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Mysterious Minifig

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Blog Entries posted by Mysterious Minifig

  1. Mysterious Minifig
    Now that summer is finally here, I have a little bit more time on my hands. I am continuing my quest to finish my list of 100 books. In that regard I finally finished A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens a while back. I thought it was a reasonably well written book, although it still wasn't on the same level of Great Expectations.
     
    I also just finished Wuthering Heights. It wasn't a bad book although it was rather depressing. At least the last chapter closed on a somewhat happy ending.
     
    I'm starting on Jane Eyre now, and hopefully it won't take quite as long as some of the previous books. It's also the last book I have from my parent's house, so I'll need to venture to the local library again to find my next book.
  2. Mysterious Minifig
    This will sort of be my end of year wrap-up, since I really haven't done much blogging lately. I just want to cover the highlights of the year, along with a few pictures.
     
    Right away in January I started my co-op in Manufacturing Engineering with Bobcat Company in Bismarck, ND. It was significant in more ways than one. Primarily, I mark this is the point where I officially moved out from my parents house. I had been gone at college since the fall of 2011 and had an apartment with 2-3 other guys since the fall of 2012, but I always came home when school was out, both over summer break and winter break. When I moved to Bismarck in January, I left with no intentions of ever moving back. One of my younger brothers also took over my room at that point, so I don't really have a room to go back to. Working for Bobcat was also my first 'real' job that I started where I had no prior connections to anyone there. At almost all of my previous jobs, I had connections that helped me get in the door and get started.
     
    On March 15, I got married to the love of my life. We had initially picked that date as it would have been the start of my Spring break, had I been in school. Since I was working it just ended up being a week off of work. The wedding went well and there weren't any disaster stories that you sometimes hear about. The reception also worked out nicely as well. We had originally been concerned about the number of guests, but the hall ended up being at capacity instead of overflowing. For our cake we had a LEGO topper that we had found at the Mall of America LEGO story when we visited it the previous fall.

     
     




    Since we were out in Bismarck, we ended up taking about three trips out to western North Dakota to go hiking. The first trip was to the south unit of Teddy Roosevelt National Park. That's where the two bison pictures were taken. The second trip was to the north unit of Teddy Roosevelt National Park. And the third trip was to some of the hiking trails that were south of the north unit. The third trip was mostly a geocaching run. We wanted to find a bunch of the secluded Badlands caches. Many of them had not been found in over a year. The panorama was taken on top of a butte in the badlands. Imaging being surrounded by that on all sides with no signs of human activity except the road.
    The train, we saw when we headed off of the interstate looking for a heavy rain we could see in the distance.

     
     


     



    The rest of the year, after the summer ended mostly consisted of working my way through another semester of school. It was a little rough at first, but after about a month my brain was back in school mode, instead of work mode. I was also promoted to head teaching assistant, since the previous head TA had finished school and was now working in South Dakota. I only have 1 year left and then I will finish my degree in Mechanical Engineering. Current plans are to stay at NDSU and continue on with earning my Masters in Mechanical Engineering. That will put me in school until the end of 2017, but it should be worth it. To go anywhere in most larger companies a Bachelor's degree won't get you very far.
     
    2014 was a good year and I am looking forward to another good year in 2015. I'll leave you with two other pictures that I've enjoyed from this year. The cat's name is April and my wife brought her with when we got married. We're not 100% sure what kind she is, but if you google flame point birman, all of the picture look like her, so it's probably a good guess.

     
     




     

  3. Mysterious Minifig
    After being gone for another 10 months without checking in, I'm finally back again. I guess I'm not getting emails about blog comments, because I had one from January that was still sitting there unapproved. I switched it so everything should auto approve again.
     
    I'm back in school again this semester. The co-op with Bobcat was successful. I had fun, made a little money, and gained a lot of valuable experience. If you are going into an engineering field, I would strongly suggest taking semester break from school sometime time during college and doing a Co-op. If you do it with a good company you can gain a lot of experience and it will help you get a job after graduation.
     
