Beginning of Winter Term

Hey y'all! It's been a while again, but I found some time to update my blog from last time.

So things that are going on right now!

Engineering 
Awesome. Just pure awesome. My teacher is very strict and keeps us busy for every minute of class. But it's really fun! Week one and we are learning how to use Matlab for coding purposes. Our first lab session was self-teaching Matlab, and since I took C# back in high school, it makes Matlab seem like a review session. During our second lab session, we used an NXT LEGO robot (which we built) and synced it with Matlab to write code and tell it what to do.
Here's a picture of the robot followed by an example code I wrote:

Lego NEXT Robot with Voice Command Module

%This program searches for right triangles for

%which all three sides are integers 

%Initialize the counter m

clear all; clc; close all;

m=0;

%Loop to check all combinations of x and y up 

%to limits

fid=fopen('output.txt','wt');

fprintf(fid,' x y h\n');

fprintf(fid,' === === ===\n');

for x=1:25

    for y=x:25

        %Calculate the hypotenuse h

        

        h=sqrt(x^2+y^2);

        

        %Check to see if h is an integer

        %If it is, write x, y, and h to the 

        %screen

        %and advance the value of the counter

        

        if h == floor(h)

            m = m + 1;

            fprintf(fid,'%5i%5i%5i\n',x,y,h);

        end

    end

end

fprintf('\nThe number of triangles found = %i\n',m)

Math
My teacher's sarcasm is hilarious and it makes it really enjoyable. He's super fast paced and it's sometimes difficult to keep up but he's very approachable and makes a world of difference between him and my last teacher. Definitely planning on leaving a good review!

Health
Yes. I have to take health. So far it seems like we will be focusing on nutrition this term. I'm not having too much fun, but it's supposed to get more fun approaching week five so let's see how it goes.

Physical Activity Class (10K Trail Running)
I chose this class because it's being taught by Tyler, the coach for Crescent Valley high school, and I definitely wanted to see what it would be like working with him. So far it's been a lot of fun, although I was only able to make one class (As some of you may already know, I injured my MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) when on a run, and ended up going to Health Services to get it checked out and it's a sprain. Should be back in the game next month or so but we will see.

Chemistry
I kept the same chemistry teacher from last term, and I have to say I'm enjoying it. He's definitely the funniest teacher I've had in all of my college classes. One of the funniest things he's done so far was that he showed us what happens when you set fire to liquid Oxygen. It really makes the flame grow fast, and even though he had a "blast-shield" set-up, it burned over the shield and landed on a conveniently placed roll of cotton. The entire roll of cotton caught fire and he used a meter stick to push it to the ground. The plus outcome was that the cotton was able to be stamped out. The delta outcome (we aren't allowed to say negative in Hall Council) was that the meter stick caught fire too.

Hall Council
Man the opportunities! Joining Hall Council (HC) was by far the most important and door-opening thing that I've decided to do.

• NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary): Basically a group of students who live in resident halls. This is a prestigious group that is limited to a total of 1% of all students in residence halls across the nation. I'm planning on applying for the position because it has a small time commitment and resembles National Honor Society back in high school. 
• RHA (Residence Hall Association): This is like the mother of all the hall councils here at Oregon State University. I'm planning on applying for the Treasurer position (surprise surprise). 
• RA (Residence Assistants): These are the guys and gals that monitor the halls to make sure you know where everything is and aren't doing anything illegal. If I get my RHA position, I would wait to RA until next year. 
• NACURH (National Association of Colleges and Universities Residence Halls): This is a huge conference in North Dakota and I'm really trying to get in. Everything would be paid 

Clearing up what it means to be a fan

Okay, so 2015 is already seeming to bring some tensions between teams. 42-20 the Ohio State Buckeyes just won the National Championship against the Oregon Ducks. However, this seemed to rustle some feathers on the University of Oregon side and cause an attack on anyone associated with Oregon State University. So here's some clarifications so we can all enjoy the National Championship next year no matter who goes:

1. The Concept of Being a Fan
There are many levels of being a fan. Some of us associate ourselves with one school (ex. Oregon) whereas some of us like myself have more than one favorite (Washington State, Oregon State, and Ohio State). There are also different intensities with which you can be a fan. Some just watch the game online. Some pay for season tickets. Others decorate the fire hydrant outside of their house to the colors of green and yellow. It all differs. No matter the intensity you wish to enjoy your game, you should never drag another person to your level. Don't tell others to "mellow down" or "you're not a good enough fan" unless the actions they are taking are directly hurting or insulting another. Easy enough since we're all adults.

