What goes up...

Today we went for a drive to the Rio Puerco riding area outside of Rio Rancho to go exploring. The area is a lot of washes, large drop offs, and rocks for the Jeeps to climb. Here we were about to start back from the end of our drive. This is heading west out of Rio Rancho until you hit the edge of the Laguna Indian Reservation. We are going to take the ATV out next week with a GPS and hope to explore a much larger area.

WOW!!!

Its finally over. I just finished my second and final test(Advanced Thermo), it was a doozy (sp?). 2 hours, 3 problems #1 - 50%, #2 - 30%, #3 - 20%. I would guess that my score on it without a curve will be ~70%. I did all of one - only to find out after class that I worked way to much on it because I did one of the pieces wrong (I spent about 75% of the time on this problem). #2 - a. easy, b. easy, c. what?-skipped it (20% of the time). #3. Stuff that was not on the homework, we covered it near the end. The question was just obscurely stated enough that I didn't get any further than copying a few things out of the notes before the remaining 5% of the time was up.

But, it is over and I did good enough I am sure I should get a B in the class. Now I get to look forward to training people the rest of the week.

A+ and an A-...works for me.

One down, one to go...

Well, Math (Methods of Analysis in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering) is done with. I wasn't able to complete one of the problems on the final, but I only need a 50% on it so I should be good.

Thermo is another story, the test is Wednesday, I need a 90% on it for an A and a 70% for a B in the class. I am sure I will get the B at least, and depending how the rest of the class does I might get an A. Then I will be doing two days of training others to run the machine that I work with (since I am the only one trained on it), then graduation Saturday, and off to my interview in Cali on Sunday.

Then its back to ABQ on the 19th, drive to Silver the 20th, back to ABQ - and up to the cabin - at noon on the 25th, and who knows after that.

Almost there...

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying that my Thesis was accepted, I know there were still a lot of grammatical errors, but I think they let the sciences get away with that more :).

I still have work to do for both my classes. I am finishing up the last HW (hard homework!!!) late in Math because I was sick Tuesday, and I am going to get the take-home exam tomorrow and it will be due in a week (7th Dec). I am hoping to keep it from interfering with my studying for my Thermo exam on the 12th. The Thermo exam worries me because it is 45% of my grade - I hate when they leave it all up to the last test (especially since I am bad at tests).

Graduation Ceremony Saturday Dec. 15th, 10:00 am in Popejoy Hall. I am not sending out any invitations, please come if you would like to.

Where am I???

I am at the ME building working on the nanoindenter at 10:40 pm, this is the reason I haven't been keeping the blog up at all. Thesis should be to my committee this weekend, wish me luck, I have about 15 pages :( It is fully due to UNM on Nov 15th, and I also have a half semester homework due on the 14th - fun!!!

Angela and I are going to CA right after school is out. We are going because I have an interview with NavAir in China Lake. At this point I am just hoping I have graduated by then.

Angela's car is making some great popping noises from the passenger outer CV joint, we are hoping to have time to get it fixed before it goes completely - hopefully it will go another 1.5 months. On the upside, she now has 2 working front power windows and a new sun visor, thank you Pick &Pull.

I am also doing a take home test that is due tomorrow (Advanced Engineering Mathematics), I have to redo a problem that I found out was wrong when I used Maple to check it - luckily it is one of the easiest on the test - just lots of places for sign errors. --- So it ended up being that C0+4C2=0 does not mean C2=C0, which was what I put for some reason.

Final time to leave ME building: 1:20 am, Oct 31 - Happy Halloween.

Balloon Fiesta

Angela and I missed the first weekend of Balloon Fiesta activities for various reasons, but were able to make it out on Tuesday morning before things got started at the university. The weather was a bit warmer than last year but still great for the balloons. We went for the usual breakfast burrito and have yet to find a good one at the fiesta. There were quite a few balloons taking off, even for a week day.


For more pictures go to Balloon Fiesta

For the love of Star Wars

For those that are big fans of Star Wars there was something great at the Balloon Fiesta This year. It was the new Darth Vader balloon. The balloon came from Belgium I believe, and the group that brought it was greeted at the airport by the local fan club dressed as a variety of Star Wars characters. A few were also at the fiesta when we went on Tuesday morning.