Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I know that there is (at the time of this writing) only 15 minutes left of Christmas, but that is exactly why I am just barely getting around to making this post. Vacation has been going awesome so far. I am really enjoying my (well needed) time off. I know that when my Spring semester courses start on January 11th that I am going to have a larger work load ahead of me than I did last semester. The courses are going to be more challenging, and Freshmen Orientation has taken a hike only to be replaced by "C" Programming. I am sure that as challenging as my new courses will be, they will still be fun.

I don't plan on talking about what I got for Christmas because I am taking those who are less fortunate than me into consideration. I do however, have to make this post soon before it is too late... (only a few minutes left of Christmas...)

I will try to post a couple more times during my vacation... :-)

I Passed All of My Courses!

The picture above is of a tree that has been 'crystallized' with ice. At the time the picture was taken literally every tree had this crystal effect. All the trees looked like something straight out of a Christmas shop. I have lived in Vermont my whole life, but I have never seen this effect to this level. It is too bad that the trees don't have this crystal effect anymore. It was really cool because the trees would reflect the sunlight with rainbow-like colors making it look as though every tree had Christmas lights. :-)

Anyway, I found out today that I actually managed to pass my math course. I won't post my final grade because it is borderline, and I mean borderline. I am now only waiting for my final grade in my Digital Circuits class. I received an A- for a final grade in Circuits, an A+ in Expository Writing, and I passed math...

If I had failed my math course it would have completely screwed up my schedule for next semester. I would not have been able to move onto my next Fundamentals of Circuits course, Digital Circuits course, or obviously my next math course. It is my understanding that Fundamentals of Circuits II requires that (at least) the Tech. Math course already be completed, and it also requires Tech. Math II be taken during the same semester. With that said, I wouldn't be able to move onto my new courses. I would only be taking Research Writing, Fund. Programming in C, and Intro. to Technical Math.

My math course was the only one that I was worried about, so I am relieved that I passed the course. The grade I received will (likely) alter my GPA due to the fact that it is a 5 credit course, but my grades in all of my other classes are awesome, so I should still get by with a fairly decent GPA for my first semester.

I am going to try and keep the blog updated even though I am on a 3 week Christmas vacation. I am planning on posting a picture of our Christmas tree at some point this week...

Camera Batteries Are Dead...

As the title for this post suggests, the batteries in my camera are dead. I have tried several different batteries that I have around my dorm room, but none of them seem to keep the camera on long enough for a picture. I meant to post yesterday because I already knew what I was going to post about, but I didn't want to post without having a picture. I decided that I would just use an older photo that I took back in October. This picture is of my Nephew (who is now 9 months old) painting a pumpkin. You can see from the photo that he is a very clean, organized, and sophisticated painter. He never makes a mess, and he would never paint his high chair...

Oh... crap.

Anyway, I have 4 of my 5 classes out of the way as far as exams go. I am officially done with Expository Writing, Fundamentals of Digital Circuits I, Fundamentals of Circuits I, and Freshmen Orientation. It is not surprising that the Freshmen Orientation 'exam' involved no work whatsoever. I didn't mind going to it because I had nothing better to do, and it was less than 2 hours long. I also liked how it was at 8am because I am now officially done for the day.

The last final exam that I have is tomorrow from 10am to 12pm. This is exam will be my toughest exam because it is for Intro. to Technical Math. If I did my math correctly (ironic?) I need to get at least a 56 in order to pass the course. The final exam counts as 25% of the final grade in the class. I am confident that I will do better than a 56 on the exam, but I am not going to let my guard down. I plan on revisiting all of the sections that we have completed in the book for this course. I am happy that my math exam starts at 10am instead of 8am. I wouldn't want to have to take math final at 8 o'clock in the morning. I hope that I do a great job, but I won't know the grades for any of my exams until I get back to the college in January.

Just in case I don't find the time to post from here until Christmas, I will try to post, be sure to have a great Christmas and a great holiday break! :-)

End of the Semester - My New Schedule

I am officially finished with my first semester's courses. I have posted a picture of my schedule which shows the classes that I will have for the Spring semester (til the end of the year). You should be able to see that the only new classes I have are Research Writing, and Fundamentals of Programming in "C". For those of you who don't know, "C" is a computer programming language. It is one of the many computer languages used to develop computer programs and is one of the most widely used. This "C" programming course sounds like it is going to be extremely easy. I already have prior programming experience with other languages, and I am sure that it will help me out in this class. These new classes don't start until January 12th (after vacation), but the first step is getting through the final exams that I have this week. Also, I have my new schedule posted where the old one used to be, on the right side of the blog.

I have both of my circuits exams tomorrow. I have the Digital Circuits exam @ 8am, and my Fundamentals of Circuits exam @ 3pm. I will be sure to post my thoughts on each exam after I have taken both of them. I will post how I feel that I did on each exam. I will do this for each exam except for math, or I will only post about my math exam if I feel that I did a great job on it...

I found out today that my final grade for Expository Writing is a 97. I am proud of myself for doing so well in 3 out of my 4 college courses. I have enjoyed the class quite a bit and I will probably be missing it soon enough. Well, I gotta get back to studying circuits...

Week 15 - Last Day of Classes Tomorrow

UPDATE:

I forgot to mention that my roommate has moved out of this room which means that I now have the room to myself. This could change after Christmas break, when the spring semester starts, if there are a lot more students coming in or if someone wants a room reassignment. I am hoping that I keep the room to myself for the remainder of the year because it will allow me to have twice as much space, and it will make it much easier to study, and do work... I decided to post a picture of my dorm room, so people could see it. :-)

ORIGINAL POST:

It is hard to believe, but it is finally the end of the semester at Vermont Tech. It is amazing how quickly time can fly by when you are kept busy. With this week being the final week of the semester it is also the week of final exams. My schedule this week looks like this:

Monday: Last day of classes (normal Monday schedule)

Tuesday: Fund of Digital Circuits exam @ 8am, Fund. of Circuits Exam @ 3pm

Wednesday: Freshmen Orientation exam @ 8am (every course required to have final exam)

Thursday: Intro. to Technical Math exam @ 10am, 3 week Christmas break starts!