    Classes are fairly busy, almost as busy as last fall, although it doesn't really feel that. I'm now through all of the easy classes and am now working my way through the hard ones, heat and mass transfer and machine design.
     
    Mostly I'm back now because my younger brother keeps sending me stuff about Bionicle coming back. I figured I would come back and take a look at the news and find out what he's talking about. Some of the sets look cool, but I probably won't get any since there is currently no money available in the budget for that sort of thing. Another Tahu might be nice though.
     
    Anyway, maybe I'll be around more, or maybe school will pick up and I'll become busy with that once again, at this point I'm not really sure.
     

  4. Mysterious Minifig

    Winter Break

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    I finished my last final of the semester yesterday around 3 PM which means that winter break is finally here. This past semester was crazy busy and it didn't give a lot of time to do much of anything besides school work. Grades won't be in for another week, but I feel like I did pretty well in most of my classes this semester. The grades may not be quite as good as the previous few semesters, but at this point I'm not hugely concerned.
     
    Now that classes are done I have a little bit of time to relax and catch up on all the things that I didn't have time for this past semester. It would be nice to pull out my LEGOs and do something with but it probably won't happen as I packed them all up together towards the end of the summer.
     
    The other exciting bit of news is that I accepted a Co-op position with Bobcat as a Manufacturing intern, which means I'm done with school until next August. It means I also have to move out of my current apartment. It's kind of sad in way, as the apartment is probably one of the best possible places to live. It's on campus and only 5 minutes from all my classes and the rent is really cheap. Moving out was an eventuality though. If it didn't happen now, it would have happened in March when I get married.
     
    Anyway, that's what is happening with me.
     

  5. Mysterious Minifig

    Summer

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Well, It likes I haven't updated for a while.
     
    School is finished for the summer. I'm not sure if the past sememster was easy or not, but I enjoyed it. It's wierd knowing I'm a junior now. A lot of the friends I made when I first got to college were juniors, so either they've graduated now, or will be graduating in December. I guess my girlfriend is the exception though, since she'll graduate next May. It's wierd knowing I'm already half done with college.
     
    I'm spending this summer working at the same engineering company that I've been at for a couple of years now. It's not bad, but I feel like I'm being under utilized. Next summer will be better as I'll be working somewhere different. Hopefully a much larger company. I probably won't home either, since only one option would allow me to live at home.
     
    Anyway, not much else has happened. I'll probably poke my head around again towards the end of summer or something, I just haven't had time for message boards and forums lately. I suppose that's the way life goes though.
     

  6. Mysterious Minifig

    SEEK 2013

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    I'm going to the National FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) Conference, SEEK 2013 in January. I just thought I would throw that out in case there is someone else who is going to be there. I know ChocolateFrogs went to a regional conference a while back, but maybe there's someone else who is going to be there.
     
    In other news, I'm finally finished with my third semester. All my classes went well, but we'll see what I ended up getting on my Thermodynamics final since right now that's my only class that the A was in question.
     
    Winter break should be fun, I'm going to try to finish the second half of War and Peace, which I started last summer, and I'm probably going to start playing Starflight, an 80's DOS game which appears to have been an insperation for a lot of later games.
     

  7. Mysterious Minifig
    Summer has come to an end and that can only mean school is starting.
     
    I thought this semester would be easier then the last two semesters, but it's turning out as being almost as packed as last spring. I'm only taking 12 credits this semester but none of those are easy. I'm also working quite a bit. Although really, I'm enjoying stuff a lot more now though, after working 40 hours a week this summer.
     
    Classes for this fall are Thermodynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Intro to Engineering Processes, and (Intro to) Linear Algebra. I'm not sure if Linear Algebra or Thermodynamics will end up being the hardest class this semester. I'm pretty sure the Engineering Processes class will end up being my favorite though. We get run machines and create stuff in that class.
     
