Research Fellowship

Well, I got a research fellowship at Calvin this summer. I'll either be looking into recycling technologies, or the possibility of using buck thorn, an fast-growing invasive species, as an alternative to corn for the generation of fuel ethanol, similar to how switchgrass is being used in warmer climates. I would prefer the ethanol research, but it's very up in the air at this point.

Winter Camping

Got back from Mackinaw City last night (I prefer the French, Mackinac though). It was cold, but not as cold as last year. The birthday gifts I received this year (Mummy bag, socks and boots) really came in handy, and made this trip a much warmer one than last year. My cousin Nathan went again this year, as well as my friend Sungmin. We did a little bit of skiing, much of the snow had already melted, on a trail that we skied last year. Turns out there were some geocaches on it that I didn't know about before. Speaking of geocaching, we did quite a few, both in the city, and in Wilderness State Park. The water and ice was amazing to see this year though. It was not thick enough that we could confidently walk far onto the lake unfortunately. We did find a great view of the Mackinac Bridge from the Lake Michigan side however...and saw some amazing houses on the shore. These dwellings must have cost a fortune, but are probably worth it due to the amazing view. There is one in particular just east of the park by the Bridge that is just immense. It might be the biggest house that I've ever seen, and in the best location that I can think of. I think that it's been under construction for at least 8 years now, but when it's done it will be epic. Maybe by the time it's finished I will have achieved my dream of owning the beautiful lake-front, bridge-view lot next to TeePee, or some property east of town...who knows? I can dream...yes, I can dream.

Special thanks to the Cooleys for letting us stay at TeePee for free again this year.

Disintermediate Strategic Vortals

Image via Wikipedia

Found a cool economic word generator site today. There are tons of them, but this one seemed immediately useful considering the economic climate we are in. I had just read an article in Wired about David X. Li's Gaussian copula function, and its incredible mis-use by the securities industry. It made me wonder, if someone threw my ridiculous, made-up term into conversation how many financial experts would claim to know what it means.

In other news, I just checked my feed reader, and the BBC just posted: The world's youngest billionaires lose one-third of their wealth. How sad.

Settled a bit

Image by tbutanol via Flickr

This week is so much better than last. I won't bore with the details, but I'm happy it's over. Last week and this week have also confirmed how much I have had it up to the gills with EE classes and am entirely sick of them. To all you 'lectrical's out there, "You do good work, but I would hate your job." ChE I'm finding is definitely the way to go for me. Not only is the lab setting better, but there are no integrated circuits to deal with, or diagrams to pore over. I cannot wait until this semester is over...hopefully by then I will have landed an internship...hopefully.