It Means 'To Launch' in French

Watch out folks, this post will not be about grad school. *Gasp*

You should also watch out because I will be hitting the road much more often in (Cue The Price is Right Voice:) my new car! It's been a week ago now since I got a brand new 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer. This thing was so new that I was literally the first one to drive it more than just a few feet. I turned the key and it had 000002 miles on it. Now it has more like 000050.


As you can see, the car is bright blue and currently has the tassels I wore for both my high school graduation 5 years ago and my college graduation 8 months ago. Also, once I get a real license plate and not the dinky piece of cardboard with the dealers name on it, I'm going to apply my BYU Alumni license plate frame as well.

There are a couple of reasons that I went with a car that has literally zero percent American content and was shipped whole over the Pacific from a factory in Japan. The first is that this car has very aggressive styling. Most compact cars have more feminine designs and when I see a man driving one, I can't help but think, "Oh my gosh! Somebody looks FABULOUS!!!!!" The Lancer is by far the most masculine-looking compact car that I could find. The second reason is that Mitsubishi is tremendously confident in their vehicles. They are so confident, in fact, that they offer a 5-year, 60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty. If this car ends up sucking, it's going to be Mitsubishi that foots the bill and not me.

This car has a 122-cubic-inch, variable valve timing inline-4 engine that's rated for 148 horsepower at 6,000 rpm. I'm certainly not going to be testing that rating any time soon because the redline is 6,500 rpm and engine isn't even close to being broken in yet. I test drove both the continuously variable transmission (CVT) that Mitsubishi offers and the manual transmission. When I drove the CVT, it seemed that, instead of making a true CVT, Mitsubishi went for a really unresponsive automatic. The tach on that car was bouncing around like a Jack Russell Terrier on meth. Needless to say, I did not like that experience and elected to get the manual transmission instead. The clutch on this car has a lot more pull than the ones I'm used to. Both my mom's and dad's cars had a fairly stiff clutch with about 1-2 inches of pull. This one is pretty loose with about 6 inches of pull. It was interesting to drive at first, but after I got used to it, it was dang smooth.

Now all that's left is to come up with a new excuse to not go on dates. ;D j/k

The Megathrust

So, this weekend, I realized a few things that impact my graduate school experience. The first is that, on the application to Oregon State University I indicated that I would be completing a master of science degree. The second is that I was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship because I indicated that I would be completing a master of science degree. The third is that, once one accepts department funding, one cannot switch from a master of science degree to the master of engineering degree except in extraordinary circumstances as deemed by the head of the school of civil and construction engineering. The fourth is that, as far as I know, those supported by graduate funding must produce a research thesis as part of their graduate work. The fifth is that graduate students cannot walk for graduation until they have completed all the requirements for their degree. So, it looks like I'm going to be writing a thesis and walking (if I choose to do so at all) in June of 2013.

To tell you the truth, I'm not terribly upset about having to write a thesis. I'm good at writing and I've been contemplating a career in academia, for which the research of the master of science degree is a good springboard. (I've already thought about going to the University of Texas at Austin or Georgia Tech for a Ph.D., but that's far enough away that I'm not going to be too concerned with it.) The only things that worry me are how long it's going to take and how it's all going to be paid for. Before I had this series of epiphanies over the weekend, I was thinking that I was going to be able to finish up a master's degree in about December of 2012, after the end of the fall 2012 quarter. With additional time for research, I may be looking more at March 2013, after winter quarter, or even June 2013, after spring quarter. It's still possible that I could finish in December of '12, but the combined responsibilities of coursework, working 20 hours a week as a teaching assistant, and performing independent research all at the same time rather daunting. I'll have to talk to my professors and advisers as the time draws nearer, but for now, it looks like I'll be finishing in the 1st half of 2013. Also, money is always an issue. I'll be going to Oregon State because I was following the money and my thesis will also be a product of where the money takes me. If I can get funding for a particular project or interest, I will doing research in that area, even if it's not my first choice of research.

Speaking of my first choice of research, I should explain the title of this blag post. I would like to do research with soils in western Oregon under loading from a megathrust earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone. This seems incredibly relevant, since a megathrust quake is exactly what happened off the east coast of Japan in early March that threw the entire nation into turmoil. The Cascadia subduction zone occurs as the Juan de Fuca plate is forced beneath the North American plate just off the coast of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. A similar earthquake and/or tsunami would have a devastating effect on the whole west coast, and it is in this vein that I hope to perform my research. Considering the circumstances, I would think that there would be funding for this project in the near future, but in order for me to get any of this funding, it would almost undoubtedly have to be a joint effort with Dr. Scott Ashford at Oregon State and several of his graduate students; I cannot spearhead this research by myself. It's also possible that it could take several years for funding to appear for such projects even though the consequences of an imminent megathrust earthquake would be devastating. Bureaucracies of any sort may take years longer than I have at Oregon State to approve their various Byzantine budgets. At this point, I don't know if I will get my first choice in research, but it's at least worth a shot.

I don't know whether my commencement for Oregon State will be on the 8th of June or the 15th of June, but it should be one of those two. Anyone who reads this and actually knows who I am is invited.

At this point, I'm excited about the prospect of being able to produce a thesis and get the master of science degree. The devil is in the details, however, and how I feel about it in a year will heavily depend on what happens in that mean time. For now, I'm just going to try to get started with the MS, even if I don't have perfect foresight of exactly how I'm going to finish it.

Let's go Beavers!

