The Oil Pan

No kidding.

Like I commented earlier, I’m averaging 5 meetings a week. This week is more fun at, 9 meetings, or almost 2 per day. On top of School work, Grad Applications,  Job hunting, and sleeping (Which I’ve managed to do very little of)

I shouldn’t complain.  I like being busy.   Push myself to see just how much I can accomplish.  Like, I have a 3 robots to work on now, plus a car, plus another Circuits project.

*sigh* I look forward to the weekends so I can just stay in my room and get some quality work done. I’ve actually doe very little school work so far. (Talk about being socially inept eh?)

 

Oh! I forgot to mention a mildly embarrassing story.  I don’t know if its my parents defending me, or if they have some blind hope in me.  But whenever my lack of a girlfriend comes up. They always say “if he did have one, he wouldn’t tell us anyways.”  Which is probably true, however I still don’t so I’m going to let them keep thinking that.

I think I’m leaning towards grad school.  I want to stick around for another 2 years.  I’m not going to apply at waterloo, its way too much of a pain in the ass (You guys are the only ones who seem to need 3 letters of references and a portfolio for engineering What the hell?).

We’ll see what happens.  3 and a bit more months and I’m potentially done forever!!!

Finally Got my last mark for term 1. It rounds my average out to a 9.3, or about 78~80%. But when I factor in another course that isnt on there, that I did do, It works out to be a 10.2 Ballpark 81%. Might not sound impressive to you, but that was singly the best academic term I've ever done. Ever! This term will hopefully be more of the same. I'd like good final year marks.

I went to a birthday Party on the weekend, and was explaining to one Andrew C. the stuff I'm working with. Both school work and other. Frig I impressed myself with it! I know I'm just stroking my own ego here, but bear with me.

This year I'm going to work on/complete:
-A Maze Solving Robot, built from scratch.
-Improve a robotic arm used for surgeries (I havent started yet, I hope its not too hard)
-Build the circuitry to shift a Racecar as fast as a Ferarri (50ms area), and some sensor stuff
-Building a speed controller for another robot, it's not following lines. But is

3 Years ago this is what the list looked like:
-Made a Brake Light.

Man I rock! Haha..

But seriously, I've really learned a lot in the last 4 years. Came a long way since high school. I'm really hoping this extracurricular stuff will help out on job hunting one day too.

Lots more work to do in the next 4 months!

Hey,  you might’ve noticed a test post.  That wasn’t me. That was someone at Microsoft, because I couldn’t get a product of theirs to work.  Anyways it works now and I’m using it! its nice.

I really can’t believe that this is my final term.  Potentially forever.  All you guys have at least 1 more year of fun before going out into the workplace.  Time flies…

Here’s my Term at a glance:

Research Project  (Helping Build a robotic arm, the kind they use in surgeries)
Embedded Systems (Class on how to make circuitry that fits into everyday things)
Economics  (Intro Class. I’ve never taken one)
Design Project (My final design project)
Medical Imaging  (Class on how to take medical images and produce something a doctor could use)
Mechatronics (Intro to the mechanical side of robotics)

6 courses, 4 final exams.  Its’s going to be a busy next few months. Personally I think it looks like a lot of fun.

Unrelated:  People at home, enjoy the snow, there is none here.
Today is being used to update my resume and look for jobs =(.

Take Care.

Test

My Secret santa got his stuff yesterday. I was really worried that he would not like them. I man.... I sent the guy a freakin' can opener...

Anyways, you can see his pictures and comments here:
http://redditgifts.com/search/?q=travistravis
All but the Cactus one is mine....

He is apparently thrilled with it! So, I did a good job! Makes me feel good, and I'm totally doing it next year.

As for my gift out of it? It's sitting at home as I type this... =) I talked to my Secret Santa and She (Yeah, she. Who knew there was a girl that was even remotely as geeky as I am) hinted that it played to my Electrical Engineering-ness. I'm stoked to open that tomorrow.

What else...Yeah. Im done Exams! Finally! Home tomorrow. Things are looking good right now.

15$ gift for Kates will be a breeze now. Someone is getting something whacky!! But I already decided that I'm not going to buy 15$ worth of lumber and gift that. That's mean. Im thinking im going to steal many Ideas from that site. It will be legen -wait for it- dary! Haha

I'll see most of you soon!

DK

Hello,

So this is how everything boiled down this week:
-My Hellish presentation where i did not as much wasn't as bad as I thought. apparently our approach was completely unique. Which scored us bonus with the prof. He also took both of us out in the hall, and said he would pass on our names to someone in industry for a potential internship because of our awesome work. Cool!

