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Making It Count


Kopaka's Ice Engineering

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My, it's been a while, hasn't it?

 

 

I guess I could recap the past week, what I've picked up, news, and what not....

My stock picks don't like me any more, A Collision by David Crowder Band, Thrive by Newsboys, The Eleventh Hour & Christmas Songs by Jars of Clay, I'm not nearly as upset about the Louisiana Republican party subverting my Huckabee vote as everyone else (electability, hello), and who in 1968 knew Fidel Castro would last this long?

 

There, with that out of the way....

 

For the first time since I was in college, 6 years ago, I got to help with a MathCounts chapter competition. The NOLA chapter was very poorly turned out, in my opinion, even for post-Katrina New Orleans. 7 schools participated, and three of them were named "Lake Castle School". Makes me really wonder where I'd want to send a future kid to middle school.

 

For those of you unaware, MathCounts is a nationwide mathematics competition at the 7th and 8th grade level, now in its 25th year. I participated in it when I was that age, and 15 years ago, I was 1 correct question away from a spot on the Louisiana state team, which would have gotten me a trip to Washington, D.C. Instead, I got 6th place for my efforts. Still, I have MathCounts to thank for going into engineering: were it not for the set ups at the 1992 state MathCounts competition in Alexandria, LA, I probably would have been a mathematics major.

Here's a tip for those of you not yet into college:

Things you can do with an engineering degree:

Build bridges.

Build skyscrapers.

Design automobiles.

Start at $38k when you get the first job.

 

Things you can do with a mathematics degree:

Luck into a job in statistics

-OR-

Go to graduate school, get your Ph.D., and teach.

 

Just wanted you to be aware of that, all of you mathematically-inclined.

 

I have more to say, but this is not the place, nor the time. Instead, I give you another funny email that sauntered into my inbox the other day:

(NB: Some of this is a little tongue-in-cheek. The rough stuff I have edited out, but be wary if you are easily offended or otherwise cannot take a joke.)

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Famous celebrities, politicians and big mouths help us out...

 

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

 

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

 

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

 

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

 

DR. SEUSS : Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

 

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain. Alone.

 

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

 

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

 

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

 

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ........ <reboot>.

 

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

 

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

 

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

 

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

 

BRITNEY SPEARS: Because I married the chicken in Mexico last week. The chicken and I BELONG together, okay?! So get the #### out of my face, you #### paparazzi!

 

TOM CRUISE: Well, the chicken is preclear, you know? So it needed extensive auditing. And it just, you know, sensed that the true path to become an Operating Thetan was, like, on the other side of the road. So it fled the fraudulent psychiatric system on this side, see, because it was fed UP with its bogus mumbo jumbo and pills and stuff, you know, and started on the road to OT VIII! Which is AWESOME, man!!

 

JACK BAUER: ******, tell me WHY you crossed the road! LIVES are at stake! I need to know WHO you are working for, chicken! There is no TIME!!

 

BARACK OBAMA: Because the chicken, like ALL Americans, needs CHANGE!

 

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, the chicken crossed over to MY side of the road, because it recognized the importance of my thirty-five years of public service!

 

ROGER CLEMENS: I do not care WHAT that chicken said, I never took steroids. Huh? That is not the question? Darn it, it is the only question I care about. This is my REPUTATION we are talking about here!

 

HOMER SIMPSON: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... chickennnnnnnnn...

 

DAVID HASSELHOFF: Hruuuu? Didn't catch... chicken. Mmmra, mmmmra, luck find tasty burger on road (slurp). What doo yaaa meannn? I answer questionnnn? I.. haveeen't been drinkinggg..

 

RICHARD SIMMONS: You go, chicken! Don't let anyone question your motivation and make you feel fat. You keep moving, and strut it, girl!

 

-KIE

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*snickering* That was funny.

 

I did MathCounts when I was in 8th grade... I'm still not sure how to solve some of the problems I encountered, and I'm taking calculus now. But then, I can't always figure out calculus problems either.

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To get to the other side....

That was entertaining seeing it again.

 

Yay for math!

But I heard engineering is hard, or at least a lot of work to get really good at it, and it requires extra year(s) in school. (My dad, a structural engineer, said something to that effect once....)

 

-CF

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You're alive! :o

 

I went to Mathcounts both my 7th and 8th grade years and got First Place in both regional competitions and went to state both times. I didn't place at all the first time, but I got Third Place the second and would have gone to Nationals, but I caught Pneumonia days before the competition.

 

Anyway; for the chicken stuff, I was laughing my head off.

 

Math has always been my strong point (even though I score just as well in everything else) and I'm gonna go to college to become an Aerospace Engineer.

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Things you can do with an engineering degree:

Build bridges.

Build skyscrapers.

Design automobiles.

Start at $38k when you get the first job.

 

Things you can do with a mathematics degree:

Luck into a job in statistics

-OR-

Go to graduate school, get your Ph.D., and teach.

:lol:

 

Now tell me what on earth I'm going to be able to do with a theatre (fine arts) degree*...

 

 

*note: still not definite, but very likely. I've still got a semester and a half before I have to declare my major

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Now tell me what on earth I'm going to be able to do with a theatre (fine arts) degree*...
Acting coach. :P

 

©1984-2008 Toaraga EAM

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Math followed by celebrity philosophy. Wide array of topics here.

 

I seem to remember getting on the Math Counts team once in middle school. Those kind of contests are always fun to stimulate your intellect as a kid... or, you know, blow your self esteem when you don't know any of the answers. :P

 

:music:

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To get to the other side....

That was entertaining seeing it again.

 

Yay for math!

But I heard engineering is hard, or at least a lot of work to get really good at it, and it requires extra year(s) in school. (My dad, a structural engineer, said something to that effect once....)

 

-CF

Engineering is hard, but so is math. If you get a degree in mathematics expect to do lots of proofs and theoretical things. Engineering is a lot more practical and can be applied to many other fields, all of which require a strong background in math. As far as time, my college offers a four-year Bachelor's of Engineering degree, so no extra time is needed. Some people extend it to five years, because it is hard. Others spend additional years getting the Master's degree or their PE license (talk to Byron about that).

 

Other things you can do with a degree in engineering:

  • Work for NASA
  • Design new materials (new alloys, plastics, and other polymers)
  • Create new medicines and other chemicals
  • Design circuits, microprocessors, and other computer parts
  • Develop programs and systems for use in all of the above systems and in just about every other field imaginable
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