Female Engineering Student

Dogs

2011-10-29T21:46:00.000-07:00

So, I believe I should just get this out of my system. Instead of focusing on engineering marvels recently, I've been snapping pictures of my sister's dogs whom I completely love.

Marquette Building

2011-10-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Marquette building is interesting in the fact that it surprised me. From the outside, it was nice, somewhat unique compared to the buildings surrounding it but overall, not so stunning that I would stop with my mouth gaping open. But upon entering the lobby, I completely changed my mind and starting looking like a fish.

I think it is probably the most amazing mosaic I have ever seen made out of (what I'm assuming) is glass. I have some pictures but pictures never really show mosaics in the light they need to be in.

The history of Chicago is extremely prominent in this building - I don't understand or know of half of it but, it is a wonderful sight.

One of the major events in Chicago is the Great Fire. Following that Chicago was rebuilt, using its own unique style. There was the development of skyscrapers and with them various innovations to make them practical - can you imagine a skyscraper without an elevator?

Also, although the exterior resembles an Italian Palazzo...except exceptionally taller, it is actually a steel-framed building rather than a masonry one. In fact, the pieces visible on the outside of the building are terra cotta rather than stone. This substantially reduces the weight on the soil beneath the building, which is extremely important because Chicago soil isn't a nice gravel/limestone/ideal. To further reduce settlement, a floating foundation, where all the building's weight is evenly distributed through the foundation's surface as opposed to just the exterior walls, was used.

The lobby celebrates the early history of Chicago through story telling scenes in the mosaics. The mosaics depict the life of Jacques Marquette, the namesake of the building, a Jesuit missionary and explorer.

The building, unfortunately for it, has had to undergo a series of renovations because it was not a well maintained as it should have been - then again, what is anymore? In the 1950s, the cornices at the top of the building had undergone corrosion.

I have a random story about corrosion that I love; if you don't want to hear it, skip this paragraph. One of the monks at my school was teaching philosophy. I'm not a great student of philosophy. So, my teacher asked what make the idea of a car greater than an actual car. Well...the ideal car is perfect. So, the teacher asks what makes all actual cars less perfect and why it would eventually fall apart even if not used. The other engineer in the class and I started saying loudly, "Air!", "Water", "Temperature change", "Moisture", etc. I ended that with a, "Everything we need to stay alive!" The monk laughed as us...then ignored us...fail...

Anyhow, the cornices of the Marquette building were removed for safety reasons and cost efficiency. However, in 2001, they were replaced with glass fiber-reinforced concrete, which lasts substantially longer.

There are multiple repairs that have been made for the building. For more information look at the following website: http://marquette.macfound.org/

Millenium Park

2011-10-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

It was really unfortunate that I didn't get to go to Millenium Park when I visited Chicago. I think this is about as close as I got:

Anyhow, I was looking through some pics of it and came to discover that Millennium park is built on a former industrial wasteland. I'm not sure if I should be that surprise by it - after all, the river has a reverse flow to help with...sanitation issues :)

Trucks on a Horizontally Curved Bridge Undergoing and Earthquake Simulation

2011-10-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

First off, this test ended up being so much more cool than I could have ever imagined! So, when I visited Reno, Nevada last year, I got to visit the Large Scale Structures Lab and the most interesting part of the lab to me was the 3-span curved bridge they had. Each of the columns of the bridge were placed on different shake tables - this might have been because they didn't have a shake table large enough at the lab to rest the entire bridge on or they may have wanted each column to have a different simulation running through it - which for me was a really exciting idea because you can do so much more with three shake tables than with one giant one.

Anyhow, I saw an article of the lab tests that they've run on it and they placed all these nice, white trucks on top of it. I mean what a brilliant idea!!! Think about it; for those who have been in engineering classes where we're idealized trucks as blocks or, worse, circles, this is huge! They're potentially destroying all those trucks! All in the name of science of course.

Anyhow, on a more serious note, the reason why they're running these tests is because the current transportation code, American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), doesn't apply to curved bridges. And curved bridges have become tremendously popular. So, the main issue here is that we have to determine how these bridges will react to dynamic loading.

What's especially interesting is that they ran the first ever tests on a bridge with truck traffic. So, thinking on that, I think they should stick semis on there. Then again...that's probably even less safe since they have a high overturning moment - I'm pretty sure about it but don't take my word for it.

The test results showed that at low amplitude earthquakes, the weight from the trucks actually allowed the bridge to perform better but at high amplitudes the opposite happened.

