class names a must) and always arrive the first day with eager anticipation of what I will learn and be able to do when I finish. Then, about 1/3 of the way though, I get distracted by something that get's me a little behind or off track. at about 2/3 to 3/4 I become very aware of this and buckle down again, and by the end I keep my grades up (hopefully). Every semester this pattern shows itself, but to varying degrees of distraction and recourse. Thankfully, I seem to be getting better at it (distracted less, recourse more), but the pattern is still there. Very strange.

I guess I could tell you about some of the cool things I'm learning in class these days... c'mon, I know you're wondering! ;) Very well, I shall tell you then. In my electro-mechanical conversion class, I've been learning about electric motors... we've finished synchronous AC machines and DC machines, and now we're working on Induction machines... very cool stuff. Did you know that an induction motor first induces the current flowing in the rotor (the inside, turning part) and then provides the magnetic field that interacts with that current to produce a torque? The coolest part is, the magnetic field that induces the current is the very same one that the current interacts with to produce the torque! outstanding!

In my High Frequency Design Techniques class, we have been learning about clock distribution on (of course) high frequency designs... clock signals are the on and off signals that all of the other chips need to see to know when to process and when to stop, kinda like the drummer guy on the row ships, so that everyone stays synchronized. Anyway, when you try to distribute this signal at very high frequencies, the time it takes the signal to get to it's destination can be quite varied, because the speed of light is finite. think about it like if you wanted 5 cities to shoot fireworks at the same time, but you had to send out runners to tell them when to go and they would shoot the fireworks just when the runner arrived. Now make the cities various distances apart... if you had to arrange the "drop off" schedule for those runners so they arrived at almost exactly the same time, you now know the challange of clock distribution... ;) yay!

In my chaotic dynamics class, we have been learning about bifurcation. bifurcation is how a system changes its characteristics qualitatively when parameters in the system pass certain points. my prof had a good example: if a class is composed of one student, he could teach that student in his office. more than a few students would force him to teach the class in a classroom. if the class grew beyond 30 or so, he would have to find a lecture hall, if the class grew beyond 400 or so, he might have to record the lectures or broadcast them live... see how the class changes at certain points because of the number of students (28 to 29 was the same, but 30 to 31 changed dramatically in a qualitative sense)... this is leading up to why mathematical catastrophes happen and some other cool things (like hysteresis and chaos). Needless to say, I'm enjoying myself there. Below is an animation of a vector field undergoing bifurcation (Hopf).

My networking class is okay, but not very exciting. it is nice to see how the internet operates and what is happening "under the covers" but to be honest, it is a bit boring.

Lastly, I have an electromagnetic compatibility course which is all about design devices to "play nice" with each other. That is, the electric fields and magnetic fields they produce should be regulated and contained. Otherwise, wierd things can happen... for example, did you know that in an industrial setting, where many high power electric motors are operating, there may be cases where the motors are actually inducing high currents in the steel beam structures of the building because their magnetic fields are "reaching out" and pulling/pushing the currents back and forth? interesting, huh? in the same way, electronic devices can affect other electronic devices by inducing current that are unintended and making those devices fail to work... wouldn't that stink if the brand new playstation 3 you got caused the new 65" LED TV to stop working because they were electromagnetically incompatible? ;) exactly. so that is a very challenging class, and I definitely see the challenge there.

Okay, well thanks for reading this far. If you're not bored yet, maybe you should get into elec/computer engineering! fun stuff dude! I think I should probably stop here, but thanks for listening. Until next time gadget...

On why the world is flat

Hello there, noble patrons!

How do I know you're noble? 'cause you are reading this blog, of course! ;) Actually, I am interested to know who reads this thing... I hope everyone feels free to leave a comment -> free of charge! "Talk to me goose..."

Why is the world flat, you ask? I answer: because that is the only way I can wrap my head around it. Think about it, if the world were round, then we'd have people in far off distant lands that are standing at 90 degrees and even 180 degrees oriented to us! That's crazy talk! I think a more logical explanation is that we are live on a nice flat plane that allows us to teleport to different regions directly depending on which edge of the map we happen to be... of course, then we'd have to believe in teleporting, but then that seems easier to swallow then this round world nonsense anyway...

