Denton County Police

Last night, two of my girlfriend's best friends celebrated their 22nd birthdays, so we all went out to a local bar near campus and said cheers to a spectacular 22nd year. The night was full of chatting, and everyone had a gay ol' time. That is until they decided they wanted to switch bars. I had not had anything to drink, mind you, besides a White Russian. But that was early in the night and I was being a responsible little engineering student and offered to drive to our next destination. This is when things got interesting.

I pull out from our parking spot and we hear a funny noise coming from the rear end of our car. As I pick up speed, the noise gets worse, and there's a slight turbulence in our drive. It turns out, we blew out a tire somehow. To make matters worse, neither me or the significant other knew how to change a tire. Yeah hush - I know I don't know anything about cars, don't rub it in. So here we are sitting on McKinney St. stranded and confused. A random guy pulls up to us and offers to help. He was equally as clueless about the whole matter, but some help was better than none.

Then, out of nowhere, a police officer drives by. For once I'm happy to see those flashing lights. He pulls up to us and I expect he'll lecture us for stopping up traffic in the middle of the road or perhaps ask me how much I've been drinking (I was well under the limit FYI). But no, the gentlemen walks up to us and asks us what happened, introduces himself, asks if we need help. He even helps us change our blown tire. By now a friend of ours shows up as the officer began loosening the tire lug nuts, and the other random dude that pulled up to help us excused himself. We all worked together in jacking up the car, shining the flash light, holding lug nuts, chatting about what it's like to be a cop, etc. This is the most pleasant experience I've ever had with a police officer. And I've had my run-ins with Denton County Police before.. I even blogged about a different experience here. Another time, I was pulled over for going 10 meters in the wrong direction on a one way and despite my squeaky clean record, they wrote me 2 citations - the other for an expired inspection. Thanks a lot for the warning....

Anyway, it turns out the girlfriend's Sequoia was in no mood to be jacked, and broke our first Jack and refused to work with our second jack. The officer called us a Tow Truck, and stuck with us the entire time we were having trouble. He was a likable guy with a wife, 4 month old daughter, and a fun sense of humor. Apparently, Denton officers get paid a little better than Corpus Christi officers ;)

In the end the Tow Truck helped lift the car, we swapped tires, and we were on our merry way. I took a picture of the whole ordeal but somehow it didn't save, and my phone died.. I'm more pissed about that than having the blown tire.

Thank you, Officer King. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Sumo Bot Competition

If you're a regular viewer of my blog, you may know that I'm a member of UNT's robotics society out of Discovery Park! It's a rag tag group of fellows that just like to mess with robots and play with toys. Recently, we had a little Sumo Bot competition!

The bots are written in BASIC Stamp, and as the name implies, are very basic. Despite this, they are very powerful. They've got infrared sensors on the front, color sensors on the bottom, LED emitters, and a speaker on them. They are all sorts of fun to play with. These are also what we use at Robocamp.

All of the robotics society students are engineering majors of some sort. Some Electrical Engineering, some Computer science, etc. Regardless, robotics is a great example of how different types of engineering disciplines can co-mingle. This is just one of the many student societies at Discovery Park!

The e-learning curve

Nowadays people disseminate information primarily over the internet. When I'm talking to a co-worker, or a teacher, or a friend and I ask them for something, gone are the days where they write it down and they do that task later. If I want my grade in a given class, I have to e-mail the teacher. If I want to remind someone of a party going on, they say "oh just text me". If I hear an ad on the radio, they say "google such-n-such to find out more info about us because we're just that awesome!!!" Web sites or email addresses are given out as another way to communicate with people. In fact, communication is such a vital part of our lives, that tyrannical governments first turn to communication methods to shut down the peoples' movements and communication. The "Twitter revolution" in Iran, whether that actually happened to the scale we've been told or not, at least played some roll in Iran's recent post-presidential election protests.

The point is, technology has become an integrated part in everyone's lives -- not just the nerds like me that sit on it day and night, or who carry it around in our pockets. It's touching grandmothers and parents, kids, and rural communities, even rebelling communities. It takes a small learning curve and a way-of-life change to move your entire calendar away from you pen and paper written agenda and onto sync'd online calendars. My girlfriend still uses pen and paper, but of course there's nothing wrong with her methods. I'm just different is all. Like my preference for Wendy's french fries over Food Poisoning Whataburger french fries.

