lolwut?

One of the courses that I am taking is Computer Graphics, avid readers would recognize this from Black Hole post, and so far is kinda interesting but solid work. No one, I should inject no one sane, enjoys Geometry. Despite this, the professor is pretty good. He knows his stuff and is pretty responsive to students in trying to make sure we understand and do well.

I am not sure what nationality he is but a quick google search of his official bio page on gatech servers say he got his undergrad in France which upon thinking seem reasonable. He has a phD, authored 21 patents and over 105 peer-reviewed articles which won him 23 awards. His previous position before coming to Tech was at IBM and has been at Tech for almost 20 years. So he knows his stuff. Clearly.

The reason I say all this is to try to get you, the reader, to imagine my reaction when I receive this mass email from him the other day.

"Argentinian Tango is good for your mind, body, and social life.The classes below are well suited for graphics students, because the instructor, Gabriela, is a great dancer, teaches very clearly, and uses concept sof geometry and dynamics to explain not only what you need to do, but why.
Enjoy"

I only way to sum up my response would have to be "lolwut?". I don't even know where to begin.

1. A computer science professor encouraging Argentinian Tango classes because it is good for your mind body and social life...?
2. Teaching dance with sof(I'm assuming soft? Or my geometry that bad) geometer and dynamics...?
3. The idea of a link between computer graphics and ball room dancing.

Now I don't deny that he's probably correct on every point and I do like him as a professor, this is no way meant to be slander. It was just from completely leftfield and left me chuckling. This people, is a classic find the funny moment.

Black hole exploding

This is just kinda cool. I'm working on my computer graphics micro-project and we have to create a steady pattern of triangles based on two movable triangles as well as create a steady pattern of a stroke that you can draw as well. The triangle part is done and I'm just starting work on the stroke part. Playing around with it can make some pretty cool stuff so I wanted to share this. It's kinda trippy. It kinda reminded me of a black hole exploding or something

http://makeagif.com/i/3KUD5_#.UhwDfxusiSo

Mental Victories

So you've often heard those student solutions right? Cook a roast in a kettle type ideas? The ones that the pictures always go viral, you facepalm at or are just plain impressive? Well here's my version. Garlic toast that's meant to be done in an oven or toaster oven (grill) done in a toaster. Yep look out, real engineer at work here. I realise now as I'm typing this, it really isn't that impressive or even clever thinking. But I have a small mental victory when the toaster pops up next to my laptop and I have fresh garlic toast done without the hassle of walking down the hall to the shared kitchen. Yep...look out world! Looks like roast is back on the menu boys!

Does size matter...?

So the concept of America does things bigger I touched on briefly but here are yet more examples of clearly bigger is better.

The first example, bigger is definitely better. It's a frecking treehouse lookout. How awesome is that? It has at least 3 visible levels plus clearly a ground level. All you need is like a fireman's pole or slide from the top! Although I'm not sure how the house next door feels, not a lot of privacy. But ey, when you have a lookout tree house bigger than any house in the street, who cares!

The second example I don't know if it's really better or not. It's the escalators down to one of the subway stations, Peachtree Center. They're huge, at least 5 or 6 flights worth (going up on the left and going down on another one on the right. You can see my the stairs on the left picture by comparison for flights). They rival the London tube escalators. Normally I hate when people just stand there on escalators or at least block you from walking past them. "It's not a ride, things aren't going to pop up for you to see on the way". But when there this long, hell I ain't even mad bro. Well after a while I do, who has the patience to wait that entire time??

Not me for one.

Chick-fil-ah or Chick-fil-ay?

How would you pronounce "Chick-fil-a"? Would you say Chick-fil-ah or Chick-fil-ay? I originally said the former to which I found out was incorrect. To what I thought was some comment on how much you would be filled up by the aforementioned chicken was actually the American Fast Food way of trying to sound classy and pretentious at the same time. Despite this, they do have pretty cool alternates to fries.

Waffle fries!  Not chip shaped waffles but a waffle shaped chip. I have no idea why they choose to go with this idea, you can't get normal fries there. Clearly when whoever originally opened the chain, decided that fries were too low-brow and if we make them waffle fries (which is clearly European inspired, c'mon Belgium waffles anyone?) then we'll continue the theme they'd created. But they are delicious and you can tell they're cut from actual potatoes, sometimes the end of potatoes is one side of the waffle.

Definitely tasty and fun to try. 7/10 would eat again.

Shortcuts cause ruts and other things....

I've realised that one thing I do miss about UQ (apart from the Red Room and the obvious superiority complex you get over other Brisbane universities) is the Great Court. It's quintessential UQ and is a perfect spot for lunch or just to chill during a break....

