Epic week

Last week was a pretty eventful week.

• We won the 2009 Mechatronics competition (first place out of 40-something teams) with our Roomba motor-driven robot. Our record for the competition was 7-0, with 2 match losses and 1 match declared a rematch after our epic comeback from what appeared to be a loss. The Roomba motors gave us unparalleled speed and torque, with some matches won in ~4 seconds. Our opponent in the final round was very similar in design (structure, algorithms), except they used the stock motors provided in lab (I think).
• Our MAE 4300 final presentation was on the same day as the Mechatronics competition, except the presentation was at 8 AM. I was up until 6 AM working on the Mechatronics robot, and intended to get up at 6:45 so I could get ready for the presentation (shower, put on a suit, etc.). Unfortunately, I somehow missed my alarm, but magically woke up at 7:35. Still mostly asleep, I walked into the bathroom about to take a shower. That's when I realized that I had a final presentation in 25 minutes. Good thing is that the professor was very impressed with our presentation, even though I was still mostly asleep.
• Wednesday night I stayed up figuring out microcontroller code for the robot, and slept for 2 hours. On Thursday I took a half hour nap in the afternoon, and slept 1.5 hours at night. This brought my 2-day sleep total to 4 hours. Friday night I slept for 16 hours, and it was awesome.
• Fluids/Heat Transfer Laboratory is over. The course consisted of 6 labs and 6 lab reports. Lab report page counts: 23, 19, 48, 43, 45, and 22.

Mandatory Monthly Update

Bullets seem to be an appropriate way to express myself:

• Lung Collapse, Part IV: Happened approximately 1.6 weeks ago. This time, it's not that bad because my right lung is only half collapsed, thanks to the previous surgeries. As a result, it only bothers me when I walk uphill carrying my backpack and when I lay down to sleep. No surgical operation planned as of now, just going to see how it plays out.
• Cornell Server Room: I got to visit the server room at Cornell the other day, and it was massive. Apparently so massive that they're having cooling issues now. It was pretty sweet inside though.
• Rubik's Cube: I haven't really cubed on a regular basis since 2 summers ago. I brought my cube into fluids lab to put into the wind tunnel, but instead we put a toy truck inside to see wake interference. My best time of 22.69 for the 3x3 Rubik's Cube has not changed in 27 months or so.
• Hughes Dining Pancake Stack: I finished the 3-pancake stack again. However, I must admit that the size of the pancakes were smaller than before.
• Where did the time go? I feel like this semester has gone by so fast, and there's still too much to do before it ends. FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU
• I need to revert back to my lifestyle last fall and reprioritize. Some things just aren't worth the time and effort right now.

Senior year

Why is this semester crazy-busy for everyone I know? For me, it might be because I've overcommited myself with various activities/classes/etc. I also need to take 5 classes next semester in order to graduate in May...joy.

Also, I think that some people are natural-born leaders, and I'm not one of them. That's usually been fine with me so far, but when the occassion comes to take matters into my own hands to make things happen, my attitude needs to change.