That being said I still have a hard time tracking random things such as Blackboard. If you're not familiar with blackboard, it's a teaching system that UNT uses. Thankfully, some of the Discovery Park classes use a different, more accessible system called Moodle. Nonetheless, some of those deadlines really sneak up on me in those Blackboard classes....

Electrical Engineering Department

This is the Third in a 5 part blog post series about every single department we have at Discovery Park.

UNT's College of Engineering at Discovery Park has 5 departments, each significantly different from the other, but with a few similarities.

1. Materials Science and Engineering
2. Computer Science and Engineering
3. Electrical Engineering
4. Engineering Technology
5. Mechanical and Energy Engineering

As the name implies, Electrical Engineering has everything to do with electricity. Elements of Physics and Chemistry are also applied in this field, as well as computer science, digital logic, mathematics, and even Understanding the Human Community. OK so that one is just thrown in there by the University as a requirement to graduate, but it's all part of a well rounded education I guess. An EE Degree plan has you sitting at about 15 hours per semester. In case you're not familiar with semester hours, here's a brief summary - each class you take represents a certain number of hours. 12 hours of classes in one semester is considered full time. I believe 19 hours is the max any student is allowed to take. Most classes are three hours - that is - you'll be spending about 3 hours in that class every week, not including homework time. A Physics class though, for example, is 4 hours - 1 extra hour for the lab.

Look at how much fun they're having!!!

Anyway, with a degree in EE, you could find yourself working at any minor or major engineering firm, tech company, design company, the government, work in electronic systems in computers, household appliances, televisions, communications equipment, automobiles, airplanes, missiles, sub munitions, satellites and even space shuttles. Electrical Engineers are the guys who gave us calculators, wireless internet, cell phones, (HD/3D)TVs, etc. This requires understanding of electronic circuits, measurement systems, digital and analog signal processing, control systems, computer-aided design, microprocessors, video and image processing, and wireless communication (Source). Master's degrees are also highly encouraged.

So come out here and get your EE degree. The EE department is ABET accredited, by the way, so you can legally call yourself a full on Engineer. That title is reserved by law for only those who deserve it!

Also, in case you need any more encouragement, EEs make anywhere from 82-$160K a year. And your job prospects are great too! Worried about the economy? Don't be, in Electrical Engineering.

Overrides

What is an override? Up until last week I hadn't really heard of the term.

An override is the process in which upperclassmen can go through in order to be enrolled into a certain class, with said class being full. It is the process that will be going on in many departments this week as Juniors and Seniors such as myself are desperate to graduate on time, and will do anything to get enrolled in their class. So if you've read my previous post, you'll know I've been shoved out of my Physics class due to a fantastic mistake on my part. Now I'm doing anything it takes to get enrolled in the class. Otherwise I'll be faced with an 8 hour semester, which does no favors for my financial aid possibilities, and I'll be here at UNT for a whole extra semester *Queue dramatic horror music!!!!*

I mean I'll be in college a tad longer. ;)


*Update - as of 1/18, I've officially been enrolled into PHYS. Thank goodness. Needless to say, the lecture hall today was pretty packed. Glad all that's behind me now. Now I have tons of work ahead of me though. Can't say I didn't sign up for this.

And so it begins... again

Classes start Tuesday. In case you haven't already, you better sign up for those classes you need. I've signed up for almost everything I need. I can't believe this. Words of wisdom: Putting a class in your shopping cart does not reserve that spot in that class for you. You then need to continue through the rest of the process directly short of paying for the class. I made the fantastic mistake of assuming my spots in those classes were held when I added the classes to my "cart". A month later I get back on to sign up for my one last remaining class that I hadn't decided on what it should be, and low and behold my classes were filled. Wow do I feel stupid.

It's all part of the learning experience I guess

Maybe I can still wedge my way into this physics class...

In case you were wondering, my break went well, with the absence of posts here as evidence. Here's a picture of me in New York:

My brother, 25, on the left. Me on the right

Night time snowmobiling. Now there's something that will really get your heart racing, and
really get you thinking about your will and funeral arrangements. I also went snowboarding, equally as hard, equally as fun. I like my freezing cold weather in moderation, though, thank you very much. I just can't wait for 40 degree days again... that is 105 degree Fahrenheit days mind you ;)

Student Orgs

There's a lot of types of student organizations out there. Greek life, professional organizations, intramural sports, etc. I can assure you I'm not a part of greek life. The only Greek lettering I know come from math terms. It's actually really funny when I meet someone in a sorority or fraternity, and they tell me lambda is one of their letters.and I say "you're an empty string?"

