Archive for March, 2006

Google Comes To Case

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/30/2006
in Journal
. 2 Comments

Today was a pretty long day with three classes and two special lectures: one on Cabaret with a special emphasis on German Cabaret and another from a Case-alum-turned-Googler who came and gave us a presentation on everyone’s favorite search engine. My suitemates, who were fortunate enough to attend last year’s talk, said that the presentation was essentially the same, but I enjoyed it all the same. There were some fun little insights into the way Google is run and the attitude that drives things. I have to say that Google is one of the few companies that makes me regret being an aerospace engineer. They do, apparently, have some room for mechanical engineers, but aside from cooling their computer stacks, I doubt that they have much use for my aero skills. I could tell myself that my web design skills might be of use, but, again, I would probably be deluding myself. At least I have Cornell to look forward to. Also, I have Google swag.

A fellow Case student already has some photos of the event up, many of which include myself and my suitemates. Sadly, it’s pretty obvious in those pictures that I need some more sleep. Which explains why I’m posting this instead of sleeping, right?

More Fun With Streaming Radio

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/29/2006
in Asides
. 4 Comments

Listening to more Irish radio has not given me my much desired chance to hear Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s new single, “Sleeping”. It has, however, delivered a conversation about a missing albino pony and the €1000 reward being offered for its return. The farmer calling in was absolutely priceless. I swear that I had about a half second delay in understanding everything he said even though he was speaking English. Very bizarre feeling, that.

My officemate suggested that I practice such an Irish accent and then call into the college radio station. I don’t know that I could manage it, frankly.

Speaking of languages, I am now officially no longer a German major.

Foreign Adverts

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/28/2006
in Journal
. 3 Comments

It’s amazing the amusement I can derive from listening to foreign radio. I’m currently listening to Ireland’s 2FM and even the advertisements amuse me. Living with Sky TV for two years convinced me that commercials can be entertaining and not annoying. They don’t have to be one exceedingly nervous used cars salesman followed by a craptastic have-you-ever-been-hurt-by-anything-call-us-and-let-us-get-you-money shyster lawyer and then a pharm commercial. (I don’t want to type the full word, probably for fear of having my inbox flooded with spam containing that most hated of words.) I’ve actually been tempted to dig up some of the videos I taped off of SkyOne to show my suitemates. We could fast forward through the shows and just watch the commercials.

Because adverts don’t have to suck. They can be funny! Except in the U.S. We apparently have laws against that.

Random Rambling

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/26/2006
in Journal
. 4 Comments

The big news of today is that I sent in my official acceptance to Cornell. That means that I can move on from the Agonizing-Over-A-Decision stage into the No-Regret-Just-Excitement stage. In talking to my parents on the phone each weekend, my father can’t stop saying how much he’s looking forward to the cruise we’re going on this summer. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to a) graduation and b) going to Ithaca to find an apartment. I sent an e-mail to the director of grad studies in my program at Cornell (i.e. the fabulously British bloke) to let him know, and he wrote back almost immediately with more exclamation marks than ever:

Fantastic news !!! We are all delighted to hear that you will join us !!!

:-) (bigger than normal smiley)

I can’t wait for the fall. And I suspect that that feeling will only grow after I leave Case.

**

The Cornell pictures (what few there are) have been uploaded. There’ll be plenty of time for taking more later.

**

Part of my evening has been spent playing with new software. I was getting tired of having so many WordPad windows open when working, so I downloaded Crimson Editor to give it a try. Stuff that’s free and uses tabs makes me happy. That might also explain why I finally downloaded Gaim tonight, too.

**

I’ve spent most of this evening playing around with a mock-up of what I want to do with this blog style-wise. I had a mock-up I was moderately pleased with, but I was somewhat annoyed that the color scheme was entirely in blue. I love blue as much as the next person, but it was a little on the overkill side. (That said, I may include it in the final site as an option for users, partially because I know that B adores blue.) I decided tonight to try to come up with a different color scheme. In the process of playing around, I found a lot of stuff that did not work at all–I’m rather surprised that I didn’t give up, frankly. But, finally, I found the right combination. Now, to wait for the final release of K2.

English Triumphs Again!

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/25/2006
in Asides
. 3 Comments

The Gods of the Internet, Lords of the Grammar Nazis, have heard my plea. Or, you know, they got an editor to look at the follow-up to that scramjet article.

This makes [a scramjet engine] more efficient than a conventional rocket engine as it does not need to carry its own oxygen supply, meaning that a vehicle using one could potentially carry a larger payload.

I still protest to rockets and air-breathing engines being compared this way, but I guess that’s why I’m an engineer and not a journalist. (No offense, Greg ;-) )

Epiphany! In The Clinic!

