Sunday, December 9, 2007

Snow

It's been two weeks now since I came back to Tech after break.  In that time I haven't driven anywhere, until today.  I believe it has snowed every day since break.  When I got to my car today, there was about a foot of snow on and around it.  Luckily, after about 45 minutes, we got the car out onto the road and from there it was smooth sailing.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Science Olympiad Flashback


Yesterday in General Engineering, we held the final trial for a project many weeks in the making. The project was to drop an egg attached to an elastic cord and to have it come as close to the ground as possible without making a mess. The project was fairly involved, with groups making computer models to predict the outcome of various egg weights, jump heights, and cord lengths.  To make this model, we of course had to test the cord to be used in order to find out what its characteristics are and how it will respond when under tension.  After all this was done, we were given the set drop height from a second floor balcony and we were then to determine the correct length of cord to use.  We only got one chance.  Our group set a goal of coming within 8cm of the floor.  As it turns out, we erred on the side of caution.  Our egg only came within about 20cm of the floor.  Still, with only one shot, we were very happy with that outcome.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Muck Run / Safe House

Saturday morning was the annual MTU Cross Country fundraiser. They put on the "Muck Run" up at the Tech Trails. As it is close to halloween, many people dress up in costumes to race. They have awards for the best costume and the muddiest runner. I decided that this would be a fun race to do. I didn't wear a costume, though. I also found a group of people who were running and we formed a team. The weather was on the cold side, but once the race started it was alright. I have seen many creative ways of starting a race, but this is the first race I have ran where they lit a firecracker and threw it on the ground in place of the starting pistol. The course was deceptively easy for the first two miles. The third mile, however, consisted of some pretty brutal hills (at least for a person who is used to flat terrain like I am). At the two mile mark, I was on pace for a time in the 18 minute range, but after the last mile I had racked up a time of 20:22. Everyone had relatively slow times because of the challenging course. Our team ended up running well enough to win the team race. Below are some pictures of the run.

Later that day was another annual event called Safe House. This is when the residence halls are converted into haunted houses and the public is allowed to tour. I helped with the setup and operation of my hall's "gamer's nightmare" theme. It's amazing how much difference can be done to the hall in about two hours. I hear Ashby's hall was very well done. I wish I could have gone through it, but I was busy working on my own hall. All in all it was a very busy and very fun day.

Our winning team.

Everyone getting ready to start.

Me coming to the top of the final hill.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Weekend Trip / Snow?!

This morning I heard someone in the hall say that it was snowing. I didn't know what they were talking about, so I looked out the window. Sure enough, it was snowing. None of it stuck, but it was still quite surprising. There is always a survey at the front desk, and today's was to predict when the snow will stick this year.

This past weekend, Ashby and I took a trip to a "covered drive" just outside of Houghton that my Calculus II professor mentioned. Unfortunately, we were too late to see most of the leaves on the trees. It was still a very nice drive, though.

We also returned to the Hungarian Falls a bit farther up the Keweenaw. We had hiked to the falls earlier, but due to the drought over the summer, the falls were just a trickle. This time, with more rain, the falls were closer to their full force. Below are some pictures of the weekend's events.

Covered drive.

Blue sky?!

Lower falls.

View from the lower falls.

Upper falls.

Stream coming from the upper falls.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Bridge Run for Rachel


Today, I ran in the second annual Houghton Bridge Run. Each year the proceeds of the event go to help someone new from the Houghton area. This year, proceeds were donated to help Rachel, a local girl with cancer. As far as I know, the event raised roughly $3,000 for Rachel and her family. It was nice to see the community come together to help.

The run went very well as far as I was concerned. We started at the "Chutes and Ladders" park in Houghton and made our way to the bridge. The bridge has two levels and they lowered it from its usual summertime raised position so that we could run across the bottom level which connects to the snowmobile trails, while traffic used the upper level. Once into Hancock, the trail started going uphill. The run continued uphill until the turnaround point and then we followed the same course back downhill.

I finished the 10K (6.2 mile) run in a time of 35:18.80 according to my watch. The results haven't been posted yet when I was writing this. I took 3rd place in the men under 30 class for my race. I was quite pleased with my performance. Hopefully I'll be able to run this event again next year.

At the start line.


Closing in on the finish.


Finishing!


Rachel (in the white cap) and her family.


