Sunday ponderings

A few unrelated thoughts:

Watching very drunken people on my wait for the bus to get back home last night (at approximately 6pm, mind you), was incredibly entertaining. I don't particularly support creating a made-up holiday for the sole purpose of drinking for 24-hours straight, but my 20-minute wait for the bus (it was late, of course, because a million non-penn-staters decided to come here and clutter our roads with their cars this weekend...) was lots more fun than it normally would have been. The drunken people were happy to talk to me. I saw someone dressed up as Gumby walk by. The other girl waiting for the bus with me got a hug from a stranger.

He told me he lucked out. I think I lucked out more.

Last night, I went to the International Competition of Collegiate A Capella. So good. Lots of really awesome groups singing beautifully.

Today I will spend the entire day working on my convection take-home exam, that I should have been working on the past 4 days. I hope it's not too hard...

At approximately 8:30pm on Friday, I will be boarding a bus to New York City with 3 other engineering grad students (and we will be meeting 4 others there who got a noon bus). I am pumped. The week that follows that weekend will be spring break. All of us are staying in town to work on our research (at the request of our advisers...), but we will not have homework to do. It will be a good week...makes me excited for summer. I quite enjoy my new friends. I also quite enjoy state college.

Worlds Apart

On the drive to Erie last weekend, Dave introduced me to a beautiful rendition of a song I have always loved, but haven't heard in probably 2 years. Beautiful song, and the particular version he played for me was absolutely stunning. The lyrics are also incredibly powerful, so I'm sharing them with you.

Worlds Apart

by Jars of Clay

I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
To give and die

To turn away and not become
Another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
More deeply than the oceans,
More abundant than the tears
Of a world embracing every heartache
Can I be the one to sacrifice
Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me
Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
'Cause what I need and what I believe are worlds apart
And I pray

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees
On my knees

I look beyond the empty cross
Forgetting what my life has cost
And wipe away the crimson stains
And dull the nails that still remains
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
The battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
And wash the feet and cleanse my pride
Take the selfish, take the weak,
And all the things I cannot hide
Take the beauty, take my tears
The sin-soaked heart and make it yours
Take my world apart
Take it now, take it now
And serve the ones that I despise
Speak the words I can't deny
Watch the world I used to love
Fall to dust and thrown away

I look beyond the empty cross
Forgetting what my life has cost
So wipe away the crimson stains
And dull the nails that still remains
So steal my heart and take the pain
Take the selfish, take the weak
And all the things I cannot hide
Take the beauty, take my tears
Take my world apart, take my world apart
And I pray, and I pray, and I pray
On my knees - take my world apart
Worlds apart

THON Weekend

This weekend at Penn State was dubbed "THON" weekend. THON, which is short for The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, is a fundraiser that raises money for a charity that helps children with cancer and their families (paying for treatments, I think also some cancer research, etc). At the end of the fundraising "season" so to speak, everybody gathers together in the basketball gym and holds the THON part of the fundraiser.


700 students (referred to in the rest of this post as "dancers") are chosen by their miscellaneous clubs and organizations to stand on the dance floor for 46 hours STRAIGHT. No sitting allowed, no sleeping allowed, no caffeine allowed. I think it's supposed to signify the pain and struggles that a child with cancer goes through. The rest of the student body takes part in THON is various ways...too many for me to get into right now. Basically, the THON event ends up being like a gigantic dance party, where 700 people are not allowed to leave. The other 10,000+ students that filter in and out of the event can come and go as they please, staying in the stands for the most part (only certain people are allowed on the dance floor, and you need a floor pass, complicated stuff right there). From the stands, they make signs, cheer, and enjoy the activities that are happening on the floor.


I had never gone to THON before this weekend, but had always heard of it and intended to go. Not having a car most of my undergrad career, snowstorms (I mean, it is February), and a fear of carpooling with complete strangers kept me from THON in years past. Now that I lived a mere 3 miles away from the place it was being held, I had no choice. I decided that I would go to THON at some point in some way back when I decided I was going to Penn State for grad school.

