Grad School Lessons, Final Take

I feel like there's a tapeworm clinging for dear life to the walls of my small intestine.  It knows that it's lost and that it will soon die.  However, it's trying to inflict as much pain on me as it possibly can in the mean time.  The life-sucking parasite that is ravaging me is not a tapeworm; it's my thesis.  I've basically finished my thesis and I've even defended it, but it's still trying to suck as much life force out of me as it possibly can.  Endless typographical adjustments and the fact that I can't get the -freaking- title on the first page of the text will probably haunt my dreams tonight.

The last grad school lessons post that I made was when I had hardly even begun my research.  Now, there are only a few days of pain left before I can finally rid myself of its parasitic influence.  These are some of the lessons that I've taken away from the last year plus of grad school.

• Academia is a Sick System.  Over the last few decades, many in the western world have fallen, helplessly into the idea that more education is better.  In American primary and secondary education, children are passed along from one grade to another and from one level to another, and occasionally given some accolade or certificate of accomplishment.  They are taught that greater occupational and economic opportunities will be available to them if they simply prove their mettle with more education.  While this is true up to a point, more education is not always more advantageous. Getting a (Philosophy) Doctorate often greatly reduces the variety and number of occupational options for an individual.  With a doctorate, one is often bound to do research at a relatively small number of institutions.  It's like a pair of Palladium handcuffs (like golden handcuffs, but not actually that valuable.)
• It's a trap.  Many prospective academics hearken to the ideal that they'll be able to change the world with their free thinking and applied knowledge.  These unfortunate souls think of academia as an ivory tower in which they can get paid real money to philosophize for a few hours a week and not take life too seriously.  The sad reality is that they are still servants to those who are above them.  The grad student or post-doc bends to the will of his advising professor.  The assistant professor contorts himself into knots to meet the whims of the tenure committee.  The tenured professor conforms to the will of the department head.  The department head does his best to not be a complete puppet to the administration.  And most ironically, they all perform in a dog and pony show to impress the funding agency, so that they can get the money to live their "ideal" lifestyle.  The only difference between industry and academia is that the deadlines are softer.  Speaking of which...
• I Thrive on Deadlines.  Academia is a nebulous space in which deadlines, but are always secondary concerns.  Academics are always busy, in part because there are few, if any intermediate deadlines.  Work gets done in a haphazard and capricious manner with *lots* and *LOTS* of wasted time.  Unlike most academics, I'm an almost obsessive-compulsive planner.  While I don't necessarily plan each of my daily activities, I typically have a very good idea of what I'm going to accomplish on that day, and intermediate deadlines help me to efficiently prioritize that time. The "Here's a huge task, I'll see you in a year" model hasn't been helpful or enjoyable in the least.
• The Ph.D. is Indentured Servitude.  Many people think that Ph.D.s are really smart because they have a lot of education (à la my first point).  However, the reality is that the Ph.D. is much more about tenacity than anything else.  An average Ph.D. takes about 5 years.  Basically anyone who's smart enough to finish a bachelor's degree at a respectable institution could get a Ph.D., it's just a matter of how long it will take.  Devoting years of your life to a Ph.D. is just that: years of your life.  And hey, at the end you get another certificate of achievement! >:-|
• Assistant Professorship is Pure Hades.  In the two years that I've been in grad school I've watched both my advisor and my friend's co-advisor change from bright-eyed, optimistic Ph.D. grads to the jaded cynical professors that we all know and love.  It's not a matter of being more optimistic than previous candidates, it's simply what the system does to you.  If all Master's candidates had to have an assistant professor as their advisor, there would be *significantly* fewer Ph.D.s.
• The Graduate School is the Byzantine Empire.  All the paperwork.  Margin restrictions.  Insanely anal table of contents and listing requirements.  Requiring students to finish ALL degree requirements a month in advance to be eligible to walk at the once-annual commencement ceremony.  Taking 3 months to process a 2-page form and finishing only after consistent badgering.  If you like bureaucracy, you'll love the graduate school administration.
• Also, This.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to the God who created me for the opportunity to receive the excellent education that I've received.  I'm even more grateful for the funding that I've received that has allowed me to minimize my debt and to have enough money to serve a full-time mission.  My degree will have value, particularly as I'm trying to find my first job.  As I found out in 2010, most employers of civil engineers are looking for master's degrees in their candidates.  It's become kind of a de facto requirement, particularly if you're looking for a job doing anything remotely specific.  However, my experience as a master's student has killed all desire that was ever in me to get a Ph.D. and then some.  While I'm sure being a tenured professor has its perks, I'm wholly unwilling to endure the 5+ years of indentured servitude and 6-8 years of pure Hades to do a job that I don't necessarily enjoy that much.  The sick system of academia is right for some people... but I'm not one of them.

2012

...it's been an interesting year.

If you told me on New Year's Eve 2011 that I'd be in the position in which I currently am, I would probably believe you, but only because the Spirit would have testified to me of the truth of it.  Some things were expected, like making some progress in my master's degree and finishing out my coursework.  Other things, like temples and missions, were much less expected.  This year was also my least active blagging year, particularly because grad school has imparted to me a spirit of procrastination and a strong desire to write no more than I really have to.  Here are some of the highlights of the last calendar year.

• Structural Dynamics - Oregon State brought in a new professor last winter and assigned him to teach the graduate-level structural dynamics course during the winter term.  It was terrible.  In addition to the assigned textbook for the course, the professor gave us another 1.5" binder's worth of notes.  No one finished the midterm or the final.  One of the assignments that the previous professor had assigned was incorporated into one of our homework assignments as Problem 3.
• Paris - This Spring, I was privileged to finally use the Passport I've had since 2009 and go to Paris, France.  It was awesome.

• Temple - Later in the Spring, my bishop realized that I hadn't taken out my own endowments, so he wrote me out a temple recommend.  When I made my previously-scheduled trip to Denver in the summer, I went through, and it was glorious.
• Mission - On the day of a return trip to the temple I felt a distinct prompting that I should try again to serve a mission.  I did the medical evaluation again.  I was cleared.  I'm planning to turn in papers in May, or so to leave in the Summer.  I've changed my official prediction to Houston, Texas East, speaking Spanish, with other probabilities including Philadelphia, PA; Lubbock, TX: and Québec, PQ.
• Last Class - This fall, I took my last formal class ever and received an A.  My final master's GPA will be 3.70.
• Research - It's been a constant struggle.

