Lounging and Studying

Well, I just lounged about today and studied since I'm still not feeling that great. I feel better than yesterday, but still not backto normal, especially when trying to move around doing laundry or cleaning my place. Still I've at least gotten ahead on my AE101 class and read ahead on my ES204 and ES206. In otherwords, a boring day all around.

I guess on the plus side is the three day weekend, so no school tomorrow leaving more time to get better and do some more homework.

Rest day...not really

Well. I haven't really done a lot today except some homework for my classes at ERAU. I'm still having some bothersome trouble breathing. Unfortunately, the clinic I was to go to is shut down for the long weekend, so it's not like I can just go over there to get whatever is doing this diagnosed or even fixed.

I really hope this isn't related to altitude sickness or similar thing since that would in effect end being able to attend the ERAU Prescott campus, but I'm starting to suspect it might. I'd hate to have to end the semester in my second week and then have to transfer to the Daytona Beach campus next semester. It would be a major hassle. I'll just have to wait and see how things go at the doctors office first.

So basically my day has consisted of hours of homework while watching college football on TV, feeling bad. Bleh.

ERAU Day 5 (A Bust)

Well Day 5 at ERAU was a bust for me. Last night I went to the Emergency Room because it felt like I couldn't breathe properly. At 5:30 am I'm home and the doctors still have no idea what was causing my bronchial spasming (which has continued off and on through out the day). I was wiped out but still went to school to drop off my ES204 assignment that was due and to let my professors know I wasn't going to class today. The good thing was finally resolving (I hope) the FinAid situation.

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow since it seems the spasms are all but gone now. I'll have to wait and see.

ERAU Day 4

Another day at ERAU has come and gone and things went well. We had a lot fo rain at the school (and throughout the Prescott area down to the outer edges of the Phoenix Metro Area) which has a lot of people scrambling for cover, either at the dorms, the comp labs or the library.

In AE101 we covered a a little bit about our semester long design projects, different types of wing and tail structures, and a little bit on the various categories in Aerospace Engineering. To be honest, it doesn't seem like we did a lot considering the time spent in class. It was fun, though.

In Fluids we got down to business with our first lecture on Fluids. There was a lot of information, too much to actually write down. Fortunately Dr. Shigeo (as he has asked us to call him) has all the lecture notes online so we can download them ourselves. He also gave us copies of our "mug shot" pictures. Everyone looks like their stoned or drunk. Heh!

Now the only bad event of the day was on the drive home to Phoenix after school. A storm hit the area around the Bradshaw Mountains hard. A car slid of the road, apparently rolling over, before slamming into a rock face. By the looks of things several people were killed and several others seriously injured. Less than a mile later, two trucks that were speeding through the storm hit and nearly wiped each other out. Fortunately, both were able to get control of their vehicles and pull over to the side of the road. Even I had some trouble on the road, going 20 mile below the speed limit, hydroplanning a couple times.

All in all a normal, albeit with some unexpected stress, day.

ERAU Day 3

Well day 3 has come and gone at ERAU. Classes were kind of slow and I had an airhead moment in which I left my Physics book in the Advanced Engineering Mathematics class room, but fortunately Professor Shinn (my MA441 instructor) kept it in her office. It rained (okay ore like sprinkled today) for the third day straight but I liked it (as did many others its seems). I'm still working on the FinAid snafu but I no longer feel like ripping the student workers at FinAid a new one for their poor attitudes.

Dynamics was a bit boring, but then we are pretty much just reviewing stuff that the class should already know. The class size shrunk noticeably. I know a couple of people from my statics class dropped because they had not had Differential Equations yet, which is too bad. I think they could have done okay in the class without the Diff Eq.

Physics was boring for me, but only because this is all review for me. The only section in the Physics class I haven't had is Thermodynamics which is at the end of the year. So I'm using this time to refresh myself on the information and improve my skills.

