Guess Who's Back, Back Again

Argh.

Aaarrrghh.

It’s been a very long time since I last blogged. Actually, it’s been almost exactly four weeks. A whole month. Aaaaarrrghh. Anyhow, I shall try to make up for lost time here with a very long post. Maybe. We’ll see how it turns out.

I remember all the way back from high school (ages ago, I know) how Keith always used to say at the beginning of each school year that we really hit the ground running. Here, things picked up so fast that it was more like I hit the ground on a jet-powered bike – not quite stable, a bit scary, and fast as hell. Actually, I’m not even sure if I touched the ground; things just blasted off (obligatory rocket joke now that I’m in Rocket Project).

My RISE rocket design! Hopefully it doesn't blow up...

Speaking of Rocket Project, Rocket Project! Rocket Project was one of the clubs that caught my eye at the club fair (if you’ll remember all the way back to my blog a month ago haha), and I have not been disappointed so far. I’m currently in their Rocketry Introductory Student Education (something like that) program, or RISE for short, and we’re currently designing smallish model rockets that we’ll get to manufacture soon and launch in a month! Like the name suggests, RISE is basically for people with limited experience in rocketry to get us on track to join one of their main teams: Ares, which is their biggest team; Foundry, which is the research and development team; and the Spaceport America team, which is supposed to be composed mostly of younger members to compete in the Spaceport America Cup.

 

I learned to CAD!
This is a fin jig (for putting on fins straight) that actually took me several hours to design
after finding flaws in the original design, redrawing, finding more errors, and then finalizing.
I'm really proud of this anyways tho.

Kickoff meeting was h y p e

What makes Rocket Project so cool is that we’re representing UCLA in an intercollegiate competition that’s happening right now. Apparently some rich person (or people) wants to see which college out of a bunch like USC, Cal, UCLA, and Caltech can reach space (defined by the Karman line at 100km high) first, and the winner’s school will receive a ton of money or something. The Ares team is the team main team working towards this goal; they’re hoping to reach space by 2020 and it’s really hype and it’s something that I really really really want to be a part of. Anyways, that was a really long explanation. Moving on…

Class! Out of my three (technically but unofficially five) classes, I think chemistry is my favorite, although the other two are pretty close behind. Chem is just much more straightforward to learn, unlike AAS10 (Asian American History), and the professor is pretty good, unlike MAE82 (Differential Equations in Engineering). I actually just had my midterm for chem this past Wednesday, and it went decently? I know I did fairly well, but I have no idea how it’ll be curved and am slightly (very) terrified. We’ll find out on Wednesday, though.

MAE82…I can say definitively that it’s my least favorite out of the three. The material unfortunately involves a lot of memorization, and the professor pretty much uses the exact same examples in the book and often messes up when teaching. I still like it though, just…less. At least we get a take-home midterm…

Finally, I get to talk about Asians (the class AAS10. I’ll probably end up referring to it like this because it’s easier)! Honestly, I thought this would be kind of a waste of time, but I have been pleasantly surprised thus far (just like all the stereotypical stories colleges tell you when they explain why they make students take GEs, actually). The assignments, especially the weekly blog we have to write (unfortunately a private page), have made me think quite hard about my opinion, how I think in general, how I think about myself in terms of race and ethnicity, how I think of others (both in and out of that context), and more! I really like thinking. Especially when it’s all meta and weird. I actually have a midterm for Asians on Wednesday, so I should really be studying. Buuut it’s Saturday night and I really don’t feel like it…

Courtesy of the UCLA meme page

Random stuff list, because life is (to me) all about the small random things:

• The long walk to and from class allows me to think a lot, and I really like thinking.
• Every time I go for a run in the morning (a rare occurrence nowadays ): ) I make the exact same puns and chuckle to myself. I’m so lame.
• I discovered that the formula for the average distance from an electron to the nucleus based on Schrodinger’s equation doesn’t simplify to the Bohr model version for simple cases, which surprised my professor when I showed him. Science!
• I wish Grubhub ads would stop playing on Youtube between songs.
• I LOVE THE LIBRARIES but on weekends they’re only open 11-5…
• Kyle (one of the roomies) is a really nice guy, but he chews really loudly.
• Weird thought of the week: white blood cells are like your tiny children bodyguards.
• Weird thought of last week: what if you could trap someone in an eternal simulation of hell/heaven when they died by uploading their consciousness into a computer program?
• I haven’t had time to play piano lately T_T (but I'm trying to learn Sebastian's kickass piano solo from La La Land)

3rd question from “The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness:”

Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you’re going to say? Why?

Jae-An’s thoughts: EVERY SINGLE TIME ermahgod. Whenever I have to call or receive a call from someone, I always get really nervous for some weird reason, and it usually shows, I think. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m scared I’ll waste the other person’s time. Maybe it’s because I can’t see the other person’s face and judge their reactions and stuff. Also, before taking/making a call, I always make sure I’m in a dimly lit, quiet place. I used to stand in the closet while calling people. Again, what about all of you wonderful people?

I’ll do my best not to disappear for a month again :D

You have my vote.

This might be my favorite tree, ever.
One morning I was walking past
and the sunlight hit the leaves just
right and let a couple beams through.
There were light pinkish petals scattered
around the base, and a lone person
sat in the tree's shade reading;
it was like something out of a movie or
something. I guess you could say stumbling
upon the scene was a real treet...

Only in the engineering building
will you find a mechanized self-erasing
whiteboard because someone is too lazy
to do it themselves

I would have won a free t-shirt
if I had hit the center all three times...
I hit the center 2 out of three times
twice. ARGH