Getting Ready for Spring!

I've been slow on the crochet front lately. My Capstone project's been picking up and things were hectic. Now that presentations are over I have more time to read and crochet. Here are my latest creations and WIPs.

A new headband

Four Leaf Clover by Pam Gillette

Itty Bitty Shamrock by Pam Gillette

Marshmallow Bunny by CopperScaleDragon
PDF download is on the left side of the blog.

I'm making the marshmallow bunny for my old roommate, Alyssa. She had a love affair with stale peeps. I plan on putting two of them together and then stuffing it with fiberfill.

Capstone Report = Formatting Like There's No Tomorrow

So my contribution to the Capstone project has been being the devil's advocate and sounding board. On top of that I've been writing the Capstone reports (with the input of my teammates). I just finished writing and editing 21 pages of the report. It originally started as a 11 page draft two weeks ago. I added pictures and new information to back up our research and why we're doing it.

Total, I think it took me about 10 hours or so of work. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to formatting. I did learn some valuable lessons while working on this midterm report: don't add captions until the very end if you're going to sync them to the List of Figures and Tables. Every time I rearrange pictures, I had to update the figure numbers. Oh boy, there were 30 pictures and I believed I moved half of them at some point during the writing. Okay, I'm going to get some sleep. Maybe I'll post my final document somewhere when I'm done with Capstone. I don't think I really explained what I'm working on. That's for another day.

Good night.

Fridays, I love them so

It is Friday, the day of the week that I look forward to the most. The reason? My art class meets today. Unfortunately we are not meeting this week since my instructor is sick. =( I woke up this morning at 6:45 am to get ready for work at 7:45 am. I worked until 12:40 pm and made a couple of purchases before leaving. I had a sweatshirt on hold for my sister for the past two weeks and my co-worker Meredith recommended a book to me: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I've seen it before, but never made an effort to actually read it. But now I will. I'm always looking for book recommendations by my peers. It's always interesting to see other people's interests.

My interview with UTC Fire & Security, Fire Safety Division went really well. I got there early so I sat in the car for the next 10 minutes reviewing notes I made about the company. I met with HR, the engineering manager, the program manager, and the director of engineering. I also received a tour of the facility. Very nice. I'm pretty excited and also in awe. The engineering manager has two Masters degrees and the director of engineering has three. Wow. That's dedication. I would like to do that one day too. For now I would like to get more experience in industry before I decide if I should get an advance degree in any field.

That's all for now. I'm going to go lay down and maybe play Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. =)

Clearly I'm Not Doing Work

Okay, so I've been at the library for the past hour or so and I haven't even touched my Capstone report. I'm supposed to edit the draft report for the midterm deadline. Instead I updated my google group website, browsed facebook, and g-chated with a classmate. Here's an excerpt of that chat.

Reason why I messaged him: His status said "Strawberry milk: the source of my greatest strength, but also my greatest weakness."

6:28 PM
me: I like chocolate milk
we should battle
Scott: haha i like it
some sort of godzilla-vs-mothra super hero battle?
me: my milk will dehydrate your milk and make it powder
yea
Scott: i will have to scoop up the powder and take it back to my secret lair where i can make it back into strawberry milk
me: oh, and it's soy based, so it's good for you
Scott: oh man, mine is made with crap :) me: lol
Scott: there is negative health in this bottle
me: yea, that sucks

Super Mario Invincibility Star

While my boyfriend watched the All Star game last night, I sat there a crocheted a Super Mario Invincibility Star. I was thinking of giving it to my guy friends. My friend, Snipe, loves wearing the power up mushroom shirt and I was thinking of making him one of those too.

Super Mario Invincibility Star by Marte Fagervik

What's new in February?

Okay, so there's a bit to catch up on since I realized that I've been too busy to update with anything substantial. There was a Mega Career Fair at Northeastern University on February 5. I attended and passed out my resume to potential companies. It was a good opportunity and because of that day, I got an interview this upcoming Wednesday with United Technologies Corporation (UTC) for their Fire & Security division. Cool. Now I need to borrow my sister's car or my boyfriend's. We'll see.

My independent study has been lagging. Right now my professor is figuring out what hardware and software to use and probably realizes that there a lot of choices out there for him. I need to schedule a meeting with him to keep things on track so I can actually design the labs for him before I graduate.

Capstone is going okay. My group has visited the research lab where our device will be used. I need to rewrite the report for our Midterm Presentation. Oh fun. I'm not much of a report writer. I find that they are usually dry and boring. Well, academic reports tend to be especially when you involve numbers and terms that most people wouldn't know about.

Planning our trip to Thailand has progressed a bit. We decided to visit Hong Kong on the way to Thailand. Possibly stop in Honolulu, Hawai'i and Los Angeles, California before heading back to New York. I need to figure out if my friend's mom can host us in Hawai'i. Poor college students have to think cheap and efficient if they want their money to last. =)

I finished my Starburst hotpad yesterday. It's pretty cool. I plan on making some for my boyfriend's family.

Starburst Hotpad by Loretta Schepp

Durango Hat

I finished another hat. I apologize ahead of time that the pictures didn't come out that great.

