Back to school

So I finished my internship at Crane on Thursday the 9th of August, was all packed, had visited all my friends for the final time and was ready to leave for Purdue on Sunday the 12th. That's right: back to school for All-American Marching Band Camp. Since I was a returning member, I didn't have to be back until that Tuesday, but I wanted to get unpacked and all settled before I had to report. So camp started on Tuesday and was increasingly arduous until ending on Saturday. I successfully made it into the band, and my official position is Rank 22, no. 3. There are 343 members of the band this year, including auxiliaries and big bass drum crew.
I am finally starting to get settled back in, and am somewhat prepared for the start of classes tomorrow. I did my inaugural load of laundry this afternoon, and everything is in its own place, and I have all my books in for my classes. Mondays this semester will be mercifully easy, with only two classes excluding band, one at 10:30 and one at 11:30. On the other hand, Thursdays will be agonizing: I have classes from 7:30 to 5:30, with only one hour-long break. of course, though the 19-credit hours I am taking seems intimidating, I am taking a (3-credit?) theatre course, and 2-credit marching band, so some classes will hopefully be easier than others. Other than that, i'm just sitting around...

Norfolk, Pt. 2

Our day began at 0830 EDT, boarding the bus to the Submarine and Surface Naval Base of Norfolk. We took a public tour of the base, and thus were shown all the buildings, as well as given information about while driving by all the ships currently in port. The most impressive thing about this tour was driving by the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Nimitz-class Supercarrier, the largest ships in the Navy. What an imposing sight to see one of those things floating in the water. Jaw-dropping, really.
Next, we took an up close and personal tour of an AEGIS strike command cruiser, the U.S.S. Porter. This was an impressive, if smaller, ship, and was manned by about 250 men. The tour was quite extensive. We then took a break for lunch, resuming the tours with an interesting expedition into the LHA multipurpose amphibious warfare ship the U.S.S. Nassau. The sheer size of the ship was difficult to realize until you were right beside it, or inside of it. It bears a striking resemblence to a miniature aircraft carrier.
Finally, we ventured into downtown Norfolk in order to visit the Nauticus museum and U.S.S. Wisconsin. The museum explored some interesting naval history and contained some fascinating scale models of old and new ships (including the aforementioned Nimitz-class supercarriers). The U.S.S. Wisconsin is a Battleship attached to the mueseum that has not yet been taken off the active duty list, so it can still technically be recalled for use by the navy. We only got to walk on the deck of the Wisconsin, instead of going inside like we did on the other ships we toured.
I had cheesecake from (gasp) the cheesecake factory tonight. There was a little Cheesecake Factory bakery that served all sort of food in the MacArthur center mall in downtown Norfolk, so I decided to indulge, courtesy of the government. It was Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. Amazing.
To top it all off, we ran by the Apple store next and they had fully functional iPhone models just waiting to be test-driven, so me and Josh Riggins spent a full 25 minutes or so messing around with the iPhone. Now that is a technological marvel. For all the complaints about it, it really is a stunning piece of equipment.
Tomorrow, heading home: departure at 0700 EDT.