Georgia Tech does not have a Great Court. It has a Tech Green but it is surrounded by little signs saying "Shortcuts cause ruts. Use the walkway" or "Do your part, keep off the grass" or "You wouldn't steal a car...." or some other poetic device telling you not to walk on the grass. While I understand the reasoning, the green does look good, I feel like it's a missed opportunity a build an atmosphere on campus.

What Georgia Tech does have though, is this little fountain and seating type area which is a great place for lunch or to chill. There's a nice breeze with every now again throwing some mist over you, beautiful sunshine beating down and it's right outside the student center where most of the food outlets are. There's a plaque saying the foundation was laid by the class of 1913 so for a 100 year old fountain, it's holding up pretty well.

So while GT doesn't have a Great Court, or even an alright court (that's a Karl Pilkington reference for those playing at home), it does have a nice fountain seating area which I'm sure I'll spend more than a few lunches.

P.S I have seen signs saying next week they'll be showing a screening of The Internship featuring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, which had scenes filmed on campus here because the architect of some of the buildings is the same one who designed the Google offices, on the Tech Green so maybe it's not all ruts...

American money annoys me

So american money annoys me. To me dollar bills are unnecessary, why not save them up and pay one big bill?

Puns aside, the dollar note can be annoying because it fills up your wallet real quick. Furthermore, the coin situation is even worse. There's the quarter, a dime (10 cents), a nickel (5 cents) and then the penny (1 cent). So when you get change, you get a whole heap of small coins and notes. This wouldnt as bad if there wasn't a general vibe of distaste towards paying with change or taking your time to count it out. Plus don't get me started on tipping (trust me, I know how to do 15% in my head pretty well). So the upshot of this is that I use my card for most transactions to minimise the annoying change I have to have.

As an illustration, a friend who recently went to new York for about a week and half, brought back $5.08 in coins with only two quarters, crazy!

So what's the point of this rant about American money? The washer and dryer on my floor costs $1.25 each and only takes quarters. Thanks to a vending machine, I was able to devour a twix (but a twix packet comes with two, what's the plural of twix? Twixes? That just sounds wrong...) and enough quarters to at least wash me clothes. But alas, I'm short for the dryer and I'm lazy to go ask for change so this is the result. My homemade drying system, hopefully I have something to wear tomorrow...

America is a BIG country

So to get the ball rolling a bit with the funnies, I remember my first one from sitting in the airport at LAX waiting for my connection to NYC. I go up to Burger King to get some lunch, not entirely sure of what I felt like and not overly hungry. So I figure a safe bet is just a cheeseburger meal. So I go up to the counter and ask for a large cheeseburger meal deal to which the server just looks at me confused and asks if I just want the burger, "No, in a meal thanks". "Sorry, we don't have a cheeseburger in a meal, only a double cheeseburger". 

CLASSIC AMERICA!

Talk about enforcing the big meal/unhealthy food/*cough*obesity*cough stereotype....

Naturally I took the double cheeseburger, don't judge, 14 hours on a plane....

What's more brilliant is this was reinforced a week later when I was in Washington DC. Walking the streets near my hostel looking for somewhere that's open for dinner (at 7:30?? Who closes for dinner at 7:30? Crazy!) and I find these burger place that apparently has won all sorts of rewards. GQ reckons best burger for $5, combine that with a reasonable hunger by now and you have yourself a sale. On the menu they have burgers and little burgers for about half the price ($7ish vs $4ish). So trying to stick to some semblance of a budget, I ask how little the little burger (perhaps kids size? Is it like quarter pounder vs cheeseburger type thing?). The answer?  Normal burger has two patties, little burger has one!

again, CLASSIC AMERICA!

So I would like to pose this question to America. Since when is it normal for a burger to have two patties? Don't get me wrong, on the very rare occasion, I am prone to order a double with a side order of guilt and shame. But not every single time! I guess this is one of those times where you go "Oh America...silly America"

P.S The place is DC was called Five Guys and that burger was tasty! Plus the chips were like actual potato cut style chips, soooo good! 8/10 would eat again 

CRUSH the shoulders of the giants

I was linked this news article about the welcome speech to the freshmen this year. Not being a freshmen, I of course was not at the rally (I guess it's a pep rally of sort by the looks...?). However, the video of the speech was uploaded to youtube and went viral of course.

The whole thing is awesome. The build of the theme from 2001 space odyssey and some of the quotes, "If you want to be Iron Man?" and "If you want to do a speech to theme music like a badass?"

This is why I picked Georgia Tech. To be a helluva engineer!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2398955/CRUSH-shoulders-giants-Georgia-Tech-student-welcomes-freshman-memorable-speech-time.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98nNpzE6gIs

Traditional First Post

So on suggestion from friends, I've decided to make a blog about my exchange adventure. If not only to centralise all the stuff I post such as photos, videos, etc but as a way of sharing the crazy things that I see on a daily basis. I always say my motto is "Find the funnies" so hopefully this will give me a chance to share the funnies I find :)