    I'm also work about 15-20 hours a week. Ten hours a week at the university's tutoring center and then varying hours as a TA for the ME department CAD class.
     
    It's shaping up to be a good semester even if it is pretty busy.
     

  9. Mysterious Minifig
    Currently taking dynamics and general plane motion of a rigid body makes my head hurt. I want my particle kinematics back.
     
    These last two and a half weeks of the semester are going to be a nightmare too. For some reason last semester wasn't nearly as bad this semester.
     

  10. Mysterious Minifig
    "It was an early morning yesterday
    I was up before the dawn
    And I really have enjoyed my stay
    But I must be moving on"
     
    I guess had to come to this at some point. Over the last semester my free time had continually dwindled down until there was barely enough left for me to do a lot of the stuff I wanted to do. I finally hit a wall this semester as I've started working at my college's tutoring center. That combined with two of the more challenging and/or time consuming classes in my college's engineering program has left me with almost no free time for anything.
     
    I don't want to say I'm permanently leaving BZPower, but really, I'm only confirming what I've know since pretty much the start of this year. I am stepping down as a forum assistant. I don't want to leave completely, but even now, I only have the chance to visit the forums once in a while. Not enough time to do anything of substance. I've also all but stopped blogging. I probably will poke around every once in a while to post a new entry, but nothing regularly though.
     
    It's been fun getting to know the few people I've managed to befriend on here. I don't want to completely let that go, but I guess if I'm always gone it's kind of hard to keep in touch.
     
    "Goodbye stranger it's been nice
    Hope you find your paradise
    Tried to see your point of view
    Hope your dreams will all come true"
     

  11. Mysterious Minifig

    Winter Break

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    First week of classes finished up on Friday. This is probably going to be a fun semester, but it is also going to be more difficult than the last. It will probably work out though, since I always seem to adjust to whatever the workload happens to be.
     
    I did a few fun things over break in addition to work 40 hours over the three weeks. I got to hang out with a few friends from Knowledge Bowl and another guy I knew from Cross Country/Track, so that was pretty fun. We also had an Alumni Knowledge Bowl meet so those of us who had graduated from high school could get together and have some fun.
     
    I also read through some books. The first was Lord of the Flies. Apparently, it's a staple of many high school reading lists and I figured I should try to correct my 'deficiency.' I wasn't very impressed with it. I guess it could have been a lot worse, but really I don't get why it's so popular. I have no plans on ever rereading it.
     
    The second book was A Wrinkle in Time. I don't know how I ever got the idea to read it, but it was among the books that came in at the library when I got home from school. I guess I must have had some reason at some point, but whatever it was it's now lost to history. It wasn't a bad book, but it was more simplistic than a lot of the other books
    of other books I've read lately.
     
    The last was Corelli's Mandolin. It was a good book, but it definitely wasn't a kids book.
     
    I had started on Pride and Prejudice, but I forgot it at my house, so it won't get finished until I can get home again sometime in February.
     
    I also got to see the latest Sherlock Holmes movie, Game of Shadows. I thought it was just as good as the first. I didn't really like the guy that they had playing Moriarty. I can't really seem to find the right word word to describe what bothered me about him.
     
    Anyway, that's probably most of my break. Hopefully I can get some stuff done around here this semester, but if life gets too busy, it obviously takes precedence over anything on the internet.
     
    Also, it seems like I'm no longer getting alerts telling me people have commented on my blog. I'll try to stay on top of that, but if you comment on something and it doesn't get approved within a reasonable amount of time, feel free to let me know.
     

  12. Mysterious Minifig

    19

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Let's just say over sleeping is not a good way to start your birthday. I wanted to show up for work at 8 AM, but we I set my alarm the night before I neglected to make sure it was turned on. I rolled out of bed at about 7:45 in a huge panic. So, yeah that wasn't a great start.
     
