Northern Aerospace

Jay Oh Bee

2006-11-29T00:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I gots me a new jeorb today. I thought to myself, what kind of a job around here can I get that would be more applicable to my major and would be interesting that I could possibly get part time? Working on the vintage trains of the Grand Canyon Railroad. Wouldn't you know it, they were looking for an electrical type with experience with control and indicating systems.

I'm pretty darn excited to be working in their locomotive shop once finals are done instead of sitting around campus getting paid eight buck an hour to do nothing but rewind tapes......

WTF

2006-10-18T23:09:00.000-04:00

This is just too friggin funny....

School

2006-10-13T15:10:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally went and did it, Igot involved in an engineering project, and not just any project either, SAE Supermileage NAU has never competed in this competition before so this year has a brand new team and a brand new design. Now all we have to do is get some money together to get us to Michigan in June!

School

2006-09-25T15:48:00.000-04:00

So, now that the waiting to move and carry on with our lives is over,what do we do now? What's the next step? I've been feeling a little unsettled lately I think because I don't know exactly what that next step is. I know I want my master's degree and that I want to go to Grad School but, I also want to eat. I am currently an Astrophysics major, they dont' have an Astrophysics masters program here, I think I can actualy get my bachellor's done in two years. Do I stay here and get a masters either in Physics education or applied physics and go on to grad work wherever I can manage to get accepted? Or, do I skip town once I have my bachelor's degree and get my masters in something a little more up my alley and inline with what I want to do. I would rather put together a master's thesis on cosmology or theoretical physics rather than how to teach retarded high school students something most of them dont' want to bother with. Does it really matter what my bachelor's or masters is in to be able to get my PhD in Astrophysics?

I thought about speaking with my Astrophysics professor, and maybe I still wil but, I jsut feel like I'm in the way, like I'm just bothering these people who don't know me and may not have a vested interest in me as a student....I guess I could talk to my academic advosor as well but, I still feel aprehensive about the whole thing. I guess in a way I still feel like I'm back at JCC where they just want to get you through and into a job at the end and not necessarily give you a broader understanding of not only the world around you but, yourself as well. That and I feel that my acedemic advisor would push for the physics education masters because, that's what he's all about and he's trying to recruit anybody even remotely interested in the program.........

Kewl

2006-09-16T17:03:00.000-04:00

I ran across this site today looking for some information on a book my calc teacher had mentioned in class the other day. The notes I have are Cantor ( a methematician that went insane contemplating the infinite. The title of the book that I was given was "The search for the Aleph" and was supposed to be a story of Cantor's life and work but, alas, I seem to have come up empty handed. I did find a title by one of my favorite authors Amir D. Aczel titled, "The Mystery of the ALEPH" but, can't find that at my campus library either wich surprises me becasue the library at NAU is riggin HUGE....

Star Wars

2006-09-11T10:04:00.000-04:00

Amen brother...

Transportation, Check

2006-09-08T22:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally gave up on getting a kick-ass chopper bike and decided to just go to wally-world and get a cheap-ass mountain bike. Something that would give me some good ol transportation back and forth to classes. Well, lo and behold, there sat a fresh new wicked green Schwinn Stingray. I was totally amazed. I oh so carefully got it off the rack and set it on the floor, still sure that it would just be way too small. It wasn't. I even asked my dear wife the untimate litmus question, "do I look stupid?" her answer was no so, as we speak it sits lovingly locked to the bike rack just outside my window, I haven't even ridden it yet with the exception of the four feet in wally-world. The best part, I only paid $79 for it, not $179 but, just $79. My dear wife even asked if the price was correct at the register after it rang up for a bit less than expected. The cashier checked it out and said, "yup, it rings up as $79.00". Sweet...

WTF

2006-09-05T13:56:00.000-04:00

Ok, these images really freak me out. Especially the dental asistant, it looks more like the hand of Jesus is stedying the hand of dental tourture. Jus tlook at the face of the guy being worked on, this is jsut freaky... And what's up with the golfer image, where the hell is the other half of Jebus and why does he seem inpatient, is he waiting for his turn, will he be taking this guy away after he makes this last put and dies of cardiac arrest? I will not sleep tonight thanx to these images......

