Road Trip!
'Bout that time, eh chaps? This Friday I'm leaving Lincoln to embark on that time-honored college tradition, the road trip. Unfortunately, I'll be doing the driving by myself, since I'm going from home back to school, but I'm visiting a few friends along the way. I'm getting together with some of my friends from engineering camp in Iowa, and Morris and Meggles in Ohio. All in all, it should be a fun trip, despite the 28 or so hours of driving. I should be getting back into Boston sometime Monday afternoon, in time for the Rocket Team meeting Monday evening, and ready to start my UROP Tuesday.
Austrians in Nebraska?....
As I was taking my car on its roadworthiness runs (after changing the O-rings and antifreeze return line on the oil cooler), I saw what has to be the oddest thing I've ever seen at Lincoln Municipal. Flying right overhead of me as I was driving down Cornhusker Highway was a 737. This is strange enough, as United (the only 737 operator currently doing business at LNK) hasn't had mainline service to Lincoln for five or six years. The plane was heading right for me, so i couldn't get a look at its tail, but as I caught a view of its underside, I saw what seemes like a turquoise and cream paint job, used only (so far as I know) by AirTran. It gets stranger, though. As i went to the airport later that day to see if it was still doing touch-and-gos, I finally got a look at it side-on, and realized that the turquoise was actually dark gray, and it wasn't an AirTran, it was, in fact, a Lauda Air 737, sans titles, and with a U.S. registration number. What would a short-range aircraft from an
Austrian carrier be doing way the heck out in the middle of the U.S.?
Finally...
Well, after about 6 months of trying, I finally got a few photos accepted to the airliners.net database. See link at right.
To the death of fun...(or lack thereof)
Studying signals and systems for my Unified final is going well, so I'm taking a 5 minute break to let my mind drift. It occurs to me that I'll be officially out of my Sophomore year in about 5 hours (Unified if my last final). Amy brought up the interesting point that you're supposed to at least have some fun in Unified, but I really didn't. Which is somewhat odd given that I'm beginning to think I'll miss being a sophomore somewhat. Maybe its due to the fact that I'll no longer be able to say that I'm being flattened by what's generally regarded as the most demoralizing (if not hardest) class at MIT. Probably other stuff too, though. Like back during 1st semester when it seems like I had so much less work (which I don't think is the case, but that's the way I remember it), and everybody (usually Morris, Meg, Dave, Ben and I) would congregate in 200 to play GTA: San Andreas, back when that was pretty much all people played (right after it came out). In some sense, I suppose I really started being an MIT student during that term (with real engineering classes and all, as well as first officially living in the house, where I'll be for the rest of my time here). Alright, back to studying...
Boston in the summertime...
I got the email a few days ago informing me that I indeed have UROP funding with the Rocket Team (of which I'm now the president) over the summer, so, unless something ridiculous happens (like Duncan Aviation calling out of the blue informing me that they'd like to hire me), I'll be here in Boston over the summer. One good thing, though; I'll be heading home for the 2nd week of June to visit people at home, and to go to my cousin's graduation in Tulsa, which means I'll have the chance (finally) to bring my car up to Boston, and see some friends along the way, which should be a lot of fun, especially since I haven't seen some of them in well over a year. Right now, though, I'm swamped with studying for finals (U.S. Military Power
and Thermodynamics on Monday, and then Unified on Wednesday), which really sucks, but it'll be over in a few days.
Free for now...
I finished up the final paper for my U.S. Military Power class on Friday afternoon, freeing me from the tyranny of my classes for a while (I have a Unified P-Set due Tuesday, but that's my only assignment this coming week). Its still not entirely clear what I'll be doing this summer, but the likelihood of me staying here at MIT is constantly increasing.