    As for my birthday, I didn't do anything exciting at all. Most of my birthday's have been pretty low key these last few years. I'll probably have to change that at some point. I didn't really expect anything big for a present, since I got my computer last year. I ended up getting an LL Bean turtle neck sweater. It's been years since I've worn one of those.
     
    I'm going to say that over the last 19 years of my life I've probably changed the most over the last year. I don't really feel any different, but I know I've changed a lot, which is probably due to the transition into college more then anything.
     
    My one year staff anniversary was also about a month ago. Was it really a year ago that I got asked to become a Forum Assistant? I can still remember being in shock the whole day I received that PM from Black Six.
     

  13. Mysterious Minifig
    I'm normally pretty quiet and shy. Because of that I've never really enjoyed the idea of public speaking. It's not that I'm terrified of it, because I'm not, I just never liked the idea. Due to what is pretty much a universal college general education requirement, I had to take a public speaking course. I feel pretty lucky though, because I get to take the special public speaking course.
    I am in my school's honors program, so I was able to register for the freshman honors public speaking course rather then the regular public speaking course. And surprisingly, I'm enjoying it a lot. For starters there are only 13 people in the class. I don't know how many people are in the regular public speaking courses, but I'm sure there are more than thirteen. It's nice to have at least one class where I can know everyone's first name. All the rest of my classes are massive lectures.
    The professor we have is also amazing. She used to be the school's communications department dean and she is one of the co-authors of our textbook.
     
    We also spent one class period watching Monsters Inc, just because the professor hadn't seen a pixar movie before.
     

  14. Mysterious Minifig
    The first is from back in September, when I took a walk around the NDSU campus to take a few pictures. The second was at my grandparents cabin earlier in the summer.
     
    I feel like I should make a content block for photography, but then I would have to update the rest of my content blocks and that would require work.
     

  16. Mysterious Minifig

    Home

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    After being gone for two months it feels weird to be back at my house. It's nice though, since it does beat spending another weekend stuck in the dorms.
     
    Went for a really good run today. If I didn't know the date, I probably wouldn't be able to guess that it's almost the end of October, the temperature is still really nice out. The low 60's made for some nice running weather.
     

  17. Mysterious Minifig
    It seems like it's been forever since the forums went off-line. I guess I sort of felt like they were never going to come back, but here they are all shiny and brand new.
     
    I'm not going to try to give an update on every single thing I've done in the last 5 months(?), but there are a few somewhat important items. I'll probably miss a few things but what ever.
     
    Probably the biggest thing is that I graduated from high school all the way back in May and I'm now off at college, studying mechanical engineering at North Dakota State University. It was sort of a transition to move away from home, but I'm enjoying it. I still haven't made it home once though, but that will probably change in about a week. I've been enjoying my classes and I'm not really sure which one will end up being my favorite. I will say one though, taking Calculus I last spring was probably one of the best choices I could have possibly made. I'm basically half a semester ahead of schedule right now, because of Calc I and the other 40 or so credits I transferred in.
     
    I've still been running, although I dread to find out what my current 5k time is. I ran a 5k a couple weeks before I came up here and it was just awful, in excess of 27 minutes.
     
    Yeah, there's probably more stuff to talk about, but it's already getting late and I need my sleep.
     

  18. Mysterious Minifig
    Well, I going to say it was a success. My knee hurt a little bit during my warm up, but it wasn't anywhere as bad on Monday. The run went decently with a 2:42. My knee felt fine both during and after the run so that's a relief. It doesn't feel all the way better now, but I'll probably try running during practices again next week. More ice and cross-training this weekend though.
     
    The rest of the meet was also pretty good, one of our freshmen had PR and lettered with a 4:52 in the 1600 M and our 4x800 team ended up finishing four seconds off of the school record. We also had a couple problems. One of the girls fell during the 4x200 and her face got pretty scrapped up. The boys 4x400 relay team also had a terrible run after three of the four runners were interfered with by spectators. Apparently the last runner actually got clotheslined by someone's arm.
     
