Hello all, just wanted to give you an update on the swim meet!
Today was the 200 Freestyle Relay (4x 50's), the 1000 freestyle, and the 200 Medley Relay.
I swam in two of the events today, them being the 1000 Freestyle and the 200 Medley Relay.
In the 1000 I went a season best time of 10:16, which is only 17 seconds slower than my lifetime best time that I wet two years ago. That was before my whole major injury thing put me back a bit. But I am getting over that (albeit slowly.)
The second event I swam was in the 200 Medley Relay. I did the butterfly leg (the third one) and I went a time of around 24 seconds. That was ok, but I have gone faster in practice before. I think it was because I completely ran out of energy in my 1000 free by the end. The first 500 of my 1000 was really good, I went a 5:02! I totally felt like I went somewhere around a 5:08 or a 5:09 or something in that range. Feeling that good at this stage bodes very well for my 500 Tomorrow.
Until then
Kevin
TV: South Park
Movie: Nada
Music: Sigur Ros
Game: Republic Commandos
Food: Awesome food provided by the Valpo Parents!
Oh, I'll post some pictures eventually, probably in a couple days.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Jobs and Cameras and all thats good!
Well, I have been been incredibly busy for the past couple weeks. Lots of homework and lots of swimming and such.
Speaking of swimming, Conference is coming up in two days! The whole season comes down to this meet, basically. We are tapered down, and I will get to shave my legs again! Not something that most guys say...
I will be swimming in quite a few events, here is a list of said events (at least as of now),
1000 Free
500 Free
100 Fly
200 Medley Relay (fly)
400 Medley Relay (fly)
400 Free Relay
800 Free Relay
So I'll have a long meet ahead of me, but that's all right. It is exciting to swim a couple different things at least.
Other news is that just today I got a job! The company that I interviewed with right before my prior blog post offered me an intern position for both the rest of the semester and for the summer! I will have to find a place to live this summer, but I can do that. It is really exciting to get my first "real" job, at least that isn't either from the university or from my family.
This company makes industrial hose and cable housing links, to protect delicate cables and hoses in large manufacturing plants, or on bridges, or basically anywhere that has moving parts that could potentially destroy said hoses or cables. They said that it would be mostly doing SolidWorks or AutoCad, but I know how to to SolidWorks, and AutoCad is very similar to it, so that's good! So I'm very excited for this opportunity. It will also look very good on a resume.
And in celebration of getting this job, I bought myself a new lens (well, I was planning on getting it anyways, but this just gave me an occasion to get it!) I ordered it today, and was able to pick it up tonight! That's fast!
It is a 50mm f/1.8G lens for my Nikon D3100. It is my second lens, after the kit lens that came with the camera, and I must say that it is excellent! The lens auto-focuses much faster than the kit lens, and it is much sharper as well. Now being a prime lens means that it only has one focal length, so there won't be any zooming on it, but that's what it is for. It makes you think about your show more, to move and adapt with your environment in order to get the shot exactly right, instead of just zooming to the situation. And that is awesome.
Here's a couple pictures that show the depth of field:
The top one shows how sharp the focus can be at mid-range ISO, and the bottom one shows the fairly limited depth of field (the focus is on the center of the lens cap).
Here's a link to the amazon page for the lens:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8G
Now I need to go to bed, for some reason taper makes me exhausted.
Until Next time
Kevin
Movie: The Invention of Lying
TV: Downton Abbey
Game: Skyrim
Music: The National
Food: Popcorn Chicken and Grapefruit Juice.
Speaking of swimming, Conference is coming up in two days! The whole season comes down to this meet, basically. We are tapered down, and I will get to shave my legs again! Not something that most guys say...
I will be swimming in quite a few events, here is a list of said events (at least as of now),
1000 Free
500 Free
100 Fly
200 Medley Relay (fly)
400 Medley Relay (fly)
400 Free Relay
800 Free Relay
So I'll have a long meet ahead of me, but that's all right. It is exciting to swim a couple different things at least.
Other news is that just today I got a job! The company that I interviewed with right before my prior blog post offered me an intern position for both the rest of the semester and for the summer! I will have to find a place to live this summer, but I can do that. It is really exciting to get my first "real" job, at least that isn't either from the university or from my family.
This company makes industrial hose and cable housing links, to protect delicate cables and hoses in large manufacturing plants, or on bridges, or basically anywhere that has moving parts that could potentially destroy said hoses or cables. They said that it would be mostly doing SolidWorks or AutoCad, but I know how to to SolidWorks, and AutoCad is very similar to it, so that's good! So I'm very excited for this opportunity. It will also look very good on a resume.
And in celebration of getting this job, I bought myself a new lens (well, I was planning on getting it anyways, but this just gave me an occasion to get it!) I ordered it today, and was able to pick it up tonight! That's fast!
It is a 50mm f/1.8G lens for my Nikon D3100. It is my second lens, after the kit lens that came with the camera, and I must say that it is excellent! The lens auto-focuses much faster than the kit lens, and it is much sharper as well. Now being a prime lens means that it only has one focal length, so there won't be any zooming on it, but that's what it is for. It makes you think about your show more, to move and adapt with your environment in order to get the shot exactly right, instead of just zooming to the situation. And that is awesome.
Here's a couple pictures that show the depth of field:
The top one shows how sharp the focus can be at mid-range ISO, and the bottom one shows the fairly limited depth of field (the focus is on the center of the lens cap).