Friday: VACATION! :-)

My vacation starts after my Intro. to Technical Math exam on Thursday, and I will be coming back to the college on January 11th. If you are wondering why an exam is not listed for Expository Writing it is because the exam is just a quick talk with my professor. Each final exam is 2 hours long. You may remember that I already had a 2 hour Expository Writing exam earlier in the year. This makes life a lot easier because it is one less exam that I have to study for this week. The only exam that I am worried about (and so it will receive the most attention) is my Intro. to Technical Math exam. If i fail my math exam then I fail the course, but if I pass the exam then I will pass the course. I may or may not update my blog over Christmas break. The only thing that holds me back is the purpose of this blog. I have created this blog based around college, so anything that is not based on college would be considered off topic...

Just in case I am too busy later in the week to post again due to exams, be sure to have a great holiday vacation. I am wondering how quickly I can get the counter on my blog to rise, so feel free to tell anyone you know about my blog! :-)

TekBots Obstacle Course

I originally meant to post this yesterday, but I was too busy. Anyway, In my Fundamentals of Circuits lab we had a few different challenges set up for our robot cars. The challenges included an obstacle course, a race, a TekBots quiz, judging for 'style points' and judging for workmanship (quality of completed work). The prizes for each of these challenges were pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I conveniently forgot to plug my robot car in the night before (I had every intention to do so... funny how that works), but I also managed to optimize the tuning on my robot car for obstacle courses and races.

I ended up winning two of the challenges. With the obstacle course, each person had to get there robot car from the starting point to the finish line (the invisible line that travels through the trash can and the cardboard box...). I had my car tuned so that if it hit the left sensor it would make a quick (and i mean quick) right turn before taking off again. This worked out great because my car was setup so that it could easily go around obstacles. I ended up winning the obstacle course even though my car was the slowest, simply for its fine tuning.

Even with how slow my car was traveling I almost won the race. We had it setup as a straight track with all the boards and boxes from the obstacle course. There were four robot cars total, and mine was, by far, the slowest. When the race started the car on the far left (I was on the far right) hit one of longer boards on the side of the course. This board then spun backwards and hit the other two cars. I found this to be rather funny considering the fact the my car was the slowest, but it was also the only one that wasn't affected by this 'course malfunction.' My car kept on going straight, but then the other three cars got themselves out of the messy situation that they were in, and a car finally crossed the finish line. My car almost made it, but someone had road rage and slammed into one of my wheels. This turned my car around so that it was facing some boards in the direction of the starting line, and sure enough my robot car starting working its way around the boards. Needless to say that I didn't win this event, but it was still a lot of fun.

The second event that I won was the TekBots quiz. There was a single problem on the quiz, and the first person to answer the problem won the challenge. This quiz wasn't graded, but it did mean that the winner got a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I don't know how close the other students were to finding the answer to the question, but I know that I answered it very quickly. I would explain what the question was about if explaining it would result in this post being 4 pages long.

I ended up winning two events. This meant that I got two pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It was definitely a good idea to fine tune my robot car the night before. I don't know why I didn't manage to plug my robot car in for the night after I finished fine tuning it. In the race I came really close to the finish line before my wheel got hit. I am confident that I would have won the race if I would have remembered to plug in my robot car. I am definitely not at any loss though. The challenges were a lot of fun, building the bot was a lot of fun, and winning two events was a lot of fun. Now I can get fat off of two pints of ice cream... :-)

Fiber Optic Voice Link

It is now Week 14. Over the weekend I worked on a new project that my circuits professor gave to me. It is called a 'fiber optic voice link' because it takes the input from a microphone on one chip, converts it to light, sends it through the fiber optic cable, and then the other chip converts it back and amplifies it through the speaker. It was fun putting it together. I have been troubleshooting it to find out why it is making a loud screeching noise and a loud buzzing noise. I believe that the speaker is blown, but It could be just about anything in the circuit. I am hoping to further diagnose the chips during this week's lab. This is actually the last week of classes. I have classes on Monday of next week, but after that it is nothing but final exams. I have two of my 3 exams on Tuesday.

I believe my math professor said that my Technical Math exam is next Thursday. I am hoping that this is true because it would mean that my vacation starts a day earlier. My high school advisor invited me back to my high school for next Friday to see the school's staff band play. Yup. The band is nothing but teachers and faculty. More than half the teachers in my high school were dedicated musicians. My librarian/advisor was also one of the best lead guitarists that I have ever seen. There are so many musical teachers at my old high school that they decided to start a band. The band is cleverly called "Staff Infection." They only perform once a year, before Christmas break, but they always do an awesome job.

Anyway, I have a really easy night tonight. I am going to get back to taking advantage of it... :-)

UPDATE: I have added a viewer counter to the right hand side of my blog. It will count the number of times that people go to my blog. It is inaccurate though because it wasn't around for the past couple of months. It will count people from here on out, but it does not count the number of times people have visited the blog before the counter was added.

Last Essay Grade is Also Awesome

I had my Expository Writing class this morning. I got my Example Essay back, and it is my 3rd 98 in the class! My essay was about the consequences of skipping class and how it can turn into a dangerous trend. I decided that this would be a good topic because I know several people who skip their classes all the time. These students are then surprised when they find that they are failing a course, and this confuses the hell out of me. The way I am starting to look at it is, if you are someone who is surprised by everything you are probably an idiot. :-)

Nobody should be surprised to find that they are failing a course after missing a whole crap-load of classes. Common sense says that if you don't show up for work, you don't get paid. In college, the professor still gets paid if you don't show up. The only one at loss is yourself. Why the hell would anyone willingly put themselves in this situation?

Anyway, I decided to take a picture of my "Awesome Dorm Room View" with a different angle, and a bunch of snow. It is only the beginning of December, so there is a hell of a lot more snow on the way. In other news, I have my 4th Technical Math exam today. I hope that I do well on it. With that said, I am worried that there is going to be a bunch of BS on it like usual...

I just need to get through this and then I am home for the weekend...

Famous Comedian - Lowell Sanders

I just got back from watching Lowell Sanders stand-up comedy and it was easily one of the funniest acts I have ever seen! I laughed very hard at each of the jokes he made because they were very original. Lowell Sanders has been on Comedy Central, he has toured with George Lopez, and he has even been in a few movies, like Jungle 2 Jungle with Tim Allen. I am definitely going to spend a great deal of time trying to remember his jokes. I laughed so hard that I didn't get a chance to store them in a good part of my brain...