-My Design project also went better than expected. I made up my circuit board, soldered it together, debugged it (blew up one piece =S... Hacked the board so it didn't need it), and it runs now! Kind of. I can control the motors independently. which is a good first step. My groupmates got lucky that I let them talk first. they claimed they did a LOT more work then they really did.

I was at my cousins wedding today in Waterloo. It was really nice. Some interesting points of note:
--I was stuck at the KIDS Table =(.

--When your cousin being married is/was a model. She has some really hot friends.

--Again, my single-ness was pointed out "Ohh Danny this makes you next in line to get married! You have a girlfriend yet?" "Uhh,...no." "Ohhh...well there's still time!" On this: I know! I've been single for 3 years now. And the 3 week run with the last one isn't something I really want to do ever again. I'm single, I enjoy it. Fewer things to worry about and fewer headaches. (Although there was one waitress there I really wished I got to talk to. People at UW! Find her for me! Ask me for the description...Im not leaving it here. Thats creepy.)

--My dad kept razing me about my drinking. (regarding a previous incident.. if you really want to more, you have to ask in person.)

Thats it. I came home early from an open bar, hot mostly unrelated women, and a great venue to study for exams =(.

What a week!! What did you all do?
--
Dan

I hate being on the bottom rung.

Simply, I'm in a group project for this one course. My partner is SMART. ...this makes me the dumb one in the group. I don't like it. Its good because it means that the project will be done to his standards, which means better marks then I would get normally. However I get screwed with the kiddie portions of the project. (I've done 2 sections for his 4...harder sections).

So, while he is a really nice guy. I absolutely hate that his overachieving will reflect negatively on me when we meet with the prof. this week and the "What did you do in the project?" question comes up.

...Damn

You know when I said I'm an oddball? That has not, and will never change.

If you were to ask me what kind of music I like. I have to say "all of it." Which sounds like a cop-out. But I can't nail my listening tastes to only one genre! Same reason I don't have a real "favourite band" Lots of bands I like, but none that stand above the rest.

You know anyone else with the Tragically hip, Frank Sinatra, System of a Down, Rise Against, Rammstein, Weezer, Guess who, "Justice", DMX, Ludacris and a whack of other bands all in one -relatively- short playlist?

I don't. They say too much of anything is bad for you though. Can having too much variety in your music be bad for you?

--
DK

I hate every post I have in recent history saying "I should post more often"

Anyways, its been a crazy while. Haloween was awesome. Matt rowaan came down. His banana costume got some good compliments.

School is interesting in its final year. I mean, class wise I have very little. Workload wise I don't know what to do I'm so swamped. My design project is going well. Kind of in a crunch time for it. we want it built and running by december. ...which isnt too far away.

What I found was I have a difficult time writing in this form anything technical. I type it out and say "Yup, no one, except maybe leanne will get this" Ever. Sadly most of the things I write about are of a technical nature. (Sorry? What can I do. Its all I know.) With that said, I took a page out of janessa's book and migrated my technical stuff over to http://340challenger.blogspot.com/ its I find a lot cleaner to use. (Google seems happy, too that my email, blog, and everything else is tied together)

It's not like I won't update this one ever, it will just be less frequent. -Probably become a lot more personal, on account of anything technical I can write about elsewhere-

Last note: I wanted your opinion on something. Something I think is very cool. A secret Santa with a twist. It's completely done over the internet for people all over the world. On Dec 1st if you sign up, you will get a random address assigned to you, and someone else will get yours. I really would like to participate in it, but I am hesitating. what do you think? (Site here: http://redditgifts.com/)

--
DK

So I don't know if I described this to any of you -actually I know why I never have,  leanne would be the only one who would get it-.

So my second term of school.  Much unlike Jen's is an absolute minefield.  Specifically, my electives all conflict with eachother. I have 3 electives, and all 3 are at the same time.  I want to drop one, so we have 2 to deal with. One: Medical Robotics I like, and the other one, Mechatronics look awesome.

So I have to drop the Medical robotics one for something. And nothing else I am all that interested in. So whats a guy to do?  Well, I was talking to the head of our program and she put me onto this "rare" elective.  That is, very few people take it.  Why?  Well lets get into that now.

The Course is called 4OJ4, it is a research project course.  which means that all term, no lectures, no exam, no midterms.  Just get the project done and you get an A+...
What's the project? Well thats up to you.  ... you need to find a professor who is willing to supervise you and has something that you think you are good at.  Thus far I've found 2.  Here's where I need help.  I am unsure what one to take.