Transportation

2006-09-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

So, the process of getting from the science building to the SBS building sux. I have only made it to Folklore ontime once. This got me to thinkin, I really need a bike. But, what kind of bike. The bike you ride says as much about you as what kind of car you drive wich, incidentally is an 89 Lincoln Town Car, grey, big, and rusting. I was really thinking about one of those off the shelf cruiser bikes like the Schwinn Stinray. It's one boss bike, but I may not exactly fit it all that well as it is a smaller bike and I'm 5'10" and 33. So I started looking around, Taget has a cruiser that's not quite as cool but, is for adults. Unsatisfied I looked some more and found this. That's just super-fuckin'-cool. Now only if I can get access to the campus machine shop (I don't even relaly kow if it exists or where it might be).

After thinking about this project for a little while I started remembering why I got out of engineering, I love to make the plans, figure out the details, then I'm done. Would I ever really get this thing made before I graduate. Hell, will I ever graduate even?

At any rate, I started evaluating what my needs are and it turns out, I needs something practical, something to ride over all kinds of terrain, and something that can cut in and out of both vehicular traffic as well as pedestrians and it looks like the Overkill isn't it. I still want to build this bike someday but, not becasue I need wheels, because I want to build it and someday ride it, not to get my ass back and forth to classes within a week or two...

someday Overkill, someday......

NAU

2006-09-04T20:54:00.000-04:00

Well, first week of school down and everything seems OK. I was really worried about both Calc II and Physics II. Calc was weird becasue the calc I that I took was definitly not the calc I that is taught here and everyone really seemed farther ahead than me even though I have been through calc II. After the professor went over homework questions wich was almost half of the questions assigned I didn't feel like everyone was light years ahead of me anymore, that and he gave us an extension on the due date wich was great...Physics was a question too untill we had our first quiz, was really easy and I got a prefect score but, we'll see how the rest of them go, the homework that he assigns is much harder than the quiz questions, hopefully nothing will come up behind me this semster...

anyway, the library here is great too! It's friggin huge and they have so much, I guess moving from a piddly little community college that had one stack of scinece books to a university library that had a room of scince books makes a difference...

Finally Here

2006-08-26T02:17:00.000-04:00

Well, we have finally made it to Flagstaff, Arizona and I for one, am very glad I don't have to move for a looooong time. I have been very impressed so far, by NAU. Not only are the facilities and the campus set in one of the most scenic backdrops imagineable but, the people here are great. I have never had such an easy time getting things done like, ID cards, parking permits, moving into housing. It was amazing how much everyone was customer service oriented and as a student, i felt that I really mattered!

I have already had a chance to speak with a few of my professors and look forward to speaking with them throughout the semester. There is one physics professor in particular that I seemed to make an immediate connection with and that seemed genuinely interested in me as well.

well, more later, for now I still need to get used to this 3 hour time difference....

CLM

2006-06-26T10:09:00.000-04:00

I remember my first CLM (Career Limiting Move) I was working as a tlecom engineer and was surfing the web for some good prices on phones and every freaking site I went to was crap, dad links, links that went to the wrong product. Finally I get to one last site and I'm so pissed that I find the wemaster address and send him an email with my company email address. It went something like this;

"I can't stand this crap you call HTML, this programming for this website is so bad it makes me truly sick to my stomach"

there was more but, those were really thetwo statements that mattered in the email. Well, apparently this web admin didn't appreciate this constuctive criticism very much and found the number for the President of the company and then shit rolled downhill. I was given a heads up so I knew what was comming my way. By the time I spoke with my president he wasn't really upset, it was more like, well Pete, you made fun of someone and they told on you so now we gotta pretend like their website isn't all that and apologize. I drafted a letter and had my boss preview it as well as thpresident and then conviently forgot to send it.

Medicine

2006-06-18T21:08:00.000-04:00

Holy Batshit, I have heard of this before but, this is all a little too much. That is part of what is worng with this nation, medical care. It is obcenely expensive because insurenace companies do not care how much care costs, they cover it and make up for their cost in their premiums. The helthcare providers know this and charge more and more for their services, then as if that was not enough, they scare you into thinking there are so many things out there that you need those services for.
Case in point, I have recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure, wich they tell me leads to heart attacks and to check it everyday and be careful. I also have GERD or Acid Reflux or ulcers or some shit,(over 7 years they still can not give me a straight answer) I start having weird chest pains that I have never felt before and can not associate with any other problem that I may have so I call my doctor. I get the "I have seen people younger than you have heart attacks Pete, life is too short", "in my professional opinion you need to get to the nearest emergency room right away" and here is the kicker, because I do not have health insurance, I go to the VA Clinic 20 miles away I get, "I must advise you that the VA can not cover an emergency room visit unless you go to Syracuse" Syracuse is the big VA hospitol that is about a 2 hour car ride that will cost me at least 20 bucks. Now, I am nervous becasue of all this "as soon as possible" bullshit and I go to the emergency room. do you kow how much an emergency cardiac visit is? Do you know how many x-rays they take and the EKG and everything else costs? do you know how much a 33 year old fulltime college student makes in the summer time when the only gig going is tutoring math at school 2 hours a day, 4 days a week?