This guy is a really cool guy. I talked to him after his show and he gave the president of the college and two staff members a free cd for setting up the show. A couple of other students and I told him jokes of our own. I shook his hand a couple of times before I started to head out, but then I saw that one of the other students was getting a cd from him. I didn't know if he was giving them away or if the student was buying it. I walked back and asked him if he was selling them, and he said "Oh.. this is the last one that I have, but write your name and address down and I will send one to ya!" He was signing each copy that he handed out, so I am hoping that I get a signed cd in the mail. Getting a cd is perfect because I won't have to spend so much time memorizing his jokes.

He is an awesome performer, and I really like how great Vermont Tech is with choosing quality entertainment. The school knows that there is not a lot to do in Randolph, VT, so they make up for it by bringing all the entertainment right to the college! In case you haven't noticed from reading this blog I really enjoy being here... :-)

To check out Lowell Sanders website, go to: www.lowellsanders.com

Awesome Exam Grades

"One of My Strats"
-----------------------------------

I had an exam in both of my circuits classes before Thanksgiving break. I found out today what my grades were for both of the exams. I am happy with both of my grades.

On my Digital Circuits exam I received a 79 because I made a couple of mistakes. I was expecting a higher grade on my exam, but I am still happy with the grade I got. A 79 is still a pretty decent grade. This was my second exam in Digital Circuits. The only exam I have left is the final exam which takes place in a couple of weeks.

I did an awesome job on my Fundamentals of Circuits exam. This exam was the second one that was graded for this class. The first exam, which I took earlier in the year, I received a 96 for a grade. This second exam I didn't do as well as my first, but a 93 is still pretty damn awesome. This 93 means that I only made a few minor mistakes in my work. One mistake occurred because I was "on a roll" while I was taking the test. I was rolling out answers left and right, and I was so confident towards the end of the test that I added 20 + 20 to equal 4. I looked at the problem, pulled (most of) the information out, and then I accidentally misread the 20's as 2's. I had the sum of the capacitors at 4 Farads when it was supposed to be at 40 Farads. I didn't get too many points docked for this mistake because I would I have gotten the correct number if I would have taken a second look at the information that was given to me. I had my formulas right, but I obviously needed the right numbers to get the right answer.

I have final exams for 3 out of my 4 classes. The only final i am worried about is for my Technical Math class. The final exam will determine whether or not I pass the class since my grades are nowhere near as good as they are in my other 3 classes. I don't necessarily agree with the whole idea of having an exam this Friday and then having the final in two weeks.

My main goal for this semester is to pass my tech math class. I am going to put forth my best effort for this week's exam and the final that follows a couple weeks after. I am not someone who complains, but my math class is much harder than it needs to be. The problem lies in how many different majors get mashed together to form the class. The class lacks focus because everyone does things differently. You have Computer Tech. students mixed with architects and etc... It is easy for students to give up in the class because the work is challenging. My other classes do an exceptional job of teaching me new material. There hasn't been a single day where I haven't been interested in my other 3 classes. I am willing to accept failure, but only when it backfires and teaches me the right way to do things. I don't see myself failing the class, but where I have failed has only helped me learn more.

Got carried away...

Anyway, there is a famous comedian named Lowell Sanders that will be at the college tomorrow. He is a "Def Comedy Jam" performer and he has been on Comedy Central. I am going to make sure that I make it down to his show, and I will make sure that I post about it on the blog...

Thanksgiving Break is Over...

Tomorrow will be the start of my 13th class week. I am surprised that it is already approaching the end of my first semester in college. I am looking forward to next semester, and I hope that it goes as well as my first.

My vacation was nice. It is always nice to have a vacation, but the problem lies in how easy it is to forget stuff over the break and having to 'remind' yourself when you get back. I ordered a soldering iron the Thursday before break. It is the same exact kind of soldering iron as what is used at Vermont Tech. I am used to using this soldering iron and I really like it, so I decided I would buy the same thing.

I will post the grades from my exams when I get them back tomorrow...

Robot Car 100% Complete!!!

This is the first video that I have posted on my blog. I recorded this using my PlayStation Eye camera. The camera has awesome quality, and hopefully the quality isn't reduced too bad when it is uploaded. I do a 360 degree view twice and then I show you the very first test run! This video was made before I finished two sets of wires, but I still managed to make it work since the copper wires fit into their spots without having to be soldered to their pins.

I hope you like this video. I have two dials (known as potentiometers) that control each wheel and how long they will back up for each sensor that detects a collision. I need to fine tune the settings so that the car won't do what is almost a complete turn-around. I want it to be angled after it turns around so it won't ever go back and forth between two objects (like two walls in a hallway).

I have this blog open for comments also, so if you want to comment on any post on the blog then feel free to do so. I only ask that there are no negative/offensive comments left on the blog.

Well, Thanksgiving Break officially starts today. I think that I am going to start getting my stuff together to go home. I can't say whether or not I will post over break. If I find something to post about then I will do so...

Robot Car 99% Complete!

I confirmed with my professor yesterday that the electronics labs are open to people just coming in and coming out anytime they want. This was great news because now I know that I can have an electronics lab whenever time allows. I decided to take advantage of this new found knowledge and I spent about 3 hours in one of the lab rooms working on my robot car. The time flew right by because I enjoy working on it. I would have stayed to finish the car, but I had to head off to the dining hall before it closed for the night.

Anyway, I only have 2 more sets of wires to complete. Each wire has 4 connections on either end meaning that I have 16 more connections to make. I plan on finishing the robot car tomorrow during my free time, so I can show everyone over Thanksgiving break.

I will try to post any changes I make before leaving for vacation...

Week 12 Almost Over...

Yup. It is hard to believe, but week 12 is just about over. I usually end up being in this state of mind after my Technical Math class on Wednesdays because Thursdays and Fridays are easy days. My 2-hour Expository Writing lab is canceled for Friday which means that I only have 2 hours of classes both Thursday and Friday. It also means that I will be able to go home for week sooner than I normally would.

I was originally planning on posting some updates for my robot car, with pictures, but I didn't make any real progress with it today. I was only able to get 2 wires setup so that they can be connected to my computer chips. I didn't see any reason to post a picture when the changes that were made were minimal. Soldering the wires can be extremely annoying sometimes because the wires have to be soldered to this tiny metal pins. It is hard to solder the wires to these pins because you have to find a way to press the wire against the pin while you are soldering it without melting the plastic piece that the pins are inside of and without melting the insulation around the wires.

