How did I get into Engineering?

Because being an adult doctor is scary.

So for those of you guys who don’t know, this summer I’m working with Amon Millner (an Olin professor) in his lab the EASE Lab (Extending Access to STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) Empowerment). A lot of what the lab does is related to STEM outreach for K-12, and in an effort to understand how to get young people into STEM I figured that it’s probably important for me to examine how I personally got to the place I am today.

For our preschool graduation they had each one of us stand up and tell our captive audience what we wanted to be when we grow up. I said pediatrician. I was a kid, of course I would want to be a kid doctor, being an adult doctor is too scary. Throughout my K-12 education it wasn’t really a question of whether or not I would take the honors class: I was going to take the honors class, I was going to test into the gifted program, I was going to test into a prestigious private school. I felt like if I wasn’t taking AP or honors then I was stupid. And though I could point to external pressures like my parents, after middle school I was the one enforcing this on myself. In terms of purely academics, it wasn’t difficult for me to switch from the doctor path to the engineer path, after all it was just a matter of declaring a different major when I got to college.

Anyway. I always really liked art, but I also always understood that I could not do art. Kinda like how some kids are discouraged from taking upper level math classes, I was discouraged from being an artist. That’s not to say that I wasn’t allowed to take art classes, or go to art camp, I just had to understand that art was a hobby, not a career. It’s easy to understand why my parents (or any other parent) would do this. Most artists are not in it for the bling. My parents were poor kids growing up, and they didn’t come this far to let their daughter sink into the dredges of poverty.

I actively kept a sketchbook in 6th and 7th grade, this is probably the only time I’ve ever actively kept a sketchbook. I would bring it to class and instead of listening to the teacher I would draw in my sketchbook. I was also fiercely protective of my sketchbook, I didn’t like people rifling through it lest they found some naked people, *gasp*. I stopped drawing as frequently in 8th grade when teachers would start calling me out on blatantly not paying attention to their sleep inducing lectures. The summer of my 8th and 9th grade year I went to this pre-college art program called NYSSSA. There I took college level classes in sculpture, figure drawing, printmaking, and mixed media. And for those two magical summers I was allowed to fantasize about going to art school.

In 8th grade we had this technology class. It’s all kinda fuzzy in my head, but I remember the wood working unit the best. I made a Bleach napkin holder,

The bleach on the left not the bleach on the right.

and a combination lock out of wood. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and for me it wasn’t like technology, it was like art. When I started high school it became increasingly difficult to fit “recreational” classes into my schedule. It seemed like year after year I would have more and more AP and honor classes vying for a golden spot in my seven period day. One class I did wind up taking my sophomore year was Woodworking I. In that class I was finally allowed to use the big machines: the table saw, the jointer, the sander, and there was a certain pride that I held because I was able.

Sophomore year also happens to be year I moved to Kansas. I was a new kid who desperately needed extracurriculars (and friends). The only people I kinda knew were on the robotics team and I ended up joining the next year.

FIRST robotics PR stories usually go something like: “she joined the robotics team, got exposed to more STEM than she could ever dream of, became a core member of the leadership, and decided to pursue engineering.” For me it was more like my woodworking knowledge was useless, the cool kids were all operating alien technology (read: laser cutter and CNC router), and there were too many people with too little to do. All the time I spent watching instead of doing ultimately lit a fire in me. I was going to go to college for engineering, to do all the things that I never got to try.

When I got into Olin getting trained on all the machines was somewhat of an obsession I had.

Including all the shiny eevees.

I got trained on, in this order,  the band saw, sander, drill, mill, lathe, MIG welder, laser cutter, 2-axis CNC mill, 3D printer, TIG welder, and sheet metal benders & breakers. Having a row of checks next to my name on the “who’s trained” spreadsheet outside of the shop was so gratifying, it was the same feeling that I had in elementary school when I had a line of gold stars.

Machine shop aside, I was never quite certain what I wanted to do. By the end of our sophomore year when a lot of my classmates decided what they wanted to major in I was still in this searching phase, trying out different classes. I ended up declaring as General Engineering with a concentration in Design, but even now I don’t feel like I have a concrete story to tell when I’m explaining who I am and what I do. I guess the scariest part is what’ll happen a year from now when I graduate. Things that always worry me are things like, will I find a job? Will I feel challenged? Will I be inferior? Will I be happy? And what if I’m not?