This is the link for the article I read which give a really brief description of the test:
http://www.modernsteel.com/SteelInTheNews/?p=1398

A video showing the largest motion the bridge underwent is at this link:
http://imedia.unr.edu/media_relations/VNR_shake_trucks_2b.mp4

This is the website for the University of Reno, NV:
http://newsroom.unr.edu/2011/09/22/university-of-nevada-reno-engineers-simulate-large-quake-on-curved-bridge-university-of-nevada-reno-engineers-simulate-large-quake-on-curved-bridge-full-size-pickup-trucks-on-bridge-deck-to-add-im/

Bakery Nouveau

2011-09-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

Today, I visited my favorite bakery, Bakery Nouveau, and had the best croissant (Twice Baked Almond Croissant). I love their food and it's really close to Husky Ice Cream. So, go there if you have time.

http://www.bakerynouveau.com/

Chicago

2011-09-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't written in a while. It wasn't even writer's block. It was more along the lines of, "I have the make something happen in my life! So, I started applying for grad school and I got my first acceptance letter back from a school in Chicago and that made me recall all the things I love about the city!

They have such amazing architecture and structures. The people there are super friendly and the food is so amazing!!! I'm one of those people that travels based on restaurant weeks...think about it.

So, I'm thinking I'm going to go through all my Chicago pics, pick out some of the interesting buildings and just talk about them.

Pulling Out the Canoe Form

2011-04-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from taking the canoe out of its form.

Since the canoe stuck to the wood, we had to destroy the form, which was unfortunate.

Making Senior Design More Interactive

2011-04-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

So, I started working on another part of the senior design project, which was pretty much led by another student, so I could get away from our team leader. While making poster boards and stuff, I came up with the idea of making a computer program that was more "interactive." The poster board focused more on aesthetics rather than facts, which works well for a poster. However, if some one starts asking questions, then, facts are needed. To help with that, I made a program that allows people to interact with the building to learn more about different aspects of it.

For a look on what our project covered, look at the screen shots below.

There are subsections to each of these but I still need to alter the images so they're more visible on screen.

Why Engineering Girls Need Retreats

2011-04-19T17:52:00.000-07:00

I think the one thing that separates SWE meetings from other engineering groups is that there's more of a focus on engineers as individual people rather than just products people can produce. It's more technical details and presentations. There's also a focus on the struggles that people face and career development. SWE, essentially, tries to makes its members more well rounded.

Life is more than just one's work life. There's also, the emotional impact you get from your work environment and the struggle to work through problems. There's a variety of things.

I think my favorite part of this convention was the fact that successful women engineers showed the rest of us, it's okay to be human. They talk about very normal, daily things, rather than just the latest assessment on some steel member or the failure of moment connections.

There's a rawness that focuses on lessons we learn from work, not just the products we've produced. It just feels better to be treated like a human rather than a problem solver.

Tsunami Wave Lab

2011-04-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm terrified of water but I'm so excited that I got to see tsunami's be made in the wave pools at O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University. I was probably extra excited because I got the chance last summer to meet the person that lead the tour of the research lab.

She talked about coastal dynamics and how to improve the chances of people surviving a tsunami. It was actually very interesting because they ran an evaluation of what would happen if there was a tsunami at Sea Side, OR. They took into account the time people would have to evacuate to higher ground and the survival rate. To improve the survival rate, evacuation towers would be needed. However, I think the one thing about computer modeling of such things is that the computer assumes people know how to evacuate without panicking. I'm not sure how any one could take into account panic but, panicking affects how people choose to make decisions.

Although the applicability aspect was interesting, I think watching waves be made in the lab was a lot more exciting. It's like, I can program an earthquake to run through a computer simulated model building, or I can go watch a shake table destroy an actual building - one's just more cool than the other because it's more tangible.

Here's the video on the research on Sea Side, OR:

First, we saw the large wave flume and it's used to test a variety of things, such as wave forces on structures. The flume is 342 feet long and 15 feet deep.

What's even more interesting is the results it produces. Computer and video imaging allow to researchers to see the forces that act on the structure and actually watch the wave motion.

We also saw the tsunami wave basin. The wave they sent through probably wasn't over a meter tall - I think they can get as tall as 6.6 feet though - but I pretty much turned and skipped away since I'm terrified of water. Once I realized that the water wasn't going to reach me however, I got this image.

The guys I met last summer worked on a project that focused on tsunamis caused by landslides in this lab. Although they aren't heard of as much, tsunamis caused by landslides can exceed 100 feet and are just as deadly if people don't evacuate properly. The highest in recorded history is about 1719 feet tall in Lituya Bay, Alaska. Overall, there's not much research on these types of tsunamis so research is needed to learn more about them.

