F-I-J-I

What does that spell!?!


FIJI!

So folks. Great news today.  I have the first 2-3 weeks of Summer 2012 planned out.
Making biodiesel from coconuts for the people in Fiji.


Beaches, engineering, coconuts, service, credit applied to graduation, friends, travel....all rolled up into one burrito.

Stay around for the updates, coming Fall 2011/Winter 2012 when I start working on my project.  click here to learn some more.

Later days!

RUNNIN' ON AIR

You cannot tell me that isn't cool.
Me and my team members machined each part of that sucker by hand.
I freaking love my major.


And I heart my little v1 engine.

I'M ALIVE.

I turned in my last DiffEq assignment yesterday

SUCH a good feeling.

Maybe even better than when I finally finished a test in the same class after 3.5 hours.

Take that, math.

Bring it on, finals week.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY FIELD TRIP TO THE MRI

I was hatin' today, no lie. Crappy differential equations test with crappy transformations, crappy 5 page political science paper, just crappy crap.

Oh, and I was going to have to sit it a frickin' tube for a solid 45 minutes without wiggling.  Just swell.


But oh, how my attitude changed when I saw that sexy machine.
"Whoooaaaaa. Tell me how this WORKS!"

I said to the MRI technician.


I was very pleased with his answer--usually techs don't really know what is happening. They just 'press the buttons'.

He proceeded to explain the mechanisms of the giant current-carrying coil that produced a whopping 2.0 tesla magnet. (That is HUGE, by the way.)  Then he explained that tissue, bone, and fat all have different natural frequencies, and by getting them to emit energy, the computer can use a Fourier transform to turn the readings into 2-D, and even 3-D images.


I suddenly had a new motivation to study for my differential equations test--I could potentially save lives with those blasted transformations that I have cursed to the high heavens over the past semester.


Huh, this day was turning out to be pretty cool.



I contently sat in the tube 
and listened to the various calming frequencies and blissful clankings of the current through the coil,
pondering the sheer genius of the invention,
and hoping that someday,
I could come up with something like this, too.

HOBBIES...?

Hobby.  This has been a virtually non-existent word in my dictionary for the past two years.

In light of recent events, I have found myself with a lot more time on my hands than ever before.
(Two "breaks" this week: leg and heart.)
So much time, in fact, that I don't know what to do with it all.

I resort to making things out of paper.



Cutting up books....

Making hearts.....

Apparently, this is also how I deal with stress.
(Just don't read too deep into the fact that I am cutting up books and making hearts...)
I feel pretty satisfied, to say the least.
If you're reading this, please call me so we can do lunch or something.
Get me away from my scissors/sewing machine.
It isn't healthy.

I should really look into being intern for Martha next summer.

THE OPPONENT THOUGHT MY LEG WAS THE BALL...

Oh, oh oh...wait....hold it.

Sarah                World

-∞ -1                       ∞

KEEPING SCORE

This weekend, I went to the Holi Festival of Colors

Aaannnd.....My hair is still pink.

Sarah          World

0               1

On Saturday, The Boy Down the Street and I 

came to a pretty sweet consensus on future plans, etc

Sarah          World

1               1

.

Today, I scored in my intramural soccer game, winning the game 3-2

Sarah          World

2               1

As of tonight, the Boy Down The Street

is no longer the Boy Down The Street.

Now,  he is just Spencer.

Sarah          World

-∞                 ∞




{I want to recall the crap I said in this post. It is bogus when you have to live it.}

_______________________________________________________

And now for a bittersweet-consolation-makes-me-feel-better-but-not-really-but-these-lyrics-are-exactly-how-I-feel-so-it-has-been-on-repeat-for-20-minutes-kind-of-song.

Yes it is a repeat. Shoot me.

Because last time I checked, you can't get much lower than -∞

C'MON, CECIL

You know, I love my school. I really do.



Sometimes.




Except at 11:30 on Tuesdays.

{A depiction of the wasteland of the Cougareat during devotional.}

I mean, where is a girl supposed to get some food? Honestly.
C'mon Cecil.  Let's enact some change here.

