Dawgs win, Gustav, my car, and Wii Fit

So I have a lot of catching up to do, as evidenced by the number of topics in the heading up there. So here goes. First of all, I have to comment on the football team's win last Saturday. Yes, I was there, and yes, I recorded the game on my DVR, and yes, I watched the recording as soon as I got home from the game. It was that good! There were a few times when things weren't going so well, but the score never got to the point of no hope. I would liked to have seen a few more point from the good Dawgs. We had plenty of opportunity to score, we just made some mistakes that cost points. But overall it was a great effort and the defense held and we won. This week (Kansas) is going to have to be a perfect effort.

Gustav came blowing through Monday and it seems that we all escaped any major damage. I did have a tree down in the font yard that had me blocked in Monday night and Tuesday morning. My power was off until sometime Tuesday morning as well. But overall, no real damage to anything valuable. Now we will have to wait and see what Hanna is going to do.

I am making an assumption that my car is no longer on the City's list of annoyances. I haven't heard from them in several weeks so I think I am in the clear. I still have a good bit of work to do though and more parts to order. I got the engine running, but only by pouring gasoline directly into the carburetor. The fuel tank and lines are corroded and just not delivering fuel. So I ordered a new fuel tank and fuel lines that should be here this week. I also have gotten the interior back in good shape, I replaced the carpet and cleaned the rest of the interior. It is looking pretty good on the inside, although I do need a few trim pieces. I am going to have to replace the tires and do the brakes before I can actually drive anywhere though.

Lastly, I got a Nintendo Wii Fit the other day, just because it looked pretty cool and I like technology, especially when it is fun. Basically, the Fit is a balance board that has force sensors at each corner and it measures the position of your center of gravity as you move around on the board. It started out by asking my height and birthday and such and then had me stand on the board. It said that I had a BMI of 24.5 or something like that. It cheered me bacuase that was in the normal range, but it did say that 22 was the best and that I needed to loose a little weight to get to that perfect BMI. So then it proceeds to give me all sorts of exercises and yoga positions and such that I can do to help reach this "ideal" BMI. I did a few of them and they were pretty fun, some of them were pretty hard to do too. Apparently I have ok balance, but not great. But, at the time, I didn't think it was doing all that much, but this morning I really felt the workout. I wonder if I lost any weight? It keeps track of all that sort of stuff so when I get back on it again it will tell me if I managed to loose anything and begin to approach my ideal BMI. Overall, it was a pretty fun way to work out and I think it will be pretty easy to keep doing it. We shall see.

Oh, I will have some more information about my house decision soon. I have come up with about four different options that I will have to describe and then evaluate. So stayed tuned.

4th of July!

Well, it is almost time for the 4th of July annual barbecue. I am looking forward to a lot of left overs to bring back to Ruston. I do have to find some time to get back to Ruston and get some more work done on the car. I am really running out of time to get the car running and back "up to code." I don't know when I am going to have time to do anything though. I have been roped in to teaching a second summer class at 8 in the morning Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the next five weeks. What was I thinking?!?


Oh, it is almost football season! I am really looking to this season. I hope that it turns out well. The first game is August 30 at home against Mississippi State. An SEC team in Ruston, that is a pretty big deal! If you plan on making it to the game, you had better get a ticket now, they are going fast. I have already ordered my season tickets and should get them in pretty soon. I think there will be a lot of people at this game, I am even thinking it could be the largest attendance in Tech history. I believe that I heard that MSU has already sold out there allotment of tickets and were wanting more. Go Dawgs!

Only Two More Days!

There are only two more days until the first Tech football game of the season! I did notice that there were some games on tonight, but didn't pay them too much attention. I did tune into the end of the NLULM game just to make sure they were losing and they weren't letting me down. The tigers were winning big though, but I guess that is ok for now. The mayor has declared that Friday's are "Code Blue" days and that all businesses are encouraged to show their support by wearing blue. . . sounds good to me! Although, I think Code Blue may not have been the best name choices because Code Blue is the hospital code for a person not breathing I think, but that may be appropriate for some of the local Tech "fans." Nothing bugs me more than to see someone at Tech or in Ruston decked out in full LSU regalia but yet has no affiliation with LSU at all! That reminds me of one of my favorite pictures, I don't have it on this computer so I can't post it, but I will try to post it later.