 Plans for 2013

• Research
• Thesis
• Graduation
• Plan A: Mission
• Plan B: Engineering Job
• Plan C: Taco Bell

Hooray 2013!

BYU vs. Oregon State Gameday

Today, my Alma Mater plays my new, substitute Alma Mater in football.  I'll be cheering for the team that would win an IRL mascot cage match (in impressive fashion).  I have the unique opportunity of knowing both of these teams very well, so I will offer an extended preview of today's matchup.

Prediction:
Even Sean Mannion would have had trouble with BYU's defense in Provo.  Cody Vaz, making his first career start, in LaVell Edwards Stadium against this monster of a D, has little to no shot.  I'm assuming that Riley Nelson is going to start and play most of the game.  If that's not the case, we're looking at 3-0 game in 3OT.  BYU's offense has struggled, but should be able to find some renewed life behind a renewed Riley Nelson.

BYU - 13, Oregon State - 6

Player to watch: BYU QB Riley Nelson
Matchup to watch: BYU WR Cody Hoffman vs. OSU CB Jordan Poyer
Stat to watch: Cody Vaz Turnovers

Keys to the Game

BYU
Play smart on offense
Take advantage of turnovers
Kick the ball through the uprights

Oregon State
Protect Cody Vaz
Contain Riley Nelson
Execute in the Red Zone

That Time of Year Again

With my two favorite baseball teams being, unquestionably, the worst two teams in the league, it's time for me to look forward, once again, to football season.  Before I really begin, some notes on the coming season:

• There are about 33 days until the whited out kickoff of my BYU Cougars against the Cougars of Washington State in a game I've affectionately dubbed the 'Cougar Bowl.'  I'm going to try to get a pair of tickets to this game and head over to Provo to see it. 
• I hate Utah.
• My BYU Cougars, again, take on the Oregon State Beavers, whom I've come to know and love.  I'm a Beaver believer when they take on any other opponent, but against my Alma Mater, they're just another team to slash down.
• Both Oregon State and BYU look very similar to what they were last year, for good or ill.
• Though I love OSU, I think I want to travel down to Eugene to take in a Ducks game at Autzen Stadium.  I've heard it's loud and awesome, and I'd like to see it for myself.

Oregon State

Unfortunately for the Beavers, looking very similar to what they were last year means that they'll probably look about as bad as thy did last year.  I don't think they'll slip against Nicholls State, like they did last year against Sacramento State, but the outlook is still bleak.  This team has a lot of young players on both sides of the ball that still haven't quite meshed into a teamed.  Though the Pac 12 is largely overrated, it contains good teams with many more talented and more experienced players than OSU's squad.  The Beavers are a better team at home than on the road, and this year's home schedule is tougher than last year's, with more teams that are capable of beating OSU.

Record: 3-9
Wins: Nicholls State, @Arizona, Wazzu
Losses: Wisconsin, @UCLA, @BYU, Utah, @UW, Arizona State, @Stanford, Cal, Oregon

This year's civil war game will, once again, go to the Ducks.  The Beavers always play well against the Ducks and usually play very well at home.  However, the University of Oregon doesn't have to worry about things like "academics," and thus, like much of the SEC, are perennial national championship contenders.  The Beavers will, likely, finish last in the Pac 12.

Ducks - 38, Beavers - 24

BYU

With the abomination of a quarterback know as Jake Heaps now being Charlie Weis' problem, the BYU Cougars are set to do at least as well as they did last season.  This year's schedule has a good balance of teams throughout, with there being a bit of a cakewalk there at the end.  I think (as objectively as possible) that BYU is capable of beating any team on their schedule this year.  The games against Utah, Boise State, Notre Dame, and Georgia Tech will be tough, but I think BYU is capable of winning all of those games.  Much like last year, the offense should be capable of making plays and the defense will bend occasionally, but won't break often.

Because the Cougars are very likely to win at least six games, they should earn and accept a bowl bid, likely the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego against a second choice from the Mountain West.  Though San Diego State may not finish second in the Mountain West Conference, an SDSU v. BYU Poinsettia Bowl would probably sell as many tickets as any bowl game is going to sell, including the BCS bowls and the National "Championship."  Therefore, I'm picking San Diego State to go up against BYU in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Record: 11-2
Wins: Wazzu, Weber St., @Utah, Hawai'i, Utah St., Oregon St., @Georgia Tech, Idaho, @San Jose St., @New Mexico St., (@)San Diego St.
Losses: @Boise St., @Notre Dame

Believe it or not, Riley Nelson hasn't really had a chance to go up against Utah.  We can all see that the abomination of a quarterback known as Jake Heaps didn't have what it takes to take on a bitter rival, especially at home.  However, Riley Nelson, like the acclaimed, mobile lefty that came before him in BYU history does have it... in abundance.  I think Utah goes into this game confident that nothing much has changed in the BYU squad since the end of last year and will realize that they've never actually faced Riley Nelson when the team around him hadn't already given up.  Riley, in his one and only opportunity, should be able to go into Rice-Eccles Stadium and bring the Cougars home victorious... by more than 7 points...  for the first time in 16 years.

Cougars - 38, Utes - 28

Oregon State @ BYU

This one is going to be no-contest.  Last season, BYU beat Oregon State by 10 in Reser Stadium despite not playing their best game.  Like I said before, Oregon State plays much better at home than they do on the road and BYU defends LaVell Edwards Stadium well.  Riley Nelson will plague the Beavers' defense with his running ability and the Cougars defense will be able to shut down OSU's running game handily.  The Beavers will get their points and stay in the game for a while, but it won't be close in the end.

Cougars - 41, Beavers - 20

I'm excited.

Grad School Lessons, Take 2

As I finish up the winter quarter at Oregon State University, I've been able to pause an look back on the things that I've learned over the last 3 months.

