You stole my title layout...
http://www.compadre.org/student/bulletinboard/PostListDetails.cfm?pid=348&FID=9&TID=74

Meanie  :)

-al

The story of what happened after lunch begins in my cubicle. After lunch I came back to my cube (though it isn't really a cube, more like an irregular open shape).  Then I sat and *gasp* did some work.  Mostly I worked on categorizing and organizing more of the University of Louisville's massive amounts of data.  After passing the time until 3pm working on SOCK data I went up to the 3rd floor with Heather where we were scheduled to be grilled over the CNSF stuff again. After we were bombarded with leading questions (I felt like a witness in a bad TV court drama) Heather and I came back down to the 2nd floor to meet with Gary.  Around 4pm we met with Gary to discuss SOCK data and we looked at some of the trends that Gary had plotted.  I even made a suggestion as to why our experimental data might be higher than the theoretical on one end of the graph and lower on the other.  After we wrapped up the meeting I walked down and got some business cards from Dr. Stith in case Heather and I needed them at the CNSF event.  Then I came back to my cube, packed my stuff, turned off my computer talked to Jack and Liz for a bit with Heather and then Heather and I left to go wait for the shuttle.  That's the end of my work day.  There was further activity involved though when Joe, Allison, Heather, KB, and I all went to Fashion Centre at Pentagon City to return shoes and eat food.  That about sums up the rest of my day yesterday. I hope you all enjoyed that peek into my day.

-Matt-

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http://quark.physics.uwo.ca/~harwood/humor12.htm

The above link is greatness. Also, I just discovered that there is hot chocolate in the little kitchen/coffee area, that mde my day.

-Matt-

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Another day another dollar as the saying goes.

Today we missed the shuttle because people at Foggy Bottom had no interest in exiting the cars expediently. In turn the doors shut after only 2 or 3 people got on. This in turn dominoed and we just missed the shuttle. It wasn't too bad though since it is cooler today than it has been. This morning I have looked at the data a bit but as of yet have been uninspired to work on it. However in place of that I have worked on sketching out a lesson plan about coefficient of restitution and friction for the Materials in Sports summer camp. I'm worried about the kinematics equations though. I mean they aren't terribly difficult for me to manipulate but for middle schoolers who have never seen them before it could be difficult to understand. If any of you people reading have suggestions just drop me a reply.

Matt

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Today is the day for CNSF. In about 44 minutes Heather and I will be leaving to be driven through the checkpoints required before being allowed near the capitol. Time check, it is now 39 minutes. So we will be riding over there and putting out presentation materials in the hall and then will be coming back around 4 to set up. Hopefully everything will run smoothly. Yep, that's about it. Also, there are some interesting rules and regulations about the properties of balls used in sports.

-Matt-

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Well everything was going smoothly, we were dropped off without incident, we got our stuff put away, we made it back to the dorm, we got changed. Then "it" happened, the rain came pouring down and in the 2 blocks from the Metro to the Rayburn building Heather and I were soaked. I don't mean a little damp, I mean sopping wet. I dripped going through the halls. The best part is that Heather and I were originally going to wait until around 4:45 to get back to set up since the event didn't start until 5:30 but under the advice of others we came back at 4:00 when it was pouring and then it had stopped by 4:45.  In addition to being soaked they misspelled my name, that made me sad. Anyway, Heather and I got the booth set up and met Alicia Torres finally. Then the other AIP representatives came in. Around 5:45 or 6:00 things got a little interesting, I saw my first congressman. Then at the urging of Liz I went to go introduce myself and try to corral him to our table but as I was making my way he turned around and left. This wouldn't have been so bad except then I felt awkward standing around in the middle of tables I wasn't that interested in. Shortly after that the next congressman came through and we were actually able to get him to our booth where Heather and Dr. Stith I believe told him of DBIS and I looked on. I found that throughout the night I was never the one talking to the bigwigs, I was always the one talking to random people who stopped by. I did however talk to several people on the House Committee for Science and several aides for different Representatives. I also saw several people working for the offices of Senators. I have to say though that some of the interns working for congressman are real snots (not my first choice of descriptive words but the most appropriate for this forum). I mean you make eye contact with them and they just sort of turn their nose up and walk away like your program has no worth. Well if they had taken the time they would have found out our DBIS program has a potential audience of over 80 million and hopes to expand even further. Or that 80% of the public gets their news from local TV stations. I did find though that congressional aides that were a bit older were much more interested and actually took the time to ask specific questions. For instance one was especially interested in the spanish segments that DBIS is putting out through NSF funding because the congressman he works for is from Albuquerque and has a large percent of constituents who are spanish speakers. Other than that the food smelled good and the wine and beer flowed. That's really about it in a nutshell, though I almost forgot to say thanks to my fellow interns for coming and supporting Heather and I.