Advanced Engineering Mathematics I was okay. I'm certain I biffed the requisites exam, but then I didn't bother reviewing any of my old Calc and Diff Eq notes. I was a bit miffed that I couldn't remember something as simple as completing the square. I mean, jeez! It's simple algebra! Ah well, I'll just refresh my memory on Calc and Diff Eq this week end by doing a few problems and going over my old journals (Thank you Mr Sueyoshi!) before finishing the AEM homework.

ERAU Day 2

Well day two at ERAU went well for the most part. Pretty much the only problem came about from the students working at Financial Aid acting like a bunch of assholes towards the students coming in, especially those (such as myself) asking questions (which they did not answer). Otherwise today was fun. I still need to go to the Comp Lab guys to figure out why I can't get into the Blackboard system, though.

Had a storm come through while I was waiting for class to start with a lightning strike starting a fire not to far from the campus, but it was taken care of pretty quickly.

1:25 pm First up was AE101 Intro to Aerospace Engineering. Seems like a pretty straight forward course. It doesn't seem like it'll be very hard. Even better, it ends in mid November instead of December like the rest of my classes. It should be fun considering we're going to be designing an aircraft (admittedly a somewhat basic one).

I then had a roughly hour and a half break during which the incident with the FinAid student workers pissed me off so much. I brushed up a little on my Calculus and Diff Eq for tomorrows requisites exam in MA441 Advanced Engineering Mathematics.

4:15 pm And my second (and final) class for the day was Fluid Mechanics. It looks like it'll be a fun class. And better still there are only about 15 people in the class, unlike AE101 with its 30+ people. The instructor has a bit of a thick japanese accent but luckily I'm pretty good at understanding heavily accented people. He had us stand up in the class, took our "mug shot" with his digital camera, and tell everyone a little something about ourselved. Funny thing was everyone in the class was an Aerospace Engineering major. Wierd.

After class came the long drive back to Phoenix which was interesting what with the thunderstorm just north of the Bradshaws and the rain just below Shnebly Hill. Stopped off at two different Staples originally to buy some engineering paper but ended up buying a new calculator, some replacement drafting tools and some composition books (at a steal of $1 each).

Guess I'll just buy the engineering paper at the ungoldy high price ERAU's bookstore charges for the stuff. I'll also see about why I can't seem to log into the ERAU online from home. I could before, but now I can't. Wierd.

Well, that's all for today. Hump day tomorrow.

ERAU Day 1

Well the first day of classes at Embry-Riddle has come and gone. Met lots of new people and renewed acquaintanceship with nearly all the other students in my Summer Statics class (Raine, Robert, etc.). Has some fun and assignments (yeah). Still waiting on the rest of my loan money to show up so I can get a place to stay at permenantly for the semester, but I did get the confirmation letter from the lending company. Hopefully this will mean things on this front will get cleared up.

10:20 AM: First up was Dynamics. Pretty straight forward as to the assignments, reading, tests and schedule. The instructor was laid back, friendly, and clear on everything. The only thing I may not like about the class is the fact that he wants both of his Statics classes to take their tests at the same time: at night. Ain't happening for me but thankfully he's flexible about it. Those who don't want to take it at night can arrange to take it some other time.

Next was a two plus hour break which I used to get a jump on the Dynamics homework due friday. I still have to rewrite the problems over to engineering paper but at least they are complete. After this I read up for the next Dynamics class on wednesday, then went outside where I met a guy from Seattle, Washington, who turned out to also be in my Physics class.

1:50 PM: Ah, University Physics II. This is actually a bit of a misnomer for me since I've already had two University Physics classes at Phoenix College that differs slightly from ERAU's scheduling. Basically half this course I've already had so I'm pretty much going to be bored until the last six or seven weeks of class when we finally cover thermodynamics. I'm kind of ticked that the instructor removed the theoretical physics parts saying we could take his PS303 class next semester if we really were interested in learning about it (which I am!). Guess that means I may minor in math and physics at this rate. Good thing I like both.

