Random Drivel

The baseball game in Indy was fantastic. For a total of five dollars each, we got tickets to the game, all-you-can-eat barbeque, pepsi, and beer. I think you can see where this is going.

We got to the stadium around 12:30 for the picnic. Adam and I even brought a nalgene bottle, just in case. Our tickets were hosted by IEEE (institute for electrical and electronics engineers) but there were a lot of people at this picnic for different stuff. We didn’t care, we came for the food/beer. At the door, they were giving the first xx number of fans a commemerative lunch pail. Yes, a lunch box. A metal, hinged, handled, lunchbox. We had no idea that this odd gift would turn out to be a gift indeed.

We all started off getting the standard: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, BBQ sandwhiches, hot dogs. Pretty good food. It was a hot hot hot day, so we all decided that an icy cold glass of beer would help keep us cool.

Once we realized that beer was going to run out and that we couldn’t get any more free beer once the picnic ended, we had to think of a way to get as much as possible. Drinking a lot of it was one option, which we quickly set out to do. But then what would we do once we were in the game? So we filled the Nalgene bottles with beer. That seemed to work, but the day was really really hot, and we weren’t allowed to take beer out of the picnic. So we put them in the lunch pails. They fit almost perfectly if you rotate them. Excellent. But the pails were getting hot. Solution? Ice. Lots of ice. Well, that works for about six beers or so, and there were five of us.

Next solution: If you set the lunchbox upright? You can fit two cups inside of it. If you stack the cups, they wont spill. If you surround them with ice, they will stay cold. Excellent idea. Immediately sprung into action.

The moral of the story, the baseball game was one of the most fun times I’ve had all summer, and its all thanks to our friend, the lunch pail. We even discovered after the game that a sack of 10 Whitecastles fits perfectly into the pail! Of course, the pail is supposed to be used for food, so that makes sense.

Rose-Hulman has done it again, and this time in the face of great challenges! It looks like this May, I’ll be a proud graduate of a fine institution that has been number one throughout the duration of my undergraduate career. Congratulations, RHIT, raising the bar for seven years straight.

Rose-Hulman Ranked No. 1 Undergraduate Engineering Program for 7th Consecutive Year in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges”

Terre Haute, Ind.-For the seventh consecutive year, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has been ranked first by engineering educators as the nation’s best college or university that offers the bachelor’s or master’s degree as its highest degree in engineering, according to new rankings that will be included in the 2006 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook published by U.S. News & World Report.

The rankings are based on the results of a peer survey of deans and senior faculty conducted by the magazine. Fifty percent of those surveyed returned ratings for the undergraduate engineering programs category.

Each engineering program at Rose-Hulman that is ranked in the survey has now been ranked as the nation’s best each year that the magazine’s survey has included a ranking of individual programs. Retaining their top ranking for the sixth straight year were degree programs in chemical, civil, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering.

Following Rose-Hulman on the list of top undergraduate engineering programs were Harvey Mudd College, Cooper Union, the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Bucknell University and Swarthmore College.

“To be considered repeatedly by our engineering education colleagues as the best college or university in this category is a result of the hard work and talents of our faculty, staff, students and alumni,” stated Robert Bright, chairman of the Rose-Hulman Board of Trustees and chief executive officer.

Bright noted that students and their families should not make a college choice based only on the magazine’s rankings. “While Rose-Hulman takes pride in its No. 1 ranking, students should consider many factors when deciding which college or university to attend,” he said.

“As an example, students should schedule a well organized campus visit to insure that they are making the right decision as to which institution best meets their needs,” he explained.

The 2006 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” will be available Aug. 22.

We all experience hardships. Every one of us. We lose friends, family, people we care about. Its the people who we have left to share our feelings with that make these things better. I hope that whatever happens, no matter what, things work out in the end. Friends are supposed to last forever. We chide each other, we make fun, we disrespect. But when something serious comes along, we are the ones who are there for you. We care. Its our job. Its the job we signed on for. We are the men who you can come to for advice. We hope that you come out of this situation unscathed, and if you do end up coming out harmed, we are those who mend your wounds.