In Norfolk

Well, a lot has happened in a short amount of time. First, I'm out of school. That's new. I made it out of my first year and kept all of my scholarships, barely.
Second, I got a job, at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane as an intern, which means I'm an official government employee. This base is about 25 minutes away from my house, which is really convenient. I'm working in the electronic development department, working on all sorts of fascinating government projects. Pretty cool.
What does that have to do with Norfolk? Well, they decided that they were going to take all the interns at our base and bus us to the east coast this week so we could see how what we are doing is applied in the Navy. So technically this is considered to be government travel, for which we are getting paid. It's a nice little deal.
So, about Norfolk. We left at 8am EST on Monday, and arrived at 11:30pm EST, taking a two one-hour pit stops, one for lunch and one for dinner. The actual driving portion of the trip, then, took about about 13 hours. We passed some of the most beautiful scenery, since we went right through the Appalachian mountains. According to our bus driver, we crossed right over one of the deepest gorges in the US.
Our day yesterday (Tuesday) began at 8am on the bus, and we proceeded immediately to the Little Creek Naval Base. It was there that I got to see and board a real hovercraft. They're very imposing machines when you are standing right next to them. Here's a picture of the back of one. I had no idea these things actually hovered above the water; I always figured they just floated along on big tubes, but that big plastic sheet underneath is just a skirt; four superpowered fans underneath actually suspend the 160-ton machine in the air, be it over ground or water.
We then moved on to a demonstration of an expeditionary force assault (an amphibious assault, such as the Normandy beach assault). Actually, it was not as exciting as it sounds, because it was a bunch of string lead models moving around on big pieces of carpet, and accompanied by the most dull video in the world.
We ate lunch at the Chief Petty officer's club, at which we had an excellent lunch, and then proceeded to move to the Surface and Submarine Naval Base. We went to the submarine training center, which was actually very interesting (and I'd wish I'd taken pictures). First we went to the water hazard simulator, which was a giant room that simulated the environment of a submarine, and an operator in a seperate control room could trigger up to 16 different leaks, and they usually throw servicemen in the simulator for a 3 or 4 hour session. Then we moved on to the fire hazard simulator, creating the environment of a submarine that has an on-board fire. We were also taken to the virtual reality helm, which allows submariners to slip on a helmet that allows them to take control of a virtual surfaced submarine, complete with being able to issue voice commands to the bridge. It was very interesting. Finally, we got to move on to the the weapons simulation room, which contained 3 M16s, an M50, and 4 9mm handguns that had all seen actual use at one point, but which had been modified to shoot CO2 instead of bullets, which means there was no hazard, but the opposite wall in these room could detect exactly where you had shot and the gun still delivered the same kick that a normal model provided. I only tried the M16, which was neat.
Finally, we were taken on a tour of the USS Norfolk, an active-duty fast-attack submarine whose crew was still bustling around as we were touring it. That was pretty cool to get to see that, but so much information and neat stuff that it would be hard to scratch the surface in a blog. Here's a picture of the mast. My finger got in the way.
Up for today: touring an AEGIS cruiser, the USS Wisconsin museum, and exploring downtown Norfolk. Should be fun!

Yum! Minne-sooda....

So! Not the warm temperatures I was hoping for over spring break, and I didn't go anywhere warm, either, but I didn't mind! The Purdue women's basketball team went to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the first round and second round of the NCAA tournament, and I went with the pep band. There were 30 of us that went, which means it was roughly 10 times smaller than the marching band, and a lot more fun than the marching band Florida trip. Yes, it was cold, but Minneapolis is such a beautiful city, it was amazing! It's so clean and pristine, and just a lot of fun to walk around and explore and look at the beautiful buildings. One unique thing about that town is that much of the downtown area is connected with skywalks on the second floor, which act as an effective tunnel system that allows you to go anywhere in the city without ever going outside! It's really cool.... I also felt like I was more than a number on this trip, like I actually mattered, since there were only about 30 in the band. I got to hang out with some cool people and do some very unique things, including hanging out at the Mall of America. All in all, a great trip. And I didn't mind the free plane ride there and back, the free lodging at an expensive hotel, and about $61 a day to pay for meals, a lot of which I kept and will use as spending money.
Everything else is going pretty well... the rest of my spring break worked out mostly like I wanted it to, even if it seemed a little shorter than I wanted it to be. Of great significance: I studied very hard for the weekend before spring break weekend, because I had both a math and a physics test that coming week. It paid off: I got a 70% on the physics (avg: 54%), but I'm most proud of my 95% on my Calculus II test (avg. 75% or so)! That surprised even me!
I guess I should mention that they found Wade Steffey in a high-voltage room in Owen Dormitory on campus and ruled it an accidental electrocution. Most people have probably already heard by now, however.
Outside of that, we had a demonstration for our teams robot today, and it did pretty well, the only thing that messed it up was that on two of the tasks it ran on paper, and we had only tested it on the floor. But it ran within the boundaries, which means it went really really straight, and we got 11/45 points, which sounds bad but its actually really good, since a lot of teams probably only got 5 points total on this. So we made some bad assumptions and now we know what to correct, and our design works well and its really cool. To go straight, we have things worked out so that if one wheel is being powered slightly more or is going a little faster, the robot eventually detects that and corrects for it. It's really pretty exciting!
I also got a really good grade on my paper that I wrote (98%) so I'm really really happy with the way things are going now. I just hope I don't get behind now...
well, that's about all for now. Hopefully I'll post again soon!

