Whats up.

A ton. Drama continues. Work continues.

Over the past few weeks we've been working on designs and 3D models for mechanical toy hoppers. We have a limited amount of materials to work with and a few different rules that we have to follow, but besides that, the entire thing is pretty much up to us. I had a design, made a prototype out of basic materials, created a 3D model of it, ran simulations on it, and saw how it would jump in 3D. That's a lot of work. Then that night I had a dream and thought of a much better design. So I basically redid it. That put a lot of work on me, but I finished, and I haven't gotten the simulation working or even make a prototype, but I'm hoping to god it works. The picture is showing the final 3D model, which I care not to explain in detail, but basically the yellow tubes are stretchy tubing that pulls on the 3 legs downwards. And then it jumps. Good stuff! So I submitted the part designs and they're hopefully being cut tomorrow morning, and I can make the actual hopper tomorrow afternoon. This is the first real prototype, so I guess the beta stage. We're then evaluating how these hoppers work and then making any necessary changes in the 3D model and remaking them for a final. Pretty cool class I must say! Lots of work though!


So here's something that you wouldn't see often if you know me.



Jeans, lacoste shoes, and a Hello Kitty carpet in the middle of my dorm room floor. Well, the Hello Kitty is for kicks, but yeah. I just thought this was kinda funny. I'm really happy with the shoes though. Got them today at the mall (going to the mall on a tuesday! score!). If you didn't know, I have 4E wide feet and custom orthodics, so it's kind of a pain for me to buy new shoes. But they're wide enough and they're pretty comfortable! Not as comfortable as my running shoes, but they definitely look better.


Oh, and another thing I love about college. Free stuff. I got a really big lamp for my desk from the 1st floor lounge. Shweet. I got the free hello kitty carpet from the 4th floor lounge. And people send out emails saying when they're giving out free stuff, so it's really convenient. Hm, that may be confusing to you.


Because Olin is 300 people, everybody has e-mail access to everybody. Staff, Faculty, Students, President Miller, etc. And there are also things called lists. You can sign up for lists, and whenever somebody sends an e-mail to that list, everybody in the list gets the e-mail. For example, Carpedium is a list for things such as announcing free stuff, announcing events such as "I'm going running in 10 and I want somebody to run with...does somebody want to come?", and other things like that. So yeah, that's how I got the free hello kitty rug.

I guess that's all from me for now. Room still isn't too decorated but oh well. I ordered a mouse for my laptop. I'm excited. It'll make 3D modeling a lot easier, as well as reading through documents (it has one of those almost-frictionless scroll wheels that just keep spinning if you let it go). And it's pretty small so it'll fit easily in my backpack. Hooray!

I guess that's all for now.