I get blank expressions and short conversations with these folks.

These groups sort of have a negative stigma attached to them, whether it's stories of hazing or wild parties or the like. That's not to say sororities/fraternities are ALL bad. One of the engineering ambassadors is the president of an engineering fraternity. The name escapes me at the moment, but I know it has several Greek letters.. In addition there are several engineering societies like IEEE, society of black engineers, society of women engineers, etc. I joined IEEE and I've been to a couple robotics meetings at discovery park. Most of the time, these groups look great on a resume, and can even hook you up with seminars or job offers. Not to mention the meetings are interesting as well. Point is, extracurricular activities are also an important part of college life.

Fort Worth Air Show

This weekend I went to the Fort Worth Air Show - a 15 minute drive from Denton. . I've never been to an air show before.. but upon getting there, I found out it's like a military parade but with planes.

Notice how I'm representin' Go Geek!

There were helicopters too. A lot of them. This orange one has got to be my favorite. This whole air show has only intensified my desire to learn how to fly and to skydive. Some day.. some day.
There were all sorts of things to see. An A-10 Warthog, C-130 Cargo plane which they nick named "Fat Albert", a Chinook, commercial airliners, and more. The things that they actually flew in front of us was a different story. They flew a million planes. I remember seeing the F-16
Falcon first, followed by the F-22 Raptor, and bringing up the grand finale was the Blue Angels.

All of the world's engineering efforts in the last century just flew over my head
The 1940's era P-51 Mustang with a 1970's era F-16 Falcon and a modern day F-22 Raptor as its wingmen

Their breath taking precision flying make them a sight to see.. In addition we saw several skydivers doing some tricks and Ross Perot made a guest appearance as a skydiver. I think I'm a bit too young to know exactly why he's famous but I know he ran for office at some point. There were also stunt planes tumbling through the air all day.

That will be me some day

There were plenty of familiar companies at the air show. Bell helicopters being one of them. They are the ones that manufacture most of the parts for the helicopters I saw at this show. They are at every single solitary job fair UNT's college of engineering hosts. In fact, my blog post from February of last year details every company that was at the job fair that year including Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. Seeing as Bell is right down the street from us, I'm sure it'd be easy to get a job there, if you set your mind to it in engineering.

Blue Angels playing chicken

Wish I could post all my pictures!

Traditions - UNT Bonfire

Every school has traditions. Here's one of UNT's.

The bonfire being built

We build bonfires. Every homecoming, students put together a huge bonfire. I've heard it's the biggest hand-made bonfire in Texas. No cranes or heavy machinery used ever. Above is a picture I snapped of it the day before the thing was lit ablaze. You can sort of make out a few kids walking around on top stacking up more wood. Why have this tradition? I'm not sure, to be honest, but maybe it's to light the fire of encouragement and watch it spread freely and wildly until we consume our opponents in a furious unstoppable rage.

Or maybe it's because fires are awesome.

Hello World v2.0

It's been a while, but I'm still alive. And believe me I am still alive. And while you're dying I'll be still alive. I feel fantastic and I'm still alive..... still alive... still alive. (Portal, Still Alive)

It's a new semester and a new start. Now that I've settled into the new semester, gotten my classes well under way, taken a few tests and lost a few nights of sleep studying, I can start blogging again.

So what am I up to nowadays? I'm delving into the core of my degree plan. I have 4 classes; namely Database Systems and Information Integration, IT Systems and Administration, Mobile Device Development, and Discrete Math. I have another three or four semesters of school work to go before I can call myself a graduate. Perhaps if I continue to take summer school courses I can finish sooner but, I don't know if I've ever had a summer all to myself since I've started my college career. Summer school is just something that has to be done sometimes. It's for the betterment of myself and to get ahead. The sooner you finish, the better!

That said, I still had a fantastic summer. I got to go to New York state to visit my family and participate in paintball (it was my first time, and it was awesome), Kayak, and visit with all my family. The very next week I went to Florida to partake in an NSF conference. Luckily I had enough time to pay Sea World a visit! Some day I will swim with dolphins... some day.

