Untitled

I know it’s already Black Friday, but I hope you all had a wonderful day surrounded by friends and family (: Don’t go too nuts shopping for stuff!

escapedmelody:

Happiness and Success

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love.
21. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

I am so proud of our SHPE chapter for winning Bomba Cup, today!  It was all worth it (:

Oh, and guess who the new Academic Advisor is! :D

Farmer’s Markets & amazingly cheap organic produce
Seasons
Seasonal produce (it’s apple season!)
Fresh apple cider
My house & housemates
Warm, homemade apple pie
Snuggling up in 50F weather, watching old Disney movies (Beauty & the Beast and Aladdin), with the house smelling like an apple pie baking in a paper bag (trust me, it’s a pretty nice smell once you get over the fact that your bag won’t burn)

So my senior design group just got a $3000 grant to do research for our project in Nicaragua!  Go Team Awesome!! :D

J’habite à California.  Je viens d’Hawaii. J’aime beaucoup le Bay Area.

As much as I miss home, I do love the Bay Area.  It’s a pretty progressive area, and I really like that.  San Francisco is the “greenest” city in the nation, right now, and another one of their buildings just achieved a LEED Platinum rating (it’s a big deal—-look it up).  The City of San Jose is also in the process of banning single-use plastic bags (i.e., the ones you get from grocery stores) to reduce waste.  Silicon Valley is home to a bunch of start-up companies as well as Google, Apple, and Microsoft (just to name a few).  And my favorite thing about the people here is that majority of them are dog-lovers.  I have to say, I’m gonna be pretty sad leaving here if I do decide to go to grad school in a different area.  

So I’d like to know what you think:

NorCal or SoCal?

draft proposal for senior design project* due monday
steel design homework due wednesday
EIR** summary due wednesday
EIR presentation wednesday
interview with a professional engineer on thursday
steel design project due friday 
french test on friday
japanese report due friday
FE/EIT exam*** on saturday (all freaking day) 

*senior design project is our year-long capstone project. my group is designing a water distribution system (including sanitation and resource recovery) for a rural community in nicaragua. our proposal is sent to the deptartment of civil engineering.
**environmental impact report—-it’s a 150-400 page document detailing environmental impacts and intended methods of mitigation for a proposed project.  the EIR we read was 360 pages long and it was on the proposal for the new 49ers football stadium in santa clara.
***FE = fundamentals of engineering, EIT = engineer in training. the FE exam is the exam engineers need to pass as a first step to becoming a licensed professional engineer. it is an 8-hour test that covers material from your entire undergraduate curriculum. it’s 4 hours of general engineering knowledge, an hour break, and then 4 hours of specialized engineering (i.e., civil, mechanical, electrical, etc.).

i dare you to tell me that you’re having a shitty week.