A FOLK-ISH TUNE

Just lovin' this song. The simple vocal harmonies are superb.

The Boy Down The Street introduced me to it. He knows me all too well.

Oh P.S.--So you know how lots of girls burn their necks with their curling iron?

Well, I burn mine while welding. Because, well, ya know....I'm different like that.

I have a sunburn mark on my neck from where my lab coat doesn't cover.

ATTN: STUDENTS

AND ALL THOSE WHO ARE IN THE BOTTOM TAX BRACKET

in light of recent events, I am creating a pin that (hopefully) you all can wear.

Show your patriotism with this captivating new pin:

Brag to your friends, 

show your support for the federal government,

 and take a stab at the Tea Party, 

all with JUST ONE PIN.

This is an offer you won't want to miss.*

I will be displaying mine proudly on my backpack

in flaming right wing territory @ BYU.

*I take cash or checks.

TODAY I AM HAPPY BECAUSE _______

I get a $18 refund on my taxes. That's right, people. Big one-eight Washingtons. 

{Unlike last year, when the IRS gouged a gaping wound in my savings account.}

Today is a beautiful day.

I think I am going to go buy a skirt or something.

I SKIPPED MATH CLASS YESTERDAY

and made some frosting...


That's it.  I'm dropping out of school. While I was considering getting a nice tent and becoming a hobo, I think I have a better idea to weasel out of all of these Taylor series, Laplace transformations, and manufacturing processes:

I'm going to be a pastry chef instead.

I KNEW that Martha Stewart and I were kindred spirits.  It was my favorite show in kindergarten-no lie, ask my mom.  My calling in life is to make cutesy things all day long.  And hopefully get paid for it.

Sadly, I make...er....manly things all day long.   Let's just say that mechanical engineering doesn't allow for a whole lot of femininity in design.  {My all-male group  wasn't too happy when I designed the upright supports for our pneumatic engine as Eiffel towers} That's OK, I still like my major. It is a close as I can get to making things all day long, even though it isn't always cute. And I am fairly confident that I will actually get paid.

Just consider the engineering labs that I have been in:

• I wanted to add glitter and the color purple to the Nerf football we made in the plastics lab
• When the T.A. asked what applications use sheet metal, I got excited and said "Ooh! Those cute framed magnet boards!"
• For a material science class project, I talked my group into redesigning the cake pan.

STORY OF MY LIFE:

I just want to mention that I fully understand each one of these functions now, therefore I am one of the few members of society to qualify to legitimately buy this T-shirt.  Because we all know there is nothing worse than wearing a clever T-shirt when you cannot comprehend its joke.

I learned the cursive-y "L" one this week, 

and the 

bracket-with-ones-and-zeroes one last semester.

Now, bear with me. I am going to translate*:

(top to bottom, left to right. Like a book now, people.)

1.Root of love

2. Cause of love

3. Derivative of of love

4. Identity of love

5. Transformation of love 

6. Definition of love

*Because the top left one is a square root so it is the root of love, the top right one is cosine of love, but abbreviated "cos" which is an internet/texting spelling of "cuz" or "cause", the left middle is a derivative, that's an easy one, the right middle is an identity matrix, hence identity, the bottom left is a Laplace transformation used for differential equations, and its definition (or simply, what it is equal to) is the improper integral of e^-st and a lot of junk which I can't recall at the moment....blah blah blah if you read this far you have a) lots of courage b) understanding of high levels of math c) nothing better to do d) extremely good eyesight e) all of the above.

3.14159...

Guys. Today is a great day.  It is Pi Day.  A holiday for nerds.  And yes, I include myself in that group.  (See title of blog.)

Anyways, I had a new pie-free philosophy for today and this weekend:


                   eat cake.

yeeeeah baby.





Did I make this cake?

Yes.

Did the Boy Down the Street help me?

Most certainly.

I'm getting better, you see. I'm slowly exploiting his cooking skills for my personal benefit. And his sister Kristin's.  (It was her birthday. Sorry I don't have pictures of the candle-blowing-wish-making moment. But happy birthday Kristin!!)








