Today was a particularly good day, and it is surely good enough for me to blog about.  For starters, I had my usual Power Electronics class.  It does not feel like a class at all because I absolutely love building circuits.  Even though Probability fried my brain pretty badly, I somehow managed to stay awake in that class.  Things really went North at around 4:30 or so when my friend from NYLF/Tech (11th grade) called me up and told me that he’s in Austin.  I had dinner and ice cream with him, his Mom, and another friend that attends UT.  Afterwards, I showed him my dorm room and the electrical lab for UT Solar Vehicles Team.  That left me in high spirits, which I will carry with me after I wake up tomorrow.

This is unbelievable!  My spring break really went as planned!  Upon my return to Austin…

Monday: Took my friends around Austin to eat and check out where I study.  The roads definitely require a lot of patience.  During the walking tour of campus, they went to an old video games store and a comic book store.  That definitely made their trip.

Tuesday: Worked all day at Pickle Research Campus with the solar car team to put the foam blocks for the upper portion of the Samsung Solorean’s body together.  One of the challenges we are facing is aligning the blocks perfectly in two axes at the same time on an uneven floor (height and length).  Once finished, it looks approximately like this:

Wednesday, Thursday: Went to YPS Facility Services to help sand foam blocks that will become the mold for the bottom portion of the Samsung Solorean’s body.  Professor Hallock and I were sanding practically nonstop for at least five hours each day.

Friday: Edit the mechanical report to ensure that it has everything NASC headquarters asked for and that it is formatted well.  Yes, this took all day.

Now: Slept in, did some homework, and continuing to study.

I’m now back in Sugar Land, TX, and I will be back for only the weekend.  Afterwards, I’m returning to UT to work with the solar car team.  Many people tell me, “Wow, that sucks!” but I think quite the contrary.  I am passionate about getting this car built; and even though I haven’t done much in the way of design, I have devoted at least a hundred hours this semester to working with logistics, documentation, IT, and outreach while maintaining my school-social balance.  As far as this weekend is concerned, I suspect the schedule looks something like this, with studying and more solar car team stuff wherever I can fit it:

Saturday:

• Calculate the tab with my parents
• Teach little brother how to blow the dust out of his laptop
• Remove gunk from my littlest brother’s computer
• Do FAFSA forms in front of my parents

Sunday:Celebrate Dad’s birthday

Monday:Day of fun with two very close friends while returning to Austin.

Cleaning up my little brothers’ computers reminds me of why I love Linux so much.  In Windows, we are constantly bombarded with pop-ups from the diverse range of software installed asking you to update or to deliver some message/ad.  Also, it continues to baffle me as to how a limited user should be allowed to make global changes to a computer.  Microsoft, there is a reason why I would want to place a user on a “limited” account — it’s because I don’t want them installing programs willy-nilly.

For all you fun-loving folks out there, I will have fun… I promise.  I will have fun in the pursuit of my passions.  That road trip to Calgary, AB, Canada IS going to happen!