-Matt-

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Oh and one other thing I forgot. I think the cleaning people here at ACP threw away my water cup. That saddens me as that cup had been with me for over 2 weeks. I mean a day old coffee/hot chocolate cup is one thing, but a water cup? it didn't harm anyone, it was a nice simple water cup just trying to live its life. Oh well, I'll just have to pour some of my next cup out for the lost cup.

-Matt-

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I have been banging my head into a wall repeatedly trying to figure out this solid angle thing. I wish it would just work out already. Any help would be appreciated, so far I've worked with integration and attempts at geometrical arguments that have come to nothing.

-Matt-

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Imagine a unit sphere with a cone protruding from it. The cone is oriented such that the tip of it is at the origin as is the center of the sphere. So the cone pierces the sphere in a circular manner. This leaves you with a dome where the height is not equal to the radius of the circle creating the flat side. The solid angle this cone subtends is then a ratio of the surface area of the sphere part of the dome to the total surface area of the sphere. Knowing this I need to be able to easily determine the area of this dome. I have tried finding the arc length of the middle cross-section and then spinning it around the axis running perpendicular to the base. I have tried several different coordinate systems. The best thing I have come up with so far is the following. Imagine that you center your spherical coordinate axes at the origin of the unit sphere with the cone coming straight up along what would be the "z axis" in cartesian coordinates. Then you have several things to draw. Check out the following link: http://www.geocities.com/shankies483/solid_angle_diagram.jpg to see my diagram. Okay so because this is a slice of a sphere that is centered on the cartesian "z axis" we know that is should be "phi"cally symmetric. Now comes the annoying part. I've tried to consider this as a cylinder with a changing height and radius. Therefore the function I would be working with for surface area excluding end caps would be 2*Pi*A*H. So with my diagram you can then define A=R*Sin(Theta) and H=R-R*Cos(Theta). This then puts all of the dependence on Theta which is seemingly good because then unit wise it works out. So at this point I think that I need to integrate with respect to Theta. So by my assumptions and guesses I end up needing to integrate 2*Pi*R*Sin(Theta)*(R-R*Cos(Theta) with respect to Theta. Not wanting to do this myself I went to "The Integrator" at http://integrals.wolfram.com/ so I type in the formula Sin[x]*(1-Cos[x]) (I pulled out the constants R^2,2,Pi and put in x as the variable because that is what the integrator will accept). The answer it gives me is -Cos[x]+[(Cos[x]^2)/2]. This all seems well and good so plugging in the limits 0 to Pi/2 should give the value for half of a sphere. However, -Cos[0]=-1 and Cos[0]^2/2=1/2 so we have a -1/2 for the 0 value. Then plugging in Pi/2 -Cos[Pi/2]=0 and Cos[Pi/2]/2=0 so the Pi/2 term is 0. This leaves us with 0-(-1/2) which when multiplied by the leading constants 2*Pi*R^2 gives Pi*R^2 which is a factor of 2 off from what it should be. The interesting part though comes in examining what happens in the limits of 0 to Pi. 0 should give -1/2 again. Then Pi should give 3/2 so total we should be left with 2 after evaluating the limits in the integral. So when you add in the leading constants you get 4*Pi*R^2 which is the right value. That's my problem, if you find a better way of solving it, i.e. the right way, please let me know. The overall problem is finding the surface area of a dome that is not necessarily half of a sphere.

-Matt-

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So after some work and recalculations the expression I had at the end of yesterday was slightly different than what I had when I last updated. The equation I came up with was 2*Pi*R^2*(1-Cos[Theta'])*Integral[Sin[Theta] d[Theta]]. Then I did a search on computing the solid angle and found an article that said the solid angle of a right circular cone is 2*Pi*(1-Cos[a]) where "a" is the polar angle. So I know that the "R" goes away because to find solid angle you use a unit sphere with radius=1. o this sort of heartens me except that my answers don't match up with the results of the article. I'm also trying to find it using spherical coordinates not polar, though I'm not sure if polar angle necessarily indicates the use of polar coordinates.

Update: I'm just kidding, I've got it. The problem was in my assumption that I needed to take into account height. Truth be told, there is no need because I am summing up the circumferences and the dependence upon theta in that respect takes care of the height dependence that I thought there was. So I am in agreement. The solid angle subtended by a right circular cone is 2*Pi*(1-Cos[Theta])

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Sorry, an argh of frustration for spending so much time working on a problem that was relatively simple.

Vote Matt!

Whilst sitting at my desk contemplating what to do next I was surfing around on physics sites and the SPS National Site and was inspired. Every year at Rhodes we do a Liquid Nitrogen Pumpkin Drop either on Halloween or close to it. Last year we decided to launch small decorative pumpkins with a trebuchet that Adam(my roommate) and I built during our freshman year to take to a competition at CBU. Needless to say the wanton destruction of small gourds by way of trebuchet thrilled people. Knowing that I was inspired to think "what about building a new trebuchet that could launch regular pumpkins? I think that would be awesome. Also it would help SPS because we could host a pumpkin carving contest and have people launch their designs. Or even charge a nominal fee to let people launch something of their choice. I guess all this sitting at a desk is making me want to do/make something. Anyway, 19 minutes until lunch.