Oh the Drama

You know, there's just as much drama in the Tech world as there is in the 'other' world. Who cares about Miley Syrus, Britteny what's-her-face, and what the latest fashion stores are selling. Look at what is happening to the Flash platform! First off, Virgin America ditches Flash for its website and adopts HTML5. No biggie, it's just one site. Well next, I find out that video juggernaut sites Vimeo and Youtube are eyeballing HTML5. Not to mention that Apple ditched Adobe Flash back in 2007 with its iPhone platform. Apple continues to deal blows as they still do not support flash on their newest "magical" expensive brick ipad (Mark my words they will release an ipad with MAC OSX on it, while cranking up the prices to the 3k+ mark. Perhaps called iPad X. or iPad OSX. or just iOSX...). Finally, Jobs outlines a few reasons why he continues to show the cold shoulder to Adobe. Adobe won't take this sitting down as its CTO Lynch defends his platform, saying that HTML has had a history of inconsistently rendering on different platforms and browsers, and that Flash's relevance and standard output across all platforms that it is implemented on is part of what will keep flash alive. He has a point, but recent criticism of Adobe's Flash platform causing battery life drainage and overall performance hit on less powerful devices has not been disproved and even succumbs to some of this criticism. Nevertheless, Flash 10.1 has been well under development and is soon to be every mobile device's savior as it will bring performance increases and a better user experience!!

Anyway, moral of the story being that you have to make conscious and smart decisions when designing software. If you're sure you don't want to develop for an up coming mobile platform, be sure you're ready to face the music when your users or investors question you. If you want to cut support for X product or limit your users to only Y protocol, you better be sure you know what you're doing. I for one would love to see some Flash apps on the Android now that iPhone is out of the picture ;)

In other news, HP buys Palm. Now we're going for a web-OS powered HP netbook!? I think it would have been neat if Adobe bought Palm.. As Palm recently faced its own music as it was forced to sell its assets in its ailing Web-OS.

But think about it.. A Flash powered phone? That may be the prettiest phone ever.. or perhaps the slowest phone ever. We'll never know now. I myself am fairly versed in Flash.. at least I used to be back in the Flash MX and even Flash 8 days.

Break Time's Over

I hope everyone had a refreshing Spring Break. By the obvious absence of posts recently, I can assure you I did. What made it so great? I'm glad you asked. Even if you didn't ask, here's why:

My roommate and I went to downtown Dallas last weekend. We didn't travel further than a mile away from the dorms over the break, so we figured before school started back up, we were going to make a road trip. And a road trip did we make

A small one, to be sure, but one none the less. We visited North and Downtown Dallas areas to see what the city was all about. An interesting place, to be sure. We rode the Red Line DART rail to downtown Dallas. Speaking of DART, they are expanding closer to Denton! The Green Line will be making its way toward Denton

Alright so President George Bush Turnpike isn't quite Denton, but we're getting there. It's always an interesting experience to take public transit to hot destinations downtown. One of these days perhaps I'll see a Mavericks game..

All in all, my Spring Break was pretty grand, so thank your for asking. I did spend a significant chunk of it catching up on some Information Systems classwork. Our site was knocked for a loop, but it's back up and running to be sure.

Class doesn't wait up for anyone though, and we're back in the game!

Remember: FAFSA deadline is June 30!

Local Charm

I have to admit, I wasn't too impressed with Denton whenever I first drove up from my comfortable suburbs of Plano. But as it turns out, a drive through a city does not give you enough merit to judge what the city is like, despite how I also claim that Las Vegas is amazing since I once drove through it on the way to California... Besides, I was merely driving through 380, I hadn't even come near the college yet to find:

This little joint is part of what makes college life great. Within walking distance, this cleverly named restaurant's title does not do it justice. It is, however, short, sweet, and to the point. They do indeed sell Chinese food, and fast. Despite having a drive thru, my roommate and I always walk here and simply eat in. Call me conservative but...
A good ol' fashioned Chicken lo Mein always does the stomach good. My particular dorm does not require its residence to buy a meal plan, so I often find myself indulging in such deliciousness. I am curious though... is it pronounced lo-"Maine" or lo-"Me-yin"? I once told someone I loved chicken lo-"Maine" and she corrected me saying it was pronounced "lo-me-yin". Since she was Chinese I took her word for it but I'm still curious as to how you're supposed to pronounce it. After all this girl was only six years old so... by all means enlighten me!

They also always have very corny Mexican soap operas on. haha.

So Brett, What’s it like at college?