1) A Software implementation project.  The prof works with target tracking and analysis. What he wanted me for was one of  2 projects. 1 was the math and algorithms to track a slew of targets via radar. (Which is actually math rivalling that of some UW math program =P)... The other one is implementation. Where you are told to make a nice program anyone can open on a computer and watch the radar that way. Run off a database or run off data directly through a wire to the radar itself.  Obviously I wouldn't get to play with a real radar station. But the simulation would have a huge GUI that tracks "up to 1000's of planes at once" as he said. Thats path, name, anything the user wants on the screen.  Seems Daunting. More on this one later too.

The second one:

2) This is a joint Mechanical/Software venture (YAY!).  He is a biomedical professor and was working with force feedback in robotic arms.  So you move a pen around on a robotic arm, and it moves a virtual reality ball in space. If you hit a wall on the computer. It stops the motors from moving just like you physically hit that wall.  What he wants done is 1 point like a pen is nice.  But what if I want to pick something up?  He wants 2 of these made such that you could put one on your finger and thumb and puck up virtual reality objects. like they were really in our hand.  So I would make the human-robot interface and necessary software to simulate somone rolling dice or something.

So, personally I think I am more capable of finishing the first one. I mean he said flat out  he'll give me a perfect in the course if I finish. However, I dunno if I have reservations about building something that could be used to kill people.  Like obviously it has the civilian use of ATC. but, I dunno about that one.

The second one seems a lot harder.  Auto-cad machining. and then some serious high level simulation on top of that. Would be really neat to put that on a resume though, something about robotic arms.


Regarding the radar one, this is how my old neighbour explained it to me.  If you are working for the Canadian military. First and foremost you are working for the good guys.  Canada doesn't run into situations where we shouldn't be.  Whatever you make for them, when its used, you can bet its being used for the right reasons.

I really should get back to one of these guys this week. Any input whatsoever would be really appreciated.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We saw "Zombieland" on Sunday. Its not a groundbreaking movie. But it sure as hell is an amusing one.  Just watch it someday. ... if you don't like gore, better pass on it.

Anyways,  I had the thought. "Well Dan, what should one really do in a situation like this?" And I am here to tell you today!  Under these assumptions, because its hard to make decisions without and information.   These are the smart zombies, and not the retarded slow zombies, the can run as fast as a regular person.  Also their zombie-ness comes from a virus, that is only transmitted through contact. So not air or water. They gotta bite you, or you have to eat some zombie.  We also assume its not an isolated issue. they're everywhere. ..Also dead people are dead, they dont come back to life/zombied

There are 3 objectives that you need to keep in mind while doing this:
1) Don't die/get bitten
2) Basic Survival (Food, Water etc.)
3) Find Ammunition, weapons, and other people


Once the zombie apocalypse it is imperative that you get yourself setup first. Then work on the whole "zombie problem."  One thing that everyone overlooks is that this is a virus that needs contact to be transmitted.  So suit up!! If they can't bite through your clothes then you should be fine, even if you have no weapons.  I'd try to acquire at first some hockey pads/gloves/helmet, then work my way up to some riot gear proper tactical helmet, body armour, big steel toed boots.   because you don't (presumably) have any real firepower laying around. You need to work your way up. Start with something large and blunt. Spear-like things aren't that effective. Baseball bats, a heavy frying pan even. Good starter weapon.

Okay, you got some protection and a weapon now, you need to find a high building with a well-lit area around them, like a typical apartment building.  Food for the night and a place to sleep.  You need to think of your final objective. Eliminating all zombies.  Which means either trapping them all, or shooting each one.  Trapping could become troublesome if there is a lot/and they are smart-ish. So I suggest taking no prisoners. You need to go state-side and find an ammunition depot.  If there is 350million people in north america,  Im sure even just 1 ammo depot will have more then 1 bullet per person there. If not, you have enough to get to find a second one and do the job. (Aircraft ammunitions could be helpful here too. More on this later).

So,  now you need some wheels.  Get some.  A medium sized truck would be best (Okay Fuel economy,  Rugged as hell, and can bring a lot of supplies wtih you). Also if you have time, put the keys in other vehicles for any other people to escape.

Hopefully by now you have a zombie demolishing buddy or 2.  Make a car convoy (if anything breaks down, you have a backup. Redundancy is good) .  Grab extra gas cans along with fresh water tanks, food, lights and heating, if you need to find a trailer for more cargo, dont. Grab another truck.  Trailers will only slow getaways and could be troublesome in tight areas.

Alright, thats the first 48 hours.  You set yourself up pretty well. A tough vehicle to get you to your objective, enough supplies to get there,  someone to keep you company, and weapons to fend off anything. Remember that you are driving a 1.5 ton weapon as well. People don't leave that big of a dent. (The snowplow from the Zombieland movie is an excellent add-on try for sometinhg like this in the future).

