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...

Got My Nerd Gear Today...

Today was a pretty cool day. I received my first wave of nerd gear during my Fundamentals of Circuits lab. There is a lot of stuff to name off so I just took a picture of it for everyone to see. This week has been really busy. I have two lab reports due next week, a descriptive essay the week after and I have to study for a 1 hour exam in Technical Math that will be happening, not this Friday, but next Friday.

I should really be taking advantage of my free time... :-)

My First 'Umbrella Day'

During my week here at Vermont Tech, I got to thinking about the situation I would be in if it was a really rainy day (or a rainy 3 weeks like summer...) I didn't want to be one of the people that has to run from building to building, trying to dodge the rain. So at the end of my first week, I got an umbrella.

Fortunately, today is a really easy day for me. I just barely got out of my Technical Math class and it was pouring. It wasn't raining on the way down to class (it stopped for a little while) but I was right in expecting it to start right up again.

Walking back up to my dorm; it was funny to see how many people didn't have umbrellas. I figured people would know to be more prepared than that. :-)

I would get a more interesting picture but I don't want to be known as "the idiot who takes pictures in the rain" :-)

My Busy, Busy Schedule

It is the start of week 3.

Mondays are always my busiest days at college. I have posted a picture of my schedule so that you can see what my busy days are and what my easy days are and have sense of when the best times to call me would be.

This schedule is technically not my full schedule because with college, for every hour of class you are expected to spend 2 hours out of class studying and doing homework...

Other than that, classes are still going good.

I will hopefully have a more interesting pic for later today or tomorrow...

Week 2 Almost Over...

My second week of college is just about over. The workload was definitely increased from last week and it is projected to become even more difficult for next week. I have been doing a good job with keeping on top of my homework but the tests are where the grades count. I have a good test record so far. Hopefully I can keep that up all year. :-)

This is a picture of another sculpture that is on campus. This one is in front of my dorm building where the two paths split towards the SHAPE (Student Health And Physical Education) facility and the Morrill Addition. As usual, I am going home for the weekend so my next post won't be until Sunday or Monday...

Internet Having Problems for Some Reason...

The internet connection here at Vermont Tech has been very buggy today. It has been difficult to do just about anything online. The connection is normally very fast so I am thinking that the school is probably running some maintenance on some of their servers or they had a server crash.

Anyway, this picture is of a curved sculpture that is outside of the Morrill Addition (where Expository Writing takes place). I just figured I would take a picture of it because I think it looks kinda cool.

I only had my Technical Math class today which was nice because it meant that I had less homework last night. I have homework to do for 3 of my classes tonight but the work should be pretty easy to do. I got my second Math quiz tomorrow, hopefully I will do at least as well on this one as I did on the last one. :-)

Time to get back to playing my guitar...

My First Computer Chip!

Today in my Fundamentals of Circuits I Lab, I got to make my first computer chip. This computer chip is run off of a 9v battery and all it does is make the red LED (the light...) blink on and off. It was really cool to make my first chip in what is only my second lab. This chip's purpose is pretty simple, but there are tricks to getting it to work. I have never soldered before and I had to solder 24 different points without any of them touching each other in order for this chip to work!

As of now, my light does not blink but the professor said that we will be troubleshooting them next week. My chip doesn't work because some of the connections are bridged (touching). I have heard that this is a simple thing to fix. I have been told what needs to be done in order to quickly fix it but I don't know how to do it.... yet. :-)

Me & My Parents in My Dorm Room

Here are some pictures of me and my parents at the start of my second week of college. For those of you who don't know, I go home on weekends and get dropped off at the college before the start of the next school week.

My Fundamentals of Circuits instructor (Professor Vandermark) told me today that we will be making something with flashing lights tomorrow for our Lab. We will be making our first circuit and we will be expanding on it later in the year. Alright! I got to get back to work!

Mom & Dad, I know that you will be seeing this so.... I love you both and I will see you Friday. :-)

Welcome to The Rat!

Vermont Tech's Restaurant



The Rat is Vermont Tech's restaurant. In case you are wondering the full name is The Rathskellar, or restaurant in German. Not only does the place look very nice, It also has an awesome view of the mountains in Randolph. The Rat serves kick-ass cheeseburgers, fries, and pizza etc... (They have a bunch of other things but I was focused on cheeseburgers and pizza...)

Since I have the Unlimited (Gold) Meal Plan, I am given $50 per week to spend at The Rat. I think this is what makes the Unlimited Meal Plan completely worth it. They even have a large variety of soda and Ben & Jerry's Ice-cream! I will definately be going back there. It has a wrap around deck that is set on top of this huge hill to give you a great view of the mountains.

(This is only one *tiny* part of the building)

Awesome Dorm Room View

Here is a picture of the awesome view I have out of my dorm room windows. I get to look out my window every day and see a road.... and some trees... and a propane tank. I actually have no problem with it though because it allows me to have a really good cell phone signal.

For actual news, I had a Technical Math test last Friday and the professor said that she would take the best one and give a copy of it to everyone for an answer key the following week. When I got my test back I noticed that it was the same as the answer key which means that I did better on the test than any of the other 20 students in my Technical Math class! :-)

I am off to an awesome start in the class that I was most worried about. This is really good news but I won't let my guard down. I need to make sure I keep up the good work and continue to be a persistent S.O.B. :-)

Welcome!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! I will try to keep this thing up-to-date that way people can simply visit this website to find out how everything is going in college. Here is a picture of me in front of my computer desk in my dorm room. My TV was scanning all of the channels (some of them are in HD and look really nice). So far I am enjoying it here at Vermont Tech. The classes are challenging but very fun and interesting. Tomorrow I only have 2 classes; I have Intro. to Technical Math and a Lab for Fundamentals of Circuits I.

I completed all of my assigned work a few hours ago so I could have the rest of the night off. I still have work due for Wednesday but since I have a short day tomorrow I should have no problem completing it. I hope that this blog thing works since it is great way for me to share information. In the future I will try and post pictures of the campus for everyone to see. I will try to update this as frequently as I can... :-)