• Sometimes you have to throw out style points and just grind through it.  Because I've already blagged twice about structural dynamics, I won't go into too much detail.  Suffice it to say that it wasn't pretty, but I managed to get through it by little more than pure tenacity.  And I'd even say that I learned a thing or two in the process.
• Only trust people to do your work as far as you can throw them.  This term, I had one class for which the homework was too be done in pairs.  My partner was a not-too-bright structural major (see previous post) who was in his last term and had already mostly moved to Portland.  Needless to say, I didn't trust him too much with the workload.  I let him spin his wheels on certain parts of the assignments, but in the end, I fixed everything that he did wrong and made sure that it was all up to my standards before turning it in.
• You'll probably adjust to your surroundings, eventually.  I already felt pretty comfortable at Oregon State when I walked through the doors, but it still took some adjustment from life at home and at BYU.  After six months, Corvallis pretty much feels like home (minus the spatially convenient Wal-Mart) and I've even gotten used to smell of coffee that penetrates the entire OSU campus.
• Sometimes, self motivation is hard to find.  Before I started grad school, I read most of the archive of Ph.D. comics and chronicled the pronounced theme of procrastination and not working all that urgently on research.  When you've got over a year (or several if you're a Ph.D. candidate,) to complete your research, there's a tendency in most people to put it off and read the College Football Nation blog on ESPN instead.  I'll finish the rest of this point later...
• Calling in sick isn't always an option.  I was sick for like the last quarter of this quarter (a sixteenth, if you will).  It wasn't anything out of the ordinary; just a common cold and/or upper respiratory infection.  However, it was quite miserable.  My throat burned and I was tired all the time as my immune system tried valiantly to stave off the illness. Then it somehow managed to skip right past my sinuses and go straight to my ears, causing swelling and mucus buildup that left me all but deaf for the last 2 weeks.  In a 10-week quarter, it's not possible to just take a week or two off.  I just had to suck it up, take lots of cough syrup, and ask people to speak up so that I could hear them.

Overall, this term wasn't too bad.  My first grade has even been posted; I got an A in my advisor's class.  Spring term holds Earth Structures (Seepage and Consolidation), Earth Retention, and Bridge Design, but I'm not going to think about that too much until after Spring break.  

A Dynamic Relationship

This term in school, I'm taking a class that has challenged me more than any academic pursuit has in while.  This class is called structural dynamics.

At its core, structural dynamics is simple: it's merely the analysis of structures like buildings and bridges as they move.  However, the devil is in the details.  Even to analyze the response of a structure to a well-behaved loading pattern is fairly complex.  This endeavor involves use of 2nd order differential equations to solve an equation of force equilibrium called the 'equation of motion.'

Earthquake motions are not well-behaved like a sine wave or an impulse.  These involve complex motion with many cusps and various frequencies of vibration.  What it comes down to is that, in order to make even a remotely reasonable approximation of a structure's response to earthquake loading, an engineer must use some sort of mathematical computer program and an approximate numerical model.

Up to this point, the advanced math and numerical models themselves haven't been what's made the class challenging.  It has been laborious trying to remember material that I studied 3 years ago (and never learned that well to being with), but this hasn't been the worst part.  The thing that has made this class challenging is that, even though the equations used are based on physical principles, it's difficult to visualize how changes in one particular parameter will affect the model of the actual, physical structure.  Engineers as a whole, and especially civil engineers, like to be able to visualize what they're working with.  A good civil engineer will be able to conjure a mental picture of an entire physical system, all of its component parts, and how physical changes will modify the system and its components.  This is often very difficult if not outright impossible to do with many of the principles of structural dynamics because they are based on advanced mathematics.

This is also why mathematical proofs and coding were a challenge for me during my undergrad and so far in grad school.  With mathematical proofs, it's also difficult to find motivation, because honestly, who cares?  Coding, on the other hand, is an integral part of life for anyone who doesn't aspire to a career that involves french fries and/or garbage.  Both of these fields are quite ethereal and don't necessarily have any convenient visual representation for many problems.  I've developed some simple visual representations for principles of coding like if statements and loops, but I still find them challenging.  I will never be a l337 coder as much as I will be a good civil engineer, just because coding is, at least somewhat, inherently unvisualizable.

I should also mention that my professor in structural dynamics is new (like received his Ph.D. in December new) this term and is still trying to feel out the landscape.  The homework assignments have been long and the exam was difficult to decipher.  The professor is a good teacher, but he just doesn't have a good idea yet of how much time is takes students to finish assignments when they're new to the concepts.  I think he'll get it, but he's not quite there yet.  Though, he has assured us that we will get at least Bs if we give the appropriate effort, so I think I'm going to make it.  : )

The moral of the story?  Knowing how you learn and how you reason through concepts is important if you want to optimize your learning and become more knowledgeable with minimal effort.  I learn and reason through things by visualizing them.  Things that are difficult to visualize will take slightly more effort to grasp, and I'm planning on being prepared when they come around.

2011 in Review

In January, I published this post on my blag detailing my hopes and goals for the year 2011.  I'm glad to report that I had a much better 2011 than 2010.  Pretty much every goal or hope that I listed in that post manifested itself.  I didn't find an internship despite the supposed prevalence of geotechnical lab work, but I think I'll make it, somehow.  I also only saw 4 football games in person, but again, I think I'll live.  My 2011 included:

• Receiving funding and enrolling in a master of science program at Oregon State.
• Beginning coursework toward that master's degree.
• Moving to Corvallis, Oregon and living 1,300 miles away from my parents. (Honestly, it's kind of tragic even being back for the holiday break.)
• Acquiring a 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer with 000002 miles on it.
• Turning 23.  This has pretty much been my favorite age so far.
• Being the 1% for Halloween.
• Seeing 4 college football games in person.  
• Seeing BYU play and win in Corvallis.
• Getting a new cell phone.  The old one crapped out maybe a month after that post and my parents got me a new one.  A dumbphone, of course.

With a new year comes new hopes and goals.  Unlike last year, I have a good idea of what my future holds.  I'll be continuing coursework and starting research toward my master's degree.  For 2012, I want to make significant strides in my research, not spend more than two weeks at a time in my parents' house, and see more football games.  In addition to the Oregon State games for the coming year, I'm thinking about heading to Provo for the BYU season opener against Wazzu and/or making a road trip to Boise to see the Cougars take on the Broncos on the Smurf Turf.  I'm thinking that the Mayans just ran out of room on their calendar; 2012 is going to be a good year.