Now, I am not completely ignorant, I know that they are obligated to ensure that I get the care that I should get regardless of monetary issues. I know it would not be very advisable for a health care professional to say anything else when someone calls in that may or may not be having a cardiac arrest but, shit! If I it were not for the fact that I am a bit freaked out by having high blood pressure(they actually used the phrase, "I hear your head is about to pop off") and the fact ath my grandfather on my fathers side died of a heart attack, my mothers mother had a heart attack, and not to mention that my wifes mother had her first heart attack at the age of 35, that and I am not the most stress-free person in the world....I would have never thought that I may or may not be having a heart attack and even contemplated going to the emergency room.

Now, I am not really blaming anyone at all, it is really more a problem of the system I guess, I surely can not really complain about the healthcare I recieve, I sure would not want their job but, fuck me, I almost wish they would have found something wrong in that emergency room so I could have a jsutification for the Gi-Normous bill they are going to expect me to pay two days after I get it, like thats going to happen.......

Data Destruction

2006-06-18T20:58:00.000-04:00

This site reminded me of the summer I spent working for an unspecified IT department reformating and then destroying hard drives. I still have a hard drive magnet on the hood of my sweet ride that hasn't moved in about a year...

I spent the summer removing the hard drives from pc's that were just too old to use and they were going to "dispose" of them (dispose means of course properly disposal as specified by the law, wink, wink) Anyway, we took these drives out, reformatted them, then ran them throug a three level format, all F's, all ones, all zeros. Then, as if that wasn't enough, we tore the drives apart, removed the platters, and cut the platters in as many pieces as possible and then threw it all in the trash, er, recycled them.....

What a waste of my time, you have someone who has worked in IT for 10+ years, you're paying them minimum wage, and you have them reformatting and destoying hard drives....

but, I ain't one to gossip so, you ain't heard it from me...

$$$

2006-06-18T12:26:00.000-04:00

Let me see, I can go to college this year or I can buy this...hard call

WTF

2006-06-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

you know what? This guy is an official duchebag...

Happy Early Father's Day!

2006-06-17T14:29:00.000-04:00

This is a fun article I found that seems completly tue!

schtuff

2006-06-16T21:29:00.000-04:00

I really can not argue with anything that this says....

Local News

2006-06-14T09:23:00.000-04:00

Yet another great reason to live in Upstate NY

this guy must be a friggin Genius

Cruise

2006-06-13T16:34:00.000-04:00

Maybe I can get my student loans to cover a cruise to the Galapagos Islands....

would be a pretty sweet vacation

Physics

2006-06-13T16:19:00.000-04:00

Other than Cosmomlogy, this is why I decided to become an AstroPhysics Major...

and here's a little more on the Casimir effect itself..

and a little more info as it pertains to space travel...

Whoa

2006-06-13T15:29:00.000-04:00

This little bit of majic was great, especially the way that one girl just FREAKED

Aerospace

2006-06-06T11:02:00.000-04:00

The candle that burns twice as fast, lasts half as long...

This site has some awesome pictures of Russian Aerospace technology. Not only do they protray the sheer enormity of the Vostok vehicles but, also shows the dilapitated state of the current Russian Aerospace Program. With all the effort the Russians put in during the space race of the sixties and how they were able to accomplish so much in the way of technology ond sheer willpower is overshadowed only by the inability to mainitain such a strong and powerfull program.

It would be great however, if I were independantly wealthy and could A. Go to see these things that close myself or B. Take that old space shuttle and turn it into my house, it would no doubt take wayyyy too much effort time technology to get it to actually fly at this point hehe...

WTF?

2006-06-05T12:40:00.002-04:00

I could hardly believe this article when I read it but, then again, I an believe it. Wait till the Mormons catch on to this one...

WTF?

2006-06-05T12:40:00.001-04:00

I could hardly believe this article when I read it but, then again, I an believe it. Wait till the Mormons catch on to this one...