via Ithaca

Engineers aren't Advertisers: Part II

2010-01-31T21:36:00.004-05:00

I had a post earlier that highlighted the poor marketing skills possessed by engineers. Well in case you thought it was fluke... its not.

I want to know where I can purchase steel shaped tinker toys.

Anybody remember the Office mafia character who forced Michael Scott to buy his insurance? I get the feeling I'll be murdered for not using Tekla.

Great question, I was going to guess a tiger. But I was wrong.

Back into the thick of it...

2010-01-20T21:25:00.005-05:00

No Simpsons quote to introduce this post... I must be losing some of my useless Simpsons trivia.

The team has dived right back into the project and beginning to maybe get somewhere. Its pretty much like walking through a dark cave blindfolded. Here is a snapshot from the early part of the process, creating lines from the points taken from the structural drawings. A tedious but necessary task, well everything is pretty tedious.

One of 11 levels to be inputted.

The one upside to being in Ithaca during the winter is its absolutely gorgeous during a snowfall. Very big flakes and warm temps, but it all melts in the afternoon :(

I imagine, yes that would be hard to travel in the snow. Good advice.

The Clock Tower in the background, Hollister Hall on the right. Spend my daylight hours there (and some of my night hours too.)

Minnesota Shore

2010-01-13T22:57:00.006-05:00

Little less than a month of break quickly went by... very quickly. I can't believe I'm back at my desk in Ithaca.

A shortened list of highlights, no order.

Big Screen TV!!!
Avatar (Twice, forced Steve to go my second time)
New Moon (major plot fails)
Sherlock Holmes (Very enjoyable, basically because I can detach myself from the books)
Saint Paul Conservatory Poinsettias
Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Twice, yelled at during the second time)
Walker Art Center (Unfortunately they relegated all the good art to one compact gallery)
Saloon with the brothers and significant others (met up with Kyle to make the night more insane)
Shredded the Como Park gnar (with sleds)
Mall of America (Twice, purchased the greatest gift ever!)
Palomino (Twice, hard to get away from the Candy Apple Drops)
Romeo and Juliet (Twice, once at the Gutherie and Baz Luhrmann's adaptation. Better use of Radiohead in the latter.)
Craziest Christmas day ever.
Gourmet Home cooked meals (meats, candles, buttered green beans)
Green Acres Skiing (2 minute drive, best skiing in a 20 mile radius)
Muffuletta's for a goodbye for now dinner (lovely end to the break)

A few snapshots of the break.

O Tannenbaum!

Furiously checking her grades two days after taking them.

Bingley and I became friends again

I forgot which season it was...

2010-01-13T22:39:00.005-05:00

12/9/2009

A mild fall coupled with never being so busy before and not playing a sport dependent on the season. Oh, also not having a TV to follow sports and news in general, and being cooped up in an office all day avoiding the sunlight leaves you in a very surreal environment. The snow quickly told me what season it was... and that I was nearly done with the semester. Good riddance.

1:58AM

8:48AM... quickly melted by the afternoon

My Roommate is a Mouse Killer

2010-01-13T22:30:00.003-05:00

Don't know where they come from. I would rather not have their filth and pestilence. Luckily Matt is a skilled mouse hunter. 2 down so far, expect another one soon.

10/19/2009

11/30/2009

How to Design for Storm Water Runoff

2010-01-13T22:21:00.004-05:00

10/28/2009

Nature has a very beautiful way to dispose of storm water. Giant gorges. I am very proud that Ithaca did not try to alter this already perfect drainage system. Take note civil engineers.

Taken on the way to class, torrential downpour. Thank you Great Lakes.

Walked downtown after class to see a swollen Six Mile Creek. Usually you see the bedrock of the creek floor.

My studies just get in the way of Life.

2009-11-22T14:00:00.005-05:00

Its been a long time between posts. Apologies to those who actually glance at this. Its been a hectic month trying to get a handle on our project. We are actually going somewhere, however not as fast as we'd like.

So I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head and decided to visit the Ithaca Farmers Market and a local winery. Russ, you would've had a field day with your camera.

They even a bluegrass band! Felt like something out of a Mark Twain novel.

You must be a parking ticket because you have FINE written all over you

2009-11-02T21:49:00.003-05:00

Apparently you CAN get a ticket in a 24 hour parking zone. I was more than confused waking up to that in the morning.