For a quick overview, here's a poster on that research project:
http://nees.org/site/images/pdf/NEESreu2010FinalPosters/JavierBrizTsunami%20Generation%20by%20Landslide.pdf

Either way, this was a very cool lab to visit and I hope to get the chance to see it again.

For more info, visit their website:

Believing In Yourself - Addressing the Issues Women Engineers Face

2011-04-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Giving a voice to women also means that people must confront the pains that they feel and being a women engineer, you get a lot of it. Throughout this semester, I've received a lot of encouragement. When I told one of my teachers that I wasn't sure I could excel in engineering because I can't talk about aspects of design as easily as others, he laughed and told me that those that talk the most probably know the least and that I probably know more than I think. He told me I need to trust and believe in myself more. But it's kind of hard when you feel torn down by so many people that tell you you're approaching a problem the wrong way. Like, one told me that I'm supposed to design a building before taking into account earthquake loads. Well...not really. At least in my opinion. But after awhile, critical, arrogant people are going to wear you down and you question whether or not you can do anything at all.

Well, I think someone gave me a lot of answers to my life through going through her own ones.

An ultra runner gave a seminar on the lessons she learned from running and how they apply to other aspects of her life, such as work. First of all you have to be positive. It you're not a positive person in engineering, you're just going to dread it and even if you finish getting your degree, your engineering career will probably end there. Engineering is too difficult to go through with if you aren't able to be positive about it. There have been times where I've questioned whether or not it was worth getting my degree. I was just beaten down by a lot of the negative things people said or how they acted. Hell, I has wished I had taken the finishing school route at some points. And the thing is, when you're in engineering, you have to always push yourself and if you aren't enjoying yourself, it gets harder and harder as time goes by.

It's also best if you can trust the people around you. In school, there's been difficult because everyone's looking out for themselves, which is rarely the best approach. I know all fields are like that, but sometimes just the way people attack you is a bit much to bear. I think if I'm struggling, so long as I'm in a place that I can trust people it'll work out.

Another lesson I took to heart was that there are people that believe I'm stronger than I believe I am. This has probably been true too many times for me to count. I find it hard to believe in myself at times because people talk over me a lot. At times, it doesn't matter if I speak up or not because people aren't listening to me. That's exhausting and frustrating. But for a lot of people, they just believe in my abilities. I don't fully grasp why but perhaps they see more of my than I'm willing to see in myself.

Also, celebrating the achievements you make in life is important. I think if I took the time to celebrate more of the things I've done, I'd be happier. So I'm going to work harder on that.

But most of all, I think the quote she gave at the end of her presentation made me think the most.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive"
- Harold Whitman

And after listening to her, I learned how to be alive again.

SWE 2011 - Region J Conference

2011-04-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

This year's conference was excellent and I needed the break from school. In fact, I felt starved for female interaction. Not that I don't love guys, it's just that I'm better able to appreciate people in general after having a female engineering retreat.

There was food and fun throughout it. This year, the convention was in Corvallis and I'm so happy I got to try out a lot of different things. First, I ran into some friend and people I've previously worked with and they're great! I'm glad they're doing well and they look fantastic. I got to chat with them about all sorts of things, like the job market, engineers without borders, and future plans. It's so nice to have their perspectives on things since, it's kind of hard to find female role models at school when all you have is one female teacher at school in the engineering department; to be honest, I don't really want to be like her because I want different things out of my life.

I also got to meet new people over food and wine. There was the HP guy and woman that's just traveled all over - we talked about food, which I discovered is common ground for most people.

I think going to SWE conventions help me remember the things I want out of life. Yes, I want success and to be in a field where I can excel. But most of all, I want happiness and going to those conventions always helps. There's not just a focus on the technical aspects of engineering but also the emotional part that we all have. People talk about their struggles and things they have learned. People make it so easy for you to relate to them. SWE makes it possible for me to be okay with being human and love myself. I think that's the best part, being human and being able to appreciate that.

On Appreciation and True Leadership

2011-04-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

I think I should write up a math paper on the effects of appreciation on a group project. I've discovered that showing appreciation is probably much more powerful than other techniques that people use to get things done.

Then again I've received some threats last week that pretty much broke me. And when I break, it's not really a pretty sight; I'll cry and tell you exactly how you're wrong. And if you're really unlucky, I will start plotting. All in all, threatening people and attacking teammates will end up wasting time.

