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Today I finished a book called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It has left me enlightened and hopeful for the future. It was as if I was hearing all of my deepest feelings about how life should be presented in complete disclosure as natural as night and day. In fact reading it left me so excited that I was upset no one had told me to read it sooner! I've taken courses on philosophy and even scientific logic but there was no mention of Ayn Rand.
Long story short the ideas in the book will make you stop and think over and over, it's really a textbook on how to live life. If you want to understand why simple ideas you may consider convential wisdom like the phrase 'It's only human' or that your happiness comes from giving to others in need, are mortally flawed or simply idolize the majestic achievement of heroic characters Atlas Shrugged has it all.
Anyway, saw National Treasure tonight, good movie but lacked the flair and believablity of the first. I AM LEGEND remains my favorite movie out right now. Superb action and gripping story. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love it. It gets a little scary for some, so beware. Went skiing on our hill this morning, beautiful weather and nice powder. Only took a few runs before the hike had me sweating and I went in, but it was better than I expected.
Lincoln Lab interview moved to sometime in mid January. Apparently the team I was interviewing with couldn't meet Jan 3 as planned so it's been postponed until they can.
Finished three applications to Grad school, just three more to go.
December 17, 2007
Two finals down, one to go. I took Solid State and Quantum, both went well enough but they were also open book. Just the Physics Field exam (which doesn't count for a grade) and my Electromagnetism final Wed. then I'm done for the semester! I finally heard back from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA and they would like to see me Jan. 2nd, and are paying for my flight Jan 1st as well as a hotel and rental car! Really pumped about the opportunity. I still plan on going to grad school but I would love to attend MIT and work there at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes.
This week I found out what I got on the Physics GRE, 630 43%, not good but not horrible. I guess I should have known that I didn't put the time into it to really excel but I was hoping to break 50%. Oh well, I did well on the general. I'm still looking at lots of different Physics PhD programs. I'm having a hard time picking which ones I think I have a chance at getting into and have good Quantum Computing/condensed matter research. I'm pretty set on Boulder and Madison, but other possibilities include, Berkeley, Maryland, Northwestern, Purdue and Minnesota.
Other than that, SigEps went over to the Delta Zeta sorority house for our annual Christmas party. We buy gifts for local kids and invite them over to sit on Santa's lap and get presents. It was great, a dozen kids came and had a lot of fun. We played a 'make a snowman' game with TP and the kids ended up TPing the interior of the DZ house.
Almost done with the semester, just a few homework assignments this week and it's final's week. This semester just flew by. I really don't know where it went. At least I have one more left here at Tech. Heck, if I don't get into any good grad schools, maybe I'll just stay for a few years and get a Masters.
What a crazy semester so far. I finally decided to get my site up an running again. I'm hosting it on the Michigan Tech USG webspace. The website code was originally written by John Roepke for USG but he is also using it for his personal webspace so I just changed the graphical theme he was using and tada! Bobnifty.com is back
Lots of things have happened this semester. Here's a recap:
Well, much more later.
Leave a comment if you feel inclined, just include your contact info if you want a response.
I'm Bob, this blog is a little taste of my life.
The picture above is me hiking near Lake Tahoe this summer
July 31, 2008
I'm just 2 days away from being 21, and 21 days from graduating. I'm a little excited. A lots happened since my last post. I've officially accepted the offer from Purdue. So I'll be starting in the fall. I'm waiting to hear if I got a job for this summer back at Ames, if not then I'm going to Purdue.
Yesterday I gave my senior poster presentation, it went great. I finally got some experimental results the day before, so I had to post the data on a separate sheet next to my poster.
I went on vacation to Pensacola, FL with my family. We had a great time soaking up the sun and playing on the beach.
Winter Carnival has taken over my life. I'm Skit Chair for SigEps and the past two weeks, I've been writing lines, painting backdrops and making costumes for the show Feb 7th.
Read another good book, Ender's Game. It's not as good as Atlas Shrugged but still a fastpaced, very entertaining Sci Fi.
