Highlights from the past month or twoHere's a list of things I've meant to blog about but never got around to actually blogging about them. So in no particular order - a month of blogs in a nutshell! - I saw an Ian Trevethan lookalike in the North Campus Krogers. He was nearly identical to the real Ian, so much so that I kept on doing double takes while grocery shopping. It was kinda weird. - I've finally thrown off the "dorky engineer" vibe! Well, maybe not totally, but I had someone ask me recently (after just meeting them over a potluck dinner) if I was an English graduate student. They were surprised to find out that I'm just about the polar opposite. But it's pretty cool that I can apparently sound intelligent and use big words - err, expressive vocabulary. - I've discovered while I love kids and enjoy working with them; I might not be cut out to be a teacher. I can work with them one-on-one or in small groups, but if there's thirty of them in one room - I just can't deal with the pressure. I think it might be the mob mentality, because I had twenty five first through third graders revolt on me in the Huron Hills Sunday School. But one thing I did learn - never ask a 'yes' or 'no' question to a group of children - the outcome is never good. - That being said I did have a cute little kid moment a week or so ago. While walking through the Plymouth Road Mall (the one with the library, Curves, Baskin Robins, Flim Flam, etc) I saw the cutest little (about 6 or 7) run from the library branch to the Baskin Robins with a giant book in his arms. He tried to open the door to the store - unsuccessful. He set the book down and tried to open it again - still no luck. I asked if he needed some help. He looked up at me through thick glasses and answered with a polite "yes please". So very cute. - It's a bad thing when you notice that topics and situations brought up in The Office matches to your actual office. In one episode, the inept boss destroys the warehouse with the forklift (running into stuff, knocking down shelves, etc). That really hit home for me, but the worse part about it - the inept person driving the forklift is one of the people who are actually trained to use the forklift. And finally one from today - also about work - As seen in a technical journal article that I'm reading for work "Direct insights into the dynamic activities occurring between two rubbing surfaces are very difficult to achieve. Normally, the surfaces cannot be studied until after the interesting phenomenon has occurred, when the two parts are dismounted. Someone once compared it to throwing a banana into a dark room. If the banana skin comes back out again you can assume that there is a monkey in the room. Tribological knowledge has come a long was based on these kind of post-phenomenon studies."
Now why is there a monkey in a dark room when we're working with brake pads? | 