-Matt-

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WARNING!!!!: The first paragraph is a lot of whining.

Alright so here's the deal. I'm getting sick, lousy, stinking, coughing, sick. I'm sick and tired of this causing me to be sick and tired. So that's my first beef of the day. Beef sub 2 is that I get paid on Friday. Why, you may ask, do you have beef with getting paid? Well I don't really have beef with getting paid but rather that I have to make a special trip out to MRSEC to get my check. This wouldn't even be so bad except that the checks aren't available generally until 9am (coincidentally a time when I'm supposed to be working). Secondly the lady who hands out the checks is leaving early on Friday so I need to get it before like 1 or 2. This sucks because it takes roughly an hour total to wait for a shuttle to the metro/walk to the metro, then wait for a shuttle to MRSEC, get my check, wait again for a shuttle from MRSEC to the metro, then wait for a shuttle/walk back to ACP. So I'm going to have to ask Liz to either come in late or take extra time on my lunch break, neither of which is all that appealing since it means I will have to work late to compensate.

So on to the non-whiny part. This weekend was entertaining. Saturday I sat around and did laundry. After some laundry I went to dinner with Al, Joe, Brett, Anthony, and KB at Bertucci's and then watched Zoolander. After Zoolander I hung out in Joe's room with Heather, KB, Joe and Anthony. Sunday was more laundry and a trip to Georgetown where I got a couple books, Ender's Shadow and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Pal. That's about it for the weekend. Now it's Monday and time to put the ol' sniffer back to the grindstone if you know what I mean. Anyway, ciao and all that.

-Matt-

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I just had my first experience actually tasting what one of the "mashmallows" in the hot chocolate with mashmallow pouches tastes like. It is terrible. The only thing I could distinguish was grainy, sort of like a dehydtrated peep. This is just a sort of public service announcement to let you know to avoid faux dehydrated marshmallows. That being done, good luck.

-Matt-

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Well, this morning has been long. First thing that was distressing was the lack of hot water. I mean as fun as cold showers are, I would rather not take one early in the morning. Luckily after a few minutes the water started to warm. So after the shower was over I did my typical morning routine and headed out the door. So Heather, KB and I are all heading towards the Metro when I realize, much to my chagrin, that I had left my wallet in my room. So I end up raising my voice in trying to explain to Heather that I needed a G World card to get back in. So I got my wallet and we began our trip to ACP. Now I'm at work and Heather and I just met with Gary and I think I got some good info and feedback. Hopefully everything will be good at MRSEC today. Well tata for now folks.

-Matt-

I ask the question, how hard is it to add numbers that should add to 5? I mean looking at several data sheets from the newest batch, there are repeated errors where the person records 3 flat landings, 0 rolling landings, and then puts a dash through the column for number of uncertain landings. This would be fine if they only dropped 3 cylinders. However, they recorded that they dropped 5. Where did these other 2 cylinders go? Did they pop out of existence? Furthermore, it is unclear if they worked in groups. Some of the data sheets have the same entries for 2 different people. Then several others list multiple people for a drop. These two factors raise a flag in my mind that makes me question if the sheets with the same entries are duplicates of one drop. Argh, why can't people just do one data sheet for a given drop. It would make my life easier and would increase my confidence in the data. Well, other than this data fiasco, things are going well. I tuned up my lesson plan, got pages written up for the exercises, and even looked up prices on happy/sad balls. Until the next time.

-Matt-

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Oh yeah, I got the car to stop at the top of the loop on the applet at: http://www.funderstanding.com/k12/coaster/

On to the trials and tribulations of today and yesterday and whenever else I feel like covering. So yesterday I ended up getting out a little early at MRSEC. It was nice because I beat at least some of the rush hour traffic in getting beck to Foggy Bottom. As soon as I put my stuff down I headed out to Harris Teeter to get some more bread and other lunch supplies. After I got back I made myself some dinner and plopped down with "Ender's Shadow" and finished that up. When I finished my book I went downstairs to see what was going on down there. Joe was leaving on a shopping run to Harris Teeter and no one else was going so I said I would go as well. Thus began my second trip to Harris Teeter of the evening. After going to Harris Teeter I watched part of the movie Wishmaster 3 on sci-fi while Joe cooked his kabobs. Then it was 10:30 and coincidentally, I decided, my bedtime. So I went back to my room and went to bed.

On to today. So far I have entered some new data that we received from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. This data is somewhat frustrating because I'm not sure if the data is reliable at all. Aside from that I sent out a letter and wrote some emails and did a little bit of editing and cleaning up on my lesson plan. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from Gary about meeting with him to catch up on where we are.

