HECTIC AND HAPPY

It has been a hectic few months, and I haven't taken many pictures or written down my thoughts frequently enough. That doesn't mean that nothing is going on, though... in fact, being busier has spurred me to do more than ever. I am loving spending time with my wife and daughter more than anything, and am more tired and more happy than I have ever been in my life.

Here are some of the non-family highlights that come to mind at the moment....

I'm almost done with my first semester of grad school at Cal State Fullerton. I have a midterm and a final for my math class in the next three weeks. The class has been really great and has definitely helped me to not only catch up on math that was shaky for me, but has extended what I already knew quite a bit. We started with differential equations, then went to linear algebra and complex analysis. These three topics were covered in my undergrad, but they were treated as separate subjects. The class I'm finishing up has combined these three topics, which was new to me... So instead of just solving a differential equation, now it is a matrix differential equation involving imaginary numbers. I think I'm still not there with combining all three together, but my understanding of each individual topic has definitely vastly improved through the combination.

On top of the math class, I started a robotics project worth two courses of credit. I am using a lego mindstorms kit with a gyro sensor, and am designing, building, and programming a two-wheeled balancing, maze solving robot. I am writing my own code in a program called "RobotC", which is basically C-Programming with a few add-ons. The technical term for the robot is an "inverted pendulum"... it's basically a miniature segway. I'm very proud to say that I've finally gotten the robot to stay standing until the batteries run out, which was not an easy task. I ended up using a double P-I control scheme, taking data from both the gyro sensor and motor encoders to balance the robot. It was surprising to me how much the data from the wheels mattered. I could not get the robot to balance using data from the gyro sensor alone, which was very counter-intuitive to me. Here's a quick video of the robot balancing...

The other thing that I am really excited about right now is the homemade smoker that my Dad and I are building. It is made from 3/16" steel... the grill is 20" around and 24" long, and the firebox is 12X17X14". I'm really looking forward to the food that is going to be coming off of this monster, but I'm equally enjoying building it. I will definitely be posting some pictures as soon as I can... My dad is really, really good at metal-working, and I seriously think this could very well be the highest quality smoker ever built.

That's it for now.....

DAY ONE

The starting shot has been fired, and school has taken off at a gallop. I'm really grateful that I took the time to do some review before the class began. I was at least able to understand what the teacher was talking about during the first day of class. The first session was a "review" of what I'm supposed to remember from my undergrad years, but it went well beyond everything I reviewed or remembered. It basically summed up an entire semester of differential equations in 3.5 pages of notes.

After about 10 hours of studying on Friday and Saturday, I feel like I can do most of what I need to do, but I still get stuck because of basics that I have forgotten or never learned. My biggest achilles heel is integration. I can do the easier integrals, but anything beyond the basic techniques throws me off.

Almost all engineering courses, at their core, are pretty much just applied math. I am hoping to use this math class to reset myself. If I can really learn this stuff, the other 9 classes I'll be taking will be much easier.

Tomorrow's class is going to be more "review", going into second order differential equations. On Wednesday, the "real" material will begin.

I'm thinking that maybe my cooking interests should shift to the finer points of coffee for a while...

RE-LEARNING

I graduated from college with my Bachelor's degree over 5 years ago, and really haven't used most of the math and science that I learned. Since I'm jumping back into school with a math class, I decided I should brush up on all my old classes so that I at least have something to start with when I walk through that classroom door. That's why I bought these:

At this point, I've gotten through the beginning Calculus book. I took the corresponding course over 8 years ago, but I was suprised at how quickly it all came back.... It was actually kinda fun! I'm really enjoying learning things because I want to, and not because I need to learn them for a class.

The biggest thing I took away from my beginning Calculus review was that Calculus has everything to do with rates of change. It's actually really cool... The classic example for calculus is a ladder. If the bottom is moving away from a wall at a certain rate, calculus and some trigonometry will let you figure out how far the top of the ladder is moving down the wall.... You can also use calculus to find volumes of things, which is also really cool... it is where many of the equations for volumes of odd shapes actually come from, and it is really interesting to see how people came up with a lot of the equations I use all the time....

Next up is the advanced calculus book... I'm hoping to at least get through that before I start school a week from Monday... wish me luck!

ENTER NERDY

Ever since my wife and I had our baby, I've turned to cooking for entertainment. I am usually not happy if I'm not creating something that is a challenge to me, and I've found just what I have needed to satisfy my restlessness in barbecue and charcuterie. These things are great because they let me hang out with my family and give me some elaborate little challenges to conquer at the same time. Unfortunately, cooking fatty meats is not the healthiest of hobbies, and so, I often feel guilty about pursuing my passions.

I think things will be balancing out a bit more in the next few weeks. I'm going back to school for my Master's in mechanical engineering, with a focus on robotics, and am going to be very, very busy trying to learn new things. I think this is going to be good for me... It will give me some serious challenges that will keep me occupied without the use of food, while still allowing me to spend a lot of time with my family (quietly).

I've talked before about how this blog is interesting to me, because it gives me a timeline of my hobbies and interests... In three weeks, that timeline is likely going to have a big kink in it. I'm sure I'll still tackle some exciting meat projects from time to time, but, I am also interested in attempting to use my blog to help me retain the things that I am learning in school. I'm trying extremely hard to approach school with a new attitude... one where I study and learn because I am interested in the subject, rather than just trying to pass the classes.

I plan to use my blog to help me record my revelations and thoughts, or maybe even explain some things to myself that I have a hard time understanding. In short, it is probably going to get real mathy and nerdy around here, real fast...