Okay,  more on this later.  You've made it thus far!  Hopefully you can finish.

Everyone keeps asking me "Ohh you graduate this year? What are you going to do after?"  The shortest most honest answer is  "I don't have a clue."

Ill let you in on a little secret...

Im seriously considering grad school.   I apparently have the marks to do it  -barely-, I'm going to switch some courses around for next term to aim that way a little more.  We'll see what happens,  I'm not holding my breath. I always said I wasn't smart enough for that. But hey, crazier things have happened right?

Hello,

rather then post anything, I decided to lurk on the internet instead of actually contribute. But here's whats happened since the 3rd of September.

I moved into Hamilton,  I have the smallest room I've ever lived in (8x9ish feet.) Its err.... different.   Roomate Break down as follows:
-Dan L: Good friend, lives down the hall.
-Andrew:  Italian, First Year science, rich parents (Bimmer and Merc Say so).
-Melo: Off the boat in First year Engineering (poor guy, 2 graduating engineers living with him) (and from Shanghi or something)
-John: Another Asian kid in arts, actually hard to understand guy.

All in all a good troupe(right word?).  Then there is me, Kish, the friggin man of the house. Thing broke?  Ask Kish,  something wrong? Ask Kish,  Talking/dealing with the landlord?  Go through me.  ...Who's doing all the house chores? ....damn, me.

So the 5th, I had no bed and was here. I slepton the floor (Ikea was out of bed...[I Have now actually been! to an Ikea, Holy crap])  So I got 4 people in a 3 person truck down to Ikea.  That was...cosy.  Set up was fine (Ikea Lies!!  I needed Allan wrench + Tape measure and a flathead and phillps screwdriver. What the hell Ikea..)

Set stuff up posters are on the walls, drank with friends, got bored, built a patio for a BBQ. .... That was frosh week. (Super Summary) 

Classes started,   Breakdown as follows:
3DQ4 - Digital Design = Interesting but hard course to grasp. Due to the idea that we aren't programming computers anymore, we are "describing circuitry" in a language. And have to watch for pitfalls in that. (Surprisingly a lot so far)
4TL4  - Digital Signal Processing = Boring right now. Come End of october it will be interesting.  The prof sounds like he is teching you Karate. Always with a deep concered voice like he just told you the key to defeating the black knight. "You must sum from NEGATIVE infinity" 
4TK4 - Digital Comm. Systems = Hard course, looks at how I get a 1 and zero from point A to point B, and implications of sending many of them together plus how to improve error rate.
4H03 - Engineering History - Easiest Class I think I've ever taken.  Optional Midterms, Optional Papers, only Exam and 5% quiz is mandatory.
4OI6 - Engineering Design -  My Final Project "Class"  Group of us build something by April that works and solves a problem [question: Do you have any things that need to be solved with some device? ...like a I dunno. Massage Robot or something? Tell me.] Currently the Idea is to take RCA standard video and up it to work with a DVI or HDMI interface -Pretty hard-

...Doesnt that make you just want to sit in on some of my classes? I know you do.

What else has happened... Nothing too interesting. Got real internet this week. Tis great.   My truck JUST fits in the drivway (1/8 inch on one side, 12 inches on the other for people to walk past. Speaking of Truck,  Ol' Blue might be getting swapped for another truck! ... and older one! haha.. Ohh my family and their car buying habits....

Thats all. I'm home this weekend if anyone wants to do anything. I'm so bored when I go home usually.

Take care
--
Dan

PS: Forgot the other thing, I was really bored on frosh week and found a rub on tatoo. Now, I've never thought tatoo's were a good idea, fake or not.  I put it on anyways... now I may actually consider a real one in the future.  Made me look friggin bad-ass!

Wow, been one helluva  2 weeks. Worthy of breaking down into sub-sections

Work
I finished work last Friday.  It was nice, I know they'll miss me.  I took some pictures Ill put on Facebook eventually so you can decide for yourself what I actually did.  They gave me as a parting gift a set of their sweet wire strippers. They are AWESOME.  So now I am out of work, until next may. Hopefully I'll be able to find something.

School
This is the first year I have had ANY freedom in my courses.  And what happens?  Clusterfuck of conflicts.  I can either take some courses I don't really want and graduate this year. Or stick around for another year, ensure I get the ones I want, and at a reduced workload.  However I don't want to stick around any longer then I really have to.  I've managed to fix almost everything in first term to not conflict. However term 2 has about 6 problems, and 2 are fatal. As in I HAVE to drop/add other courses. to fit around them.  I feel like I was given the  "You have cheap, fast, reliable... pick 2" scenario.