My 3rd place ribbon.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Severe Weather


This morning after my first class, there were some occasional claps of thunder. I didn't think anything of it until the power went out across the entire campus for about twenty minutes. Later in the day, a rainstorm hit town and flooded some of the campus. The parking lot across the higway from my window was knee deep with water due to a clogged drain. People were swimming and riding bikes through it, right next to people trying to rescue their cars from the rising water. The highway itself was covered with about an inch and a half of swift moving water. All in all it was a fairly exciting day. Above is a video that a friend of mine took of the storm and had me edit and post for him. Enjoy.

As I am posting this, I see that the rain has started in full force again. Everyone is getting excited and running outside in the dark. I think I'll attempt to stay inside and dry this time.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Moving In

Yesterday morning, I finlly arrived at Michigan Tech after a 600 mile drive from home. We stayed in Big Bay Friday night and drove to Houghton in the morning. The drive from Big Bay was about a third on dirt roads, which made for slow travelling and a very dirty car as I followed my parents. Overall, though, the trip went well with no major incidents.

Moving in went as well as could be expected, and I'm beginning to learn my way around. My room is on floor 2 which I would call the third floor because there is a ground floor as well. From the people I've talked to, it seems that the lower floors have higher cielings, so that as well as being able to go places more quickly are benefits to being lower in the building . My window faces M-41 and the rest of campus, so the view is good. Some of the trees across the highway are already turning brown and orange.

That's about all I can think to say at this point. I'll probably have more to write about as orientation week progresses. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures of the campus and my room eventually.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Run Thru Hell

It seems that the only things I find interesting enough to write about lately are running events! This morning I went with a group of runners to participate in the annual Run Thru Hell. Both 4.8 and 10 mile runs are offered. This was my third time for the event and the second time I ran the 10 miles. I was very pleased with my run. I completed the race in 1:08:01, a definite improvement over last year's 1:14:46. I came in 119th overall and 64th in my age group. The start of the race as usual was a long process, as all of the runners had to cross a timing mat which is about 10 feet wide. With thousands of runners this is not a fast process. Luckily the same timing mats that cause this delay later allow a computer to subtract your start time from your finish time making for a fair race even for those starting last in line. A by-product of this is that you never know when the person running next to you started (unless you saw them cross the mat), so their time may be way ahead of (or behind) you even though you finish right next to them. To me, though, that doesn't really matter, because I'm more interested in improving my previous years' time than being faster than the other runners. All in all I had a great time at the run and I hope everyone else did too.


Me shortly after the drawn out start...


...and just before the finish.


Checking the results.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

I-280 Skyway Run



This past Friday, I heard that the new I-280 Skyway bridge in Toledo was having it's opening ceremony on Saturday. Being an interstate, this would be the only day the bridge would ever be open to foot traffic. Upon further research, we learned that as part of the celebrations there would be a four mile run with part of the course crossing the bridge. So we got some of the family together and went to see the newly completed bridge.

After my cousin Alex and I had registered for the race, we took a bus to the "walking side" of the bridge where the bus takes you up the exit ramp and lets you walk about a half-mile across the main span. At the other end, a bus (eventually) took us back to our car which was at the starting point of the run. During this time I actually got to enjoy the bridge and the view, both of which were great. During the race I was too focused on running.

The race began a few minutes after noon. The course took us over the drawbridge that the Skyway was replacing, then up the entrance ramp, over the bridge and back to near the starting point. I was surprised to learn that I had taken 26th place out of about 2000 since I had only been running regularly for about a week after about two weeks of occasional running since Track season. I recieved a very nice medal and a glass keepsake at the finish line. Even without the awards, the run was worth it for the opportunity to have been one of the relatively few people to have ever run on the bridge.


The group: Grandpa, Grandma, Alex and Me. (Mom was taking the picture)


Me shortly after the start.


Running across the drawbridge. (Picture taken from the Skyway.)


Running down the (amazingly long) "chute" towards the finish.


The awards.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Graduation

My high school's graduation ceremony was held on June 3rd. I held off on this post so that I could include a video taken by my uncle. I was one of four valedictorians from my class, so I had the opportunity to give a speech at the ceremony. The video below is of that speech.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Cardboard Boats

As a final project for my Physics class, we built boats out of cardboard boxes. On the last day of school, we "raced" them in the pool. (Only a few actually made it across the pool and back.) I came up with the idea of covering my boat with cereal boxes. It seemed to me that they would be more waterproof than a corrugated cardboard box would be. During the race it was hard to tell if the boxes were keeping the water out or not. As it turns out my boat was very unstable and I ended up tipping over before the water seeped through. Even with my disappointing ending I still had a good time, as I'm sure everyone else did. You can see parts of the race in the video clip below.