The Weekend and July 14 (Monday)

I didn't know it was possible to do so much in a weekend. First I had to compete for a washer and a dryer in the laundry room, which was stressful, but good because I got laundry done! I can so do laundry Mom. In the afternoon we went to Knott's which is always fun. Every time I go they seem to have new roller coasters, including the Pony Express and Sierra Sidewinder, which were cool, but short. My favorite part of the day was when some boys tried to tell Shelby and I how scary Supreme Scream was and we told them we have been going on that ride since we were kids. The beach was also really clean and clear, we even saw some fish. We built a Mayan temple sandcastle, but it got destroyed by the waves and some angry little kids. It was kind of lame that we had lots of free time in the morning and no access to computers so we had to stress about the notes we had to type on Sunday night. My notes were about roller coasters and the embedded systems that control them, so it was pretty interesting. Most of the computers in roller coasters are there to keep you safe, which is always good.

Today in class we worked on our clocks and put them into working model. I had to trace over my clock because it had overlapping line issues. When my clock was finally in working model I could see it swing and it was really cool to see how my clock should work. We had more problems when we transferred it to video, which resulted in a grainy film I have yet to fix. I'll have to play around with the video more tomorrow. I made tons of progress on my clock construction, all I have to do tomorrow is tie on the string and film it. Almost everything worked out with my new cutout, but I still had some trouble with the hub, which attaches the escapement wheel to the metal rod. I re-tapped it and tried different screws, and finally I had to go to Chris, the design studio manager, who used intense pliers instead of our dinky screwdrivers to put it in. If everything goes well, I should be finished tomorrow. I've never been so excited about a clock in my life and I really can't wait to see the finished project. We finished the day with a lecture about inertia, which was not too hard to understand, especially since it was mainly a review of our last lecture. I am also excited for our kinetic sculptures. I'm sure Sean, Roger, Shelby and mine will be crazy and functional.