8/01/08-
So the Foreign Language Institute is officially over. I’ll recap on some of the activities we did in the last week. We had an opportunity to spend time with native Chinese speakers while cooking authentic Chinese food. Zhan Lao Shi brought her friends up to the Spruance house and we spent the day cooking, eating and chatting in Chinese. Many of us learned how to cook fried rice (or 炒饭). We also excelled in our ability to speak about or likes and dislikes and also current events.
The last couple days of class were intense to say the least. We went through an entire chapter of work out of the textbook every other day, which means that every other day we had a 100+ point test. Our final consisted of 3 parts, written, listening and an oral presentation. Our written test was at least 4 pages long and was written entirely in characters. The listening section was a dialogue Zhan Lao Shi read about changing subways and using all forms of public transportation. The oral presentation was done in small groups. We had to come up with a dialogue involving all the things we had learned up until then. The presentation had to be technically sound and yet we were encouraged to make it humorous. These tests all proved to be difficult.
In the end I was able to greatly increase my Chinese language abilities and receive a high grade in the class. For anyone who is interested in taking Chinese as a foreign language I would greatly recommend it. Both Chen Lao Shi and Zhan Lao Shi are excellent teachers who want to see their students succeed. For now,

7/12/08-
Chinese language is anything but simple. I’m going on my 4th week of the Chinese Foreign Language Institute. As a GSIS major, foreign language plays a large part in my degree. In addition the Graduate program I plan on entering into at George Washington University requires fluency in foreign languages, so here I am. I actually really do enjoy the class. Zhan lao shi (translation- Professor Zhan) is a great teacher who has a strong desire to see us succeed. On Saturday the 19th our class will be going on a trip to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix. It is a nice break from the monotony of class, day after day.
Professor Zhan and her assistants often plan things like this to keep us interested. We have lessons on Chinese paintings, ordering food and Chinese culture regularly. We only have two weeks left. I’m looking forward to an actual “summer break

June 30, 2008-
You know how occasionally you meet a person who just isn’t happy with doing the normal day to day things. They constantly study to keep that 4.0 and never allow themselves to slack off just a little bit. Well, for one reason or another I turned out to be that kind of person.
I graduated from Norco High School in southern California a semester early, so being my normal self there was no way I was going to just sit back and let that time go by. I signed up for Riddle’s study abroad program in the People’s Republic of China. I spent a month there studying the language and culture of the Chinese people. The trip was a once in a life time experience for me. I was impacted by the amount of knowledge there was right in front of me, at the edge of my finger tips. Unfortunately, as always good things must come to an end. I returned from China on the day my high school graduating class walked to receive their diplomas, so I joined them. I had a single day back at home in the States and then I was off again. This time I found myself in the beautiful but, blistering Prescott, Arizona.
So here I am, once again enrolled in a Chinese course. I am here for the Summer B Intensive Foreign Language Institute. I cannot even begin to describe the amount of information Zhan Lao Shi (Professor Zhan) is shoveling into our heads. Day after day we show up at 9 A.M. for the normal classroom session. We learn all about pronunciation, pin yin, and Chinese characters. In China I picked up a lot of the street language, you know, like the stuff you absolutely need to survive, such as: Zhege shi shenme (what is that?!?!) or Cesuo zai nar? (Where is the bathroom?) But now I find myself deciphering what looks to me like a code, such as this: 你好 我

Oh man, producing that paper this past weekend took forever! Using the all flash drive technique was very tedious. Also, we had to use different versions of the software for layout since the computers the paper has were all not working. I really appreciate how my staff used their own computers to read and produce the paper. The end product looked great for the situation.

We got our server and one new computer this week so now we can have a much smoother production next time.

School is ok, flying is fun and I am getting through it quickly and well. I’m shock myself every time I fly or do a sim doing all the things my instructor wants me to do.

I just took a geography test and didn’t do so well. I never thought geography was going to be this hard especially since I got an A in High School. But then again it was high school geography. It’s funny because I get an A in every single homework but when it comes to the test, I blank out and don’t do as well as I would like to.