This weekend, however, brought back a lot of those memories from the beginning of the school year where I felt overwhelmed and intimidated by the mere size and vastness of this school. You see, I have a friend who was a dancer in THON this year, and she chose me as one of the people to get a floor pass for certain hours of the weekend so I could go on the floor and keep her company, cheer her up, give her back massages, and bring her presents. I was honored that she chose me, and I was excited to help her out. I ended up getting three separate shifts for which I was to go see her: one was Friday night, one was Saturday morning, and the third in the middle of the night Saturday/Sunday. In order for me to make it on the floor, there needed to be one floor pass available for me from the organization she was with (out of two...basically they were handed off as people came on/off their shifts to go visit with her and the other dancer from that group), and I needed to wait in a line with a bunch of other people trying to do the exact same thing I was doing in order to get that pass.

On Friday night the floor was too crowded (opening night, go figure). More people were trying to use their passes than were allowed on the floor for fire safety reasons. They were also trying out a new electronic pass system, which failed miserably and created panic. I did not make it on the floor the first night to see Megan.

Saturday morning was glorious. I arrived an hour early for my shift (just in case the chaos of the previous night was still in full swing). Turns out, the line to get on the floor was a mere 5 minutes long. So I stood in the stands with complete strangers and enjoyed the entertainment on the stage. After an hour I got in line, waited for 5 minutes, and got on the floor. I spent an hour with Megan, she gave me a tour of the dance floor and little backstage area, and played catch with a new big plastic ball she had just gotten. It was fun :-)



My middle of the night shift was less than glorious. Something confusing had happened with the passes again, and the shifts our group was working with had gotten behind. I showed up at 1:40am for my 2:00am shift, and then promptly received a text message from the group leader saying the 1:00am people had just gotten on the floor, and would I mind terribly waiting until 3:00am so that they could spend a full hour on the floor? I found her, we chatted about it (the originally scheduled 3:00am people were still planning on coming, so they would need to be bumped back as well if I took it), and I resigned my shift. I gave Megan a wave from the stands, and drove home and went to bed.

In the midst of all of this hustle-and-bustle, I learned a little bit about the culture of THON. And I don't really get it. I ran into two girls I knew from ballet class in the midst of my 2:00am fiasco, and I asked them how long they had been there. Since 1:00am on Friday, they told me. ...Why in the world would you spend 24 hours there for no reason other than just to be there? They were just hanging out in the stands watching, eating concessions, and hanging out. For 24 hours. And they were planning on staying until it ended (they also looked exhausted and miserable...). I feel like they weren't alone. These people take this so seriously. Yes, it's a great cause. Yes, it's fun. But honestly, get some sleep (unless of course, you're a dancer)! It's only an event, you can come back after you've taken care of the other responsibilities in your life. The vibe I got the entire weekend was that it was a really big (VERY important) clique, and I was the outsider.

I am so proud of Megan for dancing the whole 46 hours. I am so excited that THON raised $9.5 million dollars to help kids with cancer. It is a really great thing that these students are doing! And now I know what to expect for next year. Maybe I can gather a few friends to watch one of the more exciting portions for about an hour or so and then go on our merry ways. And I'll donate to the cause along the way. Have fun with it :-)

Here's an inspirational THON video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np6elB0U3SU

Patience...

I lack it. The patience virtue seems to have passed me by.

Currently I am waiting for the temperature in a certain part of my wind tunnel to reach a very low temperature (-70 Celsius), by controlling the temperature of ANOTHER part of the tunnel. It's definitely a lesson in patience. If I make it too cold too quickly, things will go badly, and the temperatures I am looking to lower might actually RISE (it makes sense...just trust me on this one...). If I go too slowly...well...I can't sit here for 10 hours waiting for this thing.

And so I play the game. I sit and wait...decide that the temperature is decreasing too slowly...and then turn up the liquid nitrogen nozzle to increase the liquid nitrogen that goes into my tunnel. Oops, too much, turn it down. Oops, too little. Now I'm back at room temperature...crap. Start again. Eventually I will get to where I need to be (last night it took 2 hours...I'm hoping for 1 hour today). But for now, I am waiting.

