Photos: First attempt at panography!

Here is my first attempt at panography. It's quite simple yet still very fun to do ESPECIALLY if you have a digital camera and photoshop.

For those who might not know what panography is, follow the next 2 links to gain some insight:
http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/panographies/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/panography/


My first attempt was of my parents house in NE Pennsylvania. As a stated... its not a masterpiece, but those will come as I have more time this upcoming semester!

Enjoy!

I encourage people to try for themselves and see what they can capture!!!

Celebration?

Is is wrong to celebrate semi-important events w/ things that you normally wouldn't do?

The obvious answer is that it really depends.... but in the end ppl will do what makes them happy... with or without proper concern for their own health/status/impressions.

Today was my first day when I did not have to stress about anything for the past 2-3 months. It was a good day. Bought breakfast, relaxed, played guitar hero 3 while having a bi-annual cigar.

All in all it was a good day.


I say to all of you college students finishing finals and heading into the holiday season, Relax. Kick up your feet. Enjoy the time off!
We've earned it!

Finals and the unnecessary...

It's the time of the semester again...

The time where stress is at its highest, the candle burns bright into the night, people walking around like zombies, taking caffeine loaded drinks/pills to keep awake, and countless hours of looking at computer screens/notebooks/hw&test solutions...

Why does the last week of a semester have to be the hardest to get through? We've gone through the WHOLE damn semester... and if you do not know who knows the material by now... then what the hell good are ya?

Its simple... We're Stressed out. On top of just YOUR one final that you know we have to prepare for... we have 5 other professors who expect the same...

Give us a break....

Oh wait.. that doesnt happen... cause we're in the engineering college at psu and there's no such thing as an easy way out....

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All you students out there... Pull through. Do the best you can with the time you have. Things will work out in the end.

Good Luck

FreeRice.Com

My roommate recently introduced me to a site: www.freerice.com . It is quite interesting.

It is a site where you get asked vocabulary questions and for every correct answer, they donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations who in turn distribute it around the world to starving people.

I prompted made a lil program that automated the process of clicking the links and let it run over night for about 5 hrs. I woke up to 18400 grains of rice as my score for the night!!!

This prompted my roommate and myself to actually calculate HOW much rice I just "donated"/contributed to the poor.

We took out my digital food scale and proceeded to show that 2 grams of rice had about 172 grains. After weighing one cup of rice, we found that there were 16684 grains of rice for 1 cup of uncooked rice. About 2 cups of rice will just BARELY feed a person (calorie intake wise). So my 18400 grains of rice was enough food for 1 person to eat for 1/2 a day. This didn't seem to impressive.

After looking at the totals on the website, I came to a different conclusion...
They state(as of today) that they have donated 7,536,669,470 grains of rice.

Using the measurements that I have recently calculated, this equates to roughly 193203.628 lbs of rice.... in only 2 months.... This presents a different picture entirely...

Sooo... Goto www.freerice.com ... play a lil bit.... help to fight the war against hunger...
Every little bit helps

Politics

Oh boy... here comes a touchy subject if there is any

I'm a registered Democrat. The MAIN reason I became a Democrat is because my parents were and I was lead to believe that it was against my best interest to vote Republican. NOW, i choose to be a Democrat (in general). They are in my mind.. the lesser of 2 necessary evils on most topics and usually correspond with my personal beliefs on what is more important in life.


There are always going to be problems with every candidate that tried to go into office. Every single person has some stand or POV on a topic that I disagree with. The choices are usually few and far between but you must do your best to choose wisely.

I remember the Clinton era. He was a good president but a horrible father/husband with very crappy morals ( ..."I did not have sex with that woman..." ). BUT that is exactly what people do not understand... he had crappy morals... he was a shitty human being... but He did MANY great things for the country ( such as eliminate the national debt.... which should be more of a focus than it currently is...). You do not have to like the person in office so long as they are doing their job.

I am now living through the Bush era... He seems like he was morals (though he blatantly used the idea that he wouldn't raise taxes to get into office yet he did anyways.... twice...) is a good family man and a good Christian. BUT his complete ignorance and numerous bad judgements have put this country into a time of relative ultimate lows...

Elections are coming soon....

Heres my piece of advice... Dont blindly listen to your parents, friends, or family and follow what they do. Do a little research for yourself. Decide whats important to YOU and what candidates take stands on topics that correspond with what you need. (aka If you really dont care about abortion... then whether or not the candidate is pro-choice or not shouldn't matter...)

That being said, here are the things that matter to me...

• Economy and National Debt/Budget
• Education
• Soldiers not dying in faraway lands for no apparent reasons
• Health Care
• Environment
• Immigration

You show me a candidate that puts those things at the top of their list.... I will vote for them (Democrat or not!).

Obsession over GPA, Worth it?

I'm studying aerospace engineering. Yea.. its a hard major.. It's going to take me 5 yrs to graduate( could have done it in 4 but that would have meant 19 crs every semester w/ no breaks... i love life too much to do that to myself)

i dont have a perfect gpa, no where close... I'm by no means have a low gpa (i have a 2.73 currently)

There are some ppl that have well over a 3.8 in aerospace engineering that have NO social life, which i believe is ridiculous.

Recently... i received information that confirms my standing(one of my friends who is also in aerospace engineering has a lower gpa than me and got a job for over $56k/yr)

Whats the big deal w/ gpa?
It in NO way shows which person is the best engineer... just who was the best at taking tests... not necessarily who knew the material better.