Same story with weather, I don’t do as well on tests. I got a descent grade but I would have liked to seen it a little higher. I guess I need to study a lot more, and not put work in front of school that much.

Halloween is coming up and I still have no idea what I am going to be. I was thinking either Stewie or Kyle from South Park. The only problem with doing Stewie is I have no idea how I am going to do that football head he has. I guess I have a little while to figure it out. As for now, I leave you and will write soon to tell you all more stories.

This is the best class. All you have to do is work with robots, on SolidWorks and have fun. I just can’t stop adoring this class. We will have a competition in which we are supposed to get the golf balls (a total of 5) and put them in the hole, that is placed in the middle of a 48 inch square table 1 point is awarded for each ball and 2 points will be awarded if the robot or at least a part of it crosses the starting line. We are provided with the LEGO Mindstorms Kit and are supposed to work out a robot using the available parts. Sensors or the LEGO Computer Program can be used for this purpose. It is upon us to chose either one or use both. This is where the trick is. Neither the sensor nor the program can provide you with a foolproof program. There is going to be something or the other that will mess things up.
In SolidWorks, we are designing the 3D model of the basket that will hold the LEGO robot that is supposed to carry something and put it into another basket while afloat a hot air balloon.
We will have to work out the dynamics and weight of the components so that it also passes the various drill tests. There is a video link to the last year competition.
Talking about the basket, it is not a regular square or rectangular one. It has to have lightening holes that can reduce its weight to a measure that it is good enough for lift and for carrying the robot. We would probably use the truss bridge structure to reduce its weight and make it efficient.
And guess how we are going to get a 3D model of the components?
THE 3D Printer…
It uses ABS Plastic to make the model that has been made in the various 3D Design programs like CATIA, SolidWorks etc. It melts the plastic and the melted plastic is used to make the model. It is a really a neat thing. We had a trip to the 3D Printer Room in our Univ 101 Classes as well.
This is how the class has turned out to be in 3 weeks. I am sure it is going to be much more fun as time passes by.

Today was really an awkward day.
The first instance:
For the Physics Class, I was supposed to submit homework today. However, I was so sure that I had no homework due. I was sure that I have done all the homework. I had no assignment to turn it. Combine that situation and the fact that I did not do really awesome in my previous homeworks. I was really upset. I was worried about it during my whole class. However, at the end of the class I went to Dr. Buckalew and told him so. Guess what he told me?

Last evening, I was really happy because I had nothing due for a week and I have done my studies as was required for the day. I spent most of my time playing pool, playing the Burnout Paradise City in the new arcades in the lower hangar and just killing time. The night came and I was all upset! I had to study for a MATLAB Quiz, revise for the EGR 101 Midterm, do my Physics Homework because unfortunately, It turns out that I submitted the wrong chapter homework again and start with Economics as there was a quiz soon. It turns out that this time I submitted the right question numbers but from Chapter 15 instead of Chapter 16. I got a wild card though and got saved from a zero (0) in the homework!
Here, things pile up really quickly. I am yet to come across a day when I had no homework due. Thus, the night stretched all the way till 2 AM. Finally, I decide to get some sleep at 2.15 AM. Peace stays with me for at least an hour before the fire alarms goes off and the ear splitting noise disturbs my sleep. It turns out that someone was really starving to have some popcorn at the middle of the night, the usual story in dorms. I decided not to get up and leave the dorms. I continued with my struggles to get some sleep amidst the noise. I finally had to give in and I crawled out of the bunk beds, got my jacket and rushed out of the doors. As soon as I step out of the room, the noise goes off and everything is back to normal. I just got up to go sleep back again. The result was that I reached my Calculus class late. By late, I mean 30 minutes late! Since cold winds were blowing, the doors were closed and I had to knock to get in. Its just the perfect beginning I needed.
All hard work paid off when I got to spend another hour at the pool table and the new arcades! Economic quiz went really great and it turns out that I scored a 22/20! I got the bonus question correct too! Physics Homework was submitted on time and EGR 101 turns out to open note! The only disappointment was the MATLAB Quiz. I had the whole program in mind and on the MATLAB Editor. However, a single logical error made my program an infinite loop

Oh man, this weekend was amazing! All the festivities, events, the band was awesome, and the comedian on Saturday was great! All my reporters did their job and wrote their articles. Everything was going smoothly until the Horizons Newspaper server crashed.

