the Dyno that sings

So I finished lunch with my sister, arrive to my friday lecture 10 min late. My professor is at the front of the room talking about the drawings on the board of history of UWs dynos (dynomometer). Wow, so interesting (I was wondering why I went to class). No five minutes later he says,"well today I was thinking about making the class a little more interesting. Since it's friday I thought we could take a walk downstairs and see the dynos." Ok, could be interesting. Pehler decides FAC eeded to start and he ditches. I decide to stay. Good decision numero uno por la dia.

The prof explains what he was telling us in the classroom, except with the real engine and dyno in front of us. Still kind of boring. Then he brings in his grad student buddy and he explains more/gives us a presentation. The dyno can model vehicle emissions testing, better than the EPA does right now. OK, a little cooler. Then we move over to the single-cylinder dyno and he explains why no one uses them in real life modeling because of all the drawbacks to non-simulation of the other six cylinders. Then he goes on to enthusiastically explain how he and his team stuck it to the industry and made it work. In fact, they wanted to show-off, so they decided to make the dyno play a song, based on the resonance frequencies of the hydraulic pump. He started with "On, Wisconsin". The prof then explained how people weren't that impressed, so he decided to give his team a challenge of making the dyno play a Bach violin concerto. IT DID.

I am being a huge tech dork right now, and i'm not going to explain how crazy it is that this machine can play this song, or how many hours it took for the grad students to program such a pointless thing as a song to be played by an engine, but that was SWEET.

I'm going to now be late for my next class due to blogging. Maybe this next one will be even cooler... It won't but at least I'll be in Michigan by midnight.

clubbin'

Junior decided to take a night off from work and treat some of us cool AIESECers to VIP at the cool club in town. It also happened to be 18 and over night (or is that every night at this fine establishment), which made the dancing that much better. I traded shirts with this guy, twice. Not sure why either swap took place, but it seemed cool at the time.

Yes, I enjoyed the night out after my fluids test, but this place will NOT be stumbled upon in the future. Seriously, it was weird. There were like 30-year-old dudes standing on the edges of the "dance floor" with drinks in their hands, while the "18-year-olds" were in the middle doing crazy stuff. I've also never seen as many blue balls as I did last night. That was the hilarious part, but only because it didn't happen to me. I do think Eric got a number though.

Also, how many people go out to the clubs/bars without their key?

yes, we all have stories

so i got a phone call yesterday at about 4PM. I check the display and it reads "Lauren." OK, so I do know a couple Laurens, but I haven't talked to any of them in awhile and I have no clue why they would be calling me on a Wednesday afternoon. I pick up the phone. "Bruni, can you drop off my vegetables at my house. Thanks." It was Jenna, not Lauren. Lauren would be Jenna's sister. How my sim card switched that around is still puzzling me.

I also woke up this morning, still feeling last night, looked at the clock, decided it was Saturday and rolled over thinking why the hell did I set my alarm. Today is Thursday, not Saturday. I'm not puzzling over my reasoning. Saturday needs to get here ASAP.

One more test tomorrow.

gas depressed, acceleration begins

first lab of the semester for dynamic systems. 3 hours of FUN to ensue in just under an hour. Sevendust is a no-go. mis amigos no quieren ir. I also found out one of my tests this week is now moved to next week. This means I will not miss a regular GMM this week, but instead will miss coach group meetings next. yippea.

I am almost finished with reading "Never Eat Alone." Aaron recommended I read it, after having a bizillion questions about networking. It has helped a lot. It makes networking make sense. I definitely recommend to any person, no matter what career. I'm already sort of working on one of his recommendations to write down your goals. My interpretation of this is post it on my wall. I am planning the rest of my semester and the wall hanging is so that I can visually see how much I am slacking, so that I don't. I'm running the Chicago Marathon in fall(my goal). I'm going to slowly start upping the mileage, until I officially start training in April. The wall hanging has weekends on it too, just to make sure I keep up a routine the ENTIRE week.

Concerto Numero Nueve

I have 2 tests on Wednesday and one on Friday. Sevendust/Nonpoint concert at the Orpheum on Tuesday. As long as tickets are still available, I'm hitting that. Still haven't seen either of them live, but own almost 10LPs of two.

First Seven concerts:
1. Injected/Live at Summerfest
2. OK Go at Club 770
3. Verona Grove/Tom Petty at Summerfest
4. Verona Grove at Fondy somewhere
5. Silvertide/Shinedown/Tantric at the Annex
6. OAR at Summerfest
7. MOE/"Ben Folds" at Summerfest
8. Collective Soul at Summerfest

All were attended while in college.