It is okay that I didn't manage to finish my robot car today. My professor told me that the lab room is always open for students to use. I am planning on making it down to the lab room during my free time tomorrow and possibly on Friday. I would really like to get this robot car complete before vacation since my solder iron at home has a screw missing. I will be sure to post about any updates like usual...

One last thing, the picture above is of a flashlight I got from the Vermont Tech Open House last summer. I am thinking about rewiring it so it is part of my robot car. It should look pretty damn cool. :-)

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that I received a 98 on my last essay! The assignment was to write a compare & contrast essay start-to-finish in a 2-hour Friday lab. I finished my essay after about 45 minutes to an hour and I received a 98 on it! The last essay that I received a 98 on was my response to the New Orleans documentary, "When The Levees Broke." These two essays are my highest graded essays this semester! I turned in my Example essay on Wednesday. I am hoping that it is graded in the 90's like all the other ones. :-)

Robot Car Almost Complete...

I was able to make some major progress on my robot car today. I managed to build the Analog Controller Board, and the Sensor Board. The Analog Controller Board is the board with the white knobs on it. I can use the knobs on this board to adjust how quickly each tire will back up when the car detects a wall/obstacle. The Sensor Board is self explanatory as it is simply the board that has the sensors on it.

The next and final step is to test all of my chips to confirm that everything has been built right. After I test the chip I will have to make some wires to connect the chips to one another. It won't be long before the car is complete. I can't wait to show it off to everyone. :-)

Start of Week 11

It is now the start of week 11. It is hard to believe that there are only a few more weeks left until this semester ends. I have a week-long Thanksgiving break coming up soon. I am really looking forward to having some time off, and I am hoping that it doesn't cause me to forget anything from the week before. Sometimes it requires some extra studying to freshen up on topics that I have started to forget. It is a good practice to re-study old material because it will make new concepts easier to learn.

Over the weekend I went with my parents to visit my Aunt Helen and Uncle Jim. My cousin Daniel came back from Alaska so a great portion of my mom's side of the family was there. My parents decided to take everyone out to a fancy restaurant called "The Cow Palace." This was the second time that I had been to this restaurant, and the last time we had over 20 people. This time we had about 15 people and my parents tipped the waitress $100. Needless to say she was pretty excited about that.

Academically I don't have anything new going on. I know that I will definitely be working on my robot car on Wednesday. As usual, I am looking forward to Wednesday. Hopefully I will have some more stuff to post on the blog this week. With me working on my robot car on Wednesday I can guarantee that I will post on that day. :-)

Next Chip For My Robot Car

I wasn't able to work on my robot car this week because we did a lab about capacitors. We found out that capacitors are basically just strips of foil separated by a strip of plastic, usually rolled into a tube shape. When finished the chip pictured above will have 4 different knobs to adjust how quickly the car will back up when it detects walls.

To understand how these knobs will adjust the speed at which the car would back up, we basically did an experiment to see how a change in voltage over time could affect the speed of the car. I believe that next week I will be able to work on my robot car again. I might even do some work on it over the weekend when I go home. I am hoping that the construction of this chip goes just as well as the charger board did.

I realized that I had only posted once this week, so I decided I would take a picture of the next chip I will be building. I will be sure to take a picture of the finished product and post it on the blog also.

It is almost the end of week 10, and I am looking forward to going home this weekend... :-)

Expository Writing - Exam Graded

It is the start of week 10, and winter is on the way. It is going to suck having to walk to my classes in blizzards etc, but I do think that it will be much better than waiting for a school bus only to have it not show up after 20 minutes of waiting. I got my Expository Writing exam back today, and I also got my Fundamentals of Circuits I quiz back today from last week. My Expository Writing exam consisted of two 1-hour parts spread out over two days. This is the only exam that we have had for this class. I almost want to say that it is the only one that we will be having this year. It is week 10 and there are only 4 more to go after this (not including Thanksgiving break). After Thanksgiving break I will only have 2 weeks until the end of the semester. I think that next semester I will have a class in C programming.

Anyway, on to the results of my tests. On my Fundamentals of Circuits quiz I received an 11 out of 10! This is technically 110%. I answered a bonus question on the quiz correctly, and my quiz was perfect. :-) For my Expository Writing 2-hour exam (longest exam yet) I receive a 98! Yup. I am still rolling out the good grades... with the exception of Intro. to Technical Math... I will pass the class, but I would like to improve my grade as much as I can to be 100% sure. I shouldn't allow a poor grade in a math class ruin what would be an awesome GPA with the rest of my classes... :-)

Robot Car / Had 3 Tests Today

I forgot to post on the blog last week that I wasn't able to work on my robot car because I had a normal lab. I did manage to work on it today though. I carefully drilled the holes into the wheels using a drill press so that they could be attached to the motors. I also had to attach these components known as capacitors to each of the motors.

The capacitors have a pretty cool effect. I think they give the motors more power. I noticed that even though each wheel has its own motor, I can turn one wheel and it will turn the wheel on the other side. It is really cool. I think that the capacitors hold a charge, and when I turn one of the wheels it releases the electricity to the charger board, and it then gets transferred to the other motor. If you are wondering what capacitors are, they are the orange, squarish looking things attached to the motors. If you look closely enough you should be able to point them out. I have 3 more boards to work on, and then I need to attach them to the robot car. I think that I might have the largest portion of the robot car complete.

In other news, I had a 1-hour exam in Expository Writing today, and quizzes in Fundamentals of Circuits and Digital Circuits. I am pretty sure that I did a really good job on all 3 of the tests, which is nice to know. The 1-hour exam that I had today was only the first part of the Expository Writing exam. I have the second 1-hour exam for the class on Friday, and I also have a Process Essay due that same day. My Expository Writing professor told us that after Thanksgiving break the work will slow down quite a bit.

My classes have been going really well so far. I really need to get my Technical Math grade back up to where it used to be, so I don't have to worry about it so much. I am passing the class, which is nice, but I would like to have at least an 85 in the class. We are currently on a unit that I have never covered before, so I have really been focusing on how everything works.

I meant to type this earlier, but I got distracted by a few different things (PS3, Laptop etc...).
I haven't been posting on the blog as much as I used to because I am running out of things to post. It is also quickly slipping into winter, so there isn't really anything to take a picture of outside...