We will help you at whatever cost. We are always here for you. We are your friends. We will always be your friends. We’re sorry, and we care for you. We wish you good luck. Good luck, sir, and godspeed.

Friday night, we went to the Coldplay concert in Indianapolis. We thought that it might rain, but we got lucky. The concert was amazing, and well worth going to see. The presentation, the music, everything was just awesome. At the end of the concert, Chris Martin came rushing into the audience while singing, and the fans just rushed him. I’m glad they played a lot of their original songs including the new ones, like my favorite “The Scientist” and dropping the yellow balloons during “Yellow”, and finished the encore with “Fix You”. The crowd went wild when they played “Clocks”. I’m glad we had the opportunity to go see them live.

“And we live in a beautiful world,
Yeah we do, yeah we do,
We live in a beautiful world…”

I found this article today, talking about My Space. I don’t even have a myspace profile, in fact I had to block it from being able to link images from monhaut.com because about 693240934 dweebs were using a picture hosted on my site in their profiles… which goes along with the first paragraph:

My Space is like a heroine addiction without the upside. If you visit Gorilla Mask’s meaning for each type of My Space photo you’ll see the first part of the problem. No one knows how to take a picture anymore. Essentially there are four types of pictures found on My Space. The trendy “I can take pictures off myself in the mirror” photo, the “I’m way too ugly or trying to be too hip to use my real photo” image, the “I’m hideously deformed and want to use a picture of me from far away” photo, and the “look at my dog / booze / make up / left over crack” shot. Just take a picture of yourself and use it. You shouldn’t care what others think about your appearance, and if you have enough self confidence to post your profile on a site used by over five million people you have enough self confidence to post a photo of yourself. But don’t use one of those four kinds of pictures. They’re dumb, unoriginal, and I rather look at topographical maps than look at your uninspiring photo contribution to the world.

And I got to thinking. I do use thefacebook, and I’ve noticed a lot of these types of pictures. They’re usually just funny pictures, and if I already know who the person is its not that big a deal if they use something else. But the pictures of dogs (several people do this), mirror pictures, far far far away pictures… they are reall prevalent. Just take a freakin picture. I think I’ve always had a picture of me up on that, because its just easier that way.

Another thing is the people who can’t edit a picture. If you want to cut people out of pictures, thats fine. But don’t open MSPaint, and erase them, because that doesn’t change the size of the picture… it just makes a big white spot. Then when someone looks at your picture, its too small because thefacebook (correctly) thinks that your picture is the whole thing.

Anyway. I just thought it was funny, give it a read.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who claimed he was a member of the Church of Frisbee on the Roof. I found this idea to be very interesting, and I subscribed to his newsletter (haha, ok well not actually.)

Anyway, much in the same way as Church of Frisbee on the Roof appeals to us, so does Flying Spaghetti Monsterism. You see, the world is not billions of years old, the Flying Spaghetti monster created us all and changes the outcomes of scientific research in order to keep himself a secret.

At http://www.venganza.org/, you can read the Open Letter to the Kansas Schoolboard on why the state should consider teaching not only Evolution and Intelligent Design, but also teach Flying Spaghetti Monsterism. To not teach the whole truth would be unfair to students who are forming opinions on what they believe! That’s unpossible!

Read about the Flying Spaghetti Monster. And be touched by his noodly appendage.

So I’m watching some recorded TV last night, and it just started doing that flickering thing again, and then completely shut off. I’ve had that TV for three years, and never had any problems up until a few weeks ago. I’m so sad… Anyway, it reminded me of FreeFlatScreens.com, because I only need three more referals before I get one.

http://www.FreeFlatScreens.com/?r=7939967

These things actually work because I got an iPod from them, and there’s plenty of resources online for doing this. If you sign up for eFax, its totally free and wont cost you a cent.

Anyway… help me out, my TV is broked!