Grad School Lessons, Take 1

In addition to teaching me about important technical skills like geotechnical lab work, foundation engineering, and structural seismic design, my first term of grad school has taught me some important life lessons.  Here's a quick summary of each, in no particular order:

• Check out the neighborhood before moving in.  Seriously, if 3/4 of your prospective neighbors speak little or no English, it might be worth it to pay twice as much to live twice as far away from campus.  Here's hoping that my car is still there when I come back from winter break.
• Don't trust other people to do your work.  In two of my classes this term, the homework was assigned as group assignments.  Suffice it to say, I found out why I always did my homework by myself during my undergrad years.  My grades in the two group classes were significantly lower than the one that had individual assignments.  It would have involved a lot more work to do the homework myself, but I think I would have been more satisfied with the results at the end of the term.
• Sometimes you're the dog and sometimes you're the hydrant.  In the seismic design final, I was the hydrant.  Dr. Miller feels that he wants his seismic design classes to learn the codes that govern design of structures.  This would all be well and good if he actually showed his seismic design classes how to use the code.  He told us what was coming, but we were still woefully unprepared because there was little teaching of the code and no assignments based thereon.
• Most people love alcohol more than life itself.  In grad school, most everyone is over 21 and is fully capable of consuming alcohol at any given social event.  Most everyone also exercises this right to the degree that they're pushing the limit of being too impaired to drive, but generally chooses to drive anyway.  I'm seriously thinking about upping the insurance on my car... assuming it's still there at the end of the break.
• People drive like they're impaired even with no help from alcohol.  Everyone in Corvallis drives 20 mph regardless of what the speed limit is.  I don't think the cops even bother setting up speed traps, it's not like they'd be good for anything.  The best one I've seen is a guy who changed his mind as to whether he wanted to turn at a particular intersection about 3 or 4 times and made a swerving half-lane-change for each one right in front of me.  In all fairness, it was right by fraternity row, which leads me to believe he was, indeed, impaired by alcohol.
• It can always get stupider.  I thought BYU CE's undergrad stupid seminar was stupid, then I became acquainted with Oregon State CE's graduate stupid seminar.
• Be grateful for what you have.  BYU's football team had at least a 10-win season every year that I was a student there, and stands a good chance of doing it again this year.  I got used to going to a school with a winning football team and it's kind of tragic that my current school's football team is arguably the worst in its conference. 
• My grades are always lower fall term/semester.  Speaking of football, when several hours of your Saturday are taken up by awesome football action both live and on the TV, it's hard to get any work done.  Winter and spring terms should be easier on my GPA.  Though, next fall I'm going to really need to focus and get it done.

Well, that's pretty much all I've got for now.  I've listed this as 'Take 1' because I assume that I'll have other lessons that I'll learn as grad school progresses. In the mean time, I think this should be sufficient.

Updatetastic

I'm about a month into grad school at THE Oregon State University, which means that I'm about a third of the way through my first quarter.  It's been pretty great so far.  My three classes in Lab Testing of Soils, Foundations, and Seismic Design have been enjoyable and I've been doing well in all three of them.  The thing that I like best about my classes so far is definitely the sparsity of assignments.  In both Lab Testing and Seismic Design, there are only about 4 or 5 assignments due throughout the quarter.  In Foundations, we have an assignment every week, and as long as they don't take 16 hours (like last week's assignment) it's really not too bad.

Also, as you might be able to ascertain from my post before last, I found some research with Ben Mason, who I think is a really cool guy.  He's also my professor for Lab Testing of Soils.  My thesis is going to be something along the lines of "Numerical Methods for Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction of Multiple Building Systems."  Yes, it's a mouthful, but that's how most theses are. In English that translates roughly to "How soils in urban areas behave when the buildings on top of them start shaking in an earthquake."  Our goal is to try to get this research published in a technical journal and probably present it at a conference as well.  In the words of Ben himself, at the end I should basically be able to staple these two documents together and submit it as a thesis, we'll see how all of that goes.

I'm not starting this research right away.  In December Ben will give me some literature to review, and we'll actually begin with the research in about April or May of next year.  The research will really begin in earnest during the summer, when we don't have much else going on.

I also just got my own desk in the office for geotechnical engineering grad students. It's pretty awesome.

And my Alma Mater plays my new substitute Alma Mater in football tomorrow.  Just in case you haven't heard, I'll be wearing blue and will be sitting in the BYU fan section.  Prediction:

BYU - 30, Oregon State -21

Foresight

I have a testimony that the Lord knows which path in our lives will lead, ultimately, to the most happiness much more than we know it ourselves.  If we trust in the Lord... and even sometimes when we don't really, he will guide us toward the paths that will lead us to the most prosperity.  There are elements in my life currently that I never could have predicted nor have pieced together that has lead me to a great place, even in the midst of bitter circumstances.

I've pretty much blagged about all the elements of my life before, but have never really put the pieces together until now. 

My consideration of Oregon State University for a master's degree began well over a year ago while I was still under the impression that I would work in industry for a few years to figure out where I wanted to specialize before beginning a master's degree.  Like most of the other schools I began considering, my interest in Oregon State was based on their ranking in US News and World Report.  Though, unlike most other schools, Oregon State seemed to stand out at me as a good idea even though I'd never been to Oregon and had little experience with the university outside the '09 Las Vegas Bowl.  (In retrospect, this was an inspired decision.)

With most of the schools in the rankings, I could find one or more reasons to remove them from consideration based on their graduate assistant policies, grad programs, research, etc.  However, Oregon State, ranked at #41 (in an 8-way tie), managed to stick around.  While other schools lost favor, I couldn't find any reason to not like Oregon State.  The earliest list of potential grad schools I made in this blag was in March of '10, which would have been about the time I started considering Oregon State.

In July of '10, even though I still held out vain hope of finding a job, I decided to take the GRE just in case I wanted to apply to grad school in the fall.  This turned out to be another clearly inspired decision.

