Monday, June 29, 2009
Sign SaVvY...
James has invited our entire class to a Deaf Social next month at Atlanta Bread Company. LOVE their chicken salad sandwiches on wheat - and don't forget the pickle this time sil vous plait! That's french for please in sign language. I'm definately going to have to keep practicing so I don't sign too slowly, although James has already told us we're going to have no idea what's going on in any of the conversations (= thanks for the confidence booster). I'm pretty excited for the chance to meet some new peeps though.
If you want to know more about ASL (American Sign Language) visit the totally awesome and generous website www.aslpro.com . It's a free sign language resource website, chock full of dictionaries, quizzes, and sign language tools-a-plenty!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wee-fit...
So, I thought it would be super fun to sign up for it again during the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred (as in 100 degrees) festivities the weekend of August 29-30. I didn't get serious about training for it until after graduation, so basically about three weeks ago. And, since I tend to comfort myself with food, I gained a nice bit of weight during my last semester so I've found myself trying to lose weight as well as get my body trained and heat acclamated. I am seeing results, but as the heat wears on, I find myself getting tired and cranky. I gave myself the day off today (except I had to go to real work after church) and I'm going to bed early so that tomorrow I can hit the weights in the morning, and then run a nice and easy five miler in the early afternoon heat. I have to admit that I do feel spectacular after a nice hot run. Crazy endorphins out the wazoo...it's about 4 hours later when I feel like taking my electric drill and lobotomizing the first annoying person who crosses my path (no I wouldn't do that)..(yes, I would).
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Pimp my yard...
These are hopefully going to be mammoth sunflowers. I planted several seeds next to the house and these sprouts sprang up about a week later. I'm really excited to see if they'll make it! Grow, my pretties...grow!
#7 Totally Published Research Paper

In addition to the trip to Boston, I also presented our research at the North Texas Area Student Conference - '08. For the current year, 2009, I presented another research project we had been working on at the NTASC-'09 regarding observer based control system design. This presentation was titled Lyapunov Optimizing Control with Incomplete State Availability. Following this presentation, we submitted a follow up pedagogical paper to the published paper. We have not yet heard back whether or not this paper will be published. We also hope to have another paper submitted for publishing on the topic of Integral Control. The publishing of either of these two additional papers would mean a trip for the paper presentation. Unfortunately, MSU won't be paying my way this time...but that's quite alright - Boston was the highlight of my academic career, and I was very fortunate to be a part of this research project.
#6 Mechanical Engineering Degree