I'm going to think on this for a bit and see what I can come up with as far as an actual proof.

Going Headless

2011-04-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how to design a building and I'm not sure how far using books and manuals is going to get me at this point. Ugh...I wish someone could just tell me how to design a building, like there was a book listing out all the calculations you have to do, with pictures. I'm really reliant on pictures because they help me understand and shape the world around me. Numbers are also extremely important, but in a different way.

I think my problem solving skills are limited when it comes to actual construction. Also, I discovered, I'm not that excited about visiting sites under construction. I thought it was because I've been going to them since I was young, but I suppose that's not the case any more. I can watch tons of tests in labs and be really excited because I understand so much of what is happening and all the components that are going into it. It's so exciting to watch someone you designed come out and do something completely unexpected. I don't think I really get that with construction sites. When they're new or if it's highly innovative, I'll think it's cool to look at and learn about. But asking me to go to a construction site across the street from my house of another house is just...not that exciting.

I guess this is just an element of my life that I have to figure out.

The Clothesline Project

2011-04-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

Leaving my last class at 8:00 PM, I saw this and it made me remember what's really important in my life. It's bringing awareness and trying to make the lives of others safer. The Clothesline Project brings awareness to violence against women. To an extent, I think all women have felt violated at one point or another, whether verbal or physical violence, it's not right. So, I hope all of you can take the time to remember to think about domestic violence and how it affects your life and the ones you love.

How I Got Here

2011-04-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

One of my teachers commented on how I amaze him with the job offers I get. He pretty much stated he had no idea how I never seemed to lack them. I'm not the smartest, nor the most hard-working in my class. I actually completely misunderstood what he was teaching in class at one point. So, he got me thinking, "How did I get to where I am today?" And the answer is, I have no idea and the only explanation I can come up with is directly translated into "life water."

By "life water" I pretty much mean destiny, like everything was planned out for me from the minute I was born. I'm not sure how I'm so lucky, how I've been lucky in certain things all my life. There's no way I can explain how I've met the people that I've met or how I've come to where I am.

And I think I may have found something that explains the emotion in a similar way from something I wrote this summer:

A few months ago, I didn't think my life was going to turn out very great. Since high school, I've planned my life out (5 - 10 year plans) but they never seemed to work out. I just got stressed and really screwed up. So, after a series of mishaps, after all the planning and plotting, things went downhill. In April, I didn't have any job offers and I really wasn't sure what I was going to end up doing in the summer. I was still hung up on getting turned down by a friend of mine (dating-wise) because I wasn't into serious relationships - this was a blow to me because how I date is a part of my belief system. I had quit all my engineering club positions after losing out on elections (I didn't lose by a little), people in my classes hated me, and I pretty much felt like I was in a rut. Life sucked a lot.

I'm not sure how I ended up where I am now - it's almost the end of June 2010. I'm happy and in California with a job and family. I've got a job I love where I get the mental stimulation I crave.I've met amazing people to work and hangout with. We go out for ice cream after work, right after we get off the bus, and sit and chat. I'm really well liked and people ask me to go out with them. I go out every weekend and I just have the time of my life.

I called someone a "fuck ass" and everyone loved me for it. And the guy I called that...he was cool with me afterwords even though I hadn't talked to him at all before calling him that. Then the next day, someone told me I'm one of the coolest people he's ever met.

I have no idea what's going on with my life.

But, I do know the link that helped me get to where I am now, in California, with my job, new friends, and everything else that I love. I was considering two job offers by the end of May. I could either enter into a structural engineering firm - which by all means would be a secure choice - or I could enter into research, where I could try and change things. The structural engineering firm was a better choice by almost all logical means. It was like a job security button; once I got out, if I did a good job there, I was going to end up there. It was high paying; I can't expect to earn that much once I exit college to my despair. I had someone who could teach me everything so I didn't have to try and figure out everything on my own.

But I had the chance to work at Berkeley to research earthquake systems. For me, this was a lifetime chance. Berkeley has the best earthquake research lab in the US (that I know of). I could see and learn more theoretical things. I didn't know where I was going so I called up a friend. His name's Robert and we've been best friends for seven years now; we were also dating at the time (we still are now as I write this but I'm not posting this until we break up) - I suppose this is the reason why I didn't post this sooner; Robert and I broke up before I finished working my internship for the summer, which was back in August when I found that I didn't love him that much and now I'm with someone that I actually plan to spend the rest of my life with who I'm gone to school with for the past three years and didn't notice his existence until this past September- go figure.