2. Bandwagoning Fallacies
Hah, what a wonderful concept. In some instances, this seems to be a problem with people misdefining what it means to be a bandwagon fan.

A bandwagon-er is not someone who roots for a team AT THE TIME OF THE GAME. This is because of a novel concept that if you are watching a game, you will eventually choose a side. I know that no matter the sport or event that I watch, if it's a competition I will always end up choosing a side to support. This is not bandwagoning.

Also, don't call someone a bandwagon because that lowers the amount of people who watch the support. Basically you are trying to destroy the community. You need to respect how other people choose to support their team. Whether it's for one game or one year.

3. Support your state fallacy
Incredible. Our Duck brothers and sisters called on the Beavers to root for them and cheer them on when they made it to the National Championship. See something wrong with this? The famous quote "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" could not be more applicable here. This is because of something that has been long established as a tradition: RIVALRY. If you for one second believe that the FANS of U of O have built a supportive community that doesn't tear down the Beavers no matter the chance they get, then you are obviously blind and mistaken. A good example of this would be the Twitter account @AutzenStudents. They are the representative student body of the University of Oregon on Twitter and provide the prime examples of taunting and hatred towards Oregon State which keeps the rivalry alive. Because of this tradition, there is no way that there can be support from OSU to U of O.
To apply this to other sports, let's take a look at the Beavers two-time National Championship in baseball. Was there any support from the Ducks? Probably not. Will there be any support from the Ducks for our nationally ranked Women's Basketball Team? We can assume not.

4. Ducks will bring football fame to Oregon State as well as money
No. Just no. The state in general will not receive fame for football. Think about it: you're making one school look good if they win (U of O). Oregon State will actually see an increasing amount of difficulty recruiting because we have to play against U of O and compete against them for recruiting purposes. Also, the NCAA doesn't award any more money to the winning school. Schools that play in bowl games, and schools that advance to the top 4 receive money for their region. Hence, the PAC 12 received lots of money, and wouldn't have seen a shift had the Ducks won or lost. For these reasons, don't tell me to root for another school. Educate yourself on the laws first.

5. Ad hominems on ad hominems on ad hominems. 
Just stop these already. You look foolish and mark yourself as a complete idiot (haha get the irony in this?). Basically this: DON'T TEAR DOWN OREGON STATE BECAUSE YOU JUST LOST TO OHIO STATE. This is what I hate most. The Beavers who root for the Buckeyes are being tormented by Ducks who continue to argue that "Beavers football sucks" and "You guys haven't beat us since 2007". First off, schools is much more than football. So lets make an academic listing shall we?
A. Oregon State triumphs over U of O in research funding by 50+ million dollars a year
B. 78.9% graduation rate versus 67.4% and OSU triumphs again
C: 48,000 and 42,000 are the average salaries for graduates with Oregon State on top yet again
D: Linus Pauling, Cecil Andrus, and F. Wayne Valley are the first three "notable alumni" from Oregon State University. Their professions as a scientist, governor/politician, and businessman identify OSU as what it is. The Ducks starting three are Phil Knight, Bill Bowerman, and Mickey Loomis. They are in order, the founder of Nike, track coach, and NFL coach. If you have half a brain, you can see a trend. "What does this even mean?" you ask, and I reply as follows: Each school has its qualities. Obviously. Both possess different levels of different qualities.

Conclusion TL;DR
Don't embarrass yourself, read up, study up, and be smart when you enjoy a football game. Comment on something I missed, something you want to see me elaborate on, and I will be more than happy to add an *EDIT* section for anybody who reads this!