How much of a metaphor is that for almost everything in my life? I think I'm waiting too long for something, so I decide to take some action...which ends up messing everything up. There are so many stories that follow that exact storyline.

I could be super profound right now and quote some Bible and book verses, but I am technically working right now. If you have any, feel free to chime in :-)

In what ways are you impatient? I'll continue this post the next time I'm blogging while NOT at work...

Erie tomorrow!

:-)

This semester vs. last

This semester is, so far, a million times better than last. But it's also busier. Funny how that happens.

My classes are ME 513 (Convection) and ME 522 (Fluids 2). Last semester I took Conduction and Fluids 1. So far, Convection is much, much, much easier, slower-paced, and has less homework than Conduction did. And Fluids 2 is pretty much the same as Fluids 1, except the homework tends to take longer (or I'm just spending more time on it...one of the two...). I have a homework buddy that helps keep me motivated to stay on task most of the time, he even was able to get me to do homework on my birthday! I sometimes wish I had more homework buddies though...occasionally we get visitors from our class on Thursday nights (homework is due Fridays), but not too often. I miss our Fluids 1 study group, they were the best!

Work has more responsibilities, and so that's slightly stressful, but I am keeping it so that my "work stays at work," as a good friend put it last week. It's absolutely necessary not to think about, stress over, and worry about what needs to get done at work while I am not at work. Otherwise, life will be miserable, because there are ALWAYS things I could be doing. When I leave work (and a conscious decision needs to be made to leave...otherwise I could find myself spending way too much time there), I change my focus to either homework, eating, or (rarely) doing fun things. I know that there will always be things to get done, deadlines to hit, and I will work as hard as I can to hit those in a reasonable amount of time. And if I don't...oh well. There are other things that define my life. Keeping myself sane is much more important than getting this stuff done. Orders of magnitude more important. If I were to do a dimensional analysis on this, the research would not even exist on the importance scale.

I also am enjoying not having two jobs. I've been keeping track of my hours spent on things this semester, and compared to last semester I spend a teeny bit more time on work than I did combined with my two jobs last semester (like, 2 hours a week more...barely counts). But I don't have to run around back and forth between offices/buildings/class. It's nice. And I have fun at work. Last week I got silicone in my hair and got to spend time on a ladder. Way better than grading homework. It's good stuff.

I will be in Erie on February 11-13. Pray for safe travels, and no snow storms.

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

Last night, after waiting outside in the cold for the bus for 50 minutes, ice skating, going out to the Darkhorse with my favorite classmates, and coming back and watching the 3rd Harry Potter for a bit, I didn't get to sleep last night until about 3am (after having woken up at 7am on Friday). So I was tired. And when I went to sleep I was ever so thankful that today was Saturday...and I had absolutely no plans for the day. I use the words "no plans" very loosely, because I have absolutely no food in my apartment, my bedroom is a mess, homework has to get done, and I am in serious need of attacking that gigantic laundry pile. Nevertheless, I made the decision not to set an alarm today. Sabbath, after all, is Biblical, and very important for refreshing after a long week of the insanity that is grad school.

So I woke up naturally, and decided to roll over and just rest for awhile. It felt like I was there, half-awake and half-asleep for about an hour. The sun shining on my face, I was finally ready to get up. I looked over at the clock. 10am. Ten. AM. I had only been asleep for 7 hours (less than that if you count the fact that I was awake well before that). I think my body has officially rejected the option of sleeping for more than 6 hours a night. Wonderful.

Time to get started on that laundry :-).

Also, last night it was decided that I will be hitching a ride up to Erie either the first or second weekend in February. Erie-ites, be ready. Although there's not a whole lot I can do in a single weekend. And I won't have my own car up there. Either way, it shall be good.

Happy MLK Day

Today is MLK day and I have no classes (most of my professors have also taken the day off), but yet I am in the lab working. Because of this, I figured this is an appropriate comic to share with you.

To all my grad school counterparts who are also working today, keep it up.