Trolling for summer work ideas

Hello World.

So here it is, Monday morning. I awoke to an amazing splitting headache, in a dorm-style room with too few blinds, too thin walls and with an amazing, tall, driven and educated woman at my side. This May morning feels like the kind of morning you sit out front of Hulings and listen to Rob Oden (dated reference, I know) pontificate about how today is the beginning of it all but that since the day you arrived at Carleton, you were destined for this change... Blah Blah Blah. It's just such a pretty day. Makes me love being alive, even with a hangover. (Undergrads can DRINK.)

(EDIT: Now that I'm an east coast kid, I use driven in senses other than the pejorative... What does that say about who I've become?)

So now that I've set the stage a little bit here, let me delve into the issue that brings me to post from work. I'm working this summer--my summer without an extended summer vacation--and have been charged with making a summer to-do list here at AU. I'm employed full-time and will be teaching five hours per week... which leaves 30 hours per week to do other things.

So, for everyone, what was the single thing that most improved your learning while at Carleton? (Sorry, it has to be a thing, not a person)

Now alienate most of my audience, scientists, what does your department have that you think my department needs? (I have a machine shop, I have unlimited internet hosting capabilities, I have a decent budget... but probably not enough to buy a set of PS3s and make a supercomputer. Sadly)

Now to alienate Will (are there any other non-physics scientists who read this blag?), Physicists, what do you think I should make? So far I've got a Bell-inequality lab, the bike thing I posted on facebook and an electromagnetic can crusher... I'm thinking E&M stuffs but am of course open to other fields. Maybe something RC that involves some servo motors?

If you have any ideas to help me on this quest, please let me know. I'll post video of my can crusher when it's done. And DAMN it's going to be cool. (Preview: it tears apart a can by discharging a fuck-ton of electricity through it, no contact needed between the can and the machine.)

The Shepard

Hello Readers.

I thought I would make a quite and highly important note.

Let me begin by saying that oil shale is "sort of a teenage version of oil." I want to do a Katy Perry-style song entitled "A Teenage Version of Oil" featuring James Bartis.

See more of Elliot's dad here.

Moving on to the important point here.

Will is in DC.

Yes, yes he is.

So, look for drunk posts from Will in the wee hours of the mornings.

The END of an Era

You're probably thinking, "The end of an era? WTF mark... " I THOUGHT THE ERA JUST BEGUN! (I know you think in caps...)

well it's really the dawn of a new era, a new world order, as BK's post below so eloquently described. And that is what I need to talk about:

So as Tim, Sydney and I left for the airport (Sydney so graciously drove us to the airport in alfredo's car because my father is a fascist when it comes to my grandma's old honda accord), we said our farewells to Toto and BK in Sayles. And BK goes, "This really is the breaking of the fellowship..." As I continued to go about my transitional travels from Sayles to the Alfie's Car to the Airport to Chicago, I couldn't help but think of this analogy. I (independently) realized that the 9 members of The Ocho could potentially fit the mold of Lord of the Rings members perfectly... I also (independently) considered Johnny V as Gandalf and I had some other great non-fellowship/ocho members as well. (Examples: Will Kruesi as Bilbo and Little Orphan Annie as Arwen, and I even had someone for Gollum)

So i've got this great, creative idea now that I think is awesome. "I'll just blog about the analogy when I get home! What a great entry it'll be!" But I get home and what do I find? No internet at my dad's house. Poop. "I'll go out and run some errands and see some friends and it'll be up when I get back."

It wasn't back.

So I wake up this morning. And what do I find? BK STOLE MY BLOG POST IDEA. The emotions flood over me -anguish, pain... the need for revenge...

But then something happened. I took a deep breath, walked to my window, waved to the tree trimmer that was in the tree DIRECTLY outside my window at 8 am this morning who I had flicked off after he woke me up. I soaked up a few of the pleasures in life - the 60ish degree breeze coming through screen windows as Belle & Sebas play in the background, the feeling I got after watching the "Cartman Goodbye" clip that BK provided, the fact that Tim had seen F.M.C. in the airport, the prospect of Inos for dinner tonight, and of course, that "moustache feeling" that everything will be okay.

The thought came into my mind last night as I headed home from my evening activities that I wasn't going to go home to stadium, and it made me a little sad. But there is adventure, glory, and a little bit of R&R for The Ocho in the next coming weeks. So enjoy your spring breaks and get ready.