It's Never Sunny in Ithaca

2009-10-23T22:57:00.003-04:00

Marge: Next to spring and winter, fall is my absolute favorite season. Just look at all this beautiful foilage.
Lisa: It's not "foilage," Mom, it's "foliage." Fo-liage.
Marge: That's what I said, foilage. It doesn't take a nucular scientist to pronounce foilage.

It is hard to document the fall colors appropriately here in Ithaca. First we have not been blessed with constant sunny skies. Second, the vantage points aren't the best. I have yet to find the scenic outlooks. And third, it is really hard to take decent photos with a cell phone camera while driving. Don't worry about the latter though, it was relatively easy to do. The following pictures are of my decent from Cayuga Heights into Ithaca.

Laundry Noir

2009-10-18T23:55:00.003-04:00

Homer: When was the last time Barbara Streisand cleaned out your garage? And when it's time to do your laundry, where's Ray Bolger? I'll tell ya. Ray Bolger is looking out for Ray Bolger!

What do on a cool Sunday night? Study solid mechanics and do some laundry with the locals.

Enter seductive jazzy melodies...

A Sort of Homecoming

2009-10-17T00:35:00.004-04:00

Last week I holed up and did all my homework due after fall break. Allowing me a stress-free trip to MPLS for a mini vacation. I hung out with friends, Libby, Bingley, family, took in a football game, and some how racked up a +$100 dinner bill for two (EEK!).

Unfortunately it had to come to an end. I'm right back in the thick of it now with four tests next week and an new initiative to ACTUALLY begin the project. Less talk, more action!

Anyways, here are some highlights.

Chilly! And green is the new gold. (note the stadium in the sunglasses, if you rode in an elevator you probably were laterally and vertically supported by my design, scary)

Is Bingley replacing Milly and Muffy?!?

Dad scaring the dog.

Poor attempts at the Shoe Tree

2009-10-08T23:10:00.006-04:00

Cornellians tried hard, but ultimately have failed in trying to recreate the UMN Shoe Tree. Rather than watching where I was going on my walks to class, I noticed power lines with shoes thrown over. This practice was strikingly similar to the shoe tree practice on the west end of the Washington Ave. Pedestrian Bridge.

Odd.

Even right outside my apartment.

Yeah, I caused traffic to stop. Look at the bottom left corner of the picture.

Perfectly wasted shoes... as Eddie Vedder said, "Shoe the Shoeless."

Poor puppy!

2009-10-04T17:42:00.003-04:00

Bingley was getting a massive 'fro as of late, so Libby arranged an appointment for a haircut. Her mom brought in Bingley and asked to have it cut as short as possible. Hilarious consequences resulted.

Authorized Service Personnel Only

2009-09-26T13:16:00.005-04:00

Homer: Marge, I'm sorry, but your cooking's only got 2 moves: Shake & Bake.
Marge: But you like Shake & Bake! You used to put it in your coffee.

Foolishly I forgot to take the coffee grounds out of my coffee maker before the trip to Ithaca. This resulted in coffee grounds clogging the filter in the base of the coffee maker. Frustrated I left it to sit on the counter wondering what to do with it.

Well this noon I felt industrious and motivated by Pearl Jam's new song 'The Fixer' so I decided to open it up and investigate. After ignoring the warning on the base, "No user serviceable parts inside, repair should be done by authorized personnel only." I went for it and learned how a coffee maker works and eventually made a mean pot of coffee.

Observe...

Note the coffee grounds clogging the intake tube in the bottom right of the base.

The culprit!

Success! A job well done and a few dollars saved!

To the victor go the spoils... not this time.

2009-09-23T22:50:00.004-04:00

Child Services Agent: If you leave milk out, it can go sour. Put it in a refrigerator, or, failing that, a cool, wet sack.

Fortunately I didn't have to smell the milk this morning to see if it had gone bad. This picture is taken one day after the 'sell by' date (9/22/2009). Further proof that Minnesotan's have it good with their superior dairy products.

I didn't even know skim milk could separate that rapidly and vigorously. It looks like filtered water at the surface.

shudders...

Roar!