It is almost 1:00 AM. I normally would not stay up this late, but I don't have my first class until 11:00 AM (later today). :-) I am going to get ready to pass out now...

Apple Picking & Most Recent Essay Grade

Last week my Fundamentals of Circuits professor, professor Vandermark, asked everyone in my class if they would be interested in helping him pick some VTC apples to donate to the local food shelf. I decided that since I didn't have anything else going on I might as well lend a hand. There were 2 other students that showed up for the apple picking, so my professor, the other 2 students and I all picked apples from the various trees that are roughly behind my dorm building. It was a fun and easy way to help people out, so I had no problem devoting my time to it. If I remember correctly, we picked about 2-3 boxes of apples.

In other news, I got another essay back from my Expository Writing professor. I keep thinking to myself, "There is no way I did better than my last essay," and I am always wrong. I received a 98 on this essay. That means that I got an almost-perfect grade. It really won't surprise me if my next essay doesn't top this 98, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. My professor told me that this essay was the, "Strongest essay [she's] read this semester..." My next essay is a called a Process essay. I am writing about how to properly string a guitar, and the different things to take into consideration. If I want to follow my pattern I will have to get at least a 99, or I will have to get a 100. Yup, very unlikely... :-)

Career Fair/Found My Future Job?

There are over 80 businesses at Vermont Tech right now for the annual career fair. The Judd gymnasium (attached to SHAPE) is packed with tables, displays, and people.

Out of all the businesses here, there is one that really stands out for me. The company is called Logic Supply. They are located in South Burlington, VT and specialize in building small computer systems and also retail services. They first started in 2003 with a team of only 5 people, but they are quickly growing. They now have a team of about 25 people, and the company is projected to grow very quickly profit wise. The company provides a whole bunch of benefits to its employees. They provide: Full health care, 8 paid holidays, 14 paid vacation/wellness days, shared profits (as the company makes more money, employees get a share of profits), and retirement plan known as, Simple IRA. The retirement plan means that Logic Supply will donate up to 3% for every dollar made with your salary to a retirement plan that you get from being an employee. They say that they have a bunch of other benefits also. I would imagine that one of them would be huge employee discounts, considering the fact that they sell retail computer parts and accessories on top of building computer parts and writing computer programs.

I am definitely going to look into getting a job at this place. Out of all of the businesses I talked to, this one seems like the best match. I do still have quite a ways to go before I graduate from college with my Bachelor's Degree, so I could end up finding something that interests me more, but with my current state of mind it seems very unlikely. :-) It sounds like the employees make a very, very decent salary. I am not sure what I would be making if I started working there right after graduation, but I know that the business was able to multiply their staff by 5 in the past 5 years, so who knows how much better the company will be doing 4 years from now...

You can visit their website @ www.logicsupply.com

OctoberFiesta - Two Famous Performers

NOTE: This is a long post, but you should find it interesting. I wish I could write tons more about the different things that these performers did, but there is no way to convert the experience into words.

Wow! OctoberFiesta was a whole lot of fun. There were many different attractions. There was a mechanical bull, a live radio broadcast (courtesy of WVTC 90.7 FM), several side-games sponsored by clubs, an inflatable booth for video games on a projection screen, a hot pepper eating contest and several other awesome things including free drinks and food.

Even though the first huge chunk of the show was great, the last part of it was downright awesome. There was a magician running around reading people's minds and performing some very cool card tricks. He did an amazing job of freaking people out by reading their minds. One person swore when he guessed the card a kid was thinking of and was so freaked out that he left the gymnasium! :-)

There were signs posted about "Sword Swallowing @ 9:00 PM" which I had to stay for. I didn't realize that the magician was going to be the sword swallower. Keep reading, it gets better. Right before the show was about to begin the radio station introduced the magician by saying:

"Ladies & Gentlemen. Can we have your attention please. He has travelled all around the world performing his act, he has appeared on Ripley's Believe it or Not, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, MTV and several other channels, he currently holds 3 records in the Guiness Book of World Records for his dangerous acts. Ladies & Gentlemen... We now present to you... Mr. Roderick Russell!"

I had seen this guy swallow swords on Ripley's Believe it or Not when I was younger, and I thought that it was the coolest thing that was ever on the show. It was really cool to meet the guy in person and see his act live. He said that Guiness has banned sword swallowing because of how dangerous it is, and that he is 1 out of only 50 people in the world who can perform this act. He did so many awesome things. He lit one torch, inhaled the fumes, and then lit a second torch by breathing the fire onto it! He explained that he has pages (not one, but many pages) in the Ripley's Believe it or Not book that show pictures and xrays of the swords in his throat. This guy is very well known. He has his own website. His website is, www.roderickrussell.com be sure to check it out if you want to see higher quality pictures. I could write ten pages on this guy because of how cool his act was, but unfortunately I don't have time to do so.

It was cool because after the act was over, I got to talk to Roderick Russell. I told him about how I had seen him when I was younger and I thought that it was the best act on Ripley's (which it definately was), and how I didn't realize it was him until it was announced. I told him that it was really cool to be able to see him in person.

The sword swallower wasn't the only famous person there. There was a french guy there also who goes by the name Etienne (sounds like A-T-N). This guy's act was, by far, the funniest thing that I have ever seen. He is both a comedian, and a juggler. He travels all around the world performing his acts. His act is one that has to be seen though. Even more so with this act than the sword swallowing, this act had so much going on that it is hard to describe. One of the cool things he did, was he managed to balance on a step ladder, while playing the tuba! He was a wicked funny guy. He had a very deep French accent, but you could easily understand him. He made jokes about how you can never trust a mime, and he called them death mimes for the rest of the show... hard to describe, but trust me he was very funny. He asked the audience "Who has been to France?" No one raised there hands so he responded with "Yeah. I didn't think so. I mean, why the hell would you want to travel thousands of miles to be treated like shit by the people in France, when you can be treated the same way by people in New Hampshire?"