-Matt-

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I knew it, Allison is trying to beat my number of posts. The difference though is that she cheats. Adding replies onto her own thread solely to have more posts than I do. She doesn't even try to cover up that fact. That's why I say, "If you value honesty and integrity, vote Matt."




-Matt-





This message has been paid for by the supporters of Matt.

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What is up with people taking my stuff? I didn't realize it until now but somebody took my recycle can. Why? Why must they toy with my emotions by taking my water cup and now my recycle can? *Sigh* How will I go on?

-Matt-

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The credit for the bust goes to the bovines. A tip on the whereabouts of Parker Ray Elliott, suspected of fatally shooting his ex-wife and daughter and wounding his son, had led authorities Monday to search a Maury County, Tenn., farm where they caught a break. "I knew those cows should have been looking at me, since I had just come into the area," state parks employee Shane Petty said, "but they were looking over into the woods, so I knew that's where he was."

The above story was taken from "express," which is a publication of The Washington Post, on July 2, 2004.


I think that is awesome, go cows. So today is Friday and will be wrapping up the fourth week of the internship meaning that it will be half over. It's amazing to me that the internship is half over. Yesterday I again went to Pentagon City and in all likelihood I will go again tonight. Last night though it was a run with Heather, KB, and Joe.  The best part was all the escalator action, just kidding. So Heather and KB got food while Joe and I got smoothies and I showed Joe where the DSW was. After Heather and KB finished eating we all went to DSW where I seriously contemplated some more dressy shoes. Unfortunately I am somewhat short on funds so I didn't get them. Tonight however I will probably return some shoes I bought earlier because I honestly don't want them and won't wear them. Then I will get the dress shoes if they are still there because they are a good deal and I will have the money to do so. After all the excitement at DSW we all came back and I headed to bed after watching a little bit of Braveheart with Joe.

This morning was alright, at first I forgot that Heather was going in early so I kept wondering where she was. Then I remembered that she went in early as KB and I left. The ride up here was uneventful except that I finally felt like a native because I ran to catch the green line at L'Enfant Plaza. Then I read the "express" and waited for College Park and that's about it. Later though I plan to leave about half an hour early for lunch and head out to MRSEC to pick up my paycheck. That's about it for now though, toodles.

-Matt-

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Wow, it feels like somebody bashed me over the head with a sleepy bat. Anyway, I went to MRSEC and got my check. What a surprise that was. I mean I expected to have taxes taken out but not to have near a third of my check taken away. I mean federal tax is one thing but state taxes are what really got me. I DON'T LIVE IN MARYLAND!!! I mean I looked at the tax form for Maryland and it had a place for exemptions that said you were exempt if you didn't live in Maryland. I do not live in Maryland so I listed my permanent address and the woman who runs HR at MRSEC told myself and Heather that exemption didn't apply to us. I think I might have to do some delving into the tax laws here in Maryland because I am royally annoyed about having that much taken away. I mean I will probably get back my federal taxes but I have no idea about the state stuff. I am a student, I already live cheap, I don't need to have anymore of my income taxed away. If nothing else it would be nice if internships would tell you the truth, that you won't really get the 3000 stipend. What they should really tell you is that you will get about 2200 after taxes. An interesting point brought up to me by Liz though is that the tax in Maryland could be a working/living tax and not just a living tax. That would mean that I'm not really exempt. Oh well I'll just have to check it out.

-Matt-

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Well Tuesday is here and the 4th of July has come and gone. This past weekend was pretty fun, lots of people coming in and then going out. Saturday was a blah day, I can't even remember what I did. Wait, I went and saw Spiderman 2 with Al and Anthony. Sunday was more exciting as the Metro was switched around so rather than catching the blue line to go to Pentagon City, Al and I caught the orange line to Rossyln and then transfered to the blue because it was only running from Rosslyn to Huntington. So after all was said and done Al and I got quarters, I got some groceries and an umbrella, and Al got the 4th Harry Potter. After that Al wanted to go see Harry Potter 3 so back at Foggy Bottom we caught the Georgetown shuttle (it was raining) and went and saw the movie. After that we rode the shuttle back to GWU. Then Al and Heather and her beau Ben went down to the mall together and I know Anthony went down there too. I however stayed with Brett and his friends and watched the fireworks from the rook of the parking garage next door. Unfortunately the wind was blowing towards us so the big smoke cloud somewhat blocked our view. It was an interesting site though. I was a little bit disappointed as the show wasn't that long, maybe 20 minutes. Our show at home is at least that long. The difference though is the consistency with which the fireworks were being set off. Here in D.C. it is a continuous stream for 20 minutes, at home it is one or two at a time and then another 2 and so on. Monday was laundry day which was nice because I guess everyone else in the building was sleeping off the previous night's partying so I got full use of the laundry facilities. After laundry I started watching Once Upon A Time In Mexico with KB but was interrupted by Al who wanted to go to Pentagon City. Not being ones to refuse a trip to the mall KB and I obliged and went along. Al was her typical whiny self :P about getting jeans that weren't like suction cups against her legs. Anyway, after all that we went back to GWU and parted ways. I ended up sitting around for a while and then having a good discussion with Brett. After that I went downstairs to see what was going on and ended up watching the end of "For Love or Money" and then an episode of "Who Wants to Marry Our Dad?" with Al. It made me happy to see that Preston chose PJ over Rachel in the end of "For Love or Money" and then PJ chose Preston too. *sniff sniff* So moving. Anyways, that's about it for the weekend. Today is the first day of summer camps so that should be exciting.

