Busy With classes

The title says it all.

I'm almost done with my slapped together computer desk. It's just a supported plywood table. I need to find out a way to seal the sides of the plywood. It's gunna be sweet. I've already polyurethane the top of it.

Run in the woods

So this last weekend, I decided to do my first trail race...at night. It was also a half marathon. Really wasn't actually my best idea.

 I started running at 8:30, as the sun was closing in on the horizon. Since I wasn't sure how to ajust my pace for a trail yet, I got to asking a couple of the guys near the front what their road times were like. The one who was older than me happened to be a coach for the other couple guys there with me. He was apparently doing mostly trail runs as he could not give me a good idea what his road time was like. He just said I should simply start somewhere near the front since I would not want to be caught in the bottleneck at the beginning of the trail. So off I went. (As it turns out, this 40 year old was the second place finisher to his athlete). Needless to say this was not as conservative as I expected to be going.

I was drinking water regularly from the requisite water bottle I was carrying, but I was probably close to dehydrated when I started. While still on the first lap on the first loop (two laps of two loops), I was already favoring my thighs a little. My continued drinking helped significantly with that. Any way, I kept at my demanding pace, nimbly flying from stone to stone. As it was getting dark, my pace started to slow from the extra care taken to not eat it, but I was already well into metabolic suicide, especially in my lower legs and feet. I continued to grind on, by this point back on the first loop for the second time. At 1:22 in, my calf were such that I started walking, thinking I had only a couple miles left to go. After about 20 min of walking (I'm so ashamed about that) one of the people who was passing me told me it was about 4 miles to the finish. Four miles!? I'm not walking that, so I started running again, but like this other runner, I walked up the hills. At the very least, having another runner to exchange a few occasional words with was much more motivating.

I eventually finished after 2 hours and 15 minutes. That's averaging about 10:25/mile. As I crossed the finish line, I was quite relieved to be done. I polished off most of my remaining water and walked around to prevent my legs from simply accumulating lactic acid. Once I had gotten my heart rate down, I went into the building to see about some food and (as I realized inside) a massage.  While waiting, I started to feel a bit nauseous. I went over to gram by complementary hot dog and chips. (great post race food *sarcasm*) Though it does at least have salts, protein, and simple starches. After nibbling a couple chips is when I really noticed it as I rushed off to the bathroom for the toilet. After another repetition, one of the race volunteers had drawn their attention to me. Rather than water, I started sucking on some ice chips and she had me take a salt tablet. I also got a start on some Coke. Gradually I started feeling better, but not without wavering from not to bad to about to puke if I stood up for a significant fraction of an hour. Eventually I got in for my massage, some of my food and by 1:30 AM, I had managed to be on my way back to my car for my hour and 20 min drive. By the time I got home, I managed to rally to the point that I was more lively than my suite mate.

I'm up to 3 states now for my half marathon tour.

Middle America Summer

Well, Two states away and I have limited tools. Another Summer, Another Internship. And...I'm writing test scripts...

I was really hoping to get away from that... -_-

I guess this should just be motivation to do some additional learning on my own.  I think this summer I need to focus on programming/electronics projects. (That is besides keeping at the running. That can't get left by the wayside)

It will be real fun juggling that with having a summer class to boot: Statistical Methods of Engineering. It sounds all fancy, but it's only a Junior Level course. Plenty of busy work, but it should be manageable...as long as I do my homework diligently instead of putting it off to the last minute.  I need to get a scanner.  Sigh.

I'm a little more focused in what I want challenges in, but anything this year?

March Madness

I've been slacking  a little with my blogging and my running. I say running because I haven't been having problems with where I had some tendinitis for a couple months. At least much of my time has been spent with class work and job hunting.

This weekend, I need to do some class research for signing up for next year. I have an advisement appointment on Monday and have to have a good idea of some classes before I go since I'm an upperclassman. But besides that, I have a relatively free Saturday since I will be finishing two of my long cycle assignments/projects as of tomorrow after class. The plan: see how far I can get on making my second homemade nerf gun. 

This time, I am using a plan from NerfRevolution. the goal is to make a shortened pump SNAP with a hopper that works for my stephans. I have a weird situation of having two different sizes of foam backer rod.  My old coil, which I just finished cutting up and am in the process of converting to slug darts is bigger than the new coil I got after a job interview today.  Super lucky for me, I happen to have met  the brother of one of my friends who also has made a few homemade nerf guns, himself.

Ultimately, the plan is to finish the project before April, when it will be quite useful for a game I intend to play.

Still looking for that first challenge. Or, for that matter, reply.

Training/Build Season

I have been afflicted with tendinitis is some location or another since Thanksgiving. I got it in my foot at that time and as that was becoming less of a problem, I got it in both knees. Now, after 3 months, I have gotten out of the rhythm and need to start up regularly again. I have my first marathon coming up in May, hopefully.  I also really gotta get back in shape, as my half marathon rival has pushed the mark that much closer to 2 hours, being in the teens now. I still haven't run faster than my 2:28 back in October.