Anyways heres what I got going on this term:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:30-9:20	EE 4TK4 C01 JHE 326H		EE4TK4 C01 JHE 326H
9:30-10:20	CE 4TL4 C01 HSC 1A6	ENG 4H03 C01 CNH104	ENG 4H03 C01 CNH104	CE 4TL4 C01 HSC 1A6	ENG 4H03 C01 CNH104
10:30-11:20	EE 40I6 T01  JHE326H CE 3DQ4 C01 T28 001	CE 4TL4 C01 HSC 1A6	CE 3DQ4 C01 T28 001	CE 3DQ4 C01 T28 001	EE 4TK4 JHE326H
11:30-12:20	EE 4OI6 C01 JHE326H		EE 4OI6 C01 JHE 326H
12:30-1:20					CE 4TL4 T01 ABB162
1:30-2:20					EE 4OI6 C01 JHE 326H
2:30-5:20	EE 4OI6 L01 ITB 156	CE 4TL4 L02 ITB AB101		CE 3DQ4 L03 ITB AB109
5:30-7:30		EE 4TK4 T01 JHE326H

Comp Eng 3DQ4 - Digital Systems Design
Elec Eng 4TL4 - Digital Signal Processing
Elec Eng 4TK4 - Digital Communication Systems
Eng 4H03 - Engineering History
Elec Eng 4OI6 - Engineering Design

Ohh and textbooks look like they'll top 600$ this term =( I hate expensive books. But it looks impressive on a shelf.

Personal
So I don't know if you knew or not. But there was some incidents at the house I was leasing this summer.  Roomate was a messy, drunken, high and violent slob. My friend recorded all this down and basically; tried to get him evicted. TWICE! It wasn't working either times so as of Sunday we broke my lease.  Looked for a new house. Told my old landlord "look, its not working with us."  He threatened legal action.  My friends dad happens to be a former city planner or something for Hamilton; thus has building inspection experience.  Finds $15 000ish in defficiencies with the house.  Says bring it on.   My mom pulled whatever womanly tricks you people have.  Got him to be nice.  And as of 2 hours ago I was let go from that lease.   Ohh and I do have a new place now!  A lot smaller, and further away. But I'm betting it will be better then what I had going into that other house.

I'm so glad that legal crap is behind me. Not only am I terrible at playing mind games. I feel sick just doing it.  I couldn't be a lawyer.  But now I finally get to focus on school.

8 Months!  Man... what will I do with myself? 

Take care everyone. next one of these will be from the hammer.

--
Dan

My Last week of work! 

My family is gone, I thought this would be an awesomely productive week. But with no one around, I have to take care of the Dog. keep the house clean, manage all their calls and mail.  And after work making my own dinner, I have no motivation to do anything really...

...although I have a new bike that I'm fixing up to replace the one I destroyed earlier this month.... and  I've also setup my computer on my TV i nthe living room. (I'm writing this on a 50 inch screen, its awesome!).

To be blunt, this week pretty much completely sucks.

Work done. I liked it, I wish I could stay longer. Pay was great, people were nice,  environment was relaxed. Can't ask for more.  I also finally got permission from the prof to take that couse I wanted!! ...after my friend who got into the course recently told me to BS a nice email to him saying I NEED his course for something. ... I do that, and the damn class is FULL.  So. I'm SOL at this point.  I've added on another filler course so worst case I can atleast graduate.  But unholy scheduling conflicts batman!  I originally had  8 (eight!) conflicts. Thats a lot more then my usual zero.  Its now down to 4. and I think I'll just do the normal University thing and skip the classes alternating weeks.

Now the more interestingly crappy part of my week.  My roomate who was supposed to  be evicted back in July for drugs?  Well hes been there still. Sunday shit hit the fan. People over, blood on things, high drunk. and a lot more apparently.  So he was apparently served an eviction notice.  Which as of yet my friend said he had no intention of respecting.  He'll take them to court.  With that said,  I think I'm gonna -try- and move to another place.

Damn! I wish I stayed in my old house! no drama, no problems.   Also, I am taking pictures of stuff at work, which I'll put up on the weekend, so you can decide for yourself how to describe what I do. (It would take some literary genius to put to words what I do. I can't).

Yeah thats my week so far.   Work, Home alone, busy,  Hamilton Drama, School jerks... what else can happen this week? 

--
Dan

Wow,  I've been gone for a while...

So whats happened in the last little while? 

Well, since the 7th.