It was Saturday afternoon when the server froze so my Photography editor did a hard shut down. When he restarted it, the operating system did not want to load. We worked on it all night trying to figure something out but no matter what we did, it wouldn’t work
I was able to recover the files from the faulty hard drive and attempted to get the paper done but the other computers we had we are not working well. Our equipment is close the six years old so I guess it was due to it crashing, I just didn’t expect it to happen now. We were planning on getting new equipment for next semester meanwhile we get the money but now it looks like we are going to order some now.

In the end, we were not able to get the paper done so we had to push it back to next weekend and have the special edition come out as an insert in the regular issue. Since we still don’t have a server, we have to do production on flash drives and on several different laptops with different versions of the software we use. It’s going to be an interesting production.

On a lighter note, I went flying this friday for fun with my roommate. It was a really fun flight and a very windy one. We went to Payson to get some breakfast and pie (the pie at Payson is legendary). One of my other roommates was supposed to come with us but he is a soccer player and his coach told him they had practice so he couldn’t go. Wished he did because the flight was a lot of fun.

It was windy all over Payson and Prescott and the landing in Payson was sketchy but we made it down safely. Breakfast and pie were great and it was not that expensive. After we ate, we made our way back to Prescott.

On the way back, we did Zero Gravity so my bags in the back were floating all the way up to the ceiling. It was funny seeing roommate react to me suddenly pitching forward to do zero g’s. His expression was priceless.

Landing was challenging. There were winds gusting up to 25 and it was coming from the left making it a crosswind. Nevertheless, it was one of the smoothest landings I have ever done even if there were no wind at all. It was an overall great flight.

ERAU Jet Dragster Project
I am finally in the structures team for the ERAU Jet Dragster Project. The 1st meeting was this Thursday and I had Physics class at 2.50 just 20 minutes away from the beginning of the meeting. I was really not excited with this outcome. However, luck always finds its way when awesome things are supposed to happen. I went to my Physics teacher before the class to submit my homework (yet another mess-up with submission..he he) and I was more than glad to learn that today’s class was cancelled. I took note of the homework and rushed to the AXFAB Lobby to get started with the meeting.
The Structures Team is a total of 5 members till now with seniors and juniors as the 4 members except an excited freshman,

The Robot Competition went far better than I had expected. I fell sick on Friday and had to miss the Lab and on Monday and Tuesday, I totally forgot that we had open lab times to get our robot to do something. The claw to get hold of the golf balls was to be tweaked and optimized for getting maximum balls in without losing them when it moves backwards and the complete programming was to be done.
My partner did a great job with programming and tweaking the claw and came up with a great idea to get hold of those golf balls. She made up for my delay and we did really work as much as possible on Wednesday during the open lab timings. Adding a few rubber bands helped to contain the ball while the LEGO NXT Mindstorm Robots took a turn and followed the black lines.
The competition was on Thursday and we were to compete with 3 other teams. We did fairly well by getting 3 balls out of 5 in our first two attempts. In the last attempt, however, we could only get in a single golf ball. Still, we made it back to our spot every single time and earned the 2 bonus points every time. The lowest scores were to be dropped and we had an average score of more than 8, which was really good. The scores were the sum of total no. of the balls put in by both the teams and the bonus points if the robot, or part of it, gets back to the starting point. We scored a total of 20 points and the lowest was 3. So that basically is 8.5 as an average score.
EGR 101 is turning out to be a fun filled class. We are going to have a Lighter than Air Vehicle competition really soon and it sure sounds amazing to be a part of. However, I have heard that this time the teams are going to be selected by the Professors themselves