Andrew Ferguson dot NET

Regular classes concluded on Thursday, which means that it’s time for finals. I have four finals and a project to finish up the semester.

And if that wasn’t enough, I picked up the flu. I’m running a temp around 102.4° F, body aches, can’t sleep. Yea, it pretty much sucks.

I’ve been taking acetaminophen and that seems to reduce the fever down to a manageable 99° F.

I just hope this blows over soon.

A little while ago, I was wondering to myself how much power the brain uses. Today, BoingBoing helped me answer that question:

The brain consumes 20 percent of your body’s energy, but what for? Turns out a third of the energy is spent on “housekeeping.”

I crossed check this and 20% appears to be dead on (see http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JacquelineLing.shtml). As it turns out, it’s also about 20 Watts of power to run the brain (on a roughly 2000 food calorie diet).

The second of my latest batch of Postcrossing postcards arrived in Finland:

Maija wrote back:

Hi Andrew! Thank you for your card!

I received a postcard today from Michelle, a 3rd year university student from Shanghai, China.

I sent another batch of Postcrossing postcards out in the mail last Friday and the first one has arrived in the Netherlands!

Thamar wrote back:

Hey!

Tanx for your great card! Are you such a good photographer or was it just luck? Very nice idea, to get your own postcard from a picture you made. If you ever come to the Netherlands, you’ll be able to make the best photo’s!

Happy postcrossing,

Thamar

I received a postcard the other day from Bogusia. She’s from Krakow, Poland and is a first year student studying Slovak Philology:

Yesterday, it was a fantastic 85 degrees with lots of sun and no clouds.

Right now, it’s snowing. I kid you not. It’s 33 degrees, cloudy, and snowing.

How’s that for a weather pattern?

I decided not to pursue working in Houston this summer for a variety of reason. Mostly, I don’t think it’s the right time yet and I think I end up having a better hand by staying in Seattle.

In any event, here’s a brief outline of the next four months:

• May 1st: Last day of Spring 2008 class
• May 7th: Last final of Spring 2008
• May 12th: Summer Field Session Begins
• May 30th: Summer Field Session Ends
• June 6th: Start Boeing Internship in Seattle (really Kent, though)
• August 2nd-3rd: NERDS @ the 2008 NASA Centennial Challenge at San Louis Obispo, California
• August 7th: End Boeing Internship in Seattle (but actually Kent)
• August 19th: Fall 2008 Classes begin

I can’t remember where I picked this tid-bit up, but a study conducted by National Wedding (they’re British) says that the time between the first date and the proposal is two years, 11 months, and eight days….so about three years.

So Mom, don’t expect any little Fergie’s running around anytime soon.

EDays kicks off tonight at 9pm. For the third year in a row, I’m the volunteer photographer for all of EDays. I think being a photographer is pretty kick ass job. I get to see all the cool stuff and then take pictures of it. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely worth it.

Fireworks are tonight. Orecart pull, Smash Lab’s Deanne Bell, and concert (Kristen Key, I Hate Kate, and with Goldinger headlining) tomorrow. Saturday is cardboard boat race, car show, field events, and comedians. In between all of that is a bunch of parties that I’ll also be going to.

In short, busy weekend. I’m also guessing I’ll be somewhat incommunicado since I’ll basically just be running around all weekend, my apologies if you don’t hear from me until later this week.

A couple of cool things to note over last year: I rented a Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye Nikkor Lens from Camren Photos in Denver. It’s a pretty badass lens that runs over $600 to buy new, so I’m glad I’m renting it…although I wouldn’t mind owning one in the future. I also whipped me up a photographer’s press pass. It actually doesn’t do anything since I’m my website is the ‘certifying authority’ distributing it. I suppose that makes it an official press pass.

Last year, the fireworks were canceled due to snow and then didn’t end up being set off until a month later on Dead Day.

Things look to be a go this year and even though it snowed a bit this morning and we had some flurries later this afternoon, I’ve been assured that unless there are high winds, the show will go on.

Here are some photos from EDays 2006 (two years ago):

Nikon D70 || 18mm || 16.4s || f/16 || ISO200 || Tripod

Nikon D70 || 70mm || 6.4s || f/16 || ISO200 || Tripod

Nikon D70 || 18mm || 16.5s || f/16 || ISO200 || Tripod

Nikon D70 || 70mm || 4.2s || f/16 || ISO200 || Tripod