aurum

So, to offset my guilt at not making a poetry post during National Poetry Month until yesterday (I recognized it was Poetry Month, I just didn't...do anything about it D: ) I've decided to put up another poem I wrote just under a year ago.  I still like it, though there are some things I might tweak...not sure yet though.

Anyway.  Here's another poem:

Midas

Touch me.

Let me glitter,

Gold for you.

Give me worth,

Your admiration.

Turn me from myself:

Commonplace, dull;

To something far prettier

Treasured, longed for by so many

And worthy of your notice.

Kill me.

Stop my heart,

Gold for you.

I mean nothing

Without your attention,

I am foul, worthless

Not just to myself.

I know that you do not love me

As you love those false trinkets,

For you’ve never bothered enough

To say otherwise.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the formatting on the blog to work out the way I originally wrote it...:\ But this isn't so far off.

onus

So.  A long time ago, I promised a snow poem.

And seeing as National Poetry Month is almost over, I finally got around to writing it.

Part of this delay is due to other things in life (read: the life of an engineer is not conducive to poetry) and also, you really have to be in a particular mood to write a poem.  I tried a few times unsuccessfully to get this down.  But today in statics class, it slipped out onto the paper. :)

Here goes:

Perfection

Snow falls overnight

And we awaken

To a new perfection.

The flawless landscape shivers

And bows

Deep beneath this new burden.

The morning sun arrives to bare the world,

The snow begins to melt

And the trees begin to weep-

drip. drip. drip.

As their sweet burden of perfection

Is lifted.

So...there you are. :)

unitates

Little-known fact: Buzz Lightyear was an ingenious physicist.  You can tell because his name is also a unit of measurement.

Think of all the other units we have in physics.

The Webber.  The Tesla.  The Joule, Hertz, Ampere, Celsius, Coulomb, Henry, Newton, Pascal, Kelvin, Ohm, Watt, Gauss, Siemens...

All these guys made breakthrough discoveries and did fancy science to such an extent that they needed an entirely new unit in order to to more science.  Which is pretty incredible stuff.

And good old Buzz Lightyear is up there with them.  You thought he was just an overzealous space ranger, but much of our modern-day astroscience is possible thanks to Mr. Lightyear, the scientist.

suculentus

So...I drew some pictures.  I usually try to express some sort of story when I draw pictures and often that's difficult to do in one single picture, so this time I used two pictures, because the story I wanted to express was just so deep.  It was worth two thousand words.

And, somewhat uncharacteristically of myself, I created a rather sappy love story:

Heartbreak ending, I know.

But for the record...I do love trees.

esse

Scenario: you're in this awkward social experiment called "life", and you need to organize things before you go crazy.  How do you attempt to deal with everything going on, everything that you have to do, everything that you want to do, and the rest of the chaos around you?

A common practice that test subjects have (oh goodness, I'm beginning to sound like GLaDOS) is to organize things into to-do lists. I sometimes do this when I have a lot to do in a day.  Here is an example:

Thursday:

• Statics homework
• Calculus homework
• finish reading The Chosen
• catch up on writing
• clean out some fridge food
• watch a  talk

This is all good stuff, but...what is it leading to?  As soon as I finish my homework, new assignments replace those.  As soon as I catch up writing, there's more to be written.  The instant I finish washing all the dishes, the sink is filled anew.

What's the point of doing things?

Well ultimately, I believe that doing things will lead to being things.  If I continually do math homework, I will eventually become adept at mathematics.  If I persist at washing dishes, I will eventually...be...the only one in the house that washes dishes?

Anyway, I have constructed a to-be list, for several reasons.  Aside from giving long-term goals and an end in mind, I think this is sometimes more constructive than a to-do list.  Instead of just getting my statics homework done to get a grade, I can also focus on getting it done to become an engineer.

It can also combine several trivial tasks into something more meaningful.  It adds depth to what I'm trying to accomplish here.  And simplicity.  Instead of having a list of things to do like "make eye contact" "say thank-you" "open the door for people" "say 'excuse me'", et cetera, you can condense it into one task: be polite.  Then you only have one thing to remember and one question to ask, rather than a whole slew of things to remember to do.

So.  Here is a to-be list that I have constructed for the next couple weeks.  That is not to imply that come several weeks I will have become each of these things, but that these are the things that I want to particularly focus on and progress in for the next while.

To Be:

• Kind
• Serving
• Hard-working
• Grateful
• Eager to learn
• Respectful

There.  Six things, just like on the to-do list.  But there's a lot more to be done here.  Don't let that overwhelm you, though.  You don't have to suddenly become everything all at once, just like you don't have to do everything all at once.

It requires a little bit of a different way of thinking and maybe some different effort, but I think it's worthwhile to have a to-be list.  If anything, it might just be refreshing to get away from the to-do lists for a bit. :)

saponem arca archa

In following with my previous post, I've decided to share another mind-blossom with you. That's right, some people have mind palaces, I have mind-blossoms...
Besides, it's nice to give flowers to people.

A couple weeks ago, I was going to classes (imagine that!) and in several of them, the teacher got somewhat distracted at some point in the lesson and diverged to some other topic that wasn't going to be on the next test.

