hello, so i had my fall midterm presentation for my little Sr design class... its a group of 6 of us designing everything to build a building. well it doesn't really get built, but you get what im saying...
anyways so my part of it is the architectural engineering part, so i get to make the building look pretty, or at least flow together as a building ;) but all i have so far is the site plan with the general layout of the building and the parking lot and a few trees and a little oval which is supposed to represent an upcoming pond that will have a little fountain in it to add to the aesthetics of the building (if it were to ever get built, which it wont)
our site is very sketchy, it is surrounded by govt buildings, namely the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. and we think our site was used as a dump for all of the organic materials (trees and such) from when all the other lots around it were cleared for the buildings to be constructed... and the absolute best part about it is all the records of what happened on our site from 1962-1976 were destroyed by some computer virus, so there are NO records... and of course all the buildings around us were constructed during that period, go figure... but hey, here is the site plan, hopefully it will show up, sometime the pictures i've put up don't show up, i think they are the wrong kinda something, but about all i do on the computer is autocad and AIM, so that does kinda limit me, huh??? well here ya go, oh, and I'll throw in the southwest isometric view as well ;) (as you can see we are in very preliminary stages)



oh, well i kinda don't think its gonna work :( no pictures for you
maybe I'll figure out how to do it later, they are BIG files, even after being shrunk down

ok, so im a senior, and im trying to graduate on time... well thats not gonna happen, i'm coming back next fall to finish up two courses i still need to graduate... ok, thats not gonna kill me, i get an internship this summer (hopefully) then finish up easy stress free fall then i graduate then i join the "real world"
And then comes the FE test i have to take. It is the Fundamentals of Engineering test... offered twice a year, but you have to register like 6 months prior to taking it. so since i have been planning on taking it in April, i have to get the application in by the 15th, as in October... woops, kinda waited till the last minute to do that, huh??? so on friday i realized, while i was sitting in the school's health center in an hour long wait to be seen (i've been sick all week, Yeah!!!) that the due date is very quickly approaching and not only do i have to fill out a bunch of forms, but have to get papers signed by tons of people, i need the seal of the school, and get other things notarized... and all this on a friday afternoon since monday is a holiday (but we still have school) and it really should get sent out before tuesday. oh, and i needed a passport photo... how random i thought, but why do they need to know what i look like???? ok so miraculously, i managed to get all this done, some things "kinda forged" but not by me so i didn't really feel guilty, and i got the seal and after our afternoon practice i managed to find a notary on a friday at 4:45!!! and then after shower, dinner and watching the beginning of GO, and searching out 2 different convenient stores, i managed to get a passport photo (two in fact) and then a little bit of grocery shopping then home to find a post office nearby that would be open on saturday after i got back from practice to mail this out.
so after i have located 2 (just to be safe) post offices just nearby... i thought to myself, "well the test date is Sat. April 16th. We usually have races almost every weekend in April. I should probably check to make sure i don't have anything."
Well what do ya know... Our ACC Championships in SC are on Sun, April 17th!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
and of course the stupid test is only offered on that date nation wide... and it's an 8 hour test from 8-5!!!! so i asked my coach about flying up to SC after it and i talked to my teacher about any other possibilities, and what did i come up with????
I can' take this test that i spent my entire friday getting signatures and stamps and seals for and a picture too... UNTIL OCTOBER 2005!!!!!
ahhh, so frustrating... so there ya go

and a complete side note, why are there so many buffalo people in favor of Bush???? it seams like every buffalonian i talk to is all "pro bush" and "bush is the greatest" what the hell, buffalo has been hit crazy hard by his bullshit, there really aren't many people there anymore making enough for them to get any of those god damn benefits, and look at the jobs, or what jobs??? oh yeah, the factory/ assembly line jobs that were created to pay min wage while tons of "real" jobs went elsewhere or just vanished.... but yeah, bush is "good" right? cuz he has "morals" and "oh, he's soooo cute" (?????) and my favorite, "unlike kerry, he actually knows what he's talking about" (again ??????) well whatever, i just don't get it. I guess i am just a dumb "liberal" hehehehehehehe