Okay, enough of that. I am doing well these days and really trying to stay alive and finish my classwork. I was very happy to recieve my first paycheck for working on my thesis, so that was really great. It's wonderful to be paid for working on fun projects! Speaking of which, I have so much to do in that arena, it's crazy. Not round world crazy, but still. Very strange to be thinking that this is the last round of classes that I can take. I think they'll kick me out if I try to come back again! :P

I hope y'all are having a great day/night/whenever you read this, cause I am very encouraged. I am encouraged for strange reasons; today when i went on my little run, I ran into a couple that was walking along the road. The girl asked if I was jogging (I was currently waiting at the light), and when I answered in the affirmative, she said that it looked like I was doing a good job (I was sweating). That in and of itself it not a very significant comment, but the idea goes a long way on its own power! ;) It made me happy! The human psyche is amazing.

Well that's all for now, sportsfans. Tune in soon for the next episode.

A poetic muse

2:08am – the muse.

Of misery and happiness, on encouragement and grief
Through mischief and adventure, when light itself grows a shadow
This is how I am.

Sadness follows the happy as rainclouds follow bright balloons
That when the laughter has subsided the cold shower can begin.
Of this flood? Think it only a bath.

Profess your ying and yang, tell me the balance is to be kept.
Light were not but for the darkness in contrast, says you.
Confused, says I.

The world in its intricacies and delicacies, it variation and pattern;
Would be a mirror to the structure that is beneath?
Yet, I speak without knowledge.

But spoke it right he, that simple is truer often;
The page with less written oft affords the clearer view.
See I this, over and over.

How to argue with him that sees true unreal but believes false reality?
His tongue is sharp, what blood his mouth contains!
He is content with his thought, without his life.

Blessing after blessing is granted, though no deserved deed.
A plan thwarted with goodness is failed though it succeed.
Rhyming wasn’t the plan.

Does the plan mean ill? Its end to darken? To who is it owned?
Yet there beauty is found, and smiles that shatter scolding.
Her eyes that pierce.

Why that I strain to miss yet aim to succeed? Can I unravel?
Constant effort to dodge paired with significant work to conquer…
Strange bedfellows all.

Finally know that conclusion dances laughing round my head,
Teasing my senses and staying near reach.
Only to be told.

*********************
by way of explanation, don't take anything too literally or figuratively. I enjoy writing about thoughts in my mind, but this is only a stream of consciousness... nothing actually fully digested. take it for what it is, a window into my mind.... ;)

My musings

Hello friends!

sorry about that... my bro was messin' with me. :P a new, REAL post to follow shortly.

Cabins, Software and Life

I think I said I'd update every week last time... that didn't work too well, did it. Hm. Well, against all odds and of course against my better judgement, I've decided that my blog needed an update even if it just so happens to be 1am. So, without further ado, here is a snapshot of what's goin' on in my life and some fun pics as well.

This pic is of my friend and co-worker Robert sitting inside of one of the shakers... we had great success with the latest "Precision-controlled shaker head", and I must say, that man deserves most of the credit! What a great showing! This week we will see how the shaker head does on some olive trees for the official demo, but things are lookin' up!

I had the opportunity to contribute to the project by modeling the electro-hydraulic/mechanical system in MATLAB and designing/implementing one of the amplifiers, which was really fun. The first, real multi-domain modeling I've done that was for a practical purpose. The amplifier was a voltage-controlled current amplifier (for those of you who care) and had tunable gains dead-band compensation built-in.

This next pic is of Ash and Nate's two cats. I am definitely a dog person, but it was a pleasure spending a few hours with these two characters! This was the only shot that really captured the drama that they were acting out, but they moved way to fast for my little camera phone to see the action, weaving in and out of the chairs! ;)



This is a pic of Garrett and Stephen (my brotha and my roommate) on our little 4x4 trek on Lassen a few weeks ago. That was really fun, and (looking down, toeing in my right foot) the first time I've been 4x4ing with the crew. Definitely a great time with guys.



Garrett and his Jeep. This picture captures their relationship well...




The cabin that we are working on bringin up to snuff up in Mill Creek. I can't say that I loved the sleeping arrangement, but I think I must be spoiled on my super-comfortable bed here in Chico.



This pic is my mom and dad and brother inside the cabin. They hauled up a dryer so that we can stay for more extended periods here. Very relaxing place, that cabin. I defnitely am planning on spending some time there.



Garrett, me, Dad and Mom in front of the Mill Creek Resort Store. This is right before dinner, so we are all excited to get some shakes/malts inside. Stephen was with us too, but he was taking the picture. (Thank you, sir).



I guess that wraps up the pics, but there are a few other portions of my life that I can tell you about here. I'll be brief, because your time is valuable and my sleep is necessary...

