Fluid Mechanics

Deposition and erosion. Everything is deposition and erosion. Mountains climbing higher and higher, being scraped of their skin by water and ice. Sediments are carried for miles and miles, leaving only the strongest bits.

Everything is stress and strain. Even deposition and erosion. Life piles on more and more layers and sheets of paper with lists of things to do. What is the failing point? Like caramel stretches farther and farther until it breaks. Like an abused rock cracks after being squeezed so much. Deformation is caused by stress and strain. The heart beats. Extension and compression.

A pebble becomes entrained and makes a great journey downstream. Fluid mechanics.Weaving through a crowd of students. Mist crawls over the mountains signaling that it's a good day to sit and drink a cup of coffee.

Heat flow controls everything. Stress and strain. Deposition and Erosion. The transformation of a cake from goo to deliciousness. Mmm...remember infinite cake?

Dispersion and propagation can describe anything. Heat flow is dispersion. Light propagates. Waves of sea water crash onto the rock face. Erosion.

Yet timing is everything.

I realize this more so than ever. There is an hour glass of pitch and an hour glass of very fine sand that were turned over at the same time. Time crawls but is escaping way too quickly.

Scavenger

As freshman, we take pride in being "poor college students" for some reason, even though our room and board is paid for one way or another and we have all we ever need. We still stock up on ramen noodles, organizing them in a huge drawer by flavor. We are excited by free food because we are sick and tired of Slate. We buy rice just in case, but the only thing we really ever run out of is laundry detergent.

As sophomores living off campus, we now realized that was a huge pathetic joke. Now, life is real. We are adults and have to hunt and gather for our meals, while furnishing our houses with the necessities of living. Ramen is a great meal- not a snack anymore. We become less picky, willing to try anything as long as it contains sustenance. We become less embarrassed, for staying alive is more important than socially acceptable behavior, and then show up to the most random places as long as there's free food.

Free food. Those two words captivate me. Almost as much as my other favorite two words: green boxes. But gosh, I love free food. Organizations are a power feeding tool: SWE, the MEP groups, SSG, and other professional societies have weekly or bi-weekly meetings which have free food. I mean, really- who goes to hear the talk? Alright, maybe we do, but it's so mind-easing to know you have a lunch coming on those days. Random BBQs are good too. In fact, BBQs are awesome because they most certainly have meat, and my diet needs meat to supplement all the carbs I intake all week.

I bought cereal, but my milk went bad. I guess I should eat breakfast more. But the thing is, I can afford to skip a meal I guess. Today for dinner, I ate one slice of pizza, along with some cheese and humus left over from an info session at The Oredigger meeting. It's not an all-great feeling, but I feel like a scavenger. And scavenging is more time-efficient than making dinner myself, which I do in fact do sometimes.

I'm such a poor college student.

Guilty Confessions of a Mines Student

I buy argyle socks each time I go to Target so I can look "cool".
I named my fantasy football team Argyle Sox.
I don't like the fact that the toilets in CTLM flush automatically.
I find myself analyzing and talking to myself walking from Maple to class.
I like physics.
I like pi, but don't know many digits. Sigh.
I cringe every time an apostrophe is left out of a word or a possessive is used instead of a contraction.
I wish my peers felt the same.
I have never used the omelet bar at Slate for breakfast simply because I am too lazy.
I get through watching basketball games by analyzing the forces and velocity in the x and y direction.
I used my flashlight on my key chain to fish my fork out of the trash.
I feel incredibly awkward when I try to make words come out of my mouth that defend my "ethical argument".
I'd rather put my thoughts on a computer screen (but only after midnight).
I start gasping for air after running one measly lap in the field house.
I'm from Colorado.
I let some oil company think I was older than a freshman.
I never had failed a test until the first Calc I test.
I had never gotten B's in courses, much less a C before Mines.
(Thus calculating GPA was fun before Mines, now it freaks me out- although I do it anyway.)
I actually like Episodes II and III.
I like ramen noodles.
I don't know the sine and cosine of the "easy" angles off the top of my head: my notecard is my crutch after calculators.
I sometimes feel resentment towards the kid in the front row who "knows everything" and I laugh when the answer is wrong.
I don't care about my appearance anymore (contrary to the wearing of socks). I just roll out of bed and throw on whatever because I think people don't care.
I wish so-and-so would shower though.
I've never played Pokemon or read Harry Potter in my life...and don't intend to.
I get mad when a guy doesn't stop to open the door for me...we girls are kind of spoiled.
I get sad when I look in the mailbox and it's empty, but am so stoked if my friends have a package (cookies?!).
I'm peeved when it's below freezing and some girl has super short shorts on. I mean, seriously.
I complain too much.

I love those nights when my alarm says "you have set your alarm to go off 8 hours 3 minutes from now".
I run Windows, not Linux...but intend to eventually.
I think it's awesome that I'll graduate before I turn 21.
R2D2 is my notification sound on my phone.
I'm working on becoming even more baseball geekier, if my schedule allows me.
I referenced X-Men in a discussion during Nature and Human Values.
I love it when major chords are there where they aren't supposed to be.
I believe that God created the heavens and the earth.
I'm looking forward to eating my leftover marshmallows again after Humans vs. Zombies.
I love this weird messed-up school.

I'm getting hungry, so I will go eat.