How to Train Your Dragon

Bestest movie in a bit. It's full of swirling and dipping and flying and it has even got vortices swirling off the dragon's wings! I mean, come on! who wouldn't like a movie where even the vortices produced by wings are portrayed? And the dragons were pretty cute too.

Ahem...or maybe it's only us aero people who've already got our heads in the clouds who enjoy that sort of stuff.

Oh well, I guess normal people will enjoy the cuteness at least. But wow! the clouds and the ocean and the sailing and dipping and soaring! My study buddy for my aero classes and I both wish for dragons now. But we think maybe hang gliding will be a close approximation. Or maybe kite jumping. I want to go kite jumping. I hear it hurts horribly when you land, but you get to sort of fly for a little bit, and anything is worth that.

They mixed up the music a little. They play Celticish music in the background for a bunch of Vikings, except Vikings were more Scandinavian and used to raid the Celtish people. At least, this is what we remember from our history. But it was pretty nice music, nonetheless.

And the dragons were so cute and colorful. And the flying and the soaring and the skimming and the skipping! That's really what this movie is all about. Just flying, you know.

Microgravity and its effects

The effects of microgravity on the human body are quite nasty actually. Do not believe all those science fiction stories where people travel nilly-willy without a thought of bone loss and heart problems and brain changes and gastrointestinal problems. Gravity is far more important in the functionings of our bodies than you might at first think.

So my senior design team is trying to simulate gravity in our project by spinning our station. But then we had to figure out how much spinning the human body could take before getting sick. Try walking around with a slow spinning motion for a bit. You get dizzy after only a short time (I know because I tried).

Anyway, it is most interesting work and way more complicated than we initially thought.

Spring Break

Tuesday night I slept only and half to two hours. During that brief sleep I dreamt that I had gotten stuck in some time warp at some point in my life and became my own grandmother. And then something else happened and I ended up meeting my grandmother self. She was actually a pretty cool lady. Anyway, then my alarm went off. But my grandmother self told me I could set it for ten minutes later and then I would get to sleep for ten extra minutes! I decided my grandmother self was so smart and cool.

My dad's response to me telling him this yesterday: "sounds like you were almost hallucinating. You should definitely get some sleep tonight." So I did, which was good because Tuesday night was not the only night I was skipping sleep. And when you skip sleep often enough, it gets really hard to talk clearly and you find yourself rambling a lot and people's words to you don't always make sense. This is why I am really glad it is the beginning of spring break.
I think I get more sleep in general though than some friends I know. So there is no need to get worried about me. I'm doing way better than a lot of other people.