Work:
I am currently juggling two jobs: ENE, where I am doing various electrical/computer/mechanical engineering tasks and helping with other things in those veins, and the Navy Research Group at school, where I am trying to wrap my head around the intricacies of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD). If all goes as planned, I will be essentially stopping both of those jobs and starting to spend all my gainful employment on thesis-related tasks for NASA/Army, which I am looking forward to.

School: At school, I am taking too many classes, but in a strange twist, have had very little homework for the first 5 weeks of the semester. This semester I have 4 classes for credit and 1 class for audit. I am taking Networking, Electro-mechanical Conversion, High Frequency Design Techniques, and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). I'm auditing a math class called Intro to Chaotic, Dynamical Systems, which is really interesting, but I'm glad that I am not being graded there... I like the challenge, but grading can sometimes interfere with the sheer enjoyment of the subject matter. I'm happy that these classes have the content that they do, but I wish I had more time to delve into them and work on some project related to them so that I could really absorb the material fully.

Play:
I have been trying to work out by running and lifting weights and have finally (as of these last 10 days or so) been successful. Not enough basketball, but I am working on shedding a few pounds to get back to where I can really enjoy the running there. Not a crazy amount of movies, but a few good ones (notably, "Fist full of dollars" with Clint Eastwood).

Thought:
Why is it I can't dance... I have been thinking about this because I went to an Indian dance festival recently and had a really good time hanging out and dancing. Now, just to be clear, I am aware of the fact that I can't dance well, but there was some video shot by others so I could actually observe myself... wow... I am terrible! :( But, I keep telling myself, "you just need to practice"... Idunno, still pondering that one.

Tech:
I have known about a program called COMSOL for a while, but have not thought about it's "place" in the world of simulation until recently when I was thinking through the relationship that MATLAB and Solidworks have to each other. I have posted before about the wonderful symbol tool that Mathematica can be, and the wonderful simulation tool that MATLAB can be. This summer I learned what a great platform it is for code generation and also for rapid prototyping. Solidworks has long been my favorite environment for generating 3D geometry and such for mechanical engineering problems, and it just keeps getting better, but it lacks the multi-domain, coupled PDE (partial differential equation) solving abilities that COMSOL can provide. MATLAB with Simulink allows multi-domain solving with a very nice block diagram editor, but cannot really deal with the 3D geometry, collisions, and especially the PDE side of things (As I understand it, Simulink is concerned with ODEs). Anyway, COMSOL find a place right in between these two packages and is useful for interfacing with both of them bi-directionally. I have no idea how much this costs, but it would be great to get a copy to play with.

Well, I guess I better call it a day. Maybe if I posted more often, these posts wouldn't get so long! Oh well, I hope that YOU have a great day!

Back in the Saddle

It is that time again: the weather is hot, school's back in and I am once again in a brand new house! Yes, I am back from the NASA/Army internship in Mountain View and plugging away at a brand new set of classes.

It is strange to think that this might be the last semester that I am actually attending lectures, but that is the way life goes, I suppose; old seasons bend to the will of the new. I thought it would be fun to post a few pics and videos of things I didn't get up while I was in Santa Cruz, so here is a quick recap of a few things that happened that I didn't post about. By the way, I have been aiming to make one post per week, but the last month or so (and especially the last two weeks) at work were killers!

Here is a random selection of where I am now, a few things that happened since my last post, and some cool shots of NASA that I hadn't posted yet.

First off, this is the new digs... I am happy to be riding the Steed once again, my favorite truck!


Next up, my mafia-born nephew Zach-Attack. Okay, just Zach, but all this little hombre needs is one of those hats that the dudes with the tommy-guns had... he was a little stand-offish the first few days, but he'll give me a smile now. What a cute little gangster! ;)



This is a pic of how I took over one of the rooms in the house with Sharon and Scott. They were kind enough to let me spread out my computer stuff and "dig-in". This was so helpful in getting work done at home... Thanks guys!



Y'know how sometimes people ask you to solve silly puzzles and mind teasers? Well, normally I just shrug these buggers off and say, "That's okay, you can solve a meaningless puzzle..." but this particular morning, I was victorious! :) This task was to figure out a way to use these three knives to form a support structure that can span the cups, even though any single knife cannot span a single spacing...



How did I do it? Okay, I'll let you in on the secret... Just don't tell anyone I told you!





