.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

 

17 Days

17 days until I'm done.

This afternoon another roadblock hit the senior design project. I won't go into details except to say that it is very discouraging. I struggle between want to give up and quit or work extra hard and complete it.

But it doesn't really matter, I'll be done in 17 days.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

 

100,000 Miles

My car now has over 100,000 miles on it. On one hand I want to ditch it and buy something brand new or at least newer. On the other hand, this car is paid for and is serving me just fine. Another fun decision in life.

I bought it in March of 2003 with 72,000 miles on it. Or about 9,000 miles a year. Getting about 22.5MPG and with gas at $2.25/gal averaged over the life of my car, this means I've spent almost $3000 on gas in the last three years!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

 

FE Exam

This coming Saturday I get to take an 8 hour test called the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. It's the first step to becoming a registered engineer. If I pass this first test, I can add EIT (Engineer-in-training) to my name. And if I want, in about five years I can take a second test, the Principles of Engineering Exam. Once passed, I become a registered engineer and can add PE (Professional Engineer) after my name.

Jacob Bird PE

I like that.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

 

Quote

Domesticated Christians are far too willing to abdicate the battle for the soul of the world. Civility focuses our energy in the wrong places. We spend our lives emphasizing our personal development and spiritual well-being. We build churches that become nothing more than hiding places for the faithful while pretending that our actions are for the good of the world. Or we choose political and secular vehicles to try and advance our cultural values, strangely attempting to make unbelieving people act like civilized believers.

From "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

 

Test Stupidity

It's a great feeling to begin a test only to realize that you forgot to study a significant amount of information. And forgot a number of helpful formulas for your formula sheet.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

 

Frustration

Its' so frustrating to do a couple hours of work, to discover that you may have to start over. The work itself isn't that hard but is tedious.

My senior project is an LED hallway sign that has 8 two-inch high characters. To complete this project, it needs to be mounted on a PCB (printed circuit board), which is custom designed by someone in our group. To make a PCB, software is used to make the circuit diagram of how the circuit is connected. Next, you lay your components out and connect them, but because the PCB has only 2 layers, it takes time to set pieces out so that it will work. Most of the circuit board design to date has been done by my partner with both of us just now getting together and doing the layout portion. Once you start laying out your components, you can't change the circuit diagram. It was discovered that one connection is wrong and another is missing. Since the majority of work has already been done, we don't want to start over unless we absolutely have to.

So now we are waiting until we can talk to someone with more experience.

At least I'm coming home for the weekend.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

 

Injuries in Iraq

A friend and classmates brother's was injured in Iraq a couple weeks ago. I directly heard about the injuries, the work at trying to get out to D.C., and the frustrating uncertainty of not knowing what going on. This is the closest that the Iraqi war has come to affecting me in any way. Right now I can't think of anyone else serving over there that I know. It's strange to see something that seems far away and almost abstract that has ties to people and happenings around me.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

 

Survival of the Richest

For some reason I have a weakness for reality shows that are on the WB. Last summer I got caught up in Beauty and the Geek and last night I started watching Survival of the Richest. I don't even know why these shows intrigue me. Maybe the shallowness of people, perhaps it's them making complete fools of themselves, or just that the whole situation is really funny.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?