-Matt-

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Apparently I am wrong, I saw Spiderman 2 on Friday. On Saturday I watched Monster with Al, Heather and Ben. That should fix my errors that I know of up to this point.

-Matt-

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So here it is Wednesday. Yesterday was the first day of camp and an introduction to middle schoolers through (sometimes) more mature eyes. Wow, they are energetic. So yesterday I put in a new purchase requisition as the first site I tried to order happy/sad balls from had no stock. So now I'm working on getting another purchase requisition to buy tennis, racquet, and base balls for the second exercise in my lesson plan.

Camp: I got to camp during the kids' lunch break and they were running every which way being kids, no problems there. Then came the time to round everyone up, several of the kids were less than obedient and did not seem to understand the concept of gather around. After we herded the kids together we all walked down to the mall area of the University of Maryland. Once there the kids were reminded that they were to create a sport using each piece of equipment they had chosen and that the game had to be safe and make no one uncomfortable. This was where one of the day's annoyances came into play. This one child just did not seem to want to follow the rules. All he did was suggest games where someone on their team would put on a padded protective glove, one of their pieces of equipment, and then had to defend themself against someone with a baseball bat, another of their pieces of equipment.  Obviously this was a violation of the safety rule that the sport must be safe. After explaining that rule again we thought the kid would be fine. However he then proceeded to veto every idea someone else suggested. In the end the rest of the group created a sport and camp went on. Other than that most everything went fine, the only other thing that bothered me was when kid gave another kid the double bird. I however was the only one of the monitors to see it so I had to tell the kid not to be disrespectful and if I saw it again I would be calling his parents. After the sport creating time we all went back to the room and ended camp by reminding the kids of the field trip scheduled for Thursday.

That's how camp went and all that jazz. Anyway, more camp today which I think involves liquid nitrogen so that should be fun. Until the next time.

-Matt-

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Alright, because of circumstances yesterday I have to update yesterday, and Wednesday afternoon all in one.

Let's begin with Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday was liquid nitrogen day and let me tell you, the kids love the stuff. As with Tuesday I arrived during the lunch break and was tired just watching the children run around. Soon after arriving I went with Jeff to get the dewar for the LN2 (liquid nitrogen) and the protective gloves and some other sundry items. By the time we got back to the CSS building the children were engaged in measuring the height of bounces of their ball. This led to the children throwing their balls at each other and the walls and generally not following directions. I didn't mind that too much because amidst all of the chaos they were actually taking their measurements. After they all got done measuring heights we had them sit down and began the temperature demonstrations. Joe began by demonstrating the speed dye disperses in hot water versus cold water. Unfortunately it didn't go over quite as well as it could have due to some experimental error like not having a dropper for the dye. From there we moved onto the LN2 part which was where the kids really started to increase the ol' entropy. (I don't really know if I can use entropy in that sense as I haven't had thermal yet but for now ignorance is bliss) Jeff did several things with the LN2 like shatter a racquetball and flowers and other items. Then we repeated the bouncing activity with cooled balls and measured the results. The only problem here was when the children kept insisting on Jeff throwing the balls down in hopes that the ball would shatter. After all of the LN2 craziness and the struggles to get pieces of shattered frozen things we had a discussion about why the material properties changed. There were some unique conclusions and I noticed an interesting trend that the kids seemed to follow one kid's lead. For example, if one kid said that the ball shattered because it couldn't make an opposite force, the others wouold all work that into their explanations as well. So after the discussion we took the kids outside and made them slushies using the last of the LN2 and their juice boxes. The last thing of interest for the day was the return to the room where we found that a kid had taken some of the red dye and written his name on a desk. Unfortunately that meant we had to call his parents and explain that sort of behavior was unacceptable.

