Monday, May 16, 2011

Missionaries on a Mission

Today at the Space Center we had Missionaries come do a space mission.  I mean real LDS full-time 19 year old boys and 21 year old girls missionaries  serving here in Utah County.  It was one of the funniest things I have experienced in a long time.  The missionaries tried to convert the aliens.  It was hilarious.  Their mission was to find some people who were selling illegal drugs and arrest them.  So the aliens that they were talking to were also high.  They were trying to tell the high aliens about the plan of salvation.  One alien had died from doing too much drugs, and they were talking to his friend.  They were telling her that she would see him again, and about life after death, etc.  It was super fabulous.  Then there was a lot of radiation, so I started calling some of them down for radiation poisioning, and they wanted to give the "sick" elder a blessing.  Needless to say, he got well really fast, because I didn't think it would be appropriate to be giving blessings for pretend illnesses on an imaginary spaceship.  :)  Most of them had really cool accents as well, so it was super fun to listen to them talk.  It was a really fun day at the Space Center.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

New Post

Somebody who shall remain unanimous, but whom I refer to as my Space Center Little Brother, has informed me that I don't update my blog often enough.  He is very right, but I am very lazy when it comes to blog writing.  In order to please him, however, here are some updates on my life.

A few months ago, I decided to change my major from Mechanical Engineering to Computer Engineering.  It had been coming on for a while, and I was taking a computer science course for my Stats part of my education.  The final decision came when I was sitting in my Mechanical Engineering classes, Thermodynamics, to be specific, and I realized that I didn't really enjoy Mechanical Engineering.  Sure, I can do it, and I understand it just fine.  However, the ability to do something is not a good reason to major in it.  I decided on Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering because I love space and I want to be a rocket scientist someday.  But I really dislike Mechanical Engineering classes.

I realized that Aerospace Engineering is not the only way to work with rockets.  I also realized that I love the pure logic that computers grant me.  When it comes to computer software, everything is pure and utter logic, and I love that.  [I am the girl who waits anxiously for the daily sudoku puzzle in the newspaper, and when the Scotsman (the Utah State Newspaper) failed to deliver, I was forced to buy a book of sudoku puzzles to appease my logic thirst.]  I have always enjoyed logic, and I think this is why I have always been attracted to mathematics.  I realized through my very first introduction into computer programming, that I was really good at it, and that the pure logic of computer science is something I could enjoy doing for the rest of my life.

Now I am not majoring in Computer Science, which is almost entirely the software part of computers.  Rather I am majoring in Computer Engineering, which is a major that combines the software and hardware part of computers.  When it comes to hardware, you leave the realm of pure logic and have to deal with construction and mechanical and actual physical facts.  The reasons why I am majoring in Engineering and not Science, is because I couldn't bear to leave the College of Engineering behind.  I am also fascinated by new hardware that continues to come on the market, things like iPads, cameras, and bluetooth devices.  I want to develop my own computer hardware.

I want to work for Google when I grow up, or perhaps Pixar, or I could still work for rocket companies.  Rocketry needs computers just as much as anybody else these days.  In fact, it is easier to get a job at the Space Dynamics Lab (a research lab that is part of USU) if you are an electrical or computer engineer than it is if you are mechanical or aerospace.

I finished up my last semester at school very nicely.  I am very pleased with my grades, they are all what I refer to as good grades.  I even managed to get an A in differential equations.  I am not sure how I pulled that off.  I would have been completely happy with any sort of passing grade in that class.  I thought for sure that I was going to fail the final, because I don't understand series at all, and our final was completely testing on series and how they relate to differential equations.  Somehow, I got a 99 on that final.  I am not sure how I got a 99, because I still don't understand series, but apparently I can fake my way through it, and make it seem like I know and understand more than I actually do.  :)

I had amazing roommates last year, and it was super sad to leave them behind when the semester ended.  My room roommate is my best friend, and I don't know if we will ever be roommates again.  I was also fortunate enough to be rooming with one of my good friends from Junior High.  We had super amazing nerdy times, and I am sad to see them fade into the past.

Now I am living in Provo for the summer at some very cute apartments called Carriage Cove.  I have my own bedroom, and I only have to share the bathroom with one other person.  Gone are the days of waiting anxiously for your turn to shower.  My bedroom is really big, especially since there is only one person living in it.  And we have a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room.  The living room is huge.  I think it is probably the same size as or bigger than the living room at my parent's house at home.  And this is student housing.  I am loving how luxurious it is down here.  There is also a pool and a hot tub in my apartment complex.  (It will be strange to move into Moen Hall next year.  Moen Hall is right on campus at USU, but it is one of the smallest things there ever has been.  It will be a complete change from Carriage Cove.)


I am living in Provo, so that I can be closer to the Space Center.  I am learning to teach the classroom at the Space Center, and I love doing the starlabs.  I plan on spending every possible moment there this summer.  I have also been hired by iWorlds Training.  iWorlds is based on the Space Center, but is trying to make profit off of the idea, rather than just teach children.  It is located right next to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  I am very excited to be making money, and I hope that when everything is said and done, I can break even this summer financially.

I am taking Computer Science 1410 online from UVU this summer.  Beginning CS classes at Utah State are taught in C++, but at UVU they are taught in C#, so right now I am doing a crash course in getting caught up in all of the C# language that I need to know.  I am excited for this class, and I just recently made my very first form program.  It was super exciting to move out of completely text based programs to something else.  I am so excited to be learning this, and I think it will be an awesome summer semester.

Anyways, that is the updates of my life right now.  Everything is super fabulous!