Obama is Coming! (Finale) 16 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Classes.Tags: obama, school
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I got the press pass. I saw Obama! W00T!
Wait — I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning.
People started arriving on campus at 5:30 AM for the 9:30 AM speech. Oh well, you’ll have to remember there were people in line for tickets at 4:30 AM when they were only going to start giving them out at 10:00 AM, so I guess it takes a special kind of zealot to actually get into these things.
All that aside…. So they closed off pretty much my main route to get into the main part of campus. Now to just get to the cafeteria I have a choice of either running the gauntlet of rabid Obama supporters, cops, and secret service agents, or going three blocks out of my way just to get to a building two blocks away.
Went for a run early morning, dodged a bunch of cars, was yelled at by the cops about half-a-dozen times because aparently my usual route runs through “restricted areas.” Got glared at by a bunch of secret service men in dark suits. Went to breakfast. Passed John Hickenlooper on the way to breakfast. I blinked in astonishment, he smiled and continued walking on his way. Half expected to bump into Governor Ritter too but apparently I missed him by like 10 minutes.
I followed a horde of TV reporters in and checked in at the media table. Was quite impressed they actually gave me press creds. Went inside, found that pretty much all the good spots were taken, so went down to the guys with the TV cameras, chatted one up, and got invited to hang with them down on the ground floor. Had an amazing view for the speeches.
As for the speech itself, I’ve found two youtube vids of it. It was all about the economy, so I understood most of it, though probably not in as much detail as I should. I suppose that’s why I’m in Principles of Economics.
Here’s the first video. It was made by a student, I think, who was up on the bleachers on the right-hand side of the court.
And the second video, actually provided by BarackObama.com:
Of course, now that it’s over it’s hard to concentrate on something as trite as school. I think it’s all the adrenaline or something.
Obama is Coming! (Part 3) 15 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: obama, school
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So they really did reserve a number of tickets for students. (How nice of them; it’s our school, so they reserved us tickets. My faith in humanity is almost restored. Almost.)
They reserved 150 tickets for Mines students. 150 tickets for distribution — somehow — to approximately 4300 students. I stood in line at lunchtime to put my name down for the lottery. Alas, I was not one of the lucky 3.5%.
My name’s still down for a press pass, though. Don’t know if it’ll actually go through, especially since they say they don’t give credentials out ahead of time (you need to pick them up at some sort of media registation table), and they only contact you if you are denied. I suppose the fact that they haven’t called or emailed me is a good thing, but not having some sort of confirmation is still rather disconcerting. I really hate leaving things to chance.
Obama is Coming! (The Continuing Saga) 14 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: obama, school
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The Campaign for Change started handing out tickets for Obama’s speech this morning at 10 AM. There were four locations. One was even near me.
I got up at 6 AM, walked 2 miles down Route 6, and stood in line for 3 hours. It was 45 degrees out and raining and miserable. They ran out of tickets in 20 minutes. Guess who didn’t get one.
But then I saw just how many Mines students were left standing in the line and I thought: this isn’t right. It’s our school, and maybe a dozen students actually got tickets.
Problem. But I have a solution. It came to me after about two hours standing in the rain.
Obama’s speech is at 9:30 AM on Tuesday. I’m a DJ. My show starts at 9:00 AM on Tuesday. I made some phone calls, went back to the campaign, begged my case. After sweet-talking several campaign workers (though I might’ve overdid the Southern drawl), all I’m waiting for now is a call back about my request for a press pass. The suspense is killing me.
Obama is Coming! 13 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: obama, school
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Barack Obama is coming to campus.
Nobody is more surprised than the students. After all, nobody ever comes to the Colorado School of Mines. Hell, most people are like, “the school of what?”
(OK, that’s not entirely true. Al Jazeera showed up two weeks ago to do a broadcast. But, generally speaking, nobody of note ever comes to Mines.)
So anyway, Obama is coming! I’m a little excited. I’ll be taking the bus into Denver tomorrow to pick up some tickets. You’d expect them to have tickets available here at school since we’re hosting him, but no — I actually have to go several miles off campus to get tickets.