So the past few days i have really started to get annoyed at the fact that the 1st pres debate was gonna be on our campus here in miami. there were fences everywhere enclosing us like prisoners, and we have had to wear our id badges everywhere to prove we should be here, and the parking inconvenience as well... but to be honest, after tonight, all those little inconveniences seem trivial.
It was soo much fun having soo much going on here!!!
first of all, free food, good food too!!!! all over the place!!!!
next, if you were watching any of msnbc's hardball this evening around 8:00-9:00 with chris matthews, there is a very good chance you saw me!!!
We got some signs, "Unidos con Kerry Edwards" yeah spanish, but come on, we're in miami remember... but we were the only 3 people with those signs. so if you saw that sign heald up by a girl in a blue polo... that girl was me!!!! we weren't behind chris matthews, but we were behind Ron Reagan and behind the 2 other guys at a different time!!!
but it was soo cool, we got to see/meet Al Sharpton when he was talking with chris matthews.
oh, and i can't forget the cnn stage with Anderson Cooper!!!! yes, you read that right, we met Anderson Cooper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was surprisingly really friendly and talkative.
then during the debate they had these HUGE screens up in the UC patio which is a huge space they loaded with tables and chairs and of course FOOD!!!
but since we were messing around with the MSNBC people until 9:00 when the debate started we coudnt get a table. it was crazy packed out there, but luckily we each grabbed empty folding chairs and scooted up to the main big stage and had an awesome spot!!!
the debate was really fun too!!! the majority of the people out there were KERRY FANS!!!! well it seemed like that because we were cheering a hell of a lot more than the bush people, but come to think of it, there really wasn't much for them to cheer about. well the first 6 times he mentioned kerry's flip flopping thing they cheered, but i think they even got sick of that.
GO KERRY!!!!
and then after the debate concluded we got a little airtime on cnn's something behind wolf. but we didn't stay there long at all because the music was starting over across the lake.
Jill scott, who i had never heard of before, started off the music for "rock the vote" right after the debate. it was good, jazzy. unfortunately, we missed most of her stuff running around all the security people and across campus to get around the barricades to where she was playing.
following her was Vanessa Carlton, who did a really good job i thought. it was a relatively small audience, well what i could see, but people were all over, up in trees, around the lake, everywhere. but she was really cool and personal talking to us (the audience) a lot in between her songs. and she played a lot of her new songs and some of em were really good, so maybe she's not just a one hit wonder... but she did finish off with " a thousand miles"
all in all, it was a really fun evening, unfortunately a late night though, and a shower was definitely needed after a night out in that humidity... and of course, i've got to be up in less than 4 hours for practice!!!! but im not complaining, i love it!!!!!

GO KERRY!!!!!

this is a conversation that occurred about an hour ago between one of my room mates and myself regarding the secret service searching our apartment on thursday morning since the presidential debate is going to take place in a building about 100 yards away that evening, (exciting eh) well here it is:

Alex: "Julie! you know the secret service are goin to be searching our apartment on thursday? they're gonna find my tools!"
Me: "what tools???"
Alex: "you know, every woman has her tools!!! they're for when her man's not satisfying her. I've got 2! a white one and a black one! you tell'n me you don't have any tools?"
Me: 8*
Alex: "oh, come on, even your momma's got her tools"
Me: (again) 8*

am i really the only one who doesn't have any tools??? well i know my mom doesn't have any... or does she??? ahhhh

So we were on lockdown again last night because of hurricane Jeanne, which, just like the others, COMPLETELY BYPASSED US :( they close dowm campus for the weekend for a little rain and wind... another weekend ruined :( grrrrr
but this time, we werent going to let it completely ruin the weekend so we "prepared" ourselves for this one ;) just a few supplies to get us through the night...
we had a fun little dance party/karoke here in my apt for a while then i headed over to another apt across campus, all the while waiting for my roommate and her boyfriend, in from out of town for the weekend, to perform, "I Swear" by boys2men when i get a call from her that she needs to meet me half way that "we need to talk"
so i grab my rain suit and run out to meet her, and guess what???
Mike punched a HOLE in our bedroom ceiling over her bed. there were pieces of the ceiling all over her bed, my desk and the floor.
as you can see, its not really that big of a hole, but since these building are old and crappy, we have to take EVERYTHING out of the room, for a WEEK, for them to redo the ENTIRE ceiling of our room!!! DAMN MIKE!!!!! well here are some pretty pictures of "the hole"












the up side to all this: we all had a great stormy night ;)

ok so the site is now a big secret and noone can ever see it, ever. its not even like we will be actually building a building there, although that would be really really cool...

maybe this will work, maybe not, this is the site for my building, or maybe just a big black box like before :(

i can't see it, can you??? :( oh, maybe my computer is being dumb, i'll try again later ;)

back to my senior design thing, here's the plot of land we are suppossed to design our building on. It's right next to a golf course and also surrounded by several big time gov't buildings. I wouldnt know that except when we were out checking out the spot taking pictures, these two big official looking men came out to us, showed us their badges and were like, "what are you doing taking pictures of federal agencies???" eeek, we all got a little nervous, they had big guns and looked really mean. but luckily after we said who we were and what we were there for they were really nice and told us to build a nice building and wished us luck.
and hey, this shot may not look all that exciting now, but just wait till we get our big exciting "office building" in there ;)

ok, so i was walking to class with my roommate (jess) earlier today....
we see a flock of ibis walking in front of us, which is quite a common thing on campus, they are EVERYWHERE, especially by the lake. well she gets all excited at seeing them for some reason and screams out, "Look at the Ibis!! I want to play with them!" she then goes running after them. They fly away... jess again,
"Hey, I didn't know they could fly!" :(
hehehehehe, look what i have to live with... :) jk