I graduated

Bachelor of Science

with High Honors

Mechanical Engineering

December 2008

The University of Texas at Austin

Plans after graduation: Obtain my MSME in product development and advanced manufacturing, and hopefully get a job at an innovative, forward-thinking company like National Instruments or Apple. Or maybe go for the PhD and become a teacher and continue to inspire women in engineering just as Dr. Seepersad inspired me.

I've applied to MIT, Berkeley, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, and Texas. I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm trying to get a job at Southwest Research Institute or Dell for the summer. I'm taking the spring off to do some organizing, designing, and soul searching on my own time. 

And I'd like to mention that I totally pwned senior design. I wish I could post the video of the prototype which combined my sweet machining skillz, insane deflection calculations, awesome instrumentation amplifier and bridge circuit, and sexy LabVIEW programming, but I think it violates our NDA.

Scratch that about the Hotot

Instead I want a dwarf Netherland rabbit. Here are some pictures to illustrate the EXTREME CUTENESS. 

I said, "James, bunnies are cute, but is there a way to have a rabbit that never grows out of the tiny adorable bunny phase?" The answer is yes. Except my parents are extremely opposed to the idea, and since I'm in limbo between undergrad and grad school and mom and dad are paying the rent, I might have to listen to them. And I'm past that whole angsty stage, so I'm mature enough to realize they're probably right. They just poop a lot. Maybe I can keep it at James' house.

Hotot

I want one. 

Confession

I really like discrete time Markov chains.

Suckage

The average GRE scores for current students at Caltech are 651 Verbal, 763 Quantitative.

Balls.

First day of my life

I stole this from some bitch's blog, but I love this song regardless.

So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time is different
I mean I really think you like me

Here's to graduation, Vail, and making it work.

I'm proud to be an American

Lockbox

• I am no longer applying to Stanford. I'm vastly underqualified for their product design program.
  
• My backup school is my alma mater, and that is very scary for me. 
  
• Senior design sucks.
• I love my new apple red Converse.
• James went as the guy from No Country for Old Men. We had a little drama finding a jean jacket. 

Halloween

First of all, let's bring to everyone's attention this FACT. In terms of the ranking system I'm looking at right now, Texas Tech isn't even ranked. (But to be honest, Texas is my backup school, so UT isn't exactly #1.) Regardless, Saturday night was devastating. 

I'm sick

And I have a 20+ hour controls assignment due tomorrow, but since I made that class pass/fail, I'm updating my blag instead.

So I'm redonkulously sick. I think I have food poisoning. Yesterday I was just absolutely miserable, and that's as far as I'm going with details. I hardly got out of bed the entire day. My muscles were just so sore I could barely move. James made me soup and brought me Pepto and John got me Gatorade. I love my boys. Except when James doesn't know how to react when girls puke. Yes, I have a really week immune system. No, don't just stand there and stare at me like I'm a freak of nature. I need love and attention!!

Oh, and I ordered $36 of Chinese food tonight but only ate half a bowl of hot and sour soup. Hopefully that'll stay down. That'll be the first food I've actually absorbed in 48 hours!! Although, between the ab workout of puking and all the starvation / accidental bulimia, I've totally lost a lot of weight. I'm pretty much sexy to the max. 

Oh, and IT CAME IN.

James is a man's man

me: wanna go fabric shopping tomorrow?

James: no, i'll be busy eating red meat and having sex with women

I hate this weather

It's too damn cold. I have that stupid/incredibly sexy cold sore coming on again. And I have to wear pants and even a jacket. I miss summer. Note to self: move to California.

LOVELOVELOVE THIS

and this about Haley Smith.

All this for $25 in electronics

"No, I'm sorry but I can't roll my window up."

Sexy giant squid

I'm going to start sewing this weekend.

Halloween costume ideas?

"Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it."

I'm a mouse, duh!

I kind of want to go as a mouse... or a sexy engineer. 

Arguments

This is not the way they should go:

"I'm very upset at what you said last week, and I can't just drop it, so I needed to tell you now."

"I was very rude, I know, and I'll try harder to keep my mouth shut. However, I'm very upset about something that happened 4 months ago and two things that happened 3 months ago."

"Okay, but why are you just telling me now?"

"Because you're the most unstable person I know."

INFINITE MACBOOKS

Credit to Mark for providing the second laptop. Credit to me for fixing his laptop. Credit to James for telling me how to fix his laptop.

Morning routine

Mail goggles

Google understands that sometimes even I don't know what's best for myself.

