. Laugh to erase the dirt on your mind .

...

2009-02-11T02:26:14Z

I've got my head, but my head is unraveling
Can't keep control, can't keep track of where its traveling
I've got my heart but my heart is no good
And you're the only one that's understood
I come along but I don't know where you're taking me
I shouldn't go, but you're reaching back and shaking me
Turn off the sun, pull the stars from the sky
The more I give to you, the more I die

odetotheend @ 2008-12-02T21:34:00

2008-12-03T04:34:15Z

all fuzzy
spilling out of my head

odetotheend @ 2008-11-02T20:44:00

2008-11-03T03:43:57Z

pray, said the needle to the thread

I guess we lost the war
they said we'd last forever

odetotheend @ 2008-11-02T00:10:00

2008-11-02T06:10:45Z

</3

odetotheend @ 2008-09-04T19:44:00

2008-09-05T01:45:50Z

so, it looks like the final lineup for this term is:

EE 430: power systems I
Short, intermediate and long line lumped and distributed system models, Derivation of transmission line parameters from conductor properties, Load frequency control, stability, economic dispatch etc in power transmission systems.

EE 350: analog electronics
Amplifier circuits, feedback, gain, stability, filters, analog to digital and digital to analog conversion circuits

EE 351: digital electronics
Propagation delay, logical effort, transistor level synthesis of logic gates, simulation, non idealities, ESD protection, design scaling, etc

EE 390: communication systems
Frequency, Amplitude, and code modulation of information signals, carriers, transmitters and receiver topologies and design, filters, noise, amplitude and phase distortion, delay, transmission bandwidth, etc

EE 400: engineering capstone project I
Bunch of design related BS in a group. Proposals, timelines, budgets, and all kinds of wonderful stuff like that.

HIST 296: World War II
Fuck yes. I am a one man academic wehrmacht.

odetotheend @ 2008-08-26T18:45:00

2008-08-27T00:45:58Z

odetotheend @ 2008-05-14T19:47:00

2008-05-15T01:47:59Z

sooo I worked at NINT for the morning today.

^That thing's worth $400,000 and it's called a nanoindenter.

if you care, it's basically a machine that measures the hardness and elasticity of micrometer and nanometer scale materials.

The simple explanation: it pushes against something and measures how much that thing pushes back against it to figure out if it's "spongey" or "elastic".

The complex explantion: a 3 micrometer wide triangular tip (attached to the thing on the left. impossible to see with the naked eye) is connected to a series of 3 capacitor plates. two of the three plates are separated by a spring with a known stiffness, the third is separated by an air gap.

When the triangular tip hits a material, it compresses that spring, changing the gap between the capacitor plates, thus changing the capacitance. The third plate measures the voltage change caused by this, and interprets it (using the known spring stiffness) as movement of the tip. This is "simple" analog feedback.

First, you place the triangular tip less than about 3 mm above the material you want to test and use the software to line up the crosshairs on the camera with what you want to "indent"... You tell it to "approach" the surface, in the software the machine is attached to. The micropositioners move the tip until it juuuuuust measures that it has touched the surface you want to measure. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Yes. 5-7 minutes to move 3 millimeters.

Then, (having closed the door on the front of the machine to isolate the measurement from air currents) the machine waits for one minute for mechanical vibrations to settle down, then switches to a digital feedback system and waits another minute for the voltages to reach a steady state and settle as much as possible.

The machine then waits another minute, just barely in contact with the surface to measure if the surface expands or contracts with time because of the ambient temperature in the room. (Measures thermal drift) The machine takes an average of the final 20 seconds of this thermal drift measurement and assumes that the subsequent 20 seconds will also have the same thermal drift, using the software to compensate your measurements for it.

Then finally, it takes the measurement... Over 5 seconds it pushes the triangular tip into the material by the depth you specified in the software, typically about 20-100 nanometers (1 nanometer is about 3 atoms wide... or one MILLIONTH of a millimeter) Then the tip waits for 5 seconds, and withdraws for 5 seconds... recording thousands of data points for the voltages on the capacitors I mentioned at the beginning... The data recorded while withdrawing the tip is the really important stuff, since it indicates how much the material pushes back against the tip and if it deforms permanently or returns to its original shape. Then the machine uses those numbers to calculate the material's hardness and Young's modulus.

You repeat these measurements 20-40 times and do some statistical regressions for a decent first order estimate of the hardness of material.

We measured 6 points over the course of an entire morning.

A lot of waiting involved. Very boring, but also very cool.

odetotheend @ 2008-05-08T21:04:00

2008-05-09T03:04:36Z

well, 2 things have pleased me today

1. I sold my car. For exactly what I asked for it.
2. I get to do some work at NINT for a day next week

http://nint-innt.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/facilities/index_e.html

odetotheend @ 2008-04-17T20:46:00

2008-04-18T02:47:09Z

THE WORST HANGOVER EVER

2008-01-19T06:03:14Z

RULES:
1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, MP3 Player, or whatever on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.

If someone says, "Is this okay?" You say?
Right where it belongs (LOL)

How would you describe yourself?
No, you don't

What do you like in a guy/girl?
s.adow

How do you feel today?
Broken Drum

What is your life's purpose?
The Great Destroyer (I swear to god, I didn't rig these)

What is your motto?
breed to death

What do your friends think of you?
back home

What do you think of your parents?
ruiner

What do you think about very often?
in the white

What is 2 + 2?
the speed of pain

What do you think of your best friend?
fallen

What do you think of the person you like?
rock is dead (ahaha wtf?)