2009-09-20T11:40:00.003-04:00

Homer: Well, there's not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is sure doing its job.
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, sweetie.
Lisa: Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers.
Homer: Uh-huh, and how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work. It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: I see.
Lisa: But you don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock

I'm guessing Ithaca doesn't have a Bear Patrol judging by this picture I took yesterday.

Received our project on Friday, still hard to explain. I'll try in another post when we've figured it out.

Muse has been at the top of my list of priorities. Epic Album, completely satisfying.

Nature is Stronger Than You

2009-09-15T21:43:00.004-04:00

Mr. Burns: Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese.

Found this on my walk from Hollister Hall and it got me to thinking...

A large part of civil engineering for the longest time has been about fighting nature. However nature is incredibly persistent, annoyingly persistent at times. For example, consider the 1973 flood of the Mississippi. Down in Louisiana near the river delta, a wing wall kept the Mississippi River from changing course, resulting in making New Orleans a port without a river.

The flood was so powerful that it eradicated the soil underneath the wing wall, allowing the river to divert some of its flow. Thankfully the foundation went deeper than the blowout and was able to support the wing wall without the soil. New Orleans was nearly extinct.

The tree wrapping around the railing image gives the perspective of truly understanding the stakeholders and risks the government undertakes with its infrastructure. Always taken for granted in the public eye and when a disaster strikes we balk at the government for allowing this to happen. Maybe this wouldn't happen if we diverted funding from...

I'll stop there. Just think about it.

Stressed out Tensors

2009-09-11T20:11:00.000-04:00

Probably the most frustrating thing to me is the communication gap between different parties. Language barriers are a pain and so much can get lost in translation, for me it's the conflict between myself and Matlab.

I get it. I know the theory, I know whats happening at the infinitesimal level. I know how I want to program the problem. However I don't know how Matlab wants me to program it. It feels like a constant power struggle with Matlab usually winning each battle.

But the payoff is HUGE. Relief just calms your body.

Here are a couple of pictures that illustrate a plate of aluminium being pulled 10MPa (about 1450 pounds per square inch) with a 1mm crack in the middle of the plate. The introduction of a crack creates intense stress concentrations around it. The loops pictured are the regions that have turned plastic. Think of a taffy that won't return to its original state. Basically it means failure. Always good to know.

One of my first solutions. Don't judge a book by its cover, this one is incorrect.

Each line represents a failure plane. Note how the failure planes compliment each other by creating symmetry about the crack point. Nature is messed up sometimes. Weird.

Hollister after Dark

2009-09-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

Nelson: I like to come up here and make fun of the sunset. Hey gasball! You suck!

Unfortunately, the picture I was going to show you was created under false pretenses... so I ended up working on it at Hollister Hall into the dark. As time went by and Matlab code further frustrated me I was alerted to the sunset. Our view has always been scenic but this sunset has definitely take precedent.

Taking inspiration from Russ Haywood, I took out my phone, ran over to the window and took some snap shots.

Check it out.

Oh yeah, we have a great view of Cayuga Lake.

This next one is for Libby. Cornell Law School may not be as good as Minnesota but... Cornell's building is much more imaginative than Mondale Hall. Note the tower in the first photo is the top of the entry way below.

Excessive? Yes. Awesome? Yes.

2009-09-08T19:57:00.000-04:00

Homer: To start press any key. Well where's the "any" key? I see Esc, Ctarl (ctrl), and PigUp (pgup). There doesn't seem to be any any key! Phew. All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I'll order a Tab. (Presses tab) Oop! No time for that now, the computer's starting.

Unfortunately Windows 7 doesn't allow me to run my 'version' of Matlab, otherwise I'd have a sweet picture from my Solid Mechanics class. I looked online to find the current price, apparently I need to ask for a quote based on my needs. I don't even want to know how much it costs.

Anyways, I figured I'd post a picture of my Cornell Student ID card! Basically I want to showcase how awesome Libby is as an ID photographer. Definitely a skill she can fall back on if the Lawyer thing doesn't work out.

Without further ado...

Engineers aren't Advertisers

2009-09-05T16:59:00.000-04:00

Us left brain thinkers are just not the creative types. Especially when it comes to advertising our products or services. Most of the time we rely on cheap ad campaigns, it makes sense most of the time. Companies would rather use their profits elsewhere but sometimes the ads used are blatantly bad.