Want to try? It's not as hard as it looks. It is from i am baker's blog.

Q

Sarah

still can't solve a Rubix Cube

drive a manual car

or whistle.

And, sometimes, she still can't win at her own game of Life.

She is lucky to have her bestie Quincey.

Q sticks by her.

Sarah hopes she does the same for her, too.

And even though Sarah can't accomplish her math test in under 3 hours,
or stop talking all morning or during lunch,

Q is there.

LOVE IN EVERY STITCH

These are the gloves that my mother knit for me.

My "Weasely gloves".  

A term coined by my little sister, Mary Rose.

And my red fingernails. 

Basically, every member of my family has some, as well as all of our best friends. This is my third pair, actually.  I receive a set for each birthday and Christmas.  

This is the matching hat:

which happens to be my favorite style of hat.  

And this is the most beautiful knitted piece that I own.  My mother knit it for the big two-zero birthday.

You wish YOUR mom could knit like that.

Thanks mom!

I'M A BELIEVER

of Justin Bieber.


Yup. I said it.

I joined my cousin and younger sister at the theaters for his movie "Never Say Never".  And can I just say, "I HAVE THE BIEBER FEVER!"  

Oh, and this movie was fully in 3D.

Guys, Justin Bieber reached out to me with his hand.  I could almost touch it. What an experience. 

All I wanted to do after the movie was run my hands through his luscious hair.

Crying tween girls

Screaming tween girls

Jumping-up-and-down tween girls

I felt like I was 13 all over again. 

And all I'm seeing is purple and lots of hearts made with two hands.

Peace, Love, & Justin 

SUMMER AT 5280'

I'm going to be living a mile high this summer
I'm going to Denver in June.
(Sort of)
Actually, a west suburb of Denver called "Golden"
In a net-zero energy facility
Researching, well, energy.
Or more precisely:
Turning alcohols into hydrocarbons.

SUMMER 2011=GOLDEN

Haha. Cool, huh?

I'm pretty stoked.

MY TI-89

calculator is smarter than I am, and thus it mocks me on a regular basis.

It knows exactly what is wrong--and tells me exactly what the problem is before it will compute.

It gives me error messages like

"Missing parenthesis"

And makes me fix it.

I figure that if the g-calc (graphing calculator) already knows what is wrong, then it can fix it itself, or at least carry out the mathematical procedure while ignoring the typo.

But hey. It shouldn't waste it's time on silly things like that when it can make me do it instead.  My TI-89 is busy making 3D graphs, outputting indefinite integrals, and solving differential equations.

That's right. You heard me. 3D graphs.

The boy down the street hates it already.  As soon as I opened it he commented, "Oh man. I'm never gonna get to see you again."

I live such a hard life.  My friends and family just don't understand what a cool thing this is.  Until I took it to the engineering lab...

I have never seen such a warm welcome for a piece of technology.  There were oohs and aahhs. People congratulated me.  Others gave me advice on how to evaluate integrals or factor polynomials.  Some testified how it had changed their life.

I felt like I had given birth and brought in my newborn or something.

In any case, I think this marks a special day--the day that I can confidently forget the quadratic equation and still function in my major.


My calculator IS Jimmer.

T MINUS 9 HOURS

Well folks, this is it.
My last few hours as a teenager.

I need to do something immature. Quick.

Sad Story:
Today I discovered that I've lived in 3 decades, two centuries, and two millenniums and I'm not even twenty.

And it will only be true until 1:20 a.m.  I was so excited counting down to my b-day, and now I found a good reason to cling to 19.  What the heck.

All in all, it has been a good two decades.  I'm not complaining one bit.

Cheers.

HEIDI HAIR

This is why I was late to school today.

If it was spring, I would tuck little white flowers in it.

I DON'T DO POLITICS - TAKE TWO

I am sitting in my political science test review right now.  Anyone heard of the Federalists Papers, Shay’s Rebellion, or McCullogh vs. Maryland?

Because, I swear, this is the first time I have heard those terms in my life. 