My suitemates are all bummed out since he’s talking at 9:30 AM on Tuesday and they all have class. I actually have a radio show from 9 to 10, but I think my listeners will understand if I ditch them….
A Random Thought 12 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Observations.Tags: television
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So I was watching an old Law & Order episode. Not for any particular reason, but I wanted to watch something.
Anyway, it was one of the really old ones — season 4 I think — and it involved a cult. Pretty much the cult leader brainwashed one of his followers to building and planting a bomb in a bank.
It was an enjoyable episode, like many other of the older episodes are, but I there was this one scene that just had me laughing out loud. Not because it was funny, just because I was so startled that it had me cracking up.
At one point during the trial, the defense attorney puts the cult leader on the stand. The defense attorney is asking his questions and the charismatic, good-looking cult leader is answering, and then the camera breaks off for a shot of the prosecutorial team sitting at their table. Mr Stone, the prosector, is sitting there reading the bible. It was just a beatiful shot:
… I guess it’s one of those “you’ve got to see it to believe it” type moments.
Explosives Engineering 11 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Classes.Tags: explosives engineering
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Explosive Engineering I is the most amazing class ever.
Especially on Thursdays. That’s when we have our practicals.
Today we all went up to the experimental mine in Idaho Springs. It was kind of drizzly and cold, but nobody minded (over much). It did make doing our perimeter check a bit uncomfortable — that, and the fact that we were at 7500 feet.
Anyway, we set off a series of different explosions to see the differences between the different compositions. It’s one thing to read about stuff like how the oxygen balance of a given compound will affect the smoke, and an entirely different thing to actually see the difference.
In addition, we experimented with different kinds of initiation systems and delays. We each got to learn the proper way to light detonation chord, timed how long it took to burn (approximately 1 foot took 46 seconds), and compared it to shock tubing and cannon fuses.
Finally we assembled and detonated three different explosions. The first was a hand charge: a stick of dynamite, det chord, blasting cap, and electrical tape. Then we set off a binary explosive. Finally we blew up 1/2 lb of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO).
The ANFO was, by far, the most amazingly huge and wonderful explosion.
I’m still trying to figure out where to buy an orange reflective safety vest. They’re surprisingly hard to find, especially since there really aren’t very many blasting supply stores around. I tried Home Depot but they were out aparently.
Explosives Database 6 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Classes.Tags: explosives engineering
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Well, it’s been a while. But I had a good reason: I was in Japan.
But now summer’s over and it’s back to school. For the most part everything’s peachy. Perhaps the coolest part of all is that I’m getting EPICS II Design credit for my Explosives Engineering I final project.
So this project, I have to create a database of current and past projects relating to explosives. It’s pretty much open-ended, but I foresee great things. (And it’ll get me to be serious about learning PHP/MySQL. I really only know enough to keep this site up and running.)
I’ve decided to apply the principles of Agile Software Development that I’m learning in my Software Engineering class. Pretty much one of the key tenets is to release useful updates often. So I plan on tackling this project in stages:
- Create a skeleton website.
- Create a database of only PDF documents.
- Create a database of PDF documents, plus additional information about authors, title, abstract, etc.
- Create a database of “projects” which can have one or more associated PDF documents. All of the authors of the documents are listed as “collaborators” on the projects.
- Add search functionality, and maybe keywords.
Well, that’s the idea at least. Of course, as I was writing this all out, I started thinking — “Well what if…” LOL.
Things to Do Before I Die 17 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: list
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When I was in the 8th grade, I wrote a list of things to do before I die. It had a buch of the usual stuff on it — go to Asia, write a computer program, run the bases on a major league baseball field — and it also had some more weird stuff.
In high school I made several new lists. I’ve tried to consolidate them all here below, but I keep finding old ones in weird places. Just this past June I found one wedged between the pages of my old geometry textbook.
Anyway, since I’ve been in college, I’ve actually been doing a pretty good job of crossing these items off the list. Of course, after I do it, I tend to get on AIM and tell my friends, “I crossed another item off my list!” Just recently, one of my friends asked, “Is there a real list or is that just a figure of speech?”
So I wrote this blog post. Because there really is a list. And this is a pretty good place to keep track.