What is your life story?
where is everybody?

What do you want to be when you grow up?
disappoint

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
the future of speech

What will you dance to at your wedding?
what the fuck is wrong with you

What will they play at your funeral?
killing me killing you (hahaha)

What is your hobby/interest?
rut #2

What is your biggest fear?
putting holes in happiness

What is your biggest secret?
eraser

What do you think of your friends?
I'm not dreaming of you(extended version)

What will you post this as?
THE WORST HANGOVER EVER

odetotheend @ 2008-01-01T15:29:00

2008-01-01T22:30:08Z

happy new year everyone.

I start my new job tomorrow.

odetotheend @ 2007-07-03T22:26:00

2007-07-04T04:26:35Z

I REALLY hate how no one in this city seems to know the rules of the road.

If you don't know what you're doing on the road, get the fuck off it.

yes, you must let me merge. yes, you must signal when changing lanes. yes, you must wait your goddamn turn to turn left out of a parking lot. no, it doesn't help me get out of a parking stall faster if you stop 2 feet behind me and wait with your signal on, the ONE goddamn time in the day you actually decide to use it. yes, you should get the fuck out of my blindspot. yes, you should go the speed limit, even when driving past a cop. yes, you should hang the fuck up and drive. yes, I hate you because you pull out of your driveway while staring in the other direction. no, your four-ways don't qualify as a parking pass for any space on the road where you could possibly choose to park. no, you don't need to pass me and then slow down to 10 km/hr 3 blocks before the right turn you're about to make without signalling.

and for fuck sake, no, your BMW does not entitle you to change 3 lanes at a time on calgary trail while rummaging in your purse. I will hospitalize you.

odetotheend @ 2007-07-02T20:00:00

2007-07-03T02:01:27Z

so.

I bought the new manson album, as well as a De/Vision remix album over the last couple days... and the new silver sun pickups album.

I also bought a new bed from ikea. it's bigger than my old one, and kate helped me put it together last night.

this weekend off has been a long time coming, and it's been SO nice.

kate and I built bears at buildabear today. she built a dog with kinked ears and an argyle sweater, and I built a koala with a skirt.

I am currently eating sour candy and drinking grape juice.

like a king, I tell you. a king.

odetotheend @ 2007-06-30T22:43:00

2007-07-01T04:44:02Z

what a waste of fucking time

odetotheend @ 2007-06-15T18:26:00

2007-06-16T00:26:40Z

I'm not really sure what to think.

odetotheend @ 2007-06-07T18:56:00

2007-06-08T00:56:19Z

KATE PEEKS

odetotheend @ 2007-06-05T06:24:00

2007-06-05T12:25:02Z

odetotheend @ 2007-05-31T06:40:00

2007-05-31T12:37:17Z

holy hell

I'm tired

that's all I ever say anymore

odetotheend @ 2007-05-21T22:46:00

2007-05-22T04:46:39Z

kate is back!!

dsfjlsldfs.

this pleases me

odetotheend @ 2007-05-19T16:07:00

2007-05-19T22:08:15Z

I has a fecebook.

add me.

odetotheend @ 2007-05-17T07:11:00

2007-05-17T13:08:26Z

psst. ilu. I'm gonna miss you this weekend

odetotheend @ 2007-05-13T23:06:00

2007-05-14T05:07:46Z

I am not a gun

the iron giant is a good movie

I've seen Kate every day this week. I think that might be a first!. she makes me so happy it's kind of ridiculous. I am thankful to have something so good in my life.

my summer is 1/8th over.

I am so counting the days.

odetotheend @ 2007-05-10T21:05:00

2007-05-11T03:06:21Z

correction: It could be less relevant to my interests if it forced me to work in Boyle, Alberta for a month.

Population: 836.

yee haw?.

:\

odetotheend @ 2007-05-08T05:43:00

2007-05-08T11:44:06Z

blarrrr. I got my TDG 7 certification for transporting radioactive stuff yesterday. Today I have to be at southgate for an orientation with a certain 3-letter construction company, and then I'm getting training back at the office as a pile inspector. lol

Friday is my CSA / ASTM certification for concrete testing.

ugh.

yesterday sucked ass. Work sent me out to a large concrete company to get 6 bags of flyash with the new truck... I didn't quite realize that there's a 17th street NW and a 17th street NE, so needless to say, I got pretty fucking lost looking for it, and managed to turn a 40 minute trip into a 3 hour one. heh.

anyway, I got a bunch of grades in.

English: A-
Continuous time signals: A
Circuits II: B+
Numerical analysis: B
Thermodynamics: B-

.. just waiting on my grade for Electromagnetics, but it looks like this semester wasn't a total disaster after all.

odetotheend @ 2007-05-04T06:31:00

2007-05-04T12:31:38Z

well, I saw kate for a bit yesterday, and we had some food and watched "flushed away"

:D

I also finished my first aid training yesterday

I'm really tired this morning, but I apparently actually get to do some WORK today, which might be nice. I hope I don't work this weekend!