I told him everything, about the offers. I was conflicted because I didn't want to run the risk of not having a job in the future. I was worried about not going for the better paying, more secure offer. I wanted my future to be plan-able.

But - I hope I remember this forever - he taught me how to dream that day. Dreaming has nothing to do with being secure or not secure. It's going for something that will get you to a dream; when the opportunity is there, go for it. He taught me how not to be scared to fly because everything I need, I have inside of me.

For so long, I felt like I had fallen apart. He wasn't like glue that stuck me back together or anything. But he was there to tell me to get myself back together. So, I did.

And now, this is where I am. I still feel like I'm dreaming. But, I don't feel like I'm going to fall because I'm able to do so many things, right now.

My Ultramodern Birthday Cake

2011-04-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

My Chinese birthday happened to be on a Saturday this year while my American one is on a Tuesday. So, I went home to celebrate. I had hotpot with my family and we decided to get me a cake. Well, here's one problem with my family, as far as cakes are concerned, we all like different things. My parents dislike cake in general and prefer pies or cheesecake. I like cake but hate frosting. And my sister is the most flexible of all of us and will eat anything. So, we went to B&O Espresso on Capitol Hill and we all ordered a dessert we wanted; my sister and I actually go an extra piece because we wanted to try it.

And this is how my birthday cake turned out:

Modern right?

Senior Design Structural Stuff

2011-04-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

The structural part of our project is turning out to be easier than writing the report. I don't know how I'm supposed to make my report longer, but it's at about two pages double spaced now with a 20 page (not double spaced) appendix of calculations. Not to mention, that appendix is still growing. I'm pretty sleepy too which doesn't help but I've realize that writing a report is so much more difficult that doing calculations and coming up with member sizes and such.

On the bright side, the structural side is almost complete. The guys have to finish the AutoCAD layouts and the foundation calculations. I have to go and actually do the stud calculations and do shear wall calculations. But deep down inside, I think I'm just going to make another excel sheet based on my earthquake engineering midterm to do the last part for me. Speaking of which...I need to get on that.

Senior Design Break

2011-03-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been looking at numbers on excel all day. It really does. Sometimes, being an engineer feels like accounting work - not really because there are tangible results, Greek letters, and explosions but with the amount of numbers...it feels similar at times.

By 11 PM or so, I need a break...desperately. So, I went over to see what my boyfriend was doing on the computer next to me. His work is so much more interesting! There's color! Actually, I think he was trying to design skylights for our project on Revit. But at least it was colorful!

Here's a depiction of how I view my relationship with my boyfriend:

I'm a bunny that's fallen asleep after hours of equations and dimensions in my head (or in this image, above).

And my boyfriend is the dog that's happily making stuff on the computer as I nap.

In other words, our relationship revolves around engineering. We put projects together with our group until I pass out for a bit, then we can rest for the day. But in my defense this is what I was looking at:

Mind you, I had put this together and I should have done a better job by actually inserting the equations. In reality it's really a lot more simple than it looks once it's all together. But once this design project is complete, I'm going to be so excited. In fact, I think I'll take a really long nap :)

Making Trees

2011-03-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

I think our model looks great for our senior design project. It's a bit incomplete right now but we have about a month and a half to finish it up.

However, our model was looking a bit sparse according to our model design leader. He determined it needed some trees and so, a couple of us came in on the weekend to put some together. And, what can I say, making trees is actually fun. Mind you, mine turned out demented because...well my tree was a bit 2D compared to everyone elses. But no one cares when they're looking into a forest of trees!

I actually really enjoyed this experience because all the politics and serious nature of the project was just gone. Instead, we had a great time wielding cans of hair spray. I mean who can possible get mad at someone enough to spray hair spray at them? I actually really enjoyed the company of the people that were there, even though I came in toward the end. Maybe I should see how else I can branch out for the project.

Concrete Canoe Pour

2011-03-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

The morning after the canoe form was finished and dried, we started putting the concrete on top with some reinforcement. Placing concrete on top of the form, rather than inside if it, is called a male form. I think the other successful canoes made at our school were female forms, we had a male form failure two years prior in which the canoe failed on the drive over to the competition.

We had somewhere about ten people helping out with the canoe today and you can see that most of them are crammed into the container.

We dyed our concrete mix red so that our canoe could be one of our school colors - the other is black - and started placing it.

I can't say much about our mix design since I didn't design it this year - I'm glad about this because least year I learned at the last minute that people were making concrete cylinders without a mix design and had to pull one out with assumed values from 5 PM to 5 AM the next morning. But I made a computer program to go with it!