If only they could implement that on my phone. Even inebriated, I'm good at spelling, just not content

omggg i lovveeeeeeeeeeee you!!!!!!!!! BADGERSEX

Ashley

Sent from my mobile

Get your horns up

I can't find a better quality video. The ones available online through this site don't support YouTube. This is my favorite in a series of advertisements narrated by Walter Cronkite. 

This video gives me chills every time I see it. And it's guaranteed the crowd goes absolutely wild. I'm going to miss this school. 

Get your bachelor's degree, get your master's, or get your Ph.D. But most of all, get your horns up! What starts here changes the world. 

Stream of conscious

The economy sucks. I need a job. But I don't want to apply for backup jobs. My car got broken into. We beat Mizzou. Some people are totally lame and it's even lamer when they don't realize it. Dad should push back the turkey dinner until Friday. We all got crabs today. I need more than emissivity tables. I can be spontaneous! 

RED RIVER SHOOTOUT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!

Worst insult ever

After my recent terribly unrehearsed senior design presentation, although we totally pwned all the other teams, my TA still said "Well, it wasn't great, but your presentation and prose were better than Sarah Palin."

EDIT: Although these presentations are open to the public, I'm not going to risk violating my NDA by posting it.

This is not halfway

Landmarks

I love The University of Texas at Austin Landmarks program. It's our university's attempt at being all artsy. I guess enough fine arts people complained about the Godzillatron and now our tuition is paying for something more high brow.

This art is on loan from New York City. It's called "The West" by Donald Lipski. While it may look kind of cool up close (see my previous post), from the right angle it's just a giant phallus. I mean, honestly, you have to know someone planned that.

This piece is in front of the CPE is called "Clock Knot" by Mark di Suvero. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's over 40 feet tall. It's so weird. And red. I liked it better all rustic and antiqued. It's a nice change from the drab scenery of the engineering buildings, but it's just so huge and red.

[okay so the photo of Clock Knot isn't uploading. Just take my word for it. Or look here.]

And from now on I'm going to take my photography more seriously. I'm almost done with that DSLR class and I need to actually show I know how to used the darn thing.

These are not rhetorical

Why haven't they contacted me yet?

Why can't I get the nerve to just apply already?

Why haven't I just sat down and written it yet?

Why do I have to be the puppet master?

Why haven't I just given it up yet and quit?

Why can't I speak up for myself and take credit?

Why did that check bounce?

Why do dumb girls have to break his heart?

But most importantly, what's going to happen in 9 months?

Music is my hot, hot sex

ACL 2008 was incredible. And Camelbaks are brilliant. 

Best shows were Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band and Okkervil River. I particularly loved Conor's cover of Paul Simon's "Kodachrome." Jenny Lewis' solo act was more alt-country/folk than I expected, but at least it was less pop/funk than most of Under the Blacklight. M. Ward was really good, but I just wasn't feeling it. 

Favorite quote of the weekend: "WaMu stage? More like FDIC stage!"

And I'm glad James isn't as hairy as Kyle.

That guy

Why does he have to be so lame?! 

WHY?!?

Hello

I think I love Kevin Devine. He just soothes my soul and makes me do a double take at most redheads. Props to Andrea Yee for introducing me, even though I don't think she remembers that. 

I know I love James Durand. And oatmeal raisin cookies.

I'm super stressed. And my body's slapping me around right now. Thanks to everyone that's helped me out. That cheesecake was incredible, and it feels so great to have family right next door. I'll still probably retake the GRE.

Within the last 2 minutes, I received my first spam in my Gmail inbox. Weird.

My family still doesn't have power. And whenever I think of Ike, I just can't stop singing the Scorpions song. 

I can't wait until ACL. I can definitely wait until EXPO on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm not sure how I feel about waiting to find out if I get to interview with Apple.

My brothers are OLD

They just turned 20 and that totally freaks me out. They're my little brothers and now they're voting and drinking and growing up. They were raised too well. They act way too mature to be 20. Or maybe I'm just too immature to be 23. 

Graduate school

I really wanted to go to graduate school in California. Now I'm realizing that the programs I want to do aren't all bundled up in one little west-coast package. 

I'm in the process of writing my statement of purpose, and it's a lot harder than I thought. I want to be honest and get my heart onto the paper, but it's not as easy as it seems.

I have the best research adviser ever.

James broke my heart

So I thought I had a flu, maybe strep throat worse-case scenario. So I go to the UT Health Clinic and they diagnose me with the flu and the doctor does the routine stethoscope on your back and says "take deep breaths". And then she pretty much says "WTF YOUR HEART IS WEIRD! WE NEED AN EKG IN HERE STAT!" And she had a point, I checked it out and she was right, my heart was skipping every third beat and it was a little scary. 