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/25/2006
in Asides
. 0 Comments

For all of my House-inclined friends, there’s now a new way to entertain yourself and friends while watching the show: House bingo! (Much thanks to Lisa for sharing the link.)

What are you still doing here? Go forth! Laugh!

Drawing Faerie

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/25/2006
in Journal
. 0 Comments

I finally got around to one of those many things I always tell myself that I’m going to do. This time, it was that I scanned in and adjusted some old Faerie-related artwork and posted it on the site. So, for any of you who have wondered what Faerie wings look like or what sort of geography Faerie has, you can wonder no longer. I should note that I am, by no means, an artist, which is part of why I’ve avoided additional attempts of trying to depict scenes from the stories. That said, I did start drawing a new version of Jeanne’s sword Ilarien on my dry erase board one evening this week when my mind refused to let me sleep without doing so. I may sit down after this and try to sketch out the remainder of the sword.

In the meantime, if anyone is inclined to attempt drawing characters and/or scenes, I would love to see the way you envision them. If you have something you’re willing to share, I might even put it up on the site!

ETA: I did draw a new version of Ilarien. The, uh, resemblance to a katana is purely coincidental. Really.

C’mon, People, It’s Just Rocket Science

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/23/2006
in Journal
. 1 Comment

I am being quickly induced never to look at news coverage of a scientific event ever again. On return from my fluids class this morning, I checked my RSS feeds to find a story on an upcoming scramjet test in Australia, courtesy of the BBC. The first sentence should have warned me that, knowing anything about this subject, I shouldn’t have continued reading:

A new jet engine design able to fly seven times the speed of sound is to be test fired over Australia on Friday.

Well, okay, it’s not totally wrong to say that a Mach 7 engine flies seven times the speed of sound. But it’s the local speed of sound, dammit! But, being an aerospace engineer, something inside me twitches at the thought of being so imprecise. The real pain comes later, when the reporter tries to make a helpful remark about the usefulness of a scramjet engine:

A supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, is mechanically very simple. It has no moving parts and takes all of the oxygen it needs to burn hydrogen fuel from the air. This makes it more efficient than conventional rocket engines as they do not need to carry their own oxygen supply, meaning that any vehicle could potentially carry a larger payload.

First of all, what did they teach you in grade school about pronouns and antecedents? “This makes it more efficient than conventional rocket engines as they do not need to carry their own oxygen supply.” I know that you’re trying to say that scramjet engines don’t carry their own oxygen supply. But, technically, you just told your reader that rocket engines are air-breathing, which, seeing as propulsion devices are classified as either rockets or air-breathing engines, is, well, impossible.

Moreover, when did it become reasonable to compare a rocket to an air-breathing engine in terms of efficiency? They can’t do the same things. Rockets can fly outside of an atmosphere. Air-breathing engines can’t. Rockets tend to be heavier because they have to carry their own oxygen. But, at least in the sense of conventional chemical rockets, they are more powerful. You can lift enormous loads at higher speeds with a chemical rocket than you can even with the most ambitiously imaginative air-breathing engine. In short: you just don’t compare them. They’re apples and oranges. Both are fruit, but you only eat one if you’re wanting Vitamin C.

Futurama Is Back!

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/19/2006
in Asides
. 0 Comments

The news that “Futurama” is getting another shot on the small screen comes from Billy West himself:

And the other good news is that they’re doing 26 new episodes of ”Futurama” for TV and we’re hammering out the deal now.The original plan was to have the DVD’s first but that’s no longer the case. #

If this actually happens, I’ll be thrilled, and I know that Mark will be, too. We watch that show like there’s no tomorrow.

Home Again, Home Again

Published
by
Nicole
on 3/18/2006
in Journal
. 9 Comments

I got back today from visiting Michigan, and my feelings at the moment can be summed up in two words: exhaustion and shock. These last few days have gotten crazy again in terms of graduate school-related news. I’ve now been officially accepted at all six of the universities to which I applied, have received financial offers from three of them (Cornell, Virginia, and Michian), and have a financial offer from a fourth, Duke, in the mail. I just got done sending e-mails off to the four professors who have e-mailed me in the past three days. Everyone is interested in hearing a decision sooner rather than later, and, while I understand and sympathize fully with that sentiment, this upcoming week promises to be a nasty one as it contains all of my midterms.

I learned this weekend that Michigan offered admission to about 30 students out of around 380 applicants. That’s an acceptance rate of just under 8%. The very idea that I made it into such a group boggles my mind, and I know that the statistics for several of these other schools probably aren’t all that different. To be honest, that doesn’t make me feel good. If anything, I feel like there must have been a mistake somewhere because I’m certainly not as amazing as this response would seem to indicate.