As my desires to continue fruitlessly applying and networking for jobs faded, I applied for master's programs at 7 institutions of higher learning.  As I began the process, it was fairly evident that I would have to pick a specialization, ready or not.  I decided that I had been trying to convince myself that I didn't like geotech and that that was really my favorite specialty after all.  Applying for the geotech program was a third inspired decision.

In March and April of '11, I was thinking that I wouldn't receive funding from any of the schools to which I had applied and that I would attend CU-Boulder.  I was wrong on both accounts.  I received funding for the 2011-2012 school year from Oregon State and immediately began the process of matriculating.  The tuition waiver and stipend that I received were the first immense blessing that I received on account of my inspired decisions.

On March 11, 2011, a megathrust subduction earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the northeast side of Honshu, Japan causing extreme loss of property and life.  A similar subduction fault exists a few miles west of the Oregon and Washington coasts, and the prospect of an almost identical quake hitting western Oregon scared the Benjamins out of the state government.  They will now be providing a significant piece of funding to the one significant civil engineering program in the state, at Oregon State University.  See my previous blag post about this here.

The professor who is spearheading much of this research (who did his undergrad at Georgia Tech) is brand new at the university, since they have been understaffed for the past couple years.  I just talked to him this morning and he said that administration and red tape would need to be taken care of for the next few months and that the research would begin in earnest in the first few months of next year.  To put it bluntly, the timing is perfect.  And since this professor is brand new, he doesn't have many grad students/other minions of his own, allowing me to slip in fairly easily.  Trust me, I'm at least as amazed as you at this point.

In summary, with foresight of a pair of unforeseeable events, the Lord was able to prepare a path for me leading to more happiness than I could have ever procured following my own plan(s).  I've rarely considered myself very keen on hearing and listening to the still, small voice of the Spirit.  However, will even the tertiary ear that I lent Him, the Lord was able to guide me.  And I'm sure that the guidance and blessings are not over.  My time in Oregon has only begun and there is almost certainly more in store were this much came from.

The Beaver is Doing the Richardson Dance

So, I have made my move to the great state of Oregon.  Both myself and my roommate are moved in and I'm pretty much loving it so far.  I found out that the roomy is actually 18 years old and doesn't have a driver's license, but that's not really a big deal.  The good news is that he's a computer (science) nerd and is pretty mellow.  So basically, we're both just socially capable enough to hold a decent conversation, but just socially awkward enough to leave each other alone most of the time.  It's pretty awesome.

The rest of my likes and dislikes I'll be putting into list form, so here you go:

Dislikes

• My apartment is in the middle of little Mexico.  Seriously, very few of my immediate neighbors speak English.
• The walls of my apartment are nothing but lumber, drywall, and air.  You can hear everything that goes on within 20 feet of your apartment walls, on any side.  Most this goes on in Spanish.
• Along these same lines, the door to my bedroom doesn't currently close... at all.  Neither brute force nor gentle persuasion will make it go to its home.  We'll see how quick they are on my maintenance request.
• More generally, the university is apathetic to the concerns of student housing.  Living in the 1-mile radius at BYU made rent slight higher, but it also provided some protections for students.  Namely, BYU ensured that student housing included furniture and mail keys for their students.  Since I've arrived here, I've had to spend a boatload of cash on furniture and I haven't been able to check my mail.
• The university and surrounding entities are profoundly liberal.  I went to a GTA orientation this week in which one of the presentations was on "The Diverse Student Populations of Oregon State University."  My dad suggested that this particular brand and level of liberalism was best described by the term 'pure collectivism,' with which I can hardly disagree.

Likes

• The people in my ward are pretty freakin' awesome.  I've never been quick to make legitimate friends, but it's been happening here so far.  
• There are more women than men.  During my Memorial Day trip up here, I figured that the ratio was about 60/40.  After attending this week, I'd estimate it's more like 55/45... either way I see plenty of women without feeling like I'm swimming in the estrogen ocean.  When you're an engineer, that's a nice change of pace.
• As I mentioned already, my roommate is pretty cool.
• The university has really nice accommodations.  The nice thing about going to a state school is that no one's all that apprehensive about spending the taxpayers' money.  As a grad student, I get my own desk and shelf space with my own computer.  It's pretty legit.
• Even in a disastrous football year, the students have spirit.  At BYU, students often walked around in other universities' apparel and wore pink and brown horizontal striped shirts to football games even when the team went 11-2.  I would always vomit a little in my mouth when I'd see someone wearing a USC shirt on campus (or even worse, the University of SpUtah.)
• I have my own car here.  Honestly, I'm sure how I survived 4 years as an undergrad without at least something resembling a motor vehicle.

 So far, I've been thinking that the state of Oregon and Oregon State University are pretty cool.  This might be really put to the test when I head down to the DMV to get my car registered in Oregon, but I'm going to need to actually be able to check my mail before that happens.  ;P

I Am, Indeed, Ready...

...for some football.

Of course, I'm speaking of college football, since I haven't watched much in the way of pro football in the last 6 years. This year, there will be two teams that I'll legitimately cheer for, the BYU Cougars and the Beavers of Oregon State. These teams do play each other this season in Corvallis, where I'll be in grad school. Not only will I be cheering for BYU, but I'm 99.99% confident that they'll win the game, and 85% confident that they'll embarrass OSU like a bunch of dirty n00bz. If the game was played today, my prediction would be:

BYU - 37, Oregon State - 17

but week 8 is quite a ways off.

Now, my thoughts on the seasons for both BYU and Oregon State, complete with best case, worst case, and most likely scenarios.

BYU

Worst Case Scenario

Record: 9-4

Wins: UCF, Utah State, San Jose State, Oregon State, Idaho State, Idaho, New Mexico State, Hawaii, ECU

Losses: Ole Miss, Texas, Utah, TCU

Naturally, the worst case scenario begins BYU football independence with a 3-game skid. However, I believe that with the (lack of) strength of schedule, BYU should be able to make and impressive run at the end of season including a bowl win in the Armed Forces Bowl over East Carolina University, who I predict will be C-USA's #3 this season.