So I get an EKG.  And it looks really weird. The doctor consults a cardiologist and she says I have an irregular irritated heartbeat. And she's totally freaking out because she doesn't know what to do. I need tests to figure out what's wrong. There is some kind of electrical imbalance in my heart and my natural pacemaker is off. But UT's health test system is a little lacking in resources, so I need to go the ER. Now. 

All those big bumps and jumps in the EKG shouldn't be there. Everything on the right 1/3 is normal, and all the stuff on the left side is "WTF YOUR HEART IS WEIRD!" And my blood pressure was over 120 after resting in the UT clinic for an hour.

So James picks me up after he gets out of processing lab and he drives me to the ER. By this point I had already cried a lot because the doctor totally freaked me out and made me feel like I was going to die. Even though I felt just fine. I got James to feel my heartbeat and he admitted it was pretty weird. 

So after a while they take me back and run a bunch of tests: X-rays of my heart, another EKG, pee tests, blood tests, throat test, and other stuff. And they hook me up to the heart/lung/oxygen monitor with the screen. So I have those probes all over my chest and I'm just confused and being pumped with fluids through an IV. And James left after an hour to go to work, so I'm all alone. And I may or may not have breathed in and out really heavily to make a square wave on the lung chart. 

So after waiting over two hours to get all my tests back, the doctor pretty much tells me I'm fine. An irregular heartbeat isn't that big of a deal. If I want to follow up, he referred me to a cardiologist. But I'm fine? My heart's okay? Everyone just scared me for no reason? I mean, I guess it's kind of a big deal, but I don't think I'm dying anytime soon. So then I walk home from the hospital and go to sleep for 4 hours.

First day of school

So I think I'm one of a handful of girls in the world that think it's totally inappropriate to move in with a guy before marriage. Is that weird? 

Also, maybe I should have backed up my datas. Because now they're all gone :( We'll, I recovered most of them, and 61,000 other files, so I'm having to go through each one individually. Thank goodness for cover flow.

And my K team is going to DOMINATE. Total confidence.

And the rest of the first day of school wasn't too bad either.

My MacBook Pro is on its 4th life

After receiving two DOAs from Apple, my graphics card is defective so I'm out a computer for 5-7 days. I have my iPhone but it's not exactly meant to be all-purpose computing machine. Aka this kind of sucks.

And I regret forgetting to back up my data before sending it in to replace the motherboard.

Another Update

I guess I'll just do this bullet point style again. Here's what's been going on in my life recently:

• I just ended my internship at NI yesterday. Holy crap I loved it. It was hands down the best job I've ever had and could ever hope to have. The people, the work, the company. It's just a package you can't beat. But I want to get my masters, so I'll have to put that off for a while. 
• Along those lines, NI just released wireless DAQ!! This is a big deal to me, because it's what I was working on all summer. Check out this video on environmental engineering and wireless DAQ and the new Wireless Node and Gateway. I know the prototyped product looks a little rough right now, but it won't get released for another year. This is more like a sneak peak. If it means nothing to you, just talk to me and believe me, I'll be able to get you excited about it!
• My brothers just moved in to their condo today, which is in apartment 206. And I'm in 205. So yes, my brothers are literally right next door. Whoa. And they went to London without me. But they got me a really sweet tartan flask from Harrod's. They totally made up for that whole "We got to go to London with Dad but Ashley didn't" thing.
• Temporary roommate bullshit is lame. Especially when you can't even blame the girl because she wasn't raised with something called "common courtesy" so things don't even cross her mind. If she honestly didn't know what she was doing was wrong, I can't get mad after the fact.
• I am not Catholic.
• It turns out when I have a few beers, I turn random gingers into my ex-boyfriend. Even though I swear it looked exactly like him. But he was in North Carolina. I might be a little paranoid.
• I have been studying regularly for the GRE. It sucks. I have the worst vocabulary ever. Hopefully I can dominate the math at least.
• I love James. And his family.
• I got a Nikon D40 and am going to take an intro to DSLR class in the fall. I'm going to turn into one of those hipster photographers.
• The Olympics are AWESOME. Go America!! But Michael Phelps looks like a monkey. But literally 30 seconds ago he won his 8th medal. It was incredible. For a monkey.
• Tim is married. And Barley is adorable. But she peed and stained my carpet. But I wasn't there when she did it, so it's sort of not my fault. But more importantly, the guy that proposed to me two years ago is now married.
• I got an iPhone 3G. Totally worth the $2k. I love it. I can constantly prove I'm right (and occasionally wrong) in everyday conversation via Wikipedia. And reply to email with an uncanny timeliness. And I love Shazam. 
• I'm going to miss Victor and Stephen so much. So so so much. I miss them already. I really loved them. I hope they're reading this. I love y'all. 