This isn't an unusual occasion, especially for some of my classes, but it was unusual in the quality of the diversions.  Instead of talking about a time that a colleague said something funny, or being coerced into doing a solo polka demonstration (true story.  According to my physics professor, "the polka is the only dance that makes any sense," which is why you might make a polka analogy when explaining circuit analysis...) These diversions were more...well, I don't really have a word for them right now.

In choir, we stopped rehearsal (any performer knows that you do this at great cost) to hear and hopefully understand something about the 60's and 70's. How young people were being forced to fight in a war they didn't start, they didn't believe in, and they couldn't support.  But their country and their parents and anything else they had put their trust in was suddenly betraying them, so they reacted in the only way a rising generation can: cultural revolution.

In graphics, we basically bagged the lesson and the quiz and listened to a lecture about the wonders of technology and engineering.  We looked at picture after picture of cool ideas and models and projects, like this chair:

 

In physics, we stopped drawing diagrams on the board and forgot about all the theories and equations to hear stories about young scientists like Michael Faraday who had little education but eager, brilliant minds and the right opportunities to make discoveries that changed the world.

It seemed like I was experiencing a soap box day, where instructor after instructor decided it was a good day to forget about books and tests and just get on the soap box for a bit (or...the majority of the class) and teach us things about life and the world they've lived in and the experiences they've had.

And I found myself learning like never before. I was engaged and interested.  Sleep didn't even tug at my eyelids.  I didn't consider pulling out a book to read or a note to pass (see how well I normally pay attention?)  I went to school and received so much more than I usually got.

Here's the thing.  I can learn physics on my own.  I can read the book and look up experiments and diagrams.  I can even learn skills on my own.  I can teach myself music or how to use computer software.  It's not always as easy, but I can do it on my own.

What I can't get on my own is this life-wisdom that other people have accumulated. I can't understand what it's like to live in a time when people weren't regarded (for the most part) equally.  I can't imagine living in a time of war and having that affect the lives of my friends and family.  I can't create my own inspiration.  I can't learn the value of respect without having someone show it to me.  I can't learn to love without anyone to give it meaning.

People seem to regard the activity of getting on one's soap box as a bad thing.  I think it's one of the most worthwhile endeavors you can make.

Have more soap box days.

temporum

The scholastic year is now drawing to a close, and I'm just now realizing some very valuable things that perhaps have been growing within my mind all throughout the year and are just now blossoming into the maturity that only experience can bring.

The first of these was made known to me around the end of last semester.  Isn't that nice, how your own thoughts can make themselves known to you?  They've been hiding and waiting for a good opportunity to present themselves all this time...because they know that timing is everything.

See, I was reflecting on some of the books that I had "read" throughout middle school and high school and wondered why I now found myself going to the library and checking out classic literature, something that I never imagined myself doing when I was younger and struggling through Animal Farm.  Clearly, there is something wonderful about this literature that I completely ignored or missed when I was younger.

Perhaps some of it had to do with being 'forced' to read the book. When you're in the middle of your cherished teenage years and someone says "read Farenheit 451. It's about questioning authority," there's something inside of you that is like "Oh yeah?  Why should I read your dumb book?  What if I have better things to do? What if I just don't want to? Huh?" And that mindset kindof taints the reading experience.

Perhaps some of it had to be with being in eighth grade and understanding that Animal Farm was an allegory about some sort of tyrannical situation, but being 13 or 14 years old and having no idea who Trotsky is and only being able to compare everything bad to Hitler...you'd be frustrated at not getting the allegory.

Perhaps some of it had to do with not experiencing enough of the world yet to understand what was going on.  Racism was something we'd only read about; grief was something we'd never quite touched; love was something we could only abuse.

With this realization, I decided that I ought to reread some of the books I didn't ingest fully the first time around.  This is, of course, easier said than done because there are all sorts of books out there begging to be read for the first time, and you want to take the time to reread something you didn't like the first time around?  Silly, silly...

So I haven't made it back to any books yet, but I've thought more about timing and life events, and I realized that perhaps if I had learned to play the piano at a different time, I'd have learned to love it and become proficient.  I could learn to play all sorts of beautiful music that I hadn't known existed until recently...

Perhaps if I had fallen in love with soccer earlier, I could have turned that into much more than a recreational passion.

There are all sorts of what-if questions in regard to timing.  But my wise seventh grade teacher told me at the beginning of the year that contrary to popular belief, there is a such thing as a stupid question, and most often those stupid questions start with "what if".

So don't get bogged down in stupid questions.  I've found that things move in and out of my life with immaculate timing to make me the person I am and keep me on track to the person I'm becoming. If something doesn't work out the first time, that doesn't mean it isn't meant to be, it just means it's not the right time.

And just for the record, I'm not the only person to have this sentiment.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven"
-Ecclesiastes 3:1

servitium

So, for the past couple weeks I participated in what you might call a challenge.  I made a particular effort to notice the small acts of service that other people perform daily.  Things that usually go unnoticed or taken for granted.  For me, this was best done by having a small notebook to write things in.  That way, I was consciously recognizing things and spending some thought on them, rather than just a fleeting moment of mental capacity.  My record is more permanent and meaningful.