“What IS the fourth amendment of the constitution?”

{the Political Science majors whip out their “Handy Dandy Pocket Constitutions” from their purse/backpack to look it up}

Well, in my purse I have my…graphing calculator??

I guess I could use it store some amendments in binary code.

Gah. I don’t understand these people. They have this strange language of metaphors. Dual federalism is like a layered cake, cooperative federalism is like a marble cake. PACs are like steady relationships, 527s are like friends with benefits, and 501cs are like friends.  

All I am getting out of this is:

cake + boyfriends=politics.

and:

I waste my vote because I vote libertarian

I love right-wing-indoctrinating courses.  They seem to be the core of my BYU existence.

I think I’m going to leave early and solve a couple differential equations before my brain turns to goo.

HAPPY LIST

11 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

     1. Green protected turn arrows while driving to Salt Lake City

     2. The lady in the math lab who checks out a solution manual for me for my textbook

     3. A warm february day in Utah

    4. Red, pink, and white tulips gracing my desk from this man.

     5. An article in the New York Times science section about the place where I am considering a summer internship.

     6. A handmade valentine from a kid that said "you are a good throwr at paepr erpans" (thrower at paper airplanes)

     7. Leftovers for lunch from a delicious Valentines dinner

     8. An A on an engineering test

     9, Scoring a cute pair of purple shoes for 12 dollars at the bookstore

     10. Violas playing triplets at break-neck-speed in Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

     11. An oversized pink, red, and white mug (maybe it doubles as a soup bowl??) full of dark chocolate candies (from the above mentioned man)

And to think it is only Tuesday.... 

Win.

IDEAS ANYONE?

I don't do politics. I just don't.

This is why my political science 110 assignment is kicking my booty.
I have to do a research paper on an interest group.

For some reason, I can't motivate myself to spend hours reading about the NRA.

I mean, I love guns and stuff. I guess.


Guess what? The other section of my class gets to blog for their assignment.
Life isn't fair.

Any cool interest groups I should consider before I...ahem... fire away at this paper?

Pun intended.

FEEL BAD FOR ME

Because basically I don't get to see

 

this man:










all weekend.

Boo.



Also consider that this is the third week in a row, and it will also happen again over Valentines weekend. Double boo.This is on account of the fact that we are both musicians and "get to" perform.  I guess the life of a musician means you'll never have a friday/saturday night to yourself.



We used to be in the same orchestra, but that was back in the good ol' days when I would sneakily glance at The Cute Trumpet Player-- as he emptied his spit valve on the floor... (I know. Gross. THAT is why I play a string instrument)  He didn't even know that I existed.  So, time has passed and he stayed in the philharmonic and I moved on to the Orchestra at Temple Square.  Let's just say that many a time we have been 50+ miles apart, but both on stage performing at the same time.

Aww. How sweet.

And it is going to happen again this weekend.


But hey--I'll be in warm St. George while he is stuck in frigid Provo. 




Who wins on THAT one? 

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

February. 

Yep, I said it.

I know everyone loves the summer/Christmas season, but I like February.  I know people loathe the second month of the year because it is in the dead of winter, etc. BUT they just don't get it.

One of my most favorite scenes is the valentine candy isle of the grocery store. Everything is awash in pink, red, and white.  Which is a very lovely color combination, if I do say so myself.

There is Valentines Day.... a No School Holiday (aka President's Day)...and my birthday.  Which I am very excited for, if you didn't know already.

I guess February is a month celebrating love.  Love for one another, love for life, love for no school...

And did I already mention that my favorite color combination is red, pink, and white??

THE ENGINEER, NURSE, AND MUSICIAN

How do these three occupations support one another? Please read the following morbidly-true-story-conversation to find out how.

Future Engineer:
"I better go and study so I don't make a fatal error someday and blow up hundreds of people--like designing a jet engine out of magnesium. (magnesium is extremely flammable, people) HEY! I'll just send 'em to YOU! (referring to the Future Nurse below...)"






Future Nurse: 
"Well looking at my quiz scores today in my nursing classes...I'll probably end up killing all of the wounded passengers instead of saving their lives."