Cliff diving at Pace Bend Park

Barley, my rent-a-puppy

Love of my life

Update

Regarding life choices,

• I love my job at National Instruments as a DAQ Mechanical Engineering Intern. I've never been challenged this much and I love it.
  
• I am definitely going to graduate school in mechanical engineering in fall 2009. I'm not sure where because I haven't even taken the GRE, let alone applied, but I am confident that grad school is the path I am going to take. I changed my mind again and I think I want to study Manufacturing and Design. I want to design things that make the world go 'round. 
• I wish UT ME offered courses on industrial design. I think that's one of the most fascinating things ever right now.
• Someone from Lockheed Martin called about a position as an ME in Fort Worth. Lockheed Martin! I really hope that works out; I really need a co-op for the spring semester after graduation and Lockheed is one of my dream jobs.

Regarding boring details,

• I'm going to clean my room finally! (maybe)
• I waxed my right hand, especially my right two fingers. I've been out of the cast for a month and it was still black and manly and I couldn't take it anymore. However, I did get my entire range of motion back.
• I'm doing yoga at work
• I am the tannest I've ever been in my entire life thanks to floating the river twice. I have tan lines!! My butt is totally bruised from floating, but the rapids were worth it!
• I want to get an iPhone, but hate that it's a $2000 commitment
• Ex-boyfriends are lame, except ones that let me borrow their puppies while they get married and honeymoon. Rent-a-puppy!

I haven't updated in a while

I'm working on top secret stuff at work and it's totally time consuming, but I love it.

Boom de yada!

Ashley's hand: the movie

I <3 Victor and Stephen

I am going to miss these guys so much. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Rivers looks less hot with a mustache

But the video for "Pork and Beans" is brilliant, especially for huge YouTube addicts like me. Finally I can really look at him as a nerdy Harvard student.

My screen is dirty

Adorable puppies to the rescue!

Tim is happy

I just had lunch with the guy I dated for two years, who I haven't spoken to for two years. It went astonishingly well. He's happy and has an adorable puppy and fiance and he's graduating in only 3 1/2 years. He really grew up. I want to puppysit Barley while they get married this summer. No joke. 

Berkeley

Let the application process begin. Crossing my fingers for Stanford, Berkeley, and CalTech. This is so adorable!!

I'm so proud of Kingwood

Gotta love this:

3 accused of using corpse head to smoke pot

It's even in perezhilton.com and drudgereport.com. Honestly, Queens of Armed Robbery, now this? It's just disgusting. I could go on a really long rant, but it's frustrating to type with only my left hand. Only 16 more days!

Apple WWDC '08

I have nothing to do with this conference, but I'm digging the poster templates and design advice. Mac + Science = Sexy.

Check it out here. 

Finals

I only have one! So I'm doing virtually nothing. Not cleaning. Not studying. Not working. Not graduating.

On another note, I'm excited getting soo excited about LeaderSahpe-Texas! It will prepare me to be a great Treasurer of TBP, haha.

I got an A in golf! Is that something I can even brag about?

Yummy

What a nation of fatties

Excuse me while I go get Wendy's. No joke.

Video Conference Drama

I have a new respect for professors and the stuff they have to put up with. Needless to say, our joint research project with UCSD is not going smoothly.

Land Locked Blues

And the world's got me dizzy again
You'd think after 22 years I'd be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away

I said I'd start applying to graduate school and studying for the GRE and preparing the NSF fellowship application when school gets out. School's out. 

I know I'm leaving but I don't know where to

Coachella

So incredible. See Facebook for complete album.

What the heck, Apple?

Does anybody else's Mac do that? What does "Not Charging" mean?

Eww

How gross is this? It makes me want to pass out. I just found out I don't get any type of painkiller when they remove them. Just pull and go!

At least I got to wash my arm after Coachella... but my skin flaked off, gross! Another month to go...

Oh, and the X-ray technician accidentally snagged a pin. It sent chills down my spine.

New house?

I can't believe my parents might retire and buy a new house. And by new house, I mean the house my grandfather built. I don't see how my parents wouldn't by this. So many memories. And a flippin' elevator! 

And I absolutely love video chatting with my brothers on our macs!

COACHELLA TOMORROW!

There are two paper clips in my hand

And yes, it hurts. A lot. And no, Vicotin is not working. 

I'm stuck in a cat toy for 2 months

I wish...

• I was left handed
• I drove an automatic
• I could wash my arm during Coachella

I'm happy I have James, Adam, Jason and Jaclyn to take care of me

Mega Ouch

Surgery was a bitch. I think this video very similar to what I have. Which is why it hurt so much if I move at all. It's a pin rubbing against plaster. I have a pin down my pinkie and a pin across my knuckles.

Ouch!

Metacarpal something something

I beat someone up

And now I need to go to the hospital because I broke my hand. 

I wish I was a better photographer

Then I could have a really pretty blog. And capture my pretty life. Which isn't so pretty right now. Except that Eric Dierks just made my day. Props. 

I mean, I could get a fancy camera, but that would be a waste. 

I hope it all works out. With grad school, with TBP, with NI, with roommates, with boyfriend, with everything. This has just not been an outstanding week. Except for my foot. That was a pretty sweet foot. Details will follow.

Hook 'em!

I just realized this is no where on my blog. Hook 'em, horns! Yee haw! Too bad academic incest is frowned upon, or I'd be here for another 2-5 years.

It's so pretty!

It's beautiful outside, but now I'm totally sunburned.

PS I posted this just for Kathryn. And gingers everywhere.

EDIT: The aforementioned sunburn is on my back and shoulders.

I think I know when I'm graduating

People need to stop assuming that I'm graduating on time and then acting so shocked and appalled when I tell them I'm not. I get it. I messed up. I'm not getting out of here in four years. I have to postpone graduate school. I need to get a weird 9-month job now. I won't know anyone in senior design. I'm behind. 

STOP REMINDING ME.

I just saw a girl get hit by a car and it was totally sweet

The girl was wearing all black and it was raining at night. Totally deserved to be hit. She probably would have bounced off fine and dandy if she was a Mac user. 

But seriously, it was awesome. Because of the rain she just flew off the hood of the car and bounced on the concrete like a rubber ball. And then once the situation was resolved and the car drove away (I guess she had a really padded butt), she turns to her friend and goes "Girl, I just got hit by a fucking car!"

Props to James for being a stud and getting the car so I didn't have to run across the HEB parking lot in the rain. Also so I could witness incredible accidents.

ohmygawd spring break!

bama, here we come!

I like indie boys

It's so true. I mean, what would I do without them? I like boys who have Macs and listen to Spoon and vote Obama and wear cardigans. Especially the ones that would fly to California for Coachella with me.

Update on how awesome I am

Just in case anyone actually thought that I only kicked ass on a vertical mill, note that I also dominate on an engine lathe. 

And I can't get that Stars song out of my head.

Government is teh suck

I went to LSU in Baton Rouge and was sober the entire night. At LSU. Reading my GOV 312L text book. About Clinton getting some in the oval office. It was sad.

Luckily, I used my MacBook Pro to make the best out of the situation and design a t-shirt.

I love Kathryn Patton

This sap is a poor replacement. Note how miserable I am without KP. Note that I am actually wearing clothes. Note that I have a fucking MacBook Pro. I started to actually start talking about my feelings and life for a second. That will not be tolerated in this blog. I'm SUPER SERIAL.

My new religion.

I approve

The Honey BBQ Chicken Strip Sandwich is a classy, classy meal.

On a side note, I think I made a huge mistake.

In case there was any doubt

I am a balla, shot-calla, 20-inch blades on my Impala.

Round Rock Donuts

I am updating my blog from class. Quintessential Mac user.

I HAVE A SUPERIOR OS

And I don't care what Chris Craik says

I like taking pictures and posting them to my blog

I love the fishes 'cause they're so delicious!

Not exactly pretentious, but totally BADASS

I am proficient on a vertical mill. 

Sitting in class

I love sitting in class with my new MacBook Pro. I try to sit halfway back, so only half the class can see what an incredible laptop I'm using. Sitting at the front would just be too pretentious. I make sure to utilize my Dashboard, just to show it off.

Fun fact: My Mechatronics professor also has a MacBook Pro.

Fancy Cocktail Party

This weekend was particularly exquisite. On Saturday I got dressed up to show off my inner diva. Complete with a Jessica McClintock dress and matching clutch, I made quite the entrance. I wish I could have brought my new MacBook Pro to the event to show it off, but I was scared my friends would spill their declasse drinks on it. Not to be disheartened, while sipping on a cosmopolitan I casually brought up how an Apple runs Vista better than a PC. My boyfriend spent the entire time talking about $2,000 cameras with a film major, but they're both Apple users, so I let it slide.
 

Science of Sleep

I saw Science of Sleep last night and it changed my life. I think I'll make a video blog entry about it later after I sip a glass of Merlot.