Rusty muffins

To answer the question many people have had after they’ve heard about the senior design project that Amanda and I are working on, this is what you get if you pay less than $10 for bakeware:

Rust!

I purchased this muffin pan at Target over the summer in an effort to increase my muffin-baking power. (I may or may not have used muffins as motivation for technicians at GE to bump my projects up in their queues.) Anyway, it appears that this time I let my muffin pan soak in water for too long in an effort to loosen the dried-on blueberry glop. Normally, I don’t let my bakeware get away from me like this, but I’ve been very lazy busy lately. Perhaps expensive bakeware is coated properly so that the base metal doesn’t corrode? I wouldn’t know – I’m too poor to have fancy baking pans. I think I may save up for a name brand pan this time around, though. My muffins don’t need to be sporting any kind of orange tinge.

At any rate, in this case, corrosion is not so beautiful.

* * *

‘Tis the season for sharing, and people are sharing colds. Yesterday morning in 663, I ended up being sandwiched between two cold-sufferers. Poor Kent was issuing a fine spray of germs into the back of my head at regular 47-second intervals. Amanda didn’t sound too good either. Kent apologized for the coughing after class, and I asked him if he wouldn’t mind hitting the back of my head with a can of Lysol (although the way in which I phrased it sounded violent). Then Nat came over to talk to us, and tapping his throat, he croaked, “Yeah, I’m still sick.”

“GAH!” I said. “I’m outta here!” And then I ran out the classroom door.

It’s too bad that when it comes to illness and the MSE department, you can run, but you can’t hide.

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Midterms, Poetry, SPO, TA, TBP

Hello Everyone Again,

I know it has been awhile since I last wrote, but that is because I have been so busy with the five things in the title.  Though I would love to go into each one of them individually and write a novel about each one, I will save you all the pain and just write about a few of the highlights of my life so far.  This by far has been the busiest quarter of my college career.  I have gotten into a routine for the weekly 401 and 526 quizzes, as well as the two weekly poetry assignments and weekly lab report draft or finals.  But when you throw a midterm, or in my case both 526 and 401, into the mix things get hectic.  I have found myself working harder than before to just get ready for the upcoming day and am not ahead in any of my classes.

You would think that with all the weekly assignments, that would be enough for one guy, but I continue to strain my body even further by applying the stress of my two organizations, St. Paul’s Outreach and Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honors Society, and my job as a TA for the Fundamental of Engineering Honors class at 7:30.  The one thing I love about being involved with all three of these things, is that I can really give myself to all those around me.  I truly love serving them and being able to help out my peers in what ever way I can and I feel blessed and honored to be able to help the students learn and understand new concepts that I remember struggling with when I was where they are now.

Nevertheless, I still enjoy being pushed to the limit.  If I have one suggestion to anyone I would say to make sure you know your limits.  I have found that I can do all of this and still succeed in school.  It would be a terrible mistake to do everything outside of the classroom and nothing inside. With that being said I am looking to take the rest of this weekend as a relaxing one to try and recover from my cold.

Until I write again,
Justin

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Under pressure

These are exciting days here in CaitlinMSE-land, and nothing says “festive” quite like clip art and a post title taken from a Queen & David Bowie duet! Now that the fun of my on-campus interviews has come to a close, I’m staring down three on-site final interviews. Have you seen me lately? Do I look particularly terrified? Yes, I’m not so good at hiding my anxiety, am I? The on-campus interviews, they were becoming old hat, no sweat. Next week I’ll be out of my element on two separate occasions, and that isn’t counting that non-ferrous midterm or ferrous quiz sandwiched between my interview trips. I’m desperately trying to keep everything in perspective, which is difficult to do when you’re treading water in the deep end of engineering. (It’s especially difficult when you’re dealing with the fear that you’re innately a humanities major who just happens to be sporting a colorful engineering candy coating.) My advice to all MSE majors: schedule a very, very light autumn quarter class load your senior year. Also, don’t try to TA three sections of a class four days a week. Otherwise, unless you’re superhuman, you’ll become so stressed by the middle of the quarter that even cheese won’t sound appetizing to you. Cheese! Your favorite!

In an effort to divert my attention from the impending terror of next week, I’ll explain a little about how great Engineering Career Services (ECS) is in helping with the job search. I’ve heard students complain that it’s good only for students looking to stay in Ohio – not true. My interviews are in Texas, Indiana, and…okay, Ohio. A lot of the companies are located all over the country, and yes, a lot of them have branches in Ohio, but many hire for all of their locations. Another benefit of ECS: they bring the interviews to you. I suppose this is hard to appreciate unless you’ve had experience pounding the pavement, hunting for a job. Trust me, not having to drive all over the place for interviews is amazing. And when it comes time for on-site interviews, the companies usually foot the bill for travel. Finally, the staff at ECS is super-helpful when it comes time to make your resume look all buff and toned. Also, if you give the counselors an idea of what you’re looking for job- or internship-wise, they’ll keep an eye out for any special work prospects that come their way and encourage you to pursue those opportunities. The job database is exhaustive, and once you pay your one-time $25 fee, it’s yours to peruse whenever you so choose. You can go hog-wild and apply for any job that’s looking for employees with your credentials, or you can be more selective and just follow the companies in which you have a keen interest. In essence, ECS is well worth the time, effort, and money.

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Materials Scholarship

Last month I attended the Materials Science and Technology (MS&T) Conference where I was recognized and awarded the ASM Foundation’s Dr. George A. Roberts Scholarship Award for Outstanding merit and Academic Performance.   This picture shows me with Dr. Roberts after I accepted the award.  I had spilled food on my tie right before I accepted the award, and I had to wear my name tag and button my jacket so you couldn’t see the stain.

Dr. George A. Roberts and Brad

ASM put me up for two nights in the Pittsburgh Hilton which was very very nice.  The entire trip was a lot of fun and an experience I will never forget.  I made many contacts which I hope to use in order to find a job in the Chicago area after graduation this June.  The other students from different MSE programs were very nice and fun to hang out with.  It was a great experience.  I can’t complain about the scholarship either.

Materials Organizations for students.

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