Now on Thursday was a field trip to a Frederick Keys minor league baseball game. This was an almost total fiasco in my opinion. It all began with the childrens' amazing inability to pair up. In the end Joe had to pair several of them up because they just sat there making no effort. Then we all went out to the vans where we loaded the children up and began the trip. Of course before we even got out of the parking lot the troubles over the radio began. One group wanted rap/hip hop and the other wanted alternative. To hopefully solve this problem Kevin, another chaperone, put it on a mix station. This however was not a good solution to one group so (this being the most gratifying part of my day) I promptly turned the radio off. In seconds the unhappy group asked why the radio was off and I explained to them in a stern voice that because they could not come to a consensus like normal civilized people we would ride in silence. They then meekly responded that the mix station would be fine so I asked the rest other group if that was ok and they said yes as well and thus the radio problem was solved. Once we got to the stadium we took the kids in and got a seat and then took them to get some food. This was all good and fine until we got back to the seats where they then wanted to go get more food. Since we were there to see a game and not just walk around buying food and eating we said that they would have to wait until later. Later arrived and the debacle began and ended with everyone getting back and new rules being instituted as to when children could get up. Then began the whining about how hot it was and how unfair our rules were and how they wanted to go home. I was flabbergasted by how rude they were being especially when I noticed one child playing on a gameboy rather than watching the game. After the 9th inning we held a conference and the children voted to go back. We then took the children back and let them play for the last 1.5 hours until their parents came to pick them up.

So far I've decided I don't like children in large groups. Individually however they are fine. Today though is Friday and we had a staff meeting where myself, KB, and Al sat in and then told everyone what we had been up to. This afternoon there is supposed to be pizza as well so I'm pretty stoked about that. Anyway, I need to do a journal entry for the SPS national website so I'm off to do that and get a purchase requisition filled out for different sports balls.

-Matt-

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Here we go again. Hopefully this will solve my problem.

Vote Matt!

Awesome, thanks for the help with the posting Thad and Al. Alright so the last thing I updated on was last week. That means the next couple of posts will probably be pretty long.

Ah the weekend, time of rest and relaxation. So Friday evening I did something maybe, I'm not really sure. No, wait I didn't do anything, I just sat in the room and read my book. Then Saturday rolled around and I played some computer games and then decided I should take an adventure. My adventure took me to the Metro stop Crystal City which I had been assured was a great place. All I can say is that my opinion of a great place and others' opinions must be quite different. Either that or I didn't find the good places to go. Anyways, after toodling about in Crystal City I went back to the Metro to go to PC to get some groceries and quarters. I ended up buying all sorts of goodness, Oatmeal Cream Pies, spaghetti sauce, concentrated juice, bread, etc. So after attaining sustenance and quarters I headed back to the dorm. After getting all the groceries put away I played my computer game a bit more and began to read the greatness that is the book Depraved and Insulting English. I must say that the book has been enlightening to say the least. For example, I now know that the word for a hater of men is misandrist which shall serve me well when next I need to go on a tirade against the people who think all men are misogynists and have no feelings. I also did laundry on Saturday. On to Sunday. Sunday began with me sleeping in until 10, it was great. Then I got up and did nothing remotely productive until about noon when I decided to try and go do something. I figured that going to a movie wouold be fun. That being the case, I went down and knocked on KB and Joe's door to see what was going on. KB answered and said he would come with so we checked on times and decided on King Arthur. So we waited a bit and then left for Union Station and the AMC 9. All in all I have to say that King Arthur was alright but nothing special. The fight scenes were big and violent but the story was sort of blah. After the movie though is when all of the excitement happened. First there was drama at the entrance to the movies where one girl was threatening to beat up another girl and shouting expletives left and right. After that KB and I went to Johnny Rockets where he ate. Then we tried to go to Sam Goody but much to our chagrin it was already closed because it was Sunday. Then the most interesting thing happened. On our way out of Union Station there was a sort of questionable looking guy who I thought was just going to ask me for change. Instead though he asked me if I wanted to come see the hottest woman in the world (or something along those lines). This sort of shocked me, I mean whoa, how many times to sort of seedy looking guys offer you the oppurtunity to see the hottest woman in the world. Anyway, I just said "No thanks I'm cool man," and walked on with KB. So then we headed back to the dorm and I spent the rest of the evening making spaghetti, playing my game, and reading my book. That's my weekend.

-Matt-

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So on Monday the site was down so I couldn't update with the weekend but that's now done so it is now time for the update on Monday. Monday I went in to ACP in the morning and took care of some correspondence and had a meeting with Gary about SOCK stuff. It was good to basically get the go ahead from Gary to order cones and spheres and begin working on lessons and the like. Gary also gave Heather and I a book on teaching physics, I can't wait to get some time and look through it. After the meeting I ate my lunch and headed over to MRSEC to help with the camp. When I got there I had some trouble finding my camp because they were in a different room for the day to do an activity. Eventually I found the room and there was a lesson on polymers and we made slime with borax, elmer's glue and water. After we got that activity done and cleaned up we headed back to the CSS buliding and had snacks and waited on parents. After all that I came home. Around 7:30 I headed out to find Fado in Chinatown. Thankfully the MRSEC fellows' directions were good and I easily found my way to Fado and the ensuing quiz night. I also had a Guiness in honor of my friend Brian who is currently in the UK. Honestly I felt a little useless at quiz night because everyone already knew the ones I knew and I didn't know any that no one else did. It was still good fun though to hang out with the fellows. In the end our team was 4th because there was a 3-way tie for first and we were 1 point behind the other 3 teams, very sad. After Quiz Night I headed back to Foggy Bottom and hit the hay and that brings me to Tuesday or today. More on today tomorrow.

