...and May is almost gone too...
Time again has passed so quickly I cannot keep up.
Our Senior Design Project went well. There were six groups and the projects were chosen by each individual group and submitted to the instructor for approval. I was in group six. To keep a long story short, our group's project was an unmanned aerial vehicle featuring coaxial counter-rotating blades in a ducted fan setup and a louver control system. We repeatedly asked ourselves if we were in over our head. I was in a great group though. Each one was a very reliable person and we got along great and everyone did their job and very well I might add. In the end, we and our instructor chose not to fly our UAV. The reason is that we did not have the proper facilities to test our UAV. However, we tested each individual component and it worked very well. The instructor was impressed and we received an A on our project.
On April 13th, I had a dinner party. Using my Dad's recipe, I cooked sweet and sour chicken. I had invited over my favorite people that I know here at TTU. They have the same morals as I and we always have a good time. After dinner, I and my friend played guitar to entertain our guests.
The weather has been odd here lately. In the last week of April, the temperature dropped down into the upper 30's for the low. It only happened for two nights and then it was nice and warm again. Thankfully, during the week of final exams, the weather has been quite beautiful.
The Thursday before commencement was a long night. Commencement practice was at 1600, then an engineering social event was afterwards, and then my fraternity's graduation party. I was expected to go since I'm graduating and all. Not to mention that I will receive a nice shiny plaque for being an officer in my fraternity.
Mom came up the day before commencement and we ran around Cookeville. She wanted to look for something to wear for commencement. So we ran around Jefferson Plaza where they have a Goodies, Belk, Kohl's, Sears, etc.
On May 3rd, I had an 8am ceremony for Order of the Engineer. The organization is committed to maintaining the integrity and dedication of the Engineering Profession. Those joining each received a stainless steel ring to be worn on the fifth finger on the working hand as a reminder of our duty as an engineer. 9am I had to get in line for Commencement. It was crowded. I haven't been to an event this big in a long time. This was the largest graduating class at TTU. 10am Commencement began. There were 1,197 graduating students. I was afraid of falling asleep during commencement because I was up at 3am ironing my pants and shirt and shining my shoes. But I was awake the entire time. Commencement ended at about 1pm. It sure didn't feel like 3 hours.
On the day of commencement, there were also other events occurring in Cookeville. TTU was hosting the Mini Baja Race, a Baseball game was going on, and Cookeville's Prom was also on this day. So, we chose to buy some steaks and just grill out at the apartment to avoid the crowd and traffic.
About a year ago my roommate and I bought two pet Emperor Scorpions from Petco. We ended up getting a male and a female. About a month or so later I saw the male scorpion doing some weird dance. I did some research on scorpion behavior and indeed he was doing a mating ritual dance. Then a week or so later I found that the female had killed the male and was eating him. She got a 14.99 meal. Fast forward to now and my scorpion has been fat for some reason. It turns out she was gravid. On Friday, May 2nd, she had 3 scorplings, or baby scorpions, on her back. The next day she had about 16 total. The babies will ride on the mother's back for about 2 weeks. They will then molt and be able to run around on their own. Now the question is what am I going to do with all these scorpions. I will probably separate them from the mother and try to raise them and when they are old enough, I will sell them and/or see if local pet shops wants to buy them to sell.
Until next time, take care and be well.
