The Station

Progress Is A Road...In Tuscola, IL

Yesterday, I had my design team over to work on our final project of the semester. It was a fun day of building stuff, running to the store, and torturing Troy with modern music. We're designing a cupholder for a car. This is no ordinary cupholder, though. It has a cord to plug into the car's lighter port to use electricity to either heat or cool the beverage. Neat, huh? I guess this wasn't mechanical enough for Professor Saif, so we added a spring system to absorb bumps to keep the fizz in the soda. The prototype works good. It gets so cold that condensation forms on it within 60 seconds. Only thing is that a soda can doesn't have a flat bottom, so there's not enough contact area to cool it. We're still working on it.

By the way, Tuscola, IL is an awesome place. I went there last night to see a friend of a friend's band. The band, Twelve Ways From Sunday, was good, but the guitarist friend of a friend was freaking awesome. I want to play again. I want to play like that guy. Other interesting things are as follows. The lead singer looks a lot like one of my professors. Townie bars are nothing like campus bars. Tuscola has some really friendly folks.

Back to work! Yes, actual work!
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Only If There's Milk In The Fridge

Yes, that last entry was absolutely pathetic. However, I don't care.

I've been eating lots of cookies lately, they're pretty good.
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Legendary Legend

Time to be cheerful and write an amusing entry. Yes, it's time for another urban legend. I think someday I'm going to have to do one that could be true and have folks vote on it's actuallity. This is not that day. On with the legend!

Ever wonder why Zamboni drivers are so happy? I'll tell you why. I recently discovered that when everyone has left the ice rink, the drivers like to amuse themselves by driving the Zambonies across the walls and ceiling of the building. It's like a little club the drivers have, similar to Fight Club. "...The second rule about driving-Zambonies-upside-down club is, YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT DRIVING-ZAMBONIES-UPSIDE-DOWN CLUB!" Yep, it's the truth. I'll explain how it works.

Zamboni machines are designed very carefully to allow them to operate safely on the ice which they resurface. The two main systems responsible for this are the special tires and vacuum assisted downforce. The tires are a microcellular compound that uses it's microscopic crevices to grip roughness in the surface. The tires are a marvel indeed, but they are nothing compared to the capabilities of the Zamboni's vacuum traction system. As you may know, some race cars use vacuum pumps to remove air from under the car to make it grip the road more effectively. What most people don't know is that this technology came from the original Zamboni patent. Most people think the implement that touches the ice only does the resurfacing, but no. In acutallity it vacuum seals the Zamboni to the ice. The upshot of this is absurd tractive abilities not only on ice, but other surfaces as well. Indeed, the traction is so good, that the machine can actually drive onto and stick to vertical and inverted surfaces.

If you've never tried this, sneek into an ice rink at night, fire up their Zamboni and try to drive it onto a wall. Truly, you haven't lived until you experience this!
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Cause effected a posting. A non-understood cause effecting a non-sensical posting. That is all.
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Long Night, Short Story

This has the potential to be a really long post, but I'm busy so I'm going to try to keep it short.

Last night, Masha and Jim suggest that we drive to the city to see Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. I had tons of work to do, but I figured "hey, this is college, I'm allowed to be irresponsible." So we left Urbana around 8PM and were in the city a little after 10PM. We couldn't find the place for a long time, and when we finally got there, they had just sold out. We then drove around looking for something to do, inadvertently driving through boy's town, and finally stopping at the Vic to see what was playing for the midnight Brew and View. It was Return of the KIng, and since Allison had to be at work in Urbana at 3:30AM, we decided to just have some very late dinner at Leona's and hit the road. Shortly after getting onto I-94, some car in the far right lane spins out, goes up onto the berm, slides back down...right into my lane. It was impossible not to crash into it. Considering the situation, it's amazing we're alive and my car wasn't totalled. Praise to God! The worst thing about it...the other car turned and ran. Well, it was a very interesting evening. Lots of fun. Check out some photos, with more to be added soon.
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Happy Easter!

He is risen!

Now With Even More Prowessness

Economics is awesome. Of course, this is because I did super-great on tonight's test. I checked out the solution and I got everything right except for half of a 1 point question. I wonder if that's going to be a 99.5%, or will he round up to an even 100%? I was really hoping for a perfect score, and I'm kicking myself for tripping on that little detail. Actually, I spied an error elsewhere in his answer key. Maybe, if I inform him, it'll save lot's of grading errors and in his gratitude he'll give me a 100. On the other hand, it might be rude to point out the professor's error. Hmm, what to do? I really wanted a perfect score! Eh, there's still the final.
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