Public Display of Affection (PDA)

Anyone who has ever been in a relationship can probably agree that atleast once during their time together in public, they have kissed passionately. Now I'm not talking a tongue down the throat kiss (this will be discussed in a few) but I'm talking a genuinely passionate smooch here.

Personally, i have no problem with this type of affection being shown in public... so long as its not a 10 second make-out session

The question arises tho.... Exactly what constitutes too much PDA?

I guess to some ppl, even holding hands would be considered too much


But personally, that isn't too bad. IMO... too much PDA is when ppl are making out and essentially feeling each other up in plain sight. Blatantly disregarding everyone else around them...
Everyone's seen this type of behavior and if you are of good conscious... most likely turn your nose up at it.

But this then arises to another point.
What if you're around friends/family just hanging out...
How do you say to you're roommate/sibling that you'd like them to leave so that more personal make-out sessions (or more intimate) can progress...
You obviously do not want to make the situation seem "strange" but its a touchy subject.


In the end... ppl will do what they want... and if you dont like it, too bad..
But damn ppl.. have the decency to do intimate things in private... and not in the public eye...
You are not cool for making out in the mall infront of 300 ppl...

Online Game: Avalanche

There is a newer site that I've been going to for flash games.
It is www.thegamehomepage.com

The great thing about this site is that you're able to compete against other ppl to get the highest scores. This has taken the Aerospace Computer Lab by storm and we're trying to compete to get the highest score on the game called Avalanche.

Very simple game, use ur arrow keys to climb higher and higher. You can run across the screen as well as "hug" the walls and slide down blocks. You're score is your max height. My current max is 825 ft



There are 2 ways to die. The first is being crushed by the blocks.
The 2nd is to drown in the pink fluid!

Stop by and play some, but a warning...
It's extremely addicting!!!

Forgot to introduce myself...

I guess i kinda jumped the gun w/ the blog and all and forgot to introduce myself.

I am a 22 yr old college student. I am a 5th year senior studying Aerospace Engineering at PSU (graduating in the spring '08). I enjoy computer programming and do so in numerous languages, most of which I learned just because I wanted to(Languages include: C++, Fortran, Matlab, LabVIEW, php, perl, and some java/javascript). My ultimate job at this moment would be a test engineer who specializes in the acquisition of data and creation of acquisition systems for vibration, noise and aerodynamic testing.

I am engaged to the most beautiful woman on this earth (been together 5 yrs this upcoming january) with our wedding coming this july. She's also a senior at PSU studying Elementary Education. She's quite possibly the most important person in my life.

I have attended instruction for playing the piano for over 12 yrs (starting at the age of 5). I also trained in Martial Arts for a little bit over 8.5 yrs (Shinjitsu Do).

I'm very interested in "Wilderness Survival" and possess a wide variety of skills that intertwine with it (fire starting, shelter building, clothes making, weaving, slinging, archery, rope making, knitting and even crocheting and etc etc etc). Further skills that I wish to learn would be intricate but primitive snare/trap setups and flint knapping.

I also have a lil crutch that I play video games and have my favorites. In my apartment, the guys and I play Counter Strike (version 1.6.... no source yet for us. Visit the online community that i am apart of.) and AoE3 (Age of Empires). I also play the online real time games: Ogame and Gladiatus.

I consider myself a renaissance man because of my need to learn information... no matter how useless or abstract it may seem at the time. My friends have said that I "...possess a little bit of knowledge on everything...". I like to hold conversations (no matter how controversial) on any topic and always love to hear your side of the story if you're willing to hear mine.

All in all, I'm a twenty something yr old geek who wants to learn more. This blog will be used to spout some information and thoughts out(as I remember them... mayb i should get a lil notebook to jot down thoughts as they pass...). I encourage discussion on any topic (whether it be constructive or not).

Return and you'll be engaged eventually as I hit a topic you're interested in.

Becoming American

I am a first generation child. My father immigrated to the US in 1972 from Italy. My mother in 1970 from Poland. Both legally.


Both my parents went through intense hardships to become live the American Dream. Lets take a father for example.

He came off the boat at the age of 24 with $52 in his pocket and a dream in his heart. Within one year, he was married to the woman he followed to America (met in italy, rest falls together). Within another 1.5 yrs... he was divorced and faced many extreme situations which I will not discuss in respect of my father.

it just amazes how people will want something with all of their heart and follow it... leaving all of his family, traditions, and livelihood behind in search of something better.

Right... my father is not a born American... but I know very few people who consider themselves "Full Blooded American" who have had to endure the trials and tests of courage that my father has to respectfully call himself American.

This is the time i will post my Political perspective on immigration.
Everyone that immigrates (legally or illegally) is looking for a better life. No one can judge or argue that fact... if they do they have NO idea what it is like to leave everything they have ever known to go someplace and start over...

If you want to come to America... Do so legally. I have NO issue with legal immigrants. They follow the laws set out to become Americans and do so going through every hardship along the way. People who illegally hop the border...be prepared to go jail for your efforts

Crazy Highway Tactics

Today was my first day of Thanksgiving break. I was on the drive home from Happy Valley during this years first snow storm.


Now normally, driving in the snow isn't a problem for me. I love PA winters and I don't mind driving in the snow, but today was a lil different. The weather was treacherous!

Interstate 81 has lil flashy markers that are lined with the middle lines. This makes driving in heavy snow fall no problem. Stay between the lil flashy things and you're all good.....

Interstate 80 doesnt have any.... anywhere...

Freaking Interstate 80....
nothing like going 40mph when tractor trailers are passing you going 70...