I don’t know. I’ve been in college for 3 years and I still don’t know. College is so dynamic. One moment you’re having fun eating candy during Halloween, and the next moment you are keeled over on your bed suffering from some virus you caught over the weekend. One day you walk into class and you think, “man, I know this stuff like the back of my hand,” then you realize that that is a cliché, and you don’t really know or care about what the back of your hand looks like. Then your teacher hands back a paper you worked hard on but you only earned a C, and you feel like giving him a piece of your most well known body part… the back of your hand. At least… he’ll soon know it better than I do.

That’s the best part about college. Backhanding your teachers.

Nah I don’t backhand my professors. I’ll tell you what I know about college though. To be honest, it’s like one of those D&D dice. The kind that has like 50 sides to it. More options than a box of chocolate. Yeah I just one-upped Forrest Gump. Not only do you never know what you’re gonna get, but you have to take what it gives you and run with it. It won’t be all chocolaty sugar coated either. But when life gives you lemons (or a crappy roll of the dice), make lemonade (or wait for your next turn so you can make a new roll). My last “roll of the dice” landed me in the library for several hours while I tik-tak away at a computer science project. By the time I quit (I still haven’t finished, mind you), it was 12:30 at night. The library still had several students chatting and working. It was redeeming to find myself in the midst of so many other people in my situation – in the library working on some project. Whenever I used to sit at home or my dorm and do projects, I’d convince myself that I was the only person in the world awake at that moment, and I was working on some assignment that all of my classmates finished a long time ago. A glance at the library disproves my small naïve world.

So where’s this lemonade you were talkin' about Brett? Yes I seem to have simply been given lemons and no water, sugar, and ice to make lemonade with. It’s okay, last time I tried to make lemonade, it was from one of those little kool-aid packets, and I took a sip and it was the most bitter, sour, insane lemonade I had ever created. My roommate refused to try it…


My “lemonade” if you will comes from the trip home. The campus gains sort of serene environment at 12:30 AM. I’m used to seeing hundreds of people, police officers, honking cars, crazy pedestrians diving in front of my car… This time it was a quiet, dark, moon-lit walk home. My roommate left for the weekend, my friends are asleep, so it’s finally quiet time… you really learn to appreciate quiet time in college.

(Too) Small World

This weekend I drove back to Plano because I have a job working with a National Science Foundation grant. I attend weekly meetings with them because we are migrating our web site to a new Content Management System. This is all fine and dandy but guess what else is in Plano? My family… This can be a double edged sword. On one hand I love my family to death. They give me food and a bed to sleep in, but at the same time they can be so irritating. I think this is why so many students like to move away from home for college… veery veeeeeeery far away. I suppose I’m not the only one this has happened to, but it’s a shame I have to be one of the few.

So what happened then? I'm glad you asked. My mother and grandmother give me very basic instructions for my trip back to Denton. “Don’t drive too fast. Be careful, it’s dark outside. Call me when you get home…” Guess which one of these steps I forgot to follow?

I should also mention that it was homecoming weekend, and it was Saturday night as I was driving back. I made it unscathed back to my dorm room, but I suppose not everyone has that sort of luck, as there were a few reported accidents around the area. I brought quite a few clothes and items from Plano too, so I had to make two trips from my car to my dorm room on the third floor. One thing I didn’t bring with me the first time was my cell phone, as I simply laid it in the passenger seat during the hour long drive. On my way back to get it, I saw a few friends of mine at the dorm and began talking with everyone. We were having a fun time and I never got all the way back to my car. The next time I would get back to my car was a few hours later that night… But I was a few hours too late.

As any concerned mother would do, my parents gave me several calls (18), left several messages (9), drove up an hour to Denton to find me and even filed a missing person report with the police. So while I obliviously sat in my room talking to friends and watching the homecoming game, it seemed the whole world was looking for me. A buzz began to stir in the dorm when there were police officers roaming through the whole building. Everyone they came across was asked the same question: “Are you Brett McCormick? Are you Brett McCormick!?” By the time they found me I was on my way to get my phone from my car, 3 hours after I had gotten back to the dorms.

A few of my friends looked pretty freaked out as they watched the police question me, take my ID, walk me downstairs… In the end everything was fine, except my mother was in tears and I had quite a bit of explaining to do. When I say explaining though, I mean explaining to my parents that I’m an adult and I can fend for myself! Whether they choose to believe me or not is up to them. Just think though, what if I lived in Florida or Washington? That’s a lot of trouble to go through just to find out their son left his phone in the car! Interesting that in the past decade or two, we went from no cell phones, to entirely depending on them for everything, including the safety of others. I wonder what the next great life-saving (or irritating!) invention will be!