And hopefully people don't think I'm creepy, writing down the good things they do. :P

Anyway, over the course of just less than 20 days, I recorded nearly 120 various acts of service.  Some were bigger things, like somebody cooking dinner for me when I was too stressed with studying to do it myself.  Others were smaller, like a particular compliment, or someone opening the door for someone else.  Some of the services I recorded were done on my behalf, some on behalf of my friends, and some for people I didn't even know.  Many were performed by my friends, and many others were by strangers.

Doing this gave me some hope for society and the world.  It made it clear that the world around me and the people in it are good.  It encouraged and inspired me to be more generous and gracious toward those around me, whether I know them or not.

The cool thing is that sometimes that can be as easy as a conversation.  There were several times that somebody I didn't know very well would just talk to me as we walked from one class to another.  Although we still don't know each other well and that one conversation didn't have a lasting affect on our relationship, I was still grateful to have someone to talk to that day; it always brightened my mood.

I encourage you to look around you at the good that other people are doing in the world.  It's a refreshing experience and makes living a little bit easier, knowing that other people around you care about you, as well as the others in their lives.  They care about the world they live in, and they love it enough to improve it, bit by bit.

imaginatio

Today, as I was spending another day at the ASCE Conference surrounded by fellow engineers, I found myself wondering why more people aren't engineers. 

I mean seriously.

When I have that wonderful everyday conversation with other people where we ask each other what we're studying, and I tell my conversee that I'm an engineer, they always make some silly remark about "Oh, you must be really smart," or "That's cool, I'm not smart enough for that."

I don't think this is the correct approach.

Many people seem to believe that engineers are born, not made.  They have a "knack".

This may be true, but I feel like I could take any number of career paths by making myself whatever I want to become.  A quantum physicist or a soccer player or a researching mathematician or a dinosaur or a writer or a musician or a painter or a historian...

Some of those things, like a painter, would take a lot more effort for me to do.  I have previously held little interest in painting and therefore have developed little talent with it.  Maths and physics, however, I have already had great interest in and therefore I've developed quite a bit of experience in those fields.  But I wasn't born with any of that...I learned it over time, because that's what I wanted.

I believe that it is the same for engineering.  Sure, there are a few of those with "the knack", but there are natural pianists and doctors and lacrosse players and chemists, too.  It's not like every single engineer was born with some supernatural gift and destiny.  Most of them are just normal people with interests and science.

So if you're not sure what you want to do with your life yet, I suggest you consider being an engineer.  See, here's the best thing about engineering: you can do whatever you want with it.  The other day, my friend who is an engineering major asked me what it is that engineers actually do.  This is a difficult question to pin down because there are a lot of different fields within engineering.  At first I responded that engineers make life better.  But really, people in general try to do that, via all sorts of careers.  My next answer was this:

Engineers make the imagination tangible.

How cool is that job?  Imagine whatever you want, and then make it real.  Ahhhh, coolness just radiates from you.  Impress all the ladies.

But seriously, engineering is an art.  It requires a lot more than just math and science and graphs.  It requires craft and creativity. And it produces beautiful things.

So.  If you like things, you should be an engineer.  Because no matter what you like, engineering has something to do with it.  Just through my first year of my engineering studies, I've already used engineering in canoeing, music, soccer and other sports, home improvement, construction, legos...
allll sorts of things.  Engineering opens all the doors.  If you're not sure what to do, be an engineer and eventually it will lead you to something incredible.

corpus liberum schematum

This weekend is conference weekend.  :D  And for anyone apt to jump to conclusions, it's actually an engineering conference that my university is hosting.  We built a canoe to race against other schools in the area.  And...we built it out of concrete.

Aw. Yeah.  Engineering for the win.

My college life, which is usually filled with fellow engineers, is now flooded with them from other states and universities.  It's a party.

If you're friends with me on facebook, you will already know that being surrounded by engineers is sometimes not ideal.  Here are a few posts I made recently, for those who didn't see them:

"Engineers are a wonderful bunch. They ask you for your number, you know, for "homework purposes". Then they only call or text for homework purposes. -.- Why so clear-cut and logical?"

And

I got a text the other day from a lab partner who had gotten my number, you know, for "homework purposes".

Him: "You going to be around this weekend? :)"
Me: "More or less. Why?"
Him: "Sweet. I wanted to see if I could borrow your book tonight or tomorrow."

*facepalm*

Engineers, as you may imagine, are not the greatest when it comes to dating.

So, here is a handy list to help you realize that even though they may only want to do homework on friday nights, engineers are actually dateable:

TOP 5 REASONS TO DATE AN ENGINEER

1) Free body diagrams

2) No other couple could enjoy a better moment

3) We know how to handle stress and strain in any relationship

4) The world does revolve around us; we chose the coordinate system

5) According to Newton, if two bodies interact, their forces are equal and opposite


Another reason (not in the top five, but there are so many more reasons...) that I particularly like:

Significant figures.