I’ve kind of just followed this path that has been lain out for me but it worries me what will happen when I can no longer see the road.

Monster Hunting and Cross Stiching

The Lagiacrus, the star monster from Monster Hunter Tri. The electric water lizard.

So I’ve been spending some time here and there during my break to finishing up some cross stitch pieces I started around a year ago. These are actually my first cross stitch pieces (of official game pixel art (read: not my original art)), but cross stitching (so far) has been super easy to learn. If you have any amount of patience and are willing to redo things (and print out your pattern from pixel art online), then you’re basically set to pass beginner cross stitching with flying colors.

The Great Jaggi, the first boss in most Monster Hunter games, both the easiest and hardest monster you’ll ever face.

Anyway, listening to someone go on and on about cross stitching probably isn’t the most interesting thing in the world, so instead let’s talk about what I actually cross stitched. For most of you guys the word “Great Jaggi” or “Lagiacrus” should not strike fear into your heart. For the few who know about what I’m talking about you’re probably a niche player of a game called Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter is a Japanese real time action game focus on (you guessed it) hunting monsters. People usually say it’s similar to Dark Souls (or the more obscure Shadow of the Colossus) for those of you who like that franchise. Personally I played Dark Souls for about an hour before I quit because the game maps were seriously creeping me out, but the game mechanics were familiar.

And it has battle cats, what’s there not to love.

Basically you control a character that can wield one of several badass weapons: Great Sword, Long Sword, Dual Blade, Hammer, Hunting Horn, Lance, Switch Axe, etc, etc, and you go out into these maps to hunt monsters several times your size. The game is real time so you have to actively dodge things like dragon breath, tail whips, and giant rolling lizards, while also attempting to deal crippling damage to said monster using your weapon of choice.

My personal weapon of choice: the Hunting Horn. Make sweet music as I bash skulls in.

This game is really great for people who like skill based action games, there’s no real way to cheat in a boss fight, or to suite up in an OP ensemble so you can mindlessly mash A. It’s also infuriating when it’s the 15th time you’re fighting this neon blue green dinosaur with exploding arms, and you get your ass handed to you every single time. But for the masochistic and/or the overconfident, this could be the game for you.

We meet again neon blue green dinosaur with exploding arms *cough* I mean Brachydios.

Right now the newest Monster Hunter game released in the U.S. is for the 3DS (and WiiU I believe) called Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. I actually haven’t progressed too far in it for 1. lack of time 2. these new monsters… I suck so bad. But! Hit me up for local co-op if you wanna relive your childhood memories of being connected to another kid’s game boy via usb cable. An older version (that I suck less at) that’s just as fun is Monster Hunter Tri (which is for the Wii) which you can do local co-op  with two controllers, and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (for the 3DS) which I also own.

A Monster Hunter ad in Tokyo wishing you a happy New Year (and reminding you to buy the game).

There’s a new one slated to come out this summer called Monster Hunter X! I saw a lot of ads for the game while I was in Japan (it’s freaking huge there - like people will play with random strangers on trains as their commuting to work huge!) and while I’m excited...I should probably finish up MH4U before I buy the next one.

[Japan 2015] What's inside these Lucky Bags?

So this is another long overdue blog post... (〃艸〃)

So in Japan after New Year’s Day, a massive sale breaks out nationwide, it’s called 初売り or hatsuuri which roughly means “the first sale of the year”.

Sale items on a table at Loft. Look at all the people!

I would say that it’s a bigger more extravagant event than Black Friday here in the U.S. and will go on for several days to several weeks. And unlike in the U.S. where it’s an all out brawl to get that plasma TV at a 50% discount, really hot items in Japan will usually have a really long line facilitated by store employees hold signs telling you where the end of the line is.

Employees handing out free Loft sample bags to the people waiting in lines.

Many of these hot ticket items are 福袋 (fukubukuro) or lucky bags which are mystery bags with an assortment of heavily discounted items that stores sell. Most department store brands have their own lucky bags and loyal customers will line up early in the morning outside the store in hopes of snagging one of those limited edition bags.