He also asked for an assistant from the audience to help him out. He asked the kid, "Have you ever been to Massechusettes?" the kid responded with, "No, but my girlfriend lives in Mass." the performer than responded with, "Yes. Yes. That is good to know..." He then asked "could you please lay on the floor?" the kid began to lay face down on the floor and Etienne stopped him and said with a stutter, "N-N-N-N-N-N-NO. Where do you think you are from? Massechusettes? What are you... like your girlfriend?" When the kid finally lay down, Etienne began to juggle swords right over his body. This was ver entertaining. He asked "Are you getting freak out yet?" and when the kid said "Yeah. a little bit." he got down on one knee and began juggling even closer to his body! This was, of course, one of the countless hilarious things that he said and did during the show. When he did the one handed balancing (picture above) he said " I call this the tie trick"... "Because if you look... the tie is holding me up!"

This event was one that I will never forget. The put this on every year, right after October break. I am really looking forward to the next 4 OctoberFiesta's that I will be attending. I hope that both of these performers come back next year because they are the best acts I have ever seen... by far. :-)

P.S Etienne also has a website. It hasn't been updated in a while, so he is actually much younger in the pictures on his website. his website is, www.veryfunny.com ...I mean, of course it is. :-)

Results of Other 2 Mid-Term Exams

Monday is always the longest day of the week for me. I usually have 7 hours of classes on Monday. Today I was able to leave my 3-hour lab 2 hours early. I finished my work quickly and accurately so I was allowed to leave early.

I got the results from my 2 other exams today. I was hoping for at least an 80 on my Intro to Technical Math exam. Most of the material was new to me the week of the exam so I had to basically learn it on my own. It was mainly based on Trigonometry. As I wrote above, I was hoping to get at least an 80. My grade for the exam turned out to be a 79 which is close enough to 80 that I am happy with what I got. As I mentioned in previous posts, exams are a HUGE part of the final grade. They are actually a larger part than I thought they were originally.

There are two students that I share most of my classes with and they both missed the Tech. Math exam. One of them had an average of somewhere in the high 70's while the other had an average in the mid 80's. Since they both got zeroes on the exams, the one who was in the 80's for an overall class average is now in the 30 range and the one who was in the high 70's is now in the 20's range! I think that is absolutely crazy. I didn't think that missing an exam would have such an impact. I knew it was really bad to skip it, but damn! :-)

Anyway, both of the students talked to the professor and she said that there was no excuse for missing the exam (even though it was the Friday before vacation, and they live far away, and their ride was leaving before the class). She told one student that if he ends up attending every class from here on out and starts to bring his grades up (from the 30's...) than she might let him retake the exam at the end of the semester.

Back on topic, I also received my grade for my Digital Circuits Exam. I received a 99 out of 110 possible points which is equivalent to 90%. Another 90 grade... Hopefully my winning streak never ends. Excuse my god damn french, but I am kicking ass! ...except in math, but I am doing borderline good in math. My professor was talking about how computers can make people lazy, so I told him (as a joke) that I don't think that I could get any lazier. He responded with "No. You are a good worker. There is nothing lazy about you." I think it is 'kind of' a cool thing to hear. My grades makes sense though. It stinks to be able to say that I am the only 100% drug-free student in my circuit classes. Other students talk about their stupid habits as soon as the professor leaves. Me, I proudly have no bad habits to talk about. I do my work quickly and efficiently, and who ends up getting the good grades?

I can honestly say that my work habits are very much different from everyone else. It is nice because the professors usually praise me for my work after my classes. As a final thought for this post; I enjoy being here very much. At the beginning of the year the professor's warned us that college "isn't like high school." They sounded serious, but I am actually happy that it is different. All of the BS that gets tied with high school gets cut off, and so do the people who don't take life seriously.

Sorry for the long post. I could write more about cool things going on soon but I will save it for my next post. :-)

I Continue to Get Awesome Grades...

I just go my 3rd essay back from by Expository Writing professor. My last essay was the best one out of a class of about 20 students. I received a 94 (i think...) on my last essay. With this essay, I was able to do a little bit better (you can't do too much better than a 94...). My grade for this essay turned out to be a 95. They were handed back at the very last minute of class, so I am not sure how my grade compares to everyone elses.

I turned in a lengthy writing assignment today. I am not sure if it is considered to be one of the five essays that we are required to write for this semester. It had all of the requirements that an essay has, but it said 'Writing Assignment 3" on the top of the assignment paper.

I have a weeklong vacation that starts today. After today, I am officially halfway through my first semester. I am getting awesome grades in 3 of my 4 classes. My math grade is a 70 something, but I hope to change that with the second math exam that I have today.

The blog will likely not be update while I am on break, unless I come up with something interesting to post about. I need to jump into preparing for my math exam. I want to do an awesome job on this one also... :-)

Completed Robot's Charger Board

I have successfully completed the charger board for my robot car. I have confirmed that it is working perfectly. The LED (it's a light) turns on when it is plugged in to the wall and all of my voltage readings come out the way that they are supposed to. For those of you who don't know, the charger board for my robot kit does two different things. The charger board could be considered the 'power box' for the robot car, and it could also be considered a charger for the batteries. The chip i s pretty cool considering I actually created it.

This is actually the first year that Vermont Tech has worked with these robot kits. They used to have the students do individual labs, loaded with lab work, and all of the work was based on the core concepts of circuits, over and over again. The professor said that he thinks we would learn more by breaking away from what the course has been doing for years, and get some more hands on work. The project is a whole crapload of fun, it is the coolest thing that I have ever worked on, and it is something I also look forward to going back to every Wednesday. I am looking forward to finding out about all of the cool things I will be able to create after I get my Bachelor's degree. :-)

Well, it is after 5 pm so I am going to go get fat in the dining hall now...

I will continue to post updates on the robot car every Wednesday until it is finished.

Fundamentals of Circuit - Exam 1 (UPDATE)

UPDATE:

I got a 96 on my exam! I did better than anyone else in my class, and exams count for about 30% of my grade at the end of the semester! :-)

I am really happy about the grade that I got. It was really cool in class today because everyone knew that I had the best grade. This goes nicely with me getting the best grade on my Narration Essay in Expository Writing! :-)

I have my "Robot Lab" in about 45 minutes. For those who don't remember, it is for my Fundamentals of Circuits class. I just about have the charger board complete. I will hopefully be able to take pictures of my progress if my camera doesn't die before hand. :-)

ORIGINAL POST:

I don't know my grade yet, but I did an awesome job on my Fundamentals of Circuits exam. :-)

After the exam, we were able to see which ones we got wrong and right. Partially credit was also given for any work that was shown. I showed all of my work and I only got one final answer wrong. I answered one of the 3 extra credit questions right. One bonus question I got wrong because I didn't know that the only animal that has every bucked my professor off was an elephant. :-)

I hope that I do just as good or ace the exam that I have tomorrow in Digital Circuits. That exam is going to be based on Binary Algebra (1's and 0's) It might end up being confusing, but my Digital Circuits class is probably my easiest class. Expanding on that, my Fundamentals of Circuits class is the most fun, my Expository Writing class is also pretty easy, and my Technical Math class is my 'serious' class because it is the core of my major. I cannot move onto more complicated courses until I have successfully completed the previous math course.