8th was Hamilton Pool party. I stayed the night finally there. (Yeah, theres a pool, and a party, if you can read this you'll be invited again)
-It was the first time I'd been to east side marios, too... free appetizer thing rocks.

9th - Woke up. Frantically tried to get internet to work (No friends there, nothing to work on, sunday TV sucks...etc). Eventually friend came back, packed my stuff. Then headed to Burlington to pickup my Nickelback Ticket. ... then eventually got there,  Saving Abel, Papa Roach, Hinder, were openers. (in that order).  ..However as you may recall it rained something AWFUL that night. And we were on the lawn outside. And I brought the lightest t-shirt I own because I was hot. ... needless to say it rained out Nickelback and I might as well jumped into a lake, I was SOAKERED.  Although seeing the CN tower get struck by lightning in person is much cooler. ...And the whiteout-rainout conditions trying to get home. ...

...Whats your favourite part of  a thunderstorm? The sparks of lightning? the Boom of thunder or the pounding of the rain? ...Personally I like the lightning the most. I can live without having the other 2.

10th-  Back breaking day of work,  Drilled 50 something holes into steel I-beams. ...Yes, 50 Holes took OVER 8 hours. ...thats almost 10 minutes per hole. constantly.

11th - Heavy lifting day of work. Gym was here too... And my sisters go with me sometimes.... apparently when Im really tired I sweat "Way too much for any normal person" 

12th - Don't remember.

13th - Boston Pizza, Pete's Birthday. ... I got the "awkward old guy" feeling showing up to his birthday as I only knew 2 or 3 of the 15 people there.

14th - Frantic Friday:  8-3 work - 3-4: Drive home, change shower shave pack, gas, fix truck, put stuff in truck.  4-6 get to Waterloo. 6-Repack new car (Truck isnt a great thing to drive with other people) - 7-10 Wait in car. *it was a nice conversation though*    I learned I need more conversation starting lines. like "If you could only travel in time once and get stuck there, what year would you go to?" 10ish - get drinking and sleeping.

15th - Cottage fun-day.  Drive down the coolest gravel road I've ever been on fast. ...in not my car =D.  Fix a paddle boat. Swim. Note: Don't in a group of swimmers and life guards EVER say that "I can't really swim" ...they'll make you wear a life jacket.  Tried later to sink said paddle boat... almost suceeded.

16th- Relax, quiet ride home. Leanne made me dinner. -2/2 on good grilled cheese there. bueno!  Nice drive home with lots of muscle cars (biggest Mopar Show in Canada was in waterloo on the weekend, and on the drive home, there was lots on the road)

17th - Built my own complete Panel at work -Small suitcase sized one, but Residents in Lincoln will be glad (or scared) to know that a tank of liquid oxygen is being controlled in part by something I put together?  Oh and Gym'd.

18th.- Got a Haircut. (Aside: I need a new hairstyle, any thoughts?). ...And tried to help my dad troubleshoot his Challenger... If you know anything about 6-pak carbeurators you could really help us both out. We can't find the issue.

----
Thats it.
Rest of my summer is empty. Saturday I go buy a new bike to replace the last one thats totalled. And....Im done work next friday. Oh-my-goodness.  4th YEAR! ...scary.

Take care.
--
DK

Ps: I  also have a list of other entries to write out that might be more insightful then "Oh man I did this in the last 2 weeks "

This week was good:

1) The panel that I actually put a non-zero effort into creating had ZERO problems (well, 1 minor AC/DC problem that was mine, but fixed in like...5 minutes)

2) I got a crack for 2 days at an office job. Making up binders, duotangs, shop drawings. I can safely say now whatever job I get I think I need BOTH an shop and office environment. It just no fun being chained to a computer, and its also no fun just turning a screwdriver.

3) Free Sandwhich lunch tuesday (I ordered the spiciest sandwhich I've ever had, ... hot peppers + hot sauce + green peppers + onions...etc) AND BBQ friday. == Awesome

4) Went out.... okay zero times, but I had fun staying home.

5) Car show in Welland was great. 500+cars. Rolling in all night (2 Ford GT's, a Ferarri, Challengers, Mustangs, Camaros (an 2009 one too!), even the odder AMX, De Tomaso, Superbird, Mach 1's and a firetruck.. of course with a boatload of Corvette's. ...But one cool Race-spec 65' 'vette. That was slick) Not bad for being free eh?

The weekend will be better:

-Hamilton all day tomorrow pool party at the house! Officially only Mac Eng students are going, however if you are in the area and want to drop by. Please come by! Text me for directions.

-Sleeping in that house for once.