-Matt-

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Alright, Tuesday is past and I can now update confidently on what happened. So here goes nothing. Tuesday began with me heading over to the University of Maryland to help out with camp as Jeff needed the day to work on his thesis. When I got there Joe and I worked on gathering the kids and eventually getting them into the room. Then began the morning lesson. The morning began with the kids brainstorming about what kind of natural protection your body is born with. The answers of course ranged from the obvious ribcage to the less obvious butt bone. We also worked on seperating the protection into several categories like cushioning and impact protection. Following this activity we divided them into smaller groups and gave each group a piece of protective gear as an impetus and asked them to think of materials used in protective gear for sports. We then discussed what groups put down and moved on to the video portion of the day. The video we watched was, I believe, Tony Hawk's Tips and Tricks. Unfortunately the kids were begin fairly obnoxious when we turned out the lights so there was a necessary pause to discuss the rules of the class and expected behavior. So after all that we went outside for lunch where I threw the football around for a bit. Then Corey's group came out and he sent one of them to challenge me to a rugby match. So I accepted and we played keep away with teams and a rugby ball. The kids wore me out. I mean I was sweating and tired after playing with them. After lunch we went back inside and introduced final projects and took the kids to the computer lab to do research. After that we came back and did a little more discussion on the projects and went outside and had a snack. Finally we got all of the kids with their respective parents and headed to seminar. There we listened to a short presentation by Corey and then James and Kevin. We also worked on an activity to build a bridge with glue and popsicle sticks. After that it was the old rush hour commute back to GW where I collapsed. After resting for a while I went with Joe to PC and bought some snacky food and drinks and came home. Then I hung out with Heather outside for a bit and went to sleep; and that's my day from start to finish.

-Matt-

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So Wednesday was yesterday and an exciting day it was. The day began at camp with lessons on things. I can't really remember what we talked about right now. First off though we played Two Truths and a Lie. All was going well and such enlightening truths as "My name is ____" were being revealed when the incident happened. A fight broke out between a couple of the students and Jeff had to take the children out and call their parents and that was that. After the game was over we began a lesson on minerals where the kids worked on testing hardness and other properties of the materials. After that I left to come back to ACP to meet up to go to the Senate hearing. So around 1:00 I left with KB, Heather, and Al to go to the hearing. It was alright though I felt that a lot of it was predictable. I also felt there wasn't really anything decided that hadn't already been decided before. On the way back I felt sort of bad because I was the only one who didn't like the speech this one girl gave. I presonally felt like it hit all of the stereotypical types of notes. Maybe if she hadn't been reading from a paper she would have had more charisma and I would have enjoyed the speech more. Oh well, I also ripped my pants on the marble ledge around the edge of the room. After getting back I relaxed and ate and then went to PC with Joe so he could get his girlfriend a present. I also got Al some quarters. Then we came back and I went to sleep. That's my day and I'm sticking to it.

-Matt-

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Well it is Friday and I must say that I am quite relieved. So yesterday was Thursday and coincidentally the day I tried out my lesson at camp. So in my mind the lesson went badly. There are several reasons for this I think. First I should have had all of the kids read the handout before seperating them into groups so that they could ask questions and know what to do when they got the materials. Secondly I should have let them try to make their own groups first before assigning groups. Third I should have kept the groups more spread out to prevent the using of meter sticks as swords, etc.  Overall though the kids took their data and did some thinking and that's about all I can really hope for on the first run. I learned though some things to do next time I teach. After that debacle, not quite as catastrophic as debacle implies but it was the first thing I could think of, I headed out of camp and over to ACP for the trip to NIST and hopefully to get a little work done. So I have been really lucky lately and have actually caught the shuttle to ACP most days. Anyway, I made it back to ACP and did a little work on trying to get a quote for the cones and also answering emails and the like. After that Gary drove Al, KB, and myself over to NIST for our tour. After we got through traffic on the beltway and got our visitors' badges and all the other stuff and met Joe and Anthony by their building we noticed the absence of Brett and Christine. Their absence being noted we contacted them and found that they were stranded at the metro stop waiting for a NIST shuttle. So then Gary drove over to the metro stop with Anthony and picked up Brett and Christine and then we all began our tour. We saw a whole bunch of interesting stuff including a small fabrication facility with clean rooms and a new building with a huge freight elevator. After our tour Gary took Al, KB and I to the Shady Grove metro stop where we began our trip back to Foggy Bottom. When we got back Heather was sitting outside so I joined her and we talked for a bit until the rest of the gang made it back and then we headed inside. Shortly after that I headed down to Joe and KB's room because Joe needed to go to PC. When I got there they were burning pizzas and setting off their fire alarm. It was so bad that a girl came over and asked if the building was on fire. Then after the pizza Joe and I headed out to PC where he got stuff for his girlfriend's birthday. Then we came back and went to Lindy's with Heather. Following eating we came back and I went to sleep leaving Joe to do laundry and Heather to pack. That's the bottom line.