4:00 PM: Advanced Engineering Mathematics. Not sure how to take the instructor yet. She seems, I don't know, a little elitist but at the same time, she's pretty funny. I know, wierd combo, but that's the impression I got from her. Besides you got to love the concept of "democratic mathematics" (inside joke from the class). She's giving us a requisites test wednesday to make sure everyone belongs there even though she can't use it to remove anyone from the class due to the schools own policy. Me, I'm not worried about it. It's been three months since I used anything but simple math. If I blow the test, so what? I'm confident in the instruction I received from Joe Sueyoshi's Calculus classes and Tim Bryant's Differential Equations class will come back to me with a little review.

After that was the two hour drive home to Phoenix through a light rainshower coming down the Bradshaw mountains. Tomorrow will be a lot lighter with only two classes: AE101 Intro to Aerospace Engineering at 1:25 pm and ES206 Fluid Mechanics at 4:15 pm. I'll probably use the hour break between the two to check out the Computer Lab since its right next to the bulding the classes are going to be in. The only down side to tuesday/thursday schedule is I don't get out until 5:30 pm but that shouldn't be a problem once I actually get my own place up there.


Looking forward to tomorrow.

Template Change

I really need to find or make a better template forFloating Dolphin. This thing is just so plain it makes my teeth hurt. I'll have to work on this.

Well it's Sunday now. Tomorrow is my first day of classes at ERAU - Prescott Campus. I'm looking forward to it, though MWF is what I call heavy book day, mainly because I've got three 2" thick text books to lug around until I can get the car all to myself. I think everything will go well. Sure getting up at 6:00 am to make sure I'm not late to class after a 2 hour drive isn't the greatest but it's only for a couple of weeks.

So for tomorrow the classes are Dynamics, Physics, and Advanced Engineering Mathematics. Dynamics I think will be pretty easy if it's anything like Statics was. Physics I doubt will be any harder than the Physics classes I took at Phoenix College under Mr. Speed. (I don't care what others say, Mr. Speed's Physics classes at PC were more than adequate for my transfer to ERAU. Whoever said PCs Physics department was lacking in quality was an idiot. Sure they had some bad teachers, but Mr. Speed was not one of them. Engineering Math should be fun since I finally get to really apply all the Calculus and Trig I've been taking the last couple of years to actual engineering principles.

Well, I was browsing around ScapeRoute's Forum reading Farscape fic and stuff when I actually thought for a moment:

Why bother saving Farscape"? It's a wonderful show but obviously no network want to support it and Skiffy (aka: the Sci Fi Channel) tried to back stab everyone in the process of cancelling the show. All people seem to want to watch are all these moronic "Reality TV" shows and obviously so stupid that even if an intelligent science fiction show like "Farscape" was available they'd be too stupid to comprehend it. So why bother?

Then I read a repost of an article about the golden age of science fiction. Two articles in fact. Guess what? The whole population of the United States aren't a bunch of mindless, bobble headed zombies afterall. Sure the authors were Science Fiction fans, but reading about how many good science fiction shows were being cast off by greedy corporate execs and their inability to understand why they are losing viewers my moment of weakness passed. Farscape must be saved. The story needs to be finished. Is another season to accomplish this such a bad idea? I think not. Visit: Save Farscape

Viva la Farscape! Viva la Science Fiction!

Things are looking up today. I finally got confirmation on my student loan thus ending my financial aid issues. So now the Monday start of classes at ERAU should be trouble free for me. I can now pay back my family who loaned me some money to cover my books and finally get off campus housing. Sure I'll be driving up for a week or two, but it'll be worth it once everything gets settled.

Now I just need to get a job which may not be a concern if my friend hires me out to do web graphics for the new web hosting company he is forming. If it doesn't work out I'll just try to get an on or near campus job.

Life is good.

Well, this is my first time at using Blogger. I run my own weblog at my web site, Thirdsphere.Net but that's more for posting more interesting things than what I do in my daily life. I primarily intend to write about what's happened during my day, bits of fiction I've written, and general errata.

Let's light this candle.