Warning: May Cause Drowsiness

It seems that the weather can't make up its mind, and neither can my "u" key. First its warm then its freezing, and I never know what to wear in the morning. My "u" key is quite uncooperative, and that began when I popped the key itself off by accidentally dropping a DVD case on it from a height of about 5 inches. I put the key back on, but since, it doesn't want to work very well, and so I continue to try and avoid words containing that letter. Luckily it is infrequently used.
I am putting off going to bed, because it does not seem like a very fun thing to do right now, and so I just won't, at least not right now.
I had crappy engineering tests last week, and I hope to get them back with a decent grade, as well as hear back on the grade for my paper I wrote for english. I'm kind of excited for that, not so excited for the math and physics exams I have to take. I AM however, excited to go on spring break. I have apparently been chosen to be part of the women's pep band for Purdue for the NCAA tournament, which is extremely exciting. I don't know where I'll be going yet, but we will probably leave the thursday or friday of spring break, and hopefully be going somewhere warm and exciting. We get a bunch of free time, so it should be pretty awesome. Which reminds me: uncle josh, you oughta give me a call sometime this week and come down, since its your spring break.
I put together one of those lists earlier today, where you take this random list, like "if your life were a movie, here are the scenes: which songs go with what scenes" and you put iTunes on shuffle and whatever song comes up is the song that plays for that scene, supposedly. Its supposed to be eerily accurate. No, not for me: the soundtrack for the birth of my first child was "Never take friendship personal" by Anberlin. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Random Fact: (Total lie): I watch 37 hours worth of movies every week.
Point: I don't have time for that. I use useless entertainment like movies as a way to get away, but watching them is a luxury I can't afford. There's no need to worry that I'm wasting my time here with stuff like video games, tv and movies. I do those things to get away from the work for a little bit, to distract myself, not as a main preoccupation.
In other news... I'm getting hungry. And my roomate's "new" DVD player is a defective piece of crap from Hitachi; does anyone have any solution if I say that this player randomly shuts off, sometimes 30 minutes into play, sometimes 5, and sometimes almost instantaneously after turning it on? It also sometimes refuses to read mp3 discs, and sometimes has a hard time reading DVD's. Piece of crap! It was brand new at the beginning of Fall semester.
Oh, i give up.... i'm gonna get something to eat.

Maybe its maybelline...

And maybe its just me!! Yeah, I just look that good. So, really, though, I got to wear my suit for the first time today (Sunday), because I had a band concert. I'm in colleigiete band, which is the third best out of four concert bands at Purdue. Which doesn't mean anything, since the two band above me take place during times that I said I probably wouldn't be able to attend band at, so I don't know where I would've placed if I hadn't said that. Oh well... it was interesting... we played at Long Center in downtown Lafayette.
This weekend has pretty much been me doing homework interspersed with breaks, so I don't have a nervous breakdown. Though, on Saturday morning, I went to the Rube Goldberg competition at the Armory, mostly because Heather is on the SWE Rube team. This year's theme was to make as complicated machine as you could to juice oranges. It was pretty much amazing to watch these seven machines that people made, and the winning teams creation was absolutely incredible. Of course, THEY have like infinite funding...
YEAH!!! I just got to my absolute favorite song on the new Anberlin CD, "The Unwinding Cable Car". It's pretty much an awesome mostly acoustic track talking about "the correlation of salvation and love". AHHH! This track tops every other acoustic track they've attempted up to now, except maybe "A day late(acoustic)".
On a different subject, I just basically finished up my english paper, so I'm pretty psyched about that...
and back to music...
i've decided that pretty much I like the lincoln brewster version of "Everlasting God" better than the chris tomlin version.... hmmm.
okay, done with boring you. sorry.

BTW...