It is also getting very close to time for school to start back. I am teaching a couple of classes this Fall and I am looking forward to getting started. I am teaching one of the sections of our new Freshmen Engineering Curriculum and it is pretty cool. The students are going to be building some really sophisticated things - some robots, sensors, some micor/nano fabricated stuff, control systems and all as Freshmen! I am also teaching the seminar class that goes along with that. Possibly the most fun class is going to be my IMPaCT class. This is a class that I (with the help of plenty of people) started a two years ago. The class is a multidisciplinary design and product development class. We are looking at some pretty interesting projects for this year. One of the possible projects involves a lunar orbiter for NASA. Last year one of the projects from this class was licensed to a regional company for a significant chunk of change (something like 1.2 million shares of the company stock). Anyway, more on school on a later date.

Oh wait, I do have one cool thing to tell you about. Tech is starting a new tradition this year (oh and I have a really cool tradition to tell you about for next year). The Freshmen are going to assemble in Howard September 5th (the day before classes) and listen to some speakers (Derek Dooley for one) and be given a commemorative coin. Then they will take this coin and throw it into the Lady of the Mist. Then when they graduate they will get the coin back with their graduation date engraved on it. It seems like a pretty cool thing, we will see how it goes. Click HERE to read more about the tradition. The tradition that we will start next year is even cooler in my book, but I probably can't tell you about it yet.

For my last bit tonight I am just going to say that I hate to admit it, but I have been bitten by the reality TV show bug. I have been totally watching Big Brother 8, and I like it. I still don't watch any of the other reality shows, unless you count the American Hot Rod / Chopper type shows, but I am liking this one for sure. I am not sure who I want to win, but at least they got rid of Amber tonight, I was pretty sure I didn't want her to win. Well, that is all for tonight, stayed tuned for more . . .

The Saints are Winners!

Oh Happy Day! The Saints will now officially have a winning record this year. Not only that, but they should make the playoffs. Who knows, they may even have a first round bye. We will just have to wait and see. It is amazing what a difference a year makes (and a new set of players and coaches.) Speaking of coaches, you have surely heard the Tech no longer has a football head coach. I have heard several names mentioned to replace Jack, some of them are very exciting and others are pretty depressing. We will have to wait and see how that turns out too. The plan is to have a new coach by this Friday (Dec 15th), but I don't see that happening. My inside sources tell me, that . . . well . . . they don't really tell me anything useful.

Due to the overwhelming response (at least one response already!) to my technical post (see below) I have decided to post another technology based item here. (I hope the sarcasm came across well). So basically I get to play with . . . I mean research . . . cool technolgy every day and right now I am working with some fuel cells. This particular project is less research and more trying to put together some projects for a high school engineering exploration thing we are doing. Anyway, I am building a fuel cell powered car (a small one, only about 10 inches long). You can see a picture to the right. Oh and check out the cool Louisiana Tech University ruler (it has both metric and US customary units on it). So I am sure you are thinking that I am really cool right about now so let me take advantage of this moment to explain a little about the fuel cell. Basically, the fuel cell combines hydrogen atoms (which are a proton and an electron) with oxygen atoms to make water (H2O). The trick is that the hydrogen electrons are stripped off and have to travel around a circuit to get to the other side of the fuel cell in order to combine with the hydrogen proton and the oxygen. And, well, an electron traveling in a circuit is an electric current. I am using that electric current to run the motor of the car. Here is a closer view of the actual fuel cell and the tanks. The tanks hold the oxygen and the hydrogen (and water too). Pretty cool, huh? Hello? Anyone there?

Saints and Deacons.

The Saints won again! They are now officially not going to have a losing season. After winning only 3 games last year, I am very happy for the team. They have really turned things around it appears. Tech on the other hand is dropping like a rock. The football team finished last in the WAC and last or nearly last in the nation in many catagories. Basketball isn't starting out very well either, I think the Techsters have already lost five games. That is more games than they would lose in two entire years back in the day.

Tonight was Deacon ordination night at church. I have always wanted to be a deacon, but so far it hasn't happened. I thought maybe it was because I wasn't married or something, but we ordained one guy tonight that was single so I guess that isn't it. Who knows? Anyway, I have always enjoyed the ordination services (except for the REALLY long ones.) I really like the part when the wife stands behind the soon-to-be deacon and the other ordained ministers come and pray with the ordainees. It means a lot to me to see a wife who supports her husband and is there to show it.

Oh, I think I will have a special suprise for any of you techies out there tomorrow. I have recently acquired a really cool machine a work and I will take some pictures and tell you guys about it tomorrow. I think even non-techie people will like it, so tune in tomorrow (or at least sometime soon.)