Week in Review

Wow, it has already been a week since the semester started. There are several things that are going on in my life that I would like to report on over the past week.

After working for two years at Itap, I got a promotion to Senior Lab Assistant. There really isn't too much going for me as far as job experience goes, but it should at least look good on the resume for the job description and the fact that I got a promotion. Now that I am a Senior Lab Assistant, I finally have stuff to do while I am at work. I help out the Site Ops do their thing by handing out keys and clipboards to those that need them, check the classrooms to see if projectors are working and answer questions Lab Assistants may have. It's also a nice pay increase too. I'm working 12 hours instead of the normal 15 this semester, so I am essentially getting the same pay, but at least I work less to get the same amount of pay. My main gripe for now is the fact that I work for 4 hours on Tuesday and 8 hours on Wednesday.

My classes are going fine for now. The most interesting one has to be AAE 535 which is Propulsion: Design, Build, Test. It's a class that takes you through the designing process by designing something of your choice. Right now, I am working with some people to talk about making a plasma ignitor for a hypersonic (Mach greater than 5, I think) engine. I really don't know anything at all about this and I don't understand the papers the teacher gave, but things might come together as time goes on. Some of my other classes include Astronomy, Controls lab, Aerodynamics Lab and some class where I am learning the business side of the design world. These classes seem very interesting and I think I can expect a nice GPA boost provided I put a good amount of effort into class.

Kendo is also into full swing again. There was a practice on Thursday which really goes to show me that I got a little rusty over break and I still have stuff to work on. I am still able to last during Jigeiko (sparring) after reducing my movements a bit, but I still felt very slow with all of my hits. I shall one day beat someone in a match within the club, but I really need to work hard at it. One thing that really seems to be going against me is that a lot of the work I am doing this semester is based on group work. That means that there is no telling when we will meet outside of class, so my practice time could be extremely limited. With this in mind, I really need to just keep up with my practices so I don't falter too bad. I want to do better at the next tournament!

I've also been getting more into XBOX live. I still need to play at least one game of Rainbow Six: Vegas online, but I do enjoy the Burnout revenge online quite a bit. The people I have met are pretty nice and mature so far. I had a lot of fun cause it seemed more like several friends in a room having a good time instead of going for that all out competition to win. Of course, we all want to win but there was a bunch of nice discussions. I also got all the achievements in Ms. Pac Man which brings the total amount of games that I have all achievements for to two. Maybe I'll get into the games I already own some more and increase my score a bit. Well, if you want to get in contact with me to play some games, my gamertag is Black Kendoka.