Chipmunks R Us

All four wisdom teeth are out. I've been sleeping, drooling and eating yogurt for the last couple days. My jaw still refuses to open more than 1 cm. I don't think I've lost weight due to my not moving from the downstairs couch, except to pee and get more yogurt. Side note: I don't have chipmunk cheeks. I think I do, but because my face is so narrow, I look normal now...

2 interviews finished and two large REJECTIONS. This is where a network would be nice so I would at least have some options. Yes, I have a summer job lined up doing computer stuff, but that's not what I'm looking for. I need engineering XP once again.

I decided (this may have been the vicadin and the Wed night snow storm) that I am going to look for a job in California. I've always wanted to go there, and this summer could be my last chance. I already decided on the US, so now I'm narrowing the search even more. If only I knew of companies to intern at (again, my network is lagging my ambitions). Yeah, California will happen.

Spring Brake

Spring Brake, originally uploaded by mjbruni.

The brakes have been applied. Relaxing has begun. From the car bombs before the library on Wednesday, to the boots on Thursday and finally FAC Friday, I am exhausted and am officially taking the rest of the break off.

nerves

big interview in 8 hours

must sleep

i updated photos on flickr and also met with Director of Int'l Engineering Programs. Partnership with IAESTE looking better.

sleep

cultural differences

Here's a link from the great city of Green Bay. The video is titled,"GB Police Issue 87 Citations" so keep scrolling till you see it. $16,000 worth of tickets for underage drinking given to students ranging from 19 to 23. That's rediculous. If they couldn't even tell that many people were in the house, how much of a disturbance was it really causing? And they said that no one was doing any outrageous things. I'm glad my taxes get used for public urination prevention.

The biggest question I have is: what did the female reporter do with the 40 after broadcast (and why would you use a 40 as a prop to prove people were drinking)?

Drippin wet in the shower and the doorbell rings

guess who's on the otherside of the door: the fedex guy

THE HOBOCAN HAS ARRIVED.

Need to get one last piece from Lyn and this baby will be firing on all cylinders.

Back to Basics

It's a Thursday night and a bunch of people are going to the Essen Haus. Others are pulling me to not-so-nice bars. I decided instead to play some basketball at the serf (Thursday nights it's open until 1am). As I'm walking down state street at 11PM, I realize how funny I look carrying a gym bag as drunken people are wearing their best outfits strolling down the street to their next drink. I felt very weird, but I kept going anyways. I started to think that I must be the only one after weeks of midterms to be wanting to play basketball at midnight on a Thursday. I finally make it to the serf, praying that there will be nine other people on the courts so that I could at least play a game or two. I walk into the locker room and ask for a ball.
Dude at the counter - "Sorry, but we're all out."
ME - "Like they're all taken?"
Dude at the counter - "Yeah. All the balls are checked out. Late-night Thursdays are pretty popular nights for basketball."
ME - "Yeah, I guess they are."
I had to wait a good 20 minutes to get into a game. It felt good just to get on the courts, get some boards, shoot a couple threes, and everything else I haven't had the priviledge of doing for the last 6 months.

Looking back at life in Lakeshore, I remember my floor freshman year. Every Thursday almost half the floor would go to late night thursdays to play ball. It was unheard of to go out on a Thursday. Why would anyone, when there was so much else to do? Then I moved to the other side of campus and wow is that philosophy not followed. I realize now that I just have to know what I want and do it; no regrets. I used to have this mentality, but sometime last year when I moved away from Lakeshore, I seemed to have lost it. I guess sometimes I don't realize I have something good until I lose it.

Salaam What?

Other than Williams marvelous presentation on his experiences in Egypt, last night also featured a very nice introduction to the Salaam program by Brokeback. He started by saying one of his roommates from the dorms walked into their den while he was studying for an arabic exam and asked,"So how's terrorism class going?" The guy was probably joking, but, as Junior went on to say, was he? How much does the guy REALLY associate Arabs with terrorism?

I knew this wasn't just one isolated occurance, as when I lived in the dorms there were similar comments being made.

Then, I was walking down state street going to my environmental engineering exam, and a middle-aged dude that I just passed exclaims,"Hey, terrorist discounts," as he walks by Kabul, a traditional Afghani restaurant. what? I'm blaming my wondering mind during the exam on this occurence. Salaam = good. That dude's exclamation = bad. My exam = ?lame?.

Mardi Gras with the Germans

I was "convinced" to go to the Essen Haus for Mardi Gras. A roommate told me that the party was large and sweet. I round up some others from my past and make the arduous trek to the otherside of the capitol, only to find that my roommate had already moved to greener pastures. I didn't feel like following, so we grabbed a boot. Also had a lovely waitress from South Carolina serving us. Accents are awesome.

So I didn't actually have Mardi Gras with any Germans, but there was a polka band playing all night so that has to count for something.