Adun Toridas!
Hello to all again. I'm still alive. Grad school is chugging along nicely. More details in a later post when I'm not supposed to be doing thesis work...
The title is as such b/c I've been watching a lot of Starcraft 2 videos recently. You know... for about the 20th time.
I'm nearly over some dehydration I got (it was hot and we were on tarmac the whole time... even though I drank 3 liters o' water) while helping out the AIAA Design Build Fly competition this weekend where my fiance's team (of which I assisted) took 15th out of 61 teams. They were also one of only 13 teams to actually complete the two different missions set out. Their report score was 9th out of the 61 submitted. With that now over we've got more wedding planning to get back to. Ugh... Vegas would make life easy. However, the one thing that is totally good to go (besides the date) is the honeymoon at St. Lucia. Yeah, it's in the Caribbean. Yeah, it's an all inclusive resort with free alcohol all the time. Am I gonna be blitzed while trying to scuba? You bet!!
The biggest news besides that is I get to teach a class next semester! Yours truly will be instructing freshman/sophomores on Numerical Methods / Matrix Operations / Fortran. The class is AE227.
I'll now leave you with the most badass picture ever. This was Oklahoma State's plane at the DBF competition. It caught fire thanks to overheating some NiMH batteries, which I've never seen set fire to anything. I've seen them melt and burst, just never any fire. While competition crashes are cool since it's inherent to men that explosions are awesome, it's pretty sad since this plane had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears behind it, as all DBF entries do.
:EDIT: Picture credits should go to whoever runs the site www.terrabreak.org. It's the "civilian" Design Build Fly site that provides cool photos and a compendium information. So if it anyone asks or is curious, that's where it's from. No personal credit was given, nor any declaration of creative commons. :EDIT:
-Michael
P.S. My e-mail is michael.garruda@gmail.com
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I just might have to make that my background...
Also: Mike, you and I live in the same city now, and you still haven't called me. I know you're busy with wedding planning and DBF and teaching, and I'm just a layabout lazy bum with a full-time job, but please, let's go get drunk some random night. I'll even buy the shots. :) Hehe.
By riley on 04/23,2008, at 16:32
I also just noticed that the class you are teaching includes Fortran. Is that a "fun" programming language? At one point, prior to my C days, I thought about teaching it to myself, but never got around to it...
By riley on 04/23,2008, at 16:33
I meant to call you and do something for the KU game... As for getting drunk, I've never been to a Wichita bar, so we'll have to try that sometime.
Fortrash, sorry, Fortran is pretty easy to learn. It's not so much 'fun', but it's numerically very powerful. To hell with your object oriented C language! I haven't taken the time to learn Fortran 90, as I'll be teaching Fortran 77. Functionality and neatness has been added in the 90 version. I just program in Matlab or VBA nowadays.
By Mike on 04/23,2008, at 16:41
Your post amused me.
And it had flames.
By nolant on 04/23,2008, at 16:45
I love you. Nice post.
By James on 04/23,2008, at 20:38
I want to teach a class. I think it'd be fun. Are you going to be tough teacher who drills his students, or a laid back one? I'm curious.
Also, St. Lucia is amazing. You're going to love it. Passing out on St. Lucia's beaches is probably the best thing ever.
By ankit on 04/24,2008, at 12:44