Brain Dump

For some strange and unknown reason, the world did not stop with my lack of posting for the past however-long-it-was (huge blow to my ego there), likewise my life continued on even without posting about it in a blog entry. I figured I should take the time to dump out a quick entry to cover some of what I know has to be on everyone's minds.

First, and most importantly, my daughter was accepted to Johnson and Wales University (N. Miami Campus) in the Food Management (Culinary) program. I can not express enough how proud I am of her, not only for getting into a top university for culinary arts, but for following her dreams of becoming a chef. There have been a few hurdles here and there since she was initially accepted, but she has continued on despite these obstacles. So everyone join me in saying, "Yea Phaide!"

As to the subject of my own higher education, that has been a waiting game and will continue to be such until sometime after Feb 21, 2009. Despite having submitted my application and all required paperwork back in November, I am a distance learner candidate, which puts me into the part-time student pool. Apparently CMU Heinz College has been up to their eyeballs with applications and has been following their admissions policies that go: fulltime early admissions candidates (those who apply before Dec 1), fulltime regular admissions (application deadline of Feb 1) and finally part-time candidates. Therefore, I must wait and be patient for all of the fulltime applications to be processed before I find out if I have been accepted or not.

On the robotics front, I have started my robotics evolution project, but that will be covered in a separate entry. The "You Design It" project is still being worked on, slowly but surely. Currently, there is a small lack of funds to progress too far on either of the robots. Rest assured, they will continue at some point once income goes up; most likely between the "I no longer have to live on oatmeal" and "I can buy that new plasma TV" financial phases. The evolution project is still at a very inexpensive phase (basically left over parts that are floating around) and as such, will keep me active in robotics.

In the mean time, I thought I might share a few of the pictures from the "You Design It" VTOL robot (the hoverbot is not cosmetically ready for a photo-op). Enjoy.