Finished all my Grad school apps. Applied to Madison, UC Boulder, UC Berkeley, UMD, Penn State and Purdue. I should find out if I was accepted in about a month and a half.
Lincoln Lab interview has been rescheduled for Feb 14th. Hopefully it happens this time.
Oh and I'm taking just 7 credits right now. I finished my degree audit and discovered I only needed 7 credits to graduate, I still had to pay for 12 to stay a fulltime student but then dropped 5 I didn't need. I just have E&M 2 and Senior Research. It should be nice since I'm also TAing for the first time, which is going well btw.
Well that was quite a bit of catching up. Sorry for the delay.
The picture above is me hiking near Lake Tahoe this summer
July 31, 2008
I just got back from my poster presentation at NASA. It went well, not too many people had questions and I chatted with the job fair people. I know I haven't updated in a long time so here are some quick updates:
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I've been working on the ADAPT testbed at NASA Ames Research Center, helping develop better diagnostic software and creating test experiments for a competition.
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Went to Lake Tahoe again, showed everyone the spot we went last year. Got to check out the casinos this time and only lost $50 on craps/roulette.
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Just two weeks until Orientation at Purdue . I haven't been studying for my Qualifying exam yet but I'm not too worried about it. Oh and I finally got a place to live just this week.
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My new Olds Intrigue is in the bodyshop. A friend of mine was borrowing it and hit a pole (he's paying for all of it)
That's about it, but I expect to start blogging a little more as the political scene heats up with the election. If you didn't know, I'm supporting McCain. I feel that as much as people want Obama to be the savior for our country, he's not. He just doesn't have the experience, not to mention he's a socialist.
But more on that later...
April 11, 2008
I'm just 2 days away from being 21, and 21 days from graduating. I'm a little excited. A lots happened since my last post. I've officially accepted the offer from Purdue. So I'll be starting in the fall. I'm waiting to hear if I got a job for this summer back at Ames, if not then I'm going to Purdue.
Yesterday I gave my senior poster presentation, it went great. I finally got some experimental results the day before, so I had to post the data on a separate sheet next to my poster.
I went on vacation to Pensacola, FL with my family. We had a great time soaking up the sun and playing on the beach.
Feb 13, 2008
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Well, Winter Carnival is finally over and Sigma Phi Epsilon got 2nd Place overall. There are bunch of results and pictures on the winter carnival website. Here's one of our statue. We got 4th on our statue and 3rd on our Skit. I was disappointed about Skit but, we always seem to cross the line and end up a little too raunchy. I don't really care, we had fun with it and the audience loved it. To follow the monster theme we did a parody of Sesame Street with the characters going on strike after the letter O is stolen. My family also got to come visit and see everything, which was great. Next time they're all up, I'll be graduating. Anyway, now that it's 2008 AC (After Carnival) I'm back to work. Trying to get some results with my senior research with all my free time. Also having a lot of fun TAing the Modern Lab, the students are really good. They don't always read enough prep but their reports have been very comprehensive. Oh and I'm finally going to Boston for my interview tomorrow. Dr. Borysow, who teaches the lab I TA told me I can't accept it. "Enjoy Boston but don't take it." I asked why, he said. "You're too smart and you'll be making more than me!" I don't know about that but I'd like to have the option on the table. |
January 28, 2008
Winter Carnival has taken over my life. I'm Skit Chair for SigEps and the past two weeks, I've been writing lines, painting backdrops and making costumes for the show Feb 7th.
Read another good book, Ender's Game. It's not as good as Atlas Shrugged but still a fastpaced, very entertaining Sci Fi.
Finished all my Grad school apps. Applied to Madison, UC Boulder, UC Berkeley, UMD, Penn State and Purdue. I should find out if I was accepted in about a month and a half.
Lincoln Lab interview has been rescheduled for Feb 14th. Hopefully it happens this time.