In case anyone is wondering, I haven't posted my own pictures because my camera's batteries are just about dead and I would like to save the life that it has left for my robot car. I am really looking forward to getting back to building that tomorrow.

Well, that is all for now. :-)

(P.S - This is a picture of my dorm building.)

Start of Week 7...

It is now the start of my 7th week in the semester. After this week I will officially be through the first half of the semester and the first quarter of the school year. Midterm warnings get posted this week. You only get a warning for the classes that you are getting a D or an F. I currently don't have to worry about getting a midterm warning. I am 100% confident in 3 out of my 4 classes. My Technical Math class is the only one that I have to worry about. I would wish that my math grade would be better but I am not in danger of failing right now. I would like to be getting an 80 something but right now I have a 70 something. (lowest passing grade is a 60)

I have 3, 1-hour exams this week. I have my Fundamentals of Circuits exam tomorrow, My Digital Circuits exam on Wednesday, and my 2nd Technical Math exam on Friday. I really need to make sure that I study the hell out of Trigonometry because that is still very new to me, and it still confuses me. I will make sure that I am confident going into the exam. I am getting a decent grade in Math, so I am not going to let it slip.

I got a 3-hour lab today for my Digital Circuits class. My lab starts at 2 p.m. so I am going to take advantage of my remaining free time now... :-)

About this picture:

This is a pretty good picture of some of the buildings on the campus. I didn't take this picture though, I downloaded it.

Update With My Robot Car

This is the start of my AWESOME charger board for my robot car. I built this today and I am really impressed with myself. What does a charger board do? It charges the batteries for the robotic car that I am making. I am happy that this seems to be coming out very well. The professor said that the charger board is the most difficult part of building the robotic car. I still have a few parts that I need to solder onto this board but I should be able to have it complete (and hopefully working) by the end of my next lab.

My next lab is on Wednesday and I will be completing this board and mounting it onto the body of the robotic car. This is the result of what is only my fourth time soldering, so I did an amazing job (my professor even told me so). For anyone who doesn't know why my car is considered 'robotic' instead of 'remote'; it's because the car doesn't have a remote controller. It actually uses sensors to detect walls (and other objects) and it will automatically turn itself around.

I always look forward to my circuits lab. What beats building a robotic car?

Double Double Toilet Trouble

Last night the bathroom was flooded.... and I mean flooded. There was nasty toilet water all of the places, it smelled like septic, and there was no way around it. We are not sure who did it, but the bathroom's get cleaned every morning at 10:15 a.m. so whoever did it was aware that they would be getting the whole floor in trouble. Whenever the word "FINE" is put on a sign around here, it can't be ignored.

My wing in my dorm building has already been fined over $1,200 for propping an exit door open. The exit door fines got split between all of the residents in my wing meaning that everyone pays only $13, but it is still $13 that some moron decided they would take from everyone. It is probably this same moron (or morons... I wouldn't be surprised...) who flooded the bathroom on my floor. The meeting is at 9:00 p.m. tonight. Even though I am pretty sure it is about the bathroom incident, it could be about other things too. I will try to post the information on my blog once the meeting is over... depending on the outcome.

Our New TV

It is now the start of week six. Things have been going pretty well at college so far. I am looking forward to Wednesday so I can continue working on my robot car.

This past weekend my family bought this 46" Sony Bravia 1080p tv. This tv has amazing quality. I will have a hard time watching standard tv from now on. I hooked my PS3 up to it, and the graphics make it feel like you are watching a movie!

In other news, I have an essay due on Friday and a lab report due wednesday. It is now 9:17am and I have my math class at 11 am. I am going to finish my math work with the time I have now. :-)

The Bonfire Never Happened

See the animated bonfire? You know what the difference between this bonfire is, compared to the one that was supposed to be at Vermont Tech. last night?

The animated one actually shows up when people expect it to.

All of the posters say "Huge Bonfire! September 25th 2008.... Right outside of the SHAPE building" I went down to the SHAPE building 1/2 an hour early so I could get some food and be there right when it starts... I waited until 9:15 pm and there still wasn't a single sign of a bonfire, or even someone getting ready to build a bonfire. I went back down at 9:35 pm to see if maybe it was running late, but I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't happening.

It is no big deal to me that the bonfire didn't happen. The reason why it is kind of annoying is that I walked all the way down to the SHAPE building... for nothing. Maybe I will just start my own fire... :-) (joking)

The High Ground Band...

I just got back from the High Ground performance in the SHAPE building. I quickly found out that this High Ground band is not the same one that I was talking about before. This band is actually a very professional sounding band. They are definitely country, but I didn't care because they played their songs perfectly. The vocals and instruments were right on. They played songs like: Janis Joplin's "Bobby McGee"; Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman"; Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See" and several other recognizable songs.

This band sounded really good overall. They were better than I thought they were going to be. I did notice that their momentum died after the first few songs and it only came back once or twice much later in their performance. I think that even though their band is really good, they could be a lot more entertaining. My dad's band Reality Check was better than these people are when it comes to performing well AND entertaining the audience.

There is a bonfire near the SHAPE building this Thursday... I might walk down to take some pictures just for the hell of it. It would be cool to play guitar down there but I really don't think that I am going to do that.

Scavenger Hunt & Judgment Day :-)

There have been signs posted around VTC about 'Judgment Day' that I have been wondering about. The signs tell you nothing because it is all meant to be a surprise. If I remember correctly, Judgment Day is going to take place on October 8, 2008.

During lunch everyone was handed a scavenger hunt book to be completed by Judgment Day. The top team will get $500, 2nd place will be $300, and two $100 gift cards will be randomly drawn for 2 non-winning team members.