This year, the person who designed it used an excel spreadsheet and I realized how much easier that would have been...oh well! :)

Here's some of the materials we used in our mix today and the mixer itself. To be honest it was a really messy project because well...I helped clean up and no one was allowed inside unless they had something along the lines of garbage bags around their pant legs.

Concrete Canoe Form

2011-03-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

"It's a shame we have to put concrete on the form." That's a sure sign that the form is amazing. To make the concrete canoe this year, we built the form using cedar strips on particle board supports. And it turned out looking great!

Actually, I think the best part is, this year, the form making was simple, crisp, and clean. Last year, blood was spilled (one guy cut his hand on a metal sheet and I yelled at him to go wash his hands before he got an infection and he was like, "Calm down!"), the foam overflowed...lots of weird things just happened that I cannot explain. But this year, everything went well for the form.

I think the only downfall was that people, like me, had to wake up early to build the form. Every Saturday morning, I would start going over to the engineering labs glaring at my boyfriend as he drove because it was early and I was hungry and grouchy. I think I threatened to take him to a kitty kitty apron convention...

So, how do you get such a great form? You start with a set of plans that look something like the above. Then you make those plans neatly on autoCAD so that you can get exact dimensions. From those dimensions you can print them to size and cut them out.

So, after cutting out parts that the form can lay on (which you can see placed together above), you can start laying the cedar.

I think the main downfall was that we were working on the canoe in a storage container...in winter. In the image on the right, you can see me making a snowball. The worst part was that we had no space heater so...we all bundled up.

Here's an image of us putting on cedar strips.

And adding some finishing.

To get this. It was a lot of work to get it together but I have to say, this form is a work of art and genius.

Graduate School Problems

2011-03-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

To apply for the one or two year graduate degree, it's a bothersome question. If I go for the one year degree, then I only have to worry about going to school for one more year. But then I may as well go to school close to home. I don't want to do that because I want to go out and live in a different city. It would be so fun and adventurous.

But if I go for the two year degree, I can go to any school with a research facility but the downfall of that is that I have to work when I'm not in school researching. That means I'm not going to be home for a while and well...if I'm living by myself I'm going to be skinny again...which sucks because I go down ten to fifteen pounds easily.

It's not that I don't enjoy researching, it's more like I don't know how much of an impact I can make in researching. It seems like, no matter what I'm researching, it's a step in the right direction that anyone can do. I'm not sure how much of an impact I will be making on people. I want to do something that no one else can within the next ten years. I don't know if going into research will being me fulfillment because everything is organized in a way that just is logical, that makes sense. In research, there's no real surprises, unless things do not turn out as you think they will. Maybe I'm not well informed enough in this area but I feel as if anything I do can be done by anyone else unless I'm able to come up with an idea in one year and pull off the research attached to it within another. What difference is that?

I'm seeing what I can do. Maybe I can do something great, I just don't know it...Plato (or Socrates) said something along the lines of everyone knows everything, they just don't know it. Maybe in my life, I'll see if that 's true.

Imagineers

2011-03-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last year at the SWE National Convention, I determined my life goal is to one day be able to go up to someone, ask what their job title is and to tell them that I'm really cool because I'm an imagineer. Who gets a cooler job title than that?

And maybe, if I become an imagineer, I can design roller coasters or buildings that house roller coasters - I actually prefer the latter since I'm scared of roller coasters. The things is, I know how roller coasters work, in theory, but how many people get the chance to design them?

Or maybe I can build a cool resort or cruise ship - here I prefer the former because I'm scared of water.

Well, I finally applied for my first imagineering job, applying is the first step right? But if I don't get it now, I can always apply once I have more experience. Who knows, maybe Mickey Mouse needs to change his overalls to some construction clothes.

Ventana's

2011-03-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

There's a few things I like when I'm upset and all of them involve hanging out with my friends...and food. There's 1) all you can eat sushi (I finish about 4 sushi rolls by myself when I'm upset), 2) steak, 3) desserts, or 4) happy hours.

Well, going to Ventana's was one of the best ideas I've ever had. There's simply amazing food there and 1/2 price happy hour on the menu. So, I went with my friend and her boyfriend and we got a couple plates; above is lamb, an ahi tuna burger with truffle fries, and a hawaiian fish. I loved everything, except the fish, but I only like salmon overall anyways as far as fish go.

My favorite was the truffle fries. They are so good I had to get another serving.