A few other things:

Thursday night's activities were fun. I was sad I missed the haunted campus tour, but Twister and fondue were fun too. I ended up winning Twister three times in a row for a few smaller games (4-5 people) on the second mat. The fondue was really good too. The chocolate fountain was soooo cool! And it was very delicious too. =D

Yesterday night's talent show was fun. It went for longer than I expected, actually. Everyone did really well. An added bonus was that we got extended lights-out time (12:00) for the weekend! Our suite played a game of Mao and just talked. A lot of people were trying to get ready for the roommate trivia activity, a test of how well the COSMOS students knew their roommates.

In yesterday's morning class, Dr. Skelton came to give us a lecture. It was fun learning a bit more about tensegrity's practical applications as well as ways to maximize its efficiency. Afterwards, in the morning lab, we tested the pretension and stiffness of each individual string in a Snelson prism (three bars, six strings). After lunch, we had another twenty-minute lecture and then went back to the lab. We built some more Snelson prisms. I finally really learned how, and I also found out that using rubber bands makes building the structures a lot easier as well as adjusting the structures once you know how. We investigated the twist angle of the prisms (how much the top nodes are rotated compared to the bottom ones in order for the structure to achieve equilibrium). Finally, we practiced building plates out of three-bar Snelson prisms. Our group tried to connect three, but we faced several problems. First, our prisms were a bit too tall and irregular for easy connection, and one of them was also rotated incorrectly (clockwise vs. counterclockwise rotation). We did manage to get them connected, although the plate was a bit wobbly and not level. We'll fix it on Monday.

So, that pretty much sums up our activities in the last few days. I'm going to go get some stuff ready for our zoo trip. Good day!

~CS

It's the weekend! On one hand, I'm glad to be able to sleep in a little, but I'm also sad that the third week is coming to an end. We're starting to work on our final projects. The presentations are coming up so quickly...

Well, today we're going to the San Diego Zoo! It's going to be really fun. We get a good amount of time to wander around the zoo. I'm hoping to see the pandas, if the line isn't too long. Anyway, the San Diego Zoo is always nice to see, and I like going to the zoo.

Tomorrow is more fun activities. The beach in the afternoon, and then a barbecue and Family Feud! I'll have to start researching and working on our presentation PowerPoint though... and doing my summer assignments, which I've been procrastinating on...

Anyway, our last weekend is going to be a very fun one. I'd better go work on my PowerPoint a bit, though...

~CS