I remember, back in elementary school and all the way through high school, I completely dove into the tough questions of the universe. Why are we here? How are we able to experience the world as we do, if we are supposedly subject to the same physical laws as a rock or a plastic bottle? How will life be 50, 100, 1000 years down the road?

Now, the problems I deal with on a daily basis go something like the following: In a control system, how can one change the gain of a closed loop transfer function so as to have a satisfactory steady state response? What are the ways that an injection molding machine’s parameters can be changed to reduce defects such as dishing and flash? In fiction writing, what are the devices with which one can build a character for the reader? Which Nusselt correlation is required for forced convection nucleate boiling at room temperature and pressure?

Yes, these questions take more than a few minutes’ explanation to answer than those in the former category. Yes, they may be useful later. However, I will never consider them more important. They concern simply details, tiny, insignificant details.

Being here in the weeds bothers me incredibly. But in this environment of problem sets, activities, and general sleeplessness and busy-ness, there’s really no avoiding it. You want the grade, you better know your pure substance tables, heat exchangers and root locus plots. Sigh.

How I long to ponder deep thoughts again. I started in elementary school; I’m not done.

I found this awesome site: SUCCEED Blog (an altered take on the infamous FAIL Blog). I declare this newly-formed site to be a ’succeed’ in itself. Check it out!

Here is the beginning of another story, started on a whim. This time, it’s not for an assignment, but writing for the sake of writing. Here goes:

Rain. Aolin hated the rain. She had to remind herself that this will be quick, whatever it was.

Riding her bike during a storm was nothing new to Aolin. Cold, stinging drops smacking her face, both shower and puddles alike doing their best to drench her woefully-nonrepellant clothes, numb fingers grasping the handlebars — she knew all of this well.

Kinda hard not to get used to it, living in Washington, she thought bitterly. It never became any less unpleasant, though. As always, she hoped her glasses would still be usable, exposed to all this moisture.

However unhappy she would have been on any other rainy day, Aolin knew that this occasion would be worse. Professor Stenton had requested her presence for a meeting. No doubt he wants to discuss my latest failure of an exam. God, it’s not my fault you can’t teach!

She could see the entire meeting unfold in her mind. “You are obviously intelligent,” he would say. “If only you applied yourself more to your studies…”

Aolin sighed, her breath steaming the raindrop-dense air in front of her. Whatever, let’s just get this over with.

A chime sounded in her left ear. Aolin instinctively touched the left frame of her glasses, and was pleased to see the name “Chloe Brandt” floating before her in glowing font.

“Hi, Chloe!”

“Hey, ‘Lin, if you got a minute, I’ve just got to tell you something –”

“It may have to wait — I have a meeting with Stink-ton in a bit. Rain check?” The irony of what she just said struck her a second later.

“Ha, yeah, sure. Wait, ‘Lin, are you out riding in the rain again?”

“Come on, Chloe, it’s not that big of a deal –”

“You should be careful; at least take off your specs. I heard that a guy in LA was wearing his during a storm, and a short caused some sort of electric discharge or something and gave him permanent brain damage.”

“I’m fine. And you’re the one talking to me!”

“At least I’m indoors.”

“Ha, fair, I’ll take them off.”

“That’s all I ask.”

Aolin was reaching up to her face to remove her specs when Chloe spoke up again. “And don’t let me catch you riding in the rain again!”

“Hey, what happened to ‘that’s all I ask’?”

Chloe sighed into Aolin’s ear. “Fine. See you.”

“Bye.” Chloe’s name disappeared from Aolin’s vision, and she removed the specs, slipping the device into her messenger bag slung over her shoulder to her right side.

She arrived at the entrance of the Department of Metaphysics, a large, four-story box-shaped building seemingly composed of porous metal. Aolin dismounted her bike and pushed a blue button set into the center of the bicycle frame, prompting the bike to collapse and lock itself to the nearest fold-rack. She looked down the row of fold-rack slots, and saw only a couple more bikes collapsed here.

Not many people here today, she thought. The entrance’s translucent double-doors slid laterally outwards as Aolin approached. Upon entering the building, her surface was scanned, and countless simultaneous precision laser pulses dried her clothes in seconds.

Ah, much better. She looked across the atrium, ignoring its gleaming marble floor and reception desk, into the long, white hall directly across from where she was standing. Time to face Stink-ton.

**

Let’s see where this one goes.

Sickness has gotten worse. More frequent coughs, increased headache, elevated temperature.

That’s not the worst part. The most terrible bit is the blow to my motivation to complete tasks. It feels rather debilitating. Sigh. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow morning.

A couple of days ago, I woke up to discover an itch in my throat. Now, it has blossomed into a full-blown cough. I guess that’s what I get for going to school in the north.

I count myself fortunate, though. I did not get sick when pretty much everyone living around me had the flu (the constant-fever, wearing-a-mask, staying-in-bed kind), or when I pulled 3 all-nighters in five days (a harrowing experience). Nope, I have this simple cough and slight headache during a relatively less-intense academic week. So I have much to be thankful for.

In other news, lately I have been reminded by things going on in my world that I am a college junior, and should start behaving like one. That means I should begin thinking about what I’m doing this January and the following semester/summer in preparation for graduate school applications. GRE’s, interviews, talking to professors, all that fun stuff. Better get started!