-Sunday holds the possibility of a concert. at the Molson Ampitheatre.... It's Nickelback Headlining with apparently Blink 182, Saving Abel, Papa Roach, and some others. I'm a +1 if she cant find someone else, so its only a maybe. But for 30$ I can't go wrong.


Next week:
-Work/nothing until thursday, going out for a Birthday party.
-Friday/Sat/Sun Cabin thing. (Last going out of the summer =(. )
...then its the end of august!! Holy crap.

---

I can't just tell you all the great stuff I'll be doing without giving something interesting up. ...Lets call it a superpower. Y'all know I'm weird. This doesnt help that case. I have a VERY visual/spacial mind. I can build/measure things things in my head visualize in very good detail. This I've found, means I see real world objects as objects that are made of simple shapes (Take a Band-aid. Nothing spectacular, until I look at it, see to semi-circles connected with a rectangle of adhesive tape with an underlayer of a square gauze.) I do this shape analysis with EVERYTHING. I can't help it.

For lack of a better way of describing it, I see how things are put together by inspecting them. (Think: I figured out the secret of the Caramilk bar commercial in 2 viewings + 1 bar)

No one else does that right? I find it fascinating to mentally rip apart something and see how it ticks.

--
DK

What a day so far; all by my awesome luck.

I had a few major goals this summer, one was to be under 200lbs by September. And the other one was to ride the length of the Niagara Peninsula from Lake to Lake. Which also gets combined into "Going over 100km on a bike in 1 day."

So, How many of those did I accomplish today? Lets start with a story....

I set out to do the easier one of going from Port Weller to Port Colborne. Which I didnt think would be too hard, because I've gone from Lock 1 to Welland before a few times.(okay 2x). And Lake Erie is only another 20km... [Random aside story: second time to welland, most embarrasing bike fail. ...The steel rod that holds your seat up from the frame.. Well I sat on the seat and I bend it nicely. So nicely I got picked up and came home and stole my sisters bike seat.]

Got everything ready to go, set off at 11:30 from lock 1... and amazingly got to Port colborne! At 2:10. So 2hrs40Minutes, and that was with many breaks along the way, against the wind! hurrah! One Goal down. Hung out there (Gee I think next summer we should all head down to Canal Days, look like Fun!!) for a bit and decided to head on home. First intersection I need to turn at to get out of Port there, something screwed up. No idea what, but my wheel wont turn now. ...Cross the road as cooly as possible considering my back tire gave out. And tried to fix it, Disabled the brakes on the sidewalk, Didn't fix it. Saw some guys down the road and thought "Men Have tools!" perfect. Ask. "No wrench, sorry" ...frig. Anyways another old guy heard I needed tools and said
"well I have a pair of pliers in my truck, that might help eh?"
"I'll try! Thanks"
Looked at my bike again "crap, rim it bent, need to adjust alignment to get it straight-ish again. ...Big black guy and his buddy come out:

"Hello" I said.
"Ehhh Man! Hows the bike?"
"A little broken still"
"Aww, bummer, lets look at it"
"See, Rim bent, tire is hitting the frame here and here."
"Yeah, thats hard to fix, long walk home?"
"Uhh, yah, St. Catharines is far"
"WOAH MAN! Wha? You came all this way?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, maybe Ed's got some space in his truck, he can take you home"
"Hmm? Ohh no no, I don't want to impose."
"No worries! This is a church! Were christian! We set you straight"
"Ohh that's not a store thats a church!"
"Yessir!"

...25 minute conversation short. Some 70 y/o Guy named ed, who I've never met gave me a ride home from Port C. (Over 50km). ...So I hitchhiked home basically. Only thing he asked for at the end was a prayer together. Which was okay with me.

So, I never made my 100km mark, but I did Go from Lake to lake.

Gross section: I learned something too thats gross. If you sweat enough and cant wipe it away (behind glasses for instance) it evaporates. But because sweat is salty, the salt stays on you. When I got to port I thought I had sand on my face. No no. it was salt crystals that formed. I lookd at my glassed and there was a jelly-like mass on the top of them that was just thick thick brine.

So Came home, dunno why but I said, ahh what the hell, weigh myself. Somehow from my actual goal of 200 (which I was already at for a while 201ish) I'm suddenly 193. Is it possible to lose 7pounds in 7 days? ...Considering I still drink and eat like crap?

So now im off to merritville with matt! Good stuff. Augh Work tomorrow. I have a little list of things to mention still. So there is another mega-post in the works.

Until then. Jane: Say good luck with your travels to alex on my behalf. I can guarantee I wont see her in time.