Training gets even more complicated as I am now an officer for one of my campus groups, as of a couple weeks ago. That entails around 10 hours of my week, which is about how much time running related activities had previously come close to. Although I am not one of the members mentoring a FIRST team, I am heavily involved in work on our college robot.

I'm glad posting an update could be be a quick distraction from homework.

Back to School

Back to school. I parody cause I am no fool.


Classes starting again. I have 4 classes. Two have accompanying labs and one of them is a lab. I have been a little apathetic about my grades. This semester, all of my classes seem really interesting. Usually I average Bs, so lets go with a challenge to have an A in one of the three classes that is not just a lab.

Now on to extra curricular activities. I run semi-competitively with a running club. I'm involved with a robotics organization. Besides that, I wanna see if I can find some time to tinker with my Arduino. I also want to make a prank sound effects device to use on my friend who plays lots of Minecraft.

I also have a couple small projects that will be worked on as I find time. I also need to find a little closure on any previous challenges.

Although my time is limited, I'm still looking for challenges.

First of the Year

Well, the world hasn't ended yet.  Guess I'll just keep at it. Posting and real life adventuring kind have gotten thrown off a little since Christmas. I used to be a RL adventurer until I took some wisdom teeth from my mouth. Now I just sit around and do stuff on my computer. Much of what that means is Minecraft on my friend's extreme hardcore survival server. Fun times. Come the end of the day, I get to be off the gauze and ice. Yay!

Boxing Day

I haven't really been up to a lot in December, besides moving back to my parents house between working and going back to school. I still am not done with that whole ordeal. I got as much back here as I could fit in a Corolla. Now I have to go back for a dresser, minifridge, collapsing table and several select items. Once that is done, I can get it cleaned up and turn in my key. Hopefully, there can be enough time to have some fun on the way back.

Christmas was fun. My brother never would have guessed that I got him a lump of coal. He's done prank gifts for me a few years for Birthdays, so I finally did one for him. His real present was an iPad cover. My most useful presents were a drill with a set of bits and a ceramic kitchen knife. Sweetness.

Happy Holidays to anyone who happens to stop by.

First post of December

I guess I've been a little busy since Thanksgiving with an upcoming move to a different city and wrapping up work before I go back to school. Before I get to projects, I haven't been running in a week or two due to some tendinitis I developed on the outside of my foot. I was a little over zealous while on a long run with my friend Tom. We ran about twelve miles at almost my half marathon race pace. Apparently twelve repeated 6:34 miles is not great training. But now I know I can be doing much faster interval workouts.

Also on the topic of running. I have my first full marathon coming up this spring. I challenged my old teammate to a half marathon. He said double it, so how could I back down from a challenge. This should be interesting. I have until may to prepare.

Now on to projects. I have finished my SNAP now. I am experimenting with a couple barrel options as well as a couple different varieties of Stefans. My computer is having some trouble recognizing my memory card at the moment, so I will have to post pictures later.

My set of plushies ended up turning into one plushie and now the planned recipient is my mom for Christmas. This is about the perfect way to learn a bit about sewing. Make something handmade for my mom. Since I'm a little new to this, it won't be so articulate yet, but who better to take your rough draft projects than mom. She's been excited about all your crumby seeming artwork since you were 3.  Love you mom.

Don't think I had mentioned anything about it here yet, but I finally got my linux computer working with my router. Felt like a noob for not checking for MAC filtering sooner, but I couldn't connect to my modem either. Regardless, fishy. At least that's over with.

I think my current challenge is to use up all my perishable food before I move. Yeah eating. What a whirlwind though. I have to be back home, 6 hr away by Saturday night so I can leave for a ski trip on Sunday. Lucky I can come back for some final clean up after Christmas.

I should really set a day of the week to do updates more regularly. I really should be here weekly, with the occasional bonus posts. Mice and men, I guess for now.

Thanksgiving Week Update

Last week was a little busy. I don't even know where it went really. I am nearly finished with my SNAP though. I need to reattach the pistol grip since the hot glue I used before was cracking under the stress of the recoil from firing. I have a couple barrels for it. One fires standard streamline darts. The other will be for the stefans I make once I find some appropriately sized felt pads or an alternative pad/weight combination.

I didn't get a shot off at any deer over hunting. One of them could have been a reasonable shot, but it was pretty close to a "road" I couldn't see very well and firearm safety kicked in over-zealously. My loss. At least there should be more chances to come.

I have started a project to make a few plushies. I was rather surprised to find that a couple girls I know had never heard of little stuffed animals of the sort were referred to as such. Having had trouble thinking of anything to get family for Christmas, I think the first one goes to my mom. Something handmade by me for her and a mother is the perfect person to give such a "prototype" to since she has so much practice from the rest of my life. It's surprisingly befitting, I think.

I feel like this suffice for now.