One Smooth Day

Today was a nice day... I slept in (missing my morning class) and took my time going to Lincoln. I finished some last minute homework in the lab and went to my Calculus III class. I should talk more about this class...

My professor is a hoot! I love going to class because he is just such an incredible professor and is so knowledgeable! He kind of reminds me of Ben Stiller by looks and height, but his mind is just amazing and his humor on a level above most. We learn new words in his class all the time. For example, does anyone know what "Widdershins" means?? I might tell ya later, but I encourage you to research ;). We have a history lesson on great physicists and mathematicians as well. It is just a great class. He does an excellent job keeping it interesting. Now if I could only make my grade reflect this impact he has on me, I just might pass! We have one more chapter exam and then a final. I believe his grading is on improvement overall more so than on the actual numbers so we'll see how it ends up.

Anyways, so I went to class and it was great as usual. I then went up to the EE offices to meet with one of my professors. Since I attended the Wind Energy Conference this week I missed a quiz in class yesterday. So I had to go make it up this after noon. I believe the quiz went well for the most part. I got my homework turned in and then went by my advisor's office to chit chat.

My advisor was on his way to a meeting so we didn't chat long. While I was leaving the office another professor was on his way up to the lab. He was actually going up there to see if I was there so it turned out perfectly that we ran into each other. He was the advisor the PhD student I have been building this motor/generator for this semester. Since she graduated and moved to Denmark now I will be working directly under Dr. P until it is completed. I am very exciting because he is an amazing person. Extremely intelligent, fun, patient, and so very helpful. He is Australian, which is awesome because he travels back and forth between the states where he comes and teaches at the University and Australia where he owns his own company. What is exceptionally awesome is that I have a connection in Australia for either an intern position and/or a study abroad program. He already said he would help me figure out a program and help me get set up at a particular University for a semester or two!

So anyways, Dr. P and I walked up to the lab together chatting about the conference and what still needs to be done on my project. (I say MY project now because it is up to me to complete it. It is actually is completely my previous PhD mentor's creation and work.) When we got up there he went through things and explained the basics of how to move forward on the project. He also gave me a few lessons on various topics surrounding it. A couple of the PhD students who work in the lab came over and joined in the discussion. It is amazing how people flock to Dr. P. It is no doubt because of his great personality and love for teaching and sharing his knowledge.

After our little meeting I headed down to the engineering library to meet a classmate to work on some homework and get notes for the classes I missed while at the conference. We ended up going back up to the lab to do the work. One thing I missed was a project that they split us up into groups for in one of my engineering classes. Apparently we have to solder for this project and she had never done it before. She has a practice circuit board so we scrounged up some resistors and various components and I showed her how to solder. That was fun. It felt good doing some actual hands on stuff as well as teaching someone something new. :)

I ended up staying in the lab finishing up stuff after my classmate left. It took a couple more hours before I finished everything I needed to. When I was leaving so was the last student who had been working on his research stuff. We chatted for a bit and then left.

While I was walking to the parking garage it began to sprinkle a bit. Thank goodness it didn't begin to pour! The parking garage is about a block away from the engineering building and I didn't have a beany or anything on my head. Plus it was pretty chilly outside. The drive home wasn't bad, it stopped sprinkling on my way out of town.

When I got home I watched a little bit of tv with my father and his wife. I just got out of the shower and started checking email and such when I figured I would blog a bit. I am suppose to meet a friend for a couple drinks in a bit. We'll see if that happens, my hopes aren't too high. From the track record we have of actually hanging out isn't too reliable so we'll see. Either way, today was a smooth day. I'm in high spirits and I'm pretty content the way things have gone.

Oh yes! I nearly forgot! I got a list of nuclear engineering classes that are offered online through the university I am going to take in the spring. There is a slew of them and I will be able to use them as electives for my degree! This is awesome because I am able to get some electives banged out in the beginning and I get to do them in nuclear which is what I ultimately want to do! This helped perk the day up as well. So with that note I will sign off. I'll share my final schedule a bit later when I get it all finalized. Good night!

Happy Veterans' Day to all who are currently or have served!

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy