TV Liberation-Me TV

A dream schedule brought to you be MeTV

For most of the time that I've lived in Cali, I have not had cable.  Since I've spent all my time in Cali being poor, it's just not an option for me. Honestly, it's been the best decision I ever made in my (leisure) life.

First, I'm not using my nerdy hustle funds to pay for a service that I may watch a few nights a week. Second, it's made me take the time to discover new forms of visual entertainment and really enjoy my Wii as it's days close to an end.  Lastly, I honestly spend much less daylight hours watching tv.

I still "watch  tv" mostly in the form of Netflix Streaming for the Wii, Hulu, and DVD backups on my external hard-drive.  I have a digital tv and a digital antenna (both gifts from family) that I use to watch  baseball and football. Occasionally I bought episodes from  iTunes.  The only thing really missing from my schedule was some new mix of tv shows I liked.

Enter MeTV the best thing to hit my television since Netflix for the Wii.  It's an over the air channel that recently arrived to the Bay Area and it has one of my favourite genres of television: classic television. I found it yesterday morning, watching "The Lucy Show" and "Daniel Boone". Last night I watched Bob Newhart and the Odd Couple, then I went to their website and saw the national schedule, a dream schedule.

This is pretty much the final nail in the "I need Cable" coffin. Now if I could just find a decent spot nearby to watch Monday Night Football, I'd be set.

MeTV is available over the air and on some cable services, check it out at www.metvnetwork.com

Up on the roof

So I finally made it up to the roof!

This was my 3rd installation with GRID, first as the Volunteer and Training Associate.  It was great to get out of Oakland for a bit and head down to San Jose, and yes I know the way.

The volunteers and team leaders I assigned were fantastic, all of GRID's volunteers are so positive and hardworking, and caring.  I mentioned that it was my first time on the roof, because it was a one story low-pitch or "less steep" roof. My first installation was a 2 story relatively high pitch and I wasn't "feeling it".  I don't have a fear of heights, I have a fear of falling :P.  And as I learn better how to walk on a roof and use a harness, I'm less nervous. Meanwhile I'm becoming very good at wiring inverters, ^-^.

This system was GRID's first "Smart Mount" system, which in a phrase is "Look Ma, no rails!" which was unique, once the learning curve was conquered it was quite straight-forward and it seemed to go faster. Also it's neat to learn a different type of system.

Good times, good hot wing lunch (^-^)  good people, a family gets a PV system.

Til next time,
Jasmine

FE/EIT here I come

After years of procrastination, I've decided to take the EIT exam. No, really.

I've not the determination to go to grad school full time, honestly I just want to work in engineering before I decide to go into crazy debt for a M.S/M.Eng.  And speaking of college debt,  my previous educational investment has not even begun to pay off, so why pour more money into this? It's not a boat. 

The Fundamental of Engineering/Engineer in Training Exam is a must for my path to being a licensed engineer.  Alot of employers seem to be looking for it as well.  I didn't take Differential Equations in college being in EET but Calc 3 and a bunch of logic/discrete math. However I think that I will be okay.

I'm planning on taking the exam October 2012.  I'm going to enroll in Calc 3 and Diff Eq at Laney College, which may not be the most in depth math classes but I work there and I'm already in the system as a student from Spring of this year.

As far as the afternoon exam I've pretty much decided to betray myself and take the Mechanical Engineering test,  it seems more straightforward and sample tests have content that's not lost to memory.  I did want to focus on Power engineering, but maybe in the future I could take some graduate level courses in Power engineering.  The EE afternoon test seems a bit too computer heavy for me.  Also I've been learning more about motors and HVAC pumps and things since working at Laney. 

I've borrowed a book from Berkeley library and started some cursory FE Question of Day.  Studying for the exam this early has been good because 1) It makes me realise I have a okay chance of passing it in April 2) I want to pass it the first time, so I will take it on October 2012 3)It really is coming back to me, guess I did learn something in college :P

If anybody has any suggestions on books, websites, or if you're interested in starting a study  group if you're taking the EIT exam anytime next year, let me know!