    We also had rain, which started shortly after the 800 M run was finished. It wasn't any where near as bad some of the storms I've seen at meets though.
     

  19. Mysterious Minifig
    Woke up this morning and it looked like it was winter again. As much as I love snow, I don't want to see after March, and I certainly don't want to see it near the end of April.
     
    I miss last year, it warmed up right after spring break and then it was pretty much nice the rest of track season.
     

  20. Mysterious Minifig

    My Knee 2

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Yeah. I talked to the athletic trainer and I looks like I have tendentious in my knee. I guess I'm going to be doing a lot of cross training over the next couple of weeks and hoping it will get better. I've tried running with it, but that really hasn't worked that well.
     
    I'm probably still going to be running in meets, but this definitely won't help my times, not that were that great before.
     

  21. Mysterious Minifig
    Not sure what exactly is wrong, but something happened to my knee during track practice on Monday and it hasn't felt right since. I've been icing it like crazy (relatively speaking) and hopefully it will heal up so I can start running again next week. I tried running yesterday, but that didn't really work out.
     
    Maybe in a weird way this is a good thing, since it's forcing me to rest giving my shins some time heal too.
     

     
  22. Mysterious Minifig
    Some how I don't think my life is ever going to be the same after I finish Calculus 1. I'm still in awe of the power of the derivative. I'm seeing all these connections with the non-calculus based Physics class I took last semester. Physics is going to really fun when I finally get to take a calc based course this fall.
     
    We also got the take home test back that we took last weekend. I guess I did pretty well, but the I was most surprised with the rowing rate problem that was on it. I wasn't sure if I even did it correctly, but the professor handed out copies of my solution to the rest of the class so they could see how to do it.
     

  23. Mysterious Minifig
    I managed to stop into Toys R Us earlier today since I heard that the series four Collectible Minifigs are showing up in stores now. I guess I got lucky since the associate I talked with said they got their shipment of series four the previous day.
     
    I ended up getting a Musketeer, the Hazmat guy, an Artist, the Garden Gnome, and the Soccer Player. I felt almost all of the other figs, but I had to pass on most of them since I didn't want to spend $50. The only ones I didn't find were the Frankenstein and the Mad Scientist.
     

     
  24. Mysterious Minifig
    The last two weekends were the two indoor track meets that start off the high school track season.
     
    At the first meet I ran the 800 M after the guy who was suppose to run it fell twice during the sprint medley. My time was pretty bad, even for what I've done in past years, 2:47.
     
    At the second meet I led off the 4x800 M since half of the regular 4x800 team was gone. My split was a little better then the previous week, 2:41, but the junior and two freshmen who also ran averaged about 2:30 each.
     
    It doesn't seem like I'm really getting faster. I definitely performing better this year during practice, but my race times haven't changed much since sophomore year. I'd be happy if I could just get under a 2:30 in the 800 M consistently. I don't know if that will happen though, since I might be getting shin splints again.
     

  25. Mysterious Minifig
    My final year of high school track & field started last Monday. I having a hard time believing that it's really been 3 years since I started. I've certainly made a lot of progress, both with speed and endurance, but this is my last year to really do something.
     
    It looks like I may be able to set a new personal record although I'm not sure if I'll be able to hit my goal time of 2:15 for the 800 M. My dad also wants me to beat his 5:15 mile from when he was in high school, but I'm not sure if that will happen. Either way I'm not going to let it bother.
     
    At the pentathlon my team did for inner-squad competition on Saturday, I ran a 3:08 800 M, faster then what I did last year at the same time, but still not fast enough. Hopefully I be able to run at one of the indoor meets this weeked or next weekend. Then I'll be able to figure out where I stand in an actual race.
     

     
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