I-movie thoughts

I had a blast putting together the I-movie project with my partner Megan. I did learn that video takes up a lot of space and that it is very tedious work. Luckily we were able to finish sooner than we thought we would and I can now focus on my other finals.

All nighters

So finals are here again. Sometimes I think finals are a way for schools to test how we'll students can go without sleep, and then then test them on everything they have learned in the semestor. 

Results from no shave November

So for the month of November I participated in no shave November. The following pics are the end result. While I like to consider my self a humbleish person I do think I grow a bomb ass beard. Although my stash is lacking; since I can't grow hair under my nose I decided to call this facial hair style a reverse Hitler. 

Signed up for classes in my new major

I just got done setting up my classes for next semester. Almost all of the classes I wanted (as in the classes offered at certain times or with certain professors) were full. In speaking to a friend we concluded that this was probably due to the fact that since they were mostly intro classes. The reason this was a factor was because at least in our two majors the advisors make freshman sign up for a full year of classes during orientation. While I can see the advantages of freshman not having to worry about schedule classes at the end of their first semester; my cynical side thinks that the real reason is because locking a student into two semesters of classes for a major makes it more unlikely for them to change their major, since they would already be 1/4 of the way through a program. The two major problems I see with this is that first off students in my situation who have changed their major won't be able to get into the classes. Second and more importantly locking students into a major doesn't seem to be to their benefit because this is a time of profound growth; and what a student liked in the summer following high school graduation might not represent what the feel their best skill sets in a college setting. Instead students should take a wide swath of classes that will fulfill gen eds, this would allow students to explore different fields of study before getting locked into one. 

Changed my major

I changed my major from mechanical engineering to information systems. The primary reason was because my financial aid would run out before my program would end. Also the new major comes with a minor in business which opens up more options in the job market. 

Unexpected Finding

Over the past year or so I have taken up the hobby of juggling. I have gotten better with practice but tonight I realized something that is counter intuitive. When I (and I assume others) would look at jugglers I would be impressed at how they catch all those balls at once. What I have come to realize though is that juggling is about throwing balls not catching them. Perhaps it is just my style but I have found that the better I become at throwing the balls consistently in the same spot, the longer my juggling sessions (jugs) seem to be. Now of course this could simply be a correlation not a causation. I look at it this way though, you have to throw the ball before you can catch the ball. You could be the best catcher on the planet but if you throw the balls just out of arm's reach then it doesn't matter. If on the other hand if you're a great thrower this will make catching that much easier, in theory you may never need to move your hands if you can throw the balls well enough.

Art Prize Inspired Idea.

In between classes yesterday I was able to go check out some art prize exhibits. My favorite one was actually the second one I saw. It is on the blue bridge down by the pew campus. What the artist did was set up a giant pin hole camera that you can stand in. If your not familiar the concept it works like this: if you place a lens on a box and place screen a set distance away from the lens inside the box (using trigonometry will help you optimize the distance for best quality). Whatever is outside the box will be seen inside the box upside down. The image below helps to illustrate how it works, and I believe this concept was how the first cameras worked.

The idea that this art inspired was creating "windows" for your house that utilized this concept. Of course you would need a mechanism to flip the image right side up. The benefits of this would be mostly economic since windows are a HUGE energy drain on a home. This reason is because they let in a lot of heat in the summer meaning you need the AC on more, and they let out a lot of heat in the winter meaning you need the heat on more. The heat transfer from a little lens however will be significantly less. As an added bonus you would only have to clean a small lens outside your house, and you will have no need for blinds/drapes because from the outside all you see is a little lens.