Durango by Catherine Lindsay

Close up of buttons. I covered one of them.

New Projects for February

So instead of sleeping, I decided to put this up. Here's what I've been up to...

Suzetta's Heart by Suzetta Williams

Crochet Calorimetry by Kristin Rose

I love the way the pattern came out. I used Paton's Classic Wool in Rosewood.

Close-up of stitches.

Button close-up. Bought from Windsor Buttons, Boston, MA.

Crocheted Mittens / Fingerless Gloves by Sue Norrad
I'm making this for my sister. It's a WIP.

25 Random Things About Me

Copied this from my Facebook. Just some random facts about me.

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Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. I procrastinate... a lot. I wish I didn't. I got this 25 Thing from P' Jenny on January 23 and I'm finally getting to it. I'm actually using this to procrastinate from doing some research.

2. I like to be neat in class. My room is another story.

3. I use rulers to make lines. I'm serious. Ask anyone from class about it.

4. If I'm reading a really good book I'll read until I finish it. I stayed up til 7 am to finish one of my favorite books and ended up getting 2 hours of sleep. =(

5. I like to collect pretty yarn though I know I won't be making anything out of it any time soon. I can't help myself.

6. I like to meet new people but I have to be in the mood to socialize. See #7.

7. Sometimes I prefer my own company. No offense, but I rather read than go out most nights.

8. If I can make a lot of money as an artist, I would do it. Engineering can be my back up. =)

9. Sometimes I feel like a fake. Like there's more to my life but I settled for the path that it has taken because it's easy. Does that make sense?

10. I used to want to be a doctor then an architect. I really love buildings. I regret selling my American Architecture: A History by Leland M. Roth. Maybe I'll get something similar but better one day.

11. I bite my nails. It's this nervous habit I have. I can stop for a month, but then something will set it off again.

12. When I'm embarrass or nervous my ears turn red and hot. I don't really blush.

13. I own over 300 books. About 280 of them are romance novels. I enjoy them. =)

14. I can't pass a Borders or Barnes & Noble without going in.

15. They say that you shouldn't live your life with regrets, but I do. I just don't think about them too often or I'll get sad and/or emotional.

16. Every now and then I like to stir up a bit of trouble. Maybe it's because I'm experiencing ennui too often?

17. I never really had any close girl friends while growing up. I had mostly guy friends. I'm not sure why it's that way, maybe it's easier for me to deal with.

18. I wake up wanting to change things in my life, but never actually do it.

19. I like to time myself walking places. I can give you a pretty good estimate of when I'll get somewhere. When I say 7 minutes, I mean 7 minutes.

20. I like to argue. Though I know when to concede when I'm wrong (which doesn't happen too often because I seldom argue when I know I'll be wrong).

21. In the past 4.5 years of college I never visited anyone at their school. Yeah, I like staying on campus a bit too much or I'm just that lazy.

22. I love watching chick flicks because I like imagining that I was the heroine in the movie. This also applies to my romance novels.

23. I would like to unclutter my life, but I don't know where to start or how to get rid of things. Pack rat genes run in my family.

24. I used to have a plan of how my life would be, but I tossed it out a few years back and now I feel lost. It's not a pleasant feeling.

25. Sometimes I wish I was more honest with myself and tell people how I'm really feeling instead of just bottling it inside. Writing in my blog helps with this. That's why I keep one.

Capstone Presentation

A lot of people are amazed when I tell them that I get nervous speaking in front of people. I guess it depends on the situation. I love to talk, that is true. I just don't like to give presentations. If I'm not prepared for it, I choke and then I freeze. It's pretty bad. I usually have to practice at least 5 times on my slides to feel somewhat comfortable.

On Thursday my group presented our Capstone project to our design advisor. We met an hour before hand and practiced as a group. During the first two rehearsals, I just messed up and couldn't think of something to say. Actually, I just couldn't start the slides. So I wrote down what I would like to say and practiced hitting the key points. The guys took a break, but I knew I had work to do. I asked Bryan, one of my team members, to read the previous slide before mine and introduce my section. I practiced my slides three more times by myself and each time it was a bit better.

I managed to calm down and focus on what I need to present. Our advisor finally showed up and I was glad it was just him. It was originally planned that we were going to present to him and his graduate students. My part of the presentation was great. I didn't stumble and I spoke loud and clear. I made eye contact and delivered my section with ease. I breathed a sigh of relief after it was over. I did it.

My teammates all have different techniques for presenting and they were telling me to "wing it." If you know me just a bit, you'll understand that I don't do that. I prepare and I practice. I memorize a lot of things and that's how I learn. I remembered that back in 11th grade, my English teacher had us memorize all 40 prepositions. In order to do so I wrote them out in alphabetical order 5 or 6 times. When I took the quiz, I pretty much wrote it out from memory. That's the same technique I used to memorize my "lines." If I say it a few times, it'll eventually stick.

That was only the draft presentation. Our real midterm presentation is right before Spring Break. Then the final presentation is mid-April. I believe it'll be on the last day of classes or the reading day after that. Okay. I need to do some research on Robotic curriculums. (My independent research assignment.)

(Taken from my blog - My So-Called Engineering Life)