Future Musician: 
"And I'll play taps on my trumpet at the passengers' funeral. "








{Silence.}


Future Musician: No, seriously.  Please don't study.  I need job security.

I HATE MATH

I mean, sometimes.  Like today this is what my math professor said:

"Oh, shoot. I forgot to put those kinds of problems on the homework--and those problems are on the test. Here, let me teach you how to make up your own multivariable differential equation problems and then you can solve them on your own for practice."

Transaltion: "Let me teach you how to solve a problem backwards that you don't even know how to solve forwards. Then if you solve it forwards and your answers match...you'll be fine on the test."

At this point, I think I'm aiming a bit high when I hope for a D+ out of this course.

(S)HE WILL BE AN ENGINEER

Never lead a normal life.
Utter social ineptitude.

I'm toast.

SELF: GOOD DAY

You are better off than you were before.
{In the famous words of my loved/hated Econ 110 professor, Kearl}

Anyways, I got some good news from him in my mailbox the other day

Thought I would never hear from the man again, frankly.

Well, I did.

I got a letter from him, telling me that I should consider choosing economics as my major.

Uh, lemme think.

Heck no.

But he left a nice handwritten P.S. at the end of the letter...

"Nice recovery from the first test"

{which I got a D on, if you recall...}

Win.

YOUR LUCKY NUMBER IS ... FIVE

There seems to be a recurring theme from this weekend...something about ordering foreign commodities (see post below this one) and screwing it all up.... for example:

The Boy Next Door and I ordered wayyyy too much chinese take out last weekend.
We didn't know what we were doing.

He got off the phone after hearing the total of the bill and said:

"Sarah, I think we ordered a lot of food."

Me: Oh crud.

Can you say LEFTOVERS FOR FIVE MEALS?!?

Mounds of sesame chicken.  Oopsie poopsie.

visual representation of our folly

Not to mention THE WORST fortune in the world came out of my cookie:

Your lucky number for this week is the number five.

Really. REALLY?

What kind of fortune is THAT?

Oh wait, five meals of leftovers. Riiiight.

MATH IN INDIA

RESTRICTED!  ONLY FOR SALE IN INDIA, BANGLADESH, NEPAL, PAKISTAN, SRI LANKA, & BHUTAN.

This was the warning printed on the front of the "international version"* of my differential equations textbook.  *A paperback version whose front cover doesn't even remotely resemble the bookstore's version

The package looked like a bomb on my doorstep.

It was shoddily wrapped--opened previously and resealed with yellow tape.

The book barely made it through customs, apparently.

Brand spankin' new from New Delhi, India

Well folks, that's what you get for being a cheapskate and buying your $120 retail price textbook for a mere $30 from a sketchy website...Pure contraband. 

WORLD'S BEST ONE-LINER-COP-OUT

You know when a guy asks you out and you don't really want to go out with him? I mean, he is nice, and a great guy, and has a.....um....a sweet spirit?

Yeah. You know the type.

Translation: You're not interested.

So what is a girl to do?? Do you REALLY want to crush heart into smithereens by saying "No thanks."?  And do you REALLY want to grin-and-bear-it through dinner and polite small talk while simultaneously dropping courteous hints like T-mobile drops calls BUT STILL retaining a cordial air and tone??  

(And to think that I actually considered my differential equations class to be stressful, complicated and full of too many variables...)

Well ladies, this is when I praise the high heavens that I can honestly use the phrase:

"I'm sorry, but I'm dating someone."

Love it.

He can't take it personal, no bad feelings between both of you, and best of all: you don't feel like some heartless beast.  So great.  

Hope you can truthfully use it too.  

Best wishes in the dating game,

Sarah

FIRST DAY OF WINTER SEMESTER

goes like this:

10:00 class--canceled by professor

12:00 class--canceled by professor

1:30 class--Political Science 100 professor explains his bias against us "American Heritage Refugees" since the majority of the class enrolled in order to wimp out of the university GE requirement. 

I'd say the semester is going pretty well so far.