I didn't get a chance to run/exercise nearly as much as I was hoping to this summer, but I did go for a run a few times a week. Occasionally my cousin Scott would join me. This is my last run. Scott told me that this one was for "old time's sake"... meaning, I suppose that as time goes on we ought to run more often... =)

A few weeks before I came back, Nate and Ash came down and visited for the weekend. It was really cool to have them hang out and we did a few activities as well. We went kayaking in Elkhorn Slew, which was really fun (Scott was attacked by an otter! [yes, he's fine]).

Nate's Birthday was on Friday, and so we celebrated it on Saturday (they came up on Saturday). Cool cake huh? Yeah, that right... I picked it out myself. Happy B-day Nate!

From time to time, when we were car-pooling, I would need to drive by this spot on base to pick up Scott from his office. Occasionally the doors were open and you could see how large everything really is... This is the world largest wind tunnel (80 feet tall, 120 feet wide) and it can pull air through the test section at 100 knots! I think I posted something about the intake for this puppy in an earlier post, it is larger than a football field!

This video is inside the model loading area beneath the test section of the 40x80 tunnel (the world second largest). The fellow talking is Bill Warmbrodt who was kind enought to give us interns a tour. The tunnel is 3 stories up...

These next three videos are just a funny task that Scott and I had to do... split logs into firewood. Normally he is a wood-splittin' fool, but this particular time (on a particularly tough log), I got him on video having a hard time getting through... pretty funny this.

Intermediate progress...

The grand finale!

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for checkin' in. I hope to post a bit more regularly from here on out, but I know I've said that before.

Work, Bonnie Doon, Downtown, Swimming

Howdy everyone! This last week was a fun, if very busy week. At work, I just finished my 2nd prototype for Dexter, and though I didn't push it quite as far as I was hoping, the model did meet all of my goals, but I kinda ran out of time to get everything I wanted into the GUI (graphical user interface). Lots of good progress and extra capabilities going into that, and I'll post some cool pics when I can.

Other than work, there were a few other goings on in my life which I thought I would share some pics of... First of all, I did little bit of house-sitting for a fellow that Scott and I carpool with. They live in a little area called Bonnie Doon. Below is a pic of some of the road that gets me to his house. It was a magnificent drive, and hopefully this first pic can capture some of that beauty. It did add about 50 minutes to my drive, but it is a fun excursion to change up some of the monotony.



This second pic is of the house that I "sat" in. Or is that sat on... I don't know, but anyway this is a very picturesque place, and surrounded by a big redwood forest. They have a very affectionate cat named tom, and he kept me company, or maybe more accurately, I kept him company because he was definitely the master of the house. ;)



After a tough week at work, I slept in 'til about 10am and Sharon and I went on a little trek in downtown Santa Cruz. That was pretty cool because she got to point out some interesting landmarks and architectural things as well as do a bit of shopping. This pic (below) is of the Holy Cross chuch which is right next to the original Santa Cruz mission. I took some pictures of both, but the church has more interesting architecture, so I included that pic here.




Then we continued to do some shopping and did a little downtown exploring and sightseeing. Below is looking down Pacific Avenue (so named 'cause it leads to the pacific ocean). You can see the Marquee of Santa Cruz Cinema 9. I have to say that felt a little like a poodle going in and out of shops like Bunny's shoes (okay, I didn't go into Bunny's... but I dutifully stayed outside). I did follow here around in Macy's, so I think that counts. Anyhow, it was a fun trip to see what was there.





One of the shops that we needed to go into to get Sharon's watch fixed was this little watch shop that had some not-so-little furniture. I sat in a chair that was from the Land of the Giants!




So that was Saturday. That evening, we got some round table pizza (the ulti-meat, it was super good), and watched Stargate Atlantis, which I am starting to get into a little bit, but that was the end of this season. On Sunday, I went to church with Sharon and Scott, and then went to an early lunch with cousin David Lundberg and then went to his house and went for a fun hike in the San Lorenzo Valley along the San Lorenzo river. Here a few pics of that journey..




The end of the journey was at a fun swimming hole called "The Garden of Eden" which, as the name might suggest, was super relaxing and actually a very popular place considering how long the hike was to get there... (about 2.5 miles one way). So we spent some time basking in the sun and getting some swimming in, and then hiked back out. Very fun.




I guess that brings me to now, when I am just kicking back and relaxing before another week of workin' hard. Lots of fun here, but gettin' lots of work done too. Kinda missin' home and family back in Orland, but gotta keep on track. I hope everyone reading this is havin' a good one.