Here's a link to the amazon page for the lens:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8G
Now I need to go to bed, for some reason taper makes me exhausted.
Until Next time
Kevin
Movie: The Invention of Lying
TV: Downton Abbey
Game: Skyrim
Music: The National
Food: Popcorn Chicken and Grapefruit Juice.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
It is beginning...
So I went and got a new pair of shoes today. Nice dress shoes for my interview on Thursday. Probably the most expensive pair of shoes that I will own.
Well, because of that, there was also a "buy one get one half off" sale going on at Shoe Carnival, so I figured I would buy myself another pair, as well, since the original pair (dress shoes) were already discounted heavily.
So, what kind of shoes did you get, you might ask?
Well...
I just tried them on kind of as a joke, but then they turned out to be really comfortable, and with the 1/2 off thing they turned out to be pretty cheap too. Win win. Plus hipster shoes.
A few days ago it was really foggy outside, so I took my camera outside with my brother's laser pointer and we messed around a bit. This was actually a really fast exposure with a low ISO, even (around 400 or so). Turned out pretty good.
Ok, now some engineering stuff.
Today in mechatronics lab we did some protoboard stuff, using NAND and NOT gates and such. It is kind of tough to visualize sometimes what we are doing on paper, and this really helped with it.
Here's a picture of one of our setups:
Lots of colors, but if I looked close enough (and had the chart that told us what was in each ship) I could tell you what that circuit did.
This next one is just a counter. It counts to 7 in binary with lights then resets. Pretty cool:
All of this is just skimming the surface of what you can do with circuits. Hell, my computer that I'm typing this on is millions of times more complex than that was, and I had trouble with it.
It just goes to show that there is so much more that I can learn.
I completed my collection of the CD's by "The National" today. Lots more music to listen to! Woo hoo! Also cheap because they are pretty old (2001-2004 or so).
That's pretty much it for tonight. I finished a lot of my homework today, so I'm proud of myself for that.
Later,
Kevin
TV: Archer
Movie: nada
Music: The National
Game: Rayman Origins
Food: Smartfood Popcorn!
Well, because of that, there was also a "buy one get one half off" sale going on at Shoe Carnival, so I figured I would buy myself another pair, as well, since the original pair (dress shoes) were already discounted heavily.
So, what kind of shoes did you get, you might ask?
Well...
A few days ago it was really foggy outside, so I took my camera outside with my brother's laser pointer and we messed around a bit. This was actually a really fast exposure with a low ISO, even (around 400 or so). Turned out pretty good.
Today in mechatronics lab we did some protoboard stuff, using NAND and NOT gates and such. It is kind of tough to visualize sometimes what we are doing on paper, and this really helped with it.
Here's a picture of one of our setups:
Lots of colors, but if I looked close enough (and had the chart that told us what was in each ship) I could tell you what that circuit did.
This next one is just a counter. It counts to 7 in binary with lights then resets. Pretty cool:
It just goes to show that there is so much more that I can learn.
I completed my collection of the CD's by "The National" today. Lots more music to listen to! Woo hoo! Also cheap because they are pretty old (2001-2004 or so).
That's pretty much it for tonight. I finished a lot of my homework today, so I'm proud of myself for that.
Later,
Kevin
TV: Archer
Movie: nada
Music: The National
Game: Rayman Origins
Food: Smartfood Popcorn!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Busy Busy Busy
Sorry that I haven't really posted anything lately. I have been incredibly busy with lots of homework and practices and swim meets and practices and such. Probably well understood by the few people who read this.
The most noteworthy event is that my girlfriend has bought both of us tickets to a Coldplay Concert! And if you read my prior post you probably know my views on that specific band.
So now I'll actually post something relating to the name of the blog! Something about engineering! I just made an appointment for my first real interview with an engineering company here in Valpo. They look like a smaller local company, but it looks pretty cool, and I'm excited for the interview on Thursday.
I have been enjoying learning about microprocessors in my mechatronics class, and if you are viewing this on a phone then you are using a microprocessor. It changed the world probably more than anything else in its time. Without the microprocessor, our devices would be much larger, much slower, and much dumber. Basically like it was in the 80's. But the advent of the microprocessor allowed us to basically make almost anything "smart." Now, for five to fifteen dollars per controller, you can have large amounts of data manipulation and control for cheap. It's amazing!
And that's my thoughts for today.
Picture!
Kevin
TV: Top Gear
Movie: nada
Music: The National
Game: Skyrim
Food: Cookies!
The most noteworthy event is that my girlfriend has bought both of us tickets to a Coldplay Concert! And if you read my prior post you probably know my views on that specific band.
So now I'll actually post something relating to the name of the blog! Something about engineering! I just made an appointment for my first real interview with an engineering company here in Valpo. They look like a smaller local company, but it looks pretty cool, and I'm excited for the interview on Thursday.
I have been enjoying learning about microprocessors in my mechatronics class, and if you are viewing this on a phone then you are using a microprocessor. It changed the world probably more than anything else in its time. Without the microprocessor, our devices would be much larger, much slower, and much dumber. Basically like it was in the 80's. But the advent of the microprocessor allowed us to basically make almost anything "smart." Now, for five to fifteen dollars per controller, you can have large amounts of data manipulation and control for cheap. It's amazing!
And that's my thoughts for today.
Picture!
Kevin
TV: Top Gear
Movie: nada
Music: The National
Game: Skyrim
Food: Cookies!
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