Maybe its just me. Maybe I'm jealous that other 'more popular' magazines have prettier ads and these ones are actually ok. Hmmmm, I want to trust my original judgement here.

Its straightforward, but it just seems comical. I guess I was never worried about finding a large joist manufacturer until now. And the guy seems pretty confident that he found some big joists.

If someone can explain this next one to me, that'd be great. And don't say "because sex sells," because even that doesn't make sense.

So whats most important is a beautiful lady on the beach? How about that building stands or is constructed properly. I guess priorities are subjective.

Falling up Hill

2009-09-02T22:33:00.000-04:00

Decided to gather some data from the walk up to the MEng office in Hollister Hall.

Distance: 0.97 mi
Time: 18:51
Elevation Start: 472 ft above sea level
Elevation End: 774 ft above sea level
Elevation Gain: 302 ft
Calories Burned: 139

Lets take an average building story height to be 12.5 ft. That means I climb roughly 24 stories to get to class.

At least I'll be warm when I get to class during the winter.

Ithaca is Gorges

2009-09-01T19:26:00.000-04:00

Bart: Otto, I'm going to jump Springfield Gorge on my skateboard.
Otto: You know, Bart, as the only adult here, I feel I should say something?
Bart: What?
Otto: Cool!

They have a saying around here, "Ithaca is Gorges." Aside from the cute word play, it is quite nice here. Most days after class its been cloudy or raining, hardly the light for cell phone photography. However today was, for lack of a better word, gorgeous out. So I decided to stroll down the path next to Hollister Hall.

Have a look...

I walk over that bridge everyday.

"Hi!"

Bridges!!!

Fluid Dynamics... oof!

Downpour

2009-08-29T17:07:00.000-04:00

Kent: ...and the weather service has warned us to brace ourselves for the onslaught of Hurricane Barbara. And if you think naming a destructive storm after a woman is sexist, you obviously have never seen the gals grabbing for items at a clearance sale.

Marge: [growls] That's true... but he shouldn't say it.

Turns out it rains here. A lot. Oh and wait, the sub-letters
before us felt it necessary to NOT put their cat on
antiflea medication. Sitting, waiting for my laundry to finish
I noticed a flea hoping on my shirt. In disbelief I texted Matt
and he said he saw them too.

The landlady was responsive and came over while
we were vacuuming. Steps are being made to correct this.

Really?

Life after College Ultimate

2009-08-26T13:13:00.000-04:00

Homer(running): I can't believe it! I'm actually running a marathon. (clutches his chest) Argh, I hit the wall! This is so painful! (the pain subsides) Hey, I got my second wind! (clutches his chest again) Owgh, another wall, I can't...(pain subsides) Woo hoo! Third wind!\

Its hard to stay in shape and be fit, especially after playing 5 years of college ultimate where you are working out 5 days a week. The goal was to keep my fitness where it was at but after the last month of indulgence that won't be possible. I hadn't been planning on dropping a few pounds but when the metabolism slows to molasses, preventative measures must be taken. Fortunately the terrain here will do the trick. Check out the elevation on this run. They aren't mountains, but they're close.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3133055

The goal, get back to 175lb.

Terrible Life Choices

2009-08-25T17:31:00.001-04:00

Bart: I was so bored, I cut the ponytail off of the guy in front of us. (Holds it to the back his head) Look at me, I'm a grad student. I'm 30 years old and made six hundred dollars last year.

Marge: Bart! Don't make fun of grad students. They just made a terrible life choice.

Well I'm only 23 so maybe it won't apply to me. Thinking about it and this is one of those choices where only the negatives show up first like the tuition bill, and the positives happen 10 to 20 years down the road.

Well I've arrived and have become situated. Met and know a few people already however I've yet to meet my classmates. I'm actually excited to go to class and meet these kids.

Ithaca is very beautiful, as was Minneapolis, however it's quite the contrast. Very buggy and forest-y here. I have a 15 minute walk uphill to campus. So many hills and gorges, I wonder how they'll plow the snow come winter. The campus feels similar to the U of M so that transition is nice.

I'll track my progress throughout the year so y'all can keep up; and I'll leave you with this picture for Steve.

"It's gonna suck biking to class"