-Matt-

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All I can say is cones are right out.

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Well I have fallen behind on the updating of things. Maybe I will get around to doing a real one tonight. Right now however, I need to finish up my presentation with Heather.

-Matt-

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For good or for bad the day is here and presentations loom on the horizon. Also I couldn't stomach the thought of letting Al have the last post in my thread :P.

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Today was my last day of camp. Leaving was hard. Last time the kids left us and so I didn't feel like I was leaving them. Today though I left at lunch and it was hard to say goodbye. I mean in 2 weeks I have come to care about lots of my campers. For example, Amir is a good kid. I can imagine him doing great things and I hope as he gets older he doesn't fall into the trap of believing learning isn't cool. I mean I've gotten to see how smart he is and I just hope he keeps learning and staying interested in learning. Morris was a pretty good kid too, I tried to make sure that I encouraged him to be a role model for the younger kids and use his sway over them to keep them well behaved.  I also hope I got through to him to keep his cool. That's about all I'm going to say about that.

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Yo...things seem to have quieted down now that the work in Washington is over. That makes me a bit sad, I was hoping to come back to lots of posts to read and people to converse with. So being back in Texas reminds me that DC was hot but not that hot. The past week has been great, mexican food, my car, my game cube, my girlfriend, everything is great. Well hopefully someone will see this and be reminded that it is ok to continue using this.

-Matt-

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Yeah so Al has shamed me into updating because she has been relatively diligent compared to me at least. Anyway, this year is beginning and I'm already worrying. Dynamics isn't too bad yet, the general vector/math review and thermal isn't too bad yet. I'm also taking intro to comp sci which is mind numbingly boring and I'm in class with a whole load of mouth breathers. Other than that, SPS is going well, our first meeting we successfully imploded a 55 gallon steel drum. Hopefully video of that to come soon. We also plan to build a trebuchet capable of launching full sized pumpkins. In addition to all of that I've been busy trying to get my student associate position up and running smoothly. Then there is racquetball and rugby and flag football to do as well. Geez, I never have free time. Anyway, I hope to see some people I know at the Sigma Pi Sigma Congress. This entry is just degrading into fragments so I'm out.

Matt

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Well we didn't win anything in the contest for summer stories though I'm not that surprised as I had to prod(almost with a cattle prod) people into submitting stories. Then everyone submitted abstracts which I guess was okay, but not very exciting. Though I didn't really submit anything all that great either, the pimp story is really only funny and interesting to myself and maybe KB. Oh well, life goes on and the construction of a pumpkin flinging trebuchet pushes on as well. This puppy is going to be big and heavy and will toss some pumpkins, yee ha. Well it is obscenely early in the morning and I have to go play media tech for some college board workshop so toodles.

Matt

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Well, it has been a while. Last night was the first movie night for our SPS chapter.  We showed 12 Monkeys just because it was SciFi and that was about all of the restrictions we wanted to put on the movie to start with. After quite a bit of scrambling to make things happen, because of some unforseen and preventable disasters, things went off. We sold popcorn, candy, drinks, the whole 9 yards. Overall, we didn't really make all that much money (not even cost) but it was worth it to see people enjoying some time off. Other than that I just studied so much my head is numb for my thermal test tomorrow and forgot to submit my program as a result. Well, I'm out.

Matt

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Well today is the day that I fly out to New Mexico. I'm quite excited though I would be more so if my carry on wasn't full of physics books and study guides for the GRE...boo. Check ya'll later.

Matt

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So last night I was in bed and felt guilty for having abandoned this for some time. Therefore I shall update in semi-grand fashion. Alright things that have happened lately are:
1.) Science show at the Baptist home in Germantown.
2.) Science show at Cyprus Middle School. (we got a trophy)
3.) Built 1 big trebuchet that throws pumpkins and honeydews and acorn squash.
4.) Registered for classes. (yay robotics)
5.) Took the Physics GRE.
6.) Hopefully will submit the Marsh White via fax today to create a giant newton's cradle using magnets.
7.) Have become addicted to world of warcraft.

That's about it, I've got class in 12 minutes by my clock so I'm out.

Matt

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