Take it easy! Hope you all had a nice long weekend.
--
Dan K

I tried failing once, I succeeded, ...so did I fail?

The easiest way to make a hard decision is to not make it at all. ...except then its a coin toss and it wont work in your favour. ever.

The best way to understand something it to break it. Then try and fix it.

Just try and eat it. It was labeled as food. Whats the worst that can happen?

Don't knock what you haven't tried.

EVERYTHING is better in low-gravity.

Trial-and-error works for everything. But for some things -eg:"is this deadly?"- it's not suggested.

...okay I'm out of creative sayings...for now.

Append: "Why do it right when you can do it again?"

I have to keep writing this list so when I get a chance to I can blog about the next topic in mind.

However this silly list is too long now and I'll always be behind. Unless I do this: M-m-m-m-MEGA POST!

First item: Camping.

It was good, I somehow got there with only almost hitting one car (This is why you have to pass on the LEFT.. I can't see any cars on my right). Got to ride in a "shiny" new Hyundai Genesis. (They're pretty nice, but wouldn't buy one). Got there super late (1030-11?) Had a few cold ones and went to bed. ....Cosy COSY tent with Alyssa, Nick, and April. Arctic Sleeping bag made me so hot.

Got up early next day, talked to nick about rain. ...Then it POURED. Had oatmeal, good stuff because I never have oatmeal. ...made fun of Terrible British names for things. (Like Zuchinni, I don't remember what it was, but it was stupid). Rain stopped, did a hike, it was nice, played with flowers. Lunch-->Beach-->Drinking then Dinner (I can say I helped! Kind of) Then more drinking rest of night. 1 warning from ranger for being too loud. Slept nice, because it was -1 person and cool.

Same rough Deal Sunday, beach (built our own towel rack out of driftwood). Got back for dinner (Crampt car...led to awkwardness... Sorry it was the only way we'd all be able to fit.) Home Made KD. So good, but also so bad for you. Got home by 930. Good weekend.

---

Second Item: Engineering.

I'm glad to see you all have your schedules now. Not only wont I get mine until mid-august. But I don't graduate this year unless I can find another course I want to take. ..Nothing looks all that appealing. (Well one does, but the prof won't give me permission until I see him in person, which I explained I work 8-5 so I can't do that). =S FML Every year its been a breeze to get courses except this year. But hopefully my last time here!! woo.

Also, I thought it was fitting to toss in some work stuff: I'm seen as the smart-ass engineer (Obligatory XKCD: "Smart Ass-Engineer"). Because well there was a presentation where to my surprise I was introduced as the "Engineering Co-op student" ..So every geeky thing was directed at me. ...same with questions "So does anyone know how this works" *nods* "Oh you do? Tell us" "Okay..._____" "Excellent! Here have a prize!" ...I'm also get this vibe from working because I understand why we do things a certain way, when my supervisor just says "I dont know why we do it this way, we just are told to" ...So yeah IM SMART!

---

Third item: 2 word recap of my last week:\
Sunday: Camping, home.
Monday: Work sleep
Tuesday: Drink Work-Gym (not in that order exactly)
Wednesday: Work, bored.
Thursday: Independent Film (it was cool)
Friday: Work Bugysy-w/Tom.
Saturday: Hike, Shooting Things, Drinking in Smithville.
Sunday: Broke Bike -In THE most humilitating way possible... You can ask. (Althought after it was ''repaired'' I clocked a nice healthy 65-75km in 4 hours. My Legs HURT SO MUCH.

---

Fourth Item: Next week
Monday: Find a Credit Card (I'm thinking PC or Canadian Tire, the only 2 stores I frequent), Gym
Tuesday: Find a Microphone for Operation "Sleepwalker". If Rainy Start coding for that too.
Wednesday: Maple-view Mall for Cars. Probably a drink after.
Thursday: Hang out with Janessa (Yeah I haven't seen you since, well camping, we live pretty close. We need to change that!... you free Thursday eve?)
Friday: Download all the "SongsStuckinHead.txt songs. And Top Gear. And keep re-reading books you find.
Saturday: Gym + Maybe Ikea for a bed + Hamilton
Sunday: Day of good rest.

---

I think that was basically everything, I cut out all the introspective abstract crap. I enjoy being cryptic about what I'm saying and all, but I think they're about as well recieved as a horse head in your bed.

Something I learned today -from experience-: If you sweat a lot and don't wipe it off, and it evapourates, it actually CAN re-crystallize on your face (I thought I had sand all over me, which was odd b/c I was nowhere near any sand)

Because if you actually read all of that, you are probably sad there was nothing juicy, no substance. So here is a picture of a cute cat:

Take care
--
Dan