Brethren, Our Prayers Have Been Answered

I knew a guy at the Colorado School of Mimes who was a member of the church and attended the institute. He told me a story that I found very entertaining, that I'm going to tell you now. To put this in context, Mines is a school wholly dedicated to engineering, and as such has gender ratios similar to the engineering building on any campus. The recruiters were actually being congratulated because they were up to 24% women. Well, as you could image, the student ward in town was one in a series of unfortunate dudefests. Basically, it was a bunch of single engineers, a couple people from Metropolitan State College of Denver who lived in the area, and a few married engineers with their wives. Single women were a scarce resource. So, this guy's story was that, one Sunday, he was attending the area family ward instead of the student ward. While he was in that ward, the BYU women's basketball team walked in and sat down among the congregation. And in his own words, "If this had been in the [student] ward, the bishop would have stood up and said, 'Brethren, our prayers have been answered.'"

That's kind of how I feel today, but not about women, about money. This morning, I emailed Kathy Westberg at Oregon State to confirm that she had received a written confirmation of my acceptance of the graduate laurels scholarship. She responded that she had received it and that everything was set. Literally 5 hours later, I received another email from Kathy saying that I had also been selected to receive a graduate teaching assistantship. Needless to say, I was very flattered at that point that the school of civil and construction engineering thought that high of me. I have asked the Lord repeatedly to help me find graduate funding and he has clearly softened the hearts of those at Oregon State University such that money has been flowing in my direction therefrom.

So, this assistantship involves basically the same thing as the scholarship plus a job. So, I still get three quarters of tuition remission, but along with it, I get $1738.03 a month in exchange for 20 hours of work a week as a teaching assistant. Is the equivalent of about $20 an hour more than I've ever made? Why yes... yes it is. By about double. I like this.

The only caveat to this assistantship is that I have to have health insurance. Thanks to our good friend Barack Obama, I am still covered under my parents' health insurance, though Oregon State really wants you to buy theirs. In order to waive the university's insurance, you have to provide proof that yours provides at least as good or better coverage than theirs. I called my parents' insurance company today and requested a copy of our insurance coverage that will be here in 7 to 10 business days that I can then send to the university along with an insurance waiver form. I'm going to submit the paperwork, even though it's hardly even worth it at this point. The university's health insurance only costs $43 a month, which is deducted from the stipend tax free. Put simply, I'm going to turn in the insurance waiver, but if it gets rejected, it won't hurt my feelings too much.

On a somewhat separate note, I found out from the Corvallis institute website that you can submit requests for roommates by sending an email to the institute. This will make finding a roommate with morals significantly easier. I like this as well.

Brothers and sisters, my prayers have been answered.

Decision 2011

For those who have not investigated my crackbook profile recently, my graduate school decision has been made, and, as you can expect after reading the previous post, Oregon State University is the big winner. I contacted both Virginia Tech and CU Boulder and both said that they would not have funding for me anytime soon. I also calculated my total costs per quarter of attending Oregon State with a scholarship and it comes out to about $2,500 per quarter. That means that, even with an additional quarter at full, out-of-state tuition, I won't have to borrow any more for grad school than I did for my bachelor's degree, which is a welcome relief.

I think the most ironic part of choosing Oregon State as my final destination for grad school is that I have literally never been to Oregon. Also, Oregon is one of only 9 states to which I haven't been, along with Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, and West Virginia. Needless to say, a road trip to the Beaver State is in order. And as long as I'm in the neighborhood, I'll probably stop by Washington as well.

At this point I'm planning on finishing up a master's degree in December of 2012, yes within days of the Apocalypse as inferred from the Mayan calendar. Also, I already know when I will be wearing the legitimate black robes of the false priesthood, not the fake blue ones I got in August, in a commencement ceremony. It will be June 9th, 2012, so mark your calendars if you want to join me in Corvallis. I don't know whether I'm going to end up doing the Master of Science (thesis/project) or the Master of Engineering (coursework) just yet. This will depend on what sort of research and continued funding I get for the fall of '12. Though, rest assured, I will not be doing a thesis just for fun, so if I don't have any research lined up for next fall, I'll be getting a M.Eng and hopefully wearing a cool, orange tassel to complete the school colors effect.

Go Beavers!

Powered by Orange

Yesterday, I received an email from Kathy Westberg at THE Oregon State University telling me that I had been awarded the "Laurels Block" scholarship for civil engineering graduate students. This scholarship, for which I had to do little in addition to my application than just submit a paper that said I wanted to apply for it, covers the full costs of out-of-state tuition and fees for three quarters. Under this scholarship, I could take whatever classes I wanted that applied toward the Master of Science (Thesis/Project) or the Master of Engineering (Coursework Only) degrees. Considering the course scheduling that's available at Oregon State, I could probably finish either master's degree in four quarters, meaning that I would need to take an additional quarter beyond the scope of the scholarship. The cost of out-of-state tuition for a single, full-time quarter is about $6,000, which isn't bad at all as long as there's only one of them. In addition, it would be possible that I could procure some sort of assistantship for that final quarter that would provide additional funding.

This doesn't all mean that I will necessarily be booking it to Corvallis this coming fall. There is still a possibility that I could get funding from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and I haven't heard back from Virginia Tech that I won't be getting funding, though it seems unlikely. I have to make a decision on this scholarship by April 15th, so my prediction that I'd make my decision by mid-April was eerily accurate.

Here's hoping all this wasn't just an April Fools Day joke.

Edit: [It was not an April Fools joke. Now busting out the sparkling cider. :D]
Edit: [New grad school odds, as of 4-3-11: Oregon State - 3:2, CU Boulder - 4:1, BYU - 30:1, Virginia Tech - 36:1, Washington - 90:1, UCLA - 90:1.]