I spent winter vacation up until New Year’s Day in Tokyo. To get from Tokyo back to Sendai, we took a night bus which arrived at Sendai station at ~5am January 2nd. This positioned us in downtown Sendai at a perfect time to start queuing up for those lucky bags. The initial plan was to go to Uniqlo and get their lucky bag, so we lined up outside the department store.

It was pretty dark and kinda cold, but at least it wasn’t raining right? At 7am the department store opened its main entrance so we could line up inside the building instead of outside in the cold. We didn’t know at the time that that line was actually the line for Starbucks lucky bags, and by the time we found out it was like “hey, why not.” Apparently they had only one hundred bags available so the store employees handed out redeemable lucky bag tickets to everyone waiting in line so the 101th customer could go line up for some other place.

Starbucks barista busily putting Starbucks lucky bags out.

My friend happily exchanged her ticket for a small lucky bag, I didn’t wind up getting one. I could have if I wanted to but I’m not a starbucks super fan or anything. Inside her bag (if I recall correctly) was a starbucks coffee tumbler, various starbucks coffee beans, a starbucks gift card, and some other stuff I can’t remember.

After that we ran all the way upstairs to the Uniqlo only to find out that they didn’t actually have a lucky bag that year. But it was only ~8am which was still plenty of time to go get lucky bags in other places, so we went to Loft which I blogged about here. Our target wasn’t actually the Loft lucky bag but the Lush lucky bag which was in the Loft store. I’ve never bought any Lush products before but I figured if all the beauty youtubers only ever rave about their stuff, I can’t go wrong.

Lush employees enticing young women to buy 5000 yen and 2500 yen Lush lucky bags.

I ended up getting the 5000 yen Lush lucky bag which was packaged in a furoshiki.

I got my Lush lucky bag inside of a Lush bag. Bagception.

The beauty unfolded.

Inside the bag was:

The Comforter Shower Cream which is that pink bottle up there. I thought it smelled kinda like that pink soap you get in public restrooms that remind you of medicine, but it was alright. It was really sparkly though.

Little Dragon which is that red looking popsicle stick looking thing. I’m not too sure what it is and I still haven’t gotten the chance to use it.

Green Gold which is the green and gold (who would’ve guessed) soap bar. I currently use it as my hand soap, and I generally like it. It has a bunch of fibers in it which is pretty good for scrubbing. This one’s also sparkly.

Fun - Gold which is that gold candy looking thing. It’s some kind of multi purpose soap, it smells a lot like toffee and we all know that toffee is delicious.

Guardians of the Forest which is the green bathbomb. I actually got to use it because Japan’s big on the bathing culture and my tiny bathroom actually came with a bathtub. So I got to relax in my tiny bathtub in glittery green liquid while watching Kill la Kill (which is definitely a weirdo anime).

Hanimi Scrub was the final thing in there, the whiteish looking round thing. It was a salt scrub, for exfoliating and stuff. While I appreciate it’s dead skin cell scouring abilities it also tasted pretty cool, like salty flowers.

After grabbing the Lush lucky bag we went upstairs to the 5th floor to the MUJI store for their lucky can (which comes in a can instead of a bag). It cost 2016 yen since it was the year 2016 ;D. Apparently they also had lucky bags but those were only available at other MUJI locations.

The one. The only. The MUJI lucky can.

Luckily I didn’t need a can opener to open this one.

Dissected and laid out.

Inside was:

A handkerchief with a cat on it. They had different handkerchiefs in different cans, my friend got a red one with a daruma on it. I think that all the characters on the handkerchiefs had something to do with the New Year but don’t quote me on that one.

A monkey bobble head. It’s a monkey since it’s the year of the monkey, it’s made out of paper and hand painted. MUJIs in different cities had different ornaments in their cans. The monkey bobble head was specific to Sendai, and looking through the catalogue of what each city got I think ours was the prettiest.

Finally there was a gift card for MUJI for 2016 yen, so in the end I didn’t actually spend any money to get this lucky can. I went back the next week to buy a bunch of MUJI pens.