I thought that since I posted an essay, I might as well give an update on what's been happening around here lately. Well let's see...
Yes, its true, we got 14 inches of snow here, followed by another 3 a couple days later, so it was pretty crazy for West Lafayette... that final 3 was last Saturday, and it was followed up by 41 degree temperatures on Monday, so the snow has been consistantly melting since the beginning of the week, and we have been getting freezing temperatures at night, so when I venture out in the morning like a bear after a hard winter, I slip and slide all over the ice that covers our pathways. As I write there is a giant puddle just across stadium avenue from cary quad that completely covers a corner of the sidewalk.
I had the joy of walking to down to Borders in the melting mess on Tuesday to retrieve my just release of Anberlin's new CD, cities. I must say that every other Anberlin CD took me a while to get the groove, and it will be no different with this one, but I'm trying to conquer the curve as quickly as possible. There are a couple songs I really like already. It is definately a worthy follow-up to Never Take Friendship Personal.
My favorite class right now.... hmmm, it would be a close tie between English 108, advanced first year composition, and Engineering 117, Honors Engineering Computer Programming. Engineering is just programming, which is something I enjoy and don't mind, so its not terrible at all, and I'm getting great grades in there. The semester-long project, which once again deals with a robot that we must manipulate to perform certain tasks, is also tolerable: we will eventually begin programming it in C, so that will be great to stop working in the visual environment we have been working in. In english, we're studying fairy tales, and not just surface scopes of trite children's stories, but the REAL fairy tales, the ones that the American versions are descended from, with murder, sexual innuendo, violence, and a generally grimmer outlook on things. It is mainly a discussion course, with various reading assignments outside of class. I am currently working on a report called "Flight of Fancy or Final Fantasy?", comparing two versions of Beauty and the Beast by the same author, Beauty and Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. My main premise is arguing that the two books are entirely different genres (one a fairy tale and the other a fantasy), and why this is so important to the story.
Basketball band is getting ready to come to a close; in fact, I'm getting ready to go to my final game in a couple of minutes. It was a great experience, and really got me interested again in watching Basketball. I look forward to rooting for our women's team as they aim for the top in the NCAA Tournament.
On another, short, note... I've been feeling very pensive lately, as you can see by the essay written in the previous entry....
well, I need to go get ready for the game. Hope to post again soon.

Musings of an Earthbound human

* The game Earthbound and its fans have received a lot of criticism over the years. This bothers me, and I wrote this essay in response to that criticism.

Some say Final Fantasy VII is the greatest game of all time. For those of us who would rather play games we can relate to, there is still Earthbound. Yes, I know, I'm going to sound like one of the thounsands of rabid Earthbound fans that make fan art, visit Starman.net every day, and make a big fuss out of Mother 3 not coming to the states, but the reality is that Earthbound was an escape from reality for those of us not living in the middle ages. Okay, so I played Earthbound when I was about 10, and haven't looked back since. What attracts me to this game? Outside of the memories of hours of gameplay that it holds for me, it also serves as a getaway car to reality, a trip away from the troubles of the world, to a place where I can have the convenience of technology, the simplicity of linear topography, and still solve all my storage problems by calling a service called "Escargo Express", which ironically took less time to arrive then "Mach Pizza". Not only did it quench my desire to escape to a parallel universe, but it also fulfilled my need to feel that I could be a hero. At any time, I could quit playing my game, grab my baseball cap and hat, and be the embodiment of Ness. I could be filled by Sad Ness, Happi-Ness, Good-Ness... and Ness's objectives paralleled my own lofty ambitions. I really truly wanted to take out the leader of the gang, maybe stay in a fancy hotel in a paradise and eat fancy food, knock the enemy out of the park simply by praying. Most of all, I wanted to be able to have psychic powers, to control fire, ice, lightning with my hands or my thoughts, and to be able to act like such powers existed in a modern world tickled my fancy. The music was another important of the game to me, and always has been. You have to know that music is a very critical thing to me, and having good music is as critical to a good game as the graphics and the storyline. If a soundtrack to a football game was all Keane songs (which I love), it wouldn't matter whether the players were life-like or just four pixels arranged in a square, the game would be awesome. The moving melody created by the sound stone when all 8 sanctuaries had been collected, along with the counter melody played in Ness's memories, made the game for me... it inspired my imagination, my thoughts, made me think about what might happen next. Combined with the themes for the various locales, the soundtrack for this game is probably the greatest collection of synth pieces you can find outside of the soundtrack for Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Why does Earthbound hold lasting appeal for me as I grow up? Because it is so intricate and deep, and each time I play it I catch new things I never saw or never understood before. For instance, I now find myself wondering why Mr. T is wandering around several different cities in the game, and why they never specifically call him Mr. T. The game is quick-witted, and an often cynical social commentary. One only has to listen to the characters in the game to
realize that each and every one of them is a drastic charicature of some stereotype. It is this cynicism that appeals to me, because it comes in a package with great music, an awesome RPG engine, a clever and often tongue-in-cheek naming system, and a compelling and poignant storyline. I know, I hear all those non-fans out there telling me to get over it, but seriously, that's like telling any gamer to get over Ocarina of Time, Halo, or Half-life. Earthbound ranks among these classics, and deserves respect for the path it paved. If not for Earthbound, it is doubtful that the die-hard Pokemon fans out there would ever have gotten the game they so faithfully protect. Earthbound has earned its place in the ranks of the best games of all time.