Adventures of an Engineer - 3/12/07

This is going to be a segment that I will be writing that describes my experiences as an engineer at UCLA.

I'm trekking my way to class, minding my own business, when a girl next to me makes a sudden movement. I look at her but I don't notice anything out of the particular. She continues to walk ahead. All of a sudden, I see her veer out of the way. It appears that she is trying to walk in a pattern. Perhaps she is trying to avoid stepping on the cracks to avoid bad luck? Or is she walking only on the cracks, to trace a complete path between classes? Then it hits me. The constant crunching that accompanies her strange behavior gives it away. She is actually trying to step on every single leaf that crosses her path. I'm talking about bee-lining from leaf to leaf, not just the ones that are within easy reach. If you are a leaf currently residing on UCLA between Dodd and Royce, take caution as to where you fall. Hang on to your branch for dear life!

But there's more. Not about the Leaf Stomper, just my adventures in general.

So I reach my class after my close encounter. It's a boring typical engineering class about feedback and controls with the 99:1 ratio of guys to girls. Bleh. Today, the professor is demonstrating how to use MATLAB to simulate the effects of different controllers on a given system. Right. After he demonstrates a particularly boring point, a guy sitting 2 seats to my right starts to cheer and clap. Let me describe to you what this guy looks like. Actually, on second thought, I won't. The entire class is quiet as he cheers and claps, causing an awkward silence that apparently does not deter him from making further comments later on. The black guy sitting to my left takes a glance at him, and mutters "What the fuck?" under his breath. My roommate is sitting 1 seat to my right, making him the unlucky guy that had to be in direct contact with the Super Nerd. He whispers to me "Backdraft," which after a moment's thought I concluded must refer to the movie, which in turn refers to rooms bursting into flames, which in turn refers to the flaming behavior of the Super Nerd. After another hour and several other strange comments / outbursts, the class ends.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more adventures of an engineer.