Cherry Hill, NJ Convention - July 19 - 22, 2007!!

[Elessar]

In my thermo class we actually had a small jet engine brought into class to look at how all the compressors and stuff work and, while I think the concepts are relatively straight forward (take in air, mix it with fuel, ignite it, and push it out), they are INCREDIBLY complex machines with INCREDIBLY intricately machined parts and INCREDIBLY complicate mathematics behind every little centimeter of movement of the air through all these parts. I mean one centimeters of movement through one of these things involves probably 2 or 3 devices that do different things from energize the flow to draw energy out of the flow to pushing the flow outwards to stabilizing it or cooling it or heating it or whatever. We kind of take them for granted technologically because they're "old" technology, but man are they impressively complicated when you look at them in detail.

[CX]

Jet engines are actually deceptively simple, especially when compared to the engines in most cars today.

[justTripn]

OK people, I have to tell you that Emberchyld is beautiful. Friday night we watched Harbinger, and I remarked that Emberchyld kind of looks like Amanda Cole, except Embercyld has a prettier face.

SO THERE!

[Bether6074]

Yep. She's definitely a natural beauty. And that's the very first thing I thought when I saw her.

[Elessar]

OK people, I have to tell you that Emberchyld is beautiful. Friday night we watched Harbinger, and I remarked that Emberchyld kind of looks like Amanda Cole, except Embercyld has a prettier face.

SO THERE!

In agreement!

[Emberchyld]

OK people, I have to tell you that Emberchyld is beautiful. Friday night we watched Harbinger, and I remarked that Emberchyld kind of looks like Amanda Cole, except Embercyld has a prettier face.

SO THERE!

We had very, very kind lighting in the hotel.

But... as this is mostly a Trip and T'Pol shipper board, isn't it a little bit dangerous to look even a little bit like Cole?

[Shakabutt]

But... as this is mostly a Trip and T'Pol shipper board, isn't it a little bit dangerous to look even a little bit like Cole?

I don't think the guys would mind....at least i don't

[JadziaKathryn]

Elessar was able to do that engineering discussion while all you guys were full of adrenaline and sleep-deprived? Impressive. I was lost pretty quickly.

everyone knows, even if they don't nkow what it does, that a turbocharger and supercharger both make cars go faster.

Only because of the name!

Anyway, this is a weird question I know, but did anyone actually eat during the dinner?

[JadziaKathryn]

Elessar was able to do that engineering discussion while all you guys were full of adrenaline and sleep-deprived? Impressive. I was lost pretty quickly.

everyone knows, even if they don't nkow what it does, that a turbocharger and supercharger both make cars go faster.

Only because of the name!

Anyway, this is a weird question I know, but did anyone actually eat during the dinner?

[Emberchyld]

Elessar was able to do that engineering discussion while all you guys were full of adrenaline and sleep-deprived? Impressive. I was lost pretty quickly.

everyone knows, even if they don't nkow what it does, that a turbocharger and supercharger both make cars go faster.

Only because of the name!

Anyway, this is a weird question I know, but did anyone actually eat during the dinner?

Yes, Elessar rocks. You should hear about the satellite project that he had worked on before he left engineering to study the dark side of *shudder* math. Truly impressive. Meanwhile, I was only able to counter with "Well, I was on a NASA project in school, but my main contribution was to find honeycombed aluminum. "

At least Bether and I ate. The food was pretty good and the desserts were amazing. I was almost, almost torn between the sinfully good fudge chocolate cake with chocolate curls (mmmmmmmmmm) and paying attention to Connor. Fortunately for me, the cake was so good I managed to inhale it right before he came over and then lived in terror the first few minutes that my teeth had chocolate all over them!

[Elessar]

Elessar was able to do that engineering discussion while all you guys were full of adrenaline and sleep-deprived? Impressive. I was lost pretty quickly.

everyone knows, even if they don't nkow what it does, that a turbocharger and supercharger both make cars go faster.

Only because of the name!

Anyway, this is a weird question I know, but did anyone actually eat during the dinner?

Yes, Elessar rocks. You should hear about the satellite project that he had worked on before he left engineering to study the dark side of *shudder* math. Truly impressive. Meanwhile, I was only able to counter with "Well, I was on a NASA project in school, but my main contribution was to find honeycombed aluminum. "

At least Bether and I ate. The food was pretty good and the desserts were amazing. I was almost, almost torn between the sinfully good fudge chocolate cake with chocolate curls (mmmmmmmmmm) and paying attention to Connor. Fortunately for me, the cake was so good I managed to inhale it right before he came over and then lived in terror the first few minutes that my teeth had chocolate all over them!

Well thank you for such kind words! At least you're still in engineering though! It's so hard to find a job in mathematics... especially when you're trying to get some specific applied job, like I've kinda been looking for. And even though you said "next thing I knew, I was an engineer", I know from experience that getting through an ME curriculum IS NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT. Seriously, I know some of the things you would have had to study and that's impressive. Heat Transfer, Thermo, Dynamics (AHH!), Gas Dynamics? Finite Element Analysis? And full Calc and Diff Eq? All that stuff's tough man.

[Emberchyld]

Well thank you for such kind words! At least you're still in engineering though! It's so hard to find a job in mathematics... especially when you're trying to get some specific applied job, like I've kinda been looking for. And even though you said "next thing I knew, I was an engineer", I know from experience that getting through an ME curriculum IS NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT. Seriously, I know some of the things you would have had to study and that's impressive. Heat Transfer, Thermo, Dynamics (AHH!), Gas Dynamics? Finite Element Analysis? And full Calc and Diff Eq? All that stuff's tough man.

Shhhh...don't shoot me, but I detest math, just squeaked by in Diff Eq, and luuuuuuved Dynamics and Statics and FEA (the computer lab crashed the week before our senior project was due and instead of just asking for an extension like the rest of the class, I did the FEA of a 1mmx1mmx1mm piece of my design by hand-- uhm, by Excel. Wierdly fun.). My liberal arts classes kept my GPA up . I'm in engineering for the art-y creative aspect, though. Probably why I've lasted as long as I have-- boss recognized that oddball ideas, out of the box thinking, and creative solutions are my strengths and has kept me working on the wierder projects.

I think the coolest part of this convention was meeting everyone from so many different backgrounds (okay, biased heavily towards all forms of science geeks....), all of us enjoying the same thing! Well... except for the baseball thing. Though I am, by default, a Phillies fan, most of that part of the Q&A with Connor went right over my head.

I did find his joke about the Phillies' record very funny, though I probably would have been offended if I were a true-blue fan!

[Bether6074]

I am actually a HUGE baseball fan. I think I was the only one in the building that actually cheered when Connor said he was a Boston Red Sox fan. I'm not much of a science geek, unfortunately. Just a sucker for romance.

[boushh]

^^ I booed, but then again I'm a Yankee fan.

[CX]

I'm an ME major too, but though I've been at this for six years, I have no solid graduation date in sight. The maths are killing me. This fall I'm retaking Calc III and Diffy Q for the third time.