Most Likely Scenario

Record: 11-2

Wins: Texas, Utah, UCF, Utah State, San Jose State, Oregon State, Idaho State, Idaho, New Mexico State, Hawaii, ECU

Losses: Ole Miss, TCU

For this scenario, I gave BYU a win against Texas and a loss against TCU. In reality, that could easily be switched up to give a win against TCU and a loss against Texas, but I don't think the most likely scenario ends up with BYU winning both, as much as I would enjoy that. I honestly don't think Utah is going to beat BYU again this year. Last year, Utah needed the help of the officials to beat BYU by one point in Salt Lake. This year, the teams aren't much different and the game is in Provo. Most scenarios, including this one, have BYU going to the Armed Forces Bowl against the C-USA #3.

Best Case Scenario

Record: 13-0

Wins: Ole Miss, Texas, Utah, UCF, Utah State, San Jose State, Oregon State, Idaho State, TCU, Idaho, New Mexico State, Hawaii, LSU

Losses: N/A

Of course, the best case scenario has to end up with the Cougars going undefeated. If BYU went undefeated, despite the (lack of) strength of schedule, I think they would end up being chosen for a BC$ bowl. This year, the order or selection is Fiesta, Sugar, Orange. While an undefeated BYU could be picked up by the Fiesta Bowl, I think they would favor a 2nd or 3rd place SEC/Big Ten team or an undefeated Boise State team. Since the Orange Bowl will be forced to take the Big Least champion against their will, that leaves the Sugar Bowl to be the most likely scenario for BYU. Since the 1st place SEC team (my prediction - Abalama) will probably end up in the "championship" game, that would leave the 2nd place team for the Sugar Bowl. My prediction would be Louisiana State to play an undefeated BYU in the Sugar Bowl. Naturally, there's also a scenario in which BYU loses to LSU, but that wouldn't be the best case scenario.

Holy War

BYU - 27, Utah - 21


Oregon State

Naturally, Oregon State's outlook is a little more bleak. Don't forget that BYU has won infinitely more national championships than Oregon State (or Utah).

Worst Case Scenario

Record: 3-9

Wins: Sacramento State, UCLA, Wazzu

Losses: Wisconsin, Arizona State, Arizona, BYU, Utah, Stanford, Cal, U-dub, Oregon

A losing record means no bowl bid for Oregon State. Under this scenario, OSU would be 1-4 in games in which I am present and would be 0-6 on the road. In the words of Simon Cowell, "Dreadful, absolutely dreadful."

Most Likely Scenario

Record: 5-7

Wins: Sacramento State, UCLA, Arizona State, Wazzu, U-dub

Losses: Wisconsin, Arizona, BYU, Utah, Stanford, Cal, Oregon

Similar to last season, I think OSU will end up just short of bowl eligibility. It's possible that Oregon State could match up well against Cal and come away with a win and a shot at bowl eligibility, but with the game being played in San Francisco, I think Cal will be able to edge them out. One could also argue that Washington has a shot at beating Oregon State. However, I think that, without Jake Locker and in Corvallis, they're not going to be able to overcome OSU's scoring ability.

Best Case Scenario

Record: 7-6

Wins: Sacramento State, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona, Wazzu, Cal, U-dub

Losses: Wisconsin, BYU, Utah, Stanford, Oregon, TCU

To be honest, Oregon State actually has quite a few heavy hitters in their coming schedule. I just don't think OSU has the weapons to go up against Wisconsin or Stanford and come away with a win. In one of the few scenarios in which I have Oregon State being bowl eligible, I have them going to the Las Vegas Bowl and losing to the Horned Frogs of TCU.

Civil War

Oregon - 35, Oregon State - 20

So there you have my preview for the teams which I'll be following during the 2011 college football season. I'm ready.

Une Année

One year ago today, I was standing in a line of others dressed in the black robes of a false priesthood in the Smith Fieldhouse of Brigham Young University waiting to receive my empty diploma cover. August 13th, 2010 was the day that I walked for college graduation. My degree was posted to my transcripts a couple weeks later and I eventually received my diploma in an envelope that said, "DO NOT FOLD" in big, red letters on the front. I graduated from college on Friday the 13th, and while the day itself was grand, the circumstances surrounding it seemed to reflect the lack of luck often associated with the date.

I applied for my first full-time engineering job in January of 2010, and made the mistake of not counting the many that came after that. I figure that I must have applied for at least 300, but I have no idea exactly what the number is. This mistake will not be repeated when I graduate with a master's degree, hopefully in June of 2013; I will counting the number of full-time engineering job applications submitted with as much precision as possible.

If I had indeed known how terrible the construction-sector job market was going to be in 2010 in December of 2009, this post would have been very different. I would have started applying for master's programs at that time and would have started almost immediately after my graduation from BYU with a bachelor's degree. Who knows what my life would have been like it that had been the case? I probably would have applied to about the same set of schools, but the funding scheme for this last year could have been much different, and I could have ended up going to a school other than Oregon State. As it is, I will be heading out to Oregon State in a little under a month to start the master's degree, and I'm convinced that that is where I need to be at this time of my life.

On a lighter note, I've decided that I'm going to reward myself with something if I find a decent-paying, full-time engineering job after I graduate with a master's degree.


That's a 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. My love of motorcycles started when my aunt Lory sent me a remote-controlled replica of a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7R; and I've kind of wanted as close to real version of that bike since that time. I've been riding dirt for much of the mean time, but I've been looking forward to the day when I could get myself a street bike. The ZX-7R was discontinued several years ago as a result of the 750cc racing class being halted. That leaves me with the option of either the ZX-6R (600cc) or the ZX-10R (1000cc). The ZX-6R is not only the safer option, but in a strange piece of irony, seems to be more ergonomically suitable to a man of my size.

They're running about 10 large at this point. Considering the other costs I would be facing compared to the income of a full-time engineering job, that wouldn't even be hard to come up with.

Here's hoping that the next two (or so) years are better than the last one.

Program Plan

The Oregon State University Civil and Construction Engineering program (like most others on any campus) has a requirement that all students have a written program plan on file in the school office. Naturally, I'm way ahead of the game when it comes to planning. Since I don't know exactly what the schedule of classes will look like in the next couple years, there are some changes that could come to the plan as the class schedules come to light. For now, I've put the classes that I'm most confident will be offered during the term in question. An asterisk next to a class name denotes that I wouldn't mind foregoing that class in favor of a more exciting one (keep in mind, I'm an engineer, this is relative.) There's also a distinct possibility that my major/minor advisor won't approve this plan, though that seems unlikely, since it fulfills all the requirements as far as I know.

