Look At What I Did To My iPhone

My friend Jeff came up to Starkville for the weekend. He didn’t come for Bulldog Bash (which was extremely fun), but to work on an architecture project (long story short, Jackson’s campus had a non-working laser etcher). I found out Saturday he was here, so I headed on over to the Architecture building to chill with a friend who I haven’t seen in months.

After a little while, he comes to me with an idea. Why not etch my phone while we have access to the machine? It was a simple procedure, practicing on a piece of acrylic before putting the laser to my phone. Needless to say, it came out extremely pretty (albeit not centered – but that works, though).

Defending The Nation, Stuff In General

Found from Gawker, this is a definitely interesting image of the president showing off his Jedi skills. No matter how you look at him, Obama is an interesting person.

School’s been on and off interesting for me. Even with 16 hours, the work-load isn’t as light as I had hoped it to be. Comes with being an EE I guess. Still better than the load I had with 19 and 18 hours. I can’t imagine doing that again. Either way, I can’t let myself slack off too much. I need to really kick work into high-gear. I’ve got EcoCAR, labs, and class all at the same time. Trying to throw a job into that will definitely be a juggling act.

Job. MFJ never contacted me back, so I’m going to be looking at housing for a source of income. I hear they have a shortage of IA staff for odd hours. Excellent for me (being a night-owl and all). That and being an IA is not all that difficult. You have to exist and not ignore everything. Hours upon hours of doing homework and occasionally signing somebody in or for a package. Gonna stop by housing this week and see if I can snag a job.

Obama’s Message To The Kiddos

Opposed to him or not, you’d have to be blind to ignore his message. To sum it up, he basically told the kids to “Stay in school, go to school, work hard, respect your teachers, and do good.” Nothing political, nothing controversial. The only thing “controversial” is the decision by some schools to not air the speech and for some parents who, for one reason or another, decided to not give their students permission to listen to this speech. In my opinion, this speech, no matter who delivers it, has a lot of meaning. Had it been W, Regan, McCain, or Gore, I would had listened to it. The message is important, not the speaker. I’m just mildly annoyed at the political polarization we see with this – a view that Obama is not our leader, but our enemy. A view that discounts everything he has to say as nothing of importance, even if it is. A view that discounts every decision, proposal, program, and bill that comes from his administration. Just as with any leader, everything must be first reviewed in whole without bias, then a decision can be made. Sometimes even leaders that you disagree with will produce something you can agree with. Likewise, leaders that you like may produce something you’ll disagree with. Nobody is perfect, nobody is absolutely terrible.

Stop being polarized, America. Subscribe to no single party. Think though everything and form your own opinions and decisions, not those of a political group.

Oh, and read the transcript of Obama’s speech before you continue spreadin’ the hate.

Class of 2012 Stats

I know some in the Class of 2012 will not graduate in 2012, but these are my peers, so what are some of the stats I found out looking at class rank.

Fall Semester 2008 End
Total Freshmen, 2783. I was 539th.
Total Freshmen in the BCoE, 430. I was 130th.
Total Freshmen in the CPE program, 33. I was 7th.

Spring Semester 2009 End (Note, it’ll call me a Sophomore at this point)
Total Sophomores, 2487. I was 709th. We lost close to 300 students and I dropped 150 places.
Total Sophomores in the BCoE, 447. I was 170th. We gained 17 students and I dropped 40 places.
Total Sophomores in the EE program, 39. I was 13th. I switched majors, so I really have nothing to compare it to.

So where does this lead me? It’s an incentive to do better. In 2008, I was in the top 20% of the class. Now I am in the top 30%. My goal this semester is to return to the top 20% or better. My department is small, so it shouldn’t be all that difficult to move a few places up. The same goes for the BCoE.

We’ll see how I do this semester and this year.

What Up In Life?

It’s been quite a while since I’ve last posted anything on the blog. I’ve been busy with life and school. I have been updating the photoblog often and I suggest you head on over there. I’m almost caught up with myself on posting photos. I’ll post three at a time when I do post.

So, what has been happening since the beginning of August.

First week of August – adjusting to living in my new apt and getting my room in order (here too).
Second week of August – spending time with friends and getting ready for school.
Third week of August – first week of school – buying frenzy of books and supplies.
Fourth week of August – finally getting settled into the school schedule.

That’s about it.

Last week I managed to also make it over to CAVS to work on the EcoCAR battery trailer. We built the base of the box that’ll contain the batteries. It’ll be done some-time this week. Super-awesome.

Tomorrow is the last day of August and soon September will start. The last month has passed by pretty quickly.