Oh and I'm taking just 7 credits right now. I finished my degree audit and discovered I only needed 7 credits to graduate, I still had to pay for 12 to stay a fulltime student but then dropped 5 I didn't need. I just have E&M 2 and Senior Research. It should be nice since I'm also TAing for the first time, which is going well btw.
Well that was quite a bit of catching up. Sorry for the delay.
December 30, 2007
Today I finished a book called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It has left me enlightened and hopeful for the future. It was as if I was hearing all of my deepest feelings about how life should be presented in complete disclosure as natural as night and day. In fact reading it left me so excited that I was upset no one had told me to read it sooner! I've taken courses on philosophy and even scientific logic but there was no mention of Ayn Rand.
Long story short the ideas in the book will make you stop and think over and over, it's really a textbook on how to live life. If you want to understand why simple ideas you may consider convential wisdom like the phrase 'It's only human' or that your happiness comes from giving to others in need, are mortally flawed or simply idolize the majestic achievement of heroic characters Atlas Shrugged has it all.
Anyway, saw National Treasure tonight, good movie but lacked the flair and believablity of the first. I AM LEGEND remains my favorite movie out right now. Superb action and gripping story. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love it. It gets a little scary for some, so beware. Went skiing on our hill this morning, beautiful weather and nice powder. Only took a few runs before the hike had me sweating and I went in, but it was better than I expected.
Lincoln Lab interview moved to sometime in mid January. Apparently the team I was interviewing with couldn't meet Jan 3 as planned so it's been postponed until they can.
Finished three applications to Grad school, just three more to go.
December 17, 2007
Two finals down, one to go. I took Solid State and Quantum, both went well enough but they were also open book. Just the Physics Field exam (which doesn't count for a grade) and my Electromagnetism final Wed. then I'm done for the semester! I finally heard back from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA and they would like to see me Jan. 2nd, and are paying for my flight Jan 1st as well as a hotel and rental car! Really pumped about the opportunity. I still plan on going to grad school but I would love to attend MIT and work there at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes.
December 10, 2007
This week I found out what I got on the Physics GRE, 630 43%, not good but not horrible. I guess I should have known that I didn't put the time into it to really excel but I was hoping to break 50%. Oh well, I did well on the general. I'm still looking at lots of different Physics PhD programs. I'm having a hard time picking which ones I think I have a chance at getting into and have good Quantum Computing/condensed matter research. I'm pretty set on Boulder and Madison, but other possibilities include, Berkeley, Maryland, Northwestern, Purdue and Minnesota.
Other than that, SigEps went over to the Delta Zeta sorority house for our annual Christmas party. We buy gifts for local kids and invite them over to sit on Santa's lap and get presents. It was great, a dozen kids came and had a lot of fun. We played a 'make a snowman' game with TP and the kids ended up TPing the interior of the DZ house.
Almost done with the semester, just a few homework assignments this week and it's final's week. This semester just flew by. I really don't know where it went. At least I have one more left here at Tech. Heck, if I don't get into any good grad schools, maybe I'll just stay for a few years and get a Masters.
December 2, 2007
What a crazy semester so far. I finally decided to get my site up an running again. I'm hosting it on the Michigan Tech USG webspace. The website code was originally written by John Roepke for USG but he is also using it for his personal webspace so I just changed the graphical theme he was using and tada! Bobnifty.com is back
Lots of things have happened this semester. Here's a recap:
- I'm living in the SigEp house. Awesome time! We had our Christmas party last night, just pure shenanigans.
- I'm applying for Grad school. Took my GREs, want to go to Madison, Berkeley or Boulder.
- Busy being USG President,. I've been spending lots of time on it's website at usg.mtu.edu helping improve services we provide to students and student orgs as well as increasing student feedback. I've also been working on the Experience Tech fee www.experiencetech.org. It would give students unlimited access to Ski, Golf, Hockey games, Fine Arts and Tennis for $60/semester.
Well, much more later.
Leave a comment if you feel inclined, just include your contact info if you want a response.
Feedback:
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Dad posts:
Hi Robert,
glad to see your website is back up! Very interesting to see what your up to. See you soon, Dad
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