Fall '11

CE 507 - Stupid Semenar, 1.0 credits
CE 571 - Advanced Foundation Engineering, 4.0
CE 572 - In-situ and Lab Testing of Soils, 4.0
CE 589 - [Structural] Seismic Design, 4.0
13.0 total credits

Winter '12

CE 507 - Stupid Semenar, 1.0
CE 534 - Structural Dynamics, 4.0
CE 570.1 - ST/Shear Strength and Slope Stability, 4.0
CE 570.2 - Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, 4.0
13.0 total credits

Spring '12

CE 507 - Stupid Semenar, 1.0
CE 573 - Earth Structures, 4.0
CE 575 - Earth Retention and Support, 4.0
CE 583 - Bridge Design, 3.0
12.0 total credits

Fall '12

CE 503 - Thesis, 3.0
CE 526 - Advanced Concrete Materials*, 3.0
CE 528 - Civil Engineering Project Management*, 4.0
CE 585 - Matrix Structural Analysis, 4.0
14.0 total credits

Winter '13

CE 503 - Thesis, 3.0
CE 514 - Groundwater Hydraulics*, 3.0
CE 527 - Temporary Construction Structures, 4.0
CE 586 - Prestressed Concrete Design, 3.0
13.0 total credits

Spring '13

CE 503 - Thesis, 3.0
CE 533 - Structural Stability*, 3.0
CE 592 - Pavement Structures*, 3.0
Geo 561 - Geology of Earthquakes, 3.0
12.0 total credits

This plan in particular makes for 77 total quarter hours (51 semester hours), even though I only need 45 quarter hours (30 sem). This is because students supported by school funds have to maintain 12 term hours per quarter.

I leave for Corvallis on the 10th of September, when I will begin this program of awesome. Just so you know. :)

Annie Very Sorry

Today marks the second anniversary of the creation of this blag. As luck would have it, it's also the 100th post I've made to it. Here's a recap of things that have happened in the last 2 years and 100 blag posts in approximately chronological order.

• I bought a handgun.
• I decided to get a business minor.
• I read 'The Five Love Languages' by Gary Chapman. It changed my life.
• I saw then BYU tight end Andrew George catch a walk-off touchdown pass from Max Hall to beat SpUtah in OT.
  
• I applied for over 300 full-time civil engineering jobs.
• I got 3 interviews and no formal job offers.
  
• I took and passed the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.
• I moved into an apartment with guys who I actually liked beforehand.
  
• I went to the Utah Summer Games Ultimate Frisbee Tournament in Cedar City and accidentally attended a Single Adult dance. (Notice the lack of 'Young' at the front.)
• I went longboarding down Provo Canyon with Scott Manning and still have the scars to prove it. I pledged that I would never ride/drive anything that didn't have brakes after that.
  
• I bought and have been learning to play the bass guitar.
• I appeared in 'The Food Nanny' TV program on BYUtv.
• I graduated from BYU with a BS.
• I applied to 7 institutions of higher learning to pursue a master's degree in civil engineering.
• I was accepted by 6 of those institutions.
• I found out that I would receive funding from Oregon State University and, without hesitation, decided that I would matriculate.

As we can see, it's been a great time. I'm totally looking forward to next two years worth of Unfortunate Dudefests. :D

Moregon

So, I'm in Oregon, and there are a few things that I like and a few things that I don't like.

DISLIKE

• 65-mph speed limits. Freeways are conservatively designed for 75. Speed limits on these roads should be no less than that.
• Gas stations attendants. I understand that Oregon is trying to create jobs, however, I think they should focus more on trying to create jobs for people who have the capacity to be functional members of society.
• The weather. The weather in Denver is bi-polar, but the frequency of change is only once or twice a day. Western Oregon can go from drizzle to sunny and warm to torrential downpour to profoundly hot and then back to drizzle in a matter of 2 minutes.
• The street layout in Corvallis. Like downtown Denver, none of the streets go anywhere and some of them do it in only one direction. Compounding the problem, some of the streets are so narrow that the city only allows parking on one side of the street, which makes it looks like it's a one-way street even when it's not. It took me 40 minutes and half a gallon of gasoline to find the Corvallis Institute of Religion today.
• The pronounced lack of navigational landmarks. I grew up in Denver, where the mountains denoted west. Then I moved to Provo, where the mountains denoted east. Now I'm in Corvallis, and I have no idea which direction is which. I'm literally buying a compass for when I move here in the fall.

LIKE

• The Civil Engineering program at Oregon State. I like the faculty and staff and where the program is going in the near future. I'm excited to be a part of it.
• The facilities. I toured the labs and offices with the geotechnical group leader and it looked like they had plenty of equipment and resources for grad students to use. It helps that I'll have my own office space (kind of cubicle-esque) with a computer. The undergrad labs where I'll likely be teaching soon also look pretty good.
• The aesthetics. Most of western Oregon and also the Oregon State Campus itself are very attractive. I'm not used to so many trees blocking my view of the surrounding buildings and other things, but I think I'll get used to it.
• The Institute. If you can find it, the Institute building is a nice place that's open most of the time. I haven't been to the ward yet, but it seems like there are a good number of people, most of whom are pretty cool.
• The bookstore. This might change once textbook time rolls around, but they have OSU spirit gear beyond my wildest dreams. I dislike the prices, but that's no surprise.

This isn't totally connected to the state of Oregon itself, but I found out from the geotechnical group leader during my tour of campus that each section of geotechnical engineering classes has on the order of 100 students in it, giving each lab section about 20 students each. My soil mechanics class at BYU had a maximum of 8 students in each lab section and most of them ended up with 5 or 6 in each. Needless to say, the idea of 20 students in each lab section sounds rather overwhelming.

Overall, I like Oregon and am excited to start at Oregon State in the fall. I'm glad I made this trip at this particular time. I knew that there would, most likely, be something that I wouldn't like about Corvallis (or about any city in which I could live) but I'm glad that I was able to sniff out those things now so that I can prepare to deal with them in the fall when I move.