The scavenger hunt is very interesting and kind of funny. Apparently on Judgment day we might see Rusty Dewees (Local Comedian), Tantoo Cardinal (Actress - Dances With Wolves), Jeff Danziger (cartoonist) and Marko the Magician. :-) Some of the funny/interesting things listed on the scavenger hunt are:

5. Got Milk! - "None of the pasteurized stuff. Prove that you milked it!"

13. Orange You Glad You Did It? - "Dress a team member up in orange jumpsuit, army boots and black tux, carrying a plastic grocery bag into a convenience store, approach counter slowly and ask cashier for change for a quarter."

15. Swim For It "Take a dip in one of VT's rivers, lakes, or ponds in October 2008"

31. Safe Sex "Safe sex is important, so create and market (60 seconds) the super safest condom ever made."

I am really looking forward to Judgement Day because it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. I will definately be going camera crazy. This is just a small portion of what it going on during Judgment Day.

Tomorrow night I have a meeting with the WVTC Radio club and after that I am going to go see the "High Ground" band to see how they play.

Vermont Tech Radio (WVTC - 90.7 FM)

I got an e-mail today about Vermont Tech's radio station. I checked out the radio station's website last summer and I thought that it was pretty cool. I think that the logo needs some work because it doesn't represent just how cool the campus radio station is.

The radio broadcasts on 90.7 FM, and also has a website. Click here to visit the website. The website allows people to 'request' songs just by clicking the mouse a few times. I say 'request' because every song that gets added to the list will get played. If you are lucky, and there are no other current requests, your song will play right after the current song.

Pretty cool, especially because the reception is always perfect! :-)

I am working on designing a new logo for the radio station since I might be joining the WVTC radio club to help with the technical side of things... I have a meeting on Tuesday @ 7 pm.

Had Freshmen Orientation Today

Today is one of my easy days so there really isn't anything interesting going on today.

I had Freshmen Orientation at 1pm today and the 'guest' speaker said ;

"Vermont Tech is a home for geeks and nerds. We are the state's technical college. This is where a lot of the geeks and nerds who were picked on at high school come to further their education. It's usually the geeks and the nerds who make the most money when they leave this place."

I am going to be taking my first 1-hour exam tomorrow. It is for Technical Math. I am going to study the few things that I am not 100% confident with tonight since each exam counts for 12.5% of my grade and you only get one shot.

My Robot Car Kit

I finally got my robot car kit today. :-)

This is what I will be doing in my Fundamentals of Circuits Lab for the rest of this semester. It will be a very interesting project because there are a lot of components that need to be soldered to different circuit boards. I created another blinking light chip today so hopefully this one will work better than my first one. The solder points are much smaller and clean than my first blinking light chip. I am starting to develop tricks for soldering components.

I learned today that it is best to start with the components that are the least susceptible to heat. It makes sense, If you save the heat sensitive components for last you won't have to worry about constantly heating up the components every time the solder iron touches the copper on the chip board.

With all the fun stuff mentioned above, it should be no surprise to hear that today was a very busy day for me. I had two lab reports due today, a rough draft for an essay, an essay outline, a section of problems for Digital Circuits, a section of problems for Fundamentals of Circuits, and a section of Technical Math problems.

The trick is to keep on top of everything. They really pile the work on you in college so if you slip just once it will start to build up very very quickly and it won't be long at all before you have more work than you have time for. This hasn't happened to me but I know that it is very easy for work to pile up judging by how much homework I get every night.

P.S There are a lot more parts in the robot car kit then you can see in this picture. They are all piled on top of each other and there are a lot of tiny components. :-)

Just a Normal Tuesday

I only had an Intro to Technical Math class, and a Fundamentals of Circuits Lab today. In tomorrow's lab I should be starting my 'robot.' I am really looking forward to it. :-)

This picture is of the courtyard area behind the administration building. I would guess that the structure in the back is supposed to be a symbol for energy. You can only see a small portion of the courtyard area in this picture.

I don't really have anything going on today. I might visit the Judd gym later on since Laser Tag is supposed to be going on today...

I Had An Awesome Lab Today...

I had my second 3-hour Digital Circuits lab today. I ended up getting my own Logic Probe to add to my nerd gear. In our lab today I had to place 3 different chips into a proto-board (the white holed up thing in the pictures). It is hard to explain, but the purpose was to see how the chips convert signals (1's and 0's).

You can see that there are a lot of wires connected to each of the chips, also known as TTL Dual Inline Packs... :-) My wires are actually organized pretty well. I tried to color code everything because, as you can see, it is easy to make everything chaotic.

This lab was a lot of fun. The past couple of times I have used the proto-board I had a partner. I don't like having a partner when using a proto-board because people tend to take over the lab and only one person is able to screw around with the proto-board at a time. Today was the first day that I was actually able to work by myself with the proto-board. It was nice to finally be able to have some control over my own lab! :-)

We are starting our robots this week in Fundamentals of Circuits (not the class I just talked about) I will try to bring my camera to that lab to get some pictures of everything... :-)

Yeah... About that band...

I found this video on YouTube... I hope that this is NOT the band that will be playing here.

My dad's band used to play this song and they did it 10x better than these people...

I know that I shouldn't be so harsh on them and that this is only one of there songs, but these people are frozen on stage, the lead singer has WAY too much of a country voice while singing a rock song, and these people claim to be one of the best bands in New England! Just watch the video and you will see what I mean...

Events Coming Up Soon...

This is a picture of the Beta fish that I have in my dorm room. It is the first fish that I have ever had so I try to make sure I take care of it quite well.

In other news, Today was another one of my easy days. I only had my daily Technical Math class and my weekly Freshmen Orientation. Freshmen Orientation has been 'kinda' boring so far but I can't complain about having a class that has no outside course work or tests.

There are several interesting events taking place on campus in the next few weeks. There will be a live classic rock/country band that will be performing. The band is called 'High Ground' and they claim to be one of the best bands in New England... I will see about that! :-)

There is also a huge laser tag tournament planned where a company comes to the campus to set up all of there laser tag equipment. In a couple of weeks there is also a bonfire planned to take place outside of the SHAPE facility. I will try to visit at least one of these events and take pictures... You can pretty much guarantee that I will work my ass off to make sure I can go to the concert!

I might end up going to the bonfire but I am not too sure about that right now...

I should probably get back to my work...