Stellar solar ideas

There have been some really cool developments in nanotechnology lately that I've started an idea journal complements of Engineering 104. Northwestern University and the University of Illinois have teamed up in the development of flexible circuitry. The latest edition of Popular Science also featured a breakthrough in a new anti-reflective technology by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that takes advantage of the structure of titanium-oxide and silicon layers to capture 96% of sunlight, no matter what the weather or region of the country.

I'm very excited about both of these stories because I've had an idea for a couple of years that I want to try and develop my Senior year at Western. I've seen too many movies to tell you what it is, but it is now in the journal along with notes about these breakthroughs.

The last couple of weeks have gone by fast and have been very weird. We've spent the last 2 weeks with cold and clear weather up here and it snowed again. In fact to get anywhere in the yard, you just walk on top of the frozen foot-plus of snow. In the low-lands they had continuous fog - day and night. It was like driving from Alaska to San Francisco within a half-an-hour. Today it seems like everything may be returning to normal. It is in the upper 30's and raining, so I'm hoping some more snow melts. I've been having dreams about seeing my lawn - do you think they mean something?

Stillaguamish Flooding

Wow, what a day. We were completely cut off from everywhere for quite a while so we went out and took videos and pictures of the flooding from our side. Then last night, I came within inches of hitting a deer, or a forest rat as Uncle D calls them, as I was taking my daughter to basketball practice. It jumped up from a ditch, over a snow burm, and onto the highway right in front of my car.

I can't believe how much it has rained over the last 3 days, and we still have over a foot of snow! I uploaded one of our videos of the flooding to YouTube (Anmlucas), but will upload the others later. It just takes too long from our house. Do NOT make fun of my spanish video if you choose to watch the river video. Soy una principiante. Don't judge.

Anyway, here are some flood pictures:

This is the traffic light that is usually a half a mile from where the river goes under the highway.

Here is a closer look at the river going over the highway - those are NOT our kids. Darrington may have been cut off from everywhere else, but the kids still went to school with a 2 hour delay.

This is a side road near Trafton - some people we knew arrived as we were leaving and had a boat meeting them to get back to their house.

The old railroad bridge between Trafton and Oso was taking a beating by the Stilly. The river was all the way up to the top of both bridges' pilons.

And finally, the favorite fishing spot - the river about 2 miles from our house was moving faster and fuller than I have ever seen it!

Some good news - I saw pink in the sky this morning and the peaks of Whitehorse Mountain and Mt. Higgins trying to part the clouds. That means sunshine today! YAY!

Ark Builder Wanted

Well here's another unwanted day of no pay because of the weather. They've shut down our highway due to standing water, and will shut it down in Arlington city limits within the hour due to major flooding on the Stillaguamish. There is no guess as to when it will crest, because the snow level is all the way up to 7,000 feet, and we still have over a foot of snow to melt here. Also, the rain is coming down so hard, our cell and satellite signals are in and out. I guess it is just as well that I miss work, since I woke up around 3am with a fever and other lovely GI symptoms, but I was going to make it a Purell day at work anyway. The river god says it shall not be.



So, OMG, I am the ONLY girl in my engineering class! I walked in and could just feel all the eyes on me. I ended up on a team with 19 year olds, because the guys my age, behind me didn't want to work with me. Whatever - we had fun on our first project failure. We had the most crooked tower, but dammit I bent it to balance and at least it stood.

So, WTF ladies? We are more than English and History degrees - challenge yourselves with some math and science girls, or at least encourage your daughters to do so. Contrary to your mother's belief, math and science are useful and fun - you just have to look at everything as a giant puzzle, and realize you're going to be wrong sometimes. It's part of the cognitive learning process to be wrong in science, maybe that's why I like it so much.


Anyway, we'll be working in groups to design and program a robot along with a couple of other design projects during the semester. The best part about this engineering class is that half of our grade is based on creativity, working with others and writing first person accounts about each project. The other half of the grade is based on our 1 test, that's right - 1 test, and our projects themselves.

I really hope I am the robot and computer programmer in my group, but it would be a better learning experience if I'm challenged with the structure or electrical engineering, especially the latter. I really need to learn more than just the Chemistry behind electricity and start to use some electrical applications. I got seriously zapped in high school by my lab partner in AP Chemistry (cough cough Minton) and have been shy of electricity projects ever since. I've built chemical batteries and completed other electrochemical labs in college Chemistry, but I'm far from being comfortable with it, and I need to be for my future job. This should be an interesting learning process, I just hope my group partners find humor in mistakes, because I sure will be making some.