The Final Report

So, after spending the last seven months applying to master's programs at grad schools all across the country, I have finally made my decision and will be attending Oregon State in the fall. After going through the application processes, there are some schools that I won't be attending on which my opinions have changed significantly and some that really haven't changed at all. With this post, I will be pretty much closing the book on the 'grad school' tag that I've used in many posts before (not that anyone even pays attention to those things) unless I start thinking about a Ph.D. which, I hope, will not happen for at least another 12 years, but who knows. But don't worry, I will blagging plenty about my experience in grad school under the tag 'Oregon State.'

Here's how I feel about each of the schools to which I applied:

CU Boulder - Stock: way up. - I wasn't terribly impressed with the application process to the university, but after visiting the campus and the civil engineering faculty, I was pretty much hooked. I grew up cheering for CU and it would have been really interesting going full circle and matriculating to their grad school. If they had had funding for me, I totally would have been heading to Boulder in the fall.

BYU - Stock: high as ever. - BYU will always be my alma mater, and there will always be a special place in my heart for the BYU campus and Provo. It saddens me that I will have to leave on a permanent basis.

Purdue - Stock: pretty much the same. - I was never terribly excited about the prospect of moving to West Lafayette and going to Purdue, so it didn't break my heart too much when I didn't get in. Though it was shocking, considering that I would have been an above average admit two years ago.

Virginia Tech - Stock: down slightly. - I have been, and will continue to be, impressed with the academics at Virginia Tech. They manage to produce cutting-edge research that's useful in industry as well as in the ivory tower of academia. However, I wouldn't be terribly disappointed if I never had to step foot in Blacksburg again. One of my fellow prospective grads at the geotech group visit said, "I like it here, because I think that anyone could fit in here." In a sense he's right. The students come from all different backgrounds and geographic locations and they are bonded together by a common thread: the copious consumption of alcohol. Yes, you can fit in in Blacksburg... as long as your liver sports the school colors.

UCLA - Stock: down. - My initial distaste for UCLA came from them not telling me that letters of rec had to be signed in ink until after my recommenders had already all submitted their letters. This boondoggle was, at least mostly, ameliorated when I found out that my application had actually been completed and that I had been accepted. However, with the application letter came the notification that they had no funding for me. This was followed by an email to my hypothetical adviser that went unanswered for 6 weeks and to which the response was two sentences. On the net, I'm just much less excited about UCLA than I ever was in the past.

UW - Stock: way, way down. - UW began crapping on me from the moment that I started filling out their obnoxious application and didn't finish until I filled out the last piece in a large pile of profoundly Byzantine paperwork, which told them that I would not be attending. I was absolutely shocked that the application process would be THAT terrible for a school that's not even THAT good. Oh yeah, and don't forget that tier III (the tier system is just a testament to how awful the bureaucracy really is) graduate tuition is $8,600 A QUARTER!!! Oh, and that's going up 16% each year for the next two years... which means that, by the time I finished my master's degree, I'd be paying about $11,500 A QUARTER for tuition. The list just goes on and on.

There's a good chance that I will never step on and any of the campuses in the latter 2/3 of this list (again, in one case.) If I was going to apply for a Ph.D. at some point in 12+ years, The University of Colorado at Boulder would probably be the only one of these 6 to which I would consider applying. Also, at this point, I've been reading about how profoundly weird Austin really is, so I'm not even sure I would want to go to the University of Texas at Austin. However, I'm planning on making that decision in the distant future, so I'll have plenty of chances to expand my possible list of schools from just Georgia Tech.

I've said a lot about different schools in this blag post. In all this smorgasbord of information, let's not forget that I will be going to Oregon State in the fall and that my master's degree will say, "Oregon State University" on the front. Let's go Beavers.

Edit: [On second thought, Austin might just be the best place for me. :D]

Since I've Never Actually Been There...

I got real license plates on my sweet new ride, so now I'm planning an epic road trip to Oregon at the end of this month (May 2011). This is approximately what it will look like:

Tuesday, May 24th: Leave Denver, CO at approximately 9 am. Travel west via I-70 and US-6 to Provo, UT. Party with former roommates until the wee hours of the morning.

Wednesday May 25th: Leave Provo at approximately 10 am. Travel northwest via I-15 and I-84 to Ontario, OR. Stay with Steve's parents.

Thursday May 26th: Leave Ontario at approximately 5 am. Travel west via I-84 and I-5 to Corvallis, OR. Meet with geotechnical group leader at 3 pm and school operations manager at 4pm. Attend institute D&C class at 7 pm.

Friday May 27th: Meet with EERI student branch faculty adviser at 9 am. Take Oregon State campus tour at 10 am. Lunch at Corvallis institute at 11:30 am. Tour college of engineering at 2 pm. Screw around in Corvallis.

Saturday May 28th: Screw around. Probably visit Salem and/or Eugene. Maybe go to Oregon State at Oregon baseball game in Eugene at 2 pm.

Sunday May 29th: Church at the Corvallis institute at 10:30 am. Napping.

Monday May 30th (Memorial Day): Leave Corvallis, OR at approximately 10 am. Travel east via I-5 and I-84 (and possibly I-15) to Boise, ID or Twin Falls, ID, or even Provo, UT depending on how I feel that day.

Tuesday May 31st: Leave Boise, ID/Twin Falls, ID/Provo, UT at approximately 6-7 am. Travel east via I-80 or I-70 back to Denver, CO

During this trip, I would certainly not be opposed to having a companion or two. If anyone in the Denver or Utah population corridor areas wants to accompany me on some portion of this epic adventure, let me know and we'll see what we can work out. I was planning on staying in a hotel in Corvallis and possibly in Twin Falls on the return trip. (Twin Falls is almost exactly halfway between Denver and Corvallis, in case you're wondering why I would seemingly choose that location at random.) The Rodeway inn in Corvallis has rooms available for $51 a night; and I would certainly welcome a division of that fee and a roommate. Since gas is pushing $4.00 a gallon through most of the country, I would also demand at least a little monetary compensation for the additional weight of an extra person and stuff.

This is going to be awesome.

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.